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Oh boy, I have just found a lovely photo of a GCR (MS&L) hut!  (The photo is near the bottom, Tingle Bridge Lane Crossing - which by the way is just the sort of place name I appreciate.)

 

I have to have one of these - it will serve as a lamp hut and should not be too hard to build. However, that's another job for the list. I hope to get all the windows in Embassy Hall South signal box this week (subject to the usual domestic alarums and excursions) and then there will just be the small job of fitting all the interior detail. No photos yet. I promise to shut up until the thing is complete, as this thread is all labour pains and not enough baby. So to speak.

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Oh boy, I have just found a lovely photo of a GCR (MS&L) hut!  (The photo is near the bottom, Tingle Bridge Lane Crossing - which by the way is just the sort of place name I appreciate.)

 

I have to have one of these - it will serve as a lamp hut and should not be too hard to build. However, that's another job for the list. I hope to get all the windows in Embassy Hall South signal box this week (subject to the usual domestic alarums and excursions) and then there will just be the small job of fitting all the interior detail. No photos yet. I promise to shut up until the thing is complete, as this thread is all labour pains and not enough baby. So to speak.

 

Topics that go 'Da daa! looked what I just pulled out of the hat' are fine but not half as interesting as 'this is wot I am doing and look wot I dun wrong'.  So do not worry about the labour pains, that is what makes it interesting- don't tell the wife though!

 

That hut is quite big, they did not put a crossing keeper in there did they?

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Topics that go 'Da daa! looked what I just pulled out of the hat' are fine but not half as interesting as 'this is wot I am doing and look wot I dun wrong'.  So do not worry about the labour pains, that is what makes it interesting- don't tell the wife though!

 

That hut is quite big, they did not put a crossing keeper in there did they?

 

I honestly don't know. But I suspect that's what it was for. The Elsecar branch was mainly for coal traffic - there were very, very occasional passenger trains, mostly for Lord Fitzwilliam - and I would guess traffic would have been quite heavy, back in the day. So quite likely a crossing keeper would have been employed. But I do stress, I am only guessing. This neck of the woods was extremely interesting back in the day, but information (on the former GC network anyway) is scant. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am still working on the signal box. There are a lot of little details to include, and I am currently in a state of perpetual tiredness, where even lifting a paint brush is too much trouble. Nevertheless the frame is in place and some of the other bits. I also have four of the five Elsecar wagons at a point close to completion. 

 

However, dossing around does have its virtues. I have come up with an absolutely fiendish plan for the layout, which involves further simplification on the one hand and the use of PECO small radius points on the other. Nothing more yet, as it may come to nothing, but the Elsecar branch has proved surprisingly inspirational!

Edited by Poggy1165
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  • 4 months later...

You thought I'd given up, but I haven't. Slow progress is being made and I have been doing a lot of 'thought modelling', considering various options.

 

However the first two metres of track are laid, and one is even ballasted. (That's another story - Carr's idea of 'light grey' is remarkably close to my idea of 'dark grey', hence a slight pause while I investigate alternatives.)

This little section has been jury rigged with electrics and it works! This is a five foot radius curve on a viaduct. (Below the theoretical minimum of 6ft.)

 

In the interests of science I thought it important to reveal that a GCR 9F class (LNER N5) can both pull and propel a train of four wagons through such a curve without any problems from buffer locking. As this engine has a surprisingly long wheelbase, this is good news and encourages me to press on. To be honest if this particular 0-6-2t can do it, any small tank or tender loco should.

 

Next job is to lay the next length which will include actual soldered electrical connections, thus giving an air of permanence. Then I rather think I might finish off this whole area scenically, which will at least provide a sort of photographic stand. The current absence of parapets and railings will not pass the Inspector anyway. 

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I hope to provide some soon. Probably after Telford when I have spent all my cash and half my available credit, in true GCR tradition.

Edited by Poggy1165
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True GCR fashion would surely be to have somebody else buy the stock for you, then buy it off of them on a hire/purchase agreement? (nb that's not me offering to be that somebody else ;) )

 

Glad to hear you're progressing with this; looking forward to seeing some photos. 

Edited by James Harrison
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I have taken a couple of trial photos. Poor quality - but you should have seen the rejects!

