At long last I have completed building all of the various pits; those inside the roundhouse, the engine sidings, the preparation pits and the ash disposal pits, a grand total of 33 not including those inside the workshop.
The brasswork of the ash disposal pits has now been sprayed with halfords grey primer which makes it possible to photograph them without the glare from the metallic surface. I have added a number of track rivits to the surface of the brass especially near the board joints i
A package form York Modelmaking dropped through the letter box yesterday containing the laser cut parts for Lawrence Hill Signal Junc signal box which stands at the entrance to the shed yard.
I need to familiarise myself with the kit of parts but hope to start the build over the next week.
The box opened in 1908 and a replacement 45 levr frame was put in in 1938 at the time the shed was modernised with the installation of the coaling plant and ash tower.
To wet your appetite here
I have been unable to attach any photos to my blog for the past few days - hence the lack of any recent update. It appears to have reverted to the original attachment format so I shall take the opportunity to add some photos of the latest progress.
These photos show my chosen method of fixing the panels to the top surface of the pit walls using brass screws. I am pleased with the result.
Here are a few shots of the panels in position in relation to the shed building.
Time for an update on the slow progress with the two ash disposal pits. Unlike the other outside pits, which were all updated and in some cases elongated using concrete, these two pits remained with their original brick structure and 5ft cast iron panels to support the track.
Having made 7 of the 10 lengths of iron panels [ fabricated from brass section] I decided I needed a break and started on the pits themselves. The pit under the ash plant itself is 220ft long and is curved. The shorter
Since receiving the model of the Coaling Tower from Peter Leyland I have been collecting research material on the operation of the tower with the intention of making the coaler operational.
Whether this results in full operation, with the wagon tipper operational, or whether the wagon hoist is just raised under the hood, remains to be seen.
Recently I obtained permission from West Coast Railways to visit their Carnforth Site in order to photograph the Coal & Ash Plants as part of t
I have just spent an enjoyable weekend at the Blackburn Show with the Glevum Group exhibiting the group layout Brinkley where we won an award for the signaling on the layout.
Here are a few photos taken at the show.
Brinkley at Blackburn
Next weekend I am exhibiting my other layout Sheep Pasture - Cromford & High Peak - at the Cardiff Show at UWIC in Llandaff. Please come and have a chat if you are able to attend.
Following the show last weekend at Cirencester I am looking after the Brinkley 60 foot turntable bridge and couldn't resist placing it in position inside the roundhouse. It looks rather good... maybe I should keep hold of it;)
Meanwhile back to the ash disposal pits...........
The Glevum S4 Society Area group, of which I am a member, took the group layout Brinkley to this show at the weekend - hence the lack of progress on Barrow Road.
This show was at Deer Park School, a very pleasant venue and a very friendly atmosphere.
Here are a few photos I took of Brinkley on Saturday.
Cirencester Show
I have just about recovered from a very busy but enjoyable weekend demonstrating at Scaleforum with two of my friends from the Glevum Area Group, Morgan and Paul.
I took two of the boards to the demo - limited space at this years show prevented me taking any more - these being the roundhouse/workshop board and the sidings board alongside the shed.
A selection of locos and rolling stock was on view together with research material. Thanks go to Morgan for demonstrating his CAD drawings of the
After the interlude with my diesel conversions I have returned to work on the baseboards to fabricate some more inspection pits.
The first selected are the four inspection/preparation pits alongside the shed, one for each siding. Two of these pits were rebuilt in around 1956 [the two nearest the shed], while the other two were new. Unlike the pits inside the shed, photos show these pits were made using concrete not brick.
This view was taken in Oct 1965 & shows locos over the two new
Having received a set of Ultrascale 18.83 wheels for this loco I decided to do the conversion. Thanks to all those on the Heljan thread who made the task a lot easier.
I decided not to do a 'how too' photo session because this can be found on the other thread. Suffice it to say the Ultrascale conversion is easy to do provided you follow their instructions. Mine ran ok first time - highly reccomended and sorts out problems of erractic running experienced by others.
