Martin S-C

I was fortunate enough to get to know Andy in about the last 5 or 6 years of his life and have great memories of long summer afternoons operating the Ruschbahn with the likes of John, Roy Crofton-Mann and others. Very happy days when we'd sit out on Andy's patio in the evening eating a fish and chip supper, drinking a beer or two and making the world right.

Just to mention that I drive over the bridge most days and there's a distinct camber and arch to the roadway. In 4mm scale though it would be minimal and in my very humble opinion modellers tend to overstate road camber so that it becomes noticable when really in the smaller scales it shouldn't be.

Her English was pretty poor however.

Sorry that I'm out of touch (or haven't yet been around for long enough to get into touch) with so many of the good layout construction threads on here but can anyone give a link please to Gilbert's and Tony's threads? It would be much appreciated. In due course I too will face the issue of lifting locos on and off tracks so will need to investigate similar solutions of roll-on/roll-off systems as well as carriage and storage.

Gollum has the same issue - hates the sunlight. Maybe you should avoid wearing any clothes made by elves as well, in case your skin burns. Still loving the GNS van, the 3D effect of the textures is really effective. Because train sims are presented at you on a 2D screen and your viewpoint cannot pass round the edges of the viewed object you can get away with all kinds of trompe l'oeil trickery that wouldn't work on a 3D model. Its a nice media to work in.

How about cassettes for holding locos? You'd need to either design in a stub end siding at each staging yard or cut out a traverser-like pit to drop the casette into on a through road but it will save handling the model's paintwork.

This was the infancy of modern farming using scientific methods. It brought us to where we are today, which may be a good thing for humans but a less good thing for all the animals, fish, birds and insects whose natural habitats have been affected by industrialised farming.

Kevin, yes, the eaves were left completely open so there is a circulation of ambient air against the insulated "cell" of the railway room. I asked before construction started if the eaves could be sealed but the builders suggested not to in order to give ventilation. I think the problem could be that the open eaves allow cold air to contact the exterior of the plasterboard "cell" with its warm moist air inside the room. Don't worry about grannies and egg-sucking, I am 100% ignorant of how best to insulate a room and what issues to look for and avoid. It's now irritating me a graet deal that I'm in this position and at the mercy of advice from the builder so any input anyone has to help me would be gratefully received. James & others - no need to apologise for hijacking the thread, anything industrial/railway related is good here, these conversations often provide inspiration or information for other readers.

Are you able to give us some info on how the wagon routing system will work? I have embryonic plans for one on my layout but like most people I'm curious how others approach this.

Kris produces some gorgeous work. Are these for TS 2019? I'm sorely tempted to ask Santa for a copy.

Truly magnificent! I must have a West Gloucestershire/Forest of Dean NPOS branch headquarters on my layout! Perhaps we all need to show solidarity for properly (and nationally!) organized poulty by each modelling our local branch office on our model railways?

