Northwick a oo gauge layout by Twickenham & District MRC

[sbduck]

 

 

Some of you may have recognized a couple of photographs in this month's (May 2016) issue of Model Rail.  A few months ago, the Facebook page of the Model Rail magazine posted a question concerning cameos on people's layouts.  I responded to this by providing pictures of some of my cameos that feature on Northwick.  Not long after, I was asked by a member of the editorial team if they could use my pictures in the Q&A section of the magazine, of course I said 'yes'.  The result was this article on page 99.

 

 

 

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[sbduck]

We, at Northwick, like the unusual and obscure vehicles (as shown by our model of the transformer train and others).  Here is the beginnings of a slightly less ambitious (but interesting nonetheless) couple of projects.

 

 

A tar wagon (also occasionally used as a water bowser)

 

 

Anglo Persian Oil Company twin tanker (diag 1581)

 

 

The two wagons after receiving a couple of coats of primer

[TEAMYAKIMA]

It's great to see the progress this layout has made since the 'new generation' took it over a few years back when the original team moved on. This layout can be seen at Twickenham MRC's Open Day on July 23rd when the club will be focusing on OO modelling in all its variations - something for everyone who models OO!

 

So if you are following Northwick's progress why not visit us on July 23rd - get all the details of our clubroom etc at www.tdmrc.org.uk

[Northwick Group]

Last Friday we had a running night and because of the recent surprise win of a certain football team we decided that it was only fair that the locomotive named after their city should make an appearance.

 

Ex LMS Duchess class 46252 "City of Leicester" passes the horses on the way to the station.

 

Ex LMS Duchess class 46252 "City of Leicester" arrives in the station with a set of stanier coaches.

 

Also running was Ex LMS Princess coronation class 46203 "Princess Margaret Rose"

[Northwick Group]

Recently we had an unusual visitor to Northwick in the form of H.M.G Boche-Buster, this model has been scratch built by Tim Thomas. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Recently we had an unusual visitor to Northwick in the form of H.M.G Boche-Buster, this model has been scratch built by Tim Thomas. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

 

 

 

Wow!

 

What's the story of that monster?

Edited May 17, 2016 by TEAMYAKIMA

[steve W]

Wow!

 

What's the story of that monster?

Take a look at tim's blog of this build here

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/108108-tim4948s-workbench-building-hmg-boche-buster/&do=findComment&comment=2204008

 

Cheers.

Steve W.

[tim4948]

Wow!

 

What's the story of that monster?

The gun carriage was originally built during the First World War and was fitted with a 14" gun and had 15 axels. It became famous when it fired "The Kings Shot" near Arras in Pas-de-Calais on 8th August 1918 during an inspection by King George V.

 

Two 18" barrels were constructed for Boche-Buster and its sister Scene-Shifter in case it was found that the 14" barrels were inadequate. The 18" barrels were designed to have the same external dimensions and contours as the 14" barrels, this was possible despite the 4" caliber difference because the 18" barrels were howitzers as opposed to the 14"s being guns, this meant that the thickness of the walls could be thinner as howitzers are less highly stressed. The 18" barrels where never fitted during the First World War as they were completed after the war was over.

 

Upon its return from France after the First World War the 2 18" barrels where mounted and proved in turn, then the whole lot was put into storage. The gun was taken to Salisbury plain and fired twice in the inter-war years and in 1926 the 14" barrel was declared obsolete but the mounting was retained so that one of the 18" barrels could be fitted at a later date if required.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill had hoped to persuade the armaments industry to construct entirely new railway guns against an almost impossible timescale, but in the end had to settle for second best and reuse some of the existing WW1 artillery - one of these being Boche-Buster, the doors of the building which it had been stored in since the 1920's where opened for the first time in 1940, the carriage was then taken to the Darlington workshops to be overhauled and have the 18" barrel fitted. Once the 18 inch barrel had been fitted to the carriage it became the biggest of the British World War II heavies.

