Down line distant signal at Ramsbottom Station

Evening all,

Well its not long till Bonfire Night on the 5th of November with fires roaring a blaze and fire works giving off some beatiful displays with some hot pot in hand and some treacle toffee for afters.

Not much was done last week (27/10/2011) so as there were only 4 of us so apart from tidying away bits of kit and unpacking items after the open evening and bringing life back to normal, Work was started on the goods yard off Railway Street which had some horrible looking cobbles which were reprints but in black & white of Superquick sheet cobbles.

This week (03/11/2011) saw more members turn up in the shape of Keith as he had flu last week and couldnt make it, Roger is recovering well from a visit to the hospital and Reece has celebrated his 18th birthday on the Wednesday.

I have laid down the entire yard using Metcalfe Cobble Sheets M0051 which look a lot more realistic than the previous print offs that we have used. The front entrance of Ramsbottom Station has never had a pavement even though on photographs it did, so this was put right using Metcalfe M0055 Paving Sheets which look good now. Whilst on the same subject, Garden Street was missing a length of pavement on one side so this has been completed as well. There is still a few more bits of fencing and buffer stops to replace but this will have to wait till next week.

Keith has repaired the level crossing gates that were left closed to rail traffic and taken off during the open evening (Alex set them) by me ….ooops, these were luckily a clean break resulting in the gate coming off in whole so simple dab of glue and stuck back onto the poles. Keith has also replaced two signal heads that Alex and Alan had painted last week. He also removed the footbridge from its connections so Alan can make some running repairs whilst it was out of position due to the station being moved whilst the yard was relaid.

Alex has been pondering over making some tarpaulins for some trucks as he seems to have a thing for hoods at the moment, He has also been tackling a problem with his 9f with its front bogie taking a leap for freedom but resulting in derailment on a certain cross over point on Accrington….all seems sorted now….touch wood. He has mentioned about maybe getting a few more BR owned lorries and also weathering a few private owner wagons maybe a winter project.

I never forgot to mention about the replacement of the sidings controller that were originally on the rear down line board but was replaced for the open evening, well this has now been replaced with a brand spanker from gaugemaster and the sidings are running smoooooooth. so all good there.

A few pictures of tonight will be loaded tomorrow as its bedtime now so watch this space…. Can now be seen by clicking here

Cheers

Dan