Croft Spa

[Les1952]

A little more done on the contours

 

Basically shopping day yesterday, while I had a day out on the bus on Thursday- picking a good one as Marshalls had a rare double-decker on the Nottingham service- my last double-deck run down the Fosse to Nottingham was a Gash Daimler CVD6....

 

a bit of a difference...

 

Meanwhile the bones of the road overbridge are done.  I'm using the later flat-topped bridge at this end, but have located an arch bridge I might be able to recycle for the other end- pics of this after next Tuesday assuming it comes away intact from its present location (a diorama being scrapped at the clubroom).

 

 

I've built a set of Ancorton terraced houses- or rather three of a set- which look a little too small next to the Lyddle End duo, but which should be OK with a suitable amount of packing and careful siting.  I still need another slightly different one to go on the end, and another to go to the left of the Lyddle End pair.  In the pic it is leaning downwards towards the Lyddle End pair, which exaggerates the difference.

 

 

The pic also shows the progress on the first pair of semi-detached bungalows.  Windowsills and guttering etc to be added, and then the roof weathered.  If I can't get it to look reasonable I'll scrap it and start again. The second pair will be different as I think I'll use brickwork up to the window line and leave the wooden boards above.  

 

Plenty to do.  Late start as I've been watching the news.  The derelict sports centre at the school where I used to work burned down last night.  A CLASP building - the frightening thing is that the school would have gone up that quickly if that had caught fire.  The school has since moved into a new building, but the drive to the new school is apparently blocked by the smouldering remains of the old sports centre.  Not excited enough to go out and have a gawp.  The shed is more inviting....

 

Les

Edited September 16, 2017 by Les1952

[Les1952]

A little more work

 

I've put a facing of Redutex on the nearside of the station bridge and given the up platform its roughened surface and its first coat of colour.  Note that adding the bridge and the backscene shows up that the ballast doesn't go far enough towards the end of the layout.  I've also done the first two lengths of the down platform facing.  I'll need to ballast beyond the brdge before it can go into place finally so I might as well finish the ballast through the station at the same time

 

 

the white at the left is the foundations going in for the up platform access.  This needs to be in place before I can site the footbridge and signalbox.  Unlike the road bridge it needs to be glued, but can be fiddled about with to make sure there is enough room for the bridge and signalbox.  The platform shelter will sit at the bottom of the ramp.

 

Looking at it from another angle- the wall has to bend from the end of the bridge parapet rather than a little after it.  I've cut it rather than scoring and bending as it might be better here to just make a wing wall and embankment here.  I'll know better once I've got the gradient past the bungalow and round the corner done.  In reality the station entrance is a narrow track between the road embankment and the first house on Belgrave Terrace.  Widening this entrance would mean I can move Belgrave Terrace to the right- making it a little North of where it should be.

 

 

Nothing doing yet at the other end, though the large stone barn has arrived.  Nowadays there is a large steel-framed barn at right-angles to the railway.  I suspect that the new barn is the first occupant of its site, but I have a lot of length to fill on the farm board and not a lot to fill it with.

 

 

I have also a hen house which might be a little modern and another small farm outbuilding.  These are folded and assembled out of a one-piece resin kit so will be fairly testing to build.

 

Time to do something else...

Les

[McRuss]

Hello Les,

 

who makes the barn?

 

Markus

[Les1952]

Hello Les,

 

who makes the barn?

 

Markus

 

It came on eBay from the Model Clearing House.  Beyond that, not a clue.

 

However they quote an email address for enquiries.. sales@modelitltd.co.uk 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Les

[Les1952]

Contours continue

 

Pictures are from two days ago, but I've now got on to the plastering of the cutting and the area around the farm.  Good news is that the farm will need a bigger area than I'd originally planned for it.  Bad news is that the semi-detatched bungalow just won't do and the small terrace is just too small.  However I've got plenty of time to get replacements and the unusable terrace will fit on a different project I'm starting- a small circular thingy (2 feet across) to sit on the front desk at the next South Notts Show.

 

 

I decided the station bridge wasn't wide enough and also needed to be slightly skewed.  The pic shows it as it now is- though more of the brickwork has been added since.  I need some capping stome for it- and will have a look at what Steve has in the way of Evergreen U-channel in due course.   No hurry here.  The semi pair has been donated by Geoff Warren, he built it for Rise Park but it didn't fit and is now redundant.  It is a Kestrel kit.  It nicely fits as the semi in Belgrave Terrace near the bottom end.

