London Bridge (at the end of the 20thC)

[grahame]

I've made a start on mapping out the next section - the high level through station and the west end station throat. In order to cut the plywood viaduct decking to size I need to drawn up the track plan full size checking platforms, etc., and make a template. Paper has been laid on the baseboard to draw it up. Below shows the small progress to date.

 

The bridge is roughly in place (although it needs to be further to the right) in the pic below to ensure platforms are positioned correctly and to ascertain the viaduct track bed width. The strips of balsa don't represent the platforms but lift the track bed level to the amount over the lower level terminus platforms level to check the footbridge slope (if you get my drift). The viaduct track bed level is where the grey stops on the SER 'flat iron' building. It's all starting to get rather fiddly and critical, and consequently slow going.

 

 

[Fishplate]

5 hours ago, grahame said:

if you get my drift

 

We do.

 

Looking great 👍

[grahame]

A bit of wood mangling and hacking early this morning before the sun and temperature get too high - it's forecast for 27C here and that's too hot and sweaty for me to be out and working. However, some of the high level viaduct track bed is now cut but it needs filing to remove and smooth the wiggly edges. Here it is just resting (not fixed in any way) on some wobbly supports:

 

[grahame]

A little bit of fine tuning of the ply track bed with some trimming and roughly marking up the platform locations this afternoon. The positions are not finalised as I'll start by laying the track at the back, then the platform edges and work my way to the front to ensure everything is workable with sufficient room.

 

The through platforms will be just over 40" long which should accommodate an eight car Mk1 EMU - but there is a little wriggle room if necessary although compression is required. With only two through island platform (instead of three) there is sufficient room for the lower level terminus and the train shed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wainwright1]

I assume that this local station wont be an exhibition layout ?

 

All the best

Ray

[grahame]

40 minutes ago, wainwright1 said:

I assume that this local station wont be an exhibition layout ?

 

 

It's a permanent home (shed) based layout. I was finding the lugging around of exhibition layouts too much, although I am involved in (slowly) building an exhibition layout also based on a real location. But that is (currently) exceptionally light weight and there is a group of us.

 

[grahame]

After a weekend working on the next issue of my 'British N Gauge Railway Modelling' magazine and yesterday on some garden maintenance, I've returned to the layout shed today. Time had been spent jiggling around things like the bridge to ensure the location for the best fit. I also added a sliver to the platform track bed section to widen the platforms although a little more needs to be cut and added. I'm also going to need to make some alternations to the bridge:

 

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

While I was in the shed to check the fit of a new partially built tower block building (see my cardboard buildings thread) I took a couple of other snaps of the layout (despite little progress) which are posted here (just for the hell of it).

 

Firstly a jumble of roof types (towards the right/east end) with the new low relief tower block in the corner, and secondly the left/west end more commercial area.

 

 

[grahame]

With issue #4 of my magazine now printed and received, and the initial flurry of orders having died down a little, I was able to get back in the shed for considering how to progress the next stage of the layout. I've managed to trim the viaduct track deck boards to a more appropriate size and shape and have started to work on the exact positions for the points at the west end of the station.

 

 

Note, on the left edge of the pic, I've now got a dehumidifier installed (with the green light). Along with the oil filled electric heater supplied with the building, it's quite homely in the shed.

 

 

 

   

[grahame]

Very slow progress on the layout, I'm afraid. 

 

I've shaped up the approaches board and prepared its supports where it joins the west end bridges section. This will be removeable as it will include the points (see pic above) and effectively bridge the section between the station board and the west end over roads board - both of which have no point work.

 

I've also added a small roof parapet and the windows on one side of the Tustin estate corner block, but still have the balcony windows/doors to fit (except the top floor one);

 

 

 

[grahame]

With it being very cold out, I've not been out to the railway house recently apart from occasionally just to turn the heater on and then later to turn it off. However, today I managed to get some suitable wood for the viaduct track deck supports that is supplied cut to suitable imperial measurements (non of that metric malarkey stuff).

 

And I've turned my attention to a block (in front of the viaduct at the right/east end) that includes a triangular building (see my building card structures thread) and hopefully a rough representation of the Bermondsey Sarsons vinegar brewery that I can build indoors.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by grahame

[grahame]

I'm currently working on the Crucifix Lane block (indoors) which includes an office building and a representation of the nearby vinegar brewery. See my thread 'Scratch-built card and styrene structures (based on real buildings around London Bridge)' for details of the structures build and progress. The pics below show where it fits on the front of the layout;

 

 

  

[grahame]

Slow progress on the layout and little to report, although I have now got the viaduct track bed cut for the curved section leading off-scene to the East end fiddle-yard/return loops behind the biscuit factory building. It's not fixed down although the raiser blocks are glued and screwed in place:

 

 

And that has allowed me to start the panning for the front edge scenics (just in front of St Thomas Street that runs along the front of the viaduct). It's long thin triangular shape (as in this pic below) marked by white paper. For the right end I'll make a suitable warehouse and for the narrow end it'll probably become a building site/bomb site clearance. The middle foreground flat roofed building is the 1970s signal box which will reside on the viaduct ;

 

[grahame]

I recently watched a YouTube video where it was suggested there are three approaches to layout design ; prototype, proto-lance and free-lance. I liked the term proto-lance, but I guess it can cover a wide range. For example I'd like to think that my London Bridge layout is somewhere between Prototype and Proto-lance and hopefully closer to prototype. Well, I would, wouldn't I?

