SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[Gwiwer]

Good work Jeff.

 

I too make extensive use of Vollmer cards and have queried the scaling of their brick and stone.  Despite that they are very good quality.

 

Grab supplies of Vollmer card while you can - they ceased production last month and there's no more coming. 

[SRman]

Yes, I just received a heap of it from an eBay store the other day - that's what I was waiting for to continue with this work! A pity they have stopped producing.

The plastic arched viaduct sections are also Vollmer kits which i stocked up on a while ago.

[Gwiwer]

I'm waiting on my final delivery from Euro Rail Hobbies in Canada which has been my usual source since I abandoned Hearns as too expensive.  Funny that a product made in Germany is cheaper to import from Canada than from a local shop in Australia.  

 

That will leave me with good stock to maintain Penhayle Bay for several more years as most of the major areas of Vollmer have been renewed already in the past 2 years.

[Neil_S_Wood]

Looking good Jeff.  Nice work there.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[DougN]

This is exactly what you nd I have been discussing on and off for a couple of years. The sub terrainian view of the under ground is so typical of london. Glimpses of interesting views which always leave the viewer wanting more. No doubt once is is done you may start more on the upper level for the surface trains.

[SRman]

And a couple more photos of the same thing, without the distracting Blu-Tack blobs!

Edited July 26, 2014 by SRman

[Neil_S_Wood]

I like that last shot Jeff. It's a nice perspective.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[SRman]

It's not a view I normally get! I had to suspend the phone camera over the tracks and try to see what i was actually getting while still holding it steady.

If you compare this shot with the nearly similar one taken earlier, you can see that the earlier shot served another purpose, in showing me what I couldn't see directly, that a little bit of the brick sheet wasn't stuck down properly under the bridge.

[Neil_S_Wood]

It's not a view I normally get! I had to suspend the phone camera over the tracks and try to see what i was actually getting while still holding it steady.

 

If you compare this shot with the nearly similar one taken earlier, you can see that the earlier shot served another purpose, in showing me what I couldn't see directly, that a little bit of the brick sheet wasn't stuck down properly under the bridge.

That's a bit of a shame as it's a good view.  Kind of reminds me of coming into some of the London stations.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[Jaz]

I am a complete fan of resin.... I bought 2 of the Shrublands and was disappointed by the size, really felt they should be larger. You have cleverly kept them away from other items. Theres a lot of interest here.

[SRman]

Yes, I know what you mean about relative sizes; some of the items are on the small side. I do experiment quite a bit with positioning before I am happy with the overall effect. The large card Tudor hotel in the middle would have dwarfed everything if not for the general slope I have introduced, so it sits at the lowest point and everything else was positioned, to what I hope is best effect, around it.

In days long gone, when most of the available road vehicles were from Matchbox (Lesney), I used to grade them according to scale and put larger (1:71 and 1:72) vehicles to the front and smaller ones (1:77 and 1:78) to the back, with the near correct ones in the middle ground. To some degree, we can do this with buildings and other scenic items too.

Those Bachmann and Hornby detached and semi-detached houses were just the sort of style I had in mind, bringing back memories of the general style of those I saw from buses in the Bromley and Petts Wood area as a child in the 1960s.

[SRman]

Does anyone remember the 1970s when the "in" colour to slap onto everything that didn't move was Mission Brown (at least, here in Australia)? Well, I have just had flashbacks while slapping some Mission Brown paint onto Church Hill to tone down the stark whiteness in preparation for the BRMA meeting in less than two weeks from now. This is a stop-gap measure as the hill still needs some extra layers and shaping. The paint is an acrylic 'low sheen' finish but in the photos it is still quite wet.





As with the rest of the layout, there is still much to do before this area is really what I could call complete.

[Neil_S_Wood]

I don't remember mission brown being that popular in Scotland in the 70's but I'm glad I wasn't over here then if it was popular over here.  Not a colour you see much of these days.

