Teviotbank is dead, long live Teviothead

['CHARD]

Greetings from beneath the Firth of Froth.

No real reason for launching this thread on March 5th other than it seemed as good a time as any, what with the announcement by Transport Scotland earlier this week that work to rebuild the northern section of the real Waverley as far as Tweedbank is now underway. (Also there's a sense of Spring abroad, permitting an outdoor photo session and a visit to the garage, Met Office Ed).

Back on RMWeb3 we shared the birth-pains of Lessismore, my latest in a long and undistinguished line of 00 roundies. The only purpose of starting this particular thread is, as I see it, to knit together the various sub-groups of my modelling efforts such as they are, and to this end I plan to keep this very top-level and general.

Some of you with problems sleeping or other undiagnosed maladies have already been contributing to my twin blogs:

Chard's Low Benchmarks - my W/B blog here: http://www.rmweb.co....low-benchmarks/
and Teviotbank for Lessismore - my Layout blog here: http://www.rmweb.co....ank-all-change/

And here is a thread which we've been using as a resource for inspirational images and reminiscences of the real thing: http://www.rmweb.co....__1entry51334

One thing that hadn't happened before RMW3 turned its toes up, was the advent of DCC in my imagined corner of Roxburghshire, which is the present focus of W/B activity, it's neither photogenic nor particularly newsworthy but there we are. However, it does permit the first cheeky shot of some signature traction. The second shows a Class 4 threading the Ale glen as a light engine pairing heads south. Let's just say they're a cheap plug for the blogs, hey!


Best of British Traction: the Controller's view, Haymarket, Carlisle and Millerhill Summer '68. Experimental DCC chipping of Plaxton Panorama in madder and buttermilk livery unconfirmed.


8574 and 1547 on a balancing move pass 252 heading downgrade on 4S43

So, there we are. This thread will be updated as milestones happen - generally pointing to more detailed blogs, for those who are interested in specifics or might be thinking of attempting similar for themselves.

Here are the main parameters. As a rule of thumb I'm using RTR rolling stock on proprietary 00 formation on a garage tail-chaser layout. Scenics will be home-brewed using appropriate kits, RTP if suitable, and a large helping of improvisation using prototype footage for context and flavour. The window is frozen in the last couple of timetables of the line's operational existance, so principally this sees diesels in their early transition from green to blue, fitted freights, and blue&grey/ maroon LHCS. The stock and fleet developments will be covered in the W/B blog.

The layout is split roughly in half, the focus of one side being Teviotbank, a principal station on the Route, which is also the start of a now freight-only upland branch to the hamlet of Lessismore, whose terminus is presently at the conceptual stage. The other half, and hopefully scenic section, is set in the Ale glen with classic Waverley sweeping curves and a wayside station - Midlem Road - at its scenic break. Scenery, planning and track will be covered in the Layout blog.

See y'all soon.

[Georgie!!]

Hiya Chard,

 

This looks to be a real layout mate!! Them 37s will look great!!

 

Keep them photos coming

 

Whatching with intrest!!

 

Regards

 

Georgie

[MartinWales]

Aha! Now that the layout has broken cover I'l be following this with interest seeing I have a 1968 Scottish based project myself albeit based upon exGNSR lines

['CHARD]

Aha! Now that the layout has broken cover I'l be following this with interest seeing I have a Scottish based project myself albeit based upon exGNSR lines

It's the old Blog vs Thread conundrum, which as others before me have elected to do, can work best if both are used appropriately and playing to their strengths.

 

Here's a couple more pics out of interest:

 

From the workbench, a reworking of Bachmann 47148 into D1958 in Brush Blue, as featured on the blog

 

Early days on the pair of 60A Highland 24s, in fact too early for their blog entry just yet

 

I've changed laptops since RMWeb3 and there aren't any layout shots on here at the moment, so I'll update that side of things over the weekend, including a revision of the trackplan last seen in July '09!

[Clagmeister]

Hi,

 

Excellent stuff.

 

I used to reguarly work 4s43 over Beattock until recently. Looks a bit different to the 4S43 in your pic. Tescos train has now gone over to DBS haulage.

 

Any chance a track plan?

 

cheerio

 

Claggy

 

 

['CHARD]

Here's a cheeky progress shot of the Highland Baby Sulzer twins - D5116 and D5118 - now that work has moved on.

Albeit, of the Top Twenty list of Tweaks, I reckon I've only cracked about half, and obviously there's no undercoat on them yet to show any glaring issues.

 

Not visible in the first pic, so featured in the second, the boiler water filler apertures have been created on D5118.

 

Still to do: headlights (5116), roof panel mods around water filler points, NDS quarterlight window pillars, cab roof and boiler vents, gangway door treatment, headcode panel treatment, new cab door handrails, water filler hatches (5118), livery details and numbering etc...

The complete story of the transformation of these two will be covered in detail on the blog soon, later I hope to post some long promised layout progress shots too

['CHARD]

Took the plunge last night with 5116's headlights, fed up of being daunted by making two symmetrical circular holes in the face of a new loco body*, and removing even more surplus detail - anyway, the 3mm alu tube slices are in place that will represent the chromed headlight mounts. I'd like to say escutcheons, but I don't think this nomenclature was a feature of the Morris Minor headlamp assembly which we're trying to mimic.

 

8-inches looks about in proportion but let's face it, what I'm attempting to capture is the character, and as I'm leaving the marker lights where they are, the gangway doors the size they are and the cab windows how they are, this is always going to be a mass of compounded compromises - summus quad summus, a caricature Highland Baby Sulzer will be reward enough if I ever get there.

 

* - yes, I know this 25 has already been butchered but the face is, well, the loco's face

 

In layout-world, efforts are focused on tunnel portals and bridge abutments, and I'm not happy with last night's progress shots really, so that update can wait.

[Jamie]

Nice 'Chard.

I've still got one of these lurking in the drawer being built from a Hornby/Bachmann hybrid. I'm hoping that I leave it in there long enough it might rebuild its own nose end details. :icon_confused:

['CHARD]

I'm literally "laughing out loud," in a way that I suspect is largely unknown to the armies of bling-encrusted yoof that LOL during every texty message sent on their phones LOL

 

Yessiree, the twins are doing my heid in, but I'm eternally grateful to B Barton and his esteemed 'Diesels in the Highlands' for quite literally a swarm of photos, which have given me an excuse to have the GSYP loco modelled without headlights. I think I'll be weatherproofing her nose doors (ooh err), and naughtily post-dating 5116's flush ends that she got circa 1971.

 

Because of my incipient martyrdom, I've been contemplating two more of these divils, but the whole project so far hinged on happy accident of spare shells and feral chassis being hawked on eBay, and there aren't any about at present. In any case, I've the 64B -vs- 60A BRCW/Sulzer imbalance to address yet, and that's more pressing.

['CHARD]

This doesn't fit anywhere else, and why start a new thread just for something that everyone else probably knows about already, but this is the first time I've seen such a thing:

 

Timeline 1967, it's Perth ScR, and here's a Deltic which probably worked on the Waverley Route looking like this:

http://dwb.railsteamgallery.fotopic.net/p26735127.html

 

I've yet to check when she went into BFYE, but that livery variation is outlandish, I love it! Hello my possible excuse for having a Type 5

['CHARD]

Okay, I've become obsessed with Peco LK-40 stone embossed plastic. Not to worry though, at least the basics of the A6091 bridge are sketched-out:

['CHARD]

A quick pictorial update of progress around the station throat. The road overbridge is settling down; the A7 dog-legs across the main line, in the crook of the corner at the top of the hill there will be a saloon bar. Below and behind this, accessed at grade further down the hill is the small Teviotbank Engineer's compound. This will be a bi-level loading dock, with ramped vehicle access between the two. All the shapes are hewn out of polystyrene block and sheet at this time. Lima steel bar is scattered around weighting bits down and a stack of cds is astride the station platforms! Please note that the pics are taken with the camera pushed back into an inaccessible corner of the garage, and when pressing the shutter you can't see what's in the viewfinder!

Stratford Blue bus there, keep forgetting she's not yet in Eastern Scottish livery

There's a bit of an old kit there pretending to be an outside urinal by the saloon bar. The landlord's old Benz is up on blocks - missing its back axle - all these placeholders there just to get an idea of the space I'm working with.

 

View under bridge - effectively looking through the future retaining wall!

From left, tracks are: down loop (with the 37 facing up), down main (with 60A Baby Sulzer), up main and branch (with Southern vans stabled inside shunt limit)

 

The 37 is waiting by the Engineers' dock, more of which is seen in these very hard to get snaps:

The Humber taxi climbs away from Teviotbank Station with a fare, I'm looking forward to getting stone setts down and rendering the retaining walls, getting this corner to look right. Behind this viewpoint there's another semi kit to build, then this corner cameo has most of its ingredients sorted. A ramp from the A7 down into the goods yard has been sketched, but the tricky geometry is still to be worked out.

This angle will actually never be seen by any viewer, unless they've a demountable, angle-poise head.

[P.C.M]

Hi Chard,

I always enjoy your updates, the latest pics give a good idea of what you are trying to acheive, it should look good when the retaining walls get done. The whole layout is coming together very well. Keep the updates coming.

 

Cheers Peter,

[Gwiwer]

Another DURM member following with interest here.

 

8574 and 1547 on a balancing move

On that plank with a bit of a drop just in front of the Clayton I can see what you mean by "balancing"

['CHARD]

LOL! That whole scenic side is giving me a headache ATM; I've since piled boxes and crates against that part in the course of clearing space in the loft and sorting out vinyl (grunge and indie) for eBay, so access is tricky. Mind you, with creative thought recently concentrated on getting the station throat sorted out, I'm sure to have novel ideas when attention turns back to the stretch of plain line.

 

I've also disconnected the power supply during the changeover to DCC, and in so-doing there are (now the power's back on) untraceable problems with electrical continuity. Also, the raft of unchipped traction has to be temporarily accommodated off the 'live' network - causing yet more space problems. Aaaaagh! etc

 

Meanwhile there is a fleet's worth of Westerns about to be sent to their new owner that need packing, plus a bunch of Scalextric sets and so on and so on... Hopefully when this settles down it will be far more therapeutic to be working in the garage - at least the light and temperatures are more conducive to putting the hours in now, all I need's the elbow room.

 

Next up: another T&RS round-up incl. DCC-fitting update, and two projects hitting the W/B for evening armchair modelling indoors, namely the third and last Teviotbank council semi kitbuild AND the station footbridge, in planning as I type.

['CHARD]

 

Not a Morris Minor headlamp, but one from a 1:72 Cararama VW Beetle. The finish, taper and insert are close to what's wanted, I reckon.

 

It took five minutes to release them from the donor. And 25 to balance them in the hole. Next time you'll see 5116 will be when she's substantially complete, promise

['CHARD]

Back on RMWebIII we discovered some obscure vac-formed semi-detached houses, and celebrated the potential of the long-overlooked Hornby R275.

 

Happily, I fell onto a S/H specimen of the latter, still in its shrinkwrap, a few days ago. Well, how could I resist? So, now there's one each of these to build:

 

 

Join us again soon on the blog, to see how these bread-and-butter space-fillers are destined to lend a sense of the Borders towns of yore to one corner of the layout....

['CHARD]

Yes, apart from sporadic updates to Waverley Images (and exciting cine too! here: http://www.rmweb.co....75entry144857 ) and contributions to others' threads, Teviotbank is alive and well... it's progressing in my usual fits and starts. Here's yet another placeholder until I get round to long-overdue proper blog entries:

 

 

D5116 says 'Hi!'

 

Now fitted with 1:72 VW Beetle headlights, and with a coat of blue to prove the cab dome shapes and tablet recesses one way or another, she's just undergone a quick blast of W/B activity. The A7 overbridge was one of three given the aerosol treatment a couple of weeks ago. Yes, that is a Stratford Blue Alexander-bodied saloon heading north! Here's one of the other bridges:

 

 

What will be Teviotbank station footbridge; the spray painting was actually all underside surfaces matt black. EDIT and new pic: whilst the interior won't be particularly visible in situ, I decided to get a sixties ScR hue by painting the brightwork pale sky blue; in true less-is-more tradition, I'm going to try and keep overtures of regional pale blue to a realistic subdued minimum. At least it does have the effect of lightening the inside a shade, contrasting with the matt black sides and dark earth decking and steps.

