I have recently received delivery of the first of a new set of baseboards which will extend the layout into a continuous circuit with a long fiddle yard down the opposite side of the shed. This first board is at the rear of the shed and workshop and will allow trackwork extensions to the roads off the 20ft loco turntables outside the workshop; the sidings alongside the shed and workshop and an extension to the main line under Days Road Bridge towards Bristol Temple Meads. All the new boards are
The Midland roundhouse roof has slatted ventilation louvres along the full length, on both sides, of each of the three roof pitches and although a number were missing during the 50/60's they still pose challenge to accurately model them.
As a trial I decided to try and model the rectangular roof ventilator situated over the machine shop in the Workshop building. I decided to use 2mm x 1.5mm 'T' section brass in which I cut 8 x 45deg slots using a piercing saw. 16 of these were made, three
It has been some while - June in fact - since I posted anything about the roundhouse. Since then I have had a closer look at the structure of the roof and realised that I had seriously under estimated the number of roof trusses required for the roof. Looking at an aerial photograph of the shed roof I plotted the 13 trusses and realised their positioning made no sense. This made me have another look at my collection of photographs and I have now calculated that the majority of the trusses are at
This morning I decided to have a short interlude from trackwork and completed work on the shed entrance STOP sign produced for me by Chris of York Modelmaking. After spraying it yesterday with Halfords red primer and finishing with Humbrol 5070 acrylic red I spent around half an hour carefully removing the paint form the raised lettering and lines before fixing it to the front wall of the roundhouse. A rather pleasing result.
I've had a few days off from Barrow Road at Railex with my other layout Sheep Pasture, a Cromford & High Peak subject.
Sheep Pasture at Railex
[ See Kempenfelt photos of layout dated 2nd June - please ignore his earlier post ]
I'm now back on the job finishing the girders, both long and short, by forming all 1400 rivets in the overlays for the top and bottom of the girders.
Here are some photos taken today during completion of all the girders - trial assembly revealed the
Having settled into the new large shed I have given some thought to extending the layout into a continuous run with a long fiddle yard down one side of the building with the layout along the other. With this in mind I need scenic breaks at each end of the layout. At the north end the break will be the road bridge at Lawrence Hill north of the Junction signal box, whilst at the south - Temple Meads - end it will be Days Road Bridge. For those of a certain age this will evoke memories of climbing
I am due to take delivery of the model of Days Road Bridge over the next few days so here are some photos of the model primed and ready for extra detailing and painting.
All photos courtesy of Chris Dening 3DCD
The Scalefour Society AGM was held today in Bristol. Thanks to the Bristol Area Group for inviting the embryonic Barrow Road to it's first show. Assembly of the legs and boards were complete in a record 20mins - positioning the shed buildings, coaling tower and stock took a while longer, but I am very pleased with the ease of assembly.
Thanks go to Chris and Morgan of the Glevum Group for assistance and to Morgan and Dave Holt for the lone of additional stock - photos of some of their locos
Following completion of the track laying inside the roundhouse I have completed the four road workshop pits. During the period I am modelling only two loco turntables were in use on roads 2 and 4. Of these only road 2 was used for loco repair and then only infrequently. Road 4 - I need to cover the pit - was used to access to the large wheel lathe which was positioned at the end of road 4 in the corner of the workshop. Loco driving wheels, for turning on the lathe, were removed from locos on the
Following a visit by friends in the Scalefour Glevum Group here are some photograhs taken with some extra stock including a fabulous rake of coaches.
Johnson tank and Blood & Custard rake courtesy of Morgan
Maroon rake courtesy of Paul
On Monday this week with the help of my friend Chris - builder of baseboards and designer of electrics - the lift out section Board 19 was fitted to complete the full circuit of the layout and some test trains were run to prove the electrics. On tuesday the local Scalefour Society area group had their monthly meeting and the layout was subjected to an evening of, in the main, successful running a variety of locos and rolling stock. Due to the numbers attending it was not possible to take any sui
In 2013 I wrote an article for LMS Review on the then new Bachmann 4F. One of the two I purchased was 43875 which visited the Bristol shed.
