A Quick Peek At Our New Peak!

The latest addition to our fleet of locos is a Bachmann Class 45 - 45053. She arrived last week and had her first test run at the weekend. 

She goes very well too and sounds great with Bachmann's own factory-fitted sound installed. So, doubtless she will be featuring quite regularly in some of our forthcoming videos.

Operating Tipper and Conveyor Converted to DCC

This week we continued landscaping the cutting and tunnel area and, also, converted the Operating Tipper and Conveyor to DCC operation. 

To do this we followed Hornby's instructions and connected each accessory to its own loco decoder (R8249), as shown in the diagrams above and in accordance with Hornby's instructions. 

These instructions are the same for both the Tipper and the Conveyor and I have gone into slightly greater detail as to what we did when we converted them on the Lakeland Railway web site. Please click here if you would like to visit the relevant page on our website and see what we did.

After programming both the Tipper and Conveyor we tested them and, hooray, they both worked!!!! 

So, I hope to include a video of them in operation in the next couple of weeks.

Below is a photograph of our Class 24 collecting the empty wagon from the tipper.

Latest Update

This week we progressed with work on the Tipper spur and the newly extended tunnel over the main line. Using a combination of polystyrene, screwed up bits of newspaper and Peco landform we made the tunnel a bit higher and gave it a more rocky look so that it nicely links between the Tipper embankment and the rock face looming above the branch line below. We now just need to add some vegetation so that it does not look quite so bare. 

Behind the Tipper and Conveyor we also placed some polystyrene ceiling tiles, suitably treated with polyfilla, paint and scatter so that they, more or less, match the embankment behind the spur. Had we thought ahead when we installed these items, many moons ago now, we maybe should have placed them a little further away from the wall but space was limited here and we had no idea, at the time, that the layout would grow to the extent that it has. Anyway, no matter; the tiles fit behind quite nicely and we now just need to fill in the joins - currently still white.

After we finished this work we ran our Class 25 up the spur, pushing the Adler and Allen tipper wagon to test the line. It looked and sounded great too!

Next week I hope to connect both the Tipper and Conveyor to two decoders so that we can get them working. They were working briefly in our analogue days, and before we built the London extension, but, since going digital, they have lain idle. 

When they are working I will post a video of the Class 17 pushing the tipper wagon up the spur so that it can all be seen fully operational for the first time.

Toy and Train Collectors Fair

Don't miss the Toy and Train Collector's Fair at the Bath and West Showground this Sunday, 7 February - 10:30 - 15:30. 

Telephone number: 01373-45285.

Replica Railways

I am currently selling on eBay this Replica Railways 3-Plank wagon that I acquired recently. I must confess that I know nothing about this company as I have never seen any of their items before. 

It is a lovely wagon and in great condition so I would say that it has hardly been used. It has Bachmann stamped on the bottom so I am wondering if Replica Railways was a branch of Bachmann? 

Any information would be greatly received.

County Durham Railway Celebration

As reported by The Northern Echo, this weekend saw the launch of County Durham's month long celebration of its railway heritage.

The full story is here or you can contact 0191-386-4003 for more information.

Weekly Progress - 30 January

This week we continued working on the cutting for the line up to the Tipper / Conveyor at the back of the town. We also extended the short tunnel a little bit (seen in white to the right) and, now, I think it looks a lot better - or at least it will do when it is finished. The cutting now sets the town off rather nicely, now even though said town is still at the planning stage!

We also, briefly, tested the Class 17 and she goes very well.  Much to my relief - and contrary to what I believed in my last entry - I did not have to take her apart to fit the headcodes. All one has to do is carefully ease out the little plastic windows with a very sharp knife, insert the headcode you want and then push the plastic window back in.

Simple!

The only gripe I do have with her is the fact that the headlight is very bright and only effectively illuminates the two centre numbers of the headcode. Not sure what we can do about this except to mask the light a bit to try and dim it!

Hopefully, soon, I will be able to upload a video of the Clayton working. Its duties will be to work between the coal yard and the tipper and, also, make occasional forays over to the goods yard.