Signals at Hessle Haven - ex-NER signal bridge

[10800]

Seconded - an absolute masterpiece Mike. I must try and do a lot better with my own signals in future (tiny though they are in comparison!).

[micklner]

Superb well done

[mikemeg]

So that's about it, just the ladder up to the decking from the formation to add. So one more photo to show the business end of the signal bridge, with all of the ladders and landings in place.

 

I still have to build the section of the railway on which this will stand, though hopefully having finished this model may provide additional impetus to build this third section.

 

I will photograph the gantry, once it is fully painted and weathered, in its location on the railway, just to see whether I have managed to recreate that look of this place, now sixty years ago.

 

So I hope those who have followed this thread have enjoyed reading it and perhaps you may have picked up a few hints and tips along the way.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[dikitriki]

Hi Mike

 

This has been a wonderful thread. Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to show what you have done, and how you have done it.

 

I certainly take inspiration from it, and shall endeavour to match the quality when it comes to building my own 7mm signals.

 

Richard

[Wizard of the Moor]

Mike,

 

A truly cracking piece of modelling. Thanks very much for sharing it. I see that Wild Swan have a book on Scratchbuilding Signals coming out - they'll have a job to make it more informative than this thread. :icon_biggrin:

 

By the way, I noticed at the Doncaster show last weekend that P&H Models are selling packets of 0.2mm (0.010") stainless steel wire in 300mm lengths. Might this have a bit more strength for your linkages than the brass equivalent?

 

Cheers,

 

James - No connection to P&H other than as a happy customer.

[mikemeg]

Many thanks to those who have offered such kind comments and so much encouragement and also so much useful advice and information; it is much appreciated. I am still quite new to modelling signals - this bridge is only the fourth such model I have made, so still much to learn.

 

So I'll see you all in a week or two when I get to building the slotted posts and lower quadrants on the third of these structures or on the B1 thread, which models I really must now get on with.

 

So let me finish the thread, as I started the thread, with another of those lovely black and white photos of a different railway in a different time and a different world - though I'm not sure I would want to return to those times.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[the penguin of doom]

Lovely model Mike.

 

I look forward to those slotted posts especially since I'm set on having a couple on our new club layout.

 

Keep us posted.

 

Cheers.

 

Sean.

 

 

[mikemeg]

Sean,

 

Many thanks for the comments. Ive just finished the drawings for the next one; I had to re-do them to cater for lower quadrants and slotted posts and, even then, I've had to make some assumptions as to how this last one would have appeared back in 1950. I'm sure just as soon as I complete this third gantry, a detailed photo will emerge to prove all of my assumptions wrong but c'est la vie.

 

One final photo (until I finish painting and weathering it) of the signal bridge. I found I had forgotten one of the landings - the one on the centre doll - which seems to have allowed access to the ladder from the raised landing. Today's Elf an Safety would have a field day with this, yet I've never heard of anyone falling off one of these things.

 

So a photo of the whole thing.

 

Mike

[the penguin of doom]

C'est la vie indeed.

 

I tried to put some pictures on yesterday on the L1 thread, but no joy. I've got plenty saved up though and will be posting them as soon as I can. In the mean time, I'll look forwards to your pictures too. Keep us posted.

 

Elf and safety eh? Hmmmn, its elf and safety gone mad...... He heh. Is the reason you haven't heard about anyone falling off a gantry perhaps because.... Ahem, people of a certain generation maybe had a little more sense and a little less access to certain compensation processes as advertised on daytime telly or is that a sweeping cynical opinion......?

 

Cheers Mike.

 

Sean.

[mikemeg]

Sean,

 

By way of a complete aside but relevant to the last two postings, when we were kids, perhaps twelve or thirteen, we climbed the up bracket by the bridge at the east end of Hessle Station one Sunday. This to take 'unusual' photos with our newly acquired Brownie 127's, complete with an eight exposure, black and white film. Our thinking was that we would be invisible to the Hessle station signalman, which indeed we were, and that this signal would not be much used on a Sunday as it controlled the up slow and up slow to station loop, which lines were mostly used by freight trains, not normally abundant on a Sunday.

 

Anyway, just as we got up the thing, twenty odd feet up and amidst a fairly strong wind, the starter for the down slow was pulled off and the whole thing shook as if in an earthquake. We hung onto the handrails while the shaking subsided, and were hugely surprised to see an unfitted freight approaching on the up slow. We took aim with our Brownie 127's as the up freight began to slow, this despite its being signalled through the station.

 

This freight, hauled by an Austerity, came to a complete stop at the signal, whereupon the fireman leapt swiftly down from the footplate brandishing his shovel. Standing at the base of the signal he politely 'bade us come down' from our lofty perch, which we duly did, and then gave us a brief but memorable 'lecture' about the dangers of trespassing on railway property. This while he continued to practice shovel drill; shouldering it, sloping it and presenting it throughout this short and rather one sided discourse.

 

Anyway we were duly dismissed by the fireman with a hearty 'now .... off and don't let me see you up there again' whereupon the Austerity and its train continued on their way.

 

I wonder what punishment we would incur now?

 

Great days

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[Miss Prism]

Fabulous work, Mike, and a classic thread. Just remember that if anyone asks you for 327 latticed OHE gantries, say "no" as sanely as you can muster.

[mikemeg]

Fabulous work, Mike, and a classic thread. Just remember that if anyone asks you for 327 latticed OHE gantries, say "no" as sanely as you can muster.

 

Absolutely I shall say no, though perhaps not entirely sanely, to 327, 32.7 or even 3.27 OHE's and I remain thankful that I don't know what an OHE is, though I suspect it is something to do with these god-awful electric posts which now adorn the WCML and the ECML and make the whole thing look like a giant meccano set.

