Bolton Trinity Road - trains running in the shed and garden in OO

[Jenny Emily]

 

When I moved into my new house, I had some really nice plans (and permission from my other half) to have an extension built that would house my miniature kingdom. As is usually the way, plans have had to be cut back, because of the way that money doesn't go as far as you would want it to. The deal always was that the railway room would come after other improvements were made. However, things just Cost Too Much. As a result, and coupled with awkwardness surrounding where the main drains for the row of houses run, and how roof profiles would be constrained by proximity to nextdoor, the railway room is officially shelved.

That would have meant nowhere to run anything for several years - clearly that could not be tolerated. So my attention moved to a very large shed that came with the house. I'm not sure of its exact size, but my Father muttered something about "twelve foot by six foot" in that way that Fathers seem to do when confronted with a new shed. It was a little run down, because the former owners of this house seemed to think that you painted things once when they were new and that would last forever. I've spent the last month undertaking a few housekeeping tasks on it, including re-roofing it (I could see daylight from inside which is never good) and painting the rather bleached walls with some Cuprinol preservative. My other concerns were that water running off the roof just dripped down the sides, and in my mind would have ultimately caused damp ingress and rot at the base. So I also fitted the shed with guttering and a means to get rainwater off it and away. All these tasks have made for a shed that looks like it will last rather longer than the previous owners' treatment of it would have expected it to.

Over the next two weeks I need to insulate and line the inside. In the summer sun the shed roof heats up making the inside incredibly hot, and I suspect winter would bring extreme cold. So the plan is to fill the gaps between the frame with insulation and then panel over the inside with very thin ply or hardboard. Painted white, this should give a nice bright inside. The inside of the roof will get the same treatment, with the addition of baking foil staple gunned to the underside of the roof first to help reflect heat. Once all that is done, the real fun starts.

The original railway room would have been ample for a slimmed down model of Bolton Trinity Street (hence why some months ago I was asking lots of questions here and searching out photographs). It would have lost a few of the sidings, and a little length. And it would have had to have accepted a 180 degree curve somewhere between the end of the platforms and Bolton East junction. But it would have fitted looking roughly as per Trinity Street's trackplan in about 1978 with the addition of the Johnson street fork still being in place to allow a longer looped run out into the garden and back. Trains would have taken the Preston line, heading north, to remain within the room. Taking the Blackburn line would have taken them around the garden, returning via the Johnson street fork.

The shed is not big enough for that epic plan. Hence a name change to Bolton Trinity Road, because it isn't quite going to be Trinity street any more. I toyed with modelling just Bolton East junction, or just Bolton west junction. But greedy me wanted some parts of both. So I've been devising modified trackplans that introduce straight bits to the track bits where there should be curves, and curves where there should be straight bits in order to fit. The old goods warehouse and associated sidings must go, and Johnson street fork will too. Instead the trains will take the line at Bolton East for Bury to go around the garden, and return via the Preston line. Trains running entirely within the shed will take the Blackburn line and immediately arrive back via the Manchester line for another pass through the station.

I don't have a written down trackplan, and true to my previous form, most likely never will as it will be adapted as it is laid out to fit the space. I decided that no fiddle yard or extensive sidings is fine, as I don't want to leave a lot of stock in the shed between running sessions. What I want is to be able to set trains running and watch them go by. I've decided on DCC to allow up to four trains to be able to be run at the same time, and allow passage of trains access to all platform and through roads without needing lots of isolating sections and hard wired electrikery that would be difficult for me to fathom. Signals and points will remain analogue because I prefer them that way.

Because it seems wise to, I'm planning on building the baseboards and layout to be removable. A shed won't last forever, and I don't want to lose my layout when replacement comes. If the proper railway room eventually comes, I'd like Bolton Trinity Road to move and become the Trinity Street that I originally wanted. It also has the advantage that parts of it could be exhibited if I find a way around the fact that it will be built to view and operate from the centre. Legs similar to those I built for 'Grove street' will hold it off the floor, and I intend to build the baseboards in sections to a similar construction too, except that a lot of the wood will be recycled from my Father's very large Hornby Dublo 3 rail exhibition layout that last got set up in 2005. We both decided that the chances of it getting used again were minimal, so I dismantled the track last week and have a lot of plywood to start construction with.

