John and I had been thinking about Balcombe as a modular end-to-end layout on which we could run full-length EMUs etc including a representation of the Ouse Viaduct. I then thought about the attraction of seeing these trains snake over some nice P4 trackwork, and Lewes floated into my head again, as it is wont to on occasions like this.
So, having Templotted Balcombe
(OS map is over 50 years old so out of copyright)
I then had a go at Lewes - 'just for a bit of fun' you underst
The first area to be 'terra-formed' has now been done.
Two of the main reasons for doing it this way is for lightness and durability. Using traditional plaster bandages, they're too easily damaged as I found out on Matford. The whole area is only supported along the edges with the chicken wire doing all work keeping all in place. It may need an second coating with resin as I've missed a few bits here and there. I'll see when it's all cured nice and hard, and of course it adds virtually no ex
The first part-finished section of the viaduct made its inaugural public appearance at the RMWeb Taunton bash yesterday, including some powered running across it for the first time.
Many thanks to John for all his hard work in getting it to this stage, not without its trials and tribulations, and to Pete for his help yesterday. It was gratifying to receive some positive feedback and encouragement based on what we had done so far, but also a reminder on how much more there was still to do!
We think we've cracked the issue of how best to join sections together. The following photos show (using a couple of demonstration end sections and a 'real' pier) how it will work.
Rather than have a separate detachable pier for the joins, which creates additional problems regarding planting in the scenery and so on, the pier will be 'half' attached to one end of the two sections to be joined.
The dowel and the square-section pins provide for alignment. The pins have holes drilled
After the 'great lift' it was time to start fixing some of the balustrades, refuges and pavilions back onto the viaduct deck.
Here are some shots from today of the two boards that we will be showing, about 40% of the total. Lengths of 7mm wide stripwood were temporarily glued with Copydex along the edge of the deck to allow the balustrades to be set at the right distance in from the edge; a simple jig was then used to set them in the right place with respect to the refuge outriggers. The
Some more trees and an armature for Balcombe. These are all experimental ATM and will be placed at the rear of the layout. I've still got to improve on tree recognition and produce better models of particular types.
Some of these will probably be removable for use on other projects. The smaller ones will be used on the Matford rebuild on the new extension board.
A couple of snaps to give an idea of how some more of the thing is shaping up. Bear in mind there are still two more sections to build ,albeit slightly shorter.
After a very pleasant and productive planning session yesterday, interspersed with copious provisions provided by Mrs 10800, we're now virtually ready to go with the commissioned laser cutting of the fiddly repetitive bits for the viaduct. Final tweaking of the specification and scope is going on with York Modelmaking today. The laser cutting work will comprise 74 balustrade sections with 19 arches in each; the main arch sections for the eight pavilions (semicircles on squares, very Renaissan
No compromise, no shortcuts - this is what we're building in 4mm. The real thing is over 440m long and up to 30m high, so the model will be about 20ft long.
Here are some of my own photos from our initial field trip last November, but if you Google images under Ouse Viaduct, Ouse Valley Viaduct, or Balcombe Viaduct there are loads more, some of them showing the whole thing in one go.
Not a bit of it - now that Scaleforum with Matford is out of the way, and having received some more laser cut goodies from York Model Making, John (Re6/6) and I had a productive day today towards turning all the bits into more of a kit of parts prior to assembly.
I got on with marking up the pier sections for the characteristic apertures of the Ouse Viaduct, which involved topographic profiles, Excel spreadsheets and some occasional reality checks. The apertures all start at the same top el
After the first attempt at tree making using Gordon Gravett's methods I wasn't happy at all with the efforts. Some had the 'broccoli tree' look whilst others looked too dense or with too much 'space' and with the wrong colour foliage! Using the Woodlands 'foliage' just doesn't cut it, at least until I can master a better technique in using it. The Monterey pine has been sidelined with it's dark Woodlands foliage, as it all looks too flat.
The ones illustrated here have all had their original
A bit more meat on the bone now from the previous 'vague' dimensions.
We've dispensed with the idea of a common 'Brighton' fiddleyard fed from both the north and from the Lewes Brighton platform, mainly because of the tight curves needed to get to/from the latter. Instead we have a separate shorter fiddle yard of 8ft for 'Brighton' on the basis that through trains via Lewes would only be loco + 4 coaches + van from Eridge (which also assumes an 8ft FY) or short coast route trains from Eastb
Thanks to Andy for sorting access to our blog problem. I have already posted this by way of the 'edit' feature, but anyone who might be interested will not have been notified and it will have slipped out of sight. Apologies to those who may have seen this already.
