Filton Street Goods - The Boxfiles are Back out of Hibernation!

[Frappington Jct]

Considering I'm moving off to university soon, I have decided to build a small boxfile layout that I can work on in short, sharp bursts and hopefully complete relatively quickly, unlike my large layout which I've been working on for over 3 years now and I'm still no-where near finishing it! This layout is supposedly set in the north of England on ex-LNER metals during the 1950s and is built over 3 box files in OO gauge. The left most file (board 1) contains three sidings, exiting through 2 portals to the right - I'm still debating what I want to use for ground cover in this area. This board will hold the main yard, with a road gate heading off to the left. The middle board (board 2) simply holds a Y point to lead into the right most board (board 3), which is essentially the head shunt and also contains a purely cosmetic siding so I can display additional stock/fill space. The gap between boards 2 and 3 is bridged by a girder bridge on which the obligatory bus stands, and also serves to disguise the wire connecting the boards electronically - I haven't thought of a way to disguise the wire between 1 and 2. The back of the layout is going to be one continuous retaining wall built using Slater's O gauge Dressed Stone, as is already in place on board 1. I'm still experimenting on how to paint it convincingly...

Edited June 11, 2016 by Frappington Jct

[Frappington Jct]

Considering how much I've done, I probably should have done an update before now, but I haven't so hey-ho. I've now built and painted all the retaining walls, along with the boundary wall at the left-hand end (the gates are only temporary at the minute), a small bottom side of another bridge at the right-hand end to hide the fact that the layout ends there, painted a Ratio (?) p/w hut to act as a yard office and made up some cobbles to form the yard surface. The walls and office were painted first with an undercoat of Humbrol 225 mid-stone matt acrylic, followed by some matt black, the majority of which I immediately wiped off whilst still wet, giving a dirty, varied appearance. The cobbles were done slightly differently; they were given the same base coat as the walls but was then treated with multiple coats of grey acrylic wash made with a Tamiya dark grey paint of some sort. I appreciate that they probably shouldn't be flush with the rails, as I'm never going to create fully inlaid track, but there's a pair of wires running to the near most two sidings which stand proud of the cork which need covering so I thought this was the best way to do it.

 

The layout also runs now, as I finally got round to ordering a new controller from Gaugemaster, though I could do with improving the layout-controller connection as it's currently a bit loose fitting.

 

The next job is finishing the roads and ballasting the track, along with sourcing some ground cover for the random areas where there is no track/roads/cobbles (any suggestions are very welcome).

Edited June 10, 2016 by Frappington Jct

[Nelson Jackson]

Love the stone walls, they look absolutely superb!

[nick_bastable]

looking very  promising although you need to lose the gap under the building          

[Frappington Jct]

looking very  promising although you need to lose the gap under the building          

 

Thanks! I'm working on bedding in etc, but it'll probably come quite a bit later in the process.

[Jinty3f]

....and made up some cobbles to form the yard surface.

.

I would be interested to know how you did the cobbles - they look superb.

[Frappington Jct]

I would be interested to know how you did the cobbles - they look superb.

 

Thanks. The cobbles are Wills Granite Setts, painted first with a base coat of Humbrol 225 middle stone matte, followed by a couple of washes of Humbrol 64 light grey matt - not chosen for any particular reason other than it was grey, any lightish shade of the colour would work - mixed with a bit of Humbrol 33 matte black. I just splashed them on until all the brown was gone and the majority of the gaps I'd forgotten to fill in were near-invisible, which gave the varied finish.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Frappington Jct

[George Hudson]

Highly ingenious, and good looking!

[andyram]

I have just found this thread. What a great idea for a layout. I have seen a few boxfile layouts before but mainly in smaller scales. This looks great and is progressing well. I like the use of the walls to disguise the sides of the box for. I look forward to seeing this develop.

[Edwardian]

Great stuff.  Small, but perfectly formed!

[paulbb]

Loooks promising ..and I

love the Stirling single loco (?)  in lined BR black - an early EP of the Rapido loco? lets hope they do some nice liveries like this

[Frappington Jct]

Thanks all for the positive comments, I'll try and post an update in the near future as I'm slowly working on the buildings in the extreme foreground.

 

Loooks promising ..and I

love the Stirling single loco (?) in lined BR black - an early EP of the Rapido loco? lets hope they do some nice liveries like this

Thanks. The Stirling is a mish-mash creation that originated as a Bachmann USA Thomas & Friends model and will be very much shown-up if I do buy a Rapidi model!!!

