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South Hampstead c1940


Pete the Elaner
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For a long time it has been a desire of mine to build a layout based closely on a real prototype.

My 2 interests are AC electrics in the 1990s when going to Euston was an outing & also late 30s & 40s LMS.

The WCML is the only place I could model where these could look at home but the space required would be too much.

 

Then one day I went to photograph 6233 Duchess of Sutherland on a run out of Euston. I went there with a friend & chose to shoot it from the first station out, as it accelerated out of the tunnel.

We took a sprinter round from somewhere on the NLL, passing through the closed Primrose Hill & as we got out at South Hampstead we both looked at the tunnels, then round at the bridge which carries Loudoun Road over the station. At the same time, we said to each other 'this would make a great layout'.

 

That was around 2001 & it took me over 10 years to get started.

 

36154357446_0893af7cd6_z.jpg2014-01-19 05.57.11 by rip, on Flickr

 

The scenic section looking south east. The 'northbound' WCML is actually heading slightly south at this point, but mainly west. The 2 locos are on the fast lines. I was working a lot from Google Maps at this point. The DC lines were under exposed near the tunnels & appeared to diverge. I later found out that they should be dead straight & further apart. I eventually re-laid the far end of the down DC & all of the up DC. The black line across the bottom of the nearest board marks roughly where Loudoun Road is.

 

35390646253_b325f6556d_z.jpg2014-01-19 05.55.52 by rip, on Flickr

 

One of my biggest problems was building a fiddle yard big enough to run a decent WCML service. A bigger problem was getting 6 tracks all round into it. I have 4 storage lines & 2 through lines each for fast & slow, then the DC lines merge as soon as they get off-scene before splitting into 2 storage lines.

This photo was taken about 2 years after the previous one.

 

36195453635_6c0cd520bc_b.jpg20161130_155050 by rip, on Flickr

 

This is the London end of the station. The tunnel mouths for the fast & slow lines are a lot narrower & taller than any thing I have found commercially available so I am going to have to scratch build them. I may be able to get the portals etched.

The DC line tunnels are small too. The real ones look way to small to cope with a standard train but they seem to fit.

The DC lines are now straight & set further apart than they were in the first photo.

I feel that Peco track looks a lot better with the sleepers spaced out & I have also narrowed the 6' by 5mm from standard streamline.

The line across it is the Great Central with Marylebone to the right. I have no space to run the tracks off to anywhere so I will not be able to run anything across. These should also run into tunnels at both ends which should be set back off the layout. Bringing these inwards is one of the few compromises I have to make.

 

36195480005_4a246b4287_b.jpg20161129_212400 by rip, on Flickr

 

The view to the country end, showing the Loudoun Road bridge. The track should re-appear at the other side of this bridge but I need to get all lines into the fiddle yard so I will distort the surrounding area a little. 3 out of those 5 platform faces have been disused since around 1916. I can't remember the actual date.

I don't like seeing a huge space between train & platform but I think these are just a bit too close.

 

The AC electric era scenic boards are still sheets of ply which I had cut at the same time as the steam era scenic boards. It will be some time before I start on those.

 

One of my friends frequently complains about the lack of pointwork. If it had points, it wouldn't be South Hampstead would it?

 

& here is the real location in 2015:

 

35803741210_956ea2635c_b.jpgP1180068 by rip, on Flickr

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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  • 1 month later...

Scratch-building buildings is not my strong point, but to create a real location, it is something I have to work on & I am enjoying getting there. It is good to have a friend nearby who can help. I am learning a lot but Charlie has probably done more of this than I have.

I spent yesterday evening at Charlie's working on the station building together. It has taken us 4-5 months of working 1 or 2 evenings a month just getting the roof right. There is no time limit on modelling & I have been getting on with other things like wiring the fiddle yard & building retaining walls.

 

This is the building before the station was rebuilt in the 60's. All I have is 4 photos to work from. Each of these must be 80-100 years old & do not show the building in great detail, but give me a good idea of the shape of it. The roof has some quite complex angles so it was always going to be the trickiest bit. Apparently I could have chosen something easier for my first building!

The card prototype for the roof is in the background, but there were dimensions which were not quite right so we needed to change a few things when building the proper one. Last time I saw it, the plastic roof was slightly twisted but Charlie tweaked it a little before yesterday & managed to straighten it up. I made the last abutment & we got on with making up some rain strips, which I had never even considered.

