Freight on street tramways in the British Isles

Is the title of the book that arrived today, courtesy of eBay. It's by prolific tramway author David Voice and does exactly what it says on the label. Although there are a couple of lines that to my mind stretch the definition e.g. the Glyn Valley Tramway, it contains a wealth of ideas to spice up operations on a model tramway. Some of these I knew about already - anyone who's visited Crich will have seen the Blackpool steeplecab for instance - but there were many more I was unaware of.

Manchester parcels tram. Same day delivery of parcels was guaranteed anywhere in the city provided it was posted by 3.45 p.m.

Two trains of tin ore on the Cambourne and Redruth in Cornwall.

One operation I knew less about was in Glasgow, where freight locomotives were used to deliver main line wagons to a couple of shipyards in Govan (avoid Rab C. Nesbitt reference...). Glasgow tramways, like a few others, were laid to 4' 7 3/4'' gauge so that main line wagons could run on their wheel flanges on the grooved tramway street track.

And of course, the ideal locomotive to model such operations in n scale would be the tiny Deki 3 from Tsugawa Yokou.

Things I never knew about Tomix turnouts...

Most of what I know about wiring was gleaned many years ago from careful study of the works of Cyril Freezer, especially the iconic 60 Plans for Small Railways, which I pretty much wore out as an early teenager. Reverse loops were tricky, necessitating something called a DPDT switch, otherwise short circuits would occur, the universe implode - you get the picture.

As far as I knew, this was still the case today - even the new fangled DCC seemed to struggle - I notice Bachmann make a special reverse loop module for their Easy Command line. Not a massive problem when you're modelling a railway perhaps, reverse loops being quite rare beasts, but tramways are a different matter. Most of my favourites, the Silesian system I 've discussed previously for instance, have a fair number, so naturally I wanted one too. Whatever CJ said.

Googling around at the weekend for information about Tomix insulated railjoiners, I came across a message on the excellent Tomix and Tomytec model railway group on Yahoo, by Nick Kibre (message 872 if you're interested) that said the Tomix turnouts were power routing and no extra railgaps were required for a reverse loop.

To be honest, I doubted it would work - it went directly against the world according to Freezer, but I dutifully set up a quick test rig in the kitchen, using my 6 volt battery controller so that the consequences wouldn't be too dire when the whole thing blew up... Only to find it worked. Perfectly.

Thankyou Nick Kibre and thankyou Tomix!

Newcastle Haymarket Tramsformed

I love the minimalist layouts built over the years by Ian Futers. I've tracked down magazine back numbers featuring them, been to at least 4 exhibitions simply because one of his models, sometimes under new ownership, was there, I even have a part finished 00 gauge pastiche of Newcastle Haymarket warping nicely in a rather damp loft.

Recent posts by Chris Mears on his excellent Prince Street Terminal blog reawakened my interest in Ian's
work. When he went on to mock up a tram terminal using the Newcastle Hamarket track plan, I began to wonder what the actual model would look like if it were updated, as if it had been incorporated into a modern rapid transit system. In fact, if the station really existed, it might well have become part of the Tyne and Wear Metro, which uses high level platforms, some of which are ex railway, with tram style articulated cars.

In Nottingham, our local tram system, the southern terminus is on the old Great Central Railway viaduct, which ran over the city before plunging into a tunnel through to Nottingham Victoria Station.

The pre-tramway shot, above, shows the location. Trams now approach down the street on the left of the photo (the tunnel mouth through to Victoria can just be seen) then swing onto the viaduct. The brick part has been replaced by a modern concrete structure, once over the road in the foreground the original structure is used. At the end, a modern tower-like building, see left, provides access to the platforms. Since it was only built for plain double track, the viaduct has been widened using a metal structure, topped with a concrete deck.

The rails are set into the concrete. The station throat is a scissors crossover, allowing access from the double track approach to either platform. Beyond the buffers, behind the camera, the original Great Central crossed Station Street, then went over the four platforms of Nottingham Midland station on a huge bridge, now demolished. With the news this week that two more routes are to be added to the Nottingham network, this scene will soon change. Tracks will again run southwards from here and a new bridge will be built over the Midland station, still in use.

