Jump to content
 

Sheppey Steel (P4) - Isle of Sheppey steel works circa 1990.


theplasticbrummy
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello Everybody.
Since being persuaded to start a thread on my Lydd Rail "Standard Gauge Challenge" entry http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/119947-staythorpe-crossing-nottingham-to-lincoln-line-circa-1980/ , I have found discussing ideas, methods and progress, amongst other things, extremely useful and thoroughly enjoyable, so, I've decided to start a thread (as promised in my signature) on another of my "In Progress" layouts - Sheppey Steel.
Sheppey Steel is based on the now demolished steel works on Ramsgate Road, Queenborough, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
The beginnings of the layout came from a visit to the Stafford Model Railway Circles' Exhibition, in February 2015. A mock-up of a point on the C+L Finescale stand really caught my eye and I let my guard down, giving in to an impulse buy - One point kit and a couple of lengths of flexi-track for my first attempt at track construction - IN P4!
The inspiration came from a trip to Chatham MRE in 2010 with one of the Ivanhoe clubs' other layouts, Mr. Tooley's Loughborough Midland. On the way down to set up the layout on the Friday, we dropped in on the BP oil terminal on the Isle of Grain for some photos, but were quickly hunted down by the police and port security, politely telling us to go away. To be fair, the terminal had just been the subject of a protest rally, so a van and car turning up with its occupants acting suspiciously (and dressed in anoraks and bobble hats) obviously wasn't too welcome! Our next stop was on the Isle of Sheppey, Sheerness Steel, where we copped a number of shunters. After consulting the OS map (A Mr. Lambourne special from the 1930s (I exaggerate, but not by much)), we headed off to Queenborough in search of the light railway lines found on the OS map. To our amazement, the lines were still there and even more surprisingly, were still in use! Whilst taking photos from the gateway, one of the chaps from the works came out to us. Thinking we were in for the second bol****ing of the day, we prepared ourselves. Instead of a telling off, the chap invited us to help oursel..... We didn't need asking twice!

Here are some of the photos which were taken with the kind permission of the worker.  All photos courtesy of Adrian Lambourne with the copyright remaining entirely his.

post-22266-0-85193300-1492790833_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-42579500-1492790916_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-00309700-1492790995_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-27122600-1492791062_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-28230500-1492791118_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-09681000-1492791304_thumb.jpg

 

That's all for now, Cheers, Andy.

Edited by theplasticbrummy
  • Like 15
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello again.

 

Following on from yesterday's post (I cut it short because of a poor internet connection), I'm sure you can see from the photos why I wanted to model it.  The ramshackle nature of the outfit, everything in a state of disrepair yet still operating - so many model-able scenes.  Here are few more photos of the works:  Note the blue crane on the 4-wheel chassis - It looks a bit precarious to me but must have served a purpose!

 

post-22266-0-86446500-1492860552_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-33592800-1492860457_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-20262500-1492860499_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-85658000-1492860524_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-59477500-1492860585_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-24928500-1492860608_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-08847400-1492860649_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-01917200-1492860721_thumb.jpgpost-22266-0-79224000-1492860757_thumb.jpg

 

As with most all of my projects, they always seem to get bigger, Sheppey Steel was no exception.  Initially, I envisaged the layout being made up of two, 5' x 16" boards and being operated by DCC (another first for me) - I thought if I was going P4, I might as well go the whole proverbial hog and go DCC with sound too!  After playing about with the templates which came with the point kit, I soon realised that you effectively need 2' of board for a point and the reverse curve bringing the diverging line back to be parallel with its neighbour.  To do what I wanted, I knew the layout would have to grow.  I decided to go for three boards, still 5' x 16". 

 

The boards were to be made using a different method to what I am used to.  We as a club (and I'm sure everybody else does this too) learn from each others' mistakes and successes, always trying to improve on the previous layout - I'm sure this one will be no different.  This time, I chose to go for an all-ply construction using no screws, aiming for a strong but lightweight base.  I decided on 1/4" ply and had the local timber merchant cut the tops for me to ensure they were all the same.  Back at the club, the sides and cross members were cut to 4" - the minimum depth that would safely house the point motors (Cobalt Omegas in this case).  The edges of the tops and outer frames were then routed out by an 1/8" to form a step (doubling the surface area of the join) and also a 1/4" rebate was routed across the width of the tops and the height of the sides at 12" intervals to allow for the cross members to be slotted in.  Polyurethane glue was applied to the joins and all of the pieces were clamped together and left overnight to set.  As I had hoped, the result was a very strong and light weight board, however, further down the line, I have found that the construction acts like an amplifier.  When operating the point motors, it sounds like there is a full size cow mooing underneath the layout!

 

Here's a photo of two of the boards with the beginnings of the track base being laid.

post-22266-0-64428200-1492858304_thumb.jpg

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Cheers, Andy.

  • Like 9
Link to post
Share on other sites

Good morning all.

 

With the three base boards constructed and a track plan finalised, I got to work on something I've never done before - Building track (even if I did cheat by buying point kits!).  It was a steep leaning curve in terms of skill and knowledge, but very interesting and enjoyable all the same.  I can quite honestly say that it was the most satisfying thing I've done, modelling wise, for a long time.  I read, re-read and read again, the instructions from C+L, getting to know the different parts and where they needed to go.  Whilst waiting for a few other kits to arrive in the post, I looked through some threads on here and spoke to a couple of chaps up at my club, researching the best way (for me) to build the points.  After much reading/talking(as usual)/deliberation/in.....decision, I bit-the-bullet and decided to build the first point directly onto the layout, as I didn't like the idea of moving it about once finished.  Firstly, I cut around the sleep ends of an appropriate template and tacked it down to the card base, tracing around the edges with a pencil - I figured that this would allow me to glue the sleepers down in the correct places without loosing the template underneath the finished point.  I used Evostick to fix the sleepers to the card after aligning them with the pencil lines, using a slab of marble (which had been previously liberated from a kitchen stove) to ensure good adhesion and a level finish.  It was unfortunate, but a necessity, that the first point I had to lay would be a facing point on the main running line directly out of the fiddle yard. 

 

post-22266-0-63568800-1493072707_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-73607000-1493072715_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-95577200-1493072735_thumb.jpg

*Please ignore the N gauge stock - I was trying to confuse somebody as to what gauge track I was building.

 

After being left overnight to ensure the glue had fully set, I began threading chairs onto the straight stock rail - therapeutic, until the chairs started falling onto the black carpet, never to be seen again.  I glued the straight stock rail and then the curved stock rail and crossing vee chairs down over two days, so I didn't inadvertently move any (as the instructions advise), again, leaving the marble slab on top.  With the stock rails now in place,  I drilled two holes for the point blade operating rods.  For point movement, I decided to use the tortoise mounting plate but with a cobalt motor - I was going to make my own until I saw how cheap they were.  Next job was to fit the blades and the tie-bars.  I must admit, I completely failed with the supplied brass and rubber tube tie-bar and ended up going for some copper clad instead.  I also melted a few chairs whilst soldering the blades to the copper clad, but its all experience.  To finish off my first point, I added the wing rails and then went round gluing in the multitude of "half-chairs".  As a first effort, I was quite pleased with myself, although, I knew there was much room for improvement.  Just to keep up the learning experience, my next job was to lay a three way, "interlaced" point.

 

To break up the track building a little, I turned my attention to a bit of painting and a little more construction.  To save space, I wanted a sector plate.  This would have the benefit of doing away with a few points as I could transfer stock from the through line, to the back line (running in to one of the steel shops) and the front line (the maintenance shed).  For this, I used an offcut of ply and trimmed it with quadrant, finishing it off with a few coats of black gloss and some green card as a base.  The plate runs on four draw runners.  Under the second photo (below)

 is the point control panel - this was later set into one of the back scene boards and hidden by part of a building.

 

post-22266-0-54885400-1493072726_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-91297400-1493077357_thumb.jpg

 

In my next post, I'll show you where I'm up to now.

 

Cheers, Andy.

  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

Brilliant work Andy I'll be watching this thread, looking forward to seeing your progress, I've always wanted to model the steel works at sheppey or the line towards the wharf so far I've got as far as collecting a few items of stock.

 

Ben

Edited by D2200
Link to post
Share on other sites

Well Steve, you know how it was at Pauls? Yep, its still like that.

 

Ben, I originally wanted to model the wharf as well.  I thought about making two 15' layouts that could be exhibited individually but taken out together for larger shows.  I bought a couple of Dapol dockside cranes as a starting point.  As you will probably see in my next post, the layout gets longer anyway - I did say, "As with most all of my projects....."

