Westfield Priory

[gc4946]

This arose out of my abandoned Westfield Green layout for a self-contained layout project that takes up little space in my flat.
The name, Westfield Priory, is a combination of both my junior and secondary schools that I attended, but unlike its predecessor, isn't any longer tied to a specific area of Portsmouth.
It measures 4ft by 16in and is intended to be a layout that allows shunting and a limited amount of other movements such as DMUs/EMUs shuttling back and forth, light engine moves and short freight train workings.

Photos will follow in due course.

Edited December 3, 2015 by gc4946

[gc4946]

Here's my first photo, this had to resized so to fit within the 2MB limit for uploads:

 

 

This is designed that the sidings on the left can be used in DCC mode and the single isolated right track possibly for test running in analogue (DC) mode. The platform was built from Bachmann's Underground Ernie range and can hold a single car DMU or a two-car 101/108 57' length DMU set.

 

Track is Fleischmann Profi and terminates just short at the board edges to minimise damage to the rail ends. This also allows future extension as and when more room is available.

[ess1uk]

Interesting, good potential there.

[gc4946]

 

This is the layout, as seen from the other end. I've seen few minimal-sized layouts where a complete island platform has been incorporated, with track that deviates as though it was on a busy main line.

Millbrook, near Southampton, is one prime example of a station with a similar width island platform, another was Westbourne Park, just outside Paddington, which had an isolated mainline platform that allowed interchange with the underground, before it was swept away in the early 1990s when the track approaches to Paddington were remodelled.

[class"66"]

Looks good setup so far...

[gc4946]

Here are two photos showing some of the possibilities, I'm focusing on the DMU standing at the platform:

 

 

The Met-Cam DMU is the longest unit that fits the platform without the (fictional) passengers/customers or the guard complaining!

My 73211 County of West Sussex and 56075 West Yorkshire Enterprise are stabled in the sidings.

 

Neither the track nor the platform has been fixed down yet although track/platform clearances have been checked and marked out in pen.

 

 

(Substituted a better quality photo showing the other locos more clearly)

Edited November 26, 2012 by gc4946

[class"66"]

Wil look the biz when you start ballasting and scenery...

[gc4946]

Thanks, I'll need to check my stocks of loose ballast, scenic scatter material, other raw materials and accessories before this weekend's Wakefield show and buy some if needed there.

I'm working on plans to create a footbridge at one end of the board in order that our imaginary users can enter and exit the station safely as it's situated on a busy main line, and something else to partially hide some of the sidings at the other end so they can act as a fiddle yard, and I may find bargain bits and pieces to help me in this process at Wakefield as well.

[class"66"]

Cant wait to see how this comes along....

[ess1uk]

Where is street level?

Just wondered if the bridge to the platform would go up to street level or up and back down to a station entrance?

[gc4946]

Street level will be baseboard level.

 

There will be a footbridge that acts as the boundary at the end of the board where just the three tracks finish. It's planned to be a cast iron type that spans the whole width of the board.

Unfortunately I didn't see any cheapo bridge parts for sale at the Wakefield show, as I wanted to use some of Hornby's high level inclined girder piers (R659) http://www.ebay.co.u...=item27ccf4af6e

Steps from the platform will lead up to the bridge. These will have to scratchbuilt and/or adapted from existing bits and pieces.

 

At the other end, there will be another bridge where the diesels are stabled, as shown in my previous posts, which will carry a dual carriageway over the full width of the board and will look substantial enough to also act as a fiddle yard/storage area. The bridge and road itself will be scratchbuilt from balsa and card.

 

I'm planning to visit a certain box-shifter emporium in Sheffield in the next few weeks and will look in their second hand section for any useful bits and pieces.

Edited December 2, 2012 by gc4946

[gc4946]

At the Wakefield show I bought some N scale granite balIast as I had none available and extra brown scenic scatter.

Yesterday, I went to Sheffield and located some used bridge parts, including a damaged footbridge for cannibalisation and Hornby high level inclined piers (R659).

 

Digging around in my spares boxes last week also found a pair of unfinished bridge abutments made from balsa wood covered with card and some other wood which was too good to waste (this will be cut in half to form the road bridge deck). The photo makes the wood look warped, but it's actually not so!

 

The exact placement of the footbridge will depend on how I design and build its deck, modify and link the stairs to the platform, but it'll be approximately where the cast iron supports are on this photo, give or take a centimetre or two. The deck will run across the whole width of the board to give the impression that it spanned more tracks than it now does as a result of track rationalisation.

