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Reflections on Peak Forest


Fordbank
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Yay!

 

Welcome to RMWeb mate, and thank you for taking the plunge and putting up your photos.

 

From the photos you showed us on Marcus's thread, and those above, I'd say you're going to get a lot of followers.

 

It looks like a superb model, and really captures Peak Forest.

 

Question: Is your layout exhibitable, or nailed firmly to the floor, and is it an end-to-end or a roundy-roundy?

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

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On 19/11/2015 at 12:39, acg_mr said:

Yay!

 

Welcome to RMWeb mate, and thank you for taking the plunge and putting up your photos.

 

From the photos you showed us on Marcus's thread, and those above, I'd say you're going to get a lot of followers.

 

It looks like a superb model, and really captures Peak Forest.

 

Question: Is your layout exhibitable, or nailed firmly to the floor, and is it an end-to-end or a roundy-roundy?

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

Hi Al,

Peak Forest Revived is very much roundy-roundy.

In theory it could be exhibited (although there is still much to do scenically) as it is built on nine separate plywood boards on freestanding legs and joined with standardised fittings. Pretty much like many exhibition layouts. Even the wiring is modular and any board can be unplugged from its neighbours using Din plugs.

Not sure now why I went to such trouble! Maybe I realised that my pathetically slow build rate would mean the layout would need to outlast its present home in the (freezing) garage.

 

The boards are very lightweight and the diagonal cross bracing has been particularly effective in preventing diagonal warping over time which can occur using easier-to-construct longditudinal or cross bracing. Learning from painful experience.

 

Regards, Andy

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Edited by Fordbank
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Great work all round by the looks of things. The base boards certainly look nice and sturdy with some neat wiring as well.

The signal box looks superb, definitely a nice bit of modelling.

The "pipe bridge" will be what I use as the scenic break at the Tunstead end of the layout. Any idea when that bridge was actually demolished and the pipe gantry taken down?

Look forward to seeing plenty more of your layout.

Cheers

Marcus

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Watching this with interest as it is very much related to my Millers Dale in the 80s layout albeit mine being N gauge. It seems that you have a similar premise that the peak line down through bakewell was saved in 1968. This is right up my street.

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Ooh - this looks good :good:

 

Very model-able the Peak, with its abundance of tunnels, bridges, cliffs, etc. My previous layout was based a little further down the line towards Manchester (link below). You've just added another link towards us collectively depicting most of the route!

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Hi Andy and welcome to the RM Web and in particular the Layouts section, when I saw your pics on Marcus's site, (Peak Dale Forest) I knew it would be good. Your baseboard construction and wiring philosophy is a credit to your forward thinking and the layouts long term status.

 

George T on here (Bishops Street) and I have spent a lot of time at Peak Forest so if you need any pics of Stock, Locos etc we have loads especially Class 60's taken from the footpath that goes down to the Stabling point and sidings let us know.

 

You say its in a Cold Garage, have you tried the Halfords interlocking Floor mats, I had them in my garage and still do in my humble Shed, they are soft, warm and easy to sweep and vacuum over.

 

What's the overall size Andy?

 

Looking forward to seeing more images soon, and also great to have YET ANOTHER Andy on here, we will take over the WORLD, hahhahah

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so we link Bakewell, Gowhole, Chapel en le frith , Peak Forest and Manchester Central - how about any missing bits?

 

Well there's Cav's Millers Dale, but we'd have to shrink stuff a bit, and I'm sure AndyP used to have a model of Monsal Head Viaduct, which was passed on to someone else, so there may be a Monsal Dale / Headstone Tunnel, somewhere. Then there's David Down's model of Matlock - called Mettesford. We just need someone to model Ambergate, and we're done!! :)

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On 19/11/2015 at 19:19, Marcus 37 said:

Great work all round by the looks of things. The base boards certainly look nice and sturdy with some neat wiring as well.

The signal box looks superb, definitely a nice bit of modelling.

The "pipe bridge" will be what I use as the scenic break at the Tunstead end of the layout. Any idea when that bridge was actually demolished and the pipe gantry taken down?

Look forward to seeing plenty more of your layout.

Cheers

Marcus

Hi Marcus,

 

I used the pipe bridge as the prototype for the road overbridge at Peak Forest Station. The real bridge is too long for its setting on my layout. It has three eqal arches whereas the pipe bridge has one central arch similar in size to the Peak Forest brdge but two smaller arches on either size.

I'm happy with the way the pipe bridge looks in its new role. All part of creative license!

 

The photo of the pipe bridge was taken 28.08.2010. It had been demolished and removed by the date of my next photo reconnaissance visit in November 2011.

Note how the tracks did a little swerve through the end arches to give clearance. A nice feature. They were re-aligned after demolition, and all traces of this bridge have gone. So worth the modelling effort. Although the pipe was very high - hope you have ceiling room.

 

Regards, Andy

 

 

 

 

 

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On 20/11/2015 at 10:00, Barry O said:

so we link Bakewell, Gowhole, Chapel en le frith , Peak Forest and Manchester Central - how about any missing bits?

Well I've got my eye on Great Rocks Junction. Definitely my next signal box. With a low relief of South Works. I think it would be just over four foot long in 4mm! This is what seeing Calcutta Sidings has done to our inflated imaginations.

Andy

 

 

 

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Thanks for the info and pictures on the bridge Fordbank. That is invaluable. I had never walked down that far so the picture is really helpful.

If you going to have a go at South works this is really worth a look.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/2056-great-tunsley-dale-revisited/

 

I have seen the layout in the flesh and it is a leviathan. Went to visit its owner,Trains 12, when I was in Wales on holiday last year and it is truly superb.

 

Cheers

 

Marcus

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On 22/11/2015 at 19:48, Ivatt46403 said:

Lovely signal box and a very good use of the ipad - definitely need one for modelling work now :)

 

Following along with interest.

 

Marcus.

Re Use of iPad in modelling:

Yes I have found it increasingly useful. Now that digital photos are virtually free it is possible to build up a sizeable library for modelling reference. I remember a time when my then partner, an illustrator, used to get me to pose my hands for taking  photographs  from which she would do drawings. Now it is so simple to have half a dozen plus photos of exactly what you are trying to copy.

 

I use the iPad both for modelling structures, but more importantly for painting.

On Peak Forest Revived I took a lot of pictures of dry stone walls before trying to reproduce their complex colours. I find that flat colours don't capture their look at all.

 

The iPad was also used to model the shape and colour of the limestone rock faces, as well as the colouring of the stonework of Peak Forest Station.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

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A couple more photos of the layout so far

 

'Lightly loaded 37419 passes Peak Forest with the daily trip from Warrington Arpley, as 60077, Canisp, exits the tunnel with a rake of RMC hoppers returning to Dove Holes. March 1997'

 

 

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I like the use of the ipad. I use my note 4 which although smaller has a fantastic 2560 x 1440 pixel super amoled screen. As you say there are so many free photos of locations and rolling stock out there on the likes of google and flickr that a screen is invaluable.

 

Loving the layout so far, makes me wish I could crack on with Millers Dale!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Old Limekilns at Great Rocks Limeworks, Peak Dale

 

One of the most attractive features of modelling Peak Forest are all the archaeological remains of Peak Fores's previous industrial history. One such ruin is the old limekilns which border the 'main line' on the east side of Peak Forest South signal box.I so liked the look of this ramshackle stonework and its reference to the huge limeworks which once bordered peak Forest Station that I employed modellers licence to transpose the structure to the west side of the line beside the sidings where it now appears on my model.

 

The stonework will eventually be softened and part hidden by the encroaching scenic work of grass, brambles and assorted undergrowth. Just like the real thing. 

 

.....Only time seems to progress even more slowly on Peak Forest Revived than on the real Peak Forest!

 

Old Limekilns at Great Rocks Limeworks, Peak Dale

 

 

One of the most attractive features of modelling Peak Forest are all the archaeological remains of Peak Fores's previous industrial history. One such ruin is the old limekilns which border the 'main line' on the east side of Peak Forest South signal box.I so liked the look of this ramshackle stonework and its reference to the huge limeworks which once bordered peak Forest Station that I employed modellers licence to transpose the structure to the west side of the line beside the sidings where it now appears on my model.

 

The stonework will eventually be softened and part hidden by the encroaching scenic work of grass, brambles and assorted undergrowth. Just like the real thing. 

 

.....Only time seems to progress even more slowly on Peak Forest Revived than on the real Peak Forest!

 

Old Limekilns at Great Rocks Limeworks, Peak Dale

 

 

One of the most attractive features of modelling Peak Forest are all the archaeological remains of Peak Fores's previous industrial history. One such ruin is the old limekilns which border the 'main line' on the east side of Peak Forest South signal box.I so liked the look of this ramshackle stonework and its reference to the huge limeworks which once bordered peak Forest Station that I employed modellers licence to transpose the structure to the west side of the line beside the sidings where it now appears on my model.

 

The stonework will eventually be softened and part hidden by the encroaching scenic work of grass, brambles and assorted undergrowth. Just like the real thing. 

 

.....Only time seems to progress even more slowly on Peak Forest Revived than on the real Peak Forest!

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