Northwick a oo gauge layout by Twickenham & District MRC

[Northwick Group]

Twickenham & district MRC will be holding an event at twickenham library, Garfield Road, TW1 3JT from 10am to 3.30pm this Saturday (25th), it is a free event and there will be 2 working layouts there and is aimed to showcase what the club gets up to, so if you're wanting something to do then why not come along. Northwick will be there with the goods yard board and the station board, so come along and have a look.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Budgie]

Sorry, that clashes with Ally Pally.

[Northwick Group]

Sorry, that clashes with Ally Pally.

Don't worry, if it's Northwick that you would like to see then the next exhibition that we will be attending is the West Essex Modelrail which is on the 22/23 April and is being held at St. Edwards School, London Road, Romford RM7 9NX.

[Northwick Group]

Since the last update quite a few things have been done, the first being to fix the triangular piece of wood along the top of the station board back scenes.

 

 

some of the details were added to the cattle dock, as well as the fencing receiving the first layer of weathering.

 

 

The coal merchants office has been fitted to its new position along with the staithes and the fence poles for the edge of the field on board 1

 

 

The grounded wagon body for the timber yard was first painted grey then brown and finally blue with the intention of gently rubbing back through the layers to expose the colours so that it looks as though the paint is peeling off, the roof has also been fitted and has been made to look like the roof canvas has ripped. This was made from a layer of brass with a piece of slaters plastic planking stuck to the top, this was the followed with taking a square of toilet paper, separating the 2 layers and ripping a small hole in 1 layer before sticking it to the plastic planking using plastic weld, the excess paper was then trimmed off and painted in primer, the exposed planking was then given its base colour.

 

 

A new tree has also been made by Tim and fitted to board 1.

 

 

And finally the name for the hotel has been applied.

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by Northwick Group

[sbduck]

It's been a long time since I posted about the new weighbridge. I apologise but real life (i.e. the new job) has slightly got in the way.

 

 

Fred is issuing a 'chitty' through the partially open door while answering a phone call.

 

 

The windows(and glazing) have been attached to the apertures

 

 

Karl is processing the latest delivery while Fred is at the door.

 

 

Another angle of Karl

 

 

Another view of the interior of the weighbridge

 

 

The weighbridge paired up with the weighplate (I wasn't impressed by the the plate provided by the kit company (Ancorton)so I decided to use the plate from the original Northwick weighbridge. 

 

 

Another view of the weighbridge interior paired with the weighbridge 'plate'

 

 

 

The weighbridge minus the roof but with the weigh plate.

 

[Northwick Group]

Over the past 2 friday evenings we have been busy making sure that everything on the to do list is completed before our next exhibition outing which is the West Essex Modelrail which is on the 22nd/23rd April, why not come along and see the additions to the layout in person.

 

the first evening we spent trying to blend the existing grass on board 2 with the new grass. The new grass was too green so we have gone over it with a mixture of straw, burnt grass and hay to help blend it in, it looks a lot better now but we may have to have another go in some places the joint of old and new can still be made out mainly due to there being no bushes, trees, etc. on the extension yet.

 

 

Last friday evening we spent testing the layout and some of the stock to make sure that everything was working as it should be, fortunately it was so we had a running session with the theme this time being "Exhibition", here are a couple of pictures of what was running.

 

 

Also running was a newly weathered 9f which is pictured here outside the engine shed.

 

 

As you can see a person who shall remain anonymous is trying to give a subtle hint about the cleanliness of the loco.

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

This weekend we are at the Illford and west Essex model railway show in Romford, here are some pictures from day 1

 

 

If you're wondering what to do tomorrow and are in the area then why not come along to the exhibition and see it in person.

[Northwick Group]

Here are some more pictures from day 2

 

 

If you came to the exhibition and saw the layout we hope you enjoyed seeing it in action.There will be a short video from the exhibition showing the layout in motion later.

[Northwick Group]

As promised here's a link to a video of Northwick at the exhibition

 

[Northwick Group]

Last Friday was the monthly running session for Northwick, the theme for this month was unique/unusual prototypes and there was a great selection running.

