Just thought I'd add a few pictures from the line as it is now.
Bridge arch under the terminus
Not the Pw Hut- the weigh house!
Loddiswell station
Looking down the line from Loddiswell towards Kingsbridge on the 1:50 gradient to Sorley
I finally got a couple of hours to play with the scenic board and both my grass machines. I have the WWS large one and their detail one, since they had a sale in summer.
Here is the back corner of the board in 2011, basic ground cover done. I always intended a strong mix of texture on the line side to reflect wartime manpower shortages.
I started by making a “shaggy embankment” mix, made of 1mm,2mm, 4mm and a few 6mm yellows to reflect autumn colours, there are 4 different shades and
After 6 months of trying and failing to get anyone to make a laser cut kit from my Autocad files I have decided to take matters into my own hands and sort the station once and for all. I saw Ratio now produce a William Clarke style station building, which I thought might make a starting point for my kitbash. They also make an etched roof light, so I gathered my raw materials.
This approach would surely meet with Mr Clarke’s approval as he was essentially an early proponent of design and
Bloody hell, for the first time ever the whole layout minus fiddle yard is together, supported entirely on the leg units. Only took 11 years.
As you can see from the thumbnail there was a degree of shock about this.
All the boards. Each modular board is 3’6” long, with the two larger station boards individually sized.
The classic view from above the signal box.
Vs reality
Side by side, I didn’t get quite the same angle, but close enough.
O
I had to take a difficult decision today. Despite great patience from the exhibition manager I have reluctantly decided not to debut the layout over the May bank holiday.
The reasons for this are:
The station building and platform is unfinished
The control system is not finished- all switching would be via hand of god method.
I have 2 chipped locos, but key items of stock are still absent, despite offers of loans from Kris I feel I will not be able to do justice to the traffic in my chase
I was able to get the landscaping finished today including the bridge area pictured in my prototype pics post. Have now completed all the plastering as well, so its onto track and wiring next (gulp!) Here's the pictures from today.
all 3 boards together on temporary stands.
Finished third board and unshaped second.
View up the finished scenic board
Plastering the second board having shaped the underpass.
Following a long and highly informing (for me anyway!) discussion on the forums I have now done the basic carcass of the engine shed. There is still some fettling to do, I have to put the smoke channel in, as suggested by Kris, tidy up the corners and put on the roof, as well as the roof lights. I am fairly pleased with the progress so far but any improvement suggestions are welcome.
This is the front view which compares fairly well with the prototype. Some compromise about lintel height was r
I said I would update today, sadly no pictures- will add them to this block as soon as I can take them.
So far-
Controller has arrived- I can now test some wiring and scrimp for a decoder.
The ballast is all laid on the scenic section and I added the finer cinder edges around the track. This was then dyed with black indian ink added to the PVA mix, which will form the basis for paint fx- Will try to illustrate this with my pics.
The tricky join between the curved throat board and the mai
As it was my Birthday this month, celebrated by going to the WSR and visiting the Taunton members day (thanks Tim and team) I had some money to spend, so I bought a pair of GWR Conflats, in this case the Peco version. My reasoning was that in Autumn 1943 many local families were evacuated from the training area around Slapton, some of whom would have taken advantage of the railways removal service if they were travelling outside the local area. Service personnel from other areas would also be re
Well I got time this week to paint up the shed, here are the results with a brief pictorial stroll through the process.
Having started with a black undercoat I put some rust tones randomly across the roof, looking at the pictures from the 50's.
There are 2 brown shades and a dark metallic in there. I wanted some faint rust visible through the grey base.
The base grey was put on with a heavy drybrush.
After 2 lightening tones on the grey I put more careful rust marks o
As the weather has been sunny this week I have finally got the backscenes done for the first few boards. They will be sent to a printing co. for finishing to the right size, 18" high, 2 curved fixed and 1 straight removable piece of hardboard to form the structure.
Just a brief update, further to discussions about the backscene, this is a picture of the test one on the scenic board.
This was an offcut of hardboard I found at work. Its 15" high but I may have to cut this down a bit to fit the crate or make it removable.
Has anyone done a removable backscene? This board is flat so should be ok as there are no curves in the backscene.
I have finally got the back scenes on, but not glued permanently. Aside from one or two spots where I need to put some strengtheners i.e. on the joints and ends of curves, I think it has worked out quite well.
Here are the 2 station boards.
Its made a big difference to how the layout flows, now its on to track weathering and fixing, plus wiring the bus and point motors!
I might even get to start the engine shed thanks to help from you all with the measurements.
I realised this week it has been over 10 years since I started this layout, which was a bit terrifying. Life has a way of making things take longer than expected and the model of the station building at Kingsbridge is no exception. Thanks to those of you who have been with me since the beginning and all the commenters along the way, you have all helped keep me moving forwards, even if the pace has been a bit non existent!
Last time we left the building at the elevations stage, I matched the
Wow, its been a long time since I did a blog entry!
I recently decided to start work on Kingsbridge again, as it has been living in crates in my workshop long enough. Sorting through the spares box and rolling stock I came across a Python kit from Chivers Finelines. This was the second one I bought, as my dog, then young, had chewed the first one the minute it arrived on the door mat. I have since trained my excellent postman to leave the parcels somewhere else and trained my dog not to eat
Well, it has been a while since I did an update for Kingsbridge. I have not been entirely idle on this model, but progress has been limited to tweaking the track layout, adding length to the sidings, and trying to get the trackside structures done in case the sidings need moving before ballasting.
With this in mind I bought the Ratio carriage shed kit, thinking of bashing it to resemble the corrugated structure on the branch. As soon as I looked at it I knew this plan was not going to work, the
I have finally got round to sorting out some more little jobs. The first one was re-numbering and dirtying my Dapol 45xx. I got some Modelmaster brass plates that were great, and some fox buffer beam numbers finished it off. All that is left to do is sort out the disgusting rapido coupling and do the front and back dirty to match the sides. Any comments appreciated as I haven’t varnished it yet. The real 4561 continues to be on static display in one of the museums (Swindon?) but I am hoping fo
