Wigan Wallgate

[Wigan Wallgate OO Gauge]

looking amazing!

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Good news about the tumors, they're not wanted, and the fact that your working out problems is a bonus. Best of luck.

 

manna

[danstercivicman]

Glad to hear your making progress and glad to see progress on the layout

[katwigan]

Hi all, thought I was getting back into 'normal' mode but that has proved to be a bit overzealous on my part, managing to get a bit done here and there but certainly not what I would like. However, I have been working in King St West of late so i will see if I can remember how to post some pics.

 

 I  previously have decided that some of the earlier buildings were not up to my latest standards in either materials used or techniques. Not that I had actually finished many of them either which wasn't their fault!

So the first couple to get updated are the Law Court and the Conservative club and at the moment both of them are only done to a basic shell with Bay windows and roofs etc still to be done. I also decided that a bit of greenery ( probably the only bit on the layout) needed to be tackled so I have had a go at that which is coming out nicely I think.

 

 

Both of these have been produced using several photos of the actual buildings suitably 'deperspectived' ( squared up) and many hours of cutting, copying and pasting. I have also given up printing them out with my old inkjet printer for the cost and quality benefits of having them laser printed at the local Officeworks. The only thing now is that I will have to make the rest of the layout look like it has just rained as the laser tends towards a shiny finish despite their best efforts

( Hence the Grey skies, but probably in keeping with the locale.)

 

 

The view back along King St W towards the Church Gardens.

 

 

View from opposite direction.

 

 

Basic shell of the Conservative Club, still to have roof and bay windows etc added.

 

 

Same deal with the Law Court.

 

 

I am awaiting the delivery of a couple of ladies pushing " proper prams" to place on the garden path ( Mi mum says they af fot be proper prams!)

 

 

One or two more similar sized and a larger tree still need to be planted and then the big headache of trying to blend a photo of the church into the background, stay tuned for that one!

 

Hopefully as the days warm up a bit here ( hopefully) I will also warm up and get a few more things done.

Cheers all.

Kevan

 

 

 

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Some great modelling of Wigan buildings. So realistic that I can smell the pies!

[leopardml2341]

Some great modelling of Wigan buildings. So realistic that I can smell the pies!

 .....and the mintballs.

[APOLLO]

There is still the delicious smell of Mintballs outside the works when "Uncle Joe" is boiling up, most mornings, worth a walk past and a sniff !!!!

 

Wigan pies are not quite as they were though, most local bakeries long gone.

 

Kevan Is the conservative club the old night club "Pemps" ?. This was many years ago the Communist party club known locally as "The bomb and dagger"

 

Britt 15

[katwigan]

Britt,

According to the historians on WiganWorld,No, the Conservative Club wasn't where Pemps nightclub was. Pemps was around the corner opposite the bottom corner of Coops factory and next door to Gees School of Dance.

Originally the Station Hotel ( I presume dating back to when the 'original' L&Y station platform and building was in this area) it became the Labour Club ( known locally as the 'Bolshie', of which my maternal grandad was a member!) with 'Pemps' seemingly occupying the first floor at some point ( I think until a fire took off the top two floors )

It was run by the Ironhand of one Barbara Calderbank who from what I have read, collected the door money whilst sitting in her car outside, there was no doorman or bouncers and Barbara was reputedly know to have tossed out several Wigan Rugby League players at various times. A lady not to be messed with!

 

 

This aerial photo taken in the 30's I believe is the only thing I have that I can base the Station Hotel on, there are several about that show only the ground floor in existence. The model however will have to be thinned down a bit to fit into the available space. Hopefully will get around to that shortly.

 

Cheers

Kev

 

PS - Donations of Uncle Joes for adding the aroma to the model always welcome 

[Ouroborus]

I absolutely love your work. Brings back so many memories of my home town.

[katwigan]

Cheers Ouroborus, unfortunately I haven't been achieving much of late, however I have managed a bit in the last day or two. Hopefully will have something to post shortly.

 

Kevan

[Latic]

Stumbled across this. Looks fantastic fella.  Hope you get a chance to update us in '19.

[katwigan]

Thanks Latic,

hopefully the wanderings of a chemically confused mind don't put you off, time it seems is galloping away and it would seem that my body clock has gone onto a 20 hr day as I am all over the place ( eg, working in the train room at 3am this morning for an hour - mind wouldn't switch off  so I htought sod ya! )

Besides slotting Christmas in since my last decent post  ,Mum finally lost her battle in October , I hope I can battle this 'C' as long as she did Breed 'em tuff in Wiggin!
I have been on 'Immunotherapy" since my last post, I have never slept so much in my life. 
I once worked 27hrs straight on a major breakdown at work and felt nothing like this afterwards ( mind you I was also 35 years younger!)

