North Quay

[sb67]

Only just found this thread, but am really interested to see this develop. Building a dockside layout is high on my list of 'layouts-I'd-like-to-build' and I've been collecting pointwork and crane kits ready for just such a thing. There was also a North Quay at Great Yarmouth, and I can highly recommend having a look at some of the photos of that system for inspiration. The trains there actually ran down the public streets and appeared out of gaps between buildings etc. Marvellous stuff!

 

I've been looking for inspiration for my dockside layout, I'll google North Quay.

Steve.

[WD0-6-0]

Well, pay day has come, set me up nicely with a little set aside for new baseboard and before I can buy some my car throws another spanner in the works and a well hidden stone has written off my front left wheel, not the tyre but the alloy! So modelling funds are once again being directed to repairs for a car I'm beginning to think has it in for me.

All is not lost, North Quay is not dead I just can't progress with the layout itself yet, nevertheless I'm practicing cutting card for inset concrete, testing filler and even laying matchstick to try out wooden boarding. Im also still weathering rolling stock and fiddling with locos.

Sorry about the rather poor update guys, I was really hoping this post would be about laying track and testing electronics but perhaps next time.

Thanks

Rhys

[sb67]

Dont worry Rhys, you'll get there. Life has a habbit of throwing spanners around, glad you're still doing something, keep us updated and you coud always post some pics of what you're up to now.

Steve.

[WD0-6-0]

Well a dockside layout will require a lot of rolling stock, BR had thousands of wagons and I have spent some time attempting to represent some of these.

I enjoy weathering wagons, I'm by no means an expert but here is a small example of some of my unfitted wagons which will be appearing on North Quay.

These photos are poorly lit but I'll share some better ones of these and some of the others over the next few days.

I'll be running most of my wagons on North Quay though as there are probably nearly 50 of them, not all at the same time of course!

As you can see, the clean one will be my next unfortunate victim.

An Ex Midland Brake Van, weathered and lamps added, I have a guard figure to finish painting and add shortly.

Finally this ExLNER 7 plank has had a thin coat of BR grey and some planks replaced but the NE lettering is starting to show through again.

Thanks again, I'll share some more of the wagon photos if there's any interest

Rhys

[sb67]

Nice weathering Rhys, what techniques did you use? 

Steve.

[Tortuga]

Seconded! Can you give us more details on those wagons, such as manufacturer, any modifications you might have carried out? I know I'd be interested to know...

[WD0-6-0]

Thanks for your interest! More than happy to share my methods but I'm far from professional. I've been weathering my own rolling stock for a few years now but I only really consider things I've done recently to be up to a standard I can show off, for example here's some of my early work, a cheap Hornby wagon, not something I'm particularly proud of now but illustrates how far I've come!

 

 

Anyway, here's my victim

 

 

Generally on a wagon I'll begin with a wash of railmatch "Weathered Black", it helps to give a Matt surface to work on a well as to give a dirty base while still clearly retaining the livery below.

 

 

(Here it gets messy!)

Next I mix weathering powders into a paste with humbrol decalfix (I have two pots, one clean for transfers and one full of dirt and weathering powders and paint and all sorts specifically for weathering), any powders in any combination. Here I used a light rust, an earthy brown and a Smokey dark grey, single and mixed and just slapped them on. Putting on different layers and diff eerent colours in different places to make it deliberately uneven.

 

 

Then after giving it a couple of minutes to dry, I dipped a handful of cotton buds into the decalfix and wiped the model over in a vertical motion, cleaning pretty much all of it back off again.

 

 

Sometimes this is enough to leave a basic but pleasing effect but for this wagon I wasn't happy with it so dirt goes back on again... Acrylic paint this time, washes of weathered black again along with some whites and greys dry brushed or washed over the model.

 

 

Then using scrunched up kitchen roll I dabbed gently to remove excess and stiple the finish, occasionally dragging vertically to create vertical streaking and then when the paint was dry gave it a light polish following the planks with more kitchen paper.

Next using a very fine brush I added more rust powder paste to some of the strapping on one side and painted out a plank in black on the other. Most of my wagons have replacement planks, probably too many of them but I quite like the affect it creates, this is the first time I've used black rather than a bare wood colour but it's based on a real photograph.

 

 

So there we have it, I find this method to be very versatile working well on all wooden bodied wagons and even steam locomotives. It starts to fall down however when it comes to flatter sided things like diesels and steel bodied wagons, coaches can be hit and miss but sometimes work.

The wagons so far are all the usual suspects, Hornby, Bachmann and oxford lots of them with minimal modification.

There is an oxford six plank with some planks replaced with steel section add per a recent model rail article though which I think looks quite good! It's in my last post so I won't repeat the photo here.

 

Thanks again guys, this has been quite a long post but I hope is answered some questions and hopefully it won't be too long before I have a real layout update!

 

Rhys

[sp1]

You make it look so easy!

[WD0-6-0]

You make it look so easy!

I don't gave any special skills or equipment, it's just practice,I started with cheap older wagons and played around until I found what worked for me. I was told pretty early too that "it's not what you put on, it's what you take off" Anything I put on the model is haphazard, it doesn't matter how it goes on because the detail is in how it comes off and what's left behind.

Thanks

Rhys

[sb67]

Great stuff Rhys and thanks for sharing. I see the model rail article and plan do do that myself sometime, the wagon looks good in your photo.

Steve.

[Tortuga]

Yes, thanks for sharing. Really useful - I spotted the modified open and thought I recognised that modification!

[WD0-6-0]

Hello everyone

North Quay is not dead, just after a while with limited funds I then found myself getting very busy at work and haven't really had the time to model as much as I'd wanted.

I have had a couple of birthday/early Christmas present though for the layout. The resident shunter, a Peckett for which I have name and works plates on order from narrow planet and a Dapol B4 which will also be a regular.

I have also double the depth of the inland leg of the layout to 20 inches to ease some of the space constraints faced by the first layout and allow the addition of some more scenic areas

 

Thanks

Rhys

[WD0-6-0]

 Wow, it's been a long time since I last updated this topic and unfortunately this is not a major update.
I have bought and cut new baseboards for the project but it's now clear that the frames are not good enough so they will be rebuilt hopefully over the coming days and perhaps even have the baseboards attached.

I haven't had much time or space to work on the layout recently however it's not been forgotten. I have made and painted various bits of furniture, a few of the most recent ones I'll share here.

 

I have also got the Peckett fitted with its name and works plates and while it should probably get a light coat of weathering I can't quite bring myself to do it yet. I also know I could weather it myself but its named after my great grandmother and when it's done it will be done professionally.

Thanks for reading

Rhys

[WD0-6-0]

Baseboards!!! New frame and boards constructed in just over two mornings while I'm working am evening shift, progress at last! Tbe next step is unfortunately to clear out the spare room that the layout is going in and mounting wall brackets to hold it. That will take some time but progress is coming on slowly! These frames and boards are much more solid than the old ones!

Thanks 

Rhys

[WD0-6-0]

Looking for a little advice, I have a small amount of NCB stock that I'd like to be able to run on North Quay. I'm wondering what excuse I'd have to do this, the only thing I can come up with evidence for is having a Staithe for loading coal into ships but I'm not sure where I could put that on the layout as it would require a structure to raise that track by 30mm? Perhaps on the pier in the outside edge facing away from the viewer/operator? Are there any other excuses to operate NCB locos and internal user wagons on a quayside system?

Track only roughly laid out in a representative fashion.

Thanks

Rhys

[sb67]

I'm sure I've seen photo's of coal wagons waiting to be unloaded under cranes similar to the one you have,  the building marked 1 in your plan could be a wagon repair shed? 

Steve.

[WD0-6-0]

Hi Steve

You're right, the answer was staring me in the face the whole time!

I think I might buy a second crane, one for regular lifting and one for bulk materials such as coal, I think I'll fix the bulk crane permanently in once place and leave the original as a travelling crane.

That's next month, got to sort the railway room out first so I can get the boards up permanently.

Thanks

Rhys

[OliverRowley]

Hello 

All very interesting! 

I particularly like the way NCB has been mentioned (as a NCB modeler myself) and would certainly be fun to operate. 

I drew up plans for an NCB pier; a wooden structure being rail served by an NCB internal system and operating a dropper system into the boats below (like some North Eastern wagons I believe) and back to the colliery via rail and road system

Intrested to see how this devolps

Oliver

[WD0-6-0]

Hello everyone

I'd like to say that North Quay is not dead. If anything the theory of it all has expanded massively. It's likely to undergo a name change to North Dock as I'm now aiming to add a second pier structure and construct a dry dock. I have chosen to move to more of a ship repair based dock site rather than a loading and unloading facility. The vessel in dry dock is likely to be an approximation of a 1920s-30s motor yacht around 50 metres in length. (I'm a final year hydraulics apprentice in the super yacht industry so I'm modelling what I know)

In addition to that, the layout is no going to be U shaped with the addition of an upper level. This upper level will include a colliery branch and a branch line station. I have a rough sketch but will provide a more detailed drawing in the coming days. The docks is accessed via the only surviving section of my late grandfather's layout recently uncovered in the loft. It includes a sloped tunnel entrance allowing change between the upper and lower levels.

So I think im mad to include a colliery branch, a main branch and a dock all on one layout...

I've got a room to put it in and the last piece of furniture blocking the construction has sold so in theory baseboard construction can begin in the new year. Sorry about the delay (and the 1000 page novel I've just dropped on you) and I hope to have some progress to share soon!

 

Thanks again

Rhys