Heaton Lodge Junction

[Geoff Endacott]

You seem to be extremely good at creating planetary surfaces. Are you a Magrathean?

 

Geoff Endacott

[HeatonLodge40]

You seem to be extremely good at creating planetary surfaces. Are you a Magrathean?

 

Geoff Endacott

I had to look that up

No but I do confess to taking a camera for a jog with me then frequently stopping to take photos of puddles, mud, car tracks and lay-bys. What passers by think I can’t imagine

[HeatonLodge40]

Quick update..

 

The huge double crossover arrived in the last couple of days. Once again it consists of 2 switched diamonds and 2 mega long points. On the originals they all had gas fired point heaters fitted (hence the LPG gas compound nearby). So I’m going to be scratch building these which shouldn’t be too difficult.

Other stuff to add are the extra weathered point motor cables, track circuit equipment and a couple of speed signs. (The model has cobalts fitted underneath).

 

Just before the crossover begins are two road under bridges (which Allan Downes made the sides for some time ago). These will be installed together with the model of me on the fence right next to the bridge.

For anyone that regularly follows Heaton Lodge you’ll know rail photographer Terry Campbell inadvertently got me and two school friends watching a ‘56 going past in 1983.

The last pic is another of this exact location in ‘85/6. The bridge is just to the left this side of the photo.

 

I’ve got till Christmas to finish this latest 12ft so best crack on.

[SHMD]

I hope you and your friends will be making "an apperance" in model form?

 

 

Kev.

 

[HeatonLodge40]

Yes plans are already afoot for that..

 

I’ll have to get a figure commissioned - probably from modelu as I’m a bit bigger than I was in 1983 (although I’m pleased to say I now don’t have a blackadder haircut).

I’m planning to get the figures arm to wave via a micro servo, although bearing in mind I was a mischievous little sod at that age getting him to to give a V sign would probably be more appropriate

[phixer64]

Wow, just wow 

 

Regards Jeff

[HeatonLodge40]

It’s been bridge building day today with the construction of Wood Lane bridge which carries two tracks over .. you guessed it - Wood Lane.

The side of this model was built by a certain Mr Downes although I’ve covered his stone work with DAS and chopped it down a bit.

(I know he’ll be shaking his fist at me from above as I write this)..

 

I like clay as once dry it carves easily with a flat blade screwdriver. The curved retaining wall on the right I’ll be building from aluminium which I’ll bend to shape...well that’s the plan anyway.

 

Should have this bridge done this week although getting that sandstone colour right is difficult.

The rivets by the way are transfers from Archers in the good old U.S of A. I don’t bother with sliding them off in water - the backing cut out with a craft knife mimics well the rivet plate thickness in my book.

Weathering will be fun but not half as fun as the girder bridge over the River Calder which Allan also built. That’s 4ft long and he got fed up with doing the rivets so left them to me

[jamie92208]

It’s been bridge building day today with the construction of Wood Lane bridge which carries two tracks over .. you guessed it - Wood Lane.

The side of this model was built by a certain Mr Downes although I’ve covered his stone work with DAS and chopped it down a bit.

(I know he’ll be shaking his fist at me from above as I write this)..

 

I like clay as once dry it carves easily with a flat blade screwdriver. The curved retaining wall on the right I’ll be building from aluminium which I’ll bend to shape...well that’s the plan anyway.

 

Should have this bridge done this week although getting that sandstone colour right is difficult.

The rivets by the way are transfers from Archers in the good old U.S of A. I don’t bother with sliding them off in water - the backing cut out with a craft knife mimics well the rivet plate thickness in my book.

Weathering will be fun but not half as fun as the girder bridge over the River Calder which Allan also built. That’s 4ft long and he got fed up with doing the rivets so left them to me

 

That's looking good.   I'll be very interested in what you eventually use for the sandstone colour as I'm not happy with the stonework colour on Green Ayre. I look forward to seeing the girder bridge.  Is that the bowstring one that takes the Calder Valley line onwards towards Brighouse.   For curved wing walls like that on Long Preston I used two thicknesses of mounting board glued with plenty of PVA and curved round a paint tin of suitable diameter then left to dry.   It made a very strong armature to put DAS onto. 

 

Jamie

[HeatonLodge40]

Thanks Jamie, yep the girder bridge has been disused since the 1960’s.. The remaining twin tracks of the Calder Valley line run over a stone arch bridge which is right next to it.

I like your idea of the two thicknesses of mounting board - never thought of that

Edited November 4, 2018 by HeatonLodge40

[jamie92208]

Good luck with the bridge. The mounting board works well for wing walls, the two thicknesses seem to hold each other true when they're dry. Here's a picture of the bridge I used them on.

Good luck.

 

Jamie

 

[Simond]

Simon,

 

You might want to look out Ron Heggs of this parish. Outstanding bridgework in styrene.

 

Best

Simon

[Dave John]

Nice work on the bridge. I have also become a big fan of "Archers" rivet transfers. I spent years messing about with other methods but the fact that you can cut out a row and they are consistently spaced does it for me. 

[HeatonLodge40]

Bridge building continues together with road construction..

 

I’m trying a slightly new way with Wood Lane to make it. The surface is mounting board card with the usual 3mm strip running underneath which forms the camber. I’m raising some random parts of the road a millimetre or so with clay to form those patches which show repairs.

Holes have been cut out for puddles and grates.

 

This time I’ve laid a thin bed of carrs ash ballast as the bottom layer before painting on Humbrol 5 dark admiralty grey neat after which talc is sprinkled on.

I’ll wait till this lot drys tonight then have a play with a toothbrush to lift the surface in patches tomorrow’s to hopefully reveal the different layers. Should have it done in a few days. That said I’m going mad on detail as Wood Lane is right in everyone face.

So an opening into a field is planned with muddy cart tracks, more puddles and hoof marks. (From horses not the devil).

 

Wood Lane Bridge stonework is now carved and awaiting painting. I’ve had a long look at the colours on the bridge front (see below) and if you look closely even the stones are each a multitude of different colours. So instead of painting each stone a slightly different shade as normal I’m going to depart from convention and use an airbrush on a low psi with a selection of Lifecolor acrylics to try and get the effect.

I’ll let you know how I go on at the weekend..

Edited November 7, 2018 by HeatonLodge40

[HeatonLodge40]

Can’t say I’ve particularly enjoyed carving clay for the last few days.

To get the rough hewn stone effect it means using the tip of a screwdriver to scribe the stones once the clay has dried. Then covering that with more PVA before adding a small dab to each individual stone. Once that’s done when dry it then needs every stone flatting off with a dremel.

Am I mad?

 

I still haven’t cracked the colours - the airbrush trial didn’t work so tomorrow it’s back to a brush.

All in all there are 2 double track bridge sides, 4 curved wing walls, another two 4 track bridge sides and 4 wing walls plus the internal walls as they are mostly visible.

 

The road tho is turning out really well..

 

Pic 1 : Real location

Pic 2 : carving on right pillar complete - left pillar awaits the ‘dabs’ of clay carving

Pic 3 : real curved wing wall

Pic 4 : made the above from thick plastic card bits of wood and a glue gun

Pic 5 : the second 4 track bridge side

Pic 6 : here comes the dremel

[bgman]

Very effective stonework and not easy to achieve but I think you've certainly managed to get it to look right.

 

Definitely worth the time and effort.

 

Grahame

[millerhillboy]

Looking forward to seeing what colour finish you achieve whether that be airbrush not. You've certainly got the stone texture looking great and I'm sure like everything else you seem to do you'll get it spot on.

Just a sensational piece of work you are producing.

[HeatonLodge40]

Thanks for that.

 

Still haven’t got their with the colours yet although I think the issue is more to do with the variety of colours on each stone and the porous nature of the plaster. Got something up my sleeve that should arrive tomorrow which needs mixing up first so I’ll update on this soon.

 

Anyway..you’ll know if you’re following this thread I’m working on 2 rail over-bridges both on Wood Lane, Mirfield.

The first is a plate girder ex LNWR double track overbridge, the second a four track brick/stone ex L&Y/LNWR.

It’s this first one I’m trying to nail the correct sandstone colours on. (Pic 2).

 

Yesterday however I noticed the whole interior roof of this first bridge is visible from anyone bending down to take a peek (as it’s near the edge of the model) so today - although it wasn’t planned I’ve had to construct the full inside roof of this bridge.

I took a trip in the rain to Heaton Lodge to have a nosy at the underneath having not got clear snaps of this. I had a sneaky suspicion it would be what I suspected..

 

Plate girder bridges in the early part of the last century consisted usually of the two main girders, a number of smaller girders all infilled by brick arches called jack arches. These often had tie-bars between to strengthen them. (See pic 1).

 

I’ve never built one of these so basically scratched my head before hot glueing the unfinished interior bridge sides to blocks of scrap wood to form the ‘tunnel’. (Pic 3).

I used plastruct square tubes at intervals to represent the smaller parallel girders and glued strips of archers rivets to the visible underside of the girders.

