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Ball Spond Road - First layout for many many years


jetmorgan
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Model railway project number..........Oh I forget now...probably into double figures now and still none finished, knowing me. Anyway......

A short end to end layout based on a fictitious station in the western suburbs of London, south of the river around the Kew area-ish. Originally built by the SECR as part of a plan to link up with the Great Central for their plan to extend down to the Kent coast and built a cross channel tunnel to France. Things never got that far but there was enough business for the Great Western to extend the Brentford branch and approach the station through a tunnel. The Midland also put in a line through that gave access along the City widened lines to the lines out of St Pancras and Kings Cross for freight and parcels traffic. That way I can run almost anything I like! The SECR lines were third rail electrified in the grouping and it became Southern and running any 2 car Southern/SR units. 2 car and single car DMU's from the Western and short loco hauled trains from the Midland and Eastern regions on parcels trains.

 

So first stages were building the baseboards. I've used offcuts of MDF that have a wood veneer on them from a cabinet makers that was next door to where I work. 12mm MDF for the sides and 6mm MDF for the surfaces. Each board is about 62" long so total length is close on 10ft which should just fit in my living room although I have the layout stored at my workplace for the moment. Width is 16"

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Edited by jetmorgan
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Original basic idea for the track plan...the near end will be the station, the central 2 tracks. a parcels bay off to the left and 2 train stabling sidings on the right. the track at the far end will be the fiddle tracks with the various lines going through tunnel mouths. The track plan has now changed a bit which will be seen on later photos. I'm losing one of the stabling sidings as the platform will need to be an island. Also I'm restricted by the width of the road bridge that will cover the baseboard joint.

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After a long break of nothing going on I made some progress when I was able to reclaim some timber for the legs. A company up the road from where I work was throwing a load of exhibition stand walls that had a load of 2 x 1 as the bracing. So grabbed as much as I could....with their permission of course...and got the legs and bracing built and bolted together. The legs just slot into pockets in the underside of the baseboards and the bracing is bolted to the baseboard sides. I only did 3 sets of legs so i have one baseboard with 2 leg sets and one baseboard with just the one set and that rests on a ledge piece fixed to the other baseboard.

 

Next thing to get done was the back scene and end pieces.

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Couple of off cuts of 9mm wood veneered MDF just over 1ft wide but not quite square. So it was set the table saw to 1ft and 1 half inch, right on the limit of width of the table and the fence. Ran them through and now they are both the same width. Just glad I got the table saw...birthday and Christmas present from the family.

 

 

From the front with the backscene now all glued, screwed to the sides of the baseboard...also drilled holes where the bolts go through that hold the legs in place. 

And from the back. This will be the operating side. I will need to cut a hole in the backscene. Most likely at the near end once I have sorted out the fiddle yard area. Next job will be getting the track plan sorted out.

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Another catch up with the updates.

 

Just some little jobs. Firstly I wanted to lay down some sheets of thick card onto the baseboard, partly to act as a bit of sound deadening and also to make it easier to lay the track and pull it up again should I need to make adjustments. I Also wanted the station building to be at pavement level rather than have steps up to the station...most stations seem to be at pavement level so it was out with the table saw and trim some of the veneered MDF down to the right height for a raised area for the low relief shops, road and the station building.

 

 

Pieces of card glued down to the raised section and rough sections for the low relief buildings, road and the station building. Next jobs will be to build and modify some Metcalfe kits for the shops and get the platforms built and also build the goods and parcels building which will run along part of the backscene  or along the whole length of the baseboard...undecided about that at the moment.

 

 

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A bit of baseboard pretty-fying while I was having a little enforced break in modelling. Backscene given a coat of a light blue kitchen/bathroom paint that I've had sitting around for a years...it was rather smelly but once dried it was fine, just needed a good mixing again. Also gave the outside of the backscene a coat of varnish...again a pot of paint that I've had sat about for years...very surprised it was still okay to use. The edges of the veneered MDF got a coating of diluted PVA to seal them and yet another pot of old paint...this time a semi-gloss black exterior wood stain.

 

Next up was the start on some of the buildings and also planning of the final track plan.

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7 minutes ago, Danemouth said:

Looks a very interesting and compact layout.

 

Can I ask what year i will be set in please?

 

Regards,

Dave

Sorry I thought that was in my initial explanation...at the moment my idea is for it to be based in the 1970's although the limits of that might stretch a bit too very very late 60's and very very early 80's So I can run BR Blue mostly but I might run the odd train in BR Maroon, BR/SR green and the early BR blues with all the various yellow ends. Right through to BR blue/grey. I can also run pre TOPS and post TOPS. It's a period I've not seen modelled very often, also It fits with the idea of the having the imaginary link withe the City Widened lines before they were closed down. 

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Last update for today...will do more over the weekend.

 

 

After some fiddling about I've come up with this trackplan the tracks nearest to you are the lines into the fiddle yard. Those furthest away are where the station will be along with the parcels & freight depot off to the right and the stabling siding off to the left.

