Wakefield Westgate in 'N'

[ash39]

First attempt at 2mm scale modelling and first attempt at a real location, no pressure!

 

I had a small 00 layout and a fair bit of stock but was ever more tempted by the prospect of full-length express trains and the ever improving quality and detail of 'n' models, and decided to bite the bullet.

 

I settled on Wakefield Westgate as it's a location I know well, I spent a bit of time there in the era I'm modelling, and it has all the traffic that interests me. 1999 was chosen as Virgin still had a fair bit of Intercity Swallow stock, and GNER were hiring in 90's from EWS. I can just about justify sneaking in 67003 on test, as it came over in October that year. I'll be using this thread to document the entire layout build, including rolling stock detailing/weathering, scratchbuilding and the actual build once I get to that stage.

 

I always liked Westgate station because of the 'light wave' public art sculpture that was on Platform 2 (now sadly demolished). I decided to tackle this first to get used to the scale and despite it being quite fiddly, was fairly simple to scratch build. I decided to build it as a separate element on a plasticard base which can just be dropped onto the layout (when built!). I drew it on Sketchup first, partly to see how it would look, but mainly so I had clear, accurate dimensions to work from when putting it together.

 

 

 

I used plastic for the brick, as I wanted some texture. I've picked out a few bricks/areas in different colours and shades, and done an all over wash in white to pick out the mortar lines. The planks are made from 2x1mm styrene strip and with each being just 28mm long, it was quite time consuming to measure, cut and paint them all! I found sticking them to the back of masking tape made it slightly easier.

 

 

 

 

The billboards were done in 1x1mm styrene strip stuck on styrene sheet and cut out. Obviously I used period posters to try and date the layout, I have a few spares I may swap over from time to time. 

 

As we speak, I have 1.5 'waves' left to do, and then a dusting with the airbrush to take the shine off (particularly the blue). Overall, pretty pleased for a first go in 2mm ...

 

 

 

 

Will post a better quality photo once the rough edges are tidied up, and weathering complete.

 

In the meantime, if anyone has any photos from the era of the station and surrounding area, would be much appreciated! It hasn't changed much but I'm mostly thinking of signage and small details.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[lash]

Lovely start and sounds a good basis for a layout

[d winpenny]

Look forward to watching your progress being from around wakey originally

 

David

[ash39]

Thanks for the interest so far.

 

Tonight I took a break from 'the wave' and started working on some rolling stock for the layout.

 

Eventually, I want to build up 2 full mk3 rakes, one in Intercity Swallow and one in Virgin, with a few spare vehicles to create mixed rakes. Some of the Virgin ones with 'XC' branding as well, which was fairly common at this time but rare in a full rake. Probably looking at about 18 mk3's in total, so plenty to be on with.

 

The swallow one is excellent out of the box, with the exception of the white line being the same thickness as the red (it should be thinner), this doesn't bother me particularly. The Virgin ones are a bit of a let down though, it took me a while to figure it out, but the Virgin logos are underscale and look too spaced out as a result, plus vehicle number is too big and in totally the wrong place... before shot:

 

(the glazing was out to paint the vestibules yellow, I'm not yet sure whether this is worth the effort as the glazing is very tricky to remove, but with carriage lighting it'll look better with the correct colour walls)

 

I removed the Virgin logos with t-cut. Credit has to go to Dapol for the paint quality, the logos came off pretty easily and the finish underneath was still very good. Useful if anyone wants to run an ex-Virgin Anglia rake?

 

 

 

I ordered XC branded logos from Fox, to test whether the logos were any different. As they are clearly an improvement both in size and clarity, I'll be ordering some plain Virgin ones too. Here's the finished TS 42326 (minus glazing!)

 

 

 

Unfortunately, this highlights that the three stripes are also underscale and far too thin. This is probably a step too far for me though, carefully removing the stripes and re-adding them (straight!) to 10 or so coaches, on both sides, does not appeal to me. I'm happy with the improvement in the logos alone.

 

Whilst I was on a roll, I also renumbered my buffer fitted power car to 43123. Whilst browsing photos of it, I also noticed it had a red buffer beam, though it was usually too dirty to tell. I decided to paint it red anyway, and I'll weather over the top of it leaving just a little bit of red exposed.

 

 

I'm waiting on Shawplan to confirm what nameplates they can produce in 2mm before deciding what to number the other power car as. I'm hoping to do one of the XC branded ones, as I remember seeing these a lot in the Leeds area.

 

[cornish trains jez]

Great start mate and thanks for the tip for the unbranded virgin stock. Looking forward to seeing this one progress.

Best regards,

Jeremy

[Revolution Ben]

Hi ash39,

 

Nice job so far.  I particularly like your work recreating the wave sculpture.

 

Do you have a track plan of the intended layout?

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Classsix T]

Late 90's West Yorkshire, right up my street. I'll raid the hard drive for some images Ash, none from Wakey W but plenty elsewhere locally.

Which billboard ad's did you use btw?

 

Great start, watching with interest!

 

C6T.

[Hugh Flynn]

Hi

Sure this is photo of yard buildings next to station.

Hugh

[jamie92208]

I like this Hugh and look forward to seeing the layout.   I'm not sure of the timing but were the car sidings still in use at that time.   I remember that those sidings were wired and seeing the car carriers that ahd been converted from Mk1 underframes to carry Transit Vans from Eastleigh.

 

Jamie

[Tricky-CRS]

Looking good I lie the waves/fencing, look forward to following this one.

[Hugh Flynn]

I like this Hugh and look forward to seeing the layout.   I'm not sure of the timing but were the car sidings still in use at that time.   I remember that those sidings were wired and seeing the car carriers that ahd been converted from Mk1 underframes to carry Transit Vans from Eastleigh.

