TheSignalEngineer

Very much a flavour of the Leek & Manifold's Hulme End station. On that the station was at the right hand end of your incoming track. Push back to run round. There was only one signal post to the left hand end which had Home and Starting arms on it, There was a 5-lever frame which controlled the three points in the running line and associated traps and the two signals. You could always add a bit of standard gauge track at the end of one or more of the sidings and build a couple of transporter wagons. A picture of one from elsewhere on the site which seems to have escaped the crash.

Is there a full layout plan somewhere?

In that case the trap and top point end could be double ended. Is the middle line also a siding? Depending on line use and other considerations the the lower point could either be a hand lever or box worked.

If the trap is between two running lines as it appears to be then it needs to be a wide-to-gauge configuration as in SM's picture for both running lines to be used simultaneously. The arrangement can be worked by two or four levers. Standing looking at the toe of the trap the left switch will work with the top connection and the right switch with the lower one in a 2 lever arrangement.

All plastics will change their nature eventually depending on their environment. The cables we had trouble with were usually carrying very low currents so not much heat from those, more usually where a lot of heat was generated by other equipment. Various factors could affect the severity and type such as air temperature and humidity. A warm sunny day can generate a lot of heat on a small space. On a plastic loco I had about 40 years ago pvc wiring insulation reacted where tape had been used to hold it to the chassis. I don't know if it was caused by ingredients from the chassis, insulation, tape or adhesive but it just ended up with the conductors covered with goo.

Be careful mixing different types of plastics. We had lots of problems on the big railway, different cables reacting with each other and some types reacting with certain plastic trunking. My boards are ply. Main cables are in pvc mini trunking along the edge. Local wiring is run through holes in the frame and where extra support is needed underneath I use self adhesive cable clips.

That's almost a Rule 1 railway. Will try a bit of ID later but mat a quick glance I spotted an LMS non-corridor Lav Composite and Thompson 6-wheel brake (BGZ) along with various Collett, Hawksworth, Stanier and Bulleid stock, a Maunsell Van B and a Van C. Nothing Gresley yet but they were used as strengtheners on the S&D main line as well as regular use on through expresses.

I remember seeing GE prefix coaches at Birmingham New Street on the Norwich/Lowestoft train which arrived just before 1pm and returned around 4pm in the early 1960s. Going off topic they were interesting servicse as prior to Mk1s various pre-nationalisation LNER stock appeared on them including GER and GNR rebuilds. Later a Cravens updated Mk1 prototype used to appear.

Getting back onto original topic. it's about time someone produced a proper GWR 5 1/2 plank Open Wagon. https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/gwropenmerchandiseowv

Nil Desperandum Carborundum....(etc) I've looked at the EP pictures and overall it looks like a Toad and I'm sure that the glitches can be ironed out, so my pre-order stands. I don't put things in glass cases and don't examine them under a microscope, I run them at a scale viewing distance of between 50 yards and 200 yards from my seat. You can do your damnedest to be accurate to the Nth degree but if bits are too flimsy it's not much use to those who spend our time playing trains building operational layouts. A large majority are quite happy running their models on 4' 1 1/2" gauge track but the standards in vogue at the time of Hornby Dublo had thicker wheels which were the prototype distance across the outside faces of the tyres. To my mind handrails and thin piping are two of the worst jobs in building a model. In cross section area terms 4mm scale is approximately 1/5800 of the 1:1 size. The handrail brackets would be about the thickness of the detailing parts etched in the brass used for detailing parts. In volume of material terms that makes a part having a volume of about 1/442000 of the original. The limitations of modelling in that scale mean that compromises are always going to have to be made if it is to be a working model let alone putting it together in the first place.

LMS vestibule stock is sadly neglected. So far only the one many years ago from Replica Railways and latterly the Hornby Coronation Scot conversion. Something like a D1807 Period 2 Open Third would be nice, but I've already built one of those. Straightforward body and windows. Many P1 and P2 opens appeared in five different liveries from full panelled LMS to BR maroon and lasted around 40 years. The LMS Carriage Association has a fully restored P1 D1692 and a P3 D1999 partly restored.

Spent a few hours in the building to the right. S&T stores and lineman's depot. The planking on the platform is on the bridge over the canal. One day I was working in Saltley Sidings box which stood between the main lines at the Derby end of the platform. The breakdown train was belled up and a Class 25 came along at the head, the crane was next. Someone had forgotten to lower the chimney and it hit Saltley viaduct, shearing off the hinge. The momentum propelled the chimney into the brickwork behind the platform stairs and it bounced back falling between the first and second vans. After ripping off the signal wire pulleys along the platform face it hit the girder of the canal bridge, emerged from between the second and third vans and cartwheeled along the platform. Fortunately nobody was injured, the only damage on the train was a couple of broken axlebox covers and a lot of soiled underwear. I got in a few hours overtime that day renewing the signal wire run. Although the station is long gone there is still a mark in the brickwork of the viaduct where the chimney hit it.

The legendary man. He was on the committee of the BRSA club at Vauxhall which was alongside Lawley Street yard opposite Saltley shed. Our office cricket team used the BRSA ground that they managed. At one committee meeting c1975 the new Area Manager at Saltley was being introduced and when the secretary got to Stacker he said "This is Roy Steadman, also known as Stacker. If you want to know why his file is the thickest one in the cupboard. He's had a Number One for every offence in the book." Having known Stacker it wouldn't be for want of trying. It was on the Shunting Line in the Down Sidings at Washwood Heath No.4 box IIRC.

A member of my mother's family served his apprenticeship at Bromsgrove wagon works.

