Grindleford Station Hope Valley Line 1960s BR - Station Café build

[MikeHemmings]

Hi Al, do you not need a padstone at the end of the outer arches like you have where two arches join?

 

Are they not hidden by the embankments either side.

 

Mike

[Alister_G]

Hi Al, do you not need a padstone at the end of the outer arches like you have where two arches join?

 

 

Are they not hidden by the embankments either side.

 

Mike

 

 

Hi  both,

 

Jonathan is quite correct, they should be there, I've just forgotten to put them in. The embankment (or the  undergrowth on it) does cover the one on the left, but not the one on the right, where the footpath down to the platform runs.

 

Thanks, I'll get them done tomorrow.

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

Hi Al, do you not need a padstone at the end of the outer arches like you have where two arches join?

 

Now sorted, thanks.

 

 

 

 

Al.

[ben pez]

Superb modelling al!

 

You make it look very easy!

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Alister_G]

Thanks Ben,

 

To be fair, that took all of quarter of an hour, it's more a matter of having the bits available.

 

Al.

[Bogie]

You are being too modest.  It is not just the bits being available but the knowledge/expertise of how to use those various bits that matters.

 

You never cease to amaze.

[Marcus 37]

Hi Al

Just having a quick catch up on your thread whilst I've got 5 min. Rather too busy of late for any modelling personally, although I do want to get some done.

Superb work on both the bridge and tunnels. Especially the detail on the tunnel mouth. Your definitely taking it to he next level now.

Great work mate.

Cheers

Marcus

[Marcus 37]

P.S Forgot to mention I do like all this nice new proper rolling stock rather than those overgrown tea making devices. HaHaHa!!

[Andrew P]

P.S Forgot to mention I do like all this nice new proper rolling stock rather than those overgrown tea making devices. HaHaHa!!

He's jus GROWN into a proper modeller and diversifying, hahhahah.

[Marcus 37]

He's seen the light at the end of Totley tunnel.......HaHaHa!!

[Alister_G]

Thanks you two, definitely the light at the end of Totley Tunnel.

 

It's all right for Bodgit, he changes layouts every week but my problem has been that I've modelled a real place - Bakewell, which closed in 1968, so I couldn't run anything much apart from steam and the occasional green diesel without invoking Rule One.

 

Now that I'm modelling a line that's still open, I can pick any period I want, although I still want to model it mainly for steam, but I now have the opportunity to go banger blue, or right up to date.

 

Marcus, you'll be pleased to learn that I've just bought a Blue split box Class 37, and a Class 66 in Freight-liner livery for my Earles Sidings traffic.

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

This evening, apart from giving ebay more of my money, I've done some more work on the bridge - concentrating on the back, adding the details.

 

So I've added the arch stones, the coping stones, and the stringer course:

 

 

 

 

 

Then I went back to see what I could do to the tunnel.

 

I gave it a wash of dark grey (Humbrol Acrylic Matt Sea Grey No.27) to counteract the greenness, and then using thinners I made a wash of Humbrol Pale Stone Enamel No.121, and ran that on, and then dabbed it off, to leave the paler mortar lines.

 

Here's the result:

 

 

 

 

 

I think that's getting closer to the prototype:

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Edit: I forgot to say, I'll take some more photos in daylight tomorrow and from there decide what else to do. My feeling is it could do with another wash of the Pale Stone.

 

Al.

Edited August 26, 2016 by acg_mr

[vulcan product fan]

lookin forward to the modelling of the tunnel embankment seeing the tunnel portal fit in .by the way the shades of the stone work are amazing you have a real eye for the colour nice one mate.

[Andrew P]

Morning Al, that's much better mate, it's got some real atmosphere to it, even without the surroundings.

[Alister_G]

Thanks Andy, and Andy...

 

Well it shows how wrong I can be...

 

I took the tunnel outside this morning to take some photos in daylight, and I don't think it needs any more Pale Stone, just some darkening down of certain areas.

 

However, I think I'll leave doing that until it's been planted in the scenery, as the surrounding vegetation may change how it looks.

 

Also, I'm trying to bear in mind that my photos of the prototype were taken after 50 years without the smoke from steam engines blasting it every half-an-hour, so what it looks like now is probably cleaner that how it looked in those days.

 

So here it is as it looks now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to concentrate on getting the bridge ready for painting, and also start to consider the baseboard scenery.

 

More later, hopefully,

 

Al.

[emt_911]

Hi Al. It looks far better now, but as you say, it all depends on what it looks like once in place.

 

Excellent work

[Andrew P]

Yes Al, leave it now until it has the correct surrounding and it may look totally different. It's just amazing how you've managed to get such wonderful colours.

[Alister_G]

Okay people, brace yourselves for a long post.

 

This afternoon I made a start on the first board, which will have the tunnel, bridge, and station buildings on it.

 

So I took a sheet of 5.5mm thick plywood, which will form the basic track bed, and laid out some code75 flexitrack, and the bridge and tunnel, shoving it all around until I was happy with the positioning.

 

The dominant curve through the station works out at about a 60 inch radius, tightening to about a 40 inch radius through the tunnel to the next board, track centre spacing is 50mm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I was completely happy, I marked round the structures, and ran a pencil down the sides of the track, and then marked out the platform area:

 

 

That done, I took the plywood down into the cellar and butchered it with a jigsaw.

 

The result is a shaped piece of ply which incorporates the track bed and base for the platforms:

 

 

Having cut the ply, I checked with the portal and bridge that it all still fitted as I envisaged:

 

 

 

 

Then, I took a new sheet of the Insulation foam, and stripped off the foil covering, and laid the ply on top.

 

I used the breadknife to cut around the ply to half the depth of the insulation foam:

 

 

Then, when all done, I started removing half the thickness of the board where the ply sat.

 

The idea of this is that the natural "ground" level will end up at the top of the platform level.

 

So I got the gang of navvies started on digging out and leveling the track bed:

 

 

 

They didn't half shift some stuff!

 

 

Eventually, it was all dug away, roughly leveled, and swept clean:

 

 

and then the ply was test fitted:

 

 

Then, I (sorry, the navvies) dug away where the wing walls of the tunnel portal would fit:

 

 

I then started building up the scenery using various offcuts:

 

 

 

 

With the bridge and tunnel in place It begins to resemble reality:

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will glue down the ply, and then the scenery, and start adding newspaper over the top of the foam to smooth out the contours and hold it all together.

 

Thanks for your patience, and for reading,

 

Al.

Edited August 27, 2016 by acg_mr

[mark axlecounter]

Some Ruddy Good modelling there AI keep up the good work.

[Alister_G]

Some Ruddy Good modelling there AI keep up the good work.

 

Cheers Mark,

 

I'm getting the urge to get some greenery about the place now, but it'll have to wait a bit

 

Al.

[mark axlecounter]

GRASS!!!!!!! Lol

[Sasquatch]

WOW!!!!!

[vulcan product fan]

again great work Al . I allways thought when makin a layout you started at the base level and worked up you have shown you can make it very effective the other way round nice one 

[Marcus 37]

Looks absolutely fantastic mate. Good to see the contours of the land starting to appear.

Before you start adding the wall paper have you had a go at sanding the foam board? I tried this on PDW and found that you can get a lovely smooth finish and add some nice subtle contours at the same time. I was going to cover all mine with plaster to start with but realising you could get a nice even finish just with the board I saved a lot of mess.

Here's the corner on PDW that was just carved and sanded. Any gaps just had a bit of normal filler applied and the whole lot sealed with PVA.

 

 

Cheers

 

Marcus

[Andrew P]

Brilliant work Al, you put my Bodgit and Plodgit techniques to shame mate, and I'm with Mark re the Grass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOW.