Westerham, + Weald. Tarmac surface for the platform

[lash]

Oh I love the ingenious ballasting device thing with added toothbrush. It would be a winner for me just with the look and if it works all power to your elbow. I tried a commercially made one on Portsea Town and went back to the dessert spoon brush and tap method , but that toothbrush might just do the trick

 

On the basis of my own attempted short cut with nasty splodgy sticky reults avoid liquid with ballst until it is laid and tamped

[tender]

Hi Julian, I think that if you put wet ballast in it wouldn't spread but just end up stuck in the hopper and not drop down onto the track, I will leave it to someone else to try that experiment...   all the best Adrian

Hi Adrian,

I think you're right, when the ballast is wet it seems to stick to everything. I use a similar device to spread mine then give it a light dusting with a water from a mister. Then the usual 50/50 water PVA with a dot of liquid soap.

 

The other method I've tried is to lay the track with PVA then immediately cover with ballast then Hoover off the surplus when dry.. This works well for C&L or SMP track as the sleepers are thinner than Peco. With Peco it can look a bit under done.

[JCL]

Hello sir

 

Would you be interested in a vacuum cleaner that picks up rocks?

 

Here's another to add to your arsenal and is one I put together a while back, there's a video (someone else did) on my Wainfleet thread somewhere near the beginning. 1/4" tubing, one end is duct taped to the hoover nozzle (I managed to get a spare nozzle for $1.50 so hot glued it in as well as using duct tape). the other end goes into a jar with a lid youcan put holes in. A second length goes to a plasticard or card funnel that is like a flattened bone (beefed up here with extra card on the outside. There were two more holes on the jar lid with tape over them to provide some sort of sucking control. It's great for ballast, not so good for static grass. You can reduce the suction so that you can pick up one grain of ballast at a time. Took about an hour to put it together (and finish my cup of tea).

 

 

Edited to say here's the video:

 

 

No need for sound, unless you like '80's instrumental music...

Edited February 10, 2014 by JCL

[ronstrutt]

I never ventured into the goods yard as it was still used as a coal yard after the station closed we usually got told to bug**r off sonny. But I seem to recall that there was an shed behind the gates on the left and the coil staiths where further down the siding, They where certainly some way down when I used to pick coal up in the 70's after the station had been demolished along with some form of coal hopper, never noticed if there was a loading bank there.

 

 

 

There was an ancient van body there too, I believe of LBSCR origin, that was used as a store by the coal merchant. I thought that was just on the left inside the yard. It survived until at least 1964-5. Unfortunately, Nick Catford's Disused Station site http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/brasted/index.shtml doesn't help too much with pictures of the yard. The annoying thing is that I have recently seen a picture taken from the yard points looking into the yard taken, I think, on the last day, because there are enthusiasts wandering about all over the place. Now where was it?

 

It might have been on that TV programme referred to earlier. If not, it was on one of the DVDs/videos about the line which the programme encouraged me to dig out and have a look at. If it's on DVD I might even be able to take a screen grab but my laptop hasn't got a slot big enough for a VHS video.

Edited February 11, 2014 by ronstrutt

[ronstrutt]

No - not on the DVD. These were the only screen grabs of the yard area that I could get from that. Sadly, film to DVD to screen grab means the quality is pretty awful.

 

[ronstrutt]

The van is picture 3g on this page:

 

http://www.bullfinchclose.co.uk/WesterhamFlyer/Gallery3/westerham_train_thumbnails3.html

 

No sign of a loading dock. However a van or truck could be offloaded into the old van body - a sort of mini goods shed - and accessed by road the other side. It's position can be located by the position of the corrugated hut at the end of the platform behind.

Edited February 11, 2014 by ronstrutt

[westerhamstation]

Many thanks Ron for taking the trouble to do that, it's surprising how useful these type of images are, as it gives a much fuller picture of how things were. If you need a larger opening in your laptop for VHS tapes  I have got a razorsaw you can borrow. Adrian

[ronstrutt]

Thanks, Adrian, but I found that a chisel and mallet worked fine. Mind you, I think that hammering the VHS cartridge in has distorted the picture a bit.

 

 

[Jaz]

Even poor pictures are SO useful, I am sure Westerhamstation will be pawing all over these with glee.

[ronstrutt]

I've been thinking more about this loading dock question.

 

The plan in post number 490 (reproduced below for convenience) must be quite old as it doesn't show the van body that was there from the 1930s (do you know what date the plan is?). The markings against the end of the northern siding (nearest the platform) appear to represent coal staithes. Picture 2 from my DVD appears to show a large spread of coal just there. This probably explains why there is a section of timber fencing between the station building and the yard entrance railings.

 

There is quite a slope down into the goods yard entrance (the yard surface was at track level, much lower than the station entrance which was almost at platform level) and both the forecourt and the yard itself slope to the south.

 

The very early map in Gould edition 2 shows that the southernmost sidings started out as a loop, so only one track would have been usable as a siding. The points at the yard entrance end were removed later and the two tracks became separate sidings.

 

The marking against the southernmost siding suggests a possible loading bank there and in the bottom picture from my DVD a wagon does seem to be parked against some low raised bank. The loading dock at Westerham is in a similar position at the end of the loop headshunt and appears to have been built of nothing more than sleeper-built walls filled with ash and earth. The one at Brasted would presumably have been the same, so this may have been it.

 

I hope this makes sense.

 

[westerhamstation]

Hi Ron, the plan is from the 1936 survey which is illustrated in the Orpington to Tonbridge book by V.Mitchell and K.Smith, that would seem to be a logical way to model the loading dock ( the same as Westerham Station ) and would fit in well with the topography. I am going to base the track plan on the one shown in the above plan. Some shots of the station show corrugated iron being used by the coal staithes behind the platform railings, and indeed the staithes themselves seem to have been made from this in the latter days, I wouldn't

have thought that was very practical, I will probably go with sleepers. Thanks for your thoughts on this all the best Adrian

[David Todd]

Found this,............thought of you..................  .

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsit-g18GSg

[David Todd]

Also....................http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K55T7nA6wg8

[David Todd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3XXUcj_4OkE

 

[ronstrutt]

Hi Ron, the plan is from the 1936 survey which is illustrated in the Orpington to Tonbridge book by V.Mitchell and K.Smith, that would seem to be a logical way to model the loading dock ( the same as Westerham Station ) and would fit in well with the topography. I am going to base the track plan on the one shown in the above plan. Some shots of the station show corrugated iron being used by the coal staithes behind the platform railings, and indeed the staithes themselves seem to have been made from this in the latter days, I wouldn't

have thought that was very practical, I will probably go with sleepers. Thanks for your thoughts on this all the best Adrian

 

Should have looked at the Middleton book.

 

Now you come to mention it, I seem to remember the staithes being built of corrugated iron - yes, an interesting choice. Do you have a supply of worn-out, semi-rotten OO gauge sleepers.

[westerhamstation]

Should have looked at the Middleton book.

 

Now you come to mention it, I seem to remember the staithes being built of corrugated iron - yes, an interesting choice. Do you have a supply of worn-out, semi-rotten OO gauge sleepers.

Hi Ron, I will have a look in the garage I have got all sorts of junk, If not a visit to Ikea will get me a supply of coffee stirrers to do the job. 

[westerhamstation]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3XXUcj_4OkE

Hi David, thanks for the videos, and taking the time to post them, all the best Adrian.

[jcredfer]

NNnnnoooooooo!!!!  ..........................  Adrian - don't do it  ...

 

 

, If not a visit to Ikea will get me a supply of coffee stirrers to do the job.

 

..........    that is meant to be "Flat-Pack" furniture  ..............    

 

and the coffee isn't worth the risk of getting genuine stirrers, one at a time  .......   

[westerhamstation]

Let's make tracks to the goods yard. Prior to the Brasted Ballaster making it's inaugral run on the line I needed to get to on with the track laying in the goods yard. The points will be operated by wire and tube using the same system as at Westerham, the only difference this time is that I will put them in first, that was a lesson learned. When I have checked that it all works then I will ballast it, (another lesson learned). Here are some pictures of the track in place,  and one of Westerham down by the small storage shed.

[Twright]

Great work

[Alister_G]

It's very easy, looking at earlier photos you've put up, to forget that you're still building this...

 

The quality of the scenic work you have done so far (as shown in the photo of the storage shed) somehow gives the impression that the whole layout is like that, when in fact the above shows how much work you have left to do.

 

I've no doubt at all that the rest of it will look just as gobsmackingly amazing, when you've worked your magic on it.

 

Al

[westerhamstation]

It's very easy, looking at earlier photos you've put up, to forget that you're still building this...

 

The quality of the scenic work you have done so far (as shown in the photo of the storage shed) somehow gives the impression that the whole layout is like that, when in fact the above shows how much work you have left to do.

 

I've no doubt at all that the rest of it will look just as gobsmackingly amazing, when you've worked your magic on it.

 

Al

Hi Al, thanks for your optimism, its encouraging words from yourself and all the others who follow this build that spurs me on. My way of building seems to be developing into the toothpaste tube method, squeeze a bit out, then squeeze another bit out, and so on till I reach the end of the line. ( then I will go out and get another tube ) I am making a conscious effort to try and finish a bit before I squeeze any more out of the tube.  At the moment I am trying not to burn the layout down with the soldering iron which has got a mind of it's own.

           regards Adrian

[Jaz]

I tend to think Kal and I are fast....you are a one man whirl wind. Not so long ago you barely had anything. Am loving seeing the build, and picking up good ideas.

[westerhamstation]

While I am attempting to lay the goods yard at Brasted, and at the same time give myself third degree burns with the soldering iron, a picture of a more tranquill summer day at Westerham Station as the 1.20pm pull push from Dunton Green arrives. 

[Jaz]

Hey!!! You need to put the the two nice pictures you added on the How realistic is your model.....here.