I've built up a huge collection of salvaged track via ebay and stalls at shows, and it is all Peco code 100. I've also managed to acquire most of the point motors cheaply by the same means. In the delay before finally moving house at the beginning of June, I also dug out all of my spare Ratio signalling kits and - working from photographs - built up a stock of signals that are now ready to plant.

Another impetus to getting the layout up and running is the demise of my Father's railway room - known affectionately for over 25 years as "the train loft". This room is getting converted into his office so no longer will there be a means for me to take locomotives around and run them in on his continuous loop as it is no more and arrived here in a plastic bag yesterday (it's all Hornby Dublo 2 rail setrack powered by a Gaugemaster Model E controller). My nephew will also be getting anxious to get back to getting his fix of running his toys, and my Father seemed very keen to help with the lining of the shed and baseboard construction to allow him and my nephew to visit and have long running sessions. That's always a boon because I work away from home a lot from the moment and my free time is rather limited - not helped by injuring my foot on Friday leaving me hobbling around with a stick since the trip back from A&E.

I'm not expecting to update frequently on progress (because lack of free time may make progress slow) but that's my plan.

[petethemole]

Just a thought; check the thickness of your roof panels (ply?) before stapling up from the inside, you might puncture the new felt! Oh, and check for low down gaps if you haven't already or you'll get mice (possibly). Good luck with it all.

Pete

[AJ427]

Best of luck with this Jenny. I've just gone through a similar process of weather proofing my shed after it leaked badly last winter and ruined my new baseboards. I would suggest putting a sheet of membrane over the insulation (which will help keep out any leaks) and then using plasterboard rather than hardboard or ply. I can already feel the difference as the inside of the shed now stays at a much more constant and comfortable temperature in summer rather than the oven it was last year. Hopefully winter will be a bit more tolerable.

[mudmagnet]

Hi Jenny,

 

Sounds like an interesting project!

Just a couple of thoughts.

 

1) Before fitting the panels over the insulation on the walls, might be worth running some electrical cable around, notch the timber uprights first, so that the panels sit flat. You can then sockets easily where you want them.

2) You don't mention electrical supply from the house. How is this done! Would be worthwhile having on the circuit breaker.

3) A small fan heater would take the chill off in the winter.

[Jenny Emily]

I forgot to mention the electrics - plug sockets and lights will be wired back to the utility room via armoured cable and capable of being switched off remotely from there when not in use.

 

The shed roof is pretty thick chipboard that took my weight well enough when I climbed all over it to do the felt. Thanks everyone for the tips. It will be a slow project, but should happen years quicker than the alternative railway room idea I was wanting.

[Jenny Emily]

The refurbishment of the shed is taking longer than expected, due to having to rebuild the roof as it was sagging badly and poorly supported. The previous owners seem to have thought they were good at DIY whilst simultaneously being about as far from being good as it is possible to be.

 

In the meantime I have been busying myself with building up signals for the new layout. My skills are not the greatest, and the Ratio kits are too fiddly for their own good, but the following four photographs show what I've built so far. Around a quarter of the arms are mechanised, and the rest are fixed in place. They are loosely based on some of the signalling that was at the real Bolton Trinity Street in the late 1970s/early 1980s, built within the limitations of the parts available from the Ratio kits, and my limited skills. The large gantry is rather different from the one that was on the main southern approaches to the station, because of a variety of reasons (not least because I was half way through and realised that it was back to front compared to the prototype, and the Ratio kits are not generous with the distant and shunt-to-loop arms). It is made from the bulk of the parts of two Pratt Truss kits and the dolls from the 476 kit.

 

The second gantry is cobbled together from left over Ratio parts to look similar to the one which spanned the end of platforms 1 and 3, and contains the starter for platform2 and signals for platform 3. I added back an arm that had been removed on the original.

 

I have one more gantry to make, using a Dapol kit and it will have working colour light signals. This will be the one that spanned platform 1 road and the through road.

 

 

[chesterfield]

I googled Trinity Street to see just where it was, and realised that I stood on that station about 10 years ago on a visit to the UK brought back interesting memories. I'm looking forward to seeing your track plan soon

[Jenny Emily]

I've not been online a lot in the last few weeks, partly because of a busy work load and partly because I've been in the shed doing all those boring tasks that are necessary for real modelling to take place. The shed is now insulated and lined, and all the baseboards are built and in place. I've laid most of the track and am in the process of wiring up points and electrical sections. It will be wired for DC operation, however DCC conversion at a later stage is in mind and taken into account of.

