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Coalorsdale - A shropshire Branchline - 1965 to 71


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Still enjoying reading about this progress. One caveat, as always based on having lived in Telford in the 70s, don't make your station car park too big. In the 1960s, if you took your car to drive to the station then often you had to leave it parked on the verge of the approach road. Park and Ride was still about 20 years away.

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2 hours ago, whart57 said:

Still enjoying reading about this progress. One caveat, as always based on having lived in Telford in the 70s, don't make your station car park too big. In the 1960s, if you took your car to drive to the station then often you had to leave it parked on the verge of the approach road. Park and Ride was still about 20 years away.

Thanks, some space may be converted into over own bushes or possibly some flower beds. There some good photos of much Wenlock in the same era filled with flowers. 

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I'm about to start work on the main road so I thaught I'd bring the thread up to speed on this area before I begin. 

 

The lane behind the station and its  car park have been made this week using a mix of tile grout and sifted earth. These are yet to be weathered and/ or painted  but the basic colour and texture is there. 

 

You can also see my basic dimensional mock up of the station building. 20200801_165049.jpg.d5e868e99a46ae3dc988d8a892a65102.jpg

 

I have also spent some time hand scribing this stone-built retaining wall based vaguely on one at Horsehay pool. At the moment it is still das clay orange however it will be painted up similar to the tunnel portal on the other side of the layout. 20200721_214150.jpg.83414aedb51f1a59f43058c597f6aa71.jpg20200801_165054.jpg.c7f5f163c3a9a670acf0a722684fd0f2.jpg

 

Now time to play with some polly filla..... 

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It's fascinating to watch this layout progressing from it's inception to the point we're at now, where one can see the final look emerging.  You've worked incredibly quickly and effectively; took me longer to get my layout to this stage and mine is just a simple BLT!

 

Well done.

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1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

It's fascinating to watch this layout progressing from it's inception to the point we're at now, where one can see the final look emerging.  You've worked incredibly quickly and effectively; took me longer to get my layout to this stage and mine is just a simple BLT!

 

Well done.

Thank you for your kind words, i may have the first wave of scenery done by the time i go back to uni, then ill be able to come home and run trains whilst i add further detail.

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A few shots of this evenings progress. 

 

The road was lined with matchsticks as a former before the filler was spread20200801_175344.jpg.26240e2a9045b1c1fd17ac7ecae2502f.jpg

A few layers of filler were then added and smoothed. A lot of mess was made and I need to touch up the tracks either side. 

 

The matchsticks were then removed revealing quite a crisp edge to the road, this will be blended in later. 20200801_191229.jpg.82bfa2414fdd8a7cc41210ed96033346.jpg 

and here it is all tidy.  With the brown under coat touched up20200801_192320.jpg.117329b51212e5ae7201ddaaa3c39272.jpg

Much More work to be done but the basics of the road are now in. 

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The road is coming along nicely however there's more work to do so here is a teaser shot for now.  ( cars temporarily placed for scale) 

20200803_105444.jpg.2310cf43b5c91b15cfcd056bffb8526d.jpg

 

I've also been working on weathering my class 04 I may have gone a bit over board however I am quite happy with it. You may notice I accidentally removed the br crest and cab number by putting to much thinner on with my pastels. 

 

I may buy new ones however I might leave them off so I can either run it as br but with too much dirt on to see the crests or as ex br private owner what do you guys think? 20200802_150956.jpg.85182435852fd73864512ac2ea54ec63.jpg20200802_150944.jpg.d3408d91c7266f7aba48da5677b18f2e.jpg20200802_150718.jpg.a52eaec2896cedfb68f4ab3c79233399.jpg

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Class 04 withdrawal didn't start till 1967 so PO is unlikely for your period. And cab numbers were usually the cleanest bit on an engine. I think you'll have to replace them and be a little less liberal with the thinners next time.

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Evening all.

Having finished and mostly weathered the road I cleaned the tracks and much to my annoyance the 04 was catching on the paving between the rails. 

Just to get things running again after just under a week being idle due to one area of scenery or another. I ripped up the road just between the rail heads. 

 

Here is a photo from before I chipped the road between the rails. I am not 100% happy with it yet but I'll see how it looks when I get other scenery done over here. 