 All coming along nicely Jeff.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[DougN]

I still think my hurricane grey is a nicer colour.... It is an interesting fact that I use the technique that if you can see any of the base colour you haven't finished putting all the scenics on yet... So I guess it really doesn't matter what colour you put on first!.... Having seen enough things in mission brown I find it one, if not the most horrible colour!..., ahhhh now I understand your motives to cover it up!

[SRman]

Doug, I needed something that was still dark and relatively neutral but slightly warmer because of large, bare areas of the hurricane grey making the layout look a little cold and lifeless. Don't get me wrong, the hurricane grey works well, but I felt there is just a little too much of it at the moment. Once I can get the scenics on, that will all change anyway.

Your layout is somewhat more advanced than mine and what little of the grey still shows blends nicely into the background.

[gazmanjack]

G'day Jeff,

 

The church looks good up on the hill.   No more burying people on the LT lines now !

 

As for the mission brown...., I remember it clearly and it looked good with biege !

 

Cheers, Gary.

[SRman]

Thanks Gary. I do actually have a number of gravestones to install in the church grounds, eventually. Some will be on the side of the hill, which means a bit of landscaping for paths and stairs for the visitors (the incumbents won't really care if the hillside is too steep for walking!).

[Gwiwer]

If you scraped the additions off my layout you would find precisely no Mission Brown.  You would find a few small areas of Institute Green but mostly the ground work has underlying shades of either Brunswick Green or Raw Sienna depending on whether green or brown based scenery was to be applied.  

 

I do look forward to catching up with Newton Broadway at some time Jeff and enjoying the views.  In the meantime I have to go to the shops.  In Camborne

[SRman]

I set to work during school holidays to improve the roads in the village area. While there are a few lumps and bumps, edges to reinforce, and a rather sharp dip to sort out, plus improving a couple of the corners, I am rather pleased with the effect so far. So bear in mind there is still a bit more work to do (how many times have I used that line in this thread, now??) but it is still measurable progress too.

[aussiebrfan]

Looking good Jeff.

Buildings are really working well together.

Regards Glenn

[SRman]

A lighter moment at Newton Broadway: for a bit of fun, I posed a preservation running day. Here we have the Hornby rebuilt Merchant Navy 35005, Canadian Pacific, in BR blue (a livery that suits it well even though it only ever wore it in preservation, at least in its rebuilt form) passing Hornby P2 2001, Cock o' the North in LNER green. 

[Gwiwer]

It's good to step outside our normal "boxes" sometimes Jeff and show or run something a bit different.

 

Happy New Year to you both.

[SRman]

Feeling pleased with myself, having finally converted a Bachmann Lord Nelson to DCC. 30861, Lord Anson, now sports a TCS M4 decoder, mounted just in front of the chassis block. I was able to use the solder pads on the front to connect the red and black wires, as this one is an early release with extra pickups on the front bogie. It read straight away on the programming track, suggesting that I got it all right as far as insulating the split chassis halves and the motor brushes from each other.

While this probably belongs in my workbench blog, I didn't pause to take any pictures of the conversion while the body was off or the chassis dismantled. Next time I remove the body I'll take a couple of photos to show how it was completed.

The weathering was done when it was relatively new, a good many years ago now.

Edited January 3, 2015 by SRman

[P.C.M]

Happy New Year Jeff,

That looks good, I have a Nelson to do one day myself. Pleased to see it can be converted to DCC. 

 

Cheers Peter.

[ess1uk]

Having spent two years at Grove Park, Chinbrook and Burnt Ash sound all too familiar. Close to the Downham estate, where many colleagues lived!

 

The station at Clapham Junction isn't really much of a junction at all, actually, although it is a very major interchange between services. Basically the two sets of LSWR lines to/from Waterloo (the Main and the Windsor Lines) parallel the LBSCR lines to/from Victoria, and the platforms enable the interchange.

 

The one real junction is where the West London Line joins the LBSCR local lines, immediately to the south of the station. That is actually called Falcon Junction, and the sidings by the old B Box are/were Falcon Lane sidings. Any further inspiration from that?

I thought they were called Pig Hill sidings?