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Leeds Weeklyn Hil


Ed-farms

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After going to countless shows I finally decided to have a go at doing my own layout and with the arrival of a Bachmann Engine shed and Coaling Tower the opportunity proved to good to miss to do a shed.

 

The layout is set in the 1950's and 60's to use the high number of DCC sound diesel and steam locos me and my dad own and Leeds because the majority of the locos are Midland and Eastern origin. But there will be visitors of Southern and Western origin on Railtours (thanks SLS).

 

Apologies for the poor quality but here is a quick track plan (not to scale), I will try and put some photos up later tonight.

 

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The layout will make its debut at the model show in Bishop Auckland in January (not yet advertised - hurru up Black Hat) and will then be available to attend other shows.

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Finally time for the layout to break cover!

 

Looking from the front left to back right of the layout featuring the coaling tower, diesel fuel road and shed. The spacedirectly in front of the camera will be where the shed offices, bike hut, MICclassroometc will be placed.

 

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Close up of D9017and 45377 on shed. I have just noticedthe shed is not lined up with the tracks right but it will be when it matters.

 

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60001 getting coaled up whilst 45593 receives a clean out, hopefully a Bachmann ash plant will fit over this line when it is released.

 

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A view from the other side of the layout whereit will be operated from.

 

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This is thecontrol area, the small lentgh of track in front of ECoS is the programming track to allow any (new) locos to be tested before entering service, whilst the empty spacenext to that is to be a road over the railway to act a scenic break.

 

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Finally a shot of the town area, as a tribute to Darlington Railway Modelling 1 of the shops is theres (spot of free advertising) whilst the others are a reminder ofmy comedy upbringing including Martins Bank (manager G.Mainwaring) Alexander Yalt'sbookshop (Monty Python dirty hungarian phrasebook sketch) Ned Seagoon Piano Movers (Goon Show), Mr Pralines Pet Shop (Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch), Albert Arkwright's and Graftons pub (homeof the first Goon Show performances).The open areain the centre of thesquare will feature a small park possibly with a band stand with my fiancee's brass band inresidence.

 

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Hopefully this weekend will see the wall for the road finished and maybe even the roadstarted.

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Well another weekend and some more progress. The retaining walls are starting to take shape, using wills kits brushed with grey paint and then wiped to give the mortar effect which makesthem loads betterin my oinion.

 

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The removal of the few buildings for work on the walls and road (and lifting of the line off the dining table) allowed these birds eye view shots to be taken of the layout, complete with site foreman (the dog) in the first shot.

 

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Looks great B) ,with the new ready made resin buildings available from Bachmann and Hornby creating a large MPD like your layout is much more easy. Gone are the days of scratch building sheds and coaling towers! :lol: :D

 

Regards

Lewis

 

Thanks Lewis, I certainly don't think I would even have started this were it not for the Bachmann engine shed and coaling tower. These ready made buildings are a big help but not as satisfying as building your own.

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Well it has been a while since any updates were posted but there has been some work going on. The track planhas changed to improve operations. Road 4 in the shednow connects direct to the main running line. This may make it shorter but not by much (it was too short to store 2 big pacifics anyway) but road 3 has now gained more spac, sadly for the unlucky crew it will be out in the open.

 

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The track has not been wired up yet but that is due to happen any time soon. The 3 way point has been replaced due to damage, however this is now electrofrog so needs accesory switches adding to the motor tops before a full test sessioncantake place.

 

Hopefully the ash scattering will take place sooner rather than later (but that dependson SWMBO and her work shifts)

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Certainly looks like a good start.

 

Looking at the plan, I wonder whether your fuel point is perhaps a little small, even for the late 50's/ early 60's. For the size of the shed, I would think that two roads would be more suitable. Of course, you may well only have space for a single road. This appears to be the case

 

May I suggest that you lengthen the fuel road? It looks a little short, and clearances might be a little tight. The method I use is to find the longest locomotive that will use a particular spur, and then lengthen it by at least half again, just to make sure. This is still far to short for the prototype, but a good compromise none the less. Don't forget to allow a little extra length for a buffer stop at the end of the spur. smile.gif

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Thanks Si.

