Rivermead Central

[40057]

After some time spent today, this is the current state of progress with the renovation of my newly acquired buffer stop:



All the parts gathered together in a box to make sure nothing gets mislaid.

The sleeper raft has been washed in warm water to remove dirt. The sleeper behind the buffer stop (the left-hand one in the above photo) has been replaced as the original was a bit damaged at one end (see photo in post #176). Not really necessary, but with the buffer stop completely dismantled, the opportunity to easily replace the sleeper was there.

The original rails were so buckled they wouldn't pull out through the chairs so I had to cut them up to remove them. Replacement rails have been sourced from my stash of unrepairable track panels and parts. Two rails each mangled at one end so not useable in a standard 15” track panel, but with over 9” of undamaged length. After cutting to size, holes have been drilled in the correct positions for the screws that fasten the castings to the rails. I still need to rejoin the castings that fell apart, but the other side has been installed on its new rail.

I will put the original chairs back on the new sleeper, but leave that job until last. As long as the chairs on the back sleeper are not fastened down, the rails (with castings attached) can be withdrawn rearwards for adjustment and painting.

 

[40057]

Further work today on the buffer stop featured in posts #176 and #181. I had a good look at the two castings which came apart when the buffer stop was dismantled:



Where the two castings should have been soldered together, there is a large lump of solder on the casting representing the inside bent-up rail. During manufacture, the solder had clearly never properly bonded to the other casting. So I removed the buffer plank by undoing its fixing screw, cleaned up the surface to which the solder had not adhered and re-made the joint using a tiny amount of extra solder:



The size of the original lump of solder is all too apparent. Only the new solder melted when I was joining the castings, and that is pretty much not visible behind the factory applied lump. The solder repair has however generated two additional jobs. First, I shall have to repaint the castings matt black. I will do both sides so they match. Second, the steel screw that fastened the buffer plank — which I had to remove so I could solder the castings — did not want to come out. It turned out to be so corroded there was almost no thread left. So I need to find an identical or very similar replacement screw.

The loss of paint due to heating shows there are two castings per side, so just one soldered joint in each. The outer castings are handed so different on the two sides. The two inner castings have no representation of bolt heads so are not handed and are both the same.

 

[40057]

Not easy to feel positive about the future right now. Hobbies are certainly one form of escape. In my alternative world of Rivermead Central, progress has been made:



The Benham’s factory has all its windows. The last window to be installed, on the right in the above photo, is currently just held in place by a small dab of glue in each corner of the glass slide. I use only small amounts of glue for the initial fitting as it isn’t easy to get the glass to sit flat, in line with the wall face, if larger amounts of glue are used. Once the window is held in the correct position, I then fix wood strips (cut from coffee stirrers) overlapping the edges of the glass slide using good amounts of epoxy:



That’s today’s job for the last window.

 

[40057]

Continuing with work on the Benham’s factory building, and moving on from securing the windows internally, I have been attending to the visible gap between the window frames and the brick work. The rectangular windows I used for the Benham’s warehouse (also from LCUT Creative) were a perfect fit in the matching apertures in the brick-effect wall panels. Not so these round-topped windows. The window frames were a tight fit (or fractionally too large) top and bottom, but definitely narrower than the hole size in the wall. The result was a gap each side between the window frame and the brick work which did show — particularly if the inside of the building had sun shining through the entrance. So I have filled the cracks around the window frames, a fiddly job which should not have been needed:



The windows now look as though they are properly fitted.

The factory building is nearly finished.

 

[40057]

Before:



After:



My newly acquired Lowko Track buffer stop is fully refurbished and repaired. I have replaced the running rails, one sleeper and one of the wood screws that fastens the buffer plank — all with identical parts. Everything else is original but cleaned, repaired and repainted as necessary. I have drilled a pair of holes in the battens for screws to fasten the ‘stop in position.

So, no, it’s not a perfect original in the condition it left the factory. But it was unuseable when I got it, so good only to be scrapped or repaired. Well worth repairing — now ready for use.

 

[timbowales]

A fascinating repair job!

 

[40057]

13.14 GMT, Tuesday 12 November, 2024 — the Benham’s factory building officially declared ‘finished’!



Next job, install it on the layout. Not so simple. The building is quite large and heavy, needs to be handled with care and is to go right in the far NW corner of the layout, against the wall. The location is barely reachable. I’m actually not sure quite how I am going to manoeuvre the building into position.

 

[Roger Pound]

My confidence expressed in post #177 about the buffer stop repair has been, as I expected, fully justified. A superb result indeed. I am looking forward to your further reports from Rivermead Central.

Roger .

 

[40057]

How long have WT members had their model railways?

I was born in 1959 and, according to my parents, had a definite interest in trains before the age of 2. Certainly, there is a photo of me with my birthday cake on my second birthday and the cake is a representation of a steam locomotive, no doubt made by my mother. Before the age of three, my father was taking me to the station to watch trains on Saturday afternoons. There are some slides my father took during these visits but I have no memory of them. I should add neither of my parents had the slightest connection with or interest in railways; they were just good parents. My third birthday present (or it might have been that Christmas) was my first proper train set. Arguably, this was the first incarnation of Rivermead Central:



That’s me aged 3 with the train running up each sleeve of my jumper. My father is on the right and my friend from a few doors down the road and my aunt are in the doorway. The loco is my Hornby Type 40 clockwork tank engine no. 82011. Despite the blurring (evidently the train is moving), the wagons behind 82011 can be identified: a conflat with furniture container, a milk van, an open wagon and a brake van. All of these are from Hornby’s last series of 0 gauge wagons (post 1956) except the milk van, which is from the previous (introduced in the late ‘40s) range of wagons. There’s a covered goods van on the floor.

All of these items will have been bought new by my parents in 1962. I will have been amongst the very last children whose first train set was traditional tinplate 0 gauge clockwork using temporary tracks on the living room floor. Hornby’s 0 gauge range was no longer available a couple of years later. I think I can legitimately describe the layout in the above photograph as the true predecessor of Rivermead Central. Our home at that time was in Rivermead Road. The trains I had then would run perfectly happily on the railway I have now.

A few years after this photo was taken my friend in the photograph above got his own train set. Electric 00 gauge. Aged about 6, I could see his locomotives and coaches looked like the real ones, whereas mine — all four-wheeled — didn’t. I petitioned for an electric set like my friend’s. My parents agreed I could have one, but a condition was the 0 gauge trains were sold (they went to the slightly younger children of family friends). My electric set was not a success. It was laid on a base board that, due to shortage of space, had to be stored leaning against my bedroom wall. So no scenery and I couldn’t use it without parental assistance as the board was too large and heavy for me to move safely. The track layout (no doubt from the Triang-Hornby track plans book) was operationally nonsensical. The layout got dusty so the trains never worked until my father had spent half-an-hour cleaning the track — and meantime I had got bored and started doing something else. My interest in model railways nearly died.

Then, aged about 11, I found a Hornby 0 gauge clockwork 0-4-0 at my primary school’s jumble sale. I bought it for a shilling. The loco was missing its tender and of course I had no track or other rolling stock. But, it turned out, the local model shop had a large rummage box of 0 gauge Hornby track. So I bought an oval. And some points. Then some wagons. A better locomotive. By the age of 12, I once again had 0 gauge clockwork trains on the living room floor — and aspirations for larger locomotives, trains of bogie coaches, a permanent track …

My main station on my various temporary layouts was by then always known as ‘Rivermead Central’.

It has taken a long time to get the railway I have always wanted. But that is what I am now building.

 

[michael mott]

I enjoyed reading your early railway beginnings, took me right back to my time playing with my friend James i mentioned in an earlier post.
Michael

 

[40057]

So, back to ‘what I am now building’.

Starting yesterday afternoon and continuing today, I have been installing the Benham’s buildings on the layout. The factory first, right in the north-west corner. I knew this would be challenging because of the size and weight of the buildings in combination with their position against the west wall, at the back of the layout and barely reachable. The process turned out to be even more fraught than I feared. At one point, the Benham’s factory was wedged at an angle between the sloping ceiling and the track of the middle siding — necessitating an emergency lifting of the siding. I was very thankful I had made easy provision for removing the buffer stop in the way I had installed it.