[ess1uk]

Like your thinking, but, and I'm no structural engineer, wouldn't the bridge need another support to span that wide?

[gc4946]

Ess1uk,

 

Like your thinking, but, and I'm no structural engineer, wouldn't the bridge need another support to span that wide?

 

Which bridge did you mean - the cast iron footbridge at the front or the concrete one at the rear?

[ess1uk]

Ess1uk,

 

 

 

Which bridge did you mean - the cast iron footbridge at the front or the concrete one at the rear?

The one nearest in the picture.

[gc4946]

In the case of the bridge at the front with the cast iron pillars, I should add a support between every pair of tracks.

 

I have to imagine what the track layout was like there in steam days and arrange supports accordingly.

 

If you look at the front of the board, nearest to the platform, there are presently three tracks: up and down main, plus loop leading to sidings.

At that point, in my imagined history, the two right hand sidings that existed in steam days have been lifted.

 

By the time the trains reach the concrete bridge at the far end, the layout reverts to the original scheme of five tracks: up and down main, loop and two sidings.

 

Luckily I bought two packs of R659 incline piers (six individual piers in all) to cover contingencies.

[gc4946]

In keeping with the self-contained nature of the layout, I realised I had to find room to place my Dynamis DCC Pro Box setup somewhere.

 

The idea occurred to me, hide it behind some structure!

During the 1980s, BR sold off more of its surplus land and I imagined there was a deal to build part of a shopping centre on some of that vacant land. However, due to having to maintain a right of way across the tracks, the existing cast iron bridge was kept even though it spans much wider than is currently in rail use.

My nearest instance of that occurs just outside Leeds when travelling towards Morley where a cast iron footbridge has been kept despite much of the land now being used as an industrial estate just off Whitehall Road.

 

Google Earth shows such an example http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.d2k&bpcl=40096503&biw=1093&bih=514&wrapid=tlif135627227016610&q=%22whitehall+road%22+leeds+map&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x48795e94288bb08f:0xa34cceed5f60117e,Whitehall+Rd,+Leeds&gl=uk&sa=X&ei=oxLXUOOKKIa2hAfMlYDwBQ&ved=0CDAQ8gEwAA

 

see the footbridge due NE of "Site Clearance Services" to see what I mean.

 

I've building what will be one of the main entrances from balsa, card, and a plastic bowl. The balsa framework will have a cardboard cladding.

 

The cubby hole where the Pro Box is situated:

 

I'll try this to make sure the infrared signal between the Pro Box and the handset doesn't gets blocked (seems OK so far)

[gc4946]

Normally I don't work that quickly but as I'm on holiday now, I'm hoping for more progress.

 

Basically, I've modelled one end of a shopping centre complex, a "meet and greet" area for those using public transport with a small atrium, the main stores are off-scene. It's supposed to be concrete-framed but with brick infills to soften the external appearance.

This uses Superquick brickpaper and offcuts of card from backs of notepads, etc., with some silver card that'll be scribed to represent the entrance/exit doors on both sides of this structure. There's more work to do in fashioning the "glass" dome, painting the roof and attaching details, but the basics are now there.

I haven't decided on the name of the shopping centre yet, but its name will be above the doors, nor decided on the layout of the pavements and roads around the block.

 

[gc4946]

I gave up the idea of a dome on top of the shopping centre as looking at various shopping centres, the glass dome is more common in large communal areas, and the part I'm modelling is somewhat on the periphery.

Instead part of an office block will be built, which will be called "Ashdor House".

 

The centre's now named "Goodhill Centre" using parts of surnames of fellow ex-pupils. The signage at one end is mounted higher at one end as I'm designating that as the main entrance with canopies and the other end as a rear entrance without canopies.

 

I've also desgned a billboard promoting a fictitious business park/industrial estate called "Greenfields" after one of my primary schools. This will be mounted separately, but for the purposes of this photo session I've placed it on my shopping centre.

 

Moves are afoot to redesign the multiple sidings end and I'm looking into using rail girder bridges to cross the tracks, rather than a dual carriageway road bridge. This means I can store some stock on the bridge decks when not in use (as long as I fix stop blocks on the ends of the track) and goes another way towards everything being self-contained.

[gc4946]

This will be my homage to 1980s glitz.

For me, architecturally, the era sums up building design with huge expanses of mirror like glazing and brickwork to soften otherwise stark concrete framework.

Made from balsa and card overlays including special silver mirror-like card, "Ashdor House" will proudly bear its name on one of its black fascias.

