Welwyn Garden City

[gra]

I have a bit on Welwyn...

Thanks for the signaling diagram,  LNERGE; it will prove most useful. I will be using the track plan as shown in British Railways Illustrated Annual No.9 which states that it is from the 1950's. I believe the plan to have been drawn up about 1958. There will only be a few alterations to it to enable me to run prototypical trains from the late fifties and into the seventies. These changes may well bring about signalling issues that I will need to address at some point.

 

Do you know what year your diagram is? It is very close plan I will be using and at a quick view the only differences I can see are the catch points by the box and at 63.

 

Gra

[grandadbob]

Great to hear this & good luck with your project. I was born in WGC & my grandparents moved there from the East End after being bombed out and lived there until they passed away in the 60's. I think Grandad was a ticket collector for a while just after the war. When visiting them we used to go spotting on the embankment between the station & the 20th mile bridge.

 

Regards,

 

Bob.

[gra]

Great to hear this & good luck with your project. I was born in WGC & my grandparents moved there from the East End after being bombed out and lived there until they passed away in the 60's. I think Grandad was a ticket collector for a while just after the war. When visiting them we used to go spotting on the embankment between the station & the 20th mile bridge.

 

Regards,

 

Bob.

Not far from me then. My favourite spot was Sandpit Bridge, now sadly gone.

 

Gra

[cornish trains jez]

There is also an article on Welwyn North in Steam World, January 1997. Think there may be some stock diagrams within those pages. I'll dig it out and check as they may be useful for WGC.

[travelintrev]

Couple of photos from my  "spotting" days. 

 

Unfortunately my late Dads photos of Captain Smiths(?)  0-6-0t in full LNER livery that hauled a special, South Beds Loco Club from Luton to Hertford (East?) & back have gone  missing. 

 

First photo is Up Luton (or maybe Dunstable) -K X , the second is up goods at Harpenden (East) . Somewhere I have a photo of Ayot Signal box. 

 

Hope they are of use or interest.

 

(I remember Blunts brown coat,!  )

[gra]

 

 

 

OK, above are the base boards and layout put together some 30 years ago. Unfortunately they are now no longer of use due to the weight of "treasure" that has sat on top of them for several decades. If it looks a mess now you should have seen it before! It took months of putting all the "treasure" into boxes and bags in order to get the loft into a usable state.

 

Yes this is another loft layout but it is very well insulated and stays warm in winter and cool in summer. In fact I have been working up there this week quite happily. There are also two Velux windows in the roof.

 

Unfortunately the hardboard ceiling has gone all wrinkly due to a problem with the central heating system many years ago.  I would like to replace the hardboard with something like ply but it is expensive. If anyone has any suggestions  for a cheaper alternative I would be pleased to know!

 

 

This is the first of the new base boards where the main part of the stations will sit. The new boards are made out of 3x1, 2x1 and 2x2 with 12mm ply on top and on top of that goes the 3/4" thick sound insulation board from the original layout.

 

 

The brick wall shown here is a major obstacle on building the layout, so it has to go.

 

More later.

[gra]

Couple of photos from my  "spotting" days. 

 

Unfortunately my late Dads photos of Captain Smiths(?)  0-6-0t in full LNER livery that hauled a special, South Beds Loco Club from Luton to Hertford (East?) & back have gone  missing. 

 

First photo is Up Luton (or maybe Dunstable) -K X , the second is up goods at Harpenden (East) . Somewhere I have a photo of Ayot Signal box. 

 

Hope they are of use or interest.

 

(I remember Blunts brown coat,!  )

Thanks for sharing the photos with us, travelintrev. Photographic records such as this are invaluable. They look as if they were taken around 1962. The paving stones clearly shown in your photo are still there today. I know because I was on the station the other week counting those 3'6x3' slabs in order to work out the length of the platforms. I made it 595ft not allowing for any gap between the slabs. The book Welwyn's Railways says 600ft, so my method seems to have been accurate enough.

[LNERGE]

Thanks for the signaling diagram,  LNERGE; it will prove most useful. I will be using the track plan as shown in British Railways Illustrated Annual No.9 which states that it is from the 1950's. I believe the plan to have been drawn up about 1958. There will only be a few alterations to it to enable me to run prototypical trains from the late fifties and into the seventies. These changes may well bring about signalling issues that I will need to address at some point.

 

Do you know what year your diagram is? It is very close plan I will be using and at a quick view the only differences I can see are the catch points by the box and at 63.

 

Gra

I think the diagram is about right from the mid 50's until closure of the Luton line as a through route. There has been some good discussion on the LNER forum about movements at Welwyn including the see-saw move to get the frequent down terminating passenger stock over to the back platform. I would go with what is on this diagram as it did hang in the box. The catch points shown would have been there..

[gra]

I think the diagram is about right from the mid 50's until closure of the Luton line as a through route. There has been some good discussion on the LNER forum about movements at Welwyn including the see-saw move to get the frequent down terminating passenger stock over to the back platform. I would go with what is on this diagram as it did hang in the box. The catch points shown would have been there..

Yes I think you are probably right but it is puzzling as to just why they are omitted on what is a very detailed plan. Even more so when you consider that the catch points on the up goods are shown.

 

The LNER forum is brilliant and there are some very knowledgeable and helpful people on there. The WGC thread in particular is and will be very useful in the construction and running of trains on my layout.

 

Having now had time to think about it I will be using your signaling diagram as a reference in conjunction with the plan in No.9 for my own track plan. The only change is likely to be a crossover from the down slow to the Luton line for the running of the Ashburton Grove rubbish train in later years.

