Croft Spa

[Les1952]

The layout is now erected again.

 

Some damage due to the ends of rails being a little too far over the board join when cut.  One pair of the existing fishplates so far does not want to go anywhere near accepting the new length of rail.  I've had to put new fishplates in and will end up soldering these to the powered pair which are underneath.  The alternative is to have to turn the layout upside down again to add new wires...

 

The old track lifted and the new to install...

 

Partly to save weight in transport  (the car isn't getting any younger and with daughter choosing Las Vegas to get married in next year I can't afford to replace it just yet even though it is now 10 years old) and also because I've a nasty join in the backscene at the board join that needs hiding, I've decided to put the Croft Spa nameboard on the backscene to hide the nasty bit.

 

 

This is a trial held on with insulting tape but shows where it will fit.  The board will just slip over the backscene and be held on by its own weight- I'm making spacers from Balsa and an offcut of wood from the new safety edging I'm adding to the fiddleyard will protrude downwards to hold it in place.  Lighting will be on a new lightweight gantry made from aluminium angle- learning from the warping that has happened to the similar wooden rig we built for Rise Park.

 

I also decided that Belgrave Terrace looked too narrow and have widened it from 10 to 14 scale feet.  Still a little narrower than the real thing but I'm actually pushed for space between the terrace and the railway.  However to make the visible part deeper I'd have had to sacrifice two fiddle yard roads....

 

 

Still a lot to do- tomorrow the second fiddle yard track to replace, the safety rail to fit and the nameboard to get finished.  With a bit of luck I'll also get started on final positioning of houses ready to begin sticking them down.  Nine days to holiday and then a real blitz in following seven weeks.

 

Les

 

 

[Les1952]

The buildings are back in place 

 

 

I'm happier with the bungalow at the farm than on the slope at the other end.   Belgrave Terrace is complete apart from one house, and I still need something to fill a couple of gaps- one on Belgrave Terrace, and the other on the bank.

 

Stock wise I've discovered two duplicates in the Tyne-Tees Pullman rake of Met-Camms (I knew I had two Hadrian Bars) so will possibly need another second to go in the rake (either that or to renumber the existing one...)

 

I've also got the 8-car DMU consisted - see Hawthorn Dene and Mr Simon's workbench.  In the end I had to do a chip transplant in the second power car. They now both have Bachmann blue chips inside.  For some reason the consist runs backwards but I'll look into that - eventually.

 

 

https://youtu.be/-0nQyNsnpPY  

 

Les

 

Not a happy bunny- why when I do exactly the same as I did last week on No Place do I get a link rather than a picture link?  I've even checked the two links to confirm they are identical.....

Edited May 28, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Back again

 

...after sailing through the centre of Storm Hector (it just happened to be heading from Lerwick to Bergen as we were heading the other way).



I definitely want one of these- or maybe a pair as we had one on each end of the train from Flam, both working. The gradient was 1 in 18, however.... Looks as if the next layout will have to be continental.

Some laser-cut pavements have arrived and work restarts tomorrow
Les

Edited June 19, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Bits are starting to arrive and get put into place.

 

 

I've invested in some laser-cut pavements which are giving the effect I want along Belgrave Terrace.  They will need painting and colouring individual ones- the ones nearest the corner have had a light grey wash.  There is also another building which I think will make a better pub than the one I'd chosen. I'm not convinced by the plastic terraced houses, which may move to the bank or to eBay.

 

The backscene now reaches the board front, though I have a couple of discontinuities still to hide.

 

 

Looking the other way the farm bungalow and barn now have their final sites an have been glued down.   The backscene reaches this end also, and that makes a real difference.  The discontinuity is behind the tree, and there are more to plant here.  The farm yaer  yard is between the bungalow and the barn, and I'm still thinking about how to present it.

 

 

 

 

The middle is a bit of a dumping ground for the scenic materials I've been gathering together to get a move on.  The unfinished wood visible is an insert to hide the board join.  This will have the pavilion and possibly the mad hatter's tea party on it. The Noch plantation trees are a lot smaller than I thought they would be so I'm not yet sure where they will be housed.  There is some PD Marsh garden walling just arrived, so the terrace can start to be stuck down, starting at the shop.

