Mucky Duck Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 For several months there was no possibility of any railway modelling at all and though I've been itching to get back into it, I tend to have difficulty resuming old projects – so I decided to pursue an idea I've had in mind for a long time – a simple table-top diorama on which to photograph my loco(s) and rolling stock. I've based it loosely on Rose Grove MPD in the early-mid-60s because I'd witnessed and been captivated by steam's decline during my childhood and, as I knew no different – and bearing in mind the horror that was soon to follow – these became my railway 'glory days'. I'd never been to an MPD in steam days, nonetheless, I was really quite moved by a photo in a copy of Steam World, taken by Les Nixon in July 1968 as it captured perfectly that run-down and grubby end of steam loneliness contrasting with the surrounding greenery of a beautiful summer's day in Lancashire. For the diorama, I've chosen the section where the locos were turned between the shed and the coal stage (the latter won't be modelled) including the turntable itself (just out of shot in Les Nixon's image). The area is compressed – true scale being restricted by the size of the garden table on which it sits when being used – and the shed itself is possibly only half the scale length it ought to be but the idea is to capture the feel of the location rather than being topographically or architecturally precise. In my research – and well after I started construction – I was reminded of Steve Ridgeway and Trevor Edwards' impressive P4 Rose Grove layout that was very much work in progress when I saw it at the Leatherhead Scaleforum a couple of years ago – yet at the time, I hadn't even considered this location as a possible modelling subject. The plan is to have working shed lamps for night shots but track will not be live nor the turntable motorised as it's only a diorama and the emphasis of this project is most definitely 'on the cheap' – recycling scrap materials and using existing scenic supplies as much as possible in a bid to avoid any spending… you know the reference to holding onto money and a certain part of a duck's anatomy, although I can assure you that this is much more a current necessity (and curiosity) than a general character trait! Track plan I believe that Rose Grove's track plan changed over a period of time, though I'm not entirely sure of its form in the last five years of steam and my drawing is guess-work based on photos, none of which covers the desired area in its entirety. In any case, I'm still undecided whether to discard the turnout completely, for the sake of simplicity and cost-cutting. Track will be spare off-cuts of OO gauge (mainly C&L) apart from the bottom-most line which will have to be bought as I don't have enough, so I've decided it will be 18.83mm, for forthcoming projects to ease myself into P4. I don't plan to do much 'aerial' photography so I'm hoping it won't be too obvious in pictures. Baseboard A house move was mainly responsible for the lack of modelling activity but at least it provided plenty of free raw materials for the double-skinned 'baseboard' – polystyrene blocks sandwiched by cardboard to achieve the depth for the turntable well. It's much deeper than I would have preferred but I wasn't about to go to the messy and time-consuming trouble of hacking-around polystyrene blocks for the sake of a couple of inches. The whole structure is still more than light enough to be removed and stored conveniently. This area of land at Rose Grove appears to slope so I'm quite comfortable using cardboard and some strategically-placed polystyrene to achieve this. To keep the diorama simple and as flat as possible when stored, I'm only modelling the wall of the engine shed, using Howard Scenics brick card glued to a polystyrene 'plank' which simply slots into the groove created along one edge (arrowed). The bottom level of the 'baseboard' is folded around the table top so that the diorama will not move when plonked on. Sense of scale finally taking shape whilst turntable position is defined. Front of baseboard has been left open for shed lamp wiring. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
APOLLO Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Nice subject for a diorama. I visited Rose Grove during the last week of steam in 1968 with a local North West rail rover ticket, Carnforth & Lostock Hall too. Almost a carnival atmosphere with lots of enthusiasts with notebooks & cameras - no problems as "management" put up with us all that week. !! Black 5's & Black 8's mainly - (not black - just mucky grey and many shades of rust, oil & soot !!). Also lots of ash and rubbish left arround, scrap bits etc. Fit a couple of smoke units under a couple of locos for realism. Some locos should have rods removed, tenders empty etc. Have you seen the 2 books on Rose Grove shed by Noel Coates, published by the L&YR society - a mine of information & photos, especially the last days. http://www.lyrs.org.uk/lyrs_news/news2009_1.html http://www.lyrs.org.uk/lyrs_news/news2009_2.html Good luck. Brit15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted July 17, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 17, 2012 One of my favourite eras so I'm looking forward to see how your project develops. I wouldn't worry about the mix of OO and P4; I did something similar with OO and EM, and it all seemed to hang together ok. I suspect that you'd also like this book or this one if you can get hold of a copy of either, not as location specific as Brit 15's recommendations but terrifically evocative of the last days of steam. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mucky Duck Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Gents, thanks for the recommendations. As it's only a diorama on the cheap I wasn't going to splash out as part of the research but as I've kind of fallen for the location I'm going to have a serious look at those Rose Grove books. I have John Leech's Farewell to Steam, which is just beautiful, if rather thin… and strangely, I've never found any other books by him. Although I do love b/w arty imagery very much, it's the colour from that period that strikes a real chord with me as details such as fireweed and rust bring back vividly all the sounds and the smells. I won't quite be modelling the last year of steam as some of my preferred locos were withdrawn in reality betweeen 1963-65 but there will be a generous amount of filth and degradation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mucky Duck Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Turntable Originally I wanted to modify my Dapol turntable kit into a deep well type by simply using the girder and plate frames below track level rather than above. The longer I examined the practicalities of this and the more I looked at pics of Rose Grove, it became obvious that this idea was not representative at all and I really wanted to model something that at least looks like that shed's Cowan & Sheddon type… …so I took the extreme kit-bash option and all appeared to be going well to the point where I'd even laid the turntable platform boards… …until I discovered detail pics of the turntable build from Steve Ridgeway and Trevor Edwards' Rose Grove layout clearly showing that each main plate girder frame lies directly beneath each rail, thus being much closer together than I had estimated. Result?… dismantle and re-position girder frames! Even so, it was actually starting to resemble a turntable. For the eagle-eyed, yes I'm aware that the loco's screw coupling is missing and a couple of lamp irons have been knocked off… thieves and vandals eh! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mucky Duck Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Turntable well Made the mistake of gluing the brick card-lined turntable well to the plasticard backing and fixing both to the rail 'plinth' before the glue had set, resulting in movement and overlapping at the join in the brickwork… I now have another disguise to invent! Not sure what the little recess is but it's tricky for the Howard Scenics brick card. On some S&C turntables there are steps within this recess but not on others and I couldn't tell from any Rose Grove photos, so I added them later (below). I used the original Dapol circular rail (badly aligned in this photo and to be fixed later) to save 'proper' rail for the track. It's a bit of a cop-out but the emphasis is on cheap and I shall not be poking a camera too closely here once finished… Turntable well is formed from card before slotting into place on layout and testing for depth Engine shed Howard Scenics brickwork card is used on the shed wall too. I really dislike straight joints in brick or stone walls so I cut to the mortar lines. However, still not happy with the join and need to hide these joints behind drainpipes. HS card has beautifully subtle texture but my mistake was to glue it directly to the polystyrene and not something more solid – harsh evening light exaggerates compression marks, especially at the joins. Current state of play. You can see that the turntable platform has started to warp already! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthlessRob Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Sorry I'm late with this post but I've not long been a member. Rose grove is in my neck of the woods and is the start point for the East Lancs. loopline, part of which I hope to model soon so. Good luck. Rob. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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