So that’s Royston Vasey

Here are a couple more pictures of Royston Vasey, my entry into Workington MRC’s five square feet challenge, which I will be exhibiting at Workington this weekend. Many thanks to Stephen Pauling of the Cumbrian Region Area Group of the Scalefour Society for painting the signals and level crossing gates. And yes, the bases of the signals will be hidden by the weekend!

Canal View

Dusk

Just like the real thing

On a Saturday in October the CRAGgies (members of the Scalefour Society Cumbrian Region Area Group) operated Preston station for three hours. By the end of the shift, even though trains were running half an hour late there were no complaints from passengers, for this was Mike Norris’ accurate scale model of Preston, 1:76 full size, built to P4 standards; a remarkable and, to me at least, daunting achievement. Filling a large room, the statistics tell their own story: six running lines, nine platforms and five signal boxes: one with 162 levers, all fully interlocked, including the facing point locks, using DCC logic. As novices it was no surprise that we were so much slower than the real signalmen, who would have been able to pull the right levers without thinking and set up several non-conflicting moves simultaneously. In contrast we had to scrutinise the track diagrams to identify the levers for every move and had to do things step by step, one train at a time.

But in one respect, at least, we did find the virtual world of the railway modeller coinciding uncannily with that of the real operators: the antipathy between drivers and signalmen, who seemed always to delay their trains by failing to set their routes in time, was tetchily replicated, as drivers complained repeatedly that their trains had been forgotten and were sitting too long at a red signal. Only rarely were the signallers able to counter by surreptitiously setting up a route when the drivers were not looking, then gloating at their embarrassment.We left considering whether this might be the most remarkable P4 layout in the country. It is an immense achievement, largely the work of one man who keeps his light hidden under a bushel, a classic example of ’show don’t tell’: Mike’s works speak for themselves, and he never courts  publicity. He has concentrated on getting the layout working before turning his mind to the scenery, and it performed just about perfectly on our visit: the only two derailments were due to signalmen’s errors. For the moment the wonderful array of ex-LNWR lower quadrant signals for which Preston was famed have been represented by colour lights – much quicker to set up – but Mike’s plan is eventually to replace them with proper mechanical signalling. Similarly, the station buildings are currently card mock ups but there’s no doubt Mike’s insistence on the highest standards will be reflected in the appearance of the layout when the buildings and signals are replaced. Again, for speed, trains are currently re-wheeled RTR electrics and diesels. Many do not even have any compensation, the wheels simply being fitted into the existing bogies, but they run – beautifully. Eventually all this will be replaced by 1930s steam, the LMS at its very best before the depradations of WW2.

The session was followed by a pie and pea supper in good northern fashion, and I left not just marvelling at what Mike has achieved but greatly encouraged to continue with my own plans in P4 – large P4 layouts can be made to work well – and determined to improve my wiring. Mike’s wiring is immaculate and looks like the inside of a 1970s main frame computer – not surprising since he has just retired from a senior post with Hewlett Packard – not the snakes’ honeymoon that graces my own, less ambitious, layout. The photographs below, by my cousin Stuart de Boer, give some idea of Mike’s work. No way will I let him photograph my wiring for comparison!

No 1 box

Northern approaches

Fiddle yard

Bob and Ian deliberating the next move

Just part of a lever frame

A temporary gantry

Primitive signalling is sometimes required

No 1 box – 162 levers

Ah, that’s P4!

 

Deadlines

What would we do without them? No layout of mine would be completed without the deadline of an exhibition and the Workington exhibition on November 21 is coming up quickly – just 25 days away. So, I’m busy working on my latest, smallest layout, Royston Vasey, which is a response to the Workington Club’s challenge to build a layout with a footprint of just five square feet.

As followers of “The League of Gentlemen” will know, Royston Vasey is a small village somewhere in the remote Pennines, notorious for its unfortunate attitude to non-locals. I find it ironic that I should be writing this after the noxious Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time but the writers of the TV series were lampooning our tendency to demonize or dislike people “not like us”, not endorse it.

Anyway, I’ve made my bed and for better or worse, my Royston Vasey will have local trains only…

It is depicted on a cold January morning in 1959 and the railway is struggling to provide a service after the overnight snowfall.

The “history” of the line is that it started as a mineral tramway to a canal basin. A mainline railway was built by the LNWR to replace the canal, which has fallen into decay but the tramway still exists, with a connection to the main line, which gives me an excuse to use the smallest locos in my stud, the Pug, Y7 or Sentinel, to shunt wagons left by the pick up goods.  It also gives me an excuse eventually to build a nice little industrial tank engine from a High Level kit and to use the Genesis kit to convert a 4F into Rowsley’s snow plough.