 

Thanks

 

Gra

[gra]

 

After careful study of the wall I came to the conclusion that it played no part in actually supporting the roof so I started to dismantle it.

 

 

I carefully collected all the bricks just in case I needed to rebuild the wall!

 

 

 

The bricks were lowered down from the loft in the buckets using a rope and S hook.

 

 

Nearly there.

 

 

I now have a clear run for the main lines heading south to Kings X.

 

The only problem is that brace just over the wall. Now that is structural but I have a feeling that it will be smack bang in the middle of my sidings.

 

 

[gra]

 

 

 

 

This is the last of the base boards that I will be making for the moment. I just need to add and fix down the sound insulation boards on the top and cover the gap between the two base boards where the top of the wall is.

 

I now have enough boarding down for the crossovers north of the station, the two station platforms and the main running lines to the south. Once I have completed these I can make the base boards  for the goods yard and sidings.

 

Once finished I should have something that looks like this:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8058/8257 ... 3b3a_z.jpg

 

Gra

[Brian D]

The brick wall shown here is a major obstacle on building the layout, so it has to go.

Looks a substantial wall (9 inch thick?).  I hope it wasn't holding anything important up.

[gra]

Looks a substantial wall (9 inch thick?).  I hope it wasn't holding anything important up.

Yes, substantial it is but it wasn't actually doing a lot apart from getting in the way.

 

Gra.

[Joseph_Pestell]

A 9" wall is usually structural. I would want to take professional advice before removing it and you should probably have run it past Building Regs Inspector as well.

 

That said, from what we can see, it does not look critical. Has the house been extended at some time? Looks as though it may have been and then a complete new roof put over the top.

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

Wow, Escape From Colditz board game! I haven't seen that in years. I seem to remember as a kid never finishing it, because no-one had the patience!

[gra]

A 9" wall is usually structural. I would want to take professional advice before removing it and you should probably have run it past Building Regs Inspector as well.

 

That said, from what we can see, it does not look critical. Has the house been extended at some time? Looks as though it may have been and then a complete new roof put over the top.

Yes your right in your observations. 9" is normally structural and this was once the outer wall of the house before it was extended in 1983, and had a complete with new roof.

 

Gra

[gra]

Wow, Escape From Colditz board game! I haven't seen that in years. I seem to remember as a kid never finishing it, because no-one had the patience!

Yes there are 100's of games up in our loft, mostly put neatly away in boxes now. Also puzzles, books, lego, lego technic, meccano, mamod, tonka .................................................................

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

We've got so many puzzles in our loft, there's no room for trains.

[gra]

Wow! It's a long time since I have visited this thread and although a lot has gone on in the past few years not much of it has been to do with the layout. Anyway, here's what has gone on since I last posted:

 

 

I've bridged the gap over the wall I took down with cork tiles which were stuck down with silicone.

 

 

The point work is now in place for the area between the platform ends and Hunters Bridge.

 

 

Note the catch point for the down goods.

 

 

 

 

I've spent ages making up the scale 600ft long platforms, 2.4 metres in model terms. I made them out of layers of ply glued and screwed together and then edged them with strip wood so I could make the curves on the ends of platforms 1 and 4 more convincing. A channel has been left on the underside for wiring.

 

 

 

 

 

[gra]

 

The ends have been added to platforms 1 and 2. I still have the ends for platforms 3 and 4 to make.

[gra]

I've been working on the edge of platform 2, making the 2 layers of stepped bricks and platform slab out of 3 sections of Evergreen strip and then overlaying it with embossed brick. I must say that I have been impressed with the quality of the Evergreen strip, it  is very well produced section. Here is the result of my efforts.

 

 

 

 

The brown stepped brick is Slaters  and the white brick is South Eastern Finecast. The main reason for using the Finecast was because the sheets are bigger. I didn't use their English Bond because it looked to me to be slightly under scale hence the Slaters. Platform 2 and 4 I am regarding as practice runs as they are not as visible as platforms 1 and 3. I will be using all Slaters brick for platform 4 and then use what I think produces the best result for 1 and 3.

[Nimbus]

Are you going to have something like a bread maker to create that fresh Shredded Wheat aroma?

 

The Nim.

[gra]

Are you going to have something like a bread maker to create that fresh Shredded Wheat aroma?

 

The Nim.

Now there's a thought! I recall walking past the factory every morning on my way to the station, back in the early 1970's and the smell to not always that good. I suppose it depended on what they were cooking!

 

Gra

[gra]

There hasn't been a lot of progress of late as we have been on holiday. I have now finished the end slopes for platform 2 though.

 

 

 

I just need to remove some excess glue and do a bit of tidying up with a file and the side will be ready for spraying with red oxide primer.

 

I must admit to not being entirely happy with the end slopes as I couldn't work out an easy/simple but effective way of modelling the way the top two layers of brick merge with the brick sides of the platform. In the end I just filed the Evergreen strip to a tapered point but there must be a better way of doing this. Any suggestions gratefully received!

[gra]

I've now sprayed the brick sheet with red oxide primer but I can't help thinking it is going to be too red for this platform (platform 2) which faces the main running lines. By the 1960's/70's these bricks had become pretty grubby, a dirty brown/grey in fact. I have ordered Humbrol washes and powders today so that I can tone the red down to something more realistic. Anyway, this is what I have at the moment.

 

 

 

I've also started to fit the 60 drain pipes that are required for each platform. I've done 33 so far, so a little way to go still!

 

I have used 1/16th" copper tube for the drain pipes cut into tiny sections. I came across this in the Hunstanton model shop on a recent holiday in Norfolk. There is are result.