Bristol Barrow Road

Tell us about your layout, where you put it, how you built it, how you operate it.
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barrowroad
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Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:04 pm

This is a new post on this forum but those who view my blog on Rmweb will be familiar with the progress of my layout.
Bristol Barrow Road is my own project to build a model of the former Midland Roundhouse, Workshop and shed yard with trains operating past the shed on the old Midland main line from Bristol to Gloucester. Parts of the layout have been to each of the Society Shows since 2009 in order to show progress but this week has seen the first full operation of the main line with trains running the full circuit of the layouts 21 base boards.
Last evening the Glevum area group held their monthly meeting at mine and tested the layout with their locos and rolling stock. The test identified a few glitches with the track but this has been remedied today and I have taken the attached video to show the running of two trains.

43762 and 48305 passing Bristol Barrow Road Shed

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKoS8jt5-4M&feature=youtu.be
[/youtube]


The Bachmann 3F is modified with a set of drop in Ultrascale wheels and has no compensation.
The 8F is based on an upgraded Comet chassis and Hornby body - please correct me if I'm wrong Morgan.

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Le Corbusier
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Le Corbusier » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:16 pm

click the youtube button above to embed in your post then paste in just the code ... in this case EKoS8jt5-4M

Tim Lee

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steamraiser
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby steamraiser » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:23 pm

Very nice Robin.
Some interesting noises on the video.

Gordon A

Mark Tatlow
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Mark Tatlow » Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:42 pm

Looks good Robin; the passenger train is a tad short though so I think Morgan needs to get busy!!

Great to see it on this forum too, please do continue!
Mark Tatlow

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45609
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby 45609 » Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:47 pm

Mark Tatlow wrote:Looks good Robin; the passenger train is a tad short though so I think Morgan needs to get busy!!

Great to see it on this forum too, please do continue!


Yes that did get mentioned last night Mark. No rest for the wicked. You might remember these coaches doing a stint on Portchullin.

Morgan

Mark Tatlow
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Mark Tatlow » Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:11 pm

45609 wrote:No rest for the wicked.


You must have been very wicked!!

And I do remember them going around Portchullin; and the 8F. I seem to remember the fixed chassis black 5 could not master my rather crap trackwork!!
Mark Tatlow

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barrowroad
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:29 pm

Thanks Tim - I cut and pasted the whole link rather than just the code.
Mark, I will be able to run a longer rake of coaches when I add AJ's to the Comet coaches seen behind the Ash and Coal plant.

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Le Corbusier
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Le Corbusier » Wed Jan 10, 2018 10:01 pm

barrowroad wrote:Thanks Tim - I cut and pasted the whole link rather than just the code.
Mark, I will be able to run a longer rake of coaches when I add AJ's to the Comet coaches seen behind the Ash and Coal plant.

great video :thumb
Tim Lee

Philip Hall
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Philip Hall » Wed Jan 10, 2018 11:28 pm

Very good Robin. A much needed spur for my own efforts this year!

Philip

Paulhb
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Paulhb » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:51 am

Lovely!

Regards Paul

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Paul Townsend
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Paul Townsend » Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:37 am

Excellent!
I am so peeved that when I was in Bristol from 1960 -'63 I was so tied up with studies, beer and women that I never visited Barrow Road or St. Philips.
My teenage railway interest was overly GWR biased and too narrow....I barely new of MR in Bristol.
So many lost opportunities :(

Hey, thanks Robin for putting my past right for me.

I observe that new baseboards are still modular and clamped together with light weight trestles. I hope the Glevum Group will encourage you to reverse your decision not to exhibit........happy to wait until you are ready and then offer another pair of carrying arms.

Terry Bendall
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Terry Bendall » Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:27 am

Very impressive Robin and thanks for sharing it.

barrowroad wrote:Last evening the Glevum area group held their monthly meeting at mine and tested the layout with their locos and rolling stock.


Interesting that visiting stock can generally run well on another layout. No reason why not of course if it is all built to the same standards, which being P4 it will be.

Paul Townsend wrote: I hope the Glevum Group will encourage you to reverse your decision not to exhibit........


Yes indeed although I can appreciate why this might not happen. I know an exhibition where the layout would be appreciated... :thumb

Terry Bendall

Albert Hall
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Albert Hall » Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:48 am

Paul, you really missed out there. Barrow Road was a haven for big chunky LMS and Standard locos in the heart of Western Region territory. As a teenager in the early sixties I lived about 6 inches (in 4mm scale) off the southern end of Barrow Road viaduct. I saw the decline including the influx of WR locos after the Marsh closed.

