7mm The Derby Line: Basford North

[dibateg]

A busy goods yard during the July running session. The up stopping goods is leaving and picking up wagons. The 13:34 to Nottingham Victoria via Gedling waits to leave the bay platform.


Taken from the roof of the goods shed, Kudu calls at Basford North with a Derby Grantham train.

 

[oldravendale]

IMHO you have that just about right, Tony.

B

 

[simond]

Tony,

i guess the Weltrol is a Darstaed one? They seem to be too high. I removed the bogies, and, from memory, turned off the half-round ring that tops the central casting. This was quick & easy and lowered them nicely on mine. I can take some pictures next week if it would help.

I suggested to Ellis that they fit a washer to the coarse scale ones and make the fine scale ones right, I don’t know if they took up the suggestion for future designs, but I guess there would be no case for changing existing tooling.

atb
Simon

 

[AJC]

Tony,

i guess the Weltrol is a Darstaed one? They seem to be too high. I removed the bogies, and, from memory, turned off the half-round ring that tops the central casting. This was quick & easy and lowered them nicely on mine. I can take some pictures next week if it would help.

I suggested to Ellis that they fit a washer to the coarse scale ones and make the fine scale ones right, I don’t know if they took up the suggestion for future designs, but I guess there would be no case for changing existing tooling.

atb
Simon

Looks like a scaled up Airfix/Mainline/Bachmann one, even down to the naff (in comparison with the rest of the model) D/C brake handles.

Adam

 

[simond]

Yep, I haven’t fixed the brake handles on mine yet. NAF describes them accurately…

 

[AJC]

Yep, I haven’t fixed the brake handles on mine yet. NAF describes them accurately…

It reminds me that I ought to take my spare D/C handles back to Somerset to treat dad's Airfix one when I next visit...

Adam

 

[Dave Holt]

All coming along very nicely, Tony. I take it that's a K2 lurking in the foreground?
Photos I've seen of the area in steam days suggest a somewhat gloomier and grubby environment. Are you intending to have a more soot blackened appearance eventually?
Regarding the ride height of the Weltrol, the key thing is buffer height I imagine.
Dave.

 

[Dave Holt]

I take it all back. Re-looking at the photos of Basford in the early to mid 1960s, the station building and goods shed look remarkably clean, with the contrasting darker corner features clearly visible. The same can't be said for the state of the locos!
Very interesting arrangement of point rodding exiting the Basford Station signal box. Haven't seen that anywhere else.
Dave.

 

[dibateg]

Thanks Brian - I appreciate your comment, there is still lots more to do.

Simon - yes it's a Darstead - as yet untouched by me, I put it in to make up a train length - pretty well all my stock is weathered, so I will examine the ride hight when I do the next batch. Thanks for spotting that.

Yes - it's the K2 on the Nottingham train Dave. Basford was a 90 odd lever box, though my simplified layout won't need as much point rodding. I shall probably take it all out of the front of the box - otherwise it will look too empty there!

Regards
Tony

 

[simond]

Tony

Just back from hols so your reply is well-timed, herewith the modification, I changed the 3-hole to spoked as you can see - I think they’re Slaters’



As you can see I polished off the circular rib on which the body pivots. I’d prefer a little less rubbing area but it doesn’t seem to give any issues, and the height is very much better.



I think, DC levers aside, these wagons are really nice mouldings, and the bogies are excellent. I shall have a couple more at some point!

Best
Simon

 

[dibateg]

Thanks Simon!

 

[dibateg]

We won't be re-enacting this though...

 

[AJC]

We won't be re-enacting this though...
View attachment 221334


View attachment 221335

And the trolleybus wires? You can probably be forgiven those…

Adam

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I wouldn't bet on it - the operators are human . On the other hand it would have made a talking piece if it was modelled.

If they were extant in the period you're modelling (which appears to be the case looking at the station nameboard on the platform lamp) the tram/trolleybus mast would ne a nice scenic feature.

 

[dibateg]

Work has begun on the final large structure for the layout, namely the GC line overbridge that form part of the scenic break at the eastern end of the scenic section. Work on the pilasters is still in progress.

 

[dibateg]

A trial fit of the deck. The bridge is based on GC bridge 276. the girders and fittings will be made from brass.

 

[dibateg]

As part of the current weathering operations, I dimsantled the Weltrol and turned down the bogie bosses off in the Unimat. I didn't take quite as much off as Simon - but the ride hight is vastly improved.




Also passing through were the Heljan CCTs and the Ellis Clark Presflos. The Presflos are lovely but very fragile, I mangaged to knock three bits off - all re-enstated...

 

[dibateg]

Whilst on holiday, and Mrs T was .. still abed ( I'm an early riser ) I thought I'd use the time to hone my Microsoft Access skills and get a presentable version of the working timetable. This will save me squinting at my finely printed spreadsheet shouting commands to the crewand consist of an Access form displaying on several monitors the timetable for the operators. I'm indebted to Geoff Taylor and John Elloitt for the concept.

The VGA splitter and cable came from Amazon today, so I've done a temporary lash up to test that is all works before installing it in the railway room. I had a fleet of old monitors from work that were redundant after everything went wide screen.

 

[simond]

Are you using DCC?

If so, does one operator hand over a train to another?

is the “number” box the loco number to give the operator the heads up for what they need to drive?

this has always been a bugbear for shed-to-shed garden railways like my pal, John’s. How to ”hand over”.

would love to know more.
cheers
Simon

 

[dibateg]

Yes - DCC Simon. -

One driver takes the train from storage back to storage.

Number is the train number from the original WT.

Operators:-
Two drivers, shunter, signal man for Basford North and controller for the storage yard, and usually me -the fat ( but not ) controller!

Cheers
Tony