Chumley End

[gismorail]

I think Donw may be right. It's the curse of the spell checker. So long as it's spelled right who cares if it's the right word.

 

On the other hand, it could be that Andrew P has hit the nail and it is his age. And he's younger than me too!! Trevor

I never do trust spell checkers sometimes the right spelling looks wrong to me ........ Just to clarify the point I thought that when I have my next  Gorilla  moment I could post a warning ......  

 

         WARNING WARNING

[shedman]

Warning duly noted!   Seriously, I know what you mean about words spelled correctly looking wrong. I think when you've spent a lifetime writing, typing words can feel strange and produce funny looking results. It's an age thing. Trevor

[gismorail]

Warning duly noted!   Seriously, I know what you mean about words spelled correctly looking wrong. I think when you've spent a lifetime writing, typing words can feel strange and produce funny looking results. It's an age thing. Trevor

Very true Trev I would call them ,

'Senor Moments' and as your older than me your allowed to have more than I do  and Andy P has them all the time    

[Andrew P]

Very true Trev I would call them ,

'Senor Moments' and as your older than me your allowed to have more than I do  and Andy P has them all the time    

WOT,  What day is it? where am I? Have I taken my Tablets Nurse?        

[gismorail]

WOT,  What day is it? where am I? Have I taken my Tablets Nurse?        

Calm down Calm down it's Friday night nearly 11pm  and you should be resting 

[gismorail]

Thought I'd better update the thread on progress to date which to be honest has not been quick due to work commitments. When I have had some spare time to myself my main attention has been the construction of the feed mill building which is a take on the building at Uffculme which is a long way from Cheshire but it's rather a nice prototype so why not. Having only a photograph to work with the dimensions are very much guess work on my part and the building does play an important role at the Chester end of the layout as there is no natural end scene like a bridge or tunnel mouth therefore the positioning of buildings and tree's hold and important role.

The main mill building has been constructed in the post war period as Griffiths Brothers expand their business in response to the need for increased dairy production in local area therefore the main mill building is of reinforced concrete construction which was a common material in the period. 

 

                                                 

 

The main carcass of the model is 6mm ply which has been painted with 'Sandtex' external render paint which has a textured finish to replicate the reinforced concrete the the roof has a base of 2mm hardboard covered with corrugated plastic card. The grain silos would have been of wooden construction and this has been finished with 'clap board' plastic card. The model is still to be completed ,painted and weathered and once this has been done a lot of the detail will stand better than at present. 

 

                                                  

                                                   

[shedman]

Good to see you back on line Martin. It's an impressive looking building with some character. Keep up the good work. Trevor

[Andrew P]

Nice work there young man, It will certainly be an impressive structure on the Layout, and will help to give the whole Layout some real character.

[KNP]

Nice view blocker.

Looks like the track goes through the building or is that an illusion?

[gismorail]

Thanks for your kind comments Trev Andy & Kevin . Yes the grain loading bay does in fact go into a small fiddle yard siding which will hold about three wagons. This gives access to the grain silo's and also a rail head warehouse beyond where vans can be load / unloaded with bagged animal feed and  seeds. Griffiths Bros where a large seed and animal feed millers along side the Shropshire Union canal on the edge of the city at Chester. As my past included farming I will be using original company names for the business's at Chumley End which will hopefully put a bit of a historic interest for those who might remember some of the long lost agricultural heritage of the area which is now a shadow of it's former glories. There were throughout the Cheshire area many small millers supplying the estate farms of the Cheshire dairy industry where many larger farms mixed they own cattle 'mash' as it was called in those days. It wasn't until the late sixties and early seventies that the dairy industry started using 'cattle cake' which was manufactured by the likes of BOCM ,Spillers and Dalgety . Once these large national companies started producing balanced feed mix for the farming industry the death of so many small local mills was soon on the cards. 

[gismorail]

Thought it was time for a quick update on progress....yes I'm still plodding on. A great deal of 'thought process' is going on at the moment with regard to scenery and position of buildings etc so I've been busy with card mock up's and trying to get the balance that I'm looking for as well as considering the format needed for the back scene which will give the depth of field need to pull off what I'm trying to achieve with this layout.

 

I have made a conscious decision to set out some objectives with regard to the the physical tasks and the order in which their should be tackled. I need to complete the track work in the form of painting and ballasting and as I wanted to add some form of point rodding this has been my main task over the last couple of evenings. I will be the first to admit my attempt is very much a ' representation' of this very complex subject but I feel that the final effect will add to the general scene. I have used the Wills point rodding kits which does 'stretch' ones patience to be honest and it is not a cheap addition to the build costs either !. Reading other peoples experiences when installing this equipment I have firstly opted to install it before any painting or ballasting is done and the second consideration was that some people have expressed the view that alongside fine scale track work the components look a bit 'over scale' and when I opened the first packet I tended to agree with that general view. Placed alongside the track the top of the rodding  tended to be standing above the rail level. To get over this problem I cut out channels in the cork underlay close to the sleeper edges where the runs of rodding where to be placed and this seems to have reduced the scale issue. 

 

The following pictures will give those who are 'mad enough' to try adding this infrastructure to their layout some sort of guide as to how I have installed this rodding. 

 

The first task was to prepare the rodding runs by filing a small amount of flashing that is left on the base of each ground fixing.

 

 

In this section  there are four runs with the front rodding lining up to a turnout tie bar. The components are quite 'fiddley' to line up especially whilst leaning across the layout to get to the location of fixing. To make things a bit easier and to also make sure that everything lines up I glued the ground fixings and pulley's  to a thin piece of 'Evergreen' strip using 'plastic magic' solvent  

 

 

This makes fixing all four rod sections in one operation which makes things a lot easier than by doing it one by one and once lined up with the neighbouring section I just bushed plastic magic glue on the ends of the rods. At the baseboard join I left the sections just shy of the edge which means a bit of a gap between sections that will hardly be noticed but will hopefully save any damage during layout movement.

 

 

The above shows the lining up to a turnout which just adds a nice bit of extra detail to the track work. The outer rodding will continue on to the next location which as yet has to be completed. 

 

 

The lining up of all the rodding runs into the signal box did really test my resolve but I feel that the exercise has been worth the effort. 

 

 

With the part built signal cabin in place it does make the extra work worth while even if it is just a representation though with the cabin facing into the layout it will not be in total view during exhibition but I know it's all there !!!

 

 

A quick shot along the line in front of the signal cabin makes all the extra work worth while me thinks. Once the track has been painted weathered and ballasted I can pick out the rodding in a nice rusty finish to complete the scene.

 

In conclusion I feel at this stage that the extra 'fiddly' instalment has added some nice individual character to the layout 's track work. On the negative side it is not a cheap option as the layout is only small I have still used four packets of rodding which has cost £40 plus but I still feel the end result is worth the extra cost. As I stated earlier in the post it is very much a loose 'representation' of the real thing and I'm sure that the 'experts' will be noticing all sort of inaccurate mistakes that this chief of bodger's has committed but as least I has tried something new. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  

[Andrew P]

That look excellent Martin, I'm looking forward to seeing that Signal Box done as well, (no pressure then). hahah

Edited May 18, 2017 by Andrew P

[KNP]

Thought it was time for a quick update on progress....yes I'm still plodding on. A great deal of 'thought process' is going on at the moment with regard to scenery and position of buildings etc so I've been busy with card mock up's and trying to get the balance that I'm looking for as well as considering the format needed for the back scene which will give the depth of field need to pull off what I'm trying to achieve with this layout.

 

I have made a conscious decision to set out some objectives with regard to the the physical tasks and the order in which their should be tackled. I need to complete the track work in the form of painting and ballasting and as I wanted to add some form of point rodding this has been my main task over the last couple of evenings. I will be the first to admit my attempt is very much a ' representation' of this very complex subject but I feel that the final effect will add to the general scene. I have used the Wills point rodding kits which does 'stretch' ones patience to be honest and it is not a cheap addition to the build costs either !. Reading other peoples experiences when installing this equipment I have firstly opted to install it before any painting or ballasting is done and the second consideration was that some people have expressed the view that alongside fine scale track work the components look a bit 'over scale' and when I opened the first packet I tended to agree with that general view. Placed alongside the track the top of the rodding  tended to be standing above the rail level. To get over this problem I cut out channels in the cork underlay close to the sleeper edges where the runs of rodding where to be placed and this seems to have reduced the scale issue. 

 

The following pictures will give those who are 'mad enough' to try adding this infrastructure to their layout some sort of guide as to how I have installed this rodding. 

 

point rodding 001 (400x233).jpg

The first task was to prepare the rodding runs by filing a small amount of flashing that is left on the base of each ground fixing.

 

point rodding 002 (400x139).jpg

 

In this section  there are four runs with the front rodding lining up to a turnout tie bar. The components are quite 'fiddley' to line up especially whilst leaning across the layout to get to the location of fixing. To make things a bit easier and to also make sure that everything lines up I glued the ground fixings and pulley's  to a thin piece of 'Evergreen' strip using 'plastic magic' solvent  

 

point rodding 003 (400x121).jpg

 

This makes fixing all four rod sections in one operation which makes things a lot easier than by doing it one by one and once lined up with the neighbouring section I just bushed plastic magic glue on the ends of the rods. At the baseboard join I left the sections just shy of the edge which means a bit of a gap between sections that will hardly be noticed but will hopefully save any damage during layout movement.

 

point rodding 006 (400x198).jpg

 

The above shows the lining up to a turnout which just adds a nice bit of extra detail to the track work. The outer rodding will continue on to the next location which as yet has to be completed. 

 

point rodding 004 (400x240).jpg

 

The lining up of all the rodding runs into the signal box did really test my resolve but I feel that the exercise has been worth the effort. 

 

point rodding 005 (400x249).jpg

 

With the part built signal cabin in place it does make the extra work worth while even if it is just a representation though with the cabin facing into the layout it will not be in total view during exhibition but I know it's all there !!!

 

point rodding 007 (265x400).jpg

 

A quick shot along the line in front of the signal cabin makes all the extra work worth while me thinks. Once the track has been painted weathered and ballasted I can pick out the rodding in a nice rusty finish to complete the scene.

 

In conclusion I feel at this stage that the extra 'fiddly' instalment has added some nice individual character to the layout 's track work. On the negative side it is not a cheap option as the layout is only small I have still used four packets of rodding which has cost £40 plus but I still feel the end result is worth the extra cost. As I stated earlier in the post it is very much a loose 'representation' of the real thing and I'm sure that the 'experts' will be noticing all sort of inaccurate mistakes that this chief of bodger's has committed but as least I has tried something new. 

 

I know it's fiddly but well worth the effort when done.

Looking good

[gismorail]

Thanks for your kind comments Andy & Kevin and in general I'm pleased with the outcome of this first attempt at point rodding. I do feel that once the track has been weathered and ballasted it will come together to give a convincing scene 

[shedman]

Excellent, Martin. I have nothing but admiration for your skill and patience. Trevor

[gismorail]

Thanks for that Trevor I trust your sea legs are in good fettle 

 

Just completed the final part of the 'representation' of the point rodding.....I'll refer to it as this as I know that the experts amongst you will find many imperfections in my interpretation .....  It's taken about 15 hours to complete and has been a  fiddly job but as Kevin mentioned it's well worth the effort to complete the scene. 

Once completed I cleared the base boards of tools and bits and pieces ready to apply the first coat of air brushed Dirty Track Grismo mixture 

 

              

 

              

 

 

 

I have included the above photographs so that there can be compared once spraying has been under taken ....

 

That's this quick update done for now as I'd better get ready to go to work ........  

 

[Signaller69]

Excellent job on the point rodding, it does massively improve the authenticity I think. I used the same Wills items on Crinan but after ballasting most of the track, much scraping away involved with a jewellers screwdriver and a lesson learned!

 

Top job.

 

Martyn.

[Andrew P]

Great work on the Rodding Martin, it's a LOT LOT LOT neater than I did, and looks really professional, well done mate, and as the other Martyn says, TOP JOB.

[shedman]

Sea legs a bit wobbly. I'm a really impressed with the point rodding and looking forward to seeing it painted and with ballast. Trev

[Andrew P]

Here's an interesting bit of Point Rodding for you Martin, posted on Tony Wrights Thread.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64295-wright-writes/page-674

I challenge you         

Edited May 20, 2017 by Andrew P

[shedman]

Oh please Andrew, don't challenge Martin. The results can be soooooooo unpredictable!!!

[gismorail]

Here's an interesting bit of Point Rodding for you Martin, posted on Tony Wrights Thread.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64295-wright-writes/page-674

I challenge you         

OMG Andy amazing  .......think I'll duck out of that one for two reasons ,firstly there would be no room on the base board for track work and secondly I'd need sell something to afford the number of Wills kits need to even scratch the surface 

[gismorail]

Oh please Andrew, don't challenge Martin. The results can be soooooooo unpredictable!!!

You know me too well Trevor but the cost puts me off......now if it were eating a large sticky cake  ......  

 

[gismorail]

Good morning all. Just a quick update regarding the track weathering which has now received a very light air brushing of Humbrol 86 matt brown just to tone down the new look of the plain track areas and a more heavy coating over the copper clad turn out areas. Once this has dried out over a 24 hour period I have started to add a rust effect to the rails and chairs which is achieved with a mixture of Humbrol orange 86 / leather 62 and matt black 33 which is mixed together into a very light rusty effect. This is then carefully applied to the rail sides by 'dry brushing' which does take a while but gives a very light rusting effect to the areas to which it is applied. 

 

                     

 

                 

 

I don't want to overdo this rust effect as I feel that to highlight these areas too much can look a bit over done and I'm looking to get a 'natural' finish. 

 

I have also started to apply some ballast to the coal drop area which will in real life have been quite contaminated by the nature of the product being delivered. I have always used Slaters 'N' gauge grade of ballast which I feel is about right scale wise in 4mm. I do give it a bit of a crushing by the use of a well know piece of science lab kit 

 

 and this can vary depending upon the application needed for the area being ballasted.

 

                           

 

These couple of shots are just the first application of the crushed ballast which has been carefully put into place by tea spoon and paint brush and has then been soaked in 50 / 50 PVA  and water with a drop of washing up liquid. The next stage for this area will be to start to contaminate the track formation ......... all good fun 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andrew P]

Good morning all. Just a quick update regarding the track weathering which has now received a very light air brushing of Humbrol 86 matt brown just to tone down the new look of the plain track areas and a more heavy coating over the copper clad turn out areas. Once this has dried out over a 24 hour period I have started to add a rust effect to the rails and chairs which is achieved with a mixture of Humbrol orange 86 / leather 62 and matt black 33 which is mixed together into a very light rusty effect. This is then carefully applied to the rail sides by 'dry brushing' which does take a while but gives a very light rusting effect to the areas to which it is applied. 

 

track weathering 002 (400x150).jpg                      track weathering 003 (400x196).jpg

 

track weathering 004 (400x193) (2).jpg                  track weathering 005 (400x174).jpg

 

I don't want to overdo this rust effect as I feel that to highlight these areas too much can look a bit over done and I'm looking to get a 'natural' finish. 

 

I have also started to apply some ballast to the coal drop area which will in real life have been quite contaminated by the nature of the product being delivered. I have always used Slaters 'N' gauge grade of ballast which I feel is about right scale wise in 4mm. I do give it a bit of a crushing by the use of a well know piece of science lab kit 

 

track weathering 006 (400x264).jpg  and this can vary depending upon the application needed for the area being ballasted.

 

track weathering 007 (400x186).jpg                            track weathering 008 (235x400).jpg

 

These couple of shots are just the first application of the crushed ballast which has been carefully put into place by tea spoon and paint brush and has then been soaked in 50 / 50 PVA  and water with a drop of washing up liquid. The next stage for this area will be to start to contaminate the track formation ......... all good fun 

 looks really great Martin and well worth doing well.

 

Can you clarify the Humbrol 86 Matt Brown / Orange.