Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

Anyone who has read my 3D printing article may have on occasion seen me make reference to this layout. So I thought it would be about time I shared some photos of it. It is roughly (very) based on Cumbria in the mid 1960's and construction started back in 2007, it was originally designed as a desktop layout, but very quickly grew too large for the desk. It was then relegated to my floor and consisted of a 3ft cassette at each end with 2 2ft by 20 inch boards. after several years making slow progress, I was kindly invited to exhibit it at the 2010 Warrington Model Railway Exhibition. This required further changes to the layout to allow it to be exhibited (including a rewire to move point controls and power change over to the back of the layout). Also the layout had protective boards added and was generally spruced up. This was my first time exhibiting my own layout and seem to go well, except for the odd point problem. On the back of the show I was invited to attend the following years Southport and LYDCC's shows. However I was also encouraged to extend my layout, taking opportunity of this encouragement a canal wharf extension was built forward of the right hand cassette (maintaining the orgional length.), as well as another rewire to convert the layout to DCC during the summer of 2011. Wild Boar Fell subsequently appeared at those shows during 2011 and then again at Martin Mere Wild Life reserve during January 2012. Currently the layout is undergoing the 3rd phase of its development with a new motive power depot being built to the left of the layout. In this topic I will start with showing photos of the layout in its 2011 guise, before showing the photos of its construction (back tracking a fair bit) and then bringing it upto date with the latest news on the extension.

Enjoy!

One of several jubilee's on Wild Boar Fell's turntable, the bridge to the left now has through lines to allow access to the MPD.

Looking the length of the layout towards the canal.

Looking across to the ash pit.

The Wharf with the brewery's own shunter 'Lightning'

Looking along the loading wharf.

An early cad drawing showing the main layout and the origional design of wharf. (please note not all that cad file is my own work, some parts are placed there for visualisation.)

 

 

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[ColinW]

What a great layout, can you put up some more pictures please.

 

Colin

[coachmann]

Intrigued by your coal shutes. On seeing your pictures they have given me ideas, as I am beginning to wonder if this how the coal was unloaded at Greenfield (Saddleworth).

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello,

Thank you both for your kind comments, Coachmann, you may want to try and find a picture of the O gauge layout 'Ashwood Basin' I think its called, which is where I got the inspiration for mine from. Theirs is far better than mine, and I believe it is based on a prototype. This feature does seem to grab people's attentions at exhibitions and I think an operating one would be even more entertaining.

Anyway here is the first instalment of Wild Boar Fell from the beginning.

The two main baseboards were built to fit underneath a bed (hence the low backscenes), here they are in trial storage.

Backscene boards now attached, with a trackplan starting to materialise, along with the turntable well now cut out. The layout has a peco turntable, which is now wired for dcc operation with a Frizingham motor kit, it has undergone several attempts at improving the reliability but currently is in pieces awaiting rebuilding.

More work on the track plan.

Another view of the track plan.

The hole for the ash pit is now marked ready for cutting.

Which followed soon after.

Before the track was set in place.

 

Next time, Bridge building, backscenes and ballasting.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Again,

Time for part 2,

A start is made to wire the layout, here can be seen the point studs as well as the plugs for the layout supplies, these were originally situated as shown on the front of the layout, before being doubled up on the back when it was converted to an exhibition layout. since then the front plugs have been removed during the rewire for DCC

Shortly after the board is turned to allow further wiring. the turntable motor is not yet in place.

My first attempt at a bridge, the deck was one complete piece of balsa, this bridge was only taken out last month to allow through tracks to the engine shed extension (It had stuck well!).

A printed backscene free from scalescenes website was added, however it didn't last long and was replaced by plain sky and then by one of gaugemasters backscenes.

Concentration shifted to the back of the layout and some planning of what the station should look like.

Before the turntable well was ash ballasted,

and then the bridge was clad with brick.

A platform was made from spare wood and Ikea blinds, before being clad with will's course stone and then hand painted.

My trusty Grampus was borrowed for ballasting,

And made light work of the ballast (Geoscenics).

 

Unfortunately now there is a gap in my photos, and so next time the scenic work will have progressed a fair bit further. However there is still much work to be done. Tune in next time for more development.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Here's the next instalment of the development of Wild Boar Fell.

