Train spotting at Finsbury Square

[31A]

Some excitement for the local train spotters today.  One of them peered round the depot gate and saw a BR Standard 7MT 70010 stabled there!  The evening rush hour took on quite a "BR Standard" flavour.

 

 

 

A3 60070 was rostered for this turn, but has failed quite seriously.  The idler gear wheel has split, and the motor just spins without producing forward movement.  Trying to remove 60070 from the timetable spreadsheet produced some nasty error messages, so another Pacific was called for and 70010 came to mind; temporarily for rostering purposes it is now "60070".  I've had the Brit for years and it's a lovely model, but usually lives in its box.

 

Still no ballast in the loco yard.

[Mallard60022]

45 minutes ago, 31A said:

Some excitement for the local train spotters today.  One of them peered round the depot gate and saw a BR Standard 7MT 70010 stabled there!  The evening rush hour took on quite a "BR Standard" flavour.

 

 

 

A3 60070 was rostered for this turn, but has failed quite seriously.  The idler gear wheel has split, and the motor just spins without producing forward movement.  Trying to remove 60070 from the timetable spreadsheet produced some nasty error messages, so another Pacific was called for and 70010 came to mind; temporarily for rostering purposes it is now "60070".  I've had the Brit for years and it's a lovely model, but usually lives in its box.

 

Still no ballast in the loco yard.

Must be a Stratford 'pet' or ex Royal duties. Looks very smart Steve. Ref. the excitement for spotters, in about 1959 I bunked Laira when I was supposed to be at a school cricket match, and lo, as I peered through the gloom having snuck in the back way, there was Tornado sitting in the Roundhouse, looking very smart along with a couple of 9Fs. Never saw it again as far as I'm aware. 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Mallard60022

[31A]

3 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Must be a Stratford 'pet' or ex Royal duties. Looks very smart Steve.

 

Thanks Phil!  Hornby made a good job of the BR green on that one; I haven't done anything to it.  I intended to weather it when i bought it, but couldn't bring myself to do it!

 

[Oldddudders]

12 hours ago, 31A said:

  I intended to weather it when i bought it, but couldn't bring myself to do it!

No shame there. While much of the weathering I see is skilful and does ape the state of a train of the era, nice bright paint schemes are pretty attractive, too. 

[31A]

The loco depot office building is now finished, thanks to Dart Castings being at the Lincoln show at Newark last weekend, and supplying some chimney pots.

 

 

The gutters are made from U shaped brass channel section (Eileen's Emporium) and the downpipes are 1mm brass rod.  I wouldn't usually go to that much trouble and don't think the results justified it really, the gutters haven't come out all that straight.  Possibly it could benefit from a few more details, such as one or two lamps on the front.

 

The back view shows why I went to so much trouble with the gutters - they pass behind the chimney stacks in 'mid air', and being right at the front of the layout are rather 'in yer face'.  For the same reason I wanted to use some decent chimney pots.

 

Lastly the building in it's position on the layout.  This would be the view from the bridge which separates the loco yard from the fiddle yard, and shows why otherwise all that detail on the front won't usually be visible, and the back of the building will.

 

 

It also shows some of the engines which have pitched up here for the night.  Sorry about the ex box 61646; this is the 'black sheep' of my B17s and has had nothing whatsoever done to it; nevertheless Control's computer has allocated it to Diagram 44 so here it is.  Still no ballast and it looks as though the track in front of the Type 2 needs bit of straightening before I do any.

 

 

 

[Mallard60022]

That building is class; join the Gravy Train (see what I did there?) Steve.

Looking forward to admiring the details in a few weeks (Virus situation allowing).

Duck.

[31A]

1 minute ago, Mallard60022 said:

That building is class; join the Gravy Train (see what I did there?) Steve.

Looking forward to admiring the details in a few weeks (Virus situation allowing).

Duck.

 

Thanks Mallard!  Hopefully there'll be a bit more progress before then (but no viruses).

 

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I wouldn't worry to much about a bit of wonky guttering, the building in real 'Life' would be in the region of 80/90 years old, and a very hard life it would be to.

 

manna

[31A]

Last night I knocked up this shelter for the coalmen working the coaling plant.  I didn't have any drawings or anything to go by, so it's based on photos.  They seem to have been different at each depot, anyway.  The narrow gauge 'tubway' runs underneath it, beside the standard gauge siding and as far as I can make out the men stood in the wagons and shovelled the coal into the tubs - there doesn't seem to have been any kind of platform inside them.  I used Wills plastic corrugated iron sheets and some Evergreen H and channel section styrene.  Eventually the plastikard base will be recessed into the cork underlay.

 

 

 

[lezz01]

It looks good Steve.

Regards Lez.

[Clive Mortimore]

10 hours ago, 31A said:

Last night I knocked up this shelter for the coalmen working the coaling plant.  I didn't have any drawings or anything to go by, so it's based on photos.  They seem to have been different at each depot, anyway.  The narrow gauge 'tubway' runs underneath it, beside the standard gauge siding and as far as I can make out the men stood in the wagons and shovelled the coal into the tubs - there doesn't seem to have been any kind of platform inside them.  I used Wills plastic corrugated iron sheets and some Evergreen H and channel section styrene.  Eventually the plastikard base will be recessed into the cork underlay.

 

 

 

I agree Steve, well the one's at Finsbury Square and Sheffield Exchange were.

 

 

[31A]

Thank you Clive, I like your diagonals - I may copy; I thought there was something missing!

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I agree Steve, well the one's at Finsbury Square and Sheffield Exchange were.

 

 

 

 

Thank you Clive, I like your diagonals - I may copy; I thought there was something missing!

[31A]

Not much modelling today, but some steamy action at the real station.

 

Sadly this may have been Union of South Africa's last run on the East Coast Main Line; I'm sure the whole city must have been aware of it!   Two Pacifics in one day, and good to see Britannia again, I haven't seen her for quite a while.  Very smart she looked, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mallard60022]

Buttocks. Did I miss that on the ECML then? I didn't even check to look.

P

[31A]

3 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Buttocks. Did I miss that on the ECML then? I didn't even check to look.

P

 

No Phil, neither of them were ECML through Retford.  60009 was from Ealing Broadway but via the Midland, Chesterfield, Beighton, Pontefract (so really only on the ECML between Chaloner's Whin and York station!) and 70000 was from Shrewsbury via Manchester then Hope Valley (outward) and Calder Valley (return).  I understand the Ealing Broadway train was meant to have Duchess of Hamilton for the return but it was 'unavailable' so a WCR 47 took the train back.  Not sure where 60009 is going next!

[Calidore]

Hi Steve, just popping in to say that I've enjoyed having an overdue catchup on your progress today. The depot office building is very characterful indeed, and as always I continue to enjoy your operational descriptions with the loco roster -- this side of the railway has always been of interest to me and you're fortunate to have a layout with the operational capacity to run in this way! Shame to see 60009 leaving us, what an icon she's been.

 

Adam

[31A]

2 hours ago, Calidore said:

Hi Steve, just popping in to say that I've enjoyed having an overdue catchup on your progress today. The depot office building is very characterful indeed, and as always I continue to enjoy your operational descriptions with the loco roster -- this side of the railway has always been of interest to me and you're fortunate to have a layout with the operational capacity to run in this way! Shame to see 60009 leaving us, what an icon she's been.

 

Adam

 

Thank you for those kind comments Adam, glad you like what you see!  As you may have gathered, I also like timetables and railway operational organisation.  Yes, very sad to see 60009 bow out; I think she may have a little longer to run on heritage railways?  Anyway, John Cameron has done well to keep her running for longer than BR or the LNER did!

[31A]

Some progress with the loco facilities.

 

I managed to convince myself that buildings and sundry ironwork in loco depots was painted green (at least sometimes) so I sprayed the coaler and coalmen's shack Humbrol Drak Green (30).  It isn't the shade I usually use for buildings but by the time I'd weathered them the difference was slight.  Then heavy weathering with a mix of Matt Black and Gunmetal (53) - quite a nice sooty shade, and some hints of rust.

 

I've also been working on some ground cover in that area, but more to do on that score, as well as ballasting the sidings.

 

 

I've also made a couple of water columns (stand pipe type) to go between Roads 2 and 3.  One reason for doing this was that I've often suspected that the Mike's Models GN water cranes might be overscale.  I had some rod from an old lampshade that was being thrown away; it looked like copper but when I cut it that was steel with some kind of plating.  That made it more difficult to bend, but easier to solder.  Pipe flanges and base made up from different sized washers, and the 'tap' from bits of wire and etch scrap.  The 'bags' are rolled from tissue paper (the wrapping kind rather than the loo kind) soaked with dilute PVA.

 

 

 

60039 dropped in to make use of the new facilities:

 

 

 

[grahame]

Where has this thread been lurking and hiding all these years, and how have I missed it? But I've added it to my 'follow' list now.

 

An excellent and atmospheric layout.

 

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

How did you get '39 to look like it's the proper colour, not Hornby Nasty 'green'

[31A]

2 hours ago, grahame said:

Where has this thread been lurking and hiding all these years, and how have I missed it? But I've added it to my 'follow' list now.

 

An excellent and atmospheric layout.

 

 

Thank you, Grahame - very kind of you to say so, and glad you like it.  I'm not sure whether it's been hiding, but I don't always update it very often!

 

[31A]

1 hour ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

How did you get '39 to look like it's the proper colour, not Hornby Nasty 'green'

 

It is the Hornby green, but after renumbering and changing the emblem on the tender it's had a coat of the magical Klear (or however you spell it!) over the green and then weathering by usual methods, perhaps a bit more heavily than sometimes.  It's probably been said before, but it's surprising what a difference the Klear makes to the Hornby green.  Likewise with T-Cut which I used to use, but that is a lot more laborious (especially getting all the white residue off) and risks removing the insignia (usually when you don't want to).

 

 

[31A]

Well this self isolation malarkey is all very well, and I've certainly got a lot of modelling done, but I suspect the novelty will wear off sooner rather than later.

 

Anyway, the last couple of days I've reverted to teenage Airfix kit construction mode, and put together a Walther's Cornerstone Double Track Girder Bridge that I picked up for a reasonable price at the Wakefield show second hand stall a few years ago (it doesn't seem to be available any longer).  It's going to act as a view blocker to screen off the fiddle yard from the decent part.

 

I hope it'll give the impression of the kind of bridges that were / are outside Liverpool Street station although I know the girder pattern isn't quite the same:

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p319746925/h2a1c0438#h2a1c0438

 

It was an interesting kit to put together; more parts than I expected but most of them fitted together well.  There's quite a lot of detail, and quite a lot of it is girder work in the base.  The kit is meant to carry railway lines on an open structure, but here the road surface will hide a lot of this detail, but I fitted the parts anyway and for now we can see things like this:

 

 

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/men-at-work-on-worship-street-bridge-outside-liverpool-news-photo/80857812

 

But eventually it will carry road traffic; here's a bus but other vehicles are available.  The bus does give an impression of the size of the structure - I thought it was a bit tall, but with a double decker on it it doesn't look too bad:

 

 

So here's the kit put together; the next thing is probably to build the proper abutments for it.

 

 

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, 31A said:

Well this self isolation malarkey is all very well, and I've certainly got a lot of modelling done, but I suspect the novelty will wear off sooner rather than later.

 

Anyway, the last couple of days I've reverted to teenage Airfix kit construction mode, and put together a Walther's Cornerstone Double Track Girder Bridge that I picked up for a reasonable price at the Wakefield show second hand stall a few years ago (it doesn't seem to be available any longer).  It's going to act as a view blocker to screen off the fiddle yard from the decent part.

 

I hope it'll give the impression of the kind of bridges that were / are outside Liverpool Street station although I know the girder pattern isn't quite the same:

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p319746925/h2a1c0438#h2a1c0438

 

It was an interesting kit to put together; more parts than I expected but most of them fitted together well.  There's quite a lot of detail, and quite a lot of it is girder work in the base.  The kit is meant to carry railway lines on an open structure, but here the road surface will hide a lot of this detail, but I fitted the parts anyway and for now we can see things like this:

 

 

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/men-at-work-on-worship-street-bridge-outside-liverpool-news-photo/80857812

 

But eventually it will carry road traffic; here's a bus but other vehicles are available.  The bus does give an impression of the size of the structure - I thought it was a bit tall, but with a double decker on it it doesn't look too bad:

 

 

So here's the kit put together; the next thing is probably to build the proper abutments for it.

 

 

 

 

Very Liverpool Streetish

[lezz01]

It's quite nice really for a plastic truss girder bridge isn't it? Of course the proof of the pudding will be down to the weathering won't it?  You can have a field day on that! I'm looking forward to this, I like your weathering you have a good eye for it.

Regards Lez.