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Kinmundy


steve1
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In the course of our few short months effort reworking Kinmundy from the format as originally commissioned (and shown under construction in the pictures posted by Jamie), to the model you can see in the pictures showing the completed model, we have carried out the following modifications and changes:
 
Baseboards – frames lightened, external catches removed and replaced with internal connecting bolts, all external woodwork (including rear) sanded, filled, primed and painted smooth black.
 
Transport/ Storage – heavy end spacers for pairing boards replaced by individual lightweight plywood covers. These reduce space needed in the vehicle and give better protection in storage.
 
Lighting – The pair of poles and spotlights have been replaced by a full length, folding, combined facia and lighting unit.
 
Electrics – Simplified and amended to better suit our planned operating sequence.
 
Fiddleyard – Rebuilt on existing frame and footprint to more than double original capacity. It can now hold all trains and stock needed for operating the layout.
 
Scenics – All details and structures removed (for reuse or disposal) and visual scenic area shortened by 2 feet in the interest of a better visual balance.
 
Station Board – Stripped and yard area opened out. Track cut back and platform extension, loading bank and new yard roadway entrance installed. Original station building reused and complemented with scratchbuilt platform store (ex GNoSR van body) and scratchbuilt goods shed to correct pattern. Suggestion of station forecourt added to rear along with new platform fencing and gates, correct pattern seating and lamps plus detailed allotment scene in space at rear of platform.
 
Centre board – Stripped and original landform modified to accept new scratchbuilt GNOSR road overbridge with associated roadway. New scratchbuilt GNOSR pattern signalbox and brass starter signal installed to replace plastic kit built originals. Full brass point rodding and signal wire runs installed.
 
Distillery Board – Original low relief distillery building rebuilt as full depth structure. The arched bridge was reworked, strengthened and relocated to act as the way to hide the fiddleyard entrance and the landform rebuilt to suit.
 
Overall – All back and end scenes sanded back to wood, primed, painted and finished with hand painted scene depicting landscape of the region. All new and existing hillside areas recovered with the original hairy underlay cover thinned down. Boundary fences, hedges and field fencing installed plus the look of the scenic areas matched to research material on area with addition of trees and bushes and small points of interest to suit.

Period vehicles - suitably detailed and matted down and installed along with suitable selection of matching figures.
 
Entire layout scenics then over sprayed to give effect of cold and frosty morning. This was done to reflect the wintry conditions at the time in which the layout purports to be set. It also gives it what we hope is a different look from the majority of similarly designed layouts on the circuit.


steve

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-been following this thread with interest, not quite making sense of which photo's were old & new to start with.  I noticed the frost effect quite early in some but wasnt 100% sure if this was the light or the final effect?

 

I am just a little confused as to why the trees have been done in seemingly summer foliage?  -would autumn colours or bare branches not gone better with the frost? 

 

There are some very nice features to the refurb, particularly the station area and the new goods shed. It sounds a much better prospect for transporting & exhibiting too.

 

One thing I would miss of the original version would be its openess and how it looked relatively uncluttered, but that was possibly due to my understanding of it being a 'coastal' location.  I think the original 'no trees'  was probably the right call in that context! (having walked the NE coast path!)  - Still nice to see it evolving anyway.  :)

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Guest Natalie Graham

I am just a little confused as to why the trees have been done in seemingly summer foliage?  -would autumn colours or bare branches not gone better with the frost? 

 

Having recently moved to the area the layout was originally intended to depict it is rather disconcerting to think we may have heavy frosts while the trees are in full leaf. :no: 

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Kinmundy isn’t actually on the coast, it is a few miles inland and our research (and period pictures) do show a reasonable amount of forestation in the region, although not to the degree of commercial activity that takes place there now. Mind, even as the layout was before we got at it the scene lacked the boundary fence, hedges and scrubby bushes that would have been extant, even in the most treeless of environments. Therefore, all of these, plus the handful of trees, have been added to complete the scene.

 

The trees, hedges etc are finished in a light spring growth, not heavy summer. There was a late cold snap in 1968 which actually included some thick snow which lasted into April, so the vegetation and finish matches the prevailing conditions at the time we wished to convey.
 
The ultimate test will be what the public (and indeed exhibition managers) think of the model when it hits the road next month. But we are happy to report that thus far feedback from visitors to the playroom  (and exhibition enquiries from show managers who are obviously watching what we are up to and wanting to get in quick), seems positive and Martin could have a few busy years on the circuit ahead of him.

 

steve

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Here's the final set of "under construction" pics:

 

The backscene boards stripped back at the station end.

 

post-143-0-13057400-1359315728.jpg

 

A similar view at the other end showing the beginnings of the revised fiddleyard entrance and distillery rebuild.

 

post-143-0-10622000-1359315803.jpg

 

The distillery under construction

 

post-143-0-66074300-1359315878.jpg

 

A further stage of the distillery construction

 

post-143-0-52577400-1359315943.jpg

 

steve

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A little more of the fact and fiction surrounding Kinmundy

 

During the early part of 1915, the Admiralty decided to locate an airship station, close to the nearby village of Nether Kinmundy, some 8 miles west of Peterhead, ostensibly to protect the Fleet at Scapa Flow from potential Zeppelin air attacks. A junction was put in by the GNSR at Longside on the Peterhead branch, the earthwork of which can still be seen today, and no expense was spared (total costs were estimated at £500,000 at 1915 prices!). Some buildings on base were even constructed in the classiscal style and eventually included powerhouses, a gasworks, waterworks, engineering shops, various canteens, messes, living quarters, garages, afire station, two cinemas and a church all dressed in the local Cruden brick. When construction was complete RNAS Lenabo was a sizeable affair with an establishment of some 500 ratings-operational crews following in due course. 

 

The branch proper, completed in 1916, was used for passengers and goods in connection with the site until the Autumn of 1920, meanwhile with the cessation of hostilities in 1918, the RAF as successor to the RNAS, took over the site, but it proved to be unsuitable for fixed wing aircraft training and was relegated to the Admiralty Disposals Board in late 1920, Derelict by 1927, the site was cleared in the early 'thirties. However, local visionaries saw in Lenabo a magnificent ready made base for industrial scale peat processing, another the potential for a canning factory (Crosse & Blackwell had a prescence at nearby Peterhead-indeed their facilities were englared after the cessation of passenger taffic in 1965). Another proposal was to create a pastoral precinct and name it 'New Kinmundy'. The sit of the WW1 terminus is now under a Forestry Commission plantation.

 

The branch was approximately 3 1/2 miles long, terminating close to the village of Kinmundy. Just SE of the branch junction at Longside was a three arch 60ft long masonry bridge on a skew alignment climbing thereafter to cross the A950 Mintlaw to  Peterhead road by means of an ungated level crossing. From here  the earthworks were minimal the line followed the contours as required.

 

We now fast forward to the late 1960's (it is early Spring 1968) and despite the fact that the rest of the Buchan lines together with the Speyside network have lost their passenger services in 1965, the flourishing RAF station , now given over to fixed wing aircraft and an Air Sea Rescue helicopter unit, have together with a costly 1950's Cold War upgrade, have together with other local industries, kept the line open past the carnage of the Beeching years for passengers as well as freight. 1968 was a year of momentous change worldwide and the branch may be living on borrowed time.

 

All this and North Sea Oil is just over the horizon!      

Edited by MartinWales
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Hi Steve

 

What a great job, so how long is the fiddle yard now, as that now moved to a new board totally, instead of part of the 3rd board originally...?

 

Thank for the up dates Steve, I bet Matin you are pleased with the out come to... lol

 

Jamie

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Just to clarify one thing, the baseboards themselves are still the same size. We have made no change to the boards at all.

The original Distillery scene has been removed and rebuilt as part of the fiddleyard entrance.

The layout's original 2 road sector plate, which was just under 3ft long, could only hold a pair of trains with a maximum of a loco and 2 coaches. This has been replaced by a 4 road deck, with roads over a foot longer than the original. Each of the roads is now capable of holding a train of 3 coaches and loco.
 
Now, with planning, we can fit 5 trains on those 4 roads, as the DMU only takes up a short space. This leaves the remainder of the same road for the engineers stock. Which means that all the trains needed  can be held on the track at all times and stock handling is down to a minimum.

 

steve

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Hi Steve

 

The Lighting frame look excellent, I like the layout with the lighting rigs on them... they seem to make them complete and looks a lot more professional, great work and do you have a show date for this yet...

 

Great work to an excellent layout...

 

Jamie

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Looking forward to seeing the new look Kinmundy at Doncaster :locomotive:

I can report Kinmundy has left central workshops Hull this very afternoon enroute to Doncaster in Tappa's car. It fitted into that vehicle with space available for operator's luggage but no room for extra stock. Best of luck and hopes of a successful weekend to the team.
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Well, it all seemed to go quite well. People appeared to like it and Martin is now booked up for exhibitions in 2014 including Expo EM and, I believe, some for 2015 too.

 

Thanks to Martin for letting me loose with the uncoupling hook and to the BRM crew for the show.

 

steve

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Having seen the 'before' and 'after', whatever the debate about the density of forrestation, the refresh has undoubtedly transformed the layout to something much better presented and more lively than it was. It may possibly have lost a little prototype fidelity but it is now a much more atractive and inviting exhibition layout...

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the refresh has undoubtedly transformed the layout to something much better presented and more lively than it was. It may possibly have lost a little prototype fidelity but it is now a much more atractive and inviting exhibition layout...

You can see from the ballasted areas on the fiddle yard boards that the 'old' staging space must have been quite difficult & quite cramped to work with ?

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I saw this at Doncaster on the Saturday and I must admit it was one of my favourites on the day. It is difficult to follow everything on this site so I had not come across it before but I'm glad that I have now after seeing it at the show.

 

Well done to all those involved.

 

Here's a few pics of mine from the day

post-13569-0-89966800-1360530208_thumb.jpg

post-13569-0-48227700-1360530249_thumb.jpg

post-13569-0-51334700-1360530312_thumb.jpg

 

Jim

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Well, it all seemed to go quite well. People appeared to like it and Martin is now booked up for exhibitions in 2014 including Expo EM and, I believe, some for 2015 too.

 

Thanks to Martin for letting me loose with the uncoupling hook and to the BRM crew for the show.

 

steve

 

Many thanks for all at ERFG for the assistance-namely Neil, Jeff, Alex, Craig, Steve and Alan-and moral support and to all who came and made themselves known over the weekend!

 

2014 is more or less full, with bookings for 2015! One spare slot free for this year though!

 

Thanks to you all!

Edited by MartinWales
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