James Harrison Posted November 25, 2018 Author Share Posted November 25, 2018 Paving round the buildings would fit. Gcr did that for London extension stations. The more I consider it, the more it's an idea I prefer to my initial thought of ballasting the whole length. I've got Tom Rolt's book of the Newton photographs which shows the paving/ ballast topping, I'm not sure when the shingle/ ballast gave way to tarmac (it's a little late now and I'm not going to change it, but I am curious to know). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard i Posted November 25, 2018 Share Posted November 25, 2018 That’s a good question, I don’t know exactly but from photos I have seen I would say in br days. Even then the tarmac did not cover the paving slabs so watching a train at speed will you clock grey black, yes. Will you clock tarmac or grit, less likely. Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted November 25, 2018 Author Share Posted November 25, 2018 Calvert in the late 1950s/ early 1960s (Steve Banks' website). That certainly looks like shingle or ballast on the platform to me. Belgrave and Birstall in 1962 (Wikipedia). The far end of the platform looks quite gravelly. Rugby Central sometime in the 1940s (Warwickshire Railways website). Rugby again (Warwickshire Railways website), later. I think that this suggests is that replacing the gravel platform tops with tarmac took place a lot later than I thought, and bears out your thought that it was a BR days thing. But look how quickly this 'improvement' starts to look tatty and tired, the gravel at least can be made to look presentable with relative ease in comparison. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted November 26, 2018 Author Share Posted November 26, 2018 That bridge again, but my efforts tonight have been focussed on bringing it all together. The piers are now fixed to the deck and the arch, the supporting structure has been built and permanently fitted, and the inner walls have been fitted. I have been quite careful with this as I'm building it in low relief... with a view, eventually, to building the other half of it when I get around to Phase 2 or 3 of RLS and slot CfP into the wider Rufford spur. I'm now at a point where I feel I can clad it. Or maybe not. Maybe the thing to do now is to rough out the landscaping and make a call on the wing walls. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted November 26, 2018 Share Posted November 26, 2018 I'm now at a point where I feel I can clad it. Or maybe not. Maybe the thing to do now is to rough out the landscaping and make a call on the wing walls. I would suggest that it might be easier to clad what you have built so far and then add and clad the wing walls. that will save you having to cut cladding to fit into awkward inside corners where the battered wing walls meet the abutments. Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted November 27, 2018 Author Share Posted November 27, 2018 I think you're right there. This evening's work has seen one side (one quarter, more accurately) of the cutting done, or rather roughed out, so I've got a good idea what I want one of the wing walls to do. Now for the other side of it, then cladding the bridge, then building the wing walls. Once that little lot is in I'll ballast the track, sort out the platform copings and the ramps/ barrow crossing, then do the cutting sides and retaining walls, then some of the smaller details... Is it usual that the more you do, the more jobs you find need doing? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted November 28, 2018 Author Share Posted November 28, 2018 That's what I've had in mind. Now for the other side. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 (edited) That's what I've had in mind. Now for the other side. If the bridge is going to be in a cutting on both sides, then you don't need wing walls. The abutments just go unto the cutting. Wing walls are to support any embankment which the road going over the top is on. See this post and compare with the last photo here. Jim Edited to add links. Edited November 28, 2018 by Caley Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted November 28, 2018 Author Share Posted November 28, 2018 That makes sense now. Once I'd roughed out the one side it suggested that what would look right would be just a straight wall into the cutting side. The other side of the cutting was roughed out this evening and again suggests just a straight wall, which is what will be built in due course. Next job now- cladding the bridge. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted November 30, 2018 Author Share Posted November 30, 2018 Right, both sides of the curtting are roughed in. So the next job logically is to clad the bridge, before looking at the abutments and then extending the cutting sides along to the other end of the board. Then the track needs ballasting, and the first of the detailing bits have arrived- some platform lamps. In other news, a copy of the Railway Clearing House atlas of 1904 arrived yesterday. I think the sheet dealing with the east midlands has been tampered with, as inexplicably the Midland's line to Port Trent, the Great Northern's line via Borchester and the Great Central's line to Rufford have all been omitted. When I have some time that will be corrected... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwardian Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 In other news, a copy of the Railway Clearing House atlas of 1904 arrived yesterday. I think the sheet dealing with the east midlands has been tampered with, as inexplicably the Midland's line to Port Trent, the Great Northern's line via Borchester and the Great Central's line to Rufford have all been omitted. When I have some time that will be corrected... I sympathise. The pages covering Norfolk are also woefully incomplete. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 1, 2018 Author Share Posted December 1, 2018 Cladding the bridge has started, once all of the brickwork is done then I will address the edges. The only way I can think of doing the 5 arched courses is to do that area brick by brick. A quick count suggests this means 600- 650 bricks applied individually. Unless someone has an alternative? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard i Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 Carve them into plastic card using a cutting compass and a scriber. That has to beat doing each indervidually. Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 1, 2018 Author Share Posted December 1, 2018 I had a go at it and it really wasn't as horrendous as it could have been. Once I'd got a method sorted out to move the bricks, that is. Dilute PVA glue in tweezers works wonders; it's sticky enough to pick the bricks up but releases them when their set down on the bridge with solvent. A couple of hours work and I had something that doesn't look half bad. Then I set about sorting out the edges; paint left on the brush then being wiped over the rest of the model to even out the brickwork a little. Not that I'm aiming for completely uniform brick colour. The brickwork is about done; coping stones etc. are the next part of the job. Then the abutments... and then it can be fitted onto the main CfP board! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 It feels like the saga of the bridge is starting to draw to a close. Two big pushes on Sunday and last night saw the abutments first built (in balsa sheet) and then clad. The plan for this evening is to fill the gaps and cracks and then work it over again in various blue/grey hues. If possible I'd also like to start thinking about the road surface tonight. After that I'm going to return to the platforms, to clean up the joint with the bridge, lay the slabs and look at putting gravel on the ramps. After that I'll do some ballasting, and by that time it will be Christmas and thus the annual Christmas Week Project. I've got several GCR wagon kits either in my stash or shortly to join it, but I think the calling is strong for some other pre-Grouping wagons, so it might be a pair of Ratio LNWR opens or a Cambrian Midland van. At the moment though enthusiasm and momentum is well up on CfP- which is good. I'm not sure the resident Inspector Blake would be too happy if it stalled and was left a half-finished mess cluttering up a shelf. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 I sympathise. The pages covering Norfolk are also woefully incomplete. Not to mention the area surrounding Rye and various surrounding parts of Sussex and Kent... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 4, 2018 Author Share Posted December 4, 2018 Not to mention the area surrounding Rye and various surrounding parts of Sussex and Kent... I sympathise. The pages covering Norfolk are also woefully incomplete. I'm wondering if an Improved RCH atlas of England and Wales would be possible; there seem to be quite a number of lines missed off. I've got a reprint of the 1904 atlas, not suggesting we butcher a physical print copy but I have a scanner and Inkscape... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 I'm wondering if an Improved RCH atlas of England and Wales would be possible; there seem to be quite a number of lines missed off. I've got a reprint of the 1904 atlas, not suggesting we butcher a physical print copy but I have a scanner and Inkscape... Not just the England and Wales maps which are deficient. The Scottish maps fail to show the line between Climpy and the Edinburgh and Glasgow via Shots line, Kirkallanmuir being located on this missing line. Jim 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 7, 2018 Author Share Posted December 7, 2018 The bridge is about at the point of practical completion. Just some soot to add. And some patching in on the road surface, and to sketch in the coping stones. Right; next part of the job. Platform copings, flagstones and ramps I think. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 8, 2018 Author Share Posted December 8, 2018 One finished bridge. I'm now looking at the platform ramps and the flagstones/ edging stones. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 Right, the bridge is now fixed in place and the ramps are done, I've cut 300-some-odd flagstones which will be fitted one by one (and I've no doubt halfway through I'll run out and have to make some more), and now I find I'm the proud owner-to-be of a fourth BEC J11. Now seems as good a time as any to discuss motive power needs for the Rufford Spur. Last week I picked up a copy of the RCH 1904 atlas of England and Wales and I've been looking at sketching in the Rufford line as well as some other railways ostensibly set in the area. Usefully it lets me see how Rufford sits in the area and other railways. From that, I've added to my original ideas as set out back in the original opening post- was it really nearly two years ago?- I've increasingly come to view RLS as the terminus of an early MSLR Derbyshire Line. In the RLS 'verse, I've concluded that the LDECR's Sheffield Branch was built some 50 years previous to our time line and then extended to the south and the east in a rough horseshoe shape to terminate at Rufford. The LDECR was then built between 'near Lincoln' and Chesterfield as-per OTL, but didn't gain access to Sheffield until subsumed into the GCR in 1906. A connection then laid in between the LDECR and Rufford line. Now with the MSLR Derbyshire lines, OTL they and the LDECR Sheffield line ran more or less parallel from Killamarsh... that's not going to happen this time, I see the Annesley line coming off probably somewhere a little north of Mansfield Woodhouse to run south and the Chesterfield Loop coming off somewhere around Killamarsh and re-joining the Annesley line at Heath Junction. Basically, imagine the very northern end of the MSLR Derbyshire Lines being shunted over to the east a bit. Then the London Extension gets built from Annesley as-per OTL. Now what this means for motive power.... Obviously RLS is going to be at best a secondary mainline, it has direct access to London but the fastest London- Sheffield and Manchester trains are just going to fly straight by. The way I see it, it is going to have quite extensive suburban services to Nottingham and Sheffield, a route to Lincoln via the LDECR and a (longer, slower) route to same via the original 1840s MSLR mainline via Gainsborough and Market Rasen. Then, of course, service further along that same line to Grimsby, New Holland and (by my 1918-22 period) Immingham. Much like the Chesterfield Loop it would have, at best, one or two direct services to London each way each day, and lets say too that a couple of Manchester- Sheffield services get extended to Rufford. So if I say maybe an hourly service to Nottingham and Sheffield, maybe a two-hourly service to Lincoln via the LDECR, maybe the same to Grimsby, maybe the same to Manchester. One train in the morning and one in the afternoon to London, then the freight on top. I have a copy of the 1903 GCR public timetable so when I get around to it I'll read up on that and see what would be reasonable.... I guess what I am saying is that RLS is more likely to see superannuated and older locos than the big modern Improved Directors from Messers Bachmanns works. Now, what locos do I have to run that sort of service.... I've got a Robinson 4-4-2 tank and a 4-6-2 tank, and a pair of Parker 2-4-2s. I think they would be pretty much ideal for the Sheffield and Nottingham stoppers. I've got a pair of Pollitt 4-4-0s and a Pollitt 4-2-2 which I believe would be appropriate power for running to Lincoln, Immingham and Grimsby. Seeing how newbuild projects attract modelmakers attention, how long before GCR #567 comes before Bachmann/ Hornby I wonder.... we know she ran with a round topped boiler until 1918 and is being built as such so would make a nice comparison with the Pollitt locos! Then I've got a veritable cornucopia of big green and named things for the twice-daily London train... a Lord Faringdon, a Sam Fay, an Improved Director, two original Directors, two Jersey Lilys and a small boilered bogie Pom-Pom (actually, this last named would have come under the 'old and superannuated' bracket by then so could well be Nottingham or Sheffield super-power). Of that lot, my Lord Faringdon is on the disposals list (when G-Train's B3 kit is released) and the pair of Jersey Lilys might well become one, as the other is running on a decidedly shakey homebrew chassis. Then there's a couple of mixed traffic locos... a never-wazzer Gorton mogul (depending on the source, either a 1913 Gorton design study or a 1917 proposal for a standard government issue 2-6-0 design), two Imminghams and a Fish and I'm also accruing bits with a view to building a B6... also being interested in G-Trains proposed B7.... I see the Imminghams and Fish as being of use, the Marylebone fish trains could well have a Rufford portion. Freight stock is where things really start to get interesting.... I've got a pair of J10s and a quartet of BEC J11s. I standardised on the BEC kit as my idea of everything being of a hand means that the Bachmann model is perhaps too good for the layout and stock it is to run with and on. Then there's not only a 'Crab' 2-6-4 but the preceding LDECR 0-6-4 type. Plus a ROD (actually, I've got two- a K's kit and a Bachmann, for which see my comments above about the J11) and a Q4. Realistically....the ROD and Q4 are/ were heavy mineral engines, what need would RLS have for long heavy coal trains?.... although in the Booklaw books about the Derbyshire Lines there are photographs showing O4s and 9Fs running on trains of 10 or fewer open wagons. So maybe they do have a use after all. Shunting? Three N5s, a 'humpy' 0-6-0 and I've plans to build a Robinson dock tank. I've also seen conversions of the old Mainline J72 into the LDECR 0-6-0 shunter.... I think that's all of my loco stock.... I think it is.... I think I have about enough of a stud for freight and shunting work, and for local passengers, and far too much for express passenger. Maybe I could ring the changes and model RLS as it would have appeared in 1912 too, and split my loco collection in half accordingly? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 10, 2018 Author Share Posted December 10, 2018 I've started fitting the edging stones. I'm finding that I can only do about a foot of it at a time; any more and my mind succumbs to the tedious nature of the task (also, working along, you find that as the glue works through the stones makes it more likely one will stick to your thumb several inches further along...) At this rate it looks like it will be the end of the week before the edging is finished. Then say another two to three days to do the paving back to the buildings (assuming my 300-some-odd stones are enough). Then- oh joy!- another tedious job in ballasting... It will be worth it. The foot of edging already done does look rather good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 12, 2018 Author Share Posted December 12, 2018 One complete run of platform edging completed. Now for the other side, then I can look at the flags back to the station buildings. This really only be done in small stages as it's so easy to accidentally 'lift' previously-laid flagstones. I might need to make some more of them, I cut 300 and of those used around 110 on one platform edge.... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 All edging stones done. Now to sort out the flagstones around the buildings, and then I can look at the ballast and the barrow crossing. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Harrison Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 At a glacial pace the stone flagging proceeds. It took a week just to do the edging to both platforms, the 11 or so runs back to the station building took a good half hour or so this evening. I'm finding it pays to do it a little at a time as otherwise it's just incredibly tedious and dull work. But it is getting there. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now