Plaster 'n' Ballast

Last weekend we continued to form the embankments and landscaping that is proving to be quite a feature of this part of the layout.

We began by creating the embankment along a part of the branch between the brick bridge and the new stationat Anchwood. We went as far as we could but, at the point where we stopped (in the top picture), we will need to continue with flat, vertical sides due to the proximity of the main line.

Other landscaping was done at the Davemoor end of the main line (see bottom picture) and, next weekend, all of this newly plastered landscaping will be ready to receive a coat of earth wash.

The rest of the time was spent ballasting .. and there is a lot of ballasting to be done .. as well as adding some stone walling along the branch and greenery around the tunnel mouth and alongside the mainline between the tunnel and girder bridge.

This is about as much landscaping as we are able to do, for the moment, since we do not want to block access to the stations on the branch line until we have installed all of the necessary wires for lighting.

Next job will be to start building the platforms for Davemoor and Anchwood - wish us luck!!

Outlines of Power - Nº 1: The Deltics

This 'Outlines of Power' article was the first in a series of centre-spread features by Mike Turner that the magazine 'Rail Enthusiast' ran during the early 1980s. 

It depicted some of BRs more interesting diesel and electric locomotives and began, naturally enough, with the Deltics.

The annotations in the picture may be too small to read here so I have reproduced them below:

"Deltic" Prototype built 1955 by English Electric. Powered by two Napier "Deltic" 18-cylinder, 1,650 bhp engines, total 3,300 bhp. Weight: 106 tons. Maximum tractive effort: 60,000lb. Notes: Now at the Science Museum, Kensington.
First Production "Deltic" in service, D9001 St Paddy. Power details as above, but weight 103 tons and maximum tractive effort  50,000ib. Built at Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows. Notes: One of the first two "Deltics" to be withdrawn, and now broken up.

The Hills Are a'White

With the embankment for the branch line pretty much complete now, we turned our attention last weekend to other parts of the landscape in this area. 

We had previously made up a backdrop for the main line, to fit between the tunnel and the landform in the corner of the pillar. This backdrop was made up of polystyrene tiles which had dampened, screwed-up, kitchen towels stuck to them whilst they lay flat on a work surface. On top of this we laid strips of land form and, finally, we painted this with a layer of polyfilla.

This was then left to dry for a week before landscaping material was applied and, finally, the whole ensemble was stuck to the wall with some tile adhesive.

This just left us with a small gap to fill, to complete the connection with the hill in the corner, which we did with more screwed up tissue paper and land form.

This can then be painted and landscaped next time.

Next we continued to landscape the area to the right of the girder bridge, leading into Lake End, and left this to dry so that it, too, can be painted and landscaped next time.

The white strip running alongside the main line is going to be a minor road and this has been formed using a mix of polystyrene tiles, stiff card and Smooth It. 

This should also be ready to paint next time so we should see quite a transformation after our next session in the Shed.

Snow Go!

Due to the adverse weather conditions this weekend no work was done of the layout. However, before the snow came, we had made some progresss on creating the embankment for the branch line as well as laying the platform surface of the newly located Lake End station.

You will see that this station has also acquired a small, single road, engine shed for storing the tank engine that will work the line. This shed was by Scenix (Catalogue EM6102) rather than by Hornby or Bachmann, and is ideal for what we wanted.

Hopefully the weather will have improved by next weekend and this will allow us to continue with the embankment. 

The next job will be to give it a coat of earth wash because, at the moment, it looks as if it has been affected by the recent snowfall!

Once the structure of the embankment is in place we will turn our attention to construction the platforms at both Davemoor and Anchwood. 

Anchwood marks the interchange between BR and the steam railway and will just be a single, curved platform while Davemoor is going to be quite extensive with lengthy and complex platform faces.

Hmm, should be fun!

Smart Grids

This is another photograph taken from an old copy of Rail Enthusiast dating from 1983.

The caption that accompanied this great picture was as follows:

Using their combined might of 6,500 bhp, the newly-named 56031 Merehead  and 56032 move a 3,300-tonne payload of stone out of Merehead Quarry during a one-off publicity run on Friday, September 16. The train is nearly half a mile long and, at 4,500 tonnes gross, will be the heaviest in Britain when it starts running regularly in the new year.

Photo: British Rail.

The first 30 examples of this class were built by Electroputere of Romania but, sadly, they proved to be unsuccessful due to poor construction standards and were soon withdrawn. 

The remaining 105 locomotives, of which 56031 and 56032 were the first two, were all built bebuilt by BREL at Doncaster (56031 to 56115) and Crewe (56116 to 56135).

They were nicknamed "Gridirons" or "Grids" due to the grid-like horn cover fitted to 56056 onwards.

These are Type 5 locomotives with a Ruston-Paxman 16RK3CT power unit developing 3,250 bhp.

The engine was a direct descendent of the English Electric CSVT with its closest relative being the 16CSVT as used in the Class 50. 

Technical advances incorporated into the engine included significantly uprated turbochargers, gear driven camshafts (in place of the timing chain as used on the Class 50s), and uprated cylinder heads, fuel pumps and injectors.

In service the Class 56 proved to be strong and capable, however, the class could not compete with the more modern Class 66s in terms of availability and maintenance costs. 

As imports of the Class 66 increased the EWS-operated Class 56s became obsolete and looked increasingly like locomotives from another era.

To me, though, these mighty machines will always look and sound like true freight locomotives.

The End Of The Lines

So into 2013 we go and, during the Christmas break, we managed to extend the track of the branch line over the two bridges and into the new Lake End.

We have also finished laying the trackwork on the site of the new Davemoor station, at the end of the main line from Sueston. All of this track has also been wired to the 'bus although we still have to test this, hopefully next weekend.

The top photograph gives a good view, beyond Davemoor, towards the northern end of the layout while the other two pictures show the layout of the track at Lake End and Davemoor, respectively.

The latter station will actually cover quite a large area and will include a small factory unit, seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the lower photo. This will, probably, be a paper factory which, as you can see, already has it's own platform from where it can send its wares by rail.

We have also made a start on the scenery around the two bridges but wanted to finish laying the track before we did any more landscaping.

If you look closely you will also see one of the two locations where the track will, eventually, cross the gap to a central section that will include another station and, possibly a ballast depot for our fleet of hopper wagons. 

However, work on this part will not commence until we have completed the rest of the layout since we need to use the table for working and storage.

Little and Large

Whilst sorting through some of my old slides at the weekend, I found a photo that I took on 17 October 1987 of Class 33, 33 112, formerly D6529.

This was taken during its naming ceremony at, appropriately enough, Templecombe and the reason that this particular loco was chosen to carry the name is because Templecombe is 112 miles from London.

The naming took place five years after the station reopened, following its closure in 1966 along with the Somerset and Dorset Railway. 

Sadly, the loco survived for just another year, being withdrawn in October 1988 after an accident at Salisbury.

The Heljan model, meanwhile, was introduced in 2007, twenty years after the naming ceremony and, having acquired one recently, I thought that it would be nice to show her together with her larger sister.