Grim-up-North; Goathland, Queensbury & Bradford.

[ChrisN]

2 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

It seems rather fashionable on RMweb to post a yearly update of such, so here goes with another ambitious plan.

 

Nothing new is planned, just to press on ahead with the Mill Town section. 

Seeing as we have decided not to build any more kitchen cabinets and put up glass shelves instead, I have gained some serious modeling time. 

I'm working on a complete layout tour video. Something I don't think I'm very good at. I'll shoot the same bit of video 6 times because something seems to go tits-up every time and then the battery goes flat. So, a work in progress. The last video (of the black 08) was quite well received on YouTube. This has encouraged me to do a layout build video of the mill town. edit: Just worked out that I can plug the charger in while taking the footage🤔 

 

One section of the town that's got the mojo flowing is the idea of making a sort of square, with a small park area surrounded by shops and amenities that incorporates a tram terminus.

 

Almost everything needed to build the 23'x12' section has been acquired, anything I'm short of seems to be out of stock. It's all very well reintroducing a dead and defunct scale Peco, but you mustn't forget to look after your bread-&-butter customers. I'm never going to even consider going TT along with most other modelers, but we still need OO turnouts, buffer stops, rail joiners, fencing etc!!! Winge over.

 

When the weather gets too cold there will be structure modeling by the wood burner. More shops, a church, large factory, station, signal box, hotel, L&Y offices several bridges, more houses, two pubs, derelict mill and maybe a carriage shed.

 

We brought ourselves an espresso machine for Christmas. It's surprising just how much gets done after coffee!

 

Squatch.  

 

 

Shaun,

This sounds fun.  I would just like to point out though that the original Traeth Mawr 009 layout was a station, which may or may not have been fenced so that it had to run as a tramway next to the market square.  Sound familiar.  I did think of it around 1996, or earlier, so if I ever get around to building it, I am not copying you.  🙂  Mine will look more like this.

 

Peco, (and Hornby), have done me a favour with TT two and a half, as my first trainset was TT3.  I have always been tempted to go back to it, so much so I banned myself from the 3mm Forum on here.  Now I do not have to worry.

 

I must admit it sounds very exciting.

[Sasquatch]

6 hours ago, ChrisN said:

 

 

Shaun,

This sounds fun.  I would just like to point out though that the original Traeth Mawr 009 layout was a station, which may or may not have been fenced so that it had to run as a tramway next to the market square.  Sound familiar.  I did think of it around 1996, or earlier, so if I ever get around to building it, I am not copying you.  🙂  Mine will look more like this.

 

Peco, (and Hornby), have done me a favour with TT two and a half, as my first trainset was TT3.  I have always been tempted to go back to it, so much so I banned myself from the 3mm Forum on here.  Now I do not have to worry.

 

I must admit it sounds very exciting.

That's wonderful Chris.  Unable to find any images online of what I have in mind I'll try to describe it in some detail.

 

The road will climb up from the mill town's industrial canal zone past more recent factories and railway infrastructure before arriving at a sort of suburb or smaller community that has become absorbed into the metropolis. "Victoria Square", has a small gardens with low walling topped with railings and a grand statue of Queen Victoria herself. Elms are maturing giving shade and adding a bit of greenery to the grim gloom of the rest of the surroundings. At one end there is a tram shelter with all amenities. At t'other is a public convenience. The road is one-way around the small park flanked by shops, pub, schoolhouse and Saint Teresa's church. Side streets all rise away steeply with typical West Riding Victorian housing. The view into the scene was once blocked by housing and shops but was demolished to make way for the expansion of the railway.  I might even throw in a police telephone box.

 

Get the picture?

Regards Shaun.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Sasquatch

[ChrisN]

8 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

That's wonderful Chris.  Unable to find any images online of what I have in mind I'll try to describe it in some detail.

 

The road will climb up from the mill town's industrial canal zone past more recent factories and railway infrastructure before arriving at a sort of suburb or smaller community that has become absorbed into the metropolis. "Victoria Square", has a small gardens with low walling topped with railings and a grand statue of Queen Victoria herself. Elms are maturing giving shade and adding a bit of greenery to the grim gloom of the rest of the surroundings. At one end there is a tram shelter with all amenities. At t'other is a public convenience. The road is one-way around the small park flanked by shops, pub, schoolhouse and Saint Teresa's church. Side streets all rise away steeply with typical West Riding Victorian housing. The view into the scene was once blocked by housing and shops but was demolished to make way for the expansion of the railway.  I might even throw in a police telephone box.

 

Get the picture?

Regards Shaun.

 

Shaun,

That sounds really good, and I am sure you will do it justice. 

 

Would they have one way streets in your time period?  The first one way streets in London were sometime in the sixties.

[Sasquatch]

1 hour ago, ChrisN said:

 

Shaun,

That sounds really good, and I am sure you will do it justice. 

 

Would they have one way streets in your time period?  The first one way streets in London were sometime in the sixties.

Good point!  I'll try to loose a bit of weight so that I can make the baseboard that couple of inches wider.😁

[Sasquatch]

The laptop has befallen victim to a cyber attack, I have been locked out after trying to back date it after it failed to pick up the wireless 

luckily we have half decent iPhones. Although way too small for my eyes and fingers it works and isn’t the end of the world. 
My plan is to find a video editor for the phone and take things in that direction 

 

If you’re using windows 11 what ever you do to fix issues don’t try to back date it. Same thing happened to a friend of a friend and he ended up having to buy a new computer 

 

 

 

squatch

 

 

 

[Sasquatch]

A start has been made on the mill town junction 

Its code 100 except for the single slip. The right hand long turnout has been   Converted to a live frog and interestingly the long crossing is not. I had planed to use a live frog code 75 and purchased one for use but after prepping it realized that it would need switching electrically which would be an enormous undertaking to achieve through running. Luckily I had this code 100 dead-frog one still, after being unable to sell it on. 

 

 

Now that this is done I can make a start on the boards

 

Squatch

Edited January 26, 2023 by Sasquatch

[Sasquatch]

The above picture of the mill town junction, lacks any description. Sorry about that. 
From left to right at the top of the image we have the up siding crossover 

then the up slow, the up fast, down fast, and down slow.
 At the bottom this turns into two lines the left will drop down grade over a viaduct and into a small station towards six hidden loops and Goathland. 
the line on the right will rise up an embankment and over a retaining wall towards Queensbury. 
I’ve allowed the inclusion of the single slip so that the down lines can be switched between two single roundy roundies or an inverted figure eight circuit. 
 

Beyond the junction if there is enough  space there will be more pointwork that allows entry from the up fast across the down lines to a carriage shed. The exit to the down slow makes it possible to take a rake of coaches to either Queensbury or via the crossover to Goathland. 
 

 

Squatch

[Sasquatch]

The latest pests to infest the garage are the little four legged fury kind. 
Having searched the place thoroughly twice, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that they’re frequent visitor’s rather than residents. 
The main doors might have to come off in order to seal a tiny gap that’s just big enough to poke a finger into. 
 

On the bright side I won’t have to model any sheep poop🤣

[jcredfer]

2 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

 

On the bright side I won’t have to model any sheep poop🤣

 

Now there's  mental image I could do without.....     🙈

 

 

[Sasquatch]

6 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

Now there's  mental image I could do without.....     🙈

 

 

You mean Sasquatch modeling poop or just poop in general?

 

Seriously I looked like Christopher Walken from mouse hunt at one point. 
Great film btw. If you haven’t seen it but don’t seek it out if you’re squeamish about poop🤣

[Flying Fox 34F]

Never mind the poop!  Just make sure the small four legged long tailed creatures don’t develop a taste for your electric cables, both in the walls and under the layout.

 

Paul

[Vecchio]

Just to give mental support: You are not alone. Had them in my Italian show layout in 2006 (stored in a garage) and recently (2019) at Donnersbachkogel. 

20191031_084522 

20191031_084532 

 

And even the animal brigade didn't help...

20191031_084611

[Sasquatch]

Rodents can be very destructive especially when companies are allowed to manufacture wiring out of food stuffs such as soy!

Our house is quite old (by local standards) and the older wiring never gets chewed on. I have been very careful when installing new wiring that it’s not accessible to mice! 
At some point in time an electrical heating system was installed and some of that wiring is dubious, the heaters are too expensive to run and the system will be replaced. 
 

Squatch

[aardvark]

Baits are regrettably the only way to go, especially if you live in the country.

[Vecchio]

I grabbed my little visitors in both locations - In Italy they went probably in when the door was open - as I had it open most of the time when working on my models. (was a bit warmer there then here). Now in the UK I have actually a new garage door - but in both bottom corners there is a tiny gap - and it was probably big enough for a pair of them to settle in my garage.... (Filled both gaps, so far no problem...) 

[Sasquatch]

On 01/02/2023 at 00:49, Vecchio said:

Just to give mental support: You are not alone. Had them in my Italian show layout in 2006 (stored in a garage) and recently (2019) at Donnersbachkogel. 

20191031_084522 

20191031_084532 

 

And even the animal brigade didn't help...

20191031_084611

Your dog’s adorable 

“Sorry that I didn’t catch the mouse dad but I did bring you some clean socks”. 
Our menagerie aren’t any better 

the dogs seem to have given up chasing the deer out and seem to have befriended some of them. 
As for the cats, Merlin is getting on a bit and Skatoosh isn’t allowed in the train rooms on account that he does enough damage without chasing anything! It would be very counter productive. Can your layout be found on here at all Vecch?

edit: yup, found it. 

 

Regards Shaun 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Sasquatch

[Sasquatch]

Holy moly. Has it been two weeks since I posted last. 
Well I did make a start on the big L shaped section if only to make space in the garage and prep my workshop. Truth is that as I get older the cold affects me more. It’s actually snowed for the 5th time this winter. 

All has not been lost however as time has been well spent sorting out tool boxes and stores etc.

Lots of rolling stock has been repaired such as reattaching errant parts like foot boards and more buffer heads that I care to count. Some wagons received new liveries, this Bachman LMS well is now a GWR crocodile on Ratio bogies with neat couplings. 

 

Underframe upgrading is still a huge ongoing project. This week several vehicles had their staple safety loops added amongst other details like these two very different BR conflats. Dapol  bodies on kit underframes the late lifting link “Red Panda” one has come out great. 

Lastly I got inspired to weather some

2-6-4 tank locomotives so went the whole hog by adding lamps and crews. 

 

 

the driver of the Fairburn tank likes living dangerously. He took almost an hour to get right so really should be more careful. 

 

Until next time

Happy modeling

Squatch

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Sasquatch
Big fingers small phone🤣

[Sasquatch]

Another weathering job posses for the lens, this time the Hornby  Railroad BR D49 62760 Cotswold.

 

This isn’t too bad of a model, much improved over my other D49 “Cheshire” who’s over geared tender drive let’s it down. First job was to fix the somewhat wobbly tender on Cotswold by adding a fair amount of weight. BB gun pellets were hot glued into the body shell and a tight fitting piece of card added for good measure. I also did this to the loco but this time made a sort of masking tape parcel of pellets and poked this into the boiler top/smoke box top and held it in place with another piece of card. 
That done, I reassembled things and had a test run. The improvement is nothing short of impressive, almost legendary.
Before anyone points out that 62760 is a hybrid of a D49/1 shire and D49/2 hunt I should point out that I did consider removing the valve gear but am nervous that it won’t work on account of the sloppy pistons so will settle for the way this look for now. 
Detailing includes front lamp irons,

cab side hand rails, tender brake handles and crew. The footplate is a simple piece of black paper dropped in loose and held by the weight of the fireman. 

The actual weathering begins with a sharp pencil to brighten up all the handrails and steps. It’s just enough to catch the light at certain angles without looking like polished chrome😎

Next a white artist’s pencil is used to create streaking and black weathering powder applied with watered down isopropyl alcohol is painted on the smoke box. Rust colors are employed in the same way to the cylinder heads and smoke box door bottom. The rest is various colored powders built up sparingly and that finishing touch, a single “B” class headlamp atop the smoke box as I think this locomotive will be mostly hauling short stopping trains. 

 

Heading into Dunster (My cozy attic layout) with a brand spanking LNER wartime brown 6 wheeler parcels van. 
More on those when I have my trunk shipped👍

Squatch. 

  
 

[jcredfer]

I like the black paper footplate idea, like many other really good ideas, simple...   and very effective, great!

 

.....   and thank you for sharing that one.  

 

 

[Sasquatch]

1 hour ago, jcredfer said:

I like the black paper footplate idea, like many other really good ideas, simple...   and very effective, great!

 

.....   and thank you for sharing that one.  

 

 

To make things easy for you J. I measure the total width of available cab floor + gap + tender floor then - 1mm. 
Cut a rectangle to fit and then carve a D shape that will allow swivel around curved track. (This will usually be cab floor + gap!)

If you’re feeling ambitious you could even add the cab doors by simply cutting your fall plate to include them and folding them up😉

 

Regards Shaun

[Sasquatch]

Good news: after a month of squinting at the iPhone we're back on the laptop!

 

After having to wait a month of being shut out of my micosoft account due losing the password, I proceeded to recover my 48-digit bit-locker key which I put in no less than 4 times and managed to reset the computer back to its original state and then reload all my favorite programs.

That deserves a round of applause don't you think.

 

Now I can get going on the next video!

 

Squatch 

[Sasquatch]

This last week I've been mostly kit-bashing some old card kits.

They're not for anything particular, just to fill in gaps on the mill town until resources allow for more suitable structures to be constructed.

 

These 3 old Superquick cottage terraces were purchased on eBay a few years ago. They fit in well with what I've got in mind for the edge of town. To be honest I'm happy with them and might just turn the fronts into the backs with some simple plastic siding doors and the removal of the porches. 

Left one is as per instructions and the other is what was left over from the longer kit bashed one. It has been weathered with artists pastels.

 

All three have been strengthened with foamboard innards.

 

This one is two of the older Metcalfe warehouses. The doors have been toned down with light green and blue pastels also. It still needs a back and some details. All the top windows have been modeled open and it has stout card floors/ceilings.

 

I'm still working on the small mill.

Squatch.

[Sasquatch]

Getting off topic a bit I think that there is something seriously wrong with the weather this year.

It snowed again last night dumping 7" (20cm). Not that we're unused to seeing snow in February or even March. What is strange however, is that it's no less that the 8th time it has snowed this winter. I can't remember a winter in my lifetime when it has snowed more than twice! Were on about the same latitude as Barcelona so you would think there would be less snow right.

 

Squatch. Now where's my big foot boots.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Sasquatch
none

[manna]

3 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

Getting off topic a bit I think that there is something seriously wrong with the weather this year.

It snowed again last night dumping 7" (20cm). Not that we're unused to seeing snow in February or even March. What is strange however, is that it's no less that the 8th time it has snowed this winter. I can't remember a winter in my lifetime when it has snowed more than twice! Were on about the same latitude as Barcelona so you would think there would be less snow right.

 

Squatch. Now where's my big foot boots.

G'Day Folks

 

You might be on the same latitude as Barcelona, but you are many thousands of feet higher.

 

Love the Idea of you tramping around the North West in 'Bigfoot' boots, but don't wear your 'Afgan' coat.

 

manna

[Sasquatch]

Moving on from the kits I’ve decided to do a bit of scratch building. 
This large house is in Queensbury, it has lots of character so I just have to model it. On the layout it will take its place past Victoria sq. and be the last building before the more modern end of town. It could be the doctor’s practice and I will add a garage for his Morris Eight🥸

 

 

I started with the windows because it’s easier to make the holes the size of the windows rather than vice-versa. 
Nothing special just the usual scratch and paint on paint off method only this time I used some thicker clear plastic from sushi packaging. 

With those done the two front walls were hashed up on decent foam board. 

The bay window will be of the crescent type. This was built up on a section of bog roll tube. The super tacky glue really comes into its own here. 

Two boxes of foam board make for ease of construction and painting. 

 

I made a breakthrough discovery next. 

“ To fill the gaps and bare foam in the window cutouts, I tried mixing white glue and baking soda”. 

 

Wow no more expensive wasteful stuff from the stores ever again. No more toxic fumes either. 
This stuff can be mixed runny or thick and can be thinned with water. It sands and files down much better than any filler available off the shelf. 
 

All the details added with the mortar  colors painted on I rubbed some patches off to give variation to the stone colors 

At this point it wouldn’t look out of place on a war game set up. 

 

Lastly Skatoosh took a break from watching the modeling and napping on the top of the tool chest to pose for his portrait. 

 

Squacth. Contemplating roof construction