Scalefour Forum

Please do post details of the work on the yard surface. There are lots of tedious things, like ballasting, that need to be done right. I'd be interested to see how you get on with filler.

After looking at my wagons with these W irons and bearings I can't see the slop being an issue once the weight of the wagon is bearing down on the suspension. It just looks like it will when they are hanging in the air. The insertion of washers is going to do two bad things. The first is the issue y...

From the look of it you could assemble the track gauges using a piece of accurate straight track as a jig. Oh, wait.....

Where do the folding baseboard legs come from?

Apparently they were bought with the intention that they would feature in an attraction/museum which never happened.

An obvious point is that wagons (real world) will ride lower loaded than empty, so as long as your low riders are all full, and your high riders are all empty they will be completely accurate.

I note that Etched Pixels sell 1:148 kits with etched sides and a printed armature. That would be attractive to me in 4mm scale if the price was not too high. Even after 35 years of soldering coach kits, the prospect of building up a brass monocoque with un-jigged butt-joints is off-putting. If the...

On the LNWR (at least, probably many others) there were large numbers of passenger sets, far more than were required if they simply ran in and out of the main termini. Instead sets were often only worked a couple of times a day. An example diagram for a Crewe-Holyhead set in October 1913 spent eleve...

The LNWR had several 20T boiler and platform trollies with a platform 2'4" above the ground. I guess that the NER was likely to have some as well. Is it possible that these specialist wagons were hired between companies, or specifically hired by the engine manufacturer?

Bridge building now in full swing. Construction using Slaters plasticard sheets and rivets, and Evergreen plastic section. Archers resin rivets will be applied to the cover panel. The girder bridge at Connah's Quay is long gone, and I have located no photos of the outside, so I have used the bridge ...

Can anyone tell me the height of platforms in the pre-grouping period before they were raised to the current standard? My standard sources (LNWR Portrayed etc) don't seem to have this information

Yes John. The Buckley wagons shouldn't be there. If they did get onto LNWR metal it would have been via the exchange sidings behind the station off to the right of the photo, and as far as I can tell they could only have been picked up by a train heading West so wouldn't make it on to the line to Ch...

On the basis that if I have baseboards, (some) track, wiring, buildings and stock this must constitute a layout I hereby declare, after much prevarication, Connah's Quay open! Mrs Gladstone having cut the first sod, and Mr Gladstone having wheeled the first barrow some years ago. (Facilities under c...

There's the problem. In 2017 I thought the scenic break would be just a backscene of the embankment. So I didn't think I would be laying any LNWR track, and the WM&CQR probably just used plain fishplates. I will just have to get some and saw them in half!

Bullhead fishplates from Peco. Too late. The track is laid. How irritating that I didn't know about them a week ago.

Well effectively this board is the workbench. It is about 1.5m long, as wide as you can see and about 200mm high, so it is easy to move about and work on. Also there are no turnouts, just straight track. Having said that the 60ft lengths are assembled before installation. I built the girder bridge b...

So the first track laying is actually finally taking place. This is the LNWR mainline from Chester to Holyhead which runs on an embankment along the back of Connah's Quay. The wings sticking out either side are where the Chester end of the platforms of Connah's Quay station (LNWR) will be built. The...

Ah Shotton. In fact there is no signal box there (no turnouts), although there appear to be signals (although none of the photos match the diagrams), so these signals would appear to be pulled by 5, 11, 54 and 60 at Queensferry box, and 1, 33 and 29 at Connah's Quay No1. The most obvious fly in the ...

Thanks for the multiple slot depiction Keith. I can now consider how to depict this.

no 13 belongs to No2 box. The distant appears to be No1 box lever 36. In most cases the number is specifically next to the signal, but in a few cases the number appears between the signals on the post. In the case of No2 box 14 for example this can only mean that both signals were pulled by lever No...

So I just reached an understanding of how the standard system worked and can now interpret the drawing of Webb's system in LNWR Portrayed, and LNWR Signalling but now Keith has kindly upped the ante by explaining what the real meaning of No13 is. Webb's system has two weight arms in a bracket, opera...

Excellent info, thanks very much for the link to the LMS soc monograph. Now I know what I am looking at I can browse through photos of signal posts until I have worked out what should be happening on my 1906 LNWR posts. I will be depicting the 3 and 13 posts as part of a short section of the Chester...

this is Box 2 diagram (which is to the right of the image) Box 1 is to the left. So does this mean there will be signal control cable from signal 13 post in both directions (home to Box 2, distant to Box 1) and from signal post 2 in both directions (distant to box 2, home to box 1)?

The attached is a portion of a signalling diagram from Anderson and Fox, Chester to Holyhead Railway. I'm guessing the standard format is being used so there is no key to the diagrams in the book, but this isn't an area I know about. The home signal pulled by lever no3 on the down main I understand....