Jon’s modules – a reorganisation and progress!

Posted on September 10, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Since my last modules post, I have actually made steady progress with the layout.  First of all, I finished all the wiring for the 1200mm module, and tested all the point motors and track feeds.  For this task I used my venerable 42-year old multimeter, made in an electronics practical lesson in my first term at university.  It didn’t get used for years, but I’m just realising how useful it really is….

m1

Then came a week’s procrastination, as I realised that the modules that I thought would fit across the end of the loft, wouldn’t really work like that.  I was on holiday last week, and a lot of thinking and moving things about followed.  Then the penny dropped.  First task was to move Earl’s Wood across the loft to the alcove.  I chopped 9″ off the high legs so it tucks under the sloping roof.  This leaves 2′ to the right for a cassette fiddle year.  In the process of moving, I reconnected a couple of broken wires under the layout, so it is all working again….

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I then took a hacksaw to my ancient (a mere 29 years) MFI bookshelf to lower it to the same height as my other two (just post-war from my parents – we don’t waste anything in our house) bookcase.  Circled in yellow below are the leg extensions that raise one N-club board.  The other two are supported by brackets (also circled) that rest on the bookcases.  the fourth module won’t quite fit along this wall, but tucks neatly between the furniture….

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I bolted the three modules together, added jumper cables between them, and amazingly, the layout is all in one piece.  All the point motors work and I have run an engine on all tracks on and between all boards.  I can now work on it as I have time.  As with many others, I find that I can make good progress when things are all set up, and I can spend an hour here and there, when I have time, working on the layout.

m4 m5

Next task is to complete the fiddle yard / staging on the layout, then paint out the boards brown, plan the scenery, and start ballasting.  I’ve selected a number of buildings from my store of kits.  And I’ll also try and tidy the remaining clutter in the loft…..

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In case you missed the news….

Posted on September 8, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

The newspapers seem to be full of news of the possible discovery of a train load of Nazi gold.  A death bed confession may have confirmed the rumour that a train of looted gold was hidden in an extensive tunnel system in Poland.  Matt of the Daily Telegraph puts it all into context….

010915-MATT-WEB_3424556aOf course, it was supposed to be Mussolini who was the only Italian leader since Roman times to get the trains to run on time.

 

 

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ESNG meeting – 3 September 2015

Posted on September 6, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

After a quiet summer, last night’s meeting was a lively one – even without the Chairman, who was suffering an overdose of early milk rounds.  It was good to see Simon back again, with the same Kato Santa Fe passenger train as Graham.  Mr Apps was also back from holiday, and quickly removed him of a membership fee.  And the IT department had let Ian out for the evening.  The fiddle yard was full of trains (especially as Paul was also back from holiday) – I haven’t seen so many trains in it since our last exhibition…..

e0 e1 e3

A wide variety of trains could be seen, from an American General 4-4-0, to a Bullied pacific and coaches, to Japanese multiple units and goods trains….

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Over in the corner, Duncan and John were working on an Alpenbahn module.  The N-gauge show ‘up north’ has both Alpenbahn and Sean’s ‘Leonard’ exhibiting, that is good for the club….

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Travel, post-war style

Posted on September 4, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Continuing my loft turnout, I came across a little treasure trove of my late mother’s.  It’s difficult to know what to throw away, but it’s important to be a little realistic.  Telegrams (a historic oddity in themselves) addressed to the King’s Head East Dereham, on the occasion of my parents wedding reception in 1949 had to go.  The King’s Head is still there, but I suspect few of the guests are still around.

Then I came across this delightful find, tucked into an envelope.  Two seat reservation tickets, to reserve seats from Norwich to London, on the day of the wedding.  Note the massive fee of 1 shilling, or 5p in new money.  These were issued by British Railways….

h - norwich

Then, a day later, onward tickets from Victoria, still issued by the Southern Railway.  Nationalisation hadn’t quite got to Victoria yet, or more likely, who wanted to waste them in the post-war shortages in the UK….

h - victoria

And my Dad must have really splashed out – there are two Pullman car tickets – and for the even greater fee of 3 shillings, 15p, each.  Note the request on the Pullman tickets for the passenger to ‘destroy the ticket at the end of the journey.  This obviously didn’t happen and they were kept as a souvenir.

h - pullman

I can’t remember my parents honeymoon destination.  Was it Brighton, on the all-Pullman Brighton Belle?  It was unlikely to be the Golden Arrow to Dover, as my father had just returned from Europe with no desire to invade it again.  And starting from Victoria cuts out the Bournemouth and Devon Belles, that came from Waterloo.  Unfortunately the Pullman ticket is illegible – from Victoria can be made out, but not the destination.

The short-lived Thanet Belle to Margate is an option.  But perhaps the Southern Electric Group provide the answer.  The 6-PUL EMU’s included a single Pullman car and….

The 6 PUL units continued to carry out the task for which they were designed for the for over 30 years, operating hourly services from London to Brighton and West Worthing and, as the electrified network expanded, to Eastbourne/Ore and to Littlehampton via Worthing. A 6 PUL was often paired with a 6 Pan unit in order to provide a Pullman car on as many trains as possible without wasteful duplication; “PUL/PAN” was something of a standard formation for the heavier loading trains.

I think the answer is a train to Eastbourne.  I can remember the last of these units running out of Victoria and London Bridge in the 1960’s – they were a good spot at the time.  I didn’t imagine that these venerable and delightful units, designed by Maunsell, also carried my parents off on their honeymoon.

foxley0083_6pul3041balham

Foxley slide 83 – 6-PUL 3041 near Balham

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ESNG – New end loop

Posted on September 2, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

A certain panic has set in over building the new end loop as chief builder Derek seems to be on holiday for most of the next few meetings.  However, an email from the Chairman brought good news….

