Issue 222 - December 2016
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Narrow Lines The Magazine of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association Issue 222 - December 2016 The Frayle and Wilting Light Railway Descardo: an ‘Unashamed’ Layout The Henmore Dale Saga: Part 5 Radio Control ** Low Temperature Soldering Conquered Prototype Inspiration: The Isle of Man Railway Skip to the End ** More on ‘Grumpigh Dock’ Grass Ball on Pot ** ‘Improving’ PECO Points Welshpool & Shrewsbury Railway: Progress at Shrewsbury Wharf Station Prototype Inspiration: Signals And More 2 Narrow Lines 222 Narrow Lines 222 The Magazine of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association Founded in 1979 Published by the Association in alternate months and distributed free to members www.7mmnga.org.uk FROM THE EDITOR CONTENTS Welcome to the December The Frayle and Wilting Light Railway ‘Narrow Lines’. This issue is very - Derek Gregory Page 3 much a ‘mixed bag’ so I hope that Descardo: an ‘Unashamed’ Layout there will be something of interest -Herbert Fackeldey 8 for each of you. At one point I The Henmore Dale Saga: Part 5 - Andrew Young 12 wasn’t even sure that I would Radio Control - Vaughan Measday 14 have enough material to fill 36 Low Temperature Soldering Conquered pages, but things did work out in - David Hughes 15 the end. I should therefore like to thank all those who Prototype for Everything Department have contributed to the magazine over the past year and -Ken Cotton 17 made it possible for me to provide you with entertaining Prototype Inspiration: The Isle of Man Railway and informative reading. - Jeremy Clarke 18 Skip to the End - Ted Winter 20 It is always nice to see new names in the ‘Contents’ list of the magazine - we have at least two this time - but I am Key Contacts 21 conscious that much of the magazine’s material comes from a relatively small group of repeat contributors. I am More on ‘Grumpigh Dock’ - Derek Gregory 22 very grateful to those members for their support. To Grass Ball on Pot - Tom Ellis 23 those who haven’t yet contributed I would say ‘Why not ‘Improving’ PECO Points - Peter Jackson 24 make writing an article for “Narrow Lines” one of your Welshpool & Shrewsbury Railway - WSR Mk3: New Year’s resolutions?’ Progress at Shrewsbury Wharf Station - Martin Turpin 26 For me this has been ‘The Year of the Soldering Iron’, Blastpipe 29 challenging at times but rewarding as the kits and An Award for Narrow Gauge - Steve Howe 29 scratchbuilds produce the models I want. I hope that your Book Review: ‘Modelling Ports and Inland modelmaking year has been equally rewarding. What Waterways’ 30 does next year hold? For me, it looks like more of the 2016 Christmas Cards and 2017 Calendar 31 same plus a possible entry for the Howard Clarke Trophy Prototype Inspiration: Signals - David Mitchell 32 at Burton. May your outlook be equally interesting. Pictures from an Exhibition - Peter Jackson 34 Best wishes and Season’s Greetings Cover picture: Sentinel 80 HP of Rochdale Water Works and used Peter at Blackstone Edge in the late 1920s. The site was at 1200 feet and there is a picture of No 6533 or 6870 with the sacking acting as a rainbreak. Model built by Frank Sharp from a Wrightlines kit with a Black Beetle drive. Photographed by Frank on Geoff Lord and Matt Hainsworth’s' Edited and Peter J Page ‘Pen-y-Bont.’ designed by 16 Lark Hill Crescent, This photograph has previously appeared in ‘Railway Modeller’. RIPON, North Yorkshire, HG4 2HN Articles for publication in ‘Narrow Lines’ are always required Tel : 01765 602715 and may be submitted at any time. E-mail: [email protected] The closing date for advertising copy for NL 223 is 31st December 2016 NL 223 will be despatched to Members round about Advertising Manager Steve Cobb 1st February 2017 83 Fifth Cross Road If there are known delays we shall put notes on the Association TWICKENHAM website and the Yahoo Discussion Group. Please check one or both of TW2 5LJ these first if your copy is delayed. Otherwise, if you have not received your copy by 20th February 2017 or if there are other mailing Tel: 020 8287 4600 problems, please email [email protected] or contact David E-mail: [email protected] Charlesworth by letter at the contact details given on page 21 or by phone on 01274 787150 (evenings only) Copyright © 2016 7mm Narrow Gauge Association and Authors. Except where otherwise stated photographs are the copyright of the individual author. Drawings may be photocopied by Members for the sole purpose of producing a model. Otherwise the contents of the magazine may not be reproduced by any means without the written consent of the Editor, which is normally gladly