Cromarty Light Railway

[IrishPeter]

The railway had an identity change over Christmas and New Year.  The Cromarty Light Railway became the Coverdale Light Railway which is "somewhere in t'Borders."  The intermediate halts and stations are Grindale, Ridley, Wycliff, and Ryle Bank, with the line terminating in Great Coverdale.  Hussra or MdeC might well get that little joke.  ;)

Anyway.  Location #1 for the loop proved to be too close to the lower terminus, so I shifted it northwards by about 30.'  It took half an afternoon to find a workable site, as much of my line is on a narrow shelf along the side of the ridge that occupies most of our yard.  The top points - installed this afternoon - are now towards the bottom of Revival Hill, whilst the bottom points are just over midway round the Horseshoe Bend.  The gradient through there is 1 in 40, with a brief bit of level about where I am planning to put the main station building.  There is just room for a goods siding at the lower end of the station of the mainline.  The new location should give a fairly decent amble across the site of the old lawn to Scotsdyke.  Indeed there is enough of a run for Grindal Halt to be incorporated into that section.

There are also some major works going on at the upper terminus.  The new layout will eventually look like a cross between Hulme End and Llanfair Caereinion with the inevitable 'bean tin architecture.'  Whilst it has been too cold to venture outside - it has not got above freezing for four days, and it has been down to -20C - I have also been making signal boards based on those used between Pilmoor, Boroughbridge and Knaresborough Goods on the LNER between 1936 and 1964.  The system worked a bit like that used by DR on their lightly used rural 'nefenbahnen' except there it overlaid timetable safeworking rather than Electric Train Staff.

I really will have to figure out how to use Photobucket or summat of that nature as a less cumbersome way of getting piccies up on t'internet.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[hussra]

The railway had an identity change over Christmas and New Year.  The Cromarty Light Railway became the Coverdale Light Railway which is "somewhere in t'Borders."  The intermediate halts and stations are Grindale, Ridley, Wycliff, and Ryle Bank, with the line terminating in Great Coverdale.  Hussra or MdeC might well get that little joke.  ;)

Indeed so! Around here the equivalent local connections would be with the various Wilberforces (hence the loco name on the EHLR) and Abp. Tait. Where my parents are, on the other hand, it would have to be something to do with Taylor.

[IrishPeter]

Funny that, the Wilberforces are associated with the East Riding in my mind. William was MP for Hull then one of the County MPs for Yorkshire. Robert Isaac was Archdeacon of the E.R. and Rector of Burton Agnes, as well as being among the founders of St John's College, York. What struck me was that quite a few of the English Protestant Reformers had names that struck me as being North Country sounding even if they were not. The only ringer in there is Ryle who I had to include because he scribbled about the rest!

Anyway, the signboard system of signalling is my attempt to reduce the possibility of pile-ups. The gradient profile of my line is somewhat Welsh Highland - plenty of 1 in 40, so the visual cue where to shut off for stations will be a help. I quietly dread the idea of someone bringing their $2000 pride and joy to run on my line, and then roll it down an embankment due to excessive speed.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[hussra]

Funny that, the Wilberforces are associated with the East Riding in my mind.  William was MP for Hull then one of the County MPs for Yorkshire.  Robert Isaac was Archdeacon of the E.R. and Rector of Burton Agnes, as well as being among the founders of St John's College, York.  What struck me was that quite a few of the English Protestant Reformers had names that struck me as being North Country sounding even if they were not.  The only ringer in there is Ryle who I had to include because he scribbled about the rest!

The connection with our area is that his wife, Barbara Spooner, was from the local landed family who also (re)built our parish church. Another of the family, Catharine Spooner, married Archibald Campbell Tait. (They were also related to the famous William Archibald Spooner.)

[IrishPeter]

Before I went away on a Roadtrip with Herself, I managed to get a few more jobs done on the CLR.  The loop upper has been relaid and slightly extended to 13.'  That should be enough to allow a locomotive to run around five bogies and a van.  However, I have a suspicion that what will actually limit the length of trains on the CLR is the midway loop - either the length of it, or what a 'Millie' can start from a dead stand on a 1 in 36 gradient.

The other thing I am watching, as the line has been partially 'Calthroped,' is that I leave enough room between roads to allow SG goods wagons on transporters to clear one another, and leave the magic 2 (scale) feet - that basically means 7.5" centres between running lines, though I can fudge a bit in the upper terminus, as one side of the layout - the carriage shed, loco shed, and workshop are used only by NG vehicles.    

I also came up with a couple of carriage designs which I will mull over during the coming days.  The first is somewhat Calthrop - a gangwayed carriage on a 42' by 7'6" underframe seating 42.  The other is a more conventional carriage design which is a cross between the VoR's original carriages and the Lynton and Barnstaple's with the all third carrying 56 packed into a 33'6" by 6'6" vehicle. I think the latter will win out given that the haulage is generally a 'Millie' which is about 15'6" long in 16mm scale.

This week's mission is to extend the head of steel - well, aluminium actually - a bit closer to the eventual lower terminus.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

The line made its way across the greater part of the former lawn on Tuesday. I wanted to get a little further, but I ran out of ballast. Since then I have been held up by the weather. When it stops raining I shall wander out there and see how the new roadbed has settled, and go from there.

In the meantime I shall have to order more track. I am keeping the layouts fairly simple, but, due to financial constraints, it is going to take a while due to the cash flow.

Scotsdyke - loop and three sidings; two of which are adapted for transferring SG wagons onto transporters. The third siding will be for empty stock and NG wagons.

Ridley - loop and longish siding allowing both SG and NG wagons to be loaded and unloaded

Wycliffe - possible siding - part NG; part SG

Ryle Bank - long SG siding due to the presence of a quarry

Coverdale - Loop, two "works sidings" for the ES/WS and the CS. Two SG goods sidings; one with a far bit of NG track to allow NG wagons to be loaded/unloaded.

That little lot should keep me busy for a while.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Strangely, I was hoping that I would end up with a run of about 150' and when I measured the line from the mid-point of the loop at Coverdale down to the current head of aluminium it proved to be 141 ft with about another 10 feet to go before we enter the lower terminus,  :D which suggests the completed line will be about 160' from the centre of the loop at Coverdale to the same point at Scotsdyke.

The next few jobs in order of priority are:

(1) Complete line into Scotsdyke and lay temporary terminal loop
(1b) Take some photos and post them
(2) Install loop and siding at Ridley
(3) Deal with the great ornamental grass invasion.
(4) Replace Rickety Bridge with a slightly less rickety bridge - assuming the present structure does not pass out first.

Rolling stock building goes on in the background, and the time has come for me to make a start on some typical light railway architecture - aka - tin huts.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

Events have taken an unexpected turn in that I finally won the argument about having a shed for herself to store 'stuff' in.  I figured that it would go at the end of the huse uphill from the CLR's terminus.  However, when I had deliniated the required 8' x 8' I found it rather cramped.  My initial though was to take a few feet off the railway, and then I looked at the angle at which the fence rises.  

Tape measure, spirit level, ruler, and length of hose were produced and the difference in level measure - a rise of one 15" in roughly 360", and with a bit of finagling I could probably reduce that to closer to 13" in 360."  The only snag with this is that my line already has its own little Golfa Bank up into the terminus, but at 18' of 1 in 29 it is not too bad.  It may even make 'Millie' pause for thought hauling a train up that gradient for close on 55' or 350 yds in 1:19.1 scale.

Anyway, I decided to go for it and an embankment has been rising next to the present terminus and the site of the new shed.  

PICTURES at...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/CLRCon1.html

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

More pictures

http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/CLRCon2.html

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

A bit more progress today.

A fresh supply of track arrived courtesy of UPS about 3.30pm so I started relaying from Ryle Bank towards Coverdale in SVRR code 250 track. This is nice stuff to work with, and I got 9' done which got me as far as the siding points at the north end of Ryle Bank. Tomorrow I want to press northwards towards the start of 'the new bit' and then ballast what has been laid.

Some of my early vehicles were slightly overscale for my former interest, and have been fitted with 24mm diameter wheels to become the basis of the 2'6" gauge stock pool. A brake van, and a saloon carriage got a quick dose of that 'dodgy chicken korma curry brown paint' that the LNER used to allege was "teak" coloured! My excuse is that the LNER decided to save some brass and paint second string stock on the CLR rather than give them the full treatment. It actually rather suits them.

I have not told the missus yet, but Millie will be getting a coat of black before long. I am eying the semi-gloss black engine paint in the local Auto parts shop, and thinking it will do the job. I would imagine so, given that the side tanks remain relatively cool, the engine paint will be OK. I wonder if I will manage the mixed traffic red lining - somehow I doubt it, as the period is supposed to be the late 1930s. However, the LNER mixed traffic livery looks really classy even though I can well imagine that the LNER was just going for plain black to save the pennies on a backwater like the CLR. If I can find someone who makes 12" LNER letter in Ga.1 that will be close enough for the 8" used on mixed traffic and goods locomotives.

I wish I could find an excuse for modelling my Great-Grandfather's box on the CLR, but at 36 levers it is waaa-ay too big as well as being the wrong railway (ex-GCR not ex-NER, or ex-NBR).

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

After putting in a lot of hours at work over the weekend I needed some railway time, but the weather foiled me until today. Even though it was allegedly a better day today, I did get snowed on whilst I was out there, but it was not sticking.

Anyway, the section from Ryle Bank to 'Low Coverdale' was completed in code 250 aluminium rail on Friday. Today I continued on from there in Code 332 brass. The more durable materials reflect the fact that there is a fair amount of foot traffic around the end of the house. As the string in the first set of photo suggests - http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ttac/CLRCon1.html - the new alignment hugs the fence line climbing steeply until it is clear of the (site of the) shed, and which point it curves right into the new station site, before curving left to enter the platform.

I managed to land the south end loop points well clear of the shed, which will help ensure that no misplaced clogs end up damaging the point work. The loop will be fairly short - about 10', but with a 1 in 29 gradient leading up into the teminus trains are going to be on the short side anyway.

This evening I did some more work on the brake-composite (No. 6; LNER No. ?????) that I am building for the CLR. The ends were glued to the frame last night, and then this evening the right hand side of the carriage body was glued into position. The next two jobs are to start adding the interior, and complete the left hand side. The compartment vehicles I seem to like putting the interior before I install the one side of the carriage. With saloons I seem to make the box first and then fit it out.

More photos tomorrow, hopefully.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