Beamish Cross - OO gauge late 1960s ECML on a 3 piece 8x4

[deltic9014]

Hi everyone

At last I've got some time to get my layout on  RMweb after spending the last few months frantically finishing off at college. In between I've been building baseboards, laying track, and wiring. 

 

Beamish Cross is a medium sized urban station located somewhere on the East Coast Main Line, on the outskirts of the London conurbation. It's the late 1960s/early 1970s, steam has all but gone, and the traction and rolling stock fleet is changing from green and maroon to the new corporate blue. It's this variety that fascinated me and that I am trying to capture.

 

 

As you can see from the attached trackplan, the layout is 8ft x 4ft when fully set up, made up of two 2x6ft and one 2x4ft boards. At home the layout lives on the top bunk bed in my room, so the 2x4 end section is removed and the layout can be operated as a terminus-to-fiddleyard setup.

 

Here are a few shots of progress so far, showing one of the platforms, the private siding and the diesel stabling point;

 

 

The plan is to use a road bridge as the scenic break at the end of the layout nearest the camera, and an overall roof on the station at the other.

 

Since I am only working part time and paying for driving lessons out of that, I am building this layout on a tight budget. With this in mind, most of the rolling stock will be second hand, older models, which I hope to do some detailing jobs on - I can show what I already have if people are interested. Buildings will be either scratchbuilt or made from free downloads - fortunately my parents don't limit my use of their printer ( at the moment!).

 

Finally for this post, I must acknowledge a few inspirational layout builders - Kier Hardy's Wibdenshaw has given me a lot of ideas, and Chris 64B and Jaggzuk's 8x4 layouts have also encouraged me that a good amount can be done with such a space.

 

Thats all for now - please like, follow and comment, and I'll bring you some more later.

Thanks

Robin 

 

[sigtech]

Hello Robin,

Beamish Cross is progressing well - will you be adding some more tracks later on the inside? to increase shunting possibilities, and the layouts storage capacity, or will this area be entirely for scenery?

 

Regards,

Steve

(SIGTECH).

[deltic9014]

Hello Robin,

Beamish Cross is progressing well - will you be adding some more tracks later on the inside? to increase shunting possibilities, and the layouts storage capacity, or will this area be entirely for scenery?

 

Regards,

Steve

(SIGTECH).

 

Hi Steve

Assuming you mean the unpainted board? This is not currently going scenic, although I may do so in the future. The plan is to add storage sidings of some sort at a later date, but at present my budget doesn't allow for that. The layout will be developed in 3 stages - I will make the scenery on the main 6x2ft board first, then move to the 4x2 end board (not shown in the photos) before deciding what to do with the currently unpainted 6x2.

Thanks for your support

Robin 

[deltic9014]

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates so far.

I recently ran into a problem with the first platform. As you can see from the photo, the mid-platform crossover is around halfway along it:

 

 

This is made up of Hornby set-track points, like all the points on the layout. However, when building the platform I didn't take into account the tight radius of the crossover and the related end overhang on locos and stock. Consequently longer locos now catch their buffers on the platform edge when going through the crossover:

 

 

I thought about modifying the platform to rectify this but decided it wouldn't look very good. Therefore yet more money has been squeezed out of the modelling budget to purchase some large radius Peco Streamline points - these will also be Electrofrog to (hopefully) result in better running.

 

I've also started building the second platform - here's progress so far:

 

 

Happy modelling

 

 

[PatB]

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates so far.

I recently ran into a problem with the first platform. As you can see from the photo, the mid-platform crossover is around halfway along it:

 

DSCF0033.JPG

 

This is made up of Hornby set-track points, like all the points on the layout. However, when building the platform I didn't take into account the tight radius of the crossover and the related end overhang on locos and stock. Consequently longer locos now catch their buffers on the platform edge when going through the crossover:

 

DSCF0034.JPGDSCF0036.JPG

 

I thought about modifying the platform to rectify this but decided it wouldn't look very good. Therefore yet more money has been squeezed out of the modelling budget to purchase some large radius Peco Streamline points - these will also be Electrofrog to (hopefully) result in better running.

 

I've also started building the second platform - here's progress so far:

 

DSCF0037.JPG

 

Happy modelling

 Could the crossover be moved to one of the end curves using Settrack curved points? That would both get it away from the platforms and reduce the severity of the reverse curve. Mind you, there have been comments on RMWeb about derailments on such crossovers, which would be worth searching out before committing.

[deltic9014]

 Could the crossover be moved to one of the end curves using Settrack curved points? That would both get it away from the platforms and reduce the severity of the reverse curve. Mind you, there have been comments on RMWeb about derailments on such crossovers, which would be worth searching out before committing.

 

Hi PatB

I did think about this when I first planned the layout, but one of the things I wanted to keep was the ability to run round a passenger train stopped in the platform when using the layout without the end board on the right hand end i.e. not a continuous run. As it is I have fitted the new points and tested them, and they have eliminated the problem.

Thanks anyway for the suggestion

[deltic9014]

Hi all, 

While testing the new points this morning I tried running one of my Tri-ang Princess locomotives. Unfortunately the result was a massive spark and lots of smoke from the motor. Having tested and fiddled around with it since, it appears that the armature has burned out. Does anyone have a spare decent running X04 motor or armature that they would sell for not too much - please PM me if you can help.

Thanks   

[deltic9014]

Hi everyone...

Oh dear. I've been neglecting the thread - didn't realise it was so long since the last post. A busy summer of work and driving tests accounts for that.

However, progress has been made with the diesel fuelling point:

 

 

The hardstanding was made using corrugated card to bring it up to rail height, then smoother card on top, and finished using concrete effect images from Textures.com. The fuel tanks were made using a kitchen roll tube cut down to size, rolled tighter, card glued to the ends and masking tape to create the section effect. Then the whole tank was sprayed with grey primer and glued to card based supports. The filler pipes are made from bits of kit sprue.

 

 

 

The most recent addition is this little prefabricated hut to act as the pump building. This has been built from card and will be painted to represent concrete.

 

 

A trip to the East Lancashire Railway diesel gala on Sunday resulted in, as well as riding behind these...

 

 

...the acquisition of a load of bits from a 10 pence bargain box, including these two Triang wagons.

 

 

 

The flatbed has had wire side rails added and is now in service. The green wagon has had a repair to the broken coupling hook at one end, and a loop glued to the other - I intend to replace the buffers and then repaint it. Neither are accurate representations of anything as far as I can tell, but for under 10p each they fill some gaps in the fleet. 

 

That's all for now; driving test number 5 on Tuesday (eek) and if I pass, up to the Great Electric Train Show next Sunday, and maybe some more bargains!

 

P.S. The Princess is running again, no idea what caused the problem, but a good service got it going.

[PeterBB]

Promising start using a fair bit of scratch build.

 

Peter