 

The main problem is that this viaduct is set in a bay window and light simply floods in. Any advice as to speed and aperture settings for such circumstances would be welcome, as I am clueless on photography. 

 

Any road:post-7150-0-72388700-1472483609.jpg

 

This shows a couple of wagons on the viaduct

 

post-7150-0-99923100-1472483619.jpg

 

This shows the head of the train.

 

The little Minerva Peckett is a sweet runner, very responsive to the controller. It has two faults. The couplings are so lightly sprung that they pull out most unrealistically when even so short a train is started. The second (more serious) is the sort of tray under the boiler where the frames should be. From some angles it look awful. 

 

As may be seen there is still a lot of work to be done on the viaduct. The paint is just an undercoat and has revealed numerous blemishes that need ironing out. One very obvious ones is that the stones that hold up the arches need to be fabricated and added. Even when finished I dare say the thing would give a civil engineer kittens, but I hope it will look better than it does now.

 

While clearing away the rubbish that had been dumped underneath this structure I found a plaster kit for a rather twee cottage that the missus bought one year at Telford. One task will be to paint it so that it looks less twee. One advantage is that it pre-grouping days a thatched roof was a sign of poverty, not affluence. I had completely forgotten this thing, and it's another challenge!

 

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I have taken a couple of trial photos. Poor quality - but you should have seen the rejects!

 

The main problem is that this viaduct is set in a bay window and light simply floods in. Any advice as to speed and aperture settings for such circumstances would be welcome, as I am clueless on photography. 

 

Any road:attachicon.gifIMG_2660 (640x473).jpg

 

This shows a couple of wagons on the viaduct

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2662 (640x480).jpg

 

This shows the head of the train.

 

The little Minerva Peckett is a sweet runner, very responsive to the controller. It has two faults. The couplings are so lightly sprung that they pull out most unrealistically when even so short a train is started. The second (more serious) is the sort of tray under the boiler where the frames should be. From some angles it look awful. 

 

As may be seen there is still a lot of work to be done on the viaduct. The paint is just an undercoat and has revealed numerous blemishes that need ironing out. One very obvious ones is that the stones that hold up the arches need to be fabricated and added. Even when finished I dare say the thing would give a civil engineer kittens, but I hope it will look better than it does now.

 

While clearing away the rubbish that had been dumped underneath this structure I found a plaster kit for a rather twee cottage that the missus bought one year at Telford. One task will be to paint it so that it looks less twee. One advantage is that it pre-grouping days a thatched roof was a sign of poverty, not affluence. I had completely forgotten this thing, and it's another challenge!

 

Beautiful wagons.  Look forward to seeing more.

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I have taken a couple of trial photos. Poor quality - but you should have seen the rejects!

 

The main problem is that this viaduct is set in a bay window and light simply floods in. Any advice as to speed and aperture settings for such circumstances would be welcome, as I am clueless on photography. 

Block out the light from the window with a blanket or something,either that or take the photos after sunset, and use artificial light to light the models.  You will never get decent photos when the light is behind the subject, unless you light the subject with stronger light from in front as the side you are trying to photograph will always be in shadow.

 

Jim (not a photographer, just speaking from experience)

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Thank you Jim, that make sense. I shall try some night shots.

 

Tried the 0-8-4t (Wath Daisy) around the curve yesterday. I could only couple her on the curve because the lead wagon has working spring buffers, and even then it was a struggle. However, she went around fine, with just the occasional halt. (Due I think to either dirty wheels or a sticky motor - one for works' attention.)

 

However, there was no buffer locking and at no point did she leave the rails! There can't be too many engines with a more awkward wheelbase, so I am duly encouraged. I think any diesel - were I so inclined - would take these curves without a hitch. So, good news for those considering 0 Gauge in relatively small spaces.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have taken a few photos in the twilight, aided by flash. Though unlikely to win any prizes, they are an improvement on anything that has gone before.:

 

post-7150-0-19602900-1473325363.jpg

 

 

This shows part of the viaduct. A lot of work still to be done, but a start has been made on adding the parapets. These will eventually have coping stones on top and then railings made from the staunchions used in model ships.