Anyway, frayed nerves but no harm done to the factory. Here it is — finally — in its correct position:



The difficulty was that while the building fits under the bottom edge of the sloping ceiling, the track is about 20 mm high. The building doesn’t fit under the ceiling when it is on top of the track.

The roof advertising sign will be installed later after the middle siding track has been relaid. The sign is a fragile thing. It should be perfectly safe normally, well out of reach, but not sensible to have it there when I am screwing down the adjacent track.

Second up, the Benham’s warehouse. This was slid into place by pushing it along the wall, suitably protected, behind the Benham’s siding. Again, a tight fit and I had to remove the screws fastening the siding and slew the track to get the building past a few sleeper ends that were a bit closer to the wall than the rest. More frayed nerves.





A quick test with a covered van confirmed satisfactory clearances for the entrance and loading platforms. Apologies for the poor quality photos, by the way. Not much daylight.

I was a bit nervous too about whether the buildings would slot together as designed when in place on the layout. I need not have worried. They went together perfectly with no visible join. Each building serves to lock the other in position. I shall not fasten either building to the baseboard as there is no need.



Quite a bit of making good required in terms of re-fixing the lifted/slewed track. However, I shall treat this as an opportunity. The sidings in front of the Benham’s buildings were the first track installed on the layout. At the time, I reckoned I had nearly or just about enough straight track panels to build what I planned. So these sidings were laid with distinctly tatty track — useable, but dirty and with faults such as rusty and slightly bent rails, damaged sleeper ends, splits in the battens etc. In the intervening time, I have obtained more straight track panels including a batch of twenty that are so perfect they look like they were made last week. So, since I have had to remove some panels, I shall relay the lifted sections with better track.

When relaying, I shall move the position of the middle siding forward by perhaps a centimetre to take it further from the front wall of the Benham’s factory. With that adjustment made, the point work that gives access to the sidings can be installed.

I am very pleased with the appearance of the buildings. Exactly the ‘look’ I am aiming for.

 

[timbowales]

Lovely stuff, sir. More power to your elbows

 

[Roger Pound]

The final placing of these delightful buildings is a fine reward for your work and patience involved in their construction and positioning. Superb work throughout - well done!

Roger

 

[40057]

Track laying (or rather, mostly, reinstatement) earlier today. This really does feel — and look — like significant progress:



The Benham’s private siding is fully reinstated using a couple of better track pieces at the near end. The two turnouts giving access to the three sidings behind behind Cairnie Junction station have been fixed in position. The middle siding is partly relayed on a new alignment a little closer to the station platforms.

I suppose it’s inevitable that the sense of achieving real progress comes with making additions to the layout. But the real work was constructing the buildings, repairing and modifying the turnouts, cleaning and straightening the plain line track panels. Months of effort so that I could do what I was doing this afternoon.

I do like laying track, though surely partly because it is visible progress. It’s a little more complicated than might be assumed. Unhelpfully, the longitudinal battens under the track panels vary very slightly in thickness. Join three panels together and there is every chance the middle one will form a bridge suspended half a millimetre or so off the ground. Either, I resort to the ever-useful coffee stirrers as supports or keep undoing and re-joining the track panels in different combinations until all the panels are grounded.

A better view of the point-work installed today:



At last, a proper sense of how the finished track will look.

 

[40057]

Further track laying at Cairnie Junction in a southwards direction (in the photos in the previous post, towards the photographer) requires additional turnouts to be repaired and rebuilt. Specifically, for access to platforms 1 and 2 and the centre road between them, I need a right hand plus an electric left hand turnout. The electric turnout is complete and ready for use. Also required to complete the junctions immediately to the south of the platforms are one more right hand and two left hand turnouts. These turnouts are for accessing the goods sidings behind the station and adjacent to the west wall of the room — the south-facing access needing the two left-hand turnouts, the north-facing access a right-hand turnout plus the one already in place on the layout. One of the left-hand turnouts is repaired and ready to use. So, in summary, one left-hand and two right-hand turnouts have to be repaired and rebuilt before the line can be extended southwards.

As mentioned previously, owing to their construction by hand, some Lowko Track points are better than others, particularly in regard to the alignment of the rails at the crossing. The three points that I still need to repair have to be good ones as they will get heavy use. One of each, left and right, must be suitable for safe, high-speed running on both roads.

