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Bere Lane Works (was Bere Lane Sidings (reborn again!))


Alex TM
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Hi everyone,

 

Please note that as of 11th May, I have made a minor change to the name of the layout/thread; as the scenery has taken a more industrial look I thought a change from 'sidings' to 'works' would make more sense of what I am trying to build.

 

Introduction:

Bere Lane Sidings is an LMS (ex-MR) freight only line set in the period between 1939 and 1947.  It serves a company owned goods shed, and a number of local businesses including a small engineering works.  It uses a previously published Hugh Flynn plan designed for an urban location.  The layout is in 00, is slightly smaller than 6'x1', uses code 100 track, and is wired for DCC.  Overall size was dictated by the availability of an existing board.

 

Background:

Between April 2013 and February 2014 I played around with a series of track plans for a small 00 layout with a freight only theme.  Throughout it all a lack of focus meant that it changed in size, focus, era, and geography.  The full history is here:

 

 

Having started and abandoned a few schemes in the intervening years, I have now regained some focus, I have decided to go go back an revisit one of the versions of Bere Lane, developing it to reflect some of the things that have interested me for a long number of years.  Although I have been looking at the potential of an LNER scheme set in the north-east of England this current plan returns me to the LMS, and the 1940s.  (I will return to the LNER scheme once I am happy with space, setting, track-plan, choice of prototype buildings, etc.).

 

The Plan:

As stated earlier, I am indebted to Hugh Flynn for the track layout.  My version will be a little longer, in part due to not using the space-saving measure of a three-way point.  A drawing will hopefully appear here soon.

 

Rolling Stock:

Given its LMS (ex-MR) roots it should come as no surprise that the locomotive fleet is made up of 1F and 3F tanks, with an ex-LNWR Coal Tank thrown in for variety.  Rolling stock is a small collection of rtr items in appropriate railway company and private-owner schemes.  I hope to expand this in the course of the coming year, and to include some kit-built wagons to increase visual variety.

 

Finally:

I know it's said by some that going back to old ideas is not always a good idea, however this is a plan and aesthetic that I liked as soon as I saw it.  I have tried it in passing in 00 and even in N-gauge (with modern image stock and large radius points).  I am hoping to get the points rewired, and the track laid, over the coming week (work permitting).

 

Thanks for taking the time to read, and please feel free to comment or ask questions.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

 

Edited by Alex TM
Minor change to title of layout/thread.
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Hi everyone,

 

As promised earlier, here's the track-plan:

 

2012178307_BereLaneSidingsrebornagaintplan.jpg.e5cc67c3c9b17cd722d17fa9641504e6.jpg

 

As previously stated, this is the work of Hugh Flynn, and could be found on the archived version of RMWeb; he's graciously given permission for me to re-post his artwork.

 

Other than replacing the three-way with two other points, because I have them to hand, the plan is to develop the layout along the way shown above.

 

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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HI everyone,

 

Fortunately work was quiet enough yesterday to enable work to begin on laying the track.  The pints have been wired to make them permanently live, while various pieces of track have been cut to length and loosely fitted.  The first picture shows an overall view looking from the headshunt to the buffers.

 

BereLane_Day01_overview.JPG.3945a9f67cee8f11849c0a26cd4fdf9a.JPG

 

The pencil tin and paint pots mark where there may be some form of bridge, the nature of which I have yet to decide.  The siding to the far left will be serving a loading dock and low relief warehouse or workshop; the centre one is for general use; while the right hand one will have the last six inches or so covered by a loading bay.  I also intend to infill the area between the latter two sidings.  The siding which ends under the bridge will be made to look as if it once ran further.

 

The second image shows a close-up of the 'throat' area.

 

BereLane_Day01_throat.JPG.f4b3a5419d94460fd6c0bca688394b4a.JPG

 

You will note that there appear to be white lines running from the tie-bars to the edge of the baseboard; these are actually grooves cut through the cork and into the surface of the underlying timber.  I intend to use fine 'plastruct' tubing and piano wire to create a simple way of moving the points without recourse to fingers.

 

The short radius 'Y' point is part of an experiment to decide whether to have a simple straight headshunt, or to have a slightly hidden fiddle yard.

 

All being well today will see the track finished and electrically tested.  After that it will be a matter of making templates for the infills before fixing the track to the board.

 

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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Hi again,

 

Some progress to report for today.

 

Trackwork is now finished, and you'll see that I have gone for a longish headshunt rather than a fiddle yard approach as this will now be a form of inglenook.  It's also been tested using a small loco on DC control.  Point control wires are also now in place.  Tomorrow's job will be to paint the rails and sleeper tops.

 

Templates have been marked and cut for the infilled areas, these being the white paper parts toward the far end.

 

BereLane_Day02_shunt_above.JPG.98c89bc5e20affe4914abd2c45266924.JPG

 

Having cleared the board of most of the unnecessary bits'n'pieces I thought I would pose a loco and some appropriate stock so as to get a better idea of sizes and limitations.

 

BereLane_Day02_shunt_diagonal.JPG.08839140e503bd5e14dbd39859614a1e.JPG

 

Again, thanks for taking the time to read and react to this thread.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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Hi again,

 

Work has kept me busy for the last couple of days so little progress to report:

 

1.  track painted, cleaned, and tested again.  Base colour is Humbrol Track Colour (enamel);

2.  buildings identified from the Scalescenes range.  Managed to get them laser-printed today.

 

Next steps are to weather the track a little, and to mock-up the buildings to get an idea of how they will fit.  They are the T024a-d series - warehouse, boiler house, workshop, and water tower.  I may also make use of the free kit of the low-relief warehouse building (T02b).

 

Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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Hi everyone,

 

Progress has almost ground to a halt this week, as I've ran out of some essential materials and so had to order some more; they're due to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

 

Managed to get the infill done; it's the first time I've done this.  The results are okay, but ....  Off-cuts of cork turned out to be the same thickness as the sleepers so were used to provide a foundation for the top layer.  That was from the boards that come with basic 'paint by numbers' sets; these were cut to shape with previously made templates, and glued to the cork and sleeper tops.  The boards sit between the chairs so as to give plenty of space between them and the wheels.  Boards are slightly thinner that the height of the rails.  They were sealed (gloss enamel varnish), given a first coat of grey (H64), filled, sanded, and give a second coat of paint.

 

The J72 (see another help thread) is now reassembled.  The satin varnish reacted with the paint underneath and so it's not got as good a finish as I hoped for.  And yes, the two threes are too close together; noticed that after varnish had 'set'.

 

J72_LNER_2331.JPG.e8d1389ed24c761f273704edbc2fc34b.JPG

 

The next stage is building construction.  I did some very basic mock-ups of the Scalescenes kits; they're great but don't quite fit with what I am looking for.  That said, they will come in handy for a future layout.  Instead I am going back to kit-bashing a selection of other, mostly Dapol, plastic kits.  This will be along the lines of a previous incarnation of this layout.

 

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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HI folks,

 

After some thought about the direction the scenery is taking, I have decided to rebrand the layout as 'Bere Lane Works'.

 

Progress over the last week has been painfully slow.

 

My order of Dapol and other plastic kits turned up a day earlier than planned, but form there on it was downhill.  The distortion of the Dapol parts meant that I spent a day just straightening them out.  Then I found that they way the shed kits are designed would mean a lot of work to get them to go together the way I had hoped.  All is not lost, for I have a use for them in a potential future project.

 

All this meant it was back to the drawing board.  I spent a couple of days mucking about with off-cuts of mounting board until I found some ideas that seemed to work.  So, for the first time in over thirty years, I'll be scratch-building the buildings.  They are based on 1250 micron mounting board, with Scalescenes texture sheets.

 

Hopefully, I'll have some images to post at the end of this week.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to read.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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On ‎11‎/‎05‎/‎2020 at 18:23, Alex TM said:

HI folks,

 

After some thought about the direction the scenery is taking, I have decided to rebrand the layout as 'Bere Lane Works'.

 

Progress over the last week has been painfully slow.

 

My order of Dapol and other plastic kits turned up a day earlier than planned, but form there on it was downhill.  The distortion of the Dapol parts meant that I spent a day just straightening them out.  Then I found that they way the shed kits are designed would mean a lot of work to get them to go together the way I had hoped.  All is not lost, for I have a use for them in a potential future project.

 

All this meant it was back to the drawing board.  I spent a couple of days mucking about with off-cuts of mounting board until I found some ideas that seemed to work.  So, for the first time in over thirty years, I'll be scratch-building the buildings.  They are based on 1250 micron mounting board, with Scalescenes texture sheets.