[gc4946]

This morning, my postie brought me a pack containing Tomy girder bridge parts.

As my baseboard width is 16 inches and any bridge had to span five tracks, many of the standard modellers' girder bridges available were too small or too short to fit.

I saw the Tomy girder bridges online and they appeared to fit the bill. They're impressively huge and look ideal for use as a rail over rail bridge. Four mainline tracks will cross over and they'll be used as additional storage, rather than the usual fiddle yard.

 

 

This is only a trial fitting and the bridge side abutments will be cut to shape and the decks fitted.

 

Westfield Priory will now represent part of London, because there were more competing railways, some of which crossed each other using similar structures.

It took only a few minutes to assemble the parts, although they'll be altered to look more prototypical, including repainting and removal of the moulded centre underslung sections, originally designed so that standard Tomy track could be used.

 

[gc4946]

Apologies for not posting anything for ages.

 

I halted work after last Christmas because I was looking for a new place to live and as the track hadn't been fixed on the board had to take it up and store the fittings for my move. The board was wrapped up in plastic sheeting

Due to the uncertainties of staying at my new place on a six-month agreement, and having to sort and clear out a lot of possessions in the meantime I did no work on this layout until I signed a new 12 month tenancy agreement a few weeks ago.

 

Luckily I kept a photographic record of the layout and I've just reassembled the board.

 

There are a few changes made to increase the flexibility of the layout, and to use structures that were designed for my other OO layout Horniman Park, which is still wrapped up in plastic sheeting.

 

The track layout's OK, it hasn't been altered.

However I'm designing the off-track scene so I can swap over between my partly-built football terrace stand and a shopping centre.

 

The reasoning is that developers agreed a deal with the local football and athletics club to relocate their ground as part of a deal to build a new shopping centre.

 

 

The footbridge will be around the mid-point of the layout and I'll design a road and pavement layout so as to suit these changes of use.

[gc4946]

Hurray!

 

At long last, tonight, I've run my first train on this layout - a Hornby 101 DMU being converted into a 2-car power-trailer formation, running on the isolated right hand line under DC power.

 

 

More tests will be done on the rest of the layout under DC and DCC power.

 

Last night I carefully glued down most of the plain track, but left the points alone. Tonight I'm checking platform clearances and have marked out in pen where the platform should be glued down.  

Once testing has been completed to my satisfaction then ballasting and weathering can begin.

 

 

[gc4946]

Before I start ballasting I wanted to firm up my ideas of having a fiddle yard because the area taken up will have some impact on how much of the layout gets ballasted.

 

The main criteria that I wanted from a fiddle yard for "Westfield Priory" :

1. A covered area large enough to hide trains away from public view (this is 36 cm/14 1/2 inches long). I can easily hide a Mk3 carriage or its equivalent train length.

2. The entire structure removable for cleaning and track maintenance.

3. Cater for storage of trains off the track and be easily accessible when needed.

4. A detachable, yet robust backdrop that could be easily packed away.

 

and finally ...

5. The whole assembly to be packed away into a suitable larger box if I had to stack the board away.

 

This is my early concept, using one of these fold-up cardboard boxes available in many finishes, held together by press-studs, which are available from The Works and other stores (usual disclaimers). This lid is made of pretty sturdy card and can hold quite a few models inside the tray without distortion.

 

 

I glued balsa wood to two sides of the lid to form a bridge and combined tray.

 

 

The sides were cut into separate pieces from the base, the card is thick enough to stand up inside the tray. I can have one end of it open in order to easily handle the models in and out of the tray and can vary the backdrops.

 

 

There's still a lot of work to do on designing suitable backdrops and integrating the entire structure onto the layout. In due course the Peter the Rabbit finish will disappear!

Edited November 17, 2013 by gc4946

[gc4946]

I think I've solved the situation of having two incompatible uses if I want to change over from being a football ground to a shopping centre and vice versa.

My solution is a separate, detachable sub-board made of thick card left over from the base of the Peter Rabbit fold-up box for each of the buildings.

 

I cut up pieces of mounting card as footpaths (currently in light colour) either side of the sub-boards.

 

The difference is that the shopping centre uses engineer's brick paper and a semi-circular red brick decoration on the approach to the main entrance

 

Whilst the football stand base will be plain grey and will include a wall with an emergency exit.

 

I can either glue these sub-boards to the base of these structures or keep them separate. However keeping them separate means they can be stored more effectively away in a box.