I decided to fill in th
Back front holiday and I find a set of Ultrascale wheels for my second Bachmann Peak has arrived. I had forgotten all about the order intended for my proposed conversion of split head code 'D95' to D13 with 'corridor connection doors.
This conversion was inspired by a photo purchased from Rail Photoprints of D13 passing the side of the shed on 2B93 the 10.49am local infill turn from Bath Green Park to Temple Meads.
http://www.railphoto...565-RP.jpg.html
I decided to take a break from th
For those of you who have seen the MRJ 200 thread you will see it contains an article about my layout. It was originally intended to include a second article on the laser cut/etched buildings but this has been held over to a forthcoming addition - hopefully MRJ 201. If this is the case it will fit in nicely with this years Scaleforum where I will be demonstrating part of the layout with other members of the Glevum Area group of the S4 Society.
As promised here are some more photos of the she
The sidings wall of the workshop is the last piece of the workshop & roundhouse to be assembled and coloured so I thought I would show a series of photos to show the sequence I use for colouring. As mentioned in an earlier blog I use Faber Castell Polychromos crayons. The following sequence uses
Pompian Red - 9201-191
Terracotta - 9201 - 186
Burnt Ochre - 9201 -187
Raw Umber - 9201 - 180
Brown Ochre - 9201 - 182
The weathering is added using Schwarz Black - 9201 - 199
Having completed the front elevation I had a short break before starting the wall adjacent to the sidings by assembling the end wall. With only one window this proved to be an easy task until I realised I had forgotten to chamfer the upper layer of bricks. A few passes with a craft knife later and this is the result....
followed by some paint....
Moving on to the sidings wall here are some pics of the interior elevation with the second crane girder in position...
and the exterior wal
The front elevation is now complete, painted and features two sets of doors which can be opened.
Bays 2 & 4 were the only ones used during the 1950/60s so I decided to carry out some modification to the Rowmark and glazing in order to make these two operational. You will see from the attached photos that I have achieved this by cutting the inner door rowmark to make it thinner down the hinge edge in order to fix a piece of square section tube. This tube extends to the top and bottom to form
I have spent some time researching the wording for STOP sign that is at the entrance to the roundhouse at Barrow Road.
This appears to be a standard sign at most Midland Roundhouses but obtaining a clear photograph has proved a challenge. Last night I found a good colour photo of such a sign at the entrance to Toton Shed and have identified the following wording.
MIDLAND RAILWAY
NOTICE TO ALL (DRIVERS FIREMEN)
AND ALL ???????????????????
STOP.
ALL ENGINES ?????????? TO
ENTER
The inside wall of the Workshop has an 'I' girder under the upper windows either side of the building to support the travelling 15 ton crane.
After pondering how to represent the girder & their supports I opted to fabricate the girder supports from plasticard and used a plastruct 'I' girder fixing them to the inside wall using superglue gel - I am pleased with the result.
I will give some consideration to modelling a representation of the crane in due course.
Following the Scalefour Society AGM I have had a short break from modelling - no I haven't been away, I've spent the past 4 days up and down a 6.7m tower scaffold painting the gable end wall of the house.
Now that job is finished I have made a start on the shed workshop which is at the rear of the shed.
The workshop is a feature of most Midland railway roundhouses and was used to repair the small Midland railway locos up until grouping and continued to do so through LMS days - although by the
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
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
Having made about half of the total requirement of inspection and preparation pits for the shed I decided to have a break and try something different - after all you can have too much of a good thing!
I have managed to find the whereabouts of a drawing of the hydraulic wheel drop at Rose Grove Shed - I can recommend the National Archives website for those of you looking for original research material -
http://www.nationala...ew.asp?ID=B6200
as I found the set of drawings at Mancheste
While on the subject of the wheel drop I have enlarged a view of the wheel drop shelter taken from inside the shed. I am intrigued to know what was the purpose of the 'cupboard' doors at the based of the side wall. Another photo in my possession suggests their were similar 'cupboards' on the other side of the shelter.
They could of course be for storage but maybe they gave access to the 'hydraulics' of the wheel drop. Ideas anyone?
