Mol's MSC Layout: "The Boysnope Bump"

[Sandhole]

I now know I can post more Trafford Park shots if anybody wants them.
Take one Hattons CPC Barclay and my photo.
What's missing is the plastic bucket of sand just in front of the smokebox.

 

[Sandhole]

[Sandhole]

OK, that's me done for a bit.

[Sandhole]

8 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

I'm STILL trying to replicate the weathered finish of the ESSO Sentinel on my Hornby loco.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Those are great! Very many thanks for digging them out and sharing!

 

Coincidentally I have just been watching some DVDs of the MSC Railtours in the 1960s, some fascinating stuff on there too.

 

Must stop looking at the screen and get on with making things, but your photos are very inspiring!

 

Don't tell anyone, but I am strongly considering buying an Ixion Hudswell Clarke as a birthday present to myself. I won't have much else to spend my money on in 2 weeks time. MSC 78 was almost identical to the Ixion RTR model and ended its days based at Partington in the late 50s and early 60s.

[Mol_PMB]

16 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

I now know I can post more Trafford Park shots if anybody wants them.
Take one Hattons CPC Barclay and my photo.
What's missing is the plastic bucket of sand just in front of the smokebox.

 

The teddy bear is missing too! That appears in several other photos of the CPC Barclay, not always in the same place on the loco.

[Mol_PMB]

11 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

OK, that's me done for a bit.

Very many thanks! More are always welcome - I've already learnt new things from what you hava posted  - for example I'd not seen the Presflos in Trafford Park before.

And I am always looking for more views of the MSC diesels.

[Mol_PMB]

6 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

I'm STILL trying to replicate the weathered finish of the ESSO Sentinel on my Hornby loco.

 

Years and years ago I remember reading an article by someone who had modelled an 08 that spent its life shunting carriages through the wash plant, and had ended up such a faded BR blue it was almost white.

What I can't remember is how they did it, but it worked. There must be a way!

[Sandhole]

Just now, Mol_PMB said:

Years and years ago I remember reading an article by someone who had modelled an 08 that spent its life shunting carriages through the wash plant, and had ended up such a faded BR blue it was almost white.

What I can't remember is how they did it, but it worked. There must be a way!

I will keep on trying.

The Prestflos were from Taylors Asbestos Cement.
4002 is in charge of the evening pickup freight going up to the yard near Old Trafford football ground.
That train later came past my house on the line through Chorlton Hardy.

[Mol_PMB]

A couple of the MSC documents I have acquired recently, which give some interesting detail of how the traffic was operated:

 

[Mol_PMB]

Stills from Richard Greenwood's cine film of the MSC 75th anniversry railtour, showing three BR Creosote tanks at Lancashire Tar Distillers, Cadishead:

I would say the middle one is lettered in white and the other two in yellow (the latter would be correct for an engineers' wagon in black livery).

A pity the numbers aren't legible but I would say they are all the first batch (based on the springs) and I'm pretty sure the first one is allocated to LM region (branded EM).

Another wagon I want to model...

 

A couple of Paul Bartlett's (much better) views of the BR Creosote tanks:

https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brcreosotezrv/e1c3da08

https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brcreosotezrv/ec4ee0dd

 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Mol_PMB
links added

[montyburns56]

1 hour ago, Sandhole said:

 

Thanks for all of the great pictures, but I'm wondering is the one with the Sentinel taken at Stanlow? And do you know where the one with 4002 and the flag man was taken as I don't recognize the location.

[Sandhole]

49 minutes ago, montyburns56 said:

 

Thanks for all of the great pictures, but I'm wondering is the one with the Sentinel taken at Stanlow? And do you know where the one with 4002 and the flag man was taken as I don't recognize the location.

The two Sentinels were in charge of the big evening train. They are pulling the CPC empty hoppers away from the factory.
4002 is crossing Westinghouse Road on the way to the yard near Old Trafford football ground hauling the evening goods train.

[Sandhole]

[Sandhole]

4002 going past us heading upgrade to cross the Bridgewater Canal.
The Sentinels at CPC.
Spot the variants on the hopper wagons. A Hornby and Parkside masterclass.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Sandhole

[Sandhole]

11 minutes ago, Sandhole said:

In 1976, the track down the centre of Westinghouse road had been removed.
However, the pointwork for the triangular junction to gain direct access from the Old Trafford yard was still there. 
You can see it just in front of 4002 as she climbs the gradient.
Trafford Park was a shadow of its former self, but what was still there offered mouthwatering modelling possibilities.
I wish I'd had digital cameras. There were so many shots I wanted to take, but didn't have the money to buy film. I was in my last year at 6th form taking A Levels.
Some of the bonded warehouses were still there with the rail loading docks. 
Alas the shots that got away.
The lad in the white jacket is my dear Friend Mike. Coachbogie on RMWeb.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Sandhole

[Mol_PMB]

This afternoon I am working on track details such as chairs and fishplates. 

My goal is not perfection; these old Marcway copperclad points I’m using are a bit of a compromise anyway. But I do want to get the track looking a bit more uniform and ‘busy’ with detail before I cover it in ballast and weeds. 

Here’s some progress - from right to left we have:

- 3 peco streamline normal chaired sleepers

- 1 de-chaired peco sleeper to accomodate a peco fishplate, and half a permaway chair re-instated

- 2 marcway copperclad sleepers with trimmed halves of permaway chairs

- 3 marcway copperclad sleepers with trimmed halves of permaway slide chairs. 

As I said, far from perfect but much less of a contrast than there was before. Hopefully once it’s all painted, ballasted and covered in weeds the difference won’t be too obvious. 

 

Just for fun, here’s a complete permaway S1 chair perched on a real one:

[montyburns56]

22 hours ago, Sandhole said:

The two Sentinels were in charge of the big evening train. They are pulling the CPC empty hoppers away from the factory.
4002 is crossing Westinghouse Road on the way to the yard near Old Trafford football ground hauling the evening goods train.

 

Oh right, I didn't recognise the CPC site as their neighbours P&G have changed so much over the years.

[Mol_PMB]

I haven't spent as much time as hoped on the train set this weekend, as I have been out chasing ships on the canal a few times.

However, there is still some good progress to report.

 

Firstly I finished adding the cosmetic chairs and fishplates.

Then I found my compressor and airbrush that hadn't been used for nearly a decade. A quick test identified that the safety valve had seized shut, so I resolved that before anything went bang!

After that, it seemed to work OK. I found an old, unused tin of Tamiya red-brown which looked vaguely track-coloured, and sprayed the rails and chairs on the whole layout. As well as getting rid of shiny rail sides, this also did a great job of tying together the different types of track into a more uniform appearance.

 

Next, I did a trial length of ballasting on the test section / headshunt board. My prototype has fairly fine dark-coloured ballast which might be cinders or steelworks slag.

The method I am trying is to use 'Limpopo' black sand; this is a natural product, actually very dark grey/brown with a few speckles of other colours in it. I actually have a large tub of this left over from a fish tank!

I spead this out dry, then misted it with water plus a drop of fairy liquid using the airbrush. Once damp, I applied the old-school dilute PVA, which soaked in nicely without disturbing it too much.

My slight reservation with this is that it might be a bit coarse. On half of the test section I then carefully sprinkled some finer 'cinders' on top., while the sand was still sodden with PVA:

A few hours later, it looks like this:

I'll see what it's like once it's fully set, and decide whether this is good enough for me or whether I need to try a different option.

I've read about packing DAS clay between the sleepers as part of a method to represent a fine cinder surface, but that sounds like hard work and would need painting again afterwards. I might try it out on another section of the trials board.

What I've done doesn't look too bad compared to this; the main thing is that I think I've made the ballast too deep and even:

Another possible variation would be to mix the 'cinders' with some very fine pale sand to give a bit more colour variation.

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

It's not just the track that has made progress; I've also been working on the structures. Not finished yet but they are starting to look the part.

The next stage is to fill the brick mortar courses with something paler to represent mortar. I've read that a slurry of DAS clay works well - any thoughts?

With the second one, I'm modelling it as it is now, rather than 60 years ago. Perhaps not ideal but I do like the very time-worn appearance and I don't have any photos of it 60 years ago anyway!

 

Both need some ironwork and the storm drain some woodwork too. And they also need a dressing of seagulls.

The storm drain is sort of a mixture of the first two pics here; it will have that bright orange dribble rather than the gushing water. The brook culvert is the third pic:

 

 

 

 

[sleepyrider]

The aquarium sand looks a good match for the first photo with the LY Pug, though like you say a thinner layer would be better. 

Looks like a trip boat in the background to that one, which reminds me I went on a school trip along the canal, must have been 1972/73, which I'd completely forgotten about until now!

[Mol_PMB]

10 hours ago, sleepyrider said:

The aquarium sand looks a good match for the first photo with the LY Pug, though like you say a thinner layer would be better. 

Looks like a trip boat in the background to that one, which reminds me I went on a school trip along the canal, must have been 1972/73, which I'd completely forgotten about until now!

I don't suppose you had a camera with you? I went on the boat trip a few years ago but there must have been a lot more to see back in the early 70s!

[Mol_PMB]

Some more progress today, just a little on the structures, but I've finished the proper wiring up of the track and tested it with the 08, which is a big step forward and means I can start ballasting on the main board.

 

In the mean time I have tried some more ballasting options on the trials/headshunt board.

The main problem with yesterday's effort was that the ballast was too deep, so I tried another section with minimum depth. I used a base of Limpopo sand with a sprinkle of much finer pale sand over parts of it to give some more contrast.

This hasn't worked well, the ballast is too thin and the plastic strips under the rails are still visible. Also the paler sand was over-done.

 

Next effort was with an intermediate amount of ballast, trying to give a good thickness under the rails but exposed sleeper ends and thinner in the middle of the four-foot too. On the track itself I used a very light touch with the pale sand, but I tried a mixed cinder path alongside as well. This is looking better. I was using up old odds and ends of track on this section and one sleeper had a massive hole in it, so I've planted my first weed to cover it up! It doesn't matter, this isn't part of the scenic layout but I wanted to see how it looked.

Then I had a few inches left in the middle of the headshunt to fill. I did another dose of the previous option for half of it, to see if I could get a repeatable appearance.

And then I thought I would try a brand-new ballasted section with fresh grey ballast and shoulders, just as a contrast (there is a reason for practicing this, but you'll have to wait and see). That made a right mess because for some reason it was more prone to blow away when misted with water from the airbrush. Never mind, the whole point of this board is to try things out. I'll be interested to see how it looks in the morning, and how well it has all stuck.

Overall, I think the option at the right-hand end (ignoring the spilt pale gery ballast) is quite satisfactory for my needs, so that's what I will try and reproduce on the main layout board. There will be a few more weeds on the main line, and lots more weeds on the sidings

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin Johnson]

I think the ballasting side of modelling is trial and error, some people hate it and others like it.

Me personally I like ballasting as it's nice to add the different weathering powders and washes.

You're ballast is looking great.

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks! About half the surface area of the layout is track, so getting the ballast right is important to me. In the sidings it will be partly concealed by weeds, but the main line will be very visible.

I expect there will be some washes or sprays with the airbrush to change the tone in some areas, and certainly there will be variation in ballast depth in places.

 

The location I'm actually modelling is this one, but I don't have any colour pictures so I'm relying on photos from a couple of miles either side of here. The ballast is still mostly dark here, though there are some paler patches in the foreground and the pile of rubble may suggest some moderately recent track maintenance. Also this is a winter shot so the weeds are less prominent, but I expect in summer and in colour it would look a bit more like Cadishead, perhaps not quite so overgrown.