Kevin I am really not sure. Some moisture must be from the painting and plastering. There may also be some generated by my own body inside or from some in the fibre fill that went into the roof void. For the power points issue I am sure the moisture is ambient, from outside. I am beginning to think an outside air-con/heater unit may be the answer though the builders originally suggested this needs to be a gas powered unit but I can't believe that's necessary. At least it will resolve the noise issue. If it is dry tomorrow (been pouring here this afternoon and evening) I will leave the windows open and allow free air circulation inside and then run the dehumidifier again on Monday to see if that makes any difference. Annie A wood distillation plant took input of a large volume of cordwood which was small diameter branches bundled into "cords" which is a measure of volume of 128 cubic feet about 4ft high, 4ft wide and 8ft long. This was otherwise waste wood left after the felling of oak or other hardwoods. These were packed tightly into cylindrical wire cages or cradles running on standard gauge tracks making a vehicle about 6ft diameter and 10 ft long. The cage wagons were then drawn by electric winch along tracks into iron retorts where the wood was heated to about 340 degrees celcius. Distillation commenced after about 2 hours and continued for around 22 hours. In effect a modern charcoal burning process but highly refined. The Speech House works was built in 1913 and operated by the "Office of Woods" and the cordwood was all drawn from Crown land within the Forest. The end result was the wood was reduced to charcoal but in an extremely pure form. About 70 per cent of the weight of the wood was given off in the form of gases which passed out of the retort via pipes into a tar separator. Once separated from the tars and heaviest oils, the tar-free gases and vapours passed out of the top of the separator into a condenser where naptha and acid vapours were condensed and run into storage vats. There were a number of other processes and a range of products in heavy and light liquid form, as well as gaseous and powder (cake) form were produced. A number of these products aided the war effort. After going through a variety of changes of use the Speech House works finally closed in 1973. Traffic into the works would be coal for fuel for the boilers as well as a vast amount of cordwood. In the Forest this usually arrived by bundles carried by mule, or horse and wagon and latterly motor lorry but in my case this will of course be delivered by rail in open wagons. Outgoing traffic (in my case again by rail) would be acetate of lime cake in sacks sent in vans or sheeted opens, charcoal again bagged in the same kinds of vehicles and various oils and tar-like liquids in barrels, again in the same railway vehicles. I will probably push the boundaries of realism by having the occasional round or rectangular tar or oil tank wagon carry away these outputs in bulk. These wagons will then go to the greaseworks where whatever is in them will be further processed into lubricants, greases, adhesives or whatever for a variety if manufacturing industries such as for the paint industry, etc. Products included: charcoal, acetate of lime, wood spirit, wood tar, acetone (used in the manufacture of cordite), acetone oils (for production of camoflage 'dope'), etc. I've tried to mesh my lineside industries together into chains so that wagons and their carried products will meaningfully wend their way around the system. Some detail from Wild Swan's "Severn & Wye Railway - Vol.2":

Cheers Colin, the enamel signs you suggested via PM are great. Many thanks Annie. Yes, pretty frustrating and my mood has taken a fair bit of a dent because of this but the boss of the builders firm was very understanding on the phone yesterday and he'll be coming round on Tuesday. He's certain the power socket condensation and ventilation issiues can be easily fixed and he's going to get in touch with an air-con specialist he knows to investigate an alternative cooler/heater unit. I'm feeling a bit more positive today after a couple of weeks of being an unhappy bunny. I've got quite a few Wild Swan and Lightmoor books. They mainly focus on GWR subjects but even if you model other prototypes their books are stuffed full of wonderfully detailed and inspirational images like the above. Where they find these superb photos I do not know but they are truly inspirational. My planned model of a wood distillation works was driven by the excellent photos and description of such a facility near Speech House on the Severn & Wye Railway, covered by a Lightmoor title. The same book revealed a crossing of the S&W line by a horse tramroad in the Forest still protected by a disc and crossbar signal into the 1930s which inspired me to go for some early style signalling on my branch line.

Very nice. I assume the van is a completely flat side and the effect of 3D bracing is all achieved with clever shading. Can you have vehicle loads that are heaped? I always found the flat loads of coal and other aggregates to look a bit odd.

Fantastic news James. I am very happy for you. From bitter experience of having to hang on a long house-selling chain I know how you might feel right now.

Armagh, 1889.

Not a lot to report on recently as the newly completed garage is now suffering a few issues. Condensation behind the power sockets (their backs are almost against the concrete panel wall, outside the celotex insulation where they are exposed to extreme cold) means they drip condensated water whenever I heat or try to dehumidify the room plus there were no vents fitted into the room so the general level of humidity in there is too high. As it currently stands I can't use the power sockets at all. If I run the air-con unit in dehumidify mode, within an hour its like a sauna in there, even with the windows cracked open, so something isn't right. The heater/air-con unit supplied is also far too loud to comfortably be in there while its running which can't continue so the builder is coming back on Tuesday to have a chat and suggest some changes. The Little Layout Company meanwhile has begun building the baseboard frames off site. I am going for multiple small baseboards bolted together to allow the layout to be removed easily from the property should I ever move. It also means I can shift a board indoors to work on if I need to and that should this project ever get to a stage where it's of exhibitable standard, it can be transported to shows, though I am not building it with exhibiting in mind. The frames will be fixed at heights applicable to what the datum is generally doing at that place on the layout, with actual scenic boards raised on short legs above the open frame to support the different stations. The layout is almost entirely slopes and gradients except at the stations, so an open top construction it will be. Latest plan after I found I had only 26ft 10ins length instead of 27ft 6ins. Current status of a suggested scenic treatment has also been updated. Joints X, Y and Z will possibly be deleted to try and limit the huge number of track/baseboard joins and the blue rectangle under Borrocks station is the lifting flap across the door that will follow on his layout down under. The stream walled into a narrow channel in the NW corner is inspired by that at Eastern United colliery at Lower Ruspidge on the GWR's Forest of Dean branch. It can be seen to the right of the line of wagons in the first picture below during the colliery's development and to the left of the loaded sidings in the lower photograph. I also intend to model a spindly NG tub line bridge for waste to be tipped at the spoil heap inspired by that seen in the first picture. Images copyright Wild Swan/Lightmoor Press.

