Two Plans

Llansilin Road

So these are the latest versions of the two plans.

First the modified version of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant based on the valuable  input from Richard Ough.

Perhaps the most obvious visual change is the move of the catch point at the up end of the loop. I've also dropped any hint of the second platform.

Then the modified version of TaOC, which isn't any more, because thanks to a suggestion from Kane the plan has shifted to being based rather more on Easingwold East but still with the station at the entrance to the scenic section and the goods shed at the down end.

Of course now the penny has dropped that since building this new compact design, provisionally called Llansilin is going to take the next eighteen months to two years then by the time I get to build Llanrhaiadr I might have enough space available to build it to fit a larger space so I can revert to a more spacious and authentic version. After all the kids are bound to leave home some time, aren't they?

A Question of Logic

I've had my thinking hat on again, in another attempt to synthesize Lanrhaiadr Mochnant and The Art of Compromise to produce a version that won't take up too much space in the office.

Point rodding in blue

Compared to earlier versions I'm planning to swap the viewing side over, so the goods shed will be at the front, as it is on Apa. Compared to the real LM the big changes are the replacement of the level crossing with a bridge and moving the main platform  to the down side of the loop. A quick reminder that in any case the model is going to be set both after passenger working ceased in 1951 and after LM became a terminus in 1952. Changing the level crossing for a bridge means I have to decide where to put the motley collection of sheds and the weighbridge. I suspect I won't reach a final decision on that until I place some mock ups on the baseboard. I don't think there is actually an obvious on scene location for the weighbridge that makes sense . A couple of other bits of the jigsaw have now fallen into place, including where the iron mink stood that was used for additional storage in the yard.

The jigsaw I'm not so sure about involves the points and signalling, because some of the edges of the puzzle are missing. Literally so when it comes to photos.

You might need a pen and paper for the next bit....

What I do know is that the LM lever frame had twelve levers, and Mike Lloyd records ten of them being in use at some point in time. I'm fairly certain that four levers were for signals. I know that three sets of point rodding ran along the downside of the line and I'm presuming two of those operated the points at 7 and 8. I'm guessing that point 8 at least had a facing point lock, which could account for the third rod, though the onlyTVR  FPL I have a photo of, at Llansilin Road, appears to have been operated off the same lever as the point.

Is it possible that point 7 didn't have a FPL because passenger trains wouldn't have used it in the up direction, or would it have had an economical FPL? In that case though wouldn't the FPL' for points 7 and 4 have been of the same kind, so why would they need rods from the lever frame?

Two rods pass under the loop, one of which then runs along the down platform towards the cattle dock siding. I think this continues to the catch point on the cattle dock siding. The second one, I presume, controls the catch point on the goods shed siding.

Three sets of rodding run alongside the up platform. One crosses under the loop at the end of the platform and controls point 5, so I'm guessing the remaining two control point 4 and its FPL.

That by my calculations comes to eight sets of point rodding, and four signal cables.

So the next question is what levers would have controlled what, and how would the interlocking have worked. Using TRAX 3 this is my best guess so far

It seems to work for most of the obvious movements and conflicts I can think of. When/if I get around to building it I'll be using DCC so at least I'll be able to amend things. Any advice and observations at this stage though would obviously be more than welcome.

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant in Glorious Colour!

I was whingeing recently in my comments on Geoff's excellent  article on good yard textures about how difficult it was to recreate colour from black and white photos.

It is typical therefore that almost immediately afterwards I found this set of colour photos of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant.

£15 for each high definition download is a bit steep if you ask me but even the preview versions have provided me with some useful information. I'm glad I found them now rather than in a year's time because they've corrected my understanding of a few points. In a particular I'm really pleased to find this shot of the shed with the fuel pump next to it. I think it will make a nice cameo.

I'm certainly a lot happier now I know more about the colour of the goods yard and after another couple of washes I think I'm getting closer to the right effect. I need to do something about the vegetation around the edges. It would appear to need to be a darker green than the grass behind it and more weed than grass.

This Virtual Life

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant here we come!

One of my many excuses for a lack of recent modelling activity is that I've just upgraded the PC in my home office. To be honest as a household we probably have a higher than average number of computers and whilst it is a long time since I had a job that involved getting my hands dirty with technology I can still find my way around the innards of a computer. So normally a new machine is up and running with all the right software and data  in minutes. My home office machine though is a different kettle of fish, with a lot of legacy software on it and a lot of data, especially photographs. So it has taken a couple of weeks to get it to the stage where the new machine is ready to take over.