As I say there is a gap in the photos but these are still from 2007 so there is alot of work left on the layout, such as replacing the back scenes and replacing the station building, most of the greenery is still in its early stages.

Here can be seen the finished bridge after painting and weathering of the parts.

Here can be seen the original station building.

In the top right of the layout can be seen the beginning of the gantry signal box, built up from wills vari girder and plastistruck I beam girders.

An overall shot of the layout.

Here's a later shot showing the gantry signal box temporarily in place.

The building itself is the knightwing kit but reduced in height and with the interior detailed.

Finally a 2010 shot of the finished signal box for comparison.

 

Enjoy,

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[JeffP]

Even more interesting.

I'd re-think the working coal shute thing. I've looked at one recently on here and it's not life-like, the coal is too small and hasn't enough mass, so doesn't "fall" correctly.

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks Jeff, the coal chute are unlikely to be modified to operate as I am currently happy with that area of the layout.

Anyway for anyone who is interested here is the next update,

the next project on the list was to complete the new station building, as I was not very happy of the old one and wanted a station canopy, one Warley and Wigan show later and I had a selection of York laser cut pieces to allow construction,

With Will's course stone cladding onto an MDF base, I believed that the station building had just enough relief to distinguish it from the station walling,

Here's a side view, the ends still need cladding and the canopy is held in place with blue tack, but its progress.

Work has also continued on the scenery at the front, now with granite sets and a better coating of grass. (And a snowplough?)

Construction of the canopy then continued separately to the station building, which on reflection was not a brilliant idea, however it did allow me to paint the whole structure first.

A closer view of the canopy.

As the light faded attention now turned to testing the stations lighting, it worked!

When the platform lights are on as well there are distinct pools of light from each lamp giving the station a completely different feel.

Unfortunately earlier this year I bounced a large object on the canopy and have cracked it, this required some immediate patching up for a show, however these should be replaced before Fleetwood in October.

 

Any feedback welcome,

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Wild Boar Fell is still under construction as a domestic layout, and the end board has now been added along with the second bridge and the station is looking more complete. However just as things are nearly complete I am kindly invited to exhibit the layout at Warrington's 2010 exhibition, progress speeds up and many changes are made.

Here the new end board with bridge can be seen, this is a foam made product from international models(I think).

Work also further progresses at the front and the new coal staithes are built (using the base from the knighting signal box kit) Also visible is the buffer stop which is a ten commandments model. However buffer stops are yet to be added to the ends of the other sidings.

The near complete station can be seen, it just needs the end sections patching up to fill the gap. The station itself is a removable structure held to the back scene by bolts with extra holes to allow the wires to pass through, the station straddles both boards and is useful for locking both boards together as well as pulling the back scene boards together. The sky is still the second back scene and is soon to be replaced.

Invasion! Not mine, but other members of my family's stock, surprisingly my pair of 37's aren't there as well, I must try and find the photo of all six locos on the Boar. Occasionally near the end of shows a flask train may appear on my layout, however no one has ever pointed it out as being wrong, even when passing behind steam locos.

Lots of the finer scenic work is now done, including the addition of a cooper craft AEC Monarch and a Dapol JCB 3, and the beer bottles outside the grounded van.

Here are the last photos I have of the layout before appearing at Warrington.

Note the new Gaugemaster back scene.

Next time... The brewery and canal extension.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Today I have managed some progress on the new extension and have started fitting the 15 terraced houses that step down along the length of the board, this is likely to take a while and I shall show some photos of the construction when I have finished them.

Anyway here is the construction of the other extension as promised, this started early last year and was finished over the summer, I prefer this new board to the original.

Here can be seen the baseboard under construction, this was the longest board on the layout at 3ft in length. This board was built around the existing cassette to minimise costs (however the depot extension is a complete new build, except for the reuse of some track and the wood). This is the first board we have built with a dropped section and it seems to have worked okay.

and underneath,

Then it was time for the best bit, track planning! I already had a plan of roughly what I wanted, hence the CAD drawing in the op, but now was the time to see what was actually possible.

Note the track balance over the canal showing where the drops were going to go.

