Saltmarshe Road - an ex SER branchline in Kent

[pete_mcfarlane]

After yet more playing with SigScribe4, I've now (hopefully) finalised by lever frame design and the signals to go with it. I'll be using an 18 lever frame, with 4 levers spare.

 

 

1. Down Home

2. Goods signal for point 9 (cattle siding)

3. Shunt signal for points 6 (sidings) and access to main platform road

4. Spare

5. FPLs for points 6 and 9

6. Yard points

7. From yard up starting signal (ringed goods signal)

8. Yard points

9. Crossover

10. Up main starting

11. Up main shunt signal

12. From cattle siding up starter (goods signal – yellow arm)

13. Crossover

14. Ground signal cattle siding to headshunt (yellow arm)

15. Ground signal headshunt to platform line

16 to 18. Spare

 

Apart from the spare levers, the main change is signal 2, which allows access to the cattle road instead of this being a move off shunt signal 3. This is another crib from the Hundred of Hoo branch (Port Victoria, after the Southern had replaced a wonderful looking SECR signal with separate shunt arms for every possible move with a signal post having home, goods, and shunt arms).  

 

I'll get the actual lever frame in a few months when funds allow, but for now I have this miniature version.

This is a set of Ratio levers mounted in a homemade frame (as previously mentioned, the spacing of the Ratio frame was way too wide). The box itself is nearing completion - the windows have now been added from Evergreen plastic strip (some of which was left white, and other bits prepainted green). It needs the chimney stack adding, and an interior. 

 

I've also finished point building, and made a start on the signals. This is signal 10 on the plan - the up starter and the simplest signal on the layout. It's a typically short SR rail built upper quadrant starter, and is mostly built from a MSE kit. Mostly because I didn't fancy the cast whitemetal post, so replaced it with one made from some spare nickel silver rail, with details added from bits of strip metal. 

 

Considering the last signal I built was a Ratio one nearly 20 years ago, I'm rather pleased with how well it went together yesterday (whilst listing to England doing badly on TMS). It will be mounted on a Jurassic Models plug in signal mount (which I, as ever, I discovered through RMweb). I also have some servos, and a bouncing servo controller from Heathcote electronics to play with once the signal is painted and assembled. 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[pete_mcfarlane]

Some more signal progress. The up starter is now painted and assembled, as is the ground disk which sits next to it. That was assembled from a MSE kit, and I didn't try and make the balance arm work. Both are now assembled on to the Jurassic models signal mount, and are waiting for the glue to set. Once that's done I'll connect them up to the servos and test that it all works. I'm rather pleased with my progress so far.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[Turbo_Tim]

As someone who's aspiring to build an SECR area based layout I'm following your layout with interest and taking notes. It all looks really good.

 

Tim

[pete_mcfarlane]

Not much progress on the signals (I need to get a decent 12v power supply, as the servo controllers are behaving erratically when powered by an old H&M controller of dubious rectifying ability). In the meantime I've nearly finished the signal box, which just needs fire buckets adding.

I'm also working on the station house. I debated long and hard over this - I didn't like the only SECR house I had plans for (Sharnal Street) and so, after a spot of Googling, settled on the 'Watering House' at Dungeness. This is quite well photographed, and is roughtly the right period and location. It's not a railway building, but is still a 'tied house' and has a certain look to it. There's a photo on here about halfway down. 

 

I decided to build this out of card and Superquik brickpaer, as I did so many times as a kid. This building i staking a lot longer than an evening or two, and is a bit more detailed (no using 'Downesglaze' windows with no frames to speed it up!).

The roof is from the same Wills sheets as the other railway buildings, to hopefully give it the same look and feel. It's currently having the roof flashing added, again to match the other railway buildings. I rather like it, although the roof was a pig to build due to all the angles. It's also painted in the same colour scheme as the station, after an interesting thread on here about railway cottage colour schemes. 

Edited December 8, 2015 by pete_mcfarlane

[pete_mcfarlane]

Finally I have a finished signal box. The Langley fire buckets were a bit of a fiddle (and so got put off many times), but I did manage to write FIRE on them in 0.1mm felt tip. So I'm rather pleased with how the box has turned out. 

The Stationmaster's house is slowly progressing - I'm on to barge poles and downpipes, although I've managed to run out of SR middle chrome green, so this may have to wait until I track down Phoenix paints at a show (because I don't fancy ordering a single tin by email, and these new post regulations limit who sells paint, so no tagging it on to another order from somebody else). 