Whilst trying to find some of the CDs needed for those legacy programs I came across the disks for Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS). Now I have mixed feelings about train simulators, but I've recently upgraded to the latest versions of Train Simulator/Railworks/Rail Simulator and to Trainz. Trainz just doesn't do it for me, I find it uninvolving, but TS20014 has some quite good content, though it comes at a price unless you buy it during one of their regular promotions.

MSTS is long in the tooth now, and was long abandoned by Microsoft. Out of the box the graphics show their age, especially if you forget you need tom run it in windowed mode to make the best use of modern screens. However it has the advantage that there is a lot of high quality user-generated content out there that can transform it. From my perspective it helps enormously that some of that content is narrow gauge, and I have a particular fondness for the Rye & Camber and W&LLR routes that are available.

Having fired it up again on the new machine I began to wonder what Cambrian Railway content was available. I vaguely remembered there being a payware pack for the Cambrian Coast lines, and discovered to my delight that an expanded version even included the TVR.

Blodwell Junction

Llanrhaiadr Mochnant

Llangynog

OK, knowing the line quite well now some things are very obviously wrong. The good sheds are far too small and.... but hold on it is what it is, and quite good fun to drive. It has certainly given me another insight into the line. It might not be everybody's cup of tea but I've been really enjoying myself after a hard slog of a week.

The Concept in 4mm

I described this in a reply to a comment as  the Apa box layout I should have built."

The piece of tissue paper was worried to death by one of our poodles

It would mean compromising the visual side of the model in favour of some operating potential. To make it work real care would be needed in blending in the back scene, and some trickery would be needed to convince the viewer that something actually exists off scene. I thought point rodding could be a good example of that, suggesting that there are actually turnouts at each end of the "loop"

The "ready weathered" Dapol gunpowder van is really dreadful

Is there any point in building it now? I'm not sure it. It is a chance to try out using the loco lift components to build both a traverser and a sector plate. I'm also going to need to try out EM track construction and this would seem a possible practical use of the first usable attempts. A baseboard should take minutes to knock up, and of course I do still have a spare Apa box.

So who knows, it might happen.

I am thinking

I've spent a lot of my life working in Germany, but have never managed to pick up the language, so I have some sympathy with this guy:

Meanwhile I've been doing some thinking of my own about baseboards and whether to go for the small or large version of Llanrhaiadr. After all I need the practice of building as many points as possible to gain confidence, and the large scheme only involves two more of them.
The other thought is about presentation. I would rather look at a model that is 100% scenic than one that it 50% sector table,

But then is there too much scenery in the large version, particularly at the right front? Or rather too much scenic space and nothing interesting to occupy it? Perhaps I could put some cottages there.

Then again perhaps the solution is a hybrid of the two with a  really short sector table that perhaps just replaces one of the points.

I think, once the rain stops, it is time to build the baseboards, print out some track templates, and play trains.

Quiet Before the Storm

I'm sat here at eleven PM in my home office, having just about finished work for the day. The windows are wide open and I can feel a storm coming.  I can also feel a storm of modelling activity approaching. My darling wife is away for the next week which is a good time to arrange for a few parcels to arrive. In fact one already has, from C+L Finescale, but I'm not opening it just yet.

The combined contents of all the boxes heading my way should be more than enough to kick start my adventures in EM. The one thing I've forgotten to order in time is a set of wheels for the Sentinel from Ultrascale.

In a way this EM gauge goodness actually gives me a fresh impetus to finish the Apa project, and if the weather holds out I'm hoping that by Sunday it will at least appear finished.

So what is in the boxes?  Hopefully the makings of a couple of 4'x2' baseboards for a start, some basics to get me practicing track laying, and a Mainly Trains replacement chassis for the Ratio 4 wheel coach.. Plus a couple of structure kits for a cattle dock and a water tower which are called for by the new layout and which don't seem worth scratch building.

So if I'm about to start building baseboards do I have a final trackplan in mind?

Well yes, well two actually. Yesterday's ruminations about combining the real track plan from Llanrhaiadar Mochant, and two of my other favourite plans, Llanastr and The Art of Compromise have led to two options.

The first is the small space version, though that small space has now extended to 8' by 2' in total, including a sector table/traverser.

The second is 12' by 2' including the sector plate, and takes less liberties with Llanrhaiadr.

You might note that the first 4' of both plans look very similar. In fact the differences are down to some evolving thinking and the idea is to begin with the first plan and then extend it by inserting a middle board. A few things would need adjusting, notably the positioning of the weighbridge and the ground frame. The first wouldn't really be a problem, the second would because it would mean rerouting the point rodding. I might take the easy way out and leave the ground frame off stage for the first iteration.

