The Oak Hill Branch - LBSCR / SECR 1905ish - New layout starts on page 129

[BlueLightning]

Time for an actual update!

 

So this week I have spent some time on stock for Oak Hill. As I said some time ago the P Class I got was waiting for m to get a Terrier chassis for it and being rather stubborn I was refusing to pay more than £20 for one. Well the day finally arrived that I got one. Meaning I have started on it.

 

So first of all a picture of the kit:

 

and some pictures of the kit at the stage I have it:

 

 

Looking decidedly like a P Class and waiting for some primer and paint, so another order from Phoenix is required. Meaning this project will now have to wait a while. Still hopefully I'll have some spare cash again soon.

 

Now I'm off to Hailsham to post an update there.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[BlueLightning]

So no actual modelling has happened to Oak Hill this week. however I have had some thoughts about changes to the layout and would love some opinions, so first a composite shot showing the whole of the layout (slightly out of date but good enough):

 

What I am thinking of doing is getting rid of the fiddle yard section that runs behind the station and turning this into a scenic area. I have not used this part of the fiddle yard the whole time I have had the layout and think I would be OK doing away with it. This would leave me with a 3 road fiddle yard that is behind the loco yard which is the ed of the layout that has the controls. As can be seen below the longest road in that end of the yard can fit 3 bogie coaches and an 0-6-0 tender engine which is the longest thing I can imagine ever being used on the layout:

 

I have also had some new arrivals on the layout thanks to the kindness of the local model shop for letting me have now and pay later, 2 nice new terriers:

 

And to finish a nice photo shopped image showing the small tank engines in the yard taken from on the bridge:

 

Thanks for looking and please leave your thoughts about the fiddle yard, I'm off to Hailsham to post an update.

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[ChrisN]

Gary,

If you do not use the fiddleyard behind the station ten it seems a good idea to change it to a scenic area.  What would you think of putting there?  What you do not want is something that looks as though it has been shoehorned in.

[BlueLightning]

Hi Chris.

 

The plan is a station building at the far end near the dairy and some sort of forecourt. It is not a very wide area, the fiddle yard there is only 2 tracks.

 

My original plan had the station building sitting above the fiddle yard with covered stairs leading down to the platform however I think it would look better having the hill slope down and some actual scenery.

 

Gary

[ChrisN]

Hi Chris.

 

The plan is a station building at the far end near the dairy and some sort of forecourt. It is not a very wide area, the fiddle yard there is only 2 tracks.

 

My original plan had the station building sitting above the fiddle yard with covered stairs leading down to the platform however I think it would look better having the hill slope down and some actual scenery.

 

Gary

 

Gary,

That sounds alright to me.  The space seems big enough for a station building lengthwise down the platform, and some added interest in the forecourt, people or some sort of horse transport.

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Chris,

 

I shall get on with making some plans.

 

Gary

[Edwardian]

Gary, good idea.

 

On considering the composite photograph, the arrangement that suggests itself to me is:

 

• Place the  station building to the right, up against the flank of the alcove wall, thus disguising it.  Depending upon the width available, I expect the building would be full, or nearly full relief, remembering the need for a minimum platform width of 6' to the front of the structure. 
• Gradually reduce the height of the embankment from the road overbridge to a station forecourt (at platform level) to the left of the station building.  Do not forget to fence off the approach ramp from the edge of the embankment!  You could place a station sign and gas lamp at the top of the approach ramp and, perhaps, a gate at the bottom before it opens up into the forecourt.

The road crossing the railway looks as if currently this is a dark asphalt colour.  For your period, rather than tarmac, I would try a light grey, chalky white or light buff road surface. 

 

I agree with ChrisN, that some horse-drawn vehicles would look the part.  Small private 'buses were used as a local 'bus service, or by hotels and railway companies, and I reckon they seldom go amiss; I shall certainly include one on Castle Aching.  PD Marsh supply one, which I believe is based on a GW prototype, but, really, it's a pretty generic item (http://www.pdmarshmodels.com/show_product.php?pid=397).

 

A carriage that I feel seldom goes amiss was the Brougham (pronounced 'broom').  They could be private carriages, but many were used as cabs, and, personally, I like the idea of a rather shabby Brougham, with, in place of a liveried coachman in top hat, a rather scruffy cabby in a disreputable bowler.  Langley has long featured them in its range, I remember wanting one as a child, but never got my wish! Langely has quite a good range of horse-drawn vehicles (http://www.langley-models.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_OO_Horse_Drawn_Vehicles___Motorcycles__Incl_NEW_Items__21.html) and, beneath the Brougham, I notice a lovely horse-drawn omnibus, which, if I were you, I'd place on the road over-bridge, just to annoy the many folk that sort of thing seems to trouble!  

 

Well, it's your layout, and there are no doubt other equally interesting things you could do, but if any of that helps, you're welcome!  Whatever you do will have a significant, and positive, visual impact on the layout, and is a great opportunity to make it more Brighton and more 'you'.

 

I look forward to developments.

 

BTW, water tower and coal stage looking good

Edited July 20, 2016 by Edwardian

[BlueLightning]

Thanks James,

 

What a helpful post. I like your ideas for the station area and will probably end up using them.

