Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

StevePower · May 30, 2017

Here is the latest technology working to bring you Gormo Tracking.
The B777 rego is G-STBL for his flight to London , leaving Singapore at 22:35 Singapore time.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-stbl
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ba16/#d8f1de6

Ron · May 30, 2017

Brilliant thanks. I use this program quite a bit to identify aircraft locally.

Ron · May 30, 2017

Now crossing India!!

JimW · May 30, 2017

I remember coming back from Singapore in 1966 after my Dads posting out there, we flew back on an old four engined prop job and it took ages. We had to stop at Colombo (Bombay on the way out) for refuelling and also at Kuwait both ways, due to head winds on the return there was also an emergency stop to refuel in Paris with the Pilot pointing out the Eiffel tower as we descended.

A lot quicker now than it used to be.

Jim

StevePower · May 30, 2017

Gormo is over the middle of Russia at the moment. A very northerly route than the one normally flown between Singapore and London. They are down at 34000ft which is low for 10 hrs into the flight. The headwinds must be very strong as the flighttime is showing 13hrs 10 minutes. Anyway that's just more time for him to make some Gormo Vision tutorials in how to turn an economy seat into a lie flat business class seat using some aluminium foil, a milk bottle and some old salt and pepper shakers.

Ron · May 31, 2017

Landed at 5.15 am, welcome to England Gormo!

ianvolvo46 · May 31, 2017

Yeah welcome to Europe Gormo you must be frazzled after that journey so have a shot of tinto .. it helps with the jex lack .. jest lact .. jet laugh ... 2 shots of tinto !

Ian vt

JimW · May 31, 2017

Welcome to the UK Gormo.

If your flying up to Scotland I hope BA have got their short haul flights sorted too, if you do fly over Yorkshire I'm the one hanging the washing out, I'll keep an eye out for you as we have nice clear skies today.

Jim

gormo · Jun 24, 2017

Thanks Guys,

I am listening to what your saying but I just don`t know what to take seriously.?????

Anyway here I am claiming the Cairngorms back for myself. Yeah!!!

They got that right!!!!!..........

And look out Toto....I`m after your job mate!!!!......I`ve already got the hat....

http://www.clickGormo

gormo · Jun 25, 2017

G`day Folks,

Well it`s Monday......I got home on Friday and I`m still having trouble adjusting to the time difference. My body clock is still out of whack. I tried going to bed late last night.....11:30pm and I was wide awake at 3:30am.....tossed around for a while and finished up getting up at 4:30am and kicked off the day.

I`ll probably be stuffed tonight, but I`ve got to get this sorted........it usually takes me three days coming back this way.....the other way is no problem....one day and I`m right.......oh well....eventually I`ll get there.

When we were in Scotland we met up with Toto and Lynne and later on with Paul and Morag. Toto and Lynne hosted us through the day and fed and watered us and the day was one long conversation.

The day was not long enough to catch up on four years of long distance friendship, however it was better than no meeting at all. I have to say it was a most enjoyable get together. We all got so involved in conversation that Toto and I barely spent any time in the shed......but then again.....it doesn`t pay to neglect the ladies and be anti social. I think Toto and I did the right thing by them so that must have earned a few brownie points.

Toto is my friend, and for those of you who don`t know him very well,.... he is a very kind hearted, generous person, who you can trust and rely on.......most important qualities in my book.

For our first person to person meeting, we exchanged gifts and one of the gifts Toto gave me was a GWR loco. An extremely generous gift I thought.....but that`s just the way he is......so what can you do?????......you accept it gracefully with many thanks and use it as it should be used.

So Toto.....I thought I`d do a video of it being run in, just to show you that it works and it works really well.........a good choice my friend and it adds a bit of class to GCJ....

Running In

http://www.clickGormo

Gary · Jun 26, 2017

Very nice loco Gormo, a wonderful gift from a good friend.

Cheers, Gary.

StevePower · Jun 26, 2017

I agree, it's a pretty little loco. Almost enough so to make me add some GWR stock to my layout....

gormo · Jun 26, 2017

Thanks Gary and Steve,

Absolutely right there lads....

I just thought I should put up some pics of the day we all got together.

Paul and Morag picked us up from our hotel in Edinburgh that evening and that`s when photgraphs of the day began. They gave us a quick tour to the Forth Bridge......magnificent in the flesh.

These buildings are actually right underneath it and when a train goes over the bridge it is actually quite noisy.

Here they are.

And here we are with Morag.

