Wencombe/Kingsbridge Regis/Louville Lane

[westerner]

Anybody going to the Chiltern exhibition at Stevenage this coming weekend, hopefully (weather permitting) I will be there with SAD on Sunday.

[westerner]

As a break from fiddling with diesels I thought it was about time I had a look at the boats in the harbour so this afternoon was spent adding a few tyre fenders and the first bits of weathering. I also tried a fender over one of the posts as you can see in the photos.

Before any one says anything at the moment there are no mooring lines. they will be the last things to be put in the harbour section.

 

 

[81C]

Hi Alan I was wondering how pleased your are with the new layout it's certainly looking different from that country station look of Wencombe.

[gwrrob]

Looking very nice Alan.An overall view would be great.I see you're featured on the Sankey Scenics website.I might be joining you shortly.

[westerner]

81C,(sorry I do not know your name) an interesting question> With the layout nearing completion there have been times over the last couple of years that I have asked myself much the same question. At times even "what have I done". It has certainly presented many challenges that were not present at Wencombe, the biggest one being all those buildings. On Wencombe they were either RTP (the pub and the railway cottages or just simple kits or buildings that had been used on the layout before that Abergower. The only building where I had to do a fair bit off carving about was the Creamery. At Kingsbridge all the buildings had to be built and as I said at the time NOT my strong point, that being green scenery. However I'm glad I have done it and I am proud of how the buildings have come out. There 4 RTP new buildings but all the rest are either carved about Walthers kits (Oh why does a British manufacture not make kits like theirs. An absolute joy to put together and very easy to kit bash).

 

At the moment I have not played or should I say operated the layout very often, but then the same could be said about Wencombe. I suspect that could be said about many of us who post on RMWeb. Perhaps the enjoyment (sometimes masochistic) come s from the building and creation of the railway.

 

The harbour which I suppose I need not have built is also interesting and I hope (as a sailor) I will be able to moor my boats properly something sadly missing on many layouts with boats in harbours and or rivers.

 

To try and answer your question to be honest I am pleased with it but is it better than Wencombe whose to say? Am more pleased with it the honest answer is I don't know.

Edited January 20, 2017 by westerner

[westerner]

Rob a couple of overview photos. There was some debate on the Peterborough thread about including none layout background, something I do not normally do, but for these shots I've included parts of the room not normally seen here and then cropped the bulk of it out.

 

 

 

A slightly wider view.

 

 

[Andrew P]

Great pics Alan, love the overall shots mate, Thanks.

[St Enodoc]

Rob a couple of overview photos. There was some debate on the Peterborough thread about including none layout background, something I do not normally do, but for these shots I've included parts of the room not normally seen here and then cropped the bulk of it out.

 

wide view f1.jpg

 

wide view f1 edited.jpg

 

A slightly wider view.

 

wide view 2.jpg

 

wide view 2 edited.jpg

Alan, I do like seeing how layouts fit into their environment, so thanks for showing us these.

[westerner]

As some have shown interes as to how the layout fits the room (very tightly I've taken a few more photos. The room by the way is a nominal 12ft x 9ft but the chimney breast sticks out a foot so the layout is 11ft 9inches x 8ft.

 

1st photo the station and country section For the sharp eyed this is the same as Wencombe

 

 

2nd photo the fiddle yard. You may notice I have a duck under something have just passed my 70th yesterday I may come to regret. track height by the way is 44inches which means 41 inches clearance under the baseboard.

 

 

 

3rd photo shows the workbench in relation to the layout. Its close proximity to the harbour has meant that equipment has often been stored on the harbour, luckily nothing has rusted.

 

 

The prints on the wall are all of paintings by Don Breckon and the photo on the chimney breast is my Castle "Clun Castle" performing on Tony Wright's Little Bytham (photo Tony Wright)

Edited January 21, 2017 by westerner

[pwr]

Alan

 

Your modelling room is about as cluttered as mine is!

 

Paul R

[cary hill]

The Grey Cars coach driver has done well to feature in two of the pics above although he must be off-piste to be where he is.

Edited January 22, 2017 by cary hill

[vulcanbomber]

I have to keep my room tidy because of the grandchildren, they would soon get into trouble in your room, especially the youngest. We had a new kitchen installed last year, and without thinking it through, had long handles fitted to a set of kitchen draws, the first thing the youngest did when she arrived was to treat them like a climbing wall!

[Mallard60022]

Alan

 

Your modelling room is about as cluttered as mine is!

 

Paul R

Cluttered? Nah.............

Phil

[brianusa]

Nothing wrong with clutter as long as you don't see it!  Mine, boxes and stuff is hidden away under the layout.  No tools or paint though as these are in the garage which is a clutter in itself!

 

Brian.

Edited January 21, 2017 by brianusa

[westerner]

Believe it or not the room was tidied a couple of weeks ago, and then what happened I started doing things (modelling) again. And of course I won't put that away (what ever it is) because I'll be using it again tomorrow and so on and so on and so on.....................................................................................on. Oh and now the room is as messy untidy as it was before I cleaned and tidied up.

