MOVING COAL - A Colliery Layout in 0 Gauge

[chaz]

Mmm - if I was building this I'm pretty certain I'd be doing (well if I would if only I was that competent!) exactly what the builder is doing - first getting the basic infrastructure in place and to a uniformly high standard. Lets's face it there is a lot of area to cover there. Only then would I turn my attention to seeing what areas would benefit from more grime and to what extent.

 

If you were to read the bits of text between the pictures (admittedly difficult to tear your eyes away from the fantastic images) you may note that the author has indeed already qualified the relatively simplified state of the scenery.

 

In case you hadn't noticed, it isn't finished yet - give him a chance for goodness sake!

 

 

As I might be accused of starting this particular criticism I must step in. The essence of a forum of this type is (or should be) that anybody can dive in and express their thoughts and opinions. Now from time to time models are featured on the forum that are so poor (IMO) that I would never dream of offering any comment - I just wince and move on. I adopt the approach - "If you can't think of anything good to say, don't say anything."

 

This layout is on its way to being superb - the track layout is convincing, it's use of space is masterly, the stock is "right" and it looks as though it's great fun to operate. I accept that it's unfinished - all I was doing in my posting was giving a gentle nudge in the direction of more grime and less tidiness. Nothing wrong with that, I feel, and I stand by my comment.

 

If you post on forum you invite comment and criticism. Unwarranted, unfair, or over-harsh criticism might well be itself criticised - rightly so. But a healthy give and take is what makes a forum valuable.

 

I have my own thread on my exhibition layout, Dock Green. From time to time people have offered constructive criticism and it's been largely welcome. On some occasions I have changed the model in the light of suggestions, but sometimes I have decided "no, I don't want to do that". I might argue my case, I might not, but Rule One always applies.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I agree an inspirational pice of modelling and reminds me of the images I saw of my first 0 guage layout in an old Railway Modeller; Cromford and high Peak

 

While on the subject of industrial track quality I offer this self explanatory image from the "bible" on the Wemyss Private Railway The locos too were usually spotless, even towards the end, and as child I well remember No 15 (currently Earl David) with gleaming paintwork pounding past the Wellesley Washer. 

 

What is the book?  Looks like one worth adding to my collection...

[br2975]

What is the book?  Looks like one worth adding to my collection...

 

"Wemyss Private Railway"

Author- Alan Brotchie

Pub:- Oakwood Press

ISBN-13: 978-0853615279

.

Brian R

[46444]

Just caught up with this thread and it's really good to see another industrial layout on here done properly.

 

Beautiful attention to detail on a grand scale and I'll certainly be following this with interest.

 

Keep the posts and photos coming.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Neil]

A fantastic concept, brilliantly executed, but I'd also have to agree with the comments about not being scruffy enough (yet).

 

... This layout is on its way to being superb - the track layout is convincing, it's use of space is masterly, the stock is "right" and it looks as though it's great fun to operate. I accept that it's unfinished - all I was doing in my posting was giving a gentle nudge in the direction of more grime and less tidiness. Nothing wrong with that, I feel, and I stand by my comment. ....

 

As a stand alone layout it's magnificent, but juxtaposed with the photos it all looks a bit clinical. There are a number of layouts like this at the high end of the model makers art which for me get so close yet fail to capture that indefinable something which breathes life into a confection of wood, card, plastic, metal and glue. I think I may know why.

 

 

..... When it came to painting the track I made up samples of various Humbrol colours and compared it to the real thing, for what its worth this was the result:

 

Main well used lines - 82 Orange + 62 Leather + small amount of 33 Matt Black

Sidings - 82 + 62 + 113 Rust + small amount of 33

Rarely used sidings - add more 113 (82 + 62 + 2x113)

Point levers - 113 + small amount of 33

Sleepers - 64 Light Grey + 110 Natural Wood + 98 Chocolate

Oil stains on slide chairs and point blades - 98 + 33

Oil to tops of slidechairs - 85 Coal Black + 53 Gunmetal + 98

Drybrush to sleepers and fishplates - 98

Drybrush to chairs and tops of checkrails - 98 + 53

 

It's this painstaking approach (which in so many instances pays huge dividends) when applied to the randomness exhibited by mother nature fights against what we would expect to see in the real thing. The colours may well be spot on, but we would expect anomalies too, hints of other shades bursting through. Being too studied in the way we work leaves no room for the happy accident, we get 'photo real' rather than vibrant life.