 

The Bishop Park Tunnel on the Elham Valley Railway was earmarked to be the home for Boche-Buster, because the meandering line meant that the majority of the South-East coast of Kent could be covered. The cutting to the north of the tunnel had four brick built magazines built in it and to the south of the tunnel portal steps were cut into the banks leading to the tunnel in which Boche-Buster was to be housed. As the total weight of the gun was 250 tons it far exceeded the weight limit of the line, so huge timber baulks had to be installed under the girders for the 2 bridges on the line (Railway Hill & Barrackers Road). The SR plate laying gang were busily engaged relaying certain sections of the track between Bishopbourne and Barham with 24 sleepers per 45ft length instead of the normal 18 and reballasting with fine ballast.

 

After initial training at Catterick Camp the battery moved south arriving at Bishopsbourne in February 1941 after a 43 hour journey from Catterick disguised as a string of banana wagons. On the bright spring morning of 13th February 1941, the gun was pushed out of the tunnel by a WD diesel engine, through Bishopsbourne station to the Kingston spur, where it was fired for the first time sending several rounds into the English Channel. Although the villagers had been warned to open all their windows, considerable damage was caused in Kingston and Barham by the shock waves which brought down a number of ceilings. As a result, only two other test firings were made near World’s Wonder bridge and at Lickpot bridge. Apart from the blast damage the track had to be strengthened every time it was fired.

Although it was never fired in anger, the gun was frequently photographed in aggressive poses and was billed as a 'fearsome cross-channel monster' but the truth of it being that it was capable of hurling a 6 ft long shell weighing 1 1/2 tons 12 1/2 miles so as it was not capable of firing across the English Channel (22 miles at its narrowest) it was to be used to fire upon the enemy ships in the channel and to help defend the coastline around Kent in the case of an invasion. Boche-Buster was a high elevation howitzer with a maximum elevation angle of 40 degrees but it could only traverse 2 degrees.

 

In 1943 Boche-Buster found itself back at Salisbury plain to fire trials of a new anti-concrete shell and by the end of 1943 all the railway guns on the Elham Valley Railway had been taken out of service and the units disbanded. Later the warn Boche-Buster was taken to the Royal Arsenal and it was cut up in the early 1960s. No British railway guns exist today although one of the 18" barrels from Boche-Buster is at the Royal Artilleries Museum at Fort Nelson, Hampshire. The barrel is mounted on a proofing carriage, which is a gun carriage with very limited elevation and traversing as it is intended only for test firing.

[WCML100]

Heres a little taster for anyone interested in Northwick (or any other of Twickenham & District Model Railway Club's layouts) at this years Open day in July:

 

[Northwick Group]

Get your copy of the TDMRC Northwick with the June copy of BRM and enjoy the layout before coming along to see us at Woking, Farnham and High Wycombe later this year. Not forgetting our club open day on the 23rd July 2016 10:00 - 16:30 free admission, light refreshments and a sales table.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

We've had Bob the builder in! After several failed attempts to repair an ailing turntable we decided to throw in the towel and replace the whole thing. The replacement is slightly bigger so the shed area is going to need a slight *ahem* adjustment. This coincides nicely with a scenic extension we have planned for the front of all of the boards. In true Northwick (and Time Team) style, we've got just 5 weeks(nights really as we only have Friday evenings available) to get the turntable installed and the scenery replaced in time for the club open day on 23/7/16 . Can we do it?

Here is a picture of the board 3 before any adjustments where made but it does have the new turntable well in the foreground to show the size difference.



The contractors then moved in to start the work, here is a sequence of pictures showing what's been done so far.

 

Here is the finished work after the first evening.



