Greenford in 00 Gauge: Circa 2010-2017 (FGW, Chiltern, LU, Virgin + Plenty of Freight)

[WCML100]

Been a while since any noteworthy updates. Myself and @Chris37044 continue to work on projects for the layout but its still too cold to work out in the garage currently. This means the little (if any) layout progress is small projects that we can do indoors and ready for the layout later. 

 

However we are making the most of our time with several rolling stock projects, which we will both update more on once we have made some progress with them! For now, a quick one on and off the work bench was my new pride an joy; 57307 in DRS / Cable Thieves branding. This is the Bachmann Collectors Club release, and with near enough all 57/3’s in the Virgin / DRS pool doing driver route learning from Euston up to West Ruislip via Greenford at some point (for Virgin Blockade Blockbuster Voyager workings)  - the temptation for another is never far away (or the justification either!)…
 

With two 57/3’s already in the fleet, a third was suddenly deemed necessary when I found a picture online of the 57307 at Drayton Green performing this working (shown at the bottom of the is post). That was more than an excuse for me to get one as I already had a soft spot for this livery. And so, whilst we were at Warley, Bachmann were knocking them out a discounted price of £130ish due to the remaining ones having a loose roof grille. So I got one (was posted due to none left on the day!) and it arrived some time after in early Jan! (DPD’s fault!) 

 

So at the weekend I managed to get around to applying the etched nameplates and the buffer beam detailing at one end. One Miss Lady Penelopy ready for action! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real life prototypical inspiration:

 

 

(I can no longer find this on flickr so credit to the original photographer)

Edited February 14, 2023 by WCML100

[Chris37044]

Following on from the last delayed Warley purchase… here is one that I just hadn’t got round to posting yet!

 

Grimy Times had some great weathered items on show and these Dapol HIA’s in Freightliner caught my eye. They had 6 of the newer batch available and after closer inspection I purchased the lot with a nice multi buy discount too.

 

I also picked up a pristine white one later on in the day as well, taking the total to 7. I had no intention to start a HIA rake but after seeing them in the flesh all weathered up on the Grimy Times stand I was sold.

 

I have recently added further to the rake with 3 more; 2x Green Early build types and 1 more later build in Green. I am basing my rake off the set in the video at bottom of this post, totalling at a healthy 15 wagons long. For now enjoy some pics of the one’s picked up at Warley and I will post further as I grow and work on the rest of the rake in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Chris37044

[Pacific231G]

I'm sad to report that, when I used the Greenford Branch to get to the Farmers Market in West Ealing on Saturday, I discovered that the bullhead track on the south west chord of the branch and the junction points between it and the south east chord have been replaced by Vignoles rail (ie. FB) I think that makes the final panel of track on which the buffers at Greenford are mounted the last BH track on the branch.  

[WCML100]

Hi guys, we have ourselves a (small) update actually on the layout! We have continued with some rolling stock projects (more on those soon) but this weekend I had some time to address the next parts of the layout which we need to tackle.

As the weather was a lot milder this weekend, I managed to spend a few hours fettling with the track plan in situ. I went through and marked everything out on the baseboard and checked positions of any intricate sections such as point motor, signals, the over bridge, support beams and how all of these will work with each other. One of the tough parts to get right is the crossover which is situated directly over the road bridge - I have managed to set this up with the point motors (just) either side of where the road heads under the railway. In the images below you can see the plastic grey Hornby bridge marking out roughly the position of where the road will head underneath, as well as point positions and alignment of the 3 tracks using parallel line spaces to keep the spacing consistent, as done on the previous board.

 

 

 

Next up; The bay and tube lines. These are a little bit more challenging as we haven't only got to negotiate the bridge but also have gradients to deal with. I cut the woodland scenics risers to match up with the height of the high level on the station board, but also had to account for the base layer of cork we are using (2.5mm) and a layer of thin cork which is track width (2mm on the bay and 3mm on the tube lines). I cut the foam risers using trial and error offering it up each time to check. I tested the track over the join and see how it would sit to ensure it is smooth and settled on the below, shown for both the bay and the nearest tube line.

 

 

After then mapping out the track position of the link line coming off the NNML for the Greenford branch seen in the first photo below. I also decided that the inclines as per the prototype should not start until past the over bridge, so have managed to work the space to achieve this. This can be seen on the second photo below using the point the bay lines decline from this position down, the tube lines either side will start to incline upwards from the same point. I checked that this fitted in against the planned over bridge of the link line which curves underneath the two tube lines and links up with bay line. For the exact track diagram I have posted this previously showing a full plan but you can also check out the real location on google maps for a good overhead view of what we are trying to recreate! I also gauged the height of the tube lines crossing over the Greenford branch / link line.
 

 

Well, a fairly mundane update but, some progress none the less. This means the preparation for these boards is almost complete and the next steps will be putting the boards on some legs, lining them all up and making sure they align correctly. Once this is complete, track laying / wiring can commence. That in itself is very exciting! As i said earlier in the post, some nice rolling stock updates coming soon too! Thanks for checking in 😁

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by WCML100

[WCML100]

Following on from a physical update - myself and @Chris37044 have been discussing future proofing the layout at the early stage with the intentions of eventually exhibiting Greenford.

 

So we came up with the idea of a ‘Garage’ setup and a ‘Exhibition’ setup. The Garage setup would consist of the 3 scenic boards we are currently working on (4ft, 4ft, 6ft respectively from left to right from the viewing side) - with the aim to ‘play’ trains in the space of the garage. This will have no proper scenic break at each end however. The ‘Exhibition’ setup would add an extra board on each end to maximise the length of layout and allow for a full length prototypical train to be shown off comfortably within the scope of the scenic section. We have decided 100% yet but the extra add on boards at each end for ‘Exhibition’ setup would likely be x2 more 4ft boards. The fiddle yard (something which hasnt even be started on yet…) will be built to be modular where we cab drop in extra boards of equal size when exhibiting - covering the extra length on the scenic side for our roundy roundy. 
 

This will allow us to have both the space in the fiddle yard for full length freights but also so its nice and visible in full across the layout, as well as give a nice sense of breathing space over all. Space is always the challenge in railway modelling, especially with the length of trains in recent years. The extra x2 scenic boards will allow us to model the Grand Union Canal where it passes under both lines to the West of the station (to the right hand side when viewing) - rule 1 will apply as its located a few hundred metres further up the line but will provide for a nice scene. It will also allow us to solve the issue mentioned previously regarding what to do with the front over grown sidings that I posted about before. We have chosen to model an aggregate rail head - again rule 1 applies but with Park Royal Marcon only a mile or so in the east direction on this line, we felt it would be nice to add something like this in and create a nice scene at the front of the layout for operating on. The next rule 1 will be that we are basing the actual siding and rail head on nearby Hayes Tarmac just up the branch and down on the GWML. It too is also situated off an old loop siding, in a state where the old loop is unusable to traffic but has working line either side creating a unique scene in the process. So we decided to incorporate it for something more interesting. 
 

All of this can be seen the modified track plan below, it isn't to scale and is a diagram so not exact but does show the different base boards for reference. I have also included a google maps satelite of the Hayes Tarmac railhead for reference to the out of use loop and in use rail head as well as a nice flickr image of the Railway a few hundred yards from the station passing over the canal. 

 

 

 

 

[DavidMcKenzie]

I've just stumbled upon this thread, don't know how It's passed me by previously. Looks like a brilliant idea for a layout. 

