Stockrington - Mojo ignited. Thanks, Heljan!

[jcredfer]

Nice kits and such a convenient arrival too.  

 

I had one of their Signal Box interior kits and was a bit concerned about how thin the material was, for when it got painted.  It looked as if it might swell with absorbing the Acrylic paint, but I needn't have worried, as it went on just fine.

 

Looking forward to  seeing your kits in place.

Kind regards

 

Julian

[runs as required]

I absolutely love those big pics of the whole bridge end of the layout; some great developments down there in 'cold' WA

Mackems roond here are all getting bed sores with the hot nights.

Shall be sorry to see the myriad plastic boxes of the Sunderland 'take away' home delivery being permanently removed after planting up is complete

Best wishes

dh

[jcredfer]

Hi,

I have just seen this, posted on Jaz's Model Railway Discussion Group, it harks back to a discussion we had about tunnel vents, after some pictures of those above Shakespeare Tunnel.  That must be quite a long tunnel shown and probably largely lacking in vents,I can't imagine a short tunnel would have such a dramatic effect.  I must contrive to get to the exit of Box tunnel when an excursion goes through, as it s quite long and has vents too.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=Vi610Ei1NmA 

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

Edited August 10, 2018 by jcredfer

[jukebox]

That's brilliant, Julian!  Thanks for sharing.

 

And my other thought: a tunnel, leading out onto a bridge, and a level crossing across it's mouth?  If you did that on a model railway, it would look twee and totally fictional...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jcredfer]

That's brilliant, Julian!  Thanks for sharing.

 

And my other thought: a tunnel, leading out onto a bridge, and a level crossing across it's mouth?  If you did that on a model railway, it would look twee and totally fictional...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

 

Ha, yes, how preposterous, no-one would even dream of such a stupid concoction      .............................................      would they?

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

[JZ]

That's brilliant, Julian!  Thanks for sharing.

 

And my other thought: a tunnel, leading out onto a bridge, and a level crossing across it's mouth?  If you did that on a model railway, it would look twee and totally fictional...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Bradford on Avon. Unfortunately, to get the bridge in a photo would require trespassing.

[JZ]

So, until today I haven't replied to this, but have followed your trials and tribulations of the last few years. Why hide the rabbit hole? You already have a well visible junction, why not turn it into a feature?

[jukebox]

So, until today I haven't replied to this, but have followed your trials and tribulations of the last few years. Why hide the rabbit hole? You already have a well visible junction, why not turn it into a feature?

 

 

Hi JZ - welcome!

 

A good question.  I guess because the scenery there is not severe - the landform doesn't really rise to that corner, it's a rolling flat section that actually falls away -  it just felt like the track leading down the 5% grade would have been in a cutting, because it is so shallow, and that a tunnel portal would have drawn attention to its presence.  By suggesting an increasing level of shrubbery, it give that track a chance to disappear without fanfare.  There will be enough visual goings on out front with the signal box - and in the foreground there, I have coal staithes in mind.

 

It was, for me, a case of "less is more" in the background there.  And the truth is, the further I progress, the happier I am that I have less track - the open landscapes are very appealing.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jcredfer]

I sometimes wish I had more to do less on ...........     if that makes sense.     

 

Kind regards

 

Julian

[jukebox]

Work is now well underway with the signal box:

 

4 walls make a building shape:

 

 

then laminates give depth to the window openings:

 

 

 

Gables and slates make a roof

 

 

I sprayed the window laminates grey, so that they will take the white paint a bit easier later

 

 

 

At this point, my curiosity got the better of me, so I took the loose assembly upstairs to see how it sits:

 

 

Nice fit, considering I left that hole with no idea what sized box I was going to have!

 

 

In the left foreground is the blind turnout that will service the coal staithes

 

 

I have some reservations about this kit - or more accurately, the use of card.  I much prefer plastic, as you know it will stay straight.  Some of the laminates, despite me being frugal with the glue, are bowed.  I am a bit concerned over the long term stability of the structure. Perhaps if it had been a balsa or ply material, it would feel more rigid.

 

However, the detailing is nice, and it will look the part when painted up.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited August 12, 2018 by jukebox

[Tortuga]

What an excellent thread! Just finished reading through the back pages and it’s nice to see it all coming together from the original design.

[Tortuga]

What an excellent thread! Just finished reading through the back pages and it’s nice to see it all coming together from the original design.

[jukebox]

This layout building caper is a funny old thing.  You think you know what you're doing next, and then you find you have to turn your plans on their heads.

 

I *was* going to try and fit the fascia to the East side, so that I would run the ground cover hard up against it.  I even bought the timber.  But as I started thinking in three dimensions, I could see I actually needed to finish the North fascia first, as it would be partly held in place by the East and West fascias.

