Building NER / LNER lineside fencing

[mikemeg]

NER, LNER

 

I need to delete this posting!!

Edited November 13, 2022 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

By way of introduction to this thread, a little history. Some of the subscribers to this site may have read some of my other threads around building NER and LNER locomotive models, NER and LNER signals and a test track which I started building a few years ago.

 

That test track became the first sections of a model of an actual place; a place where I and many of my youthful contemporaries first discovered and then spent many, many days watching that seemingly endless procession of trains, which was the railway of the late 1950's and early 60's. This on a railway system whose appearance was little changed in fifty years.

 

The model was built around ten or eleven years ago and though it has been occasionally updated, nothing very much has been done on it for a few years. However, a few months ago I restarted work on the railway, initially repairing a few damaged areas and generally tidying it up. One of the casualties of its time in storage was some lineside fencing which had become damaged in a number of areas and which was always very vulnerable to damage.

 

So the lineside fencing needs to be re-made and one or two details of this fencing ratified. Just as with the original layout model, where my old mate Mick Nicholson proved invaluable in supplying prototype details, plans and photos so, quite recently, Mick sent me a photo which clearly shows the details of this wooden lineside fencing, though that wasn't the subject of the photo.

 

So, from this photo and other official records of the old NER, I was able to establish the size, spacing, etc of this fencing and then to design an approach which would minimise the vulnerability of this fairly fragile structure to damage, which is the subject of this thread.

 

The photo is attached below, clearly showing that lineside fencing and also showing how much land, over and above that occupied by the permanent way, was actually fenced in.

 

Oh and the location of this photo? It is a place called Hessle Haven, just west of Hull, and it is the exact location of my layout model!! The photo was taken from an overbridge which stood at the east end of Hessle Station and it was this same overbridge from which we also watched the trains and, occasionally, photographed them.

 

There is so much detail to see in this photo - the guying of the two bracket signals, the point rodding on its stools extending along the trackside, etc. Now, of course, with various rationalisations, except for the two fast lines, all of this has gone.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

I'm not sure whether or not there is a commercially available product representing this lineside fencing or anything similar, but I would imagine, if there is, it would be some form of plastic moulded material. For me, to achieve that look of weathered and even distressed wooden fencing then the material had to be wood and the easiest wood(s) to use to achieve this look would be balsa or obechi. Both of these woods are very brittle so the design and the mounting of the fence, using these materials, would need to take account of that brittleness.

 

I found a source of balsa wood 1mm thick, which was supplied in packs of 4" x  4" sheets with some twenty sheets in the pack, so this was the choice. Each sheet was then cut into strips, with some 1/16" wide (1.66 mm) and others 1.25 mm wide. The wider strips were glued together - using evostick applied with a cocktail stick - in pairs to produce a piece with a square section. These wider strips were then gently sanded down to remove any visible seams and to achieve the required section, around 1.6mm square for use as the fence posts. The narrower strips would be used for the cross members of the fencing.

 

So far I have cut and assembled some eighty fence post strips, each of which provides four posts cut to 24 mm - 9 mm hidden, 15 mm showing. For the cross members, I have cut around two hundred strips, each of which is reduced to 96 mm length prior to fitting, though shorter lengths are also used to 'break up' the symmetry a little.

 

Photo below shows the material, part used, and the relative sizes of the various wooden component strips, prior to cutting and fitting.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

The fencing is actually built on hardboard strips, in my case up to 31.875" long which was the length of the hardboard sheet. The hardboard strips are cut to a width which will allow then to be affixed to the edge of the baseboard and which can be 'unaffixed' if necessary. Attached to this hardboard strip are cardboard formers which will determine how far above the hardboard strip, the actual fence posts will protrude; in my case 14 mm i.e. a scale 3' 6". The paper strip added at the top of the cardboard is simply there to allow things to be written or marked.

 

The photo is the end of one of the hardboard strips with the fence posts fitted at 24 mm (scale 6' 0") intervals.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

The fencing is then assembled, from the 1.25 mm wide strips and stuck with evo-stic applied using a cocktail stick. This sounds (and looks) like a very tedious process but, surprisingly, it turned out to be quite the opposite and 31.875" of fencing was built in around three hours. The darker fencing cross pieces (is there a name for these? Yes, they are rails or backer rails) are pieces which were recovered and re-used from the original fencing build.

 

All of the bits of cardboard and paper jigs will be hidden when the hardboard strip is fixed to the side member of the baseboard, as it is fixed with the fencing strips facing away from the trackwork, as per the photograph. The hardboard will be augmented by layers of card, applied to the bottom edge to facilitate a parallel fit with the baseboard framework.

 

The assembled fencing will not be painted as such but is dyed using very diluted wood dye. This allows the texture and colour differences in the wood to be preserved. It actually looks like wood, which is the desired effect!

 

In all I have some twenty seven feet of this fencing to build so around two / three weeks to complete the whole lot!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

And this is what will be seen when the fencing is attached to the grass banks at the sides of the permanent way. Hopefully this conveys that almost rustic look of railway lineside fencing which was such a feature of the railways that we knew.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

[mikemeg]

And in place, as the backing to the scene. This photo does pick up the variations in colour and texture on the fencing, which was always the desired effect.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the sleepers on this trackwork are also wood. These were cut from sheets, though here I used 1/16" obechi as it is much harder than balsa so shouldn't distort or compress when under any load.

 

Might be that this scene just needs a couple of youthful spotters, 'copping' an A6 tank as they lean against the fence on a bright summer's afternoon.

 

Days now long lost in the mists of time!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by mikemeg