 

Tunnelling beneath the Heads of Ale outcrop is also underway, this is the divergence at Teviotbank Sth of the Lessismore branch from the main line:

 

 

Recent developments have seen drastic changes to the alignment of the branch once it disappears from view. This is a substantial alteration to plans I posted on RMWebIII roughly a year ago, and will be updated on here when DLT has sent me my round tuit

[Clagmeister]

Ah, hadn't put 2 and 2 together. No V2's hanging on then? Trackplan?

 

Space is key, works well here.

 

Claggy

['CHARD]

Several well-meaning people have asked do I drive a layout thread. 'Of sorts,' I reply.

Here it is, but don't get your hopes up.

 

It's 2nd October 1968 and as a huge Thank You to a fellow member, here's footage of one of today's scheduled WCML diversions, diagrammed over the Waverley. She's stood at Platform 2 waiting for the road on this booked stop.

 

 

 

 

For the inveterate visitors amongst you, here are a couple more pics, showing the total upheaval presently over at Midlem Road.

 

 

 

and an end-on of the fuel-point

 

 

 

and on my Low Benchmarks W/B Blog, are some details about this pub that will give weary bashers sustenance at Midlem Road

 

 

 

APOLOGIES FOR LOW-RES OF A COUPLE OF THE RECENT CAPTURES, BY MOBILE PHONE

[Clagmeister]

Still going then! Keep the pics and updates coming. Timetable, diagrams etc etc would be good.

[45156]

Thanks for bumping the thread and updating your work in progress - I've bookmarked it to watch your progress, as I seem to be watching a lot of the ScR layouts now - I wonder why?

['CHARD]

Still going then! Keep the pics and updates coming. Timetable, diagrams etc etc would be good.

 

Oh, still cracking on brother, just not at the pace I'd like - fortunately I'm back in the land of the waged again as of a fortnight ago, so progress will mainly be confined to weekends while that beds-in.

 

The biggest obstacle is at the Edinburgh end of Teviotbank, where it seems to be fast-forward to 1975 and there's a ruddy great void where a viaduct should be. That'll teach me to boldly donate the baseboard to Glasgow Queen St in 'N' hey! Anyway, the material for that errant structure is to hand so it will form the next indoor sub-project. Obviously there's no continuous run while the solum of the line is breached, so it's more a useless horseshoe for the time being!

 

I'll be posting more on the W/T/T in due course, there seems to be more finessing to do the further I finesse it, but at some point I'll freeze it at issue 1 for play value if nothing else.

 

To the hardened follower of this thread and the blog, I have caved in and procured a Hornby BY for use on the Class 2s. I've also bitten the bullet regarding the Medfits, but their construction is some way off. There has been a great deal of change in the scenic section's layout, pardon the pun, and I hope to post more on that very soon.

['CHARD]

Health warning - cruel Nokia photography alert.

 

I mentioned that the scenic side has been substantially rearranged. p39 of the David Cross volume is the inspiration behind this, the 'A7' is now at the back, cut into an escarpment, the Ale Water will cross roughly at right angles just shy of Alehead Tunnel, which takes Bowshank as its styling cue. In this hastily grabbed shot in the watery pre-commute morning light last week, Teviotbank pilot D8606 is worrying the newly created Medfits and ex-LMS brake, which will have their own blog entry some time this weekend.

 

Here's a build shot of the MR-style van:

I realised that the lower longitudinal handrail is positioned approx 3mm too low. This will be repositioned - grrrrrr....

 

All these subjects and a few more choice cuts will be warmed-over ad nauseam on the blog later.

 

 

Teribus ye teri odin

[Steve K]

Nice progress (and I wouldn't be too hard on yourself about the Nokia photography!) - is that BR-liveried van one of the old Husky ones? I've acquired a couple myself, thinking that they were good for HO, but that one looks fine in a 4mm setting. Nice paintjob, too...