Rufford Red Lion Square

[richard i]

2 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Do you know a man who knows a man who can get you that at a very good price, no questions asked?

 

Jim 

At ikea, Billy can.

[James Harrison]

Well, work started on my Ks Dean luggage van. 

 

 

Kadee couplings fitted and some buffers sourced from Jar of Many Random Parts, and then made a start on painting it up in GWR crimson lake (1912-22).  When that is done I'll fit some glazing, a floor and the below-floor undergubbins, all of which is missing (except bogies and wheelsets).  This will be set up with my GWR Python van and a Siphon H and form part of an imagined south west - north east parcels train that reverses at RLS. 

[James Harrison]

 

A bit of a difference...

 

It took about four coats of crimson lake to get a good finish and about the same for the white roof (though this is still streaky in places and I'll probably go back and put a few more coats down to finish that off entirely).

 

I used glue'n'glaze for the glazing as whoever originally built the van, built the bodywork, got the bogies set up, and... didn't really think about how to glaze it.  So along I come to finish it off and there's no way I can manouvre sheets of perspex between the roof and the bogies and then along the length of the carriage, and secure them in position, and achieve a result to be proud of. 

 

The perspex I'd already cut for the windows I was able to reuse however to build the floor between the bogies, which now needs painting. 

 

Under-floor detailing is rough and ready in the extreme; a vacuum cylinder and gas cylinder from the Ratio GWR carriages, centre steps fabricated from spare solebars from the same source.  I'm planning to order a sheet of the appropriate transfers on payday, but aside from that I think I'm about finished. 

 

The debate now is whether these vans would have been lined out in 1920.

[James Harrison]

Another small part of the puzzle arrived today- the Bachmann resin model of a GCR goods depot.  Not that I'm planning that to be the goods shed- I have slightly grander ideas for that- this is intended to be a smaller store. 

 

When I do get around to starting in earnest- and I'm still aiming for that being in the colder, darker months ahead- I'm probably going to be working on the goods yard first.  Primarily because I'll be able to use up my tight setrack trainset points and pose the sleepers and whatnot in the ash and cinders and the like that will pass for ballast. 

[James Harrison]

 

And that's the GWR luggage van completed.  I've had the transfers for a few weeks but have been struggling of late to shrug off the listlessness.  I blame spending the last five months pretty much stuck indoors except for essential excursions. 

 

I'm aware each of the doors should have 'luggage' written on it however there were not enough transfers on the sheet and, to be honest, it's one of those little details I can turn a blind eye to.  It would also have been a struggle to get the lettering into that tiny slit in the panelling. 

[James Harrison]

This coming Autumn / Winter I'm planning to start work on Red Lion Square.  I want to use Peco's bullhead system but as certain key elements of it that I need show no sign of being released I'm looking instead at what I already have to hand and whether it can be pressed into use in some fashion or another. 

 

What I do have is a quantity of Code 100 train set track, mostly Hornby but a few examples of Peco Streamline pointwork in there too... which I reckon I should be able to use up in the goods yard as the track will either be in cobbles or setts or else buried up to the rail head in ash, cinders and general muck. 

 

So, I've been playing about on SCARM trying to mirror the goods depot in Iain Rice's 'Rutford Market' plan (in 'Mainlines in Modest Spaces') and I came up with this, in a space roughly 7' x 2'. 

 

I'm calling it Grimston Goods (Grimston being a neighbouring village to Rufford that was similarly evicted in the 13th Century)- if you want a rough idea of how it will eventually look, see Mr. Rice's plan below mine. 

 

 

 

At risk of plagiarising further, I'm looking at the photograph of Attercliffe goods shed in one of Dow's books with covetous eyes, similar to a certain Reverend gentlemen did 50 or 60 years ago.

[t-b-g]

You mean something like this:

 

 

My latest project is based on a "what if" Attercliffe had been provided with a small passenger facility so that all the trains didn't have to go into the city centre.

 

The remnants of the yard are still there and rail served but sadly the shed has long gone!  

 

[James Harrison]

I do indeed. It's pleasingly unlike the plain masonry box that seems to have passed for most other goods sheds.

[Mikkel]

On 15/08/2020 at 20:45, James Harrison said:

And that's the GWR luggage van completed.

 

Nice to see one of these in the lake livery. It clearly suits it very well.   Is that the whole parcels train done then?

[James Harrison]

14 hours ago, Mikkel said:

 

Nice to see one of these in the lake livery. It clearly suits it very well.   Is that the whole parcels train done then?

