Bacup - Mills in the hills

[Jason T]

 

 

<p> </p>
<br />
<p>Inspiration for a layout can come from many places; a track plan, a layout seen at an exhibition or in a magazine / website, a real location, memories of a location that stick with you. For this layout, the inspiration came from page 77 of British Railways Past & Present No.3: The North West. I bought it when it first came out (1986 - I had just turned 16) and the photograph in question is of a Class 105 DMU exiting a run down Bacup Station as a Black Five shunts a BR goods van. In the background is your usual grotty Pennine mill town, with unloved terraced houses, chimneys galore, mills (both working and abandoned) and the River Irwell trickling past, choked almost to death by the myriad of chemicals that have flown into it upstream from various factories.<br />
<br />
For some reason, this photo has always fascinated me although I never had any intention of attempting to model the place. However, circumstances put paid to my last layout (bloody Sundeala warped so bad, I could have modelled a BMX track and not had to construct any of the jumps) and with a blank canvas and a mountain of plasticard, I decided to give Bacup a go.<br />
<br />
Bacup was, at one point, at the head of two lines; one from Rochdale and one from Bury (the Rochdale one closed long before the Bury line). It had an engine shed, goods yard, carriage sidings and all the other good stuff that makes it cry out to be modelled. It was an L&Y terminus with one double sided platform. Upon this, for about half it's length, was a canopy under which nestled two shelters. At the end of the station was a rather austere looking station building. So, in totally illogical order, I built the station first - it took over three months! Details of the build (and other buildings for the layout as they appear) can be found here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/40873-buildings-for-bacup/page__fromsearch__1">http://www.rmweb.co....__fromsearch__1</a><br />
<br />
Next, I purchased the required quantity of birch ply for the baseboard tops, although I have yet to tackle them. Basically, the trackbed will be raised 2 inches throughout. The baseboards are in an 'L' shape, the longest leg being 13' x 3' and the shorter (fiddle yard area) 11' x 2'. Scenic area will be the full 13'.<br />
<br />
The track plan (everyone loves a track plan) is not an exact copy of Bacup, but uses the basic layout of the station. Left out are the junction to the Rochdale line (assumed to be off-stage and still present, even though the period modelled is after the line closed), the engine shed and most of the sidings in the goods yard. Unfortunately, I do not have room to model the goods warehouse in the yard, so I plan to build a model of Whitworth goods shed instead.<br />
<br />
The plan was first drawn up in Anyrail using Peco points, etc., just to check that everything would fit. I originally intended to use Peco Code 75 throughout but I knew that it would always annoy me that it doesn't look quite right so I have bitten the bullet and am making my own pointwork (in OO, so still not right.......) using PCB and bullhead rail. So, I purchased a copy of Templot, swore at it a lot, decided that it was designed purely to annoy the hell out of me and then upgraded to Version 0.91c and it all got a bit (not a lot) easier.<br />
<br />
I'm getting ahead of myself here; I was talking about the track plan.<br />
<br />
This is a 1910 OS map of Bacup station: <a href="http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/bacup/map1910.jpg">http://www.disused-s...cup/map1910.jpg</a><br />
Here is my attempt in Anyrail to create it using Peco points:<br />
<span><img alt="bacupvariation2.jpg" src="http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/51CharlesStreet/bacupvariation2.jpg" /></span><br />
<br />
I haven't got a Templot plan to show you but it is basically the same as the Anyrail one but with (hopefully) more flowing pointwork.<br />
<br />
It is worth pointing out now that I will not be modelling the surrounding buildings and scenery as it is in real life, mainly because if I do, you would not be able to see the station because it would be blocked from view by a retaining wall, houses and a mill. Instead, I aim to attempt to create a grotty looking mill town filled with terraced houses, mills, etc.<br />
<br />
Anyway, progress to date:<br />
Station built (it's actually further on than this)<br />
<span><img alt="BacupProgress017.jpg" src="http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/51CharlesStreet/BacupProgress017.jpg" /></span><br />
<br />
Stone built terraced houses (the first of many)<br />
<span><img alt="Bacupstoneterraces062.jpg" src="http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/51CharlesStreet/Bacupstoneterraces062.jpg" /></span><br />
<br />
Progress on pointwork so far. Not the best, but they do work fine (tested with an ancient Dapol Pug)<br />
<span><img alt="Bacupstoneterraces064.jpg" src="http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/51CharlesStreet/Bacupstoneterraces064.jpg" /></span><br />
<br />
Templot printout (and a couple of lengths of SMP flexi track) to check that the station throat area works<br />
<span><img alt="Bacupstoneterraces061.jpg" src="http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/51CharlesStreet/Bacupstoneterraces061.jpg" /></span><br />
<br />
<span><img alt="Bacupstoneterraces060.jpg" src="http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/51CharlesStreet/Bacupstoneterraces060.jpg" /></span><br />
<br />
I am notoriously bad at updates so the next time I post could be months down the line and a whole lot done. Oh, and the period modelled will be the early 1960's.<br />
<br />
Thanks for looking and I hope this appeals to some of you.</p>

Edited August 13, 2013 by Sandside

[Red Devil]

Great, always like a bit of 'Northern urban grot', like the fact that you built the station first, I've just started on something similar based 20/25 miles south and before I've even thought about baseboards the station is well under construction!

[Jason T]

My reasoning behind building the station first, however daft, is that I wouldn't know how wide the platform was until I'd built the canopy, and I wouldn't be able to plan the station throat properly until I knew how wide the platforms would be.

[westerner]

I too like a good urban terminus. Will watch with interest even if it is months down the line.

[Russ (mines a pint)]

Looks like a good start, always been fascinated by the route up the valley from Rawtenstall.

[gismorail]

This looks like a gem in the making, have often looked at the same page in the NorthWest book myself and thought what a good model Baccup would make. Like your comments about canpoies and platform width thats the type of consideration I would have to solve before laying down track. You peseverance with the templot system is interesting, prehaps I should have another look at it again myself. Will follow your progress with interest.

[Jason T]

Thing is, I couldn't even tell you what the secret to Templot is; it just sort of clicked one day. Funnily enough, as daft as it may seem, I think one of my biggest problems was not using 'Store & Background' and stuff just disappearing. Anyway, I persevered, which is just as well really as I have done a lot of adjustment to the station throat from the printed out Templot pages shown in the first page.

 

The problems I was faced with were getting the pointwork and track to flow correctly from the platform ends, without 's' bending (as they did in the original print out), fitting in two crossovers and all other pointwork in 5' (also ensuring that no point motors would be in awkward positions, e.g. required to be where battens will be) and ensuring a steady curve that also included a curved crossover that did not fall below the minimum radius of at least 600mm.

 

I think I have now achieved this. The photos below show the print outs on the (as yet loose) baseboards; not all track has been included or printed out as I didn't want to waste paper / ink and it is the ones shown that are critical to each other, if you see what I mean. The additional part at the front is for the goods yard, although this will change somewhat.

 

The track into Platform 1 is shown as curving on past the edge of the platform itself on the print out but as this will be flexi-track, the print out of this part is irrelevant really; I just wanted to ensure that I had a decent enough curve into the platform.

 

 

 

The station from above. If it appears to overhang the baseboard, then that's because it does. There is another 10" deep scenic board that will be attached to the end, the frame of which is just poking into the photo.

The various buildings in the background are left-overs from my last layout and in all likelyhood, will not find homes on this one. You may also have spotted the Judith Edge Vanguard 0-4-0 shunter that I started earlier in the year and am yet to finish....

 

 

You would not believe how tedious it was sticking the 500 plus tiny strips of Microstrip onto the glazing of the canopy roof, followed by a load more for the drainage channels on the non-glazed parts. Hopefully though, you'll agree that it was worth the effort. I still need to finish the bases of the columns off (basically, just attach them really)

 

[Jason T]

When I scrapped my old layout and began the planning for this, it's replacement, I knew that it would be quite a long project but it is only recently that it has hit home just how long it will take and how much effort. Thing is, I think I am one of those people who take more pleasure from the construction side of things than the running of stock, which is just as well really as none of my locos have turned a wheel in well over six months, other than to test pointwork (e.g. a quick few runs backwards and forwards over a length of about 1' of track, and that was using a Dapol Pug, which has the coarsest wheelset to check everything).

 

As mentioned in my original post, I am tackling a number of the buildings first for a number of reasons, the main one being that I want to build the railway around the town, rather than the other way round and end up with a compromise, where buildings are slotted in to fit around the railway, not always in a prototypical style (e.g. roads to nowhere, hills that are over steep, roads that are too narrow and have bends that are far too tight, bridges where there is no need for a bridge, etc). I am also tackling building my own pointwork from PCB for the first time, after discovering that soldering isn't the complex and frustrating task that I always believed it to be. As such, I am sure that my trackwork will shock those with knowledge of such things and I am sure that I will need to revisit certain elements of it at a later date but it is giving me immense satisfaction to be starting with a bag of bullhead rail, a bag of PCB and a length of solder and end up with a turnout that seems to work.

 

The last time I posted, I had constructed a few plain (e.g. straight) turnouts and had the Templot plan printed out for the station throat. After examining this again, the curved crossover was way too tight so had to be re-planned but now that Templot doesn't confuse me quite as much as it once did, that was pretty painless. I also located a large enough length of flat board to enable me to begin construction of the pointwork for the station throat and began soldering.

 

Not sure if it is the done thing or not, but where turnouts flow into one another, I have built them together to hopefully ensure better alignment. When RMWEB crashed, I had reached the below stage.

 

 

That evening, with the girlfriend out on the beer and me home alone (I know, something not quite right there), I pressed on with the curved crossover, which proved to be quite tricky to get right but with a few choice words that the swear filter doesn't like and a few adjustments, I got there in the end. The below photo shows the pointwork curving into the platform ends; still one more to do (the release from the far platform run-round and corresponding catch point or kick back siding). At present, it is simply laid out with lengths of SMP flexi positioned roughly, to get an idea of what it will look like. Once all other turnouts are constructed, I will start work on cutting and raising the baseboards along which it will be located, followed by mounting turnout motors, laying the C&L foam underlay, etc. That could be some way in the future.

 

 

 

 

As mentioned in my thread in the Scenery, Structures & Transport sub-forum, I have also progressed with the various terraced houses that will be required. Many more to build yet and as can be seen, some of these are in a rather embryotic state. The idea for the layout will be that the railway will be on the level of the station building, with the ground falling away in the direction of the platforms, the lowest point being a road underbridge and river passing under the railway just after the platform ends (the river being the reason for the valley, if you see what I mean). The ground will then rise again towards the goods yard and beyond. This means that for the central section of the layout, the railway will be raised about 2.5" above street level, and the houses (and mill, still to be started) will obstruct viewing the railway head-on. Now this may seem a bit of an odd thing to do (after all, why put all this effort into the track, etc., only to block it from view) but from the normal operating position, the view that is provided will enable me to see the vast majority of the railway.

 

Wow, I've rambled on for ages. If you've lasted this far and not got bored to tears, here's a few more photos of what I've been up to as a really crap reward

 

Corner shop

 

A view up the street (houses to the left were started on Wednesday and I have run out of embossed Plastikard)

 

Looking back down the hill (which you will need to use your imagination for, but basically the front doors will be at street level rather than being at the top of the biggest step ever)

 

A Hornby LMS brakevan that I am attempting to improve. Brake shoes replaces with in-line ones (I knew that keeping the leftovers from Parkside kits would come in handy one day), moulded handrails removed and holes drilled ready for wire replacements, toolbox (is it a toolbox?) added underneath, very thin coat of Bauxite added before I ran out. This is very much a side-project to relieve the monotony of turnout / terraced house construction and as such, may take some time to complete.

 

And finally, apologies for the even poorer quality photos than usual. For some reason, my PC won't connect with my camera so these were snapped with my iPhone.

[westerner]

Crikey you have been busy. I do like the way the street is coming.

 

The station throat looks good to. I always think that what seperates a trainset from a model railway at least in looks is wide sweeping curves whcih have a transition curve. rather than a straight and then straight into a X radius curve,

[BlackRat]

Looking really good, some great modelling there and I look forward to more updates!

[Oldddudders]

Your diligence in the platform canopy has now been repeated in the houses. This is top-class modelling. I don't need to praise the track, because handlaid is always gonna beat shop-bought for appearance and that's that. This is on my watch list.

[MartinWales]

Am I glad I stumbled across your thread!

 

You certainly have a keen eye for building and their construction as your shots amply demonstrate, and the speed of their assembly has not comprimised their quality either. I do love the way that with a little care and attention and pushing the envelope futher by building your own pointwork and utilizing the excellent SMP product your trackwork has that nice 'flowing' feel to it

 

Now I'll look forward to seeing more of the stock and locos etc... Keep up the excellent work!

[Jason T]

Thank you for your kind comments everyone, it's really put a smile on my face to know that my one-man efforts (that drive me to despair with the tediousness of repetitive tasks at times) seem to be heading in the right direction. There are times when I think I am going too far (e.g. not only adding curtains and nets to a window that will hardly be seen, but also adding a valance !!!) for what will realistically be seen by hardly anyone as it is a pretty permanent layout, but I compromised in quite a few areas on my previous layout in order to get stock running in an environment that looked ok as quickly as possible. Hopefully not too many short cuts this time. It's also very easy to become over-critical of ones own work, especially if you keep it to yourself.

 

Right, as mentioned elsewhere, watching crappy TV with the girlfriend awaits........

[Jason T]

With all the turnouts for the main running lines now completed, my attention has turned to the goods yard, which will be kicked back from the station and shunted using the run-round for Platform 1 (as I believe it was in reality). Now the easy way to go about the goods yard would have been to have the sidings fanning out in the same direction as the station but, although this is not an exact copy of Bacup, I want to keep it something like and as such, kick-back sidings it is.

 

Now this presents a couple of problems, the main one being the space available for the sidings as they are on the inside of the layout where the lines curve towards the fiddle yard. This is the reason that the orientation of the station is pointing towards the rear of the layout; it increases the length of the layout that is curved into the fiddle yard but it does give more room for scenery at the front of the layout (the rear is under the eaves of the roof) and more importantly, it allows for the placement of a goods yard, albeit a restricted one.

 

The second problem stems from the above really, as to ensure that all enough sidings of a decent length can be fitted in, the turnout into the goods yard needs to be placed part way along the run-round.

However......

the length available to run round a goods train is the same as that available in the head-shunt / run round, and there will be a siding running from the end of the run-round loop and following the course of the running lines. As such, a train can be run in, shunted and the return freight formed and stored in the storage siding before being worked out. What I have lost in size of goods yard should hopefully be made up for in operational (shunting) interest. Basically, it becomes a shunting puzzle within a layout that at least hints at the real location.

 

Limited space has also encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone (although my comfort zone is a ponderous place at the moment as I attempt a whole wealth of modelling areas that I would not have even considered a few months ago). So, below is a photo of my first ever 3 way turnout, very much work in progress and causing a lot of head scratching and readjustment. I had to go onto the Templot website forum and find out how to create the plan (luckily, there was a very good guide on there with screenshots, etc) and I have also had my first go at creating my own common crossings by following Brian Harrap's fantastic instructions in this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37678-handbuilt-track/page__st__25. That part went really well and I am now kicking myself for spending money on pre-formed C&L ones in the past.

 

 

So, may I say thanks to the anonymous person on the Templot forum for providing instructions for a 3 way turnout that even a fool like I could understand, and also to Brian for saving me a fortune (from now on).

[Jason T]

As I now only have a couple more turnouts to build, I thought I would lay what has been constructed so far out on the baseboards to try to get an idea of how everything will fit together and more importantly, where to cut the baseboards in order to raise the trackbed. I don't mind telling you that I am a tad nervous about taking the jigsaw to the baseboards and then constructing the raised sections but if needs must (and they do).

 

Oh, and the 3 way point seems to have turned out okay (fingers crossed)

 

Those that have viewed my other thread in the Scenery, Structures & Transport forum may notice the start of yet another row of terraced houses; I am getting tired of constructing the bloody things now. The brick buildings will be replaced by something more fitting (and not low relief ).

 

Anyway, I hope that these give a bit better idea of what the aim is, even if everything is at the same level at the moment.

 

Looking down the layout from the station

 

The other direction (the houses next to the station have progressed slightly; slates and lead flashing are on but need painting)

 

Station throat and very basic idea of the goods yard (the turnout nearest to the low relief warehouse will most likely be replaced with a curved one)

 

Approach, goods yard and the end of the platform

 

All photos were taken with my iPhone as my camera and PC no longer seem to like each other. That is my excuse for the terrible shots

[sharkman]

Thats an impressive station are the canopies Dapol/Airfix? It looks good either way lets hope we see somemore updates of your work. Ian

[Jason T]

Hi Ian,

 

the canopies are painstakingly scratchbuilt from Plastikard. There are 12 pitches, each one glazed with the one above the longer platform building being only partly so. For each pitch of the canopy, I used two horizontally mounted strips of clear Plastikard (as the real canopy comprised of two panes horizontally) and then added the individual panes by glueing Microstrip on the outside; 23 per horizontal pane on each side of each pitch: basically I cut and glued on almost 1,200 pieces of Microstrip. The area surrounding the glazing (lead ?) also has rain strips added although nowhere near as many.

 

The valance on the outside edge is Slaters embossed Plastikard (2mm planking, if I remember correctly).

The columns are Plastruct tubing (with the bases, also Plastruct tubing, still to be added)

The column / canopy supports are a combination of square Plastruct, cross-sections of Plastruct tubing and scraps of Plastikard.

 

In total, it took over three months (including the station building itself and the platform) and still needs a bit more weathering and detail adding. Quite a bit of it was done during the summer, sat in the garden with a beer in one hand and a scalpel in the other. I did think about the Dapol canopy but it wasn't quite right for the location, and I do love scratchbuilding buildings for some mad reason.

 

The station is key to the whole location / layout so it had to be as close as possible.

 

End on view

 

One of the platform buildings

Edited January 5, 2012 by Sandside

[artizen]

I like this.

 

A question though - how hard is it to reach the far track past the station canopy from the normal operating position? In the photos it looks a bit of a stretch.

[Jason T]

I just checked; it's easy (about a 18 - 24" reach from the edge of the layout). Beyond the run-round on that side will be one carriage siding and that's it, plus as most traffic into that side of the station will be DMU's, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I did think about modelling that platform with the run-round lifted (as it was towards the end of Bacup's railway history) but decided to put it in just in case I back-date it to the 50's at any point, which is quite likely.

[Jason T]

A few people (mainly in my other thread over in 'Scenery.....') have enquired about the logic of putting a row of houses in front of the station and quite sensibly asking whether (i) it will completely block the view of the station and any train sat in it and (ii) whether it will restrict the retrieval of wayward stock, etc.

 

As such (and as I am about to embark on firing up the jigsaw and visiting the woodyard for a supply of timber), with a few offcuts of wood and some old chipboard that I had laying around, I thought I would mock up the scenics a bit, with the trackbed raised, just to make sure it would look as I had hoped and also to work out the best location for the houses I've constructed so far.

 

Anyway, I thought I'd take a couple of shots with my iPhone (camera is still kaput) and ask whether what I am planning makes sense and also which layout of the houses looks better. But, from the usual operating position, I get a lovely view of the station, partially obscured behind chimney stacks, as I was hoping (phone was held up at about eye level). Lighting is terrible, sorry.

 

1. street remains level before climbing up towards the station. This is how I had originally envisioned it but I am now thinking that the four houses with the bay windows look out of place in the row (all other houses are of a similar design, e.g. no bays). Of course, the houses with the cafe at the end were planned for this format.

 

 

 

2. Street begins to climb earlier and then levels out (although still an inch or so below track level). This would necessitate the building of a new row of houses which also gradually climb (on the left of the street) but the rows already build (ones with the cafe and the ones with the bays) can then be used in another location - the former at the far side of the station.

 

 

Personally, I prefer option 2 but don't let that sway you.

 

Thanks,

 

Jason.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Sandside

[Oldddudders]

Inasmuchas we tend to build a model railway to display trains on the track, and spend hours running them and shunting the yard etc, convention suggests that having a clear view is the common configuration, not least because some operations require reaching in to uncouple etc. OTOH, most built up areas do indeed have the station surrounded by houses, industries, whatever. If you are able to operate as you wish, then having such good models in the foreground is hardly a negative point for the layout, certainly. We more often see this approach in rural modelling, where green scenery does obscure the view - doing it in town terms is merely less common.

[Jason T]

Thanks Ian.

 

In my weird way of thinking and planning, having houses both at the front and rear of the layout (and therefore hemming the station in) will add to the urban feeling of the layout; it leaves the viewer under no false illusion that it is anything but a station in a town. My last layout, also supposedly based in a town, had fields at the front and as such, it didn't quite look right.

[westerner]

I do like the idea of the station being slightly raised. to my mind gives it a more urban feel as though the railway was fitted in after most of the houses had been built, rather like the Saffron Street.

[Jason T]

I pretty much decided to go with option 2, where the bay window houses and the row with the cafe at the end would be relocated. As such, I've started to build a row to replace the cafe, and these will start to climb the hill rather than remaining level (as the cafe row did for it's full 9 house length). I've been relatively quiet at work and had a free evening yesterday (girlfriend was out) so broke out the mounting card, set square, steel rule and knife.

 

On the corner of this row will be a pub, very loosely based on the Fairholme Tavern

 

You might spot where I cut the windows too wide and had to infill a bit. The format of the windows will be the same as the real pub but when you trim mounting card down to a 1mm column (for want of a better word), it's a bit flimsy so I'll use Plastikard.

 

Wasn't sure what to do with the side of the pub (as you can see, the real boozer is within a row rather than on the end) so I drew up a few ideas on paper and then went with the one that looked better.

 

 

You can see where the row starts to climb. The pub is 5mm taller than the houses it is adjoined to.

 

 

I also started to add rudimentary column bases to the station canopy and affixed it (and the platform buildings) to the platform. Still a few more to do but it seems to be the best way of ensuring that the columns themselves are vertical and actually reach the platform (or near as dammit), rather than hovering at a jaunty angle.

 

[bluebottle]

I also started to add rudimentary column bases to the station canopy and affixed it (and the platform buildings) to the platform. Still a few more to do but it seems to be the best way of ensuring that the columns themselves are vertical and actually reach the platform (or near as dammit), rather than hovering at a jaunty angle.

I've been intrigued by Bacup as an urban branch terminus since seeing a picture of it in C. G. Gammell's "LMS Branch Lines 1945-1965" some years ago, so I'm enjoying your continuing account of the building of a model version. Particularly useful are down-to-earth (pun intended), "obvious once you think about it" ideas such as the above.

Thank you.

Gordon