 

Having said all this I take a look at the photos of the mess room next to the engine shed in particular and am blown away by the colour of the brickwork. it has hints of a sooty purple which I remember so well from my youth where despite the clean air act many burnt coal on an open grate.

[Colin_McLeod]

Great layout.

 

Love the track and the scenic treatment.

[PaulRhB]

Superb track plan and nice to see something with the same ambition to model a large industrial area as the Eastwell layout did in OO.

[C&WR]

Perhaps there'a a ROyal visit and someone's been out to paint the grass & tidy up?

[martin1]

awsome! bravo indeed !

[PGH]

A question regarding the operation of the railway... Do you run spoil trains and if so, what wagons do you use?

 

It's just that I'm wondering about what alternatives were used to the Hudson V-tipper for this work. The only other things I've seen are a picture of what appears to be a standard RCH wooden frame with a side-tipping wooden body built on.

 

No I don't run spoil trains, and as far as I'm aware I don't think they were commonly used during the NCB period in Lancashire except for some collieries on the Walkden system.  In earlier times ordinary wooden wagons were used and the dirt shovelled out on the tips by gangs of men.  Later at some collieries modified wagons were used with sloping floors and a side door the length of the wagon.  In 1943 Manchester Collieries started using dumpers at Gibfield Colliery which produced large savings in labour and the use of wagons, and this was soon extended to the company's other collieries.

 

On the Walkden system, Astley Green ceased using rail for dirt disposal in 1944 but later reverted to rail haulage to tips on the south side of the Bridgewater Canal.  At the north end of the system a large tipping site was established at Cutacre Clough near Brackley Colliery and this then took waste by rail from Mosley Common, Sandhole and Brackley Collieries.  In both cases ordinary wooden or steel mineral wagons were used and emptied in a rotary tippler which fed a bunker via a conveyor for loading the dumpers or scrapers which spread the material on the tip. 

 

In other NCB areas which ran spoil trains the 'V' tippers seemed to be more or less universal, although In the North East hopper wagons were used for carrying spoil to staithes where it was loaded into ships for disposal at sea.   

 

I did find some wooden tippers similar to the ones you described out of use at Norton Colliery in Staffordshire

 

 

I did note a pilot model of a 7mm scale 'V' tipper at Telford, I think it was on the Agenoria stand.

Edited October 16, 2018 by PGH

[Mikeym]

Cracking layout , making me want to model a colliery now , but perhaps late 80s early 90s with plenty of old ex BR shunters , mmmmmmm

[David Siddall]

Colliery track is often less than perfect as here at Mardy Colliery in South Wales...

 

Blades are hinged as I don't like long bendy point blades, and there is less strain on the tiebar fixings, etc.  

For a minute (well at least until I read the caption) I thought your first photo was of Blaenavon...

 

The discovery that so many industrial railways featured heel switches – which is I think the correct terminology for a turnout with two-part (hinged) blades in the style of Peco's r-t-p offering – cheered me up no end. It has been suggested that I might have to brutalise my two hand-built C&L-based A5s before they'll be suitable for an industrial setting, even though they're real beginners efforts :-/

 

Loco Shed.jpg

What a beautiful piece of modelling... not sure which I'm in jaw-dropping awe of the most, the buildings, the infrastructure or the locos?

 

David

Edited September 21, 2013 by David Siddall

[kev69]

Nicely modelled. I would agree about the corner to the backscene, I know the current trend is to curve the backscene which doesn't create the shadows but it's not always practical to do so - on my N gauge layouts you loose just too much space.

[3 link]

Nicely modelled. I would agree about the corner to the backscene, I know the current trend is to curve the backscene which doesn't create the shadows but it's not always practical to do so - on my N gauge layouts you loose just too much space.

 

Would not a couple of well placed large trees help to disguise the corner ?

 

Martyn.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

How have I missed this layout thread?

 

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.....

[81A Oldoak]

How have I missed this layout thread?

 

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.....

 

Wake up, that man. 

[Osgood]

TRACK:

......

 

Point Lever2.jpg

 

There were no suitable point levers available, so I made patterns and had them cast in brass.  The throw over type as here actually work exactly like the real levers but don't give enough throw for the model blades, so all points are worked remotely.

 

.....

 

I just happen to have one of those levers    - ex M&GN (only difference is shape of lever weight).

 

Your version looks excellent.  Interesting that this type is not readily available in 7mm - what is the chance that you might be able to make some available for purchase?

