luckykaa | Entries tagged with trains

Finally got round to using my christmas present, of first class travel on a steam train with breakfast. Didn't actually book until after wedding, and by that point, the service was fully booked all summer, but we booked for late September. I was delighted to wake up to a lovely sunny autumn day.

Felt we should dress up for it.

flickums was resplendent in her 40's dress and hat, while I wore a pin striped suit and bowler hat. I really need to lose weight. Could barely squeeze into this suit.

The Embsay and Bolton Abbey steam railway. is not a million miles away but did require a reasonable drive so we set off early. As it turned out this was far too early, so we stopped at McDonalds for a coffee and a Coke. "Are you going to a wedding?" asked the girl at McDonalds. She seemed disappointed that we weren't.

So we arrived after a windy drive down a narrow country lane, got to the station and found that the Virgin Experience voucher had given us the wrong station. Fortunately the right station was only a 10 minute drive away, although I could have avoided a tedious narrow road drive. Good job we were early. Still had plenty of time to admire the train. An L&YR class 27 0-6-0 tender locomotive in Black British Rail livery. Apparently on loan from the East Lancashire railway. While we were admiring the train, people admired our outfits.

So we boarded. The waiter liked that we dressed up and we got talking about cosplay. Nice chap. It's a shame he was working since I could have chatted to him all day. So, we were served a breakfast. It was rather nice. And we set off, through the Yorkshire countryside, where we saw many sheep, and, after a short trip were back to the station we'd originally stopped at. We had a short time to look around. Many people admired our outfits.

Considered getting a book - a Christmas railway mystery - but decided i didn't want to carry it around so would but it at the giftshop in Bolton Abbey station.

So we got back on the train. Went on a ride back to the start. The waitress also said she liked our outfits. Got off. A few more people admired our outfits. Went to the gift shop to buy a book. It was closed. Ooops. Oh well, at least we know the way to the other station. Drove back there to buy the book.

Flickums had the terribly clever idea of finding a farm shop so we set off again down Yorkshire's windy roads to get there. There was some consternation as a big coach needed to get past a big tanker truck. Still, they manged it after some negotiation and we carried on. Feel I overspent at the farm shop, but this is something I tend to do at these palces. Curse me for being a foodie!

So that was a find way to spend a mornign and afternoon. Weather was great. It's a shame we were the only people to dressup but at least we got lots of admiring comments from strangers.

So it was the bank holiday weekend and that meant it was Gaspode's annual barbecue.

Stopped en route to check in at hotel. Flickums wanted to change into a pretty dress and looked absolutely fabulous in a Ghostbusters dress.

We drove the rest of the way. Probably not necessary since it's a10 minute walk but we were transporting food. I provided my offering of Apple and Blackberry tart, using apples and blackberries from my garden. Although I wasn't totally happy with it. Didn't quite have the tartness that's nice in a tart. I also feel it got overshadowed by other offerings.

Had a nice time though, chatting to people about geekery, weddings, RAF CCF, and causing rows on facebook about conventions. As well as gaspode's thoughts on the subject. We agree that we need more media based fan cons. Really we need new blood. Although the only new con we've had recently was Nineworlds and gaspode had a lotto say about how that ended up ending. Threw out some thoughts I had, especially regarding video games.

Also chatted to some new people Aisha and Tom and they had a son who liked riddles. Flickums got to be terribly clever by getting one of them. He completely messed up the one about two people having the race for the slowest horse, which I thought was endearing.

Was thinking of calling on The Lemming Man for a bit but hadn't slept well, and rather felt he was suffering a little from a late night. So we set off early, thinking we'd get home a little after lunchtime. Sadly I got distracted by trains. There's a nice preserved railway outside Aylesbury. Rides were a little short - going from the station to just outside the station but they had some nice locos and exhibits.

Ended up getting back later than expected but there was time to watch a movie.

Monday I finally got some essential sewing done. Hemmed a tablecloth. Shortened the straps on Flick's dress. Adjusted the collar on another. Feel I didn't get as much done as I wanted but I got something done.

Wrapping up the evening with a roast dinner and a movie. Flickums,as ever, has the most wonderful Yorkshire puddings.

Model railway control is tradtionally wuite a simple system. You apply power to the rails. This is picked up through a model locomotive's wheels and it drive a motor. This works pretty well, but it means that if you have two locomotives on the same track, they have to do exactly the same thing.

These days we have the option of digital control - DCC. This sends a digital signal through the track. A DCC decoder component picks this up and converts it to direct current for the locomotives. Each locomotive is keyed to a specific ID, and can be controlled individually. This wasn't the first time this was tried though.

In 1979, Hornby released the Zero 1 digital controller. Same basic idea; based on a 4 bit CPU, so - because of the magic of binary - could control 16 locomotives. It was never successful, but it was interesting, so when I saw one many years ago for sale with accessories for a tenner I thought I should buy it. Unfortunately, It didn't include the instructions or the locomotive control modules. I never did work out how to use it. Eventually I forgot about it and moved out, and the controller was kept in the loft in my parents' place.

Recently I rediscovered it. And these days things are easier. We have the internet where people provide instructions. We have ebay, where people sell used modules. It seemed like a fun project to get it to work.

I spent part of this morning fixing the modules I bought. The wires had been shortened dramatically, so I needed to extend them. I bought cable for points that conveniently had the same colours. Cables are now extended, and I still have most of a reel I can use for its actual purpose. Next step was removing the coding. These modules are coded using conductive paint, or in this case, solder, on some metal tabs. I feel that they should be coded 1, 2, and 3 so I removed the solder and recoded them.

And it was then just a question of testing them. The instructions are available onliine but I felt a printed copy would be nice. And to my delight it worked! Had a bit of a play with static motors. One interesting piece of functionality is an intertia setting, which makes a locmotive take time changing speed.

I feel a nice sense of achievement, but now what? Ultimately it's not really all that good. It suffers from techniocal limitations of the late 1970s. The modules are a bit chunky and some locomotives need a permanently coupled wagon to hold it. It lacks granularity. Trains only have 14 speeds. The small OO layout I have doens't need that sort of power.

So, i have just about enough space for a model railway. Or two... Unfortunately I now have decision paralysis.

I need to decide whether to build an n-scale circuit or an OO-scale windowsill layout.

Assuming I build the n-scale - I have a plan; but I need to baseboard. Now, I could buy one. On the other hand it seems I could buy a computer desk from Amazon for about the same price. Should I get an L-shape one with a little extra room for sidings?

Do I want to add a turntable? Probably not. Although it might be a nice addition if I add more trains.

Do I just want to buy a board? I can stick it in trestles and that would make folding it away easy.

Should I buy extra trains? At the moment I have a single train. It's very nice but limits what I can do.

I have an n-gauge model train. N-gauge is interesting - it can be used to make very small layouts. 1st radius is just 22.8cm. 2nd radius is just 26.5cm. This means that a double track circuit will fit fit on a standard small desk. This is very convenient for those of us with limited space.

Of course, another option is a windowsill. I could get a decent end-to-end run on my bedroom windowsill. Although having investigated this, I think that a run just 2 and a half times the train length might be a little limiting. However, I did download a model railway planner. I could, just about, squeeze in a small shunting yard by my window.

So, a desktop layout - a double loop is a simple plan, but there are other options. There's a long winding route with a reversing loop. It does mean that trains will always end up at the station they left but that's the nature of this sort of limitation. There's also the inconvenience of wiring a reversing loop. What I think might be more interesting though is a single loop, with an outward branch spiralling upwards, a passing loop, and an internal siding. There's a more complex version of the idea here. I'm a little concerned about the gradient needed but it will give a long run. It can, of course, be fudged a little by making the other side go down. This will, of course, put the station at an angle as well

Not sure about the inclines I can use. Trains are going to be short so I imagine a 3% grade will be tolerable. i wonder if a 4% will work.

As for the windowsill layout - a simple OO version of this shunting layout seems like a good idea basis to start with.

It;s been a long time since I've felt I had the space to play trains. I'm getting quite excited about this. Am really hoping I can do something cool with lighting for the OO scale one. There are a lot of options for lighting available. And for signalling! I wonder if I could disable sections of track based on signals.

I really do like the West Country! They have some of my favourite things! Trains, cider, seas, gorgeous countryside and friends getting martried!

West Trek: The Motion Picture

It's a shame it's so far away but we have two people to share the driving and a Katiebug to keep us company. Plus we get to stop at Gloucester services and raid the farm shop! And so we did! We picked up a Katiebug at the station and headed south. Stopped at services. I was persuaded to have Fish and Chips. Not sure why... I should have waityed until we were in a coastal area. We did have to wait a while though. First there was a wait for chips. New chips were brought out, two people were served, and they ran out of peas...

But we ate. We continued onwards. Hermoine the evil Satnav decided to take us around the back roads of Ilfracombe to get to the hotel.

Nice hotel. Bit of a grotty area. The nearby boarded up hotels don't really add to the character. Tiny little room but it had 4 walls and a bed. And a window! And a nice bar. Although they didn't have any lemonade. Well, they had the dregs of a bottle but it was flat. Still, they served some nice beer. Went for a walk and saw the sea. Not really a swimming beach here, but a good place to get dashed against rocks. Apparently the beach is through the tunnels, but they charge admission.

West Trek 2: The Satnav Wrath of Catboy

We went to see the Aquarium. It's a nice little place, dedicated to showing off the local fish species, fromt he source of the river down all the way to the sea. That gives a remarkable amount of variety, inclusing starfish, dogfish and even an octopus!

Had a look at boats in the harbour. The boats were all sitting on the beach because this is low tide in a part of the country that gets some of the largest tidal ranges in the world. Had an ice cream because

flickums likes buying me ice cream. And went to see the lifeboat.

I've always liked lifeboats! The RNLI is an important institution for anyone who grew up near the sea. Flickums isn't interested in lifeboats, but I am and so was Katiebug so I had a friend to geek out with. There was a nice man to tell us all about the launch system, because the RNLI people love talking about their boats, and I like hearing about them. It's a Shannon class (The big RNLI boats are named after rivers) pushed out on a trailer by a tractor. There's a turntable for pointing it the right way. The trailer has hefty catapillar tracks. They also have a D class inflatable which is less impressive but actually gets a lot more use.

Went to the brewery where they made the nice beer I'd had the day before but nobody was in.

Decided to go to nice pub for lunch where I had a cocktail in a tentacle glass (Kraken Rum based hence the glass), and ordered food. Apparently they were out of ham egg and chips but weren't able to tell us whether this was because of a shortage of ham, egss, chips or a combination of the above. They also couldn't provide a bacon cheeseburger but a bacon burger or a cheeseburger were doable. Food took forever to arrive. We weren't all that impressed by the place.

Went to the beach. Surprisingly busy but it was a very mild October day and half term holiday. Plus it's good surfing beach, and British surfers are a hardy bunch because they really need to be!

Went for a drive to the Lynton and Barnstable railway. Hermione the evil satnav decided to take us through countless narrow country roads to get there before dumping us in the middle of Barnstaple. Rather foolishly I assumed that he Lynton and Barnstaple railway shop would be anywhere near the Lynton and Barnstaple railway. Apparently not. Also apparently it was too late by this point. Decided to chill back at the hotel.

It turned out Liam was arriving many hours before the other people he was sharing a cottage with, and the train arrived a long distance away from the place he was statying (at the wedding venue). Flickums - generous spirit that she is - volunteered to pick him up. I went along, largely because I had nothing better to do. The evil satnav got us to the station okay, and back to Ilfracombe, but decided that narrow country roads were still fun, and that the absolute best route to the venue was up a public footpath!

Decided that Google might have a better idea here, so reverse, went back to a main road and found the place along actual roads... And a long windy farm lane; but at least that was essentially the driveway. But we delivered Liam to the destination, said hello to several other wedding guests, and we were pelased to find Liam didn't need to wait for the person who'd booked the room and could get first dibs on room. This was a family owned farm/wedding venue/cottage so all handled pretty informally.

I helped with wedding prep by carrying cakes. Flickums wandered into the wrong cottage and tuirned around immediately. We were directed to "The Thtched Inn" for food where I had steamed mussels and was given a bucket with a cute lobster on it for handling shells. Flickums was delighted by the lobster bucket. I was rather pleased with the cider, cream and garlic sauce they were cooked in! Liam treeated us because he was exceedingly grateful for the lift! I always think a good deed is its own reward but if a reward comes with it I'm not going to say no.

West Trek 3: The Search for - actually there wasn't much searching... Star Trek titles aren't really working here.

Alec and Fleur are a lovely couple! I don't know them that well, but Flick is friendly.

The ceremony was at a nice little venue by the promenade. Really nice. And a rainbow came out to celebrate! The weather wasn't perfect but it's October! The rain did decided to disappear in time for some photos.

Went to venue. Had cider. Had food! Listened to speeches. We found out what sort of a man Alec is! There was face painting! There was a photo booth! There was pressed apple juice from a local farm. We were seated near the photograpther and she was lovely! We also had an Auntie Fox, a Mr Fox, a Pete and Katiebug on our table!

Face painter painted a pumpkin on Flickums and made me look like a kitty cat!

We had a pub quiz. We won! It helped that the first round was a movie question, and Flick knows movie stuff!

It was fun. I ate too much food. I already had trouble squeezing into my trousers.

Flickums drive home and managed to avoid running anyone over despite the best efforts of the people of Ilfracombe!

West Trek 4: The Voyage Home

Couldn't park at the hotel the previous night, but streeet parking around the corner was free until 10am. That gave us plenty of time for breakfast (the hotel had a very nice breakfast selection - freshly cooked). We packed, picked up a Katiebug and this time we actually found the railway.

It's a really cute little narrow railway. A very short run unfortunately, because unlike most preserrved railways, there was no remaining track, so they had to bebuild from the start. The man in the gift shop had the sort of magnificent beard that you often see on railway people. I imagine he was also fond of either real ale, or - more likely in this part of the country - real cider.

We went on a train ride that terminated at nowhere in particular before turning back.

And finally headed home. A long ride but fortunately very little traffic.

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