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Warrington Bank Quay - The Northern Approach - OO DCC


Wild Boar Fell
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  • 2 weeks later...

That aerial photo really does the trick. Spent many hours at that station back in my platform spotting days, and really like what I'm seeing here.

 

Will you be fitting the layout with DCC sound to capture the noise of the factory in the background?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another quick update today, I have finally put pen to paper with the baseboard construction design. The renders of the current plan are illustrated below. The design of the two most northern boards (North & North Mid) are identical other than the presence of the back-scene on the north board. These are constructed out of 18 x 69 mm section, topped with 12mm MDF. The frames include an extra longitudinal batten mounted centrally and have leg pockets at the northern end (to accept 44 x 44 mm legs).

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The South Mid board retains the 69mm depth for most of the board, with the southern most transverse beam being 94mm deep instead to match the drop section (with a further 12mm added to the bottom to match the lower scenic board depth). The longitudinal beam is now mounted 160mm from the front of the board. 

 

The South board is far more complicated, with all the main timbers being 94mm not 69mm again with a further 12mm added. This board has 4 leg pockets and further (near) transverse beams to allow the Low Level Line to be represented. The lower section will be built up to the correct height before the scenic work is started.

 

The back-scenes are 6mm MDF and finish 1ft above the baseboard surface (this may be changed at a later point though).

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These plans aren't set in stone, but unless I spot anything majorly wrong with these, construction to approximately this design can now begin.

 

Wild Boar Fell

Can I ask what software program you used to produce the baseboard drawings?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thank you Jack,

Let's hope I can live upto those expectations then.

I decided to put some stock on the layout earlier for some photos, although missed the glorious sunshine we had briefly this afternoon.

 

Hopefully these will be a benchmark to measure this coming years work against.

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Kind Regards,

Matthew

 

Wild Boar Fell

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I happened to be in the Bank Quay area earlier today, so decided to nip across to the station cafe.

I noticed an odd path that appeared to arrive as a DMU and depart as a 319. Suspecting this to be the 769 on test I was a little surprised when this turned up...

 

A shiny new CAF Class 195, not seen one of these before (apologies for the dire phone pictures) wish I'd had my proper camera handy;

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Still need to see its bigger brother Class 331 at some point.

Looks like it's a fairly interesting time at WBQ for seeing new fleets, with at least Nova 1s, Nova 3s, 195s and 331 doing test runs through the station.

With a Nova 2 at Crewe I wonder when we'll see that too...

 

Wild Boar Fell

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Believe the Nova 2 unit is being tested around Macclesfield by FL/ROG. May well see it after all, testing should start back end of next week

 

Thats useful thanks, I'll have to keep an eye out for it next week.

I've got an interesting week ahead, should see the real WBQ more than a few times if all goes to plan.

 

Meanwhile, back to the model. I've been doing a spot of weathering of a few wagons recently (only one side for now until I am happy with the effects). Having to do these without an airbrush or spray for now.

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There is an autoballaster and a HST power car too, but forgot to photograph them properly.

EDIT: Extra photos now added.

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Kind Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

Edited by Wild Boar Fell
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  • 2 weeks later...

Believe the Nova 2 unit is being tested around Macclesfield by FL/ROG. May well see it after all, testing should start back end of next week

 

Missed the Nova 2 in the end but did see a Nova 3 leaving International as I passed one day. Did manage to see a few other things however in Crewe, saw the Caledonian Sleeper a few times (Mk3s not 5s), 37 with an RTOV and a RILA fitted Freightliner 66. Biggest surprise was arriving opposite this, guessing it was on fault free running (345054 IIRC) not like I don't see enough of these in Derby...

 

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Not the best pic, but I've cropped it to remove my reflection out.

 

Going back to Bank Quay, the latest wagon on the weathering bench is a Bachmann OBA, needs some more weathering of the chassis and want to repaint one of the planks EWS red to better match the photo I was copying. Must admit it was a fun little task, will have to look out for a few more to put into a more work worn condition.

 

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Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

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  • 4 weeks later...

It has been nearly a month since my last update and admittedly very little on the layout has changed*, but there have been a few things going on fleet wise. I've been concentrating on collecting a pool of 'Enterprise' wagons to allow randomly formed short rakes to be portrayed. I have also got some  'modified' VGAs to try and improve as the previous owner seemed to make a good stab at writing off the chassis. So if anyone knows where I can get cosmetic suspension parts and new buffers for these please let me know.

