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Stone Lane (Halt & Sidings)


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After finishing Oakford Lane  earlier in 2020 and doing a few dioramas, I felt the desire to build a fully functional micro layout again.

 

I live in the north west of england bordering on north wales, the fact our local railway is called the Borderlands Lane says it all as it passes through 3 counties and 2 countries.
After some research I discovered the stone sidings at penmaenmawr, with lots of sectorisation photos and stock in use.
I decided to build a layout based around a stone quarry set of sidings, but to add a little bit of interest I wanted to also include a station of some sort, most likely a halt.


I again opted to use the Scale Model Scenery baseboards as I had for Oakford Lane, but this time adding their new middle board to increase the length up to 4ft.
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I wanted through running rather than a dead end, so I needed fiddle yards on either end. I at first tried to use the SMS photo plank boards but could not get them to level out correctly, so I decided to build my own again.
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The fiddle yards on either end match the width of the layout and are 2ft in length, long enough to hold a 2 car DMU or a loco and a couple of wagons.

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I worked out that using a pair of short points I could give myself enough space in the front siding to hold 3 Seacow or Turbot wagons.

I wanted to keep the setting firmly on the welsh side of the border, with that in mind I opted for a signal box which originated on the cambrian railway, which has not been moved to Llangollen.
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The signal box kit is one by Intentio and is a superb laser cut model.

 

As seen on Oakford Lane I painted the backscene just blue for a sky, I did a diorama where I used a photo backscene, this time round I wanted a dark brooding sky, so I opted to paint it myself using a roll of wallpaper and multitudes of grey and similar colours from tester pots.
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I also opted to have a very large cliff face instead of buildings, and would eventually build my own tunnel and a road bridge at each end to be the scenic break to the fiddle yards.
 

Using a knife and plenty of time, I carved the insulation foam down to form rocks, then painted with greys and yellows to bring it to the tones of the local granite of the area I am modelling.
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The bridge is made from wills kits, varigirder, and stone sheets, the tunnel is actually O gauge plasticard on a mountboard former.

 

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Before I got into ballasting I decided to add some details I had never done before, cosmetic point control, for this I went for a Clamp Lock motors, they were in use in this area of wales at the time I am modelling, so I found someone who does 3D printed versions, got myself some and away I went. I also removed the spring and housing for said spring from the point itself, the actual point motors I am using on this layout are MTB MP1 motors, they are similar to tortoise or cobalt so work best with springs removed from the points.

 

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Using some DCC Concepts illuminated buffer stops once the ballasting had been undertaken was a sure thing, they really look the part.
 

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I had problems with the ballast I had used initially, the colour was wrong and also it turned out the glue I had used did not permeate properly so it wasn't even fixed down all that well.

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A nice long shot down from the signal box towards the tunnel.

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Some scenics have gone on near the buffer stops.

 

I wanted to dabble in some signalling, so I use a lone Ekon colour light ground position signal.

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A trio of Hornby Sealions sit in the less used rear siding of Stone Lane.
 

 

Now onto the biggest thing for this layout, that possibly took the longest to make.
THE HALT PLATFORM

Where I live during the 90s our platform was made from wooden timbers on an open frame, it is still open frame to this day but now concrete.

I felt this was something not often modelled so I made my mission to build the platform 2 cars long so it can hold a 158 without it overhanging.
Using more scale model scenery laser cut parts I built the deck from their platform pieces, which were formed onto a base made from 2.5mm balsa strips.
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On the final photo you can see my self indulgent splurge, the pair of hunslett and barclay class 20 weedkiller locos, I managed to find the whole train actually in one go.

 

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Finally the halt platform name, also the layout name Stone Lane, also as it is in Wales I produced the welsh name too, using Scalescenes downloadable sheets with station names, as the era I model is sectorisation and this was served by the regional railways sector I have used that type of board.

I am sorry it has been about 6 months of updates in one post but I hope you like it.
I will bring you some more soon.

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1 hour ago, Wrenn said:

I do like your theme to you layout build. Really nice modelling especially the signal box and rock faces.

Thank you. 

The rock face was done in a similar style to Chris nevards idea, I just painted it with more washes than drybush. 

 

The signal box is superb, favourite part of the layout if I'm honest, Phillip at Intentio is excellent 

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6 hours ago, Andrew D said:

Excellent stuff! I particularly like the platform - thanks for explaining. I might just copy that ;)  Any more pics when you have time would be most appreciated, cheers. 

The platform is finished, I've been waiting for a good day to photograph it all in its shabby glory. 

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2 hours ago, Gordon A said:

No trap point(s) for the sidings?

I did want one, but I had to make the decision between the sidings being long enough for 3 seacow/turbot or fitting a trap point in, in the end I felt the extra wagon was a better option, little bit of modellers lisence on that I'm afraid. 

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Stone Lane is now effectively complete.
I will not be putting anymore time into this layout, as a new project has come up and I want to focus on that for the long term.

Here is the completed platform.
After putting it all together I weathered it using MIG black enamel wash, this stuff stinks to high heaven, but boy is it effective, so much so I had to tone it down in places using enamel thinners.
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I have put a slight bit of wear and tear on the most used end of the platform, using a drybrush method with buff paint on, this gives the impression of people walking over the timber more often


I have used more of the 2.5mm balsa strips cut down for the chainlink fence uprights, the chainlink itself is leftovers from another SMS kit so I just used that, this is why as modellers we never throw anything away haha.

Just using white acrylic from Valejo I painted on the edging to the platform, it isnt perfectly straight, which was always the intention, this halt got very little love, hence why it doesn't even have a shelter, not worth it to the network.


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Using different lengths and shades of static grass I have built up the disused nature of some areas of the layout, particularly the rear siding. To blend it all together I put a mix of different woodland scenics fine turfs together and gently teesed them to the bottom of the static grass I have applied, this is all held in place using a 50/50 mix of white glue (matt mod podge) and water, this holds all those little bits in place, plus makes the static grass go nowhere haha.

 

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I have really enjoyed building this, and I cannot wait to get cracking on my new project in the future.

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