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SouthernMafia's Projects & Portland - a 'what might have been' NSE layout in Dorset


SouthernMafia
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Think you could justify some nice stone traffic there too being Portland's principle export

 

Yep definitely, stone traffic will feature on Portland, not sure on the operational element yet, perhaps a fictitious quarry branch off scene with trains requiring running round/storing on the layout, or perhaps loading using one of the sidings, undecided. Trouble with doing it on-scene is it needs to arrive empty and depart loaded ! 

 

Thanks Trev, glad you like the layout so far :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well progress on Portland has been quiet of late as focus turns to getting the Winchester club's 'Redbridge' ready for exhibition next year, but with a week off work this week a major job has been completed. The MERG DCC circuit breakers have been installed, and some extensive rewiring in places completed to allow the system to work correctly.

 

post-8166-0-56406600-1476987048_thumb.jpg

 

It all looks rather messy, but it makes sense to me and that's what matters! The layout has been broken down into four districts -

 

1 mainline, loop + bay platform

2 depot area

3 boards 3 and 4 (mainly the yard and carriage siding)

4 the fiddle yard

 

When the layout was wired up some years ago, it was one DCC bus around the layout and everything fed off that. Now 4 buses have been created and link in to the appropriate MERG kit.

 

post-8166-0-44173200-1476987042_thumb.jpg

 

Amazingly it all works and the last thing will be to add panel LEDs on the back of the layout for ease of identification when there is a short. The kits all have buzzers but they all sound the same, so you cannot differentiate where the short is without looking under the board!

 

Along with the layout work, i've also rekindled my interest in airbrushing, and a couple of locos have been in the paintshop this week nearing completion. Furthermore, this is almost complete ;)

 

post-8166-0-02684200-1476987056_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thumper centre car paint job finished...sadly I'm now out of Aquafresh paint. Just needs some numbers and an orange line, will then go back to the chassis which is being sorted out by a friend. 

 

post-8166-0-37813500-1477752022_thumb.jpg

 

Have to say Tamiya masking tape really is the dogs whatsits!!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Design work continues on the station building. Research has been completed and I've decided to base the building as much as I can on the original to give it that Portland feel. The model will be enlarged with 2 extensions either side, incorporating a welcome hall/ticket office area at one end, and toilets at the other. The end product will hopefully give the impression of bits being added to the original building, rather than trying to convince anyone that it was always built that big. Furthermore the building will sit very differently to how it does here, with the 'front' ie roadside actually being the platform facing side on the layout, and the main entrance coming in from the side, purely because of how I've built my layout.

Links for the research and photos below

 



 

post-8166-0-47771000-1483313126.jpg

post-8166-0-61511700-1483313091.jpg

post-8166-0-65625600-1483313036.jpg

post-8166-0-87523900-1483313108.jpg

 

Not my photos obviously, as I wasn't around in 1860, 1904 or even 1966 ! But my thanks to the authors and photographers of the websites above for having these available for reference.

 

I'm debating with myself about going down the laser cutting route, but the more I think about it the more I'm on the fence as the building is generally pretty simple and will be clad in Portland stone sheets available from Wills, so other than the basic shape I'm not sure what laser cutting will add.

However, there are a number of details which would benefit from laser cutting which need to be added after. 

 

Quite enjoying using Sketchup, probably too much and should think about getting the damn thing built instead....

 

post-8166-0-03511500-1483313138_thumb.jpg

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This is the country end fictional extension which is now the main entrance with automatic doors. The London end extension has yet to be modelled as I'm debating what form it will take. Starting adding some fancy bits too which would be handy on the laser cutter. 

 

post-8166-0-06873900-1483313141_thumb.jpg

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I don't know why I didn't think of it before but there appears to be a much easier prototype to base the building on which still exists today and is pretty much the same layout!

 

0001_apmw_(15).jpg?w=800

 

Well it doesn't look like this anymore of course but Swanage would fit the criteria well. The more I look at rehashing the original Portland building the more I don't like it! I came stuck when thinking about how the canopy would fit in against the building. 

 

*continues to ponder*

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Well the plan seems to change by the day based on how much time daydreaming I have on my hands.

I forgot to mention a while back an additional board was built to assist with transporting Portland to exhibitions in the future:

 

post-8166-0-08406600-1483465072_thumb.jpg

 

Board 1 is 5ft long, boards 2 and 3 are both 4ft6 long and board 4 is about 3ft2 ish. Odd shapes because of the room the layout was built to sit in.

When the layout goes to exhibition, boards 2 and 3 sit on top of each other. However board 4 is obviously shorter than board 1 by 1ft10ish, so a smaller adapter board, board 5, was built which bolts to board 4, and then the board 4 and 5 ensemble sits on top of board 1. Clever eh.

Whilst coming up with this hugely innovative idea....I thought why not make board 5 a small scenic board for use at the show as well. So at shows board 5 will sit on the other end of board 1,as shown in the image above.

 

The reason this is important now is because I've suddenly twigged I needed to work out what was actually happening on board 5 to establish how the station building will be built and where it will sit.

 

Anyway, bearing all this jibberish in mind, I've been playing around with some ideas in my head, and in SketchUp, and this is the latest "plan" - a combination of Portland and Swanage:

 

post-8166-0-39409800-1483465080_thumb.jpg

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post-8166-0-53282000-1483465090_thumb.jpg

 

The lamppost has been put in as a reference, and everything is to scale in 4mm:1ft so I'm getting a good feel for how the layout might actually look. The Swanage building will have a canopy as per the real thing which will fill the wider area of the platform, up to the back of where the bay platform ends.

The Portland building is now too big, as I've just copied the stretched model I was working on into this file, so will need to be rebuilt to more correct measurements. Since the Portland building now sits as it did in real life, I can now model a station forecourt much better.

 

Of course, all this is entirely fictional, I'm not sure a station of this size might have contained such a large amount of infrastructure, but modellers licence and all.  

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I'd temper thoughts of a huge station building. You've got space there for a decent town scene (market square or something like that), which could have all kinds of interesting buildings which serve no railway purpose other than as a source or destination of traffic.

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We have a 3-car NSE Thumper! :)

 

attachicon.gif20161203_132423.jpg

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attachicon.gifportland.jpg

 

My thanks to Tony Pierson from the Winchester club for his contribution to the physical build and final detailing, Tony tells me he lost his sanity at the 39th 'No Smoking' window sticker !

This is the first time I've put the unit together and considering the livery was done independently I'm quite pleased with the overall consistency, the lines pretty much line up! Annoyingly though I've sprayed the lower grey band slightly too thin, so the white above it looks larger when compared to the other coaches. A relatively easy fix but I'm always cautious of editing things once they're finished as its often when I balls it up.

 

The only other thing that needs doing is adding a coach number, once I've decided on a unit number, and the whole unit will receive a light weathering.

 

The other project that's nearly finished as well is 37013 in Mainline blue:

 

attachicon.gif20161203_134853.jpg

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After obtaining some Fox transfers I was frustrated to learn they were over scale!! I have made do and I don't think they are too bad, but the loco numbers look crap too with the backing clearly visible. These will be removed and I'll be using some Railtec transfers once they become available.

 

Nothing much done on Portland lately, although now these two projects are nearly complete I'll be starting something else,,,

 

Nice tractor.

I had the same issue with fox mainline logos, they sent me some smaller ones when I complained they didn't fit between the grilles.

 

As for the numbers, I've used them, but I had a background of Tcut so that they were on a gloss finish first, then I spray Matt varnish , that fixes th carrier film problem

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Thanks Zomboid for your thoughts, I had been thinking along the same lines, hence building a full 3D CAD model to bring my ideas to life. There are some lovely buildings in Portland and around the Purbeck area so lots of inspiration to draw upon.