 

Many thinks and much doing left.....

Another minor eye op tomorrow afternoon.  I'm hoping it will result in the rebuilt one focusing better.

Les

Edited June 24, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

More work on the backscene

 

 

It has taken two visits to Access Models to get enough colours in the Woodland Scenics foliage- why is it, I wonder, that firms like Noch and Heki give a variety of couours colours in any pack while Woodland Scenics are completely monochrome.  Perhaps their pack designers have never seen a group of trees.....

 

Also note that I have found the two dutch barns and they are tentatively placed by the stone barn.  I've acquired some more of the Javis fluorescent hedging and finished the hedge line in front of the lift-out section.  All I need to do with it is make it a more realistic colour....

 

Still a lot to do in the five weeks before I need to put CS back into storage to work on HD...

 

Les

Edited June 30, 2018 by Les1952

[Brian D]

Looking good Les.

[Les1952]

A little more detail

 

 

I've also put some of the foliage in between the bridge and the point at which the trains disappear.  The bit beyond the backscene will be in the dark but I think I'd better continue the cutting as it is visible.

 

Since taking this I've extended the farm track round the back of the farm buildings and off the back in the direction of Croft (but passing behind the cricket field offscene.  Being a hamfisted nut I caught the backscene with the wrong end of the paintbrush, so another tall tree has been planted.

 

I've also made a start on improving the colour of the fluorescent hedge, but got distracted when several packs of Kadee couplings arrived for fitting to stock for No Place.  I feel a test session about to take place in the sidings of the club layout tomorrow morning.....

 

 

The lashup of various Lyddle End buildings behind the corner shop has now been whitewashed, and doesn't look too much unlike the actual buildings at the corner of Belgrave Terrace.  It has had a second coat and been tidied up since the pic was taken. This lot can be stuck down shortly.  The row of terraced houses has also been stuck together, and its sub-base is now in place and painted brown, ready for them to be added.  There is a hole in the pavement on this corner- just right for a pillar box....

 

It looks as if progress is being made at last - and at both ends of the layout.  Doing my usual thing of working inwards from the ends and forwards from the back.....

 

Les

Edited July 2, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

A little more done.

 

 

The corner shop is ready for sticking down - I'm not going to bother with changing the identity as I can't think anyone who will see the layout will remember who it was owned by.  The houses in the terrace are a little further away than originally planned so some shrubbery will have to go in the gap.  I've got leftover bits from the laser-cut paving that will make the low walls often seen in front of terraced houses in the Darlington area- the front gardens should actually be deeper than they are going to be.  I'm minded to ignore the road not continuing onto the backscene. A bus stop with bus going downhill and a decent sixed vehicle coming up should hide the lack of a road.  I will sort out the levels before I start on the houses on the other side.  I have the same problem hiding Baxby Terrace and will need to think about this.  I could just lose Baxby terrae altogether though I've already laid the pavement for it.  

 

 

At the other end the track has its course marked out and basically needs colouring a bit better.  The farm yard will be between the bungalow and the big stone barn.  Part of the space will also be sectioned off to give the bungalow a decent garden and a stand-alone prefab garage.  In the left picture the bend into the backscene will have hedging etc to hide the fact it stops dead, easier to do here than where there are buildings.  A five-bar gate might also help with the effect.

 

Plenty of cogitation still needed.

 

Les

 

Looking again at the corner house the roof end needs a little touching up before sticking, and the wonky brick wall will need watching carefully- it was straight when I planted it.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Time to show off a weekend's progress.

 

 

Starting at the North end the farm bungalow has got its garden delineated, with a couple of trees and bushes not just adding a bit of variety but holding things together.  There is a side gate into the yard and a front gate out of sight behind the bungalow, which is deliberately facing West towards the garage which seems to sit best on the other side of the track - largely because of my outstanding success at creating uneven ground (there isn't a flat level place for it on this side of the track....

 

Also just visible is the gate on the track where it disappears through the backscene.  The gap in the fence running towards the railway is for another gate.  These are still drying, and if I try to touch the gates before the paint is hard enough it rubs off the brass.