Here are some more snaps of progress. A few more clad with brickwork along with the first couple of the 'longer hole' piers where the hole goes into the supporting plinths.
It's been very difficult to clad the piers properly when
It's been a while since the last update, but progress has continued nonetheless - even if not much of it has been by me (work just continues to get in the way). And John seems to have lost his ability to post to the blog directly (Andy is looking into it).
After finishing off some of the outer piers (where the plinths don't come into play) John moved onto, or rather returned to, the inner ones. This is where the tapered piers are inset slightly on the rectilinear plinths, and we now seem t
A few entries back I showed a 'completed' pavilion. But on returning to the viaduct for another recce a month or so ago, we found that the roof construction was somewhat different so it was back to the workbench for another go.
The objective this time was to come up with something like this:
So here is a photo sequence of how I did it:
1) Build basic subframe (2 x 2mm Evergreen section)
2) Attach 'under-roof' using 0.5mm plasticard - in black so you can see what you'r
I've now finished (I think) the first of the eight pavilions required for the viaduct, except for the painting which can wait until they're all done.
I'm always supercritical of my own work (aren't we all?) but I'm quite pleased with this given there were no drawings available and access to measure was not a practicable option. It's not as detailed as the real thing, but in view of the scale of the whole model and the distance from which it is likely to be viewed I think it conveys the esse
Some snaps of some of the results of today in trial fittings of balustrades and refuges on the viaduct track base:
And a couple of reminders of the real thing
We're still thinking about how best to do the brackets
So there will now be an awful lot of laminating of pairs of bits of 2mm MDF at 10800 towers - just the job to do on a work tray whilst watching the telly
And we haven't forgotten about the coping and plinths for the balustrades
This is a very preliminary and loose-fitting mockup of the carcasses of two of the piers and a section of arches - less than 1/12th of the whole thing. This was built entirely of 2mm MDF (apart from the spacer blocks!) to try one or two construction methods out. It's also convinced me more than ever to outsource as much of the repetitive cutting as possible for consistency, and not just the arch and decorative details.
The piers are in two sections, a lower rectangular section plinth and a
Just had to use that lovely word lacuna!
I've just had some 1:2500 map sections courtesy of West Sussex CC archives, unfortunately there is nothing between 1910 and the 1970s so more research needed to verify the 1950s condition.
Here are a couple of snaps of a typical FREMO set-up. 'Hölle' in P87 was seen at Utrecht last year, with a known reprobate playing trains!
This bit is only about a 20th of the whole project! There are interchangable sections which are cleverly 'scenically blended' This one was the best that I've ever seen with such good scenic continuity. Some that I've seen in the past have looked like a patchwork quilt!
We would devise our own profile for baseboard end plates, rather than using the 'lai
Here is the first attempt at a tree armature, following Gordon Gravett's methods (with a few variations in method) shown in his new book.
I can't recommend this book highly enough as the definitive 'how-to' work on tree making. I couldn't have achieved anything without it's guidance.
This is an attempt at a 'grisly' old oak. The small lumps need removing from the thinner wire bits. The 'greenification' is still being worked on for the right formula.
We'll need a large quantity of va
The first baseboard has now been built for one of the 'generic' scenery sections. It has worked out very well indeed. Pink 50mm polyfoam insulation board was used, (available from B&Q at about £20 for a pack of four [1200mm x 500mm]). 100mm deep 4mm thick birch-faced ply was glued to the long sides with 'No More Nails' type solvent free grab adhesive and 9mm marine ply was used for the 'FREMO' style ends, with patternmakers dowels fitted.
Underneath transverse bracing was fitted (6mm thick
Inspiring (or daunting) as the whole thing might be, we will obviously be taking this a step at a time with a view to proving the concept in exhibition conditions with just some of the possible whole.
Balcombe itself will be first, with the viaduct, and a fiddleyard each end. The fiddle yards will need to be able to accommodate 12 coach EMUs so will have to be around 12 ft long each, so that's the length of four shunting planks before we even get to the scenery! Uncompressed, Balcombe is a
The first few plinth/pier combinations are assembled. The M4 rodding is used to adjust the positioning whilst the assembly is glued up.
These will make up into the middle 9 arch section.
The classic view. The holes will have to be tidied up prior to being clad with English bond plasticard/SE Finecast vacuum formed plastic.
