Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[MrWolf]

A bit of fiddly sticking together 20 thou plasticard boxes then adding "rooves" of 10 thou has made something like the two oil cabinets in the previous post. 

 

 

 

The paint tin should give an idea of size. The Castrol one on the left is a scale 72" X 18" X 28", the Motorine one is 64" X  18" X 28".

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
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[MrWolf]

I'm having to paint and weather the firewood shed a bit at a time and let it dry, otherwise I end up with an all over sludge colour. At least over the 67 grey I have an even finish over several different materials.

 

 

Image M.I.A.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf

[MrWolf]

A coat of paint on the two oil cabinets. I'm giving the Motorine cabinet the earlier pale blue finish, because I had one like that some years ago. The problem now is the graphics, I may just have to settle for a few shapes and dabs of colour.

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
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[MrWolf]

 I got impatient and have managed to drybrush with a moss green mixture and a silver grey (53) and I do think that it's made a difference.

The grooves for the plank gaps on the whitemetal shed are very faint. If you build one, score them back in. I gave up trying to do my favourite trick and paint individual planks slightly different colours / shades in the same way that @NHY 581 does when weathering wagons.

 

The roof has been similarly treated. I hope that it's an improvement.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
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[Mikkel]

Very nice. It seems to be "small structure day" on RMweb.

 

On my screen the colours look good.

 

(But have you noticed the variation across screens depending on the settings, on my wife's laptop not only colours but also the degree of weathering/shading on structures looks very different. The best approach I can see is to go with how your own eyes register things).

[MrWolf]

Good point. It looks better in daylight, not to mention lighter in colour.

All of the structures are small on my layout, I keep doing bits at all of them, but the station building is sulking in a box at the back of the bench. I ought to pull it out and have another go at it. It seems to lack character so far, so I will have to get it to that assembled stage.

[MrWolf]

What to do when you have a half hour wait for something to cook? Odd bits of modelmaking, that's what.

A lot of the Wills' kits come with this sprue and sometimes it's surplus to requirements. The corrugated iron is offcuts from the garage and the door is from the Wills' windows and doors materials pack.

 

 

 

I was reading through one of my books and a picture taken from the yard gates at Shipston on Stour shows a little shed next to the mileage siding of a pattern seen quite widely at rural stations. Sometimes connected with traders, lamp huts, chemical toilets and on the Bishops Castle Railway, they were used as ticket stores.

 

All this activity is, of course, avoidance behaviour. I still haven't got around to one of my pet hates, fitting point motors. But it needs doing before I go any further with the baseboards.

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
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[MrWolf]

I think that the current lack of genuine progress is due to a lack of inspiration from what I am doing. Ever get the feeling that everyone else's work is truly inspired and your own is just going back and forth with the tide? 

To this end, I have positioned all of the structures for the layout and taken a series of photos to try and get a feel for what it will look like when finished. I am putting them up on here in the hope that my fellow posters (otherwise known as "The Committee" ) will give me some ideas.

 

Or at least the encouragement to get stuck in and sort out the electrics!!

 

 



Long view down the station board.

 

 

 

Another aerial view, from the cattle dock.

 

 

 

View across the goods yard to the station.

 

 

 

View from the weighbridge office to the signal box.

 

 

 

View up the main road from Craven Arms over the level crossing towards Clun. The bit of track poking under the fence has yet to be sawn off.

 



 

View from the cattle dock gate across the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
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[chuffinghell]

15 hours ago, MrWolf said:

All this activity is, of course, avoidance behaviour.....

Something I’m all to familiar with

[Simond]

Try something really simple, paint the baseboard brown.  
 

If you can do something with the backscene, that’ll help set the scene too.

 

you want a simple win that moves you forward, it gives a feeling of satisfaction beyond the actual effort involved.

 

hth

Simon

[chuffinghell]

As I often say to myself a little progress is better than none, now if I actually listened to myself I might pull my finger out

 

That said I think your layout is progressing nicely 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by chuffinghell

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I doubt if such a small station would have two signalboxes, if I'm interpreting the buildings correctly.

[wiggoforgold]

Looks good to me. You've resisted the temptation to put too much into the space, and I feel the layout looks the better for it. The track is down, and works - move on to ballasting, and you've got the basic shapes of the buildings, so you can  are a start on the landscape. I did the basic shapes of the buildings early on, so I could get a feel for how they all looked together. If, once started  you feel things don't look quite right, don't be afraid to change it, rather than persist with something you are uncomfortable  with. And if you're not sure, put it on here and see what people think. 

 

Alex

Edited March 28, 2021 by wiggoforgold

[MrWolf]

6 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I doubt if such a small station would have two signalboxes, if I'm interpreting the buildings correctly.

 

Just the one, it probably wouldn't have had that were it not pointed out that I needed it to control the level crossing and the first block post on the branch.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

30 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Just the one, it probably wouldn't have had that were it not pointed out that I needed it to control the level crossing and the first block post on the branch.

That's good. I thought the building in the 7th picture (by the water crane) was a SB too.

[MrWolf]

Thanks @Simond I have given all of the areas that I know will be flat(ish, not dead flat) a coat of raw umber acrylic. If anything ever shows through, it's soil! 

I hadn't thought of treating the 3d model the same way as one of my paintings and blocking in the base colour of the main elements.

 

Definitely a case of overthinking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have some 6mm MDF (Medium Density Firewood, or The Asbestos of Tomorrow as we call it ) down at the shop. I think that I will work out how to do that. Then probably have to go out and buy more pretend wood to complete it, anyone who has ever made anything from wood knows that is guaranteed!

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
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[MrWolf]

15 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

That's good. I thought the building in the 7th picture (by the water crane) was a SB too.

 

That is probably just my lousy phone camera picture. In the foreground is the brick base of the cattle dock,  behind the water crane is the supporting woodwork for the scenery / next baseboard ( the infamous river Clun / mill leat junction ) and two or the Frankenpanniers. They are best kept out of focus until they have followed the @KNP path to pannier beauty school.

[Darwinian]

Looking good. Personally I have found the best cure for procrastination is to make a glaring start. Something that looks at you and says “ you can’t ignore me until I’m done”.

 

[MrWolf]

Progress - ish. I have two of the bits of MDF I need for the backscene, that means that I need as much again for the third baseboard and the two "holes in the sky" at either end of the layout. Somewhere I have some  ID Backscenes printed scenery, which although eminently suitable, I don't think that I have enough!

 

I have set aside a bit of time tomorrow to get the point motors in and working. 

Once I know that is reliable, I will be able to progress with confidence.... and ballasting.

 

The bits of plastic I was messing around with the other night came together quickly after admiring the garage door construction on Little Muddle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once suitably creosoted and weathered, this one will stand by the foot of the cattle dock ramp as a checker's hut and disinfectant store.

The finials were achieved quite quickly and only one went missing in action.

That has to be some kind of record!

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by MrWolf
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[88C]

Looking back to the start of this topic you should be pleased with your progress, you seem to have completed a good number of buildings which all go towards your vision of what the railway will look like. In my long experience progress does go in waves and it will happen. The only sure way to make things happen quickly is to offer an incomplete layout to an exhibition!
 

Brian

[MrWolf]

I suppose that I am used to organising projects on a business footing, which doesn't help with hobbies. That said, I don't like looking at anything that is languishing for want of a better word!

Your analogy makes me think of announcing that I will be at the Founders Day vintage motorcycle rally with a particular machine, whilst glossing over the fact that it currently consists of three basic elements:

1. A rusty frame and wheels leaning against the garage wall.

2. A burst tea chest filled with worn out, dirty, rusty parts. (Some of which may not actually belong to this machine.)

3. Parts that have gone missing in action over the last 70 years.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, we are all our own worst critics!

 

Rob

 

 

[MrWolf]

Another awkward job has just been sorted. I was originally thinking of operating the points using a wire in tube or rod method, as I had done with previous layouts. To power the points electrically had always seemed prohibitively expensive and matter what system or components you picked, there would be a hundred people telling you that it's wrong. 

Having read an article on the Peco P-1000 series motors, I decided to have a go because it was easy to retro fit them without too much trouble, plus it's a five minute job to swap them if any go bang.

I will be powering them through a CDU and my next step is make a simple control panel and track diagram.

What this does mean for the layout is that I can get on with the ballasting and other groundwork now that I am confident that the layout will actually work!

 

 

[Gedward]

It looks like you have made good progress to date. Getting the structures in place is a large part of the project. As was said earlier, no matter how good the plan is, things will evolve along the way. And that's one of the advantages of  a 'freelance' project.

 

I was exactly the same with regards to the electrics and point motor fittings. I put it off for as long as possible. But in the end set myself small goals and gradually achieved them. Now I'm dreading painting and ballasting the track and finding out that nothing runs on it.

[NHY 581]

This is coming on just fine, Rob. 

 

Any build has sticky moments, I dread painting the trackwork and ballasting. We get through it and sit back and realise that actually, it looks okay. Then we move on to the next stage. 

 

Looking good. 

 

Rob. 

Edited April 2, 2021 by NHY 581

[MrWolf]

I think that it's a milestone passed getting the electrical work to this stage. Painting the track is going to be fun, I will spray the sleepers initially (apart from the points which will be masked off) then hand paint everything else. I have done it before, a long time ago and the trick was to have a piece of cotton rag handy to keep cleaning the rail tops as you go. Also, spray the non viewing side first.

I have a volunteer for ballasting who has a steadier hand than me and is much more of a neat freak. 

Even so, it's going to be a long job. 

Then, as you say, there's that odd moment when you test run a train and the whole layout appears to be dead. Been there!

 

A very interesting picture of two point motors. I won't bore you with the other four!

 

 

 

The little shed is looking better (Or worse, depending on your viewpoint )

 

 

 

Despite the creosote, it's still a bit rotten

 

 

 

It's based on the one in the middle of this picture, (which may be familiar to some of you....)

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by MrWolf
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