The weighbridge on the layout is the cooper craft kit and builds well. Its not something that you see on many layouts, they are mainly road weigh bridges, but they allow much more shunting and probably more realistic operation as mine can be weighted before and after emptying into the barges.

Once a few other items had been built or purchased there were further used to plan.

Next was the stationary boiler, I built this after getting inspiration from a great article in the railway magazine on boilers. the starting point was being given a plastic tube from a roll of icing (it was christmas), then a quick look at F.J.Roche's loco drawings for a correct diameter boiler showed two options, 1) an LMS 2P 4-4-0 however this required a second larger diameter tube to do the smokebox, this left 2) an LNER B1, much simpler in shape and quite a common class for stationary boilers. A quick look in my plastic kit bits box revealed the necessary components from unlikely sources. The dome is a raydome off a wessex helicopter (italeri), the safety valves were from Paveway III laser guided bombs (from two airfix Buccaneers) The chimney and other larger diameter pipes are rocket pods from a revell hunter and airfix buccaneer. Finally the problem of the whistle, simple a Finnish C-130 refuelling probe (airfix)!

The washout plugs were later removed before the whole thing was weathered and the back building was added (Yet more of the knightwing signal box).

 

Tomorrow's update will be... Barges, Balsa, Buildings and Bridges.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello everyone,

here is the latest update, apologies for the delay (I was actually building the layout all day yesterday).

The wharf extension continues with most of the track fixed in place, only a small amount of ballasting is required before the building are to be created.

Here is the layout before the work commences,

As well as a photo showing how it joins to the rest of the layout, sorry about the photo quality.

As can be seen work has already started on the structure of the bridge which is built up from blocks with flat sides added.

Also the sides of the wharf have already been clad with stone sheeting.

The main structure of the boiler house has now been formed out of balsa wood and is awaiting the sides cladding with plastic card. The chimney in the background is a Bachmann scene craft model, which I later repainted.

Then the loading wharf is temporarily put in place, at this point none of the structure is glued together and all the legs are carefully balanced on the baseboard. (unfortunately photo failed to load but I shall try again),

Then the surface was cut from embossed plastic sheeting to create the wooden planking.

Hopefully be a larger update tomorrow. This one is cut short due to technical problems at my end.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Sorry for the delayed update, but I have been very busy recently. However I have managed to get some work done on the extension, 15 low relief terraced houses have now been added with a further 3 to go (pictures to follow when fully finished).

Anyway, here is the next instalment, work on the buildings is continuing with balsa wood being used to build the structural parts of the buildings, before cladding with plastic sheet.

The brewery slowly starting to take shape.

The all important structure gauging GUV is being used to check clearances, unfortunately I forgot about the GUV's reduced height so no vehicles much taller than it can enter the right hand building.

,

Now all the openings have been cut for the windows which took a fair while to do, however with it being balsa it wasn't very difficult also the soft nature of the wood allowed modifications it situ to be made without weakening the structure.

The first lot of cladding is being added using wills windows and corrugated iron, and SE Fine cast brick sheets, this is the first time I have used them (I purchased the wrong ones). The first two windows have also been added.

The cladding got to a near to complete stage (awaiting painting I think) when a warm day managed to break the bond holding the plastic to the balsa and a ripple effect developed on the surface, I tried several ways of trying to cure it but none were deemed acceptable. It was therefore back to the drawing board and wills large industrial windows were used instead with wills brick as well, this worked far better and the larger windows as well improved the look of the building.

The canal is also starting to be made, a revell acrylic brown was used before layers of varnish were painted on top, there is probably about 4/5 layers on the finished model.

Unfortunately there is yet another several month gap in my photos, so these views show what happened next, Wills granite sets were added to most of the board and the cladding has been added and painted. Interiors and lighting has been added to the buildings (except for the front building which has yet to have lights fitted, but sports an overhead traversing crane instead. Line side detailing has also been added and a pipe bridge is installed between the buildings.

The stanchions on the brewery are yet to be painted, due to me running out of Brunswick green paint. The road has yet to be finished and the barges are to be added/ built. The brewery doesn't have a name but I am open to clever suggestions (clean ones only) as to what to call it, maybe something that brings in the canal side of it would be good. (my best one was Navigation ale). Please feel free to leave suggestions on this thread.

