Northwick Group

After all of the destruction the reconstruction has now started, the first part was to put down a layer of cork where the track will be going, we then soldered on the dropper wires to the points and tested them out one more time to ensure that the position of the points were correct before drilling the holes in the base board for the droppers. once the points were in the right place we then made a start on making the straight section of track, we decided to make the straight parts of the track from the copper clad sleepers and rail in order to make use of what we had left over from making the points.

Since the last update things have been moving quite quickly, first up is a picture of how the goods yard looked after the glue had dried and the excess hoovered off. The main focus of the group has now been to make a start on relaying the track work on board 3 which is the first step for the re-wiring of the layout which will also be started soon, this was first mentioned in post #42! Since then all of the points that would be required for this have been built by Tim & Steve B and can be seen in their positions in the picture below ready for the lines to be drawn around them so that we could make a start on removing the existing track work. Removal of the existing track then started we decided to remove everything right back to the baseboard as we knew that we would come across roofing felt as underlay for the track which has caused us plenty of problems previously when we adjusted the track work and left the roofing felt in the past. Once the existing track work was removed along with the roofing felt underneath it we placed the new points in their positions to make sure that everything was lining up like we intended it to. Whilst the permanent way department have possession of the track a bus replacement service was implemented to ensure the passengers could still get to their destinations.

It has been a while since the last up date but we have been busy rectifying the issue that we have been having with the goods yard and that is that the surface has been continually lifting in places over the past couple of months so we decided that it was time to take the plunge and strip back the affected area right back to the base board and start again. The first step was to start excavating where the worst of the raised bits was and we soon discovered the cause of the problem and that was there was roof felt at the base which had become detached from the base board and so was causing the rest of the area to lift, you should be able to see the roof felt in the center of this picture. So we then set about removing all of the areas that were loose ready to start again. once this had been done we then started the process of reconstructing the goods yard, the first step was to add a layer of the vermiculite, art mache, water and paint mixture that we used on the hill sections of the layout, this was done in 2 layers so as to allow each layer to fully dry before adding the next. Whilst the second layer was drying we took a low level picture to show how level it was. When the second layer had dried we then sanded the mixture back so that it was level with the original surface. As we needed to "cover up" the fact that we had been there we decided that we would take the opportunity to change the colour of the goods yard surface from a dark grey ash colour to a brown dirt with stones in it as after much consultation it was decided tht this would be the more prototypical surface for a goods yard, to achieve this we first painted the new section a mixture of browns and blacks for a base colour and once dry we applied PVA to the surface and created a mixture of soil, ash, coal, and various colour and grades of ballast to put over the PVA. here is how it looked whilst it was still drying.

Last Saturday Northwick was up and running at the clubs annual open day, if you came along we hope you enjoyed seeing the layout running and if you did not have the chance to come and see it then here are some pictures from the event. Even the archaeologists arrived in time for the open day

Here are a couple of pictures from last Fridays running session to wet you appetite on what to expect to see this Saturday on Northwick at the club's open day Hope to see you there

Why not come and see Northwick in action in the flesh at Twickenham MRC's open day? July 21st (10am to 4pm) Kerswell Hall, Wills Crescent, Hounslow TW3 2JF For full details see www.tdmrc.org.uk Hope to see some of you there!

It has been a while since the last post, recently Northwick went to Twickenham Library for the annual event that Twickenham & district MRC and is aimed to showcase what the club gets up to. this year Northwick was set up in its entirety and was operating, here are some pictures.

It has been a while since the last update so I thought that it was about time that I did one. Recently we had another one of our themed running nights and the theme was Pacific class locomotives, here are some pictures. First 2 trains were hauled by Tornado and bittern. BR Standard Class 6 Clan Bucannan arrived with the next train Br Standard Class 7 Britannia also made an appearance. LMS Princess Royal Class Princess Arthur of Connaught arrived with the parcels. LMS Duchess Class Sir William A Stanier FRS is turned on the turntable SR Merchant Navy Class Channel Packet pulled into the station with its train There was also an unusual freight train that arrived on the layout, this was the LNER cantilever set that has been scratch built by Tim, this consists of 5 wagons 2 Protrol B's (one at each end) 2 Flat Q's the next 2 wagons in form the ends (the ones with the cantilever armes on top) and the large well wagon in the centre is a Weltrol N the 2 cantilever arms attach to the weltrol N to enable it to carry heavier loads There were also 2 other wagons attached to the back of the cantilever set the first being a Flat U which is a 8 axle flat wagon The other wagon being a Flatrol AA that can go in the cantilever set instead of the Weltrol N The set of 7 wagons are almost 5ft long from 1 end to the other and haveof 48 axles or 96 wheels in total!

over the past couple of weeks we have been busy adjusting the second trench as we have now got a find to put in the bottom of the ditch, this will be a skeleton that is being uncovered. this resulted in the whole of the previous trench being dug up and then widened so that we could insert the skeleton, as pictured below. it was then time to build up the surface so that the skeleton would be buried in the ditch, this had to be done in 2 steps due to the thickness of the vermiculite mixture required. The first layer of soil has now been added, a second layer will be required to cover up any remaining patches that may show through, after this the area that the ditch is will be darkened down so that it will show up like it would in real life. We have also been paying some attention to the cattle dock/ end unloading area the main focus at the moment has been to cut a hole in the wall of the end unloading ramp so that the couplings of the wagons will pass through is which then enables the buffers to touch the wall and so creating a far more realistic gap as shown in the pictures below. and to show that it works we put the only road vehicle that we could find on the ramp being loaded. the hole in the wall has since had the edges painted black and a strip of wood has been added above to act as the buffer beam, I would include a picture but i can't find id at the moment.

Last Friday was the first running night of the year for northwick and as usual there was a theme with Terriers & pre-grouping stock being chosen. Here are some pictures of what was running. And keeping with tradition we lined up all of the terriers at the end of the night (all 16 of them in case you were wondering)

Friday evening was the monthly running session for Northwick and it was decided that the theme would be military in memory of our fallen hero’s. Hope you like the photos.

Work has now resumed on the archaeological site with the main focus currently being to install the mosaic, the first step was to turn the mosaic from this. To this, so that it is more like what you would find in a dig. All of the parts of the mosaic were then put into a matte finish laminating pouch, put through the laminating machine and then all of the parts were cut out again but leaving a section of the lamination pouch between where we were cutting and the edge of the mosaic piece. This was done to help make the mosaic water resistant for when we add the scenics around the pieces. Some of the pieces were then added to the trench and stuck in position. The next step will be to add soil and diggers to the trench along with some finds.

last friday saw some wild life being added to the layout with an owl placed in a tree. and some rabbits hopping around in one of the fields. a pair of steam ploughs trundled through.

Last friday we had a running night, this time the theme was tank locomotives, and there was a very good turn out. USA tank turned up with the goods. GWR class 14xx arrived in the bay platform BR standard class 2 tank with the first passenger service BR standard class 4 tank also turned up. Along with a pair of class O2's A pair of Adams radials made an appearance. Class E4 turned up with another passenger service. Class 45xx and 8750 double headed. A pair of 1F's got turned on the turntable. Class 64xx arrived with the next branch line service. LNER class J94 shunted the wagons and was later pictured between duties. Nettle sat on shed for the next duty. 3 Standard 4 tanks lined up for a photo. which were then joined by a 4th grubbier one. there was also a bit of a bluebell railway line up with 3 standard 4's (80064, 80100 & 80151) along with standard class 2 84030 Then all of the standard tanks were lined up (1 standard 3, 4 standard 4's & 2 standard 2's) at the end of the night all of the tanks were lined up.

The soil has now been added to the second trench Also the badger that used to be underneath one of the trees on board 2 has been moved as it was right next to the first trench of the archaeological dig. The badger now lives next to the wall on the board joint between boards 1&2. The opportunity was also taken to pose a locomotive in the gap between the trees and wall. We have also moved the sheep around on board 2 as they were not quite looking right, after some scratching of our heads we decided that it was because all of the sheep were evenly spaced so we have moved some of them around, created groups of them and left some open spaces - this seems to have solved the problem.