Lime Street Station

[Steve Hewitt]

 

John is of course spending most of his waking hours installing the Point Rodding, what a task that is!

 

 

Enough for now...

 

John has sent me this update:

 

 

"Last section of point rodding now complete for the spine boards. Note they are not yet connected to the angle cranks. They will be removed first to allow me to lay the ash ground cover. After that they will be refitted and connected up. Where the rods stop near the signal box is where the duck boarding starts and the rods disappear underneath. (That' my cop out !).

Now on to the wall lights !"

 

Steve.

 

[ozzyo]

Just clicking the craftsmanship/ clever button does not do this justice.

 

OzzyO.

[ianwales]

Hi

 

Just a quick slightly off topic query, in post 972 on page 39 Michael posted a photo of an accident at Lime St, the coach is shown with a Cunard White Star roof boad, I thought Cinard lines had gone to Southampton by then, also could the train have gained access to or from Liverpool Riverside station from Lime street?

 

Ian

[Steve Hewitt]

More detail.....

 

John has just installed the lamps which help to illuminate the station throat.

 

 

These are mounted directly onto the rock wall of the cutting:

 

 

The ladders are ready to install, once all the ground-work in that area is complete.

 

He has also installed two of the ground signals I delivered recently.

 

 

These control the exit from sidings A & B, and will also indicate the location of the Uncoupling Magnets to the operators via their TV monitors.

Their lights will be connected when John takes the baseboards down again to complete the wiring!

 

Steve.

[Les Green]

 

Components for Phase 2 of the hotel collected yesterday from Chris Dening. Better get working.

Took all day today to sort bits out into bags for each wall of the building!

Edited April 3, 2015 by Les Green

[Les Green]

 

Work has now started on Phase 2 of the hotel building, the central towers and the North Eastern tower. Also in Phase 2 will be the linking structure between the two North towers and the linking structure between the two central towers. The central tower substructure will be the most impressive part of the model. Watch this space!

[iak]

Whooosh!

Fantastic stuff!

WIBBLE...

[hayfield]

Les

 

Looks like Hogwarts Castle !!

 

Stunning bit of building look forward to seeing it again

[ozzyo]

Do you have a photo of the hotel that you could put on the site?

 

OzzyO.

[Steve Hewitt]

Do you have a photo of the hotel that you could put on the site?

 

OzzyO.

There are several to choose from here:

North Western Hotel

 

Steve.

[Hroth]

I've been following "Lime Street" for the past couple of years - its a marvellous, evocative project!  I used to walk through/past the station on almost a daily basis from the mid-70s to the mid-80s and remember the demolition of the rear range of what I assume were bedrooms that ran parallel with Lord Nelson Street.

 

All that was just a lead-up to the question;  Are you going to coat that wonderful model of the hotel in the uniform layer of dark grey filth that my memory insists on superimposing on it?

[Anthony566]

There are lots of amazing modelers on this forum Les andyou are one of them....

 

Fantastic work.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Anthony566

[Les Green]

I've been following "Lime Street" for the past couple of years - its a marvellous, evocative project!  I used to walk through/past the station on almost a daily basis from the mid-70s to the mid-80s and remember the demolition of the rear range of what I assume were bedrooms that ran parallel with Lord Nelson Street.

 

All that was just a lead-up to the question;  Are you going to coat that wonderful model of the hotel in the uniform layer of dark grey filth that my memory insists on superimposing on it?

 

Just found this photo today. The model hotel will hopefully be this dirty!!!

 

 

As opposed to this picture taken in 1985 when it was cleaned!!

 

[newbryford]

There are lots of amazing modelers on this forum Les andyou are one of them....

 

Fantastic work.

 

Just as long as you don't let him near platform edges.........................

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Steve Hewitt]

More of John's labours..........

 

The new lighting in the station throat and the Cutting together with the latest Ground Signals all require upgrades to the layout's wiring.

 

John has sent me a couple of photos of this "Work In Progress".

 

One baseboard clamped to the Workmate.

 

And another....

 

Then of course, he'll have to update the Documentation  

 

Steve.

[Welly]

^^^

 

 

You really need to keep the wiring tidy with all that under the baseboard!

[Steve Hewitt]

Forward Planning.....

 

I know John likes to plan ahead, so it wasn't much of a surprise when the latest recruit to the operating team was snapped on his first training session.

 

 

John's grandson AJ should be ready to step in when any of us get "past it".

 

But..........he'll have the longest commute..........from USA

 

Steve.

[Steve Hewitt]

Look what John received in the post yesterday from Hattons:

 

 

This is the first Hornby LMS Suburban from a batch he's ordered, and the first converted to EM.

Once the rake is EMed, it will be "Off to Rob next for weathering........"

 

Steve (from not too sunny Cornwall)

[Steve Hewitt]

Another small step .....

 

Rob and I had a day with John and managed to progress a number of things.

Rob continued his work on the back-scenes, which you'll be able to see later this year at Wigan and Wakefield shows.

John and I installed another semaphore signal. This one controls the exit from "Siding D".

It will be integrated into the Route Setting system shortly, when it will become operational.

 

Looking at the picture of the coach in the previous post you may have noticed the absence of ladders to give access to the lamps on the Cutting Wall?

 

This was rectified today:

 

The bottom three or four feet of each need Whitening.

 

You can also see a small part of John's "elephant task" ---- the BALLASTING.

 

More pics later.......

 

Steve.

[darren01]

Hi 

Good to see that you have use real tie bars on the point work and not gone and used the sleeper method, top bit of modeling 

Edited May 27, 2015 by darren01

[Jon Fitness]

Love that LNW bracket set into a channel chiselled into the wall. Wonderful stuff!

JF

Edited May 27, 2015 by Jon Fitness

[trustytrev]

Hello Steve,

                  Could you provide info about the ballast please?

trustytrev.

[Steve Hewitt]

Hi trustytrev,

 

I've asked John about the ballasting, because its his railway and he's doing all the ballasting!

 

He says:

"Mention of the word Ballast or ballasting to most model railway types will usually turn their faces white with a perceivable tremble in their hands and a sick feeling in the stomach !

This is because it is probably the most boring job one has to do to make a layout look convincing there being no real way to do the job other than spending a long and monotonous period of time tamping and brushing the stuff into place. As with most things, the more care you take, the better the result. It's just the scale of the job , particularly with a layout the size of Lime St. Work on one small area at a time moving on to the next when you are happy with what you have done.

 

Firstly the ballast itself. There are a number of different suppliers out there offering ballast in a number of different "Shades" and sizes. By size I refer to the actual granule size. From a colour point of view I would as usual suggest close study of the prototype. Colour is a very subjective thing so it's up to the individual to interpret what he has seen on the "real thing" when deciding which colour of ballast he wants to use. With regard to size, I tend to use ballast marketed for N gauge as I find the 4 mm. stuff too course.

 

Moving on to method of laying, it has to said there are a number of ways of doing this job, non of which can be said to be "the right way". It's what works best for you. The method that works for me is as follows;

 

There are a number of adhesives on the market now designed for fixing ballast, I have tried a few of them, but in the end I have come back to my usual mix namely Wood PVA adhesive diluted in water to the ratio of the milk ( PVA) in a cup of tea. (Not very technical !) Finally the most important ingredient, a few drops of washing up liquid. This reduces the surface tension in the mix, and helps stop the granules being pulled up into a little ball.

 

Lay the ballast down dry spreading it evenly over the track and contained within the shoulder edges either side. Ensure that non of the sleepers have any ballast on top of them, and there are no chippings stuck around the chairs. It should all look nice and tidy just as you want it to look when fixed. Pay particular attention to point blades and tie bars so as not to implead their operation.

 

The next step is to spray the whole area with a very fine "mist" of water. For this I have one of those plant sprays you get from the cheap shop or garden centre. Again with a few drops of washing up liquid in. Make sure you saturate the area you are working on. It is very important that the sprayer does not spit large globules of water on the ballast as surface tension will cause the ballast to be attracted to neighbouring granules thus ruining the whole job. Practice with your sprayer first outside (The cat makes a fun target !)

Once the ballast is saturated using a pipet or an old eyedropper drip the adhesive onto the ballast ensuring you cover all parts of your ballast. What ever you do, DON'T touch it till it has dried otherwise you will end up with a very sticky mess, believe me I KNOW !

I find it usually dries out by the following day, but this is obviously dependant on the temperature and humidity of the room.

If you find that some of the ballast still has not fixed, then give the whole area another go over with the glue mix, this time you will not need to saturate it through with the spray.

 

Finally if you look at most track formations you will note that there are areas around the ballasted track that have cinders or very fine ash on them. These areas you should cover first using the same method as above. I was given some very fine grit used for power blasting. When that is dry and well fixed you can start on the track.

 

GOOD LUCK !

 

Hope thats OK for now?

 

Steve.

[trustytrev]

Hello Steve

 

 

Firstly the ballast itself. There are a number of different suppliers out there offering ballast in a number of different "Shades" and sizes. By size I refer to the actual granule size. From a colour point of view I would as usual suggest close study of the prototype. Colour is a very subjective thing so it's up to the individual to interpret what he has seen on the "real thing" when deciding which colour of ballast he wants to use. With regard to size, I tend to use ballast marketed for N gauge as I find the 4 mm. stuff too course.

 

The brand/supplier and what was actually used in the picture above would be most welcome please. It looks spot on for what I want to acheive on the running lines. Finding what I need to reproduce to a similar condition is a bit of a challenge really as it is all a bit complicated without prior experience.

thanks.

trustytrev.

[Steve Hewitt]

John's sent the following answer:

 

"I usually pick up most of the consumable stuff I require for the layout when visiting exhibitions up and down the country. However during this last ballasting session I was running pretty low so I made a special visit to my nearest model shop 'Trains & Transport' in Preston to restock on ballast.

The most commonly available in the colour I use (Medium Buff), is made by WOODLAND SCENICS, although there are other manufacturers out their. Note there are different sizes of pack available from small bags through to large jars.

 

With regard to the 'Cinder' in the cess as I stated before this was given to me by a friend therefore you would need to source something similar yourself. However, Woodland Scenics do do something similar.

 

One last point I would make is that on the picture you mention although most of the ballast you were looking at was newly laid, the ballast nearest the retaining wall has been weathered down by Rob, notice the slight difference in colour."

 

Its worth noting that John takes great trouble to ensure the adhesive he uses for the ballast doesn't affect the surface appearance of the laid ballast. ie. the individual pieces of ballast still have sharp edges and the adhesive isn't filling the gaps between them when it dries.

 

Steve