Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello again,

Thank both of you for your comments again, sorry about the delay in replying but I have been fairly busy recently. Firstly Jeff, no I am not Cumbrian, but I have been there many times on holiday especially around the Kendal and Grange area. Sir Madog thanks, I han't noticed your first message (post 24), it looks very good (I've sent you a PM), Is your layout under construction or still in planning?

 

I am now having to work quickly to meet the deadline of my next exhibition (Fleetwood 15th-16th September) So I have made some progress in the last few days including the joining, for the first time since baseboard construction, of boards 1 and 2. This went surprisingly well without any extra ballast needing removal than what had already been removed, also surprising was the snug fit of the bridge which sits on top of board 2 whilst being attached to board 1.

 

Right first time!

Apologies about the picture quality but it was starting to dark. Some of the roofs are now added and have been painted (Br roof grey!) The bridge deck is not yet fixed in place, nor is the roads surface, the whole deck and girders are currently removable as one piece to allow the ballasting and weathering to be finished.

Since last time the concrete has been repainted and then it and the ballast (Board1 only) has been treated to several coats of weathering from an airbrush, these consisted of 1) Sleeper grime 2) roof dirt 3) frame dirt (all railmatch) and I am very happy with the result.

The main walls of the bridge have now now been clad with brick and the extra ballast needed on board 2 has been added but awaits weathering, Also ballast has been added to the entrance of the fiddle yard.

Fresh from the works is this 9f which has just received its weathering too, it is the old Dapol kit, unfortunately the camera flash has made it appear shinier than in real life, but I have noticed that the limescale needs toning down.

The sheds mess needs its interior building and the bike shed to the left needs finishing too. Then there is the MPD to built as well, and with 44 days left to go its going to go down to the wire (No pun intended as Warrington is the show after) especially as I am away next week.

 

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello,

I'm now back from holiday with a whole load of parts for the layout. The break has also given me chance to design most of the MPD which still needs to be produced, this has once again been done in 2D CAD. The roads on WBF are now a bit busier with the addition of 5 more vehicles from base toys and oxford diecast. One of the new Dapol LMS home signals has also been obtained and is awaiting instillation, a pair of (expensive) DCC concept buffer stops have also been bought for use on the layout, these look finer than the peco examples elsewhere on the layout and feature a working lamp. Many other general detailing bits and pieces have been bought mainly from the Wills and Modelscene ranges. However the most unlikely purchase was a Devon Belle observation car for use on the layout, this model does look stunning and the reduced cost tempted me being, about £20 off RRP (From Cheltenham model centre). Don't worry however, its the BR maroon liveried example not the pullman one so does fit in with my other models.

 

Sorry about the lack of photos but hopefully some more progress soon.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello everyone,

Sorry about the lack of updates recently, but here's some upto date photos.

The last week or so has seen some fair progress on the layout with most of the scenic work on the MPD board (Board 1) now complete with the exception of the shed itself, now it is mostly the smaller details to add, though the terraces do need finishing as well.

,

Here can be seen that the bridge is now fully built and just requiring weathering, it is also now fixed down to the board and the roads surface has been finished using the method described previously.

The front of the board is nearly finished with all the major items present, the foreman's car and most of the other vehicles are from the Oxford die-cast range. As can also be seen, the bottom of the terraced houses need the brickwork adding.

A close up of the front, apologies for the photo quality but the lighting is not favourable. The lamp hut and coach are ratio, the watchman's hut is a commission with Miniscene specially for Wild Boar Fell

The new Dapol working LMS home signal has been installed and is now fully operational, I think it looks great, but cutting down the base as I have done improves the look further (Please be aware that this invalidates the warranty). I have then covered most of the base in ballast and re weathered it.

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This photo better illustrates the signal and shows which roof still needs fitting as well as where the backscene needs adding.

Finally, the turntable has been re assembled and re installed and seems more ridged, the turntables gearbox and motor assembly is also back in position. A fully powered test is still required though, but firstly a new decoder is needed to allow it to operate (oops!) the last one had had some rough handling fixed to the underside of the layout.

 

 

Hope this was worth the wait, the shed parts are currently being manufactured prior to assembly. I am planning to build this in secret for the Fleetwood show, after which I will then show how it was built.

 

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Physicsman]

Nice to see the Dapol LMS signal in situ. I'm going to have to buy a couple of these.

 

I'll be interested to see your shed construction as I'll be planning for a Goods Shed build for Kirkby Luneside.

 

Good luck with the Fleetwood show!

 

Jeff

[will5210]

I really enjoyed catching up with the whole thread! I really like the extensions and (as others have said) the whole thing really shouts 'Cumbria'.

[coachmann]

Yes I too like the look of that Dapol signal. Cosmetic balance weights to follow?

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Again,

Thanks everyone for your comments, I agree the Dapol signals do look good, (Coachmann, what should the balance weights look life and where are they fitted? However I probably wont get arount to it soon).

The extensions are also my favourite part of the layout which is why I am planning to spruce up the centre boards (Hopefully for the Warrington show).

More progress/ photos soon.(Hopefully!)

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Fat Controller]

http://www.railway-technical.com/sig-uktypes.shtml has a diagram showing balance weights. They return the signal to danger if the wire from the signal box is severed.

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello,

Thanks Brian, I think I may have a suitable part lying around somewhere.

I have been starting to build the smoke troughs over the last few days but have already run out of plastic (Each trough is 2ft long and there are 3 of them!)

This is going to prove challenging, as these are made to rough dimensions and is designed to be fitted to an object that is designed to fractions of a millimetre. I should hopefully be picking up the parts for the shed itself soon.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello,

The shed wall are now assembled/painted/weathered and attached to the concrete base, the smoke troughs are still in assembly and the roof is awaiting CAD Design. Shortly however I shall be making some mods to boards 3 and 4 to improve the baseboard and track joints to allow easier operation (less derailments), also my new decoder should arrive soon so the turntable can be tested. In a few days I should be able to put all the boards together and do some "testing". Hopefully photos to follow. Time is running out on getting the layout ready as it is now just over a fortnight to the first show (Fleetwood). Can it be finished in time?

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Physicsman]

Hello,

The shed wall are now assembled/painted/weathered and attached to the concrete base, the smoke troughs are still in assembly and the roof is awaiting CAD Design. Shortly however I shall be making some mods to boards 3 and 4 to improve the baseboard and track joints to allow easier operation (less derailments), also my new decoder should arrive soon so the turntable can be tested. In a few days I should be able to put all the boards together and do some "testing". Hopefully photos to follow. Time is running out on getting the layout ready as it is now just over a fortnight to the first show (Fleetwood). Can it be finished in time?

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

 

Of course it can! You've seen the film/TV series Mission Impossible, haven't you?

 

Even if a few, minor details aren't quite finished, who is to know - except you?!

 

Jeff

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

With just one week now before WBF's next outing (Fleetwood) all 4 boards have been brought together for the first time, these freshly redone connections between boards 3 and 4 appear to be working fine now so hopefully there should be far less derailments in this area. Unfortunately some of the points are not throwing properly but I am working on a cure to these. There is still alot of work to finish on the layout before the show and many things to repair but today's news have brought motivation to get it finished. Unfortunately the currently unfinished part is a large one (the shed roof), but hopefully this will be ready in time! When I get chance I shall post some photos of the boards (omitting shed for now) along with the new boiler house roof which has been rebuilt after taking heavy damage in transport from the last show.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

Finally some photos!

These first images show the new roof for the brewery's workshop/ boiler house, its built of clear wills corrugated sheeting with a basswood frame and replaces the broken balsa and slaters northlight roof that sat on the building. The new roof also has sufficient clearance to allow the traversing crane to fit inside (non operational).

Secondly here is a photo looking from the new section (bridge just visible at bottom of the shot) there are a few buildings not in place at the minute (in safer storage), but shows roughly how it will be for the Fleetwood (Blackpool and North Flyde club) exhibition next weekend,

Also the engine shed now has a roof with all the parts kindly produced for me on Saturday morning allowing assembly in the afternoon.

A CDU has also now been installed and all the point operate far better thanks to this (why haven't I used one before!).

A few smaller jobs remain to be completed and some repair work but this shall hopefully be done by Saturday.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Physicsman]

Good luck with the Fleetwood show this weekend. It's a nice-looking layout, so should be popular.

 

Hopefully the CDU will permanently solve your points problems - I've never exhibited, so reliability with an audience is a must, I guess!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Jeff,

Thanks again, I have had several positive comments about the layout today (Thanks everyone!) and the CDU does seem to have solved the point problems completely. The Dapol signal has also been kept busy and seems to work well (Though it sounded loud at home at an exhibition it is barely noticeable.

Hopefully after tomorrow I will post some photos of the full layout with the shed.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Physicsman]

Brave man! I'd never have the nerve to take any of my offerings to an exhibition. look forward to the pics. Glad it's gone well.

 

Jeff

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello,

Thanks again, the layout is now safely back home and managed to avoid damage from the rainfall at the close of the exhibition. It was a good show and thanks to everyone involved with organising and running the show and to everyone I spoke to over the weekend.