Now that the demolition is pretty much done it will be time to fit the baseboard extension and then start to reconstruct the scenics.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Haven't managed to get to club for quite a while, so looking forward to seeing this at our Open Day on July 23rd

[Northwick Group]

We had a work day on the layout this Saturday and a lot of progress was achieved. The first job was to finish off cutting out the top of the layout so that it was ready to receive the extension, it was decided that it would be best to cut out a rectangular section from the top of the baseboard and involve a replacement piece with the extension instead of trying to enlarge the existing hole as it would have been difficult to achieve a perfectly round hole for the new turntable well and more importantly as the new turntable well goes over the edge of the existing edge of the board then it would guarantee that the surface around the well would be flat. Here is a picture of the board 3 once the rectangular piece from the top had been removed.



The extension board was then offered up to see what adjustments needed to be made and were the existing framing under the surface needs to be cut to allow space for the new well (this is the reason why the well isn't sitting level with the surface of the extension in the picture)



The adjustments were then made and the framing cut and the extension with the well were then offered up again, this time with a perfect fit being achieved!



A length of wood was then fixed to the front of the existing base board and 9mm from the top to allow for the thickness of the plywood top and the extension was then slotted over the top of this and fixed on.

It was then time to start to think on where the track was to go (we are using code 75 flexi track from C&L finescale), a length of this was placed on the board and shaped to how it's needed. Here's a picture of the first piece in place.



The current surface of the board was then scored either side of the track with a Stanley knife and a chisel was then used to carefully remove the existing surface whilst not damaging the top of the based board where the new track is going, a layer of 2mm thick cork sheet was then stuck down - this was necessary to ensure that we would be starting off at the correct level whilst also ensuring that the surface will be level for the new track. This process was then repeated for each of the tracks leading to the turntable. We decided that as we are making adjustments in the area to add a new length of track from the turntable (strip of cork nearest to the bottom of the picture) to creat a refuge siding whilst also allowing us to pose some wagons with ash in if we want, also coming off the turntable will be a short length of track with a wickham hut at the end of it to house a wickham trolley.

Here are some pictures showing how far we got by the end of the day.

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[WCML100]

Looking very good, cant wait to see it at the club in the flesh!

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Looking very good, cant wait to see it at the club in the flesh!

 

Me too!

[Northwick Group]

Last Friday evening we spent laying the new track work to the turntable whilst laying the 2 existing roads to their new alignment we decided to add a refuge/ash collection siding and a siding for the wickham trolley complete with a hut at the end. Here are some pictures showing the progress made.

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

More progress was made last Friday, with the first job being to lay the stone slabs around the edge of the turntable - the first step was to stick a piece of 1mm square plastic strip on the outer edge of the top surface of the turntable, this was then followed by sticking the metcalf adhesive paving slabs on top (these will be painted a darker grey and weathered later, ash will also be put in the gaps that currently exist between the slabs). The copper clad sleepers that lead up to the turntable were also glued down and then soldered to the rails (the grooves have not been cut in the sleepers yet as we didn't have the tool with us) here are some pictures.

 

 

The next step was to install the fencing that will separate the engine yard from the roadway that runs along the front edge of the board. Here are some pictures showing the fencing after it has been installed - the white staining on the fencing is from the accelerator that we used to get the glue to grip the fencing quickly, this will be painted over. 

 

 

In the last picture the gap in the fence is so that road vehicles can get access to the engine yard if needed and where the fencing ends (nearest the camera) is where the small hill that is currently on the board will go on the extension.

 

The next things to be done will be to lay the ballast in the engine yard and install the hill.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[sbduck]

 

On Friday the new tracks in the loco shed were scheduled to be ballasted.  This photo shows the ballast train arriving in preparation of the work in hand.

[Northwick Group]

Good progress was made on Friday evening. The hill was put on, this was first carved from polystyrene and was then stuck to the baseboard, it was then covered in a mixture of art mache and vermiculite which was mixed with a blob of brown paint to give it some colour, this mixture was then mixed with water until it formed a thick paste, the last step was to spread the mixture using a spatula over the polystyrene and leave it to dry. Here are some pictures of the hill drying.

