The Shankly and Gdynia Railway

[IanAlan]

Hi everybody,
My posts on 6th August are rather like waiting for a bus - you wait ages for one to come and finally a whole bunch of them come along at once!

Scouting Expedition


Zoom in on this photo and you'll be able to see some scouts taking turns to climb over a stile.

[IanAlan]

It's That Train Again

[IanAlan]

Going Against the Grain


This is the corner where I intend to reinstate the tunnel at some point.

My phone is struggling to upload photos, so I'm doing it a few at a time.

[bulleidboy]

That would require some major upheaval?

[IanAlan]

I'm sorry to have taken so long to reply Bulleidboy, but yes, a lot of work. However, now is the perfect time as the layout is dismantled and on its side in the loft room at the moment. We had a guest stay, so the loft room had to be made habitable ,ie, the layout had to be taken up - that's why I made the layout semi-portable. Of course, the track is still nailed down, but everything else is off. When I put it back, it'll be a good opportunity to change the rails. That's October's job as I'm about to start visiting university open days with my son, who is hoping to start university next autumn, so I won't have much free time in September.

Here's some photos taken before the Great Dismantling.

[IanAlan]

Some more pre-dismantling photos.

Becker Farm


Silos


Anyone familiar with this thread will understand that Becker Farm refers to Alison Becker, the Liverpool FC goalkeeper. My son and I combined a trip to Loughborough University open day with a stay in Liverpool to watch Liverpool versus West Ham United, which I'm pleased to say the boys in red won. My late uncle Walter must be turning in his grave - he was West Ham born and bred, and mildly disappointed when he found out that I was a red half a century ago. That said, I suspect that he was secretly pleased that I was a football fan. One more university open day left (Warwick) and then I'll be a free man again. Then I won't have any excuses for not getting the Shankly and Gdynia Railway up and running again.

[IanAlan]

Here are (probably, hopefully) the last few pre-demolition photos.





Yes, I am somewhat scraping the bottom of the barrel, but there is a glimmer of hope upon the (railway) horizon. I've removed some of the old track and have invested a lot of time repainting much of the baseboard. This is easier to do when propped up vertically, so I haven't hurried to get the legs back on and put it on the floor. I've nearly finished the paint job and hope to have it horizontal again by the end of the week. And then I'll have to re-lay and replace much of the track, but I hope to have one circuit of track back in operation very quickly.

I acknowledge that I didn't make a very good job of editing the first photo, but I wanted to post something tonight.

[IanAlan]

The Shankly and Gdynia Railway is back. Only one track - the outer Triang circuit, but it was nice to run a locomotive today for the first time since late July.

Unfortunately, it quickly became obvious that I hadn't made a very good job of track laying. The locomotive - Old Faithful - went around a hundred times no problem, but as soon as I put a wagon on the back - derailment. I tried a larger wagon, which I have added weights to, and this was fine going round clockwise, but I didn't even try anticlockwise because I could feel with my finger that the join was not smooth.

My plan is to push on with changing the inner three circuits of track and then re-lay the outer.

Wagon Roll


The photo shows Old Faithful pulling the derailing wagon, which was my birthday present from my sister's husband, Kevin. At last, out of the box and onto the layout, and very nice it is too. Thanks Kev!

[Rog (RJ)]

The narrow coupling(s) aren't really compatible with the older wide couplings and cause derailments. Removing the hook part from the narrow coupling usually provides a cure.

[IanAlan]

Thank you Rog. I think that you are right and that it's a contributing factor. Indeed, I've noticed it before when running trains. It's something that I should be more aware of when choosing what locomotive to put with any given wagon.

Unfortunately, my poor track laying is also a major factor. I might replace the old Triang track with some spanking new Hornby track. I suspect that when I've laid the three inner circuits, I'll have a lot of new Hornby third radious double curves left, so I'll only need to buy some straights.

The moral of the story is that before nailing the track down, I should have 1. Run my finger over the joins in both directions and 2. Run a locomotive and wagon to see how they handle it. MRF readers are invited to learn from my mistake. I'll be doing that during the next few days on the three inner circuits.