Now finally here are some photos of the new motive power depot taken at fleetwood today.

 

Please note the shed is not 100% complete with roof vents and handrails etc left to be added.

Finally thanks to Miniscene models for cutting all the major pieces for the sheds structure.

Enjoy,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, not much work has happened on the layout since the exhibition as it has mostly gone into storage before the Warrington show (20-21st October),

However, as promised I will outline the construction of the motive power depot,

firstly the "concrete" hard standing area was created using plastic card mounted on cork, this was then painted with railmatch concrete paint before being weathered using a variety of different shades.

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The next job to do was to get the final footprint dimensions for the shed using the concrete as the width and length. then out came the reference photo of Dallam MPD (which my shed takes inspiration from) to try and work out the height using a black 5 as a reference. In hindsight I reckon I have made the shed slightly too tall, but this isn't really an issue. Once I had these dimensions I could then set to work on creating some rough 3D designs of the shed for planning (not printing!) Once I was happy with the rough shape and size it was over to the 2D design which was done over my holidays and consisted of 12 files for the main wall components.

 

The drawing, once complete were handed over to Miniscene Models (now Ancorton Models) who kindly laser cut all the pieces over a week, with these parts now at my disposal I dry fitted the to check assembly before painting the main wall panels (12 = 2 x External ends, 2 x Internal ends, 4x External sides, each 2 pieces due to the length, and 4 x Internal sides) once brush painted these were then weathered using an airbrush and the pairs of walls were assembled to give 8 pieces.

Going against convention and logic the external wall were then assembled using UHU to glue them together, before the internal walls were assembled to give a separate structure.

 

In Wild Boar Fell MPD pt 2,

Assembly,

Smoke troughs,

Trusses, and the roof!

 

Hope this makes up for the delay,

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

 

P.s. Apologies for the messy drawing lines on the CAD's I hadn't noticed they appeared on the renders!

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

Firstly Apologies for the minor delay since the last update! To busy 3D printing things. Since the last update, the layout has completed the Warrington Model Railway Exhibition in October 2012, the Martin Mere mini show in January 2013 a the Weaver Hall Railway weekend in July 2013. The layout has had a few changes made since the last update and will hopefully have a few more shortly. 

The most major change has been the modifying of the packing of the layout so now the boards double stack taking up far less room, the whole layout will now fit in the back of a Honda Jazz with 7 stock boxes and support equipment (operators optional), Two simple wooden H shaped frames have been constructed and these are fixed with 2 screws on each leg to the lower board for the outer boards there is also two screws holding the back of the top board in place, where as the inner boards have 2 Y shaped legs attached to each end with the top board resting securely in place. The system seems to work fairly well and even survived the dreaded speed bumps, but boards must be separated when loading and unloading due to the weight.

The other less obvious modification is the removal of the origional clay based landscaping at the front of the layout which I was never really happy with as I found it unrealistic. With the addition of some foam board corners I set to work on some new 'hills', but I wasn't going to follow the rulebook. I have had a fair load of ballast left over from the construction of the layout and thought it would be an easy way to sculpt the land and give some more realistic slopes to the landscape. Any left clay that hadn't been removed (along with the grass and bushes etc) was covered over with ballast and I added more until I was happy with the result. In my eagerness I then made the mistake of adding the grass over the top straight away before adding any glue. This mean that I then had to saturate the areas with glue until it seeped out of the base of the 'hills'.

Once dry bushes and longer grass etc was added on top.

Too much glue!

The main sculpting of the left hand inner board (2) required a retaining wall of some sort so a quick look it the spares box revealed several wooden buffer stop kits (Laser cut prototypes of a kit now in production) so some quick cutting, re arranging and gluing before a lick of paint heralded this sleeper built retaining wall which I am quiet pleased with.

There is another major modification (Read expensive) coming soon to the layout which has required the removal of the existing station canopy, but more on that next time.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

[Wild Boar Fell]

Hello Everyone,

Time to conclude the Wild Boar Fell story (for now). 

Due to my desire to build a new layout I have regrettably decided to sell off 'the boar' to free up space for the new build. 

The layout has provided me with a great amount of fun to build and operate over the years and has allowed me to learn a lot of new skill (and lessons) that I hope to develop further on the next more ambitious layout. 

The layout is currently listed on the forum's classified area.

Finally thanks to everyone who has posted comments about my layout or commented about it to me at shows.

Regards,

Wild Boar Fell

 

So what's next I hear you ask, I am planning to build a layout that will feature several industrial connections with a slightly unusual BR branch and hopefully feature a fair bit of 60's 'Northern Grime'. It will be loosely based on an area just south of the oldest part of the WCML.