Not able to get to Sam's cricket tonight but got a report afterwards. He was captaining the team in a league match for the first time. Won the toss and batted as the pitch was damp. Not the runfest like Tuesday, much more care needed as the ball wasn't coming through but a respectable total was posted. Opposition openers also played carefully getting the target down to 45 then the fun started. The pitch was getting umpredictable by this time and they were getting behind the clock. After the first couple of wickets had gone down the rest folded with 8 going down in six overs for seven runs.

Evening all. A lot of the G word today. Garden is now in a relatively tidy state. Plot inspections were done at the allotments by someone from a different site. Right jobsworth having to justify his existence. Passed my plot for the state of cultivation but then put on an advisory because there was still a nail in some scrap timber which is waiting to be disposed of. It took me some time to find it and the inspector had missed the rusty piece of jagged metal on the end of a scrap length of scaffold board next to it. Don't think he had actually been on my plot as he would have seen that first, provided he hadn't come to grief on the tripping hazard on the path currently being relaid. Committee rep will get some feedback when I see her at the weekend.

Evening all. Not very impressed by the Dark Peak weather of recent, although yesterday was pretty good. Managed to stay in hiding for most of the Jubilee celebrations but did manage to cross paths with a different Jubilee twice in the Buxton area on Saturday. Most of the time has been taken up with rearranging the allotment. The attitude of the new membership secretary is not endearing him to us. I am seething at the tone of some of his communications and will have to calm down before replying as he is going the right way about getting pitchforked. Last week's cricket between the different groups on the County training programme produced some good matches. Sam's team only won one of the four completed games but all of the three matches they lost were close. The first was shortened to 30 overs, both teams batting the full amount and his team failing by one run after a runout on the last ball. Two T20 matches where they batted first went to 19 overs five balls and 19 overs four balls. This week Tuesday's league game was a complete trashing with Sam's team scoring 163 - 1. The first four including Sam were all retired not out after scoring 30 and the only wicket they lost was a skied catch off the last ball. Sam then opened the bowling and had reduced the opposition to 10 - 3 by taking wickets with the second and third balls of his first over and the first ball of his second. Wednesday night's game got started after a shower but then seven overs in there was a thunderstorm and it was a case of wading to recover the stumps. The wicket flooded in the space of about five minutes. No. Local Diesel price continues to rise. I topped up at lunch time £190.9 before going across to daughter's house and by the time I returned it had gone up another penny at the Esso station I had used. I think that the quality at Tesco has dropped, the car seemed sluggish since the last fill so we will see what it is like with this lot.

I was working on the S&T district that covered Saltley shed at the end of steam. We often drank at the pub used as the local ASLEF headquarters so met a lot of crews and blagged a lot of lifts on the lines between Camp Hill, Tamworth and Nuneaton. Sometimes the tender would have a high proportion of the artificial stuff and the firemen concerned didn't like it. Some batches seem to break down into slack and others clogged everything up. I don't know what is used for a binder now but over the years it has included clay, lime, molasses residue and oil or bitumen compounds. Those three could create a tarry mess in the grate without the correct air flow I would guess.

45596 Bahamas passing Peak Forest Cemex with The Jubilee Buxton Spa Express, 4th June 2022

The compressed coal dust stuff got some now politically incorrect names in BR days. The oval lumps were not appreciated by the firemen in our area.

I finally gave in and bought one, which will become 1621 from its Stourbridge days. The model has run well straight out of the box at all speeds after an initial squeal when power was first applied. I'm running DC using a Gaugemaster D. The only potential contact problem I've noticed is that the plungers on the centre wheels can lose contact at maximum play, but even on train set curves that probably wouldn't happen. I shortened the over-long couplings quite easily using Bachmann short NEM heads with the sockets cut back to the buffer beam, trimmed the legs to suit and superglued together. My thoughts about the model in general are that it looks nice but the parts are very fiddly. They've managed the usual trick of not putting a lamp bracket on top of the bunker, Also the brackets for spare lamps are designed to fit into a hole but I doubt it is possible to make one there so a bit of trimming and superglue will be necessary. The biggest criticism at the moment is that the small parts underneath aren't robust particularly in the area of the injector pipework and the back end of the brake gear. They would be fine in the display case but don't like handling.

Sadly it only took me 4 hours to be proved right. G-NWAE, the Northwest Air Ambulance, passed while sitting in the garden having lunch around 1.15. Circled over The Snake until sirens arrived and road all silent up there at the moment.

No doubt we will have an air drop of paramedics in the next few days. Yesterday a collection of muppets was trying to emulate them on the road between Macclesfield and Whaley Bridge then more were out over The Snake last night.

Today was officially the start of summer according to the weather man. At least we had uninterrupted cricket, albeit with the odd spot of rain, and at times it was quite warm in the sun. Sammy's 40-over match today was a better result. They bowled out the opposition for 144 in 39 overs and then scored the runs with 17 overs and 3 wickets to spare. It would have been better if some of the youngsters hadn't got overenthusiastic and thrown away 3 wickets getting the last 4 runs. Tomorrow he has two 20-over games so could be a trip over to see one or both.

Our son used to do dinghy sailing at Torside on the Longdendale reservoirs. Whenever we went past on the trail to Woodhead he used to point out the various wave patterns in the water that he had learned from the old hands there. One was caused by a westerly wind hitting Toside dam which stands about 26 metres high. It seems that the updraught leads to a pressure difference above the water close to the dam. Other strange wind and wave patterns are caused by the angles at which the wind hits the sides of the valley and is deflected, for instance it's possible to be propelled along by a northwesterly and suddenly be hit by a southwesterly gust