dbanbery

Work in progress pics from yesterday. I was able to carefully remove most elements  as I went along without damaging them. Most of the little fences bit the dust as they were simply pins with the heads snipped off and thin wire/cord wrapped around them. There some sections on base plates that I was simply able to scrape off the boards with the scraper.  When I get round to it, a number of these items will be cleaned and “up cycled” getting extra detail etc to them - a lot has happened to scenery stuff in 30-40 years

Update:

its done. I’ve left the boards, 80% of the track has been saved. All scenery buildings are completely intact along with signals, telegraph poles etc. One part was on a board that I could just pick up all together as per pic in the end I didn’t bother with the dremel. As a flat scraper and a set of snips or pliers did the job nicely. Not a lot was soldered in the end 

Good advice! Thank you for that. 
 

will have to see how things go - I’ve got a few tools to buy (who doesn’t love that?) and others to dig out. The layout isn’t local to where I live so I need plan my visits to be the most productive once it’s underway

Thank you for all these replies. I’ll order some new cutting discs and get cracking with that approach. I’ve done metalwork on cars and also had a go at building a mamod style steam engine out of copper and brass in the past so I’ve done a bit of metalworking before. Cutting is best it seems. Other hobbies centre around model building and warhammer so I have transferable skills. I’ve just finished a masters in architecture too so when I finally get on with the build I’ll be 3D printing and laser cutting using AutoCAD etc as per the architectural models I built :-)

let’s see how much of this layout I can save :-)

Yeah I thought of using those rail snips, but I’ve used the crenels cutters before on other stuff. Sounds like the way to go! Yes it’s a mix of bits - it appears to be nickel aside from some bits but I’ve not seen any rust - that’s not to say there wouldn’t be other surface corrosion. Maybe the sacrifice of a short length of track is acceptable to be able to remove it all. Scenery first I think when I run some trials. Someone (the house was previously rented) has done me a favour of destroying a length of track by pulling it off, and the sleepers are completely destroyed. So I feel care must be taken when it gets underway. My grandad used to work for British telecom and managed to get these consoles from when they were modernising the switch boards - which he used for the power switches and the points. 

Cheers ray, I don’t think all of it is on foam if at all. It’s fixed directly onto the boards. The condition of the track seems ok - I think most of it is salvageable. 
 

I was going to test out a solder sucker to see if that would work in freeing the rails off. I don’t want to melt anything but I’m also thinking this will be old lead solderabd as such will be easier to melt than its modern counterpart. 
 

I do have a dremel.

i think the majority will be tacked down with one nail in the middle. I’ll have a look when I get over to the house again and do some testing.

Morning guys/girls!

ive recently started to look at dismantling my grandads old layout and salvaging what I can for when am able to build my own layout. What I would like to discuss is the best way for removing the track so they can be used again. I know this may have been discussed before, but the track seems reasonably salvageable despite it being there for 30 years. It has not been bedded in medium and simply tacked on to the wooden boards of the deck and the joints/fishplates soldered. A lot of it is peco flexi and the points are controlled with push/pull cables. Is it feasible to unsolder the joints and carefully pry the tacks up? Or is it likely to render the track useless? The only tool I have found that might be of use would be an In situ track cutter tool - would people advise anything else? Is it a fools errand to try and desolder track?

i have attached pics of the layout. Please bear in mind this was made 30-40 years ago out of whatever my grandad could find for scenery - a lot of it being made from scratch. A lot of the scenery buildings are simply placed in weak glue and will remove. I’m not going to try and salvage the deck or table structure - just the track, as much scenery as possible and the power setup (although DCC would be easier in the future)

please comment on anything you see fit, there may be some silly questions but I don’t come here often and I don’t have space to set up a layout yet!

interesting. you you can make copies etc and it can be easy and uniform. Cool.

The masters from the previous post are current covered in silicone as I make a mould ready for casting, hopefully will add some pictures tomorrow when, all being well, I'll had cast a few bits.

 

I recently received a huge bundle of photos and drawings relating to the station from forum member Mike Walker. Already these have answered a couple of questions that were bugging me about some aspects of the buildings which I hadn't been able to establish from other sources. A huge thank you to Mike for passing these on to me.

 Silicone?

Thanks Mark,

ive printed off my own brick paper and the lack of 3rd dimension on it doesnt look amazing to build from - this embossed plastic may be a better idea especially with the way i work too.

I really want to do the entire building but the scale isnt feasible i dont think - when ive done some model building for my arcitecture degree i used a laser etch/cutter after drawing it up on CAD and that gave me etched detailed panels when required.

I'm currently in the throws of another hobby, a '95 SL 500 so most of my time is spent on that at the moment along with arguing with people about politics on the internet. What a gripping life i do lead! 

i posted some pics to my profile a while back if they are any use to avoid further field trips.

stupid question ahoy! is it possible to buy that embossed brick paper or card?

I actually don't agree with the Banks' reference. It is a Wolverhampton brewery and there is some debate as to whether Wolverhampton is actually in the Black Country (South Wolves perhaps). So a better Pub would be a Hansons or Bathams (Bull and Bladder or the Little Lamp - tek yer pick). Besides, an' here is a heresy, Banks' ain't very good beer, it's all gravy brownin' an' caramel. Not a patch on the aforementioned Bathams etc. Pity about Dolly Pardoe, I used to love the White Swan on top o' Russells Hall that was a real pub.

Oyl av yow know that Wolvo is Black countray thank yaw very much.

We ay brummays thats for sure!

not sure whether its already been mentioned, but i went to the NRM yesterday and they have an archive library, where i ordered electronic copies for certain stations etc that i needed. they cost £5 per record,

Im am in the throws of my first and probably only project - Wolverhampton Low Level in the Pre nationalisation era. the plan is to model Low level, and model Tettenhall and Wombourne station through the branch line with associated land marks [in a circuit]

i dont have a space to work with at the moment, but being a CAD technician by trade i'll be using computers and digital throughout the planning and construction. tentative target years are the thirties, Tettenhall was closed to passengers in 1933 [i think] but i might bend the rules slightly and have it open to passengers set in 1935 sort of era. i dont want to go too early!

I grew up with this branch line in a disused state [beeching axe] and always wanted to imagine what it would look like.

oh and its in 00 gauge. the main work will be in the landscaping and scenery for me.

talking to my mother at the weekend about this thread, and she said that her earliest memories of travelling along the line from Birmingham to wolverhampton was all the scrap metal yards - lots of them, she remembers the orange rust from piles of scrap metal along the side of the lines. she was born in 1960, so its probably mid to late seventies sort of era.

Mark,

these are interesting points - it depends on how accurate one wants to be with the modelling. i will need to assess this when i start drawing things up, but it looks like the methods you suggest coupled with compression of building spacing where possible would be a fair strategy.

i had a drive through Brierley Hill on saturday, tried to get a shot of my car parked outside the Glassworks, but alas they dont have any car access on site. it also gave me a mini tour through this side of the Black country.

i'm "only" 28 and it seems that a lot of old stuff has disappeared. one cannot stand in the way of progress, but it seems quite a bit different to what i remember in the early to mid 90s when i "were a nipper"

What scale/gauge are you working in for your layout?

00.

im starting easy, i dont like the tiny stuff either its too fiddly looking

im going to try and get to the station on saturday and take some detailed pics and measurements of this i think.

as discussed on the other topic I am planning a wolverhampton LL layout.

i'm going for the pre nationalisation era - probably pre war... its all in flux at the moment but i'm reasonably firm on the pre nationalisation era - i wanted use GWR and LMS rolling stock, and i like the idea of emulating the really grubby industrial black country world.

i'm relatively green to this, but not so new to model building. ive just finished a degree in Architecture, and i have been building 1/72 aircraft and 1/24 cars for years. i'm planning on drawing the building facades of the main station buildings in CAD and having them laser cut into card so i can assemble, but we'll see whether i can still use the university facilities and if not whether its going to cost a fortune at a pay-in place. I'm also going to use cad to produce a template plan of the station areas too. it would be good to keep an eye on this thread to compare notes...

some might say that is an understatement and that it borders on an obsession

 

Link to progress so far on my P4 Low Level project below (there are a few blogs somewhere too).

Thanks for that Mark, ill have to have a look tonight as work has banned photobucket!

having a read though, i'm going for the pre nationalisation era - probably pre war... its all in flux at the moment but i'm reasonably firm on the pre nationalisation era - i wanted use GWR and LMS rolling stock.

anyway, thats a bit off topic. ill post on the correct topic

thought i'd use my first post on here to add some info that ive acquired - i'm kind of a new starter, although i'm sure ive posted on here before showing my grandads Weymouth layout a few years back.

Lost Railways of Birmingham and the West Midlands ISBN:978 1 84674 109 8

Wolverhampton's Railways in Colour ISBN 978 0 9565797 0 6

my personal plans are to do a wolverhampton Low level and other wolverhampton landmarks i knew of [grew up in Penn so had a few rides down the old branch line to wombourne and aldersley back int' day] also worth noting that where there is now Carvers builders merchants, is the old site of the Stafford Road Works

There is/was an interesting railway bridge too, but i cant find it on google maps... it might have gone. this is a pic i found on the web:

found it - put these grid references into google maps and zoom right in:

52.592219, -2.167202

there are a load of useful info on here from others! i will bookmark this!!

searching a few years back i managed to acquire a load of Low Level pics from where surveyors went round the derelict buildings and platforms and took pics - they even found some old broad gauge track too [spelling i can never get that one bloody right]

GWR and LMS were in this area, but please don't flame me as i'm new and learning with rudimentary knowledge of everything!