Out and About

Here are some photos taken during our latest running session, showing Classes 15, 20 and 24 at various locations on the railway.

We begin with our Class 15 (D8239), which is seen passing Arthur's Folly at the head of a short train of GUVs. We love this little loco and she can be seen on various duties, both goods and passenger, as well as on the occasional shunting jobs. A very reliable and capable performer, unlike her larger sisters, apparently!

Next, in numerical order, we see our green liveried Class 20 (D8158) with a single parcels van calling at the latest and smallest station on the railway. This little halt is located on the branch line to High Bridge and Anchwood and serves Folly View Farm. The farm is so named because its elevated position affords it a great view of Arthur's Folly.

The Class 20 is another excellent performer and, like the 15, is regularly called upon for both goods and passenger trains.

Finally our Class 24 (24081) is seen calling at Carswater with a local train - and holding up traffic on the adjacent level crossing in the process! This is a Suttons Loco Works model and she is quite stunning. She also has amazing sound and is a joy to drive. Yes, she is a firm favourite and is often seen on many mixed traffic duties.

Mail Order

This week I thought I would feature the coaching stock that we use on our Royal Mail parcels and letters services.

Currently we have six vehicles with no plans, for the moment at least, to increase this number.

GUV Bogie Parcels Van (BG) 

This Parcels Van is by Lima and is Catalogue Nº 305613.
Its Running Nº is 93395NIX and I believe this dates from 1982.

BR Mk1 Super BG Full Brake RES

This full brake is by Bachmann and its Catalogue Nº is 39-200C.
It has been factory weathered and its Running Nº is 94465.

BR Mk1 Full Brake (NEA) Royal Mail (2003)

This vehicle is also by Bachmann and its Catalogue Nº is 39-184.
Its Running Nº is 92131 NEA and it dates from 2003.

 Royal Mail TPO Sorting Van

This coach is another one by Bachmann and its Catalogue Nº is 39-420W.
It was actually produced for ModelZone in, I believe, 2010 and is a limited edition although I am not sure how many were produced.
Its Running Nº is W80300.

BR Mk1 GUV Bogie Parcel Van

This parcel van is by Lima and is very similar to the Bachmann version, above. 
Its Running Nº is 93395 NIX, its Catalogue Nº is 305613 and it dates from 1991.

Royal Mail Ancillary Coach

Finally, we have this Ancillary Coach by Hornby and its Catalogue Nº is R592.
Our model has a black roof whereas it would have originally had a red roof. This modification was, therefore, done after purchase, although not by us. However, I have to say, I do prefer a black roof although, to fit in with the rest of the coaches, I suppose it would be better a dark grey.
Its Running Nº is 80868 and it dates from around 1992.

A Tipper Trip

Having featured the new, BR blue liveried, Class 17 recently, I thought we would show the Ribble Cement liveried Class 17 that we have had for some time now and which is a regular performer on the railway.

She was, originally, only meant to be used in and around the small Coal Depot, with occasional trips up the short spur to the Operating Tipper and Conveyor Belt for a bit of light relief.

However, she is such a great little performer, unlike her bigger sisters, that she is used quite often on both freight and light passenger services.

Anyway, I thought I would show her, here, performing her primary duty in a series of photos as she propels the Adler and Allan tipper wagon up the inclined branch line to the Hornby Tipper and Conveyor belt.

In this first photo we see D8568 at the start of the short spur, heading up to the tipper. 

She is propelling the Hornby Adler and Allan end-tipper wagon that is full of coal, which is always fake for use with the tipper / conveyor.

The Clayton is seen in the distance as she travels up the spur, which gently rises above Petersfield Junction on the main line.

She is almost at the summit of the line, now, as it levels out just before reaching the Tipper.

An uncoupling ramp releases the wagon from the loco, which then rolls gently on to the tipper platform.

Once the wagon is safely aboard it is slowly lifted up, the end door is released, and the coal is tipped into a hopper at the bottom of the conveyor belt. This then lifts the coal up and into a waiting wagon, which can just be seen at the far right of the photograph above.

So, okay, this is probably not for the serious railway modeller but it is great fun to operate, especially since I converted both items to DCC.

They also tie-in nicely with the coal depot, a part of which is seen below the tipper/conveyor.

Storage Wars

In a previous blog posting I demonstrated how we solved the problem of storing our many items of coaches and wagons, using sets of Stationery Drawers that we obtained from Lidl for the princely sum of £11.00 each, see below:

Each of the drawers holds four coaches, length-ways and lying on their sides, and so we divided each drawer into four compartments using 5 mm thick foam board and, then, lined the bottom of each compartment with thick kitchen paper.

This has worked well but the kitchen paper is prone to sliding to the back each time the drawer is taken out and a coach removed or replaced.

So, this year, we have embarked on a programme of improvement using strips of self-adhesive rubber cut from a roll I purchased on Amazon, which is 50 mm wide by 2 mm thick.

