Bridport Town - Carrying On

[PaulRhB]

We were already confused so we understood perfectly  

[Jon Gwinnett]

8 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

We were already confused so we understood perfectly  

What a carry on...

 

Nice to see Bridport in its own thread, looking forward to seeing what comes next!

[rockershovel]

I like the way the cobbled yard, fence and railings are developing. Very well observed, which is a general comment on this layout. It just looks so “right”..

[mudmagnet]

Excellent work as usual Dave. 

 

I like the 'view-blocker' building.

 

Hopefully will catch up at Exeter in June if you are exhibiting there.

 

 

[DLT]

Thanks very much Guys, and yes Mudders, bridport should be at Exeter in June.

 

Here's the current state of play, MOSTLY finished....

 

 

 

 

 

Still to do:  more gutters, downpipes on the goods shed, more weathering, grass needs greening, people and clutter to be added, and the puddles need some varnish.

Then its time to attend to the area to the right, between the new buildings and the river bridge.

Edited April 27, 2022 by DLT

[bgman]

I will very much look forward to seeing this in June, lovely work as usual Dave.

 

G

[PaulRhB]

You can see Dave's layout at Narrow Gauge South, details here  

[DLT]

Sorry about the lack of recent updates folks, having a few issues to deal with.

Dave

[DLT]

Issues at home have not gone away, and could bang on for a long time to come.  Still I've been getting on with some modelling.  The new bits of Bridport and finished but I'm going to refrain from posting photos for the moment, as it should be featured in the next issue of NG&I Review.

 

Instead, here is some info on what I've been doing to the embankment frontage going towards the river.  This had never been fully finished, and looked too "country branchline" with Peco field fencing and grass.  So the fence has gone and the grass peeled back.

 

To create more of a yard surface, Wills 4mm scale Granite Setts sheets are glued down.

 

These look grossly overscale in 4mm to me, but just right for 7mm.  I fill in the gaps by grouting them with, err, tilegrout.  The cheap stuff in a tub from B&Q, same as I use for stonewalls.

 

I leave it all to dry and then clean off the surface by wetting it slightly and rubbing it down with fingertips and wiping off the surface.  If you do this before it dries, you will wipe everything out.

 

Finally I stain the grout with a dilute mix of Railmatch Sleeper grime & Weathered Black; again very carefully wiped off, or left on depending on how mucky you want it.  The photo shows the finished section, with spearpoint railings installed, and grass and rough vegetation added.

 

Cheers, Dave.

Edited April 27, 2022 by DLT

[bgman]

Very nice work on the granite setts Dave, its given me some ideas !

 

G

[Donw]

Hi Dave 

I have only just caught up with this. Lovely work on the goods shed looks just right to me. I assume the vehicular access would be a gate just off the baseboard. I would add either a horse and cart or a small lorry either collecting or delivering a load.

 

Regards Don

Edited March 1, 2020 by Donw
missing h on horse, shades of my cockney birth?

[Goose95]

Hi Dave, 

Really lovely work here especially with breaking up the scene, makes it seem like the railway is running through the town rather than past it. 

Out of interest, what kits are the IoM coaches made from? 

[DLT]

Hi Goose,

Thank you for your comments, and yes, the appearance of a railway constrained within a town was the intention.

The recent coaches are conversions of the etched brass kit by Roxey Mouldings, for the MNR brake-composite "Foxdale" coach; described on my Workbench thread here:  https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/35253-dlts-ng-workbench-back-to-the-hunslets/&do=findComment&comment=3202687

My earlier six-wheeled coaches are scratchbuilt in plasticard (MNR again) and Roxey produce kits for these as well.

Many thanks, Dave.

 

[Calidore]

Hi Dave, I've been missing another of the forum's hidden gems here (hidden meaning I just hadn't noticed it yet!) but will be following along from here onwards. The variety of all your different juxtaposed buildings is fantastic, and each one a little work of art in terms of individual execution. As others have said, the deliberately obstructive buildings at the board front and the different viewing angles they create are very effective indeed. I'll have to have a look through the old thread as well, which I'm sure will be equally enjoyable.

 

Adam

[DLT]

Part Two of Bridport's refurbishment starts here.  The other aspect that I had been unhappy with for a some time was the layout of the goods exchange yard.  It had three sidings that were really too short, making shunting awkward.  In addition the exchange shed was the first structure built for the layout and to my eyes looked unrealistic compared to the later buildings.

 

 

However, one aspect of the third siding was the end view between the buildings, and I want to retain this, or something like it.