 

So then, I started to imagine what the North fascia looks like...

 

It needs to meet the large flat baseboard edge that Northmoor MPD will sit on to the west:

 

 

and it need to match the fascia covering large hill that the tunnel goes through on the East:

 

 

After much measuring and rumination most of yesterday, as I really wasn't sure of where I was going to take this, and partly because I can't buy panels of timber large enough to make the fascias in one piece - they need to be planks dowelled together, which I've never done - I came up with a solution.

 

Timber bought, and measured upstairs, I took it downstairs, out the back to the shed to cut - there's too much scenery on the layout now to go making sawdust storms upstairs.  I even purchased a new jigsaw blade so to give myself the best chance not to mess it up.

 

The end result looks like I bought this from Ikea:

 

 

I need to drill the holes and fit the dowels later today, then that will get a couple of coats of Teak stain/varnish combo. 

 

After that I'll attach it to the layout for keeps...

 

then I can go back, and make then East fascia like I'd originally planned...

 

and *then* I can go back and fill in the gaps where the current landform doesn't quite come out as far as was needed...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited August 19, 2018 by jukebox

[runs as required]

"Yikes!

Yerv lost me now hinny."

Just when I've been and ticked 'agree' to

it’s nice to see it all coming together from the original design

you go and construct a Sunderland Mackem's hot summer's meat safe out of yaller gauze!

   dh

[jukebox]

"Yikes!

Yerv lost me now hinny."

Just when I've been and ticked 'agree' to

you go and construct a Sunderland Mackem's hot summer's meat safe out of yaller gauze!

   dh

 

 

I just put that lot through Google translate...

 

Nope. I've got nothing.

 

[jukebox]

When I was a lad, I used to get rumbled by my mother for using plastic cement when gluing Airfix kits.

 

I think if I wasn't divorced, this week I may well have experienced flashbacks to those days.

 

I started with a tin of this stuff:

 

 

The only sensible place to apply this to my fascia was the MPD area of the layout that is still open frame, so I set up my drop sheets:

 

 

and applied the first coat:

 

 

I washed the (brand new) brush out in mineral turpentine, and left it soaking in a shallow container, as the varnish needs three coats.

 

The layout is upstairs, and I didn't close the door...

 

At 5am the next morning, when I rose to go to work, my bedroom reeked of hydrocarbon vapour.  In fact, the whole of downstairs did. Really badly.

 

Luckily the weather has turned, and my oldrest was not going to university that day, so I opened all the windows in the house, put a lid on the brush tray, and closed the door.

 

12 hrs later, the worst of the funk had gone.

 

So I was able to apply a second coat.

 

Now that has dried, I tested it in place to see how it looks.

 

 

I have a small corner on the left to trim as it's clashing with the L girder, and will also give it a third and final coat during the week.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

Not a lot of modeling this last month - family life has been taking priority.

 

I used a few 1hr modelling sessions this week to put the finishing touches to the signal box.

 

It's okay for what it is... but if I did another, I wouldn't spend the money on the interior kit; I didn't find it particularly good value, and despite all the windows it isn't very visible...

 

 

 

I cut a small hole in the cabin floor, so that if I decide to illuminate it one day, wiring in a small LED will be easy; the detail does deserve to be seen.

 

Outside I added some finials, and bashed the kit so the stairs came off parallel to the side wall, not perpendicular.  I did toss up replacing the wooden railings with wire, but in the end, just pressed on with what the kit supplied.

 

 

 

I used some Tamiya weathering powers to break up the uniformity of the brick work and the slate roof, and it's now ready to plonk in the corner, and surround with some shrubbery to make it look part of the scenery.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited September 23, 2018 by jukebox

[jukebox]

The faux Wylam cottage I made a few months back has been sitting on my workbench - ostensibly because I have no idea what else would make up a "farm" in 1930's England, and so have no idea how to populate the space I set aside for it (answers on a postcard gratefully received...)

 

But as I looked at in next to the "medium" signal box, it's clear I stuffed it up.

 

It is way too big:

 

 

Placing a couple of train crew I have at my bench only confirmed this...

 

 

Not much I can do except start again.  I'm glad in a way, as it will make the building a lot less dominant - I wanted it as a point of interest, not focus...

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

In the meantime, the signal box is now in it's new home:

 

 

 

That's more like it!

 

Fencing underway... I'll install that in the next day or so.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[runs as required]

Signal box looking good Scott - nice to see a box freshly painted.on the old famously impoverished LNER

 

As to George Stephenson's Birthplace, the Wylam cottage

As you can see here.  it was right beside the line (originally 4' 0" gauge) from Wylam colliery down to Lemington staith on the Tyne. It stood by itself in open country just outside the grounds of Close House (now a golf course) . 

The best place to check it - and any group of long standing UK buildings such as a farm is on this website   You can go from latest satellite on a slider to the old map of your choice (i like old C19 OS 6".) - in various ways then find a current image - from either the air (with Bing maps) or a google street view.

 

I like the above view because the later NER double track N Wylam line on the old Wylam Colliery (Puffing Billy) alignment is still laid with an ash ballast and you can make out the old Wylam smoke stacks in the distance (it is now a posh commuters' village).

GS's cottage is now very prettily whitewashed and presented by the National Trust - but in this view is still raw unpainted stone. It still has a clay pantile roof with the couple of rows of stone flag slabs over the eaves - and slabs down the 45 degree gable ends.

Note it has a low door - I'd say 6' 0" (24mm to scale) height.

 

Great to see this layout getting more and more exciting.

dh

[Cougle1993]

New to RMWEB and this is the first thread I've read hard to believe its based around Sunderland where i'm from haha brilliant stuff to say the least

[jukebox]

Signal box looking good Scott - nice to see a box freshly painted.on the old famously impoverished LNER

 

As to George Stephenson's Birthplace, the Wylam cottage

stephensons cottage.jpg

As you can see here.  it was right beside the line (originally 4' 0" gauge) from Wylam colliery down to Lemington staith on the Tyne. It stood by itself in open country just outside the grounds of Close House (now a golf course) . 

The best place to check it - and any group of long standing UK buildings such as a farm is on this website   You can go from latest satellite on a slider to the old map of your choice (i like old C19 OS 6".) - in various ways then find a current image - from either the air (with Bing maps) or a google street view.

 

I like the above view because the later NER double track N Wylam line on the old Wylam Colliery (Puffing Billy) alignment is still laid with an ash ballast and you can make out the old Wylam smoke stacks in the distance (it is now a posh commuters' village).

GS's cottage is now very prettily whitewashed and presented by the National Trust - but in this view is still raw unpainted stone. It still has a clay pantile roof with the couple of rows of stone flag slabs over the eaves - and slabs down the 45 degree gable ends.

Note it has a low door - I'd say 6' 0" (24mm to scale) height.

 

Great to see this layout getting more and more exciting.

dh

 

Thanks dh.  I'd used Google earth and tried to scale the footprint of the building, and because I did it in solation, got the ratios of everything right, but ended up with something close to S scale!

 

The bullet proof construction I used will make it hard to salvage much, so I might just start from scratch, as the time I'd spent recovering material is probably worth less then a few new sheets of plasticard.

 

New to RMWEB and this is the first thread I've read hard to believe its based around Sunderland where i'm from haha brilliant stuff to say the least

 

Welcome to RMWEB, Cougle, and thanks for the kind words - nice to have someone's first post on my thread.  As I wrote in Post #1 all those years back, not living in the UK, and never having been to Sunderland or Stockton, makes a lot of the modelling a challenge... but it's funny what is - and isn't - available on line.  The internet is an invaluable resource.  

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

Before I put the third and final coat of varnish on the end fascia, I propped it up against the layout to check the fit and the look.

 

What it showed was that my terra-forming wasn't quite vertical, and I'd left some gaps as the hills got higher, and they crept inward by about 75mm.

 

So I cut a couple of thin MDF sheet dummy fascias that I could plaster hard up against, make an unholy mess of, and then remove and replace with the real deal afterward:

 

 

I stuffed the gaps with paper, and then covered the MDF with cling-wrap so the plaster would not stick:

 

 

 

I then batched up some plaster with a high PVA content, so it would bond tightly to the already formed scenery edge:

 

 

 

Once that is dry, I'll strip away the formers - hopefully leaving behind the plaster, intact - and can mount the finished teak fascia:

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

A short session upstairs today, but a fiddly one that I had been putting off - fencing.

 

60012 was moved into shot for some of these, to add some interest.

 

[click for full screen]

 

[click for full screen]

 

[click for full screen]

 

 

Once the glue has set, I will go back, touch in some PVA over those little "mounds" of brown, and sprinkle some static grass to disguise the adhesive.

 

I want to add a little more foliage by way of dark green Woodland Scenic foam to represent weedy bushes, but the fencing does "make" the scene - as such, is corner is now substantially complete for now.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited September 26, 2018 by jukebox

[DougN]

Scott, your right with the fencing as without it the entire area looks a bit bare. I found this too with my layout. Having some fence or boundary walling seemed to fill unlikely spaces looking a whole heap more complete.