In tier 4, wondering what tier 5 would be like! I’ll be taking a few days off from blogging over Christmas. Short of ideas, but that pile of plywood in the loft is still calling.
Please note, in 2040, there still won’t be any trains on Christmas Day, as management will have forgotten to buy the batteries….
Meanwhile, Cat-zilla strikes again….
And a little something for the modelling juices – switching in Boston.
No, I’m not starting to model French metre gauge lines…. But these three books couldn’t be resisted €12 each. Full of lovely pictures, including those very French railcars. Makes the average ‘Pacer’ look like a Rolls Royce….
Modelling postponed yet again for Christmas shopping and cleaning out the church gutters. One day…..
Elsewhere in the world, I knew Brexit was bad news…..
Brexit: Hornby stops non-UK orders due to price confusion
“Due to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit & what it’ll mean for our International customers, as of the 15th Dec, we will pause all non-UK orders until 4th Jan 2021.”
“Normal for Norfolk?”
Train missed cars by half a second in Norfolk level crossing error
Turns out this isn’t the understandable death wish of a Norwich City supporter (after all, we are top of the table), but it’s shoddy work by RailTrack using cut-price technology. RMWeb had some good pictures of the site, that showed that the cars waiting on the road wouldn’t have been able to see the train coming. Pretty scary from any perspective!
Don’t think Northern Trains will try this out?
But does it have potential for us modellers? A garden shed with solar panels????
Zoom again – the last of the year. Just the six wise (?) monkeys, later joined by Maxine. We did talk railways, but also marmalade and Covid-19. We were, for once, undisturbed by cats. Brian and Graham were unable to join us this time around……
Paul ran a few trains to amuse us. Simon and Allan had models to show off.
Paul summed it all up on Facebook….
Another ESNG meeting on Zoom tonight, last one of the year. Numerous topics discussed, everything from extensions to the London tube network to ‘Crossroads’, if you can remember that bastion of early soap operas. I had trains running, 12 trains out and over 200 wagons.
More progress from Brian…
My activity these past weeks – starting to come together ….
Meanwhile, Allan posted on Facebook:
MiWuLa style jingle bells
That’s all of the ESNG meetings for 2020. Hopefully, next year there will be less Zoom and more real meetings!
Picking up on some odds and ends from the club…..
I finished the last post with a shout-out for the Magic Roundabout. Phil promptly emailed me…..
The Magic Roundabout!
Oh, my goodness, me!
I was in love with Florence!Phil.
Could have been worse….. Anyone with a soft spot for Ermintrude?
In the UK we had the story of the vandals at an exhibition. Allan sent me this heart-warming tale from Australia…..
Model railway group’s labour of love on track with permanent home
A group of model train enthusiasts will soon have a permanent home after the region’s only scale model railway group received $128,000 in funding it needed to rise from the ashes after their former temporary location was destroyed by vandals during a suspicious fire in 2019.
The Canberra Monaro N Scale Group has had somewhat of a nomadic existence since it formed more than 20 years ago, moving its trains, tracks and displays between scout halls and locations in Canberra and Queanbeyan.
Some of them look horribly familiar. Do all model railway fans look alike? Mind you, I’d like a donation of $128,000 (even Australian ones) for ESNG. We could rent storage for all those modules cluttering up people’s houses!
From Ron – Blackpool Tramways celebrates 135 years.
Balloon 715 heads back to depot having run its three heritage tours on 26th September
And two pictures on the LSWR, when train travel was special….
I have a sheet of plywood sitting on the lounge floor, to mark out the layout trackwork. But it won’t get done tonight! However, some helpful advice has been received!
Phil wrote…..
Hi, Jon!
Have you seen Jago Hazzard’s channel on YouTube?
Some interesting clips and stories including some about London Railways. It was the view of the London & Greenwich line arches that made think of you, since you had blogged that you were trying to re-create some railway arches.
See them at 3:50 into this clip:
Take care, stay well!
Phil.
I’ve also received some thoughts from Duncan. This may be a bit of a challenge, an interurban Grand Union on steroids!
Once you get the hang of making track, are you going to tackle something like this?
In a word, no.
Next email was interesting. I see that FineTrax are going to make 4mm scale track (in any gauge) like this, with integral rail chairs, and ‘N’ gauge track may be upgraded and follow.
I don’t know if you remember the Wye point I made for the magic roundabout? Basically, it’s a 3-D Printed base, including chairs, and then I threaded Peco code 60 rail in. I was surprised how easy it was, and how well it worked:
The ‘magic roundabout’ was nothing to do with Zebedee, but is an interesting multi-directional train turntable Duncan helped build for the Stuttgart Nm setup. He continues…..
Anyway, I’d be wary of tackling slips, but turnouts and crossings could be done fairly easily this way I think. Even something huge, like Newcastle junction, is just more 3-D printed pieces, and thread the track in. The track planning software always uses set pieces, like individual points, but it wouldn’t be hard to make a really flowing junction, like in the photos, and then make individual pieces from that:
Newcastle Central. Photo: Ben Brooksbank. Wikipedia Commons
Sorry, Duncan, haven’t got the room, even in ‘N’!!!!!
Just to calm me down, here’s another picture of West Croydon, with the carriage sidings and the old loco shed site to the left. The retaining wall was indented for a small turntable to take the small LBSCR tank locos used for suburban services prior to electrification.
Anyhow, many thanks to Phil and Duncan – all very interesting and it keeps me on my toes. I think I shall return to that sheet of ply in the morning, when I have some natural light to work with.
And I must finish with a picture of the REAL Magic Roundabout. Formative viewing for my A-level and university years. Probably explains a lot…..
Some snippets from around ESNG and friends….
Chris has been wagon building.
Hi Jon, hope all is going well. Just finished these two ex LSWR wagons. I have found your Ludgate article and photos very interesting! With best wishes, Chris C
Brian has battled the elements.
Looking back, it was warmer in the garage during lockdown number one, than it is now!
Good to keep in touch with Duncan (who even reads this blog – poor lad.)
Hi Jon,
We’re all Ok too. Should have been in Germany for the last few weeks though, but that’s 2020 I guess. Hopefully, things might be a bit more normal by easter.
It looks like you’ve done a lot more modelling than me! You’re finally doing a minories! I went through your minories archive the other day, thinking about doing a modern-image version in T-Gauge. The points would obviously be difficult, but it would be small. I then realised that I could do a true-scale model of East Croydon from the bridge to the end of the platforms in about 1m, with no points… an interesting thought.
Mostly, I’m slowly progressing radio-controlling the oxford mercedes ambulance. I think I’m on about version 27 by now, but that’s how I work these days… print the parts out, change everything by 0.1mm, and print again.
I know there’s no NGSE in 2021, but hopefully we can all meet up early next year.
Duncan
My parcel of FineTrax arrived yesterday. I was glad that I had waited for it to arrive before setting out a full size track plan. The downloadable B8 point template is slightly larger than the point in the flesh. So I reprinted it at 96% of its size to get it right. Interestingly, the Y-point template is spot on.
I suppose that I’d better get on planning the baseboards now – although there is a certain domestic pressure to write the Christmas cards – I recognise that phrase, “Isn’t it about time WE did the Christmas cards.” For WE, read YOU….
Still, the contents of the box look rather interesting!
However, I wish I had one of these to lay my track for me…..
FineTrax parcel should arrive today. In the meantime, here are a few inspiring photographs. As ever, apologies if I have missed the copyright on these.
West Croydon station in Southern Railway days. This station had an interesting layout, and pre-grouping had a loco shed and carriage sidings – later used to store EMUs.
In later days, the rare sight of a rebuilt Bullied Pacific on a van train at East Croydon. (Photo by Charlie Verral) There was an interesting track layout to these approach roads.
An ex-LBSCR C2x shunting at Bromley north in BR days. One of the few British locomotives to have two domes – hiding Billington’s top feed apparatus. To my eye, the single domed version looks far better….
Two pictures of the incredibly elegant LSWR Adams X3 4-4-0’s. Mostly scrapped by Southern Railway days, but a single survivor, a T3 class, is preserved. The second photograph is from before WW1, and is an empty milk train.
And this coloured picture is of Vauxhall, unloading milk churns onto the platform. In later days, milk tank wagons unloaded into a piped system, that was then pumped across to the milk bottling plant. For the rest of the day, the platform was host to a string of suburban trains, next stop Waterloo. The ‘Elephant and Castle’ pub, seen over the first van, existed until the late 1990’s, when it became a Starbucks.
An equally elegant LBSCR H1 Atlantic in BR days.
Beauty and the beasts? Exeter St David’s, and two Z class 0-8-0T bankers return to their starting place by piloting a Bullied Pacific heading a passenger service.
I’m still working on the baseboard design for the layout. I’m minded to wait until the FineTrax points arrive in the post, so that I can check that the published templates match the real thing. The problem with a layout on arches, is that the raised baseboard section needs to be shaped to match the track. I’d be confident that I’d get Peco geometry correct, but am less sure about FineTrax,
In the meantime, where is this station, and what have these outer platforms been tacked onto? I have placed it to the west of the old Ludgate Hill station, imagining a new link built from Waterloo to directly link the Holborn Viaduct line with Waterloo. This does make a bit of a mess of Ludgate Circus, and I’m making no attempt to match any of the actual road layout, but Ludgate West is a tentative name for the layout.
This location gives a lead as to the train shed that forms the backdrop to the station. Here’s The Engineer magazine’s sketch of the structure. There are plenty of pictures of the bridges at either end of the station, that may give a lead as to structures to choose for the layout.
I’m not sure where I got the next photos from, so my apologies for any copyright problems. They show the old Ludgate Hill station in its latter days, and in one case, ready for demolition.
Hopefully, I can report on the baseboards next time out.
Exactly….. With most of us, they’d be bored out of their minds…..
ESNG members have been getting ready for the meeting – Allan and Phil please note!
Meanwhile, back at the meeting….
An evening where the technology seemed to come out on top. Allan kept appearing, freezing, and disappearing, and this was blamed on the Purley internet, rather than the Cha(i)rman himself. Even Ron couldn’t rescue him. Chris tried to join us, could see us, but couldn’t hear anything. When you think about the level of conversation, he might have had the better end of the deal. Paul ran a few trains, and Simon had some more 3-D printing on display. Once again, great to see everyone!
Mr Atfield apologised for his absence from Zoom. You can teach an old dog some new tricks, but having mastered email, Zoom may still be step too far…..
Hi all. Just to let you know the Atfield is still alive and model making and slowly getting to grips with c.21 alien technology!
Thought some might be interested to see pics of some new modules in progress. “Old town” is a straight dashboard with added backscene using s/hand buildings. “Frenches” is similar with extra track to access bay platform on Peter Imms’ town module or others. Many buildings recovered from Reigate. A nod to Mr Apps with a caravan in a front garden and you might recognise a certain milkman delivering. Finally a figure-8 low level “drive-a-train” module for exhibitions (ever hopeful) with a high level viaduct carrying 4 N-mod tracks.The strange Cl.20 and wagon represent an adapted loco with exhaust scrubber unit used during construction of the Channel Tunnel. I saw some pictures in a book and thought it would make an interesting conversion of a defunct Farish Cl.20!
Stay safe and have a peaceful Christmas.
Looking forward to some meetings in 2021, Derek.
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