The Oak Hill Branch - LBSCR / SECR 1905ish - New layout starts on page 129

[Edwardian]

Good to see it coming on.  It might just be the result of perspective , but that water crane looks very large.  Is it, perhaps, a floor mounted, rather than platform mounted height?

 

How is the P Class going?  I understand that SE Finecast do some SECR lining transfers.

 

By the way, what is the SECR loco we see intriguingly peeking out of the shed in several photos?

[BlueLightning]

Hi Edwardian,

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

No it's not just perspective the water crane is to large. It is a Hornby Dublo one that I think with a bit of work could be made to resemble an LBSC Ball Weight water crane see photo on lbscr.org here hopefully that will be a fun little project and not to much work, we shall see, although if it doesn't I will probably get the Mikes Models one as its quite cheap.

 

I haven't started the P class yet I am going to wait until a Terrier chassis comes up for a good price, somewhere about £20 would be good. I didn't know SE Finecast did transfers. I was planning to make my own but I will investigate.

 

The SECR loco seen peeking out the shed is a C class from the GBL series, I have a chassis from and Airfix 4f under it however the tender hasn't been finished so I put it like that for photos to disguise that its just the engine.

 

Gary

[BlueLightning]

Its Alive! (kind of)

 

As of this even the entire layout is finally up. and covered in stock. hopefully giving an idea of what I want to achieve, although it looks a bit busy for such a small rural station. next job to do will be to finish the electrics. This is now getting quite far and I have now made a control panel for the points which can be seen sitting in the fiddle yard in the below pictures. So please enjoy and as usual any feedback would be great.

 

Some shots showing the whole layout:

 

 

 

 

And a couple taken from the entrance to the good shed showing the station area:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[Edwardian]

My suggestion is to paint those Bachmann 'Stroudleys'.  I believe they should be mahogany, and doubtless darkened with time and more varnish.  I don't believe that the Stroudley 4-wheelers were ever repainted in the umber and white scheme, which makes life simpler for you.

 

Looks good all set up together, though I would suggest a neutral backscene, as my eye is continually drawn to the wallpaper border!  I look forward to see it slowly coming to life.

[BlueLightning]

The Stroudleys will be going mahogany with vermilion brake ends at some point. I already have the paint for them. I want to do some detailing to them first though such as steps and vacuum pipes, however they are quite far down the list. I need to get some more LBSC & SECR coaches as well as I don't think many services south of London ran ran with clerestorys that had LNER written down the side!

 

I have suggested to the misses that we paint that wall as a nice sky blue feature wall. I think their is only so far I can push her though lol.

 

Gary

[Nearholmer]

BL

 

Presumably, you could de-clerestorificate those LNER coaches, to make passable Brighton ones.

 

40 years ago, the fashion was to make Brighton coaches using Ratio Midland low-roof kits. They are very similar, to the degree that only a real aficionado would spot the ruse. The old-and-crude Triang clerestory coaches were a good bet for conversion too.

 

Kevin

[BlueLightning]

Hi Kevin.

 

That is in fact what they were brought for, I got the idea after seeing some pics on the internet. That was about 2 years ago although I'm sure it'll happen eventually. I also have a GEM kit for a Gladstone to pull them which I've had for just as long.

 

Still if I built all the kits I've got then I'd need something else to keep putting off lol.

 

Gary

[Edwardian]

"de-clerestorificate"!  Are you, Kevin, in fact George W Bush?!?

[Nearholmer]

That's not a very nice thing to say about anyone, is it?

 

I don't mind being accused of murdering the English language, but to be accused of being a Right Wing American?!?!

 

Kevin

[Edwardian]

Interesting, Kevin, and very much to your credit, that you chose to object to the comparison on the grounds of Bush's far right hawkish policies, rather than on the grounds of his utter imbecility!  I would find that a tough choice, but, then, one is presumably a function of the other.

 

Unqualified apologies both to you and to my declerestofying fellow Armenians...

[Nearholmer]

Accepted.

 

(Strictly on my own behalf. How the people of Armenia feel about it, I can't say.)

 

K

Edited February 22, 2016 by Nearholmer

[BlueLightning]

As you may have seen in my previous pictures I had made a running in board out of paper to cover the old one. When talking to someone at club last Monday I said I was going to scratchbuild one. This was met with a little disbelief by the person I was talking to who suggested a kit.

 

However as a result I decided I should have a proper running in board ready before going in tomorrow so that has been today's task, and to be honest it has gone alot better than I thought possible.

 

I started off by making some proper drawings to work from these were made with scans of the lettering that I was using:

 

Once I had the paper copy of this i started work on the uprights, These were made from brass box section with brass srtip wrapped round the top:

 

I then cut up one of the drawings stuck it to some 30 thou plasticard as cut the rest of the pieces:

 

To make the lettering I used a sheet of Scale Link lettering lent to me by a friend:

 

I then painted everything:

 

And got out the glue:

 

I based the colours on the running in board at Sheffield Park as seen in this image on Wikipedia

 

and finally. One of the workers heading into the goods yard managed to get a photo of the early morning service sitting in front of the sign with his brand new Box Brownie:

 

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for looking.

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[Edwardian]

It is these brilliant little touches that make all the difference; they elevate yours from the ordinary run of layouts and set the scene admirably.

[dseagull]

Very neat brackets, especially considering they are carved from one piece of plasticard!

