Martin S-C

I have never visited the Tanfield and it seems I really should.

How charming. A self-portrait in your youth perchance?

Aha! You've been rumbled sir! A man who collects 1920s stock and secretly stashes away modern lorries is nothing more than an Interwardian.

They never got Moscow or London, so they didn't get the whole set.

I think these are the "London by Gaslight" figures made by John Hine Studios which were sold in blister pack sets of small cameos, such as "Jack the Ripper with Holmes and Watson. there are a number of others including drunks, soldiers, flower sellers, street traders, a chimney sweep (IIRC), that sort of thing. I picked up a few sets on e-bay last year. They come (not very well) painted. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/John-Hine-Studios-039-LONDON-BY-GASLIGHT-039-Figures-JACK-THE-RIPPER-HOLMES-amp-WATSON-/303170924889?hash=item4696653159%3Ag%3A-uQAAOSwa2lc7oUh&entryapp=dlp&nma=true&si=qy2PUN6yQt9A97qlEaTN15auUXc%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Its fun isn't it? Totally shattering but most enjoyable, especially if the team shares lodgings and you can take breakfast, dinner and beers together. I've made some firm friends while exhibiting layouts.

The links are fine. Both models have great character. Might you consider offering them in the finer detail plastic at some stage?

The thought had occurred. Hercules is such an appropriate name to, which I had in mind. Or maybe 'Atlas'.

I shall take these Wise Words From One Who Has Suffered and hold off on tweaking the mimic diagrams until I have some signals in place. I will start marking potential sites with baseboard scribbles asap. Right now my main concern is having track that trains can roll along without falling off or stopping!

I think if I did a pugbash I might name it "Pugbash".

I have this theory that that is true of everybody.

Mind you, what I'd give to see No.1 cruising down the ECML again...

That freelance 0-8-0T is wonderful.

Ha! You should see some of the cuts on my board joins! That's high tolerance engineering you've got. As for coal I was amazed how silver it can look in some light, we forget how bituminous it is. As others have noted, look how pale the coal-dusted ground is behind the digger because the particles reflect light.

I am busy this evening but will study signalling issues and the siting of signal posts again tomorrow. I think I placed the posts where I did on the diagram simply due to lack of space in the graphic. Once we get the mimic diagrams set up for printing onto plastic for the actual control panels we shall probably be able to use more flexible sizes of graphics, etc. Today I have been mostly laying branch line terminus track. Witts End is taking shape. Contrary to the (straight and dull) plan, I have introduced my signature curves into both the shunting loop and the platform roads. Some tweaking was necessary due to baseboard joins not quite matching the original plan, and said original plan lacking allowance for the lifting flap at the door. If I ever build another railway I will know next time what not to do. Given that any arriving passenger train will need to be backed entirely out of the platform for the loco to run round I hope this station could be quite engaging to operate. Maximum train length is around 20" which covers both my planned branch coach sets and a six wagon + brake train. Probably, though, except on market and hunt days, most goods trains that serve this small community will be about 3 or 4 wagons plus brake.

The plan is for Puddlebrook and the Colliery to be worked by separate operators but they are physically side by side, so I will go with Nick C's suggestion of the PB 20 lever locking/releasing the "outbound" double slip route and when the colliery wants to send out a train, or the main line has empties for the colliery, one of the bobbies will " 'phone the other up" and agree how to work the traffic. As long as they co-operate and the main line signals 1, 2 & 17 are set to danger while it happens, we should be okay. Of course I have hardly begun to tackle a timetable or sequence for the layout yet and may well arrange timetabled colliery traffic, so that all depends on many factors including how quickly the colliery operator can fill wagons and how much coal customers on the system need. Coal is going to be the No.1 freight of the layout but I only want it to be between 1/3 and 1/2 the total freight, probably erring towards the former. There will also be quarry traffic, timber from Crown Siding to Wood Distillation Works, brewery traffic, tinplate, grease works, milk, quicklime, livestock plus general merchandise. Apart from the stone trains (which, like the coal, will be whole trains) everything else will be 1 to 2 wagon loads more than likely.

The Brush rebuild did make it into a much different looking beastie. I prefer the original BR black colour and design. One day lad, I'll have one...

Many thanks Nick, you've been an absolute star. I think I have it now: Cheers David; its posts like yours that encourage me and keep me going. I suppose you losing the thread is my fault since I moved it from layout topics to pre-grouping topics and deliberately didn't tell you! Many thanks Simon. The two Rapido J70s I have had sound fitted into need to go back to Digitrains then, and have one of the two bell options replaced with a whistle.

By the way - I have a random question of the day. Were the LNER ex-GER J70 tram engines fitted with whistles as well as bells? ...or just bells?

I originally had the 10/13b and 12a/8 pairs linked but realised that if I have a goods train leaving the yard (at the dock) going west across 12b, 8 and 12a then if 12a and 8 are linked, the goods train cannot leave because reversing 12a also reverses 8 which would trap the goods train. Same applies at the east end. Unless I've really lost the plot and missed something obvious. Regrettably this means up passenger trains via P4 require 4 points levers reversing but I cannot see a simpler way. I'm in two minds about the colliery because the double slip is actually within the private siding boundary which would then mean a railway company signalman working points on private property and I think that wouldn't be allowed, or safe. If I have a ground frame to work the colliery sidings and it has a signal controlling access onto the main line and that signal is interlocked with 20, then the colliery bobby cannot signal a train to exit the colliery until the Puddlebrook signalman has set the road. The colliery will shunt trains via the green routes frequently and never need the exit road unless empties are arriving or loaded trains leaving, so I could have that set of blades operated by the Puddlebrook lever frame, it just feels a little odd to me. However if you consider that correct procedure, I'll bow to your greater knowledge. It'll save me the price of a Cobalt lever at least.

They used to be locked yes. I think Armagh in 1889 had a good deal to do with that practice ceasing, so it would not be an issue when my layout is set just post the Great War. Thanks for the note about different numbered faces. Yes, I suppose it might help to segregate passengers and assist passenger flow.

Fire away with the critique gentlemen!

Eek! No-one expects the Stubby Inquisition!

I liked the look of the model too, but not the price! EDIT: "Then in 1961 Brush of Loughborough were seeking a loco for experimental traction purposes and Nº10800 filled the role adequately so was sold to Brush in 1962. Following rebuilding, Nº10800 was tested by British Railways at the Rugby test plant and on the GC Leicester-Nottingham route. In this guise Nº10800 received a green and brown livery." I wonder what the green and brown livery looked like?

I hope my reply wasn't too brusque Stu! After I posted I wondered if I came across as a bit impatient what with the numbered points and the short sharp explanations. I wonder if a station would have the two faces like this numbered differently as my plan shows, or whether both faces would carry the same number so I'd have only 3 platforms? Can anyone clarify? The next station up the line at Snarling has platforms laid out more conventionally whilst performing an identical function of a main line passing loop plus a branch going off in a SW direction, which prompted me to want to be different at this location. Rule 1 is always nice to fall back on, but as I mentioned before with my weird "need to be plausible" I do like to try and justify my decisions rather than just say "it's my railway and I'll do what I want" because if you go down that route too far you end up with a complete mish-mash of highly implausible things and the immersion is broken. Its a pitfall of freelance modelling and while I've stumbled down that hole a little way I refuse to plunge to the bottom. Today I hope to get the SJ mimic diagram done and I'll number the levers up as per Nick C's suggestion.