The walls should be slightly easier & the building will be lit so needs to have a detailed interior. Still plenty to go but this should be the most difficult building & certainly the most prominent because it sits right over one end of the scenic section. I don't want to rush it & end up with something I am not entirely satisfied with.

 

35390569963_66737f11b2_b.jpg20170412_225043 by rip, on Flickr

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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  • 3 months later...

Progress is steady. I had forgotten how much progress I had made until I sorted out my photos for this thread.

 

I stayed over at a friend's last weekend & as usual I was up first so I spent some time looking at my pics of the real South Hampstead.

It is amazing the amount of new things you see each time you look at the same photos. I came across this photo of the retaining wall at the London end of the DC lines.

 

36198448925_2bcd7aecd6_z.jpgP1180057 by rip, on Flickr

 

It looks nothing like my effort on the layout, which looks rather bland & uninteresing by comparison:

 

35362488254_1ac62b5ff3_z.jpgP7270036 by rip, on Flickr

 

So this week I decided to scrap it & build a new one. I am pleased with it so far but it obviously needs bricking & the whole lot needs painiting into blue brick & weathering:

 

36198452155_8cbdf5ba00_z.jpgP7270035 by rip, on Flickr

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Hi, looking at the reference picture, not sure if it is the angle of the picture or the buttress support, but the wall to the left of the signal looks to be tilting in. The patchiness of the wall suggests that there is some movement occurring. 

 

The attention you're paying for what is a small section of wall is excellent and what you have produced the second time around looks much closer to what you are modelling (not criticising the original attempt at all).

 

Looking forward to more updates. 

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Friday night is modelling night!

Charlie & I weathered the first 2 platform frame faces at his a couple of weeks ago. He brought them over tonight & finished the rest off.

 

36063793532_05a6961d24_z.jpgP7280038 by rip, on Flickr

 

35395786244_e416cecec1_z.jpgP7280039 by rip, on Flickr

 

Frames are in place but they still need darkening. I think they are a good base & will probably finish them off by blending in once more is in place such as ballast right up to the platforms, 3rd/4th rail etc.

I am not satisfied with any platform tops commercially available. From the pictures I have, it should need brickwork where each row is at right angles to the next. I cannot find anything which I am happy with for platform edges either. I think I may have to learn to produce my own artwork & laser cut them.

 

I was not idle this evening though. I faced up the wall I have been working on this week.

 

36095490311_e7efd66c5e_z.jpgP7280037 by rip, on Flickr

 

It is not finished yet. I am pleased with it so far but the end section still needs facing & the part under the rail bridge needs some more relief.

 

All these retaining walls consume a lot of brick card. I have got through over 20 sheets so far & still have more to do.

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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I may be trying to model this as accurately as possible but I will have to distort some things slightly in order to fit the location in.

I do not think they will detract from the general look of the layout though.

 

The WCML emerges from 4 tunnels at the east end. This is fine. The west end should go under a bridge & emerge the other side. I have no space fot eh lines to emerge so I am distorting the road around. What should be N-NW of the station will be moved around to cover the lines.

 

The Great Central passes over the station almost at right angles. Fortunately, it disappears into tunnel mouths at both sides so these will be where my modelling of this line ends. Unfortunately this means I cannot run anything on here but my friend's 12 year old son came up with a good use for it. I use DCC so he suggested using it for a programming track.

The London end of the GC tunnel is recessed well into the retaining wall. This is quite clearly visible on google maps, but I don't know if it would be allowable to post a link to it or copy of it on here.

The WCML goes quite close to the edge of the layout so I need to foreshorten the recess quite significantly.

 

Alongside the fast lines are some arches. These are recessed more at the Euston end than the west end. The fast lines are closer to the board edge at the Euston end so I will swap them around. I will still get the variation of depth but just the other way around.

This photo should show what I mean.

36238732021_3f1994a7e6_z.jpgP1180067 by rip, on Flickr

 

 

& this will show why I don't have the space to model it the correct way around. I could not have modelled the lines any further from the board edge because it was tough enough to get all lines around into the fiddle yard in the space available.

35539561114_665b9ff3a7_z.jpg20161130_154923 by rip, on Flickr

 

My platforms were a little too wide so I narrowed them before adding the brickwork (they still need adjusting but I have an idea how to do this). Unfortunately they are now different widths.