 

I'm also still trying to get the signal to work. The Heathcote control unit works fine when there's no load on the servo, but as soon as the signal is connected up (which presumably places load on the servo) it shows a nasty tendency to shoot to the 12 o'clock position and then do nothing further until the unit is reset. I'm not finding it the easiest bit of kit to play with (and I have a computing degree....). I may investigate the G F Controls unit as an alternative. 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[pete_mcfarlane]

And another of my infrequent progress updates. So much time has elapsed since the last one that it's now summer, so i can take the photos outside. 

 

The station house is now complete. I visited Dungeness a couple of weeks back and came across the real building I'd based the model on, which isn't actually a railway building, whilst looking for the late Derek Jarman's cottage (which turned out to be a fair old trek from the RH&DR station) . Some of my guesswork about the non-road side turned out to be wrong, but this is going to be against the backscene so it won't show. 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[Nearholmer]

Cunning adaptation, because, in model form, it looks very plausible as a railway building.

 

Nice work!

 

K

[The Bigbee Line]

Nice buildings.  I think the house across the line from Lydd Town was the Stationmasters House.  Looks similar to yours:

 

 

 

 

 

[russ p]

Old picture there Ernie, the loop has reappeared since that was taken.

It's for stone trains to run round and propel onto the marsh for loading

[pete_mcfarlane]

Nice buildings.  I think the house across the line from Lydd Town was the Stationmasters House.  Looks similar to yours:

 

Lydd Town.jpg

It does look similar to some other SER houses I've seen photos of (Sandling for example). . 

[pete_mcfarlane]

So I've not updated this for 10 months......

 

Anyway, I now have some baseboards (from Model Railway Baseboards, and very nice they are). They've been installed in place above the bookcases in my railway room, with a gap where the original diorama will fit (it's in the nearer plastic crate, the further one has the buildings). The film posters will shortly be removed, as the next step is to install some shelving above the layout.

 

This will store the stock, and act as a lighting pelmet. I've got some LED lighting strips from LED hut to play with, one cool white and one warm white. Reading around, it seems that everyone seems to use a mix of these to get the lighting effect they want, which largely depends on on a mix of personal choice and the effect they are after. So there's a spot of experimentation needed before I order the full set of lights. Don't expect fast progress, but I should have the track down in a couple of months. 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[Nearholmer]

Glad to see a posting!

 

I was much impressed by your work earlier, and was beginning to wonder what had come of it.

 

The baseboards look good; their website confirms that they use the same trad methods that I do, but they do it properly, where the carpentry on mine doesn't stand-up to close scrutiny! The only trouble with boards like that is that they become a bit heavy.

 

Kevin

Edited July 2, 2017 by Nearholmer

[pete_mcfarlane]

Glad to see a posting!

 

I was much impressed by your work earlier, and was beginning to wonder what had come of it.

 

The baseboards look good; their website confirms that they use the same trad methods that I do, but they do it properly, where the carpentry on mine doesn't stand-up to close scrutiny! The only trouble with boards like that is that they become a bit heavy.

 

Kevin

 

The baseboards are very well made, far better than I could ever do myself (most of my carpentry these days goes in to theatre sets which need to survive about 10 days before being thrown away). As you say, they are fairly heavy, but this isn't an exhibition layout. It is portable, in the sense that it will be able to survive a house move (or being removed from the railway room if redecorating is needed). Reading the RM as a kid, I never could understand why people built their Magnus Opuses so they could never be removed, and had to be broken up when moving house. 

[N15class]

But years ago you married bought a house the right size for the family and that was it. Your home. Now you do it in stages as everyone got on the band wagon to make money not worry about a home. Nice plan looking forward to seeing it develop.

[pete_mcfarlane]

The shelving above the layout is most in place - I need to get some more of the tracks/brackets from Screwfix). One problem I've had is getting the selves level - each one is more or less level in itself (according to the spirit level) but doesn't quite line up with the neighbours. A small amount of packing will be needed, once the front fascia strip is in place. There's also room for another shelf above this one, which should help to clear up some of the layout room clutter. 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[The Bigbee Line]

The shelving above the layout is most in place - I need to get some more of the tracks/brackets from Screwfix). One problem I've had is getting the selves level - each one is more or less level in itself (according to the spirit level) but doesn't quite line up with the neighbours. A small amount of packing will be needed, once the front fascia strip is in place. There's also room for another shelf above this one, which should help to clear up some of the layout room clutter.