 

 

post-7150-0-56862300-1473325375.jpg

 

This is the aforementioned twee cottage. Stuck together, but a lot of work with filler and paint needed. I am currently working on a couple of its ancillary buildings - viz. chicken shed and khazi.

 

post-7150-0-01407900-1473325437.jpg

 

This is the little Minvera Peckett at the head of its train. I have expanded it to seven wagons plus brake which is roughly what I anticipate running in service. The Peckett pulls this with power very much in hand. I can't get her to slip no matter how I try! It's quite fun to shuttle up and down three lengths of flexible track. Which by the way is Marcway, which has pre-group length sleepers. Only three bolts per chair alas, but I persuade myself it could be MS&L inside-keyed track, if you don't look at it too closely.

 

 post-7150-0-36983300-1473325386.jpg

 

 

These are a couple of wagons not seen before. The WLC one is West Leigh Collieries, based on information in the HMRS book on Ince wagons. Not a model of a particular prototype but 'representational'. The body is of a type one could get via the L&Y Society at one point. Various underpinnings, the brakes are Bill Bedford - I rarely use anything else these days for 9ft wheelbase wagons and wish Bill did something in 9' 6" GC style, as the product is excellent.

 

The other wagon is a standard Slater's Charles Roberts turned out as a GC hired wagon. Of which there were many.  The number is a guess. The repainted top plank reflects damage in real life and my gross failure to match the body colour. Inside (although largely invisible from this angle) is an MMP interior.

 

post-7150-0-29113000-1473325402.jpg

 

A LNWR diagram one just creeps into view. I like LNWR wagons! 

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I have taken a few photos in the twilight, aided by flash. Though unlikely to win any prizes, they are an improvement on anything that has gone before.:

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2671 (640x480).jpg

 

 

This shows part of the viaduct. A lot of work still to be done, but a start has been made on adding the parapets. These will eventually have coping stones on top and then railings made from the staunchions used in model ships.

 

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2672 (640x480).jpg

 

This is the aforementioned twee cottage. Stuck together, but a lot of work with filler and paint needed. I am currently working on a couple of its ancillary buildings - viz. chicken shed and khazi.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2675 (640x480).jpg

 

This is the little Minvera Peckett at the head of its train. I have expanded it to seven wagons plus brake which is roughly what I anticipate running in service. The Peckett pulls this with power very much in hand. I can't get her to slip no matter how I try! It's quite fun to shuttle up and down three lengths of flexible track. Which by the way is Marcway, which has pre-group length sleepers. Only three bolts per chair alas, but I persuade myself it could be MS&L inside-keyed track, if you don't look at it too closely.

 

 attachicon.gifIMG_2673 (640x480).jpg

 

 

These are a couple of wagons not seen before. The WLC one is West Leigh Collieries, based on information in the HMRS book on Ince wagons. Not a model of a particular prototype but 'representational'. The body is of a type one could get via the L&Y Society at one point. Various underpinnings, the brakes are Bill Bedford - I rarely use anything else these days for 9ft wheelbase wagons and wish Bill did something in 9' 6" GC style, as the product is excellent.

 

The other wagon is a standard Slater's Charles Roberts turned out as a GC hired wagon. Of which there were many.  The number is a guess. The repainted top plank reflects damage in real life and my gross failure to match the body colour. Inside (although largely invisible from this angle) is an MMP interior.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2669 (640x480).jpg

 

A LNWR diagram one just creeps into view. I like LNWR wagons! 

 

Lovely wagons!  Splendid viaduct.

 

As to the 'twee' cottage, I think it looks fine; much depends upon the finish, e.g. the example below on an 009 layout.  Couldn't really accuse it of being twee!  I don't think it need be dilapidated to look convincing, just painted with subtle colourings and weathered should do. 

 

On the subject of finish, my presumptuous suggestion is to hold a 'viaduct party' whereby you invite people round to dry brush the masonry!  (otherwise it could drive you insane)

 

By the way, the houses in the background are too modern for your layout and need to be replaced [cheeky wink].

post-25673-0-16517800-1473334041_thumb.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

post-7150-0-87501400-1475405374.jpg

 

Not much progress to report, but this photo shows the cleared site for the new station. The main line is laid but not yet finally fixed in place as it may be 'tweaked' slightly. It is currently just under 5ft radius, but all the test locos go around it.

