Stoke Courtenay

[DAVE1562]

Brilliant work john... and GWR of course....keep the pics going...

[checkrail]

I'll start today with a pic of 8709 on a short local goods, then say a bit about the loft.

 

 

 

The first consideration when planning the infrastructure for Stoke Courtenay was the size of layout I could accommodate.  Our semi has a hipped roof, so on three sides the loft ceiling slopes towards floor level.  There was going to be an obvious trade-off between the area available and the layout height.  I eventually settled on a rail height of 43" from the floor.  This allowed a footprint of approx. 13x12 feet while retaining my preferred eye-level viewing, albeit from a seated position!  It also meant that on three sides the layout would be under and behind the purlins, which stand 59" above the floor.  The first of many compromises.  The other wall (party wall with house next door) would be the site for the station.  

 

Thoughts then turned to baseboards and I dimly remembered CJ Freezer going on enthusiastically about the L-girder construction used by many US modellers.  I soon found a book about it in the local public library which refreshed my understanding of it, and concluded that for a permanent layout in a loft it would be ideal. So off I went to the local timber yard with a big order.

 

The L-girders themselves are made from 2" x 1" timber glued and screwed together to form an L section.  It's important that they're straight and true, hence the specialist timber merchant rather than the usual DIY retail shed.  They're immensely strong and one can get away with unsupported lengths up to 9 feet, so not too many legs needed. The Evostik Resin W I used is so strong that after it's set one could remove the screws for re-use.  Cross members are 2x1 on end.  They're not all at right angles to the girders; in corners they radiate outwards from front to rear.  Where the track is raised above its surroundings the L-girders and cross members are fixed at a lower level with the 12mm MDF trackbed carried on T-shaped risers made from 2x1.

 

I made a virtue of the purlins by using them to conceal strip lighting behind. Phil  commented favourably on the curved backscene.  This too was the result of the purlins and roof profile.  My timber merchant got me some lovely (but expensive) 1.5mm Finnish birch ply which is beautifully flexible and which was cut to size, sprung in and secured behind the purlins before being given a covering of lining paper and painted.  The down side is joining two abutting sheets in such a way as to get a smooth join and avoid wrikles or bubbles in the lining paper.  I didn't quite manage it!  And it's hard to disguise where the curved backscene meets the one vertical wall behind the station.

 

The diagrams below should help illustrate all this.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally here's the pannier and train again from the other end.

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

Edited August 18, 2016 by checkrail

[Brinkly]

Beautiful layout John, with lovely craftsmanship.

 

Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

What is your fiddle yard arrangement?

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[checkrail]

 

Excellent track-work and I also think that Rob of ANTB will be very inspired by your footbridge.

Phil

 

Well, I've just seen Rob's new footbridge on ANTB, and it's a magnificent piece of scratchbuilding, and unique to the location.  Great stuff..  Mine in comparison is just a bit of old-fashioned 1970s style kit-bashing.  For those interested it's an ancient kit manufactured by Pola for Hornby and bought on eBay, though I believe it's now available again in Gaugemaster's 'Fordhampton' range.  Mine showed its age in that many of the plastic parts were stamped 'Made in West Germany'.  Here it is:

 

 

As bought it's ridiculously tall - it's designed for trackside location and probably to clear overhead catenary as well.  The kit has provision to remove a stair panel for platform mounting, but even that still leaves it far too high, so some kit butchery is called for, reducing the height/length of the main stairways by 50% and adapting/making good the uprights/newel posts, support columns etc. But when finished it does I feel have that authentic GWR flavour. It was also one of those kits that's best painted in stages as construction proceeds, leaving just enough bare plastic for the next application of Plastic Magic. I wouldn't have fancied painting the inside with the roof on.

 

(I know there are etches available for GWR lattice-sided footbridges but my 1930s GW photo albums show that by that time many had been boarded over on the inside, presumably for reasons of passenger comfort.) 

 

I like Mr & Mrs Preiser crossing the bridge in the close up below.  They look very smart, but are standing on little blocks of polystyrene to disguise the fact that they're H0 scale midgets!

 

 

Finally here's Rood Ashton Hall passing the signal box as the sun goes down.

 

 

John C.

[81C]

This is my effort with a S/H part built kit bought for £4.50 at a show + £8 for the new legs and smoke baffles.