Just finished stage two of the new end loop.  Been helping our number one man laying the track.

If we add the wiring, it looks like it will be operational for future meetings, even if it is a ‘plywood empire’ with no ballast or scenery.

IMAG0388 IMAG0390 IMAG0391

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We don’t quite fit

Posted on August 31, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

Another scenic cameo to add to the layout.  Of course, strictly, one shouldn’t be running trains over the bridge with a vehicle stuck underneath it.  A more spectacular version would be a standard London bus, swiftly converted for open-top duties.  This seems to happen more often than it should, most recently on a tree.  A tree??  They don’t make buses like they used to…..

_85125353_cnaxneaxaaau_pb

However, the fun bit of the story was the name of the company involved.  The BBC takes up the story…..

A Halfords “We Fit” lorry got stuck under a bridge, causing train services to be suspended.  The vehicle became wedged under the railway bridge in Upper Elmers End Road in Beckenham in south-east London.

Southeastern services were stopped between Elmers End and West Wickham for about an hour until about 10:30 BST on Saturday.

However, these ‘We Fit’ drivers seem creatures of habit, and rather slow on the uptake…

Last October another Halfords ‘We Fit’ lorry became trapped under a bridge less than a mile away.

Train services were also suspended on that occasion after the truck was jammed under the crossing in South Eden Road.

_78047793_2014-10-06-halfords1

‘We fit’ indeed!  Once again real life is stranger than anything one could imagine.  Article from here.

And if you want to avoid the London Tube strike – or add another little something to your layout – how about this…..

Tube_Strike__Alan-_3399354f

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Jon’s modules – new trains

Posted on August 29, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

I’ve spent some time in the loft room this week, and it’s back to the stage when I can get back to completing my N-club modules.  We’ve moved the old bunk bed from the loft, and sorted out a lot of bags left over from both our mother’s houses.  There’s room to work now, and better still, room to put up the full 12′ layout.

I also spend a little time putting Earl’s Wood back together so that it can be operated.  I have one point to fix a loose wire on, but everything else work.  To check all was well, I got out my new Farish SR bogie utility vans and the new NGS/Dapol Collett full brake.  Placed behind a Dapol Q1 (an Ebay purchase from a while back), they looked good on the layout – albeit on the wrong continent.

IMG_0831 IMG_0830

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A little inspiration from New Zealand

Posted on August 27, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

From the Small Layout Design Yahoo group comes this amazing layout.  If you built it, no one would believe that it was straight from the prototype.

David Bromage writes….

Have a look at this for inspiration – 3 piers, a passenger station and some local industry connected to the rest of the network by a conveniently placed tunnel.

http://i.imgur.com/ZiUK1ps.jpg

Even just the middle pier would be an interesting small layout on its own.

ZiUK1ps

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Nice work (or not) if you can get it!

Posted on August 25, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

The Telegraph tells us that, “French rail worker paid £3,500 to do ‘absolutely nothing’ for 12 years files ‘complaint'”

A French employee of national rail operator SNCF earned €5,000 per month after tax since 2003 for doing “nothing”, but in a Gallic twist has filed for “compensation” saying the sinecure ruined his promising career .

I should have tried this last year, when they tried (and failed) to make me redundant.  However, someone would have pointed out that my career was no longer promising…

Charles Simon told French media that his employer, which runs France’s trains including the fast TGVs, took him off his day job in 2003 after he blew the whistle on a case of suspected fraud to the tune of €20 million.

Since then he has received €5,000 per month net while staying at home with the status “available” for work….

However, rather than simply taking the money and enjoying his free time, he said he wrote several letters to Guillaume Pepy, the president of the SNCF, asking for “compensation”.

“I am asking for recognition for the wrong this has caused me because if I hadn’t been side-lined, I could have had a fine career,” he said.

He added that he hoped his predicament as a “whistle blower’ would help others placed in “the cupboard” – given a sinecure – after having denounced fraud.

I’m marginally more sympathetic than I am to London Underground drivers.  Still the article came with this photograph (of trains, not of the fraud).

D933F2 A TGV awaits departure at Tours railway station in France.

D933F2 A TGV awaits departure at Tours railway station in France.

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In the days before ‘Alf and Sadie’

Posted on August 23, 2015 by snitchthebudgie

I was browsing my original copy of Don Boreham’s ‘Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling’, published 1962, and this advert inside the back cover caught my eye….

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Well, Slaters are still very much in business, although I’d love to have Plastikard for 10/6 old money – 50p to you youngsters.  But the advert below amused me.  Thawpit was carbon tetrachloride, and I must admit I used it a lot as a cheaper version of Mek-Pak for welding the afore mentioned Plastikard.  But that was before they discovered that it was a health hazard.  But surely the worrying thing was not the health of the modeller, but the fact that you were expected to be wearing a tie for modelling and in particular for soldering.  The rare occasions I wear ties, they are in more danger from gravy than from flux….

Then an envelope fell out of the book.  It was a letter and postcard from Hammant & Morgan, makers of really good controllers for may years.  The 3d stamp (just over 1p) had informed my father that we’d had our controller serviced for 12/6 (60p including postage).  They must have done a good job, as 40 years later the same controller is still working and used for running my mini-drill and testing my modules.

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Also in the envelope was this reply to a question from my father.  This sort of response is all too rare in the days of email.  However, those were certainly not the ‘good old days.’  Model shops had very little in them, and we were very dependant on Peco, white-metal kits, and scratch building.

h4

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