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Wantage Road 1880 4mm Broad Gauge


Charlie586
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Thank you Nick, that's very helpful. The Steventon bridge does match the British railway journal drawing,  I can't really post that here but I'll send you a pm.

The Brj article (from 1987) suggests the build date is unknown and replaces a level crossing. I thought there was a little piece in the first mcdermott book on early Wantage road, but I can't seem to quickly find it.

 

I keep meaning to get railways through the vale of the white horse, I probably ought to treat myself to it. I've got the Faringdon branch book which has some details of traffic around my period.

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Some weekend progress

 

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Bit more ballasting, another wash of white on the platform and the office building roof is now shaped. Need to add little strips and guttering. Not yet sure whether to 3d print gutters or make them. Need to finish painting the buildings as well. 

I'm doing the main building roof, but I'll post that when finished. Making chimneys today. I've got a stack of Rover soldering to do but waiting for the weather to get a bit cooler first.

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So it turned out my big toe is broken, which explains why it hurt so much at first. They missed it on the original xray as the bruises where on my foot, not the toes. I broke it 5 years ago in the same place, that was when I learned 3d cad. So, I've got another week or so of playing. 

 

Still doing the station house roof which is taking forever, and other little bits. I forgot to order plain bond plasticard so can't finish off the chimneys yet. I'm struggling with a few things on photos. I can't see what the guttering is like no matter how much I zoom in to photos.

 

Also, the bridge brick bond

 

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Heavily cropped zoom of where the bridge meets the up platform.  im pretty certain this is flemish.

 

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Top of bridge, again pretty sure it's Flemish. The problem is all the photos I've seen of Steventon bridge are English bond. Why would they copy the bridge then use a different bond. Or are my eyes on the blink? 

Going to do a bit if painting today and hopefully finish the roof off. 

 

Edit to add... the rest of the station  (buildings , waiting shelter) is definitely English bond which is even more confusing. 

Edited by Charlie586
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Try Googling "Wantage Road railway bridge".

 

That came up with a couple of images of the 1932 bridge which appear, to me, to show that some of the original brickwork survived the rebuilding - the lower part of the piers are a brighter colour than the upper.

 

Zooming in on the images, whilst not 100% clear, suggests to me Flemish bond.  Unfortunately the 1932 bridge was itself replaced in 2016, for the electrification.

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Thanks Nick. I've done a lot of googling of Wantage road over the years,  but it never hurts to do it again. Occasionally another photo turns up or I see a better quality version of one I've already got.

The piers do look original from the colour difference. I'm pretty sure it's Flemish too and will go with that.

 

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So, the station building roof.

 

Instead of using slate plasticard, I thought I'd have a go at tiling it myself.

 

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Basically cutting 3.2mm x 6 ish mm strips then gluing on. It really was slow and around about this point I thought of giving up, but ...

 

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I didn't (give up)

It's a bit wobbly in places and wouldn't be water tight, but I think it probably does look better than flat plasticard 

 

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I tried to paint it sparingly, but I need to get a bit more paint up in the holes as the white plasticard is showing through a bit.

 

The only other tile building on the layout will be the goods shed, but (based on current progress) it'll be a few years before I'm at that stage.

 

20210725_103850.jpg.d1d35c39954854bbe14181e5dbe89dee.jpg

 

Latest long shot. I need quite a few elm trees for behind the fence and shelter. I painted the station house extension the other day but the colour doesn't quite match. I think it needs a yellowy wash. Once I've finished the bridge and shelter,  I'll try and merge the colours so they're similar. 

 

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Just a little one. Did some 3d printing  

 

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Ogee guttering, which was to scale 5 inches across but slightly over scale in thickness. I think it's too small though to look right so will reprint a bit bigger. Maybe look to see if I can find guttering that's about a foot wide.

Also just a test really of chimney bricks as I still haven't bought any plain bond plasticard (the postage just for one item makes it expensive). I'm really low on 3d resin  so might use it up printing the full chimneys and see what it's like. I know it's cheating a bit, but things are likely to grind to a halt next week when I'm back to normal.

Doing the bridge at the moment, I'll do a full post on it when nearly there. 

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Getting a backlog of photos so here's first part of bridge 

 

I struggled a bit at first because neither of the diagrams showed the bridge from the platform side, so I drew it out as best I could on graph paper. 

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Then started cutting out what wood I've got to hand, about 10mm thick mdf. The main tunnel entrance, as it's on a skew, had me scratching my head for a while. I matched the top part of the arc to an ellipse using the paint program on the Steventon drawing, then googled how to draw an ellipse and wikihow explained it .

 

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Cut wood and plasticard,  though left a pier too narrow so cut another one. I'll reuse it on the other side. It's not quite cut to exact shape as there's 5 rows of half bricks around each arch. Another bit of headscratching about what to do, but

 

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Used the olfa at 1.5 ish mm radiuses and manually marking the bricks at roughly 1mm apart. 

 

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It's not as slow as I thought it would be (although after all those slates nothing is ever going to feel slow again). The smaller arches are less than a half circle. I'm going to paint one to see what it looks like before doing the big arch.

