Bearwood West Yard - Modern Image Dorset, 1990's - present

[Bearwood West Yard]

A few 'up to date' stills of the layout. Yard ballasting taking place, very slowly at current due to working longs shifts and sacrificing a few weekends for the company xD. Built up the cutting with a few coats of burnt umber down and on some much awaited time off planning to blitz behind the sidings. The layout does have its own platform on youtube (pun intended).

 

As its my first post i'll do all the layout technical info:

Track: Peco Code 100

Era of setting: August 2018 

Location of setting: Wimborne/West Moors area of Poole, Dorset - following the lifted Castleman's Corkscrew

Ballast used and grade: (Woodland Scenics fine grade throughout)

    Yard - Grey blend

    Main lines - Composition of Brown, Grey bland and Buff.

Start build date: Baseboards completed December 2017 and a layout redesign to current plan started in July 2018.

 

And here we are 13 months on...

Cheers,

Jordan

[stivesnick]

Jordon 

 

Looking good so far - how big is the layout, as it looks like there is space for some long trains? Any chance of a track plan and how you might operate the layout?

 

Regards 

 

Nick

[Bearwood West Yard]

On 21/08/2019 at 20:53, stivesnick said:

Jordon 

 

Looking good so far - how big is the layout, as it looks like there is space for some long trains? Any chance of a track plan and how you might operate the layout?

 

Regards 

 

Nick

Hi Nick,

The layout scenic area is in an 'L' shape with a width of 2ft. One side is 8ft in length with the other being 9ft including the other half's width. Locomotive operation is DCC controlled with all points being switched by hand and non-motorised. Signals will be done the old DC way with a switch panel when I reach that stage. Track diagram is as below.

Cheers,

Jordan

[PaulRhB]

Like the idea, I proposed a modern option on the Wimborne Clubs layout of Wimborne with swappable plug in signals but they chose just steam. I thought it would’ve been fun to bring it forward to a what if. 

[Bearwood West Yard]

10 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Like the idea, I proposed a modern option on the Wimborne Clubs layout of Wimborne with swappable plug in signals but they chose just steam. I thought it would’ve been fun to bring it forward to a what if. 

Its incredible when you open the door to what if scenarios. I used to be a member at Poole&DMRS but packed it in. Would be interesting to see a pair of 66's on the Westbury RHTT passing through Wimborne like with the DRS Class 37's with the Wherry lines semaphore signalling. My layout is based on the what if factor and its opened so many doors.

[Melangoose]

Lots of potential here, I live close to your chosen area. Look forward to seeing the layout develop.

[Bearwood West Yard]

Been a rather long while since I last posted so without further hesitation here is pretty much everything since the last post.

 

Starting with the track, in particular the main lines. These have been mostly ballasted and Third Rail electrification is gradually creeping further towards the down/west end of the layout and the cable trunking has received lids.

 

The yard has finished ballasting and has card mapped out to see how hard standing would appear for offices, similar to that of Severn Tunnel Junction that I saw in a YouTube video, albeit much smaller, I've also added in a little something for scenic interest in the way of an abandoned Clam in a siding, inspired by images of stranded brake vans. "...Unfortunately it wasn't in a fit state to run back to Eastleigh for a replacement axle, nor was it feasible to drag the cranes down with a new axle, so it was dumped in the shunter's siding as EW&S had withdrawn their acquired shunter to the busier Eastleigh Yard. Railtrack had plans to lift the derelict siding and points, though the wagon did them a favour of a half job. And the rest is history as they say..."

 

The bridge at the cutting, albeit a rather shoddy temporary bash together has been removed. Although it was never intended as a permanent structure, it felt like an eye sore compared to the rest of the scenery now in that area. The replacement will be a much more realistic full brick built bridge of L&SWR design, prototyped on road over rail bridges between Brockenhurst and Branksome, minus the pillar between running lines, This is planned to be constructed brick by brick, on to card and reinforced by modelling clay.

 

The station tarmacking has been redone, this time using a modelling clay base and a painted Polyfilla surface as opposed to the previous textured paper on Plasticard. It works much better for the awkward shape of the platforms. Edging stones are from the Scale model scenery range.

 

All the terraforming has been done, using styrene packing sheets and paper mache. Painted with burnt umber, looks okay. Scenery has all been done using WWS scenics static grass and Polyfibre, along with some white silica sand from Amazon to ease into the heathland effect. The airbrush is still yet to come out and give the fibres the rich maroon-brown tinge.

 

I think that's about it. The rest of my time has been devoted to the workbench on my current large scale projects. I have another thread on here for my workbench where those goings on can be found. I have found to be less active on here than I thought I would be, though the YouTube does tend to get updated monthly if enough worth reporting on occurs.

 

 

[saxokid]

Im following Jordan great layout build here!!

Right up my street this...

 

 

cheers neil..

[Bearwood West Yard]

On 04/05/2020 at 11:36, saxokid said:

Im following Jordan great layout build here!!

Right up my street this...

 

 

cheers neil..

Thanks Neil. Have got a few more bits done but I'll probably post again in a couple of days  

[Bearwood West Yard]

With June now arriving, its fair to say that time seems to be flying! Despite the current global situation, not a second of furlough time hasn't been put to good use. Being off until July 31st at the earliest should allow for a lot more to get done. 

 

Since I previously posted, the majority of the last four to five weeks has been spent on the workbench with only about 1/8th of the time being spent on the layout doing odd bits here and there. A new set of 1mm drill bits arrived so the last leg of third rail has been installed; bridging the gap between the two signals and the west backscene. During this I also filmed a tutorial video for YouTube for any Model Railway beginners who have not used the Third Rail system before. Having seen the lack of video's on its assembly, I thought it would be a good idea - given that the video has served its purpose if it helps even one person with equipment needed and how to go about installing it .