 

 

The next job was to install the over runs for the turntable and then start to do the ballasting - once the train with the ballast had arrived (any excuse to operate trains ). Here are some pictures that show the progress with the ballast, it still needs weathering to blend in with the rest of the layout but it is an improvement to the red that was there before.

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

Yet more progress was made on the Saturday workday. First thing to be done was to put down a layer of plaster coloured with a few drops of black paint for the road surface - this also means that all of the red surface of the board has now been covered up. Here are some pictures showing the work in progress.

 

The 2 pictures below show the arrangement for the road access to the engine yard it also has the track way that goes through the field joining it.

 

 

Here are some more pictures showing the rest of the road and with the last remaining bits of red being covered - any one for some fish food?

 

The picture below shows the junction of road ways better

 

 

The next job was to move back to the hill which was now dry enough to have the static grass applied, the track way through the field has been left as this will be done separately and once the ground cover has been applied to this area first.

 

 

There are a few small things that need to be done before the clubs open day which is this Saturday (23rd July) go to www.tdmrc.org.uk for more details, Hope to see you there.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

It was the clubs open day this Saturday, here are some pictures of Northwick.

Mini Steve and Bob stand there thinking "blimey they've brought out the big guns I hope everything goes well...."

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

Fred (the driver of the Ivatt class 2 tank 41302) didn't have a good day as he drove the locomotive into the turntable well, whilst waiting for the crane to come and help the engine shed crew decided to try and pull it out with rebuilt Battle of Britain Class 34050 Royal Observer Corps by attaching a rope between the 2 locos - at least the AA is on the way .

The crane arrived and the crew decided to have a brew and discussion on the best way to remove the tank from the turntable well.


Class 23 D5905 passes LMS twin 10000 at the station


Class 128 DPU arrives at the station


Ex LMS class 3f jinty 47482 shunts the goods yard


Ex GWR class 8750, 9736 prepares to depart with a goods train


Ex LSWR class O2's 30182 & 24 "Calbourne" arrive in the station with a passenger train


More photos to follow once I've convinced the computer that the camera memory card is not the enemy.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

I've finally got the computer and camera memory card to communicate with one another so here are a few more pictures from the open day.

 

Ex LMS Ivatt class 2MT 41211 arrives with a goods train.

 

Ex LMS Twin 10000 gets ready to depart with a passenger train

 

Ex GWR 56XX class arrives with a pair of auto coaches

 

Ex LSWR M7 arrives with the gate stock

 

BR Class 37 D6781 Departs with a passenger train

 

A pair of Ex midland 1F's 41661 & 41671 double head a local freight

 

BR class 20 D800 arrives with a freight train

 

Ex GWR hall class 4948 "Northwick Hall" sits in the engine shed

 

Also on the layout in the back siding were the Northwick unusuals, consisting of

 

H.M.G. Boche-Buster, Scratch built by Tim Thomas

 

Going from left to right a Twin Gas Tank, A.P.O.C. twin tank wagon, LBSCR Billington brake van and BR Grampus all built by Steve Bolton

 

Again going from left to right - a tar wagon and a twin bolster, also built by Steve Bolton.

 

Here is an overall view of the siding.

 

There may be a short video on the goings on of the day, will need to see how the footage came out.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Northwick Group

[HymekBoy]

What a great and varied selection of rolling stock! 

[Northwick Group]

Last Friday saw a lot of change happening to the layout with the extension for board 4 being attached, this was a lot easier than the extension for board 3 as we didn't have to cut a section out of the existing board, so it was just a case of attaching the new section on. Here are some pictures of the new wider board 4.

 

 

We also managed to carve the hill out of polystyrene.

 

 

The vermiculite/art mâché mixture was the spread across the top of the polystyrene, here's a picture of the work that was achieved.

 

 

Here's a picture of boards 3 & 4 now that they have the extensions fitted.

 

 

The plan for the extension on board 4 is to have the road that goes over the bridge to turn 90 degrees and meander along the front of the current fields and link up with the road on board 3.