Inspired by Brent June 1947

[The Fatadder]

Have a bit of a decision to make on the bridge, either as intended with the wood overlay as below.  I’m less keen by the fact the upper overlay is narrower than the lower one 

or the alternative is to glue 10 thou plastic to the top/bottom surface to add the I beam flanges to the upper and lower beams instead of the 5mm extra thickness on the kit.  Possibly keeping the lower thick beam

Edited July 13, 2021 by The Fatadder

[Bogie]

Mmmm . . . I think I know what you want to do.

[Siberian Snooper]

How did the discrepancy come about, as I would have thought that both parts would be cut from the same drawing? Or at the very least a direct copy of the first.

 

 

 

 

[The Fatadder]

1 minute ago, Siberian Snooper said:

How did the discrepancy come about, as I would have thought that both parts would be cut from the same drawing? Or at the very least a direct copy of the first.

Not my own artwork or there certainly wouldnt be an issue...

I found the bridge on WW Scenic's site while looking for a few other bits (I had spent rather a long time going through various different laser cutting websites to find something that was close enough to that which was at Brent.)  most had a more pronounced curve, so this looked to be as good as I would get in terms of length / height.    There are a lot of errors vs my prototype (the bracing between the uprights is a cross rather than a single diagonal, trusses are solid rather than lattice).  However it will look close enough for the moment (and will eventually get upgraded with a brass build with the appropriate lattice beams.)

 

 

In the end I decided the missmatch in the upper beam just annoyed me too much so I have cut it off during my lunch brake.  I have had to fill the 3 holes intended for the location of the cross pieces between the two arches (not required on my prototype), so this evening once they are filled and flush I will add the flanges to the top beam.

[The Fatadder]

Slowly coming together, should have the basic bridge finished this evening ready for paint tomorrow.  Then the time consuming part building the retaining walls can start, which are the critical item in order to get on with adding ground coverings 

[The Fatadder]

And here it is, no road deck yet (or the transverse support beams under the deck) however it is looking the part. I think I haven’t quite got enough evergreen I beam to finish it off, so there will be a further delay.

 

however in this state the bridge is complete enough (once the glue has dried) to work out the sizes of retaining walls / road side walls and get started on the support structure over the next few days 

[The Fatadder]

Now ready for paintkng

[Penrhos1920]

On 12/07/2021 at 22:24, The Fatadder said:

Not worked out a solution to the D42 roof yet.  I think it’s going to be a case of finding someone who would be prepared to help me out by rolling one from brass.

 

 

 

Dont branchlines supply custom rolled roofs?  I’m sure a friend bought one.

[The Fatadder]

10 minutes ago, Penrhos1920 said:

 

Dont branchlines supply custom rolled roofs?  I’m sure a friend bought one.

Thats good to know, I am going to be needing a roof formed for my Q15 generator van (given the flatter roof is nothing like any of the aluminium offerings in profile.)

 

For the Dreadnaught Mike Wiltshire has came up with an approach which allows you to get away with using a Comet roof which will give another option to consider.

 

[The Fatadder]

[The Fatadder]

Some progress at the other end of the layout.  The missing boundary fence has been added to the field north of the mainline.  As per the previous fence I have omitted the wires.

 

the next gap of boundary fence needed was a hedge between the road and the start of the iron fence.   A further length of hedge was also needed along the path down to the Avon.

 

the hedge uses the World War Scenics product, with an appropriately sized length of rubberised horse hair split in half. 

the hedge as it comes

I covered with watered down pva and then covered with the brown  mix.

Once the brown was dry, it was given a trim to tidy up, a coat of hairspray and the static “grass” application.

 

Another background tree was pulled together with  Woodland Scenics parts (along with a dusting of Greenscene fine ground foam to add some texture).  This is intended to hide the joint between the backscene sheets.  Lots of old ballast weights are still in place to hold the parts in position while the glue dries.

[The Fatadder]

A little more work, 

 

more trees have been added to the bank down to the Avon, along with adding the bushes at either end of the hedge.  Another short hedge has been fitted alongside vicarage road filling the 6 inch gap north of the bridge.

It still needs more trees added to the lower side of the bank.