 

edited for typos

Edited January 21, 2017 by westerner

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Looks all VERY tidy to me.

 

Nice to see the full extent of the layout and its context within the available space.

[Andrew P]

Looks all VERY tidy to me.

 

Nice to see the full extent of the layout and its context within the available space.

And yet the Layout looks much bigger when photographed, as did Wencombe of course.

 

Very well planned Alan.

[Bogie]

I will refrain from making an obvious comment about a certain feature of the room.

 

Not sure I would let the real estate agent use those photos of the room if you put the house on the market.

[The Great Bear]

81C,(sorry I do not know your name) an interesting question> With the layout nearing completion there have been times over the last couple of years that I have asked myself much the same question. At times even "what have I done". It has certainly presented many challenges that were not present at Wencombe, the biggest one being all those buildings. On Wencombe they were either RTP (the pub and the railway cottages or just simple kits or buildings that had been used on the layout before that Abergower. The only building where I had to do a fair bit off carving about was the Creamery. At Kingsbridge all the buildings had to be built and as I said at the time NOT my strong point, that being green scenery. However I'm glad I have done it and I am proud of how the buildings have come out. There 4 RTP new buildings but all the rest are either carved about Walthers kits (Oh why does a British manufacture not make kits like theirs. An absolute joy to put together and very easy to kit bash).

 

At the moment I have not played or should I say operated the layout very often, but then the same could be said about Wencombe. I suspect that could be said about many of us who post on RMWeb. Perhaps the enjoyment (sometimes masochistic) come s from the building and creation of the railway.

 

The harbour which I suppose I need not have built is also interesting and I hope (as a sailor) I will be able to moor my boats properly something sadly missing on many layouts with boats in harbours and or rivers.

 

To try and answer your question to be honest I am pleased with it but is it better than Wencombe whose to say? Am more pleased with it the honest answer is I don't know.

 

Is it better, yes, who can say? What's for sure is that both very fine layouts indeed. As you've noted, you've grown as a modeller with the buildings and such a challenge stops one becoming stale perhaps.

 

It will be interesting when you do get around to operating the layout whether your view changes. Operating a terminus will be more involved than a through station and you have the fun of the turntable too, 

 

Modelling the harbour was a really good idea, a good use of what otherwise would be dead space and really sets the scene.

 

All the best

 

Jon

[Guest 7007GreatWestern]

Having now seen the room in which Wencombe resides I'm even more impressed than I was before. You've managed to compact a busy double track section of mainline railway into a modestly sized room while the layout itself feels spacious. You've also managed to confine your workbench, spray booth tools and resources within the same limited space, which I imagine is greatly appreciated by the domestic authorities! I've learned a lot from this series of photos, in particular how much can be achieved in limited space through good planning. Well done!

 

Andy.

[81C]

Hi Alan my name is Bob we met some years ago a Basingstoke when you were operating Potterbourne with your chum Josh.

[westerner]

Thanks Bob. Stretching my poor old brain cells I remember now. I hope my answer satisfied your query.

[westerner]

After a year of putting it off I've at last got round to "doing" the water in the harbour. I've decided to it in the way demonstrated by Craig Tiley in the April 2014 issue of Railway Modeller. It involves drawing around the boats and tacking strips of styrene around the line creating a barrier for the textured water to butt up against, thus hopefully, when the boats are replaced, they will look as if they are sitting in the water rather than being on top of it. To get a clear line I had to repaint the harbour with a lightish colour so that I could see the line. After  that was done the strips of styrene were tacked with plastic solvent into place.

 

 

a second coat was the painted and as you can see it is a green colour.

 

 

Tomorrow (Friday ) I hope to paint the harbour with a flat coat the intended colour, before adding the texture material and repainting in the same colour as the previous coat and stippling it to add the texture. The strips will then be lifted and the cavity for the boats will be painted black ( the colour of the lower hulls). The water surface will then be given several coats of Klear.

 

The eagle eyed amongst will notice that the row of cottages on the left now has a pavement and the boat that will be in the harbour next to them now has masts and simple rigging.

 

 

[westerner]

Work has continued on the harbour there was a bit of a false start when the original thickening agent had solidified and would not dissolve in the paint as you will see so that needed a bit of a rub down and a new tub was bought and the harbour was repainted when dry it was followed with 4 coats of clear (perhaps varnish may have been better. The styrene strips were then lifted and the boat holes painted black. Just waiting for all that to dry and hopefully the boats will fill the holes and then work can start on finishing the boats and adding all the mooring lines.

 

 

 

 

 

The 3 small buoys on the right side of the harbour are to hold the sterns of the 3 small boats that will be moored there bows into the harbour wall.

[westerner]

The first mooring ropes have been attached to the 3 little boats. A careful look at the photos show a little bit of tidying up needs to be done.