When passing, I noticed that profile of the brickwork changes part way along the platform. Adding a layer of brickwork at the top corrects this but it is actually the other end of the real one which has the extra layer of edging. You can just about see the change in profile at the bottom of this photo. In reality, only the edge which is against the up slow changes profile (you can only see it when travelling in a train on the fast line & it is therefore difficult to take a photo of it) but if I had not seen it for myself I would never have believe such a change in profile existed anywhere.

35395786244_e416cecec1_z.jpgP7280039 by rip, on Flickr

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There are a lot of things which I don't want to use RTR stuff for: The tunnel mouths are a different shape to anything available. The platform coping & surface is nothing like anything I have seen, the arches over the DC lines & the abutments alongside the down fast will be difficult to get right with brick card.

After some thought, I have just purchased a laser cutter so with a little practise, I am hoping to make them from 2mm acetate. The cutter is one of the cheaper ones but I am keen to find out just how much I can do with it. It is quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be so I have to clear some space to fit it in.

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  • 3 months later...

I have been working on this (with more than a little help from L49), but thought it was time for an update.

 

Most of the retaining walls have not been painted. They still need some more work & some blending in.

The DC lines should have conductor rails soon & there are lots more things to build, but steady progress is being made.

 

37781609034_b65e8e4359_k.jpgPB180045 by rip, on Flickr




37781609414_bb15c360a1_k.jpgPB180046 by rip, on Flickr




37781610134_c21d2daa4c_k.jpgPB180047 by rip, on Flickr




37781610924_242fe9c2a0_k.jpgPB180049 by rip, on Flickr


38464739962_516e84b02d_z.jpgPB180050 by rip, on Flickr

 

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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I have been making steady progress, particularly on the retaining walls.

 

 

41204055252_ee2304e16e_z.jpgP4020080 by rip, on Flickr

 

Before painting to show the different materials used. The clear plastic parts are laser cut acrylic & the red brick is Slaters.

 

 

 

 

 

40351334005_918c0443bd_z.jpgP4040104 by rip, on Flickr

 

These are what I really bought the laser cutter for, It took a while to learn how to get the best from it but I am pleased with the tunnels. They give the illusion of being too small for a train to pass through, which is exactly what the real ones look like!

I am really pleased with the results from the laser cutter. The best bit is that I will model this in 1990s form after I have got it looking decent in its 30's guise, so I can just re-cut the walls & tunnels from the existing artwork.

I don't like seeing daylight through tunnels either. I have some adjustments to do to cut out the remaining light areas. These tunnels will have 4th rail so they need to be removable in order for me to clean the track by hand. Even after blocking back light, too much of the track is visible so I will have to tone the track inside down with lots of weathering.

 

 

 

 

41204157932_006848f38e_z.jpgP4040099 by rip, on Flickr

 

Slow line & fast line tunnels. It seems I have incorrectly assembled the wall in between. I'll get this right after they have been painted properly.

Getting the shape of these right was something I felt was important to get the look of the layout correct. Every commercially available tunnel mouth was far too short & fat but I am happy with these.

 

 

 

 

41204147212_7bdc0b2394_z.jpgP4040096 by rip, on Flickr

 

 

The station end. It seems that there was a platform served by the fast lines before the "New" DC lines were built around 1915.

 

 

 

 

41204141042_13f6b8bc2d_z.jpgP4040095 by rip, on Flickr

 

The retaining wall at the tunnel end. I need to add some form of lintel under the Great Central line. I am sure I have some useful photos somewhere for this. I have taken loads of them but always seem to need more.

 

 

 

 

40351329015_6b00bd9849_z.jpgP4040101 by rip, on Flickr

 

This appears to be an access archway for the old platform. I am intrigued that the old footbridge was outside the retaining wall.

The archway is still there so I just had to model it.

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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The new retaining walls have now been drybrushed.

I am in the process of making them fit together a little better.

 

I am also trying to get the platform surfaces sorted out. These are another item I have laser cut, but done with 1mm acrylic. The problem with this is that the laser cutting process has curved it, so I am trying to find a suitable glue for attaching some styrene RSJs to the underside. Araldite didn't hold  :scratchhead: , Impact adhesive was slightly better but not good enough. I am trying PVA but have to wait 24 hours to know the result.

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This is one of the platform sections.

