Folgate Street
Some initial pictures of my latest scheme. Like most of us modelling fanatics I haven't been idle during the lockdown period! These are strange times indeed and I have no doubt that many of us have worried about income and job security so, with the exception of purchasing a second hand Hornby Q1, I have managed to construct the layout with materials and track I had to hand. Folgate Street is a fictitious slice of third rail London and is an old scheme that has been revamped for the purpose. The original station throat was constructed about 11 years ago and was made at the start of my railway modelling journey. I was still fumbling about at this earlier stage hence the use of Code 100 and Insulfrog points. It was a copy of a throat drawn up by the famous Cyril Freezer. The original layout was actually once used as the basis of my 1984 model (see previous posts) and was gathering dust in a forgotten corner of my loft so I thought I'd put it to good use.
The fabulous Hornby Q1. This was picked up cheaply from Hattons. It had a missing sand box and steps which have been knocked up from bits out of the spares box. Despite a thorough wheel clean it runs intermittently and I wonder if has anything to do with the DCC decoder that it is fitted with? I don't need it as I'm analogue and I know they'll run on DC current. If I remove the decoder will I need a blanking plate? - any help would be greatly appreciated as it's a smashing model and it deserves to run properly. The roof is another of my soldered wire schemes - to add a bit of interest I've used a downloadable texture from CG Textures for the roof lights. Note the cardboard strips at the side of the track. These have been made form thin card to replicate the wooden boards used at Southern stations to contain the third rail - they help to hide the absence of insulators and also disguised the oversized profile of Code 100 track.
A Hornby 2 HAL emerges from the right hand scenic break. The Lyceum Theatre is a freelance structure made from Scalescenes Textures whilst the buildings on the overbridge are downloaded photographs from CG Textures. These have been layered to give a little relief.
The superb Heljan Class 33. The station tower is another freelance structure loosely based on the Towers found at Cannon Street Station. Again, I've used Scalescenes sheets to construct it. The station roof is loosely based on the Suburban station one at the side of Kings Cross Station.
Two tracks on a slight incline were added to the front of the original layout to add a bit of operational interest. The signal box gantry, based on the one found at Holborne Viaduct Station over the Widened Lines incline, has been made from Plastruct girders and bits from various Dapol kits. All the signals work apart from the one on the signal box - I think super glue seeped into the fine electrical wires and have caused a short circuit!
The 5.5 foot layout is an end to end scheme with a main 5ft long fiddle yard to the right hand side. The half station side is fed from a three foot long 'black box' section during normal operation. I utilised a mirror at this end to lengthen the look of the station for the above photographs. More pics to follow.
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