Ashwood Dale - Lockdown and an itch that needs to be scratched

[eldavo]

I have been having the odd hour or so working on the clerestory coaches but with 3 to do it's taking some time. I have though managed to get the horsebox across the finish line today.  Being my usual stupid self I ignored the recommendations of those who know what they are doing and used yellow to line it out.  It looked terrible and was a dreadful ragged job!  No choice but to spray another coat of crimson on it and start again.

 

This time I've used a cream colour which looks much better and I've managed to get much finer lining.

 

 

Today I added glazing and transfers.  It has now had a coat of Johnson's klear to seal everything. It will need some light weathering which will tone down the lining even more.  It looks ok from 4ft away or if a take my glasses off but here's a cruel close-up.

 

 

Back to lining out the coaches with gold for the next few sessions...

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[eldavo]

With the horsebox done and dusted it's time to crack on with the Clayton clerestories. The final stage of the lining process is to touch in any black and crimson where the gold lining has escaped or I've been overly enthusiastic in cutting back. That done the coach is glazed, transfers are added and the whole lot is given one of two coats of Johnson's Klear.

 

 

Looks a bit rough in a cruel close-up but probably ok from 4ft.  With the roof checked for fit all the coach needs now is a few passengers before it enters service.

 

 

Two more to glaze etc.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

 

[eldavo]

I have finally finished the paintwork on this rake of coaches, hoorah!  A few roughly painted cheapo Chinese figures have been scattered about just to make it look as though this is a passenger train.  I can't be bothered to spend too much time on the interiors as you really can't see any detail from normal viewing distances when the roof is on.

 

 

 

Ouch that's a cruel close up and shows some shabby paintwork I haven't cleaned up very well!

 

As a rake I think they look suitably Midland.

 

 

I now probably have enough coaches to run the layout but I doubt that will stop me building more.  The platforms can take a decent array of stock as seen below.

 

 

The single is pulling in to the platform with the rake of 4 Clayton square panel clerestory coaches, along with a Bain horsebox and a 4 wheel brake, while in the next platform is a rake of 54ft Bain round panel clerestories top and tailed with 6 wheel brakes. In the short platform is an autotrain.

 

That's a lot of red paint!  I also have a number of 6 wheel and bogie arc roof coaches to run a couple more trains.  May have to build some more locos.  :-)

 

Cheers

Dave 

 

[eldavo]

For those that like detail here's how the rake is made up:

 

Bain horsebox (MSE kit).

 

Brake composite (Janick kit).

 

Composite (Janick kit).

 

All third with luggage (Janick kit).

 

Brake third (Janick kit).

 

4 wheel passenger brake (Slater's kit).  Should really be one of these either end I think.

Edited August 4, 2022 by eldavo

[peterfgf]

On 07/05/2020 at 22:37, eldavo said:

The itch of building an 0 gauge layout has been there for over 10 years since I built a workshop at the end of the garden.  The building is 7.2x4.2 metres overall which gives me a floor space of approximately 23ftx13ft (just to mix up the units of measurement).  The idea was that, at a pinch, I could get a small 0 gauge layout or a complete circle test track in the space.  Assuming a minimum radius of 6ft.

 

As with my other layouts, if I was going to build something in 0 gauge it would have to be exhibitable.  Further, it would have to be visually appealing and fun to operate.

 

Along the way I acquired a part-built 0 gauge layout.  In fact I'm the 3rd owner of this, it having been started by our club chairman then passed on to another member and thence to me.  It has an interesting track plan that I have been trying to reuse for a long time without finding a fully credible set up.

 

 

A more serious problem was the baseboards.  These were originally "substantial" in that they used pretty thick plywood frames and a very thick MDF top surface and so were heavy to say the least.  Also they have been modified several times and could not be used for a mobile layout as they are.  Back to square one then.

 

I toyed with the idea of some sort of roundy roundy set up but even with pretty good space I have couldn't see how I could get an interesting track plan in.  Another option was to build a small branchline terminus set-up.  There's enough space assuming fairly short trains.  The Midland didn't seem to have too many of these to choose from so I couldn't find anything that attracted me.

 

Thinking on the 0 gauge layout then stalled for some time while I was distracted with other projects, primarily the clubs 00 gauge layout.  All the time though I was building odd locos and stock and my target had become creating enough stock to allow a full Midland running session on the Winchester club layout Abbotstone.  I've pretty much met that target and with the lockdown preventing me from doing anything on the club layouts, my mind came back to starting another layout.

 

Many hours have been spent perusing the disused stations website and exploring OS maps via the National Library of Scotland.  This is where I came across Buxton Midland, a really interesting track layout in a confined space.

 

http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/buxton/index.shtml

 

No way I could fit it all in in the space I have but it's certainly given me some inspiration.  I think I can create a U shaped layout, station to fiddleyard, where I can assemble most of it in my workshop.  For exhibition use there would be extra bits that can't be fitted in the workshop but they shouldn't be critical.

 

My first jottings in Trax (can't get my head round Templot) are shown below...

 

 

This is 24ft long and the lefthand 4ft by 2ft6" board is mostly station building and would not be required when at home.  There is a goods shed and sizeable loco shed.  Fair bit of interest and it retains the awkward operational aspects of Buxton.  Operation would be from the bottom edge on the plan i.e. inside the U but that is where problems start to occur.  The goods yard is on the furthest point from the operators so how the heck would I deal with uncoupling.  More thought needed.

 

I did print this out to see whether it really could be fitted in my shed.  It did!  There would be another 3ft or so of platform extending out of the door in this photo.

 

I'm building a model based on Buxton Midland but I'm puzzled by how the goods yard was worked by trains arriving from Millers Dale/Rowsley/Derby.  It seems to be rather difficult, but perhaps I'm missing something obvious (probably!).  Does someone know?

Peterfgf

 

[Middlepeak]

Peter,

 

As far as I can tell, and perhaps supported by the attached signalling diagram that I posted on Rowsley 17D's thread, goods trains would have to work into one of the platforms, with the station pilot then coupling up at the rear of the train to remove the wagons and release the loco. Unusual, I agree!

 

 

Perhaps Jonathan (Rowsley 17D) can elaborate?

 

Geraint (with my apologies that this always seems to load upside down!)

[lezz01]

5 hours ago, Middlepeak said:

Peter,

 

As far as I can tell, and perhaps supported by the attached signalling diagram that I posted on Rowsley 17D's thread, goods trains would have to work into one of the platforms, with the station pilot then coupling up at the rear of the train to remove the wagons and release the loco. Unusual, I agree!

 

 

Perhaps Jonathan (Rowsley 17D) can elaborate?

 

Geraint (with my apologies that this always seems to load upside down!)

Yes Jonathan certainly knows. Give him a shout on his thread. We all like a good discussion about prototype running or ask the guys on the Midland thread in the prototype section if Jonathan can't answer Dave (Hunt) will know how it worked.

Regards Lez. 

[daifly]

Allow me.

Dave

[Rowsley17D]

I've wondered how goods trains were dealt with a Buxton too. Mine run into either the carriage siding or platform 3 (No 6 in LMS times) and the station pilot takes the train to the goods yard, releasing the train loco to go to the shed and get turned. Working coal wagons for the coal yard on the lower level is even more complex as the head-shunt will only hold 5 wagons and an 0-6-0T and there's no run round in the coal yard. I use 2 tanks, one to push the 4/5 wagons down the gradient while another tank waits at the top of head-shunt, which reverses the wagons into the coal yard. Empties are dealt with by reversing the process.

[eldavo]

With the limited runround facilities it must have been a messy operation.  Maybe it's only us modellers that expect goods traffic to be handled away from the platforms.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[eldavo]

There has been a distinct lack of mojo in Ashwood Dale over the last few months.  My modelling time has largely been taken up by Winchester Railway Modellers Redbridge Wharf layout in one way or another especially in the run up to Warley.  Today I thought it was time to crack on and do something.  Bit on the chilly side for trotting down to the workshop but no excuse for not firing up the CAD software and giving the 3D printer some work.

 

With my rather whaky track plan there is a need for a ground frame in order to allow goods shunting access to one of the sidings that requires a move across some pointwork that is under control of the signal box.  I'm sure in the real world it would just be a couple of levers out in the open but if I modelled that I'm sure they would get knocked and damaged so I've built a shed.

 

Here's the hut still on the printer build plate before cleaning and curing.

 

 

With the excess resin cleaned off and the model hardened in the curing station it was time to remove the supports.  It was really a bit of a stretch to print the whole thing in one go and lo and behold I managed to break a couple of the glazing bars.  A spot of superglue and we are good to go.

 

 

Time for some paint...

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[eldavo]

A couple of short spells in the workshop has seen the groundframe hut painted, glazed and roofed.  I've also knocked up a wooden plinth for it from coffee stirrers and scraps of card.  Here it is just plonked down on the plinth with the 2 lever frame placed inside.  It needs a bit of weathering then it can be glued together.

 

 

 

I've assumed as it's a fairly insignificant building not even the Midland would go to the lengths of painting it in the yellow paint scheme so have just gone with a Denbigh cream and Venetian red (brown) paint scheme.  Now I've gone this for somebody is bound to tell me that's wrong.

 

With the hut sorted I suppose I'll have to finish off the point rodding that I've been putting off for months.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[eldavo]

The hut has been lightly weather and glued to is base.  The CAD looked like this:

 

 

As with all the other buildings on the layout the hut is designed to be removable for transport and so has a cardboard "plug" under the base to locate it.

 

 

That's more than enough about small huts.  Better get on with something more substantial.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[lezz01]

That's a very good representation of a Midland ground frame hut Dave. You may be decrying it but it's a bang up job nonetheless. Where did you find the drawing?

Regards Lez.

[eldavo]

19 hours ago, lezz01 said:

That's a very good representation of a Midland ground frame hut Dave. You may be decrying it but it's a bang up job nonetheless. Where did you find the drawing?

Regards Lez.

 

Thanks Les.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any drawings so it's all done from eyeballing photos and guesstimating.  There are a few pics in the study centre catalog but a lot of detail is difficult to make out and any dimensions have to be estimated based on assumptions about the size of the door.

 

For Ashwood Dale the hut is towards the back some distance from the viewer so I just wanted something that looked credible.  It's good enough for the job even if not an exact replica.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

My mojo is definitely starting to return but of course we are now into the silly season so I'm unlikely to get any more workshop time until the new year.  Rather than tackle the difficult things that need doing I've managed to find more diversionary activities and the grass is starting to grow all over the place!

 

 

As it's almost the end of the year so I thought I'd document the current state of play with some overall shots.  I've laid in an approach road/track to the goods yard area (the paint is still wet!).

 

 

The goods shed itself has been bedded in but still needs internal details and lots of external clutter including road vehicles.

 

 

The same goes for the engine shed area.  It's all much too clean and tidy even for the Midland.

 

 

All these views are actually from the operator's side so at some point I will have to reverse the baseboards and see what things look like from the public side.  That will also mean I have to sort out some sort of backscene.

 

2023 will also see decision time on what I do with the station buildings.  Based on Buxton or somewhere else? Lots to think about.

 

Have a good Christmas and New year and let's see what 2023 brings us.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

A few more distraction activities have been found to avoid me having to tackle any of the difficult jobs, or so I thought!

 

I pulled out a few of my shelf Queens to see if I could finish a few off.  I've acquired a number of cheap wagons on "the bay" over the last few years. Of course they were cheap for a reason.

 

I seem to have a couple of open wagons where the builder didn't really have much clue. The brake gear was a real mess with the brake handle on upside down and other "peculiarities".  As I had the CAD work for a 9ft 6" underframe I was able print some bits and adapt them. These are now pretty much ready for the paint shop.

 

 

This tinkering and seeing some work others, including Simond, have done, led me to look at updating my 3D print underframe to see if I could add some springing.  Here's the first print still on the build plate...

 

 

After a bit of cleaning and curing I ended up with a set of parts that seem to fit together ok.

 

 

The whole of the underframe is printed as a single piece with the exception of the axle boxes and axlebox retainers.  The buffer housings haven't printed well so these will need to be printed separately.

 

A small guitar string spring is bent up and fitted between the axlebox and frame.  You can just about see the end pointing through a lug on the back of the axlebox.

 

 

From above you can see where the spring is glued into the frame (the white patch).

 

 

This gives about a mm of downward travel to the axlebox which looks a bit odd when the wagon is picked up as the box does'nt contact the leaf spring...

 

 

This won't be visible normally when the wagon is stationary as the springing will be compressed and all should look ok.

 

 

In the picture you can see the axlebox retainers which haven't been painted yet. They are simply glued very carefully to the ends of the W irons.  There's work to do but I think it's workable.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Well that plan went well.  I sort of nearly finished off all the partly complete wagons.  Just some of them still need painting and lettering. Maybe one day.

 

So now we are into second level distraction activities.  Actually I did do one session of track fettling but then got distracted.  This time I really should have known better.

 

This little project is another of my dubious eBay purchases, a Shedmaster kit for a Midland 1400 class 2-4-0.  It came complete with wheels (except one pair is missing).  Instruction no. 1 in the kit is to sweat together the loco mainframes and ream out the holes for the axle bearings.  Spot the problem.

 

 

Ah yes, I remember now, the last Shedmaster kit had the same problem.  A kit with bearing holes 20% too big. Top quality NOT!

 

Good job I intended to fit compensation.  Cut out a couple of blanks for compensation beams out of scrap nickel silver and sweated them together.  Drew up a paper template and stuck it to the blanks then set about drilling pilot holes for the axle holes and the fulcrum.

 

 

 

Of course when I came to open out the bearing holes I wrecked the lot as the metal was too thin.  Start again with some thicker material then.  Worked out a bit better this time so on to marking out the mainframes to drill the fulcrum hole for the beams.

 

 

The instructions then say to fit the 2 chassis cross members which "create a reasonably rigid chassis".  My mum made custard with more rigidity!  As you can see fitting the beams and trying to use my alignment axles and springs turned the thing into a banana.

 

 

To be fair the instructions do say you might wish to add a base to the ashpan and extra cross members.  I think this should be "must".  I did add a base to the ashpan and then fitted the upper brake hanger support wires across the chassis.  This made the thing rigid enough to allow me to fit the compensation beams and align the bearings.

 

 

Time to fit the wheels.  Oh look they've come with Slater's optional extra heavy rust pitting!  These have been sitting in my workshop for a year or two and of course I have no idea where they've been since they left Slater's and before they arrived with me.  It does seem to be a shame that the manufacturer can't pack their product adequately or at least provide some sort of protection.

 

 

I cleaned them up and chemically blackened them and fitted the crankpins.  These were then fitted to the chassis and seem ok.  The leading axle is carried in a tube which can rock to provide the 3rd weight bearing point of the compensated chassis.  It ain't pretty engineering but hopefully will be good enough.

 

 

Lots to do.

 

Cheers

Dave

[lezz01]

Nice Dave. Which one are you going to drive on?

Regards Lez.

[eldavo]

After several months of working on other things I actually got on and started to sort out some of the layout problems.  Some while ago I had to relay the rather tight curves leading to the fiddleyard.  I thought I had nailed it but after a while I realised I had somehow managed to create a distinct kink in both lines leading to problems with some of my locos.  There was nothing for it but to try and lift and relay some of the curves.

 

A lot of water and scraping allowed me to unseat the track without damage so I should be able to get things relaid.  It's all pretty messy!

 

 

The fiddleyard board link tracks will have to be revised but hopefully this time I'll get it right.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

On 06/05/2023 at 22:38, lezz01 said:

Nice Dave. Which one are you going to drive on?

Regards Lez.

 

I've fitted a compact worm and spur MSC box which sits down low and drives the leading pair of drivers.  There's a bunch of lead in the ash pan and space above the motor for more lead.  Hopefully with the compensation the little engine should pull a decent load.

 

 

Of course this has developed into another of those almost complete projects.  The tender is pretty much complete but the weather hasn't been good enough to contemplate getting it into primer.  The loco needs the fiddly bits like handrails and details.  It runs but the tender hasn't got pick ups yet and there's no linkage between the loco and tender.

 

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by eldavo

[eldavo]

The curves into the fiddleyard are back in place and seem to work much better.  It's still a tight turn being under 6ft radius but the Flatiron, which has a longish 6 coupled chassis, and other locos seem to be able to cope.

 

 

My favourite compound managed to haul a rake of 54ft corridor coaches in and out of the yard so being my normal inpatient self I started ballasting!  Of course with my mojo in place the house guests arrived and work stopped.

 

 

Hopefully the mess of latex glue will set.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by eldavo