 

My version of Bolton East and Bolton West junctions are laid out and at the moment I've just completed the wiring of Bolton West to allow bi-directional working of three of the four lines through the station area. As is such with modelling, space (or lack of) has meant a lot of compromises have been made, hence the name not being 'Trinity street'. However I hope that ultimately enough key features of Trinity street station will make it to Trinity road for a person to go "that's supposed to be Bolton, isn't it?"

[chesterfield]

Jenny Emily

From what I recall, Trinity Road seemed to have enough room to have roads in the centre which did not go into the platforms and at some time the layout had been rationalised - Is that the case?

Two other things

Thanks for introducing me to Garnd Moor Street station

and

may I have a reference to your original questions on Trinity so I can read them and the answers

[Jenny Emily]

All of my bookmarked research is on my office computer that isn't on at the moment. However, a Google image search for 'Bolton trinity street station' along with 'Bolton west' and 'Bolton East' will show most of the pictures that I found.

 

My partner did film a video of progress as of a couple of weeks ago which should address the lack of picture updates:

 

[chesterfield]

Thanks Emily Jane – this is just what I needed And answers most if not all my queries. I've had a quick look at your video but will give it my proper attention during the weekend. In passing it seems to me that Grand Moor Street is another Minoriesbut the traffic was a bit light towards the end.

[Jenny Emily]

It's actually 'Great Moor street' and it was always the poorer cousin of Trinity street, even though it turned up earlier. As a terminus it was always going to be limited, and was quite a restricted site. After nationalisation it was always going to be a target for closure. I think it lasted in a semi-derelict state for quite some time after closure to passengers, and I've seen photographs of specials making use of its continued existence. I think it was retained to some degree because the coal drops alongside it remained in use into the 1960s.

 

After closure the site was cleared and became a swimming pool and supermarket. The swimming pool has recently been cleared.

 

Jenny Emily.

[Jenny Emily]

My partner filmed me a couple more times at various stages:

 

 

 

Progress has been slowed by the fact that I'm in the midst of a book signing tour for my latest book, along with holding down a day job that has seen me travelling the country and staying away from home quite a few nights. Not to mention the fact that the weather has meant that glue takes several days to dry instead of several hours.

[Jenny Emily]

A few pictures showing construction progress. My cut down version of Bolton East junction has reached a point where it looks about finished. The signal box is bashed from two Metcalfe card kits whilst the footbridge is bashed from two Dapol signal gantries.

 

 

 

 

 

[Danemouth]

Jenny,

 

Really liked the signals - they look the business!

 

Dave

[Jenny Emily]

Thanks! It's just a shame that the Ratio kits are a pain (if not impossible in a lot of cases) to make operational remotely.

 

I've been doing odd bits of work in the shed. My partner has recorded a few videos, such is her want.

 

 

Most of the terrain is absolutely flat, just as it was for 'Grove street'. Luckily the real Trinity street and yard/junction areas are pretty flat if you ignore much beyond the track, so it sort of works. To be honest, I'm more interested in having an aesthetic surrounding for long trains to run through than to have a perfect model of something. To that effect 'Trinity Road' is working out fine. The more ground that gets covered, the more I'm finding that I'm stopping to run trains more. I also quite like running trains whilst I'm working as the sound is relaxing.

 

One thing that I seem to be going through buckets of is PVA glue. I've about used all of my stash that was originally acquired some ten years ago. My plight isn't helped by the fact that ten year old PVA seems to have a lot of hard bits mixed up in the bottom of the container. Luckily PVA is not the hardest stuff to get hold of.

 

What has become clear is that I have far more in the way of rolling stock and locomotives than this new layout will accomodate, so I've got a load of stackable filing drawers to be able to have stuff to hand to change the stock that's being used. It never seemed like I had a lot of stuff until I finally for the first time dug out all of my Bachmann 16t mineral wagons and put them in one train. Each one is a different one issued; no two are the same. It came to somewhere around 40+ wagons.