 

 

Showing the bridge at the farm end- this is just the right size and better made than I could do.  the fact it is a little too tall will be hidden by the line being in cutting here with plenty of foliage on each side.  Note recycled foam rubber from stock boxes being used as risers, partly to keep the weight down.  I don't want this layout to be another back breaker like Hawthorn Dene.

 

Quite a lot done today- but there is only Sunday now available for plastering.  Geoff is coming over on Tuesday afternoon to help swap this layout over with Hawthorn Dene so I can do some work on that before Peterbrough Show>  This one will then be re-erected for a month after Hinckley show before HD needs preparing again for Manchester.  Now why didn't I get a 30 foot long garden workshop instead of a sixteen footer? 

 

Les

[Les1952]

Done for now

 

I've run out of plaster bandage.  I should have known that two rolls plus about half another one left over from Hawthorn Dene wouldn't be enough.  Still, a basic ground cover is there on the farm board and I can add more to strengthen and smooth it after mid-October when the layout is next erected.

 

 

To the left the bridge that will help hide the exit.  I think this might be a Lyddle End road overbridge.  If it is then it is far too narrow for a roadway but looks the part.  I can't find any decent pictures of the prototype before its 1950s rebuild so I don't know if it was originally stone or brick.  If I don't know then the chances of someone telling me I'm wrong must be fairly slim.

 

To the right the cutting running past the farm coming towards the cricket field at the near end.  I'll flatten out the area beyond the foamboard slightly and put the pavilion at this end to make the playing surface a bit flatter.

 

 

What a wonderfully exciting picture this is - not.  The cricket field will be behind the turnout to the down loading dock- most of it the flat area currently foamboard.  The up loading dock is offscene beyond the bridge and I've totally ignored its existance by not extending the platforms through the bridge.  This will be hidden by the signal box and footbridge in any case.  It is also over 45 years since the platforms were demolished.   There will be a hedge running along the board join to separate the cricket field out from a smaller area on the station board, which may or may not become a park.

Cat feeding time again.  She has been shouting at me for over half an hour....

 

More pics tomorrow then vacuuming the layout and shed ready to pack this one away and erect Hawthorn Dene.

 

Les

[Les1952]

T'other end

 

 

Moving along the layout the buildings for Belgrave Terrace (or the survivors).  I think I may end up using three of the Ten Commandments bungalows as the three pairs of semis (12 to 22 Belgrave Terrace)- I've drawn a blank when it comes to finding anything that is within my ability to adapt it.  The Peco bungalow temporarily on top of the foam blocks is the set-back bungalow at No.8 Belgrave Terrace.  It will have a great deal of vegetation behind it  so once painted white it will look as if it belongs there.

 

On the other side of the road Geoff's Kestrel semis are in their approximate position.  The Lyddle End chapel is much smaller than the actual chapel on Baxby Terrace but looks the part, and Trevor's bub building is about the right size.  The exact positions will be determined once the row of terraced houses are complete.

 

 

Moving along, the station buildings more or less as they should be, plus an additional shelter rescued from the same source as the farm bridge to make up for the extra hut that showed up after the others were completed..  This might not yet be used, as the missing building is actually a small lean-to shelter.  Missing is the footbridge, which got a little knocked in transit and will need a bit of sticking back together before installation.  The course of the ramp to the up platform is laid in but not yet finished.  The final position of the station building is yet to be decided but it seems to have been very close to the platform edge and may have been closer to the road bridge. It also needs its inal weathering to the brickwork- by the early sixties it was almost black.   I still need to determine how far down Belgrave Terrace Number 8 will end up.  There is a large Victorian semi and a smaller detached hose to go in to the right of the station approach.  The latter is actually quite narrow, though the present owners of No.2 Belgrave Terrace may have bought some of this to extend their land at the side of the house.

 

 

Lastly for now a view along the line through the station, showing how the signal box looks over the bridge. The bottom of the staircase was a little speculative as the available photo didn't show it.  It may in fact have joined the footbridge.  In reality the footbridge seems to have been between the signal box and the road bridge.  The model will have these reversed to protect the signal box a little more by being nearer the end with the ramp between it and the front of the baseboard also being a little higher- a problem the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway didn't have when they built it.  The pic also shows that although I've done the down platform edging and most of the ballast on that side I've still to do the up platform.

