J94 Project – Done!
When I picked up my nearly finished J94 kit it came with an already assembled Branchlines Gearbox. Try as I might I just couldn’t get on with it. For some reason it seemed to have very little torque but this wasn’t sacrificed for speed as it didn’t really have much of that either (perhaps the energy was being used up by the noise it generated?). So admitting defeat I swapped it for a High Level Road Runner +. What a difference that made!
Another little problem I came across was the lack of space between the inside motion and the springs I fitted on the front 2 axles. I had used a short handrail knob in the same way that the advocates of CSB systems use but it was all just a little bit too tight for comfort. So I ditched that and just soldered a couple of springs to the inside of the chassis – Number 10 guitar springs for the center axle and number 12 for the front bearing on the top of the axles. Anyone with any kind of knowledge of how things should be done are probably reading the rest of this post from behind a sofa but it works so that’s fine in my eyes!
Anyway its done so here’s a few pictures.
Here’s a very short video of the inside motion at work
Below are a few evening images.
Another little video – this time a spot of shunting. There’s a few stutters which I am hoping a little more running in will iron out.
Finally one of those unplanned shots you sometimes get when you are focussing on something else and they just catch your eye. A simple line up of coal wagons.
Introducing Brettell Grove
Regular readers will recall that I was quite taken with the GBL Jinty. Well after wandering around the area where I live (both online and in reality) I decided a small plaything based loosely on the sidings at Moor Street might be worth looking into. A day or so in Illustrator and the above plan was formed.
When I say loose I mean very loose. For a start Moor Street yard was firmly in GWR territory and I prefer the Midland. The yard at Moor Street was much longer and double ended and the canal is in a different place. Plus the mainline is double, not single and flat, mine is neither. The real location wasn’t, to my knowledge, as hemmed in by buildings as I wanted. The name is based on the nearby Brettell lane.
There’s also the opportunity to practise a few things I will be using on New Street, mainly laser cut baseboards and buildings. Plus it’s a bit more ‘railway’ than my shopping centre, which will be quite a long term project.
So with the help and guidance of Tim and a couple of days at the controls of his laser cutter a couple of baseboards were cut and assembled. A few mistakes were made but overall I was pleased with how they turned out.
9th December 2010
Been working on the walls on board 2 as well as finishing off all of the platform tops. Theres more in the scenary section.
Also been working on the little bit of wasteland near the dock at the Wolverhampton end of the station. Some more experimentation with photography in very low light can be found in the class 50 and class 310 pages in the stock section.
Finally, may I take the opportunity to wish all visitors to my little corner of the internet a Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2011!
21st October 2009
Time for another update. There are a few new sections to the website as well as a conclusion to an ongoing project!
First up I have had a track building urge again and good progress has been made on the London/Derby end station thoat. To see more go to the track page.
A new section on how I am building my roads can be found in the scenary section.
If you have roads you need vehicles to go on them! See more in the Vehicles section.
Finally my staff building is finished!
12th May 2008
Been busy with more trackwork. I have also loaded a more up to date (and clearer to see) track plan for the station area to the layout section.
20th July 2007
All of the track that crosses between boards 1 and 2 is now down. This means that board 1 can go into storage for a while and track laying can continue onto board 2.
As with all things often tweaks need to be made when you see things full size and the roads over this part of the station are not quite right. Altering these does not affect the work done so far.
29th June 2007
With all of the switch and crossing work on the first board finished I popped the signal box in situe to get a sense of height to the work so far. After all of the 1 in 9 crossing work the B6 in the loco sidings seems ever so tight!
15th June 2007
A shade over a month since I started tracklaying and I have to be a bit surprised as to progress so far. More pictures can be seen in the layout section, under track.
23 April 2007
I have finally decided it’s about time I put a website together to chart the progress on my model railway – p4newstreet.
Basically a model of Birmingham New Street station and surrounding areas, set in the late 1980’s (1986-1987 to be exact) and built using P4 track Standards. See the layout section for more details.
I Plan to update the website as and when there is some progress to report so hopefully you will pop back now and then to see how things progress.