 

There is a need to get under a bridge. I plan to change this so it is 'on the skew' which will give more clearance and also look better. I just have to work out how to detach it from the baseboard as it is stuck very hard with PVA glue and doesn't want to budge. May need a chisel! The bane of my life is a chimney breast which makes a dog-leg arrangement inevitable. I wish I had had the foresight to have it removed, but I didn't.

 

The coping stones on the retaining wall will be repainted as they are way too glossy right now. The wall itself also needs more weathering and some repairs (or concealment) of dodgy joins.

 

The station itself I am rather torn between having a large platform building and a simple approach slope (see Ashton (Oldham Road) for working example) or having a smaller building and a booking office up top, an arrangement not uncommon on the GC. (Too many prototypes to name.) The 'road' at present is just a plank of wood laid to give me an idea of how things will fit. Or not fit.

 

It occurs to me that with building the station and landscaping the viaduct area, that's probably enough to keep me busy until Spring without doing anything else!

 

 

post-7150-0-44803100-1475405396.jpg

 

This shows the first train in a 9J (J11) on a train of bolster wagons. No 316 is the pride of the line, built and painted for me by Ian Rathbone some years ago. It runs beautifully. The bolster wagons are all my own work.

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Th

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2677 (640x480).jpg

 

Not much progress to report, but this photo shows the cleared site for the new station. The main line is laid but not yet finally fixed in place as it may be 'tweaked' slightly. It is currently just under 5ft radius, but all the test locos go around it.

 

There is a need to get under a bridge. I plan to change this so it is 'on the skew' which will give more clearance and also look better. I just have to work out how to detach it from the baseboard as it is stuck very hard with PVA glue and doesn't want to budge. May need a chisel! The bane of my life is a chimney breast which makes a dog-leg arrangement inevitable. I wish I had had the foresight to have it removed, but I didn't.

 

The coping stones on the retaining wall will be repainted as they are way too glossy right now. The wall itself also needs more weathering and some repairs (or concealment) of dodgy joins.

 

The station itself I am rather torn between having a large platform building and a simple approach slope (see Ashton (Oldham Road) for working example) or having a smaller building and a booking office up top, an arrangement not uncommon on the GC. (Too many prototypes to name.) The 'road' at present is just a plank of wood laid to give me an idea of how things will fit. Or not fit.

 

It occurs to me that with building the station and landscaping the viaduct area, that's probably enough to keep me busy until Spring without doing anything else!

 

 

attachicon.gifIMG_2679 (640x480).jpg

 

This shows the first train in a 9J (J11) on a train of bolster wagons. No 316 is the pride of the line, built and painted for me by Ian Rathbone some years ago. It runs beautifully. The bolster wagons are all my own work.

 

 

Good to see some pictures.  The site says "Loughborough" to me, but then, I grew up not far away. 

 

That is a stunning locomotive; pride indeed.

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The Leicestershire countryside is magnificent. 

 

I once had a mad plan for a layout set in the Edwardian period in the very area in which I grew up. To the east, the Midland Mainline running along the banks of the river Soar and through the village of Barrow upon Soar.  With gorgeous Midland crimson.  Pre the 1908 loco identification, so all with "M R".

 

To the west, the Great Central London Extension running parallel, through Quorn-Woodhouse.  With dark green locomotives and with the two-coloured coaches, as on Denny's Buckingham.

 

In between the two, linking them visually and physically, the quarry at Mountsorrel, worked by a fleet of little saddle tanks and a connection at each end to both mainlines. 

 

All surrounded by the rolling hills of the county.

 

My Old Man proposed to my Mother in the platform shelter at Barrow.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nothing dramatic happening at the moment. I am busy in other areas of life and very tired at other times. Any road, I have measured up, and the street level booking hall will have to be quite small. Such grand buildings as Loughborough or even Levenshulme are out of the question. I have had to cast around for something a lot simpler.

 

Here it is. 

