IM A YOUNGSTER OF 72,BEEN READING ABOUT BUCKINGHAM IN MODEL PRESS FOR MANY YRS. THIS WAS MY FIRST SIGHTING OF THE REAL THING AND BLOWN AWAY BY NOT JUST THE MANNER ITS ALL OPERATED BUT ITS AGE! I HAD FORGOTTEN STOCK BACK IN EARLY DAYS------MADE FROM WOOD AND PAPER!! MAY YOU SOON GET TOGETHER ONCE MORE,GOOD LUCK...
What an amazing piece of history, with lots of diy handwork construction. This video shows very well what it takes to manage a time table and run trains according to the schedule. You are a very pleasant presenter and story teller, an honourable way to keep the legacy alive and documented.
Just found this and it brings back memories of my father and I building just such a system for our rly in the 1950's. Points and signals controlled by lever frames and mer control; piano wire in micro copper tubes. Grain of wheat bulbs on the terminus and main station boards. Track sections with GPO switching and using telephone dialler mechanism for routes.All electromechanical. Four controllers with layout in 6 loops upper, middle and low level with terminus feeding the middles. Size, platforms for 12 coach with 30 ft runs between sidings and stations etc. Basically a huge L in two roof wings, about 50ft by 20ft each on plan. Today alas just the rolling stock and scenery buildings. But it ran well for 50 years with additions all the time. Happy days. Used to wish we had modern electronics and proper DCC. Miles of wiring and much soldering followed by dry joint hunting with an AVOmeter. I remember Buckingham in RM, of which I still have all editions from No1 to 1980. Lovely to see you have kept it unchanged. Years ago even motors had to be re wound and tender drive was common. Keep up the good work.
Brilliant demonstration of Peter's thinking and how the layout is controlled. Thank you very much Tony for taking the time and trouble to make that! I had often looked at photos and read much of the writings but never fully understood some of the more subtle parts of the set-up. Cheers, Ian
O happy memories! About 12 years have passed since I pulled levers at Grandborough Junction, but I'm pleased to say that I found myself calling out the numbers before you said them. I always enjoyed operating Grandborough and am delighted to see it living on and cared for so well. Peter's wiring was a jungle and you deserve a medal for getting it connected up again! Good luck with the Automatic Crispin.
Very well presented and informative! In my own layout have tried to use the Denny layout ideas but didn't really appreciate how it should be operated. Being DCC certain things are much easier but basic principles are timeless. Many ideas I will take away & try to apply them. Again thank you so much for taking the time to produce this video.
I wonder how the Rev ever got time to write a sermon, spend time with his family etc. There would be two life times n this layout as he scratch built just about EVERYTHING
excellent video , My Husband is currently building his layout based in the track plan of this one except he have it joined for continuous running and it will be a walk around layout
Does anyone know how Peter created the brick work for the buildings? Considering the age of the layout I am not sure brick paper was available, so is it handscribed and painted?
I found this absolutely fascinating- in some ways more so than a more conventional operating video. Please do produce a video on the Automatic Crispin once you have it running.
In other words the minimal use of section switches is due the use of "area" sectioning. The electrical parts attached to the mechanical switches, are either simple on/off connections or single pole double throw connections. i.e. when an alternate connection is needed whether the lever is pulled or replaced in the frame. All of which effectively provides the basics of real life "Interlocking". So the operating method of working the trains is that each train movement is driven TOWARDS the person operating it !? However as this electrical equipment is obviously "getting on" in years, I would consider replacing it with more modern electro-mechanical parts. The cheapest & most effective way to preserve the current operating methods, is to operate the signals from adapted RS Supplies relays, (around £5 each) positioned directly beneath each signal. These relays can have a little extension arm added, connected to the coil arm, so that the extension arm protrudes through the relay case, & allows the mechanical signal wire to be hooked to this arm. The relays having four electrical switches can also be used to integrate any current "interlocking" as well. The points however, I would replace the current mechanical rodding (if that's what it is), with something like the slow action Swiss Fulgurex mechanism (around £10 each), which can cope with any scale up to and including O gauge. Having a motor it winds points over gently, so won't break soldered tie bars, or rip the blade from the tie bar. They also come with two free switches, which can be used to deal with a live frog, and the 2nd switch can be used to integrate the "Interlocking". These mechanisms have the added advantage of being small and relatively flat, are intended for beneath baseboard installation, so take up minimal space, and come with a pre-shaped brass crank in brass sleeve. The crank requires a 1mm hole anywhere in the tie bar, (either end, or centre) and a 1mm hole through the baseboard 15mm from the tiebar hole. You then only need small MINI toggle switches on a small track diagram to complete the current operating methods. Such alterations should keep the layout going another 50 years ! I've built numerous International exhibition layouts for over 40 years using the equipment mentioned above to great effect. It's also obvious that numerous electrical repairs/alterations have been carried out, but that the soldering iron being used is too BIG. Try a proper SMALL modelling iron such as an Antex XS25 (25 watts) with a small flat end (3mm) tip, available direct from Antex in Plymouth or certain good model railway shops. One last pointer is the ECM Compseed (half wave/feedback) controller is dangerous, (as Pendon discovered decades ago), in that it will damage better quality more sensitive motors by overheating them. Due to the fact it does NOT give out pure unadulterated DC current, but a half way house between AC & DC. I would replace it with something like a Gaugemaster (non feedback type) panel mount controller !!!! Happy Modelling 😝
Buckingham clearly is getting on in years, and many far easier methods and technologies have become available since. But I suspect- and hope- that a large part of the enthusiasm for maintaining and operating this layout is to preserve the innovative, pioneering and creative solutions that the Rev. Denny came up with. There are, after all, many excellent modern layouts in existence, but only one Buckingham to show how far the hobby has come. I’ve always found the electromechanical creativity of this layout fascinating, and I’m delighted to see it preserved and maintained without wholesale modernisation.
Tony, All the lever frames were made long before you could buy on/off switches. I remember seeing the late W.S. Norris's O gauge layout and the had a mixture of telephone switch board switches and 240 volt light switches on the control panels. Unfortunatly Mr. Norris died before the new control panels with much more modern equipment could be installed. In platform 1 is that the morning express to London? Cheers, Chris Perry.