I have started the process of rebuilding another right-hand point. This one has a pretty much perfectly aligned crossing so I’m aiming at main line standard when rebuilt.

The first job is to remove the rail assembly from the sleeper raft by carefully easing out the fastening spikes. Not easy as some were very reluctant to shift, but:





Inherently, this is a very good set of points. No dents or kinks in the rails, not too much rust and a well-made crossing.
The sleepers are very dirty, but less so where they were under the rails, chairs or transverse metal strips to which the rails are soldered at the crossing end. The sleepers don’t feel sticky to the touch but I suspect the creosote means they are a little, maybe just in hot weather. Certainly, an adhering coating of dust is usual. The other reason why the sleepers appear so dirty could be residual flux from soldering the rails. The solder used to fasten the rails to the transverse metal strips often, as here, covers the head of some of the spikes used to fasten the metal strips to the sleepers. So, clearly, the rails were soldered in place in situ on the sleeper raft. The person doing the assembly must have been a very skilled, fast and accurate worker to avoid scorching the sleepers.

One fault I do need to correct with this turnout is the position of the check rails. They need to be moved a millimetre or so closer to their respective stock rails so they will actually work.

 

[40057]

An enforced pause in work on the right-hand turnout. I have broken my 12BA tap and until I have a replacement I can’t do much more. It was going so well, too …

Stock rails drilled through the rail web and transverse metal strip. Hole tapped 12BA for a countersunk screw:



From above:



Then the original soldered joint re-melted and the additional screw fastening disappears:



The ‘surplus’ projecting part of the countersunk screw-head is then filed flush. Black paint, as per original manufacture, over the solder after re-assembly. These screws reinforce the fastenings for the stock rails. They allow me to melt the immediately adjacent solder that fastens the check rails and adjust the check rail spacing without any danger of the stock rails moving or becoming detached. The added screws are completely invisible in the rebuilt turnout.

The transverse tinplated steel strips are incredibly hard metal. One hole and the drill is blunt. No wonder the tap broke.

During the enforced break in p. way work, I have started on the next building. Far too cold to work outside on the wooden carcass, but I have been assembling the brick-effect panels of the front elevation, working (with permission) in our nice warm kitchen:



This is to be an additional building in the Benham’s works complex. I’m not sure of its function — administration or design office possibly. It’s real function, of course, is to be a wall covering. It will be positioned, slightly detached, to the south of the Benham’s warehouse.

 

[40057]

Though not what I was intending to do next, having started on my third building, I have been getting on with that. The front elevation (east facing when in position) now looks like this:



OK, very similar to how it looked last Friday. BUT the brick-effect panels are now mounted on plywood sheets attached to a strip-wood frame. Also, the north wall has been made and attached.

Here’s the plan:



The wall with a door and steps down to ground level will be set back behind the front face of the buildings on either side. I am minded to add a chimney to the new building. A start has been made on the section with the sloping roof:



The remains of the upside-down brick arch will be covered by the window-sill. A good proportion of this building is being constructed using off-cuts and unused parts from the previous building projects.

 

[40057]

Pressing on with the Benham’s office building, I have decided it will be easier to build and largely complete the part with the sloping roof before attaching it to the main section:



The projecting wall on the right (in the photo above) is the visible part of the south wall of the main building. Standing the two elements next to each other shows how the complete building will look:



Much still to do — obviously — but I’m happy with progress.

I’ve not yet started on the wall with doorway and steps that will be attached to the north (right) side of the main section.

 

[40057]

‘Mortar’ added and paint-work, thus far, sealed with a light coat of matt varnish:



I can now make and fit the window-sill and sloping roof. Then I will attached this section to the main part of the building and complete the top of the wall. The window and glazing will have to wait until the whole building is painted and weathered.

 

[40057]

I have spent some time today continuing with relaying the ‘middle siding’ behind the platforms at Cairnie Junction. It now looks like this:



I like straight sidings to be properly straight:



There’s one more track panel (= 15”) to add and the buffer stop. When complete, the useable length — beyond the fouling point — of the middle siding is about 7’ 3” (221 cm), or approximately a scale 105 yards. So it’s short compared with real life, but long enough for any train I am going to run.