Lower Thames Yard

[Tallpaul70]

True,
But why a daily large van load to Didcot?

London maybe, but Didcot?? Admittedly there was also a passenger brake van to Reading, but that is all on the Western Region.

There may be other vans either way on the ER (Great Central), so heading for London, Nottingham, Manchester etc.( I don't have the relevant documents to check these!

What do the rest of you think?

Cheers
Paul

[Walkingthedog]

Problem is Paul that many members on here probably don’t know the area. I do but can’t really help.

[Tallpaul70]

The good thing about these situations is that you can do what appeals to you without having to proclaim "Rule 1" , because there is not the information readily available to say you are wrong!
Cheers
Paul

[Walkingthedog]

I have never run trains to any schedule. I hate going to shows where they run to a timetable, very boring and unfair to the paying customers. If nothing is running I move on. Nothing worse than looking at a motionless layout waiting for the 0847 mixed goods to Hanging under the Rafters to appear from the tunnel.

[Tallpaul70]

I agree, the secret is selective compression. I prefer to run a model based on a real location and its real trains although the layout is altered, particularly as to the relative locations of sidings to fit my 12ft x 8ft room.

I run the correct trains in the correct order, but leave out most of the time when nothing happened!
This is why I am not keen on the one engine in steam back of beyond branch lines that so many people feel obliged to model because they are limited for space. I prefer running a busy line with max 5 coach/ 15 wagon train lengths to a quiet line with prototypical length trains.
I also prefer running to shunting so I keep that to the minimum to accurately marshal or break down the trains in my timetable.!

Also there are not enough hours in the day to run in real time. So I start my timetable around 0400 when some interesting early morning and overnight trains run on my chosen prototype, and finish around midnight. I run a two hour session which covers around 4-6 hours of real time, with a coffee break after the first hour.
The next running session covers the next 4-6 hours so that if I run the trains most days through a week, I have run one whole day's timetable. This also helps with the need to run some trains round the layout a number of times as there is not enough fiddle yard space to hold all the trains that really ran in a day!
Not everyone's cup of tea but it does me!

Cheers
Paul

[Walkingthedog]

As you say timetables need to be compressed, but on some layouts there can be 5 minutes between movements which is a lifetime if you are waiting.

[Tallpaul70]

I hope no one is in self quarantine?
Where ever you are, perhaps a bit more on Lower Thames Yard operations will be of interest?

Another interesting sequence involves a class 121 railcar which on some trips combines with a trailer car and /or a parcels van.
The 121+ trailer arrived with the trailer leading from Slough(actually my Branch Fiddle Yard) at 0740 in the Branch platform, leaving for High Wycombe at 0747 and arriving back from High Wycombe at 0922. It then left the trailer in the branch siding.
In reality the trailer was behind the 121 and was left in the East end siding.
However I have no east end siding and it is more interesting to have the trailer visible in the branch siding.

Oddly, having left the trailer in the east end siding, the 121 then went and sat in the branch siding until 1245!
It then moved to the Branch platform and left at 1305 for Bourne End. It returned at 1331 and then according to the carriage working book collected a parcels van from the east end siding!

Those of you who are keeping up with this will have realized that early the 121 dropped its trailer into that siding, but the parcels van arrived after 0930, so can be dropped in front of the trailer!
I avoid this complication by having the parcels train that drops off the above parcels van at 1207, dropping it into the down loop siding. (in reality this siding was very short, too short for the appropriate GUV or Syphon G).
The 121 dropped the parcels van in the Branch platform, and left for Bourne end again at 1412, from whence it got back at 1437 and attached the parcels van for a trip to Aylesbury at 1506.

The 121 returned to Maidenhead at 1755 towing a different parcels van to the one it left with at 1506!
The 121 then dropped the parcel van (I drop it in neck of the yard sidings as it is on the opposite end of the 121 to that where the earlier parcels van was attached, but the carriage working book does not say where it was dropped!)

It then picked up its trailer from the Branch siding and left for Bourne End ay 1855.
It and the trailer returned as an empty diesel at 1936 running straight through to Slough (actually my Branch fiddle Yard).

So this is quite an involved working, and one that will keep me on my toes as an operator!

Happy modelling, and I hope you all stay healthy!
Paul

[Tallpaul70]

Good Afternoon All,
Hope everybody is ready for the next 4 months-(ish) of staying at home?

Little moving currently on the modelling front (I know, nothing new there!). No idea when the guys will be able to work on, baseboards, tracklaying and wiring which was planned to start c2nd April.

But hopefully today sees the end of our (my) getting ready phase!
This includes home food deliveries set up for the next two weeks, work that needs doing on the paths and fences outside organized (they will have to phone me if they hit a snag-I'm not going outside while they are here!), old conservatory furniture taken away by Charity and new furniture set out, and various internet orders, ordered.

