Rail operations on Banbury Connections continue to tick along. A couple of locomotives needed repair over the last month or so and the point between the loops and Wellington has been causing trouble. In the latter case, we have exchanged the Triang lever solenoid point swtich to a Marklin one which is working much better. 

I've attached a few photographs from recent travels in Melbourne, which hosts the world's largest tram network, and Adelaide, which has recently electrified the northern line to Gawler.  

At today's special Sunday operating session, an original Hornby APT was spotted rounding the curve into Banbury. We presume it was using battery power given the absence of catenary!

Following the recent rebuild of Sheffield Loco to make space for two electrified sidings, a second major track rearrangement has been undertaken. This has made way for three diesel storage roads in the diesel depot, up from two, and the addition of a third electrified siding. 

An increase in capacity creates space for the new Class 31 (rebuilt from a mazrot chassis but a story for another time), and other locomotives allocated to the recently introduced Gosport to Sheffield parcels service.
It also allows the addition of another electric locomotive on the Woodhead Line to Manchester.

A picture of the new track arrangement is below. The new Class 31 is in the centre road of the diesel shed and the Heljan EM2 is in the short electrified siding. 

A new brick wall has been erected between the Chester General brick siding and control panel to protect any rolling stock in the siding from being accidentally knocked onto the ground.

Following derailments by locomotives reversing into the horse siding at Banbury, the facing point on the Western DOWN main has been removed and replaced with a point on the Great Central UP main. This has resulted in much improved reliability. Pictures of the operation are below:

I recently completed repainting a 5 carriage HST in Grand Central's second livery.

Following the acquisition of a pair of cheap GNER power cars from our local hobby store, 5 Lima Mk3s were acquired to create a Grand Central rake. Decals were obtained from Railtec Transfers. The decals were fairly difficult to apply, given their length, but the end result was excellent.

Unfortunately, my Humbrol Clear varnish decided to dry with a white glaze. This was rather disappointing and required the carriages to be carefully repainted in gloss black to hide the effects.

With this rectified, I finally thought we had an operable train. However, the Lima Mk3s I had, had their wheels changed which created excess axle play. This caused the train to derail. I have temporarily rectified this with bogies from another Lima XPT rake.

​Pictures of the train are below.

To improve railway reliability, the three way point at Machynlleth lower level was recently replaced with two conventional points.

Given that the station's electrical wiring partially went through the three way point, we were somewhat perplexed as to why nothing would operate immediately following the rebuild. This was rectified by attaching new power leads to the track in question and disconnecting the original leads from the point motor.

I attach a picture of the new arrangement below. The three way was replaced by the two points in the top right.

Owing to the previous shortage of electric locomotive storage at Sheffield, delays to the UP Manchester to London could create an operational lock up at Sheffield Victoria when the DOWN train had already reached Sheffield. What would happen is that the electric loco on the UP train wasn't able to run around to the other end as the track was blocked by the DOWN train.

The new siding has enabled the addition of another electric locomotive, thereby rectifying this problem.

The picture below shows two EM2s side by side at Sheffield Victoria. The original siding is on the left whilst the new one is on the right. Addition of the new siding required modifications to the station's overhead in a number of places.

Following a kind donation of old plastic buildings from a local modeller, Banbury Connections installed an industrial backdrop behind Bradford Exchange Station. 

Before installation, the buildings required some minor repairs and a new baseboard was erected in the gap between the Bradford baseboard and the train room wall.

Following the acquisition of several more trucks and a couple of additional Bradford trolleybuses, the buildings look very much at home in their new location.

The last time the modern trains were operating late last year, a couple of our operators brought round a few trains from their own fleet. 

In a rare moment, the operating team has sent the Sheffield sand wagon down to Gosport where it has returned ready to service the fleet at Sheffield Loco.

After many years with a plain Masonite wall behind Sheffield Victoria Station, we recently removed the wall, cut 24 arches and reclad the entire wall with Slaters stone plastikard and inset stone (cardboard) lintels. Per modern scenic standards, a copious amount of putty was used to hide any joins resulting in a much more realistic wall that looks strikingly like those ready made Noch walls you can buy "off the shelf".

The red brick walls behind Sheffield at Leicester and Rugby were also reclad as part of the upgrade.

As with many activities on this railway, this project was a victim of scope creep. Both ends of Platforms 4 and 5 were relaid to improve the track geometries. This required one of the electrification masts to be extended for the second time!

Pictures of the new wall and track are below. The last photo shows the improved wall/viaduct.tunnel mouth for the Rugby to Leicester mainline (new wall and pratt truss support) and Huddersfield line (tunnel). This job was necessitated by recent improvements to Nottingham's walls (previous blog post).

A nasty reverse curve on the northern end of Platform 1 at Banbury Station was a source of derailments for many years.

To rectify this problem, Platform 1 has been curved at the end to allow a smooth transition into the northern throat. This has allowed for faster and more reliable running through the station.

A number of pictures showing the changes can be found below.

You'll be pleased to see that this post is the first in a while not to refer to new walls being installed on the railway!

As a Christmas treat, I've attached some photos of a recent trip to the National Botanical Gardens in Washington DC where I found an outdoor railway where all the buildings and bridges were made entirely of plant matter.

The display included scenes from multiple countries, including Australia's Barossa Valley, each depicting a type of agriculture that has defined a particular region.