 

Another Lyddle End Terrace house has arrived.  I'll put it next to the two I've got and get a photograph before packing the layout away tomorrow.   The good news is that the layout has been vacuumed and only one piece of the plaster bandage failed to survive the new vacuuum cleaner- and the workshop floor hasn't been so clean for at least four years......

 

Les

 

[Les1952]

As threatened- pics showing the new house..

 

 

The roof line of the bay-less terraced house is slightly higher than the bay fronted one.  It also has an outhouse at the back.  This being the case it will have to be at the Hurworth Row end of the line, partly to get the roofline correct and also to accommodate the outhouse.

 

I've also tried the two bay fronted terraced houses the wrong way round.  With a lick of paint on the doors  a pair of these could solve the problem of what to do about the next two in the row.  That then leaves one more for the left end- another bay-less terrace - and two more to go at the right hand end of the line, one of which needs a hipped end to the roofline. 

 

 

Sorry it is a little out of focus. The layout is now on end in the corner of the shed- the bolts holding it to the end plates were a little tight but they will slacken off with use.  This was only the first time the end plates have been attached for storage.  Meanwhile I'll keep a look out for Lyddle End terraced houses on eBay etc.

 

Next layout topic posts most likely under Hawthorn Dene.

 

Les

[Les1952]

Just a quick update- the layout is still stored on end in the workshop, but about to spend Christmas in the conservatory so Gresby can be set up by Mr Simon- his thread will no doubt be very exciting about then...

 

 

 

Croft Spa is the white set of boards behind Gresby.  Hawthorn Dene is stacked behind that with various cloths and boxes of fittings on top of it.  No Place is on the bench behind the photographer.

 

Meanwhile, what have I been up to since Manchester?

 

Back in N gauge turning the item in the photo below into a layout ....

 

 

It IS designed for exhibition- and as it is a pointless little roundy-roundy that is its name.   More pics on the Hawthorn Dene thread as it isn't really worth one of its own.

 

Les

[MrSimon]

Are you suggesting that watching me make hundreds of n gauge fridges and sticking them in a pile isn't exciting...?

 

It's all go in Gresby

 

 

 

 

 

 

( goes to paint salad drawers)

Edited December 21, 2017 by MrSimon

[Les1952]

 

Despite the congestion at the outside end of the shed I've managed with the help of Mr Simon to get the layout erected again.  A substantial bit of work with the track rubber has got trains running again- currently limited to one road in each direction until Gresby has gone back into hibernation and I can move Croft Spa forward enough to get behind it to change points.

 

 

There were two things I'd decided to change before Mr Simon told me they looked wrong as we were re-erecting the layout.  The first one is the angle of the cutting sides at the North end.  I've attacked the plaster on both sides with the Stanley knife (having got some new blades this morning) and having also got a new tube of contact adhesive on the same visit to Homebase- other DIY superstores are available, but not in Newark....

 

 

The other was the North end of the down platform, where Mr Simon thought the humps were too high.  I'm not sure of that but they WERE too steep, so replacing this part of the platform has begun.  I think the balsa is buried behind Gresby for now.

 

It is Newark Toy Fair tomorrow, so I'll have a morning out ferreting round.  Last year I think I came away with one truck and a small pack of figures, so I'm not taking any bets on what I'll find.  By Wednesday I might be able to reach the balsa and rolls of plaster bandage so I can get on and finish re-profiling the cuttings, and then work will start in earnest.  Deadline for this spasm is three weeks before Ally Pally as I need to some work on Hawthorn Dene in time for that.

 

Les

[Les1952]

Cutting reprofiled.

 

 

It looks a bit like a snow scene but the plasterwork on the cutting sides of the North board has now been re-done and I can start colouring it tomorrow, provided the paints aren't still buried behind Gresby.  If they are I'll have to wait until Tuesday afternoon.  At least the weather forecast for Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning is good, which means I can get Gresby returned to the Bingham clubroom.

 

The A4 is 60018 on test.  It does actually have two lamps, one of which seems to have been borrowed from a loco whose shed cleans thier engines.

 

The platform is still to do.....

 

Les

[Les1952]

Another week gone, and what is there to show for it?

 

 

There is a bit of colour on this end of the layout - the base colour in acrylic paint and a first layer of scatter.  I've even remembered the Gaugemaster puffer bottle that had been buried on the shelf over the shed windows.  The sky colour makes a real difference.  Starting to look like something...

 

 

... until the camera is turned round to point the other way.  The lighter flatter area in the distance is the cricket ground, for which I've used a grass mat to get a neater surface.  the sky doesn't need to reach the ground in the centre of the layout as there will be a middle distance backscene in front of it.

 

 

Having told everyone how much more reliable the A2s are than the A1s, despite sharing most of their mechanism, 60539 got another foot along the front and failed totally.  I'm wondering if it has a duff chip.  It was upside down in the box after the last show and a non-mover until I reprogrammed the chip.  I'll look at it again tomorrow.  If the chip has lost the plot I'll try a different one.  

 

Still plenty to do.  I've got No Place going out next Saturday.  If the club doesn't have a pair of trestles I can borrow for the weekend I'll need to take Croft Spa down on Saturday to use the trestles, then re-erect it when we get home.

 

Les

[Brian D]

 

Another week gone, and what is there to show for it?

 

IMG_5414.JPG

 

There is a bit of colour on this end of the layout - the base colour in acrylic paint and a first layer of scatter.  I've even remembered the Gaugemaster puffer bottle that had been buried on the shelf over the shed windows.  The sky colour makes a real difference.  Starting to look like something...

 

IMG_5415.JPG

 

... until the camera is turned round to point the other way.  The lighter flatter area in the distance is the cricket ground, for which I've used a grass mat to get a neater surface.  the sky doesn't need to reach the ground in the centre of the layout as there will be a middle distance backscene in front of it.

 

 

Having told everyone how much more reliable the A2s are than the A1s, despite sharing most of their mechanism, 60539 got another foot along the front and failed totally.  I'm wondering if it has a duff chip.  It was upside down in the box after the last show and a non-mover until I reprogrammed the chip.  I'll look at it again tomorrow.  If the chip has lost the plot I'll try a different one.  

 

Still plenty to do.  I've got No Place going out next Saturday.  If the club doesn't have a pair of trestles I can borrow for the weekend I'll need to take Croft Spa down on Saturday to use the trestles, then re-erect it when we get home.

 

Les

 

 

This is starting to look really good Les.  Sorry to hear about the failure of 60539, hope you get it sorted without too much grief.

 

Regards,

Brian.

[Les1952]

Another week gone - I'm not sure where...

 

 

 

The basic green now extends the whole length of the North board, and I've lengthened the cricket ground.  The part of this on the South board will have the pavilion and a terrace with seating separated with a low ornamental fence and a couple of steps at the board edge to hide the join.   The cricket match will be stopped as the ball has been lost in the hedge.  I'll have two or more cricketers searching for it and probably a couple of cows watching on - NOT black and white ones!

 

The dry stone walling doesn't work here, and will be used elsewhere to delineate a field boundary.  I'll get some post and rail fencing to go either side of the bridge parapet.  The big barn is more or less in its final position.  I need a farmhouse and a couple of smaller outbuildings to go with it, then I can look at populating and foliaging that area.The cows will be in the rough pasture between the barn and the edge of the cricket field.  Assuming I can source Alice and the white rabbit they will be on the edge of the woodland adjoining the backscene.

 

 

 

Looking the other way Belgrave Terrace is developing, though not all of the houses are sourced yet.  Geoff's semi will face West rather than East as there is more space for it.  In reality a modern detatched house sits there now and there probably wasn't anything on the site before it.  The white bungalow is too big for here but might go on the opposite side of Hurworth Road at the far end.  I'll build another Peco Bungalow to take its place here.  Beyond the bungalows the two houses are in the wrong order.

 

Ten Commandments could only supply two pairs of bungalows.  Technically prefabs are wrong but they will sit well.  The house with the white boarding is another Trevor Webster construction, left over at the end after he had used or sold everything. Again it might yet end up on Hurworth Road.  There is a modern house on the bank that is in the layout area.  I've no pics of what was there before it.  The chapel will sit on the end of the terraced row eventually. Again the row is nowadays finished by a moern extension.  The small Hornby chapel is about the right size.  The real chapel is bigger and offscene.  

 

The lean-to at the top of Belgrave Terrace is waiting for a corner shop to arrive.  That will need a repaint, as will the lean-to before attaching the two together.  I think I will need a bit more length adding to the end of it, but I'll wait until I've made up the pair before deciding.

 

Still plenty to do.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Updating again.

 

I've now received the corner shop- and it looks OK where it is.  

 

 

The extension behind it is full height rather than half-height and is a whitewashed house nowadays.  I'm tempted to leave it as half-height but may well whitewash the walls.  It does need a small garden between it and the pavement so I'll set it back a little to allow that.  The corner shop is now a barbers' shop, which changed colour from Grey to Navy between passes of the Google Earth car.  I may well leave it yellow but change the name.  I'll see what names I have in stock or can get.  I'm going for getting the right feel rather than getting it exact as I've not managed to source much in the way of useable photos of Belgrave Terrace or Hurworth Road depicting what it looked like 55 years ago.

 

 

The house in front is too small for the actual one that is there - even allowing for some modern extensions having been made.  This one will probably move to the other side of Belgrave Terrace at the bottom end, though I might just use it to start the terrace row.  I've got a bigger house coming which will better fit the footprint..

 

Since the pic was taken I've given the road a coat of Precision Paints tarmac - and regretted it.  The result is far too dark.  I'm now on with the curbs kerbs and surface for Hurworth Road and Belgrave Terrace, to get a datum for the houses.  I've sourced some lighter Tamiya grey and will try this.

 

 

 

In the mean time I've added the other uncoupler magnet and I've been playing shunters to make sure everything works.  The idea is that a local parcels train will drop a van off into the short bay on one run through the sequence, then pick it up again next time that train appears about 20 minutes later.  That will give a little variety from the procession of trains, most of which just run through.  There will be two Southbound stoppers and two Northbound stoppers, a loco hauled local and a 2-car DMU in each case.  The 8-car set with the buffet car will work as a Newcastle to York Main Line semi-fast, though I'm not convinced the buffet cars strayed onto these workings. 

 

I'm still thinking about a sound-fitted DMU which would need to have a body transplant as Farish only do the 108 in blue as sound fitted. What I would do is swap tops with one of my green 108 power cars then resell the blue set as DCC but not sound.  The sound-fitted 108 would then run with a 101 trailer to represent a set that was actually used on the Richmond branch.  The 108 trailer and 101 power car would make a mirror set to go the other way, it not mattering a lot if they appear simultaneously.  Whether it will happen depends on whether I can afford/be bothered to source a Farish 108 sound-fitted set.

 

Plenty to think about and still plenty of time, though the clock on this session is ticking down- only four weeks before CS needs to be packed away for work on Hawthorn Dene to prepare it for Ally Pally.

 

Les

edited for typo

Edited January 31, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

It has occurred to me that if I use the low relief terraced house that doesn't work at the top of Hurworth Road bank I can get a slightly better semblence of the shape of the house behind the corner shop, even if the windows are in the wrong place.

 

I may well stick with this arrangement.  The question is- do I whitewash it like the prototype is now and risk someone telling me it wasn't done until 1989, or do I not whitewash and have someone remember as a kid helping Uncle Fred whitewash the walls in 1954?

 

 

Shopping tomorrow then looking for mens' costumes for "Patience".  More to do on Saturday.  Three bay-windowed terraced houses sourced from eBay.  When they arrive, these will either add to the row on Belgrave Terrace or be used as the basis of the short terrace at the top of Hurworth Road, where the low relief ones didn't work.

 

 

 

Les

Edited February 1, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Another building arrived this morning - a mildly distressed house.  I've filed the barge boards off one end to make it the first house in the terrace. 

 

 

It will need a little more filing to get it to snuggle up to the next set a little more cosily, and then painting to match the others.  I find modifying ready-to-plant or kits a lot more successful than starting from scratch- especially as I can't cut right angles even with the best gadgets- to be able to cut a right angle your brain needs to recognise a right angle- and my brain doesn't....

 

I've also put the station buildings out temporarity to reference their positions to the OS map and work out where the first few buildings behind them need to sit.  The OS map puts the station building much closer to the bridge than I had thought, and doesn't leave much room for the footbridge.  I'm going to move it along the platform a little, which will spread the first two houses on Belgrave Terrace, and move the whole of the rest along to the North a little.  If I make the spaces between them a little overscale it will also lengthen Belgrave Terrace.  It seems only to have occupied a third (or even less) of the distance between the two bridges.  I want it somewhere between a third and a half for balance.

 

 

 

The back corner of the big house will need hiding a little with foliage and fencing. The wooden blocks on the right are the foundation for the "high" detetched bungalow- the first one with all of its garden at the front running down to the road as terraces.  

