Parsons Vale Carriage sidings - 00 BR Blue layout now Sold

[Regularity]

Looks good.... but haw can you test a steam heating van, without steam heat pipes???

Fire the boiler, open the cocks: pipes not required.

[37114]

Looks good.... but haw can you test a steam heating van, without steam heat pipes???

LOL, just the running qualities tested today, for the first time in 20 years I appear to have no spare buffer beam pipes in the spares box so will have to wait for another day..

[37114]

We ventured round to my Mum and Dad's on Saturday and to the amusement of my wife and Kids, my parents had the family photo albums out. My Dad is a steam enthusiast so there are quite a few train pictures in the albums, including some from the steam trains that ran on the Portishead line as part of the GWR 150 in 1985. In the album I managed to find this shot of Parson Street with Malago Vale visible in the background (and yours truly as a 7 year old in the foreground). Sadly there weren't any better photos of the carriage sidings themselves.

 

[37114]

To keep the layout progressing I am now doing work on it most weekends, I have made a start on the concrete area at the front of the layout. Having recently been given a tour of one of our distribution centres which is being constructed it struck me how the concrete yard is cast in sections with bitumen between them to allow for expansion/contraction. I have replicated the same in the concrete by scoring the card and will give it a wash of dilute black paint to represent the joins.

 

The other thing I have been working on are detailing the gardens at the front, particularly the house being extended. The concrete mixer and figures are from woodland scenic but have had to be weathered. The set includes 4 figures but on a small job like the one I am modelling it is unlikely to require more than 2 men so I have kept one figure spare and put the other one digging in the garden next door:

 

 

[rob D2]

^^^^^^^

Nice detailing rob .

[37114]

^^^^^^^

Nice detailing rob .

 

Thanks Rob, just got to work out how to make washing lines and clothes now for a few of the houses at the back.

[Rivercider]

Thanks Rob, just got to work out how to make washing lines and clothes now for a few of the houses at the back.

 

And perhaps a fearsome looking lady carriage cleaner or two?

 

Nice work so far.

 

cheers

[37114]

And perhaps a fearsome looking lady carriage cleaner or two?

 

Nice work so far.

 

cheers

Indeed, I have read they were "legendary", to be fair you would need to be a pretty fearsome lady to walk around that part of Bedminster at night. Apparently one of the person's involved in the Brinks Matt gold robbery had premises on west street near to the footbridge on the right of the layout....

[Geoff Endacott]

 Apparently one of the person's involved in the Brinks Matt gold robbery had premises on west street near to the footbridge on the right of the layout....

 

So that's what the chap with the shovel is burying in the garden.

 

Geoff Endacott

[37114]

Over the last few times I have been working on the layout my daughter has shown a bit of interest in the layout and has recently been helping out with a few jobs as she is quite into art. She has helped with the bike shed which fills a nice bit of otherwise dead space:

 

Another little feature is a pond in the corner of one of the gardens at the front of the layout. It is not as deep as I would like but the plaster coating isn't that thick before I hit the baseboard:

 

And a couple of views of the whole layout. I am pressing on with the scenery but will hold off adding some of the smaller details until after the point motors are in and the final wiring done. Although it has been test run there is still a fair bit to do underneath and the fiddle yard cassettes are yet to be made before testing starts in ernest.

[Corbs]

Great looking layout, I'd not see this thread before. When I first moved to Bristol I lived in Mansfield St., just over from Parson Street Station, so this neck of the woods is very dear to my heart.

[37114]

36 minutes ago, Corbs said:

Great looking layout, I'd not see this thread before. When I first moved to Bristol I lived in Mansfield St., just over from Parson Street Station, so this neck of the woods is very dear to my heart.

 

Thanks, Mansfield street is very close indeed, I used to go into the chippy (was called Evelyn's but now sadly closed and converted to a house) at the end of the road to buy lunch occasionally when I worked in Parson Street. The gardens at the front of the layout would in reality be from the houses of Hall Street which I recall looped round into Mansfield street.

Edited February 10, 2019 by 37114

[Corbs]

Was it Evelyn's when you went there? Ask for a 'small chips' and still be there several minutes later watching scoopful after scoopful being heaped on the pile....

I know Hall Street, I lost my car for a week and found it in Hall Street, where I'd forgotten I'd parked it.

 

Happy days.

[SouthernBlue80s]

On 27/01/2019 at 16:07, 37114 said:

Indeed, I have read they were "legendary", to be fair you would need to be a pretty fearsome lady to walk around that part of Bedminster at night. Apparently one of the person's involved in the Brinks Matt gold robbery had premises on west street near to the footbridge on the right of the layout....

 

Yes I used to walk past that oblivious to the fact when I lived in Bedminster.

[The Johnster]

Never encountered any of the Malago carriage cleaning ladies, but the ones we had at Canton were definitely a very tough bunch, and some of the hardest working people I ever saw; but mostly if you saw one coming you got out of the way.  The only thing they got out of the way for was the shed cats. thugs to a man with violence in their hearts and larceny in their very souls.  They were railway employees, the cats I mean, on the books with a budget for food and vets bills, as vermin control; the only thing that frightened a Canton shed rat was a Canton shed cat.  

 

I expect most big sheds were like this.

[37114]

35 minutes ago, Corbs said:

Was it Evelyn's when you went there? Ask for a 'small chips' and still be there several minutes later watching scoopful after scoopful being heaped on the pile....

I know Hall Street, I lost my car for a week and found it in Hall Street, where I'd forgotten I'd parked it.

