Another Kirkby Stephen

[Reorte]

Hi Reorte

I've just come across this thread. I produced a kit for the Anhydride wagons some time ago. There is a thread on the forum about them. If you do a forum search for S&C Anhydrite wagon you should find it easily enough if you are interested.

 

Cheers, you've already supplied me with transfers for them though! (I met you at the show in Chapel-en-le-Frith). I've finally got around to getting started on the third wagon, which has left me wondering if you've still got the two remaining kits you said were left.

 

I've also finally given the airbrush a try (having had it for a few years without touching it), so the next one will hopefully have a better paint finish than those I've already done, although I need to do a bit more practice on some junk second hand wagons I picked up for that purpose.

[macgeordie]

Hi Simon

Sorry but it just didn't register with me that it was your thread when I read it. I'm pretty sure I still have a couple of kits in stock if you want them.

 

I'm sure you can get plenty of advice about airbrushing off the forum. I found the most important thing was thinning the paint properly and cleaning the airbrush thoroughly when you have finished. It certainly gives a superior finish and with practice is in my opinion easier than painting by hand. The only hand brushing I do these days is fine detail and weathering.

 

Ian

[Reorte]

I've gone back to doing a bit of work at last, and this time my meandering has taken me to platforms, and getting a convincing surface. There are two problems here, texture and details. Even fairly rough tarmac is pretty well smooth at 4mm to the foot scale, so I hoped that spraying it different shades of grey would work. No luck so far in getting a decent effect. I tried some rattle cans and they didn't spray evenly enough, and I tried the so far unused apart from one experiment airbrush, and got nothing much from that. Probably a matter of practice, so I'll perservere.

 

The second issue is the cracking found in most oldish tarmac, lots of fine cracks running hither and thither. I had some more success here. I coated a sheet of plasticard with Polyfilla, painted it when it was dry, and when the paint was dry bent back the card, which made the filler crack in a very similar manner. The cracks vanished when it sprung back, but by filling them with some thinned black paint when bent and then wiping off when straight again I got some decent-looking cracked tarmac:

Sort the texture out and I think I'm on to a winner there. Some really worn out bits might work by digging out the filler and filling the hole with fine ash, that's a later experiment.

 

edit: Just spotted a chair's moved off the sleeper there.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Reorte

[jamie92208]

That looks good.   In 7mm I used Black sand from a holiday in Tenerife which looked spot on as a tarmac surface.   The fine ash might well be an idea or even something like castor sugar sprinkled on when the surface is still damp.

 

Jamie

[Reorte]

That looks good.   In 7mm I used Black sand from a holiday in Tenerife which looked spot on as a tarmac surface.   The fine ash might well be an idea or even something like castor sugar sprinkled on when the surface is still damp.

I've done quite a bit of staring at tarmac recently and decided that, other for bits where it's almost completely crumbled away, any physical texture will be too coarse at 4mm. But maybe not if it's then painted over with relatively thick paint. Might give that a try.

[Reorte]

Had another go spraying the tarmac. Rattle cans at a distance give a coarse enough pattern, the trick is keeping it even. I've not quite mastered that yet but for now I think I'll move on. A quick rush over with a black spray followed by light grey gives this:

I'm quite happy with it, seeing as I've not seen too much tarmac on a model I've found that convincing. Needs weathering on top of this result.

Edited October 24, 2017 by Reorte

[Reorte]

I've not actually done any more modelling...

 

However I popped in to Kirkby Stephen on Monday, mostly to get some idea of what's going on at the back of the platform - is it raised, or was the ground built up to it? The latter it seems, and I assume that's not just as a result of it being heightened a few years back.

 

There was the Kirkby Stephen Easter Rally going on at the same time. The former goods yard now used by a haulage firm was being used for the buses - which meant it was possible to access it - which meant an opportunity to see the hard to see side of the goods shed without being where you're not supposed to be. That was too good an opportunity to miss.

 

Changes to it since it went out of railway use are mostly obvious.

 

The ScotRail-liveried 158 that turned up whilst I was there was a bit odd.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Reorte

[Physicsman]

Simon, that is an extremely useful angle on a side of the building which we don't normally see.

 

If you have any further views like this, please post them up. At some stage I'll be getting round to finishing the Wills goods shed and all of this comes in handy.

 

Jeff

[Reorte]

Cheers. That's as far as I went (no coaches any further along so figured I'd not be welcome any further). I took a few more but they don't show much else, or anything that you can't see from the station (albeit closer up). I'll post them this evening. I've not got any of the far end or railway-facing side but they can at least be seen from the train, although come to think of it the curve probably makes seeing the far end from the train difficult - there may be pictures in a book somewhere though.

 

Let me know if you want a higher resolution version.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Reorte

[Reorte]

Here are the others with the goods shed in.

 

[Physicsman]

Excellent!

 

I pass by KS station roughly 20 times a year. But invariably at night, so it's been a good while since I've been anywhere near that shed.

 

Still plenty of original features. At least being used has saved it from dereliction.

 

Thanks for the additional pics.

 

Jeff

[Reorte]

Excellent!

 

I pass by KS station roughly 20 times a year. But invariably at night, so it's been a good while since I've been anywhere near that shed.

 

Still plenty of original features. At least being used has saved it from dereliction.

 

Thanks for the additional pics.

The S&C has been luckier than most with its goods sheds (and all sorts of other things for that matter). A large, solid building with road access and yard space will often be useful for someone I suppose.

 

On the bottom picture there's a disc for leaving the siding (nothing odd there) but another one facing the other way beyond it. Can someone tell me the reason for that?

Edited April 4, 2018 by Reorte

[jamie92208]

I'm not too sure of the layout but is it so that something can be reversed into the siding, eg a tamper or something like that.

 

Jamie

Edited April 5, 2018 by jamie92208

[ianwales]

 

 

On the bottom picture there's a disc for leaving the siding (nothing odd there) but another one facing the other way beyond it. Can someone tell me the reason for that?

 

Looking at photos on the web of the box diagram it is as Jamie says to control traffic reversing off the main line into the siding

 

Ian

[Reorte]

The diagrams I've got all seem to be from around the 1960 where there are signals for leaving the sidings but none for reversing in, but I guess the obvious explanation is that the rules have changed since then. Since it's still mechanical I'm scratching my head about how that can be interlocked with the points (presumably both discs - enter and leave - cannot be cleared at the same time, but neither can be unless the points are moved. Maybe it's best that I don't think about that because any explanation is almost guaranteed to result in me spending half the day trying to get my head around it!

Edited April 5, 2018 by Reorte

[jamie92208]

The diagrams I've got all seem to be from around the 1960 where there are signals for leaving the sidings but none for reversing in, but I guess the obvious explanation is that the rules have changed since then. Since it's still mechanical I'm scratching my head about how that can be interlocked with the points (presumably both discs - enter and leave - cannot be cleared at the same time, but neither can be unless the points are moved. Maybe it's best that I don't think about that because any explanation is almost guaranteed to result in me spending half the day trying to get my head around it!

The locking's reasonably simple. Either signal can only be cleared when the points are reversed, and each ground signal lever locks the other. Also the point can only be reversed when the home signal is on. I'm not sure whether that siding is still a loop or just a lie by siding.

 

Jamie

[Reorte]

Just a lie by now, the loop (albeit one with a reverse) went, I think, when the pointwork was renewed (10-15 years ago?) The short spurs were replaced with traps at the same time, which means we lost the heavy duty Midland buffer stops, but fortunately after David Franks had got his measurements for the model (apologies if I've got that wrong, I've a recollection of him saying that the prototype he used was from Kirkby Stephen).

[ianwales]

Just a lie by now, the loop (albeit one with a reverse) went, I think, when the pointwork was renewed (10-15 years ago?) 

 

It was never a loop in the true sense of the word as trains could only ever access it by reversing in, it was all to do with the MR's dislike of facing points, if fact as David Jenkinson pointed out in one of his articles on the S&C until BR Days there was only 1 facing point, at Appleby, in the Northbound direction and non at all Southbound in the whole 72 miles of the S&C

 

Ian

[jamie92208]

That all makes sense. There were very few facing points on Midland routes at all in fact I think that they were all at junctions. As to the buffer stops. I measured a light weight version that was at Settle Junction and used that design for my Long Preston Layout. I've still got the photos somewhere as I remember measuring them one boxing day whilst en route to my parents for a belated Christmas dinner. The kids were all in the car and I lost a lot of brownie points.

 

Jamie

[Joseph_Pestell]

That all makes sense. There were very few facing points on Midland routes at all in fact I think that they were all at junctions. As to the buffer stops. I measured a light weight version that was at Settle Junction and used that design for my Long Preston Layout. I've still got the photos somewhere as I remember measuring them one boxing day whilst en route to my parents for a belated Christmas dinner. The kids were all in the car and I lost a lot of brownie points.

 

Jamie

 

Just to clarify, Jamie means in Midland Rly era (although I am sure we could find some exceptions to prove the rule). In LMS days, and particularly during WW2, facing points were brought in at quite a few locations to create goods loops in place of lie-bies and so create more line capacity.

[Reorte]

Well it's pretty clear that I've done nothing on this for quite some time, so I've decided to accept what I knew all along has happened - I've not got the space, but I wasn't letting that stop me.

 

My plan is to convert my cellar at some point and I'll return to Kirkby Stephen when that's done. It'll have to be pretty much starting from scratch, but that's fine, there are bits I'm not happy with anyway so it's all really been a useful learning experience. I'll have to curve it significantly to even fit in the cellar (pity it's only under one room and not the whole house!)

 

In the mean time I've been umming and ahing about building a smaller layout in the same general part of the world, that I can fit in the house I've got. Two candidates have turned up, neither Settle and Carlisle - Ravenstonedale and Kirkby Stephen East junction. The former I've been thinking of for a relatively compact location that's got a bit of interest because it's where the Tebay - Kirkby Stephen line went down to single track (eventually; it was originally a bit further along). The junction on the other hand is part of the far bigger Kirkby Stephen East, which obviously I wouldn't have room for, but might for just the junction setting, which I thought might still make for a bit of interest. I like the idea of having a signal bridge too. The downside is that it's just fields to either side, the only building would be the signal box, which might make it a bit dull. I've thought of a bit of fiction there though by changing some of the back of the layout to bits of the town. I think an interesting enough section could be done with 6' of scenic there.