[Frappington Jct]

So, it's been a while since I did an update to this thread, primarily as a result of me and the layout being in totally different parts of the country! I still don't have the layout with me, although that will change as of Monday. What I do have, and have done work on since the middle of November, is some of the buildings and other little things for the layout and it is on these that I've been working - albeit rather slowly. The key achievement of this work has been the building of a pair of factory frontages to sit at the front of boards 1 and 2, representing the Filton Box Company. Both are modified Skytrex low-relief northlight units, shortened in both length and height, with small sections added onto the ends to allow the units to protrude slightly and clear the clasps which hold the files shut. The unit which'll sit on board one is a simple, plain unit which, if I remember rightly (I haven't seen the factory and the layout together for a few months!) stops just short of the end of the front-most siding, whereas the board 2 unit has a small vehicle loading dock.

 

(Apologies for the picture quality!) 

 

 

 

 

In my head, the justification for the premature ending of the board1 unit/the very limited space for vehicular access around the loading dock is as follows. At it's peak, the Filton Box Company was a nationally renowned company who shipped 95% of their wares by rail. Board 1's front-most siding once extended further into the factory complex, which had a decent sized internal rail system and justified its own shunter, coincidentally a little Peckett W4 (it was too good to resist and will soon be getting some lovely new nameplates!) As a consequence, there was little need for a large road vehicle loading point, as all supplies in and most of those going out went by rail. This meant the small dock provided facing the railway sufficed for the horse drawn carts of the day. However, during the 1930s, the factory's output decreased dramatically, to the extent that the internal rail system was deemed unnecessary, and was closed in early 1939, all remaining rail-born goods being loaded/unloaded in the adjacent LNER yard. The Peckett lingered after the system's closure, the LNER hiring the loco to shunt the yard and run transfer freights up the short branch to the town's main yard, though was returned to its owners fairly immediately after nationalisation, being scrapped soon after. The small nature of the loading dock caused problems as soon as rail use decreased, a new one being created off-scene by modifying the old rail facilities. The original dock thus became seldom used, mostly seeing use for maintenance supplies and local deliveries.

 

After I'd taken the photos of the factories, I thought I'd get the layout's current fleet out for its first group photo. The J50 I've had since the summer, but the Midland 1F I got for Christmas and the Peckett was a spur of the moment buy a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Until the line up I hadn't really ever thought of the J50 as a big engine, but it's significantly bigger than the 1F and literally dwarfs the Peckett. The size range is rather pleasing don't you think?

 

 

Once the layout gets here next week I'll take some pictures with the factories in place, along with the stables I've been working on to fill a gap on board 3.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Frappington Jct

[andyram]

Those Pecketts are a work of art.

[Frappington Jct]

Now that the layout's here, I've taken some quick pictures of the factories and breifly mentioned stables scene. Positions aren't final and there's the obvious bedding in to be done, but I'm quite happy with how it's all developing.

 

 

Board 1:

 

 

Board 2:

 

 

The stables are a Scenix stables unit which I've hacked apart to create two units which sit opposite each other to form a cobbled stable yard.

 

 

 

And then there's the obligatory gratuitous Peckett shot.

 

[andyram]

Looking good.

 

And

 

You can never have too many pictures of a Peckett.

[Frappington Jct]

Sooooooo, it's been 3 and a half years but Filton Street has finally been awoken from its slumber, in much part because of a lack of anything else to do! It's original purpose of providing me with a layout at uni is now redundant as I'm back at home completing my MSC, but it provides a not-in-the-loft alternative to the big layout and an opportunity to actually finish something! I've done quite a lot recently without taking any photos, but here's a quick roundup of what I've done (some of the pictures haven't come out great but that's mostly due to the tight confines and shadows that the file sides cast):

 

First up, the layout as a whole. You can see that there is now ballast (Carrs fine ash) on all boards and brown paint on the remaining open ground as a base for ground cover to go on in the next week. The bridge has also gained pavements and road markings, as well as some weathering to the girders.

 

Box one is the most advanced of the 3, with some ground cover down and I've filled the gap under the back of the hut by adding some scraps of the stone material from the retaining walls to suggest a stone base (not visible in these photos). This board still needs ground cover around the factory area and buffers on the sidings. The non-loading siding will probably have just a sleeper over the end of the rails but the other two I have plans to build proper sleeper-built buffers based on a picture I found online a while back - watch this space.

