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kitesandtrainsandcats
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19 Feb 2021, 6:23 pm

Mountain Goat wrote:
In the UK it varied from railway company to company. Since grouping in 1923 where many companies merged to form "The Big Four", and then the railways passed into governments hands in 1948, some locos were built to be driven on the left and others on the right. Some of the foemer companies had to have their signals repositioned so they could standardize the driving on the left which meant the firemen had to also look out for the signals (Which they did anyway because one would be a fireman for so many years before one became a driver, so it was good practice to learn where all the signals were as the majority of firemen were seen as apprentice drivers, and indeed on very cold days with the drafty cabs of the British Railways standard class locos where the designers thought they knew better, they were so cold that the driver and firemen kept having to change places where the fireman would drive for a while unofficially, as one side of their bodies would be toasty and hot and the other side was freezing cold... So by swapping jobs now and then they could keep going!
But what I am saying is that it was not until British Railways was formed, that there was a standard side, ...

As you have deduced, I did not know about there being that much variation in UK; that is interesting!
Also interesting about engineer and fireman swapping sides and roles.


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Mountain Goat
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19 Feb 2021, 6:37 pm

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:
In the UK it varied from railway company to company. Since grouping in 1923 where many companies merged to form "The Big Four", and then the railways passed into governments hands in 1948, some locos were built to be driven on the left and others on the right. Some of the foemer companies had to have their signals repositioned so they could standardize the driving on the left which meant the firemen had to also look out for the signals (Which they did anyway because one would be a fireman for so many years before one became a driver, so it was good practice to learn where all the signals were as the majority of firemen were seen as apprentice drivers, and indeed on very cold days with the drafty cabs of the British Railways standard class locos where the designers thought they knew better, they were so cold that the driver and firemen kept having to change places where the fireman would drive for a while unofficially, as one side of their bodies would be toasty and hot and the other side was freezing cold... So by swapping jobs now and then they could keep going!
But what I am saying is that it was not until British Railways was formed, that there was a standard side, ...

As you have deduced, I did not know about there being that much variation in UK; that is interesting!
Also interesting about engineer and fireman swapping sides and roles.


Officially it is not allowed. Unofficially due to the large drafty cabs that the British Railways standard designs had, they had no choice. The past railways cabs were found to have better protection against the wind etc.


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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05 Mar 2021, 11:11 am

Even dealing with all-over muscle spasms and a bit of a ME/CFS flare yesterday I did make progress on a model train project :D

(okay, true, holding a Dremel tool spinning a cutoff disk at something like 30,000 rpm while potentially suddenly having muscle spasms in my back or arms or hands might not be Einstein level genius, but, hey, I want to still have a life and things which bring me happiness and something which at least resembles sanity enough that I can get away with calling it sanity)

Got the literal 'dim bulb' factory-issue headlight bulb mounts cut off the frames of a couple Mantua F9s.
Going to replace the frame mount incandescent bulb with an LED mounted in the body's headlight location.

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(Hey! Look at all that zinc dust! I can avoid the high priced supplements and lick it directly off my kitchen counter!)
:lol: :roll:
(NO! I did not actually do that!)
(and don't YOU do it either!)


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Redd_Kross
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05 Mar 2021, 11:31 am

*Railway geek / pedant alert*

Mountain Goat wrote:
British Railways standard class locos where the designers thought they knew better...

The cab layout of the BR Standards went through a lengthy consultation and approval process, unlike anything that had gone before. The designers worked with the spec that had been agreed.

Mountain Goat wrote:
...it was not until British Railways was formed, that there was a standard side

The Western Region of BR remained right hand drive until the end of steam traction, roughly 20 years after nationalisation, and was only gradually resignalled thereafter.

Mountain Goat wrote:
Example of an entire class were their 56xx locos which looked like they made them, but in reality they were much modified locos built by or for an entirely different company that the GWR took over in the act of Grouping in 1923).

Nope, there were plenty of rebuilt 0-6-2Ts, particularly in the Welsh Valleys, but the 56xx class were designed by Collett and built new by the GWR.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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05 Mar 2021, 11:42 am

Looking at Mountain Goat and Juliette telling a week or two ago about making things out of balsa wood I was thinking, "oh! making stuff from balsa is fun, what can I "go ye forth and do likewise" and make for my little railroad at home?"

So, last week I pulled out a box of balsa bits a health support group friend in a little burg in Colorado had sent me a couple years back and made a loading dock for the l.c.l. freight house.
(Less than Car Load)
The plastic kit building also had its floor height raised to boxcar and flatbed truck height with some of that balsa.
Will, eventually, be finished to look like a concrete foundation.
I had to get a flatbed truck from David at model train club, I had no HO scale trucks!
(he's moving back to the east coast next year, will miss him, he grew up with railroads I know from my growing up years)

Planking was scribed/drawn with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil & the wood was weathered with pastels which were rubbed in then sealed with art fixative.