Any resemblance to the Parsley Hay area is not an accident.

The main layout is on two 2′ X 1′ boards, which sit on a table top. I will transport them by clipping them and the stock box together to form a sort of case, making something neat and small which can be carried to exhibitions on public transport. This is important because for the moment a medical condition prevents me driving. At one end, cassettes resting on a table top perform the fiddle yard function. At the other a swinging sector plate transfers trains from the visible line at the front of the layout to the return line which is hidden at a lower level underneath the scenery, and which takes trains back to the fiddle yard thus:

AJ couplings and carefully located electromagnets will allow hands-free shunting, so the railway can be operated from one end by one operator.

“Simples”!

As I was saying before…

Well, what a summer it’s been! Betsy has recorded the changes in our lives which were enabled by the development of the chapel but from my point of view the major benefit has been the creation of a fine model railway room, 10′6″ X 22′, plus a small workshop area. Taking advantage particularly of the advice of Bob Ellis, who has recently gone through the same process, it is comfortable, easy to keep clean and well serviced with lighting, power and Radio 3.

I also bought Belle View, Newport MRS’s GWR layout, which just happened to have the same track plan as I was proposing for Bradford North Western. This is now set up and working well, and will cut the time needed for the realisation of my dream of having a large ex LNWR system by years. OK, so some say I am cheating by using other people’s work but I wonder what my effective working life expectancy is? 15 years? A no-brainer for me!

Monday Club

Really it was a spin off from CAG, CFM, CRAG or whatever we call ourselves today. Phil and Sheila Tuer and David Beale, who could not make the previous meeting, came across for an afternoon to discuss our latest projects  and help me work on Clecklewyke.

Phil, Sheila and David and the "kit of parts" for Clecklewyke. All this fits into an estate car or Kangoo van.

David brought two excellent partly-completed P4 wagons, an MR cattle wagon and MR brake van. They had Exactocale and Bill Bedford running gear and were lovely examples of the kit-bulder’s art. Having already seen David’s model of an MR station building, we really look forward to seeing the development of his layout, which will be based on the Worth Valley branch.

Phil brought two remarkably nice resin kits by Dean Sidings for Furness Railways 0-6-2ts. Although intended as a step up from RTR, and firmly designed around suitable proprietary chassis, in this case Hornby’s 0-6-0, they have real potential. There is a big hole in the bottom of the boiler but the kits look accurate, are cleanly cast, and come with a nice set of white metal and brass fittings. So I think they could equally be a good starting point for a finescale model. They are a far cry from the crude resin casting for an LMS 4F, which I finally threw out last year.

I also shamelessly recruited them to help me set up Clecklewyke for some photographs for a book on small layout design. Including all the time taken for photography, the whole process took less than 20 minutes. Below is a set of photos of the erection sequence.

First step

Fiddle yard support attached

Stock box lid opens to become fiddle yard base

Block bells and skirt complete the job

Ready for an exhibition

At home both operators operate from the front but either fiddle yard can be reversed to allow shy operators to hide from the public at exhibitions. Phil is not shy!

Lane End Chapel

Kevin Benstead comments on Lane End Chapel, which features in JB Priestley’s play, “When we are married”, which his Am Dram company is performing in Windlesham, Surrey on 14th to 16th May. This play is located in the fictional Clecklewyke , so here is a picture of it in the “real” Clecklewyke. (I think I need a psychologist to work out my logic there?) Next door, Nora Batty is scrubbing her steps.

On the other side is Jack Priestley’s workshop where he trades as a joiner and  undertaker, “Funerals Completely Furnished”. This is based on a sign that once graced  Halifax Notth Bridge.

I must repair the roofs of the cottages, which are showing sign of age!

Creative Chaos

No, not another article about Darwin’s ideas, but a concept which I thought was important for the success of my modelling. This depends on the equal reality of the complementary concept of serendipity – the tendency of your current problem to be resolved by randomly finding just that widget you need somewhere, on that gloriously rich collection of objects which accumulate on your workbench. I have now changed my mind, as the two following pictures illustrate:

Before I saw the light

...and after

The “after” shot shows  the mechanism I am building to operate the turnouts and signals, which is based on Peter Denny’s ideas. Crossing polarity will be changed by contacts made of Gibsons straight hard brass wire sliding on a piece of waste copper-clad.

The “before” shot shows, well, you tell me!

The Craggies come

Well we were the Cumbrian Area Group then, because some of us are not members of the Scalefour Society, Phil (mine’s a pint) Tuer called us the CFM, which we think means Cumbrian Finescale Modellers. But he was not here yesterday so we trumped him with the “Cumbria Region Area Group”, after flirting briefly with “Cumbria Region Area People”. Since there were three of us (Stephen Pauling, Brian (Lakeland) Lewis and myself) we declared that we had a quorum and voted the change of our name. We have a fluid constitution (we also like a pint), an even more fluid membership and no discernable aims or programme, so that was o.k.

More importantly we  enjoyed an excellent lunch at the King’s Arms, which was Darrowby’s Drovers’ Arms in BBC’s “All Creatures Great and Small”. We then walked half a mile or so to admire the old NER Askrigg station, which is almost intact. To get close to it we walked along the old station approach road, which is now part of the garden of a house called Sidelines, whose lady owner appeared and asked “Can I help?”. Clearly she was not from Yorkshire or she would have said what she really meant, “Get off my bloody land”!

On return to my house we ran the first loco on Bottom Chapel, whose wiring Brian had jury-rigged earlier. There were many words of encouragement and offers to help so in a future meeting we will have a working party on it – I will have to think of some nice little jobs for the  boys. Covering it with snow might be a fun task?

Then Brian showed us more of his work on Templot by completing the design he had started for my planned model of Bradford North Western. This was very impressive and Brian tried very hard not to blind us with science but neither Stephen nor I really believe we could learn to do the same. How does Martin Wynne’s mind work? Not like mine, certainly, but Templot is a very impressive achievement and can be recommended to modellers with more flexible minds than ours.

Templot plan of Bradford NW By Brian Lewis

The meeting ended with agreement to meet again at Stephen’s house in Kirkby Stephen at 12 noon on Saturday May 2nd. Anyone within our widespread area is welcome. (Our core membership stretches from Carlisle in the North, Keswick in the West, Windermere in the South and Askrigg in the East but we have welcomed people from further afield on occasion.) Please bring along your latest project for us to admire – we are not the sort of purists who think that modelling is a competitive sport, although I did show off the cup I won at the Workington show for “Most unusual layout”, which had previously been won by a Lego train set…

The previous day I had spend a couple of hours taking photos of buildings and structures in the Hebden Bridge and Colne Valley areas which have given me lots of inspiration for models for the new “big yin” layout.

The Standedge tunnel mouth area was particularly inspiring, with lots of features which could be incorporated.

Lock and bridge at Marsden

Permanent Way Forward

It’s now beginning to look like a railway, with the two turnouts and some plain track laid. I first marked both on the track and the boards where the wire droppers should be fixed, soldered the wires to the track and drilled holes on the baseboard for them. Laying the track was then a quick matter of using the hot glue gun – I need not put in ballast nor worry about the glue being visible because it will all be covered with “snow”.

The turnouts are some of those which came gratis from Don Rowland when I bought the loco shed and coal hole from his previous Rhuddall Heath layout. The plain track is Exactoscale “Fast Track”. O.K., so it does not have visible keys but I confess that I cannot now tell Fast Track from the painstakingly made C&L track, made from individual chairs and sleepers which I used for some of Clecklewyke’s track.

I have already made a stock of under-baseboard tie bars, made from sections of Plastruct, as described by Dave Booth. I have also made a crude lever frame after the style of Peter Denny’s from lengths of 12mm sq wood section and 6mm plywood. This will have simple switches made of scrap copper-clad paxolin and brass wire sliding contacts. I am not yet sure how I will connect this to the turnouts and signals – probably simple mechanical linkages made from ply for the turnouts and fishing line and spring return for the signals, although I might end up using wire in tube for both.

The curved bits of track will use Exactocale’s widened Fast Track – a job for tomorrow because it is now tea time, after which will be choir practice.

A wee erection

Some real progress today on the 5′ project. In two or three hours I managed to fettle the various main components and glue them together to erect the main baseboard. I want the layout to sit on a desk and to have as small a volume as possible when folded up, to allow me to carry it on public transport to exhibitions. So there is little room for conventional framing below the surface, and a sort of space-frame design is employed, with stressed  pieces of 6mm ply pinned and glued together, with 2″X 1″ gluing blocks at strategic places. This requires the rear and side panels, which will support the back-scene, to provide strength  and rigidity. The photos below shows how this was done, with the various components jigged on a flat piece of thick plywood, held by blocks of scrap wood.Also providing strength are the longitudinal wall of the kick back line – the one with lightening holes – and the two tansverse members at the middle of the layout, which will eventually end up as the end members of the two halves of the layout – I will chop it into two after I have checked that everything fits together and is square.

The two transverse end members were first clamped together and two holes, 7.5mm diameter, were drilled for Red Dog baseboard connecters, which are a tight fit into the wood, aided by a bit of wood glue.