 

speaking of trees another batch has been prepared, 2 using the usual rubberised horse hair technique, along with this one using seamoss (it will eventually be moved to the bank at the yard entrance. 
A forth tree (utilising florists wire for the core) was painted ready to add foliage tomorrow.  The plan is to get these covered in leafs tomorrow and installed…

 

back to the west of the Avon, part of a herd of South Devon cattle have arrived.  These used the World War Scenics cows as a base (although the legs looked very strange and took a lot of reprofiling to get an acceptable look.) They are not yet glued in place (and 2 appear to have fallen over!

[The Fatadder]

A little more scenic work , leafing and installing two more trees, as well as starting on the ground covering of the yard.  I can’t really progress much further than this until the goods shed is available, but adding the first foot or so means I can work on finishing the ground coverings for the approach.

 

Speaking of which I have also made a start preparing to add grass to the rear of the layout, adding forest  floor covering around the base of a tree and along the perimeter.  

The plan here is to add the first layer of grass and then install the wall, before doing the detail work.  I do still need to decide if I will continue the wall the whole length of the yard or continue the hedge.  At the moment I am tending towards an overgrown wall

 

finally I have started marking up the plasticard for the retaining walls at the London end, however I need more plasticard before I can get on with building it.  To ensure consistency I want to paint all 6 walls at the same time 

[The Fatadder]

This photo was recently shown on Checkrail's Stoke Courtenay thread, not only giving some more detail as to how through coaches were shunted off the branch, but also a good colour view of the west end of the station. 

 

This gives a couple of areas for further attention:

First of all this area of the layout is highly compromised due to the need to get the tracks round the 180 degree curve into the fiddleyard.  The net result is that some bits are different sized to the prototype, in particular the raised loading area shown in the photo.  At present (as per my previous post) this area is currently covered with the same sort of grey ash base as the rest of the yard.  As can be seen below there is a fair bit of grass over this raised dock, I am now trying to determine to what extent I am going to replicate this whilst keeping it looking right in the mist of the other changes to geometry that I have made.

 

The photo gives a good view of the rear bank, which actually doesnt look like it needs a whole lot more work to get finished. 

 

The final area of interest is the track, I hadnt spotted that there is a check rail along the curve between the down main and the branch platform.  I am going to have a look at the track and see if this can be retrofitted.

14 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

This picture might be of interest.  It shows 5573 propelling the through coaches to Paddington off the 10:50 from Kingsbridge onto the Up Main at Brent.  It would then run-round before taking them on to Newton Abbott where, presumably, they would be combined with a portion off the Torbay branch. 24 June 1961 apparently.

 

[The Fatadder]

A little more work at lunchtime today has added the final section of boundary fence to the west of the station, adding the fence between the garden and cutting.  While I was at it I also added a front garden fence, for this I have used some spare GWR platform fencing which I have added a new lower bar along the rear and then cut the fence down to a lower height.    There are still a lot of minor detailing jobs to do, but at least this area now looks presentable.   The tree to the left of the yard gate,

 

I also removed the weights which were holding this tree in place, thankfully it has stayed in position (I was half expecting it to have fallen over). It succeeds at its intended purpose of hiding a bad joint between backscene sheets. 

[The Fatadder]

Missing photos from the last losf

the new tree in position growing through the hedge

the loading dock and slope down to the Avon 

[The Fatadder]

The work on the Station Road bridge is progressing well, after cutting out the various components for the retaining walls and preparing the paint.  These now are just awaiting the final coat of mortar paint adding before it can all be glued in place.  There are still some gaps between the road deck and the edges / backscene, which will need to be filled before it can be finalised (however the key task is going to be getting the retaining walls in place to allow me to get started on adding grass on the rear bank.

Speaking of grass, I have now laid the first third of the static grass along the front edge of the layout.  The core components which will make up the wall along the front edge of the layout.

Edited August 12, 2021 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

A couple of views of the bridge now that it has been fully painted and glued into position.   The bridge itself can be removed still to allow for work to continue, while the wall on the left hand side is just placed in position.   Just need to get the signal installed (and purchased!) and blend in the scenery.  The latter will start tomorrow as I want go get started with the grass.

It does highlight one area which does need fixing ASAP, sorting out that joint in the backscene!  In the lower right of the retaining wall there is an odd shaped area of bare wood showing, where I had already decided I want to slightly raise the right the ground slightly here to better blend into the road.

