Finchley Road Station

[D9012]

These models were built by Bern Munday for East Beds Model Railway Society for our new club layout Finchley Road St Johns Wood, with some of the painting and weathering by me.  The following words from Bern describe the station models:

 

Our two entries are of Finchley Road & Frognal station (see separate entry for the signal box) on the Hampstead Junction Railway (North London Railway) in 1959. This was a time when the NLR was run-down after the war and the models aim to reflect the neglect of the period. Because the track layout on our model does not conform precisely with the layout at Finchley Road & Frognal we have revived the old name 'Finchley Road (St John's Wood)' that the station bore when first constructed in 1860. It was renamed Finchley Road & Frognal in 1880. All models are 4mm to 1 foot scale and based on photographs sourced from various books and publications, Holborn Library and, in the case of aerial photographs, from English Heritage. Archive mapping came from Ordnance Survey.   The original buildings have long been swept away, being replaced by a 'concrete shed' at street level. 

 

The main station building and the platform waiting rooms are scratchbuilt from plasticard. Window frames and doors are scratchbuilt from microstrip and various thicknesses of plastic sheet to match the prototype. The working colour light signals are from Eckon but with the bracket modified to suit the location. Building and platform signage is by Trackside Signs.

 

The platform awnings are also scratchbuilt, predominantly from brass, but with some plasticard detailing. The support posts are from varying sizes of brass tube, brackets are from the Scale Link range and the valancing is from Muswell Models. The hanging lamps are built by cutting the pin off a drawing pin, drilling a hole in the centre of the resulting disc and inserting a lacemakers pin to represent the bulb and support conduit. The roofs have the correct 3.6° slope front to back.

 

In addition, Bern has built a representation of the cutting that existed between the station and Hampstead tunnel, including the rather large supporting girders.    The cutting has been built on a curve to suit the layout.   The girders were designed and 3D printed specially with help from Robert Fryers of the club, and I've included a picture here to give a sense of the approach to the station from the east.

 

The layout is still in development, with work currently focused on laying track in the fiddle yard and working on the electrics concurrently.   We hope to have the layout ready for exhibiting in "not too many years" - look out for it at our own show, and we already have an early invitation for it to appear at the Chilterns show when ready.   Occasional updates can be found at www.ebmrs.org.uk.    I hope you find the project as interesting as we have!

Alan, Chairman EBMRS

 

The first two pictures show the Finchley Road station entrance,

The following 4 pictures show views of the rear of the station, the steps to platform levels and then a view with the platform buildings and canopies set up, the 4th picture showing it all temporarily in place on the baseboards at our show this year.

The platform buildings: the first picture here being a good close-up before painting. The second picture - Up platform - was taken in late afternoon sunshine!    Picture 3 is the Down platform.

The Hampstead tunnel cutting, looking toward the station.

[TravisM]

Hi Alan, the station looks great, both you and Bern have done a terrific job and I look forward to seeing the finished layout provided I’m not too old or crippled by then lol.

[PaternosterRow]

Beautiful! Looking forward to seeing this develop.