 

Sadly there is only room for the one road in its current position but the number of diesels in attendance be low so there will never be a high demand for the line at any one time (and if there is it will get fun! ;)).

 

The line has been checked for clearences at the end with both a peak and deltic and no problems were encountered there, the only problem area was road 4 when the wrong 2 engines were parked there hence the alteration of the track plan. The space behind the fuel road is earmarked for staff buildings and other cameo's such as school boys on a shed bunk to make it more than just track. There are plans maybe one day to make a new longer extension board to improveoperations which would include a turntable and perhaps a seperate diesel shed so maybe a 2 road longer fuel road will be included.

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It does seem like a while since an update but work has been progressing. The new trackwork has been wired up and tested,however problems with the 3-way point has resulted in one of the motors moving on top of the board (hidden under the building in the shot below).

 

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With the track all working and no problems to solve the task now turns to ballasting. As the diesel fuel road is supposed to be a new addition to the shed this has ballast where as the rest of the shed will be covered in ash made from a mix of jarvis coal,fine and medium cinders and Hornby grey scatter which seems to give a good impression of a shed floor.

 

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The gaps between the sleepers was filled with resin which then had the ash scatter poured over, once this had dried overnight the leftovers will be scooped up for re-use elsewhere on the line. It is a slow job taking 2 or 3 sessions to do the whole l ine but will hopefully makeit worthwhile.

 

Comments welcome

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I really need to keep on top of this thread, work progresses faster than I can update.

 

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The shed concrete floor has been made out of balsa wood and wood filler, it just needs painting to look more like concrete but the basic effect so far is convincing.

 

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A better view of the concrete floor, the black spot in the middle of one of the lines is the trial ash scatter spot. This will be hidden by the shed.

 

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A close up of the joint between the concrete shed floor and ash filled track.

 

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The view from above the operating zone showing progress over most of the main board.

 

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A view from the opposite corner shows the home made mod-roc (plaster of paris with car non-stick mat folded in) which has been painted black. This will be covered in more ash later to blend in better.

 

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A closer view of the coal tower area. The flat looking areas are for the coaling tower to sit in, this may have ash placed in to help match the rest of the board.

 

As always comments welcome.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well here we are, over a week later and more progress to be seen, this time mainly on the smaller detail parts that will hopefulyy bring the shed to life. 2 months till it makes its show debutso these things need to keep progressing.

 

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Most of the workat the shed end has involved painting ofconcrete and mod-roc to make it look more realistic.

 

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Whilst the other end has also seen mod-roc painted andthe replacement ofkits from the main railway with newer models which will be made to suit the era more.

 

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The deisel fuel point and fuel tanks are newkits one from knightwing and one from Ratio,both still need work to finish them off such as painting.

 

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This gives a better view of the shed with its concreted floor,blasa woodpainted with Humbrol satin 166, altough a little bright it does the job. On shed is 50037 giving a glimpse of the possibility of the line sometimes appearing in 1980's open day mode.

 

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A wills bike hut with amodel scene figure taken from the PWgang pack meant to represent a memberof staff either arriving for duty or about to go home, judging by the cleaness ofhis overalls he must be about to start a shift! In the background is a ratio grounded coach body which is yet to receive weathering.

 

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Finally the one kit-bashed item on the line, a Dapol water tank top sat of a superquick base.The tank needs final painting and the base needs 2 clocks adding (as per a photo of a Leeds shed which showed two clocks both with a different time.)

 

As always comments appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

More progress to show off. We now have backscenes and a town centre.

 

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The town centre was originally going to be a park with a bandstand however it was felt the space available would look to cramped so the idea was dropped in favour of a town square with market place surrounding a war memorial (both items need to be bought). The backscenes are peco industrial town cust from the skuandglued on top of gaugemaster sky paper. I know a few people do not rate the peco backscenes but they are the only one's which are closeup to thescene, plus I think this way of fitting them is a big (if time consuming) improvment.

