Loft flooring hiatus

I'm flooring the loft, hence little progress on the baseboards. They're cut to size and I've also cut the framing to brace the boards - just all needs gluing and screwing together.

Anyway, the loft is floored and wired for electric sockets - just needs to be connected to the mains. Lighting is temporary but sufficient for now.

A quick tidy up of loft junk and the boards can be transferred from the garage to the loft and then (hopefully quickly) completed.

Maybe some track will be positioned by the end of the year...

Layout inspirations 4 - Moorcock

Moorcock by Andy Calvert
Viewed at the N Gauge Society 40th Anniversary show 2007

I'd heard all about this layout on the Yahoo! N Gauge forum as it has legendary status. Was it worth all the fuss? Yep. A great example of N Gauge modelling - full-length trains, sweeping curves and great scenery.

Moorcock is still on the exhibition circuit despite the demise of its builder Andy Calvert. It also being reburbished - it's quiet old. Anyway, I didn't have my camera with me in 2007 when I saw it, but here are some great photos and a video on the N Guage Society web site.

Pictures are here.

Video is here.

Enjoy.

Slight design flaw

Measure twice, cut once, as the saying goes.

Baseboard construction is under way but flooring the attic has taken precedence as, well, no floor, no layout. So I thought I'd just measure out the attic space to see how the layout will fit.

It doesn't. I'd previous measured the floor area, but (of course) much of the floor goes under the eves of the house and isn't really usable as floor space. I have about 1 metre less in three directions, so the layout as planned won't fit.

As it happens, I've only started on the four main boards, which will fit, so these will the the total extent of the layout. It's back to XtrkCAD to jiggle the plan while losing 600mm at either end.

If I'm making such a stupid error now, Lord knows what other daft mistakes will be made along the way.

Watch this space...

Layout inspirations 2 - Ashburton

Ashburton by John Birkett-Smith
Viewed at The International N Gauge Show 2006
Featured in Model Railway Journal #94 (April) 1997

 

Photo by Des Brailsford

For me this was the stand-out layout at The International N Gauge Show in 2006. What captivated me about this GWR branch layout was the scenery. The grass looked like real grass! I spent 10 minutes just taking in the view, then realised that the operator had gone off for a tea break and no trains were running. It didn’t seem to matter. I hunted down a copy of the MRJ feature, which reveals a clever baseboard construction approach and a sector plate that swivels under the scenery - not something I’d seen before (nor can I describe it well either!).

Anyway, check out John’s web site of the layout here.

And so it begins...

After several years (not kidding) of planning and prep, not to mention the numerous distrations and diversions. The layout is officially underway. Whoo hoo.

Let's not get carried away - what this means is that I've cut an 8' x 4' plywood sheet into four 1200mm x 600mm sheets. But hey, it's a start.

Some pictures to mark the momentous occasion:

From

To

Four neat matching boards. The job was made easier by getting a decent handsaw - I picked a cheap one up from Screwfix that cuts both ways. Less effort and less of a ragged edge to the uncut side.

Next up - bracing to support the plywood.

Layout inspirations 3 - Basingstoke

Basingstoke by Farnham and District MRC

Viewed at Farnham & District MRC Show 2009
Featured in Railway Modeller Oct 98, Model Rail Oct 2000 and Hornby Magazine March 2009
Web page: http://www.farnhammrc.org.uk/basingstoke.htm

I finally managed to see Basingstoke after having read about it in various publications and references to it (mainly from Noel Leaver) on the Yahoo N Gauge forum. It's long - 28ft or so - which shows off the pluses of n gauge very well. Full length trains moving at scale speeds - the effect that I'm after.

I took some pictures. Stupidly I only took a telephoto lens with me, which meant that most of the photos have a tiny depth of field (and that therefore much of the picture is out of focus). Should have listened to my wife...

More (and better)pictures are here courtesy of Mike Boydon. Also here courtesy of the N Gauge Society (of which I am a member).

Turntable at Beattock

What's a suitable turntable to use? The obvious choice is the Peco NB55 model, and according to the catalogue is "based on a Ransome and Rapier 73ft well type turntable, supplied to many railways both at home and overseas." In other words, it's generic.