 

[25kV]

First time viewer of this thread - amazing buildings all around!  I will have to peruse your other thread in detail. 

One thing that struck me from your last photo above is the sheer scale of railway structures when seen among "regular" sized city buildings.  Seeing the gap waiting to be filled really brings that home. 

 

Fantastic stuff. 🙂

[njee20]

That building on the corner of Borough High Street and St Thomas Street is now a nice boulangerie, Orée, I get my lunch there a couple of times a week, and I can’t walk up the approach to the station without thinking about your layout!

[grahame]

10 hours ago, njee20 said:

That building on the corner of Borough High Street and St Thomas Street is now a nice boulangerie, Orée, I get my lunch there a couple of times a week, and I can’t walk up the approach to the station without thinking about your layout!

 

The corner shop used to be a cobblers (key cutting, shoe repairs, leather cutting, etc) called Kehoes back in the 70s. More recently it became a vaping shop. I checked out on-line and it looks like Oree is a chain of boulangeries and has taken over Kehoes and the newsagents next door. On the other corner, further up towards the overbridge, used to be a Wimpy fast food joint. If things don't change they'll stay as they are.

 

I hope they're not bad thoughts about the layout while walking to the station. Wouldn't want to give you nightmares. ;-)

 

 

[njee20]

😁 yes, positive thoughts! It’s rather more salubrious than the vape shop, having a vivid blue frontage. And good sandwiches!

[AndyB]

Hi Grahame. Always great to see updates on your layout. 

 

I wanted to ask about your approach to point control and how you'd replace failed point motors? 

 

It looks like the track bed is raised above a solid baseboard preventing easy access from below? Does that mean you'd have to lift the whole of the track bed off to effect a repair?

 

Of course someone may well point out that "there are no points"! 

 

All the best. Andy

[grahame]

The plan is that the points will be on sections of the viaduct that can be lifted out (to wire, repair and work on) and fit back between the parapets and fixed section of the viaduct track bed with no points.

 

 

 

 

[grahame]

Like the office and brewery block, and the biscuit factory building, which are effectively separate sub assemblies that are not yet fixed in place, the slum/bombsite clearance and warehouse will also be made as discrete separate models indoors so that they can be added to the layout later. I've starting planning them with rough mock-ups:

 

[phil_sutters]

On 13/12/2023 at 19:38, grahame said:

I'm currently working on the Crucifix Lane block (indoors) which includes an office building and a representation of the nearby vinegar brewery. See my thread 'Scratch-built card and styrene structures (based on real buildings around London Bridge)' for details of the structures build and progress. The pics below show where it fits on the front of the layout;

 

 

 

 

  

I am sure you have photos of Sarson's. It was still going STRONG, 😝, when I started my first job's in-service training in Tooley Street., in the late '60s. These are after it shut down. I have included a couple that show the frontage all glammed up for the 21st century Bermondsey citizens.

Edited February 17 by phil_sutters

[grahame]

The construction of the warehouse building is featured in my cardboard buildings thread: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/115057-scratch-built-card-and-styrene-structures-based-on-real-buildings-around-london-bridge/page/100/#comments 

 

 

[grahame]

I'm slowly working my way along the front of the layout (from right to left/east to west) with the biscuit factory, vinegar brewery and now the old warehouse. None of the models are fixed down (to allow them to be moved for the viaduct construction) or fully finished. The road behind them and in front of the viaduct is getting closer to the layout baseboard edge and the remaining triangular site will become a waste ground/slum or bomb damage clearance area.

 

 

The location is the grey card triangle bottom centre at the front baseboard edge in the pic above. I'm planning on taking inspiration from Kier Hardy's Hornsey Broadway waste ground modelling as outlined in this 'EM gauge in the 70s' update: https://emgauge70s.co.uk/model_omwb203.html

 

 

 

[grahame]

In order to keep this thread alive, it's well over a month since I posted anything, here's a gratuitous pic of my slow progress. I've got the warehouse and shops block effectively completed and have made a start on the slum clearance/bomb damage demolition site scene. Then, with the building models complete for the layout frontage, I can get on with the viaduct construction and track laying at this end of the layout.

 

Edited April 4 by grahame