Charlie_k

I’d actually lost the fence ‘wire’, but found it as I cleared the desk at the weekend so finally ticked off another job. The fiddle yard was landscaped as you can see a large part through the bridge arches. Fence needs a coat of paint and the red oxide doesn’t take well to the girders and the coaling station was recommissioned as well. Thanks for looking.

All building work now finished! The office from the goods shed was completed last night and finished this evening. I have some vehicles to weather down, and probably some goods to create and detail along with a few other snags and figures but it’s almost time to clean the track and run something. Crane is almost complete with steps added to the platform, and for anybody making the yard crane, look for the truss rods taped to the back of the instructions! I must have picked up other similar (short) wires. The kit probably goes together better and you don’t end up modifying the kit to fit and correct your own stupid mistake! Thanks for looking.

Thanks Will.

Back in action thanks to the postman yesterday. While I was waiting I rearranged and added some kits and bits I had hanging around. I wasn’t happy with the goods yard area to the right of the brewery, it was too full and didn’t look natural, and after a late night working out what to do, cracked open a Peco yard crane (has anyone made this as the instructions say? The truss rods are too short and I had to shorten the main beam)(also if you haven’t made it operate, put the thread on the drum before assembling) This filled the space and made the area look like it might actually function. To negate the length of the retaining wall, the corrugated sheet came out this afternoon and a roof added to cover the side door of the brewery and give some cover in the yard. Flashing added to the pipe and the gantry was finally glued in place. The near side also got some treatment. Half the hard standing along the front edge was removed, it wasn’t working anyway and the gantry sat on it which looked odd. This left a longer area to grass over, and I’d been batting the idea of a signal box around in various places. I had the Metcalfe (Goathland) signal box, which is a lovely kit, but after I made it the colour didn’t gel. It was carefully disassembled and I remade the outer walls in a colour nearer to the rest of the layout than it was, it also lost a bit of height while I was at it. It looks a bit more rundown, but it fits this area a bit better now. End in site now... Thanks for looking.

Thanks to both of you, I really appreciate it. It’s coming along now, and I’m hoping to be finished in a month (even though I’m waiting for glue at the moment!) or so now the big bits are close to finished. I love the Metcalfe kits, they’re quick to do and you can adapt them easily. I’m going to miss doing this when I’m finished though. Thanks again. Yesterday’s work when the glue ran out...the standing in the foreground was a hangover from when there was a bridge here. I decided to break between the loading area and holding spur. I used a couple of containers, weathered them heavily and put them in place to look abandoned. I think there’s going to be a crane on the spur, but I had it earmarked for a covered goods area earlier. The crane might have it though, the gantry support isn’t far away and it might look better being a bit dilapidated in this area. I think some serious weeding is needed, but not in the normal sense... Thanks for looking.

Thanks Steve, great suggestion. Almost there with this now, just the capping and a sliver of roof. Thanks for looking. Charlie

Thanks Steve, that’s a great idea. You’re right on the corners, I added them to the original warehouse yesterday, so they will tie in nicely here. It’ll continue the pattern of the right hand side a lot better as well. That’s tomorrow night sorted! Thanks again, Charlie

Thanks George.

Turning the corner at the end after some extensions to the warehouse. Now a single chimney stack in the corner to hide it, corner covers on the brickwork, and a small section of roof to join the others and make it look one building. Then I spent some time looking at the short end and used the second warehouse leftovers to make a 2.5D back scene. It’s the same windows as the rest, just a piece of black card behind to make it look the same, stands about 5mm proud of the backscene. It will have capping stones and a door to bring it in with the rest. The A frame took a beating this week, looks like it got knocked on the floor and then stood on, whatever happened it was in several small pieces. Got it back together but the air was blue. Soon be on to the small stuff! Thanks for looking.

Saturday always seems to be a day for the backscene. The last sections of retaining wall are in, issues with fit required a sharp knife. The second set of gates has been added and is now drying before greenery grows up this afternoon. The chimney was been slightly slanted to rest against the wall, but it looked better without the gap. The weathering looks a bit severe here, but that’s for this afternoon. ... This afternoon flew by, need to get the weedkiller out, but the brewery buildings now done. Today’s section... Nice bit of sun... Over the hedge from the allotments... Corner warehouse now...not much, some re-gluing, one new tile section and the jury’s out out on the chimneys. Thanks for looking.

