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Cwmhir - The camera never lies


Darwinian
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I have decided rather than have several topics I would bring most things together under a layout thread.

 

So this is Cwmhir. A fictional GWR terminus on the former Rhymeny railway set around 1929. I know Cwmhir is a bit corny as a name but I used to live near Ynys-hir in mid wales and have always liked the association between the Welsh Cwm and west country Coombe so the name has stuck. A quick search of the internet also revealed that there is a Cwmhir Priory in mid Wales but nothing of that name in South Wales.

 

I should own up at this point to the fact that I have no connection with this part of Wales except for living in Cardiff for three years and visiting friends who lived in the Valley's left a lasting impression of the area.

 

This is the X-Track design for the layout. It is basically Highworth with an extra loop and sidings connecting to a colliery line. This was inspired by Branches Fork and the Lanerch incline featured in British Railways Journal some years ago.

 

post-9629-0-83239700-1450719042_thumb.gif

 

The two lines out on the left lead to a fiddle yard (casettes) on two levels (or will do when I finish building it). The lower one is the main line and drops down from the station, The upper the incline leading to the collieries higher up the hillside. The three loops are intended to be, from the top: Loco run round, freight arrivals and departures if not placed into the sidings, passenger platform.

 

The station goods yard consists of a line through the goods shed and a short siding (not a long one as seen on the plan) that terminates at the goods shed wall for unloading unwieldy items. I'll probably add a small cattle dock at the right hand end of the platform for "prize" livestock pit ponies and the like. 

 

 I started work on the layout un 2007 but have relatively ltimited time so progress is quite slow. However it is all running.

Edited by Darwinian
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"Cwm-hir" or "Cwmhir"

.

It might sound corny, but is perfectly logical.

.

"Cwm" = Valley

.

"Hir" = Long

.

Literal translation therefore = Long Valley.

.

Just as:-

Ponthir = Long Bridge

and

Heol Hir = Long road.

.

Brian R

Edited by br2975
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"Cwm-hir" or "Cwmhir"

.

It might sound corny, but is perfectly logical.

.

"Cwm" = Valley

.

"Hir" = Long

.

Literal translation therefore = Long Valley.

.

Just as:-

Ponthir = Long Bridge

and

Heol Hir = Long road.

.

Brian R

 

Yep, that was my thinking, I went with the un-hyphenated version as looking less contrived.

 

Of course quite why this fictitious location is "long valley" is open to interpretation!

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So here is an introduction to the building of Cwmhir, I'll try to bring everything up to date over the holiday period.

 

Basebopards are on the ply sandwich beam principle. I'd not tried this before and they have ended up being heavier than I would have liked, probably due to using 9mm ply for the tops. The exit board is open plan because of the changes in level.

 

post-9629-0-97257400-1450736244_thumb.jpg

 

The track layout depended on the double slip so after building a plain turnout I built this first to make sure I could do it. It is a mixture of plastic chairs/sleepers and soldered copper clad where i couldn't figure out how to get enough strength.

 

post-9629-0-79334000-1450736272_thumb.jpg

 

Trackwork is C&L with their flexi track for the plain track. I couldn't work out what pattern of bulhead track the RR used so went for the easy option. The RR relaid most of it's lines quite late prior to the grouping so I'm working on the GWR having not relaid it with GWR style trackwork yet. The colliery exchange sidings are in code 55 flat bottomed rail soldered to copperclad sleepers to represent some of the original spiked RR tracks, not yet replaced.

 

post-9629-0-23897000-1450736301_thumb.jpg

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I look forward to following this forum. The railways of South Wales are greatly over-looked as a prototype for modelling. Constricted sites, often with lines and stations built on narrow ledges cut into the sides of the valleys, steep gradients, sharp curves, a plethora of industrial opportunities, short tank locos including pre-Grouping designs running into the 1950s and even 1960s, clearly defined traffic flows and intensive operating potential. My own effort is in 0 gauge and is called Cwm Bach. The story can be read here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80426-cwm-bach-a-south-wales-branch-line/page-1  If you don't want to read, then there is a photo gallery here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3798-cwm-bach-by-chris-klein/

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Thanks for the support Oldoak and others.