 

 

I've also got most of the work done on the first block of the West side of Belgrave Terrace. Railings arrived this morning for the chapel and the white house.  The terraces have the small wall at the boundary where railings would have been cut from them in the scrap metal drive of early in WW2.  A lot of houses in the Darlington area had railings burned off for scrap, including my aunt's in Pensbury Street backing onto the North End of Bank Top Station.  I still need to plant out the garden of the chapel.  There is a gate in front of the chapel door, but it is back against the fence.

 

 

Moving along towards the top end, the bus is to become a mobile shop.  My uncle had one in Darlington which was a Duple bodied Bedford OB (my mother's and Pensbury Street aunt's brother). I'm trying to find a suitable pic of it to see if any of the windows were painted out.  I seem to remember the Co-op's Bedford OWB mobile shop which lived in a lean-to on West Auckland Road had a rear window which seemed glazed- and was painted green and black.  I can't remember the colour of the OB, but it might have been cream and red.

 

Still work to do on the pavement.  A member of the model railway club has offered to scribe me the difficult pavement on the inside of the corner at the far left of the pic.  I'm well pleased about that as it was getting to be a bit of a nightmare.

 

 

Looking across the top of Belgrave Terrace.  The fencing here is complete, but there is still a little touching up to do on the building before the garden is populated.  I'm not going to put a gate on this one as the fence is a nice distressed example- colouring will help it appear distressed.  Still some touching up to do, and another garden for filling- that makes three to do. The tree behind is really a little too big but it hides a backscene problem.  I'm hoping I won't need a hot air balloon- it was bad enough putting the first one seen in Easington (apparently) on Hawthorn Dene but I don't remember seeing one over Darlington when I was growing up (or allegedly growing up)…

 

 

Last for now some tankers have appeared in the post.  Now all I need is a green Class 33 to go with them.  Spot the interloper in the rake.

 

Les

 

[Les1952]

A lousy picture but this is the Bedford OB mobile shop, which I think (mind I say I think) was my Uncle John's.  Sadly the pic isn't clear enough to show if he had painted the windows out- and none of my parents generation are around to cinfirm…

 

 

Poor light, not that brilliant a camera, and a kid who took too long to learn how to take pics - and is still learning fifty years later.....

 

Les

 

 

[Les1952]

A bit more detail.

 

 

The fencing at the top of the embankment is now complete for its full length and a second coating of grass has been applied to the embankment.  I can get on with adding some bushes nd things to this now.

 

 

The corner of Belgrave Terrrace yet again, but showing the improvement made by repainting the road surface.  Still a lot of work needed on the colour of the pavement, but that is getting there.  In the background the two houses are now stuck together but I need to do some touching up.  I've got a piece of plasticard cut to make the pavement on the nearside going up the bank, and Jeff from the railway club will scribe it for me - he has much steadier hands than I have.

 

 

Looking along the length of Belgrave Terrace, with all the buildings in approximately their final positions.  The only two on Belgrave Terrace to be decided are the hut and the house with the white front.  The hut SHOULD be between the pub and the house but the white house hides a discontinuity in the backscene so I'll leave them in the wrong order.

 

Les

Edited July 16, 2018 by Les1952

[south_tyne]

Hi Les.

This is coming on really well. I've admired Hawthorn Dene in the past and this looking just as good! Can't beat a bit of NE region action shows what can be achieved in n gauge in a relatively small space. I love the railways in this area - I've always been a big fan of the Richmond branch and love the atmospheric shots of J94s down at Croft Coal Depot.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

David

[Les1952]

Hi Les.

This is coming on really well. I've admired Hawthorn Dene in the past and this looking just as good! Can't beat a bit of NE region action shows what can be achieved in n gauge in a relatively small space. I love the railways in this area - I've always been a big fan of the Richmond branch and love the atmospheric shots of J94s down at Croft Coal Depot.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

David

 

Glad you like it so far.

 

Just don't compare the buildings on the model outside the station area too closely with the real thing- to get the standard I've had to take a few liberties with prototype accuracy.  The ones inside the railway fence will be correct with a couple of small exceptions- except that they weren't all there at the same time....

