Walkley Goods Yard - 1920s Layout Recreated in EM

[Andrew P]

Coming on really well John. Nice one.

[BG John]

Coming on really well John. Nice one.

I've never built a layout so fast. Three weeks so far. I'll have to slow down and get on with the other layouts soon though.

[Nearholmer]

No, keep going!

 

I'm enjoying the 'instant gratification', especially as a chap whose layout-building rate is measured by geological eras.

 

K

[BG John]

I forgot to mention the loco shed last night. It must due to the effect of the solvent fumes, although I was working on it outdoors where I could share them with my lodgers!

 

I built it last year for my original plan for Abbotsbridge 2, where it would have had one side against the backscene, so I cheated a bit. The layout I'm actually building is smaller, and there was no room for it. The same side won't be visible from normal viewing angles on this layout, but can be seen if viewed from the end of the layout, from behind the backscene, by someone leaning over the layout from the front, or from a passing train with onboard video camera, so I though I'd better do something about it.

 

This is how it looked before I started Walkley Goods Yard:

 

This is how it is now:

 

The doorway was at the wrong end, so I'd already cut a new one and filled in the old one. Yesterday I packed out the wall with old offcuts of plasticard, and covered it with offcuts of Slaters embossed stone. It's not up the standard of the visible side, but it's adequate for the job. I still need to put some stonework around the new doorway. At least it helps to hide its Dapol kit origins.

[BG John]

No, keep going!

 

I'm enjoying the 'instant gratification', especially as a chap whose layout-building rate is measured by geological eras.

 

K

I'll keep going at the same rate for at least another week (I hope!). I want to get it working before the weekend if I can. Then next weekend I'd like to start on the scenery. It will be good olde fashioned 1960s/70s type, with scatter materials, and dyed sawdust if that runs out, assuming suitable dyes are still available. None of this newfangled Barry Norman type carpet underlay, or space age static grass! I'll save that for my other layouts.

[BG John]

I haven't got much done today, but I've made some progress on the goods shed. It's not going to be concrete after all. It's having a stone base and timber walls. I've fixed the base round three sides, and added the door from an old Wills Barn to the road side. The hole is for a window left over from the Dapol Bungalow butchery.

 

This is it without the roof, compared to another box of the same type it's made from. I've shortened it and reduced the height. They make a good square base to start from.

[Nearholmer]

BGJ

 

Are you interested in a real piece of Walkley Memorobilia to display with the layout?

 

Andrew_emerson@btinternet.com has an original Walkey H0 locomotive mechanism, in disassembled state, for sale. It dates from 1929.

 

Kevin

[BG John]

BGJ

 

Are you interested in a real piece of Walkley Memorobilia to display with the layout?

 

Andrew_emerson@btinternet.com has an original Walkey H0 locomotive mechanism, in disassembled state, for sale. It dates from 1929.

 

Kevin

Don't tempt me to spend more money! I trying to do this layout on the cheap .

[BG John]

Still plodding along with the goods shed. Adapting old buildings and kit butchering is a lot quicker!

 

The original building just had windows on the road side, so I assume there must have been a door on the track side, but haven't seen a photo. So I've built a narrow platform and door on the track side. The door is a bit of embossed planking with Microstrip framing. The platform is a mixture of odd bits, including cut off bits of the box the shed is built round, and embossed plasticard. The steps are from a Hornby footbridge.

 

The door on the road side is from an old Wills Barn kit. I'll be cladding the walls in Wills wany edged boarding, and have reprofiled the end walls of the Wills Barn to support the ends of the roof.

 

I think I've now got all the buildings to a state where I can start on the scenery. I'll keep going with them until the bit I need to get the points working arrives, then get on with that, and then start on the basic scenery.

[BG John]

I've got the wood cladding on the goods shed. It still needs a bit of tidying up, and I need to do some filing along the top to make the roof fit.

 

 

 

I don't think I've posted this building on this topic, but it's bits of Dapol Bungalow and Petrol Station mixed up to make the office behind the loco shed. As I've got an Oxford Diecast taxi, it's going to be a taxi office. I clad the walls with some random stone that made it look like the most tasteless sort of 1970s fake cladding, and it still looked too much like the Dapol Bungalow because of the roof, so tonight I sorted both problems. I had some corrugated plasticard that's so ancient and brittle that if left much longer it will disintegrate if anyone looks at it! It seemed about time I used it. I didn't have enough to do the whole building, so have just covered the roof. The walls are being clad in planking that's probably nearly as old, but in far better condition. I've just left a stone plinth that should look OK. I've still got the front wall left to do.

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Planking and corrugated-iron is an inspired choice for that bungalow - makes it look suitably "ordered from a catalogue c1925".

 

My gut feel is that the big window at the front needs "breaking up" to prevent it looking too modern. What about a thin glazing bar down the middle, then a horizontal bar about a foot below the top of the frame, then further divide the top parts with verticals?

 

Of course,many true taxi office will have a giant slogan or name painted across the window, plus a vast number of tatty posters for dances etc.

 

K

[BG John]

I've got a catalogue from The South Western Appliance Co (1929) Ltd, which is full of inspiring buildings to model one day, although they seem to be mostly asbestos. This was just another make it up as I go along using whatever old tat I had lying around job though!

 

I agree about the big window. I'd been thinking that too. I think Mr Walkley must have been a bit too refined to cover his buildings in tatty posters though!

[BG John]

I knew I'd find a use for the leftover windows from the Dapol Petrol Station! Lots of cleaning up still to do, and I'll need to add new ridges to the roof, but I'm going to slow down on the buildings for now. I should be able to get back to getting the points working tomorrow or at the weekend.

 

 

The roof is fixed to the goods shed. Again it needs some cleaning up, but I think all the buildings are now at the stage where I can start on the scenery. It doesn't matter if they get a bit mucky while I make a mess around them. I'll add the final details, clean them up, and start painting, when the messy part of the scenery is done. Then I'll bed them in.

 

[BG John]

This is the current state of the layout, before I clear everything off the baseboard for a visit to the workshop, to get the points working and various holes made. I've never got this far with a layout in 4 weeks before .

 

 

 

 

 

[ThePurplePrimer]

Looking great

[BG John]

I need some suitable period locos to run on the layout, so I thought I'd better start sorting them out. First up is my Airfix 14xx, converted to EM when they first came out, and not run for probably 20-25 years, apart from a quick lurch up and down my test track a month or two ago. I fitted Romford wheels and either Romford or Ultrascale gears, so the most dodgy parts left are the pickups. Hopefully a good clean and oil, followed by some exercise on the rolling road, will do it some good.

 

 

My Airfix 61xx is next on the list. I also have something a bit newer, but still originally released way back in the time most of the other stuff on the layout comes from. I'll be shoving the wheels out from OO soon hopefully.

[BG John]

It's alive, and having the longest run it's had in it's whole life! Nothing has fallen off or gone up in smoke yet, so it looks promising, although I'm not sure it's the ideal loco for shunting.

 

[BG John]

Progress ground to a halt while I was waiting for a rather slow courier delivery, but it's arrived now. The baseboard is back to being naked, and is in the workshop for surgery.

 

I was waiting for some 10mm x 2mm aluminium strip to make the point operating devices. I want to be able to operate the layout from both sides, although it will normally be operated from the front, and came up with what I hope is a nice simple plan. I've started making the first one, and it looks as though it will work.

 

The bar runs across the layout under the tiebar. At the back there's a slot in the backscene for it to pass through, and at the front it hooks over the knob on a slide switch set into the baseboard. In the second photo I've bent the bar at right-angles at the front to make a handle. I can't do this at the back, as it wouldn't be possible to install it, so I might add a removable knob, although it seems to work well enough pulling and pushing on the straight bar.

 

The switch provides mechanical locking and switches power to the crossing. Its throw is at least twice that of the point, so the plan is to use a GEM omega loop to connect the bar to the tiebar. It's roughly where it will go in the first photo, but I haven't got as far as fitting it yet. I've used the aluminium bar for stiffness, and so it's wide enough to cut a hole to fit over the switch. It will be covered over by the scenery.

 

 

 

I've also cut holes in the end backscene. The big one is for access inside the tunnel, and easily takes my hand. I can now lay track right up to the end. Later on I'm intending to add an external extension to the track to take a short train. It will either be removable, or possibly hinged so it makes a cover when it's folded up. Until then I'll need a temporary buffer to avoid accidents!

 

I've also fitted two slide switches to the end backscene. These are section switches for the tunnel and loco shed. Being on the end, they can be reached when operating from the front or back. The sections are already wired up, so I just need to attach the wires to the switches next time there's a soldering iron nearby.

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

I like those point operating bars.

 

K

[BG John]

I like those point operating bars.

 

K

They match the baseboard construction pretty well, both being seriously over engineered for the purpose! I just hope the less strong switch and points survive .

[dhjgreen]

I like those point operating bars.

K

I like the omega loop too

[BG John]

I like the omega loop too

I've never used the GEM ones before, as I've bent my own to roughly that sort of shape, but I bought them because I wanted two for Abbotsbridge, along with some cranks. So the rest of the pack qualify as surplus stuff, making this layout the ideal place to use them!

[Nearholmer]

Just been reading an interesting article by A R Walkley in MRN January 1926, six months before the "sidings" layout article.

 

In it, he sets out the case for what amounts to "fiddle-yard to fiddle-yard" presentation and operation of a small country station, for including a decent amount of "outside the boundary fence" setting, and for weathering, among other things. In short, standard fare for a layout built in the past, say, thirty-to-forty years.

 

When read in the context of the times, it is all pretty revolutionary stuff. I think all of it had been done before, but only sporadically, and not altogether.

 

Weathering is a particularly good case in point, in that Rev Beal gives his first description of the embryonic WMR in the preceding article, and he was, effectively, still preaching a stern doctrine against weathering a decade, and possibly two decades, later.

 

Kevin

[BG John]

Weathering hadn't been invented (or rather re-invented) when I was last doing any serious modelling, so it's something I still need to get my head round. I suppose it will need to be done though, but I don't need to worry about it for a while.

 

I be back working on the layout soon, but have got distracted planning a future project, inspired by another wearer of non canine dog collars.

[Nearholmer]

Sounds interesting; both of the two that spring instantly to mind produced interesting layouts.

 

K