 

Err, not by a long shot.  I've got the luggage van and a Python built and I've scrapped my original idea of turning a Siphon (G or H) into another GCR fish van, so that's going to be cleaned up instead and remain a Siphon and that will also go into the rake. 

 

Then I've got;

2 GCR bogie fish vans (undecided whether these will go in the parcels rake or form the basis of a fish train);

1 GCR CCT to build;

1 GCR bogie brake (newspaper?) van to build;

1 GNR milk van.

 

If I leave out the fish vans I reckon that the whole rake is about halfway there.  The wonder for me at the moment is what do I want to build next. 

[Mikkel]

Ah, I thought the GCR stock had been done earlier. Once completed that train is going to be a pretty unique model.

[James Harrison]

 

I tweaked the plan a little to standardise on use of common or garden setrack pointwork, figuring the tighter radius is more suited to a goods yard.  Then I double-checked what I had in stock (bought in the early 1990s, if you can credit it.... remember when you used to get Hornby pointwork in little cardboard diamond-shaped sleeves?) and ordered the points I was lacking.  Slightly taken aback by the cost of trainset track...

[James Harrison]

It has taken more than a little while but some sort of an official start has been made.  In a break with tradition there was no silver shovel or wheelbarrow, no junketing and no verbose meaningless speeches. 

 

 

Good- it all fits together.

[James Harrison]

I've ever-so-slightly tweaked the plan; there appeared to be some tension in the run-round loop.  Also not shown on the plan, a pair of wagon turntables on the top left sidings.  Moving the lowest siding on the left (really only provided for brakevans) up by seven inches, swapping out a straight for a second radius curve and then having the loco release (lowest track left) on more of an 'upward tick' solved that admirably as well as bringing overall length down a little.  Overall then this is 1900mm x 700mm and that is allowing space for a decent goods warehouse (adjacent top left siding), the goods office and the stable block.  Quite where the GCR goods depot I bought recently will fit I'm not sure- I'm toying with an idea to have it as a sort of private provendor's store or somesuch on the bottom right siding.  Top right siding is to be a loco stabling road and the original idea was that middle and bottom right were to be a coal yard.  This may yet still be the case.  Between the two loop roads I'm thinking of placing a bothy and the whole area will be variously macadam, brick setts and ash / coal dust. 

 

The alignment of the track, incidentally, really will pivot about the curve to the top left siding- I'm aiming for not even an inch of rail to be parallel to the baseboard edges. 

[James Harrison]

The stars have aligned such that I have some time off work and no (or little) house-hammering lined up so I proceed with Grimston goods depot. 

 

Several months ago (at least several months ago- it was before I moved home) I bought a download paper kit for a stable block, which I've now finally gotten around to having printed out (and ordered some brick sheet to clad it with, and worked out that I've got enough cardboard to mount it on). 

 

So that's going to be this week's specific task...

[James Harrison]

For those taking notes, the "finescale buildings" stable block kit is a nice match in terms of block massing and overall size for the "your model railway village" station building (that kit that I converted into goods depot offices last year [or was it the year before...]).

 

Today I've been gluing the various sheets down onto card.  I wasn't expecting to then have to iron the card (after the glue had dried) to take the bowing out though...

 

Now to wait for the plastic sheet to arrive. 

[James Harrison]

Whilst waiting on plastic sheet I remembered I had an 'Immingham', painted and half lind out and waiting to be finished off, languishing in a box on a shelf.  So yesterday I finally got around to doing the boiler bands and the insignia/ monograms/ coat of arms....

 

 

 

 

Number plates were fitted this morning, so now I can add another completed loco to my roster.  That makes three black 4-6-0s I've finished in the new house.

[James Harrison]

I found an offcut or two of plastic brick sheet that would suit for at least one or two of the outer walls of the stable block, so this afternoon I made a start in earnest. 

 

 

Cutting tiny shapes through 2mm-thick card is slow going, especially when you also need to cut curves. 

 

 

However I think I'll be able to get quite a good result. 

[Edwardian]

16 hours ago, James Harrison said:

I found an offcut or two of plastic brick sheet that would suit for at least one or two of the outer walls of the stable block, so this afternoon I made a start in earnest. 

 

 

Cutting tiny shapes through 2mm-thick card is slow going, especially when you also need to cut curves. 

 

 

However I think I'll be able to get quite a good result. 

 

Coming along well.

 

Looks like you're building one of these ....

 

This one is Great Eastern, IIRC, based on Dereham.

 

I bought one for Castle Aching, but think it will be used at Achingham station.

