Life in a Northern Town

[Neil]

Yesterday I pencilled in the outline of the backscene buildings on the end wall of the garage and today, just before dinner, I got out the brushes and paint and coloured it all in. Here are a few photos showing the backscene behind the yard loops.

 

 

 

[Neil]

Since the last post here I've been on holiday to Antwerp ......

 

 

The view from our hotel room window - result.

 

Unfortunately on our return Mrs R and I caught Covid which wasn't that pleasant. Rather than knuckle down to major model-making tasks I pottered along building a short section of the Bar Walls and Baille Hill tower. I started with a card mock up to get the sizing right ....

 

 

.... then reproducing the basic shape with a double layer of 80 thou plasticard, which I then pierced for doors and windows and cut away to form the crenelations at the top.

 

 

The section of wall is again from 80 thou and is seen here with the tower on a trial placement on the layout.

 

 

 

[Captain Kernow]

Sorry to hear about the Covid, Neil, hope you are both fully recovered from it now.

 

At least you put the time to very good use!

 

[Neil]

Thanks Tim, we're both recoverd now, not a pleasant experience but we are both fully vaccinated so not as bad as it might have been.

[Re6/6]

12 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

Sorry to hear about the Covid, Neil, hope you are both fully recovered from it now.

 

At least you put the time to very good use!

 

What he said! 

[Neil]

Since the last pictures were taken I've finished the section of Bar Walls. Today I took it out to the garage to try in place on the layout; I'm happy with how it looks.

 

 

 

 

When I get around to it the join between 2D wall and 3D wall should be softened and to a large extent hidden by a tree covered mound stretching from front to rear.

[Neil]

I think a bit of an explanation is due here. I think I've mentioned this before but Northern Town is a dc layout, however the rest of my local mates have their layouts set up for dcc. On Friday evenings we meet at each others houses for an operating session so I have a few locos with chips to run on foreign metals. One such is this Patriot which after spending a couple of years sat in its box (we didn't meet up during and for a while after Covid restrictions) refused to go a week last Friday. At the weekend I took out its chip and replaced it with a blanking plate that one of my mates passed on (I have misplaced all of mine) and then took it out to the garage to test it.

 

 

Here it is on a parcels train from the midland region. It runs very well on dc and I could be tempted not to put another chip in it. Meanwhile I also indulged in a spot of shunting; I have a pair of J72s this one was the cheaper of the two, fifteen quid from ebay, the other was twenty fife if my memory is correct. They're both the older Bachmann model but run very nicely indeed.

 

 

Finally a few of the brake vans I seem to have accumulated. They are from left to right, Hornby (repainted), Lima body on Mainline underframe, and Airfix with added ballast box.

 

[Barclay]

That'll teach you to meddle with witchcraft !

[Neil]

I mentioned above that I have a group of friends who live locally and that we take turns to operate play with each others railways. Here's what turned up last Friday evening.

 

 

Not sure what an EM1 is doing in York. It's clean so perhaps it's been dragged dead for some sort of publicity event proclaiming how much of a go-ahead, modern organisation British Railways is.

 

 

I suppose it doesn't stretch matters too far to imagine that the Co-Bo has worked in from somewhere on the midland region, though I feel that it maybe a bit risky as there's a fair chance that it'll crap out before reaching home metals. Maybe that was the plan all along?

 

 

On safer ground now as D2600 was (very) briefly a York engine before it moved on to Goole. 

 

 

At first glance the Jinty is credible as a York area loco, York had several, but in reality 47673 was based in North Wales at the time the layout is set. Goodness only knows how the 2Bil has got as far as York or why it's heading to the coal drops. Has the driver ingested dubious fungi or something similar?

 

My thanks to my mate Patrick for the splendid images of the shenanigans.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Neil

[Neil]

Next on my workbench is a kit, a laser cut kit for a shop from Fair Price Models. Billed as a scratch aid it's more than just that though short of the full works. The major bit that the builder has to do is to add texture to the walls, this determines the build order along with the need to install windows and window displays before assembling the structure. Here's where I got to by this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

I've made further steady if slow progress on the shop build.

 

 

Due to the large window I felt that I needed some sort of simple interior for the actual shop part of the building.

 

 

Simple curtains sufficed for the rest; nets from tissue paper and curtains cut from the Sunday colour supplement.

 

 

I carried the decor over from the shop insert to its adjoining wall section.

 

 

All the glazing comes from a cd case, clear from the front and a representation of hammered glass from the clear but textured rear.

 

[Neil]

Once the windows were dressed I could assemble the whole structure, elastic bands holding it all together.

 

 

The end wall was clad in brick and a start made on the yard at the rear.

 

 

 

The other end wall was rendered. I used too much filler, a complete pain to sand back to the chosen level of unevenness.

[Neil]

I've moved the build on a little since the last post. Continuing the theme of naming businesses for my friends I've sign written the rendered end of the shop. Now the shop is a grocers and will bear the name of my late, great aunt who I was extremely fond of (she worked in a grocers) who taught me to play cards and still brought me bags of sweeties well into my twenties but Farmer's tree surgery business will occupy a yard at the side of the shop.

 

 

 

The chimney is bodged together from four segments included in the kit and will be properly finished with brick cladding. The roof has a plasticard sub base which allows it to plug into place. On an all plastic build I'd be quite happy gluing the roof directly to the walls but as the shop has an mdf carcass with thin plastic overlays on just three walls I thought I'd better attempt a proper job.

 

 

[Neil]

Further up the page I showed the improbable mix of stock my mates bring round on a Friday evening. It's not a one way street however as last Friday I took this ensemble to my mate Patrick's huge continuous run layout.

 

 

It's pictured on home turf as I didn't have my camera with me. I was surprised by the length of run that it gave (only expired in the tunnel once) and by its modest pace round the layout.

[Ben B]

On 14/08/2022 at 15:04, Neil said:

Further up the page I showed the improbable mix of stock my mates bring round on a Friday evening. It's not a one way street however as last Friday I took this ensemble to my mate Patrick's huge continuous run layout.

 

 

It's pictured on home turf as I didn't have my camera with me. I was surprised by the length of run that it gave (only expired in the tunnel once) and by its modest pace round the layout.

 

I've developed an obsession with these clockwork locomotives... Pat Hammond, in his books, reckoned the mechanism Triang developed for these starter locomotives was far too good for it's intended purpose.  You get a good one, and they really are excellent, giving a long, steady run :)

[Neil]

Though this might not look like much it marks a significant stage in that thanks to a glorious day here in Tywyn I've finally cut out the trackbed for the remaining part of the light railway section of the layout. Though I have a large workbench in the fiddle yard part of the garage, sawing timber creates dust everywhere so I now only cut timber when I can do it outside. Here are a couple of views of this side of the layout.

 

 

 

Still to do are the inch square section blocks to raise the trackbed up, hardboard facias and further hardboard for the river surface along the front edge of the board at this side.

 

While the saw and mdf were out I finally got round to cutting a section out to replace the thin cardboard that the buildings at the right hand edge were sat on. Though the garage isn't damp I don't trust cardboard as a long term material here.

 

 

 

[Neil]

Over the last week I've cut the inch square sections to raise the trackbed up and this afternoon fixed them in place. I still have the trackbed tops to fix down to these battens, then it'll be glueing the foam yoga mat underlay in place and finally I'll be able to lay the track in place. Here are a few photos taken part way through the last week with the trackbed propped up on the battens and the structures roughly where they will be placed.

 

 

 

 

Note that some of the buildings, the simple card ones, are place holders of a simialr shape and size to the intended final structures.

[Stubby47]

How will you access the underside of the track for point movement and wiring ?

[Neil]

13 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

How will you access the underside of the track for point movement and wiring ?

 

A good question, the answer is that I don't. I have a mixture of point motors and hand operated points, both are surface mounted, I'll do some pictures when I'm next in the garage. Likewise any wires run on the surface in slots cut into the foam layer until they reach the edge of the mdf sub base where they drop down the face and then head under the baseboard. Again I'll do some pictures.

[Stubby47]

Obviously you've planned this, I wouldn't really have expected anything less.

 

My suggestion would have been to remove the baseboard, or portions of, inside the 1 inch battens, to give access, but patently this is not needed 

[Neil]

As promised for Stu a couple of images showing how I've arranged stuff that would normally go under the baseboard.

 

To start with a couple of surface mounted point motors and their associated wiring. You should be able to see that all the connections are made in choc-blocks above the baseboard surface. Once the scenery progresses I'll be able to show the removable camouflage I have planned for motors and connections. You should also be able to see that the wire runs are covered with then black card and then ballasted.

 

 

Those points that would in the real world have their own point levers are hand operated on the model. Again the wiring arrangements should be obvious.

 

 

Finally a couple of photos illustrating where I'm at with the light railway section of the layout. The woodwork is complete and the yoga mat foam underlay has been stuck down with Evo Stick. The garage window was left open yesterday to vent the fumes, the pong has just about subsided this morning.

 

 

[Neil]

It's early November 1960 in Northern Town and relaying work has started on the light railway. Company accountant Arthur Pryce (a splendid example of nominative determinism as he's a notorious penny pincher) has come out of his office to view the preparatory work on the track bed. Watching the proceedings his thoughts drift off to the talk in his lodge by city councillors of 'levelling up'. As far as he can tell though, the only levelling up is being done by two blokes and a steam roller.

 

 

Ever keen to find a bargain he's arranged to purchase the pointwork second hand but is somewhat aggrieved that the plain track has had to be bought new. Finances are a constant worry with the hike in the Bank of England interest rates two years ago and commercial banks following suit. Surprisingly wages of the workforce have risen over the last decade, in real terms a good twenty percent or so. Maybe we've 'never had it so good' but ever the pessimist he wonders if it'll ever be this good again; what will life be like for his children and grandchildren?

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Neil

[Re6/6]

13 hours ago, Neil said:

As far as he can tell though, the only levelling up is being done by two blokes and a steam roller.

Love it Neil! Made me chuckle!

[Neil]

Track laying started in earnest last week and I got as far as cutting and joining all the track apart from the sharply curved siding before a spell of bad weather deterred me from heading out into the garage again and making further progress.

 

 

 

When I return to the work in hand I'll have to swap out some of the rail joiners for insulated ones and arrange for the necessary electric spaghetti to be applied. In the meantime I've laid on a replacement bus service for any intending passengers but it doesn't look like Ivor Waite, our driver, will be troubled for some while.

 

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Today the track was finally pinned down down with the feeder wires attached. The sharply curved siding has now appeared too.

 

 

 

You can see how I lead the wires in slots cut into the foam to the side of the trackbed. On this piece of the layout they'll be terminated in connectors hidden in the river bank from where feeds will lead under the board to the control panel. The only below the board work will be clipping the cables from the connectors back to the control panel. This Friday it's my turn to host operating/playing/buggering about with trains for my mates so some temporary cabling will go in sometime between now and ten to allow one engine in steam on this section of the light railway.