The turntable deck is 151mm (6.1 inches) diameter. It's just too big to fit comfortably on the layout, according to XtrkCad. The turntable at Beattock was "a balanced 54ft unit from Cowans Sheldon nearby at Carlisle" (source: LMS Engine Sheds, Vol 5). So it was 19ft (36mm in N gauge) smaller than the Peco effort. It was probably only used to turn banking engines - a Duchess or similar would never have fitted on it.

Re pictures, there aren't any. The only source I have is my North from Carlisle video (B&R videos, vol 33) which has a scene where they turn CR439 class 55234 prior to towing it off to be scrapped. You can see that it's a well-type table, but barely long enough to squeeze the tank onto.

My plan, such as it is, is to buy a secondhand Peco version on eBay and cut it down. I suspect I'll need a few goes at this, hence using the cheap option.

***Update: the video source is Cinerail's North From Carlisle, not B&R.

Timber arrives, but...

... it's in 4.8m lengths, not precut to 1.2m lengths as ordered. Two choices - send it back or cut it myself. I have room to store it in the garage (just) so I'll cut it myself. I bought a very cheap circular saw to build a deck a couple of years ago, so it shouldn't be too onerous.

Layout Inspirations 1 - Bishop Wearburn

Bishop Wearburn by John Spence
Featured in Railway Modeller, October 2004 and Hornby Magazine October 2008
Viewed at Southampton MRS Show 2009

 

Picture (c) Nick's Railways

These layout inspirations are in no particular order, nor have I necessarily even seen them in person. But in each case there’s something (or often several things) that inspired me to have a go, perhaps even emulate one day. It's purely a personal, subjective token of admiration and envy.

In the case of Bishop Wearburn, the double track main line, sweeping curves over 20’ and the bridge all encapsulate what’s possible in N gauge. I read the feature in the first Hornby mag I bought (“N gauge and Hornby – surely some mistake?”) and made sure I made it to Southampton to check it out. I was the bloke who just watched the trains go by for 20 minutes at the end of the show. John was operating and is very approachable, giving me tips on baseboard construction (“If building a loft layout make sure you build it in sections – you will want to move it one day…”). Thanks for that, John, and for tolerating the sad chap spotting your trains.

More pictures are here courtesy of Mike Boydon.

Baseboard redesign issues

As I noted in this post, I'm planning to have a cantilevered board at either end, to allow the trains to turn 180 degrees and trundle into the fiddle yard. These boards are designed to be 600mm wide (roughly 2 feet) - same width as the main boards.

I also want to use as large a radius of curve as possible to minimise loco running problems. And eventually I'd like to run my locos with the scale-size leading bogie wheel that GF and others now provide (although the smaller size wheel still look pretty good). So large radius curve will help.

The largest standard Settrack curve is Radius 3 (product number ST-17), which is 298.5mm (11 3/4in) radius. This 'should' fit my baseboard. But it doesn't, according to XTrkCad. I checked with the N Gauge Yahoo group, which confirmed this - radius measurements are to the centre of the track, not the outside. Why does no-one tell you this?!

Anyway, the simplest solution is to make the cantilever boards 50mm wider at the back (hidden side) of the layout. Minimum of difference in construction, and little (if any) additional cost.

Baseboard design

The basic design for the layout is four 4’x2’ boards, or rather 1200mm x 600mm. It’s a sad fact that most layout sizes are governed by multiples of available plywood, MDF, Sundeala or whatever. Typically, Sundeal comes in metric sizes, whereas plywood is imperial (1220mm x 606mm).

Each board will be build from 3”x1” softwood, with 2”x1” softwood bracing. Tops will be 6mm plywood topped with 9mm Sundeala. Why? Sundeala is an easier surface to model on, can be sculpted, and has good noise deadening qualities. The 6mm ply is for structural support (Sundeala is known to sag) and to have a strong base to screw point motors to. This structure was recommended by Alton Model Centre, and the bloke there even showed me a board he’d constructed himself. It may seem like overkill, but I’m only going to do this once (hopefully) so better get it right.

I pondered long and hard about legs (as one does!) and decided on a slotted-in structure. Basically you create a hole for the legs and they just slot in, bolted firmly. Easier to set up than trestle-type legs and no bracing required (I hope!). Easier to construct too.

Leg length is 1200mm, a good height for both modelling (you can crawl under the boards if required) and viewing. I’ll fit adjustable feet for levelling purposes.

Main board 1 will have legs at either end. Boards 2-4 will have just one set and be supported by the preceding board.

In planning the layout I decided to add a 2’x2’ board at either end to allow the trains to run behind the scenic area into the fiddle yard. These will join on to the end boards by being bolted on, but I’ve also designed a cantilever support for additional strength. Sounds fancy but it’s basically a brace from the end-most leg to the underside of the 2’x2’ board.

 

And that's it. I have little carpentry skills but I do like planning so the wood will be delivered in handy 1200mm lengths, which should be easy to cut to size. The challenges will be cutting an 8' x 4' sheet of plywood (the merchant can't cut a single sheet...) and constructing the butt joints (half lap joints are beyond me and I'd have to do 12 joints per board - life's too short).

Beattock track plan

I've found no definitive plan of Beattock station as it was for most of its operational lifetime. The key sources are Alan Kirk's article on Beattock Station Modellers' Backtrack Jun-Jul 1993, Branches & Byways: Southwest Scotland and the Border Counties by Robotham, and LMS Engine Sheds Vol 5 by Hawkins & Reeve. All of these place the turntable close to the engine shed, but Hawkins & Reeve state that the turntable was moved to "the southern end of the down platform" in 1899.

A visit to the British Library showed that the turntable was indeed near the engine shed in the 1870s, according to a six-inches-to-the-mile map (which I forgot to record and will have to revisit to record the source and date).

I assume, therefore, that the three sources all use this old map as the original.

I have, however, a video of Beattock station in the 1950s & 60s (Great Steam Routes: The West Coast Main Line), which shows (fleetingly) the position of the turntable. Another video (North from Carlisle) has better footage of the turntable itself but the location is less discernable. 

So it's possible to guesstimate where the turntable was.

I've used XtrkCAD to plot the track plan, allowing for some simplification and compression (otherwise it's just too big and unwieldy) - operationally it should be fine.

The overall track plan (omitting some sidings and structures) looks like this:

 

The baseboard will be made up of four 4 x2 boards, with two 2x2 boards at either end as turning circles. I had hoped to squeeze it all on to four boards, but the boards then become too wide, or too short to create the visual effect I'm after.

It's basically a glorified dumbell layout - allowing long trains to run through uninterupted if desired, but goods shunting, banking and a branch line to maintain interest.

The station throat, goods yard and engine shed complex in detail looks like this:

There are plenty of points to install, and I'll need to check whether these coincide with baseboard joins or bracing.

Catalogue rant

Why do manufacturers charge for their product catalogues? Imagine if Marks & Spencer charged you to look in their shop window. I’ve just laid out £10 for three catalogues for what I believe are tier 1 suppliers: Peco, Graham Farish and Ratio/Wills. In retrospect, I needn’t have bought the GF one because they at least have a decent web site with their product descriptions available. Good for them. I suppose they’re entitled to try and fleece me for an extra £3. And they succeeded (though that’s £3 less available to buy a loco from them).

But what is Peco doing? It’s living in the dark ages, that’s what. The Peco web site has descriptions of its products, but no illustrations. Pointless. You have to buy the catalogue. Same for Ratio/Wills, owned by Peco. So I have to buy the Ratio/Wills catalogue too, if I want to know what the products look like.

Come on, Peco. Get with the 21st century. Put your excellent products in full colour on the web site. I’m sure you’d sell more of them that way.

If Dapol can, you can.

Choice of track

No competition really. I’m going with Peco finescale code 55, with electrofrog points. I’m also trying to use large radius points only in the scenic areas, and they look better.

Fiddle yard, when I’ve decided how this will work, will use any code 55 point, so long as it’s cheap and reliable.

I had been following the various discusions on the yahoo n gauge group re track realism, and in articular the thread on the 2mm FineScale Easitrac system. In the end, I've plumped for ease and proven usability over threading rail onto sleepers. I think Peco track will be just fine when ballasted and weathered. 

Installing a decoder in a Dapol M7

This is my first foray into DCC decoder fitting, and I’m pretty much a beginner in soldering and general delving into the innards of a loco. So I started with much trepidation.

Why the M7? Well, in my mind it's not an M7 at all, but an ex-Caledonian 0-4-4 Class 439 that worked as bankers at Beattock. Since there's no RTR version or kit available the M7 is the closest I can get without scratch-building (one day perhaps...).

The basic conversion approach is that described in Railway Modeller June 2006 by Roger Miller. Some of the pictures in the article are unclear (they were to me anyway) so I've included my own here.

The basic steps are:

 

Remove the body from the chassis, and clamp the chassis in a vice or similar (I used one of those crocodile clip stand things).

  

I used a Digitrax DZ125, bought for £17 from Digitrains.

  

I used a pointed soldering iron tip, for accuracy.

  

First step: unsolder the suppressor coils. There are two, and they come away quite easily by applying the soldering iron.

  

A removed suppressor coil.

  

Removing both coils it looks like this.

  

Then unsolder the capacitors (those little orange blobs). Here's the prepared chassis resting on the handle of my wire cutters.

  

You need to remove the yellow and white wires from the chip. No going back now...

  

Solder the wires, one at a time, ensuring the bond is strong (ie it stands a gentle tug - don't yank it!).

  

The chassis with all four wires soldered on.

 

On the test track, set the chip ID to the loco number (or whatever convention you're using). Amazingly, my effort worked first time. I noticed that the loco now crawls around the test track at speeds much slower than I could get using DC.

Bachman Dynamis arrives!

I’m like a kid with a new toy. I am a kid with a new toy. My Dynamis arrived today, bought for a snip of £80 from holtmodelrailways.co.uk. I’d previously read reviews of this set in Model Rail and BRM, and they both rated it highly.

First impressions are that it’s duffer-proof. Easy-to-read manual, simple track connections and a basic but functional handheld controller (or throttle as we DCCers say…).

Now to install a chip (sorry, decoder) and test it for real…

More research on Beattock

I haven’t found a “Beattock station and summit” book – a gap in the market?! There are a couple of books on my wish list that sound useful:

Dumfries and Galloway's Last Days of Steam, Author: W.A.C. Smith

BRANCHES AND BYWAYS - SOUTHWEST SCOTLAND AND THE BORDER COUNTIES 1st Edition - January 2004 by Robert Robotham

LMS ENGINE SHEDS - VOL. 5 -THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY, 1st Edition – 1987, by Chris Hawkins, George Reeve

I’ll tell you if they’re any good when I can find a copy...

The International N Gauge Show 2009

Yesterday I took the family to the International N Gauge Show 2009 in Leamington Spa. First impression was that there were fewer layouts and traders than previous years. But very busy from an attendance point of view.

The only thing I bought was a LMS 0-6-0 Jinty body for £1 from the Bachman stand. Bargain, since one sold on eBay for £25 back in June. I have an ancient crimson one that I was planning to sell but may use the new body and convert it to DCC - a low priority though.

One big word of advice to operators - run more trains. The number of times I stood for (what seemed like) ages waiting for a train. Something moving. Anything. I know it was probably like this in real life, but please speed things up behind the scenes for us paying punters, even if it's some shunting action. 

If the TINGS organisers are listening, let's have a decent show programme next time. An A4 sheet listing the traders and exhibitors is not enough - we need a map/plan showing where everyone is. The exhibitors were not named, just the layouts so it was sometimes hard to know who was exhibiting. Most club exhibitions do better, so why not TINGS? End of rant.

Usual mix of steam and modern eras, and between British and foreign settings. For me the most impressive layouts were Alston, Grange-over-Sands, Horsted Keynes, Rorgyle and Temple Dean. Disappointingly, my camera battery failed and so resorted to my phone to take pictures - not ideal. I'm sure more and better picture will appear or other sites.

Here are my efforts...

Alston, by (unknown)

 

 

Grange-over-Sands, by (I think) Blackburn and East Lancs Model Railway Club

Horsted Keynes, by Alan Brewster

 

  

 

Rorgyle, by Brant Hickman

 

 

Temple Dean, by Warley MRC

Modelling Beattock - a first?

I haven't found any previous references to a model of Beattock - why is this? Am I that naive to think I can build what others know to be too hard? Time will tell!

I have found that Elgin MRC modelled the station building for its Bealing layout - in OO but looks good nevertheless.

