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Wolverhampton Low Level


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The roof light is now partly glazed:

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Glazing bars are scribed on then colured with a black pen; it still needs a bit of tidying up. Internally the glazing is supported by clear plastic supports:

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Other recent activity has been mainly rolling stock based;

Fruit D (Parkside):

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GUV (Lima)

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LNER CCT (Parkside)

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SR CCTs (more Parkside)

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Over the past week, I've made a start on the next section of the station building, which required a bit of a field trip to take a few more (!) photos.

 

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Activity today has been focused on the window surrounds and the archway

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As I need 6 identical windows, the plan is that I'll cast the window surrounds so have been making a master:

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I've also tidied up the arch a bit and given it a quick blast of primer

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i posted some pics to my profile a while back if they are any use to avoid further field trips.

Thanks for that; I see the same yellow van got in your way too!

 

 

stupid question ahoy! is it possible to buy that embossed brick paper or card?

No such thing as a stupid question!  For the majority of the building I'm using SE Finecast's flemish bond embossed plastic, although there are a few sections on this part of the building which required English bond and for these I've used Slaters - mainly because I didn't have any of the SEF in the correct bond.

 

An advantage of the SEF material is that it comes in bigger sheets, useful on this section of the building as at 341mm it is longer than a sheet of the Slaters material so would have had to hide a join.

 

There are a number of suppliers of brick paper, but personnally I don't like paper.

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Thanks Mark,

ive printed off my own brick paper and the lack of 3rd dimension on it doesnt look amazing to build from - this embossed plastic may be a better idea especially with the way i work too.

I really want to do the entire building but the scale isnt feasible i dont think - when ive done some model building for my arcitecture degree i used a laser etch/cutter after drawing it up on CAD and that gave me etched detailed panels when required.

I'm currently in the throws of another hobby, a '95 SL 500 so most of my time is spent on that at the moment along with arguing with people about politics on the internet. What a gripping life i do lead! 

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I'm currently in the throws of another hobby, a '95 SL 500 so most of my time is spent on that at the moment along with arguing with people about politics on the internet. What a gripping life i do lead!

Sounds like fun.  I've got a Mk3 MG Midget in the garage that is waiting for a bit of attention - missing it with the current weather!

 

ive printed off my own brick paper and the lack of 3rd dimension on it doesnt look amazing to build from - this embossed plastic may be a better idea especially with the way i work too.

 

I really want to do the entire building but the scale isnt feasible i dont think - when ive done some model building for my arcitecture degree i used a laser etch/cutter after drawing it up on CAD and that gave me etched detailed panels when required.

The mortar courses on embossed brick are almost certainly too deep, but paper just looks too flat to me.  Some selective compresssion of the buildings would be possible; e.g. taking this section of the building down to two windows either side of the archway; or maybe even do the whole thing in 3.5mm to the foot?

 

It's a great looking building with all the blue brick and cream stone work, must have been very colourful when new. Do I spy a bulk order to Topp Trains for chimney pots soon? :D

Funny you should say that, I was looking at those chimney pots the other day.

That stone was pretty well weathered in 1972, see here ( nice bit of variety in the chimney pots too).

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Between each of the window segments there is a pillar of stones - something else I'm hoping to have a go at casting from this master:

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Each of these has a stone bracket which supported the canopy along the front of the station.  My method for making these has been to glue together various different shapes and sizes of square, half round and round Evergreen strip, then chop these down to the correct size using my trusty NWSL Chopper cutter:

post-6677-0-13155200-1374784305_thumb.jpg

These measure 2mm x 5mm, I'll be doing something similar for the supports beneath the window sills.

 

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The masters from the previous post are current covered in silicone as I make a mould ready for casting, hopefully will add some pictures tomorrow when, all being well, I'll had cast a few bits.

 

I recently received a huge bundle of photos and drawings relating to the station from forum member Mike Walker. Already these have answered a couple of questions that were bugging me about some aspects of the buildings which I hadn't been able to establish from other sources. A huge thank you to Mike for passing these on to me.

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The masters from the previous post are current covered in silicone as I make a mould ready for casting, hopefully will add some pictures tomorrow when, all being well, I'll had cast a few bits.

