Porthallow - BR(GW) branch terminus

[stivesnick]

Work has started on two more buildings.

 

The first building are the homes part way up the cliff - its a standard Gaugemaster / Kestrel house kit - the old change to the kits is to replace the rainwater down pipe with a thinner unit. Looking at the photo, there is a bit of paint touching up to be done.

 

The second kit is a Petite Properties Harpers Yard card kit. Green Scene textured paint finish and a Redutex sheet roof. Rainwater goods to be added. Not sure about the sign, looks a bit too modern. What do people think?

 

Nick 

[Nick Holliday]

13 hours ago, stivesnick said:

Work has started on two more buildings.

 

The second kit is a Petite Properties Harpers Yard card kit. Green Scene textured paint finish and a Redutex sheet roof. Rainwater goods to be added. Not sure about the sign, looks a bit too modern. What do people think?

 

Nick 

 

I'd be inclined to say it is a bit too modern, lower case lettering for signage was very unusual until the sixties.  But, given St Ives was a hotbed of artistic endeavour, and the fact the the dropped second "l" implies some thought has gone into the work, it might be plausible for an up and coming business, but less likely for a long established one in a down at heel building.

[stivesnick]

5 hours ago, Nick Holliday said:

I'd be inclined to say it is a bit too modern, lower case lettering for signage was very unusual until the sixties.  But, given St Ives was a hotbed of artistic endeavour, and the fact the the dropped second "l" implies some thought has gone into the work, it might be plausible for an up and coming business, but less likely for a long established one in a down at heel building.

 

Thanks Nick 

 

Now that you mention it, the use of lower case letters at that time make sense. The Local Town Council has demanded the sign be changed and the sign writers have been contacted,

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

3 weeks since the last update.

 

The wiring has been completed, and after the usual swoping a few wires over, it all works!

 

The Dapol magnets (10 of them) for the automatic uncoupling have been fitted. I have knuckle couplers, both the Dapol and the Microtrains versions on layouts before, so I know they can work extremely well. However this has been with American or UK modern stock. Not tried using the magnets with 10 foot wheelbase stock before. I was thinking of using the wagons in groups of 2 or 3. Given there are only two sidings for freght traffic, so should not be too much of a limitation. What do people think? 

 

Scenery wise, the parcels dock has gone in and the retaining walls and cliff faces at the town end have been embeded in. At present it looks like a sow storm has hit the town, so very much work in progress. Not 100% convinced by the interface between the cliff and the stone wall in the last photo, so any comments welcome. 

 

Progress photos below.

 

Nick 

[TomJ]

I've successfully used the Dapol couplings on a load of 10 and 15ft wheelbase wagons, steam and diesel era. I do exactly what you suggest and just put on auto coupling on one end of a pair of wagons. That way I can put as many similar wagons between them as I wish, and run rakes of 2 to many wagons for shunting. So I have 18 clayhoods and have autocouplings on one end of six wagons - so I can shunt them in blocks of six. And it saves a fair bit of money on the couplings! Done the same with coaches, like the B-set

For those which are already NEM fitted I have tended to put the fixed knuckle Dapol couplings for within the rake. For those that don't - well life (and money) are too short to convert them.

[Gordon A]

The short siding off the main should have a trap point to protect the main.

 

Gordon A

[stivesnick]

3 hours ago, Gordon A said:

The short siding off the main should have a trap point to protect the main.

 

Gordon A

Thanks Gordon 

 

Good point, will gave that some thought.

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

Two new buildings now underway. Both are Petite Properties low relief building kits. 

 

The brick cottages has scalescenes brick paper added, whilst the stone cottage uses True Texture self adhesive stone sheets (not sure if they are still around, sheets brought many years ago) with the quoins from York Modelmaking. 

 

The cottages go on the eleveated road at the back of the layout, so got the otehr buildings out and some trees saved from the previous layout temporary stuck doen to see what the effect would be. 

 

Progress pictures enclosed. Hopefully, will end up looking like a town that the railway would want to serve.  

 

Nick 

 

 

[stivesnick]

Hi 

 

I have added an extra bit of cliff at the country end of the layout to disguise the exit to the fiddle yard, I am tempted to put a footbridge across the track and have a statue on the cliff top. Perhaps the founder of the original mineral railway that brought wealth to the town. There is not a lot of room, what do people think? 

 

Looking at the photos, the new cliff looks a very differnt colout to the original cliffs, although just looking at then they look very similar, may have to repaint them all to get some consistency.

 

I have also started to create the river, using soaked paper to create the bank. Aiming for the low tide look, with a muddy bank and small areas of water. The lockdown meant that a visitto Cornwall was not on this year, but the photos show the river bank at Looe has a pebble effect, is that correct? 

 

Nick 

 

[stivesnick]

The signalling department has been in action over the weekend.

 

Two Dapol Signals have been added. Nice and easy to install and connect up, once you ahve spent 30 minutes trying to find the correct size drill!