 

One thing I overlooked earlier in construction was that some of the pointwork I bought secondhand seems to have had their frogs isolated from the switch rails. It's meant I've had to do a bit of careful soldering after ballasting, but given the miles of wire I've had to solder in up until now, I've become quite good at neat soldering. Having a decent soldering iron gifted to me by my Father has helped a lot - a person's soldering can only ever be as good as their iron.

 

Temperature is becoming a huge issue now, restricting time in the shed. There is no heating out there because at the moment power arrives via an extension lead that I run out there each time. Unfortunately the former owners of this house thought they were God's gift to DIY but were anything but, and the cocket it plugs back to trips out if I use any device approaching half powerful, so even the vacuum cleaner trips it. At some point I will be getting a professionally wired in feed out to the shed, but until then I have to freeze. Progress may therefore consist over the winter of building some of the missing platform and station structures and road bridges.

[Danemouth]

Temperature is becoming a huge issue now, restricting time in the shed. There is no heating out there because at the moment power arrives via an extension lead that I run out there each time.

That explains why you are wearing woollen gloves in the video :-)

 

Really nice modelling,

 

Dave

[Jenny Emily]

That explains why you are wearing woollen gloves in the video :-)

 

Really nice modelling,

 

Dave

 

 

Thanks! Yes, it is getting chilly out there. One of the biggest issues (apart from my hands and nose getting cold) is that PVA glue dries alarmingly white in the cold, so you have to be very careful about any that squeezes out from joins. I'm having to leave sections of ballast to dry for up to a week, though the black die in the glue mix stops it from coming out the wrong colour. It's my first time using finer N gauge ballast and it looks so much better than the ballast normally billed as for OO. Looking at the old stuff I used on 'Grove street' I'm inclined to think that that would have been more suited to an O gauge layout!

 

Over the next week or so if I get time I'm going to make a start on the main station building. This will be bashed up from three heavily modified Superquick market house kits. I also have a complete unbuilt Water tower kit (also Superquick) from my Father-in-law's loft which will become the water tower that once graced the real Trinity Street station alongside the main road bridge sandwiched between what is now 'World of leather' (apparently that site was once on of Bolton's thirty or so strong cinemas) and the old Baron street carriage sidings. My own representation of Baron street carriage sidings is much simplified but will provide handy stabling for the first generation DMUs I've started acquiring.

 

The water tower is an old (1970s or earlier) Superquick kit, and on inspection is somewhat different from the current water tower and weighbridge kit offered by the same manufacturer. I have no idea why it got changed or when.

 

Incidentally, the track pins that show on the concrete track will get painted in an appropriate concrete colour before the track gets properly weathered so that they won't be quite so obvious - one of the many jobs still to do.

[Physicsman]

Really enjoyed your YouTube vids and I concur about working outside. I'm converting a double garage and the drop in temperature certainly slows things down.

 

BTW, I will be using N gauge ballast (in about 2 years!) when I get round to the trackwork. Interesting to hear your comments on "OO" stuff. I agree, it's WAY too coarse!

 

Nice job with the signalbox and signals. Keep posting, I'm picking up ideas as you progress!

 

Regards,

 

Jeff

[Andrew P]

Looking good Jenny, The video is very informative, well done. All the best Andy.

[Jenny Emily]

There's been some modelling going on in the shed, but a combination of weather, household maintenance and - probably most importantly - working around sixty hours plus a week on the day jobs has meant that modelling has taken quite a back burner. I have built the bulk of the main station building and the station overbridge though, and I am hoping over the New Year period that the photographer who did the pictures for the Model Rail Grove street yard article might have a chance to get some really nice pictures.

 

That isn't the biggest concern though. The shed has taken a pounding through all the wind and torrential rain that we've had here. Unfortunately this has meant that a few leaks have developed, and I suspect that they are typical leaks for this design of shed, so there's a warning to other shed dwellers who might have put their shed up on a budget or inherited an elderly specimen as I did. The leaks are not from the roof, but rather from between the cladding. The overlaps aren't as good as they could be, and being an older shed, the wood used has seasoned over several summers and shrunk as a result. There aren't actual gaps, but rain has managed to penetrate nonetheless in a couple of places. Once this happens, it's like touching the sides of an old fashioned tent during rain - it just keeps flowing. I had just dealt with two leaks by a combination of adding a better downpipe off the front gutter and nailing a tarpaulin over part of one end pending proper repairs in the spring when another torrent seems to have developed in the last couple of days. It seems on inspection that this is the result of the guttering at the back of the shed sagging a little under the weight of water, lifting the end slightly. Now instead of dropping cleanly from the end, the water was running back under the gutter, and flowing onto the shed from the first bracket, and down the corner post. The back of the shed is inaccessible due to its proximity to the fence, so propping the gutter in the middle is impossible. Instead I've added a fitting to the end that channels water into a downpipe instead. Fingers crossed that this will solve the problem permanently.