I cut it down quiet a bit from the marks for platform mounting on the kit the legs need tweeking and the baffles fitted.

 

 

[checkrail]

This is my effort with a S/H part built kit bought for £4.50 at a show + £8 for the new legs and smoke baffles.

I cut it down quiet a bit from the marks for platform mounting on the kit the legs need tweeking and the baffles fitted.

 

WP_20160622_19_59_04_Pro.jpg

 

Nice. Yes, similar approach to mine.  Not a bad kit really, is it, considering its age? I knocked up the smoke baffles from Plastikard, bent to shape in boiling water with a couple of pairs of pliers. I also glued little locating pins (brass wire) into the platform to fit into the hollow interior of the supporting pillars, so it will stay put but can be removed for track cleaning etc..

 

John C.

[81C]

Nice. Yes, similar approach to mine.  Not a bad kit really, is it, considering its age? I knocked up the smoke baffles from Plastikard, bent to shape in boiling water with a couple of pairs of pliers. I also glued little locating pins (brass wire) into the platform to fit into the hollow interior of the supporting pillars, so it will stay put but can be removed for track cleaning etc..

 

John C.

The legs and baffles are Scalelink parts as the original legs were broken, the wire is a good idea but the new legs are solid so I use tacky wax to keep thing on the platform in place such as barrows, trolleys, luggage seats and the like and can move items around from time to time.

Like you I think I will start posting the layout again when begins to look like something I would hate to present a messy layout I've altered it so much of late, ballast and point rodding to go down and some buildings and bridges to finish after a ladder fell onto the layout.

[checkrail]

Hello John,

 

 

May  I ask you some questions?:

Q1.

What sort of radius are those curves? minimum? typical?

Q2.

00-SF minimum Track Gauge is 16.2mm. You will likely be using this through the point & crossing work,

but do you gauge widen elsewhere, eg:

a. on curved tracks, if so by how much?

b. in order to use ready-made plain track of 16.5mm TG?

Q3.

Are you using 26mm (8'6" scale) long sleepers or are you reducing them to complement the 2.38 to 2.68 under-scale-gauge, if so to what length?

Q4. 

I imagine that the bullhead rails, chairs etc are from the C&L emporium, but are they

a. the older C&L toolings OR

b. the neater ex-Exactoscale components?

Q5. (relates to Q2 above)

Is the visible trackwork ALL individually chaired, or have you used ready made track bases away from P & C work?  

Q6. is this layout your first essay in 00-SF?

 

 

Thank you very much.

 

Best regards,

 

Rodney Hills

 

Hi Rodney

 

Name sounded familiar - then it clicked!  I think you're the founder/owner of the 00-SF Yahoo Group, to which I've contributed once or twice. Hello Sir!

 

I'm going to say more about the track in an upcoming post, but for the moment here are brief answers to your questions above:

 

Q1. 4 foot ruling radius on main line.  Points are mainly B6, B7 and one B9, often built on curves.  However, the two points off the branch run-round loop, giving access to the yard and headshunt, are A5s - roughly equivalent I guess to Peco medium radius.  This is one of those model railway compromises, down to that aforementioned law of diminishing returns with loops off loops.  They're fine with my panniers and prairies, which are the only locos that use them.

 

Q2. Yes, 16.2mm is just used through the pointwork, with normal 00 C & L flexitrack for most plain track.  The difference is easily catered for over 3 or 4 sleepers or so.

 

Q3. 8 foot, or 32mm, as per C & L track.  Helps disguise the narrow gauge.

 

Q4. Original C & L chairs etc. cut and spliced for checkrail, wing rail and crossing chairs as necessary.  (I started before C & L had taken over and digested Exactoscale.)

 

Q5. Answered in Q2.

 

Q6. Yes. Until I returned to this game 4 years ago I'd never heard of it.  (Like so many other things - DCC, static grass etc.) 

 

Here are 3 more pics showing the trackwork.  Let me say right now that I had the single slip and double slip made for me.  In retrospect I think I could have managed them myself, but probably at the cost of a lot of time, failed attempts and bad language.  At the time I just wanted to get on with things, though I have to say I really enjoyed building all the other pointwork (notwithstanding the aforementioned bad language of which there was plenty at times).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

John C.

[gwrrob]

What are the origins of your rather splendid signal box John ?