 

Here is a shot of the station throat early in it's development. The view above is looking towards the terminus. On the left is the incline to the off stage collieries, centre the main running line leading into the station platform where the auotocoach is standing, on the right the headshunt and two road goods yard.

 

Here is the signal box, checking it's position.

 

post-9629-0-71458200-1450904938_thumb.jpg

 

And an early mock up of the station area. The green piece of wood in the foreground was being used to test ideas on how much platform to put around the end of the goods shed road.

 

post-9629-0-09636400-1450904956_thumb.jpg

 

Trackwoork is laid on C&L closed cell foam and ballasted (a combination of C&L dark grey and ash ballasts) as it was stuck down, as per Normon Solomon's descriptions in Model Railway Journal.

Electronics are DC with twin controllers (Morely Controls), the idea being that the colliery sidings could be operated independently of the station except for the shared run around.

post-9629-0-91455300-1450904601_thumb.jpg

Edited by Darwinian
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I look forward to following this forum. The railways of South Wales are greatly over-looked as a prototype for modelling. Constricted sites, often with lines and stations built on narrow ledges cut into the sides of the valleys, steep gradients, sharp curves, a plethora of industrial opportunities, short tank locos including pre-Grouping designs running into the 1950s and even 1960s, clearly defined traffic flows and intensive operating potential. My own effort is in 0 gauge and is called Cwm Bach. The story can be read here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80426-cwm-bach-a-south-wales-branch-line/page-1  If you don't want to read, then there is a photo gallery here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3798-cwm-bach-by-chris-klein/

 

Thanks, I have been following your Cwm-bach layout thread for a while and it was instrumental in encouraging me to start my own.

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Last summer I started to work on the scenery along the back of the layout. From left to right this comprises a cutting for the collliery incline and a tunnel openeing for the main. The hillside then follows along as if cut back until just before the signal box. From here on it is assumed that the exchange sidings were cut back into the hillside after the original station was built, resulting in a retaining wall being needed.

 

The signal box end.

 

post-9629-0-35293900-1450980310_thumb.jpg

 

The retaining wall version 1. This was on ceral packet card using scalescenes papers. I thought it had gone rather too brown, and the across baseboard joint was badly aligned, so this year I ripped this one out and replaced it.

 

post-9629-0-19462600-1450980336_thumb.jpg

 

The ground contours are simply expanded polystyrene packing pieces stuck together with hot glue (from a mini hot glue gun). The whole lot covered with plaster bandage and Woodland Scenics "Hydrocal" plaster. Rock faces were cast using Hydrocal and Woodland scenics molds.

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I'm flattered. The signal box looks Rhymney. Is it a Ratio kit with Wills random rubble?

 

 

Spot on.

I bought the standard Ratio box and rebuilt the brick areas in Wills random stone extending upwards to the window frames as this appears to be standard on the rhymney boxes. There is a scratch built entrance at the left hand end and the stairs and balcony were rearranged to suit. The left over brickwork from the ratio kit has been reused elsewhere.

 

Back to the festivities with my family now.

 

Merry Christmas to all.

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So to bring things more or less up to date.

 

Here is the station under construction earlier last week. Platforms are 3mm card and the canopy is unfinished and propped up on a box.

post-9629-0-37499000-1451473393_thumb.jpg

 

This is the tunnel mouth where the main line appears. The 56xx is standing in the headshunt which is at a higher level, being level with the station area rather than falling away down the valley as the main line does.

post-9629-0-97414600-1451473504_thumb.jpg

 

Lastly a view of my 5205 arriving on a train of empties (The loco needs weathering!). On the right the line up to the collieries can be seen, on the left the headshunt with the 56xx waiting.

post-9629-0-89663000-1451473426_thumb.jpg

 

Happy New Year to one and all.

