Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[jamie92208]

Afternoon all from the village at the centre of the universe.

 

The boss is now at the airport in France waiting to board so the dining room has been returned to it's normal pristine state and the table looks like a table again.  Whether my errant behaviour will go undetected only time and my hearing will tell.

 

Anyway I finished off the last gantry (9a) this morning and here are the three that I've done over the last two days. (a at the top, then 9 then 10.

They need panting and the mast caps putting on the two round poles on 10.

The platform awnings have now been moved into te back room at church for some more work over the coming week.

here they are with all the cross gantries, 13 to 18 in position.

14 is double to provide an anchor point for the wire run that goes over the single slip to the Down main from the Up main.  The Up main wire continues through towards Skerton bridge along with the Down main wire that starts at the bottom of the Castle Branch.

The next job is to replace the awnings onto their board and fit  the insulators, pull off arms and gutters.  A trial section of gutters can be seen here.

All steady progress.

 

Jamie

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

More progress yesterday.  I got an hour's soldering done on assembling lengths of gutter and got over half of the pieces folded and soldered.  then counted up and realised I still needed another 18 lengths but couldn't find any.  By chance when setting off to the clubrooms I saw one in the bottom of a box of bits.  Poking around I discovered some more.  I got them counted and there were 19 so fortunately I've got enough.   So hopefully I'll get some glued on today. 

 

Then down to the club for the evening.  the gantries were fettled and fitted then Sam painted them.  I spent the evening rolling thin sheets of DAS and covering the pavement on the road at the front of the layout.  I expected to get about half a baseboard done but got over one and a half done in total.  That's 8' of pavement. I've done this without scoring it at present as I wasn't happy with pavement scored when it was wet on a test piece.  Someone who came to have a look has volunteered to score it all when it's dry.  I haven't told him there's another 20' of it to do.

 

Not sure what I'll do today but I've another 19 gutter sections to fold up.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Morning all.  I managed to get all the gutter strips folded, 3 folds per strip.  Then glued the first long length onto the set of 6 awnings.  This entails 11 lengths of gutter that I found had acquired a gentle curve in the wrong direction so had to 'tweak' some of the joints with the iron before gluing it on.   I have found that it's easier to glue longer lengths than short ones.  This took nicely.

 

This morning I went up again and finished soldering all the remaining strips into the necessary lengths.  As I had left my dremel at the clubrooms I thought that I would attempt one of the mitred joints at the end of the long strip.  After filing the two pieces in the right orientation, Not Easy, I cleaned it up and then tried it in situ on the other long section.  It fitted well and the return section at the end made adjustment of the long length much easier.  The glue was applied and then the clothes pegs and it's now been left to set.

 

Hopefully when I go back up after lunch it will all still be in the correct position.   I'll attempt to do one of the short section in the same fashion.

 

Jamie

 

PS the file added just the right amount of weight to keep the corner in it's correct position.  I had run out of clothes pegs and if I'd nipped home for some more the araldite would have gone off.

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Some more progress today.  I got all the columns, support girders and structures painted in denby pottery cream. Then this evening painted the inside of the gutters to match the existing woodwork.  (Railmatch roof dirt)   It matches a photo I took at Bingley where you can see into the gutters between the canopies from the station footbridge.

 

I've also come up wuth a use for the awning jig when I finish with it.  It's already got a frame of 2 by 1 round it so I thought, why can't it become a display board with some photos and info about the layout and the prototype on it.  Obviously I can't use it as is and having lived in Yorkshire most of my life dodn't want to buy a new piece of board. 

 

I have managed to source, at vast expense, some looped nylon fabric  thta will take Velcro in a burgundy colour that's not too far away from Midland red.  2m of that fabric will arrive soon and will then be wrapped around the board.  the board will then be bolted to the end of the lighting rig at the east end of the layout.  This will not only give some display surface but will 'end' the pelmet of the lighting rig. 

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Despite staying up till stupid o'clock this morning to watch the eclipse some more progress has been made.  

Last night I took the lighting pelmet boards up to the church to see if the concept worked.  The pelmet is 16 metres long and needed to be about 200mm deep and I didn't want to transport anything longer than the standard 5' module.  So Keith from the club has pinned and glued lengths of 2 by 1 onto the pre-cut boards and drilled them all at the same centres so that they all bolt together.  I was worried that the pin and glue method wouldn't cope with the radius needed.  So last night I fastened 10 boards together and then curved them round into the approximate shape of the layout.

I was pleased when I went back up this morning that all the joints had held and the curve looks fine.  

The next step is to put the layout up, half at a time and pin and glue the brackets that will connect to the lighting rig to the back of the pelmet.  This will hopefully take place in the clubrooms in a fortnights time.  After that there is time to get them painted and hopefully lettered.

 

I also put the platform awnings back onto their board and made up the new crate with the protective top.

 

All little bits that need to be done.

 

The rest of the week I'm going to try and get the girders for Greyhound Bridge finished.

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Eveningall from a nice quiet house as the boss is away at a Cliff Richard concert.   With the Wakefield Exhibitio looming work has obviously got to be prioritised.  There are three main areas that I'm working on. 

1.  The lighting rig and pelmet.   This has all be designed and all materials sourced apart from the transfers that give the layout name. Today I set to work painting all the steel brackets with red primer so that they don't rust in storage.   Part of my garage now looks like this,

The outer brackets will next be bolted to some pieces of 2 by 1, which have all been pre drilled. The week after next the whole layout is to be put up in stages at the clubrooms and the rig will be attached and the brackets pinned and glued in their correct places.  At the same time the lighting rig will be assembled and tested.   The pelmet pieces will then be numbered and painted.

 

2.  Greyhound Bridge.  Most of the work on the girders and per has been done apart from some fettling and painting.  Tonight I laid all the parts out and made a to do list.  Almost everything was there so tomorrow hopefully some soldering will be done to attached the OHLE masts and handrail stanchions.  One pier cap has to be soldered up then everything can be sprayed with grey primer and then the bridge can be assembled.  

 

3.  The scenic work.   This won't be complete by showtime but all the major buildings will be in place though some will not be complete.  Several of the smaller buildings are done and the sites for all the others have been cut out and marked.  With luck, accurate mounting board mock ups will be in place for all of them.  Most of the baseboards have been covered with foam and a lot of them now have basic scenic cover.  Hopefully there will be no bare patches.  My overriding impression of the front half of the layout at Warley last year was of actress of bare plywood.  All being well the only major bare areas will be the river at the rear.

 

So we have got our work cut out but after the test running in August I'm happy that we will be able to run trains.

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Evening all. After 3 days of intensive soldering, it's a wonder I haven't passed out from flux fumes, I've finally finished fettling the eight bridge girders for Green Ayre. They are now lined up on the dining room table but will shortly be going into the dishwasher to get them ready for painting tomorrow. They all now have all their reinforcement strips on as well as their OHLE stanchions and handrail stanchions. I've folded and fitted an average of 12 of them to each girder.

You can also see three of the 6 caisson caps that need to be fitted to the bridge supports. One of the caps has gone missing down the trapdoor that leads to the parallel universe under my modelling room floor. I hope to find it one day but if it doesn't turn up then I'll have to try and make another one a I've no spare etches

Here's another shot of the girders and one from an angle that shows the distinctive shape of the OHLE supports.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to get them painted grey tomorrow.

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[Dava]

Its so impressive to see the craftsmanship & dedication beyond human limits which is going into Green Ayre. So looking forward to seeing it at Wakefield next month!

 

Dava

[jamie92208]

Its so impressive to see the craftsmanship & dedication beyond human limits which is going into Green Ayre. So looking forward to seeing it at Wakefield next month!

 

Dava

Thanks very much for the supportive comments. I just hope that it lives up to expectations. The date for it's first full appearance was set over 3 years ago and some things have come along more slowly than expected. It won't be finished but the team hope that visitors won't be disappointed.

 

Jamie

[45156]

Nothing wrong with a good "work in progress" layout, particularly one of such large proportions, and where there is no RTR or ready to plant in sight.  And with the amount of work involved in a large project, time does seem to slip away.  Many RMWebbers have been following your work, and will be happy to see what has been achieved in the flesh.

 

Enjoy the show.

[jamie92208]

Bit more to report tonight.  I retrieved the bridge girders from the dishwasher before the boss got up so perhaps my misdemeanours have gone undetected, though several other sins of omission and commission have been pointed out at length.   This afternoon I sprayed 6 of the 8 girders but was a bit disconcerted that the light grey primer was actually dark grey, unlike the cap of the can.  I will be having words tomorrow.  

This evening we had a full team at the club and also the Troutons mob came down and started some scenic ground cover using stuff that's been hanging around the layout for at least 10 years to my knowledge.   This was the result on board B6.

It certainly looks different.   Dave spent the evening painting the pavement and walls at the front.  They are a bit dark at the moment but will have some lighter coloured washes over them now that the terracotta colour of the DAS is covered.

I spent the evening making more mock up buildings out of mounting board and was able to place all but one in the coal yard.

Next week the whole layout will be put up in stages in the clubroom to sort out the lighting rig.

 

Jamie

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

No pictures tonight but plenty is happening.  I got back from a short trip to France on Friday night and then took 6 baseboards down to the club (3 trips) on Saturday.  The car is packed again with the next crate plus a lot of the lighting rig.   That will go down tomorrow during the day and then another 2 boards will go down tomorrow evening.  I'll only then have three more crates to take during the week.  We will be putting the whole layout up in stages in the clubrooms to work on the lighting rig.  To do this I need to have 13 of the 16 crates there plus the backscenes, the backscene supports and the lighting rig.  We can get just over half the layout up at any one time so will work our way along from the Ladies Walk end to the Castle Branch.

The lighting rig needs to be erected in stages then the pelmet attached to the ends of the lighting rig supports.  Once these are attached and the brackets pinned and glued in the correct paces then we can get the pelmet painted.

 

It should be a good week.

 

Jamie

Edited October 13, 2015 by jamie92208

[45156]

So good to be following a layout where I can actually visualise the locations - albeit many decades later.

[jamie92208]

Evening all after a good day working at    the club rooms setting up the lighting rig.  The parts have been produced over the last couple of months but the basic idea is an adaption of the rig that lit Long Preston but extended to light the whole scenic length of the layout.  To set it up I need to put up the main boards and the backscenes in stages and work round the layout from one end to the other.

 

The East end was set up this morning and with assistance from Keith Robinson and Sam we got the first three pieces of pelmet put up and clamped to the brackets on the end of the supports.

The next step was to re use the jig that I made for sorting out the platform awnings.  This is being used to anchor the end of the pelmet and will be covered in some maroon coloured looped nylon to make a display board with some info about the prototype.

The guttering for the lighting units was extended at the same time and all the parts were numbered.

This evening Dave came down and we erected another 2 sections of pelmet.  It became obvious that I will need some sort of backstays to anchor the base of the support legs but We've got some ideas to keep it simple.  

 

Then we took down the 3 eastern end boards and I moved the layout up ready to do the central section tomorrow.

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[45156]

That's a big layout, I see what you meant a few years back about the transport requirements.  Hope you are getting the kinks smoothed out as time goes on - it does appear that you are.

[Jock67B]

Jamie,

As Stewart suggests, it is an 'epic' layout - a seven ton truck would come in handy to transport it. I am inspired by the quality of workmanship on view throughout, and particularly like the way that your group have made it possible for people like Tony to get involved to the best of their ability. How is he at the moment by the way?

Kind regards,

Jock.

[jamie92208]

On 14/10/2015 at 12:22, Jock67B said:

Jamie,

As Stewart suggests, it is an 'epic' layout - a seven ton truck would come in handy to transport it. I am inspired by the quality of workmanship on view throughout, and particularly like the way that your group have made it possible for people like Tony to get involved to the best of their ability. How is he at the moment by the way?

Kind regards,

Jock.

Thanks for the comments Jock.   Yes the standard transport is a 7.5T with a taillift.  Otherwise it's my Volvo V70 which can accommodate any piece of the layout. 

I got to the clubrooms today about 10am and started off with a visit to the ironmongers next door to see what they had to solve the stability problem.   Half an hour later I was assembling my first brace.

As you can see a turnbuckle with wire strops connects the feet of some of the stanchions to one of the inter baseboard connecting bolts.

This worked well and I made up four more set which will be used at other places around the layout.  The only awkward but is going to be when the stanchions aren't in line with baseboard joints.  I will have to see whether I can add some sort of 'strongpoint' in the right place under the board.

We then had a visit from a guy who works part time for the Lancaster Guardian.  He was very interested as next year is the 50th anniversary of the closure of the line. He's going to do a piece for the paper an also did some video.   He had been warned that the layout wasn't going to be photogenic as we have a very tightly defined time slot for the current work.  It all has to be down for Friday evening and another layout is being put up to be photographed for a magazine on Saturday.  He also wants to try and get some sponsorship to allow us to exhibit the layout in Lancaster next year which would be great.  He managed a few photos which are on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154335287429698&set=pcb.908486505896061&type=3&theater

I'm very impressed with the photos that he's posted when we had no stock and Sam was holding two bits of the station in mid air.

Anyway another friend arrived and we managed to pin and glue another set of pelmet boards then take two boards and backscenes down and  move the layout up again.

Tonight I went back down, tidied up a bit and then put the Castle Branch up with John Patrick's help. I also re erected the lighting rig supports and thought you might like this view of the layout that the public don't normally see.

John enjoyed looking at the layout.

 

I then assembled the 10' long lighting unit that spans the entrance to Greyhound bridge and tried it for size.

Tomorrow it's back there to put up the last three stanchions and sort out the other end of the pelmet.

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Just a quick update on the above.  David Chandler, the guy from Lancaster has sent me this photo through which made me have a double take when I saw it. 

I then realised that Green Ayre was never as clean as that.

He's also posted this video on You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oliUsN90V6I&feature=youtu.be

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[sir douglas]

thats me in the grey jumper

[LNER4479]

That is a cracking photo - like you, I did a double take. Unpainted rail sides is about the only thing that obviously 'jars' on first viewing. I'm sure that's something on your long 'to do' list!

[roundhouse]

The only thing I picked up on was that the building doesnt appear to be  seated in its slot properly otherwise yes its a cracking photo.

Edited October 15, 2015 by roundhouse

[Ohmisterporter]

That photo from David Chandler took me back. It jogged my memory too, I know the old brain cells aren't what they used to be but I seem to recall check rails running throughout the station although I don't know when they were added, it could be later than your time period. Only wish I'd had a camera when I was a kid. Cracking job Jamie.

[jamie92208]

Thanks for all the comments.  There is actually a wall missing behind the platform which was still at home but it does seem to have captured the atmosphere.   As to check rails Stewart your memory has not failed you.  They did extend further through the platforms, as far as I can see almost to the end of the canopies, however I didn't find out about that bit till too late.   We have put check rails all round Greyhound Bridge and up to the crossover in the station.  I can always say that as we have straightened out the curve a bit in the rest of the platforms they aren't needed.  That's going to be my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Another good days work done.  I started this morning by putting up the Castle Fiddle yard board then sorted out the guttering sections for the lighting rig.   The first bit was the double section over the station

Then with help from Mel Price we got the rest f the guttering up but there was a lot of strain on one of the posts so an extra stay had to be added.   Then the remaining pelmet sections were hung and marked for attaching the brackets.   These were left with the glue drying and when I went back this evening we hung them again.  I then discovered that I'd put the bracket on the last section upside down.  It had to be pelmet section 13.   Anyway that didn't take long to sort out. and this was the result.

 

The last picture shows why there's a double section over the station.

About 2 years ago when I first experimented with the lighting rig Tony and I found that a single row of lights cast strong shadows on the station building. Thus the supports have been extended on that section and a second row of lights added so that there is light on the front of the buildings.

 

After that we started dismantling and the first two boards are now back home.    There are a couple of little jobs to finish tomorrow and then more taking down, tidying up and bringing home to do.

 

Jamie

Edited July 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[bbishop]

Jamie,

 

Well done with the lighting.

 

Am I not glad that Höchstädt doesn't have a lighting rig.  Actually, most of the wagen and buildings are internally lit and there is lighting on the platform and in the beer garden.  So a lighting rig would bleach out the layout lights.

 

Bill

Edited October 15, 2015 by bbishop