 

Jamie

Hi Jamine

Sorry no idea when buildings removed dont even know when picture taken, just one I remembered taking as buildings just looked to be modelled.

Hugh

[jamie92208]

Hi Jamine

Sorry no idea when buildings removed dont even know when picture taken, just one I remembered taking as buildings just looked to be modelled.

Hugh

The buildings were certainly still there in 91/92 ish when the Hybrids were running as I often used to wander down in my lunchbreak to see new 91's and the car sidings were still in use at that time.

 

By the way i always liked 'Light Wave' so look forward to seeing it.

 

Jamie

[MrSimon]

Hi,

 

Looking forward to seeing the layout progress - how much of the layout is on a viaduct?  I used to pass through on the way to uni and remember the wave and virgin liveried HSTs in the southbound platform when I was in the other.

 

Cheers

 

Simon

[ash39]

Thanks for all the comments, I'll try and get back to them all but give me a nudge if I miss anything..

 

I have a track plan in mind, the station is easy as the platforms are straight and only just long enough to accomodate a 9-coach mk4 set (plus DVT and 91) in real life. So they scale out at about 1.7 metres. Width wise I'll probably make the scenic bit around 300mm. I'm fortunate to have quite a big space for the layout so I can go quite large if I want, but as I want to actually finish it I might stick to around 3000x800mm for the board and make it a classic roundy roundy with fiddle yard on the non scenic side.

 

I'm inclined to model the approach from the Leeds direction rather than the viaduct, as there is no easy way of creating a backdrop as it's just a retail park in real life, I'm thinking of using Westgate (where the bridge carries the platform over the road) as the end point on the left (using a building as a scenic break) and then having some semi fictional scenery on the Leeds approach. I know this might not be pouplar but I only want the station and track layout to be prototypical, I want the rest of the layout to be interesting to look at and somewhere you can watch the trains without major obstruction. Very much undecided at the moment though so could yet change.

 

I started weathering 43123 last night, really pleased with it. Just the roof to do tonight and then I'll get some photos up. Then I suppose I better finish the light wave at some point over the weekend!

[Southernboy]

I love your 'Light Wave' public art sculpture - that's something quite different from the norm - and you've reproduced it really well. Wow!

 

Good luck with everything that follows

[Tom J]

If they prove of any use I do have some pictures of the former Cartic yard, taken when I was dealing with the proposal to remove it, which of course came some time after the site was levelled!

[ash39]

I actually know nothing at all about this cartic yard, so yeah if you have them and it's no bother, I'd be interested to see! 

 

For those of you who were asking about a track plan, here's something I knocked up a while ago when I first decided to do it. I didn't realise I had as much space available at that point though, so it will probably be extended now. I'm planning to use the siding off platform 2 as a DMU stabling point, as in real life I think the terminating Huddersfield trains disappear somewhere before working the return service (to free up the platform for through services). This will keep some interest on scene at most times and if fitted with DCC sound it'd be a good excuse to start up/shut down without seeming contrived.

 

 

 

For those of you who prefer to think in 3d, here is a very very rough sketchup drawing I did for the full layout. Just to get an idea of buildings etc and how I could work the scenic breaks.

 

 

 

This will be a nice view on the finished model, from the end of Platform 1 over Westgate bridge. I have a really good (almost brilliant) photo of 43093 from this spot from around 1999 in glorious sunshine, but I ever so slightly cut the front of the nose off (I was only 12). Still bugs me to this day when I look at it! Will have to dig the photo out.

 

[cornish trains jez]

That looks good mate. Looking forward to seeing your weathered HST.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[ash39]

Funny you should say that Jeremy! Was just taking some pics of it - got the proper camera out rather than my phone to try and do it justice.

 

90% done, 43123 needs bufferbeam detail and a bit more work on the roof weathering, plus a bit of drybrushing around the bogies. The mk3's need the roofs doing  but I'm holding off until I complete the rakes as I know there's been some issues with different colour roofs between production runs, so I might have to spray them all a base colour first. Luckily they're easy to clip on and off so not too taxing a job.

 

 

This sort of combination was common at the time

 

 

I always like weathering HST's so you can take a side by side before and after!

 

[cornish trains jez]

Looks superb so far mate. Which colours did you use and was it airbrushed on?

[ash39]

It's a pretty tried and tested technique I use, picked up from others on here. Obviously tailored to the HST and photos of the real thing.

 

First off is a wash of very thin dark brown/black brushed on in vertical streaks, making sure you get pigment in all the shut lines. On a HST this is especially noticable around the nose area where there are a lot. Compare the two on the bottom pic, you'll see what I mean. Brush off any excess with a cotton bud.

 

Then with the airbrush it's a mix of humbrol earth (forgot the number), railmatch frame dirt and railmatch brake dust, carefully dusted on in the right amounts in the right areas. Changing the pressure and amount of paint you let out creates different effects depending on what you're after. It's important not to just slosh it on! The roof gets railmatch roof dirt and for a diesel, a bit of matt black added to the roof dirt around the exhaust area. I also used a bit of this on the battery boxes as they tended to be darker than the rest of the underframes, probably because they were checked/maintained regularly.

 

Finally, and still to do, is a bit of gunmetal paint on a brush dabbed over areas which should be greasy/shiny, like axle boxes, steps etc.

[justin1985]

The bogie and underframe weathering looks particularly good! Is that just the airbrush weathering, or did you give the bogies a base coat over the shiny plastic?

[ash39]

Thanks! No, just airbrushed but I did pick out the dampers in white like the real thing.

[shanks522]

Hi,

 

 Excellent job on the HST, looks spot on, as does the light wave. 

 

Graham.

[d winpenny]

Plan looks good, as does the hst

 

David