 

Anyway, I've "bitten the bullet" and the exchange yard soon looked like this:

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by DLT

[DLT]

After soaking the ballast with water, the track was carefully lifted.  everything survived this process, including almost all the wooden sleepers, and even the trackspikes.  Sleepers were left soaking while the pointwork was tidied up a bit.  Points had been built in-situ, and some of the geometry was decidedly dodgy.  A scrape of filler and some grey paint had the trackbed tidied up and relaying could start.

 

 

The new yard will have two long sidings instead of three short ones, and a longer headshunt.

 

 

I can still use the existing point actuation with a bit of adapting, so no need for massive changes underneath.

Edited April 27, 2022 by DLT

[mudmagnet]

Wow, major changes indeed!

 

How much longer have you made the head shunt? Was a little challenge at times when operating to get sufficient wagons moving without getting hemmed-in.

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

22 hours ago, mudmagnet said:

Wow, major changes indeed!

 

How much longer have you made the head shunt? Was a little challenge at times when operating to get sufficient wagons moving without getting hemmed-in.

 

 

Especially when you sent the  longest trains you could manage out of the fiddle yard  

[mudmagnet]

41 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Especially when you sent the  longest trains you could manage out of the fiddle yard  

Me? I wouldn't do that do you Mike!

 

On the over hand, perhaps I did .......

[DLT]

23 hours ago, mudmagnet said:

Wow, major changes indeed!

How much longer have you made the head shunt? Was a little challenge at times when operating to get sufficient wagons moving without getting hemmed-in.

 

47 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Especially when you sent the  longest trains you could manage out of the fiddle yard  

 

5 minutes ago, mudmagnet said:

Me? I wouldn't do that do you Mike!

On the over hand, perhaps I did .......

 

Bridport was always supposed to represent a restricted site, but I have to admit that some aspects were designed to stitch-up visiting operators.....

 

There will now be two long sidings, holding eight wagons minimum, instead of three sidings that you could just squeeze five in. 

Mind you, there are some Southwold style Cleminson six-wheel wagons on the to do list,  which will be twenty feet long, whereas my standard 4-wheels opens are 10 feet.

The headshunt will just take a Baldwin and five wagons, four will be more comfortable.

[DLT]

Another aspect of the redesign was to incorporate a mixed-gauge siding, where a standard and narrow gauge siding met end on.

 

More years ago than i care to remember I picked up some C&L Finescale track parts secondhand, and filed them away in a drawer to "mature"...  These were some code 124 bullhead rail, plus moulded sleepers and rail-chairs.

It was simplicity itself to add a third rail to an existing siding (C&L flexible) by threading the chairs on to the rail, positioning with a rudimentary plasticard gauge, and sticking them down with Butanone.  C&L sell Butanone, I used a bottle labelled Plastic Magic.  I think Plastic Weld is the same thing.  Being moulded in ABS, Mek Pak won't touch the C&L parts, but means its useful for stripping the enamel paint off the existing track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by DLT

[DLT]

I did think about extending the SG and having some mixed-gauge pointwork, but there isn't really room.  Besides, I didn't want to overdo it; mixed gauge was pretty rare on public lines in the UK.

[5BarVT]

3 hours ago, DLT said:

and sticking them down with Butanone.  C&L sell Butanone, I used a bottle labelled Plastic Magic.  I think Plastic Weld is the same thing.  Being moulded in ABS, Mek Pak won't touch the C&L parts,

Don’t quite follow that as Mekpak is butanone.  Methyl Ethyl Keytone later called Butanone (butan-2-one to be pedantic).

(I do remember some school chemistry, but only ‘cos it’s relevant to modelling!)

Paul.

[Regularity]

Nope.

Mekpak is not MEK. It may have been once, but hasn’t been so for decades.

George Slater himself used to point out that it was a proprietary blend of solvents.

 

Butanone is indeed MEK, but that’s nomenclature and not composition of what’s in the bottle.

[DLT]

21 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Don’t quite follow that as Mekpak is butanone.  Methyl Ethyl Keytone later called Butanone (butan-2-one to be pedantic).

(I do remember some school chemistry, but only ‘cos it’s relevant to modelling!)

Paul.

 

Hi Paul,

There is a topic discussing it quite recently here:  https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/123786-slaters-mek-pak-changed/ 

What is currently MekPak (which is a Slater's name) does not dissolve C&L components, whereas the stuff I am using does.  I don't know how old this bottle is, I think it came from a deceased friend, but it's called Plastic Magic, and has a £2.75 label on it.

The stuff that C&L sell for their track is just called Butanone, see here:  https://www.clfinescale.co.uk/online-store/Materials-%26-Tools-c32279095

Thanks, Dave.