given provided that acknowledgement is made. The opinions of authors are not necessarily those of the Association. Narrow Lines 222 3 The Frayle and Wilting Light Railway Derek Gregory describes his latest project. Photographs by the author. all the sound functions. But although they will store three complete programs, each one is limited to 16 steps, which then repeat - not enough in my experience to take advantage of all their capabilities. In contrast, the Tam Valley Shuttle comes with a UK power supply, its own very much simplified DCC controller and a block detector, for about the same price – around £60 – as the CML shuttle alone. It is intended to run just one loco on a single fixed built-in program, and will not select a loco by its address, nor will it command sound functions. These limitations can be somewhat overcome by careful planning. The all in one unit comes on a postcard size circuit board with an attractive panel along one edge so it can ‘Pixie’ hauls the workmen’s train from the mill. be directly slotted into the baseboard front. All necessary knobs and buttons are in place. The 12v input from the supplied transformer is plugged into Having completed and exhibited two Colorado-based On30 the back where there are also one two-wire, and one three-wire layouts, ‘Dodry, Phugetville and Grumpigh’ and ‘Grumpigh chocolate-block connectors. That is all. You need no extras, Dock’, I felt the urge to return to British Outline after the and no knowledge of electronics. But you do need a simple satisfaction I had received with ‘Evercreech Junction’ and decoder in the loco(s). ‘Highbridge’ in 00 gauge over twelve years ago. Clearly it was to be 0-16.5 on lightweight foam boards, but I also wanted to Simply, the track is divided by rail breaks into three sections, experiment with 0-9 and a new shuttle unit that I had called ‘end 1’, ‘middle’ and ‘end 2’. The built-in program runs discovered. Another technique to explore at the same time the loco at a speed adjustable by a rotary control until it reaches was modular design. end 1. It then decelerates to a stop as instructed by the loco decoder, changes any digital point on the layout tuned to I spent much time in the armchair poring over what could be address 1, waits for an adjustable time and restarts with done with two or three 3ft by 18in boards, and came up with decoder-controlled acceleration in the opposite direction. On an idea. The basic input to my mental puzzle included a water reaching end two the process is repeated, changing point mill, a 15in gauge industrial freight and passenger line, a small number two, and the train returns ad infinitum. If you wish to village and a 2ft 6in gauge light railway. These were to occupy have a station stop, you cut two more breaks in the track, a choice of either two or three modular Styrofoam boards, with isolating a ‘middle’ section. The train stops there, changes point both lines to be capable of either manual or shuttle operation. 3 if there is one, waits for an adjustable time and restarts in the Attention then turned to the computer, concocting a layout on same direction. If the middle waiting time is set to zero the train XtrkCad, and searching for narrow gauge prototype ideas. I runs straight through. On the front panel are the speed and ended up with a workable track plan, and a decision to create direction controls and the three waiting-time controls, one for a fictitious location with inspiration, not copy, for both buildings each section. The controller runs any loco placed on the track and stock from real prototypes. At about this time I discovered the Tam Valley Shuttle, made in the USA and stocked by two UK DCC specialist suppliers. Let me tell you about the shuttle first, as that determined a lot about what I finally built. ‘Grumpigh Dock’ used two British made CML shuttles. Very sophisticated, they require a Digitrax DCC controller, block detectors, point decoders and a 12v regulated DC supply. They can be programmed by the computer to control stop, start, waiting time, point changes and 4 Narrow Lines 222 ‘Frayle and Wilting’ Construction Pictures 1. A Styrofoam 3ft by 18in baseboard. 2. All the track is laid. 3. The watermill section with controls, track and millpond mirror 4. The fiddle yard is being hidden. added. 5. The Post Office has arrived. 6. Willow trees have grown. Narrow Lines 222 5 7. Photos from Streetview have been selected for the backscenes. 8. Interiors and lights have been installed. regardless of address. But the instructions do not tell you that Board 1 carries the water mill, the industrial line supply terminus you can select different locos by having them in manually and the hidden main line fiddle yard.