 

The road surface at the moment is the ash ballast I have used in the Loco Yard and needs a lot of toning down and some "evidence" of horses adding to it.

 

I had always intended to add some horse drawn vehicles, the paper mock-up building near the centre at the front is a stable based on the one from Groombridge station but much smaller, I had however never seen the range from Langley and think the omnibus on the bridge is a great idea. I can really picture one of those PD Marsh ones in the forecourt as well.

 

Just need to get the rest of the layout to the quality of the loco yard now as that composite image really shows the difference.

 

Gary

[Edwardian]

Thanks James,

 

What a helpful post. I like your ideas for the station area and will probably end up using them.

 

The road surface at the moment is the ash ballast I have used in the Loco Yard and needs a lot of toning down and some "evidence" of horses adding to it.

 

I had always intended to add some horse drawn vehicles, the paper mock-up building near the centre at the front is a stable based on the one from Groombridge station but much smaller, I had however never seen the range from Langley and think the omnibus on the bridge is a great idea. I can really picture one of those PD Marsh ones in the forecourt as well.

 

Just need to get the rest of the layout to the quality of the loco yard now as that composite image really shows the difference.

 

Gary

 

Gary, from what you say, I would imagine that the texture of the road surface is just what you need.  I would think about masking it off, spraying with something considerably lighter, dry brush something even lighter to high-light the raised texture, add wear marks from the carriage wheels and add ordure, say, with tea leaves?

 

I meant to say, I do like the mocked up building.  You mentioned it is from Groombridge.  This prompted me to check out Groombridge and I realised that a mirror image of Groombridge (so, platform face resembles forecourt façade) was pretty much what I'd had in mind when I made my earlier suggestion!  Spooky.

[BlueLightning]

I do like the look of Groombridge station that way round. I was originally going to buy the ABM Railcraft LBSCR station kit but as he has had to retire I will be scratch building something and I think I have drawings of Groombridge so I may get a mock-up done and see how it looks.

 

Gary

[C.A.T.Ford]

Back in the 1960's there was an article in, I think, Model Railway Constructor, on creating a SR push-pull set from Tri-ang clerestories.  I distinctly remember it as it was my first attempt at modifying something.   I think i still have them somewhere!

 

Jim

Railway modeller 1966 a series of articles by Terry Gough. I used them to build the Brighton push pull set in the picture.

 

CAT

 

[BlueLightning]

Thanks,

 

That push-pull end looks really good. I will have to hunt for the articles / magazines.

 

Gary

[ChrisN]

Gary,

Will you have a backscene?  If so it will need to have the rest of the station forecourt s they tended to be at least wide enough for the carriages to turn around in.

[BlueLightning]

Hi Chris,

 

At the moment I have not thought about the backscene at all. I might get round to adding one at some point but it took a while to get the misses to agree to me painting the wall blue never mind adding buildings etc.

 

Gary

[Caley Jim]

Railway modeller 1966 a series of articles by Terry Gough. I used them to build the Brighton push pull set in the picture.

 

CAT

Thank you for the correction CAT.  I think I assumed it was the Constructor because it seemed to favour the Southern, rather than that other company which the 'Toddler' favoured.

 

Jim

[BlueLightning]

A Station Building for Oak Hill

 

So today I took my copy of A.C Elliott's "The Cuckoo Line" into the office and scanned all the drawings and looked at all the different station building designs within it. I managed to pick out 3 that I like which I scaled up to 4mm and printed before taking them home to pose them on the layout. So now I ask you to look at the images below and give me you opinion on which building you think would be best suited to Oak Hill.

 

Option 1 - Eridge

 

The smallest of the bunch the station building at Eridge straddles the mainlines and did not have a station masters residence contained within.

 

 

Option 2 - Hellingly

 

Hellingly was a small station which did not deal with much in the way of goods traffic and for some of its life served as a Junction with the East Sussex County Asylum Railway serving Hellingly Hospital.

 

 

Option 3 - Groombridge

 

Groombridge was the largest station of the bunch serving as a junction for the Cuckoo and Uckfield lines on there way to London and Tunbridge Wells. It had a considerable sized goods yard and 4? platforms

 

 

So those are the options please let me know what you think. I know which is my favourite but I quite like all of them so am not sure on which one to go with yet.

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[ChrisN]

Gary,

I would suggest Helingly.   Groomsbridge looks too big and Eridge may be a bit small and you would have to build, perhaps the Station Masters house, unless it was off scene of course.

[BlueLightning]

HI Chris,

 

That was the same though I had when I saw them. I will enlarge the rest of the drawings for Hellingly and pop to the office to print them / play with the other layout and then build a full sized mock-up.

 

Gary

[Edwardian]

HI Chris,

 

That was the same though I had when I saw them. I will enlarge the rest of the drawings for Hellingly and pop to the office to print them / play with the other layout and then build a full sized mock-up.

 

Gary

 

With Hellingly, I would omit the low wall with the 2 doors and small window, and then build the rest as a mirror image

[BlueLightning]

Hi James,

 

While I agree with what you are saying it would help hide the wall a lot better and I quite like the idea of mirroring it so will do that. Looking at the floor plan I'm not sure I can get away with losing the end section. I've attached it below, let me know what you think.