The brick infill ‘jack arches’ I made by cutting strips of embossed plasticard sheet inbetween with hot glue helping create the arch. Then the tie-bars are stainless steel wire each end slid into two pre drilled holes. I lined all these up perfectly until realising that on the real thing they are staggered. Can’t see the LNWR complaining though.

Finally the ‘girders and rivets’ were painted with Alclad steel with an airbrush, the brick with lifecolor rail blue (after priming with black primer) toned right down with weathered black to get an engineering type blue brick colour and the tie bars also in Alclad steel - pic 4.

 

The whole lot is weathered with a white lime colour rubbed off (to get the odd bit of pointing), model mates rust dye for the girders/rivets and AK carbon black weathering powder. (Pics 5/6/7).

I’m actually quite pleased with this even though the main beneficiaries will be nosy five year old children

[SouthernBlue80s]

Lovely modeling, really enjoying the thread and thank you for taking the time to put up how you go about things.

[HeatonLodge40]

Been rather a frustrating couple of weeks working on the bridge, but I’ve spent enough time on it so it’ll be finished in a couple days.

 

The main issue has been getting the sandstone colour and texture spot on. If one looked right the other didn’t.

Instead of carved clay this time I looked elsewhere after pulling most of my hair out.

 

Found a company online called Bromley Craft Products (usual disclaimers) who mainly sell a powdered plaster mix in 3 colours including sandstone mainly for the construction of dolls houses.

This stuff arrived the next day and I spent a few happy hours covering the carved clay walls (I’d spent days working on) with this paste.

Anyway the texture is bang on. However the sandstone looked well...too bright and garish. Not the products fault it’s the same old colour/scale issue - an exact prototype shade just doesn’t look right in model form (grass being another example).

To cut a long story short I went ahead with this product anyway but toning down the stones with lifecolor acrylics and adding different shades of grey, black, reddish brown etc.

Once that was done I used the model mates green moss dye sprayed with an airbrush to get the damp appearance (remember this is winter), and AK interactive ‘puddles’ for the damp walls.

 

There’s a bit more detail to add including metal and wooden fences either side of the parapet, more weeds growing out of the wall, drainpipe hopper and obviously the final grass covering etc but it’s not far off now.

 

It’s not turned out how I thought it would but it looks presentable enough

[SHMD]

Oh that does look good.

 

 

Kev.

(Who is thinking of going to Warley just to see this "layout".)

[HeatonLodge40]

Thanks..no Warley till 2020 tho..

[ianLMS]

I have already booked the weekend with the domestic authorities, stopped my band mates booking gigs for that weekend (other hobby) and will be there unless other outside forces/higher beings prevent it!! I go every year, but I dont usually plan it this far ahead. 

 

Seeing this layout is on the top of my list and cant wait to see it in the flesh!  

 

BTW - the bridge is superb - you are far to hard on yourself!

Edited November 21, 2018 by ianLMS

[millerhillboy]

I'd take this level of 'presentable' any day of the week.

 

I think once you get some of the surrounding stuff, i.e road surface and markings and greenery, in place it'll also soften the look of the bridge, which at the moment is standing out alone but when presented as part of the rest of the completed scene I think will look spot on. It really will.

[HeatonLodge40]

I have already booked the weekend with the domestic authorities, stopped my band mates booking gigs for that weekend (other hobby) and will be there unless other outside forces/higher beings prevent it!! I go every year, but I dont usually plan it this far ahead.

 

Seeing this layout is on the top of my list and cant wait to see it in the flesh!

 

BTW - the bridge is superb - you are far to hard on yourself!

 

You might be invited to drive at Warley yet, as I’ve a small team of volunteers but not the 15 I’m going to need.

 

Going back to the bridge (I’m getting OCD over this flamin bridge) on seeing the photos the warning stripes look tatty and I don’t like the rust so they’ve both gone soon to be replaced.

I’ve also repainted the girder with Alclad steel - not prototypical but it looks infinitely better.

I’ll post a pic tonight

Thanks to all

I have already booked the weekend with the domestic authorities, stopped my band mates booking gigs for that weekend (other hobby) and will be there unless other outside forces/higher beings prevent it!! I go every year, but I dont usually plan it this far ahead.

 

Seeing this layout is on the top of my list and cant wait to see it in the flesh!

 

BTW - the bridge is superb - you are far to hard on yourself!

Edited November 21, 2018 by HeatonLodge40

[HeatonLodge40]

Newly repainted girder and modified warning panels.

 

As BR used to say - ‘We’re getting there’