20200803_105538.jpg.5218b2d0c801f3aedf0df20d9b312e9a.jpg

 

In other news today I received an order from Liverpool that I spent some birthday money on. This included mostly scenic items however I also bought three second hand mainline mineral wagons. I have given them A very light weathering as they were a little bright , it's not much and I'm sure ill get round to dirtying them up alot more sometime but they looked very toy like on their first lap and the simple weathering will do for now. ( left weathered vs right clean) 20200804_193514.jpg.264cac28c881232f97622cd8cc868b93.jpg

They have plastic wheels but run very well compared to my Dapol wagons which all jump off the rails at frogs. ( still need a back to back gauge) 

 

Finally for this evening I have a shot of the cutting with my weathered 04 and some new undergrowth freshly glued down20200804_224049.jpg.f8659c06ac7049fe176493090aefd92e.jpg

 

David

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A few more bits of progress ready to show. 

 

I've been working quite hard on the Brook area. I'm not sure what I've shown recently so I will list all the changes. 

 

  • I've added das clay stones around the viaduct arches. 
  • I've added black iron wheels /rosettes on the viaduct based on those added by gwr in Coalbrookdale (designed and 3d printed myself) 
  • I've begun painting and adding stones to the Brook ready for resin in the future. 
  • And most recently I've glued in peco girder bridge sides and blended the. In with das clay. This all needs painting and weathering. 20200730_194715.jpg.6c982a324ad4abcbf9c11e59aa7a96ed.jpg20200805_212320.jpg.e009346856739475757f3d4f376b8ce2.jpg

There has also been some rapid growth over at the feild and a hedgrow has sprung up overnight. 

 

 This is just a basic hedge with rubberised horsehair and woodland scenics coarse turf this may be detailed further in the future20200805_181034.jpg.2c7301deb471b37964d4750521813ad8.jpg

 

And finally this evening I decided to ballast the branch line gradient. I went for grey ballast which should look good once all airbrushed and weathered in. It should provide some variation from the buff limestone ballast on the mainlines and imply that it has been ballasted at a later date than the main lines also from a different quarry.  Ive also just glued an underlay er of soil on the embankment here. 20200807_214416.jpg.05eeb66d6faf5ef98f54b90ca73ca0be.jpg

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That's really taking shape. I like the bare areas of ground in front of the blue Austin, so often model ground cover is too even.

The round plates on the bridge by the way, are basically giant cast iron washers on the ends of a tie rod used to stabilise masonry that has begun to shift and bulge outwards.

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10 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

That's really taking shape. I like the bare areas of ground in front of the blue Austin, so often model ground cover is too even.

 Thanks. 

 

11 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

The round plates on the bridge by the way, are basically giant cast iron washers on the ends of a tie rod used to stabilise masonry that has begun to shift and bulge outwards.

 

Yeah  wasn't quite sure what to call them :D

 Aparently they were added by gwr but I'd like to think they were cast in Coalbrookdale. I might also add the square plates that are alternated between them too. 

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  • RMweb Gold
On 04/08/2020 at 23:21, Horsehay Railway Modeller said:

20200804_193514.jpg.264cac28c881232f97622cd8cc868b93.jpg

They have plastic wheels but run very well compared to my Dapol wagons which all jump off the rails at frogs. ( still need a back to back gauge) 

My suggestion would be to standardise on a wheel profile as much as possible (I use Bachmanns) and replace any plastic wheels which will pick up crud and redistribute it all over your layout.  Running will be improved as a result. 
 

Dapol wheels are useless; give them the opportunity of an exciting new career in the landfill business.  A b2b is a very sound investment.  

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2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

My suggestion would be to standardise on a wheel profile as much as possible... 

 

Thanks for the good advice, I had considered it before before bit hadn't thought of the dirt plastic wheels carry. 

 

I've decided to boycott Dapol for now as I have problems with all of the wagons I've got from them but I will certainly try swapping out he wheels. 

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Dapol stuff will certainly be improved by better wheels, but you may also have coupling issues with it (I did).  The answer here is to unscrew the coupling mounts and replace them with Parkside dovetail mounts; I also standardise on couplings because despite NEM being allegedly a standard the tension locks are of many different profiles and materials.  Again, I have standardised on Baccy, mostly because I have more Baccy stock than any other make.  Baccy make 4 types of NEM coupler, with pockets and the dovetail to fit the Parkside mounts, long straight short straight long cranked short cranked; you can standardise the height above the railhead of the coupling bars, essential for propelling, by trimming or packing the Parkside mounting blocks.  

 

Bogie vehicles and locos are more of a problem, and I have resorted to bodgery, but it's do-able.

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6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Dapol stuff will certainly be improved by better wheels, but you may also have coupling issues with it... 