Thank you both, I’m afraid the seam is my fault, it should have a hoist, and could have been avoided in my bashing. I took an easy way out in it! Thanks again.

Except for the additions in the previous post, which will be done once this is fixed, this is almost ready to go into place now. The awful seam down the end is covered, not an ideal but it does add a bit of interest to a blank wall, doors and shutters are now in place, the loading platform was build from several layers of card before gluing scrap textures onto it. All the roofing and tiles are done, along with some leading work. Barge boards are on now, some bits of glue and weathering to do, and a couple of seams to hide, but I’m mostly done here. Time to move further on.... Thanks for looking. Charlie

I’d go for the bridge too, it looks like you’re planning for an embankment which would help hide that it wasn’t going anywhere. Looking forward to seeing this when it’s finished.

Thanks both of you for your kind comments. I hadn’t thought of any of these and my thoughts on the pipe entry were a bit clumsy in comparison. Motivated now to get this finished! Thanks again.

If I had one big job left that I wasn’t looking forward to it was the gantry, last night I bit the bullet and finished it this afternoon. Maybe a bit heavy weathering on the gantry, and the bases need to be merged in. I cut some cartridge paper into strips and glued them to the dowel at what seemed suitable spacing before painting it white and applying the rust. Thanks for looking.

Glad I could help and thanks for the comments. I saw your earlier post Steve, I think you got your answer, it’s scalescenes clapboard glued onto mountboard, then I cut single strips to add the details and deepen the shadow underneath with humbrol smoke weathering powder. Thanks again.

I’m sorry but all I can tell you is it’s Hornby. I picked it up at a car boot and it needs couplings. Afraid I can’t be of any more help. Charlie

Thanks Mikkel.

It’s not quite there yet but it’s close. The sign came out okay, but getting it to look right took a bit. Water tower and canopy were attached today along with the finished roof but there’s still one to do. I repainted the gantry to tone in a bit more. The goods platform will be an L shape going around the left end. I’m aiming for the weekend to finish this, so add another week! Thanks for looking.

The corner cover pieces worked, far faster and less problematic than I’d managed before. The doors are fitted, just the near end to do now and the new roof was fitted but still to tile. The base for the water tower was textured. I’m going to try and make a sign for the wall above the gantry, and the gantry still needs pipework. I’ve moved the crane from the front of the layout to the area. There’s a join down the centre of the end wall, better think of doing something there, and the loading platform either needs major shortening or a quick rebuild. Apart from bargeboards, downpipes and the canopy that’s finished then! Thanks for looking.

The redundant hard standing by the water tower is now overgrown, it was going nowhere and didn’t make any sense, so a careful couple of hours took it back to nature. It also hides the difference in colour of the walls somewhat. One of the other unforeseen developments recently was the opening up of the second arch of the bridge. It was a dead end originally and was just a spur for reversing direction toward the warehouse. Only the near two tracks went off scenic originally, and it annoyed me that I hadn’t planned for the far track to do the same. A few weeks back I lifted the bridge and office, luckily it was so badly fixed it gave little resistance, remove the buffer and ballast, made a suitable hole in the end panel, found a suitable sharp curve and hacked up an extra fiddle track. It’s only 12” but at least it’s better than nothing. Add it to the list of stuff I could’ve done better. Everything removable was taken off yesterday and the whole thing was vacuumed. Gaps in the concrete were weed-filled and the retaining walls were glued in place finally. Most are now weathered in, one still to go before the brewery, two on the far side with another gate. The corners on the brewery are problematic. Normally I use a pencil crayon on the brick folds. I’ve used scalescenes brick to cover most corners on other buildings, but this is the first with offset cornerstones and cutting and folding a long straight corner piece to cover it is not one of my strengths. I’ve had an idea to create the template in a DTP package, with the cut lines solid and a centre score line marked top and bottom only. If I copy this several times, then put a printed brick texture into the printer, the lines will be printed directly on top (stay with it). I’ll be able to use a knife to mark the score line from the print side, then flip it over and use the marks through the print to score the back so the line is in the right place but won’t damage the print. Now I should be able to fold accurately along the score line and finally flip it back to the front for running a knife down the cut line, as it’s already folded it will be symmetrical. I know it sounds long winded but if you were as clumsy as I am you’d know why! The canopy on the brewery has been converted to corrugated plasticard, hoping for another good run at it tomorrow evening when all retaining walls might get finished. Thanks for looking, stay safe.

