turtlebah

Thanks Dan - it’ll hopefully look better once the first mortar wash is on. Hoping to make some progress with the warehouse before Xmas too.

Warehouse bridge now has it's first lick of paint - a base coat of engineers blue. Next up is the light stone mortar wash before some more general weathering will be applied (soot marks, water marks etc). Abergavenny Castle is leaving platform 1 light engine after bringing in a semi fast service from Oxford. The collet 0-6-0 is on station pilot duty today.

Hi RMWeb. I’ve been working on the application of static grass on my layout, but I find that under certain light conditions it appears shiny and glossy. Any tips on how to dumb down this effect? ive heard of people using weathering powders and varnishes, but wondering what tips and techniques the community can pass on.

Warehouse bridge parapets and girder supports complete. A few holes to fill in but now needs priming and painting. A Hymek mills around in between duties.

Work on the warehouse bridge abutments continues. A class 121 leaves platform 3 with the branch service to Wombourne.

With the forthcoming Manor class it’ll almost complete the set. It really is a wonderful / expensive time to be modelling western region steam. If I had one request of the manufacturers I’d love a Class 120 Swindon in OO.

An early Christmas present to myself and a new addition to the fleet. I’ve being dying to get my hands on one of these and so pleased Dapol have come up with a quality model. Needs a sound chip, detailing and weathering. Probably a project for the New Year. Difficult to see on the photo, but I’ve spend the few days or so track weathering. Whilst I was happy with the base colours of the ballast and track, which has already been weathered, I wanted to rust it all up a bit more. Still a bit of work to do. Really need to crack on with the buildings so have spent the last few weeks looking at endless google image searches, books and websites devoted to Wolves Low Level station. Being a London lad now in tier 4 hopefully it’ll give me a chance to get stuck in over the next few weeks. Not a lot else to do. Seriously though, I hope everyone manages to stay safe, well and connected over the festive period. Best wishes to all who follow this thread.

A Jubilee class draws in to West Park with an all stations stopper from Wellington.

That's another service I can add on to the timetable in that case!

Really great resource thanks, Melangoose. Nice hourly (ish) service to Wolverhampton, which at West Park will likely be in the hands of Class 121 / 122 railcar or a 14xx and auto coach. Some other interesting services on there provide inspiration. Maybe I've not read the timetable correctly, but was there really a Stourbridge Junction to Cardiff General service? Need to find some pictures of motive power etc. I'm assuming this was a through service from London, but maybe not.

I finally got round to starting the canopy roof a few days ago. It might look a little untidy on top, by there will be some pitch planking on the roof apex, which you can see I've started on the very last set of trusses. Looks so much better the way the light streams through now really starting to add to the scene. The only downside of using the Dapol canopy trusses as the base is that they have started to bend in places. You can't really notice is, but if I was to undertake this exercise again I'd get the trusses laser cut in MDF. Much more ridged and sturdy. I will fit glazing sporadically throughout the roof to give a broken appearance. The rational being that damaged pains were never replaced, which should add to the run-down appearance. Empty parcels stock bathes in the deserted station as West Park services continue to be cut back. Is the end night for West Park?

Kind words - I can't take all the credit for the weathering though. Lots of the stock has been weathered by TMC. I'm still learning the dark arts in that respect. I've enjoyed doing the grass work, although I've noticed that the grass strands can look a little shiny in the wrong light. I'm wondering whether some weather powders might do the trick blown over the top to dampen things down a little!?

Being space restricted I didn't want to try and squeeze in a station throat making look unrealistic. I also wanted to get the illusion of a bigger station than the modelled reality by filling the entire board with platform, but running shorter formation trains (max of 3 coaches). It kinda works combined with the run down back story where the station is only really used for local stopping and semi fast services (with a bit of imagination). One day I'd love the space for prototypically running. I've spent a fair bit of time on that Queen Street thread - looks great and super keen to see how the project evolves. If I wasn't such a die-hard western region fan Queen Street would have been very appealing as an inspiration.

I had enough trouble learning how to build C&L points for my simple West Park track plan - the thought of all those double and single slips makes me (and my wallet) very nervous.

Sounds like you dodged a "bullet" there. It's nice that they've worked with the original Low Level station architecture to create the new development. One day I'll hopefully have the space to start work on a replica version, but until then West Park will have to do.

I continued work on the rarely used warehouse siding / headshunt this evening. I like doing tiny patches of grass at a time as it creates a really muddled effect, which I think looks more like the real thing. Still got a bit of blending-in to do.

Thanks Melangoose. Spent a lovely couple of hours on your thread the other week. A super little layout you’ve got yourself there. Just the wrong era unfortunately Thanks for posting the aerial shot of Low Level. Really helpful in sorting out some of the architecture on the roof. Hope your son’s getting on ok at uni. There’s been some bleak stories regarding university lockdowns...

A few more shots of yesterdays running session... Another shot of the Bridgenorth service with the TPO stored in the centre road. A 64xx prepares to shunt the TPO stock into Platform 2 ready for departure whilst the all stations stopper from Chester enters Platform 1.

A class 121 waits to depart with the 12.52pm local to Old Hill. In the centre road the Paddington TPO short formation set are stored ready for departure later that evening. The set would combine at Snow Hill.

Super. Thanks, Dan. I’ll have loads of fun looking through this and related photos!

Finally got round to playing trains after a big tidy up. It’s helped me find my modelling mojo again and after months of inactivity I’ve started to crack on with the retaining walls and station canopy (post this video). As you’ll see on the video, although I’ve got the basic MDF shells for the warehouse above the bridge, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to finish the design. Any photos of GWR warehouses or Birmingham area warehouses would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Dan, the retaining walls are laser cut from 2mm MDF by the lovely folks at York Model Making. I sent them a scale drawing of what I was after and they turned up on the post 2 weeks later. I thought getting them laser cut in MDF would be much sharper than me whittling away at some plasticard.

After a couple of months off work to look after my little daughter whilst my partner finished her maternity leave I’m nearing my own return date for work. With the little one settling in at nursery I’ve got next week off to sort out the railway room, which will now have to double as a home office. It’s unlikely that I’ll be commuting into central London on a regular basis anytime soon. A few goodies turned up in the post curtesy of TMC this week. I’ll be posting some videos sometime next week hopefully with a short running session. I’ve not made any real progress on the layout and tried to have a running session this morning, but given that i haven’t touched the layout for 3 months it needs a bloody good clean up first (so much poor running). I did manage to get this lovely shot of Abergavenny Castle on a short formation TPO portion for Oxford.

Hi Adam, Rest assured all is well and thank you for the message. A hot summer does not lend itself to being stuck in an attic bedroom working with enamel paints, and so with that in mind I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from West Park. West Park is still up and operational and now autumn is fast approaching i hope to get back to it soon. I’ve also been on shared parental leave from work so looking after a 10 month old full time leaves little mental space for modelling. I’ve spend most of my summer free time on the River Lea trying to catch barbel I’ve just ordered one of the superb Bachmann Class 117 dmus, which although wouldn’t have been seen a West Park until around 10 years after closure, is just too lovely not to run. Hopefully the next month or so will yield some modelling results. Fingers crossed.

Michael - i love your track plan and viaduct / arches junction. I guess this kind of track plan demonstrates the joy of building n-gauge in a comparatively tight space. Very much looking forward to seeing how this layout progresses. Cheers, Nick