 

at the other end of the layout, I need to work out what I am doing at the front of the layout.  The original plan was a brick wall, but looking at the prototype there is a brick retaining wall and a stone wall above it.   However I am now debating if I change this to a hedge.  The logic being that I think it will be a little more sturdy avoiding the risk of damage being so close to the front of the board. It also avoids the need to paint 2/3s of the amount of brick that would be needed on the current plan.

Edited August 13, 2021 by The Fatadder

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Very nice, your layout is really taking shape. Great job on the bridge.

[The Fatadder]

Not missing a good chance to get out and work on the layout, with the girls watching a film this morning I slipped outside to crack on with Brent.  The first job was adding the next length of ash to the yard, I now need to sieve the next batch of ash before I can continue.  While the job can’t be completed until I get the goods shed, I should be able to finish up to the rear of the 4500 above.

 

most of my effort went into the bridge area, the infill has been added joining the rear left of the bridge to the existing bank.  This has been covered with diluted PVA to stiffen up the cloth in advance of a skim of plaster this evening.  The road has also been finished off adding the required 12mm ply to complete the road deck that was missing in yesterday’s photos.  Raising the road slightly over the original height means reblending Station Road into the yard access road (along with raising the height to blend into the wall further down the slope.)

 

finally the wall along the edge of this raised area has finally been added, (along with completing the ballasting along its edge.)   It’s good to see the messy work is almost finished in this area, it will be good to get started on the grass.

[St Enodoc]

9 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

The first job was adding the next length of ash to the yard, I now need to sieve the next batch of ash before I can continue.

I must have missed it, Rich, but what are you using to fix the ash - neat or diluted PVA? Thanks.

[The Fatadder]

1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

I must have missed it, Rich, but what are you using to fix the ash - neat or diluted PVA? Thanks.

Neat pva, 

i then spread the ash over the glue with a spoon before finally pressing it down by hand

[The Fatadder]

the road down to the yard entrance has been reprofiled to match the new road height, along with increasing the height of the slope along the retaining wall.

 

the gap in the corner between the bank and the road has now been filled in, so once dry work can finally start on adding the grass and finally get rid of the bulk of the white areas.

[The Fatadder]

While I would rather be in Florida as planned, at least the week off at home before heading to Devon at the weekend allows for some layout work…

 

With the girls out for the day with friends, I had plenty of layout time (once the inevitable jobs around the house were sorted.)  The focus remained getting scenic coverings down. 
 

the first job was more ash, adding the road down to the yard, along with another foot or so of the western yard.   This was followed by adding grass to the rear bank, near bank and the first patch of the triangle next to the cattle pens (along with a muddy path by which the cattle has walked from road to the pens).  

At this point naturally I ran out of dark green grass for my mix.  This was not helped by doing two thirds of the rear bank with pure mid green rather than my usual base mix of a third dark, third mid green and a third dead grass.  This  needed a little immediate rework spraying on hairspray  and adding some of the real mix.  I have ordered more from Derails (along with the final Dapol signal that’s needed).  I also plan on buying a bulk pack of autumn meadow from the tree shop when I get onto the next fields/ bank the other side of the bridge.

 

The next job will be sorting the surface for Station Road, and probably making a start on adding the slope for the remaining banks on the cutting approaching the tunnel.

For Station Road I want a darker finish, so I’m going to try adding a drop or two of black into the pva when sticking down I see if it darkens it…

 

I have painted the fence which will cover the first 12 inches or so of the rear boundary, with a hedge filling in the rear (which is currently drying).  These should both be fitted tonight.  The cattle dock got damaged (again!) again needing a repair later tonight. 
I am debating covering this rear siding with ash…

 

I think this is it for the yard finishing for now, other than a few patches of rework blending the yard into the ballast.

it looks to barren at the moment. The area behind the 4500 was used as a departmental store with piles of sleepers, oil drums etc.  So that will eventually be added.   But I’m at a loss as to how I will make the yard look more interesting.  

[Siberian Snooper]

I don't think that you can do much to the yard until you have fitted the goods shed and can then see what space you have to play with, the yard will need some clutter, but it's easy to over do it.