A bright ray is that, as much as we love the grandchildren, we have a good excuse not to turn out for grandparent duties, especially as my son is now working from home.

So tomorrow I can do some planning of modelling tasks:-
Not worried if run out of any parts glues etc. just follow my normal practice and put the offending item with its parts etc. in a clearly labelled box and move on to the next item in the "to do" pile! It may well be such items put aside will wait for a long time even by my standards to get moved on.

Also, this week, next week sometime...………, might actually get to taking some pics and putting them up for you all to critique (laugh at!)

Meanwhile , keep safe, keep smiling, keep modelling, and above all, don't let the B.....rs get you down!!

Cheers
Paul

[Tallpaul70]

Hi All,

I thought that having educated (bored!) you on Parcels and Class 121 operations at Lower Thames Yard, it was the turn of something more exciting(!)

So today is the turn of the Express Passenger trains. Now there are not too many of these because the model will be of the Relief Lines and Branch, but I need a few expresses to let me run those that I particularly like and also to provide some variety.

There will be four named expresses and four unnamed rakes, which is all I can accommodate. All the rakes will be of 5 coaches, mainly MK1s but with the occasional GWR built coach in the maroon rakes for variety.

The named expresses will run from the lower fiddle yard via the scenic area to the main fiddle yard and return.

The down run of one express will be timed to pass the up run of another in the scenic area. So the Down Cornish Riviera will start from the main fiddle yard and pass the Up Cathedrals Express in the scenic area. The Down Cornish Riviera ends up in the siding in the Lower fiddle yard that the Up Cathedrals Express vacated earlier, and the Up Cathedrals Express ends up in the siding that the Down Cornish Riviera vacated earlier.

The unnamed rakes, one chocolate and cream and one maroon in each direction will circulate from the main fiddle yard via the scenic area back to the main fiddle yard. A refinement I will get to when I have more experience of running the layout will be that the up and down unnamed rakes will swap over to increase the variety, and may venture to the lower fiddle yard!.

One of the tricky aspects is to compose the 5 coach unnamed rakes so that they are not too toy like, but typical of the line's expresses, whilst not peculiar to a particular train, as in 1960/2 there were still a lot of individuality to the rakes of each train.

Any suggestions on this would be appreciated!

Locos will be a mix of steam and Hydraulic Diesels, probably too many steamers for accuracy in the period, but again with skill at running the layout I will start to change locos on the unnamed rakes between their runs. The named rakes will always get a loco change at each end of their runs, but this will need care, as steamers reaching the buffers in the lower fiddle yard will need to be found a path between the other trains up and down the incline to get to and from the turntable which is beside one end of the main fiddle yard.

In the early days of running the layout the unnamed rakes will get multiple runs round the layout one after the other , although unrealistic, to create windows for shunting and dealing with the branch trains!

Hope the above makes sense?

Keep smiling
Best regards
Paul

[Tallpaul70]

Hi All,
Decided I really ought to get stuck into my "to do" list which every day seems to get longer. Combined with my "I'll do it when I get a moment" list, well I need a pile of the old fashioned fan fold computer paper to keep track of it all!

So today I'm tackling one item from each list:-
I spent the morning sorting out a couple of boxes of kits and part builds that I reckon last saw light of day five years back.
I discovered that while I'd been methodical and packed each part build in the same box as its bag with the parts left to use, I had a bit of a mix of Manufacturers.

There was a good pile of Coopercraft but also some Parkside and even 3 Ks!. So I have now listed all the kits, checked I've got all the parts to complete and decide where I am going to upgrade, particularly buffers and brake gear. Fortunately I have two oblong Quality Street tins full of the little bags of wagon bits that you used to buy for 50p a time, so I hope I have most of the bits I need.
I have also included in my list what needs doing to each so that if it is some time before I get to doing any of them, I know what I need to do to each

The Ks were a mixed bag; a 17ft 6in van, a SR Parcels van, but the best by far, a GW Syphon C which is definitely going to be finished. But I do need to research when these were scrapped, however, if earlier than 1960/2, I feel an application of Rule 1 coming on!

The more priority job, is to finish off sorting my Shell tankers. I need to get out my copy of Tourret's masterpiece and finally decide on the composition of the train from Shellhaven that bought a Class 31 through Maidenhead in 1960/2. I hope I have enough of the right livery for the time to have a 12 tank train (plus a spacing open wagon each end and ER numbered BR 20 ton brake). If there are any spare I will include a couple in one of my High Wycombe branch pick up freights. Quite a few of what I have are weathered so they will be first choice if the right livery, although I will include the odd clean wagon.

I hope everyone is feeling well enough to be making progress with their modelling, or just enjoying running their layout?
Take care
Cheers
Paul