 

Always good to have room for a giraffe 

[James Harrison]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

Coming along well.

 

Looks like you're building one of these ....

 

This one is Great Eastern, IIRC, based on Dereham.

 

I bought one for Castle Aching, but think it will be used at Achingham station.

 

Always good to have room for a giraffe 

 

That's the kit I'm using as a basis.  I think it was your post on it on the CA thread that made me aware of it in the first place (belated thanks!)  Now how closely it will resemble the kit I'm not sure- I'm not planning a major kitbash but who knows?- however as I've already mentioned it is a nice size to complement the YMRV station building kit I've adapted to offices (on reflection I think the schoolhouse kit would have been better....) and the arched elevations are a good match to the appearance of the wagon repair shops at Leicester, which is about the right size for my planned goods warehouse and which I'm thinking of using as a basis.  I've mentioned Attercliffe as a proposed goods shed previously and to be truthful I'm thinking of an amalgam of the two. 

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Coming along well.

 

Looks like you're building one of these ....

 

This one is Great Eastern, IIRC, based on Dereham.

 

I bought one for Castle Aching, but think it will be used at Achingham station.

 

Always good to have room for a giraffe 

I have to admit that for a moment I was at a loss trying to decide whether to click the 'Funny' button or the 'Like' button.

 

A nice looking building, but then it's Great Eastern so it goes without saying.

[James Harrison]

 

Reality bit, hard, today as I made another gargantuan but futile effort to clear the spare room.  My list of wants is in excess of the available space.  At first, I did think that by putting the goods yard on the long wall and running the locomotive depot off the goods yard lead, and putting the station on a diagonal into the room in front of the fireplace, would answer.  But try as I might I just couldn't get a neat result.  The problem is the curves.  2' radius lets me get everything in but presents too regimented a look.  Easing the curves eats up the space and makes the whole layout longer and deeper.  Also that room is needed for things other than just RLS (it's also home to my railway books, collection of model dreadnoughts, workshop and is currently the 'here' in the phrase dump it here.)

 

So the loco depot bit the dust.  This new design takes up two walls of the room- including the wasted one with the fireplace- whilst leaving a fair bit of room for things other than the layout.  The intention remains to start work on the goors depot and hopefully by the time that is finished Peco will have pulled their finger out and got the b/h slips and medium points out, which will let me work around to the station. 

 

Still in abeyance of course is how to lead the mainlines off-stage (I have in mind running into a tunnel similar to Weekday Cross, but then how to articulate the necessary rise in the ground with the goods yard right in front of it...)- a high level back road into the coal yard might answer and then place the mainlines into a brick-lined cutting.

[James Harrison]

I think I've sussed it. 

 

 

Mirror-imaging the goods yard, removing a few sidings and adding a bit more curve on the entry road buys me some room.  Then if I posit a series of contours similar to Weekday Cross in Nottingham I can imagine this with the goods yard at a slightly lower level than the main lines (say 30- 40mm lower) which are running on brick arches and then plunge into a tunnel.  The almost dart-straight track could be disguised by introducing warehouses in the vee between the yard and mainlines (I don't mean my goods shed, as then I'd be presented with an awkward incline on the road to get out of the goods yard- think more a railside industry with a rail-served undercroft) and then the mainline goes into the tunnel, makes a 90-degree turn and into the staging.  Which I see more as loading cassettes than anything else- the way I see it, the trains actually get made up on the layout and the staging is there just to store them when off-scene. 

[James Harrison]

 

I think that squares the circle.  I've got the loco depot back in (albeit much reduced) and although I'm generally not a fan (for reasons I can't understand) of peninsula-type baseboards, by using one I can pull the goods yard away from the long wall and use that space for the staging instead.  In fact if I run the mainline almost right up to the wall and use train-length cassettes I can reduce that to just enough for one line of track, which then gives me around 500mm of space along that wall for myself to get in and out.  Also that cassette could sit on a bookcase or a bookshelf- if on the bookcase then that also provides storage space for the stock other than on the layout itself. 

 

I've also got of course some nice big corners and areas where I can develop the townscape. 

 

I feel quite happy with this iteration, there's room for maybe three or four operators or spectators, although the boards come out into the room somewhat I can imagine some form of storage below for my magazines and books, and even a pull-out workbench.

[James Harrison]

With work on the 1:1 project winding down for Winter, things start to ramp up on the 1:76 side of things.

 

 

I've added the lintels to the stable block facade.  These should be brick however I've decided to model them in stone to continue the style of the goods yard offices.