Hello again boys and girls...Corky's back!
After the sudden burst of track laying activity in the last update, things have slowed again as I've been spending the vast majority of my time in Hampshire and Surrey earning a crust in Farnham signal box. Although frustrating, this is a short term problem as either I will find another job closer to home or we will eventually sell our current home and relocate to the South and the Corkscrew-Lines will have a new permanent home and I can work on it whenever I like.
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| Latest arrival tops the helix. Note the blue-point switch machine under the loco. |
New Arrivals on the Corkscrew-Lines
As I mentioned in the last update, a new loco has been added to the Corkscrew-Lines roster in the shape of the latest re-tooled class 37/0 by Bachmann. This is a loco fitted with their latest powerful mechanism and comes in the best livery these locos ever carried (maybe with the exception of large logo blue) classic green with small yellow warning panels. As seems to be becoming more and more popular these days, the loco is factory weathered and although it looks attractive, I still remain to be convinced by manufacturer weathering. I would on balance prefer to have a pristine loco and then weather it myself at a later date as I see fit. However, it looks good and it certainly runs well as I've come to expect from Bachmann diesels.
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| New couplers and a DCC chip fitted and she's ready to go! |
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| Powering a freight past the yet to be named signal box at the top of the helix. |
Before being allowed out onto the mainline, the loco had the standard tension lock couplers removed and had a pair of Kadee couplers fitted. Next the body was removed and the mechanism was lubricated with some light engineering oil and a Lenz silver plus 21pin DCC chip was fitted. I have tried TCS, DCC Concepts and Bachmann DCC decoders but I have found Lenz are the only manufacturer with chips that fit straight in and give smooth, slow speed control straight away without the need to constantly tweak CV settings or speed tables. The vast majority of my Heljan and Bachmann locos are Lenz controlled and they all run beautifully.
This loco is fitted with directional lighting and working cab lights - all function controlled via the DCC chip. This is probably a personal preference, but I really do not like the lights fitted to the majority of models and find them at best too bright and normally totally unrealistic. My memories of trains in the pre hi-visibility headlamp days was you couldn't normally tell if they had any form of lighting at all in daylight and there was normally such a thick and even layer of grime over everything that they may as well not be lit at all. As I have no plans to run the layout in night-mode then I will probably rarely use the lighting functions. The 37 has a typical model lighting set up with a strange hue to the headcode panel although the separate cab lights are fun.
This loco becomes the third class 37 on the layout. Although the earlier pair are from the previous tooling and don't have quite the same haulage grunt this beast has, they are still acceptable models in my eyes and until another incarnation of the new version is released they will be safe on the loco roster.
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| Blue-Point switch machines, hardware packs and tubing from the USA |
Becky's Global Adventures
Apologies if I stray from railway related matters for a moment. Many of you will know my wonderful daughter Becky and will be aware that she recently went to China after raising vast amounts of money for her chosen charity, Childreach International. Well she came home with a 32GB memory card bursting with images of her adventures so I thought I'd share just a few with you.
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| Look for the Pink! |
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| Bexter on top of the world! |
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| The Great Wall |
She was home for a week or so and then boarded a Mumbo-Jumbo-Jet and headed off to Toronto in Canada for the second year of her degree course in international development. I know everybody you know back home is missing you Bex...Corky certainly is!
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| Seeing Becky off at Heathrow...Canada bound! |
London Termini at Night
I have worked on the railway for the best part of 25 years now and for many years I regularly worked night shifts in London. Whilst I was a driver at Kings Cross I always enjoyed the time between 2am and 5am when apart from newspaper deliveries and the occasional whistling cleaner, places such as Kings Cross which are normally nothing but hustle, noise and frantic movement, fall under a surreal silence and are becalmed. I have recently visited Waterloo and Kings Cross at night and thought you may enjoy a few images of berthed stock, the final arrivals and the revamped concourse and restored cathedral like roof at the "Cross".
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| Waterloo - Look at the buffer stops on that...Dreadful! |
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| New Concourse - Kings Cross |
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| Kings Cross Nocturne |
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| Kings Cross Nocturne |
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| Kings Cross Nocturne |
Continuing the full sized railway theme, my local line in the Fens, the "joint" line from Peterborough through Spalding to Lincoln has recently been resignalled and lost it's semaphores and some bridges have been replaced ready to accept larger containers on intermodal trains. Unfortunately the resignalling has resulted in the closure of some signal boxes and the removal of some Crossing Keepers from the line. Our local box at Gosberton has been closed and replaced by a battleship grey monstrosity which now controls a longer section of line and has incorporated monitoring and operation of numerous level crossings on the route. This is the shape of modern signalling and it isn't pretty. In a few years time this will in turn be replaced by incorporation into a larger signalling panel at Lincoln and eventually under Network Rail's long tern vision there will be only 14 signalling centres in the whole country, each, an enormous great office building not necessarily next to any railway line. If you have a local signal box then don't take it for granted...it's days are probably numbered!
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| The new Gosberton box with it's predecessor in the distance |
Future Adventures
Next weekend is the Nene Valley Railway diesel gala and I intend to be there. This will be my first and probably my last gala of the year so I intend to go the whole Ned 9 yards...Oh My Lords! If you are going I'll see you there on the Saturday.
Wibble and Rooster have decided a Corkscrew-Lines diesel gala is also required at some stage in the next few weeks...sounds like a great idea to me! If any of the other regular Corkettes are interested in an autumn running session with their own DCC locos then get in touch. Green livery is of course preferred but not essential. I will even turn a blind eye to sprinters and sheds if that's what floats yer boat...Dreadful!
Moving Pictures!
If you've visited the blog recently you may have noticed a new section....Video Vault. Yes my little Corkette chums, there are now short video clips of the Corkscrew-Lines available here and on Youtube. I'm just starting to get my head around filming, editing and uploading them so don't expect dolby surround or 3D. I'll try some extended clips and eventually would like to get an on-train camera sorted but for now you can see Goyles, Hymeks, Cromptons etc strutting their stuff on the helix...enjoy!
Pre-Ordered Goodies!
After checking the latest predicted release dates for models I've had pre-ordered for many years it looks like they'll all be arriving at the same time...Cripes! My wallet has just run away and hidden in fear! I have D600 Warships, Thumpers, Westerns, Baby Warships and Class 128 and AC Cars railcars and 02 steam locos and a USA class shunter all scheduled to arrive in the country in the next few months! It's exciting but I may be living off a diet of baked beans only for a while. You have been warned...Hellfire!
Until next time my friends....keep up the good work and don't let the buggers get you down!
Corky!
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