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I'm about half a week behind with these posts, but had a painting day. 

 

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Painted more of the sash windows. I haven't got any primer so have done them in acrylic. It's needed 2 coats and the sliding part no longer fits so I'll have to file a bit off and repaint the edges.

The Wantage road snowman is going to need a few more coats (enamel this time)

Also did a thinned coat of yellowy white to the smaller brick arch.

 

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Painted the arch in brickish colours. It doesn't look too similar to the way I normally paint, as seen on right for platform edge strip. I think it needs a coat of red first to get it similar to the slaters then do the brick colours.

 

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Guttering Painted black,  but it occurred to me after painting that it's going to be very difficult to stick all the bits together in a straight line. I'm reprinting it as a section with supports, just finishing off the cad.

 

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Brick arch for test. Needs cutting properly but I'll do another with a red base coat first before doing anything terminal. One arch around the back is part of a bank so I can dump this one there if needed. I also Painted the roof a bit more to get rid of the worst of the white bits, needs weathering now, and did a very thin greenish coat to the lean to, as it's zinc, but the coat was too thin. I'm still not sure about the platform colour? Part of the platform wood needs cutting away as it slopes down to rail level under the bridge. I should have done that while building the platform  it would have been a lot easier than hacking bits off now. 

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The station is looking good. I like the visual effect of the different angles in play - also very evident on the prototype station, I see:  

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8859000/8859509.stm

 

A Broad Gauge snowman too. I hope it's proper Welsh coal for the eyes? 

 

Edited by Mikkel
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5 hours ago, Mikkel said:

The station is looking good. I like the visual effect of the different angles in play - also very evident on the prototype station, I see:  

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8859000/8859509.stm

 

A Broad Gauge snowman too. I hope it's proper Welsh coal for the eyes? 

 

Thanks Mikkel 

The top two floors of the station building were originally the signalman's house,  so I think (my guess) it was angled to give him a good view of both lines over the top of the bridge. So even when he wasn't working he could stare at the lines.

Mrs586 has a small business making candle wax shapes so I've been making silicone moulds for her from 3d prints. I thought I'd scale down the snowman to see how it printed.

However, if I can't get the platform paintwork looking right I could just spray everything white and pretend it's permanently xmas.

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Things have slowed down a bit now as I can drive again, but I did 2 bouts of soldering a week or so ago.

 

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The first half of the sandwich frame for the other side of the rover.

 

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One of the sandboxes was soldered on and the support bracket at front. Tried to put the sides on the front of tender but they wouldn't really go on, I should have planned how to assemble it better. Also there's a little piece of nickel with 2xlaminations on it for the boiler support but it just looks like a blob as not cleaned up.

 

While cleaning up, the rover bracket fell off and the body came apart. 

 

Onto round 2

 

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Put the tender top on, bit messy but it will clean up, underneath is a lot worse. Finished the frames, but very annoying the little clamp support three quarters along and the pair of spring supports haven't quite gone on straight. Im not going to take it apart and redo, I'll have to bodge somehow. Also managed to put the splasher on without breaking anything. 

 

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As the body is in 2 bits, I'm going to use the frames and buffers (when finished) to build a sort of sub frame they can sit on.

 

 

 

 

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Bits cleaned up, the clamp thing in the middle is clearer now.

 

I'm going to treat myself to some new flux, I've been using plumbers flux (laco) I bought at least 20 years ago, So maybe some new flux might help. I think the other problem is I'm not getting it hot enough because I'm worried about bits falling off. It's not far off done now, in soldering terms anyway. 

 

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Catch up with photos 

 

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The bigger arch scored out, you might have to zoom in a bit. I've since redone an outer one as the arch continued down a few courseswhen it's level, gave them a base coat and stuck them to the bridge along with main plasticard bit

 

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Bit like that. It's too high intentionally (honest) So I get the loading gauge right. I was going to rig up the test track and layout together and have a play, but we went out this afternoon instead. 

 

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Got really brave the other day and desoldered clamp and spring supports then put them back on. Not quite square but a lot better than before. 

 

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Now the top is on tender, I did the front insides. Bit messy solder wise. Also there's a gap where the top was measured incorrectly. I'll fill it, the toolboxes will go there so hopefully won't show.

 

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Lastly,  I was doing the artwork for queen class tender but stopped when I did my toe and switched to the layout. As the frames are similar to the engine, it was quite quick to do. I'm going to finish it now as otherwise I'll forget its half done. I'm nearly out of resin so will get a new bottle soon. It seems to be cheaper than the last time I bought some,  and also different types of resin are available now so need to read up before ordering. 

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Done a few bits and bobs the past week, though nothing substantial. Did visit a second hand model shop and bought some little people.

 

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Obviously I was more interested in the victorianish white metal ones than the plastic ones but it came as a set. 

 

Put them on the layout and...

 

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They're a bit small. I had a bit of a panic thinking I'd got the door frame wrong,  but the door is quite large and has a glass panel above, and then the lintel. Actual photos of people near the door or even the building are quite rare, but I did find this one in front of the single storey building which I've heavily cropped. 

