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Clecklewyke and the Bradford North Western Branch


clecklewyke
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Finally I can report some progress on my "Last Big Project", the ex-LNWR Bradford North Western branch, which is beginning to fill my model railway room. Currently this comprises Bradford North Western itself, which was originally the Newport Model Railway Club's "Belle View", and which will be modified from GWR midlands to look more like a secondary LNWR terminus in Bradford. From this the line runs in a semi-circle to Clecklewyke, which is being extended, and is the main subject of this posting. Future plans include the development of the Bradford terminus and the creation of Gormley Junction MPD and Scargill sidings sorting yard - you might infer that King Coal will feature strongly as a traffic!

But back to Clecklewyke. This was originally a four foot long diorama with a cassette fiddle yard at each end but is now being extended with a viaduct section.

Pictures will follow (having difficulty learning how to use my Macbook with RMweb. Please be patient!)

Edited by clecklewyke
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This is a pug shunting Clecklewyke yard. post-4908-0-24014700-1328130844_thumb.jpg

 

And here are the bare bones oattachf the viaduct extension. The scenery is being made out of corrugated cardboard, stuck together with a hot glue gun - fast, light, cheap and easily changed if you don't like your first attempt.

 

post-4908-0-14955600-1328131058_thumb.jpg

 

This is then coated with layers of newspaper, stuck together with diluted cheap woodworker's PVA glue, to create a hard but flexible shell. Then it will be coated with a Polyfilla/PVA mix coloured with brown acrylic to give a basic earth base, on which to add plant textures etc.

 

I have added rough models of some mill-workers' cottages and a large mill, which will hide the exit of trains at the left hand end of the scene. Some work has also been done to the viaduct: the rear arches have been cut out and some card formers have been added which will aid the location of the piers and brickwork to the underside of the arches.

 

The advanced starter is temporarily placed, awaiting its operating mechanism. I will discuss signals in a separate posting.

 

There is only a foot or so of scenery behind the viaduct. Initial hopeful thoughts of having some buildings behind the viaduct have given way to a more practical scheme of a hillside covered with trees, based on Mill Gill, through which I walk my dogs most days. Ruskin railed at schemes for a viaduct across neighbouring Aysgarth Falls. I wonder what he would have thought of this monstrosity towering above an equally lovely side valley? One thing that really appeals to me about the West Riding, especially the area around Bradford, Huddersfield and Halifax, is the close proximity of intensely urbanised valley bottoms and wild valley sides and moorland. Within a few yards you walk from dirty industry to beautiful countryside but even the buildings have a distinct rugged beauty, with a strong stone vernacular style. Geoff Taylor is, of course, the master of this with his buildings for MMRC's Dewsbury.

 

post-4908-0-35544800-1328131196_thumb.jpg

 

More progress: I have clad the upper walls of the viaduct and the piers with Slaters' embossed stonework. The piers are as yet temporarily located and will be firmly fixed when I have cut out the brickwork for the undersides of the arches. They will eventually be painted to match the other stonework at Clecklewyke (see the first picture) and yes, the piers are wonky but will be o.k. when stuck in place

post-4908-0-14199700-1328136852_thumb.jpg

I love this part of layout building, when sculpting its basic skeleton and progress is fast but, then texturing it, detailing it and painting it have other charms.

 

I have also started the cobbled lane which runs beside the large mill and under the viaduct, using South Eastern Finecast embossed setts.

post-4908-0-22325300-1328133750_thumb.jpg

Edited by clecklewyke
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P.S. I'm being driven mad by my inability to get photographs to stay where I want them. The first couple in the above posting went where I thought they would but the later ones have just appeared as "attached thumbnails" and no amount of editing the text around their file names corrects this. Am I doing something obviously wrong?

 

Help, please!

 

Ian

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Looking good Ian, should have some great atmosphere when it's finished. I've always liked Clecklewyke when I've seen it at shows.

 

As for your attachments problem, this - [attachment =150934:P1020354.JPG should be closed with a ] . probably got deleted somehow, I've done it myself!

Edited by Worsdell forever
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Never mind when it's finished, it looks great now and has atmosphere even in it's cardboard and newspaper form :)

 

I like the idea of a mix of urban and countryside and as you say, there's a lot of places where you don't have to walk far from the town before you are in beautiful countryside. I've been mountain biking around Todmorden and Hebden Bridge a couple of times and what's really nice about it is that one moment you are riding down a ribbon of singletrack surrounded by trees, turn a corner and you pop out onto a street of terraced houses, old mills, etc. Gives you a perspective of the contrast between the two but the old stone built buildings have such character that they now seem to blend into the landscape. Not sure people would have thought so in Ruskin's day though; they probably thought that the mills, etc., that we see as charming and full of character were carbunkles on the landscape, comparable to how we now see concrete office blocks viewable across fields, etc.

 

I use Photobucket for all images and link across. I know it's not the done thing but it's just a habit I've got into.

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Really looking forward to watching this develop; it has all the aspects of my favorite layouts; stations, running lines that go to somewhere from somewhere, lots of vertical as well as horizontal scenic interest and a fascinating but protoypical mix of urban and rural. Keep 'em coming!

 

On a slight hijack, and probbaly exposing my ignorance, for Sandside, why is linking to photobucket "not the done thing"?

 

George

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I think most people do use the uploader, but as long as you have the copyright to the linked images (or permission) linking is fine. Andy is understandably warey of linking for the copyright reason, but is happy with sites such as flickr.

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On a slight hijack, and probbaly exposing my ignorance, for Sandside, why is linking to photobucket "not the done thing"?

 

Hi George, it's predominantly a speed and availability thing.

 

If images are hosted externally when a topic loads the server has to look for them and display them. If they're unavailable (other site down) or slow to load it can affect the speed of displaying the topic. If a user uploads the images to RMweb the pages are faster to load and if the site's available so are the images. Users still retain all rights to the images the same as if they are displayed anywhere else.

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I guess part of it was that I didn't want to fill up your bandwidth.

 

Anyway, we've taken up quite a few posts of this very intriguing layout topic to discuss the merits of picture hosting (and I do see that it was partly my doing), so can I propose that we get back on topic and, if others (especially Clecklewyke himself) are in agreement, remove the references to it? Just a suggestion, of course.

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Thanks all for your comments, especially Andy who, as usual, provided a full and comprehensible explanation. I second Sandside, though; end of hijack (apologies) and lets let the thread get back to the excellent modelling...

 

G

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  • 1 month later...

Compared with the likes of the Laird and Sandside I'm a very sparse poster. I seem to spend much longer to build things than these doyens of our art - the last few days being wasted on sorting a simple electrical fault. Mind you, if you could see my wiring (and no way will I let you!) you would understand.

 

However, progress is progressing (beep - repetition) at my own own glacial rate, and I will post some photos real soon now but today I am writing to ask for some advice. I have been losing sleep for the last couple of nights thinking about the overall plan for the Bradford North Western branch. This regularly settles into a hollow of stability, a scheme that appears to be perfect. But after a few months the doubts creep in. Is there enough room for a credible landscape? Will the fiddle yard be workable? As I reach my 8th decade will I be able to manage that duck-under?

 

My latest worry is the location of the MPD. I am planning a sizable city terminal, with the scope of the The Laird's station on the opposite side of Gloucester Square, with a main line running through a small town station (Clecklewyke) past a sorting yard (Scargill Sidings) and an MPD to a fiddle yard, preferably with a continuous run.

 

The Bradford terminus and Clecklewyke are largely complete but I am finding that it is difficult to get all the other elements fitted into the room (despite having some 200 sq ft) without the MPD being adjacent to the main station. But I cannot think of any real British city terminus where the MPD was adjacent. Normally MPDs were built on cheaper land away from the city centre, whereas the station obviously needed to be conveniently placed in the heart of town. Also, there are some cases such as Lime Sreet where there was originally a loco servicing point within the station but growth in traffic demanded expansion of the facilities on a bigger, more remote site.

 

Can anyone think of a prototype exception which would "allow" me to break this rule?

 

Ian (Who maybe should stop worrying and get a life...)

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Glasgow St Enoch had an MPD hard by the station throat, at least in pre-grouping days. There's a photo at the link below where you can see the engine shed beyond the station buildings. It does seem to be more of a goods shed by the time of the pic. http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=7517&start=30#p155681

 

Many thanks for this. I've also found this:

 

http://www.wbsframe.mste.co.uk/public/pdf/St_Enoch_Diagram1.pdf

 

Other drawings show that the building was partly a loco shed and partly a goods shed.

 

A fascinating prototype and just perfect for my needs!

 

Ian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Developments at Bradford have been hampered by rather more vital maters - funerals - but here at last are a few more photos of what progress there has been.

 

Bradford North Western itself has not been touched (you might remember that it is still basically Newport MRC’s Belle View, so I am not posting photos of it until it shows the results of my own work).

 

However, Mill Gill and its viaduct are coming on apace. The surfacing of the viaduct is a mixture of Slater’s 7mm and 4mm stone sheets and Safeprint polystyrene foam sheets. I am beginning to get to like the latter as they are so easy to work, stable (unless you press too hard) and very versatile. Painting is by artists' acrylics. These are so much cheaper than Humbrol alternatives and come in larger volumes so last longer when painting large surfaces.

 

I find the particular colours of West Riding stonework quite tricky to get right. As I did on Clecklewyke, I am using a mixture of white, black, yellow ochre and burnt umber. I think it is necessary to limit the numbers of colours used in the interests of harmony, and to use a lot of white - colours should be muted rather than strong. This is a problem with smoke-blackened stone; the tendency is to overdo the black and I think that this is still the case with the viaduct. Never mind - I enjoy the process of gradually building up the tones I need, by constant reference to colour photos.

 

I have also made a start on the stream bed, using Safeprint again to create the rock strata. Mill Gill is named after and based on a side valley off Wensleydale, in which I walk the dogs most days, so inspiration abounds! I will probably use some genuine Mill Gill Beck gravel to detail the stream bed.

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The pictures show a pick up goods arriving and stopping at the advanced starter, then moving off when the section in advance becomes clear. The loco is a London Road Models kit with Gibson wheels. The signal is mostly MSE’s parts. I have yet to find a photo of a suitable viaduct-mounted prototype, so the mounting bracket is a guess and I have yet to add the ladder. It’s too late to teach this dog new tricks so operation is via simple MSE solenoid with return to “on†by means of a lead weight rather than the sophistication of servos with software-controlled bounce. All the operating gubbins is concealed from the viewer by mounting it on the back of the viaduct where it is readily accessible; I am afraid that my life is too short to detail bits that cannot normally be seen!

 

The signal is quite an important development. We split the roles of driver and signalmen. Our drivers follow the signals (DCC users can switch off here!) and pulling this signal, which is Clecklewyke’s advanced starter, not only allows trains into the section between Clecklewyke and Bradford North Western, but also switches the current for this section from Clecklewyke’s local controller to the main down line controller. When the signal is “on†trains can be drawn forward then reversed into Clecklewyke’s yard by the local controller without needing to ask permission from the signal box in advance - a very prototypical move.

Edited by clecklewyke
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I've now made a start on the millworkers' cottages. Originally I planned to use the frontage of some cottages I made from Ossett Mouldings plaster castings in the 1970s but having sampled the pleasure of working with Safeprint foam sheets I realised it would be quicker to make these anew rather than try to revive the old damaged plaster casts.

 

 

Ossett Mouldings did some really nice kits for buildings but they sold their masters, having realised they would never make their fortunes from railway modellers. They are still in business, making plaster cornices, ceiling roses etc.

 

Here are the Ossett Mouldings originals:

 

post-4908-0-09686700-1332514328_thumb.jpg

 

Here are the replacements. No contest!

 

post-4908-0-66856700-1332515278_thumb.jpg

 

The horizontal courses were scribed with a sharp pencil, the vertical divisions between individual stones with small screwdrivers. It is a very fast and easy technique for coursed stonework like this but the technique really comes into its own with walls with more varied textures. The MRJ article about their use suggests texturing stonework with nail brushes or similar. I've still to try that.

 

Now for the detailing - windows, rainware, doors etc.

 

Ian

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The 1931 sectional appendix for Bradford says

 

Some shunting instructions

 

but

 

Up trains could be assisted to Bowling Junction.

 

and

 

During fog or falling snow, when trains were brought forward with a calling on signal,they should stand at the head of the platform until advised as to how far the platform is clear.

 

I will try and find the 1937 appendix tomorrow / Thursday and see if it differs.

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The 1931 sectional appendix for Bradford says

 

Some shunting instructions

 

but

 

Up trains could be assisted to Bowling Junction.

 

and

 

During fog or falling snow, when trains were brought forward with a calling on signal,they should stand at the head of the platform until advised as to how far the platform is clear.

 

I will try and find the 1937 appendix tomorrow / Thursday and see if it differs.

 

Thanks, Dave.

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Dave,

 

This looks like a superb layout in the making. I just love the blackened urban grittiness of the viaduct scene - your earlier Clecklewyke layout is one of my favourites at S4 Soc do's. Will we get the chance to see Bradford NW, or is it a permanent layout?

I take your point about making soot encrusted stone-work too black. I've probably fallen into this trap on Delph, but my memory of pre-smokeless zones was of a very blackened appearance in deed. Perhaps some very light washes of a grey/brown colour might reduce the blackness - although I'm reluctant to set about Peter L's buildings too radically in case I ruin them!

You use of foam board for the cottages is most instructive. I've got a large area of cobbles to represent in the goods yard and miles of stone retaining walls, which don't suit the use of embossed plastic because they aren't nice, straight or rectangular shapes but are curved to fit the ground profile. This definately looks the way to go and much less messy than scribing plaster, which was my reluctant route chosen before, so thanks very much for the inspiration.

 

Looking forward to reading further posts, as an when (I only make glacial progress, too!).

 

Dave.

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Dave,

 

Thank you very much for your kind comments. Clecklewyke is still very much alive: I work too slowly to discard anything that's half decent - hence my initial intention to resurrect the old Ossett Mouldings cottages. The viaduct is an extension of Clecklewyke and the enlarged Clecklewyke is pencilled in for Scalefour North in 2014 (Humber Dock should be my contribution in 2013).

 

Here are a couple of photos of the expanded Clecklewyke. They show a WD plus brake van approaching Clecklewyke's advanced starter. You will see that I have started doing basic ground cover, also that advanced starter is a bit near to the starter. It might need to be moved to give enough room for a reasonably sized train to be tucked into Clecklewyke's goods yard without encroaching on the section in advance.

 

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Bradford Norh Western station itself is unlikely to be exhibited - it's far too big to fit in even two family cars (there are no van hire companies in Wensleydale and I'm very much a lone worker here by necessity). But visitors are welcome - especially if they book a night or two in our B&B!

 

I'm very interested that you are modelling Delph. It's a fascinating line and if I had room for a branchline that would be my first choice. I would love to have a model of the centre-door push and pull coaches that were used there but I have failed to encourage Larry ("Coachman") to do another run of them. I had not stumbled across your thread but I'll now have a look for it (despite the fact that the weather is so nice I should be working in the garden).

 

Best wishes,

 

Ian

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Ian,

 

Firstly, sorry for getting your name wrong on my earlier comment - no insult intended! In my rush to post during my lunch break I must have mis-read an earlier post!

Anyway, thanks for the additional viaduct photos and explanation. I love WD's and have one to appear on the Delph goods from time to time - I'm not sure they ever ran there in reallity (I think Lancky Cl 27's and Fairburn tanks were used), but Lees had some, so they could have. I was lucky enough to spot Larry's push-pull coaches when he was producing them and bought sufficient to make up several prototypical driving & trailer combinations (in conjunction with a couple of coaches I made myself).

A future visit would be something to look forward to. I'm retiring on Friday, so will have more time for modelling related activities!

I'll look forward to S4N in 2013 & 14, then. I'm there myself, this year, doing loco constuction. If you attend, please say "Hello".

You mention an MRJ article on the use of Safeprint foam sheet - can you advised which issue number it was (I have the lot, including issue 0!).

 

Dave.

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