 

I have also decided to move the signal box to the other side of the goods / run round loop. The model is the Peco kit, and has been salvaged from the previous layout. The move was done for several reasons. Firstlly it was a bit of  tight fit between the tracks and the cliff. Given the proximity to the cliff would have to raise the chimney to clear the cliff edge. Finally, I wanted some items to break up the view of a train when the layout is being viewed. The river bank has been made up to create a level base for the signalbox. I will add a water tower at some point and many photos of Looe station show a large tree adjacent to the track.

 

Signal photos enclosed.

 

Nick  

[stivesnick]

The first bit of scenic scatter (the term flockage is used elsewhere in the forum) has gone down. It makes a big difference. 

 

The main task for the break is the build the large hotel behind the station. I have a couple of Faller kits for this purpose. They will be spliced together to make a longer building. I did consider making it 3 floors but decided that would make te building too dominant. 

 

The room lighting and the light from the window, shows that the first few coats of varnish have been added to form the river. 

 

6 months since the start, I am happy with the progress made.

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

[stivesnick]

The last of the major buildings to be constructed is the large hotel behind the station.

 

I am using the Faller school building kits (#232382) as a starting point.

 

The Faller kit is 9 windows wide and includes some basement windows. As the hotel is being built in a rocky area, I felt the building woudl not have had a basement, so these were cut off from the kit sides. I have then spliced two kits together to creater a larger 15 window wide building. Others feature of the kit is a rather large roof including dormer windows and printed detail on the wall sections. As a roof of this size  would dominate the scene, I am going for a flat roof so a parapet was added to the front. The colour scheme did not look very british so this is being painted out. 

 

Photos below show the original front section and the revised front pieces. the second photo shows the current state of affairs with the front and side walls with a first coat of car spray. 

 

Next step is to build a portico to provide a more interesting entrance.

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

Some more worK done on the hotel and an opportunity to see how it will look in its final posituion.

 

Having stuck the sides together, the building shell was placed on the layout. I also put taped the roof sections in  place to see how it looked. Not a bad as I had feared, the roof will go in rather than have a flat roof building. 

 

With the building in place, more work can take place to develp the hotel grounds. Although the basic scenery is mad up of 12mm and 25mm blocks of polystyrene, I also have a roll of 1mm polystyrene liner which is useful to create more subtle changes in the level. This has been used to create a gentle slope up to the hotel.

 

The hotel walls have been added and the final part to to start constructing the steps up from the road. To speed up this process, I have used 2mm scribed plastic sheet and used the lines to save on whole load of marking out and to help line up the treads. The whole process only took a few minutes. Photos show work in progress, the steps are not stuck into position yet.

 

Nick 

 

 

[Kris]

The hotel looks like it should have a sloping roof, however I feel it should have one that is shallower. 

[stivesnick]

10 hours ago, Kris said:

The hotel looks like it should have a sloping roof, however I feel it should have one that is shallower. 

 

Hi Kris

 

Thanks for the comment. It was the height of the roof, that made me think twice about including it. The kit includes some dormer windows which helps explain the height. I will add these to see what the effect is. If still not happy, I will have to design my own lower pitched roof. 

 

I guess this is the problem in using kits, the buildings are never exactly what you want.  For example with the kit, the building is too narrow. if you imagine, each window represents the room, the rooms will be a bit small for hotel rooms. 

 

However the thought of having to cut out and create all those windows, made the kit too tempting to ignore. 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

A happy new year to everyone.

 

Over the Christmas period, I managed to get finish the basic landform on most of the layout and paint these areas, The main road now has a tarmac surface thanks to some fine wet and dry paper,  with a dusting of grey and brown car spray.

 

Next task is to add the pvements. Paving slabs in the town itself, with tarmac out on the main road - I am think of a 4 foot pavement on one side of the road only - does that feel right? After that, its wall and fence time - there is already around 8 foot of wall on the layout with around another 16 feet to go!

 

Some general progress photos enclosed.  Comments and suggestions always welcome.

 

Nick  

[stivesnick]

Some more progress with the Swan Hotel. 

 

The dormer windows that came with the kit were a bit on the small side, so I have added a much larger continious dormer. This is the second attempt, the first used the smaller windows that were supplied with the kit, but they were too small. This version uses some left over windws from some Kestrel kits. Having completed the build, I noticed that the third window from the left is a newer design from Kestrel, although the same size overall, the frames are much thinner and this shows in some of the photos. I am not going to chnage them!

 

I did a mock up of the hotel on the layout with some trees taken from a previous layout to judge the overall effect and to see of much of a view block was created by the trees. The final trees to be used will need to be slightly bigger. 