All the best,

Dave

[Chris37044]

We had a good weekend at ally pally and a made a few purchases too. More on those to come but for now here is some pictures of another new arrival in the form of my new DBS class 59. This is the standard Dapol release and will be used on aggregate traffic including JHA’s, JYA’s etc. I have fitted the detail pack and name plates to finish off the model and in time will get it all weathered up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Chris37044

[WCML100]

So after a good day out a few weeks back at Ally Pally, and a few more purchases made (more on those in due course) - we have made some actual progress on the layout with some more mild and pleasant weather recently. 

 

Our attention was focused on the station (largest) scenic board. First, we sorted out the track for the eastbound tube line. We painstakingly long process of removing all the sleepers off the code 75 track. The whole of the eastbound tube line is made up of concrete sleepers as per the prototype. We then clipped all the excess plastic spruce off for a clean look. I did this previously with the non powered short siding stub on the middle level and feel it made a visual improvement so opted to do it again across the rest of the layout. Once ballasted it may not make a difference but should help the ballast ‘flow’ and ‘sit’ better once down. Here is a picture of the state of affairs: of 1 down and whole load to go! Time consuming is an understatement!
 

 

 

After this, we drilled holes directly underneath each railhead, at positions along each running line for all upper level tracks - all ready for droppers to go in. We then re-focused our attention back to the eastbound tube line - re attached all the concrete sleepers, re-spaced of course, with the help of a railway laser line jig. Once roughly in place we marked out where the droppers could be attached without interference with the sleeper positions and soldered them in to place. We soldered the droppers to the underside of the rail to keep them obscure from the eye - hopefully once ballasted, they won’t be noticeable at all. Once soldered on, I gave each join a quick file down to keep the appearance around the edges to a minimum whilst not too much, keeping it secure yet obscure. 
 

 

We then made up some temporary legs to continue to aid working on the board and setup a bus wire. Once the bus wire was in place, we tapped the droppers in and so it was time for playing testing! As this was the first time we have setup DCC, we were quite excited to have a play around with some sound functions assuming our track work and wiring were good enough! Turns out it all worked first time with our DR5000 control system! Very happy indeed. 
 

 

So we cleared up a little bit and had a play with @Chris37044’s sound GBRF 66. So a quick check / test of the dcc control and it was captured on video. Second video was a more controlled look. Something a little more enjoyable to watch. 
 

 

 

 

Thanks for checking in, please keep in mind we are very much novices for both layout building and dcc sound so please forgive any mistakes or poor workmanship. We are very happy to see some robust progress! 

 

 

[WCML100]

I managed to get a few more bits done over the last day or two on the back of our work & getting trains running earlier in the bank holiday weekend. 

First up was to do some sorting around the station bridge. I noticed the inside cut wasn’t far enough across on the right hand side (see bottom of the image for reference of the road width marked out in pen on the base level). So I cut out along the marked line on the mid level. 

 

 

 

Then I sorted out the front part of where needed to be cut ready for when we get to that stage. I did some clearance testing etc with the the Wills Girder kit and used a pen to mark out where we need to cut next. 

 

 

So next up was to sort out the embankment between the two track levels. For this we used some insulation / foam board which was nice and easy to cut up but very messy as you can probably imagine! Once cut, I glued it into place, and I have to say makes a visual improvement already! Excited to get past all the nitty gritty and get to the scenics now! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

So after the (little amount of work) I decided to get out my Hattons 66 in Colas colours for a quick engineering check over the only current live running line - I was quite enjoying the look of the loco against an actual embankment. It certainly will be photogenic once the scenics are done! 
 

 

 

That is all for now! Next items on the agenda will be finishing sorting out the road bridge itself ready for cladding, along with continuing with wiring up the rest of the lines. I will also need to crack on with sleeper arrangements and permanently securing those in place too!
 

Thanks for checking in 😀

Edited April 19, 2023 by WCML100

[WCML100]

Made some more progress the last few days by adding to the embankment with Woodland scenics plaster cloth. I have sculpted out some spots to give an uneven, more natural feel and finish. This should provide a good base to build up the scenery on this smaller embankment once track laying is complete. Next for this area will be to seal it all in, then add layers of turf and static grass, follow by lots (and i mean lots!) of bushes! As this area is massively overgrown on the prototype! So overgrown in fact that the removed running line is almost out of sight in places (seen here in the pics on the strip of cork after the buffer stop). Plenty still to do but slowly but surely moving in the right direction. 
 

 

 

 

[WCML100]

A new arrival has made it on to the layout and it is in the form of Hattons Class 66, 66088 in DB branded EWS colours.
 

This is one I have been after for a while, but the DB branded ones have been few and far between. I remember seeing the db ‘stickered’ crop up more and more at acton and on services past Greenford during our timeframe so thought it was a must to sit along side our other EWS 66’s. So I gave it a quick test run and then posed it for some snaps.

 

This will be running various freight duties on the layout including, aggregate, MOD, binliners, spoil traffic to name a few. It will also be seen on RHTT, and engineering duties too.

 

 

 

 

 

[D860 VICTORIOUS]

I've only just noticed this thread,what a fantastic project you're working on!

I was born in Perivale,and lived in Greenford for around thirty years,unfortunately I took virtually no notice of Greenford's railway,as it was easier to walk to Southall,which was much more interesting.

I lived in Ruislip for a while and got the Central line to Greenford,where I worked.A couple of random memories:on the way to work and being passed by 50007 on the only loco-hauled service,which I think at that time might have started from Birmingham or Wolverhampton.Rugby Cement had taken over most of the goods yard site for a receiving terminal,and 33's and 47's were seen on workings there. This of course is before the period you are modelling. Wish now I'd got more interested in the local freight traffic.

Great choice for a layout,I will follow with interest!

Neil.

[WCML100]

1 hour ago, D860 VICTORIOUS said:

I've only just noticed this thread,what a fantastic project you're working on!

I was born in Perivale,and lived in Greenford for around thirty years,unfortunately I took virtually no notice of Greenford's railway,as it was easier to walk to Southall,which was much more interesting.

I lived in Ruislip for a while and got the Central line to Greenford,where I worked.A couple of random memories:on the way to work and being passed by 50007 on the only loco-hauled service,which I think at that time might have started from Birmingham or Wolverhampton.Rugby Cement had taken over most of the goods yard site for a receiving terminal,and 33's and 47's were seen on workings there. This of course is before the period you are modelling. Wish now I'd got more interested in the local freight traffic.

Great choice for a layout,I will follow with interest!

Neil.

 

Thanks for stopping by the thread Neil. Nice to hear of your memories of Greenford - we like to think it was a great choice for building a layout too 😄

[JackB95]

Choorrr looking really good now! Keep it up!

[Chris37044]

Keeping up the EWS theme going, whilst working on the layout recently - I snapped a couple shots of my new purchases from Ally Pally. Hattons Class 66 66079 in EWS livery. 

The plan for this one is to renumber to 66177 with its notorious white cab roofs. I wanted an EWS 66 for myself but one with a bit of unique character too - so 66177 stood out to me. I will also add the white roofs & renumber the loco in due course.

 

I also took the opportunity to pose it along side my RHTT wagons also from Hattons with @WCML100’s EWS 66125 completing the formation at the back -  A once regular occurrence during our set period of operation - Freightliner seem to have the contract / duty on this route and around the London end of the chilterns in more recent years. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

& the real life prototype of 66177 for reference 😃

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Chris37044

[WCML100]

No progress on the layout but got this out of its box recently. Love or hate the 800, the test livery with the branding is something unique.
 

So around a year ago I purchased the set with the ‘could have happened’ rule applied. It has never ran through Greenford in this guise and nor has any 800 (or any IEP for that matter) ran through the prototype as far as I am aware (I am assuming the classes have not been gauged for the line). However when HST’s where king on the Great Western route, they saw regulations diversions via Greenford and up on to the Chiltern Main Line. As the IEP’s where on test during several diversionary weekends - it isn’t a million miles away to assume it was a possibility that this could have happened, albeit on test during the 2015-2016 period. So with that in mind, here’s one of my favs of the fleet 😄

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rich Papper]

I saw the test one go through Willesden Junction high level when it was the only one about. That’s at least the same side of London. Not sure what they were testing up there.

Rich

[WCML100]

On 27/04/2023 at 19:51, Rich Papper said:

I saw the test one go through Willesden Junction high level when it was the only one about. That’s at least the same side of London. Not sure what they were testing up there.

Rich

Thanks Rich. It did testing on both the GWML, and the ECML but was based out of North Pole Depot (at Old Oak Common) so would have used the North London Line to get to and from the ECML, so I imagine a fairly routine working. It regularly tested GWML so would have been closest to Greenford when passing West Ealing (about 5 mins up the line). 
 

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by WCML100

[WCML100]

Right - back to some actual work on the layout!

 

As usual its slowly but surely progress - but progress none the less! We continue to work on the station board, with the ‘up loop’ not wired up and working. 
 

 

 

I have also manage to add extra raised cork in places for the line-side equipment items. These include raised sections for line-side electrical / relay boxes, ballast bins, signals etc. Once ballasting is complete they should sit nicely with the rail height. I will eventually weather and graffiti up the line-side boxes from pictures of the prototypes. We have researched the location and tried to get all line-side items as near as we can to both the locations and the right type / style too. This is something we are really trying to mirror the prototype on, as its all in the small details which will reflect the real place we feel! With this in mind - again using photos from the real location, along with in cab videos of the line from youtube - we have mimicked the remaining sleepers left on the old down main (nearest to the embankment) - we have even left rail in the correct places, and not included where appropriate too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats it for now - next up is to cut the remaining sleepers & wire those lines. Once thats done we can glue the track down in place in preparation for ballasting and the start of work on the embankment. Exciting times 😁

[WCML100]

Back to locos - An impulse purchase has joined the fleet in the form of a Bachmann Class 20/3 in HNRC orange. This was the 20314 release with sound, purchased from my local model shop AGR Model Railways - well worth a visit if your local to Leighton Buzzard. 
 

I fancied myself a new sound loco and have a soft spot for these unique orange 20’s. They were regularly seen as part of top and tailed pairs (4 per train, double headed nose to nose at each end) delivering new LU S stock to Ruislip and Neasden depots. To transport the S stock units barrier wagons were needed and redundant TEA tank wagons were used for this (Cavalex have released a 2 pack of these which will be on the hit-list soon!). As Ruislip and Neasden depots are close to Greenford it is plausible that the delivery of the S stock or the subsequent return leg north with just the 20’s and barrier wagons could have passed through Greenford in certain circumstances. 
 

I will eventually get myself Bachmann’s 20311 in the same livery to run in tandem with 20314 - although I am unsure on how I will set it up (motor or motorless, sound or no sound etc). Any ideas are welcome on how others have setup a pair of 20’s! Anyways I will leave you with a few snaps and a video of it running on the latest line wired up whilst also demonstrating the sound!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GWRPhil]

15 hours ago, WCML100 said:

Back to locos - An impulse purchase has joined the fleet in the form of a Bachmann Class 20/3 in HNRC orange. This was the 20314 release with sound, purchased from my local model shop AGR Model Railways - well worth a visit if your local to Leighton Buzzard. 
 

I fancied myself a new sound loco and have a soft spot for these unique orange 20’s. They were regularly seen as part of top and tailed pairs (4 per train, double headed nose to nose at each end) delivering new LU S stock to Ruislip and Neasden depots. To transport the S stock units barrier wagons were needed and redundant TEA tank wagons were used for this (Cavalex have released a 2 pack of these which will be on the hit-list soon!). As Ruislip and Neasden depots are close to Greenford it is plausible that the delivery of the S stock or the subsequent return leg north with just the 20’s and barrier wagons could have passed through Greenford in certain circumstances. 
 

I will eventually get myself Bachmann’s 20311 in the same livery to run in tandem with 20314 - although I am unsure on how I will set it up (motor or motorless, sound or no sound etc). Any ideas are welcome on how others have setup a pair of 20’s! Anyways I will leave you with a few snaps and a video of it running on the latest line wired up whilst also demonstrating the sound!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me I dcc both locos but only sound fit one. Two sound fitted I find don’t give better sound and not costly. I do find that dcc both works better. Only challenge I’ve found is making sure the cvs are modified to ensure perfect running in tandem. It’s taken me some time before but well worth it. And don’t do what I did first time, lol and forget to change cv to reverse direction of second loco. Two locos trying to do tug-o-war are not an exciting sight. 

[WCML100]

3 hours ago, GWRPhil said:

For me I dcc both locos but only sound fit one. Two sound fitted I find don’t give better sound and not costly. I do find that dcc both works better. Only challenge I’ve found is making sure the cvs are modified to ensure perfect running in tandem. It’s taken me some time before but well worth it. And don’t do what I did first time, lol and forget to change cv to reverse direction of second loco. Two locos trying to do tug-o-war are not an exciting sight. 

That is very helpful - thanks. I will ensure the cv’s are corrected to avoid the tug of war scenario 😆

[WCML100]

Further work has been completed today and we now have 4/5 lines on the station board wired up and running!

 

In addition to the eastbound Central Line, and up loop line - we now have the bi-directional former up main, and the bay line running too. All that remains to be wired on this board now is the Westbound Central line to the very back of the board. 
 

 

 

Not much visual progress but a step in the right direction. Next on the job list is to wire the final line, and fix all the sleepers down in to the board and correctly spaced (they have only been roughly spaced at this point so we have the correct amount on the rail). Again all of the sleepers have been been cut so no plastic sprue can be seen between the sleepers (except for the point work - for obvious we left this alone!). For the flat-bottom rail (wooden, concrete and steel) we have used the Railway Laser Lines jig tool which has proved very handy. You can see in the photo below the difference both re-spacing and cutting the sleepers separately from one another make such a difference. 
 

 

One thing to note is that we are following the prototype mostly where possible in track types, the up main (now bi-directional) is mainly Steel sleeper so have added this in to replicate as such. Also worth noting is the Westbound Central line is wooden sleeper flat-bottom rail, with the Eastbound relaid to concrete in the early 2010’s! All of which we have correctly applied. 
 

 

 

 

Thats all for now, hopefully some more progress at the end of the month! 😄

[South-East Rail]

On 06/05/2023 at 14:46, WCML100 said:

To transport the S stock units barrier wagons were needed and redundant TEA tank wagons were used for this (Cavalex have released a 2 pack of these which will be on the hit-list soon!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking good. In case you haven't seen it, Trains4u are currently offering a 15% discount on the KBA barrier wagons:

 

http://www.trains4u.com/p/94518/Cavalex-Models-KBA-Twin-pack

 

(No connection other than being a satisfied customer!)

 

Ed

[Chris37044]

So, a recent purchase I made on ebay was this set of 4 Aggregate box type JNA’s. 3 are NACCO owned MRL branded with one being VTG unbranded. One is an outer with buffers, and the rest are all inners. 

 

This was an inpulse buy - however I have always liked these wagons and as they were such regulars at Acton, it was hard not to justify them. They are enhanced kit built wagons from S-Kits - finished to a pretty good standard. 

 

I will be adding to these with some Cavalex JYA’s (x7) when they eventually release, a further JNA box wagon, and a singular S-Kits KEA. All based of the real working found below in the linked video (from 00:25). 

 

They really look the part behind my Hattons EWS Class 66, really giving that feeling of those Acton workings. It will also look good behind my Dapol Class 59 in DB Schenker red too!