 

Kestrel is seen pulling into the station

 

 

DP2 was also seen arriving with the Hawksworth dynamometer car in tow

 

 

Lion was resting between duties

 

 

Kestrel passes lion with the great northern directors saloon and the LNER dynamometer car in tow

 

 

a close up of the great northern directors saloon and the LNER dynamometer car

 

 

Gas turbine prototype 18000 also made an appearance.

 

 

Lion, kestrel and 18000 are seen posing in the engine yard.

 

 

De Glehn class "President" is seen here on the way to the turntable

 

 

The only 4-6-2 paciffic built by the GWR "The Great Bear" arrived.

 

 

which was followed by a strange looking beast, a Dean goods locomotive with pannier tanks added to the side of the boiler along with condensing gear and Westinghouse brakes.

 

 

The Duke of Gloucester also made an appearance with a freight train which consisted of the 12 axle GWR Crocodile L with flat girders, 12 axle GWR Crocodile L with the well girders, 6 axle 40 ton LMS well wagon, GWR Crocodile F, GWR Bogie open wagon (known as a Tourn), GWR Mink F and LMS 40 ton bogie brake van. All of the wagons except the last 2 have been scratch built by Tim Thomas.

 

 

 

Although the freight train only consisted of 7 wagons the total length was just under 6.5 ft!

 

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

I hadn't realized that it had been over a month since the last update from northwick, this is not because we have disappeared but work has been getting in the way of the updates however we have been busy working on the layout during this time.

 

One thing you may notice is the lack of pictures on the previous posts this is because photobucket (the website i use to host the pictures) has recently changed their T's & C's and now have to be paid an extortionate amount of money for the links to work again so I am now in the process of transferring the photos to another site and will be working through the previous posts and updating the links. 

 

There was a running night in June and the theme was preserved.

Ex LBSCR class E4 473 AKA Birch Grove is seen running with a rake of maunsells

 

LSWR adams radial 488 hauling a rake of wagons

 

A pair of class 20's - D8000 & 20242, sit in the engine yard

 

BR Standard 5MT 73082 Camelot departs

 

BR Class 46 d172 passes class 20042

 

The 2 BR adams radials double head the coaches

 

A bit of an if only, preserved Adams radial sits outside the engine shed with 2 of its class mates 30583 + 30584

 

These were then joined by Ex LSWR class 02 24 calbourne

 

BR class 47 47401 awaits to depart

 

BR class 08 08417 was busy shunting

 

Class 57 57305 in northern belle livery was also seen having brought in a rail tour.

 

More posts to follow on progress made elsewhere on the layout.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

I've just been told that NORTHWICK will be running at Twickenham MRC's Open Day on July 22nd - great news!

 

If you're enjoying this thread why not come down and see the layout operating and talk to the crew - new members always welcome!

 

See details of our Open Day here......

 

www.tdmrc.org.uk

[Northwick Group]

One of the main projects that we have been busy working on is the archaeological site on board 2 the aim is to have a roman villa being dug complete with a roman mosaic being slowly exposed by the diggers, there will also be crop marks on the grass around the trench indicating where the walls are underneath the ground. So the first steps were taken and the trench was marked out and the grass was taken off.

 

 

There hasn't been too much in the way of progress with this as we have had issues with creating the walls for the villa, first we used maliput but this set a bit too hard for us to carve easily once dry and so it was decided to do away with this and whilst at it we also decided to deepen the excavation as it was looking too shallow.

 

 

So once the maliput walls were removed and the trench was deepened, new walls were created using silk clay which was chosen as it gave a good base colour for the walls and dried in the air so this was left to harden during the week.

 

 

When we returned the following week we found that although the walls had dried they couldn't be calved because the silk clay had dried to a spongy finish so this wouldn't work either, so we returned the following week with Das air drying clay . So we set about removing the walls made of silk clay and before putting the replacement walls in we painted the polystyrene brown so that any bits that we may miss with the dirt that will be put in the trench shouldn't be too obvious, the new walls were then put in and having tried the sample piece it should calve nicely

 

 

You will notice that at the moment the walls are all of a uniform height (just under the grass level), we decided that we would make them of a uniform maximum height and then carve them to the desired uneven height.