 

Work has now started on the Hotel grounds. The patio in from the hotel is OO gauge brickwork to represent paving slabs. I have also created the paths using 0.75 x 0.75mm platsic strip to create the edgeing. The curved path is one continous length. The first line was added, then I used a off-cut of plastic sheet to act as a pat gauge to mark out the line of the other edge. A line of UHU glue was added along the marking at and the second line stucjk down. That part worked much better than expected. However, I realised I had made the trade entrance gate too narrow for the delivery vans so this had to be corrected ( 10 seconds work with some snips) and a wider path provided.

 

The first lot of scatter has been added. 

 

Progress photos below:

 

Nick 

 

 

[stivesnick]

Some new motive power has arrived.

 

Apart from the lack of electrification and the wrong type of braking system, something doesn't look right. 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

 

 

[stivesnick]

Previous work in progress photos had shown a Hornby detached house on top of the hill up from the station. I wasn't totally happy as the building dominated the site and did not leave much space for a garden area.

 

I am going to change the building for a Severn Models detached house which is a etched brass kit. Having struggled with fiddly brass wagon kits in the past, I found this kit much easier to make. Put together using UHU glue rather than the superglue recommended to allow a little to time to make adjustments. Following construction, a good clean in a bath of general cleaning fluid, white spay primer and then a coat of grey. I have started the weathering with other shades of grey and brown applied with a sponge. 

 

A bit of paint touching up, glazing, and downpipes needed to complete.

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

[AndyB]

Nick,

You've done a nice job on the paint job. The Severn Models kits make up nicely; I've recently finished the signal box - the steps were quite fiddly!

 

I don't know if that house kit comes with drain pipes. If not then florist's wire does the job nicely. 

Andy

[stivesnick]

22 hours ago, AndyB said:

Nick,

You've done a nice job on the paint job. The Severn Models kits make up nicely; I've recently finished the signal box - the steps were quite fiddly!

 

I don't know if that house kit comes with drain pipes. If not then florist's wire does the job nicely. 

Andy

Thanks Andy 

 

It was seeing your signal box that lead me to the Severn Models web-site to buy the kit, and some others in the first place. Like you, some of the paint has come off exposing the primer underneath. I used white primer to save painting the windows later.

 

The kit does not come with drain pipes but I will make some from thin plastic rod in the next few days. 

 

A general comment I have with this and many other kits is working what each room would be. I think the kit should have more windows as there are large sections on blank wall. They can not all be due to the staircase. I will add a foul drainage pipe with connections to the kitchen and bathroom and hope I have the right rooms!

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

Over the last two weeks packages from Peedie Models and Scale Model Scenery have arrived with various walls, fences and other details such as lights. These parcels along with some bits salvaged from previous layouts have enabled a start to be made on the next part of the scenery.

 

First up, some stone walls from the previous layout. I can not recall the firm, but I brought these off a small trader at the Folkestone how many years ago. The stone walls have been used around the Church and the house at the top of the hill (vicarage perhaps?). The area beyond the house will be covered in trees. 

 

Next some Peedie Models stonework walls and pillars for the big house. I also have the company's etched fencing to go on top of the wall. It 's a shame they don'y do some matching gates, so a bodge job using the fencing is likely. Sitting in front of the house is a Metcalfe foutain kit. Looks a bit on the large side for the side, but it will stay as a nice feature. 

 

Buildings not yet stuck down. That will be the next task, once touched up any piantwork and added any final details.

 

Progress photos enclosed.

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

any model railways are based around the idea of "what if....".

 

So how about this idea. The Great Western Railway did not undertake any electrification projects, but what if there was aline with steep gradients or long tunnels that prompted them to experiment. 

 

Would the result look like this... Some Japanese electric locos built in the USA during the 1920s. The locos are intended for my american interurban layout but look good with chocolate and cream coaches. They also run very well, far better than my Dapol 45xx locos. So tempting.

 

If I did follow this route, how many GW fans would be amused or outraged?

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

Scenery work continues with the next layer of materials in the vicarage garden and the swan hotel. The hotel has also gained some lighting and some stone swans to greet visitors at the entrance (OO gauge from Noch). Looking at the phots some of the lights need adjusting as not very vertical. 

 

The next steps for the hotel will be add some tables and chairs on the patio and some trees. The layout trees are likley to be done all at once. I have over hundred trees from the previous layout to sort out and select for the each location on the layout. 

 

Progress photos below. 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

All

 

Work has started on the scenery around the workers cottages. The cottages are modified Petitie Properties kits. The original kits are low relief, and I intended to mount two kits back to back to create a full building. However, the resulting building was far too shallow effectively just one room deep. So I created a new shell out of plastic sheet and just used the front of the kit.  The back of the building is  a a blank wall. Walls are covered in Scalescenes stone paper. 

 

The rear walls are 1mm card covered in the same paper. Wooden gates to be added. Will need to sort out the rear gardens - not sure if they would have been totally paved or just a path with some flower beds. Any thoughts?

 

Finally sone Woodlands Scenic trees added behind. I will need to sort out what happens behind the cottages as the gap to the backscene reduced to nothing. 

 

Photos enclosed

 

Regards

 

Nick