 

Hi there Johnster. I am very slowly standardising on kadee couplings, at the moment I'd rather buy more rolling stock than spend money on couplers  however every now and then I slip some in an order and now half of my coaching stock is fitted along with either end my wagon rake and all my locos. Thanks for the suggestion though. 

 

 

Today's update: 

The bulk of the 'woodland' on the large cutting is in.  I will do some follow up posts on the large oak tree however all of the smaller trees are just seafoam and woodland scenics turf... I say just  it's still taken a few days and over 30 trees.

 

I may add more colours to different trees with different scatters and I need to add a few more trees to the edges however I've ran out of scatter for now. 20200808_191915.jpg.d548f5eda0df46e9f3ae506c6cee78f8.jpg20200808_182703.jpg.8073c81aba9c1bc6b5d0c69d7c8fe7b6.jpg

 

I think it looks quite convincing under the canopy, just need to add a few people exploring. 20200808_182730.jpg.980fd87cabe0b71a9bc3ac495a844e0b.jpg20200808_182737.jpg.63bb5e989fad53fb337122127cb53207.jpg

 

 

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As promised here is some of my method for the large oak trees above. All of this is drawn from various tutorials around the Web. 

 

I began by twisting about 18 strands (36 as they were doubled over). 

 

After forming the base of the trunk I separated a few wires at a time until  I was left with a vague tree outline. 20200805_154014.jpg.9186424b0dd1dfb9d935a552f76698d2.jpg

I then twisted the ends into loops which are later snipped to form even more branches. 

 

20200805_163137.jpg.db5f2cf7b74f1af7c0614accb089756c.jpg

Once I was happy with the armeture I coated it all in a thick layer of pva glue mixed with tile grout20200805_170439.jpg.76a24c18826c424aa9b1ac543ffbe0bc.jpg

 

Then over a few days I hand plucked and glued on chunks of seafoam using superglue and backing poweder20200807_183334.jpg.88c9bc8fa4fe6b62d08d44b093a0e55a.jpg

 

 it was then sprayed brown and grey and foliage was applied in the form of woodland scenics coarse turf. 

 

The finished result is shown aboveas I don't have enough space in this post. 

 

Thanks for looking, 

David 

Edited by Horsehay Railway Modeller
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Today I did a little work with static grass blending the cutting into the tree line. I'm tempted to put some sort of lineside fencing along the treeline hmm....20200809_191624.jpg.8d8f1a96838aa9c98cd899a2ecd42240.jpg

 

I also painted  the back scene to fill in the gap above the river bed. A compromise was made when I installed it meaning i kept the height behind the raised area but had a gap above the valley of the brook

 

I had started to fill this gap the other week using trees and foliage cut out from the leftovers of the backsene  for my portable layout however some painting was needed to finish it off. 20200809_175403.jpg.6bc5ccd9b0a2165c70f43cea4e0b4691.jpg

Thanks, 

David 

 

Edited by Horsehay Railway Modeller
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Today I've started slowly progressing scenery towards the station. I've decided to work in sections so I can get areas looking relatively good before moving on to the next .

Hopefully having most of the lower area looking good before October. 

 

Then I will be able to add further details around the layout when I'm home from university over the next few years. 

 

With that in mind I've glued down some soil from the garden on the embankments just up until the end of the platform and I've turned my attention to the coal sidings. 

 

I've had this peco yard hut for a few years an it has been sat in a box of stuff that I didn't sell from the old layout. 20200811_142323.jpg.06306538a66c72049b52a6b2b31fa090.jpg

 

I've been putting it by these sidings as a place holder but this afternoon I decided I could keep it if I made it look a bit more realistic. 

 

I set about gluing on matchsticks to create planks. I also added brick plasticard to the chimney. As well as a new stack on top. 

This was then painted with several brown and black washes  and weathered with artists pastels. 

 

20200811_174217.jpg.f3e120e4681e0e1747ae5fe06da60353.jpg20200811_182654.jpg.d34ca00a20b5d2d51008b93103dc256e.jpg

 

I also started adding an Interior by adding a false wall to hide the wires for an led. 

This wall also hid the alcove formed by the moulded chimney. I've painted the interior walls white for now as well as painting in a fire place. 20200811_183743.jpg.41c81ac8e09416e28586610b1b05a8fe.jpg

 

I've now realised with the light on I will need to add a floor and some Very basic interior detail. 

 

I'm not sure whether to add some sort of desk and make it look like an office or to make it some sort of tool shed. I'm leaning towards an office and I might add a non windowed shed next to it. 

 

 

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