When I drive through there these days I get a lump in the throat when I think that a whole chapter of my life has been all but eradicated. :( Long gone are the cuts and grazes incurred by falling off the swings and roundabout in the play park alongside the coaling plant. I can still recall the sights, sounds and smells as locos arrived on shed for servicing in the evenings and the greasy goo which stuck to your hands and clothes as you climbed over the wall round the back in Days Road. :)

BRILL Summer Special No.8 had an excellent chapter on the shed. I'll bring it along to our next meeting.

Roy

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TonyMont
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby TonyMont » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:45 pm

Hi,
Lovely video, thanks for posting.

Regards,
Tony.

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barrowroad
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:49 pm

Hi Terry/Paul,
I appreciate the desire for the layout to appear at exhibitions, however the logistics of taking it to an exhibition together with the cost made me decide a while ago that it would be a home based layout. Like several other owners of large layouts I have decided to invite friends and visitors to come an operate the layout rather than take it to exhibitions. I'm sure Terry will appreciate the cost of inviting a large layout, which would require a team of 10+ plus the hire of a small lorry, might put off exhibition managers even if I was willing to exhibit it.
At some future date, when the roundhouse has an operational turntable I may consider taking that part of the layout to Scaleforum but as for the whole layout - 21 boards - the answer is definitely no. Sorry.

Robin

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PeteT
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby PeteT » Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:37 pm

Terry Bendall wrote:
Interesting that visiting stock can generally run well on another layout. No reason why not of course if it is all built to the same standards, which being P4 it will be.

Terry Bendall


We even had a mixed rake at one point, which ran pretty happily for the most part! This was very much down to Morgan being organised and helpful in sharing info on how his Mk1 rake have been modified and set up. These were supplemented by Mk1s and Thompsons which I'm in the process of doing along the same lines (though yet to have masokits gangways added).

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barrowroad
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Mon Feb 05, 2018 6:25 pm

In 2013 I wrote an article for LMS Review on the then new Bachmann 4F. One of the two I purchased was 43875 which visited the Bristol shed.

43875 Bristol Barrow Road -1950s.jpg


IMG_20180205_162119066.jpg


IMG_20180205_162416424.jpg


My intention was to convert it to P4 for the layout and a couple of years ago I purchased an Easi-Chassis kit from Brassmasters and started the conversion. This ground to a halt early in 2017 pending a decision on which method of pick-ups to use. Over the past week I have completed the project - not the easiest conversion to attempt - and this afternoon the 4F was tested on a freight on the layout.

I have some photos of the P4 conversion which I intend to post as a aid to the work required to do the conversion if there is any interest.


Here is a video of the test freight train. Especially for you John:-) Thanks to Morgan for the loan of the stock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMsHXaQnzN4
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John Palmer
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby John Palmer » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:40 pm

barrowroad wrote:I have some photos of the P4 conversion which I intend to post as a aid to the work required to do the conversion if there is any interest.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMsHXaQnzN4
I for one would be tremendously interested in seeing those photos and hearing how you got on with the EasiChas conversion. I have assembled the components required for another S&D Bulldog, consisting principally of a Bachmann 3F body and 3250 gallon tender plus EasiChas conversion kit (including detailing and splasher etches), so your experiences of a substantially similar conversion would be most helpful. In particular I would be interested in how well the EasiChas springing arrangements work out in practice (the video suggests performance is entirely satisfactory; is that the result of following Brassmasters' 'words and music' with no deviations?). I have manufactured a set of split axles for tender current collection and propose therefore to modify the tender chassis so it consists of frames insulated from each other, but am contemplating wiper pickups on the engine.

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby grovenor-2685 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:03 pm

Another vote for the Easychas description. I have loco and chassis sitting in the round tuit pile and they are not to far off the top.
Regards
Regards
Keith
Grovenor Sidings

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Le Corbusier
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Le Corbusier » Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:22 pm

Tim Lee

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barrowroad
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:30 pm

Thanks again Tim I'll remember next time - hopefully.
John & Keith - here are some photos of the start of the process namely the component parts of the 4F following dismantling. John please note the 4F is driven on the rear axle whereas the 3F is on the middle. I know - why are they different. Also note that both have nylon/plastic gear wheels which Brassmasters reckon is easy to hand drill from the 3mm axle to 3.25mm for Ultrascale [ which I used ] or Gibson 1/8in axles. I substituted a replacement Ultrascale brass gearwheel after messing up the drilling!
Anyway here are some pics

The tender.

IMG_6143.JPG


IMG_6142.JPG


IMG_6140.JPG


IMG_6135.JPG


The body

IMG_6144.JPG


IMG_6145.JPG

The cab handrail unit clips under the cab roof. After problems refitting I replaced it with a pair of wire handrails which required careful drilling of the cab roof to fix the top end.