 

After all of this signal building, which has now been the main modelling preoccupation for the last several months, let's have a NER photo with a couple of NER design locos (yes I know 69003 was built in 1949) and an ex-NER bracket, just to remind me what all of this is trying to achieve.

 

There is still some work to do on these embankments to re-create the look of late spring; this is the latest section of the railway to be built. And that ex-NER bracket sporting its 'I've only just been painted look', it needs a good weathering.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[mike knowles]

Lovely model Mike.

 

I look forward to those slotted posts especially since I'm set on having a couple on our new club layout.

 

Keep us posted.

 

Cheers.

 

Sean.

 

Good luck with building those - let us know how you get on. Picking up form your loco conversion threads will you be starting with some colour lights signals and adapting them to suit?!!!

[iak]

Heck of a good piccie that Mike.

Shows the signals off to a tee - fabbo!

[mikemeg]

So the final part of this signal building 'odyssey' is the painting and weathering. Using the gantry as the test bed I have decided to try and weather these models as the real things might have weathered and might have been affected by the passing of numerous smoking locomotives.

 

First stage is to paint the lattice structure with matt white, including as much as the inside of the lattice as can reasonably be accessed. Two very thin coats of white have been applied to all but the left hand post. The actual weathering experiments have used a very dilute solution of weathered black in pure turps. This is 'drizzled' onto the posts, the lattice, etc. and then just allowed to find the nooks and crannies, where a settling of the black will take place. On the vertical surfaces i.e. the dolls, the black will simply run down the surface and discolour the white much less.

 

Part of this model (the two rightmost dolls and underlying lattice) have been so treated, the remainder still has to be done; I leave the viewer to judge whether the resulting effect works?

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[iak]

Maybe a shade too dark Mike?

Depends on how much clag they got blasted with I suppose - looks very nice mind.

How are this going to be operated? You have probably mentioned it but I cannae find it.

[mikemeg]

Maybe a shade too dark Mike?

Depends on how much clag they got blasted with I suppose - looks very nice mind.

How are this going to be operated? You have probably mentioned it but I cannae find it.

 

Ian,

 

Yes could be a shade too dark. The advantage of using a very weak turps/paint solution is that I can lighten it by simply brushing on a little neat turps to dilute the weathering more.

 

As to operation I am planning to use memory wire for the drive mechanisms. The wires need only to move around 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm so a fairly short length, perhaps no more than 10 - 12 cm should provide the required movement. I still have to experiment with making these memory wire drives but the idea of using more expensive solenoids or point motors, given that this model will need six of them, seems a very expensive way of doing it.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[mikemeg]

One of my great passions, at least with this modelling stuff, is attempting to take pictures which convey that essence, that atmosphere of the prototype. I guess it's about trying to recreate a time and a place, now long lost in the mists of time.

 

I know this thread is about building lattice signals so this picture may be misplaced but it does serve to show (or perhaps not) whether these models do capture that sense of the time and the place.

 

On the old RMWeb I had a thread about the railway and its building. If anyone is interested then I will re-constitute that thread. There is still much to do on this section, the banks have to be 'planted' and the point rodding fixed to those rodding stools and a few other things.

 

In the meantime evening is falling and two unlikely visitors to the main line hurry off home, though the T1 isn't going much further.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[micklner]

Mike

 

redo the thread please ,nice picture

 

Mick

[iak]

Mike

A reconstituted thread sounds a grand idea...

It would help put into perspective both this thread and your Locomotive thread maybe? :icon_thumbsup2:

[mikemeg]

So taking Ian's advice (IAK Ian) the whole model is now painted and weathered, with the initial weathering being lightened by more dilution with pure turps to reduce the black.

 

I still have to add a couple of motors (dummies) to the two dolls with distants on and finally the bracing rods which will fit into the tiny eyes at the top of the left hand post. These rods, each orientated at 45 degrees to the post, will be .4 mm wire and will actually serve to support the model when it is located in its 'final resting place'.

 

So the next picture of this will be by shipyard bridge on the railway.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[davknigh]

Thanks for sharing all this with us Mike. Seeing someone else go through it all step by step gives inspiration to those who might be faint of heart. At the risk of falling into TTTE language it lets people say "I think I can!"

 

Well done that man! :icon_thumbsup2: :icon_thumbsup2:

 

Cheers,

 

David

[mikemeg]

Thanks for sharing all this with us Mike. Seeing someone else go through it all step by step gives inspiration to those who might be faint of heart. At the risk of falling into TTTE language it lets people say "I think I can!"

 

Well done that man! :icon_thumbsup2: :icon_thumbsup2:

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

Many thanks for that, David. As I've said before, if I can do this then others can do it.

 

Tell you what, though, all of those years working for big corporates with the accent on planning, sequencing of activities, segementing into work packages and all of the other doctrines of project management really do come into play on doing stuff like this; even the formal assessment of risk.

 

I knew all of that would one day come in useful for something which was truly important - building models of signals!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[LNERGE]

So taking Ian's advice (IAK Ian) the whole model is now painted and weathered, with the initial weathering being lightened by more dilution with pure turps to reduce the black.

 

I still have to add a couple of motors (dummies) to the two dolls with distants on and finally the bracing rods which will fit into the tiny eyes at the top of the left hand post. These rods, each orientated at 45 degrees to the post, will be .4 mm wire and will actually serve to support the model when it is located in its 'final resting place'.

 

So the next picture of this will be by shipyard bridge on the railway.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

What style of dummy motor are you going to use? Westo or BPRS?

[iak]

Risk assessments in model making???

Please dinnae give them ideas Mike, it is bad enough as it is

The finished article is spectacular - bravo. A grand job well done....