 

Jeff wasn't at the club this morning so I've spent much of the afternoon scribing that awkward shaped pavement coming off the bridge.  Jeff would have done it better but it shouldn't look too bad once painted, and it means I can get on with the area around the bridge.  The base under the forwards-facing houses at the bottom end of Belgrave Terrace is now painted, so I can stick these down tomorrow and get on with the gardens for these.

 

Les

 

 

All the very best

Les

Edited July 17, 2018 by Les1952

[south_tyne]

Glad you like it so far.

 

Just don't compare the buildings on the model outside the station area too closely with the real thing- to get the standard I've had to take a few liberties with prototype accuracy. The ones inside the railway fence will be correct with a couple of small exceptions- except that they weren't all there at the same time....

 

Jeff wasn't at the club this morning so I've spent much of the afternoon scribing that awkward shaped pavement coming off the bridge. Jeff would have done it better but it shouldn't look too bad once painted, and it means I can get on with the area around the bridge. The base under the forwards-facing houses at the bottom end of Belgrave Terrace is now painted, so I can stick these down tomorrow and get on with the gardens for these.

 

Les

 

 

All the very best

Les

It's all about capaturing he character of the place though and you are clearly achieving that. It is more important than a slavish adherence to the prototype. Really impressed by how it is developing.

 

David

[Les1952]

Pub named and stuck down.

 

OK- so there isn't and probably never was a pub on Belgrave Terrace, but it feels like the sort of building that would be on the corner of Baxby Terrace just opposite the Methodist Chapel....

 

Now- as there isn't a pub actually there one of three things could happen.

 

I could nick the name "The Comet" from the pub at the corner of Hurworth Road and Tees View.

 

or I could nick the name "The Station" from the pub slightly further down the bank on Hurworth Road.

 

or I could nick a pub name from somewhere else entirely....

 

I've gone for the latter. I've nicked the pub name from Emerson Way in Newton Aycliffe, as I pub I used as a landmark when biking to either my uncles's (another uncle, this one my Dad's younger brother, no.6 of 3+3 but that is another story) or to my mate's house to look at his trains.  Thus it is THE IRON HORSE.  Now, not only is it in the wrong place by about 12 miles, but it is the wrong shape and the inn sign on the real one is dark red and doesn't have a picture.  Tough.

 

 

The Iron Horse in all its glory.  The house beyond it is stuck down and I've begun putting his railings round his garden.  It strikes me that he is the sort of bloke who would paint them white. The prefab beyond it isn't stuck down yet as I'm still going at it with small brushes of different coloured paint....  Looking at it from this angle I seem to have had a happy accident with the backscene and Baxby Terrace.  It appears to actually go somewhere.  Now if I'd only been that lucky with Hurworth Road.

 

 

I had a good day with my wrist today and got quite a lot of the fiddly edging corrected on the bungalows.  There is still quite a lot to do to tidy these up before they get stuck down, but they are getting there.  Who said doing resin castings from Ten Commandments would be easier than building kits?  They may come out nice and square but colouring them is not the simplest of tasks. I've also been touching up the second house in this row, which is a thin detatched house, also by Ten Commandments, as is the prefab in the row behind.

 

 

Last for today the funny shaped pavement has been made, painted, and stuck into position.  Again it still needs work to get it coloured, but once there are railings and bushes this side of it and street furniture and people on top of it, the beast shouldn't look too bad.  The gap in the pavement is the station entrance.

 

Time for bed, said Zebedee..

 

PS- looking at this third pic I am sorely tempted to replace the pair of semis here with another pub- move the Station Hotel up the bank a bit..  I'll have a look for a suitable building.  Nothing on Hurworth Road  between the pavement and the backscene is stuck down yet.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

A bit of irrelevant family history..

 

My paternal grandfather had six sons by two marriages.  He was the groom at a shotgun wedding (his first wife) then after she died he was the groom at a second shotgun wedding - no mean achievement.  Notable for all the wrong reasons.   This is how my dad came to be the fifth of 3 + 3 boys..... No sisters.

