Guest Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 To echo others... platforms look great. The shot above? Outstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy2891 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Hi tjf4375 May I say this looks to be a superb layout with lots of potential. I am definitely in agreement over the blue/grey Bachmann 4-cep, they are just brilliant. It's lovely and refreshing to see not only more 3rd rail layouts being created.. But a treat to see the fab Network South East. This livery has always been a firm favourite of mine, but as I choose to model in N gauge.. Still waiting on Farish by Bachmann or Dapol to fulfil this gap in the market (here's hoping sometime soon). I would also like to say, of what pictures you have shared, layout looks awesome. I shall follow with much interest, thank you (big thumbs up). Kind regards Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold westerhamstation Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Hi, the Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith book Orpington toTonbridge by Middleton Press has some great pictures of Sevenoaks Station, along with a track plan, which illustrates how well you have managed to get the station into the space available. All the best Adrian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimleygrid Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Cheers everyone, really appreciate the positive feedback! I'm glad you liked the platforms - I must admit I was quite pleased with how they've turned out - it was something of a labour of love and they were built over a series of weeks. The surfaces were created by applying a thin coat of polyfilla onto mountcard - this dried to quite a stone like finish and appears to have tiny particles of grit in it which help to give a slightly rough texture. I then applied a uniform grey acrylic and airbrushed darker and lighter shades in the likely 'heavy traffic' areas. Finally, I hand painted various patches with lighter or darker shades to represent the usual repairs and patchwork appearance of old tarmac. Also found rubbing the surface with a cloth soaked in a very thin wash of darker colour seemed to work quite well. Pete, thanks ever so much for the hints and tips re 3rd rail - I have laid some before but not a great deal, so your advice will definitely come in handy. Next stages are to finish the ballasting and track weathering, and then I hope to tackle some of the 3rd rail this weekend, if I can muster the motivation! Thanks again to all for the kind comments, much appreciated. Thanks for sharing your methods, very helpful. Superb work on those platforms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Sevenoaks is certainly a worthwhile station to model. The rather ugly external finish may be as a result of the original contractor for the rebuild going bankrupt part-way through. At the time there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I think, and the Regional Architect got together what could be done in a hurry. As for the track layout, the 1960-ish resignalling as part of Kent Coast Electrification didn't make a huge difference to the steam-era track plan. Reversible signalling was not common then. It was the coming of Eurostar that required a higher speed through the station, and thus a wholesale upgrade took place, eliminating the connections from the Up Side to Otford. In practice that facility had been lost on several occasions because the cast crossing on the junction was a "special" and every time it fractured there was a wait before it could be renewed. I share everyone's view on the excellent platform surface you have achieved! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
number6 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Can I say: I absolutely love your fiddle yard. May be wrong but I think the large double arrow sign disappeared from the roof when the station was 'messed about with' a few years ago. I would have had that in my garden if no one else wanted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Can I say: I absolutely love your fiddle yard. May be wrong but I think the large double arrow sign disappeared from the roof when the station was 'messed about with' a few years ago. I would have had that in my garden if no one else wanted it. I had missed the post with the full trackplan. Amazing ingenious arrangement with the hidden sidings and I can quite see why anyone might be foxed working out how to wire it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david51 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 I had missed the post with the full trackplan. Amazing ingenious arrangement with the hidden sidings and I can quite see why anyone might be foxed working out how to wire it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david51 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 The 'Kentrail' website also has a really good section on Sevenoaks with some excellent photos especially during the rebuilding of the station in the mid 70s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold westerhamstation Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Hi you just beat me to it, here is the link. http://kentrail.org.uk/sevenoaks_tubs_hill_4.htm 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjf4375 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Thanks everyone again - I'm really glad I finally took the plunge and started the thread, as the encouragement and positive feedback has been great and really given me some much needed motivation! I am really grateful for all the kind comments and advice. David51/WesterhamStation - many thanks, I do have that Middleton Press book and indeed it is a great resource! I agree also the Kentrail pages on Tubbs hill are very handy! It's fascinating in particular to see the old pictures before the reconstruction, with the outermost platforms etc. From the various resources I've found, I have been able to produce some drawings of the station that I'm working from for the layout. Dan, thanks for the kind comments - I agree the NSE livery is a great one and seems as fresh now as it was 20 years ago! I'm finding some frustrations with stock in oo gauge too, most notably the complete absence of any Electrostar models from any manufacturers. Bachmann is the obvious candidate as they have already produced the turbostar units, although there seems to be nothing on the horizon. For the time being, I have some of James Makin's brilliant cab castings, and will have to try my hand at a conversion job! Joseph, cheers re the fiddle yard layout - I'm not sure it's ingenious but it's certainly busy! I did try to make the most of the space available but my Eurostar set doesn't like the reversing loop very much - it will have to be relegated to one way operations only! Nothing much new to report today; I've done some more track weathering and hope to finish this and get some more ballasting done over the weekend. And the dreaded 3rd rail, which I am putting off as long as possible! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy2891 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Hi tjf4375 No worries about kind comments, credit where credit is certainly due. I could not agree more with NSE being more of place now days as it was back then, It boggles me why in oo gauge there is loads of coaching stock, but so very little of locomotive and emu/dmu stocks. I had heard that there was a company offering different resin castings of Nse units, but whether that company still trading I do not know. The kits were unpainted, I am sure an internet search will come up trumps. I do tend to favour Bachmann in my modelling in N gauge as there motors have always been fab, but like most things in N gauge .. you get a wonderful catalogue with promise of new items that you long for, then when you go to Ally Pally or Warley exhibitions.. they pull the rug from under us and say they wont be doing that.. but they may come back to it in the future. My question to them was .. how was it they went over the top with jumping on the South West Trains liveries 158, 159 and 170 .. but the more popular and more profitable option being NSE .. to which each time meets no reply. Wish you all the best with your conversion projects, sometimes the best option really and the satisfaction of say " I did that" do hope that you will keep posting pictures up of your progressions? Kind Regards Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Sorry, not quite worked out how to use the 'quote' feature on this forum yet! But to kintbury jon, yes it is custom 465 unit. It was built using some spare unpainted networker bodies and chassis parts. I have another one in Southeastern livery underway, but it takes ages and the parts are not easy to find. 465a.jpg As Eric Morecambe used to say, "You can't see the join". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Thank you very much, appreciate the kind comments on the track plan I enjoyed making it so probably got a bit carried away! planbasic.jpg That's my kind of trackplan! Fantastic! Any photo's of the hidden area would would be most interesting! Graham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyddrail Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Layout is looking very interesting, as others have said the platforms look very good. Don't know what info you have on the other end of Sevenoaks see pics below from 2004. Down siding near Sevenoaks tunnel. Sevenoaks tunnel mouth. Oakhill Substation. Cheers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjf4375 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Lyddrail, thank you very much for these fantastic pics - they are really helpful, as I have very little other references for this area. If you had any other pics of this area I'd be really interested to see them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjf4375 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 Just a couple of shots of the fiddle yard and reverse loop area - I only realised now when taking these photos how much the lifting section of the fiddle yard has bowed in the middle! I was surprised how well most of my stock copes with the tight curves in the yard area - apart from the Eurostar which doesn't like it at all, and won't be using the reverse loop section. As you will see from looking at the track plan, only half of the sidings are there at the moment. The longer sidings that run all the way along are still to go in, and will be on a separate lifting section. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold jamest Posted September 18, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 18, 2015 Hi, I too am very interested in the storage area as you seem to have given it a lot of thought - and executed it really well. I want to go around my garage with something to watch the trains go by soon - I won't be using reverse loops but I might well incorporate some lifting sections. I still need/want to keep the car in there and I'd like to be able to get out of it after driving it into the garage! Any more info on the hinged/removal side of things would be most helpful. Although my hinged sections will be in the scenic side of the circuit. Oh yeah - your scenic side is progressing well too - I will follow with interest, good luck. Regards, James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjf4375 Posted September 18, 2015 Author Share Posted September 18, 2015 (edited) Hi James, Cheers for the kind comments, and interesting to read about your proposals for the garage layout! I'm not an authority on baseboard construction by any means, so I can only run through what I've done here. The hinged sections were fairly easy to achieve, as most of them are bridging a gap and can be supported easily at both ends of the fixed board. The biggest headache was the reversing loop, because that had to be self supporting. It is permanently out at the moment, and held up on metal tubular legs that are located in metal collars on the floor. Eventually I will look into some folding legs but it's not a massive priority at the moment. In terms of electrics, I just ran the bus wires from the hinged end and under the lifting sections themselves, so they are all powered in their own right. The fixed boards of the layout are all 15mm conti-board, which runs around the room on top of free standing book cases. The lifting sections are mainly 15mm MDF, except for the sidings which are also conti-board. Some pics here which I hope will help! Diagram showing lifting section. The hinged end of the tunnel section (opens to give access to the room) The other end of this section showing track joins and stops The section in place (it is screwed down when the layout is being used to ensure smooth running) Another view of the stops. This is another small lifting section that is joined to the reversing loop board. These narrow butt hinges come from B&Q, I've found them very easy to use and fit. Edited September 18, 2015 by tjf4375 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Central Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Hi there, really excited to see this one develop! If you ever want an NSE 4CIG to join the fleet (just right with 22 headcode for Hastings-Charing Cross!) then let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjf4375 Posted September 18, 2015 Author Share Posted September 18, 2015 Hey South Central! I just found your CIG build thread, it looks great - very interested to see how you progress with that, as it looks like you're doing a sterling job. Those MJT sides are not the easiest of things to work with, I have some for a refurbished CEP and I did find rolling them into shape quite tricky! Keep up the great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 I look forward to watching this layout progress. I used to work at Sevenoaks both as a Signalman and as a Duty Station Manager. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 (edited) The signalbox panel..... Edited September 18, 2015 by Blue 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 London end of the station 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjf4375 Posted September 18, 2015 Author Share Posted September 18, 2015 Blue, love the pics! Thanks for posting - I hope I will be able to capture the character of the station, your input will be very gratefully received! Particularly like the last picture, nice to see this end of the junction and a bit of the substation which I do hope to include on the layout; I am now thinking I'd quite like to feature the signal box as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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