Progress Report 95

 A while back, I tried to post a new progress report once a month but sometimes, I was struggling to find things to write about. It's now over six months since my last progress report so about time I updated the handful of readers who keep pace with what's been happening on the Peckforton Light Railway.

Most of the developments relate to rolling stock - a new loco has joined the fleet and several new coaches and a handful of wagons have been produced. Permanent Way changes are mostly related to maintenance and repair and operations have been restricted by the weather. Whilst the rest of the country has been wondering when or if it will rain again, the North West of England has had what seems like endless weeks of sunshine and showers. Showers are not at all conducive to setting up running sessions!

Permanent Way

Ballasting 

After watching a couple of my videos, I noticed there were several places where track ballast was very thin or even non existent. Close-up videos generally reveal quite a few details which otherwise are missed! 

An afternoon was spent with what has now become my preferred method of ballasting - a 3:1 mix of horticultural grit and cement applied dry and then doused with water from a mist spray. 

In station areas and the copper mine, bald areas were patched with horticultural sharp sand applied dry and fixed in place with a 50:50 mix of SBR and water.

Track levelling

Another issue I identified from watching my videos was a quite alarming tilt to coaches waiting on the bay platform at Beeston Market station.

What was puzzling was that the track appeared to be level, but a small spirit level testified otherwise. By chiselling away at the concrete ballast in that area, I discovered that the board on which three quarters of that track was sitting had rotted away. A lesson learned! I had infilled some of the gaps between the treated fence rails forming the baseboard at Beeston Market with untreated planking rescued from a pallet. Clearly using untreated timber outside is a false economy!

A few wedges of tiles and slate have now corrected the slant. I still need to re-ballast the area and, at some point in the not too distant future, I will crawl under the baseboard and patch up the rotten gaps with sound treated timber. 

Rolling stock

In my previous Progress Report, I described how I had drawn and 3D printed Glyn Valley Tramway rolling stock in 7mm scale with the intention of constructing a small 0-16.5 layout in the workshop. However, after producing a loco, coaches, mineral wagons and a brake van, it dawned on me that this project was becoming a distraction from my main interest in running the PLR (hence the six month hiatus since my last progress report). Not wanting to waste the time and effort I'd put into producing the 7mm stock, I spent a couple of weeks rescaling the 3D drawings for 16mm and 15mm scales.

Glyn Valley Rolling Stock

7mm stock

The 7mm stock has now been completed and painted. However, as indicated above I have abandoned the idea of creating an 0-16.5 layout and so the stock will be sold off via eBay

15mm scale loco

As with the other GVT stock, the parts for the Glyn loco have been rescaled and printed out. The re-scaling required a certain amount of tinkering to ensure that the depth of the parts were not only realistic, but the various parts would actually fit together.

While the main body part for the loco printed well in 7mm scale, its vertical orientation together with the rivet detail caused quite a few problems on the 15mm scale version: most notably highly prominent striations on the sides. These required considerable additional work in filling, filing and sanding. Another less learned - where possible arrange parts with flat surfaces to be 3D printed horizontally!

However, I think the end-result was worth the effort.

A few issues have arisen with this loco. Firstly, the skirts foul the platforms at Peckforton which, as they are constructed from cast concrete, will need to be pared back with an angle grinder.

Secondly, the Bachmann motor block which provides the motive power for the loco is under-powered when compared with my other locos. Just like another Bachman motor block with which I have had issues, the worms appear to be over-sized and the worm wheels under-sized. The block was recycled from a Bachmann streetcar (tram) and so, to be fair, was not really expected to draw heavy loads.

I am in the process of designing and 3D printing a replacement motor block to my own design. Hopefully, I will have more news in time for the next Progress Report.

16mm/15mm scale coaches

I rescaled the 3D drawings for the coaches initially to 16mm scale and printed out three before my mate in Australia reminded me that I am currently trying to standardise my stock to 15mm scale (ie 3ft gauge on 45mm track).

These will be sold on via eBay which is why I've painted them in GVT livery rather than PLR Halfords Vauxhall Burgundy Red.

These coaches are steadily being replaced with 15mm versions - I'm becoming very adept at re-scaling 3D drawings!

15mm scale brake van

The brake van has been rescaled to 15mm, printed, constructed and painted in PLR livery (Halford's Grey Primer with black metalwork). It's more compact than the other brake vans on the line, but I think it will look good behind a train of skips or hopper wagons. It first outing on the railway features in the running session videos at the end of the update.

