Henley-on-Thames - GWR in the 1930's

[Neal Ball]

It's been a busy time at Henley over the last couple of weeks.

 

The track has seen further cleaning sessions, mainly on the outer & fiddle yard circuit as I have been getting everything to work properly. One point has had to be relaid after a couple of the locos didn't like coming off a curve and being told to turn left! Thats now fixed, but it has highlighted the entrance to the fiddle yard, which needs completely relaying, as the baseboard has dropped. 

 

I have also relaid a couple of small sections of track in the goods yard at the station. When these sections were put together after the move from the UK, I wasn't 100% happy with them. I have therefore cut out a longer section and laid a new section of track in their place. At the same time, I have been cleaning the yard track as it was apparent some of the track wasn't as clean as it needed to be!

 

I've also added the second section of LED lights - what a difference that has made. Due to the heat over here in Spain, I am not using the flourescent lights in the room - I don't need to add to the heat! 

 

Having relaid and cleaned the track yesterday, the 64xx was stretching its legs in the yard.

 

 

 

Compare this, with a similar shot today after the second set of lights were installed:

 

 

 

At this stage I am only using my iPhone, so clearly I'm looking forward to getting the DSLR camera out there again.

 

The lights are warm white LED and Bright white LED, set at 720mm above the baseboard, exactly the same as Kevin at Little Muddle. At this stage I am not using a dimmer on these lights.

 

The two strips of LED lights are set slightly apart in order to get full coverage across the layout. It might be that I need anther (smaller) length of Bright White, over the Engine yard area. It looks a little dark to me at the moment. I still haven't put up the back scene in this area and its likely that will make a difference.

 

Bright White (left) and Warm White (Right):

 

 

 

After the lighting - I decided the time was right to put some trees up....

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball
Sept 2023 image update

[Neal Ball]

Trees:

I've covered before my use of the seafoam trees and its these that are going back on the layout. They have been boxed since Dec/Jan and some have made the journey better than others - one or two are very flat!

 

I started out by painting over the polyfilla area and then covering everywhere in flock. Last time this area was the first on the layout to make use of static grass - this will be added in the next couple of days, on top of the new base layer. The polyfilla covered the gap where the layout was cut in two. Ground cover is from the Gaugemaster range.

 

 

 

In this photo I have sprayed a tree with hairspray - although in the photo it looks ok - I feel it could do with more leaf cover - all of the trees are being done again.

 

 

Having sprayed each tree, they are dipped in flock powder of various hues, including brown until I am satisfied with the colours. It might also mean chopping off a couple of branches that don't quite hang right.

 

The tree above is the 2nd on the right in the photo below:

 

 

 

The shot below shews the almost completed scene: I need to add static grass; fencing; telegraph poles and then change the Hornby signal box for the much larger box for Henley On Thames. This still needs to be built...

 

For the first time, the grass now comes up to the edge of the ballast. I will need to cut in space for the Pway hut etc.

 

 

It's been a busy afternoon to get it all done, but a very enjoyable one. Because everything was drying I wasn't able to run any locos.

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball
Sept 2023 images updated

[Neal Ball]

In order to get Seafoam trees to stand up - sometimes you have to resort to the "usual Props" etc.

 

Tomorrow morning, they will hopefully be nice and straight and standing where they are needed!

 

 

 

The eagle eyed on RMWeb will see a speed restriction sign from Basingstoke yard and a Bridge sign from the GWML rebuilding work around Reading. Given to me over the last couple of years by a friend who works for Network Rail. 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball
SEpt 2023 image update

[KNP]

Lighting looks great.

It appears you found the same as me and  that was to over specify the amount giving a nice depth of light.

Now I have them I won’t be going back to strip lights...

[Neal Ball]

Thanks Kevin, I'm very pleased with them, plus of course it keeps the heat down :-)

 

The strip lights in the railway room generate too much heat, plus are in the wrong place etc.

 

Definitely won't be going back and in fact I intend to take them all down as we wont need them at all.

[Neal Ball]

The Hornby signal box was only going to be of a temporary nature!

 

Its not a bad model and fitted the bill at the time.

 

In waiting for an order from Hattons, I decided to set to today and draw up the plans for the signal box - thanks in no small part to Kevin at Little Muddle.

 

I have 2 OPC books open and 1 Wild Swan; GWR Architecture & GWR signalling; plus of course the book of the Henley branch which has a couple of photos of the signal box.

 

Ive also spent an age going through all the details on the Lcut website, which I don't recall seeing before: http://www.lcut.co.uk/index.php?page=pages/main&title=Main They come recommended, I have just placed my order for the windows I need.