 

Believe it or not, that online view is about the best available. I relish the grotty staircase and even more grotty underpinnings. Of course my model will be 'based on' and not a 'model of' as the detailed information is just not there. This is not Ashburton! I have bought the principal materials and am just waiting for the resin-cast doors and windows.

 

Needless to say there will be an alternative entrance for milk churns and the like. (How the managed at Hindley I don't know). Anyway, I am minded that the platform level building will be based on one or more the joyous South Yorkshire Railway buildings from the Sheffield-Barnsley line. Which seem to have been pretty much a station master's house with a few bits added. The second entrance will justify an even more delightful and incredibly grotty 'booking office' - more like a sentry box! - from Bickershaw and Abram. This thing - which unfortunately I do not have a non-copyright photo of - will be rather like working in 4mm again as far as size is concerned. Unfortunately it doesn't show on Disused Stations, being suitably hidden by the main station building. 

 

So, lots to do this winter!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am pleased to report that I have found the book (The Lost Railways of Yorkshire's West Riding, Barnsley, Doncaster, Sheffield and the South by Neil Burgess) which contains the only decent photo of Westwood Station I have ever seen. (There is one in the GCRS collection, but it is what we used to call in greyhound racing circles 'a fuzzy photo'.)

 

Westwood didn't actually serve anywhere much (apart from a row of cottages) and it closed as far back as 1940. As it was away from the paths of A4s and A3s and similar beasts, it probably did not attract many photographers. But it is (in my eyes) a beautiful prototype, and quite unlike what most people would think of as typically GC. I only wish I could show you the photo but it's copyright and I don't want to make the mods cross. To say nothing of the copyright owner.

 

Any road, this will be the basis of the main station building. It's pretty straightforward, bar for one bit of it (a complex window) that will probably have to be custom-made by York Modelmaking or someone in that line. Some of the details will have to be copied from Dovecliffe, which was similar but larger, differently ordered and slightly more photographed. Having said which, photos of Dovecliffe are still like rocking-horse excrement. But I tell you what, I am getting quite excited by this project, and am determined to push on.

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I am pleased to report that I have found the book (The Lost Railways of Yorkshire's West Riding, Barnsley, Doncaster, Sheffield and the South by Neil Burgess) which contains the only decent photo of Westwood Station I have ever seen.

You could link to this:-

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/5973684399/in/pool-1875459@N21%7Cjohnmightycat

 

which is not a great photo...  on the other hand, that signal box looks the bees knees for a challenging project.

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Thanks for that!

 

It's actually the second best photo of the station I've seen, but the actual station buildings don't show too well. It gives an idea of the stationmaster's house though, which is the nearest building and quite dominant.

 

That signal box is one of several really tasty ones the GC had in the general area, and I have to say I rather love the level crossing gates. There is a photo of them in Dow volume 1 (with shorter posts) which shows their rather curious 'arms-length' mounting on the posts. 

 

The Barnsley-Sheffield line of the GCR is absolutely fascinating and its a pity that (as with most GC backwaters) it is not at all well documented. It's a double line by the way, as is clear in the online photo. However the 'other' photo in the book gives a partial view of that signal, which shows that it had a ring on the arm. I really can't explain that at all, as it appears to refer to the down main. I can't even make out the arm on the online photo! It's irrelevant for my modelling purposes, but an interesting puzzle.

 

Another interesting feature on the online photo is that no two sleepers seem to be the same length! More likely, they were not laid with a template. Sometimes I think we worry too much about neatness, sleeper spacing and the like. 

Edited by Poggy1165
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Your station building and signalbox ideas sound interesting,I've always liked that line ,my next project is of just round corner from there at stairfoot to newoaks junction

https://wwwapplications.barnsley.gov.uk/librarydigitisation/Index.aspx

Try sticking dovecliff , Westwood or any other names in this website search

 

Brian

Edited by bri.s
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Another interesting feature on the online photo is that no two sleepers seem to be the same length! More likely, they were not laid with a template. Sometimes I think we worry too much about neatness, sleeper spacing and the like. 

This could be because the bolt holes in the sleepers have worn and the PW gang have moved the sleeper and re-drilled the holes. This might happen more often on lesser and out of the way lines which did not attract the maintenance expenditure levels afforded to main lines.

 

Regards Roger

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