Jump to content
 

Recommended Posts

Alex

 

What a great looking layout!

 

I do hope you will not mind if I steer you a little concerning Diddington, as I lived for a large chunk of my life in Buckden, which is about a mile away.  Diddington is very much alive and well, if very small (smallest parish in Cambridgeshire).  You can see its very attractive brick church tower from the A1.

 

Grafham Water was actualy one of the less destructive reservoirs, as it only submerged one or two farmhouses and a road (and the valley, of course).  Massive protests at the time, naturally, but the wildlife it has attracted has more than made up for any loss.

 

None of this, need I say, detracts in any way from a very fine piece of modelling - can't wait to see more photographs!

 

Anthony

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Morning Alex,

 

Great to see a layout thread started on Diddington at long last.

 

The pictures capture the layout nicely and certainly gives a feel for the area.

 

Look forwards to some more pictures and progress updates.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited by 46444
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Anthony

Thanks for the steer. I used to live in Hemingford, but apart from a visit to St Ives last year to do a cycling event, haven't been in the area for nearly 30 years, so I'm working from memory.

I can remember Grafham Water being built by damming Diddington Brook and the farms being submerged under the water. At that time the project was still being called "Diddington Reservoir" I think.

 

Here's an overall shot of the layout, which may be of interest. I'm currently working on an extension to the agricultural tramway which leaves Diddington station at the right hand side of the picture.  There's some pictures of the board in my blog. More will follow as construction proceeds.

 

In the meantime I've edited my signature to give a link to some earlier pictures of the layout I posted in my gallery.

 

Alex

Link to post
Share on other sites

Great to see a Great Eastern layout, and so nicely modelled.

 

Hadn't found this one before. I am particularly interested in this one as I am working up a plan for a fictitious 2nd second station in Cambridge which assumes that the line from St Ives (and services from Kettering and March) ran into a separate station!

 

Best Wishes

 

David

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm building an extension to the agricultural tramway out of Diddington at the moment. The idea is that there is a small agricultural tramway/light railway across the Fens from Diddington station to a yard out in the Fens. I haven't finally decided on the principal source of traffic, it could be fruit, sugar beet, or perhaps grain, which would give an excuse to have some of the Bachmann grain wagons when they arrive. It's inspired by lines such as the Wisbech and Upwell, or the Wissington light railway.

I've started with the joining section, which is  a 1.4metre length of straight track with a bridge crossing a fen drain at one end, which gives me the opportunity to model a length of roadside line.  It occurs to me that in the future this board my serve as a photographic "plank" as well.

I described the initial construction of the board in my blog. I've now laid the track, which is SMP, painted before it was laid in a bed of PVA glue, and ballasted with a mixture of ash and chinchilla grit, sprinkled in the wet PVA. When dry, the excess was shaken off, and the track given a light coat of  Modelmates mud brown and sooty black sprays, and a final spray of Tamiya matt earth from the airbrush.  I've attached some pictures of the track laying, and finally a picture of the state of construction when I finished last night (apologies for the quality)

post-6772-0-59035100-1383687054.jpg

post-6772-0-40565100-1383687095.jpg

post-6772-0-22351200-1383687128.jpg

post-6772-0-32643300-1383687158.jpg

 

  • Like 10
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Great work Alex.

 

That Terrier looks right at home and the static grass looks good.

 

I see the quality glue gun 'lost the will to live' by the looks of things?  I'm thinking of investing in one of those Bosch glue guns as they may be more up to the job.

 

Look forwards to seeing the bridge finished soon. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited by 46444
Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a funny story about that glue gun. I got all the tools ready before I started work so I could take the photo.  I went out and bought a supply of glue sticks.  I came home and couldn't find the glue gun. I looked for it for about 48 hours but no sign of it. (I still haven't found it). I convinced myself that either my son had borrowed it without telling me, or I'd simply lost it.  I used your glue gun to do the scenery. It was fine, but I've used all the glue sticks :(  I only realized that the glue gun was still in the house when I saw the photograph this evening.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I'm conscious it's nearly a month since I added anything to this.  I have been making models though. Internet has been a bit intermittent lately so I haven't done any entries, and when it has been up I've done a bit of modelling rather than sit at the computer. I'm envious of my friends who not only manage a prodigious modelling output, but then have time to take pictures and post about it as well.

