Ladmanlow Sidings and other C&HPR locations

[NHY 581]

Looking good, Al. 

[The Johnster]

Good old Morph, nice to see him again.  There was a little thing that whizzed about with feathers as well.

[Alister_G]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Or for the older readers: Vision On.

 

Ah, Vision On, with Sylvester McCoy doing all his mime stuff.

 

Al

[NHY 581]

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Good old Morph, nice to see him again.  There was a little thing that whizzed about with feathers as well.

Barbara Windsor 

[The Johnster]

Wouldn't that have been two fairly big things?

[chuffinghell]

[NHY 581]

13 hours ago, Alister_G said:

 

Yeah it sort of would, but not sure the eye-lines would work if it was stuck immediately behind the layout. Worth a try though.

 

Al.

 

 

Al, what about that hazyesque backscene set back a la Arun Quay?

 

 

Rob. 

[chuffinghell]

On 04/05/2020 at 16:42, Alister_G said:

 

Ah, Vision On, with Sylvester McCoy doing all his mime stuff.

 

Al

I dare not say but that’s a bit before my time, I’m still only a young whipper snapper.....at nearly 45 

[Alister_G]

3 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

I dare not say but that’s a bit before my time, I’m still only a young whipper snapper.....at nearly 45 

 

I still think I'm a young whipper snapper at over 55, until some bit of my body kicks in and reminds me I'm not as young as I was...

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

I've made a start on a scenic module to extend Ladmanlow, which can act as a scenic fiddleyard, or join up to the previous fiddleyard, or perhaps further scenic sections.

 

It's a 2 foot long module, with a single straight section of track.

 

Here's the beginnings:

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is attached to the layout:

 

 

and here with the trackbed in place:

 

 

The idea is to replicate something like this:

 

 

with the ground dropping away in the front section, and a farm track leading uphill under a small bridge in a limestone embankment. Again this is an unmistakeable C&HPR scene, I don't think you would see this anywhere else.

 

That's what I want to achieve, not quite sure how to accomplish it yet.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

You're not building the extension at the local council tip are you?!!

 

Mike.

[Alister_G]

6 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

You're not building the extension at the local council tip are you?!!

 

Mike.

 

No, that's my pristine cellar.

 

Al.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Alister_G

[Enterprisingwestern]

16 minutes ago, Alister_G said:

 

No, that's my pristine cellar.

 

Al.

 

Shame I can only post funny once!!

 

Mike.

[lezz01]

Nice Al. It'll look good a nice little calvert scene.

Regards Lez. 

[Bogie]

1 hour ago, Alister_G said:

 

No, that's my pristine cellar.

 

Al.

 

Maybe you should install a curtain to hide the mess.

[lezz01]

It wouldn't be a hobby if it didn't make a mess. It would only be a pastime.

Regards Lez.

[Alister_G]

I've managed to get a bit more done today, building up the rough foundation for the landscape using offcuts of plywood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can begin to get some idea of the contours of the land now.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

This afternoon, I took Ladmanlow out for another excursion. Not very far, however.

 

Really not far at all.

 

Just outside the front door, in fact.

 

I wanted to set up the main board, the new module, and the fiddleyard, so I could get them all lined up properly, and to lay the track on the new module, and I haven't got room to do that inside.

 

So here everything is, balanced on a pasting table:

 

 

 

 

So I cut a length of C&L Flexi to size, and glued it down, and added a base layer of ballast:

 

 

 

Then I started adding offcuts of plywood, insulating foam and cork sheet to smooth out the contours of the landscape and make them match up with the end of the main board:

 

 

 

 

 

After tea when everything had dried I removed the weights:

 

 

 

 

This is now ready for the next bit: adding papier mache to form the final landscape.

 

More later.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Alister_G
smelling and grandma

[chuffinghell]

Super progress! it’s looking great

[Alister_G]

Thanks Chris

 

Al.

[KNP]

Looking good, you’ll have one of my favourite photo angles and that is the camera lower than the track looking up.

Can’t wait to see the results..

[Alister_G]

Thanks Kev, yes those views of Little Muddle looking up the fields to the track are great. I can't promise much in the way of trees to peer through like you do, but there will be sheep!

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

Whilst the layout was out of the cellar, and in daylight, I took a critical look at it, and identified a number of bits to repair - some of the cork infills between the sleepers had lifted, and I'd bashed the gatepost and made it wonky, and a few other things - so I took the opportunity to do some general repairs.

 

I also remembered from the running I had done for the SWAG meet that there was a problem with the vehicle crossing.

 

When I first made it, I added some 20thou styrene under the Slaters' planking to give it some depth and bring the planking to railhead height, as would be prototypical. However over time this has lifted in places to be higher than the rail head, and although locomotives are heavy enough to push it down where the edges of the wheels catch it, some of my wagons were jumping about over the crossing.

 

So I identified which bits were a problem, and dug them up:

 

 

 

 

Then I cut and painted new sections of Slaters' 7mm planking:

 

 

and added them back without the styrene underneath, so they sit lower:

 

 

 

 

It doesn't look quite as good, but the running is much improved.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[chuffinghell]

1 hour ago, Alister_G said:

......It doesn't look quite as good, but the running is much improved....

 

Still look pretty good to me 

[Alister_G]

In the rush to take advantage of the nice hot sunshine to quickly dry all the glueing I've done today, I stuck down the track, and then once dry I poured the ballast on dry and stuck it using dilute PVA and a smidgeon of IPA to stop it floating all over the place. In doing that, I forgot an important step: painting the track! I would normally give it a blast with whatever brown spray paint I have to hand, to colour the sleepers.

 

So the last two hours have been spent painstakingly painting each sleeper by hand:

 

 

Still, the end result isn't too bad:

 

 

I will add a dark wash, and paint the rail sides and then the chairs, tomorrow.

 

Good night all,

 

 

Al.