One of the busiest freight locations in the UK is Barnetby which is on the route to Immingham port and oil terminals. Here are a sample selection of pictures.

Freightliner class 66


class 60 on the iron ore turn between Immingham terminal and Scunthorpe Steel Works


class 66 on coal empties to Immingham for loading


class 60 with cargowaggon vans


coal trains passing


class 60 with loaded oil tanks


class 66 with loaded 4-wheel coal wagons


loaded coal

So lately Ive been pullin goofy hours doing snow removal, and so now that Im done for a while Im still on a goofy sleep schedule and find myself up late. But when Im up late I gotta be quite, since everyone else is sleeping. So I head to the basement turn my radio on (quietly obviously) and have been messin around on the layout. I can now say all my track is layed, and I started a project with my Walthers grain elevator. Im cuttin it kinda in half and adding silos on both sides of it to go along a wall.

Next on my to do list is to start soldering feeders to the track and run the main power wires under the layout, and finally clean the track, and I can start running trains.

Try and make a long story short...

A couple weeks ago, at my LHS, I ordered a couple curved turnouts and a building kit. Yesterday, they called and said my order had come in. Today I stopped by there to pick it up and he brought out a PA powered /PB dummy set from Broadway Limited Imports, DCC, with sound, (I guess these used to be known as Precision Craft) in Santa Fe colors. I looked at him and said, "This isn't what I ordered." He disappeared in the back and somebody else popped out with my customer folder in hand. As he leafed through, he finally pulled out an order sheet. Sure enough, it had my name on it specifying this exact product. I looked at him with a perplexed look and asked, "When did I order this?" Well, let's just check the date shall we...
July of 2006, NEARLY FOUR YEARS AGO!!!
Somewhere in there, a faint glimmer of a distant memory flickered. By golly I guess I had. I had completely forgotten about it. Four years!!!!!! Can you believe that???
Anyways, I threw up a quick light and shot some quickies for ya. I have no idea how it looks with lights on as I haven't even turned on the power yet.









I need a better camera.

I have modelled in all scales, and many different countries, but after a holiday in Slovenia, I just had to model the railways of that country.

First, the trackplan


Overall views of the layout




Some birds eye views

Hey guys...need your opinions before making a high-dollar purchase.

Does anyone own and run the MINITRIX Epoch engines? They look good in the pictures online, but I've never seen one in person and never watched one run on a layout. Good quality? Relatively quiet motors? DCC options? Thoughts? Opinions?

Thanks!

Just wondering if it is ok to post foreign (non-North American) layouts in this section?

My model railway is of Slovenian prototype.

...for repetitive jobs.

In a belated attempt to answer a question about making roofwalk grab irons, I realised that part of the answer involved constructing a jig. Jigs are useful things when you need to make a lot of the same parts - grab irons, sill steps, or roofwalk grab irons, for example. In addition t o the usual construction-type tools, good measuring tools are a must: after all, if the jig is inaccurate, so will be the parts from it.
Here are three that I use a lot: everybody should have a scale rule for their particular scale. The dial caliper is useful for making more accurate measurements and, although it's not essential, I find that I use mine a lot. The other useful measuring tool is the dividers: with them, you can easily and accurately duplicate a measurement, often a must when constructing a jig or when installing parts, such as a row of grab irons.

   

Here's a simple jig for making ladders:

   

I made mine from some hard maple which I had laying around. The stop block, at one end, is simply glued in place with carpenter's glue, with the two small darker blocks glued in place at right angles to the stop block. The smaller blocks are spacers to keep the distance between the ladder's stiles constant.

As an aside here: when using a jig to assemble parts which will be soldered together, it's usually easiest to clean the material for the parts before cutting it or loading it into the jig. For brass bars or strips, and brass wire, I find this easy to do by grasping one end of the material with pliers, then drawing it through a folded piece of fine-grit sandpaper. I usually use the wet/dry type, like the 1200 grit shown below. Reverse the material and draw it though in the opposite direction, too - this way, you don't have to keep track of which end has been cleaned.

   

If you don't use all of the cleaned material when doing a job, just remember that brass oxidises fairly quickly, so you'll probably need to re-clean it for that next project.

To use the ladder jig, the first step is to prepare the stiles. If they require bends at their tops, like those on a caboose ladder, make them first, then solder the two stiles together, face-to-face - make sure that they're lined-up perfectly on all edges. Next, lightly scribe a centre line up the length of the face of one of the stiles (set the dividers to 1/2 the width of the stile, then drag it along the length of the stile, using one point as a guide and the other as a scriber.
Next, set the dividers to the desired rung spacing for the ladder and "walk" it up the line along the length of the stile, making a slight impression at each rung position. Drill the holes at the marked points, then re-heat the stiles and separate them. Use files to clean off the solder from both pieces and clean out any plugged holes with the drill bit.