[Northwick Group]

As some of the trees are beginning to look a bit tired the decision has been taken to either refurbish the ones that don't look too bad and in some cases completely replace the existing tree with a new one. Whilst doing this we also decided to move the tree that had been put on board 1 from its current position, this was because it was near the front edge of the layout and as it is a delicate tree compared to the others it was getting damaged quite easily, it has now been moved to the field with the scouts in on board 4 and the existing tree removed to be refurbished and returned to the layout. Here are some picture showing which trees have been moved.

 

The existing tree on board 1.

 

The other existing tree on board 4.

 

The tree from board 1 in its new position on board 4.

 

1 of the trees earmarked for replacement was the main big tree on board 2, here it is before anything happened.

 

It was decided to replace this one as when it was re-done last time we noticed that the armature of the tree wasn't constructed very well and so couple this with the fact that it was very dense and so obstructed a lot of the layout behind a new more open tree was made to take its place.

 

 

The other tree that has been replaced is the big tree in the scouts field, our intentions were originally to just refurbish this one as it had the tree house in, however upon removing the greenery it was found that the tree didn't look very tree like as all the branches pointed straight up so it was decided to replace this one with a new tree and fit the tree house to the new one.

 

Here is a before and after picture (sorry for the poor picture but I cant find a better one showing the old tree)

 

Here is the new tree in position complete with the tree house which has been placed so that the kids can see it easily and the adults have to take a close look to see it.

 

Some of the other trees to receive some attention were the trees that go along the back of board 4 as they were beginning to look a bit tired, so the were re-covered with new foliage and put back into position, whilst doing this we noticed that not only had the been all planted in a row but they were almost all the same exact height so this was addressed too.

 

Here's a before shot.

 

and after

 

There is still more work to be done to the remaining trees on the layout but what do you think so far?

Edited July 14, 2017 by Northwick Group

[Northwick Group]

A bit of a big update this time as since the last update we have been very busy with progress made on several fronts, so I will start off from where we left the last post - trees. The last of the trees that needed refurbishing on board 4 have been done and a new tree added to behind the church in the form of a copper beech to add a bit of colour, here's an over all shot of how borad 4 looks now.

 

 

We have also added another tree to the front corner of board 4 to help hide the edge of the back scene that separates the fiddle yard from the layout.

 

 

Once it had been stuck in place we then adjusted the roots to how we wanted them and then added soil around the roots and stuck that down too.

 

 

A couple of shorter trees were added to the boards 1&2 to help hide the board joint whilst not obstructing the overall view of the layout.

 

 

Now onto the other main project which is the archaeological site, since the last post the walls have had their stones carved into them and the tops of the walls made less regular.

 

 

they were then given a base coat of paint.

 

 

various brown and black washes were then added followed by some dry brushing of  greys and lighter browns. 

 

 

On the 22nd of July it was the clubs open day and the scenic parts of Northwick were set up as part of this, for the open day we temporarily added a mosaic to the main room of the roman villa to give an idea of whats to come.

 

 

For the open day as we had the goods yard set up so that it could be shunted and posed the rest of layout as though there was a blockage further down the line which prevented the passenger trains from operating so there was a bus replacement service running. 

 

 

[Northwick Group]

Last Friday we made more progress with the roman villa dig as it has now had the soil added, we also extended the trench slightly so that it continues on a little bit beyond the walls that were right up against the side of the trench. 

 

 

The next step will be to start adding some of the details to the dig site such as a more damaged version of the mosaic and diggers.

[Northwick Group]

Last friday night was the layouts monthly running session and the theme for this month was the eastern region, here are some pictures from the running session.

 

Class A4 Dwight D. Eisenhower pulls into the station with a set for gresley stock.

 

BR Standard class 4 75027 is turned whilst class A1 60147 North Eeastern arrives with a mixed rake of thompson and BR Mk1 stock.

 

Class J72 68723 was on shunting duties.

 

Class 45 pulls in to the station.

 

Class A1 60147 North Eastern is turned

 

Class A2 Blue Peter poses alongside Class A1 North Eastern

 

Class A4 Dwight D. Eisenhower awaits its next duty in the engine shed.

 

BR standard class 4 75027 arrives with a set of thompson coaches

 

an interesting shot with the archaeological dig in the foreground and BR standard class 5 awaiting to couple up to its train in the background.