 

Hopefully, I'll have some images to post at the end of this week.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to read.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

Any new updates yet Alex??

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Hi Saxokid,

 

Thanks for asking.  Sadly, no updates.  Work caught up with me this week, even on my day off!  A growing number of my colleagues are discovering 'Zoom', leading to an increased number of meetings and hours.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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8 hours ago, Alex TM said:

Hi Saxokid,

 

Thanks for asking.  Sadly, no updates.  Work caught up with me this week, even on my day off!  A growing number of my colleagues are discovering 'Zoom', leading to an increased number of meetings and hours.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

Hopefuly you wil be back modelling soon Alex..:senile::good:

 

 

cheers neil..

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Hi everyone,

 

Finally some modelling has taken place.  The delays have all been down to work becoming busy over the last weeks or so; hopefully it'll now calm down a bit.

 

The shell of the first building has now been assembled; it's a covered loading shed.  Due to the rather open nature of the front of it there will be a loading platform, and some other details, to be added internally.  Once that's done, it'll be the glazing and roof.  The keen eyed will also note that it's not square .....

Bere_Lane_works_22May20.JPG.00c9ce0735e48e4ba1202b401844da35.JPG

 

The pair of J72s and highfit are for testing clearances; so far, so good.  As well as Thornaby's 68696, Blaydon's 69023 may also be seen.  In my reality she was also painted green in 1960 alongside the York and Newcastle pilots.  There's a rumour that the local depot have also managed to acquire Hamilton's 68733 (the powers-that-be think it's en-route to a scrapyard in Coatbridge).

 

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

Edited by Alex TM
Correcting location of McLellan's scrapyard.
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Hi again,

 

Sorry for the slow developments with this.  For every couple of steps forward there have been one or two backwards.  This is partly due to work, but mostly due to not having built anything from scratch for around thirty years.  In a sense this means that this layout is as much an experiment as anything else.

 

I'm not entirely happy with the buildings, however as they are built from Scalescenes products I could always go back and redo them at a later stage.  Anyway, the scratch-built shed is now square thanks to a false roof bracing everything else.  Once the interior loading bay is completed, and the glazing, done, a second false roof will be fitted to the rear half.  The initial shells of the low-relief buildings are now roughly in place.  Next in line will be the low-relief kit that came with Hornby magazine last November; it won't be built as per plans because I don't have enough depth available for it.  Here's a snap taken half-an-hour ago:

 

BereLane_LMS_lineup_31May20.JPG.5aa9dd4d796a92240cbb1d27e25e8185.JPG

 

It's also a bit of an LMS loco line-up.  I have realised that I have too much stock, covering too wide a period, and not all of it is suitable for repainting to harmonise it with what really appeals to me.  From today, I'm aiming to stick with an LMS based layout set during the period 1936-1947.  I've just bought another Fowler 3F tank in a late 30s livery to take the roster to four locos.  I'm looking to dispose of my other stock at some point.

 

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read and/or comment.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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Hi everyone,

 

Sorry that there have been no updates in over a fortnight; work has kept me busy leaving only a couple of hours modelling time during that period.

 

Before coming to the next developments with Bere Lane I thought i should outline some general changes in thinking.  Most of my stock has now gone, keeping only some of my LMS period locos and relevant rolling stock.  Some of the latter will need minor painting and lettering changes to put them in period.

 

Originally I started off wanting to build something that had influences from Dyserth, though it quickly became more industrially focussed.  The challenge with the latter is that I have not been happy with the buildings I have used, though that is due to a range of choices I made.  After spending some of the last fortnight reflecting on this I have decided to scrap the buildings and begin again.  The track, etc, will remain the same.  The aesthetic may change slightly too as one of the biggest challenges has been the number of buildings required, and the lack of time to construct them to a suitable standard.  The outcome may be a half-way between industry and rural. Hopefully, the weekend will see me able to post images of the shells of some of the replacement buildings.

 

In addition to the help and encouragement on this forum, I have also profited from the materials and kits for both 'Scalescenes' and 'Smart Models'; I would happily use their products again.  I have no connection with these businesses other than as a happy customer.

 

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

Edited by Alex TM
Correcting typos.
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Hi again,

 

Buildings now bulldozed, and consigned to the recycling bin (as they're made only of card and paper).