Paul and Morag

And with Mrs.G

To give this structure some scale, check out the people at the bottom of the pic.

Then we met up with Toto and Lynne and we all had a wonderful evening meal together.

A great day

We were the last one`s out of the restaurant that night, but I think we could have carried on into the wee small hours, if the restaurant staff didn`t have to go home to bed.......

A great day in good company.....

http://www.clickGormo

Ron · Jun 26, 2017

Looked like a great night Gormo, glad you all met up OK
(Although I didn't see you waving when you went through Newark on the ECML ??)
ha ha, glad you enjoyed your big trip!

Toto · Jun 26, 2017

Just catching up with the goings on here.
It was a pleasure having you guys over. As I keep saying it is so soul destroying that it was only a day we had given the great distance that you guys traveled. Not a lot of time in my shed but I think it would have been rude to the ladies if we had done things any other way.
The conversation was rich and we've come away all the wiser to each others background etc which is something that is not as easily appreciated online. I'm sure from Paul's point of view it was great to have the opportunity to have the three of us together in the same room. A great memory to keep hold of.
I'm glad the loco went down well. Believe it or not, there was not a great choice of GWR releases from Hatton when I ordered it but thought that it would still be a worthy addition to the fleet. I've watched the video of it running in from the air conditioned room of the villa in Cyprus , it does seem to run sweetly.
It does look a bit clean though
Cheers for now
Toto

Gary · Jun 27, 2017

Toto wrote:

Believe it or not, there was not a great choice of GWR releases from Hatton when I ordered it
Toto
Click to expand...

I suppose that is because the GWR BLT is so popular... Luckily no one has really cottoned onto the Southern Railways, otherwise the wiser modellers would be out of stock...

Cheers, Gary.

gormo · Jun 30, 2017

Well you may not have had much choice Toto,

But it was a good choice....

I just hope I get to run it a bit more because I heard on the grapevine that my shed is up for lease.???

How the heck did that happen....??????......there must be forces at work....??????

http://www.clickGormo

gormo · Jul 1, 2017

G`day Folks,

Back into the bridge build.

It`s not quite going as planned but there you are..????.......modifications on the fly are the order of the day, and it will work out OK in the end.

I was saying to Gary the other night that I would prefer it to be removable, however now that I`ve started putting it together, it has developed a slight bow in the road bed. This means that I will have to screw it down to the platforms from under the baseboard. This will correct the bow and if the bridge has to be removed in the future, then it will be slightly more trouble to remove it, however at least it will be possible and at the end of the day, the bridge will look right.

I`ve got one of the layers of brick paper onto one of the end piers. There will be a second layer facing the track that will try to suggest panels within the brick wall, and the corners of those panels will be disguised with a narrow strip of brick paper.

Weights added to keep the bow to a minimum or even correct it.

And from the other side

So the road bed and the piers are all pinned and glued now to form one removable bridge. It will remain removable until the papering and details are completed and then it will be screwed into place.

More as it happens.

http://www.clickGormo

gormo · Jul 3, 2017

G`day Folks,

Well I`ve got the bowed road bed sorted out.!

Today I marked out the area on the platform where the central pier will stand. Drilled a suitable hole through the platform and baseboard, then put the bridge back in place with some weights on top of it. Then drilled through into the pier from underneath using the hole drilled previously as a guide. One screw is enough to lock it down and all is good now.

I`ve also progressed a little further along with the build. These overlay panels were designed in Open Office Draw and printed out to the exact same dimensions as the piers they`re intended for. These two are for the end piers and the print out is glued to cereal box card. Aldi brand Corn Flakes for anyone needing more detail.........

They are then cut out like below. These ones are for the central piers on the platforms and they are slightly smaller than the end pier versions.

This is how they are supposed to fit the pier.

The next stage is to cover them with brick paper ( Scalescenes ) as used on other parts of the layout. You can see the size difference between the two types here.

Here`s a clearer shot of the finished article.

And this is how they are intended to look once they lay over the brick papered piers.

Well that is a fairly mind numbing job. I`ve got two more panels to go, but they can wait till tomorrow, if I have time tomorrow...????

Also today, I received in the mail a little GWR brake van that I won on the Bay. It`s an older Hornby type but in very good nick.......I got it for 5 bucks but the postage was $8.50 so even at $13.50 delivered it`s still a bargain. In the model shop it would be maybe???? $20.00 to $25.00..???

It`s very clean and runs well. I`ll have to do a count now and see if I have enough of these brake vans.????

More as it happens

http://www.clickGormo