My intention was to convert it to P4 for the layout and a couple of years ago I purchased an Easi-Chassis kit from Brassmasters and started the conversion. This ground to a halt early in 2017 pending a decision on which method of pick-ups to use. Over the past week I have completed the project - not the easiest conversion to attempt - and
Here are some photos of the finished building - except for the 2 chimneys and vents previously mentioned.
Final weathering will take place once everything is built and in place on the layout.
Thanks for all the positive comments.
The next installment will be the roundhouse and workshop itself.
I now have to wait a few weeks before I take delivery of the main shed and workshop...... watch this space.
I have a rake of Comet coaches which I converted from 00 using Bill Bedford sprung bogies and Gibson P4 wheels. These coaches are a fixed rake and have now had Alex Jackson couplings added to each end to enable a test run of the complete set. As they are heavy I decided to use one of my converted Bachmann Peaks, D13, to pull the test train.
For those interested the rake is made up as follows;-
Corridor Brake Composite D1720A Restaurant Composite D1811 Open First - Porthole D2160 C
Diesels are alright but I thought it about time we had steam so this afternoon my modified Hornby Black 5 44965 stretched her legs around the layout for the first time.
The engine is converted to P4 using Alan Gibson wheels. The Hornby chassis has cosmetic frames - a Gibson milled version - which I attached using strips of plasticard, as spacers, to widen the distance between the frames. The coupling rods and valve gear are the original Hornby ones - I removed the threaded nuts from the Horn
Before getting on to the construction of the walkways here are a few photos of the 'stench pipe' fabricated from 1.5mm brass tube bent to a suitable shape with the connection to the loo added for good measure!!
After much thought I decided to make the walkways from nickel silver strip and wire in order to give it a degree of strength and to minimise any accidental damage.
Looking at the set of drawings of the 20ft box in Midland Record No 2 there is a good drawing of the handrail cla
Here is the Templot for the South Exit to the shed which consists of a B6 turnout and a Single Slip onto the mainline.
The full size template attached to 6mm ply ready for fixing the ply sleepers.
That's enough for now - back to the workbench.
All 47 levers are now in position so here are a few photos:-
This one shows the frame in position inside the box - trial fit only at this stage.
The instrument shelf has been fabricated from nickel silver strip. the shelf is laminated from pieces of 3/4 & 5mm x 0.3mm strip whilst the supports are made up in a jig from 1mm x 0.3mm strip. The round part is formed from modified High Level 2mm CSB etches... the only thing of appropriate size I could find in my metal stock.
I have finished the rear elevation of the shed by adding a section to the wall to match with the end wall of the Workshop. This has been achieved by glueing a shaped piece of mdf to the top of the wall and overlaying a piece of Rowmark etched with 'english bond' brickwork. This is a modification to the kit as supplied. Also added for the first time is a shaped piece of clear 3mm thick acrylic fixed to the edge of the board to protect the sectioned wall of the Roundhouse.
As the layout is due
I collected the shed building from Chris at the Watford Show and have now had a chance to have a trial assembly of the building on the boards...... here are a few photos.
I have now coloured the walls using my favoured method with coloured crayons. The Berol Karisma ones are no longer available so I have substituted some from the Faber Castell range which have proved to be better.
The building substructure is now assembled and I will add these walls to it shortly.
I took my Sheep Pasture layout to the Wigan Show at the weekend - what an excellent show and a big thank you to the organisers.
York Model Makers attended the show and brought with them elements of a kit of laser cut parts for the roundhouse at Barrow Road Shed which they are making for me. The kit of parts is well on the way to completion so here are a few photographs to show the standard of work that can be achieved by this relatively new method - at least to the model railway world - of m
