The Construction of the Far North Line

[coronach]

I listened to your suggestions and posted a picture on the signal box topic, although I am wary of exposing my scant interest in the more technical aspects of signalling to those with a greater enthusiasm for it than myself, esp. when they start asking questions about the interior set-up . Anyway, work on the second box has reached the stage where it can be moved from the workbench and the next project begun. I worked on the rudimentary coaling stage and water tank base at the same time as the finishing off of the box, and here is a shot of it on the bench.

 

 

You can just make out the coaling area in the photo behind it- I have put the tank base the other way round to the prototype to cover some point motors- and also an interior shot of the HR cabin at The Mound that I used for the make-up of the platform cabin.

 

Finally, two shots of the cabin in place on the layout- I am now itching to get back to layout work, but only one more building to go....

 

 

Very nice!! I particularly like th snow!!!

[Ben Alder]

Steps are in hand to tackle the snow problem- this arrived today at Helmsdale, and appears to have cleaned the track area already

 

 

[kingfisher24]

your photos and layout ofcourse are very impressive, i just wish that i had the time and space to get my planned layout started. i have all the buildings drawn out but as yet have managed very little.

[Ben Alder]

your photos and layout ofcourse are very impressive, i just wish that i had the time and space to get my planned layout started. i have all the buildings drawn out but as yet have managed very little.

 

I don't think that you need berate yourself over lack of progress- your work on converting and adapting R-T-R locos is giving you a good stock of engines for the future, and in fact is the inspiration for my rebuilding programme .When I saw what you had done with the T9(Small Ben)- I had looked at this before and decided against it- and adapted my own version, this success triggered of my loco building burst of activity last year that gave me a stud of Highland and Caley engines, which in turn tipped me in favour of providing a more suitable home for them. If I hadn't built these I would probably have carried on with the old set-up, with which I was becoming increasingly less happy with. As it is, I am enjoying getting this new layout together, and finding progress quite straightforward. This is mainly achieved by not getting distracted and wandering off at tangents which has in the past sometimes taken me off-course for months at a time, although I have been acquiring and stockpiling some future projects- a Nu-cast Stanier 2-6-2T is the latest arrival; you can't model Thurso without one - so once layout work is done I'll be back to butterflying.......

[kingfisher24]

ive been looking at your pics again and the more i look at them the more i like some of the track plan, could you possibly tell me the size the helmsdale section as this track plan interests me and looks like something that would be interesting to work/shunt and, something that i cold north-britishise (if thats a word). keep up the good work.

 

gary patterson

[Ben Alder]

Glad you like the pictures- as an aside, I've recently done an upgrade to my trusty Kodak Easyshare 6mp camera and replaced it with a 10mp version of the same thing(£20 off Ebay for an ex-demo model- there are some real bargains out there if you are not too fussed about the latest version of something), which does give a clearer image.

 

Helmsdale is a simple layout- a passing loop with a kickback siding and a couple of dead enders- but has lots of shunting/play value, with carriages being added and removed from trains, banking engine movements, PW trains coming and going, the Dornoch engines being shedded there and several local workings including a railway workers special, calling at the various isolated cottages that were only railway served, occasionally.

The scenic length from one backscene to the other is just over 9' and the track does a rather abrupt turn for another 18'' or so before it goes behind the backscene at the north(not the station)end, and hopefully gives a spacious look despite its cramped location. Here is a shot taken from behind the footbridge showing the north end.

 

[Physicsman]

Hi Richard,

 

Looking at your photos posted on May 14, I'm curious. You've inset the track into the cork underlay. Is there more underlay beneath the track, or is it fixed onto the baseboard? I'm probably very naive, but I've never sat track into the underlay (I've always sat mine on top) - it looks very nice. Tell me I'm a fool if I'm missing something!!

 

Jeff

[Ben Alder]

The track is laid onto Tracklay adhesive rolls, ballasted, and put into place and lightly pinned. Cork inlay is glued between the tracks to raise the ballast level to sleeper height-in a station area there is no shoulder-and eventually this cork will be painted and a bead of Copydexed ballast will be added to hold the track in place. This is sitting on top of a layer of C&L 5mm foam and once the bead of ballast is dry any pins are removed, resulting in a track bed that has scope for some vertical movement and is also easily adjustable laterally if needed. I have used this method of track laying successfully for many years and any derailments are never due to the track. I am no fan of the PVAandbind everything solid approach to tracklaying- after all the real thing is designed to allow track some movement if necessary.

 

A couple of photos to show what I did.Firstly the Peco point set into the foam underlay to give a track height level with the plain track.

 

 

And some track with the infill in place on top of the foam.