Thanks for the kind comments, I really appreciate it. A lot of the stuff I’ve tried just didn’t feel right, which is why it’s taken me so long. The same was happening with the retaining walls. I didn’t like the way the buildings just sat in front of it and went nowhere, hence disassembling the earlier bridge and making two arches. At the Doncaster show I saw a nice Metcalfe engine shed with corrugated roof, and talking to the exhibitor he pointed me in the right direction. I’ll be trying it on one of the yard offices but the plasticard has worked fine for the gates. I’ve cut the full gates and then added panels of different sizes for interest. They were painted green, add it to the list of mistakes, then repainted light grey which looked a lot better. A wash of Agrax Earthshade followed, and then I began to scratch some off for variety. By chance, the green started to show through in places. I think the same might now happen to the gantry before the pipe work is added.The panelling over the top is a scalescenes printout. Now just capping stones along the top of the pillars, some weathering powder and regaining down some of the hard standings will see this part through. I’m trying the telegraph poles to add a bit of height along the front. Thanks for looking. Charlie

Okay, back to it, the middle section really wasn’t doing it for me, so after bashing a brewery and removing the off-centre bridge, here’s the final run at it. The gantry will run pipes across to the brewery. There’s still (always) stuff to do, but a couple of weeks might see me through. Yesterday I added the entrance arches for the industries taking apart a bridge and adapting it to the same width as the retaining walls, they’ll be weathered in tomorrow. I had a bash at making my own trees, which worked out better than I thought and will be added to the far right and a couple on waste ground left of the brewery. Also replaced some elements of the brewery with plasticard last week. They’re not fixed but you can see the idea. I’m considering a signal box just right of the centre gantry support, but it’s not going to hold me up. Any views gratefully received on this. Going to make some gate for the entrance arches now. Thanks for looking, stay safe. Charlie

This is where I’ve really struggled, but happier with this than anytime previously. I’ve built the crane housing by adding windows to a Wills lamp hut, inverted the walkway along the crane and removed the original crane platform. Looking in Monk Bar models this afternoon made me dig out a Metcalfe brewery warehouse, and it might be combined with a workshop. I think I’ll remove the rear two columns of windows and replace with brick to allow for a clean join between the two. The brick section join could be covered by a down pipe. Some greenery between the bridge and the warehouse will hide the backscene a bit more, and I’ll put in a gateway somewhere behind the crane to give entrance to the area and also to the large factory by going under the bridge. I’d like it to look like it could work. I don’t think I’ve posted a picture of the whole thing recently, so here it is... Got a good 2’ to go at now, which will be nice to work on when it’s not so good outside. That bridge might get finished at last, it’s been like that for too long now. Then just the section to the small factory to develop. The front concrete apron is more than likely going to be a covered platform of some type, but that will wait to the end. Thanks again for looking.

Seems like an eternity, but the Christmas break gave me a push to do something. A strip of LEDs is hanging over it at the moment while I decide on how to mount it permanently. Christmas delivered several workers for the allotment and waste ground, so they received a quick wash along with the pigs and took up residence.. I saw the frame for the warehouse crane while browsing and decided that it was the way forward and I’ve just knocked it up after tea. Away for a few days so the painting will have to wait. Managed to finally pick up some plastic for the drainpipes as well, so these will now move forward. Looking at it now, some of the paper is beginning to come away, so an hour with a very fine brush is needed. The factory has gained a chimney, and the area to its left will gain a crane, based on Daisyfield overhead by combining the ratio overhead traversing crane and a converted lamp hut. I picked up the Metcalfe fire station as well, with a bit of modification I’m hoping it will help fill along the back. Happy new year all, thanks for looking.