 

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning

[ChrisN]

Gary,

Whether you flip it is up to you but you certainly need all that is in that plan.

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Chris,

 

I think I will flip it so that the entrance to the station is on the other side of the stationmasters house. As it is people would come in and walk round the stationmasters house to the entrance and I just can't see that being appropriate, but I am happy with the building and will have printouts to make the mock-up done today.

 

Gary

[Edwardian]

Hi James,

 

While I agree with what you are saying it would help hide the wall a lot better and I quite like the idea of mirroring it so will do that. Looking at the floor plan I'm not sure I can get away with losing the end section. I've attached it below, let me know what you think

 

Gary

 

 

I have a definite view as to what I would do, but that's just me and you will have your own views, but I will explain my thought process, take from it what you will!

 

The alcove site lends itself, right to left, to a platform fence and then a station building inset into the alcove, but hard against the flank wall.  That is really the key to my thinking and everything else stems from that.  So: 

• The mirror image is suggested, not merely to confer originality to your "in the style of ..." station, but because, in the case of both Groombridge and Hellingly, this results in placing the tallest part, the 2-storey station master's house, nearest to the alcove wall.  I suggest this (1) because it militates against the big right-angled bit of sky coming forward by helping to disguise it, (2) because it  balances the height of the road that crosses the line.  The rising profiles of the station building would mirror the rising approach ramp to the road, and (3) because of the direction of access to the forecourt.  The bulk of the forecourt, including space for carriage turning, will be behind the station building, as, I think, Chris pointed out.  The approach is envisaged as from the left.  There is a logic to placing the station master's accommodation to the opposite side to the public access.

 

• You could do either Grrombridge or Hellingly -both would look great as mirror images.  From your mock-up, Groombridge does not appear to take up any more of the platform length than Hellingly, however, Hellingly certainly looks smaller and I agree with you and Chris that it is the better of the two for your purposes.

 

• So, on the assumption that we are dealing with a mirror Hellingly, why did I want to chop off the low bit to one side?  Well, because I would want the 2-storey section abutting the side of the alcove.  This means EITHER, you chop off the domestic offices/stores block OR you run this as a façade only along the front of the protruding section of sky.  I suggested axing this part of the building because it looked that you might not be able to mount the building sufficienly far forward to run the façade in front of the protruding sky.  If you can, I would not axe the low part of the building, as it will mask the protruding sky better than a fence or lower wall.

 

• If you can't continue the low part of the building in front of the protruding wall, I still say 'axe it'.  The plan is useful, but merely confirms my view that this part of the building can be dispensed with if to do so would be to the advantage of the overall composition.  Why do I think this? Well, the block concerned housed the domestic offices of the station master's house.  These can be imagined to be tacked onto the accommodation elsewhere.  The block also houses station facilities, the lamp room and the store.  Neither of these need to be attached to the station building, indeed, it was common for the highly flammable lamp store to be contained in a discrete lamp hut, typically located further along the platform from passenger accommodation.  I don't know Brighton practice in this regard, however.  The store, again, can easily be housed in a hut.  I suggest the presence of 2 huts, further along the platform, can only add interest, and relieve the view of the rising bank behind the platform.

 

• The natural compromise position is to use huts for lamps and stores, but allow the station master's family to retain its domestic offices in modified form.  Simply retain the higher portion of this block, where the pantry window is located.  run all the domestic offices in a line back from there.  This will minimise the distance between the 2-storey section and the alcove flank, helping to maintain the disguise.

[BlueLightning]

Thank you for your long and thorough explanation James, it is much appreciated.

 

I had guessed that you had suggested it to hide the rather large bit of sky sticking out and I agree this would be a good idea, I had never even given thought to balancing against the hill on the far side of the station and this is a good idea as well, and I totally agree with the third point. I have flipped the station round in my latest set of printouts.

 

Groombridge actually takes up slightly less space that Hellingly along the platform frontage however it gives such a large appearance that I don't think it will work in this case but I do really like the building and would have loved to use it.

 

There is no way I would be able to continue the building along the front of the right angle section (That is where my main water supply comes in for anyone wondering why it's there. The stop cock is under the layout) as the platform is only about 10mm there.

 

I like the idea of separate huts to break up the length of the platform and it is something I would never have thought of, so I am off to see if I can find any examples of this on The Brighton and see if I can justify it.

 

I have printed a few copies of the drawings so I will make mock-ups with the full station and with the end cut off.

 

Thanks for all the input,

 

Gary

[BlueLightning]

So not much has happened since I last posted I did however find time over the weekend to build a mock-up station building and also discover that once my slight extension to the front of the platform and the rather large gap at the back had been taken into account I had a scale 6' of platform in front of the water pipes allowing for an extension of the building across the front of it.

 

This has allowed me to put in the building as James suggested and keep the stores on the end. Although I will now be looking for something else to break up the view of the back scene further along the platform.

 

So without further ado I present the proposed station building for Oak Hill:

 

 

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Gary

Edited April 11, 2017 by BlueLightning