I've been working on the joining section. I wired everything up (not a long job). When I laid the track I installed droppers to the rails to carry the power, only to realize when I cam to solder up the feeds that I hadn't left enough space between the baseboard frames to get my hand in with a soldering iron to fix everything up.  Lesson learned for future reference.

Work has progressed on the layout lighting. I've just discovered LED lights, thanks to another poster on here who wrote about them in his layout thread.  The lights are on a flexible strip, which is brought in rolls. Mine was 5m long and is easily cut to length. The strip is sticky backed, so installation is easy.

Before installing the lights I rebuilt the proscenium, as in the original construction the bottom edge of the proscenium was too high above the layout.  The idea of the display is that the proscenium acts as a view blocker, and hides the top edge of the back scene.  The bottom edge of the proscenium therefore needs to be low enough so that a person looking at the layout cannot see the top edge of the back scene. This arrangement does mean that the layout must be operated from the front or side, as an operator behind the layout would not be able to see it.

Another advantage of the LED lights is their weight. In the past, I've used florescent tubes, but these are heavy and fragile.. The LED set up is much lighter and much less vulnerable.  As a result I plan to replace the existing lighting on Diddington with LED's, hopefully in the New Year. (Before I start saving for a Hornby J15). The lights run off a small power unit, which is installed  behind the proscenium.  I'm totally sold on the system. Its lighter and easier to install than my previous system. It gives a consistent overall light which isn't too harsh, and doesn't have any unwanted shadows.

post-6772-0-78054500-1387218982.jpg

post-6772-0-69095700-1387219028_thumb.jpg

post-6772-0-03559500-1387219085.jpg

 

 

  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

I've done some more work installing the bridge on the joining section. The bridge is a concrete girder bridge, based on the one over the New Fen drain on the Wissington railway..

The abutments are blocks of 60X30 PSE, covered with styrene sheet. The abutments were painted, and surrounded with a lattice built up from strips of card. This was stuck together using a hot glue gun (the one I lost earlier in this thread). The lattice was then covered with squares of dress stiffening fabric, soaked in plaster, once dry, this was painted with an earth colour mixed from artists oil paints (Which I had to hand, having recently come into posession of a load of old oil paints.  This has now been covered with static grass, which is now drying.

post-6772-0-36594700-1387233413.jpg

post-6772-0-17395600-1387233471.jpg

post-6772-0-58286500-1387233499.jpg

post-6772-0-55265500-1387233548.jpg

 

 

Apologies for any typos in today's entries. I went to the Eye infirmary this afternoon for a routine checkup, and as part of the process they put dilating drops in my eyes which means the screen is currently very difficult to read!

 

 

Alex

  • Like 13
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Work on the joining sections been continuing over the Christmas period. I've been helped by 46444, who made the fences and telegraph poles.  I'm going to add a few more bushes and a couple of figures, but I want to keep the scene fairly uncluttered.  There's some work to do on the bridge, and I'll post some pictures of that when it's done.

Oh, and its acquired a name "Middle Fen" (because it's a fen, and in the middle between two stations.)

post-6772-0-20822000-1388500489.jpg

post-6772-0-06562000-1388500576.jpg

 

Back at Diddington, D6723 is shunting a horsebox into the horsebox siding for unloading.

 

post-6772-0-88505300-1388500604.jpg

  • Like 19
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The fat clergyman and the thin clergyman took a trip out to Middle Fen today to look at the trains. They had arranged to meet leading railway photographer Jonty Chambers, but he had stopped off at Juniper Hill in the East Midlands, and had been so fascinated by that line’s Austerity 0-6-0 that he missed the sight of Brush type 2 D5500 heading  across Middle Fen with a parcels train.
post-6772-0-20738300-1389646795.jpg
As for the models, D5500 is a Hornby model, renumbered and weathered.  The Morris Traveller is a Classix model.  It has been sprayed with Vallejo matt varnish, after which a very light wash of burnt umber oil pain was applied to the lower body panels, most of which was immediately wiped off with a cotton bud.  The lower edges of the body were sprayed with Tamiya matt earth.  Tyres were painted Tamiya dark grey, and the front wheels were turned by cutting the axle in the middle and bending the axle using pliers at a point just before it enters the wheel. The axle halves were then glued back in place with superglue.  The clergymen are from Monty’s Models, painted with Tamiya colours.

 

 

  • Like 19
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...