Building a layout - Model Railway Constructor series

[James Moorhouse]

I was recently looking for the index to the above series of articles on the Scalefour website only to find that it's not there anymore. I believe this index, along with quite a few other useful bits and pieces, was removed as part of the website make-over. Fortunately, I made a copy of the index. Here it is reproduced should anybody else find this useful:

Building a Layout - Bodmin - North London Group - Model Railway Constructor
Jan '81 1. Research for the Layout - 1
Feb '81 2. Research for the Layout - 2
Mar '81 3. Research for the Layout - 3
Apr.'81 4. Research for the Layout - 4
May '81 5. Research for the Layout - 5
Jun '81 6. Research for the Layout - 6
Aug '81 7. The Civil Side - 1
Sep.'81 8. The Civil Side - 2
Oct.'81 9. The Trackwork - 1
Nov' 81 10. The Trackwork - 2
Dec' 81 11. The Trackwork - 3
Jan '82 12. The Trackwork - 4
Feb '82 13. Point Rodding - 1
Mar '82 14. Point Rodding - 2
Jun '82 15. Signalling - 1
July '82 16. Signalling - 2
Aug '82 17. Signalling - 3
Sep '82 18. Signalling - 4
Oct '82 19. Signalling - 5
Nov '82 20. Signalling - 6
Jan '83 21. Signalling - 7, Block Instruments
Mar '83 22. Making the Signals - 1
Apr '83 23. Making the Signals - 2
May '83 24. Controls - 1, Lever frame theory
Jun '83 25. Controls - 2, Lever frame practice
Aug.'83 26. Controls - 3, Conditional link control
Sep '83 27. Controls - 4, Further useful circuits
Oct '83 28. Controls - 5, More useful circuits
Nov '83 29. Controls - 6, Wiring the boards
Jan '84 30. Structures for Bodmin - 1
Feb '84 31. Structures for Bodmin - 2
Apr '84 32. Structures for Bodmin - 3
Jun '84 - Bodmin Goods Shed, Scale drawing
Oct '84 33. Operation

James Moorhouse

[Rod Cameron]

Thanks James - and the archive holds a complete set of these articles (the whole magazines in fact, which themselves are quite eye-opening now).

[martin goodall]

I could never resist referring to this series as "Bodminbore" (not that I meant it really - we did try to make it interesting and informative). We never finished the series properly, and the layout has never featured in a single comprehensive article in the model railway press. Somewhere or other I've got a list of who did what on the layout and a very rough first draft of a layout description, but after more than 30 years I am not sure how relevant this would be if it were ever to be completed and published.

Maybe we should have written a book like our friends in SLAG (and, incidentally, if you haven't yet bought a copy of the book on 'St Merryn', I strongly urge you to do so - it is really excellent, and very reasonably priced.)

If my friends in the NLG (of which I am still an honorary member, solely by reason of my having donated the fees from my part of the 'Bodminbore' series to group funds) twist my arm hard enough, I suppose we could try to put something together in a more permanent form.

[Russ Elliott]

Subject to clearance of rights, the NLG has commited to putting the Bodmin articles on the NLG website.

[Tim V]

What about digest 5.2.1?

List of pre '95 articles - including Bodminbore (I like the name Martin!).

[grovenor-2685]

We already have all the text of the articles scanned, OCR'd and oven ready, scans of the illustrations are also available but it has been difficult to get good quality and the original artwork has not been locatable. When I handed over the website the Bodmin material was passed to the Society publications group in case they wanted to follow it up. If the NLG want to do it themselves the material could save a lot of work. I suggest talking to the Chairman who is responsible for the publications group.
Regards
Keith

[Russ Elliott]

Thanks Keith; sounds like a flying start. I'll let the Chairmen liaise accordingly.

[martin goodall]

I think I probably still have some of the original artwork, phoitographs etc., although some of it is distributed among other members of NLG.

[James Moorhouse]

This all sounds very promising...

Here is a list of articles about the construction of Heckmondwyke. This index is also reproduced from a copy made from the old history section of the Scalefour Society website. I can't remember seeing any of these articles. Can anyone else remember them? It would be useful to put a heading next to each date.

Heckmondwyke - North London Group - Model Railways
Dec '73 - Planning a P4 layout
Oct '74
Dec '74
Apr '75
Jun '75
Aug '75
Oct '75
Aug '76
Jan '77
Feb '77
Mar '78
Aug '79

James Moorhouse
P.S. Russ, the link on the NLG Bodmin page to the Scalefour history section is dead.

[James Moorhouse]

What about digest 5.2.1?

List of pre '95 articles - including Bodminbore (I like the name Martin!).

Thanks for reminding me about that!