 

As soon as the windows arrive, I will start to build the new signal box. It will need to be lit and fitted out internally - probably with the Ratio kit.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball

[Neal Ball]

Change of tack over the weekend!

 

I am rebuilding the platforms. They hadn’t travelled very well and I felt stood out like a sore thumb!

 

Therefore I am using the Metcalfe kits as the basis, but rather than use the black tarmac surface, I am recovering them with paving stones from Scalescenes. At the same time, I am replacing the swan neck lamps for something more traditional. Much as I love the elegant design of the swan neck, they were never used at Henley.

 

I’ve been using the Bachmann outside framed Earl and City locos as gauging vehicles! 

 

i have also also been laying cobbles in the goods yard area, part of which can be seen in these shots.

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball
Sept 2023 - missing images removed

[Neal Ball]

Platform building is proceeding apace:

 

 

The King has also been out on a gauging excessive and was seen in the goods yard.

 

 

 

Sept 2023; I cant find the photo of the King, instead here is a Hall 4-6-0:

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball

[Neal Ball]

Platform building is proceeding apace:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by Neal Ball
Duplicated post

[Neal Ball]

On 10/07/2019 at 17:44, Neal Ball said:

The Hornby signal box was only going to be of a temporary nature!

 

Its not a bad model and fitted the bill at the time.

 

In waiting for an order from Hattons, I decided to set to today and draw up the plans for the signal box - thanks in no small part to Kevin at Little Muddle.

 

I have 2 OPC books open and 1 Wild Swan; GWR Architecture & GWR signalling; plus of course the book of the Henley branch which has a couple of photos of the signal box.

 

Ive also spent an age going through all the details on the Lcut website, which I don't recall seeing before: http://www.lcut.co.uk/index.php?page=pages/main&title=Main They come recommended, I have just placed my order for the windows I need.

 

As soon as the windows arrive, I will start to build the new signal box. It will need to be lit and fitted out internally - probably with the Ratio kit.

 

 

 

The windows have arrived from Lcut and look very good indeed. The order was short, so I’m waiting for them all to arrive before I start the build.

 

The windows are a bit smaller than my plans call for, so I need to rescale the drawings to keep the proportions correct. It will still be a big box!

[Neal Ball]

Testing out the new Gas lamps.... they are a bit bright!

 

The Gaugemaster lamps come with a different PCB compared to the DCC Concepts lamps I’ve already got. (The lamps are made by DCC concepts)

 

There is a choice of 3 diode values to reduce the brightness, but to my mind they are too bright.

 

 

 

A nice warm glow, rather than a beacon! I want to run only 1 x 12v for these sort of things and for it to run at full I therefore need to add a higher value resister.  It’s tempting to try them on the DCC concepts PCB, but there must be a reason why it’s not supplied with these lamps.

 

Sept 2023 - more images I cant find :-(

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Neal Ball

[Siberian Snooper]

Can you measure the output from each PCB, if the DCC Concepts is the same or lower than the Gaugemaster PCB you should have no problem running it on the DCC Concepts PCB.

 

 

[5BarVT]

A suggestion: see how far the 12V needs to be reduced (DC controller?) to get the brightness you want. If it’s (say) 10V or 9V you could use a 7810 or 7809 IC to give that voltage locally whilst still keeping your 12V distribution for other things. 

Paul.

[Neal Ball]

4 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Can you measure the output from each PCB, if the DCC Concepts is the same or lower than the Gaugemaster PCB you should have no problem running it on the DCC Concepts PCB.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

A suggestion: see how far the 12V needs to be reduced (DC controller?) to get the brightness you want. If it’s (say) 10V or 9V you could use a 7810 or 7809 IC to give that voltage locally whilst still keeping your 12V distribution for other things. 

Paul.

 

That sounds great (in theory) thank you both. 

 

I have a multimeter so need so need to set to with it, to make sense of the readings etc. The supply for my test, was a controlled 12v, turned to approximately 1/2 way, so I’m trying to replicate that....

 

12v DC controller - Yes

Edited July 19, 2019 by Neal Ball
Add 12v DC

[Neal Ball]

Work on the platforms has continued this afternoon.

 

I found out that Metcalfe increased the spec for their platform kits at some point in the past - the older kits have a thinner platform face - meaning the old stock is not compatible- another order has been placed at Hattons!

 

Work in progress, only the section nearest the camera is fixed down: 

 

[Neal Ball]

The gauging gang has included: 64xx; Hall; City; Earl; King seen here, ready for their next duty! It’s a busy day at Henley. Meanwhile it’s been another day of 30 degrees in the shade.