 

 

What I need now is to buy a pair of Peco Streamline code 100 double slips and a couple of right hand medium points...so that will be about £100 thank you very much!!! Once I have got those I can figure out the shape of the platforms and build them up. I do need a signal box but I haven't decided if that will be platform mounted or further down the baseboard near where the bridge will be. 

 

To cover the baseboard joint will be a road over bridge, a Metcalfe kit split if half along it's length but with a sheet of card with road way glued to it that I can slot in to hide the gap.

 

Also marked up the rough space for the fiddle yard. Once that is sorted out I can figure how much of the backscene I need to cut out.

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Just now, Robert Stokes said:

You don't hang about do you! You've made more progress in a day than I would in a week and I'm retired.

haha no it's not quite like that sadly...wish I could do that. This has happened over the past year I suppose, but I've only just got around to posting stuff about it on here. I've usually posted stuff on my facebook page. In fact I'd built the baseboards a couple of years ago and then they sat around my workplace so I thought I had better get my finger out and do something about it or it will be like a lot of my other model railway "projects" and just sit somewhere not even half started.

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9 minutes ago, jetmorgan said:

haha no it's not quite like that sadly...wish I could do that. This has happened over the past year I suppose, but I've only just got around to posting stuff about it on here. I've usually posted stuff on my facebook page. In fact I'd built the baseboards a couple of years ago and then they sat around my workplace so I thought I had better get my finger out and do something about it or it will be like a lot of my other model railway "projects" and just sit somewhere not even half started.

 

I was going to say "that's a lovely sized shed you have there"...........................

 

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After a shopping spree down at Squires in Bognor. First time visitthere and as the trains were up the swanney with a tree blocking the line at Pulborough I decided to drop into Gaugemaster at Ford as well. Picked up some Metcalfe low relief kits for Ball Spond Road at both places but not all i wanted...so good excuse for a second visit...something to do over the Christmas holidays.

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Big posting because of the photos. Made a start on the buildings for the shopping street  and the bridge that will form help hide the base board joint. There will still be some faffing about with the row of shops but they give a general idea. And the road bridge means i can now get a better idea of the track plan for the where the lines cross the baseboard joint. I will need to separate the 2 baseboards.

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As the bridge was going to form part of the baseboard joint to hide that joint I had 2 ideas for the actual edge of the board so it was a bit more robust when it gets knocked about. One idea was the veneered MDF, just cut out 2 pieces the height of the bridge structure and cut out the bridge arch and glue the bridge to that but my jigsaw had broken so I've gone for the moment with an extra layer of thick card to the inside of both bridge sides. When the 2 halves are fixed into place on the baseboard I'll have a removable roadway for the top which I can just slide into position.

 

The next thing I need to decide is if I should go with a high brick wall for the top or steel plate girder sides which might look more like a road over bridge than brick walls. For the steel plate I'll have to download the bridge kit from Smart models as no one else seems to do anything like that in card.

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Edited by jetmorgan
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  • 2 months later...

Well those nice people at Hatton's sent a couple of card kits through the post so I can now make a start on some more scenery. in this case make a start on the backscene. The small factory will form part of the parcels and freight siding. i'll need to build a larger platform area so I'll need a couple more kits for that but I do have Metcalfe's platform station which I'll use to extend the platform area. The warehouse will form the back scene behind that but there will be some depth to the building but not much...only half inch at the most.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Further progress on getting the back scene made for Ball Spond Road. Metcalfe's small factory and warehouse kits kept flat and and with just the windows fitted. Stuck to the back wall. I had to sit it on a raised platform as it looked too low when just placed against the wall at the baseboard height. I want to have the impression that the station area is surrounded by tall buildings. The warehouse kits was also built flat although with some parts I wanted them proud of the backscene to have a bit of relief so it wasn't just a flat image. To help hold the windows in I cut some thick card into strips and sections, painted them black and glued into the back. Painting them black also avoids the look of plain cardboard through the glazing. That building also got glued into place but I still have a gap  of about 13inches left to fill so another small factory kit is certainly needed. The platform part of the small factory kit will hide the raised platform section as will Metcalfe's retaining wall.  

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Nearly finished on the bridge that will hide the baseboard joint. First job was to fit the parapet wall that was in the kit but this looked too low for the sort of thing I was looking for so I cut some narrow strips of thick card so I can add a decorative stone layer. Using the brick sections from Metcalfe's platform kit I raised the height of the parapet wall, added some more of the narrow card strips as a decorative stone capping to the wall and some thinner card cut to decorative stone shapes to help hide joints. With all that done I could also build the roadway that will slide along slots I have built into the wall. Once the baseboards are joined together the road can be slide in to hide the joint. The road was made from the thick card cut to size with some narrow strips covered in Superquick paving sheets. So nearly finished I just need to get some brick sheets to cover the inside of the parapet wall and then that will be one thing finished.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Progress update on Ball Spond Road. The last gap has now been filled up on the back part of the backscene so that is now all complete. Now making a start on the front part of the backscene. Using a couple of Metcalfe's small factory kits to make one long low building that will form the parcels/freight siding. The building was cut down to a narrower width to give enough room to get a siding in adjacent to the platform lines.

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