 

 

 

Lastly an overview of the whole village end.  The detatched house that I had got next to the terrace end doesn't fit, but won't take a lot of modifying to make into the pub  The plasticard house with the white boarding on the front will sit on the bank below the bungalow.  This is above a pub that is actually offscene.  Geoff's house completes the Eastern side of Belgrave Terrace.  There is another building to go after the pub and two or three extra terraced houses to go in the row between the current end of the terrace and the chapel. Another semi-detatched bungalow for this side between the two bungalows and Geoff's house, and another Peco bungalow to build as the low detatched bungalow with its garden mainly behind it going up the slope to the railway bank.

 

I'm ignoring the fact that in reality Belgrave Terrace is about ten feet lower in altitude than the railway.  There are plenty of other liberties being taken.

 

Also delivered this morning was a pack of cows- brown ones.  A little engineering to do on a couple- their horns are a little too prominent and two need cowbells cutting off.  I refuse to have black-and-white cows like everyone else.  At least there are three in the pack that can stand in a group gawping at the cricketers searching for their lost ball.

 

More shed time tomorrow.

 

Les

 

[Les1952]

Progress and a clanger....

 

First the progress.

 

I've been working on getting the contours done on the village board and am now happy enough to apply a layer of base colour- and what a difference a coat of acrylic paint has made.

 

 

Getting the first stages of painting the two bungalows and the smaller single house on Belgrave Terrace has worked wonders as well.  These houses still need the details starting (such as the white window frames and the coloured barge boards and doors) then touching in the edges to get them looking presentable.

 

The three additional bay windowed terraced houses have arrived.  I've only added one to the row on Belgrave Terrace- the ones in the gap need to be flat fronted again.  The pub will sit right up to the pavement as pubs tend to, and I need a couple of houses to go to the right of it.  I still have some Peco bungalows- not correct but might do at a pinch- they can always be replaced later.

 

 

Ignoring the large white splodges from the extra layers of plaster, the bank is now starting to take shape.  The pair of semis at the top of the bank work in this spot, though the right-hand one should really have a basement.  I'm tempted to leave the basement as my bank is less steep than the real one.  To the right of it I need a three-floor house to be attached to them at a slightly lower level.  Views from the station show the roofline going up as you go down the bank. It is distinctive so if I can replicate it I need to.  

 

Now the clanger

 

I've turned up some more photos of the North end of the down platform.  The siding into the carriage dock comes in between the main line and the platform, and the first of the two humps is on the main platform between the bay and the station building.  The second hump rises to a buffer plank at the end of the siding and the platform extension continues at this level.  The platform surface won't be that hard to re-do- it is well covered with plaster grot as it is - but realigning the siding will be more difficult.  I moved the point some distance to the North to avoid it sitting over the board join.  I think I'll just bend it back to run parallel with the main line, and put a permanent way hut or something between the two lines close to the board edge.  There are drop wires at the board edge that would need moving.  At least I didn't ballast the siding on the Station board.

 

I'll give it a bit of thought overnight and make the changes tomorrow and Sunday.

 

Les

[Les1952]

Clanger muffled...

 

 

The siding has now been altered to run between the extension to the down platform and the main line.  As can be seen it was only long enough for a couple of four-wheeled wagons or a CCT.  A GUV would overhang.  The caption to the photos I have suggests that most of the traffic would have been horses to and from horseboxes, though it ignores the 1905 map which shows no extension to the platform and the dock as end loading only.

 

I kept the track as it was from the point to the board join and just curved it gracefully back to run parallel to the line.  I will look at what can be put in place to cause it, though it now looks as if it originally had two sidings and the outer one has been slewed to meet the platform, which wasn't the case on the prototype.

 

 

It certainly looks better now the platform has had its new humps added and the top surface repainted.  The humps aren't all that obvious.  Hopefully they will become more obvious when the walling on the front is re-done.  Otherwise I'll have to go theatrical and add a little shading to the surface to make them look a little more pronounced than they actually are.  Belgrave Terrace is too narrow but i'm going to keep it too narrow.  Widening it won't leave enough room for houses behind or gardens on the railway side.

 

 

One more addition this morning- a Ten commandments prefab, minus chimney.  It looks wrong in the row with the bungalows so will go on the pub side of Belgrave Terrace.  There is a modern bungalow there now- it could have been on the site of an earlier prefab.  Again I have no picture from the fifties/sixties of what was actually there.

