TT120 Terrier and other considerations

Image: Steve Croucher/Peco studio

 A task is to hand. 

This month's Railway Modeller contains a fairly standard BLT plan of the month. You will all have obviously bought this so no need for me to expand on the reasoning behind said plan, and again obviously I'm not going to reproduce that here. However, there have been a couple of messages appearing on my phone vis-à-vis the hints here, and drawing conclusions. The task for me is to build it, but not in a familiar scale/gauge, but the relatively new TT:120. This was a surprise on lots of levels and I have questions, but there is wood to cut and a deadline; at the outside of the magazine print-run up to the Glasgow show.

The eagle-eyed will notice that in practical terms it's a funny shape and moreover the boards are split unevenly. So the already compressed plan/idea needs tweaking further to allow practical transportation.

Removing the Southern IOW angle throws up further possibilities: The first is to forgo the Terrier and head for the new J50 or the 08. and go GNR area. I'm thinking something like Horncastle and that photo in the Bradford Barton Brach line diesels book. The IOW buildings could be adapted and you are good to go. The other is to use all the Pacifics that are available and go Pickering NYMR during preservation. It would need stretching a little and to move the goods yard sidings to top right as an MPD. 5-coach trains would be possible in the same sort of space, though the fiddle yard is naturally longer than the planned 30" length needed here. 

A new/old Hornby Terrier

 I picked this Mk1 ex-Dapol Hornby-badged Terrier up a couple of months ago off of Marketplace from a chap down the road for the princely sum of £25. He assured me it ran; which it did... after a fashion. Visuals suggested that the wheels could be the culprit; or rather the muck on the wheels. I decided on a full strip-down and service. These models are dead easy to work on and I finished the job in under 30 minutes. The treads were fibre-brushed to a shine as were the front wiper pick-ups. The drive train was totally dried up; I guessed an age of around 20 years old and it had obviously never been touched, so motor bearings oiled, gears greased, chassis bearing faces cleaned, wheelsets back in and a drop of oil . 

A run without the body looked hopeful and with the whole thing back together and up to weight she purrs along. Do I need another Terrier? No really, but at that price she's a good spare chassis for the existing pair, or I may get around to a full detail.

Drovers Brook track and power

Where we're at: Drovers Brook in the intermediate stage of being on the short trestles while the basic track and wiring went in. This meant I was back to having a layout in the middle of the room again, something that is not in the slightest bit convenient. In some ways there is nothing to see here, and any description could just refer to c2017 when the AoTC was under construction, as the methods and thinking are all but identical excepting the 75/Bullhead combo.

I managed to get about 85% on the plain track done with the BH the remaining bits at the far left (van siding and H/S) were done with 75 with the sleepers rejigged to match the spacing, i.e. exactly what I did with Dury's Gap. Usual simple three feeds with the points doing the isolating - the one engine in steam operation requires little else. The DPDT switches at the front (as per the AoTC) will be scenic-ed around to make them less obvious. This is very much a home beast, although it it nominally requested for the WRG show in March displayed very much in 'home operation' setting, and not on the usual high trestles with the lighting tubes.

 

Dury's Gap - For sale

 

Recent events and a need to to create some space has had me umming and ahhing over the future of Dury's Gap. It only managed two shows, but has been around for quite a while having been used as a photo plank for numerous small projects including some Peco publicity material. There are photos scattered throughout the blog and of course its own page on the tags not to mention a three page piece in this months RM. I've come down to the fact that it needs to be moved on and mention this here ahead of any other advertising.

The package would include the layout and FY, but no stock. It is a tad over 6' x 1' in total and sits on a standard exhibition table. It's a simple plug and play needing only suitable OO gauge stock and a simple controller.  It's a ready to go small exhibition layout.

Cost: £300.00, collection from Sussex.

Dury's Gap running

 In a effort to take stock, I ran a few things around Dury's Gap. All went well and I note that the motive power for this now numbers five; not something that I particularly planed, but a bit of a Topsy situation. It was originally designed to be a 'one-lift'/one day exhibition layout to fit on a table in the same way that its predecessor Morton Stanley had done. The reality is that outside factors meant that it has only appeared twice at local events before the 2020 lockdowns and there is nothing in the book for it in the foreseeable future. Though it is lined up to appear in RM at some point.

This throws up a couple of questions: firstly is it worth retaining it to fulfil its original purpose, or is it past it's sell by date? Secondly, as I quite like it, would it be worth converting it to act as the start-point of a home system?  This would be quite final as it would mean hacking away the box structure and therefore rendering it less exhibitable; or rather, non-exhibitable.

Hornby Terrier

 I've been pottering though this on and off for a couple of weeks. Standard Mk1 Terrier with added pipework, lamp irons, crew, cab details and vac pipes, and with the sand boxes moved from above the footplate to below as per the prototype. Mostly referenced with two colour photos of the loco at Sheffield Park and Kemp Town. Cost : £40 and time.

I like projects like this: high work to cost ratio and much more fun than buying the new Mk 2 item which has all the upgrades in place and finer wheels.

D & S brake van 2

We all like a bit of a back-story.
In 1913 the Admiralty purchased eight small 'break vans' from the LNWR for use at stores and sidings. Six of these were broken up in 1921, but the two remaining were used in two locations where there was a low weight restriction. By 1950 only one remained on the South Coast and this too was listed for disposal, though due to the S Region's slightly enforced use of heavier Midland brake vans it was returned from Ashford paint shops repaired  and freshly turned out in pale grey to work on the Dury's Gap tramway section.

The D&S brake fixed and repainted along with some slightly altered ModelMaster decals. A touch of light weathering and done. Note the nod to the finescale ethos with the 3 link couplings. These will of course be replaced with some nice practical tension locks in due course.

Dury's Gap - the movie

A few quick clips of Dury's Gap with the Hornby Terrier in charge. Now sans music.

See all the Dury's Gap posts here .

Dury's Gap at Burgess Hill Exhibition

Dury's Gap
For only its second showing my Rye Harbour inspired 4mm scale micro Dury's Gap heads to the Burgess Hill exhibition this weekend. The Rye link is quite tenuous as the small amount of buildings on the layout are from other places as far apart as Newhaven West Quay, Orford in Suffolk and the Selsey Tramway. The feel is a slightly windswept sandy shoreline with a run down tramway carrying coal inward and shellfish out powered by small locomotives from Kent and Sussex MPDs. In other words it's a small four point shunting layout in 3'7" x 12".

Rye Harbour
The Rye Harbour branch was a similar beast though much more sprawling, serving the beach area and a small stone works, eventually closing in the mid 1960s. More on this area on COD's blog to your right.

https://www.burgesshillmrc.org.uk/exhibitions