 

Decisions on replacements to be made over the next twenty-four hours.  That'll let me get on with building a couple of shells on my day off on Friday.  It's likely that these will be smaller, and in full-relief.  I may also shorten the front siding, and lengthen the middle one ....

 

As ever, thanks for reading.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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Hi again everyone,

 

This is the latest update, and a request for help.

 

Update:

Some spare time from Friday until today saw the shells of the replacement 'works' buildings constructed.  They are smaller, as I suggested previously, though the ones to the rear have had to remain in low relief due to lack of space.  The front siding has been shortened by a little under 6" to end almost parallel to the middle road; this allows one of the new buildings to sit square to the end of them.  The following images will make more sense of this:

 

Bere_Lane_bldgs_21Jun20_lhs.JPG.a162bdb284c6346bc11c3fea9c955345.JPG

 

Bere_Lane_bldgs_21Jun20_rhs.JPG.b51daa68570055a2ca032e30a0985ea2.JPG

 

As before, they are formed from mounting board covered with 'Scalescenes' papers (in this case, aged red brick).  One of them was meant to be in a different finish (new red, or brown, brick but I wasn't paying attention when I did them).

 

Advice needed:

The rear buildings will not have a loading dock, but the ground level will be built up to almost rail level.  The idea is that whatever is loaded or unloaded from that siding will need to be done manually.  I'm thinking of doing the top surface to look like some form of timber decking or planking - would that be a realistic idea?

 

Next Step:

Plans are already made for the next buildings.  The first will be a low relief version of a loco shed office that came with one of the magazines a  number of years ago; the other will be some workers houses.  Both will have to be low relief. and will have different brick finishes from the above structures.  After that it's detailing the buildings, and starting on the traverser.

 

As ever, thanks for reading.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

Edited by Alex TM
Correcting typos.
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Hi again folks,

 

The current period of lockdown has often seen me work longer hours than before; paradoxically, I've also had a lot more time to think and reflect on a whole range of things.  One of those is the future direction of my model making.

 

For the last few years I have not got very far with  any layout builds, often losing interest or getting bogged down with a lack of progress.  So it is with a heavy heart that I have decided to abandon all of my projects for the time being.  I'll be using some of my time to explore what really interests me before looking into how to go about modelling it.  This will involve not only what prototype to explore, but also questions of scale and gauge.

 

This means that Bere Lane will finally meet it's demise.

 

The board with the attached track is now free to anyone who is able to collect it.  There's also a stock of printed downloaded kits and textures to go with it.  There's also some spare (new) points (code 100, small rad insul), flexi-track, joiners, etc that can be had for a small donation.  Please PM me if interested.

 

Once more, thanks for all the kind words, questions, and suggestions as this project has evolved (devolved?) over the years.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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1 hour ago, Alex TM said:

Hi again folks,

 

The current period of lockdown has often seen me work longer hours than before; paradoxically, I've also had a lot more time to think and reflect on a whole range of things.  One of those is the future direction of my model making.

 

For the last few years I have not got very far with  any layout builds, often losing interest or getting bogged down with a lack of progress.  So it is with a heavy heart that I have decided to abandon all of my projects for the time being.  I'll be using some of my time to explore what really interests me before looking into how to go about modelling it.  This will involve not only what prototype to explore, but also questions of scale and gauge.

 

This means that Bere Lane will finally meet it's demise.

 

The board with the attached track is now free to anyone who is able to collect it.  There's also a stock of printed downloaded kits and textures to go with it.  There's also some spare (new) points (code 100, small rad insul), flexi-track, joiners, etc that can be had for a small donation.  Please PM me if interested.

 

Once more, thanks for all the kind words, questions, and suggestions as this project has evolved (devolved?) over the years.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

 

Yep, been there many a time.

Started many a layout but rarely completely finished any before moving onto something different, I think of all the layouts I have done I have probably got three at most finished and two of those three are ones I am doing now, cause as we know no layout is ever completely finished ;)

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Sorry to hear that Alex.

 

I have always broken my modelling down into small manageable projects so I get things finished and feel like I'm making progress. When my work schedule was manic and I had a growing family this really helped. Even now I allow around two years to build a layout similar to yours, the journey is important and I like to get trains running as soon as possible.

 

Take your time and find out what it is you really want to do, just don't rush things.

 

Take care

 

Martyn

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Hi again,

 

I've updated the thread on the 'Free to a good home' area in the hope of attracting some interest.

 

As ever, thanks for reading.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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