I know what you mean about differing levels... however some suitable packers sort that. I like the versatility and ability to change the attachments at a whim. By the way, there's never enough room for all the odds and ends.

Edited July 24, 2017 by The Bigbee Line

[pete_mcfarlane]

I know what you mean about differing levels... however some suitable packers sort that. I like the versatility and ability to change the attachments at a whim. By the way, tigers never enough room for all the odds and ends.

Yes, it's quite good to be able to adjust the fascia to a height that I like, rather than having to have it at a fixed height. And if I get it wrong, I can change it later on. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

Rather worrying, it's 5 months since the last post. Progress has been painfully slow but continuous, and at times it feels like I've expended loads of effort for little progress. But I now have a backscene, painted sky blue, and the lights installed. There's a temporary dividing partition for the fiddle yard, as the ultimate plan is to extend the layout around the room, so this area will eventually become part of the scenic bit. 

 

There's nothing original about the lighting - self adhesive LED strips from LED Hut, with a mix of 2:1 warm to cool white. This was done by cutting up the strips and soldering them together. The strip at the front behind the fascia is stuck to the underside of the shelf, and the one at the back is stuck inside a strip of U shaped plastic channel from B&Q. This was mainly done to avoid blinding myself with the LED when I look up from my workbench. 

 

At the moment the layout has collected junk, in the usual way that under construction layouts do. My next major task is to clear everything off, and then touch up the backscene. Now that I have lighting, I can see where I missed things the first time. Hopefully before long the original diorama can be fitted in to place, and I can start the actual layout building. 

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[Richard Jones]

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/65772-rye-signal-box/

 

A bit late for you now, but here's a glimpse of the fittings inside of an SER box - Rye - just over the county ditch in Sussex, but right on the edge of Romney Marsh.

Photo would have been taken in the mid 60s, with a very much younger me assisting Signalman Tom Watson.

[pete_mcfarlane]

I've now started work on getting fitting the original diorama to the new baseboards. The narrow extension extension piece at the rear, like the original board, is made from foamboard hot glued together. The original board has lasted six and a half years with no sign of any problems so I'm reasonably confident this form of construction works for small baseboards. 

 

The extension has a minor road on it, again from foamboard, covered with plaster bandages to give a camber and then smoothed with Polyfilla. 

Th extension was then bolted (using large washers made from plasticard to avoid damaging the foamboard) to the original piece. The gap between the modules is now being filled with more Polyfilla. 

 

 

 

 

[pete_mcfarlane]

The road is now mostly done - it's been painted and blended in, and fenced off using some rather nice laser cut fence posts from scalemodelscenery.co.uk. It just needs a few more bits of touching up the fence and grass, and then this (original diorama) section of the layout will be ready to be fitted to the rest of the boards. 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by pete_mcfarlane

[pete_mcfarlane]

A bit of work tonight has seen the original diorama bolted in place between the new baseboards. This was pretty straightforward in the end - i was worried about damaging the buildings and scenery, but in the end the only damage was a small chip from the end of the road. 

And with a suitable loco posed in the station.

I'll need to make a small infill piece to go on the front of the original board to match the width of the new baseboards. Once that's done, I can get to down to the action layout construction. I also need to do something about the ill fitting station roof, which is separate to allow me to get to the interior detail (and now has lights fitted). 

Edited February 11, 2018 by pete_mcfarlane

[pete_mcfarlane]

I'm now building the rest of the road along the back of the board. As before this is made from foamboard supports to give the undulating profile - like a lot of roads in bits of Britain reclaimed from the sea it's completely straight but not very level.  

It's then covered in several layers of plaster bandage - several thin strips in the middle of the road, and one strip the width of the road on top. 

The masking tape is to protect the backscene, and the strips of metal are to keep the gaps between baseboards. 

 

When I've bought some more plaster bandage I'll do the rest of the road surface, and the cover with Polyfilla. 

 

Other recent small bits of progress have included laying some of the foam for the track bed, and making the infill piece that goes in front of the original diorama. 

 

[Jack P]

 

That J Class Is fantastic, Who produced the kit if you don't mind me asking? Also looking forward to your progress on the layout - followed

[pete_mcfarlane]

The J class came from Chivers. A decent quality whitemetal body with an etched chassis. 

 

I detailed the build in some Rmweb blog posts: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/986/entry-7982-chivers-secr-j-class/