Next time, Barges, Roads and Boar pt3

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

My updates on Wild Boar Fell has almost caught up with real time progress, however there are still a few things left to cover so here they are,

The barge shown in previous images is an excellent scalescenes kit that came free with an issue of the Hornby magazine, however good these kits are I prefer the relief in plastic kits so after seeing how expensive some kits were decided to scratchbuild my own, the narrowboats are built mainly from thick plastic card using the scalescenes parts as a guide, but with the deeper sections formed in balsa first. This method proved fun to build and I was happy with the result, so decided to build a second one. These were then painted up in British Waterways livery and given the names of Hurricane and Whirlwind, these were then loaded with coal and detailed. The doors on whirlwind are posed opened, roses and lettering was done on the computer and printed off. I've used humbrol yellow and Mediterranean blue to represent the corporate colours but these seemed to vary from boat to boat (from the photo's I've seen).

Heres some photos of the narrowboats

A comparison of mine under construction and the scalescenes one.

Another technique I tried on this part was to build the roadway out of powdered ballast, to create a realistic finish on the road. To achieve this I added the pavements (Ratio/Wills York paving) before painting pva onto the wooden road base, then the powder was added (from Geoscenics) and smoothed to the right hight. A solution of pva and water was then quickly added over the powder and the ballast was tamped flat with a spare piece of wood (the origional brewery front!) until a fairly smooth finish was achieved. Then I began clearing the spillage from the front of the board and any leaks in the bridge (It is advisable to do this technique BEFORE painting the front of your boards, otherwise it looks like this)

If you look in front of the E type Jag, you will even see the realistic potholes that formed when the glue dried. I would recommend practising this technique first before attempting it on a layout, I will be trying it again on the new extension so will get some better photos to show how its done.

 

Soon to follow are photos showing the current progress.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[47475]

What a beautiful layout. One of those layouts that really creates a life-like atmosphere. It is a testament to the work that has clearly gone into it.

[Physicsman]

First time I've looked at your layout. I caught sight of the magic word "Cumbria" and that was it. A very enjoyable thread with some excellent scratchbuilding. Will keep an eye on this as you post.

 

Jeff

[signalmaintainer]

I caught sight of the magic word "Cumbria" and that was it. A very enjoyable thread with some excellent scratchbuilding. Will keep an eye on this as you post.

 

Ditto for me re: "Cumbria;" I too just caught the thread on this layout earlier this week. Well done, sir!

 

I'm especially intrigued about your use of balsa for a structure shell. Any issues with warpage or delamination of the plasticard? How do you prevent or address them?

[Physicsman]

And, if Wild Boar Fell will excuse me, Mr signalmaintainer ... how is Cumbria in Washington State progressing?

 

As for Wild Boar Fell, the layout - what's it based on ... Whitehaven? Or is it entirely fictional, loosely based on a prototype? Whatever, keep posting!

 

Jeff

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Thanks everyone for your kind comments, now to your answer questions.

Paul, I used balsa as its light and fairly strong but also easy to cut/ modify however your correct in that it does allow de-lamination of plastic card to take place, this happened on the original brewery buildings, these were covered in vac formed plastic sheet from SE Finecast, and after time did peel away. I think the cause of this is the large air pockets on the back of the plastic causing problems on hot days, so most of the bottom layer of the two rail fed buildings are now covered in the thicker flush backed Wills brick sheet (the ones that come in 4 packs) and I have not had a problem with them since. Another fix may be to use small pieces of plastic rather than one large one.

 

Jeff (no excuse needed), Wild Boar Fell isn't based on anywhere in particular, its just an atmosphere I wanted to convey, however I think my station building is a bit of a cross between the example at Grange over sands and some of the CLC stations (the station walls definitely remind me of Grange). In my mind the layout is probably set somewhere inland near kendal (hence the canal a possible extension from kendal?) However parts of my layout are based on different examples across the north west. for example my terraces on the extension are based on some near wigan and the engine shed is based on a Webb design (primarily Dallam 8B) but the signal box was created from photos of chester number 6 box. The line is also based on the idea of an east-west link between somewhere such as Middlesbrough and Kendal/ Windermere, with hints of previous LNWR ownership.

A bit of everything really, but glad people like the atmosphere,

 

Today has been a bit of an expensive day for me as my stock now includes on of the great Bachmann 03 shunters (the first loco to run on the extension) and a second TPO, photos to follow.

 

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Sorry for the delay, here are some photos of the layouts new extension which is still under construction,

 

Firstly these pictures show what the layout was like when I took the first photos, this board replaces the original left hand cassette and is also built forward with tracks now linking up with the turntable (through where the old bridge was).

The roadway was built up from spare pieces of wood including the old fiddle yard. The ballast is a mixture of Geoscenics products and the roadway is wills granite sets.

 

Next up was to build the terraced houses, however I had a plan to solve this, especially as the road isn't level. I created a terraced house design in 2D software and had it kindly produced by Miniscene Models, this commprises of 4 laser cut frets including 16 house fronts. Some joint work assembling and painting them allowed them to be installed relatively quickly.

Blocks of wood of different thicknesses were used to allow the buildings to sit level and give them something to sit on.

 

Finally a photo of how the layout now looks, extra pavements have been added and the houses are in, however the roofs still require fitting. The ballast is now glued down and ready for weathering, also the concrete needs repainting.

 

Hope this is interesting, I shall try and get some more work done soon.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Physicsman]

Always very interesting. I was never much of a scratchbuilder (scenery excepted), but since I joined this Forum I've become an addict to a number of layouts where buildings/structures play a major part. The photos are very instructional and your layout is full of good ideas - fictional or not. And btw, I see what you mean about the Grange resemblance.

 

Good stuff!

 

Jeff

[Sir Madog]

This is one fantastic layout!

 

It has all the features I always wanted to include into my own British prototype layout:

 

turntable

unloading dock

row of terrace houses

engine shed

urban flavor

 

I have been trying to draw the track plan, but I am not sure, whether this is it:

 

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Thanks both of you for your kind comments, Jeff for me I think its the walls that give it that look of Grange, especially the platform backing onto the sea wall. I'm glad you find it interesting, I have found the baseboard construction on Kirkby Luneside very intriguing (it took me a fair while to spot the legs). Baseboards aren't my strongest point. Sir Madog, firstly Wow, you have got the arrangement of the tracks spot on, i'm surprised you could visualise it so well, as it confused me when I saw it, as I have never drawn it out in full or put all the boards together yet. There are only two small discrepancies with it that I can see, board 1 is actually 3ft 2inches long, the original cassette was 3ft but this is ever so slightly longer. sorry I should have mentioned that somewhere. The only other thing is that board two is actually made up of two 20 inch boards. That aside I am very impressed and is there any possibility of me being able to have a copy of that track plan for my own use, it may be useful for exhibition descriptions etc (if that is acceptable with you of course). Feel free to post photos of your own layout too.

Thanks again,

Wild Boar Fell

[Physicsman]

Hi Wild Boar (do you have a name? ),

 

Glad you found the baseboard subframe interesting. The structure probably doesn't need the legs, but I fitted 8 of them around the central area to add to the rigidity. The baseboard is 12mm ply, but at the moment it's only approximately cut: it has to sit on risers at the level of the viaduct track bed (approx 30cm up from the subframe). This will be a task I can do once I've established the final track paths (apologies if you already knew all of this!).

 

And btw, I echo all the positive comments that have been made about your layout. The detail you've packed in there is quite splendid!

 

Best wishes,

 

Jeff

 

PS. Are you a Cumbrian, or an "honorary" one? Superb area to model, whether prototypical or fictional!

[Sir Madog]

I´ll be honored if you use my drawing. I will introduce the changes you mentioned and add some more details to it.

 

The drawing is made by using WinRail, which is the basis for the Atlas freebie RTS. If you send mme your email address via PM, I can mail the file to you. You only need to download RTS to open it.

[Sir Madog]

Here it is, the completed drawing:

 

 

I may now pass the hat around, but no foreign coins, please.

 

The proceeds will be forwarded to the RSRMA - the Royal Society of Railway Modellers Anonymous.