 

The main focus however has been the vac braked civils rake. The bulk of these are Dapol Grampus wagons from my previous layout with the factory weathered and br green wagons being painted and unpainted bodies being fitted to the br black ones (so they can be returned to black as required). There are also a pair of green Dogfish being repainted too. These are being hand painted as time allows and will be finished in Dutch before being weathered, I am planning to use Railtec transfers for both wagon types. The idea being I can replicate scenes like these...

 

 

31163 Warrington BQ 14-08-96

 

31229 Warrington Bank Quay 14-08-96

 

The above photos are the reason I always try and pose one of the busses on the bridge in my shots.

The below shows the state of most of them, the two immediately behind the loco are factory finished, the remainder are part way through repaint.

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Having watched a few videos of Bank Quay recently, I am becoming increasingly convinced to focus the layout more towards the 1996-2001 part of the intended era, but still allow upto 2004. Unfortunately the Platform 3/4 canopy was re-clad by 1999 which rather divides those two eras.

 

*Other than stock I am struggling to remember any changes.

 

Wild Boar Fell

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  • 3 months later...

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, things have been manically busy in my non-modelling life. Turns out juggling work and final year of a degree gets pretty hectic, fortunately the latter should finish imminently. As you can probably guess no work has been done on the layout, but I decided to get some new photos with a recent addition or two.

Definitely looking more like the late 90's early 2000's now.

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Definitely needs a few more 37s on the layout, I have seen enough in 'heritage' liveries recently at the RTC. Managed to track down a bodyshell for 37431, just need to remember where the chassis is.

 

Wild Boar Fell

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Neil,

Since my last post I've been concentrating on adding the surface to the platforms, beyond that shown in the image at the top of the page. Whilst Platform 3 was mostly done others have taken a lot of Polyfilla and good deal of sanding, repeat... It certainly looked like Warrington had a few snow drifts a couple of times.

I've now got most 90% of the platform surface to a state that I am happy with, although changes will be needed to fill the gaps when the buildings go in. Only after this will the top coat of paint be added as currently it is too dark and patchy.

 

Hopefully the 37s give some indication of scale. Apologies, phone photos so not the best quality.

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Glad to finally see progress again.

 

Kind Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

 

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I managed to get some time to work on the layout today, small bits of progress were achieved on a few fronts. Most excitingly though, a start has been made on adding (temporarily for now) the catenary masts. A few of these can be represented by the Peco masts, whilst some others can be modified from these. However the bulk of the catenary is headspans within the station. So I started with the easy ones, the out the box ones went in with exception of the one just south of the station entrance as the mast would be floating as this hasn't been built up enough yet. I then tried to modify a mast to make a twin arm mast but found it easier to make new arms for it. This is the one seen in front of the 37, it needs its insulators adding at some point but was really a test piece. 

Two other masts had their arms removed to make what I believe are masts for the autotransformer.

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Unfortunately I couldn't find any H section brass rod at my local model shop so decided to attempt to make a pair of headspan masts from styrene. Not sure how well they'll work in practise but reasonably happy with the result. Now I need to re-stock before I can attempt building any more. 

Barely visible as a black dot, but two of the ground signals have also been fitted, these will be wired next time the boards are split.

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That now makes it 8 masts in place for now.

 

Wild Boar Fell

 

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Kept the layout cool enough to work on today, so got a few small tasks achieved.

Most notably was trial fitting some of the platform lamps, this mean drilling through the platforms which fortunately went better than anticipated. The surface appears to be strong enough to allow the catenary mast screws to be countersunk into it too. This was trialled with the mast seen behind the 47, it can now be detailed up as per the ones shown above.

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Happy Modelling,

Wild Boar Fell

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Thanks David.

Some more from today, I've been starting the lift shaft and access steps modules for down platforms. All these structures are being built upto canopy level. Lots of detail still to add, but far from happy with the steps structure. Very tricky to build square and still isn't, noted in the photos below it isn't properly seated at one end. Might see about 3D Printing a former and cladding it with Slater's.

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As can be seen, I make great efforts to keep the layout clear of tools and materials... 

... maybe not.

 

 

Wild Boar Fell

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Today's antics, building the eastern span and footbridge.

Cobbled together from bits of styrene sheet and section, it needs painting before I can fit the two sides together and add the footpath deck.

Hopefully the Mk1 gives an indication of the size of the span, approximately 75ft in scale.

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And the prototype...

 

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Wild Boar Fell

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