The platform has large coping stones, rather like a modern platform. I could not find anything commercially available which I though was a suitable representation, so I laser cut it. I have had to glue a piece of wood underneath to flatten it, but the corners are visible. Hopefully I will be able to flatten this by glueing to the frame. I have some more platform tops under compression while the glue goes off.

 

27489094318_c52e986343_z.jpgP4100113 by rip, on Flickr

 

 

The wall between the slow & fast line tunnel portals has now been fixed a little better & also the correct way around. The uprights immediately next to the tunnels are yellow brick rather than the engineers blue used around the portals themselves. I found this a little strange but if it is there, I'll model it! They are not quite the right colour on the model yet though.

 

27489090558_2d20c7a810_z.jpgP4100112 by rip, on Flickr

 

 

The retaining wall under the Great Central railway. I still find this odd that this end of the GC is the London end.

 

27489087478_ac94aaacd5_z.jpgP4100111 by rip, on Flickr

 

 

The west end of the fast lines. After I cut the arch, I noticed that the original was a platform height higher (I pass through the real South Hampstead regularly), but this was after the model version had been cut & fixed to the wall. I am still quite happy with it.

The brickwork is a lot more blue than the original, but the row of bricks should be a little more red than the rest. The original has half a brick broken off on this row, so I modelled a whole brick missing.

 

27489083158_0902ab9fc9_z.jpgP4100110 by rip, on Flickr

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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  • 3 weeks later...

It is nice to make steady progress, but I have been making connectors for the club layout.. then renumbering/renaming  a loco seemed to have got in the way.

There is a deadline for the club layout because it is due to be exhibited in September. Challenge!!! I think I should get on with that.

South Hampstead is currently covered with old sheets  :scratchhead:

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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  • 7 months later...

The sheets didn't stay there for long.

Progress has been slower while I spend more time on a club layout but I am still working on it.

I've been working on the plate bridge sides which support the GC line. You can see 1 of them laying in the six foot in the 2nd pic above. I sprayed them last night but they desperately need weathering, particularly the areas around the bolts picked out in rust. I'll add some photos when I get them in place.

 

Like my previous layout, the platforms are causing me some trouble. I may be fussy but I've not seen any commercially available components which create the appearance I am looking for.

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You read that entirely correctly.

I am building it as an LMS layout now. Once complete, I will re-start the scenic section as as 1990s layout.

 

The 60s electrification changed it a lot. Obvious changes are concrete sleeper track & OLE. Less obvious are the removal of the old station building, which was replaced by a rather soulless brick/rendered box, removal of the 4th rail & the rebuilding of the GC bridge.

These changes are far too major to allow me to make it 'convertible' so I need to re-build the scenic section from the board up.

 

I had an identical set of board tops cut at the same time, but these are currently bare sheets of plywood. The LMS boards can be stored out of the way for replacement when I fancy running it in that period again.

Creating space to store 3 fully scenic boards will be a challenge.

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The GC bridge is coming together.

The plate sides are Wills Varigirders, split into top & bottom halves & staggered. I noticed smoke shields on an old photo on the net. The prototypes were different widths so these are too.

The uprights are way too small so I have not even bothered to paint them, which is why they are still white. I have found that for some things, I cannot really tell what they will look like until I try to model them. It is not like I can go & take some more photos because that bridge has been replaced, I assume when the line was electrified in the 1960s.

 

Having been looking for a suitable alternative to watered down PVA for ballasting (which I think is poorly suited to the task), the ballast was fixed with wallpaper adhesive flakes. This looked reasonable at first but has not lasted & looks a real mess now. I will re-visit this later, ballasting the whole area, but not until the other buildings are in place. There was a P-way hut which, from the 1 photo I have of it back then, seemed to be built into the platform ramp so I need to build this too.

The platform sides are also glued in place now. You can see one of them in the bottom right.

 

The containers are in that area right now at South Hampstead right but I will need something else for the 30s/40s.

 

 

32975014588_70ab49928a_b.jpgSH_GC_Bridge_190123 by rip, on Flickr

Edited by Pete the Elaner
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For Balast i use watered down copydex and a little fairy liquid.. using a syringe (like pipet) to place drops between sleepers onto pre placed ballast (about 1 or 2 passes), takes ages but sometimes thats plesent

 

Not sure on durability over time yet, but ok so far, and i use that because i use foam track bed, and PVA would hardern it and thus loose the sound deadening benifits.

 

p.s nice model... :)

Edited by calvin Streeting
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