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The First Sod Is Cut

Carl

Entry posted by Carl

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After 9 months in the deciding, the deliberating, the procrastination and the planning, the first cuts into the baseboards were made today ready for my model of Manchester Victoria.

 

I intend to model Manchester Victoria as it was in the late eighties, covering platform 11 through 17, from Cheetham Hill Road to the far end of where Manchester Exchange was, not too far from Deal Street signal box. The layout will be modelled in 2mm using Easitrac for the track, and although I'll be running N stock, it will be re-wheeled to 2FS standards. The bay platforms aren't in the current plan.

 

What you see below are 8 of 10 4??? x 2??? baseboards, organised to make a total area of 20??? x 4???. There are two of the 4??? x 2??? boards still to be assembled. Very roughly, the back 2??? of the layout will be used for the fiddle yard, narrowing to about 10 inches behind the station.

 

The cut-out areas represent parts of the landscape which are above or below track level.

 

CIMG0752-800x600.jpg

 

A view of the freshly assembled baseboards, taken from the east of the station.

 

CIMG0754-800x769.jpg

 

A view of the freshly assembled baseboards, taken from the west of the station, roughly where Deal Street signal box used to be.

 

There isn??™t much more to see yet, but I??™ll post some close-ups of the area where the River Irwell flows under the line once it's at the point where it's easier to see what's going on. I need some timber to support the track, rather than the pile of DVDs I'm currently using!

 

I've favoured modelling Manchester Victoria over Manchester Oxford Road and Wilmslow, I hope I've made the right decision!

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bcnPete
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Carl - 2mmFS, late eighties, blue diesels....we like this ;) will be watching with interest...

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Carl

Hi Peter,

 

Are they by the brilliant baseboard company?

 

Yes, they are. They're quite expensive, but I don't think I would have been able to build 20' x 4' of baseboards myself in any kind of reasonable timeframe, and have them as accurate. I'm using 6mm ply on top of them, so each individual baseboard is still really light.

 

Regards,

Carl.

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grahame

Exciting stuff, and of great interest to me to see your develoment. It looks a nice big and bright railway room and I spotted the stock of Farish boxes in the bookshelves. Are they all to be re-wheeled?

 

G.

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Carl

Hi Grahame,

 

Exciting stuff, and of great interest to me to see your develoment. It looks a nice big and bright railway room and I spotted the stock of Farish boxes in the bookshelves. Are they all to be re-wheeled?

 

The plan is to convert them all, yes, although the 2mmSA have low stocks of a few types of wheels, so the conversion will have to happen in stages. I do have quite a lot of stock which doesn't belong at Manchester Victoria, let alone Manchester Victoria in the late eighties, but I will want to run them all the same.

 

I saw your "The Next Big 'Un" post, and the fact that it really requires you to move house to dedicate a room for it - That's exactly what I did to get the room you see in the photos, and is part of the reason it's taken 9 months to get where I am!

 

Regards,

Carl.

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-missy-

Hello Carl :)

 

The baseboards look impressive and very big too judging by the size of the engine on the baseboard! Have you got a track plan or something you can post? This looks like its going to be a fantastic project and I am looking forward to seeing more...

 

Missy :)

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Steven B
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A very adventurous plan. Best of luck with it!

 

I bet you're rather pleased Dapol have anounced the 142 (or that Worsley Works do an etched version of it) - plenty of them to be seen at Victoria in the late 1980s.

 

There was a thread on the old RMWeb which included quite a few photos of Victoria in the 1980s including class 25 haulled parcels trains made up of GUVs or CCT. Might be worth finding them.

 

Never seen anyone store their books by the colour of the cover before smile.gif

 

Happy modelling,

 

Steven B.

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Jim T
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Hey Carl.

 

Good start...

 

How much does each assembled 4' x 2' baseboard frame weigh (roughly)? I'm considering using these too - my precious time being better spent on fun things like building stock, laying track, scenery etc., than on carpentry.

 

Cheers

Jim

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Carl

I bet you're rather pleased Dapol have anounced the 142 (or that Worsley Works do an etched version of it) - plenty of them to be seen at Victoria in the late 1980s.

 

Yeah, very pleased. I have an unpainted and unglazed, but otherwise working, Worsley Works 142. You can see the powered car running here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE-95NwnK0s.

 

There was a thread on the old RMWeb which included quite a few photos of Victoria in the 1980s including class 25 haulled parcels trains made up of GUVs or CCT. Might be worth finding them.

 

I was watching that thread closely, and probably was the thing that sealed in my mind to model Victoria! I think I downloaded all of the images, and even bugged the author (DerekEm8, IIRC) for high-res versions of some!

 

Never seen anyone store their books by the colour of the cover before smile.gif

 

I thought I had more books than I did, but I still think it looks OK!

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Carl

Hi Jim,

 

How much does each assembled 4' x 2' baseboard frame weigh (roughly)? I'm considering using these too - my precious time being better spent on fun things like building stock, laying track, scenery etc., than on carpentry.

 

Gooooooood question. I would guess they are something like 6kg with the MDF end plates, but that's really just an estimate taken by comparing it's weight with a couple of things I know the weight of!

 

Regards,

Carl.

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