 

I recently received a huge bundle of photos and drawings relating to the station from forum member Mike Walker. Already these have answered a couple of questions that were bugging me about some aspects of the buildings which I hadn't been able to establish from other sources. A huge thank you to Mike for passing these on to me.

 Silicone?

 

 

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  • 6 months later...

Only just come across this thread, thanks to Ramblin Rich for the link
Really like the concept of this layout
it's a bit different, and I like the situation whereby the station is now a parcels depot,
but with the added feature of a remaining, albeit cut-down passenger service...

Great modelling on the buildings so far too :)

Will be watching this one with interest

Cheers
Marc

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Not much to report in the way of progress on the layout, although I've added another parcels van to the fleet.

 

I have a couple of the Ratio SR Van Bs in the rainy day unbuilt kits stash, but thought I'd have a look at one of the Hornby RTR ones.  Seen here straight out of the box with 00 wheels balanced on EM track:

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The bogies unclip allowing the tension lock couplings to be removed.  Clearance for the replacement wheels needs the brakes to be adjusted.

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Before and after:

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Bogies re-fitted and now on P4 wheels balancing on EM track!  Ready for weathering.

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Evening Mark, I've been the grateful recipient of six or so half built ratio Van B kits. Folk seem to get to the same stage and then give up. Good to see one finished, even if it is in the wrong livery...

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Evening Mark, I've been the grateful recipient of six or so half built ratio Van B kits. Folk seem to get to the same stage and then give up. Good to see one finished, even if it is in the wrong livery...

It would be, except that's a Hornby one; my Ratio pair are still 1 x part built, 1 x unbuilt  :O

 

Got to be honest, doubt I could build one even close to the standards of the Hornby RTR.

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It would be, except that's a Hornby one; my Ratio pair are still 1 x part built, 1 x unbuilt  :O

 

Got to be honest, doubt I could build one even close to the standards of the Hornby RTR.

 

Ah, a case of read twice, post once for me. Saw mention of 'Ratio' and then the photos and thought 'bl00dy hell, he's made a smashing job of that'. Take it as a compliment that I thought you were capable of doing such a fine job. As you say though, the Hornby version is very good and well worth not going through the pain of building the Ratio kit. I now have 2 Hornby (in green) vs the 1 Ratio I managed to finish and a good selection of part-builds...

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Anymore pictures of your buildings and castings?

Nothing new, unfortunately. The whole project is on a bit of a back burner at the moment as renovation work in the house needs to be done before I can finish lining and plastering the outbuilding where the layout will live. Hence I've been focusing my (limited) modelling time on my Fryers Lane P4 test plank, so I have somewhere to test the rolling stock for this layout. I do pop back to the buildings now and again to do a little more; really need to cast another batch of resin parts.

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  • 4 years later...
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Over four years since I've posted in this thread, you'd be forgiven for thinking the project was dead and buried.

Recently though, I've had a good look at the buildings I'd started and was pleased to find that the years of storage have been reasonably kind to them. I'm starting to think about blowing the dust off the project and giving it another go.

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Just reminding myself where I'd got to. I was supposed to be clearing off my workbench ready have a move around of some furniture, but faced with 6' of clear worktop, few lengths of track and the recently rediscovered buildings I couldn't resist a quick layout mock up.

 

The view looking across from roughly the location of the Great Western pub:

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This building (now demolished) I'd originally thought to be red brick, but photos have since proven it to be blue brick, except for the flat roofed extension that sticks out from the front.

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In reality, the distance between the down platform where the 08 is standing and the buildings would be greater, there being a bay platform at the end nearest the camera. However, I'm tempted to apply some selective compression here to reduce the overall depth of the layout.

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This part of the station building looks closer to finished than it really is, I need to check how far I had got with making masters to cast the window surrounds from.

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The classic looking down from Sun Street bridge view. Blocks of wood in the foreground represent the position of the signal box.

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More compression here as the B8 turnout should really be a longer C10. In fact, it was a 1:10 slip until the removal of the bay platform.

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More rediscovery. I've found some of the moulds, masters and castings that I'd made about five years ago.

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Think my casting resin might be past its best. It doesn't have a shelf life marked on it but the liquid in one of the bottles seems to have separated and the plastic bottle it's in has split. Think I'll get a fresh supply before doing any more casting. I'll probably pour a new mould too as the one I used before is looking a bit tired.

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