One consequence of using the first plan is that operation could be a little odd, or interesting, depending on your point of view. Imagine a passenger train pulling in.  By this stage in its history Llanrhaiadr had become the terminus of the Tanat Valley, and only the old up platform was in  use. Given the limited space probably just the one bogie coach would be in view. So the loco uncouples and runs up to the water tower, then runs round back out of sight under the bridge....ah and you see now it doesn't matter whether that is the engine which couples back on to the train or not, because it is out of sight, which frees the original train loco to do something else.

Planning

As you might be able to tell my thoughts are now very much about the next layout, with the end very much in sight for this test piece. By the end of next week I'm hoping to have the bulk of the vegetation in place, and the platform in an overgrown state. That then leaves the signal box to be built as and when.

Meanwhile I've joined the EMGS - or strictly speaking rejoined it since I was a member in my late teens - and ordered a few things to get me started. Nothing too serious, but it does feel a bit chicken and eggish trying to work out the best way to start without incurring a massive expense.

It is half tempting as a test piece to build another version of this layout, but to be honest I think moving up to EM will take up just a little too much space to successfully  fit the same layout in an APA box. However I could fit it on to a bigger baseboard.

The best idea will be to build something that can eventually be incorporated into Llanrhaiadr, but to be honest I suspect the learning curve is going to be pretty steep and the chances of wanting to keep my first efforts are pretty slim.

And then, once again, there is The Art of Compromise which I've already blogged about once. Yet what I failed to pick upon at that time is the the track plan for Llanrhaiadr is essentially the same as that of The AoC,but with the station moved to be on the loop. Of course the interesting thing about TAOC is that the station wasn't on the loop.

Llanrhaiadr 8'x2'

Somewhere between the two is perhaps where the swee-tspot lies, with a bit of Llanastr thrown into the mix

Llanrhaiadr Mawr 6' x1.5'

Signalling Diagram

In the absence of a signal diagram for Llanrhaiadr Mochhnant I thought it would be relatively easy to convert the signal diagram of Llangynog. Here's one I did earlier.

It seems my Photoshop skills are a bit rusty, because it has taken an hour and I really need to start again.

So I did, this time using Anyrail to produce the basic diagram. This is just the basic export tweaked in Snapseed. The next step will be to combine this with the text from the version above, and another version with the switches in yellow so the blue indicates the alternative route. And here we have the finished version:

Why am I doing this? Well I'm enjoying the challenge, of course, but if I ever do build LM it would be useful supporting material for display with the layout. The main reason I'm doing it though is actually to check that I've got the point rodding arrangements right. I think I'm now pretty sure what went where now. Well almost, I'm not sure if I'm right in putting a facing point lock at the up end and that there isn't a second catch point to protect the running line from the loop at that end. What I do know is that there are two sets of point rodding running in that direction.

More on Llanrhaiadr Mochnant

What did we do before Google maps?

Here is the site of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant station


View Llanrhaiadr Mochnant Station (site of) in a larger map

The extent of the station equates to the rough field, with the route of the railway still showing in the tree line and the dark line across the wheat field. The coal yard building is still there and still in use.

I've now mapped the 1912  1:2,500 OS map on to it which should then let me calculate all the major dimensions, and also help in reconciling the various photos. Something I've found particularly problematic is the relationship between the good shed and the main station building.

It is all looking good for a 12ft by 2ft 6in plan.

Getting Carried Away

"So" said the step-daughter  "is that it or are you going to do something else?"

Given my rate of progress it is jumping the gun to be thinking about the next project, but I have been giving it some consideration.

The easy route to take is simply to build a new EM gauge version of this model, embracing all the lessons learnt to date, reusing anything I think is of sufficient quality, and pushing the envelope slightly out of my comfort zone. It would allow a before and after comparison to be made, after which the before would be consigned to the bin. But what if I were to consider a layout, rather than a diorama/shunting plank?

New Radnor is one obvious choice, not least because the line is relatively local to my old home in Herefordshire.  Then there is Blodwell Junction itself,rather than my truncated version, or the terminus of the Tanat Valley at Llangynog.

Like many of my generation of railway modelers there is also the attraction of Roy Link's "Art of  Compromise" design.

Where I think I'm actually heading is towards Llanrhaiadr Mochnant, which became the terminus of the line after the closure of Llangynog. I think a design based on this period would have potential.

Plan created in AnyRail 4

Actually the trackplan itself is very close to that of Llangynog when it was first opened, which is useful because Lloyd's book includes the original signal diagram.