 

Having carpet down has unfortunately masked some of these leaks when they first appear. The damp patches aren't massive, but they are hidden under the edges. I've now pulled back all of the carpet to check for any other signs of leaks. Come the spring, the plan is to use overlapping layers of roofing felt on the sides of the shed to get rid of the leaks once and for all; certainly on the exposed end that has taken the brunt of the weather and been the weak spot. Luckily the model has been unaffected as the leaks have happened over the lowest three feet of the shed walls.

 

To anyone else modelling in their sheds: check regularly as the weather has it in for us!

[Jenny Emily]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywq_2fi1y7Q

 

Not had much chance to do a lot of work but I have been working on the main station overbridge. Have recorded a big video showing progress but in the mean time, here's a video of trains trundling by at Bolton Trinity Road.

[winterbournecm]

Hello there Jenny

 

Nice to see you're busy with a new project. The signals look fab, I dont blame you for not making them operational!

 

Will it link with Grove Street at all?

[Markeg]

Hi Jenny,

 

Nice work with the layout and signals. Watched the video on Youtube and I thought Model Rail/BRM Right Track better watch out.

 

Good to see you are limiting your time in the shed when its cold. Here in central Victoria Australia we have had 39 degrees celcius and that makes it too hot to be in my shed past morning tea time. I too am working on my layout to be DC and DCC friendly. I have a Hornby A4 with sound all other are DC.

 

Keep up the good work. Look forward to seeing more.

Mark in OZ

[Jenny Emily]

It won't link with 'Grove street yard' as that always was intended to be a standalone thing that I'll keep intermittently taking to exhibitions when I get invited to. The signals are a pain - there are three of the Ratio kits that I have made work, but the gantry and most of the others are posed in one position. The colour aspect signals are far easier (obviously!) and I've currently got a shunting signal that works from a PL-13 switch under the point motor and two two-aspect signals on a gantry that signal platform 4 and the through line. At some point I have two more colour aspects to acquire and install.

 

Luckily the weather has been milder than normal this time of year which means extra time in the shed. I find though that construction pace has slowed as I like to watch the trains go by! It's the first time ever that I've had a layout that I can run coaches and even some of my bigger steam locos on, so I'm still making the most of that. Unfortunately this means that I find myself looking at large steam loco models now with a view to wanting some more - so much for rigidly modelling BR blue TOPS era. I currently have a soft spot for locos in Doncaster green or Southern malachite green. If some-one hadn't beaten me to all of Modelzone's cut price L1s in Doncaster green lettered 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' I suspect that I would have bought one yesterday at the Trafford Centre after I finished the book signing at Waterstones.

 

I've been busy concentrating mostly on the station over bridge buildings. I think that in some of the last videos a bare balsa framework was visible. This has now developed into a more bridge and building like structure using a combination of three Superquick B35 market house kits and some thick mounting card from Hobbycraft. These kits are great for kitbashing and can be used to make all sorts of buildings suitable from the late 19th century through to early 20th century. I've yet to add the roof, but this will come from the box of the Bran flakes I have in the kitchen, but I have to eat them first!

 

I've used some 12V grain of wheat bulbs under the bridge and in the building. I've wired them in pairs in series to dim them down, reduce the load on the transformer and to extend the bulb life. The reason for these is because otherwise the underside of the bridge would be in such shadow that it would look akin to a black hole and all the stuff under there like the complex trackwork and platforms wouldn't really be seen. I may still add a couple more lights to the buildings - once the roof goes on these will be more obvious than in the video below.

 

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I am also inspired to do a few more 'watching trains go by' videos at some point utilising more of my different (and unusual) locomotives and stock. A large chunk of the layout is getting on for complete now, including most of the goods yard and Bolton East junction as well as the main bulk of the station platforms, so there are a few different locations that might lend themselves to taking nice low-angle videos.