WEST ORTON

[Carl L]

Great looking shed scene.

[Steve M]

I added the bases.

[Steve M]

A frustrating hour or so in the shed this morning.
I was trying to video some POV cab footage of the layout. Sadly nothing will run reliably today - the track needs a good clean after a few months of modelling rather than running. Add to that the colder weather has opened up and 'adjusted' some of the track joints resulting in a recipe for derailments.
There are very few straight sections on my layout so a wide joint on cold weather causes the wheels to ride up on the flanges.

[Carl L]

‘the track needs a good clean after a few months of modelling rather than running.’

Guilty of the same, I was told by the Project Manager the other day that all I do now is build houses and not run trains.

[Steve M]

‘the track needs a good clean after a few months of modelling rather than running.’

Guilty of the same, I was told by the Project Manager the other day that all I do now is build houses and not run trains.

I guarantee that I will do the same as I have in previous cleaning sprees - I'll clean it, spot something that needs changing, then ignore running for a couple of months.
As a starting point, I will start inserting small slivers of plastic are in the new gaps that have emerged while I summon up the willpower to start cleaning again.

[Steve M]

No cleaning achieved today. I did 'plug' the gaps that had opened up but chose to use UV resin rather than bits of plastic are. Don't know how successful it will be long term but it's certainly smoothed out some of the winter bumps.
Had to realign the lift up flap - realised that I had not raised the hinges on on side on a block of plywood - no wonder it didn't function reliably!
Also spent ages tracing a dead section of track which appears to be a failed frog juicer - that in turn caused no end of issues with the HM7000 control system. I had quite a few locos on the layout and the dead section was the catalyst for a cascade failure of the Bluetooth system. Took a few locos off the layout and it seems ok now.

[Steve M]

Track cleaning finished. Waiting for the postie to deliver some replacements for the dodgy frog juicer - that'll be fun under the boards!
Back to the water cranes and the very fine chain I ordered arrived. The links are less than 1mm.
Did I mention that Kernow Models tempted me with a Black Friday deal on a LNER Y3?

[Brian]

Looking really good Steve.
Can I ask, what was the purpose of the water bins?
As a 'Southerner' of a 'certain age', all the water cranes I've seen drain away via a grate and drain pipe in the ground. Wouldn't a bin full of water freeze in winter and eventually overflow any other time?

[Steve M]

Don't have a definitive answer for that Brian. However, from what I have seen at Goathland, the bin style of drip catcher is on the side of the track nearest the moor and furthest away from Eller Beck that runs at the back of the station. I presume there is no drainage pipe linking the two sides.
The crane on the platform and probably only 20m from the beck, has a different style of drip catcher - I bet that drains directly to the beck.

[Steve M]

After my episode with a detached retina on September it would appear that the other eye has gone the same way.
An evening in A&E awaits.