 

LBRJ, there is something about industrial locations that I can't put my finger on. 

 

I hope you all enjoy this thread.

 

Cheers, Andy.

Edited by theplasticbrummy
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Ben, I originally wanted to model the wharf as well. I thought about making two 15' layouts that could be exhibited individually but taken out together for larger shows. I bought a couple of Dapol dockside cranes as a starting point. As you will probably see in my next post, the layout gets longer anyway - I did say, "As with most all of my projects....."

 

 

I'd never thought about using the Dapol dockside crane, well I look forward to your next post Andy, have you seen the link below before plenty of prototype pics

 

http://www.railalbum.co.uk/industrial-railways/queenborough-intro-1.htm

 

Ben

Edited by D2200
Link to post
Share on other sites

So, this is where I am currently up to with this layout.  Not much progress has been made since its last outing as a gap filler at John Cox's St. Johns Charity Exhibition, at Stoke on Trent last year.  Although meant to go to the show as more of a demo, It turned out to be a good opportunity to test the layout.  I had just received some ultrascale wheel sets for my Bachmann 66, two Heljan 33s and had also re-chipped my Knightwing shunter which runs on a black beetle chassis.  I'd never really played with DCC sound before and after spending half an hour trying to figure out why nothing worked, I remembered that somebody had mentioned NOT using the curly cord in my NCE pack - the flat cable in the left hand socket resolved the issue and I was up and running.  The general public seemed very interested - more the sound locos than the layout!  Me and my oppos had a great weekend chatting and generally messing about with the few bits of rolling stock that I had converted!  I did find one issue that needed resolving though - It seems that at one of the board joins, I've sanded too much away from the top, trying to achieve a smooth finish but inadvertently resulting in a dip in the track.  The Bo-Bos and shunter were fine however the shed kept pushing its leading axel of the railhead, resulting in an earth fault!

 

Apologies for the photos again - I really ought to buy a new phone but I'm tighter than Arkwright's back pocket.

The three are from just before I took it to Lydd Rail in 2015 and like I said, not much has changed since then.  It'll be back up in the club room though later this year - the mojo is back for this one now.

 

post-22266-0-71683100-1493499806_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-38664000-1493499816_thumb.jpg

post-22266-0-12600000-1493499825_thumb.jpg

 

As I've said before, the track is all C+L and the points are from their range of kits, so I've not soldered up the common crossings or filed the blades however, after damaging one blade, I had to make another so I'm quite happy to do those now.

 

To make it look something for its first "exhibition", I thought I'd better get the beginnings of some buildings on, to give it some height if nothing else.  Steel industry buildings tend to be quite large so I duly made the main shop almost as high as the back scene.  Something which had to be modelled was the gantry crane which emerges out of one of the buildings and spans all of the tracks, heading off board down the side of a storage shed which I am yet to model.  As I intended on having the crane moving along the gantry (and the jib operating if at all possible), it had to be strong and stable (much like a Tory government :mosking: )  The uprights are made from 4mm brass H-section with the runners being 6mm I-Beams, both bought from 4D models in London.  I then added some Slaters lattice girder underneath and some supports for the uprights (although they need extending) from a Walthers kit.  There are only supports on one side as the other side will be braced to the storage shed (when its built). The actual gantry crane is also a Walthers kit. 

 

NB: When making something out of 6mm brass section, do be careful when exhibiting as I had a poor, elderly gentleman, catch his hand on the crane, ripping open his skin and spilling blood all over my nice, new, hand-crafted baseboards! - Fortunately the crane survived perfectly unscathed and a certain Mr. Wide was on hand to provide medical assistance (a plaster).  On a serious note, I will have to look in to a protective screen or something to prevent this happening again - A member of the public may not be so understanding or as apologetic after being maimed at a model railway exhibition  :butcher:  !  I am sorry Stu.

 

Tune in for an update at the end of 2038 - I may have started on it again by then.

 

Ta ta for now.

 

Cheers, Andy.

Edited by theplasticbrummy
  • Like 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

Andy,

The "accident" that happened at Lydd Rail was worse because the exhibition manager was off site, so couldn't perform first aid until he returned.

The injured gentleman now doesn't leave home without a care worker.

Cheers.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...