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been working on the platforms recently. Looking at photo's of the variuos Rhymney stations there again appears to be little uniformity but relatively small edging slabs seem to be common.

The main platform structures are 3mm card faced on the front with Slaters plasticard stone.

To represent the edging slabs I used some 15 thou plasticard to make the individual tops of the edging slabs and a strip of the same material along the front edge of the platform overhang. This enabled the gentle curve of the platforms to be followed. The plastic was bonded to the card with liquid solvent. The remaining joint lines have now been scribed on.

 

Along the back edge a narrower strip was employed with virtually no overhang, The goods shed line passes along here so I will put  a safety fence along the back of the platforms.

 

post-9629-0-57276400-1453486302_thumb.jpg

 

I am unsure what surface to give the platforms, the photographs I have (in varius books) are not very clear. The area under the canopy and possibly out as far as the "gents" entrance seems to have ususlly been covered with slabs (stone presumably) but the rest is just dark and slightly textured.

 

Would this have been likely to be ash/cinders, gravel or tarmac in 1929-30?

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

Time constraints mean I've made little obvious progress with Cwmhir. Much of my model building time has been spent battling with the Collet non-corridor bow end build.

 

However I decided to try out photgraphing the coal wagon collection and station area that are slowly progressing.

 

First of all here is a general view of the station as it stands at present. The rectangle of MDF shows the location of the goods shed (yet to be built, a stone version of Abbotsbury with a more Rhymney esque canopy arrangement).

 

130064170_Cwmhirstation21-6-162000.jpg.f6d9522b4309c4149572578ef50d3a7c.jpg

This is what it's all about, coal, coal and more coal.

941191523_Coalsidings11-6-16.JPG.c2b7c20bf8f9a2d89140edf9a5bf9fab.JPG

 

End of the coal yard sidings.

1059842427_Brakevansonstops1-6-16.JPG.0a7107867261fd1f47457db705c08980.JPG

 

 

The "snow" on the end of the coal sorting sidings is where I am in the process of burriying the sleepers in clay to represent the gunge that stands in for ballast in such locations.

 

I am undecided as to what to do with the area to the right of the water tank, between the coal sidings and the run round loop. Add a raised area linking n to the hill at the end  or leave it flat. It's in the wrong place for a colliers platform being next to the loco release turnouts. 

 

Any suggestions?

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Keep it simple.  Just leave it as rough ground.

Ahh, brambles and braken, I can hear the Scale link braken etch I've had salted away for years calling :jester: .

 

Or maybe the gangers would have kept it a bit tidier in the late 20s-30s as it's right in front of the station building?

I did consider staff allotment space, as there will be immediately behind the platform at that end. 

 

Thanks for the feedback Mike.

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Ahh, brambles and braken, I can hear the Scale link braken etch I've had salted away for years calling :jester: .

 

Or maybe the gangers would have kept it a bit tidier in the late 20s-30s as it's right in front of the station building?

I did consider staff allotment space, as there will be immediately behind the platform at that end. 

 

Thanks for the feedback Mike.

 

Just a tidy spot I would think although the Carriage Wagon Examiner or Greaser might well have a hut and some stores there with all those wagons on the doorstep.

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If you do decide to go the bracken route, you will soon notice that not every plant on the etch has a stalk to insert into the ground. I spent a mind-bending half hour soldering some very fine wire onto those that lacked them before realising my sanity wasn't going to last a lot longer if I kept going, so stopped and searched for a better alternative.

What I ended up doing was applying a fairly thin covering of long-ish static grass to the area where the bracken was going to go. This holds the fronds upright and in position while the glue goes off (I used Copydex) without being too obtrusive once the bracken was in place. Don't make the covering of static grass too dense. It just makes it more difficult to work the fronds of bracken down into it.

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........

What I ended up doing was applying a fairly thin covering of long-ish static grass to the area where the bracken was going to go. This holds the fronds upright and in position while the glue goes off (I used Copydex) without being too obtrusive once the bracken was in place. Don't make the covering of static grass too dense. It just makes it more difficult to work the fronds of bracken down into it.

 

Thanks Mike I'll watch out for that and that's a most ingeneous solution to the problem.

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Have managed to miss this topic until now.  I particularly admire the track-work and the rolling stock, and look forward to seeing the excellent scenic work develop.

 

Exquisite.

Thanks Edwardian,

Don't expect rapid progress as I have limited time for model making, however the feedback has encouraged me to get on with the scenics.

 

The trackwork looks fine but doesn't all function well (In other words I cannot reliably propel 12 coal wagons and van back into the sidings from either colliery or main line routes without the odd derailment). I might need to replace the double slip especially as it was one of the first bits I built and has some issues although finescale wheeled stock generally copes with it well. I move the back to back out to 14.8mm on all the RTR wheeled stuff but Hornby flanges bump and grind a bit. One day I'll rewheel the lot.

 

The lines of coal wagons are a mixture of scratchbuilt (the bogie coal wagon  because I didn't know Cambrian did a kit for it and RR brake van), pre-printed Powsides and Slaters kits, home built Slaters kits with Powsides lettering (Cannot now remember which were which) and most recently 4x Cory Brothers (coke rails removed) and 4x James Emanuel Bachmann wagons as bargain packs from a well known box shifter. I'm planning on doing a big batch (maybe 10) of P.D. lettered wagons using the Powsides transfers and Cambrian 7 planker. My reading of Welsh Mining history is that Powell Duffryn and Cory merged about the time the layout is set (1929-32 mostly) so a preponderance of these for the local collieries would be appropriate.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've spent some time over the last week building the backscene boards. I had some white faced hardboard backboards from a flatpack wardrobe that we scrapped so used that. As this is a moveable rather than protable layout I split the backscene into two 5 foot lengths which means the join is half way along but does not coincide with a baseboard join.

The hardboard was framed with light timber sections and is hung onto the back of the baseboard with flush mount plates (as shown by Gordon Gravett in MRJ recently). Holes had to be cut out to clear the baseboard joining catches.

 

Here's a view of the flush mount and the clearance hole at the left end of the right hand board.

 

2076114782_Backsceneboardfixing.JPG.6d9535289f734892783d2b1dd6c43926.JPG

And here it is in position with an ID backscene clipped in place (not actually the section that will be here).

 

468382997_Backscene1.JPG.bb416747123ce75e4498eb179235a3e8.JPG

Having little confidence in my artistic ability I am planning on using these ID Backscenes. They aren't quite right for "the valleys" in my period but they are a lot better than I can manage so they will do. The high rear bank/wall coveres most of the "valley" part and strategically placed trees and hedges should hide the more modern looking buildings.

 

The upright timbers extending above the backboard will have light beams across to support a foam-board pelmet and LED lighting strip (eventually).

 

Edited by Darwinian
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  • 1 month later...

Must be time for another update.

 

After much cursing and beavering away in the shed I've put together the rest of the backscene support boards and added the cross rails for the lighting pelmet to attach to. The cross beams have a short dowel in the end that locates into the top of the upright. They are bracketed on small metal right angled brackets and held tightly by bolts passed through the upright and secured at the back with a washer and wing nut.

 

This all disassembles so that if I need to I can get it all out of the loft without having to break anything up.

 

Anyway here are some views. The LED lighting strip will be cut up and mounted in a pelmet made of white foam board which will attach to the front of the beams with velcro (at least that's the current plan).

 

Here's an overview of what it looks like at the moment.

post-9629-0-21351500-1469461639_thumb.jpg

 

Here are the exits to the fiddle deck, The intention is that the rabbit hole will be disguised/hidden by trees growing along the top of the cuttings. For some reason this seems to be coming out sideways despite rotating it.

 

 

And here is the back of the end board showing the differece in heigth of the two exit lines, hence a casette system is being employed (I hope).

post-9629-0-82358800-1469461669_thumb.jpg

post-9629-0-28438800-1469462123_thumb.jpg

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