 

Anyway enough of that

 

In the hour or so I can muster each day between eating, sleeping and trying to achieve anything else I have been working in the area that backs onto the goods yard from King St.

 

 

Now that I look at the above comparison photo I haven't managed to finish anything. Hmmmm!

Anyway, It did involve pulling it all out to improve the base it all sat on then working on the backyards etc.

 

 

Not much to show with the buildings but I did improve the retaining wall and fitted the coping stones along the top edge.

 

 

Still no roofs in evidence in places, still some coping stones required and probably some more weeds.

 

 

The front of Fyffes warehouse, the building of and it's location has taken up a fair bit of my time recently, most of the problems coming from the 
modellers licence creating the bend in this area resulting in alignment problems. Oh well.

 

 

I thought the granite sett moldings would be ok around this area but they seem to be overly large, many of them scaling out at 12 x 9" rather than 9 x 6" ish as I seem to remember them.
Any thoughts on size?
I will have to try the rolling mold doofers that I tried out a while ago, I think they might be a better size.

When I get the light wired up in the office below you can actually see the man sitting in his chair in the r/h side of the window.
( Unless that is the wrong photo and you can't see him anyway, perhaps it is? ) ( Perhaps I need to go to bed, it is 3:20 pm here after all!)

It was when I started putting this together, so now after 2 1/2hrs sleep and a nice steak after waking it has all gone quiet and I will finish this off.

 

 

 

 

A shot looking back towards Wallgate, the area in the foreground will be covered in a mix of setts and rough ground area besides the several additional sidings that connect to the next, larger warehouse off to the r/h side of the photo.

 

This whole area has given me quite a few headaches in determining the most appropriate trackwork and warehouse for the time frame.

I have photos of at least 3 different methods of the trains accessing this part of the yard ( inc; Trailing x over and access point, what appears to be a diamond crossing , what appears to be a single slip, in lieu of said crossing)  4 different O.S Maps from late 1800's to 1954 all showing different access and yard layouts, inc several combinations of wagon turntables.

 

To add to the morass the previously mentioned warehouse had a twin pitched roof design for the main structure, but added to the front of the L/h half was a further but slightly smaller pitched roof building which appears to have been knocked down and left as an open platform for a number of years until it too appears to have been removed completely. Again the maps only add to the confusion but I am planning on the middle option with the open platform. 

I can feel the fatigue creeping up again, so I will say Goodnight and I hope this makes sense to sane minds.

Cheers

Kev

 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Great work!

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Anything done is better than none.

 

manna

[APOLLO]

Couple of Wallgate pix to cheer you up Kat. Sorry no dates, Oliver Cromwell photos around 67/8.

 

 

Brit15

[katwigan]

Wow mate, haven't seen any of those before.

If you take the two passengers heads out of the scene that last shot could be a very good model.

All the shots are great and they are all showing the yard entrance area I was on about above. Do you know I even have a folder on the PC labelled 

" That B....y Crossover" containing the various photos maps etc of the various configurations.

 

Cheers for them, 

Kev

[katwigan]

Hi all, 

In order that I can position the Fyffes building I first needed to get the tracks positioned on the approach to it. This also meant that I would be having to step up and lean over the top yard in order to to do a lot of the other associated work eg, the setts and the road access ramp etc.

So I decided to cut a piece of 3mm mdf to use as a seperate base and fasten that down afterwards, this enabled me to work sitting at the workbench and minimize the strenuous excercise of stepping up one step repeatedly.

The surface was to be a mix of plaster molded Setts and some compacted gravely substance so applying it while being at the workbench allowed me to take more time over the application etc.

 Anyway the pics probably show better what I have been up to,

First up a bit of a long shot showing the area I am working in,

 

The higher end of the access ramp complete with setts but without the edging finished off, the surface was given a wash of a darkened Burnt Umber and then a light rub with fine emery paper when dry. Some of the black spots are blowholes in the molding, I thought I may fill them with 'muddy water'.

The broken sleeper will get covered over eventually.

 

A view looking back up the ramp with a painted but unsanded area of setts in the foreground. Also in the foreground is my  ( as yet unfinished) portrayal of one of the wagon turntables that had at some undetermined stage been removed. Looking now there should obviously be the two rails still embedded  in the setts to the left of the TT. Also need to slowly fill in the gaps without gluing the point , fortunately the  fill material doesn't leave joint lines and remains workable for several hours after applying.

 

Back to the ramp area again the Coping Stones have been fitted to tidy up the edge.

 

 

 

Mr Jones has arrived in his apparently brand new lorry. More setts req'd to fill in those gaps @ the rails.

 

Same shot but after giving the setts more of a rub

 

 

Must find the cable and go back to using my camera instead of the phone which has no depth of field judging by these shots, sorry 'bout that.

 

 

[saxokid]

Wow that's some impressive build work there!!

looking forward to more from this layout build now..

 

 

cheers neil..

