Elmore

[Johndc120]

1 hour ago, geoff said:

Is this of any assistance? Taken at Didcot GWR last year.

 

Geoff

Thank you Geoff

 

I found this one when I first started doing research on it, my boy has been to didcot a few times so it was a good excuse to make another visit where I took lots of photos. It’s all well and good having the diagrams but sometimes you need to actually see it to translate them

 

 

 

[Johndc120]

Last night we made good progress on the bay platform laying the edging blocks down to the end and round the back of the buffer beam.

 

 

underneath the edge blocks we have also added the stepped courses to build out the support under the blocks.

 

 

finally we started to look at a 3D printed option for the main platform, these are 2’6 x 3’ slabs, they come out perfectly to the structure gauge but just a touch thick, also I would prefer a little bit more detail on the mortar gaps. V2 will be coming next week!!!

 

[Johndc120]

V2 of the paving slabs ready to go!!

 

this should be enough to do the 1.4m of platform

 

[Andy Keane]

30 minutes ago, Johndc120 said:

V2 of the paving slabs ready to go!!

 

this should be enough to do the 1.4m of platform

 

These look very impressive. So far I have used laser cut card for my platform edges which are no doubt cheaper but cannot compete on fine grain detail, though I do get longer strips.

[Fishplate]

On 17/03/2023 at 21:06, Johndc120 said:

we have also added the stepped courses

 

Corbelling is the technical term. 

 

All looking very nice 👍

[Johndc120]

A good evening of work yesterday. This has been more work on the platform.

 

The main platform edging has gone in, the V2 version has worked well and actually it’s been the easiest platform edge I’ve done in a while.

 

Hopefully this will be a nice contrast to the bullnose edging on the bay platform

 

 

 

After finishing the edge slabs it was then time to look at the cattle dock, this was built from plasticard with wood blocks underneath. We have drilled through the board and screwed it down from underneath so it shouldn’t go anywhere now

 

 

finally the section behind the buffers including the end loading dock have been tied into the now finished platform. We’ve glued on the metal ramps temporarily to see how they look. We have a range of stock that can use the end dock from CCTs, mogos, lomacs and of course the Rotank wagon

 

 

 

[Johndc120]

Another couple of locos ready for duty on Elmore

 

the 5101 class is a good loco for the layout as it’s a good all round mixed traffic engine able to pull the heavier trains up the hill. Although with it’s larger wheels, it may still require assistance with heavy stone trains from the resident banker/yard pilot. this one being in this livery might well get more use on the larger passenger train 

 

The 72xx is a bit of extravagance for us, it would be an extreme situation to see such a large loco on a branch line and we’ll give you a clue as to what that situation might be, this little project has been on the go for a while and it’s about time I got it finished!!

 

[Johndc120]

2 locos on now on trial

 

the first being 5189, this is currently pulling one of the larger passenger trains that arrive at Elmore, this consists of 3 older collett coaches and usually a tail load

 

 

 

7218 then arrives with a ballast train, the ballast train as well as a couple of other oddities gives us the excuse to run some more unusual and larger locos on the layout.

 

this is a special working from quarries in the Dean Forrest up the branch line to drop ballast and plough (see the one end brake is actually a plough van)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tortuga]

Very nice. What are the ballast wagons please? Herrings?

[Johndc120]

3 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Very nice. What are the ballast wagons please? Herrings?

Thank you, yes they are indeed herring wagons, they’re all Cambrian wagon kits which are okay but a bit awkward to build. 
 

An interesting thing is the herring wagons and ballast plough are set up for centre drop only, same as the catfish, the GWR plough could not spread anything laid outside the rails from a dogfish

 

John

[Tortuga]

I like the idea of using special trains as an excuse to run an unusual locomotive as well - I justified the acquisition of an 8F for my layout for exactly the same reason!

 

Annoyingly my timeframe excludes the use of Catfish or Dogfish; I think Trouts are most likely. At least I can modify the Cambrian kit to produce an Oyster or an early Shark.

[MrWolf]

I've been having similar thoughts and I'm going with the idea of a S&T Department work train replacing telegraph poles or perhaps a signal.

Already you need a crane and runner, a flat or two, tool van / workshop (ISTR converted Fruit D vans with windows in later BR days?) and probably a PW dept Toad.

[Johndc120]

17 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I've been having similar thoughts and I'm going with the idea of a S&T Department work train replacing telegraph poles or perhaps a signal.

Already you need a crane and runner, a flat or two, tool van / workshop (ISTR converted Fruit D vans with windows in later BR days?) and probably a PW dept Toad.

Jidenco models did a lovely 13t S&T open wagon which would look lovely in that train

[Andy Keane]

On 07/11/2021 at 08:17, Johndc120 said:

Finally we have started the lengthy process of track painting, this is all done with Vallejo acrylics. 
 

one lesson learnt from Shwt, when you weather the ballast it tones down all of the weathering on the sleepers so we have gone heavier than you might expect with the rust but it won’t end up like that.

 

the first task is to prime everything

 

 

The whole thing is then painted in German camouflage black brown

 

 

we then use a mix of ‘dark fleshtone’ and ‘filthy brown’ to then give us the rust colours which we use for the side of the rails and the rust wash onto the sleepers

 

 

once the rust was applied we have then started to pick out some of the concrete parts, these include the GWR concrete pot sleeper

 

 

the other tedious part is picking out all of the concrete stools and legs of the point rodding and mechanical signalling equipment 

 

 

 

Could you reinstate these pictures. They were really useful and I see they went in the great crash.

thanks

Andy

[Johndc120]

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

Could you reinstate these pictures. They were really useful and I see they went in the great crash.

thanks

Andy

Sure thing, just got to remember which photos they were 

 

So start to finish

 

this is the primer, it’s Vallejo grey primer which looks very light. The key is to clean the top of the rail between coats

 

 

the next stage is to spray the whole thing in German camo black brown

 

this has had 2 coats

 

following this is rust layers, using the paint colours ‘dark fleshtone’ and ‘filthy brown’ 

 

Lastly the concrete colour for the concrete pots and rodding parts was touched in using Vallejo ‘stone grey’

 

 

 

 

[Andy Keane]

51 minutes ago, Johndc120 said:

Sure thing, just got to remember which photos they were 

 

So start to finish

 

this is the primer, it’s Vallejo grey primer which looks very light. The key is to clean the top of the rail between coats

 

 

the next stage is to spray the whole thing in German camo black brown

 

this has had 2 coats

 

following this is rust layers, using the paint colours ‘dark fleshtone’ and ‘filthy brown’ 

 

Lastly the concrete colour for the concrete pots and rodding parts was touched in using Vallejo ‘stone grey’

 

 

 

 

Thanks, really helpful reference images. Last time around you mentioned something about weathering the ballast as well?

[Johndc120]

23 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

Thanks, really helpful reference images. Last time around you mentioned something about weathering the ballast as well?

Yeah so as you weather the ballast, you tend to dull off the rust colours so you have to go a little heavy with the rust and once the ballast is done the rest will blend back in correctly 

[Andy Keane]

19 minutes ago, Johndc120 said:

Yeah so as you weather the ballast, you tend to dull off the rust colours so you have to go a little heavy with the rust and once the ballast is done the rest will blend back in correctly 

Got it. What colours do you use on the ballast? Do you have some pics of the weathered ballast?

thanks

andy

[Johndc120]

10 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

Got it. What colours do you use on the ballast? Do you have some pics of the weathered ballast?

thanks

andy

I’ve had to lift these from Shwt’s Facebook which seems to be my photo cloud

 

mainly I use the same sleeper grime colour I use to paint the sleepers. It’s the German camo black brown. although this is mixed in with oil black for oil stains and a few other more detail bits like grease on the pointwork

 

 

this is the unweathered ballast just gone in, all very uniform 

 

This is new weathered with the black brown, for track where a train is not normally stopped I just weather along under the rails, for sections where the train stops I give a much heavier weathering to the the whole track bed

 

Finally grass can then be introduced if felt the area needs it, shwt being a 1960s partyly disused line it’s got quite a lot

 

john

[Andy Keane]

6 minutes ago, Johndc120 said:

I’ve had to lift these from Shwt’s Facebook which seems to be my photo cloud

 

mainly I use the same sleeper grime colour I use to paint the sleepers. It’s the German camo black brown. although this is mixed in with oil black for oil stains and a few other more detail bits like grease on the pointwork

 

 

this is the unweathered ballast just gone in, all very uniform 

 

This is new weathered with the black brown, for track where a train is not normally stopped I just weather along under the rails, for sections where the train stops I give a much heavier weathering to the the whole track bed

 

Finally grass can then be introduced if felt the area needs it, shwt being a 1960s partyly disused line it’s got quite a lot

 

john

Many thanks, that is really helpful.

Andy

[Johndc120]

Working on wagons tonight. 
 

firstly the complete set of conflats for they layout, these will be mixed in with the freight for the yard but also they are ideal as tail loads for small B-set passengers. The tail loads are an operators choice, for operators without much knowledge of the layout you can go without. whereas the more competent ones can arrive with a tail load, drop it off in the yard, pick a different one up if they want or just shunt the original to the back of the train before heading off down the branch

 

Chains to be added

 

Secondly a very iffy numbered Hornby lowmac, the number really doesn’t make sense on this vehicle and I believe that’s because it’s an eastern number which Hornby have just put a W infront to make it western region… hmmm!! Some weathering and it’s be fine I guess!!

 

anyway the crate it came with looked bad so a good Oxford die cast tractor later and some chains and it looks okay, just to weather it down now

 

 

 

 

[Andy Keane]

1 hour ago, Johndc120 said:

Working on wagons tonight. 
 

firstly the complete set of conflats for they layout, these will be mixed in with the freight for the yard but also they are ideal as tail loads for small B-set passengers. The tail loads are an operators choice, for operators without much knowledge of the layout you can go without. whereas the more competent ones can arrive with a tail load, drop it off in the yard, pick a different one up if they want or just shunt the original to the back of the train before heading off down the branch

 

Chains to be added

 

Secondly a very iffy numbered Hornby lowmac, the number really doesn’t make sense on this vehicle and I believe that’s because it’s an eastern number which Hornby have just put a W infront to make it western region… hmmm!! Some weathering and it’s be fine I guess!!

 

anyway the crate it came with looked bad so a good Oxford die cast tractor later and some chains and it looks okay, just to weather it down now

 

 

 

 

Is that a six ton yard crane in the background? Looks like it was printed. Do you have a supplier as Helston needs one.

Andy

[Johndc120]

It certainly is, it’s my own design and print, I’ve done a batch of them, just got to build them up, I’ll try and remember you wanted one

 

are you sure Yeltsin was a 6T? The 3 T looks very similar which I have done for Chris Nevard’s build of Hemyock 

 

[Johndc120]

Hi Andy,

 

you are right Helston is definitely a 6T

 

 

This is my design of it using diagrams from the Great western journal and pictures of one still in existence 

 

 

 

 

[Andy Keane]

9 hours ago, Johndc120 said:

Hi Andy,

 

you are right Helston is definitely a 6T

 

 

This is my design of it using diagrams from the Great western journal and pictures of one still in existence 

 

 

 

 

Brilliant - a fully built one would be lovely, but if not are you able to supply parts, or files to print from? I had thought of setting to with my CAD tools to make my own but yours is just too good.

Andy

Edited April 8, 2023 by Andy Keane