Below are stiles prepared for a caboose, first bent-to-shape on a form, then soldered together as outlined above, and marked and drilled. Here are the separated and cleaned pieces:

   

Now, load the stiles, on edge, into the jig, placing one with its bottom against the stop block (and any curved end sticking up), as demonstrated by the long strip in the photo, adding the retainer block which is clamped in place with a clothes peg. Repeat for the other stile, then use tweezers to install the rungs.

For rungs, cut them from pre-cleaned brass wire (I use .012", but this will vary depending in which scale you're working).
To obtain clean cuts, use an X-Acto blade that has outlived its original purpose of cutting wood or plastic. Simply place the wire on a hard surface (I use a sheet of temper glass, but smooth steel will work, too) and use the 'heel' of the blade to snick-off suitable lengths. Careful that they don't become airborne and make sure to cut them longer than the width of the ladder - they'll be trimmed after assembly is complete.
When all of the rungs are in place, with their ends protruding through both stiles, apply a dab of resin flux to each joint, then solder everything together.

   

Removed the ladder from the jig and continue building more until you have at least enough for the job at hand.

To clean up the ladders, use a cut-off disc in your Dremel to slice off the protruding ends of the rungs and a needle file to finish the job.

   

Here's a different one installed on a locomotive tender:

   

Here's a jig for making window bars for RPOs - I used styrene simply because I didn't contemplate having to make too many of these. If you're scratchbuilding a prison, though, you might want to use hardwood, as in the ladder jig.

   

To use this one, groups of four wires, all bent to shallow "U"-shapes, are inserted into the vertically-oriented holes, then two longer pieces, also of a similar shape, are layed across them, with their ends inserted in the horizontal holes. After a dab of flux at each contact point, a "wet" soldering iron touched to each joint will secure the whole works together.
After removing the assembly from the jig, a cut-off disc is used to separate the individual panels and to remove the legs of the "U"s, whose only purpose was to hold the wires in place during assembly. Here are some installed in an RPO:

   

Here's a simple one for making brackets for hanging cooling pipes on steam locomotives:

   

A length of bar stock (it's easier to work from the main piece rather than to cut off shorter ones for each bracket - simply stamp-out a bunch, then cut them off) is positioned over the jig, then the open jaws of suitably-styled pliers are pushed down on either side of the first forming wire, then squeezed.

   

This is repeated for each required bend. To make a larger bracket for more pipes, simply re-position the last bend over the first forming wire, and carry-on.

   

Here's the semi-finished shape:

   

To use it, lay it over the pre-formed cooling pipes, and bend one end completely around one of the outer pipes, and up the back side of the assembly. I solder everything together, then use the other protruding end of the bracket, suitably bent, as a mounting post, inserted into a pre-drilled hole in the locomotive. Here are some in use:

   

This one is for forming steps for head-end passenger cars, but could be easily adapted to make narrower ones for freight cars. The markings denote steps for the car's ends, postal doors, and baggage doors, with the minimum lengths of material required for each part of each step: the larger dimensions are for the main body of the steps, while the shorter ones at the top are the length required for the intermediate steps.

   

The first bend can be formed with pliers, then the pre-bent piece is placed in the jig:

   

Using pliers to hold it tightly in the jig, the second bend is made. The intermediate step is formed in a similar manner - note that the formers for them are slightly narrower than those for the main steps:

   

This hardwood jig is used when soldering the steps together:

   

And here are some installed on a car:

   

Continued in the next post...

Wayne

Hi guys,

I recently found out about a new online auction house that is now up and running. Its http://www.hobbiesauction.com/

This place is 100% free to buy and sell. Check it out and look around. There is also a forum section for the site. These is still some kinks being worked out, so if you come across an issue or error, contact the admins through the site and they can help you.

Ive got the first few auctions on the site now. Its pretty easy to list, and the best part is its FREE!! The site does have ads, but there not bad. There will be an option coming in the next couple of weeks which will allow you to pay $10.00 per month to remove all ads from the site if you wish. Personally the ads dont really bother me....

So take a look around and check it out. I think this new site will grow into a great place to buy and sell and be the greatest alternative to escape paying the ridiculous fees of the "un-named" other site.

BTW, my user id on there is Maders_Trains. I currently have some auctions listed under the HO scale Structures category, you can check them out to see the formats and such of how your listings would look. It looks pretty nice if you ask me

**Disclaimer** In no-way am I trying to benefit from this posting. Im not getting any perks or benefits from HobbiesAuction for posting this thread, just simply trying to spread the word out there about this new online auction site.

A few photographs of trains passing through our village, Ruskington, UK and past our garden, plus other local stations.

A steam hauled charter train passing Ruskington station in June 2009




Another steam special in December 2009 passes the station




Another A4 passing Swinderby on the way to Lincoln Christmas Market, December 2009