Here's the Heckmondwike index (with corrections) again:

Heckmondwike - North London Group - Model Railways
Dec '73 - Planning a P4 layout (this is not in 5.2.1, unless it is a reference to a reader's letter)
Oct '74 - Heckmondwike Midland
Dec '74 - Heckmondwike Midland
Apr '75 - The electrics of the N.L.G. Layout: 1
Jun '75 - The electrics of the N.L.G. Layout: 2
Sep '75 - Signalling at Heckmondwike
Aug '76 - A revolutionary point motor: 1
Sep '76 - A revolutionary point motor: 2 (were these Heckmondwike articles?)
Jan '77 - Buildings for Heckmondwike
Feb '77 - Buildings for Heckmondwike
Jun '77 - Behind the scenes at Heckmondwike
Jul '77 - Heckmondwike's fiddle yard - electrical
Mar '78 - Wagons for Heckmondwike
Oct '78 - Two signals at Heckmondwike
Aug '79 - Quo Vadis Heckmondwike

[Russ Elliott]

Thanks James - I've put the Bodmin list of articles on the NLG site now that the Scalefour site no longer cites them. (I've also added David Mylchreest's excellent Bodmin video taken at the recent East London show.)

Concerning the Heckmondwike articles, I took a copy of the wayback machine version of the old Scalefour page, and the following are additions to your list, although I'm not sure what month of 1977 the RM article was:

Model Railways, August 1975 - Wagons - Ken Morgan
Model Railways, October 1975 - Signalling - Derek Smith
Railway Modeller, April 1976 - Heckmondwike featured as 'Railway of the Month'
Railway Modeller, ? 1977 - Heckmondwike featured

[essdee]

A check of my out-takes file revealed the following additions to the Heckmondwike list:

Model Railways, May 1973: Protofour: Fact not Fiction, by Essery, Peascod Anderson - stock for H.

Model Railways, Nov 1977: Bogie Vehicle Compensation, by Brian Pearce - general, but pics of stock and H layout.

Railway Modeller, JUne 1976: Heckmondwike 2, Signals and Scenery - continuation of April feature.

Railway Modeller, April 1978: On the Road with Heckmondwike, by Bob Essery.

No sign of the 1977 feature Russ refers to in my file, which is what I initially went to check for. I never did take RM regularly though and 77 was 'finals' year, other demands etc.....33 years ago, surely not?

Regards

Steve

[Russ Elliott]

Thanks, Steve - I remember some of those! It's a bit difficult, going back over the old lists, to decide which are proper 'Heck' articles and those which are ancillary to that main theme. Can't say I can recall the RM '77 article either, I just took what Keith had compiled on the old Scalefour page.

[Rod Cameron]

I'll see what the archive has of these articles.

[Rod Cameron]

Combining some of the articles listed in different posts above, this is what the archive knows of and mostly has in some form or other. Most of this (but not all) is in 5.2.1, but for this I've tried to list all the articles on Heckmondwike in sequence, including the more 'peripheral' ones.

Model Railways May '73 - Protofour, fact not fiction (Bob Essery, stock by Mike Peascod) (peripheral article)
Model Railways Jun '73 - Compensation (Ken Morgan) (peripheral article)
Model Railways Jul '73 - Construction of 4mm Scale Coaches from Plastic Sheet Pt 1 (Mike Peascod) (peripheral article)
Model Railways Aug '73 - Construction of 4mm Scale Coaches from Plastic Sheet Pt 2 (Mike Peascod) (peripheral article)
Model Railways Sep '73 - Construction of 4mm Scale Coaches from Plastic Sheet Pt 3 (Mike Peascod) (peripheral article)
Model Railways Dec '73 - North London Group Railway - Planning and Programming for a P4 Layout (Ken York)
Model Railways May '74 - Base Boards for the North London Group's Railway (Brian Pearce)
Model Railways Jun '74 - Compensation - Locomotives (Ken Morgan) (peripheral article)
Model Railways Oct '74 - Heckmondwike Midland - Origins and Development of the NLG P4 Exhibition Layout (Bob Essery)
Model Railways Dec '74 - Heckmondwike Midland - Track Laying at Heckmondwike (Martin Goodall)
Model Railways Apr '75 - The electrics for the NLG Layout: 1 (Mike Sargent)
Model Railways Jun '75 - The electrics for the NLG Layout: 2 (Mike Sargent)
Model Railways Aug '75 - Wagons - the requirements of the NLG P4 layout (Ken Morgan)
Model Railways Oct '75 - Signalling at Heckmondwike (Derek Smith)
Railway Modeller Apr '76 - Heckmondwike 'Railway of the Month'
Railway Modeller Jun '76 - Heckmondwike 2 - signals and scenery (is this Russ' '1977' article?)
Model Railways Aug '76 - A revolutionary point motor: 1 (Ray Hammond) - a Heckmondwike series article
Model Railways Sep '76 - A revolutionary point motor: 2 (John Popkin)
Model Railways Jan '77 - Building for Heckmondwike: 1 (John Hayes)
Model Railways Feb '77 - Building for Heckmondwike: 2 (John Hayes)
Model Railways Jun '77 - Behind the screens at Heckmondwike (Fiddle Yard Pt.1 - Tony Wilkins)
Model Railways Jul '77 - Heckmondwike's fiddle yard Pt.2 - electrical (Mike Sargent) (and front cover photo )
Model Railways Nov '77 - Bogie vehicle compensation (Brian Pearce) - a Heckmondwike series article
Model Railways Mar '78 - Wagons for Heckmondwike (Bob Essery)
Railway Modeller Apr '78 - On the road with Heckmondwike (Bob Essery)
Model Railways Oct '78 - The signals at Heckmondwike (Ray Hammond)
Railway Modeller Apr '79 - The rocky road to Heckmondwike Pt.1 (Bob Essery) - personal reflections
Railway Modeller ?? 79 - The rocky road to Heckmondwike Pt.2 (Bob Essery) - personal reflections
Model Railways Aug '79 - Quo Vadis Heckmondwike (Bob Essery)
Modellers Backtrack Vol 1 No 6, 1992 - It All Began with Heckmondwike (Mike Peascod)