Source: Elgin MRC

More pictures of the layout on the Elgin MRC site here.

My best investments to date

Without question, the best source of information on N gauge is… the Yahoo Groups n gauge forum. This must be most knowledgeable bunch of guys (and ladies), and they’re just gushing out useful tips and titbits from their vast experience. It costs me the grand some of zero pence to subscribe and read their secrets. They have some entertainingly silly arguments about the precise weight of a lump of coal and exactly how long is a fireman’s shovel. Keep it up chaps (and ladies). I've been lurking on the group for a while now but may enter the discussion actively when I've got some sensible questions to ask (and something to offer in return).

The second best investment to date is membership of the N Gauge Society. £23 including ring binder and joining fee. I’d been seesawing on whether or not to join – I’m not a great club joiner. But the first issue of the society journal arrived, and it featured an LMS layout – Springdale. Wow. Envy. And it was built 30 years ago. More please, editor.

The Society also seems a place to collate information on what products are available. It’s just a tad out of date. But the volunteers that run the society probably have better things to do than update lists…

Beattock – a short history

The main motivation for building a railway via Beattock was that it could serve both the Scottish centres of commerce: Glasgow and Edinburgh. As far back as 1835, surveys had been completed determining the viability or otherwise of various routes. The Beattock route enabled the line to diverge north at Carstairs, with a Y-junction connecting the Glasgow and Edinburgh branches. The decision to build via Beattock was controversial: could motive power of the day negotiate the steep inclines? Political and financial arguments also ensued – would a single line be more economical than two, and would it serve the commercial interests sufficiently?

The Caledonian Railway built its line from Carlisle to Beattock in 1847, and the line was extended to Glasgow and to Edinburgh in 1848, both routes going via Carstairs. The lines eventually competed with the Waverley route from Carlisle to Edinburgh via Hawick and the Scottish Borders region, and with the North British line from London to Edinburgh via Newcastle. The Glasgow and South West Railway (GSWR) also provided a service from Carlisle to Glasgow via Stranraer. So there were four lines northbound from England to Glasgow and/or Edinburgh.

An independent branch, the Moffat Railway, just over one and a half miles long, ran between Beattock and Moffat. It was opened on 2 April 1883 and was taken over by the Caledonian Railway, by Act of Parliament, in 1889.

The Railway Act 1921 caused the Caledonian to be absorbed into the London, Midland Scottish (LMS) railway, in an exercise known as Grouping. The LMS ran trains direct from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as throughout other parts of its extensive network. The backbone of the LMS was the West Coast Mainline (WCML) via Beattock.

From its inception, bankers were used to assist most engines and their trains up the gradient.

The gradient from Beattock Station to Beattock Summit, running ten miles, averages between 1 in 69 and 1 in 88. Bankers were initially Caledonian Railways (CR) class 439 0-4-4 engines, then CR Pickersgill class 944 4-6-2 tanks, being replaced over time with LMS 2-6-4 Fairbairn tanks (and ultimately with Class 20 diesels). But engines were often borrowed from other depots, to help out in busy periods or perhaps to rotate engines through onerous banking duties.

The Moffat branch served vistors to the local spa, a popular destination that needed a service of twelve to fifteen small trains per day. These comprised a Drummond 0-4-4T CR class 194 with three carriages. By the 1930s this was replaced by the so-called 'Moffat Bus' or 'Puffer', a steam railcar.

With the demise of steam, banking became less common and was eliminated completely by 1974 with the completion of electrification of the WCML and the introduction of the electric expresses.

Beattock depot closed in 1967 and the station closed in 1972 . At the Summit the sentinel signal box has been demolished and the trackplan simplified. But there are still passing loops and cripple sidings to remind us of the steep gradients and times gone by.

Sources:

http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com/media/adobepdf/6%20ShapBeattock%20D.pdf
http://www.dalbeattie.com/moffat/history/industr.html
http://www.railscot.co.uk/Caledonian_Railway
http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r001.html
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/maps/I242.IMAGEMAP?369,61
http://130.209.236.149/ewan/chronology/dates.asp
http://www.railscot.co.uk/Moffat_Railway/body.htm

A bit of background

When I was at university I’d take the train from Edinburgh to Exeter, a trip of around 400 miles. Most of the journey was dull, and I’d sleep or read. But there was a part of the journey where the line runs alongside the A74 trunk road through the borers of Scotland. In this stretch of line there are the most wonderful hills and valleys, that mark a physical border between the hilly north and the flat south (excuse prejudices here!).

It turns out that this area is the location of Beattock Summit, the highest point on the West Coast Mainline (WCML). The gradient to the top of Beattock Summit reaches 1 in 74, not much by today’s standards, but in the early days of steam most locos struggled to get up. Banker engines were used to push trains up the hill. These bankers were based at Beattock, a village south of the Summit. Beattock Station became an important point on the WCML.

Now, I’m what I call a frustrated modeller. I never had a layout, due to time, cost and space. But things have changed. I now have a small amount of each. Enough to make a serious start.

I don’t know why, but it was always N gauge for me. Perhaps I was captivated by the tiny details and motion. Who knows what sparks the grey matter…

I’m also an LMS man. Easy provenance this – the Scottish connection.

So, an N gauge model of Beattock (station and (maybe one day) the Summit) in LMS days is what this blog is all about. I’m starting from scratch, in terms of the layout construction, and from a modelling experience point of view.

I’ll be charting the progress of Beattock, from design to construction. I know very little about modelling so the learning curve will be steep. I guess I’ll need some bankers on the way…

Why DCC?

I've given this issue some thought, but ultimately it comes down tho two things:

1 - I'm building this layout in 2009 and to me it makes sense to use the latest technology. There's no cost barrier for me in terms of pre-existing stock, and I haven't accumulated that much, and I'll convert locos as I go. Most new products come DCC-ready or have well-documented conversion approaches.

2 - Operationally, Beattock was all about bankers. I need a way of controlling two locos at once and while this could be done in DC it's not simple or reliable. In DCC it should just be a case of creating a 'consist' ( which can be preset or done as needed) and then the two locos will operate together. I guess there may be some issues of speed differences, but I'll cross those as and when. DCC also makes double heading easy, and there was a lot of that going on a Beattock too.

Beginning research on Beattock

I’ve accumulated some sources of information on Beattock. I’ve been surprised by the lack of info, given that Beattock was a major element of the WCML until its closure. My usual first source of information, Wikipedia, is surprisingly weak on the subject, though there’s useful background on the WCML and the Caledonian Railway. (One day I might update the entry myself.)

The most useful sources found so far are:

1. Magazines
Modellers Backtrack, June-July 1993. This has a full track plan of Beatock station, plus photos and drawings of some of the key buildings (station building, station master’s house, etc).

Backtrack November-December. This has a fab article charting a single day’s traffic over the Summit. Though the day was in the 1960s it gives a great insight into typical operations on a busy day. Plenty of operational scope, then.

Railway World May 1974 charts the introduction of electric expresses and demise of the bankers at Beattock. With 5,100bhp available these engines could cruise up the bank at 90mph, a considerable improvement in performance from the slow experienced by both steam and diesel engines.

2. Maps.
There are some important sources of information, the best ones are:

Oldmaps.co.uk

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/

I visited The British Library, which has old maps in large scales that clearly show the track plans. But it takes ages to retrieve them from the basement, and I timed out, so a return vsit will be necessary.

3. Photos.

The best online source I’ve found is www.phantasrail.co.uk/arcphotos. These are pictures of locos on the Summit taken in 1966, again later than my planned timeframe (BR rather than LMS), but I’m able to deduce much of the Summit track plan from these. They show the pronounced curve of the track plan, something to capture in the model.

There are some good pics of the station as it is now at http://www.railbrit.co.uk/location.php?photographer=John_Furnevel&loc=Beattock – a site hosted by John Furnevel (thanks, John).

Also try http://www.railscot.co.uk/Caledonian_Railway

Other sources include eBay, where occasionally people are selling photos and postcards, and other random web sites. Believe me, I’ve searched them all. I believe there are commercial sources for photos, but I’m reluctant to spend cash on something I haven’t seen.

On http://www.mulehouse.demon.co.uk/stations/ there is an index of photographs for all British and Irish stations. This is really useful, and provides more than a dozen references of books and magazines with photos of Beattock station. No references to the Summit, though…