16mm scale mineral wagon

I'm trying to decide whether to leave the GVT mineral wagon as 16mm scale or to replace it with 15mm versions. It looks acceptable in 16mm scale beside my other open wagons. It might well be that I don't actually use these wagons on my railway. I already have a couple of rakes of LGB tipplers (see Modifying LGB tipplers) and a rake of Snailbeach  hoppers (see How I constructed a rake of Snailbeach hopper wagons), so I don't really need any more mineral wagons - though the thought of producing a swivelling wagon tipper/inverter for them is quite attractive.

Southwold Cleminson wagons

As mentioned in the previous Progress Report, I drew two variations on the basic Southwold Cleminson wagon which have now been constructed and finished. Here is the original wagon.

The first variant has extra strapping.....

.... and the other is lettered with MOY - the local Southwold and district coal merchant.

I'm trying to decided how many Cleminson wagons I want running on the PLR. They take up a lot of siding and storage space and so I will probably not construct any more.

Southwold Cleminson coaches

I have finally constructed the third Southwold Cleminson coach to complete the rake. It still needs finishing off, but is nearly ready to join the fleet.

Again, I'm running out of storage for coaches and am having to decide whether I actually need all this coaching stock. Some rationalisation is going to be called-for.

County Donegal Railway luggage van

The original CDR luggage van was drawn to fit on a Hartland Loco Works wagon chassis and. as I didn't have a scale drawing or any dimensions of the actual van, I drew the parts using only photos as a guide. As a consequence, it was quite a bit smaller than it should have been.

Having now developed more skills and confidence in using TinkerCAD, I am no longer reliant on using commercial chassis for my builds and so I contacted the transport museum in Derry, Londonderry asking if they could provide me with the principle dimensions of the luggage van which they have on display. Armed with some basic measurements (length, width and height), I have been able to modify my original drawings and also produce a reasonable representation of the chassis which is now a lot more to scale.

Repairs and maintenance 

Inevitably, there are always items of stock sitting in the casualty bay awaiting repair.

My first scratchbuilt loco, a Fowler Diesel Mechanical, has been a stalwart of the line but has also suffered a few mishaps over the years. The cab has long been in need of repair after one particularly traumatic tumble. This has now been completed ......

My hand-made couplings are less obtrusive replacements for LGB hook and loop couplings (see How I make my own hook and loop couplings). Being made from brass and phosphor bronze wire, they are more susceptible to misalignment and accidental damage and so, during operating sessions, I have a soldering iron readily available for spontaneous repairs. I usually find that around half a dozen couplings need to be repaired during an operating session - which isn't bad considering I have around 80 items of rolling stock.

The GVT Glyn loco has been equipped with a Micron MR603 receiver/controller which are ostensibly compatible with Deltang equipment. 

Unfortunately, early versions of the chips used in Deltang transmitters are unable to communicate with the MR603 and so have to be replaced. As I was an early-adopter of Deltang equipment, four of my six transmitters proved to be incompatible and so needed to have their transmitter chips replaced. These were acquired from Micron and refitted.

Lineside and infrastructure

I have now received two copies of each of the figures which Dean Punchard of DesignScanPrint scanned in from a session with members of my local Amateur Drama Society wearing interwar costumes. These, by the way, are now available on the DesignScanPrint website. They are presently sitting in a box on my ToDo shelf awaiting painting. With 36 figures to paint, this is probably going to be my next major winter project.

Operations

Despite the weather (see above), I have been able to arrange and film a couple of running sessions.

One was a full operating session with timetabled passenger and computer generated goods trains.....

Part 1

Part 2

.... and the second session focused primarily on the pickup goods to give an overview of how my latest freight management program works on my Psion pocket computer.

As the memory capacity on the Psion is limited to 1Mb, I have had to devise eight categories to determine the possible destinations for wagons rather than having individualised destination weightings for each wagon. For more information see Goods wagon categories

Conclusion

The railway is being mothballed for the winter months. I might run the occasional train and might even be tempted to run a full operating session if I can be assured of at least three days of decent weather. In the meantime, I might be tempted to run a train or two on days when the fancy takes me. Since going over to battery power and radio control, it's a lot easier to run trains in an ad hoc way. It just requires an hour or so clearing debris off the track and grabbing a few items of rolling stock and a loco or two off the shelves or storage sidings.

I am in the process of filming a twelve-month video, charting the progress of a mixed train as it progresses from one end of the line to the other - filming it on twelve sections of the railway month-by-month. It seemed like a good idea when I planned it, but trying to ensure continuity between each scene is a bit of a nightmare. Now I know how Steven Spielberg feels! Mind you, he has a crew of hundreds and a budget of several million!