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Showing the setting; pretty much everything visible is not yet finished & I can't say if it will ever be.

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maycontainthunder
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05 Mar 2021, 11:58 am

Redd_Kross wrote:
*Railway geek / pedant alert*

Mountain Goat wrote:
British Railways standard class locos where the designers thought they knew better...

The cab layout of the BR Standards went through a lengthy consultation and approval process, unlike anything that had gone before. The designers worked with the spec that had been agreed.

Mountain Goat wrote:
...it was not until British Railways was formed, that there was a standard side

The Western Region of BR remained right hand drive until the end of steam traction, roughly 20 years after nationalisation, and was only gradually resignalled thereafter.

Mountain Goat wrote:
Example of an entire class were their 56xx locos which looked like they made them, but in reality they were much modified locos built by or for an entirely different company that the GWR took over in the act of Grouping in 1923).

Nope, there were plenty of rebuilt 0-6-2Ts, particularly in the Welsh Valleys, but the 56xx class were designed by Collett and built new by the GWR.


Like many GWR classes the 56xx they didn't succeed in their aim of complete replacement of the non-standard Welsh classes many of which made it into the fifties. Some of these (but not all) were "Swindonised" with GWR boilers and fittings. The Welsh 0-6-2T's that survive mainly only did because they entered industrial service extending their working lives long enough to reach that time when people saw them as special enough to save them.

Another class meant to replace an older one was the 2251 class which were meant to replace the aging Dean Goods but didn't fully succeed with many of the later working into the fifties. One of each of these classes survive is preservation. The Dean Goods hasn't turned a wheel in preservation and is "stuffed and mounted" in Swindon Railway Museum while the 2251 has been active in preservation.



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05 Mar 2021, 12:20 pm

Probably 80% of what I can say I know about UK 0-6-anything locomotives is that I have this book;

After that, I know of the Dean Goods 0-6-0, of the Furness Ry 0-6-0, of the LBSC Terrier 0-6-0, of the LMS Fowler 0-6-0, of the GWR pannier tank 0-6-0, of the Gooch broad gauge 0-6-0, that the Great Eastern had some attractive blue 0-6-0, and that's it! :D

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05 Mar 2021, 12:51 pm

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
Probably 80% of what I can say I know about UK 0-6-anything locomotives is that I have this book;

After that, I know of the Dean Goods 0-6-0, of the Furness Ry 0-6-0, of the LBSC Terrier 0-6-0, of the LMS Fowler 0-6-0, of the GWR pannier tank 0-6-0, of the Gooch broad gauge 0-6-0, that the Great Eastern had some attractive blue 0-6-0, and that's it! :D

Image


Well, here's a wheel arrangement that came one away from becoming extinct; There are no other standard gauge locomotives left of this wheel arrangement in the British isles.

https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotive ... y-railway/

But despite being on her own here one of her sisters lucked out and also survives albeit utterly derelict in Australia;

http://australiansteam.com/JAB%205.htm

Now you know some useless information! :jester:



kitesandtrainsandcats
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05 Mar 2021, 1:03 pm

Outside frame, even - cool! :D

maycontainthunder wrote:
Well, here's a wheel arrangement that came one away from becoming extinct; There are no other standard gauge locomotives left of this wheel arrangement in the British isles.

https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotive ... y-railway/

But despite being on her own here one of her sisters lucked out and also survives albeit utterly derelict in Australia;

http://australiansteam.com/JAB%205.htm

Now you know some useless information! :jester:


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05 Mar 2021, 1:15 pm

kitesandtrainsandcats wrote:
Looking at Mountain Goat and Juliette telling a week or two ago about making things out of balsa wood I was thinking, "oh! making stuff from balsa is fun, what can I "go ye forth and do likewise" and make for my little railroad at home?"

So, last week I pulled out a box of balsa bits a health support group friend in a little burg in Colorado had sent me a couple years back and made a loading dock for the l.c.l. freight house.
(Less than Car Load)
The plastic kit building also had its floor height raised to boxcar and flatbed truck height with some of that balsa.
Will, eventually, be finished to look like a concrete foundation.
I had to get a flatbed truck from David at model train club, I had no HO scale trucks!
(he's moving back to the east coast next year, will miss him, he grew up with railroads I know from my growing up years)

Planking was scribed/drawn with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil & the wood was weathered with pastels which were rubbed in then sealed with art fixative.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Showing the setting; pretty much everything visible is not yet finished & I can't say if it will ever be.

Image

Image


Love seeing what you’re doing there, kites :) :heart:! You are seriously the ultimate model maker! I’ve never known anyone who has created the number of models you have! Inspiring! As mentioned, I’m pulling my layout down from the ceiling this weekend and planning on getting more done. Exciting! It’s been awhile due to time constraints and similarly, extreme chronic-fatiguey symptoms. Hope you start to feel less all-over achey soon. Always love to see what you’re working on.



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05 Mar 2021, 1:47 pm

Every time I look for this thread, it goes to an entirely different thread instead what has nothing to do with trains, so I have to wait for one of you to post in it so I can see it.
Balsa wood. I do not use balsa wood as it is expensive for what one is getting, but I do use pine and whatever wood I can find that is cheap or free. Also with balsa it is very lightweight wood, so most of the situations where I use wood which at the moment is making model railway rolling stock, I would have to add extra weight if I use balsa, but using a heavier wood means I rarely have to add any weight to them.

So for me at the moment, balsa is not my first choice. If I wanted to make a working model aircraft then balsa would be my first choice if it is strong enough for the situation. :)
Balsa does have the advantage that it is easy to work on and cut so for some situations it is ideal.


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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05 Mar 2021, 2:54 pm

That's crazy about the trouble going to the correct thread.

Well, hey, my memory was 2/3 right, you had made a thing and had made it from wood! :lol:

Mountain Goat wrote:
If I wanted to make a working model aircraft then balsa would be my first choice if it is strong enough for the situation.


I figure that if balsa wood is strong enough for working model submarines then it is strong enough for airplanes, https://flic.kr/s/aHskzXRFGp :D :lol:
(I built that around 15 years ago & it currently is on shelf brackets right above this PC. Seriously needs dusting, eew)


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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05 Mar 2021, 3:08 pm

Juliette wrote:
Love seeing what you’re doing there, kites :) :heart:! You are seriously the ultimate model maker! I’ve never known anyone who has created the number of models you have! Inspiring!

Aww, thanks! :D

Quote:
As mentioned, I’m pulling my layout down from the ceiling this weekend and planning on getting more done. Exciting!

Model railway progress and successes are fun and fulfilling. :D
Also fulfilling, sharing a few hours down at model train club with some of the members as we did a few days ago.
It was a gorgeous not a cloud in the sky kind of 65F sunny day in February in the midwest, so what did we do - go play trains in a basement!
:roll: :lol:
Gotta love Model Railroader/Railway Modeler logic.

But, hey, we did walk a block to the diner for lunch!

Quote:
It’s been awhile due to time constraints and similarly, extreme chronic-fatiguey symptoms. Hope you start to feel less all-over achey soon. Always love to see what you’re working on.

Thanks!
And tell those symptoms to mind the social distancing and go away!
:wink:


And speaking of Model Railroader/Railway Modeler logic ...

... the people working on track and electrical for the layout, as well as preparing to begin operating sessions, wanted we who have rolling stock on the HO modular layout to each gather our own cars in one spot in one of the 2 yards.

So ...

I had started walking around the outside of the layout, about a 20ft square, and picked up a couple of my cars to carry over to the yard ...

when ...

"Wait a minute! Why am I doing this this way??? I brought that Union Pacific 0-6-0 to test the new trucks/bogies on!"
:idea: 8O :roll: :lol:


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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06 Mar 2021, 6:19 pm

Creative writers group meeting this morning was good, were 5 of us there.
But my brain wasn't good for writing so after an hour or so I went on over to model train club, literally right across the street from where writers group meets, and accomplished a small thing I had meant to do last year.

That being that the yard tracks each have a rail gapped to allow cutting power to that track and parking complete trains with locomotives.

I had maybe 2 years ago now penciled in a service road across the yard to mark the gapped rail location in a way that is easy to find - as in, the track far side of road turns off, the track on the power pack side, near side, of road does not.

(road extending straight to viewers' right goes down to a passenger platform between tracks at far end of yard)
(road angling up to left goes to engine service area)

Today I painted asphalt color in road location. Will eventually build a full 3 dimensional road with planked track crossings.
I masked the road edges to keep them mostly straight but wood grain and masking tape don't exactly make an airtight seal.

Harry, Harry's Sister, and Ken were at model train club when I went over.
Randy arrived a bit later.

As you might suspect, it was a mixed occasion of shoot the breeze a lot, accomplish a couple things, and drive some trains. :lol:

:arrow: And as an added bonus at no extra charge, I came home from model train club with some Model Railroader magazines, maybe 8 or 9 issues, from the 1960s before I arrived in life to liven up this planet. :lol:

Some neat track plans and neat articles about building various things :idea: :!:

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06 Mar 2021, 6:30 pm

Hi Kites. Out of interest, have you heard of Wrenn who used to make 00 gauge trains? Real durable things and expensice, but they would lasy 50 years and then some more!


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06 Mar 2021, 7:50 pm

Mountain Goat wrote:
Hi Kites. Out of interest, have you heard of Wrenn who used to make 00 gauge trains?

Yes. In 1970s/80s in a UK published book I would get from library from time to time.
And I think, think, they are mentioned in a 1980s UK published model railway book I bought and have here at home.

Am not sure why, can remember no documentation, but my memory wants to associate the Wrenn name with mention of couplings.


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