 

Les

Edited July 19, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Doesn't look as if I've done much-

 

but it has been detailing and touching up smaller and smaller bits on the houses that need sticking down.

 

 

 

Firstly - the lean-to house now has a veggie garden.

 

 

The chapel has a garden full of big flowery bushes- I think they might be supposed to be delphiniums.  White ones at the front and a light colour round the side.

 

 

I now have the final set of buildings going down the bank.  I've got the upwards stepping roofline by cheating and adding Aswell House to the end of the terrace.  It will work and look convincing when finished, and be a sight easier than making the correct trio.  I've moved the Station Hotel up the bank to be onstage, and there is an inn sign on a post to add when I've got all the walls finished.  I've used the inn sign from a similar pub I found on the web.  There wasn't a straight-on pic of the pub at Croft to nick the sign from.  The building is actually Goathland Station from the Lyddle End range. 

 

Cruel enlargements perhaps but they show where touching up is still needed.

 

Les

Edited July 23, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Update from the last week.

 

 

The Station Inn is now in place and stuck down.  Nameboards from a pub of the same name as there wasn't a decent square-on pic of the real thing and it doesn't have an illustrated sign in any case.  I decided to leave the clock as a clock rather than covering it up but the timetable is now a menu board.  Still work to do getting the kerbstones lower, though I might end up hiding them.  as always the cruel enlargement shows the amount of work needed to get it finished.

 

 

I've tried the station buildings in place to check that they fit.  Note how close the signalbox is to the front- definitely not safe for transit.  I'm going to bed it in as a removable item for safety.  It can travel in the box with the sub-board that will cover the baseboard join.  Note that Hornby have done me a favour.  I got this footbridge from the John Malpus emporium, it having been part of Chris Burch's collection.  Turning it upside down I've discovered it to be a Lyddle End Goathland bridge- which seems to have been almost identical to the one at Croft Spa.  The prototype was removed when the road bridge was raised, probably in the nineteen fifties.  By then traffic at Croft Spa was low.  

 

Like the signal box it is a correct building for Croft Spa, but not for 1960.  OTOH nobody will remember.....

 

More pics to follow.  Shed and modelling beckon.  I've a rehearsal this afternoon but should get in an hour or two before going off to it.  Staples Lincoln Digitrains tomorrow, jiffybags, 6-pin chips and hopefully some fencing needed.  

 

Les

[Les1952]

A couple more

 

 

Looking along Hurworth Road bridge and down the bank.  This one was taken yesterday.  This morning I got the piles of chippings in the station yard vacuumed off and the yard painted over the gravel.  In the morning when it is dry I'll look to see if it wants toning down.  The garage next to the big brown house doesn't work at right angles so I'll move it parallel to the house itself.  I'm hoping to get some fencing in Lincoln tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

Camera not quite level but the effect of the three houses at the top of Hurworth Road bank.  There are more houses on the prototype than on the model but I think spacing things out a bit here works better as a spectacle.  There are some "wrought iron" railings coming from Osborn's in the next few days.  I also need to plant a border along the fence above the pub to hide the fact that it is wonky....

 

pavement to sort out here.  I think I'm going to have a bus stop on this side with a queue loading.  Oxford have a Bristol MW coming out.  Hopefully the red one will have a 34 on it, or a blank rear indicator I can put a 34 on.  The number 34 bus ran from Darlington to Neasham via Croft and Hurworth.  It was usually a single-decker, Bristol LS or MW and was an early convert to one-man operation.

 

Still more to follow.  Goodnight England and the Colonies....

 

Les

[Les1952]

And the last of this batch.

 

 

 

A better view of just how close the signal box is to the board edge.  I've had the idea of using a Perspex screen in front of the station end to protect it and will see if I can source a suitable piece.  It will need a piece about A3 in size as just the other side of the backscene the front edging rises to hide the turn into the fiddle yard.  the white strip to the left of the signalbox is the rather untidy sub-base for the path down to the station.  I'm not sure if it was tarmac or cinders in real life, but it will be cinders on the model as the surface is easier to get convincing than tarmac.