 

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The water tower is now fixed to a base which is getting built intothescatter mix to bed it in to stop all buildings looking like they are simply placed on the board.

 

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The road is been changed to Gaugemaster ashphalt road roll.Theonly drawback to it is they only do straight sections, no junctions or curves.The lines first local van is seen "Brown Muffs of Bradford.

 

Finally a shot of the planned cameo point in front of the shed.

 

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This is the hole in the fence where the locals gain illegal access to see the freguent visitors from Top Shed, Kingsmoor, Glasgow and Newcastle as well (thanks to railtours) Old Oak, Swindon and Nine Elms.

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Thanks Class 66, sadly plans for work this weekend have had to be put on hold due to the offer of some work (which will actually pay for a new loco for the line so not all bad)and next weekend I have to do stock check at my main job but hopefully mid-week will give some time for tasks to be done. Watch out for the cat next time :).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good news I do not have to work today and a few hours here and there this week have allowed some small jobs to be done,mainly ash scattering so full opportunity was just taken to get a load of shots of the line with locos in place. It must be a summer Saturday as all the big engines are out.

 

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A Sulzer Type 2 is refulled whilst a Jubilee is serviced having worked over from Carlisle.

 

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A view of the shed shows some of the locos awaiting their next duties. The Std 5 is due tobe renumbered as 73171 (a Leeds Engine for several years)

 

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Thanks to a local tall building and a zoom lens we can see what is around the coaling tower.A Black 5,Jubilee and Std 4 tankare all there but wait,what is that green engine top right? We need to go get a closer look.

 

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The next building along allows us to see that it is preserved J52 1250, local enthusiats say sheis laying over before heading off to the new Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

 

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Whilst there I took this shot a bit lower down, looks like the pub is getting some fresh beer in - all this work is making me thirsty so I may go and sample some later on.

 

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On the way out I met another enthusiat who ask what was on shed, so I told him 1250 was there and he chose to take his shot from the road bridge, and this is the shot he took.

 

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By the time I got in a better position for a head on shot she had moved to the shed, however local Std 4 80120 was now taking water so I snapped her instead.

 

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On my way back to the car I asked if I could come in and take a photo of 1250,theguy on duty said"5mins in and out and I will turn a blind eye - just wachyour step!" so I did as he said and managed to get this shot,job done.

 

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As I still had a few mins before I would be escorted off site I decided to take a couple of shots of the locos sat in the shed.

 

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All the time I was there this cat (I think he is the shed cat) just stared at these diesels.He is either a fan of them or he cannot believe what these things are doing on his turf.

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  • 1 month later...

I found this thread again! The line has had a few little jobs done on it ready for its debut this weekend at Bishop Show (only booking so far, anone want to book us for a show?). 2 dozen Langley kits figures have been painted ready to appear on the line in suitable cameo's, water towers are ready to be planted into the board, locos are sound chipped and headboards for appropriate trains sourced.

 

I will post some photos tonight of the line in situ without locos after reassembly tonight at the Scouts hall, with possible shots of the weekend operation to follow.

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Well 24 hours later than planned (forgot the camera last night), here are some pics of the line without locos

 

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A general view of the town scene, in the future there will be market stalls here to addto the scene.

 

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Coaling tower complete with TARDIS, in the foreground is a photographer taking shots of locos on shed with a few other figures going about there daily duties.

 

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Our second enthusiast (a sound recoder-perhaps it is Peter Handford) seems to have the attention of the shed cat.

 

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The road over bridge with a few of our wide selectionof vehicles, during shows we will change these round to keep things a bit fresh.

 

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A close up of the corner of the market, featuring a newspaper vendor and street cart trader. Both figures from the langley kits range.

