Horsley Bank - shunting plank

[steve howe]

After a long period of inactivity, my industrial diorama is creaking towards completion

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[steve howe]

Despite being only 1200 x 750 it can provide some absorbing operation

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[Terry Bendall]

Brilliant Steve!

Terry Bendall

[Paul Willis]

Very nice

I particularly like the firm's lettering on the two gates into the yard. Is that hand lettered, or did you have a source for some very convincing looking transfers?

Cheers
Flymo

[Andy W]

Marvelous.I love the view over the roof tops.

[smyles]

Amazing amount in such a small area. If I have worked it out correctly it is about 4ft x 11inches. How have you got it all in? Any chance of an aerial view lokking down on whole layout?
Mike

[grovenor-2685]

Amazing amount in such a small area. If I have worked it out correctly it is about 4ft x 11inches.

Four feet yes but 750/25.4 = 29.5 not 11.
Cheers
Keith

[smyles]

Thanks for the conversion. I never will get the hang of longer lengths in millimetres. I can now see how you get so much in having that width.
Mike

[steve howe]

Very nice

I particularly like the firm's lettering on the two gates into the yard. Is that hand lettered, or did you have a source for some very convincing looking transfers?

Cheers
Flymo

Thanks for your comments chaps, the gates were done on the pc. the Atlas Foundry was done years ago when Adobe Freehand was 'new'! - its nice to finally find a home for it! - later efforts were done either in Word (actually quite a versatile programme if you seek out a few tricks) or Photoshop, which is also a good way of creating posters and bills. The gates were printed onto thin card and mounted on 1mm ply using spray adhesive, they were then lightly scribed with a blunt scalpel and weathered.

The Bile Beans ad. on the building end is a photograph of an actual advert in York, tidied up and scaled in Photoshop and printed onto waterslide transfer paper. I'm finding this paper quite useful (www.craftycomputerpapers.com) it comes in white or clear. The only real snag is that the pigment on most printers is laid quite thin so you really need to paint the background an appropriate colour first otherwise it can disappear, also, unless you have access to a mega-expensive laser printer, you cannot print solid white, so again the background needs to be painted first. That aside they are a useful aid for graphic modelling.

Steve

[steve howe]

Attached is a rough sketch showing the general track arrangement . Basically a loop with a headshunt serves two sidings reached by a 'single slip' (actually two A5 turnouts superimposed on each other) and a very short headshunt. The objective was to produce a piece of home entertainment to see what could be done in P4 in a very limited space, and to provide a home for my collection of industrial locomotives. The track plan is a direct crib from a layout I saw at Scalefour North many years ago built by a chap (apologies - his name escapes me) - on an ironing board!

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The access to the loop is via a sector plate which also connects to a 'kick-back' line which runs along the street (from Huddersfield) to a concealed cassette. The length of the loop and sidings was actually quite carefully thought out; the sector plate holds an 0-4-0 and three wagons, the loop and top headshunt can hold a loco and four wagons. The lower headshunt can only hold a loco and two wagons. Thus to shunt the long front siding means wagons have to be moved singly or in pairs. because the 'slip' is only one sided, wagons destined for the Leethams factory siding have to be taken into the headshunt, then drawn into the long siding and propelled back, (always assuming the headshunt is empty and the long siding has sufficient room..!) in short, its a shunting puzzle and as such can absorb many hours of totally mindless playing trains.

It works as a home entertainment, but exhibition operation soon turns it into a nightmare, especially as we have 3 link couplings and parts of the layout are now so 'built up' as to be virtually innaccessible. (that bit was not so well thought out) In the light of a few local shows, I have made some modifications 'backstage' to make operating less stressful, and intend to try AJ couplings as the next step.

Incidentally small layouts don't neccesarily equal quick layouts, this one was started about 14 years ago when I lived in West Yorkshire, although in fairness most of the scenic work has been done in the last 18 months since returning to my native Cornwall.

[dcockling]

The track plan is a direct crib from a layout I saw at Scalefour North many years ago built by a chap (apologies - his name escapes me) - on an ironing board!

Hi Steve,

The layout on an ironing board was 'Biginnor Road' by Paul Severs of the Craven Area Group. It featured in Scalefour News 93. July 1995, which is downloadable from the members area, or if I've done it right via the link below:

Scalefour News 93

All the Best
Danny

[steve howe]

Thanks for that Danny, it was interesting to read the article again, for the same 'mileage' of track Biginnor Road is a darn sight more portable!
Steve

[Allan Goodwillie]

Hi Steve,

I have enjoyed looking at your industrial scene, the aspect I most enjoy is the use of levels in such a small place it really adds to the built up look. Most large industrial settings dwarf the small locomotives and trains, few layouts manage this, but a few do, yours included.

Allan

[steve howe]

Rather reluctantly I am probably going to abandon 3 link couplings on this layout. Due to its 'built up' nature, some parts are virtually innaccessable when it is set up for exhibition running. I have experimented with AJs on here in the past but they were not reliable due to one or two sharp curves which also happen to concide with where coupling up might take place. I have just 'inherited' about 30 B & B etched couplings taken from stock belonging to an old friend sadly no longer with us, and am tempted to try them on Horsley Bank to try and make operating less stressful.