The archive is also missing the reference to/copy of the CJ Freezer editorial which started the whole thing off. So if you have one ...

[Alan Turner]

In addition to the red articles above, the archive is also missing the reference to/copy of the CJ Freezer editorial which started the whole thing off. So if you have one ...

I will contact Bob and see if he has a copy.

Alan

[Russ Elliott]

Thanks Rod, that looks like a definitive list.

[Rod Cameron]

Finally there was also Mike Peascod's article 'It All Began with Heckmondwike' in Modellers Backtrack Vol 1 No 6 in 1992, which has photos of both layouts.

[rjh]

In addition to the red articles above, the archive is also missing the reference to/copy of the CJ Freezer editorial which started the whole thing off. So if you have one ...

I will contact Bob and see if he has a copy.

Alan

Hello,

Bob Essery wrote about the details of the "CJF challenge" in Scalefour News No.100 on page 27
Not so much an editorial, it seems....
http://www.scalefour.org/forum/s4-news.php

Regards, Rodney Hills.

[rjh]

Hello again,

Further to my posting above, Bob Essery dates the dialogue with CJF to Autumn 1973.

Heckmondwike eventually featured as "Railway of the month" in the April 1976 issue
of "Railway Modeller", introduced by the CJF editorial about where P4 has now got to.
It's clear from the opening paragraph that Cyril's run-in with very fine wheel standards
in EM in the late 1940s encouraged his scepticism about P4, he admits he saw
a very strong resemblance between P4 and those earlier EM Fine efforts.

The article is continued in the Jun issue and continued again but I think after 1976.

I also found another RM ref: Apr 1979 issue:
The rocky road to Heckmondwike (pt1). Bob Essery, Chairman of the Scalefour Society. (S4)


Regards, Rodney Hills

[Rod Cameron]

A check of my out-takes file revealed the following additions to the Heckmondwike list:

Steve

You appear not to have read my PM sent on 10 December even though you logged in as recently as Thursday.

[essdee]

Rod, whoops - sorry I overlooked the PM inbox! Busy week head down at the workbench and other distractions (what all this about Christmas?). Will get onto it and send you the article soonest.

Steve

[HowardGWR]

though you logged in as recently as Thursday

Rod
Something about that excerpt made me go all funny. Tell me I got the wrong end of the stick there. You monitor who is logging on?

On the actual topic is there a library of these articles (as opposed to the references to them)?

Thanks in advance. Regards, Howard

[dcockling]

You monitor who is logging on?

Hi Howard,

Anyone can see when anyone else last logged on. Click on anyone's username (mine for example) and it will take you to their profile. There you will see a) when they joined the forum and b) the last time that they logged on.

Quite useful sometimes. For example I have recently sent someone a PM in answer to a question that they PMd me. They haven't picked it up yet but I can see that they haven't missed it as they haven't visited the forum since sending their message to me.

You can also see their real name and membership number, their total posts, their most active forum and most active topic. Only logged on members can see profiles.

All the Best
Danny

[Rod Cameron]

though you logged in as recently as Thursday

You monitor who is logging on?

No nothing sinister Howard, as Danny explained anyone can see what time any other member was last online. I could tell that Steve had not opened my PM because it was still in my outbox, a gentle reminder was enough and it's now in my 'messages sent' folder and Steve has helpfully provided something that the archive was missing.

Any member who is logged on can also see who else is online by a marker on the top right of their posts and from a list at the bottom of the forum index page.

On the actual topic is there a library of these articles (as opposed to the references to them)?

The archive has a hard copy of most if not all of the articles mentioned (and much else besides), but it is not a searchable library as such.