 

The bridge pillar cutaways are revealing the styrene sheets however it wont be long before the new bridge is in place. Having sent a number of Cad drawings to a local CNC shop for 3D printing and laser cutting, an additional drawing of an A3 size sheet, divided up into little 3x1.5mm and 1.5x1.5mm squares and rectangles was also sent over. This should provide me with a good few thousand imperial sized bricks for building the new Bournemouth/LSWR type brick bridge as well as any other brick builds in the future. They should last a while!

 

A failed static grass attempt was made on the cutting in the middle of May, and as such I decided to rip out the then caked in glue and grass cable trunking. I painted over the grass in the same burnt umber as seen elsewhere on the layout. Reflecting the vast abundance of Clay in this part of Dorset, I painted part of the sand in a light and dark grey, adding a some darker washes to it. This is more of a Purbeck Ball Clay look as opposed to the more local 'Canford Orange'. Perhaps once I've experimented and mastered the orange look I may rework it, but for now it doesn't look too bad. I dry brushed over the burnt umber paint with a variety of earthy tones seen locally, these picked up better than expected on the embedded static grass, giving the look of soil and rock formation.

 

Any ledges on the cutting were given a little bit of 50/50 PVA to Water, applied sparingly with a pipette and pushed about to get a very light but vast amount of coverage. I went straight on with Woodland Scenics Green blend scatter. After the excess had been hoovered off, I again sparingly applied more glue with a pipette. This time it spread itself out. For the grass, I used a mixture of 4mm height Spring, Summer and Dead from the WWS Scenics range. Once hoovered away any excess, a small bit of card was used to assist the grass in reaching for the sky. I should add that all the areas were done independently and not at the same time. After that had all dried, new cable trunking was placed down and lids put on. This time, masking the trunking to protect it! Filling behind the trunking, easily done again with sparing amounts of glue and green scatter for the base. For the grass, this time I used 4mm Summer with 6 and 10mm Dead. I applied this using a bit more glue, then static grass, hoover it up and spray some WWS Layering spray until a thin white can be seen (using a cardboard loo roll inner to restrict overspray) and then shaking more of the same grass on and hoovering off excess. This builds up the overgrowing weeds and bushes; in some cases the mini keyboard hoover's vacuum can pull the grasstops around. Then with the cardboard and layering spray, make the same white effect and sprinkle a light dusting of the same green scatter. Small amounts over a long period of time build up the weed leaves quite nicely. I haven't used any soil or earth scatters for any of my scenic ground cover, whether that's a good thing or not I don't know.

 

The only other things I've done is relay the middle siding (second relay!) after the glue was incorrectly mixed and the points seized. 85% of that area is now also ballasted. Thanks to Kernow, a new left curved point was easily sourced and for a very competitive price! Though, that's not difficult when you're the only shop to have had a new delivery of track from Peco! 

To be able to take the old one out the middle road under the backscene had to come out. It took a full day to dig it out and wash it to save as many sleepers as possible. The rail and sleepers were cleaned of old glue, but unfortunately around a dozen sleepers were lost and I had no wood sleepers to spare. As a notorious Mr Clarkson would say: " And then it suddenly appeared to me..." 

Concrete sleepers were substituted with buff ballast laid rather than the grey blend ballast. I quite like seeing the finished sleeper renewal, it makes it look as if something has actually been done - standing out from uniform trackwork.

The Personnel walkway was added in as well after this was complete. I had bought a darker grey bag of ballast in error so I decided to use some of this and a little bit of buff to make the walkway - based on that at the Up end of the Island platform at Eastleigh, crossing the Platform 3 and yard lines.

 

Finally, I've tackled the corner of dread. The name coming from how awkward it is to access, even with a removable backscene. Its either clamber over the layout to much discomfort to get at it, or move the bed (and the storage lines under it on a 2'x4' board) and have even more discomfort and little space. Either way, the removable backscene has been painted white, with the corner of dread having had its two layers of news-paper mache and awaits painting. I have no quarrels with Plaster Bandage but I do think that for what you get it is a bit much. A single newspaper at a fraction of the cost of a single roll has done three layers with a few pages to spare. Not rock solid but it is solid enough.  No guesses necessary to find out what brand newspaper was used but given an article visible - all I'll say is that its soft, strong and thoroughly absorbent…  Perfect for this kind of job 

 

Besides the layout work, life has revolved around the workbench. I've been focusing on getting the Porpoise complete. A few bits to paint and touch up, then hydraulic lines and discharge position arms to add - along with transfers and it'll be complete. Nothing on the JZA's last month par spraying the remaining wagons into base black. Once the chute has left the works, JZA module carriers will take priority. Then when those 12 wagons are on the layout, the manipulator or gantry module carrier can be started, YKA Osprey wagons in conversion from Bachmann BDA's are going on well. Final two YKA's are to receive stanchions soon and the three YSA Salmon flats (converted the same but no stanchions) are to be finished before the JZA's invade the bench. 

 

Below are some pictures of the third rail, scenery, corner of dread and the Porpoise.

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Looking good.  Following this.

[Bearwood West Yard]

Due to the extent of how long I've been away and everything I've been up to (model and non-model related), I've decided to break the essay down a bit into 3 Parts.

 

16.01/2021  UPDATE:  Part I  -  July to September

 

Well, its been a long 7 months since the last post and and since the return to work in August 2020, I cant say that everything has turned out as planned... My furlough ended on the 31st July '20 so it was back to work in August. I've undergone some changes to my work life very recently which has enabled me to spend more time on the layout, but at the end of furlough I was back in my role as a foundry plant fitter apprentice on day shift rotation. It wasn't easy getting back into the sleep pattern-less routine, with most layout work being done in the morning before a 'late' shift, and the weeks of 'earlies' having nothing productive to offer.

 

July

Anyway, during July before i went back to work, I managed to get a few things done. The Porpoise got it's transfers printed out and applied. I have to say I'm rather amazed at the quality of the transfers from a domestic Inkjet printer. I used transfer paper from Mr Decal Paper in both Clear and White, using Plastikote Poly-urethane Varnish to seal the ink. A thin-ish coat was applied the second it finished printing to again after 15 minutes and 20 minutes after that. Luckily the transfers did not go brittle. Not bad for a first ever attempt! The only transfers I did buy was the cantrail stripe from Railtech as its too fine a transfer to have to want to cut around. I skipped adding the Hydraulic pipes as its fragile enough without having the finer details, though the rail position arms below the cab front will be made once the whole train is complete and I can assure myself its danger free in a box. The doors are yet to be glued in place but these are only a minor detail considering the doors have been replaced in favour of a single chain rail on many examples. NLU 979507 has both sides as doors in the pictures I can find but for now it wont make much difference 

 

The JZA Clamping banks and various jigs were collected from my local CNC studio (along with the bricks) so these got produced and took a full day and a half to prepare and build with a tube of superglue. 

 

I also got the 3x Salmons and 2x Ospreys all airbrushed up with the Ospreys ready to take stanchions.

 

Layout wise, I installed 6x 1.2m shelves above the layout in 3 tiers of 2 for additional space. Finally I have a proper area to store empty boxes without cluttering the family's attic, and also appropriate storage for scenic materials, equipment and the lighter in weight rolling stock. Though this is all where it went downhill and the brakes of work were applied. 

 

August

During August, I don't recall anything of significance happening to the layout or on the workbench. I had started to work on the JZA 'gantry' wagon but decided to take a break from the workbench shortly after as the mental impact was starting to grow on me. I had previously been working on a CAD of a bogie box wagon but this had grown from a past time idea into an unhealthy obsession. In the end I took a break away from the layout. 

 

September

September saw the hobby as mostly a month full of neglect, par receiving two of the Hornby CDA wagon triple packs. One of these packs found its way into a vat of IPA for stripping before spraying into EWS Maroon to give variation to the full blue rake. Its imaginable the frustration at the time of writing when Hornby announce the EWS livery for the wagon just as you're waiting for the better garden weather to come about for spraying them up... 

I had also bought 7 of Hornby's ex-LSWR 58' coaching stock for respraying into LSWR Salmon and brown at a much later date.

I managed to test run the Welded rail train wagons behind a Hatton's 66 early in the month. All the rail carrying components were loosely fitted. I even managed to get a full set of 5 Autoballasters trailing the 12 wagon rake and the 66 performed well. The train weighed in at just under 4kg. Shortly after this, I decided to cut the feeder wires as i was very unhappy with the wiring I had in place. 

I fabricated a new enclosure for the layout with a proper distribution panel towards the end of the month. All components being sourced from RS Components except the wire which was from Rapid Electronics. The installation becomes a saga spanning several months.

 

Below are some pictures of the Porpoise, Clamping banks, Osprey and Salmon.

[Bearwood West Yard]

Due to the extent of how long I've been away and everything I've been up to (model and non-model related), I've decided to break the essay down a bit into 3 Parts.

 

16.01/2021  UPDATE:  Part II  - October to December

 

October

October was a busy month in all senses. I'd sorted the garage out and made space for a proper engineering workbench in my allotted 4ft of space. I took two weeks holiday off work and ventured down the coast to Cornwall for half a week, tagging along on a family holiday. By this point I had still lived a very sheltered 2020, living in the shadows between work and home. I took the train home to Bournemouth from Penzance via Yeovil Junction and it made me realise how much I'd missed the hobby.

In the week since I'd got home I had fabricated up and primed a steel bench, material obtained online from The Metal Store. I also bought the remaining wiring conduit and clamps from Screwfix for the rewiring. I de-soldered the old wire from the rail insides and cleaned the up with a dremel. I installed all the conduit and the transition box between conduit and trunking at the end of October.

 

November

November sprung round the corner and I had just started running the layout feeder wires. Due to the complexity of my layout's wiring requirements, I decided to standardise on wiring. I used 1mm^2 32/0.2mm stranded automotive wire (product codes at Rapid Electronics are: AC3220BK and AC3220RE, both made by Sealey and have about a week's lead time). These are most commonly used as bus wires and are perfect for the layout's needs. The bus run from the controller to the wall mounted panel is about 2 metres, with the feeder wires being between 2.5 and 5.5 metres long. I used 1.5 drums of wire per colour, which wasn't unexpected as that includes the distribution panel wiring too. Overall I spent about £65 on wire, though I still have 20m per colour left over which will do nicely for any workshop wiring. The wiring was completed by the end of November.

I also bought a CMX track cleaner and a pair of Heljan Cargowaggon's to act as barrier vehicles though these didn't arrive until December.

 

December

December saw the arrival of the track cleaning wagon and barriers. That was put to good use before I started running trains again and testing the wiring. So far so good though I've some areas to still add connection wires between tracks. 

Over my two week Christmas leave, I added two pairs of points to the workbench end of the under-bed sidings to enable run round operations. This makes shunting more interesting as i don't have to rely on shunt and release operations. I also made a start on the LSWR style bridge for the heath access road by cutting some 1.5mm greyboard to make the bridge structure and starting to add the laser cut bricks individually to the external faces. A lot of work and a mega project that will look better than having embossed some card.

 

Below are some pictures of the panel (done as close to BS7671 as possible), the CMX cleaner and barriers and the bridge with a Merchant Navy beneath it.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Bearwood West Yard
Post published prematurely

[Bearwood West Yard]

Due to the extent of how long I've been away and everything I've been up to (model and non-model related), I've decided to break the essay down a bit into 3 Parts.

 

19/01/2021  UPDATE:  Part III  - January 2020

 

January

 

The coming of January saw the real 'getting back into it' of the layout. I ran a few trains and gave the 2020 additions their needed run in period, as well as having filmed a selection of clips for a forthcoming running session on YouTube.

 

I spent a weekend on AutoCAD drawing up the truss and column stanchions for YKA 'Osprey' wagons, a conversion undertaken by Network Rail in the late 2000's to 199 YSA/YWA 'Salmon' track panel carriers to simplify the loading and unloading. These CAD's have been sent off and are currently being quoted ahead of production. If the print quality is good and the demand is there then I may do a production run for sale. These would be made available as a 5 piece kit, with a pre-painted and ready assembled option also being available at a premium.

 

I've also been taking the plunge into learning how to resin cast. Given the expense of mould making silicone, I've opted to take a 'practical model' approach where I may actually be able to get use out of successful castings. It would be a great shame otherwise to use so much silicone and get nothing back, even if learning is the aim of the game. My model of choice for this matter is a Cambrian C88 Salmon kit. I've attached a picture of two patterns I've prepared for making the silicone tooling. I have checked the copyright regarding that I am making an in production OE product, however the intention is to learn a technique using the product as a guide and not to produce a copy for sale as some may see it.

 

Anyway, I have made progress on the LSWR bridge by furthering the brickwork on the font face and under the arch. Given how long it is taking, I've opted to only apply the bricks in visible areas. The rear face of the bridge will most likely be made from styrene sheet that I have self embossed. 

 

I have as of Sunday re-done the static grass Heathland down the back. It looks rather unneat for the time with grass stuck to the backscene board but this will be hidden when i get around to making the photographic backscene. I used a combination of 2, 4and 6mm Dead and Scorched from the WWS Scenics range, sprayed with layering spray before applying very light fine sprinkles of Earth and Soil fine turf (Woodland Scenics) to represent the varying tones found on Dorset's Heathlands. The Dead and Scorched represent the lightest and darkest tones as a base, with the soil and earth adding the tones between. The Gorse is my standard method of polyfibre, sprayed heavily with layering spray and given a few sprinkles of fine green scatter from Woodland Scenics, hoovering up the excess with a keyboard hoover before another lighter coat of layering spray is applied and an incredibly fine dusting of yellow flowering foliage is given. I usually give a quick squirt of spray to seal it in.

 

Tonight on the workbench agenda I'm building a small storage and waste unit. I took delivery of some more Swann Morton blades today, this time having ordered some No.12's as well as my usual No.11 blades. I had previously just put the blade packets in with everything else in its own slot, but to save myself the confusion of 'what blade is this', I decided to build a brand new unit from the same 1mm greyboard as I've used for the LSWR Bridge. I'll be able to segregate blades by number as well as have a scrap bin for the blunt blades that are still very sharp. If and when that fills up, I'll take them with me to work for melting. Very much WIP as i started this about an hour ago and measures 100x70x210mm in L, W and H.

 

So, that's where the layout and bench stand as we speak. I may have forgotten to mention that last summer I did apply the fence on the yard side of the island platform, and at Christmas I was gifted a totem clock sign for the layout.  

[Bearwood West Yard]

Well February is here and surprise, a bit more has been achieved.

 

I've been at home for a fortnight now on block release from work to do virtual college, so I've had that an hour or two extra a day for research, organisation and bits here and there.

 

3D Printed YSA/YKA Osprey Stanchions:

Although I mentioned these in a previous update and one CAD has been seen on my workbench thread (do check it out if you haven't already), these have progressed significantly and are currently sat with my commissioned studio for 3D printing. The initial samples quote for just 8 wagons worth was more expensive than expected, however that does not necessarily rule out a production run and may require a change of production method. More on that when I receive the samples.

 

Resin Cast MXA Boxes:

Something I had wanted to do for a little while now was make some MXA's for the layout. With a lack of dimensions publicly available, I put my Welded Rail Train skills of trial, error and a metric tonne of photographs in to action. It was a relatively simple build, with dimensions based on a Bachmann BDA, box overhangs and height/spacings proportioned from photographs. For a 'rivet counter' such as myself, I'd consider it as close as I'll get! Well... I might have made more than one attempt...

 

Anyway, I produced 1 box which sits nicely on my cut-down BDA. To save my precious plastic sheet and strip, I will be using this box as a master so I can resin cast the 7 boxes I need. The silicone moulds will have a life-span of 50-60 castings before they start to get tired, so there is scope for these to also be saleable. I may even tool a second mould if they prove popular, though I would only sell these as raw castings. Mainly as I lack the appropriate facilities to conduct batch painting, as well as keeping costs minimal and affordable. More on this when my laser cut mould containers are picked up and silicone casting commences.

 

More Static Grassing:

Well, the large sand bank next to the cutting bridge is no more. It would seem that the vegetation of the heathland has overgrown it! A bit of The Range's burnt umber as an earthy base coat, followed by a selection of 4 and 6mm grasses from War World Scenics formulated into my own heathland mix. Some Woodland Scenics scatters and hey presto Heathland expanded!

 

I also static grassed some of the yard cutting on this side, along with overgrowing the cess. 2 and 4mm grasses were used for the lusher areas, again using woodland scenics scatters to form the plant leaves and give a variation in tone of the growing plants. It is missing those pesky brambles but I will add them in at a later time.

 

YSA/YKA wagon project reversal? What Happened?

With commencement of the MXA boxes, it dawned on me that my use of Bachmann BDA's  to make Ospreys was indeed flawed. Although to most this wouldn't matter, I've decided to scrap my BDA-YKA/YSA's. With the 3D printing of the stanchions, my scratch building efforts of the same pieces 18 months previous would be inferior to the CNC manufactured versions, so I've chosen to let these go and I currently have my resprayed BDA's in a jar of IPA being stripped.

 

I have ordered 4x C88 kits from Cambrian, though this has been caught up in the Flangeway Fiasco, where their RtR salmons being subject to trial by RMweb over a catastrophic tooling error scandal. Many are being returned and Cambrian stockists flooded with orders. So that could take a while!

It gets more ineresting...

The BDA's were re-bogied with Cambrian ASF's when i converted them, using the Bachmann wheels and cutting the NEM socket holders off of the bogie for gluing to the ASF's.... The plan is to use the existing ASF's for the Salmons when they arrive, swapping the Bachmann wheels for some Alan Gibson ones recommended by Cambrian. All I will need to buy are half a dozen pairs of wheel-less Bachmann BDA bogies and NEM sockets if not included.

 

I do have a habit of complicating things! 

That's all for now - Jordan

[Bearwood West Yard]

Update on the MXA boxes and Osprey Stanchions:

(copied and pasted from my workbench thread)

 

Last night I received the laser cut pattern boxes and plates, so I spent yesterday evening making them. Made from 5mm Perspex and to my own specification, they should be robust to last a good few years and will save me a lot of time and effort in preparation work. These have been superglued together for the time being. The pattern plates have been cut to take a 0.3mm clearance. I need to order the Aluminium plate and round bar that will be used to make the ejection rig.

 

Anyway, I've taken a few pictures of the two mould boxes sizes to give an update as to where I'm at. I plan to pour the first silicone half tonight.

 

I have also received the Osprey Stanchion samples and I'm rather pleased with how they have turned out. These are printed in 3 parts, with 5 required for each wagon. 

 

I have lined the samples up against less accurate scratch built versions from about 18 months or so ago, using what I had at the time. Unlike the MXA box, I have not quite yet prepared any samples for an initial resin cast.

 

That's all for now.

[Bearwood West Yard]

As per the usual, I'm back after a few months! On the layout I have furthered the heathland static grass around the sand/grit paths to just forward of the main line signal positions. I did manage to have a small running session for one evening in mid May - I must have felt unwell as I felt like watching the trains go by!  

 

For the rest of the time if I wasn't out with friends or doing college work, I was sat at the workbench beavering away at bits of styrene and making them turn into a JZA manipulator wagon. I spent a week and a half in the garage on my miniature lathe producing turnings for the wagon as they were either impractical to 3D print or impossible to produce from plastic welding small bits of rod. I've pictured the brass Hydraulic rams and the aluminium deployment wheel turnings. The rams are less then 2mm in diameter.

 

Currently I have halted that project as I re-organise my desk. The computer & screen that took up half of the desk has gone and a new Laptop (to which I type from) replaces it. I now have space for more of the Hobbyzone modular storage units, with two 300mm units in the post from an ebay seller. I have noticed that with Brexit, Hobbyzone no longer serve the UK as a shipping destination. For the last bit of space, I'll reverse engineer the boxes from different thickness MDF and changed internal box design. The laptop sits in front of them with plenty of space, increasing the useable work area by 100% when the laptop isn't out. I did transfer over all the worthwhile documents, so all of the YEA transfers and JZA component CAD's are still alive and kicking.

 

I have also completed the Cambrian Ospreys that I started at the turn of the year, with my own 3D printed stanchions. In the end i settled on 4x Ospreys and 1x YWA Salmon rather than 5x Ospreys just for the operational interest. Without a doubt, i will probably tackle some more of these kits for more Ospreys and Salmons. 

 

No more progress on the MXA's and resin casting them as I'm trying to thin the list of ongoing projects I have. I've also scrapped the idea of selling excess castings, with the master copy and moulds "shelved" for the time being.

 

About 4 weeks ago, I bit the bullet when I saw another Nuclear Flask being sold on Facebook and a new tool Class 20 along with it. I had been reluctant to buy a 20 but for the price, at £200 all inclusive, it was a no brainer... so the modern twist to the long gone Winfrith - Gloucester spent nuclear fuel train has been completed.

[Bearwood West Yard]

Back again! Well, time has moved forward and so has layout progress and life. A much needed running session was had for YouTube in August, as well as several evenings of just letting the trains run. 

I scrapped the bridge that i had been building since Christmas and instead remade the structure from fresh 2mm Greyboard and used a few Slaters brick sheets to speed things up. This new bridge is based off the one at Charlton Marshall near Blandford Forum on the old Somerset & Dorset route, my version differing only slightly to the S&D architecture. I built it over the course of a few evenings and just need to airbrush it completely into a faded red before washing in the mortar work and dry brushing on the weathering.

I have also wired up and superglued down all of my Train Tech signals, these working nicely. The Feather signal was too bright initially but I swapped the 1K resister on my homemade PCB for a 47K that I had stocked. This has taken the intensity out of it and brings it to no brighter than the individual aspects. I have suffered some light bleed from the yard exit ground signal but i am remedying this with filler. The lightbleed between aspects on the rest of the signals is liveable for the time being. All of the signals are powered by the 12v DC output of a Gaugemaster WM1 accessory power pack.

 The control panel was quite easy to make, 9mm Ply all panel pinned and PVA'd together with a 5mm Ply top, again pinned and glued. Track plan drawn on Microsoft Paint and printed on to A4 'sticker paper'. This was then stuck on using the paper's own sticky backing, cut around the wood to remove excess, and then covered with a single layer of stickyback plastic to protect it - again cutting round the wood with a craft knife. I will at some point paint the sides and the controller stand too.

Other than these, I have been busy on the workbench, having put 5 of my BDA’s and two OCA wagons through the IPA jars. The OCA’s were in Railfreght red but are to go into a heavily weathered ‘Dutch’ livery, while 4 of the BDA’s will become MXA’s and the remaining 5 that I have will return to a mix of Railfreight and EWS. I have scratchbuilt the crane module and airbrushed the chassis of the JZA manipulator wagon, with all turned parts now fitted and painted. All that needs doing now is airbrushing of the crane module and the parts for separate fitting, and then making the roof. The transfers for the wagon have already been designed.

I have very recently moved house, albeit locally. The layout has not come with me and will remain with family. I will be back a few times a week to do some bits, but until I’m established in the new place – most of the benchwork will grind to a halt.

That’s all for now!

[Bearwood West Yard]

Layout Update June 2022

Change of Topic Format

It's been a while but I am finally back, I'm settled into the new place and I'm feeling better mentally/in myself. The last 6 months have been a rollercoaster in every aspect of my life, so I've not really done much modelling or shared the bits I have done anywhere except the layout's Instagram. Now I'm getting back into the 'model railway social media', I've decided that I'm going to amalgamate my two threads Jordan Hardy's Workbench and Bearwood West Yard - Modern Image Dorset, 1990's - present into a single thread. Despite the RMWeb modelling categories, it just makes more sense to amalgamate both threads into one and write a title in each post than to have two threads that will overlap each other greatly. I won't close the other thread but I will write a redirection post. Anybody wishing to view the workbench thread pre-amalgamation can view it at:

June Layout Update 2022:

Since September when I made the Signalling panel and Signalling operational, I have since been in quite the electronics frame of mind. With the signalling giving the layout some after dark atmosphere, it was definitely time to sort out lighting. After doing a vast amount of research on both yard lighting and what is commercially available, I bought a set of 5 Gaugemaster car park / football pitch floodlights from their fordhampton range, as well as a value pack of 8 platform lights for the station. I still have a way to go before installing these, but one floodlight is installed.

It gave me a kick up the backside to get the static grass done, working from the backscene towards the viewing angle. Glad to report the static grass on the heathland at least is done,  with minor detailing and people to add at a later date. 

 

The previous hard standing area made from 2mm greyboard has since been completely torn up and redone. Here is how I did it, I went down the route of ready mixed filler, using Evergreen styrene strip stuck down at intervals with superglue to form a cavity for pouring. I used Wickes Ready mixed filler, thinned with water and mixed by hand to achieve a thin lump-free consistency to help assist in self levelling. I did a rough pour first, let that set over three days and then did a finishing pour to get a more even finish. Once fully dried I cut on the inside of the styrene with a scalpel so bits of filler wouldn't go with it when taking up the styrene, which I took up before using an electric sander to get less of a rough cast finish. I used 120 grit sandpaper on the sander for minimal material removal. The finer grit also leaves marks in the filler which look exactly like tiny air bubble bursts from where industrial concrete slab foundations are cast. The cast was not perfect, even after sanding but there are plenty of examples of concrete foundation slabs with large potholes. These can easily be covered by a 'stores' container or welfare building as I plan to do if undesired. Once the dust was hoovered I marked pencil lines at 200mm intervals and then scored them twice lightly with a scalpel. Hoovered up again, then airbrushed sparingly with slightly thinned Railmatch concrete paint (acrylic). Because of the porous nature of the filler, the paint if applied sparingly dries in 20 minutes or so. I applied 2-3 sparing layers to built up the tone. Once dry, I used a fine paint brush with a black wash to fill the scored lines, representing the tar filled expansion joints. I then airbrushed the black wash over the whole hard standing, again sparingly, to weather the concrete. Some areas the application is more, others less, but I only did one coat. I suppose you could seal it with matt varnish but I haven't. And thats about it really. Dry brushing as opposed to an airbrush for the concrete and weathering colours would work, but it would take a lot longer, as would using sandpaper and a block of wood instead of the power tools. Anyway, it can be done by anyone with/without an airbrush or power tools.

The buildings and accessories for the welfare/maintenance/offices have been built, painted and trial positioned. These being a mix of Scale Model Scenery Kits and 3D printing Corner accessories. I have also painted and detailed building interiors as I intend to add independent lighting to them. 

 

I've also bought and painted a load of Scale Model Scenery Palisade fencing, this being still in installation at the time of writing (15/06/22). I've painted it in Humbrol 30, an appropriate match to the common green palisade fencing as used everywhere from fencing off Network Rail to the Goods In area of my local Co-Op, where I colour matched it. I have installed some 10ft of it already, with a further 9ft or just under to go.

Now, I had a slight James May moment once the fencing got to the hard standing area as the heathland is raised by a scale 3-4ft compared to the hard standing level and was already static grassed.  However I still had a 4mm or so gap between the edge of the concrete and the heathland raising. To make it look professional and convincing, I remembered I had seen concrete wall panels used on the embankment at Herston Halt for the new Carriage Shed. A quick google for dimensions and I was marking out 2mm Greyboard, using 30x8mm short sections on the curved terrain profile and 60x8mm long sections for the long straight runs. I had a good supply of spare code 100 rail, so I cut these into half inch long pieces, filed the ends so they are neat and free of burrs. I used two rails to retain a short section and three for a long section. I used a template piece to get the drill location correct each time, leaving about 3mm between the edge of the rail and the panels butting up to each other. I used a 3mm drill for the rail holes and superglued these in prior to supergluing the panels into position behind the rails. I did the same with the long panels, leaving 3mm at the ends but adding another rail in the centre of the panel. I will attach pictures to better explain. Once these were installed, I backfilled the remaining gap with Wodland Scenics grey blend fine ballast, tamping it with my finger before gluing with 50/50 pva/water solution. I sprayed it with Isopropyl Alcohol prior to pipette application as this wets the ballast and stops it from clumping around PVA droplets. The IPA also evaporates quickly and does not make the greyboard soggy unlike water. Anyway, once dried it looks great, i just need to paint the panels concrete and the rails a dark rust tone before adding ballast to the bottom of the panels to neaten the bottom. This provides a nice flat level surface for the fencing to go around the hardstanding without affecting the heathland and maintaining a professional look.