Although they are relatively discreet, I wonder if anyone else has used them in P4 (I know it goes all against the 'getting it all right' bit but I am a pragmatist!) certainly the satisfaction of remote coupling and de-coupling is proving pretty hard to resist.

Steve

[Gurra G]

Hello!
Please Steve can you tell me a little about your rolling stock? I’m in the process of building a P4 layout and need some hints and tips regarding the engines and wagons.

I must say that the layout you have do look beautiful and I do look forward se more of it.

Regards
Gustav

[steve howe]

Gustav
There's nothing really very special about the rolling stock, most of it is kitbuilt, mainly Slaters, I am slowly building some open mineral wagons using Powsides transfers to represent collieries in the West Yorkshire area. I use compensated 'W'irons from various sources older ones are Colin Waite, mor recent builds are MJT. I have tried the inside bearing type but find they have a great deal of friction which is OK on a small layout but could give problems if you had a long train of them. All my newer locos have HighLevel gearboxes and Mashima motors using as high a reduction as possible (108:1) in most cases. I think the only solution to reasonably reliable running for small 0-4-0 engines which need to run slowly is a high reduction gear set and a fast running motor, ideally with a flywheel if you can manage it. Rail is steel which seems to give good conductivity despite our corrosive Cornish sea air, I tried rubbing the rails with soft graphite which has made a marked improvement to current collection reliability. The only downside is having to re-apply it if you eventually need to clean the track. The most recent locos are the 'Pugs' featured in the pictures, they use a Highlevel kits chassis in a Hornby body shell, I haven't done anything else to them apart from some heavy weathering.

Unfortunately the layout is quite difficult to operate using 3 link couplings which is why I will probably change to small auto couplings.

Hope that answers your question,

Steve

[steve howe]

Well, I carried out some experiments with the B&B etched auto coupling, converting two or three wagons. They worked OK but looked awful, in the end I just couldn't bring myself to remove the scale 3 links (Exactoscale) I had installed on the stock dedicated for this layout. So I converted them back again! I will have another go with AJs one day, but in the meantime I'll just have to persevere with the shunting pole.

Does anyone know a source of reasonably priced 'pen' torches or similar LED devices? I had a couple from years ago which I fixed a shunting pole to, but they have given up on me and when I looked for some on the internet the prices were coming up around the £7 - £10 mark.
Steve

[Paul Willis]

Does anyone know a source of reasonably priced 'pen' torches or similar LED devices? I had a couple from years ago which I fixed a shunting pole to, but they have given up on me and when I looked for some on the internet the prices were coming up around the £7 - £10 mark.

Hi Steve,

Ebay is your friend... There are ones on there starting from 99p, or if you want something more substantial have a look for something like Item number: 160425939243

At that price, worth a punt... I just searched under Ebay > Gadgets "pen torch LED".
HTH
Flymo

[Rustyrail]

Lovely work Steve. Do you have any other photos of this fine layout of yours?

Biginnor Road is also very inspiring; Danny are there any other references to it on the forum? My own layout - St. Mary Hoo - will, for the time being, be supported on an ironing board. I actually have a proper trestle for it but I still have to find a way of getting it from Wales to the south of France! I brought my two baseboards as hand luggage from the UK via Eurostar and TGV! Not easy but I succeeded.

Cheers
Simon

[steve howe]

Well done Simon! I once as a student transported a layout from Penzance to Hull (3 changes) via Inter City (as it was then) An unforgettable and never to be repeated experience!

Gods and volcanoes willing, Horsley Bank will be at Scaleforum this year.

Steve

[steve howe]

Ebay is your friend... There are ones on there starting from 99p, or if you want something more substantial have a look for something like Item number: 160425939243

At that price, worth a punt... I just searched under Ebay > Gadgets "pen torch LED".
HTH
Flymo[/quote]

Thanks for the steer flymo, I've gone for a couple of LED extra bright keyring torches, its probably going to be a lot simpler than genetically modifying earwigs to to the job!

[dcockling]

Biginnor Road is also very inspiring; Danny are there any other references to it on the forum?

Hi Simon,

Not that I'm aware of, but I will forward your comments to Paul Severs and ask him to e-mail you.

All the Best
Danny

[Rustyrail]

Many thanks for your posts Steve and Danny.

I wish I could get to Scaleforum to see your lovely model Steve. Sadly, model railway exhibitions are a bit thin on the ground here (non existent really). Because of the sun people spend most of their time outside here doing outdoor sort of things, and as a result there are no model railway shops or exihibitions. At a guess I'd say I'm possibly the only P4 modeller building British standard gauge in Provence, but Danny might be able to verify this?

Cheers
Simon

[steve howe]

Having located a suitably priced pen torch (far more sophisticated than my old AA battery powered thing)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

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I formed a steel wire 'pole' and soldered it to the casing - after removing the batteries first - the surface seemed to be some kind of anodised plating which refused solder, but easily scraped off to reveal a brassy looking metal which soldered readily. The hook was filed on both sides to a slight taper and polished with a glassfibre brush and given a slight twist to the right which seems to help the hook slide out of the loop more easily.

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However its still a fiddle!

[steve howe]

A few more recent shots of Horsley Bank, still creaking along!

Steve

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