 

Leeds Weeklyn Hill is now officially available for shows, our second booking for the Shildon MRC open day at Locomotion was offered and accepted today. Please PMif you you run a show and would like to book the line to attend.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well it has takenmea rather long time but here issomeshots of the line during its first show in operation and then at homeafter re-assembly.

 

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4098 Kidwelly Castle moveson shed having worked a railtour from Swindon,whilst Deltic refuels having worked the White Rose from London

 

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After bringing the 8am Glasgow - Leeds in Blue Peter takes a well earned rest on shed.

 

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All go now, Deltic still on the fuel line, D55 heading off to work the Waverley,45593 Kolhapur has her smokebox cleaned out, 80120 is coaled whilst 45337 is watered.

 

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On shed we find City of Truro which came in on another railtour, flanked by 70044 Earl Haig who is about to work the Thames Clyde Express whilst 60157 Great Eastern which arrived from London on an early morning express

 

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Truro and Kolhapur head to head, The cleaner is taking a break from the mammoth task of shovelling all the ash out of the Jub's smokebox, must have been worked hard on the Bristolian.

 

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Finally having backed on shed our cameraman ventured further in to catch 4 locos in the fading light filtering through the roof.

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  • 1 month later...

Now for something different, here is a short video of the line with a few random movements taking place.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1sXsgRjDm4

 

This weekend is due to see the start of construction to a new operating board which will ease operations by laying 10 lentghs of track each taking 2 locos to be moved by Peco loco cradle to the main running line, this improvement will also allow the ambition I had since day one of this line to run a coal train in once a day - all I need now is the new Fowler 4F from Hornby to provide the loco.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The new operational board is ready, here is the old one as a reminder.

 

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This board was not totally ideal, the programming track was awkward to reach when the road bridge is in place, the main track was too short so Peco loco cradles needed a barrier to stop speeding locos falling to their doom and all locos needed handling in and out of boxes when they were out on trains as it were. So thanks to the good idea of Mike at Darlington Railway Modelling for a traverser we have adapted the idea to come up with this.

 

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The board now has 12 stoare lines, each capable of taking 2 locos with a seperate running line in place (the line in the grey strip) this allows 23 locos and a 2 portion coal train to be stored for use thus reducing handling/damage of the locos.

 

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Operationally the controller has now moved to the back of the new 38" x 36" board. the 2 wells are sepaerated into one for ECoS and the other for the router for Touch cab operation, the programming track and any maitenance work to occur.

 

To operate all locos will be moved in the following way.

 

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1. Loco is identified by movement sequence and driven from it storage siding to the loco cradle situated in the middle of the line it is on.

 

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2. When the loco is in the cradle it is lifted onto the running line ready to enter the shed.

 

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3. The loco is then driven off into the shed ready to be serviced and put on shed.

 

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For outbound locos this sequence is reversed. This idea works better for us as we had the 2 cradles ready and it allows turning of the locos without handling them.

 

The old road bridge is now getting replaced by a street scene with terraced houses and a back lane to add to the cameo's available scenically. But the tracks will still be open to view to aid operations and allow the public to see the workings (something I often like to see on lines is the hidden sidings area)

 

 

The result of this board are that the line now measures 8' x 3' but will still fit in an ordinary car.

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An evening with the missus at work has given me time to have a little play with the line and my camera. No DCC set up for these as some of the locos on shed are not chipped yet, so all shots were arranged by hand.

 

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The 3 new home boys on shed together, 45659 Drake, Std5 73171 and 24 D5100 all take a rest between turns.

 

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45659 Drake backs down to head off to work her next train. As she stops we catch a climpse of the shed stores complete with all the express headboards on the side ready for thei next duty. Will Drake be getting one now I wonder?

 

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Stourtons Ivatt 4MT 43038 takes coal before heading off out again whilst a J94 shunts the coal wagons to fill up the tower again, looks like a few empties so there may be a delivery needed soon.

 

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With the J94 now on shed alongside the Std5 we see A3 60077 White Knight taking on sand ready to work a southbound express.

 

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Wakefield crab 42789 has just had her smokebox emptied and will soon be heading off on a stopper back home.

 

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If only this was real. Kestrel, Falcon, Deltic and Lion all share a moment on shed.

 

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Help me fill this gap! Hopefully by this time next year DP2 will be in the line up as well. If you could get these 5 together now all running you could make a fortune.

 

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A view of the new part of the town above the storage area. The buildings are on loan from the main railway in the house to test the space needed before we assemble the Metcallfe kits - corner shops and terraced houses for the street with the space at the back to be taken up by the new Factory gateway.

 

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Finally a copy of an old photo from a book I found. In 1967 Leeds Holbecks Jubilee's were on their Last Rights working trains over Settle Carlisle and the 3 (45697 Achillies, 45593 Kolhapur and 45562 Alberta) were lined up outside Holbeck shed. However not many people know that the line up was done a few months before but with 45659 Drake taking Achillies place. The orignal photo is from Robert Anderson & Peter Rose Railway Memories No;22 Return to Leeds.

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  • 1 month later...

It seems too long since I updated this, we have finally got the extra town scene just about finished and here it is.

 

This is the view down "Brewery Lane" 2 more shops, a few houses and a brewery. It seems quiet as everyone is in the Frying Scotsman getting fish n chips (some people can just be seen inside)

 

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A birds eye view of the scene giving a better idea of the appearance, the lines underneath is the new storage area seen in the last shots.

 

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A close up of the brewery enterance, this is the new Metcalfe factory gate kit, this is a great kit and really looks the part.

 

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The half relief houses mark the end of the world (at least as far as the layout is concerned) just visible at the end of the houses is the home made back scene made utilising the houses and factory seen here to extend the street beyond the houses.

 

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The main houses showing some of the back yards, one of which has washing out. Thanks to Langley kits there will be at least 2 women hanging this washing.

 

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Although it shows no work I could not resist this shot, whilst taking pic's for the line's website I was laying down on the floor and noticed the dog standing over the line almost giving it his seal of approval.

 

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Just to show it is not all hard work, we had the line on the floor to test it works without the need to assemble the supports and decided it was a good time to test the new 9F. During testing my dog decided he wanted to have a closer look and this is him watching the 9F move around. Shortly after the video stopped he decided the 9F would look better on its side, that or he wanted to see one of his favourite Stanier 8F's instead and he knocked the loco off the track with his paw. Thankfully no damage was suffered to either loco or dog.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWOhEQCjfL0[/media]

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  • 4 months later...

Well I suppose 4 months after I last typed in this thread it is time for an update...

 

Leeds Weeklyn Hill has recently completed its 3rd (and at present final) show of the calendar year without any major disasters. However with 4 months till our next show (Bishop Auckland Scouts Group 2nd show) work is underway on a new extension that will improve both the operations and town scene.

 

A new 4’ x 2’ board is being prepared which will bolt onto the end of the existing line to provide a purpose built diesel depot. This will comprise the Bachmann 2 road servicing depot, new fuel tanks and relocating the existing fuelling station as well as making it 2 roads to improve the loco flow. Whilst the track plan for this has not being finalised yet it will be once we have all the required buildings so we can play around with the space we have.

 

Turning to the town scene the plan is to make it more of a rectangle than it is at present running behind the diesel shed, the shops will all be on the back wall and better use will be made of the space in front. Plans for the space are not finalised but options under consideration include a school or park to add a new dimension to the layout.

 

Although naturally this extension will increase the size for exhibitions hopefully it will not take up much more room in the car as the 4’ x 2’ boards will form a box for transportation to protect them in transit.

Further plans for the future include:-

  • Obtaining more 1960’s era locos suitable to Leeds to provide a large enough fleet to run a reasonable representation of a sheds 24 hour period.
  • Purchase of locos, road vehicles and other items to enable the layout to sometimes operate in the 1980’s era.

 

Stick around folks this thread might be getting interesting.