 

Earlier in the year I spent a few quid on figures from ModelU and a lesser known company called FineScaleFigures. Both producing very good quality 3D printed figures. While I was struck down with Covid at the beginning of April, I started painting these figures. I have since finished painting all purchased figures, and I would recommend both, especially FinescaleFigures for their incredible range of animals and wildlife. I also now have a selection of gate sentries for the MoD Gunnery School entry gate opposite the station. It is worth mentioning that almost all scenic areas of the layout have a minimum of scatter on them.

 

That's all for now, I'll be back with a workbench update 🙂

 

 

[Graham108]

Your hard-standing area looks excellent, very realistic

[Bearwood West Yard]

Something different! Growing Teloxis Aristata (Seafoam)

With the advancement of scenery on the layout and the time of year being just right, I thought I’d be a bit green fingered and have a go at growing my own Seafoam plants. Essentially, Seafoam is a small plant that once grown, it’s various stems can be harvested and after various preservative treatments, can be used to make model trees. On average, small boxes sold online that may make 15-20 or so trees will cost in the region of £25 to buy. 
 

With that in mind, I did some research on feasibility and when best to grow. It’s a very difficult, hardy thing to grow, its original habitat being the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and China. The plant itself because of this, does not like a lot of water, grows in the desert and likes a lot of sunlight and heat... so just how can I replicate this in a British Summertime and without taking a trip to China to take home some dirt? 
 

Well... I bought some seeds off of eBay for £2.50 or so, and borrowed a seed tray from my Nan. That’s the easy bit!

For the soil, here comes the tricky part! Too dry and the seeds won’t germinate, but too much moisture and the plant will flood... I experimented and the results so far look promising. 

In the end, the soil I’ve potted isn’t really soil at all. It’s a hybrid of Garden centre Compost, Building sand, and assorted grit all mixed in together. The ratio ended up being about 40% compost to 30% builder’s sand and 30% grit. These are all what were available to me in the shed.
The compost gives the soil nutrients and moisture, whilst the sand and grit bind with the compost to reduce the moisture content and give the harsh environment that the plant needs to survive. 

At the time of writing, the plant is a week old now and I have several shoots coming through. Watering is done very finely using a pipette and only giving a few drops. I’ll do this on a weekly basis for as long as this heatwave lasts, or fortnightly if the temperature cools down a fraction. They have done well so far on the windowsill, lapping up the heat and the evening sun. 

[Bearwood West Yard]

Mid July update

It's been about a month since I posted about my Seafoam plants. Since then, I've been going round in circles with success and failure. I re-potted the various seedlings, probably a bit early to but some were getting more light than others and the various heatwaves that seem to be coming and going started to get to the plants. I've kept them supplied with water, though at one point I think I flooded the soil slightly. I repotted the seedlings into potting soil so they had the nutrients and they seem to be doing better since then. Coming on slowly but hopefully they will get there. Some of the trays from original potting hadn't germinated by the time I re-potted the seedlings, though these have all now germinated and my nan is looking after those. It will be a good test actually to see which bodes better for growing. 

 

Other than this, I have bought a recent tooling of a Takom 1/72 Chieftain Mk10/11 tank kit. I'd been after a modern British cold war era tank kit for a while, to serve as the gate guardian of the Gunnery School. I've since completed one of the two tanks included in the kit and I'm waiting for the primer to cure. I've gone for a Mk11 Chieftain, with the classic NATO Green and Matt Black camouflage scheme as per the example just down the road at Bovington Tank Museum. Expensive kit, at £37 in my local model shop but its level of detail is unmatched by anything Airfix can offer. Without a doubt the best plastic military kit I've built, everything fits perfectly where it should and no filler has been needed. Airfix certainly can learn a lot from them!

 

I've also made a few new purchases as well. I won a Hornby Class 08 in EWS livery, pristine condition and by the looks of the wheels it hasn't even been run in. Won for £92, which I'm rather happy with as I remember purchasing a BR Green Bachmann 08 for around the £75 mark circa 2014.  

I also found on Hattons by pure chance a pre-owned new tool NSE Class 159. It appears to have been lightly used, but excellent condition. Pleased again that I paid £235 for it, little over what I paid for my EMT Class 158 which I still need to rebrand. Network SouthEast is a smashing livery, though the plan is to respray it into South Western Railway's revised blue and grey, which will look quite the part coupled to a stagecoach liveried but SWR branded Class 158.

 

That's all for now

 

[Bearwood West Yard]

August Update

Its been another busy month, more so on the layout side of things this time.

Wrapping up July, I finished the Takom 1/72 Chieftain Mk11. As mentioned in last month's update, its a smashing, detail rich kit with minimal moulded detailing and a wealth of separately fitted details, many of which are brass etch. I don't recall having to use any filler on the model, either as everything fits together perfectly even if some bits are awkward and summon the expletives! A very fine model, looking the part in the forementioned NATO Green and Matt Black. All the glass effect paints really bringing out the model. NATO green is airbrushed while the matt black was hand painted. Now just needing a coat of Matt Varnish to take the shine off the paintwork.

 

I also finished up on the LSWR brick bridge at the end of July by finishing the weathering. Just some white and black acrylic paints with the odd bit of light and dark brick shades added in to mimic the effect that the steam era had on the bridge, an original from when the prototype line was doubled in 1858... 109 years worth of soot, clinker and volatiles from a busy secondary line, and right in the spot locomotives would await the bobby to finish his sandwich and pull off the signal. A relatively simple build consisting of a 2mm Greyboard skeleton, clad in Slaters brick embossed plasticard, with the top stones being ordinary pieces of plasticard painted into a concrete shade. I have since added Limited Clearance signs to the structure bases.

 

Moving on into August now, I finally got round to sorting out the MXA's and OCA resprays. These are the boxes I fabricated earlier in the year from plastic sheet and styrene strip. With the new airbrush not playing ball, I paint matched some Halfords rattle cans and sprayed them up. Ford Carnival Red works nicely for DB Cherry Red, as does Ford Polar Grey and Nissan Solar Yellow for BR 'Dutch'. The OCA's need a few touch ups on the paintwork but other than this, all are ready for transfers. To save on decal paper, I'll be printing these once I've finished drawing up the transfers for other projects. 

 

I've had some mixed results with the Seafoam Plants. As its the first time I've grown them, this is more of a learning curve and a big experiment than expecting serious results. I thought the batch I was growing was doing well, but having seen the batch my Nan has grown, it has definitely blown my batch out of the water! While mine had 4 leaves about 6mm ling and starting to grow another pair, the leaves on Nan's batch must have been at least an inch and a half. And those plants germinated about two weeks after mine had. Regardless, they were all sown pretty much on the cut-off for sowing. Already, her batch of plants is now starting to come into flower with a possible week or two until I collect the seed pods to sow next year. I best order some Glycerine if I want trees on the layout this year!  

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*In Gru's voice* In terms of the layout... We have no layout...

 

This may come as a bit of a surprise given how far the layout has come, but I took the decision to conduct a full track and partial baseboard renewal. Over the past year or so, I'd lost motivation to run trains because of trackwork problems and storage space limitations on the layout. The sole cause of trackwork faults was inexperience when I laid the track nearly 5 years ago. No tracksetta or 6ft way gauge, everything done by eye and as long as stock on the main had sufficient clearance. The pointwork was made to fit rather than made to work. The single slip on the yard entrance was a primary cause of derailments, as well as the sharp made to fit curves. The underbed baseboards were also bodged together with extension after extension, and with my current level of skill it was an embarrassment. What really got the ball rolling though, was a text message from Mr New Junction himself, having seen recent layout pictures. Whether joking or serious, a mention of possibly one day being featured in a magazine got my questioning... did I really want my layout, with all its flaws, to be a potential feature?

 

I bit the bullet, redesigned the layout for functionality while maintaining the critical elements of 4 scenic sidings, a crossover into the yard and a start of a station.

I bought some tracksetta's and all the essential track laying gear. Taking apart the underbed boards and unpinning the track was quick and easy, done in an evening. I took up the scenic main and yard lines, saving as much track as possible to clean up for non scenic use. The station took a few hours to demolish and was certainly not made to be removed! In the end I got there however. I made a pair of new underbed boards, the largest is 6'x3'10" which will accomodate the main lines on the run around, some EMU sidings for 'warm storage' and the underbed yard. The middle line in this yard splits into 5 roads now to store much more stock and have greater choice for running trains and shunting.

 

I've already laid the track, using Code 100 again but this time with the pandrol clipped concrete sleepers. I've made the effort to respace these and also add super elevation where appropriate on the main lines. Cork is 2mm thick, enough for a light ballast shoulder that becomes larger on the elevated curves. The pointwork is much nicer, no derailments when i run my fussy Cambrian salmons over them by push on a single buffer. I will have to replace all the train tech signalling but this will give me the chance to build my own. I was never really too happy with the light bleed issue. I would much like to experiment and incorporate the modern Atkins ElectroLogIXS LED signals, as I've never seen these modelled before.

 

Thats all for now!

 

[EWS60065]

Hi there, good work on the layout. I completely understand your frustration and wanting to relay the track. The Cambrian Salmons look superb and I'm looking foward to seeing the OCAs completed 

[Bearwood West Yard]

August Bank Holiday Update

 

Having spent the weekend on shift and part of my rest day yesterday working, I decided to spend some time doing workbench bits and take a day away from the demanding layout track relay.

 

Most of last night was spent producing and scaling transfers while I printed them this morning on card, cutting them out and test fitting for size. Once I'd made the adjustments, I printed transfers for the MXA and OCA wagons. Very basic, with only electrical warnings and the TOPS panel for the OCA while the MXA required a bit more, with separate TOPS coding and numbering, DB logo and electrical warnings again. I've decided not to worry about the wagon maintenance charts for now as these can be drawn up again at a later date.

 

The MXA boxes and BDA chassis in the drying tub post touch up spray a few weeks ago are out and all test assembled, looking quite the part.

OCA bodies have received their coat of Polar grey and just require some subtle touch ups on paintwork. The wagon pictured is the better side of them all, though these will be heavily weathered with rust so I'm not overly worried about unneatness in paintwork as long as there are no patchy raises. I can always hide these with makeshift paint patching post maintenance. All wagons though still require the hand painting around the buffer beam areas.

 

I've also made a start on the Network Rail Test Train. The train I intend to model is a standard PLPR (Plain line pattern recognition) as we get these once every month or so. I've already stripped a Bachmann MK1 BG of its blue paint. I'm aware that Bachmann produce the generator BG's and I could quite easily have just bought one, but the mouldings to distinguish it from a standard BG aren't quite to my liking so I'll be making modifications myself. Almost forgot to say that the BG will become 6261. I currently have a Bachmann Mk2b BFK in the strip which will become 977969. In total I'll have 5 test coaches, as quite often one of the brake force runner coaches is swapped, giving some welcome pictorial variation.