 

Thanks Rob for the tips, I shall investigate further.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some progress today. Firstly one of those niggly little jobs that needed doing after some re-wiring work meant the fiddle yard board came out of hibernation, so thought it was about time I did it - holes for couplings:

 

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Some thin foam will be added on the buffer side to soften the blow from all that dodgy shunting going on.

 

Next up, drilling some holes to make board 5 as described above actually do what it's supposed to do.

Here's boards 1, 4 and 5 all bolted together as if going on the road:

 

post-8166-0-85165100-1484934362_thumb.jpgpost-8166-0-37257100-1484934357_thumb.jpg

 

...and here's board 5 in position ready for scenic attention and no doubt an ever changing plan to take place.

Note make-shift dodgy trestle in form of expensive easily damaged trains...

 

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post-8166-0-29540900-1484934325_thumb.jpg

Edited by SouthernMafia
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Hi Rich,

Finally had a chance to catch up on your thread. The layout is looking great and I do like that Thumper, Your Dutch tractor looks nice too it was one of my favourite liveries back in the day. I remember seeing one on a Weymouth train too, do you plan on getting a CF based 37/4?

 

The extension is coming on well too though I would be tempted to extend the track to give you a longer platform and run round.

 

Cheers Peter.

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That first one in the prototype picture appears to have a different arrangement for the livery - is a repaint for that on the plans? ;)

Hi Ian,

I think thats an ex NSE coach with the red line removed. They did a few when they changed sector to Reggi Rail livery.

 

Cheers Peter.

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Not really a diesel era modeller, but this looks excellent - and NSE did pay my salary for about 4 years. I like the 3-car DEMU, shades of the Uckfield shuttle sitting in the bay at Oxted. I suspect you could make a few bob doing those centre coaches for others - the demand is certainly there, and so far neither Kernow nor Bachmann is stepping up to the plate.

 

As for Portland, I live in a very quiet and rural part of France, yet my English neighbour of 12 years moved out last year - to Portland! And when I stay with my wife in her flat in Babbacombe, Torquay, we walk to the pub up Portland Road, so named, I am sure, because it has views across to Portland, at least on a clear day!

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Thanks Peter, it's certainly an iconic and fondly remembered train and one I've always been keen to model. I have a collection of Reggie Rail Mk1s but with the Mk2s coming out it was a no brainer, despite their rather hefty price tag. Luckily I'm a believer in if you want something you pay for it, and I also support my local model shop in the process (AC Models Eastleigh - a superb model shop). The TSOs will likely sell out quicker than the BFKs (hence no BFK purchased just yet) so best to get in early - the coaches weren't even out their delivery box at AC!

 

I've got a few 37s....

 

Bachmann 370xx RfD (unnumbered)
Bachmann 37013 Mainline
Bachmann 37035 Dutch
Bachmann 37057 BR Large Logo
Bachmann 37114 EWS
Bachmann 37258 Dutch
Bachmann 37406 RfD
Bachmann 37410 Transrail
Bachmann 37411 EWS
Bachmann 37421 Colas
Bachmann 37506 Red Stripe
Bachmann 37514 Rf Metals
Bachmann 37892 Rf Petrolium

 

...so pick a suitable candidate! Imagine 37406, 37410 and 37411 have all been based at Cardiff at some stage in their careers?

Also able to replicate this rather outrageous working!

 

post-8166-0-11844300-1485696892.jpg

https://flic.kr/p/fGFZ7S

 

Ian J, I noticed this too and will certainly think about modelling it. Trouble is it means loosing an NSE Mk2 TSO which could impact on my WoE rakes....!

 

Other Ian, thanks for your kind comments. Sadly I didn't make the thumper car, only painted it, but I have suggested it to my talented Winchester Railway Modeller colleague about doing a few, and seeing what they would go for on eBay! We have 1 on order from a fellow modeller to go into Connex, not sure how I'm going to be painting that faded yellow livery though!

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