 

 

This one shows how close the station building was to the platform edge.  I'm going to leave the step down from under the awning- I'm not convinced it is prototypical but removing it without damaging the model might be a step too far (no pun intended).  However, the building is much too pale so I'll wash it with very thin acrylic paint to darken it.   I'll practice first on the lean-to and the up platform shelter.

 

Today's N-gauge haul from Digitrains was limited to some fencing, one lot of which has gone behind the station entrance to separate the first house on Belgrave Terrace from the drive.  I think that asbestos panel garage can go in the station yard, for the station master's car.  There was at one time a greenhouse on the street side of the station building but I'm not sure if this will be replicated yet.  I've yet to find anything that looks remotely suitable.

 

Other things found were OO (a bulding for Burch Green) and intellectual- finding out about a suitable sound chip for a HO gauge  MAN NE81 railcar.  "Son of Furtwangen" could yet be "Kein Platz" and fully DCC sound.

 

Les

[Les1952]

Tuesday Progress

 

 

I've added foliage above the houses at the top of the bank and grassed and bushed up the slope down to the railway. This little area can basically be forgotten about for the next couple of weeks (eek- only 2 more weeks to taking the layout down until mid-September).

 

However, the cruel enlargement shows a gap between the back of the wall and the sub-base for the houses, and another one in front of the backscene.  Tomorrow's job I think, especially if the railings haven't arrived.   There is also a tree needed to hide the discontinuity in the backscene itself.  It will be too close to the house in front of it but from most angles it won't really be noticeable.  The yard walls are just brick plasticard with capping stones made from spare Faller market stall pieces cut to length- I couldn't find any Green Scene rod of the right size.  I think I must have used it all up.  I'm ignoring the back wall and the fact the middle house residents can't get into their yard from the back....

 

 

Taking a viewpoint a little further into the layout the discontinuity in the backscene isn't as apparent (though it is still getting its tree tomorrow) but the unevenness in the height of the pavements is a bit more apparent.  By the time I've got a few vehicles and some street furniture as view distracters I might be able to live with it.  The hole in the backscene won't be quite so obvious when there is a lid over the turn into the fiddle yard.  

 

I've ordered an A3 sheet of 2mm Perspex to attach to the layout front to protect the signal box.  If it looks strong enough I'll permanently fix the box down, but leave that until the layout is just about ready for its outing to Sileby in February.

 

 

The new fence separating the station drive from the first house.  Again it needs bedding in with weeds etc on this side at least, and the bank on the other side of the drive can now get its foliage.  I'm leaving the drive surface just slightly uneven.  The asbestos garage will be planted parallel to the fence at the right hand end of the gravel, so it is mostly hidden by the station building.  This will take the place of the greenhouse that was there in real life.  An awkward hole where the embankment meets the bridge needs filling with some dense foliage, though I might yet plant the station outhouse there- a Scenecraft building I've inherited from an unknown source that is sufficiently nondescript to be an addition.  I was going to put it on the up platform as there was a small hut hidden in the undergrowth beyond the bottom of the ramp.  Unfortunately by the time I found a reference to it and a decent picture Trevor was too ill to build it- the station is the last set of model railway buildings he ever made.  I think that one of the pigeon lofts I have on Hawthorn Dene is a close replica, so I'll see if I can source another one and remove the landing board.

 

Another development - while looking for something else I've found a pack of Langley bus stops which I'd forgotten I had.  Next is to find a colour pic of a United bus stop flag.  The mobile shop must belong to the bloke with the corner shop, rather like that of my Uncle John- he had the shop on the corner of Park Lane and Smithfield Road in Darlington, later giving up and becoming manager of Fine Fare in Cocketron then Newton Aycliffe.

 

Enough of the drivel.  I've a HO railcar to pack to send back to Rails.  Liliput isn't as good as it used to be.....

Les

Edited July 31, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Typical- 

 

I went all through my pics of buses taken up to about 1970 and found at least 6 of Darlington Corporation bus stops (cream and blue on a blue pole), Middlesbrough (BUSTOP arranged vertically on a narrow plate at the top of the pole,), Northern and TMS (maroon and black respectively) on queue stands at Houghton le Spring and Bishop Auckland) but was there a United one in colour?

 

Of course there wasn't.

 

I've found this one on the web - cropped from a much bigger pic.  Now, the top is simple, but were all the poles striped, or just compulsory stops and fare stages?

 

 

I'll probably do the pole striped as it is a bit more distinctive, though the Langley poles have timetable cases which this doesn't.  I seem to remember timetable cases in about half of Darlington Corporation's stops - ours on the 6 route in  Bates Avenue didn't have one but the next stop in either direction did, while the one at the bottom on West Auckland Road also had a shelter- odd that as it had a more frequent service (8 an hour instead of 6) but the buses were saloons rather than deckers- and proper saloons at that.

 

 

No doors in those days.  You hung on, especially if you were on the slippery leather bench seat opposite the entrance.  Four rides a day on these to and from school from 1963 until 1967.. With certain drivers they went like the clappers, despite 5-cylinder engines.

 

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Les

Edited July 31, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

More buildings stuck down.

 

 

The station building is now darkened and stuck into place.  G5 on Richmond push-pull stands in the station, hiding the portable steps that aren't there....

 

 

All of the buildings in this picture are now stuck down and the gardens around them are in progress.  The next bungalow along is also stuck down - this is the low detatched one.  Still a final touching up to do on the three semi-detatched bungalows.  These and the semi-detatched house on the end of the row can then be stuck into place.  Looking at this closely the lean-to isn't level.  That isn't going to be corrected as it is only noticeable end-on.

 

Only just visible is the footbridge, which has also been stuck down.  I've added the station nameboards to the station building and signalbox, with one at each entrance into the station site.  When I go into town tomorrow I'll look for some white plastic letters to put a name on the bank in "stones" and flowers.  This might not happen if I either haven't the room or the dexterity...

 

Enough for now

Les

 

 

 

[Les1952]

Long video of the layout-

Pardon the less than tuneful background - simultaneously trying to learn words for the show in just over 2 weeks time...

The vid shows the central area (plywood square) that will be the lift-out section to cover the board join. That will ahve the pavilion and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party (eventually).

Class 37 on short tanker train (eight B-tankers and a Peco one in the midddle) passes the G5 on the back of a Richmond to Darlington push-pull. I'm assuming the engine would have been at the South to keep it nearer the end of the overall roof at Darlington, even though that would have put it well under the roof at Richmond.

Les Edited August 7, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Signs and gardens

 

All I seem to have done this last couple of days has involved planting gardens and their boundaries, and adding signs.

 

In fact it has been a little more than that, but the other bits were comparatively quick.

 

 

Looking over the station building towards the high bungalow, which prototypically is getting hidden from the railway side by trees, probably to keep a bit of privacy.  This one has a lot of garden to the front with quite a slope on it.  I've found some old Pola steps (I think the rest might have become the White Steps on Hawthorn Dene as these were a scrag end of sprue in the "it will come handy some day" junk box.

 

 

The steps are a long flight and a short flight, with flowers and bushy floral things hiding the lack of a handrail- bearing in mind the public will only see the garden over the top of the bungalow.  A few more trees to add at this side, but smaller so they only just protrude above the hedge, and don't keep the sun off the veggies planted in mr Low-Bungalow's garden.  It was only after I'd glued this one down I realised there weren't any curtains and wheelchair users would see straight through to the other side.  There is now a screen of bushes and a fruit tree obscuring the view of the back of the bungalow....

 

 

Quite a few NER stations had a floral name board- the name was sometimes picked out in white stones surrounded with bedding plants. As the orange station nameboards are all but unreadable by the punter (I know they say CROFT SPA) I thought I'd add a floral station sign to the bank.  The flowers are a little dense and I think the top and bottom boards are a little far from the lettering but it will do the job.

 

Only really Saturday as a full modelling day plus bits of tomorrow and Sunday before I have to put this one away and get Hawthorn Dene out.

 

Time for bed....  Tomorrow after shopping, planting Mr Low-bungalow's veggies.  I do hope Maurice Osborn finally deliver the fencing I've ordered from him as I've run out.

 

Les