IMG_6137.JPG


IMG_6138.JPG

The small pcb plate, which forms a contact with the pick-up plate, was removed and the attached wires pulled out. These go to the motor and were eventually attached to my new pick-up unit.

The OO wheel set, coupling rods and pick-up unit are all discarded. It is essential that the footplate and upper body { cab, firebox/boiler ] is separated from the footplate for the next process which involves butchery of the footplate.
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John Palmer
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby John Palmer » Tue Feb 06, 2018 1:04 am

Robin, that's excellent; look forward to hearing more! I anticipate the footplate butchery may have something to do with splasher replacement. That holds minor terrors on my Bulldog with its detachable boiler/cab, as I had to do this before on an Airfix 4F. With its one piece boiler and running plate, splasher removal on that had its, ahem, 'fun' moments.

My guess is that Bachmann elected to drive to the rear axle to mitigate the intrusion of the drive train beneath that high pitched boiler. On my 4F I chose to drive the trailing axle via an RG4 for the same reason, and managed to confine motor and gear train within the firebox. For the new engine I plan to use a Mitsumi motor, also concealed in the firebox, but with two-stage reduction (wormbox then spur gears) driving on the intermediate axle. Initial problem is to mount 2mm bore worm on 1.5mm motor output shaft; will need to sleeve the worm bore for this.

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Paul Willis
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby Paul Willis » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:25 am

grovenor-2685 wrote:Another vote for the Easychas description. I have loco and chassis sitting in the round tuit pile and they are not to far off the top.
Regards


+1, as Martin would say.

I understand from Brassmasters when I spoke with them at Warley that there is an Easychas for the Hornby J15 in the offing. I have a model sitting (on a spare bit of OO track) on the shelf, ready for retro fitting to a Y14, and I'd love to hear of any tricks, trips and tips* that you have found in building the chassis...

Cheers
Flymo

* that sounds like the title for an occasional feature for EditorTim in the News ;-)
Beware of Trains - occasional modelling in progress!
www.5522models.co.uk

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barrowroad
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:25 pm

Back to the footplate butchery.

First it is sensible to take off the cab handrail and carefully remove the lubricators.
Take off the plastic part of the splashers as per the photo.What remains is part of the metal footplate casting.

IMG_6146.JPG


I choose to replace the splashers with Brassmasters etchings. It is advisable to make up these first to give guidance on the amount of material to be removed from the footplate and leave sufficient material in order to glue these in place. I recommend this because I didn't do this!

IMG_20170202_130742222.jpg


IMG_20170202_130636226.jpg



The remaining semi circular part of the slasher needs to be removed. I found the easiest and quickest way is to use a pair of flat nose pliers to break them off using a back and forth movement to stress fracture this semi circular portion. That is the easy bit. What is now required is clearance for the P4 wheels [22mm]. I achieved this on the two front axles by using files - it's a lot of filing!! The front axle needs additional filing to give sufficient clearance, hence the lubricator removal.The rear axle, the wheels of which protrude into the cab, is more difficult and required the additional use a 'dremel ' and small burrs to remove metal.

IMG_20170202_141520564.jpg


This is not the end of the metal removal. Clearance is required on the front footsteps. as can be seen in the next photo I have filed the back of the footsteps. On refitting last week for the loco test I found the clearance on curves insufficient. More filing so that the thickness was down to 0.85mm - this works.

IMG_20180202_115512815.jpg



Finally more metal needs to be removed on the underside of the footplate to give clearance for the coupling rods.

Once all the metal is removed and cleaned up you can glue on the replacement brass slashers. The front two axles are fitted to the footplate but I recommend the rear half etched splasher be glued to the firebox. Again be careful how much of the original you remove or you will end up with gaps and difficulty gluing. You also need to ensure sufficient clearance at the rear vertical of this splasher to replace the cab which slides into the groove.

IMG_20170202_144206790_HDR.jpg


IMG_20170202_144041320_HDR.jpg
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barrowroad
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Re: Bristol Barrow Road

Postby barrowroad » Tue Mar 20, 2018 4:43 pm

I have a rake of Comet coaches which I converted from 00 using Bill Bedford sprung bogies and Gibson P4 wheels. These coaches are a fixed rake and have now had Alex Jackson couplings added to each end to enable a test run of the complete set. As they are heavy I decided to use one of my converted Bachmann Peaks, D13, to pull the test train.



For those interested the rake is made up as follows;-



Corridor Brake Composite D1720A
Restaurant Composite D1811
Open First - Porthole D2160
Corridor Composite D1925/69
Corridor Third D1899
Corridor Third D1899
Corridor Third D1899
Open Brake Third D1913


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