[Northwick Group]

since the last update progress has slowed a bit with holidays getting in the way, the main things to have happened with the layout was- sheep being added to the field on board 2.

 

 

there is going to be a fence boundary added to the left of the heard of sheep which is why they currently end abruptly, also the farmer has dropped of some pigs to the cattle dock.

 

 

We also had a running session on the layout and the theme this month was exhibition which is where we run what we would run normally. Here we have envening star arriving with a blood and custard set of stannier coaches.

 

 

and later on in the evening Tavistock was also seen running with the same set.

 

[Northwick Group]

since the last post, the wire fence on board 2 has now been installed, we decided to go for a wire fence as it was the simplest type to do when the gradients of the land is taken into account.

 

 

we have also been sorting out the road on boards 3&4 as the join between old and new road was beginning to show, the first step was to paint the whole of the new road surface again witha mixture of black, brown, grey and off white to help blend it in with the existing.

 

 

 

The next step will be to apply a mixture of ash and dirt to further blend it in and to weather the road some more.

[Northwick Group]

Last Friday we adjusted the wall that usually sits over the board joint between boards 1&2 so that the collapsed part of the wall falls between 2 tree trunks which could give an interesting angle with a loco behind it. Whilst we were adjusting it we drilled 2 holes in the bottom of it and inserted nails with their heads chopped off so that it will make it easier to get the wall in the correct position in the future as the nails locate in holes in the field.

 

 

We have also started work on trench 2 of the archaeological dig which will result in a ditch being uncovered and possibly some finds.

 

could this be a hint of what could be found in the trench?

 

the position of the ditch is marked out.

 

and then dug (although it does not show up very well in this picture).

[Northwick Group]

The soil has now been added to the second trench 

 

 

Also the badger that used to be underneath one of the trees on board 2 has been moved as it was right next to the first trench of the archaeological dig. The badger now lives next to the wall on the board joint between boards 1&2.

 

 

The opportunity was also taken to pose a locomotive in the gap between the trees and wall.

 

 

We have also moved the sheep around on board 2 as they were not quite looking right, after some scratching of our heads we decided that it was because all of the sheep were evenly spaced so we have moved some of them around, created groups of them and left some open spaces - this seems to have solved the problem.

 

[Northwick Group]

Last friday we had a running night, this time the theme was tank locomotives, and there was a very good turn out.

 

USA tank turned up with the goods.

 

GWR class 14xx arrived in the bay platform

 

BR standard class 2 tank with the first passenger service

 

BR standard class 4 tank also turned up.

 

Along with a pair of class O2's

 

A pair of Adams radials made an appearance.

 

Class E4 turned up with another passenger service.

 

Class 45xx and 8750 double headed.

 

A pair of 1F's got turned on the turntable.

 

Class 64xx arrived with the next branch line service.

 

LNER class J94 shunted the wagons

 

and was later pictured between duties.

 

Nettle sat on shed for the next duty.

 

3 Standard 4 tanks lined up for a photo.

 

which were then joined by a 4th grubbier one.

 

there was also a bit of a bluebell railway line up with 3 standard 4's (80064, 80100 & 80151) along with standard class 2 84030

 

Then all of the standard tanks were lined up (1 standard 3, 4 standard 4's & 2 standard 2's)

 

at the end of the night all of the tanks were lined up.

[Northwick Group]

last friday saw some wild life being added to the layout with an owl placed in a tree.

 

 

and some rabbits hopping around in one of the fields.

 

 

a pair of steam ploughs trundled through.

 

[Northwick Group]

Work has now resumed on the archaeological site with the main focus currently being to install the mosaic, the first step was to turn the mosaic from this.

 

 

To this, so that it is more like what you would find in a dig.

 

 

All of the parts of the mosaic were then put into a matte finish laminating pouch, put through the laminating machine and then all of the parts were cut out again but leaving a section of the lamination pouch between where we were cutting and the edge of the mosaic piece. 

 

 

This was done to help make the mosaic water resistant for when we add the scenics around the pieces.

 

Some of the pieces were then added to the trench and stuck in position.

 

 

The next step will be to add soil and diggers to the trench along with some finds.

[Northwick Group]

Friday evening was the monthly running session for Northwick and it was decided that the theme would be military in memory of our fallen hero’s. Hope you like the photos.