 

 

I am studying the various colours of ballast/ash/dirt that make up Highland station yards, and it is proving "interesting". Trying to guess what the true shade is on a fifty plus year old colour pic is problematic, due to fading and colour casts that plague early colour emulsions. There is not a lot of relevant material to start with, and once you discount those with a blue content or dubious balance, it is turning out to be guesswork. I have seen the same shot of shunting at Helmsdale reproduced three or four times, and each image has quite different interpretations of the overall scene , which makes deciding what shading to follow somewhat difficult. Later, more stable, images from the diesel era are only marginally useful, as the weathering and shading is affected by oil and brake dust in a different way from steam times. The use of ash also vanished as well, so another change there. No doubt I'll work something out though.

 

 

PS- edit pre-post(!)- If you go to Page 1 #6 of this thread, there is an entry showing the above in some more detail.

HTH, but ask away if it all sounds as clear as mud

Richard

[Physicsman]

Many thanks, Richard. Quite an interesting system, and it clearly works for you.

 

I'm guessing the pale ale isn't an integral part of the strategy!!

 

Best wishes,

 

Jeff

[Ben Alder]

 

 

I'm guessing the pale ale isn't an integral part of the strategy!!

 

 

 

Jeff

 

Very much so- thinking juice- highly recommended

[Physicsman]

Very much so- thinking juice- highly recommended

 

I did wonder how you manage to get so much work done on your layout!! I think I will have to import some from the Orkneys!

 

Jeff

[Ben Alder]

Another week and still at the workbench- I decided that the ex-Mound cabin just didn't make it, so have built a new cabin for Thurso. As there is scant photographic evidence of this box- it was demolished after the War,IIR,-I based it on what I had and some conjecture- and here it is.

 

 

 

Not quite finished- I only glued the steps on tonight, so will finish the handrails tomorrow.

 

 

 

The first steps have been taken with the train shed, the platform building being built as a seperate module, and it is here that compression is becoming painfully apparent- I will go into this later in the build. It is not terribly well detailed as the overall roof and some careful placing of passengers will hide much but here it is as of tonight. Next comes the roof construction.

 

 

[kingfisher24]

The track is laid onto Tracklay adhesive rolls, ballasted, and put into place and lightly pinned. Cork inlay is glued between the tracks to raise the ballast level to sleeper height-in a station area there is no shoulder-and eventually this cork will be painted and a bead of Copydexed ballast will be added to hold the track in place. This is sitting on top of a layer of C&L 5mm foam and once the bead of ballast is dry any pins are removed, resulting in a track bed that has scope for some vertical movement and is also easily adjustable laterally if needed. I have used this method of track laying successfully for many years and any derailments are never due to the track. I am no fan of the PVAandbind everything solid approach to tracklaying- after all the real thing is designed to allow track some movement if necessary.

 

A couple of photos to show what I did.Firstly the Peco point set into the foam underlay to give a track height level with the plain track.

 

 

And some track with the infill in place on top of the foam.

 

 

I am studying the various colours of ballast/ash/dirt that make up Highland station yards, and it is proving "interesting". Trying to guess what the true shade is on a fifty plus year old colour pic is problematic, due to fading and colour casts that plague early colour emulsions. There is not a lot of relevant material to start with, and once you discount those with a blue content or dubious balance, it is turning out to be guesswork. I have seen the same shot of shunting at Helmsdale reproduced three or four times, and each image has quite different interpretations of the overall scene , which makes deciding what shading to follow somewhat difficult. Later, more stable, images from the diesel era are only marginally useful, as the weathering and shading is affected by oil and brake dust in a different way from steam times. The use of ash also vanished as well, so another change there. No doubt I'll work something out though.

 

 

PS- edit pre-post(!)- If you go to Page 1 #6 of this thread, there is an entry showing the above in some more detail.

HTH, but ask away if it all sounds as clear as mud

Richard

 

richard

 

i have found this colour umage of helmsdale circa 1959 it may be a help colour wise.

[artizen]

If I use a simple colour correction in Photoshop, it gives this result so I can understand Richard's frustration with trying to determine correct ballast colour etc.

[Ben Alder]

That is one of the pictures I had in mind when I made my comment re colour casts recently- full of detail and interest but next to useless when trying to ascertain ballast and ground hues. I have a scanned slide of it that I tweaked to differentiate the shades in the foreground- the sky was in turn bleached out and the train black was far too intense, but the colours of the left hand hill appeared as did ground ones, but still with a blue cast, so what is right? Its going to be a settling on what is available in scatter and a base paint I can live with, I daresay`.....

[Ben Alder]

Tonight's work has involved painting up some of the finished buildings- a nice second job that can be done in gaps in building work- and a trip to the railway to do some mock-ups of the train shed. At last I'm on the final stretch, and should start putting it together in the next day or two. Here are a couple of trials that suggest coping with the curved backscene might not be as much of a problem as I imagined.

 

 

 

 

I find this type of in-situ work useful in getting a feel for the finished work. In fact I can almost see the completed shed already.

 

[trisonic]

Amazing progress you have made on this layout since I last looked, Richard.

Superb SB!!!!!!

 

Best, Pete.

[McRuss]

Hello Richard,

 

keep going on. It looks great.

 

Markus

[Ben Alder]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments and the likes - they are appreciated, and do encourage progress, I can assure you. The last few nights have seen the Thurso box finished, and here is one last shot of it. I am going to post a pic of its sad replacement, but it is currently hiding somewhere and has to be tracked down.

 

 

The other work has been on the train shed, and it is now at a shell state, and drying off before further work is done. I have compromised here, omitting the rooflight on the far side of the roof, as this will not be seen at normal viewing levels and I do not intend featuring internal shots due to the extreme shortening of the platform buildings. I have also had to slope the far side to follow the curved backscene, but this has worked out better than I had imagined, and is not too obvious. Anyway, some WIP shots- no real need to elaborate as it is my usual plasticard cobbling together technique once more.

 

 

 

The two walls were placed in situ and joined with the roof beams and the gable ends added and left to set, then the roof was fixed on. Once this is set I will remove it to the workbench and fit the lean-to roof and the far end, which will create a strong enough structure in itself.

 

 

 

It would be easier modelling Wick, with its plain passenger gable, but I am going to have to attempt the curved wooden one that Thurso boasts....... Fun!

[Donw]

That pale ale must be doing something to keep up that rate of progress. I like how it is turning out.

Don

[Jason T]

This is really coming together now Richard, and to think that you commented that I work fast

 

I love the way that you have compressed everything in but not lost anything in the way of looks as a result, most impressive.

[Ben Alder]

Thanks, both- I find that with a degree of forward thought and planning the actual construction is not difficult. Its nothing I haven't done before and as I am not sweating over the final exact inch then any uncertainties can usually be got round one way or another . I have said this before, but the easy access to images, both contemporary and historical, has made this build much easier and faster than previously possible, eliminating the delays encountered pre- PC days when trying to find a photograph of some obscure HR building or another.

 

Talking of which, I still can't track down a good image of the frame shelter at Thurso that replaced the signal box, but I did come across a rather grainy colour one from some time ago. This is what I "should" have built, but the cabin does look better

 

[Physicsman]

I find it quite ironic that 2 of the few layouts I routinely look at (almost daily) seem to think the other works fast. As another Physicist once said, it's all relative!

 

Richard and Jason (Far North and Bacup respectively) - your threads are inspiring me via the quantity of "here's how you do it" pictures. Richard - your train shed has whet my appetite for a goods shed on my S&C. What are the main walls - 40 thou plasticard?

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Ben Alder]

60x188 Evergreen strips at right angles, which gives a rigid structure, while the plain wall was a sheet of 60 thou with a frame of 60x188 and a sheet of 40 thou. I'm pleased with the building rate- I had set myself a target of the end of June to get all the buildings built, and am almost there now , soon be back at the layout....

The walls of the train shed were going to be foamboard with plasticard laminate, but I was unsure how stable this would be so stuck with my usual plasticard methods. The station building side was 20 thou stuck onto a 40 thou backing and reinforced with the other skin. This is going to be faced with a sheet of Slaters stone sheet once it has been painted, and this gives a wall of c2' thickness, as the prototype.

Here is a photo of the thing underway- I have darkened it to show the white plasticard more clearly.

 

 

You can see the beginnings of the reinforcing strips in the building at the back.

[Graham R]

... image of the frame shelter at Thurso...

 

Hi Richard,

 

That's an interesting shot you found of the Thurso ground frame... it has four levers; when I saw it in the mid-1970s it had been replaced and reduced to three!

 

 

I wonder what the fourth lever was for? maybe for the siding next the cattle mart, which had been removed by the 1970s.

 

Your signalbox looks very H.R. ... nice model.

 

There was another wee hut just short of the ground frame, at the left-hand edge of the view below. The secondman is walking up to the frame to let the loco round its train. I can't remember if the water main in the foreground was on a concrete beam below the bridge, or if it ran on the bridge parapet... I think the former. The blob on the rail of the dock siding, near the crossings lying in the four-foot, isn't a pigeon - it's a cast-iron derailer worked simultaneously with the siding points, instead of a catch point.

 

 

regards

Graham