Being self-adhesive the rubber obviously does not slide about and, being rubber, it stops the coaches from sliding about too.

We also added pieces of thicker foam at the end of each compartment, using double-sided adhesive tape to hold it in place.

This protects the couplings from being damaged in the unlikely event that the coaches do slide around and they also help to hold the foam board dividers in place.

We managed to complete the first set of drawers on Saturday but have seven more similar sets of drawers to do for our coaches and, then, we have to do the same again, or similar, for the eight boxes of goods wagons!

Our first finished set of drawers, complete with updated labelling.

And with the coaches all safely tucked-up inside!

Military Manoeuvres ... and More

For this week's blog posting I thought I would highlight a short goods train, which is also another recent addition to our fleet of locos and rolling stock.

This train began its life when I acquired the loco and wagons of the Bachmann Military Manouvres Train Set, Catalogue Nº 30-130. 

All of the items were unboxed and, whereas in the set there is the Class 03 Shunter, plus one each of a TTA Water Tank Wagon, a 5-plank Open Wagon and a Brake Van, I managed to pick up two each of the TTA and the Open Wagon.

Class 03 Shunter 'Western Waggoner' - Nº: MoD 2144

5-plank Open Wagon - Nº: MoD 4726

TTA Water Tank Wagon - Nº: MoD 4810

20 Ton Brake Van -Nº: WGM 4803

Since acquiring this set I have added two more Bachmann wagons to increase its length to seven wagons and I will probably add some more in time.

29 Ton VDA Sliding Door Box Van - Nº: WGB 4311

12 Ton Ventilated Van - Nº: ARMY 475555

The VDA is interesting in that it is, what Bachmann call, an Area Sales Representatives Exclusive Model. This means that it is a model that has been commissioned by one of Bachmann's Area Sales Representatives and produced exclusively for them and only available from Bachmann stockists within their geographical area. 

Exactly how many were commissioned is not known but it is a handsome van and an ideal addition to the Military Manoeuvres set. Its Catalogue Nº is 38-140IG. 

The ventilated van, meanwhile, is 37-806 and is widely available at the moment and I will probably add another one or two of these to the rake.

The loco has not been sound fitted, as yet, but definitely will be in due course. 

Obviously this is not a set that will see a lot of use on the railway but it is an interesting one and the loco is particularly handsome which will, no doubt, ensure that it does pop up from time to time.

Three Cheers

Yes, three cheers indeed because this is the first posting that I have made in quite some time now but I fully intend posting more during the coming year!

Three cheers, too, for the trio of new locomotives that have recently been added to our growing fleet.

The three are as follows:

HELJAN CLASS 17 Nº D8529 - CATALOGUE Nº: 17021

We do, of course, already have D8568 'Ribble Cement' and have had her for some time now. It was, also, always my intention to have just this one Class 17 since the prototypes were such a disaster. 

However, the loco does look quite splendid in the BR Blue livery so that, when I saw this one for sale, second-hand, at a recent model railway exhibition, I just could not resist her.

As with the other three new locos, she needs to be fitted with a sound decoder and we will doubtless get her weathered, in time, but if she performs as well as D8568 she will probably become a firm favourite on the layout, on both goods trains and on light passenger duties.

The loco is seen here with a Queen Mary Brake Van in tow, which we also acquired at the same exhibition. This one is by Bachmann, Catalogue Nº: 33-827C, and with the Running Nº: 54292.

HELJAN CLASS 52 Nº D1067 'WESTERN DRUID' - CATALOGUE Nº: 5202

We also picked this locomotive up, second-hand, at a different model railway exhibition and is a class of locomotive that we had always intended to add to our fleet. 

I am very much anti Western Region due to the manner in which they treated my beloved Somerset & Dorset Railway - Sabotaged and Defeated most definitely.

However, I do love the fleet of diesel hydraulic locomotives and already have Classes 22, 35 and 42 doing sterling service on the layout. So it made sense to add a Western. 

They are certainly iconic locos and our model will, of course be fitted with a sound decoder and weathered in due course. Then she will be put to use hauling a variety of services, from express passenger trains to heavy duty goods.

 BACHMANN CLASS 44 Nº D1 'SCAFELL PIKE' - CATALOGUE Nº: 32-650

Last, but certainly not least, in our newly-acquired threesome is this Bachmann Class 44. We already have 45053, in BR Blue, but it is nice to have a Class 44 as well, especially 'Scafell Pike'. I don't think Bachmann have ever produced this loco in blue but that is not a problem since we have quite a few diesels in BR green, which does make a nice change. This loco will probably be used mostly on goods trains but might be seen hauling the occasional passenger service.

She is seen in this photo at the head of a rake of Bachmann TTA Tank Wagons, which are another fairly recent acquisition. All of these have been nicely weathered, too, and look great when coupled to the Peak.