Returning to Haymarket, the viaduct here includes platforms, so unlike the Nottingham example, no widening would be necessary. The original station building would be demolished and, since the trams are much shorter, the line would be cut back, probably at around the white noticeboard seen on the booking office wall in the picture to the left. A tower, with lifts, would be built to give access from street level. With the bridge removed, a small plaza, with flowerbeds, could be set around the street entrance.

Were I to try this in N gauge, and I'm very tempted, I'd add a loop at street level for my Tomytec moving bus, emerging from under the far bridge, that looping back round through the new 'Station Plaza', to return behind the backscene. Tomytec produce 66mm radius curves so the layout would easily fit onto a 20cm wide board. A new take on an old idea, and a real salute to an inspiring railway modeller.

Tetsudou controller problems

My battery powered Tetsudou controller was delivered yesterday. I unpacked it excitedly, sat my Bachmann streetcar on the track and - nothing!! Well, the lights came on, but that was it. Tried posh Duracell batteries, still no result.

I then tried the batteries directly on the tram - still nothing, so I guess 4 AAs don't put out enough juice for the Bachmann motor. I found a 9v PP3 in the cupboard and connected it to the wheel - this resulted in a reasonable pace.

Since I really like the controller and being able to operate away from mains power, this leaves me two options. I could fit a PP3 into the device. It comes apart easily enough and there's more than enough room. My only concern is that there's a fair bit of circuitry at the top and I don't want to burn it out with a 50% voltage increase. Has anyone else run them successfully with an uprated supply?

The other alternative is to stick to models that work on 6v. I'm not particularly in love with the Bachmann - it was secondhand so I should be able to sell it on without loss, and I was going to order one of the TM-TR01 based models anyway, plus a Portram or two when the chasis comes back on sale. Being Tetsudou models, these must work with the original setup? If I take this route, am I painting myself into a corner regarding future acquisitions? In particular, I could be tempted by something from Modemo in the future.

Any advice would be welcomed!

You wait all day for a tram then...

OK, so the original quote refers to buses, but it's close enough. After finding the first video of Shōkakuji-shita, I was skimming through the other videos by seigen120kaihin and suddenly spotted what had to be route numbers amongst all the Japanese characters. Two therefore appeared to be route 1, so hopefully included more of Shōkakuji-shita. And here it is, at the end this time (final 40 seconds), and filmed from the other side. A lot of reflection off the windows, but the opposite side of the street this time

. Not sure of the time of day - when I have nothing better to do I'll perhaps work it out from the position of the sun - but that's quite a high frequency service. One tram's just leaving as our's arrives.

Shōkakuji-shita: video at last

I came across Shōkakuji-shita on the Nagasaki Tramway system on the net a while back, especially through the blog of Chris Mears.. It's a superb minimum space prototype, only 1 point, but plenty of traffic and quite unique scenically, built on the edge of the river, with a backdrop of characterful properties clinging to the opposite bank.
It's the terminus of routes 1 and 4. For a colourful map of the system, take a look here. There's loads of YouTube videos of the Nagasaki Tramways, many filmed from from the driver's perspective. Until now however, none of them appeared to feature Shōkakuji-shita - even the route 1 journeys appeared to stop short. Doubtless they are out there, but my inability to read Japanese makes searching difficult.
I've finally come across this however - not the elusive cabview I'd really like to see, but the first minute does give some good views of the station.

Now to continue ploughing through YouTube to find some more!

A prototype for those Tomix loops?

Of course, these tiny loops of Tomix track may be great fun but they're hardly prototypical. Are they?
A system I've become very interested in is the Slaskie Tramways, in Upper Silesia, Poland. It's a complex network in an old industrial area, largely operated by classic cars, derived from Tatra  PCCs. Here's a great overview. I've been exploring some of the routes in Google Earth and came across this gem.

It's just north of Pogon Akademiki. Route 27 trams terminate there (other routes continue), then run forward to this loop to turn before heading back. Here's a map should anyone be interested.

Another one is nearer Katowice, allowing trams on routes 23 and 37 to turn. It's more scenic than the first example and has a rather neat little station, Szopienice Petla, inside one of the triangles.

Here's a view of the station on Streetview:

And if these aren't prototypes for a Tomix loop, I don't know what is!