 

 

Box 1 has also gained two new structures - the crane is a basic Ratio (?) kit and is actually too tall to sit upright in the box with the lid shut so isn't fixed, meaning I can move it around as required. It is also currently missing its chain and hook, purely to stop me losing them as I'm working on the layout. The platform I'm rather proud off as I scratch built it out of match sticks before painting and weathering it. It's not perfect as it is dead straight whereas the track curves slightly and thus there's a bit of a gap between train and platform in the centre but it looks the part.

 

 

Box 2 has had the least work done to it, but then it has the least to do. I've painted and fitted cobbles around the factory in much the same way as in Box 1, and fitted Scale Model Scenery laser cut fencing. Aside from ground cover, the next task for this board is placing some general ground cover to fill the open space.

 

 

Box 3 has had a variety of work done. It too now has cobbles to serve the stable yard, with an access road running out under where in future another girder will act as a scenic break. The new fencing is a Bachmann ready-to-plant product which I think really looks the part and gives the impression of a run down urban backwater.

 

 

 

I've also installed a set of buffers onto the dead-end/display siding - this was a white metal kit I bought years ago when I first started this project and has sat waiting for me to get to this point. I can't for the life of me remember who I bought it off which is a real shame as it went together a treat and I'd absolutely look at buying more for future projects.

 

 

I've also been working on a set of Langley lamp posts and a bus stop for the bridge, which will get glued on in the next couple of days.

 

 

Next job - ground cover. Oh, and I probably should double check it still runs too...

[TechnicArrow]

Excellent! I haven't come across this layout before, but it's exactly what I like building myself! 

I think the pictures are fine - I quite like that it doesn't have a "viewing side", since there's no awkward baseboard edge where the world stops, and you're forced to look into the scene as if from a road bridge or similar. 

The only thing I think the layout needs a little more of is life - both plants (weeds) and people. 

I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this! 

[Frappington Jct]

6 minutes ago, TechnicArrow said:

Excellent! I haven't come across this layout before, but it's exactly what I like building myself! 

I think the pictures are fine - I quite like that it doesn't have a "viewing side", since there's no awkward baseboard edge where the world stops, and you're forced to look into the scene as if from a road bridge or similar. 

The only thing I think the layout needs a little more of is life - both plants (weeds) and people. 

I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this! 

Thanks! I agree it absolutely needs some more life - I have a load of people/horses ready to go on and will sort weeds once the ground cover goes down. I've never properly super-detailed a layout so I'm looking forward to it!

[Frappington Jct]

In between enjoying the lovely weather recently, I've gotten the basic ground cover down in the form of Jarvis earth scatter and some fine-ish ash ballast mix. In real life it doesn't look quite so bespeckled - I suspect it's as a result of taking these photos fairly late directly under the light with a smart phone camera.

 

 

The scrap of land behind the stables also has a little pile of ready formed rubble, which I'll admit I'd hoped wouldn't stand out quite so much. However, with some more scatter, a little repainting and some bedding in with weeds it should be fine - especially as there'll be a girder above the end of the box restricting the view of this area.

 

 

I've also glued the street lamps onto the bridge and I think they look rather good! I've also got a bus stop made up, but I'm undecided as whether to install it in order to compliment the obligatory model railway 'bus-on-a-bridge' cliche.

[steve1]

Looking good young sir. 

 

Keep up the fine work!

 

steve

[Alex TM]

Hi,

 

Really like the tight, almost claustrophobic, look of this.  It reminds me of a couple of places I routinely passed through by train in my (much) younger years.

 

As Steve1 said a few minutes ago, keep up the good work.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[HonestTom]

I love the feel of this layout. It kind of reminds me of the lines you get in the City of London. I can really imagine walking along a street, coming to a gap in the houses, looking down and seeing this.

[Frappington Jct]

It runs! Sort of... I'll be honest, it's not the best running layout but then I wasn't really expecting it to be - especially as I forgot to test it again before putting ballast etc. Hopefully the link here works for a short clip of my Bachmann 1f shuttling back and forth 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SZzNmN7ZtM-RAjsJTTkGqvd0fpmIjWS0/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[Frappington Jct]

Scenic work is slowly plodding along, the most recent addition being buffers at the end of the operational sidings. The two loading sidings have inverted buffer stops inspired by a picture I found somewhere online, whereas the shortest siding simply has a sleeper over the rails and will probably gain a little chain when I eventually buy some fine enough. All are built from plastic sleepers salvaged from ancient Hornby track found in the loft, and painted brown with grey and black dry-brushed on top. 

 

 

 

Next job will be a bit of greenery and some other miscellaneous scenic items - aided by the lovely box of bits which arrived in the post today