 

 

i also have out the new Bachmann members wagon for 2019/20

[Neal Ball]

Platform work is progressing very well and will probably be completed in the next day or so. I'm very pleased with how they have turned out.

 

I just need to wire up the Platform Lamps and put back the furniture (running in boards etc.)

 

Meanwhile the 64xx is still out on gauging duties:

 

[Neal Ball]

This afternoon has seen two projects underway:

 

i had had a spare 5 minutes, so set about changing the water tower area and associated dock. This had previously been portrayed as a bare piece of scenery. The dock is currently drying and will probably be finished tomorrow, I will do the water tower at some point in the future. I’m not sure if this will be a new building or a case of finishing off the current one.

 

The 64xx and some spare track was used to get the right formation, it’s been made as if it’s a removable item, which it won’t be once planted.

 

 

 

Other than comments that the dock was used to grow Chrysanthemums, I’m not sure of its purpose. The water pump was housed here, but I can’t think that would warrant a dock....

 

plus its right on the point point into the loco yard.

[Neal Ball]

Things are starting to return to “normal” here at Henley. In fact we are making progress on a good many fronts.

The new platforms are in and are almost complete. There remains some ballast ins to do, which will secure the platform base to the plywood underneath.

All the lights are now in and working....although it seems Guagemaster are changing their lights, or just the spec. I have ended up using 3 oil lamps, with the rest being Gas lamps.

Running boards are in.

Ive been fettling platform 3 and the cattle dock - the curve at the blocks is quite sharp, it will now accept carriages, right up to the stop blocks. I’ve also changed the blocks to act as more like an end loading facility.

 

Work is also progressing in the station yard area.

 

 

[Neal Ball]

Platform 1 and 2 at Henley on Thames

 

[Neal Ball]

Looking across the platform ends at Henley on Thames.

 

 

Still loads more to do.

 

this evening also saw the Yard loading gauge installed - it’s unique at Henley as it cover 2 roads.

[Neal Ball]

Lights update:

 

I have two sets of lights on the platforms - the lights in the photos above are the new (6 pack) Gaugemaster gas lamps and are each run on the small PCB.

 

The packs of 3 lamps are currently out of stock and according to the Gaugemaster web site are being discontinued.

 

So I opted for a pack of 3 GWR oil lamps (the logic being that the factory applied paint was better than my hand painted versions). These lamps rely on the old version PCB from DCC concepts, with the variable potentiometer for dimming the lamps. The instructions on these also say now they are better on DC, so have been hooked up to the same 12v DC supply and worked fine.... for 1 1/2 days and have now stopped.

 

I have swapped the board for one of my older DCC concepts PCB and they still don't work.

 

These are small grain of wheat lamps, rather than LED sop are not pole specific - but just in case I have tried swapping the cables round, to no avail.

 

I have checked I have 12v supply coming in, but there is no output on the other side of the PCB.

 

It needs further investigation, but it seems odd that they were working fine and not now....To be updated!

 

I have in the meantime, sent an email to Gaugemaster asking about how to check the circuits.

[Neal Ball]

A photographic interlude! aka the first time I have taken a camera into the railway room.

 

It looks as if I need to play around with the settings a bit more - but first impressions are that I need to increase the LED lighting strip a bit more.

 

The 64xx was seen in Platform 3

 

 

And this shews the new GWR loading gauge in place. It needs more work on it yet!

 

 

More to come!

[Neal Ball]

The platform lamps saga:

 

They are all now working. I suspect there was a loose connection and i interrupted the supply when going under the layout.

 

 

The two sets of lights from Gaugemaster are lovely items. I intend to paint the gas lamps from the 2017 version of Henley into the correct shade of dark stone and then place them in the loco and goods yard area. The Swan neck lamps are going over to the High St.

 

There remains more work to do on the platforms, but its hard to see they are the Metcalfe ones, they look very different from the standard kit. The paving stones are from Scalescenes.

[Neal Ball]

The platforms need a bit of fettling! Despite the fact of testing them for gauge etc. before sticking them down there are a few issues.

 

Platform 3 was always an issue, in as much as a bogie carriage could not get right to the end of the road. I thought I had fixed it - but at the point of this photo, I hadn't . After lots of cussing, the road is now clear and the new Collet carriages can get through to the buffer stops. Frustrating, but sometimes that's the way its goes!

 

Platform 2 has an issue for the outside framed locos for a section of about 4 inches and still needs fixing.

 

This is Platform 3: