Nottingham Central (Current Era 2000's onwards)

[60800]

My first layout topic on RMweb, Nottingham Central is a pre-converted loft based layout built with worry free running in mind. 

 

It is roughly 19ft x 9ft, around the outer edge of the room. There are some operational compromises built in, such as the need for the lines to run behind my workbench / PC and tighter radii at the main junction end to accommodate the S&C.

 

The station on my layout is Nottingham Central - loosely based off Nottingham Midland, but with GCR buildings. It will have one central platform, with the fast lines running outside of these. This station constitutes the main run down one side of the room and the depot (based loosely on Neville Hill) will run down the other.

 

The whole line will be double track with OHLE with hopefully a minimum radius of 21 inch, though most inside curves will be 24 inch radius at minimum 

 

All wiring is to be at board level and hidden inside cable trunking. All turnouts will be hand operated as DCC point operation is just not my cup of tea. Power is to be DCC throughout, using the Gaugemaster system. 

 

I'll focus on the station to start and then as I begin to tidy up the wiring I'll bring the depot entrance and the depot itself into focus. 

 

This is where I'm currently at with the station, showing the Western and then Eastern approaches. The not-yet-laid Down fast runs into the only route handed turnout on the layout, but as this turnout is trailing and the radius carries on after the switch fronts I am not too worried. This was necessary to allow the Down platform (1) to be long enough to accommodate a 2+5 HST or 225 set. The two HST sets shown here sit in the platform roads; 

 

 

 

This third photo from earlier on in the tracklaying shows the approximate locations of the station buildings as viewed from the Western end. I will be building a station canopy to run the entire length of the buildings. I'm currently modifying the station steps building to incorporate a lift and new bridge stantions as I will not be using the pre-cast Bachmann bridge sections;

 

 

Cheers,

 60800

Edited March 14, 2023 by 60800
Era clarified

[60800]

The Western approach to the station is now finished, with tracklaying in the tunnel being the next task. 

 

From left to right we have the Down Fast, Platform 1, Platform 2 and the Up Fast; 

 

 

As an addition to the layout work, there will also be infrequent 'meet the fleet' posts, starting here with one of my oldest locos.

 

A good portion of my steam locos are ones that have ran mainline in the 21st century, so of course I have to have one of the most travelled locos from this era which is 60009. As well as being my second favourite loco (guess my first 😅) it's also one of only two Steam locos I have been fortunate enough to have driven in 1:1 scale. 

 

 

The model is the Hornby Commonwealth collection version and has over the years been updated, with additions such as red backed nameplates, the Haymarket wording on the nose and the cables required for running on the National Network. It's tender was swapped a few years ago for the correct type, the original now sitting behind my 60017. 

 

When I eventually get around to fitting my mainline steam fleet with DCC sound, this one will be the first.

 

Cheers,

  60800

Edited March 18, 2023 by 60800

[60800]

The first building being modified for the station is the Bachmann Scenecraft Great Central High level station entrance. Now whilst some may baulk at cutting up an £80 building, I bought this from the original batch of these buildings around 6 / 7 years ago when they were a lot cheaper. 

 

It has had the original ends removed (carefully so they can be re-used elsewhere), has had the first section of roof and windows removed to accommodate the new canopy and I have started construction of the modern lift tower. The lift doors are 3D printed from Rusty Rails and I'm very pleased with them.

 

I'm also adding more steps at the top of the building to raise the floor height of the station entrance as if I build a bridge over the railway at the entrance's current height there will not be enough clearance for loco pantographs. 

 

 

As a side note, I bought this from the now closed Gee Dee models in Nottingham, which was a stone's throw from the site of Nottingham Victoria and about a quarter mile from the site of my fictitious Nottingham Central.

 

Cheers,

  60800

[5BarVT]

3 hours ago, 60800 said:

As a side note, I bought this from the now closed Gee Dee models in Nottingham, which was a stone's throw from the site of Nottingham Victoria and about a quarter mile from the site of my fictitious Nottingham Central.

A smaller stones throw than when I were a lad!  It was on Goose Gate then.

Paul.

[60800]

12 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

A smaller stones throw than when I were a lad!  It was on Goose Gate then.

Paul.

 

I sadly never went in - the only time I went past the shop, it was shut. 

 

I'd been hunting around for the GCR high level entrance for a while and someone suggested I give the shop a ring. Luckily they still had one and it was posted to me. 

 

Cheers,

  60800

[60800]

Work is now underway on the platform structure, with the high level entrance end shown here;

 

 

The platform at it's widest is 134mm across. Plenty of room for the buildings and canopy.

 

Also seen here is my latest arrival, an apple green B12 that is shortly to be renumbered as the preserved example, 8572. It replaces the late BR example on the left, which I originally bought to do as the preserved loco, but over time went off the livery and never re-numbered it;

 

 

Cheers,

  60800

[60800]

Not much to show in terms of work on the layout this week - the platform is progressing nicely and needs a few tweaks before everything is set. 

 

Work this week has mainly focused on some new members of the Steam fleet. 

 

34101 Hartland is about half done, as are the B-12 8572 and N15 777 'Sir Lamiel'. Hartland's left hand side cab windows were frosted when I bought it, so I will shortly be fabricating some new ones.

 

The main focus of this post is the newest member of the fleet, which arrived on Saturday and was finished yesterday;

 

Ex-GWR Castle 7029 'Clun Castle' in 2019 - Present day condition. 

This loco started as an eBay bought 7034 'Ince Castle' - I deliberately chose an earlier run example (2009/2010) to avoid the ski-jump running plate that later examples of the current Hornby Castle have.

Name and cabside number plates are from Fox and the smokebox door numbers were made up from Modelmaster transfers. Overhead warning flashes IIRC are modelmaster too. 

Polished brass elements have been picked out in citadel gold and the tyre sidewalls have been painted in citadel Abaddon black;

 

 

Cheers,

  60800

Edited April 5, 2023 by 60800

[60800]

A visit to York Model Railway show yielded useful items for the railway and two new members of the Steam fleet;

 

 

After previously writing that 60009 would be my first sound fitted kettle, I found myself looking at sound fitted castle for £120 and swiftly handed over some notes in exchange. The loco should have been Kidwelly Castle, but to my surprise despite having the correct sound fitted Hawksworth tender, the loco itself was actually double chimney 7029 - nae bother as I want this one to be 5043 'Earl of Mount Edgecumbe' - The same seller also had the Tyseley Connection 5043, but that model suffered from the warped running plate, so I walked away with this one instead. 

 

Next up is 4493 'Woodcock' in LNER Apple Green, again bought for a stupidly low price, but sadly not sound fitted. Hornby has produced two apple green A4's - the other being gloss 4494 'Osprey'. Unfortunately both of these have the 1935 corridor tender, so without a tender swap you cannot produce 4482 - 4487 with either. Therefore this one will be 4495 'Great Snipe'. Similar to my 60700 shown below, this will be treated as a preserved loco and will have all the modern fitments for mainline running;

 

 

There are some new tools, rolling road rollers, a few figures for the station and some appropriate reading for the area I am modelling. Crucially through there are some lovely structural elements from York Modelmaking that will be used in the construction of the main station building.

 

I had a chat with York Modelmaking about the detailed structural elements for the station canopy and plan to put in an order for the material for that in the coming months.

 

Cheers,

  60800

Edited April 11, 2023 by 60800

[60800]

Here is 4495 prior to the addition of the mainline fittings. I've used the numbers from the sheet I purchased for the B12, so those on the nose are on the small side. I see Fox do A4-specific smokebox casing numbers, so when I order the plates for 5043, I may order the correct replacement numbers for this;

 

 

 

I'm not sure on the nameplate colour yet, but it's easier to paint black over red than vice-versa, so I ordered them in red. The real 4495 didn't last long in this livery with this name and I've only been able to find two monochrome images of the loco in this condition and the nameplate colour is not clear. 

 

Cheers,

  60800

Edited April 14, 2023 by 60800