[checkrail]

What are the origins of your rather splendid signal box John ?

 

It's a Kernow special commission from Bachmann Scenecraft, based on the type 7 box at Truro. It came in 1970s condition with a sort of dull white paint finish, so needed repainting in GWR colours.  It was originally going to appear with 1971 opaque dirty windows too.  So glad it didn't - wasn't looking forward to having to replace them all.  It's probably a bit big for a Brent-style setting - I believe the Truro box had 70 odd levers.  But scratchbuild-avoiding beggars can't be choosers. BTW Robin, love your very accurate Brent box. 

[checkrail]

 

Like you I think I will start posting the layout again when begins to look like something I would hate to present a messy layout I've altered it so much of late, ballast and point rodding to go down and some buildings and bridges to finish after a ladder fell onto the layout.

 

Look forward to that.

[OnTheBranchline]

This is easily one of the top ten GWR layouts on RMweb. Thank you so much!

[Mallard60022]

There really is something 'different' about track-work like this. It really does not look OO at all but then neither does Rob's in most places due to the super ballasting and colouring.

If only there were a decent range of RTR pointwork to accompany this 'finer track' without having to build kits, build your own (although that can be fun) or have them buit for you (Marcway are very reasonable price wise IMO)......., oh hang on I might start a friendly discussion by mentioning this.

Phil

[checkrail]

What is your fiddle yard arrangement?.

 

It consists of four loops in each direction (there's never room for enough, is there?), plus two long sidings for the branch with run-round and uncoupling facilities.  Here are a few pics, minus trains for clarity:

 

 

 

 

 

Track is Peco code 75, laid on 4mm EVA medium density foam (whatever that is), obtained online from a medical products supplier.  I chose the royal blue to make it startlingly clear to non-modelling types that this was definitely 'offstage', 'behind the scenes', and not part of the layout proper.

 

as the photos show, points are operated by wire & tube from the front of the baseboard with SPDT slider switches from Maplins providing both the mechanical throw and the electrical frog polarity change.

 

The last two pics show the slide-out hatch for access.  It's only a few weeks since I moved the inner circuit pointwork onto the hatch, increasing capacity on that side to match that of the outer circuit.  Can now manage a couple of 7 coach through trains in each direction (the station platforms will take 6).  I thought I was tempting fate having 12 separate rails crossing one end of the hatch but - touch wood - everything's been fine so far, even in this mini-heatwave.

 

 

 

The hatch simply slides out from inside the layout, with backstops to position it.  Power goes to it via a simple two point plug 'n' socket carrying a spur from the layout power bus.  The bearers on which it slides are greased with candle-wax a couple of times a year, and have brass woodscrews inserted fore and aft to provide any necessary vertical adjustment by a part-turn of a Phillips screwdriver.  But I've not had to do this since the early days in 2012/13.

 

John C.

[Mallard60022]

Oh that has quite inspired me, especially the tidy droppers and neat little slide switches.

Phil

[Bogie]

This just keeps getting better and better.

[wigancg]

Dear John,

 

What a smashing layout here after just catching up with it on the forum! Such skill, time, effort and dedication and you can certainly reap the rewards for your talent. Amazing!

 

It's always a joy to see a well turned out GWR layout and this one is easily one of the best! My hat goes off to you.

 

You have certainly gained an extra follower here...

 

Kind regards,

Chris

[Jules]

Superb layout! I really like the sweeping curves and flow of the track, and the feeling of space.  Plus being pre-nationalisation helps!

[Spannerman]

What an amazing layout. Absolutely stunning.

The only improvement I could suggest is to give the Southern running rights and run some of Bullieds finest.

[checkrail]

The only improvement I could suggest is to give the Southern running rights and run some of Bullieds finest.

 

Thanks for kind words Spannerman.  Bulleid's output might be a bit late for my period, but it did cross my mind that a Hornby S15 and some of those lovely Maunsell coaches might be a future acquisition for the occasional route familiarity turn.

 

Turning to a different railway today's pics have an LNER flavour to show my new toys - Oxford Rail cattle wagon and 6 plank open.  Nice models, though the former might be a bit orangey? (Especially when compared to the Bachmann van next to it.)  But great to see accurate RTR wagons  suitable for the pre-war scene.

 

 

 

 

John C.

[Andrew P]

Thanks for kind words Spannerman.  Bulleid's output might be a bit late for my period, but it did cross my mind that a Hornby S15 and some of those lovely Maunsell coaches might be a future acquisition for the occasional route familiarity turn.

 

Turning to a different railway today's pics have an LNER flavour to show my new toys - Oxford Rail cattle wagon and 6 plank open.  Nice models, though the former might be a bit orangey? (Especially when compared to the Bachmann van next to it.)  But great to see accurate RTR wagons  suitable for the pre-war scene.

 

New LNER wagons 001-min.JPG

 

New LNER wagons 003-min.JPG

 

New LNER wagons 004-min.JPG

 

John C.

How about an M7 or T9?

[wigancg]

Nice to get back from holiday to kind and supportive comments – enough to encourage me to further posts. 

 

In answer to specific queries:

 

William – yes, I’m familiar with ‘A nod to Brent’.  In fact when I first found it last year I did no modelling for several days while I avidly read through the lot!  Great stuff.  And I’m also following Fatadder’s Brent project with interest.  Both of these of course are much more closely based on the real Brent, whereas my semi-freelance effort merely borrows the concept of a small S. Devon junction station and the main outlines of the track plan.

 

Dennis – the clerestories are simply the old Hornby items.  Nothing has been done to them yet, save to paint the droplights (I used Railmatch SR venetian red as a proxy for the GWR shade).  This can be seen on the first pic below, and makes a bit of a difference.  The next stage is to add decent gangways and sooty black roofs.  The lack of relief panelling is pretty obvious, but I rejoined this game just too late to acquire the etched replacement sides that 247 Developments used to do. (Not that I’m certain I wouldn’t have made a pig’s ear of fettling them!) They’ll be fine as ‘layout coaches’, in Tony Wright’s useful phrase.

 

More on the layout in due course; in the meantime here are a few more pics.  

 

 

Layout, 11 July 16 002-min.JPG

 

 

R1.JPG

 

 

R9.JPG

 

 

R5.JPG

 

 

R13.JPG

 

 

(My apologies that I haven't yet worked out how to stop rotated portrait format pics from reverting to landscape when I attach them!)

 

 

John C.

 

Hi John,

 

Just had to return and browse this wonder of a layout on here this afternoon. Please may I ask; how did you make/put together your platform running in board with the correct font?

 

Amazing!

 

Cheers,

Chris

[Mallard60022]

Thanks for kind words Spannerman.  Bulleid's output might be a bit late for my period, but it did cross my mind that a Hornby S15 and some of those lovely Maunsell coaches might be a future acquisition for the occasional route familiarity turn.

 

Turning to a different railway today's pics have an LNER flavour to show my new toys - Oxford Rail cattle wagon and 6 plank open.  Nice models, though the former might be a bit orangey? (Especially when compared to the Bachmann van next to it.)  But great to see accurate RTR wagons  suitable for the pre-war scene.

 

New LNER wagons 001-min.JPG

 

New LNER wagons 003-min.JPG

 

New LNER wagons 004-min.JPG

 

John C.

Don't look at the thread slating the Oxford cattle truck......................................

Phil

[81C]

Don't look at the thread slating the Oxford cattle truck......................................

Phil

 Don't waste your time it's full of the usual dross and whingers, a lick of dark wash would soon tone the orangey effect down.   

[checkrail]

Hi John,

 

Please may I ask; how did you make/put together your platform running in board with the correct font?

 

Cheers,

Chris

 

Hi Chris

 

Well, I learn something new everyday. As a railway enthusiast for over 60 years I'd never heard the term 'running in board', and had to google it!  But I know it now and will use it.

 

 

Mine are from the Scale Link kits, although I couldn't get on with their lovely etched letters.  Part of it was my lack of skill in getting them straight, but I also found that being restricted to their 2mm and 4mm fonts I would end up with a sign longer than I wanted, rather dominating the relatively short platforms.  So I sacrificed the relief effect and printed mine out from the PC.  If you subscribe to the GWR elist (just google it) you can download the authentic GWR font to your PC for free.  (You'll also subsequently get loads of emails discussing all sorts of GWR arcana.)

 

Thanks for kind words, Glad you like the layout and the running in boards.  There - I've used it!

 

John C.