 

 

Edited September 22, 2013 by Osgood

[PGH]

Would not a couple of well placed large trees help to disguise the corner ?

 

Martyn.

 

I assume you mean the corner mentioned in photo 6 of Post #5.  There isn't much room for trees and in any case they wouldn't hide the full height of the corner.  The proposal is for a chimney which could extend the full height of the backscene.  The flat chimney on the backscene behind the colliery screens actually hides a joint in the backscene.  The chimney on the corner would be associated with a winding engine house in the corner round the corner from the corner, if you see what I mean ! - the sketch below probably explains this better.

 

 

 

The engine house would be based on the one at Ellesmere Pit adjacent to Walkden Yard, closed for coal winding but retained for pumping.

 

From the angle of the photo of course it wouldn't look right, you would be looking at a flat chimney end on.  However with the layout operating you wouldn't be standing there anyway, that area is occupied by the hinged flap shown on the layout plan.  When operating that end of the layout you are standing near the tippler where the controls are so you would see the chimney face on so it shouldn't look too bad.

[HSB]

You could possibly turn the chimney approximately 45 degrees across the corner. This would solve the problem of seeing a flat chimney end.

Excellent layout, by the way, and it's always nice to see something a little different from the norm.

[PGH]

You could possibly turn the chimney approximately 45 degrees across the corner. This would solve the problem of seeing a flat chimney end.

Excellent layout, by the way, and it's always nice to see something a little different from the norm.

 

Hmm, I hadn't thought about twisting it.  I don't think I'd quite get 45 degrees, perhaps just parallel to the retaining wall (shown in green), and I'm not sure whether this would be better or worse.  However an interesting thought, Thanks.

[PGH]

Point Control, etc

 

 

The points in the loco shed area are worked by slide switches similar to the ones used by the Rev Peter Denny on his Buckingham layout and described in an article in Railway Modeller about 1960.  He used square section hardwood keys, but I used rectangular mild steel bar which I had available.  These slide in a frame separated by square stripwood with similar material for the end stops and are connected directly to the point tiebars by rodding and angle cranks or wire in copper tube.  A brass strip fixed to the top of the steel bar contacts two round head bolts in a plywood strip fixed across the top of the frame and acts as a changeover switch for frog polarity.  The sketch below gives the general idea.  They were cheap and easy to construct, and have (so far, touch wood) been reliable.  The latter is fairly important as apart from the operating ends shown in the photo above everything else is buried under the scenery.

 

 

Available space didn't allow this system elsewhere so all other points are worked by H&M solenoids.

 

 

The hinged flap has electrical connections by means of spring plungers from old bayonet light bulb sockets as shown below.  These were set in holes in the end timber with a wire soldered to the end and make contact with short lengths of brass rod similarly set in holes with wire attached and as the flap closes they make a slight wiping contact.

 

 

 

The flap is retained in the operating position by two sliding bolts which carry the power supply to the track beyond via connecting wires marked A and B in the photo.

 

 

 

[PGH]

 

 

Your version looks excellent.  Interesting that this type is not readily available in 7mm - what is the chance that you might be able to make some available for purchase?

 

 

 

Its over 20 years since I had the point levers cast, and I doubt if the patterns and moulds are still available.  I did consider producing them commercially at the time but they did require quite a lot of work to assemble.  The castings were quite rough and required a lot of fettling, all the holes drilling and assembly by soldering as the base was in two halves.  Then I had to file square heads on four pins per lever for the fixing bolts.  If I was doing it now I think it might be easier to make the base out of etchings rather than castings.

 

SB models do a GWR point lever which has a similar base:   http://www.sbmodels.org/D04a_pointlever(4)gwr.html

 

The lever itself is wider but could be altered or replaced.

Edited September 23, 2013 by PGH

[Osgood]

Southwark Bridge Models seem to do the same base in this1880 onwards  MacNee's lever (7mm at rear in brass) - thanks for the link to SB, PGH!!

 

 

Edited September 23, 2013 by Osgood

[hartleymartin]

Surely there must be a way to have a below-the-ground over-centre spring to make these throw points in a prototypical manner.

[marc smith]

Thanks for sharing the plan, that's a good chunk of railway you've squeezed into the room, yet the photos make the layout appear more spacious than it is. Great work.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

Yes, I'd definitely agree on this point

Smashing layout, and the plan has helped me understand the room layout too

 

I like the way the layout looks not only spacious, but it has an uncluttered appearance too

Nice - keep the pics coming as you progress...

 

Marc