[danstercivicman]

9 hours ago, katwigan said:

Hi all, 

In order that I can position the Fyffes building I first needed to get the tracks positioned on the approach to it. This also meant that I would be having to step up and lean over the top yard in order to to do a lot of the other associated work eg, the setts and the road access ramp etc.

So I decided to cut a piece of 3mm mdf to use as a seperate base and fasten that down afterwards, this enabled me to work sitting at the workbench and minimize the strenuous excercise of stepping up one step repeatedly.

The surface was to be a mix of plaster molded Setts and some compacted gravely substance so applying it while being at the workbench allowed me to take more time over the application etc.

 Anyway the pics probably show better what I have been up to,

First up a bit of a long shot showing the area I am working in,

 

The higher end of the access ramp complete with setts but without the edging finished off, the surface was given a wash of a darkened Burnt Umber and then a light rub with fine emery paper when dry. Some of the black spots are blowholes in the molding, I thought I may fill them with 'muddy water'.

The broken sleeper will get covered over eventually.

 

A view looking back up the ramp with a painted but unsanded area of setts in the foreground. Also in the foreground is my  ( as yet unfinished) portrayal of one of the wagon turntables that had at some undetermined stage been removed. Looking now there should obviously be the two rails still embedded  in the setts to the left of the TT. Also need to slowly fill in the gaps without gluing the point , fortunately the  fill material doesn't leave joint lines and remains workable for several hours after applying.

 

Back to the ramp area again the Coping Stones have been fitted to tidy up the edge.

 

 

 

Mr Jones has arrived in his apparently brand new lorry. More setts req'd to fill in those gaps @ the rails.

 

Same shot but after giving the setts more of a rub

 

 

Must find the cable and go back to using my camera instead of the phone which has no depth of field judging by these shots, sorry 'bout that.

 

 

 

What’s the gravely substance?  Looks very effective...

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Love the old wagon turntable well, looks good.

 

manna

[katwigan]

Hi, danstercivicman, I haven't figured out how to link to another thread,but if you go to "Scenery,Structures and Transport" on I did a thread on there titled "Rough Ground Area" when I was experimenting with the 'gravely substance' (which is in fact a flexible,premixed tile adhesive, it contains shredded rubber granules which give it the rough finish look. The colour in the above photos hasn't been painted that is it's natural 'set' colour.

 

Manna, the pointwork was a preferable option, operational wise and like I said somewhere earlier they seemed to have spent more time altering all of the surrounding area and facilities that I defy anyone to achieve the correct combination. Hence I tried for something a little different than just pointwork or just wagon T/T's, glad you like it.

 

Cheers 

Kev

[katwigan]

Hi all,  it's 2:00 am, can't sleep, news on the C treatment hasn't been good of late so I here I am !

Never mind what some people say " Railway Modelling Preserves Sanity "

 ( Hmmmm, think I'll have that printed on a tee shirt!)

 

Anyway, other than some weeds and a bit of rubbish ( Chip papers etc ) this small part is ready to be located and secured in the Goods Yard area adjacent to Fyffes warehouse.

Fyffes will be at the top end of the photo with the l/h line entering and the r/h passing on into further areas.

 

 

Coping stones in place on both sides , the l/h side butts up against a 'platform' face allowing access to the cattle vans.

 

 

 

The other old T/T well has different treatment in the centre fill to allow lorries to turn and reverse into Fyffes without churning up too much of the gravely coal dust area.

 

 

The crew seems to have buggered off for a cuppa or some chips. ( badly needs a layer of dirt and grime on the 1F )

 

 

Some lazy sod left a pile of the T/T Well edging behind after the job was done, surprised there isn't a greater load of weeds on there by now!

Just thought, I had better add a couple of old rusty capstans and probably a cable or two.

 

Anyway, going to have another crack at sleeping.

Goodnight

Kevan

[Latic]

Kat, this is looking amazing.

 

Sadly I've recently lost my family connection with area.  Was brought up in Parbold, have many a happy memory waiting on Wallgate waiting for my train home whilst watching various trains thunder across the West Coast mainline.

 

Just got back into the hobby, I've done an 8 x 4 board and am starting to plan something much bigger.  I'm going to model both Wigan stations and model Parbold station also, set in the late 1980s, it's going to be a rather large project!  I am lucky to have the space.  The Wigan aspect won't be any where the detail you've created though! 

 

Keep up the good work. :)

 

[Gibbo675]

On 02/01/2016 at 22:31, katwigan said:

G'day folks,

 

 

Cheers 

Kevan

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Kevan,

 

I was gutted when Pooles' shut, lunchtime when visiting Wigan was just not ever the same again.

 

Gibbo.

[leopardml2341]

The quoted pic above ^^^

 

I didn't even notice it had no roof, such is the quality of the shop front modelling.

 

Envious in the extreme, well done Sir.