 

 

Footnote – if any exhibition managers are reading and want to book us for shows this year or next please do get in touch, we would be most grateful to get any invites.

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Approx 1 week after announcing the planned extension the track plan has been planned.

 

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The headshunt where trains reversed into the shed has gone, in its place is another 3 way point sending engines into either one of the 2 roads in the diesel shed or down into the fuelling area. In the fuelling area is a double slip to allow access to either of the 2 fuel lines or reversal into the heashunt for deliveries of diesel to the silos.

 

This extension will allow the diesels to move out of the other shed and away from all the soot, dirt and grime of the steam engines as well hopefully making it more interesting at shows.

 

Comments welcome.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well I have finally found my camera lead so I can show off the photos of progress so far. Once again the work on track laying took one week on the extension board so all track and electronics for points is complete - we will be attempting to fit working lights in due course.

 

This first shot shows the overall view of the new diesel shed.

 

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Below we can see a closer view of the right hand end of this board, the track closest to the front is an extension of the old diesel fuel line which will now be used to store a loco undergoing cleaning on (one of our old non working locos will be weathered for this job). The track in the background is for the diesel fuel deliveries, plans are to use a fleet of Bachmann 14T for this role.

 

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now we move to the left hand side of the board, the two front tracks will be where the shed goes with the diesel fuelling facility between the two tracks at the back. The space behind this is reserved for the original shops and a new school to be built.

 

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Here we can see the new 2 road shed building test fitted into place, this is the Bachmann modern servicing depot.

 

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Now the shed has 2 locos in, one is our standard test loco 24035 and the 40 was used to check the curves were suitable for the larger wheel based loco's that will be used.

 

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Here we can see the diesel fuel tanks in place with 2 wagons testing the length of track out for maximum length. The original plan was to use 45T TTA wagons but it was felt these were too modern so the 14T versions will be used instead.

 

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Back to the fuelling point with the 24 receiving a top up, hopefully having the space to fuel 2 diesels at once will make movement sequences easier to plan and more interesting to watch.

 

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All the work completed to date on the new board made use feel that the original work on the main board was inadequate now. Those who have seen this at shows will know that we often suffered locos derailing on our ash ballast or stalling on random points, so we have decided that in addition to building an extension the original board is also getting redone from scratch and here is version 2. We aim to learn from mistakes made with the original board to make this new one better.

 

The first improvement is solely in the track design, although it follows the same design as before we have used Peco streamline points instead of settrack which reduces the radius of the curves thus allowing a smooth flow over them. We have also made the track between the 3 way point at the left hand end of this board and the left hand point at the right hand side straight with all siding taking the curved arc of the points as opposed to the wavy plan of before.

 

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The straightness of the new track can be seen to better effect here. We have gained a small length on the furthest back track in the shed but it has come at a cost of loss of length on those tracks on the other side...

 

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Which are seen here, the only real problem area is the disposal road can now only take one loco as opposed to 2 on the previous layout, but we do feel that the improved operations will make up for this matter.

 

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Our final shot (although this shot was taken earlier in the work as can be seen by the addition of track in other shots not in this one) shows a close up of the 3 way point and disposal road. The hole in front of the pit is for the Ash Plant hopper to descend into (although it will not actually move on our model) this hole will be painted black once scenic work commences.

 

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Although this work has also taken one week to achieve we are at present left with a non operational board as the track is all wired up and working but the points are not motorised yet, that is this weeks job. As we had to take the motors off the original board to fit to this one we are at present unable to take bookings for the next few weeks until we are happy with the workings of the new board. However we do hope to be back and up and running in time for Bishop Auckland Scouts Show last weekend in January - if not sooner.

 

The holes that can be seen in the backscene are for the fitting of bolts which will allow the 2 boards seen here to be joined into a box structure for transportation thus allowing the layout to take up less space in the car (if loaded correctly with other stuff on top) than before.

 

Please do keep watching for further updates and leave comments which are always welcome - good or bad.

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