 

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His head is below the middle of the window, so they're perhaps not as bad as I thought. I'm going to have to be careful where I put them though. 

No names yet, but the identical ones will be twin daughters of the gentleman and lady. And I think the knife needs removing from the other gentleman.

 

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Some of the other inhabitants of Wantage road came out to welcome them and offered advice on not holding their breath waiting for a train to arrive. 

 

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Bit of a last minute pic, I've 3d printed a door and the larger end window . I think they don't look quite as bad now a door is there, I took the photo from a lower angle as well. 

 

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Interesting figures, I don't recognize any of them. The gent with the knife is a bit odd, who would make such a figure! :O

 

Scariest of all is the snowman in the last shot, though. You have the makings of a rather chilling Victorian tale there :) 

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37 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

The gent with the knife is a bit odd, who would make such a figure

There was a series of classic Victorian villains available at one time.  I can't remember who made them now, but there were the usual suspects, Jack the Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde, Moriarty & etc.

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4 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Interesting figures, I don't recognize any of them. The gent with the knife is a bit odd, who would make such a figure! :O

 

Scariest of all is the snowman in the last shot, though. You have the makings of a rather chilling Victorian tale there :) 

Thanks, they are quite small as you can see by the ruler.

And, you've given me an idea for a xmas layout story...

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3 hours ago, Annie said:

There was a series of classic Victorian villains available at one time.  I can't remember who made them now, but there were the usual suspects, Jack the Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde, Moriarty & etc.

Thanks Annie,  I thought Jack the ripper when I first saw him. I remember seeing a victorian / Edwardian model thread somewhere a few years ago, I'll have to look for it again.

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20210830_143343.jpg.539d65383b8a1a65d77c08698544408e.jpg

 

Rumours of a bank holiday special to Weston-super-Mare proved to be false. 

 

I'm doing bits and bobs to various things so it looks (and feels) like not much is going on. 

There's 19 windows in total, over 4 different designs, I'm working through them and need a good painting session or two.

I chopped too much off the building above the lintel so need to add 3 courses back. No door part is stuck yet, just blue tacked to see how it looks. The door itself I made a few years ago , lost it and found it again the other day, just after I 3d printed a new one.

I think apprentice shoveller Don is hinting I should finish the ballast off as it's not far off done. 

 

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Got very brave today and soldered the frames to the two parts of the body, so it's just one piece now. 

 

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Part of one frame came loose while soldering but then restuck itself back together. The frames are about a mm off lengthways, which is a shame,  but they'll have to stay like it as I don't think I can get them off without the whole thing falling apart. Needs buffer beams and a few other little bits adding, probably just glue the little bits, the buffer beams should solder without any major disaster. 

I'll take another picture after cleaning and with the motor and chassis in. Maybe even take it for a test drive. I've heard Weston-super-Mare is in high demand at the moment. 

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Just a little post,  every now and then these pop up on the ebay

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384352000243?hash=item597d2a18f3:g:q9wAAOSwHDNhJrda

 

If you don't want to click the link, it's Wantage tramway passenger numbers for a particular day, in this case 1898 but I have got a screenshot somewhere for one in the early 1880's. 

These are handy not only in knowing how few people used it, but also the trams connected with main line trains so it helps with timings and the overall picture. 

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20210906_150227.jpg.58792eb7676dc4917d5e9b33601b3bf4.jpg

 

George the foreman continues to paint windows, while an unfortunate accident has befallen the flower girl. Meanwhile Sir Reginald Itstop, along with wife Penelope and twin daughters, once more complain after travelling to the station and finding yet again that the train won't be running.

 

Anyway, I was going to run the Rover but there's a short which isn't really unsurprising. I need to take it apart again and isolate a few places. The frames being in the wrong place is really annoying me so I'm going to try unpicking the solder from inside with a craft knife and tiny file. Hopefully they'll come off intact and go back on a mm and a bit forward. I need a little socket so I can connect and disconnect the wires from the tender easily, and am nearly finished on getting the tender frames ready for soldering.

 

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The Queen tender is ready for a test print. It just needs mirroring which is about 3 mouse clicks. I've kept it in 2 halves as the rover tender was a pig to print. I've got some more resin, went for the eco plant based one this time so it won't be as toxic and apparently doesn't smell as bad. It's supposed to print quicker as well, which means I'll have to test other smaller things first until I get the settings right. Should keep me busy for a bit.

 

I did wonder if there was a rtr tender with same wheelbase I could just overlay the frames on. Though I would have to reguage it as it needs to be p4-ish for this layout.

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Superb thread. As I saw this I realized that it was a station just down the road from East Hanney, where I lived at my parents house as a young man. The modelling in this thread is quite honestly intimidating, although I'd love to jump in and do something like this the level of care and effort seems beyond what I could do.

 

I looked on the 'net at some old maps, and found that the station in question is smack dang on the corner of 4 intersecting sheets.

Wantage Road Station nr. Hanney.png

Edited by Gareth-Ingram
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