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How I ballasted Beeston Market station yard

Whereas I ballast my track between stations using a dry-mix and watering (see How I ballasted my track), in the station areas, I have opted for a wet-mix approach. I find that the dry-mix approach is satisfactory for keeping the ballast in place, but it dries to a crumbly texture and so has to be topped-up every couple of years or so. In the station areas, I wanted something a little more permanent. To achieve a reasonably realistic finish, I adopted the following three-stage approach.

Stage 1 - The concrete mix foundation

Firstly, a mix of one part cement, to three parts sand and one part gravel was put on to my mixing board.

This was then dry-mixed until the looked as if the cement and gravel was evenly distributed into the sand (I used my trusty shovel to do this). A depression was made in the centre of the mix and a liberal dollop of cement dye was added.

 Because I live in a red sandstone area, I used a mix of red, brown and black dyes. I vary the combination with each mix to avoid too much uniformity.

I then added a squirt of water from the hose and then mixed the lot together, with my trusty shovel.

I kept adding the occasional squirt of water until the concrete mix reached a consistency of porridge.

 This was then trowelled from the board ......

 ..... on to the track. I tend to find that working in short sections is preferable to trying to do too much at any one time - otherwise (especially if the weather is warm) the concrete mix can start to dry out.

 I then used a small trowel to spread the dollops of concrete mix around.

Once the mix was more or less in the right places, I then used an old paintbrush to finely tune the position of the cement and then stipple the surface by dabbing the brush up and down. I find this tends to overcome that overly smooth cement type of finish.

Once the mix had been applied to a section, ........

.... I removed excess concrete mix from the tops and sides of the rails. I didn't tend to worry too much at this stage about clogging up pointwork and the inner edges of the rail as long as the worst was removed; I knew it could be left overnight for the cement to reach its 'green' state.

The following morning, I removed all the unwanted half-dried cement from the pointwork and edges of the rails with a couple of flat bladed screwdrivers - one with a large blade and one small.

Unwanted concrete was also removed from the point blades and levers, to ensure the blades moved freely.

The top surfaces of the rails were then scrubbed clean with a 'green' pan scourer. This was also used to remove unwanted concrete from some of the point levers and from the buffer stops.

The track was then left for another day for the concrete to set. The area was then brushed to remove the loose debris.

Stage 2 - Surface dressing

I could have left the track in this condition, allowing the rather garish colour of the concrete to slowly mellow with age, however, being somewhat impatient, I experimented with adding various combinations of sand, soil, grit and crushed stone and coal to various locations around the station to see if I could more accurately represent what would have been found in reality.

Sifted garden soil + sand + chippings

My initial experiments with a pre-mix of sifted local soil, red sand and a few chippings was a bit too uniform to look realistic.This was sprinkled on to diluted wet SBR adhesive and left to dry.

I then tried another approach, applying various combinations of soil, sand, coal, and bird grit spread dry and then blended in position with a paintbrush. I used bird grit around the track as fine ballast and a mix of soil, sand and crushed coal between the tracks.

The whole thing was given a soaking from the hose using a spray on 'mist' setting - and then liberally doused with diluted SBR adhesive which was dribbled on and then moistened again with the misty hose.

The sidings towards the back of the station were given the same treatment, but some budgie grit was then very lightly sprinkled on after the final dousing with the hose. This seemed to give a more realistic effect.

 After everything dried, I felt the station area looked a bit stark so I decided to try toning it down a bit.

The advantage of mixing the various textures dry was that it resulted in a lot more variation, but it was quite time-consuming. However, I felt it was worthwhile.

I must pass on my thanks to fellow garden railway modeller, Peter Butler (via the Garden Railway forum), for alerting me to bird grit and the marvellous properties of SBR.

Stage 3 - Cement dye washes

After the glue had set and I had brushed off the loose material, I looked again at the station as a whole and decided the contrast between the darker shades of the crushed coal and the crushed shells of the bird grit was too stark and, following the suggestion of a fellow modeller (Aussie Greg - see Progress Report 55), I decided to tone down everything with a very thin wash of black and brown cement dyes.

To give some variation, I varied the intensity of the dilution as I went. In some parts of the yard, such as where the coal yard will be located and where the locos take on coal and water, I intensified the colouring by mixing less water with the dye - in other areas, it was very heavily diluted giving a very thin wash.

Although there are some areas, where I think the outcome looks quite realistic, there are other areas where I feel some more tinkering might improve matters.

 However, for now, I think I can live with the anomalies and it might be that more tinkering will make things worse ......

..... and so, I will let nature work its magic and let the yard weather naturally for a while.

And besides, I need to run a few trains!