 

Shopping in Nottingham tomorrow then a train ride to Doncaster on Saturday.  I'll see if Ten Commandments have found another bungalow- I need a third to make the space work.  The two I have (seen above) still need work doing on them but they are starting to get there...  I'll also see if I can find suitable garden fencing and some more trees.  At least it will stop me looking for more engines I don't really need (he says hopefully).

 

Les

[Les1952]

Six more days- where did they go?

 

Nottingham, Doncaster and Bingham/Lincoln in one trip...  The latter being fraught.  A new set of roadworks in Newark started on Monday.  By yesterday I queued for over a mile to get into Newark to pass through on the way to the clubroom at Newton, then queued for another half-hour along the Newark By-pass on the way to Lincoln as the tailback from these new roadworks in the twn centre gridlocked the Cattlemarket roundabout on the bypass.

 

However, some progress.   The set of terraced houses hasn't yet arrived, but I did get some backscenes in Nottingham and Ten Commandments had the third semi-detached bungalow waiting at Doncaster.  I also picked up a decoder to go inside my Hattons Barclay when it arrives- shame that missed the boat and isn't coming until April.

 

To be continued as soon as I've rebooted the computer.....

 

 

This image was the problem- it crashed the file manager uploading.  I wasn't aware that it had actually loaded until I tried to edit another mistake.   It shows the new backscene, or much of it.  There is still about 2 feet to do at the North end and about the same behind the village.  North End problem is that it is definitely becoming hillier on the backscene than reality, so a piece of ingenuity (aka bodge) is called for.  Also visible the first bit of woodland that will hide the dodgy bottom here and there.

 

Les

Edited February 14, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Now for the rest of the pics.

 

 

Moving further South down the layout, the siding has now been ballasted.  It semed only logical to do this now as its position is now fixed.  It leaves me able to work out what to fit in between the siding and the main line.  This also shows the backscene at the board join.  This layer was done my usual way, taking a Gaugemaster sheet and cutting off the sky plus as much of the foreground as needed to get the horizon at the height I want it.  If you look closely I've filled in a couple of dips with bits of horizon from another sheet.  I don't always use the furthest part of the picture as the horizon, which makes the backscene look a bit different from everyone else's.

 

It is called the Eric Morecambe approach.  "I'm using all the bits, but not necessarily in the right order".

 

This layer is mounted on thin balsa wood, stuck down with Pritt Stick for a smooth finish.  The balsa is then glued to the backscene with Evil Stick.  This makes the horizon stand out from the sky.

 

 

 

Moving further along, this shows the length of the parcels dock, which I've now got most of the brick facing attached to.  It also shows that the pub will hide a discontinuity in the backscene, and, further along, that the joins in the middle distance don't match the joins in the sky above.

 

 

last one for now shows the third wooden semi-detached bungalow, which has gained its first wall coat of paint.  The prefab behind has, also, but not the same shide.  I might re-do this as it is a little too similar.  I'll give it some more thought when I've painted the roofs.  I've also put the first coat on the window frames of the detached terraced house (offstage left) and the third bungalow (offstage right but just visible in pic 2).  All that is needed now is several rounds of touching up windows, then frames, then brickwork, repeat until perfect or until the will to live is lost.

 

Enough for now.

Les

Edited February 14, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

Last set - for now.

 

Because I'm gouing to need to store stuff in the workshop temporarily while the conservatory is re-roofed I'm going to need to set Hawthorn Dene up early as there is more free space under it for boxes than there is under Croft Spa- HD's legs occupy less space than CS's tresttles.

 

I'm only allowing stuff that is already boxed and it will need to be removed so HD can be packaged up ready for Ally Pally.  

 

CS is now on its end in two pieces leaning against the wall- I need to do a little work on the underside before crating it up, then I need to work on the electrical input into the proscenium before I can erect HD.  

 

The pics.

 

 

I decided that the piece of backscene at the left end wasn't a good fit with the other two, and have gone over it with something a little darker.  The join is still behind the pub.  There is a second join behind the far end of the terrace.  The additional set of houses haven't arrived as of this morning so any more building development will have to wait until the next building spasm at the end of May.  I will have May to mid-August, Mid September to October half-term and January onwards to get CS finished for Sileby.  The intention is to have all the buildings planted during the next spasm.

 

 

 

A closer view showing the join behind the pub, with an infill of hill dipping into the Tees gap.

 

 

Looking the other way the camera has picked up an alignment issue with the scenics which I'd not spotted - the benefits of baring one's soul to the camera.  The corner shop has now been glued to the pair behind it, and these can be painted at leisure before the next building spasm- blue for the shop front and a new name, with whitewashed wallls on the lean-to house behind.

 

 

Further along, work has progressed with the foliage that will blend in the backsene bottom.  There is another alignment issue to sort later- the issues are front to back at this end rather than putting a little infill of colour at the join behind the terrace.

 

Next job- soldering in some new connections under the boards then varnishing over the copper tape to give it a bit more strength.

 

Les

 

 

[Les1952]

The layout is now boxed up again and standing on its end in the corner with Hawthorn Dene erected in the middle of the shed.

 

A few jobs got finished while it was standing propped up against the side.

 

1. The cross-board connector (a small stereo jack) for the points has been installed and wired back to a chocky block on each board.
2. The main 16v accessory feed is now in place, an in-line DIN socket as a certain idiot bought one with the wrong number of connectors (5-pin instead of 4) when shopping at Maplin's last week.
3. The CDU has been installed.
4. The point motors have been wired back to the lever frame 
5. A posh powered PECO point switch frame with two switches has been installed.
6. the underside has been varnished over the copper strips to protect them.  It will need another coat at some time, probably when I do the colour light signals.
7. The proscenium has had its connectors for the LED strips repaired and hopefully will now work without vast quanities of blu-tack and ungentlemanly language....

 

Pics of this lot.

 

 

One side of the connector- again above board level behind the backscene.  That way it is inside the boxing for transport.  Just visible on the left is one end of the point motor for the siding.

 

 

The messy bit where the power supply comes in- there are two spare black wires coming out of the back of this plug.  Tied up for now, they are the AC supply for the two colour light signals and two ground signals. Now why do Gaugemaster make a CDU with two fixing holes in the pcb, one of which you can't reach because of the thumping great capacitor immediately above it?

Note also the beautifully straight lines of the tape- actually wonky to avoid track pins.

 

 

The posh lever frame with the switches.  I've not tested before boxing up but I THINK the yellow switch is the siding and the red the crossover. 

 

 

The colour lights for the main line will be automatic 3-aspect jobs.  Yes, I KNOW the up signal should be 4 aspect but nobody does one in N.  It is hard enough getting a working 3 aspect.  I've also decided that when the layout is finished underneath I'm going to box in most of the underside with thin plywood to protect the delicate bits, leaving access holes to get at the power bus, the cab bus points and the AC input,  and for the tops of the trestles.  It took me a long time to get round to this with Furtwangen but it saved a lot of transit damage.

 

Les

Edited March 1, 2018 by Les1952

[Les1952]

I've been chatting with our resident signalman at the club this morning and have (I think) got the signalling for Croft Spa worked out.

 

The up and down lines will each have a 2 lamp 4-aspect colour signal on a sequencer.  CR Signals do the searchlight signals and Heathcote Electronics do the sequencer.  It will need two of each, one for each line - that's £80 I've just spent.

 

The up signal will be on the platform and the down will be just before the bridge.

 

I will also need  ground signals- 

 

One on the down platform to allow a loco to draw forwards as far as the down colour signal.

One in the carriage dock to allow a loco to draw forwards as far as the down colour signal.  These two face South.

Two together, (one above the other) just beyond the point to signal the move back onto the train (upper) or into the dock (lower).  These face North.

Optional are two facing backwards at the end of the crossover to allow a shunting move backwards across it.  These could be omitted if the crossover were for emergency use only controlled by a flagman.  I'll have to think about how the layout is to be worked.

 

I bought a set of four static ground signals from Starlight Models a couple of weeks ago, so these aren't a problem.  If I don't get the main line colour signals done in time for Sileby then they are "beyond the bridge and therefore out of sight" in the short term.

 

I also need to represent a catch point on the carriage dock road.

 

Finishing scenery first, I think.  The layout will be erected again by the end of this month until the middle of August for that to happen.

 

 

Other developments-

 

Those nice Fox people from Leicestershire have supplied a winged Flying Scotsman headboard to go on the Deltic and a headboard for one of the named trains.  If I can get the camera to focus on something that small I'll take a piccy.

 

Les

Edited May 1, 2018 by Les1952