[BlueLightning]

Thanks for the comment. I was impressed that I managed to make the brackets, I had multiple magnifying glasses on it and to say my eyes hurt afterwards would be an understatement lol

 

Gary

[Kelly]

Nice little layout. Always liked the SECR as I grew up between areas served by the SECR.

[BlueLightning]

Well another interesting weekend modelling. I had intended to finish all the wiring so I could spend the week playing trains operating the layout. However my tools had other ideas and kept breaking so I gave up with that and decided I needed another project.

 

I had a hunt round everything I have with a basic idea of what I need for the layout not really expecting to find anything I could do. however I found these and had an idea.

 

For those that don't recognise the items in question we have a Triang M7 that has seen better days and a T9 from the "Great British Locomotives" magazine.

 

At this point I could see what I wanted and could see the possibility of making it but wasn't sure how, however I set out with the scalpel and saw and after a day of so's surgery I had this:

 

The beginnings of an LBSCR B1 "Gladstone" class that will eventually be finished as number 183 "Eastbourne" and will run the summer Saturday services to the seaside.

 

I have progressed a lot more since the weekend but the glue is drying at the moment so no pictures tonight.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[Nearholmer]

That is one very smart idea!

 

Kevin

[Londontram]

Have you seen this, it will give you the rear wheel you need and you most likely wont get it any cheaper

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triang-R553-Caledonian-Driving-Wheels-Near-Mint-/222040808603?hash=item33b2a9dc9b:g:uxwAAOSw5IJWgUH0

Edited March 13, 2016 by Londontram

[BlueLightning]

Have you seen this, it will give you the rear wheel you need and you most likely wont get it any cheaper

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triang-R553-Caledonian-Driving-Wheels-Near-Mint-/222040808603?hash=item33b2a9dc9b:g:uxwAAOSw5IJWgUH0

 

Thanks for that Sarahagain has offered to send me just the trailing wheel as she has one spare so a new trailing wheel has been acquired.

 

I had an issue with the loco earlier in the week as I had cut the new footplate to short and had already stared sticking it together before I noticed. However the tender is starting to look good.

 

I will shift focus back to the layout until the new trailing wheel arrives as the extension to the chassis will probably be the next thing I do.

 

Gary

[Londontram]

Ah she a good gal is Sarah always quick to offer to help which what I love about this site.

 

     I've got an old Triang/Hornby M7 on the to do list which will be turned into a Caledonian 439 class. Not as radical as yours but as I'm facing the same problem pick up wise I'm changing the original swing arm bogie for a modern Hornby T9 bogie with pick up already on it. Any way good luck with the build its my type of modeling, I shall keep an eye out for your up dates. Steve

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Steve, I follow your Caledonian thread as my son models the Caley (Although he is only 6 and doesn't realise it yet). Your work (along with many others on here) has been very inspirational and seeing what you've done with the GBL singles is one of the things that made me go though the collection to see what I could do. Very glad I did and hopefully I can find some more gems in there. I was just disappointed that they never did a Terrier!

 

Gary

[choo1choo]

Hi Gary,

 

Looking forward to seeing your layout evolve further,always good to see a fellow Brighton enthusiast on RM Web. I see you have a couple of my old repainted wagons lurking on the sidings,excellent to see them again still in one piece! 

 

Cheers,Craig.

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Craig, your comment and repainted wagons are much appreciated! I also have some horseboxes that I got with them although they haven't made it onto the layout yet as I am going to make a VIP saloon + carriage wagon to go with them to from a private train for the lord of the manor.

 

In other news another fruitful night at club has meant I will have to extend the time period of the layout slightly as I have 2 new kits:

 

 

A Wills Finecast E5 and I3 to add to my LBSCR loco roster both are part built and I am looking forward to finishing them. However as the I3's didn't go into production until 1907 I can't really have one on the layout without extending the time period slightly bringing me into umber livery period. I can also add to the umber period with my Hornby E2 so I may bring dates forward allowing the later period of the layout to include the beginning of WW1 giving me some options for how I could extend the history of the line (Did the War Office have anything local during hostilities?)

 

To bring this update to a close I got some new tools last week so completing the wiring has begun!! the bus wires now extend the full length of the layout and the final droppers have started to be added, this should hopefully mean that by this time next week I will have the wiring complete and be able to run the first trains into Oak Hill.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[BlueLightning]

Time for the weekly update to Oak Hill.

 

Well it started as a slow week with the kids coming down ill and passing germs onto me leaving me out of action for quite a while. However I was feeling better by the beginning of the weekend and got back to work wiring the layout, this was brought to an abrupt halt when I ran out of clips for connecting the droppers to the bus wires (I use suitcase clips and spade connectors to save having to solder under the baseboards) I have ordered more and got on with some scenic work in the meantime.

 

So firstly I ripped up the platform surface and everything on it including the cutting at the back I then finally got my brick platform front painted and attached which I feel makes a massive difference to the appearance already.

 

 

The platform front is from a wills kit painted with a light colour for the mortar and then coloured in with pencils borrowed from the kids. I then did the same thing with the retaining wall at the back of the loco yard although I'm not as happy with this and think it needs toning down with some darker colours although it could just need weathering.

 

 

As can be seen my collection of locos for the layout is growing and if you look between them you can see my latest club night acquisition a 5&9 models 1866 craven third class carriage.

 

 

I am currently undecided whether this will be put on wheels and used or become a grounded coach in the loco yard replacing the "rocket" coaches. I am currently swaying towards the latter but wont remove its W irons until I am sure. Thoughts and opinions would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning