Portsea Town

[lash]

Work has been the big item in June but I have grabbed the odd half hour to work on some small projects. So the SR concrete lamps are painted and I have completed a LSWR lattice signal based on the Ratio LNER signal kit suitably hacked and a cast finial. Not a perfect scale model but it will look the part at the end of platform 1

[lash]

As usual my brain is only half working and I forgot the pics

 

 

[Barnaby]

Some very nice detail work there Lash and thanks for the tips on what /how you are achieving your needs. .

 

Interesting to follow.

 

 

Regards

[lash]

Thanks Barnaby and the others making encouraging posts, it is always good to know this is read and appreciated.

[lash]

Forgot to mention I've started a two doll bracket signal for the starter for platforms 2 and 3 . I have built one before but was not happy with the result and I have plenty of parts from a Ratio LNER kit to do the job

[ejgray52]

Thought I'd just add my history here...lol. Born 1952, Gosport. Only local memories are the green EMU's leaving Portsmouth Harbour and a Q1 not far from my home on the truncated branch from Fareham to Gosport at the junction with the MOD line into Frater Depot. I remember being fascinated by this rusty, simmering weird looking loco...... Other than that my train spotting was limited to an annual week with my grandparents in Grantham; A4's, A3's and Deltics etc thundering through made rows of green carriages pale into insignificance I'm afraid!

[ejgray52]

Forgot to say, I'm looking forward to seeing this layout when it is finished.

[lash]

Its been more than 6 months since my last post and modelling has been a tadge sporadic. Very busy at work, daughters and other duties

 

I have been working on a couple of projects for Portsea , signals and low relief station building, and will post some photos soon

 

I have also been sorting the spare/junk/modeling room which should give some further encouragement

 

So as ever I'll try to cape diem (sieze the carp strange expression) and move Portsea on a bit before its thrid anniversary in April

[lash]

Two items I have been working on 

 

First a rather butchered Ratio LNER lattice signal with LSWR finials and generally altered to make a passing resemblance of an LSWR item . Not a scale model but it looks the part to me . If I ever complete the layout signals will be an important visual feature .

 

Second the start of a low relief station building . I had some plans of Wraysbury station from an old edition of Model Railway Constructor . I had started a model in plasticard more than 30 years ago  . Last year I had a clear out and chucked the magazine then within a week saw a copy in a second hand book shop and deciding it must be fate bought it . Wraysbury is a LSWR building and so I am adapting elements of it into a plasticard  low relief side to the terminus to sit under the overall roof  , at least there may be the odd hint of appropriate architecture .Very much work in progress and the photo reveals a multitude of sins not visible to the naked eye .a bit of shaping with wet and dry paper needed on one of the arches . 

 

 

[lash]

Somehow I've managed a very pleasant evening modelling picking up where I left off with the station building 3 months ago

 

Who knows what this greyhound like progress will lead to........

 

[lash]

Rain and drizzle kept me from weeding the vegetable patch this evening so I have been able to get in a couple of hours modelling working on the low relief station building, most enjoyable

 

[ian_g_griffiths]

I also was born in Portsmouth, 1954, and remember trainspotting from the old iron bridge north of Fratton station. Standing on the handrail and leaning over the top as the WC/BB used to haul the odd train in and out. The 08 shunting the yard, 33s hauling freight and the odd 47 coming in with western region coaches. They were odd things, you needed to collect all the coach numbers a they were not marshalled into sets.

Tony, the guy I went spotting with, used to stop off at the rec, in St Marys Road, sometimes and remember well when Underground stock suddenly appeared on the line en route to the Isle of Wight.

 

Ian

[lash]

I also was born in Portsmouth, 1954, and remember trainspotting from the old iron bridge north of Fratton station. Standing on the handrail and leaning over the top as the WC/BB used to haul the odd train in and out. The 08 shunting the yard, 33s hauling freight and the odd 47 coming in with western region coaches. They were odd things, you needed to collect all the coach numbers a they were not marshalled into sets.

Tony, the guy I went spotting with, used to stop off at the rec, in St Marys Road, sometimes and remember well when Underground stock suddenly appeared on the line en route to the Isle of Wight.

 

Ian

Ian 

 

Thanks for the reminders, who knows Portsea may get some blue stock one day so those 47s might make an appearance ,or a Hymek and even on one occasion a class 31 ,all presumably on Cardiff tarins

[lash]

A very pleasant and satisfying couple of hours making windows frames for the station building from 20thou plasticard and strip.

 

Arched sections are scribed with a compass in 20 thou and plastwelded in place with the rest of the frame made up from the strip. Crossbars will be glued in place after glazing

 

[lash]

It is nearly four years ago that I started work on Portsea Town and I am pleased with what I have done and certainly learnt a lot and improved my skills but progress is very very slow and some of the modelling quite demanding given my skill levels . Like most people I have demands on my time as well ,work ,family, more work and of course other interests but there are other factors .

 

Portsea is six feet by one and solid plus fiddle yard at four feet , quite heavy and unwieldy and I have had nowhere I can work on it easily and not have to put it away . Later this year I will be sorting out an attic room which will give a brilliant space but I would like a quick and easy ( ha ha and how naïve) well easier ,and more easily handled .

 

So what I plan is putting Portsea on hold ( no change there and no plan needed ) and build a lighter smaller and simpler project .

 

So the idea is :

 

• Lightweight and transportable

   

• No more than six foot in total and individual boards no more than four feet long

   

• Quickish to build ( six months )

   

• Simple structures and landscape and not too much of it

   

• Simple electrics

   

• Southern around 1960

   

• An opportunity to run passenger, parcels and goods

 

 

I'll start a new topic soon  

[westerhamstation]

Hi Lash, good to know that you are starting a new project and I wish you well with it, all the best Adrian.

[ejgray52]

Got to see this layout in the flesh last weekend on the Isle of Wight. Really impressive - and the grandsons loved it too. Many thanks.

[lash]

I’ve been pondering what comes next after Milton Quay ,my small dockside terminus .

 

I’m thinking urban , with more structural modelling ( I have accumulated quite a few kits and second hand buildings for construction and bashing) but not too complex and a more conventional approach to baseboards and point control. Maybe a variation on the Ian Futers Haymarket theme using track and other components I already have with a view to keeping costs down.

 

Then I looked in the corner of the room and stacked against the wall was Portsea Town looking a bit dusty but undamaged and with some nice trackwork and decent electrics all wired and working when last tested . A cunning plan maybe to remove a platform , a bridge here ,new retaining walls there. A new fiddle yard would be required but no big problem there or maybe even share with the slidy cassettes at Milton Quay .

 

So watch this space ..........I might just have a cunning plan .

[westerhamstation]

Hi Lash, it would be good to see Portsea Town revived as it was a good layout. I look forward to your cunning plan. all the best Adrian.

[lash]

Thanks Adrian your encouragement is as ever much appreciated

 

The cunning plan is developing in my head and will involve some fun kitbashing  .

 

 

[lash]

Sometimes I get ideas above by station .

 

So when I found this gem at the Newport IOW show at the weekend I couldn’t resist for a tenner . I have been aware of this old Hornby kit for a while and have noted it’s architectural similarity to Portsmouth and Southsea station . It’s a bit bashed and in need of tlc but as project or even a carve up  really I couldn’t resist . A bit grand for Portsea maybe but who knows I may model a larger station one day .....

 

 

[lash]

At the same show last year l bought a very old Horny signal box for about three quid.

 

i think it’s based on an early 50s box in turn based on a postwar LMS box. It’s a bit narrow and I’ll need to fabricate some  handrails for the stairs ( no not health and safety gone mad even 1/72 plastic people deserve a safe workplace) but it will be up against a resting wall which will disguise the lack of depth and if Portsea lost its lovely LSWR type 3a box to incendiaries in the war I’m sure this type of box can be justified . Anyway it’s my train set , it’s just the right size and after a scrub and a spray of grey acrylic primer it looks to me the basis of a half decent model and better and cheaper than a plaster plonk it down alternative not to mention re-using a bit of plastic !Oh and yes one day I will scratch build but in the meantime  it’s good fun for this less than average modeller.

 

[westerhamstation]

Hi Lash, some good finds, and what a difference a bit of paint makes. All the best Adrian.