Rufford Red Lion Square

[James Harrison]

After three nights' effort, the up platform was finished.  The board has now been rotated through 180 degrees so work can start on the down platform tonight.  Tonight, tomorrow night, maybe a bit Saturday.... if the supply of flags holds out that should see all of the paving done, then I should really just finish off the small gaps and look at the weathering and whatnot, will the track be ballasted in time for Christmas?- probably not but that can be done over the Christmas break inbetween other jobs.  The resident Inspector Blake is starting to make noises about materials gathered for the project, the sooner I get onto the landscaping proper the better as he has an aversion to offcuts of card stashed in a box.  

[James Harrison]

Well, I got a bit of of enthusiasm up last night and so both platforms are now fully paved.  There's some weathering and final surface texture to add, and a few areas where ballast coul really do with being thickened up, but other than that they're about done. 

 

I think track ballasting can rightly commence this weekend...

[James Harrison]

Not much progress tonight.... I used up the last of the first bag of ballast touching in one or two bald spots on the platforms.  Once the PVA has dried out I'll give them a thin wash or two (or three) of various browns, greys and a very thin black just to finish off.  Then the up line was lifted, as I had noticed a couple of kinks in the rail and an area where it undulated, plus I was unhappy with how the rail ends were out of step.  I concluded the way to fix it was to remove one of the rails and then rethread it onto the sleepers.  It worked, but my word was it a thankless task.  The up road has now been relaid and lightly glued down in readiness for ballasting. 

 

That done, I considered a question I've been wondering about for some time now.  I could never quite make my mind up about signalling and block working,  one thought of mine was that as it is a station logically it should be signalled and a block post, another thought was that as there is neither crossover nor sidings there's no real need for signalling... eventually I came to the conclusion that even if there weren't a signal cabin there would still be at the very least distant and home signals and a ground frame on the platform.  Something similar to the arrangement at Sheffield Park on the Bluebell Railway was my thought, but I'm not aware of anywhere on the GC that had that sort of set up so a signal cabin it shall be.  

 

There's no room for a signal cabin on CfP but I have plans to incorporate one into the extended CfP scene on Red Lion Square, meanwhile the signals themselves will have to be included of course!  In the appendices of Vol.3 of George Dow's Great Central there are some very nice, well detailed drawings of GCR signals.  I'm not confident enough to scratchbuild my own working signals!- but luckily they're not a million miles removed from some GWR designs.  They both have square posts, they both have a ball and spike finial, the boards are pretty much identical (squared off for home, notched for distant).  Granted the location of the counterweights differ- at the base of the post on the GWR, halfway up the post on the GC- but that's such a slight difference that it's a compromise I'm willing to accept, if I can't kitbash my way around it.  I've ordered a pair of Ratio GWR home signals, you see.  One of them will need a backing board fitted as it will be on the platform probably right up against the overbridge, but that's an easy enough fix and adds some extra interest. 

 

Now as for the signalling runs, the 'box and the distant signals, they will have to wait for another time. 

[James Harrison]

 

 

I've suddenly gained three feet of steam age mainline.  How on Earth did that happen?

 

That was my goal for Christmas and I seem to have got there; first fix ballasting laid and setting.  I used granite chips fixed down with dilute PVA for this, I was expecting it to be tedious and to be honest the worst bit of it is trying to get that neat manicured look.  Getting it roughly right is easy enough but then there is an age to be spent with a brush pushing it hither and thither, and just when you think you're there you spot another thin patch, put more ballast down and then back to square one.... I'm about happy with it now, because the ballast on the sleepers looks worse in the photos than it does in the flesh!- also of course ballast on the sleepers in places is chaos theory in action, you can't/ won't convince me that every inch of permanent way was neatly brushed and swept and ballast never got on to the sleepers.  Else why where track gangs employed....

 

Still masses of work to do of course but the 'simple' act of ballasting makes it appear that much closer to completion.

[richard i]

Mainline ballast was well cared for, I went around once it was all dry and levered it off the sleepers with a scalpel. Took time but it improves the look.

Richard

[James Harrison]

 

Mainline ballast was well cared for, I went around once it was all dry and levered it off the sleepers with a scalpel. Took time but it improves the look.

Richard

 

 

I think it would benefit from that, certainly.

[James Harrison]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all readers of the thread!

 

No modelling progress to report today, yet, as I only finished work for the festivities at midday, but shortly I intend to do a little more on the ballasting effort, which has gone bald in places and had too little fixitive in others and generally could do with some cleaning up.

