New layout

[aleopardstail]

like the old joke of the passenger asking the guard "Does this train stop at Euston?" and getting the answer "gods I hope so"

[Stokestation12]

Very little progress of late due to family commitments, other projects and some other bits and bobs having to take priority.
I got a bit disheartened last time I tried to have a running session as I had a lot of stuttering on 2 of the 4 lines. I need to motivate myself to go back up and check all of the fishplates and wire connections.

I also needed to clean debris/muck that had fell from the loft roof. What sort of protection do you all have/recommend for loft layouts to protect it.



Quick accuracy question;
Regarding TEA tanker wagons; in the 90's, would there have been mixed companies in a rake or just one? For example, would a rake comprise of just BP branded TEA wagons, or would it be likely/accurate to see a rake of BP, Jet, Shell, Marco etc wagons all together?
I've got about 8 BP R007 green wagons but they are very rare and go for quite a bit on ebay. I was debating on whether to get some of the cheaper ones (Jet, Shell and Murco seem to go for a bit cheaper and are more common.

[Mountain]

Would be a single brand. Also, in the early 90's and the '80's (B.R. days) the ones in regular use that I saw were so rusty one could not pick out a brand and, and in the '80's were in a 11 tanker formation pulled by either a "lass 47 or a class 56 with the occasional rare event of a class 50. Though we had many class 37's locally, only rarely did they ever get used for these heavy oil trains. Was exclusively class 47's in the early to mid 1980's but later in the 1980's class 56's and the odd class 50 were seen.
Into the 1990's and an amazing change took place. Class 60's came onto the scene and the formation was lengthened to 33 tankers with some occasions I saw as much as 37 or even 39 and one guard said he once saw 42 being pulled, though I don't think they had siding space for that many without splitting a few off (?) though it was nearly always 33 in a formation I saw. Once or twice I saw a few less such as 27. The other change was that the tankers became nicely painted in their livery. Think it was red with Merco branding? Can't remember. What I do remember is the "Cournel" (A Chargeman) who was sitting early one morning at his local station (Haverfordwest) waiting for his train to pick him up to go to work. As he sat there a local lady also had arrived half an hour early this morning and sat down on the bench. The oil train passed and she watched 33 of these 100T tankers pass with their TEA code clearly written on them. After they passed heading towards the oil refinery a few miles further west, she turned to the "Cournel" and asked "Where's all this tea going then?" We had fun sometimes on the railway!
The Chargeman was not a real cournel but was given the name after a past event when a military guy was dropped off at the station with an aircraft wing to travel by train with it. They knew it fit on the train as they hat taken one before, but the Chargeman quoted railway regulations stating the maximum length permitted and had the tape measure out, and found the wing to be a few inches too long, so he refused to let the man take it on the train. That poor young man had to wait there for several hours before someone eventually came to pick him and the wing up! After that, the Chargeman had his knickname. Most of us never knew the real names of some of the staff!

[aleopardstail]

loft layout...

best bet is something screwed to the rafters to catch the dirt, otherwise there is no stopping it - some sort of insulation materials can work. last time I just got some thin plywood and screwed that in place (doing the same in the cellar, for the same reasons)

[Stokestation12]

Very stifled progress over the last few weeks...but there is change afoot already!

I've decided to alter the station layout so that there are 3 lines running through rather than 4; the station at the near side has been pushed towards the third line where the 4th line was. This has opened up some room on the nearside where I will be creating a better terminus and have some more sidings that I can incorporate into the loco depot and some trackside sidings for some lesser used rolling stock.

The fourth line will be part of the terminus instead of a through line.