You're going to need a bigger layout! I hate to tell you this but the Nether Madder network is actually made up of no less than three constituent railways plus the combined NM&GSR conglomerate and as I'm modelling it about two years after merging, all four liveries are being modelled... and the GSR actually has two liveries anyway since it was undergoing a livery style change from small (aka 1890s GWR) to large (aka 1905ish GWR) lettering when the merger occurred. So if you want an open and a van for each, that's 10 wagons already Can you tell I'm a fictional livery fetishist? PS. Those coaches really look the part. I've got about 8 Ratio GW 4-wheelers to build in various guides and want to finish them in teak or basic brown so this styling gets my vote. PPS - Annie is it an IoW Beyer Peacock?

What always struck me about these mouldings was how high up the lowest footstep is. Compared to your average RTR coach I wonder how a worker could shin up that huge first step! e.g., this kitbash used the basic Ratio 4-wheeler ends:

That's a nice model. Is it a commercial kit? If so, who makes it, please.

Well, only so long as it doesn't turn out to be a troublesome truck.

I would very much like, if its okay by you Annie, to "reserve" 7-plank wagon No.36 and build an 00 gauge model of it for my line. If that is all okay with you, which is a reason No.36 isn't at its home location!

I really like those Hopewood Tramway 7 plankers. And the sawmill - quite a complex. It would make a neat mini-layout in 4mm. Looks to be enough to fit on a 6ft x 2ft board if you squish the width a bit.

That makes interesting reading and I am sure many other independent railway companies faced exactly the same issues. There was a general expansion of the railways in all forms up to around 1900 or so when construction largely tailed off. Come the 1920s total mileage probably began to reduce. When I was building the Highworth Branch in MSTS I read up on as much of the line's history as I could find, the very first Wild Swan title covered the line and was my main inspiration for building it. There was discussion about adding sidings at no less than three of the line's four stations at one time or another but in the end none were laid and the expansion on the branch focussed on specific industries - namely the nitrate works at the Swindon end of the line below Stratton and the Vickers factory for which a whole mini branch-off-a-branch was built from Kingsdown Road. This factory became operational in 1942 building Spitfire parts. An extra siding was laid in below Stanton station in WWI and a company of Canadian labour troops who were former lumberjacks was based nearby to fell timber for the war effort. This output went into building barracks and other military instalions and the longest trains ever to use the branch (up to 30 wagons of single and bogie bolsters) were sent along the branch to carry away the felled timber which was mostly transported in the round. After WWI freight on the branch tailed off significantly, the general strike of 1926 practically killed off all milk and livestock movements on the branch and both Stanton and Hannington stations had their sidings lifted and were reduced to unstaffed halts. So as a mini example of rural railways the Highworth Branch is a good example with general freight tailing off in the face of road competition but specific heavy industries increasing. By the end of WWII there was very heavy traffic from the Vickers plant and the nitrate works but very little else along the branch other than house coal. One other specific traffic was crushed roadstone which was brought along the branch as the local corporations upgraded the road surfaces in the region, so in the same way that canals had carried materials to build railways in the previous century and thus were the means of their own demise, so some rural railways helped kill themselves off in the same way. Your railway, Annie, seems to have several major staple heavy industries along it and so would presumably weather the growing storm against road transport quite well. As an experiment you could announce the closure of one of the industries, or its owners no longer using rail transport and see how that affects the operations of the railway. In this way if you really want to wear your social impact geek hat you could work out revenues from the various industries, passenger traffic and general freight and come to a conclusion about how well financially the railway would fare given the loss of one of its major customers.