 

Once that is done I'll be setting Cremorne for Pittance aside for a little while and doing my annual Christmas Week Small Project; this year it will be a pair of Ratio LNWR wagons and a Cambrian Midland Railway covered van.

 

I can honestly say that this time last year I wasn't intending to make an earnest start on Red Lion Square. Some would argue I haven't and instead have become sidetracked but the intention is, was and always has been that CfP is only temporarily a standalone piece and will be built into the complete Rufford layout when the time comes. In any case, CfP is also rightly seen as a larger-scale testing piece in the same vein as the Cakebox Challenge earlier this year.

 

So; what do I see in the coming year for RLS?

 

An immediate objective is full-scale planning for Red Lion Square station. Having left it alone for several months, I'm still sweet on my Douglas-inspired sketch from the Summer:

 

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/840/42338053015_dfacca4a00_b.jpg

 

Which actually I think as well has a bit of a hint of Leicester Central about it which I find quite pleasing.

 

Then there's the Square itself, in addition to the first building I drew up I've bought a few kits; the low-relief terrace from Petite Properties and one of the old Victorian semi-detached kits from Hornby, which will provide a decent start to the street running down the back of the layout. Much of the Square 'proper' will be scratchbuilt and I'm slowly gathering photographs of buildings and street layouts that I think will fit; one that I would like to use as inspiration is the Gilstrap Centre in Newark. One of the major elements of the Square is the tramway and I'm quite pleased with how that has developed this year, the traction poles being the one element that was holding planning up and of course I have those now... expect in 2019 to see some serious town planning going on.

 

As it usually is, materials, inspiration and research is turning up faster than it can be applied...

 

Oh, and for making a start on RLS proper? That still waits on finding a home for it, which in turn waits on something else- and that something else, well, time will tell shortly.

[James Harrison]

I managed to remove most of the errant ballast and then gave the whole lot another going over with dilute PVA... I think the best thing now is just to leave it be a little while to thoroughly dry out and then go back and do any thin or bald patches. And on that note; onto the Christmas Week project.

[James Harrison]

Christmas Week Project is off to a flying start; both LNWR open kits going together in about an hour. First fix paintwork tomorrow and then off to the SVR for the annual 'betweenmas' Steampunk get-together on Thursday. I'm confident I'll have a pair of useable LNWR wagons by the end of the weekend.

[Compound2632]

They do go together easily, don't they? The D54 5-plank coal wagon: you've given it the single flap and push-rod brake. As far as I can work out, by the time these were being built (or rather re-built from D53 4-plank coal wagons, from 1905 onwards), the dual brake-shoe arrangement was being used, as you've used for the D4 or D9 4-plank merchandise wagon. So it's just as well you've not cut off the V-hanger yet! [Ref. LNWR Wagons Vols. 1 (brake evolution) and 3 (coal wagons); also LNWR Society web page on D54 wagons.]

 

You've used grease axleboxes on both wagons - I thought the kit came with only four grease axleboxes and four oil axleboxes?

Edited December 25, 2018 by Compound2632

[James Harrison]

You're right, it does. Unfortunately what wasn't obvious was that the wagons are to differing lengths and that each sprue has one solebar for each wagon. So you can imagine what I did... One sprue, two solebars, all grease type on those two solebars and then find the one doesn't fit-and by the time you find out the glue has set and you can't get the axlebixes off without wrecking either them or the solebars. To make the best of a bad situation my thought at the moment is that as you can only see one side of the wagons at a time I can have one variant on one side and an alternative on the other, not a dodge I'm entirely satisfied with and I might have another go at rectifying my cockup tomorrow. Regards the brakes, I've used the later type in both wagons. I have to say that the prototype info in the instructions is pretty lacking when it comes to making decisions which axleboxes and brakes to use. "Early type refer to sketch A, later type sketch B" is the order of the day but there's no info as to when type A was superceded.

[James Harrison]

I tried to sort out the axleboxes this morning but they are pretty firmly set in place; to remove them would require such force as to utterly wreck the rest of the wagon which obviously defeats the object... my workaround bodge will have to do and I'll just chalk it up to experience for the next time.

[James Harrison]

The Christmas Week Project has undergone a case of mission creep. I found a Radleys resin kit for an 18-ton Metropolitan covered van. Quite what one of those would be doing 100 miles or so north of Quainton Road I don't know but situations such as this are what Rule 1 is for.

 

It's two pieces of cast resin and a chassis from Dapol and I think at some point in the four or five years or so it's been sitting in my roundtoit pile I must have had a halfhearted attempt at it, as there were a pair of 5-gram weights secured into the van body and glue marks suggesting the chassis had been fitted and then taken off again.

 

I think its time has finally arrived. The roof has been fitted and before I look at painting the LNWR opens this afternoon I'll fit the couplings and reattach the chassis.

[Annie]

Wagons have wheels James and can end up in all manner of unexpected places.

[James Harrison]

Quite so and Rule 1 applies.

 

The pair of LNWR opens are finished, the Met van lacks only lettering (you can't get Metropolitan goods wagon transfers, so I'm pondering what to do about that...) and the Midland van has been started.

 

For some reason this last week I've been unable to add photos; when clicking on 'reply to topic' I just get a textbox and- nothing else. Shall have to see if things return to normal after the Christmas/ New Year break.

 

I keep meaning, too, to start proper drawings for Red Lion Square station. Maybe tomorrow....

[Caley Jim]

For some reason this last week I've been unable to add photos; when clicking on 'reply to topic' I just get a textbox and- nothing else. Shall have to see if things return to normal after the Christmas/ New Year break.

lick on the 'Reply with attachments' button below the bottom right of the text box. 

 

 

Jim

[James Harrison]

Four wagons begun, four wagons built, three wagons lettered and weathered. The Midand van I've ordered some transfers for, but to all intents and purposes Christmas Week Project 2018 is done and dusted. I wonder what form CWP 2019 will take?- and where I will be building it?- and how much of RLS will have been built or building by then?

 

So; next project. Back to CfP for a while, ballasting of course needs finishing off and then I can look at starting the landscape in a serious manner.

[Branwell]

lick on the 'Reply with attachments' button below the bottom right of the text box. 

 

 

Jim

mmm ... tastes nice

[James Harrison]

The very, very last job of 2018 proved to be sorting out the last few areas of ballasting to rectify. Onwards to 2019!- tomorrow I start fleshing out the cutting sides!

[James Harrison]

So; onto the cuttings. I had previously roughed out the profiles in stiff card so the first thing I did this morning was to start bracing that up with more of it, laying in the line of the retaining walls and the path and road. With that done, I bunched up some wads of newspaper and persuaded it between the profiles. This just bulked it out a little and let me get an idea of what the final cutting will look like. Then I set-to with some strips of paper, weaving the basic surface in-situ. Once I had got about half of one cutting side finished, light was beginning to fail.

Edited January 1, 2019 by James Harrison

[James Harrison]

For whatever reason it is insistant on only attaching one photo. 49678712_299733933992836_4409885481081241600_n by James Harrison, on Flickr

 

49343387_2206200206366077_1899854791698284544_n by James Harrison, on Flickr

Edited January 1, 2019 by James Harrison

[Edwardian]

For whatever reason it is insistant on only attaching one photo. 49678712_299733933992836_4409885481081241600_n by James Harrison, on Flickr

 

49343387_2206200206366077_1899854791698284544_n by James Harrison, on Flickr

 

Clever (and much more effort than I'd ever go to!)

[Hroth]

For whatever reason it is insistant on only attaching one photo. 49678712_299733933992836_4409885481081241600_n by James Harrison, on Flickr

 

49343387_2206200206366077_1899854791698284544_n by James Harrison, on Flickr

 

Very smooth!

 

I usually do the card profiles, newspaper wadding thing, then top it off with plaster bandage.  A bit more lumpy than using plaited paper, but probably quicker!

 

( see posts 4 and 5  http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/138205-the-attack-of-the-60ft-spider-from-mars/ )

[James Harrison]

I did consider plaster bandage but there were a couple of reasons I went for paper instead.

 

1. Weight, not only is CfP being built on a (very) lightweight baseboard, for the foreseeable future it has to be quite portable. So cutting down the weight to the bare minimum is pretty high on the agenda.

 

2. The mess factor- I'm building CfP in a spare corner of an occupied room so whilst little drips of glue/ odd piles of materials/ the occasional spillage of dry 'stuff' is tolerated I'm going out of my way not to introduce too many wet/ awkward to clean up materials into the equation. The domestic authoroties in the form of the resident Inspector Blake would just love that, another opportunity to whinge about a 'mess' in the corner.

[James Harrison]

 

Work began on the second half of the cutting side.

 

 

The extra length quickly became unmanageable, so I took the time out to secure the edges down and cut it back. We begin to see the form of the cutting.

 

 

Eventually I reached the end of the run.

 

 

And the obligatory looking down the line shot.