 

Happy days.

Yes pretty sure it was Evelyns, was around 1996/7

[37114]

17 minutes ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

 

Yes I used to walk past that oblivious to the fact when I lived in Bedminster.

Indeed, I think a few of us did although I saw a BBC documentary in the early 90's that outed that fact. 

[37114]

11 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Never encountered any of the Malago carriage cleaning ladies, but the ones we had at Canton were definitely a very tough bunch, and some of the hardest working people I ever saw; but mostly if you saw one coming you got out of the way.  The only thing they got out of the way for was the shed cats. thugs to a man with violence in their hearts and larceny in their very souls.  They were railway employees, the cats I mean, on the books with a budget for food and vets bills, as vermin control; the only thing that frightened a Canton shed rat was a Canton shed cat.  

 

I expect most big sheds were like this.

I found some suitably robust looking female figures in the bottom of the spares box this morning so they will appear. My daughter wants to add some cats, I can't for the life of me think who makes them but I know you can get them I had 6 on Pallet Lane.

[Corbs]

There are some barkers and purrlings from Preiser..

https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/oo-scale-products/Dogs-cats-Pr14165

 

or langley for feline-only fun

http://www.langleymodels.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_OO_Scale_Accessories_F77_to_F171f_14.html

Edited February 14, 2019 by Corbs

[37114]

14 hours ago, Corbs said:

There are some barkers and purrlings from Preiser..

https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/oo-scale-products/Dogs-cats-Pr14165

 

or langley for feline-only fun

http://www.langleymodels.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_OO_Scale_Accessories_F77_to_F171f_14.html

Thanks Corbs, will probably go for the Langley ones as I could do with a couple of other bits from them.

[37114]

Most of my modelling over the last few weeks has been on my Southern Pride XP64 coach but I now need to make progress quicker than planned, more of which anon.

 

The gardens at the front have had further work, the garden with the pond having the grass finished, I plan to put a flower bed down the right hand side fence hence the masking tape in one picture and lose scatter in the other:

The house next door had a garden shed but nothing else. The positioning of the shed wasn't ideal, and could have done with being closer to the fence but the flip side was I had an area around the back for junk storage, the assumption being this was the home of a local builder (perhaps the one doing the job 2 doors up?). As with some terrace houses it is modelled with an access path across the gardens to allow access for the bin men etc, the shed being just the right distance from the front of the layout for the path to pass in front. I have added some garden tools and ladders which have come from the spares box and included a cat climbing on the rubbish bin.

 

The other development of note is the exhibition debut of the layout maybe earlier than previously planned. At the back of my mind I was slightly nervous about such a large and well attended show as Trainwest being the layouts first show as although close to home it is a very busy 2 day show. Although at an embryonic planning stage, there will potentially be a one day show later this year which will be a quieter and enable a proper test run to be undertaken but means I need to have the layout finished by November - eek! 

Edited March 10, 2019 by 37114
spelling

[saxokid]

On ‎10‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 07:38, 37114 said:

Over the last few times I have been working on the layout my daughter has shown a bit of interest in the layout and has recently been helping out with a few jobs as she is quite into art. She has helped with the bike shed which fills a nice bit of otherwise dead space:

 

Another little feature is a pond in the corner of one of the gardens at the front of the layout. It is not as deep as I would like but the plaster coating isn't that thick before I hit the baseboard:

 

And a couple of views of the whole layout. I am pressing on with the scenery but will hold off adding some of the smaller details until after the point motors are in and the final wiring done. Although it has been test run there is still a fair bit to do underneath and the fiddle yard cassettes are yet to be made before testing starts in ernest.

So much "detailing" here!!

had realy good catch up here now,great modelling...

[37114]

A bit more progress tonight, as I try and finalise the last few gardens. The gardens for the last 2 houses are in reality just the footpath so relatively easy to do, I need to paint and weather the middle gate.

 

I have also filled in a few bits of "concrete" near the track as well as the last set of steps at the houses at the back of the layout

 

I have also made some progress on the water tower, having scratchbuilt the access platform. I also found a ladder in the spares box, in the picture it is just loosely in place as I need to make a landing for the roof of the boiler house.

[37114]

Not much visible progress but a significant milestone none the less, I wired up the controller to it's DIN plug (not without some frustrations but got there in the end) so I could do a proper test session. Although a couple of locos have moved on the layout before, this has been through temporary wiring, now I can use both controllers as intended. Other than a dead section the test session was a success and both controllers work as planned, none of the locos have been used for at least 18 months and need a wheel clean so running wasn't as smooth as I would like but that is easily fixed. The point motors haven't been fitted yet so I had to change the points manually and the frog's of the points are there isolated  as they are the Peco Unifrog type. 

 

25185 was the main test loco:

33021 also saw a test run, being a recent second-hand acquisition. The siding where it is parked will usually have an 08 stabled here as clearance is tight to the crossing in front.

I decided to try some shunting. I am out of practice so was a bit of a challenge but I managed to do some moves without too much hassle.

25191 also got a run out but for some reason the snow ploughs kept catching on the track which is a new problem as it was fine on Peafore Yard

I have never had particularly great experience of Heljan loco's with some early class 47's being eratic but this class 33 ran well. 

[37114]

A few more from this morning, I left the layout up on the table last night as I was wide awake at 4.30 this morning so had plenty of time to do some work/play with the layout. I found a rather nice PD Marsh model of a window cleaner in the bottom of the spares box so he has appeared in the garden of one of the semi's: