Peckforton Light Railway: Progress Report 101

The only development with rolling stock since the last progress report has been the introduction of containerisation to the PLR - in the form of a couple of LMS A-Type containers to ease the transshipment of fruit from the PLR to the mainline. With regard to permanent way, a fair amount of effort has been expended in finishing off and ballasting the trackwork at Beeston Market and the Copper Mine. I also took the opportunity to sort out a couple of issues with the trackwork at Bickerton and relay the ballast across the whole station. In addition, I have been exploring the feasibility of producing 3D printed trackwork and points levers. And, at last, the signals which I constructed originally over ten years ago now have sockets to allow them to be deployed across the whole system.

An indirect influence on rolling stock was inspired by another visit from Zach Bond who, in response to a video I produced on battery power, was determined to show that I could operate some aspects of my railway using live steam.

A couple of A Type containers have joined the goods fleet as an experiment to evaluate the feasibility of containerisation for the transshipment of goods.

Finally, I have managed to squeeze in a couple of operating sessions.

In addition, although it is not directly related to the PLR, I took the opportunity to visit my fellow garden railway modelling mate, Greg, in Australia and was able to take one of my PLR locos to run on his and his friends' garden railways. Whilst in that part of the world, I was also able to travel on a few Australian and later New Zealand and Vietnamese railways.

Permanent Way

Ballasting at Beeston Market

In the previous Progress Report, I described how the baseboards at Beeston Market and the Copper Mine had been replaced owing to rot being found in the original timbers. After ensuring that the revised track layouts were workable, I got around to ballasting all the newly relaid track.

I tried a slightly different approach to ballasting the station and yard areas, based on the methods I have developed over the years.

Firstly, a strong mix of horticultural potting grit, sharp sand and cement (1:1:1) was applied dry - an old 1.5" paintbrush being used to push the dry mix into place.

This was then fixed in place with a fine spray of water from a misting hose attachment. After a couple of days, the surfaces in the yard areas were top-dressed with a mix of soil and sharp sand, fixed into place with diluted SBR (1:1).

Finally, the yard areas were toned down with a watery mix of cement dyes (brown and black)

As previously, the base of the platform was made from a pressure treated fence rail. The sides were covered in scribed and painted PVC foamboard and the surface covered with roofing felt (tar paper) - See How I constructed the platform at Beeston Market

Ballasting at Bickerton

Regular viewers of my videos may have noticed some unevenness in the trackwork on the throat of Bickerton station. Over the years, the track leading to the station has "settled" by a few mm whereas the track in the station itself has remained fairly stable, mainly due to it being mounted on concrete slabs resting on brick pillars.

After lifting the track, I realised it was going to be easier to shave those few mm off the concrete slabs rather than trying to raise the trackwork leading up to the platforms. The slabs were somewhat resistant to being shaved, but half a day's work with an angle grinder (and three grinding wheels) plus considerable effort with a lump hammer and cold chisel.

Once the slabs had been contoured, it was a case of relating the track and then ballasting, using the same methods outlined above.

[Awaiting photo]

Signal bases

Over the past couple of progress reports, you will have seen that I finally found a way of remotely controlling my 20 semaphore signals, so each was self-contained with its own li-ion cell, Arduino microprocessor and linear servo.

All that was needed to allow them to be deployed around the railway was a series of sockets into which the signal bases could be slotted. They were made simply by gluing together four pieces of 5mm PVC foamboard. The bases were left open to allow water to freely drain away.

Once painted black (with an aerosol rattle can), some were screwed into place on the wooden raised sections ....

... while the others were concreted in.

Once more, the cold chisel was needed where sockets needed to be installed in the breeze block concrete track foundations.

When not in use, each socket is covered with a 3D printed removable lid, to prevent debris from filling the socket (though it doesn't discourage slugs and woodlice).

[Awaiting photo]

I'm pleased to say, that it now only takes about ten minutes for all the signals to be set out and another ten minutes to retrieve them.

Point rodding at Beeston Market

Over the years, I have used various methods for operating points remotely - Deltang receivers with Picaxe microprocessors to switch LGB point motors, using servos, bicycle brake cables and two different ways of using simple point rodding.

When I relaid the track at Beeston Market, I decided to try a third method - wire-in-tube point rodding.

Time will tell how effective this approach will be in the long-term, but for now I have found to it be a lot more reliable than some of my previous attempts.

3D printed track

I am toying with the idea of creating a portable indoor layout which I can use during the winter and maybe even take to exhibitions. After experimenting with various track layouts .....

..... I also wondered about the efficacy of using 3D printed track. The files for pointwork, and straight and curved track sections were downloaded from Thingiverse.com. These have been printed out, and I will carry out further experiments to decide whether (or not) the track would be viable.

Rolling stock

Live steam

As mentioned above, my long-term friend and fellow modeller, Zach Bond, made a second visit to the PLR, this time to explore the feasibility of managing the daily pickup goods train with live steam.

Zach is undoubtedly the most well-informed and experienced person I know with all matters relating to live steam - in both model and full-scale forms.

I must say, that I was impressed with the capabilities of the live steam loco he used - particularly as it was not equipped with a Slomo device and yet it performed all the required shunting operations and inter-station duties with ease (except when I took over the controls).

Containerisation

I have probably reached the stage in the development of the PLR where I no longer need any more rolling stock - in fact, I probably need to thin out some of my accumulated passenger and goods stock to both rationalise what is needed and also to make better use of my storage facilities.

However, when planning one of my videos, I decided that transportation of the soft fruit harvest from Bulkeley could benefit from some form of containerisation. After a quick bit of online research, I discovered that the LMS actually introduced A and B Type containers in the early 1930s - which fits in very well with my imagined history of the PLR.

And so, using Tinkercad, I produced two versions of the early LMS A Type containers.......

....... and used them in the video.

Ongoing maintenance

Of course, no railway, whether model or full size, can operate without a regime of ongoing maintenance. I have a shelf in the workshop which I refer to as "The Casualty Bay", where poorly locos and other stock sit awaiting their turn for remedial attention. At the time of writing, two locos are receiving intensive care; ex GVT loco #24, Cholmondeley is having additional weight added after struggling with adhesion when on a modest train up Gallantry Bank.

[Awaiting photo]

And loco #2, Beeston, is having its wiring checked after throwing a repeated continuity error when being charged.

[Awaiting photo]

Since the previous update, various wagons and coaches have passed through the workshop having minor adjustments to their running gear or having buffers or couplings replaced or tweaked.

Running sessions

In addition to the two videos shown above, since my last Progress Report I have made six videos:

Decisions, Decisions! Outlining how many decisions I make during a typical running session

Freight Handling with a free phone-app - showing how I make use of a free phone-app to help generate weighted randomised freight movements during a running session

All in a Day - An overview of all the trains which run during a running session which depicts a typical day on the PLR - also includes a couple of unexpected / special trains.

The Midday Passenger - follows the midday passenger train as it proceeds Down and then back up the line as the 1:00pm Up passenger

Battery Power and Radio Control - my views based on twelve years of running my railway with battery power

Breakdown - What happens when the morning mixed loco breaks down

James on Tour

Eleven years ago, my Australian friend, Greg, and his wife, Pauline, visited Peckforton Light Railway. I vowed that one day I would visit Greg but, for various reasons, I was unable to fulfil this ambition.

This year, that has changed. I spent three weeks in Sydney and Melbourne, taking the opportunity to run one of my locos, #25 James, on Greg's, and two of his friends', railways.