robock

14 hours ago, John Besley said:

Love a tutorial on painting the backscene especially the trees please

Despite forty years experience of painting pictures, backscenes are a very different art form - I am still experimenting, and learning on the job!

1 hour ago, stfgroxb said:

Thank you for this detail. Outstanding work. Will need to take a deep breath before contemplating an upgrade for Buntingford! Do you happen to know how ‘standard’ this kind of dock was across GER stations?

As far as I can tell from old photos, the usual GE design was of wooden construction; it seems that the LNER replaced them with steel as required.

52 minutes ago, stfgroxb said:

Cracking job - are the wires soldered to rails or have you drilled holes through rails to accommodate wires? Have just noticed the drainage system too - that is real class

It has to withstand a wide range of temperatures and humidity in the loft environment, so the wires are only soldered where they end at a gate post, leaving them free to expand elsewhere - a lesson learned from wire and post platform fencing that distorted terribly when soldered to each post.

The photo shows a post that has been drilled - note the spacing of the rails to keep small animals secure - the top wire is thicker at 0.45mm, the remainder are 0.4mm.

The base does slope towards the drain - a layer of 2mm styrene sanded and scored to represent channels cast into the concrete.

That's the easy part - the difficulty is in making the gates which are bent from strips of nickel silver, drilled through using another jig - the number and spacing of wires being different to the pen - then the diagonal support is two lengths of square 0.4mm n/s wire (Wizard Models point rodding) soldered to the horizontal bars, forming a sandwich with enough solder run between them to fill the gaps - this needed some tidying up with a sharp knife. Making gates exactly the correct size so they fit between the posts is no easy task...!

9 hours ago, Loxborough said:

I don't really have the words for this. I read all through the thread thinking 'Nice, well executed O gauge layout', started to read through it again and realised it is OO. Incredible; in the literal meaning of the word. This is not the sort of layout that inspires; it more inclines me to give up, knowing that I will never reach this standard!

 

Brilliant work; many congratulations.

 

George

Thank you; remember that any success I might have is built on a mountain of failures!

On 26/07/2023 at 22:27, Kelvin Pinnock said:

Yes, we realised the position of the lorry looked unlikely in the picture. It would have looked better with a mechanical horse and semi-trailer, but this side of the goods shed is not visible from the normal viewing position, and rarely photographed. This is one of the few areas on the layout where space is cramped, unfortunately.

Kelvin.

Even the prototype was in a cramped location, at the base of Clare Castle Mount, which probably accounts for the shed being slightly narrower than the 'standard' GE sheds of the time. Photo of Clare in 1949, after the awning over the loading bays had been removed. Photo via 'Britain from Above'.

10 hours ago, Nova Scotian said:

The variation in the texture of the ground is excellent. As is the depth of the detail on the brickwork - it's not flat. But again I keep coming back to the rich varied texture on the floor - I assume it was deliberate to have the smoother texture at the foot of the steps where there'd have been more foot traffic?

As I (Robin) was largely responsible for rebuilding the goods shed, I can give you some background. Kelvin built the original structure from Wills Scenic sheet material some years ago, partly based on the prototype shed at Clare on the Stour Valley line. There were many compromises in the model, which made it virtually free-lance, so when I decided to 'enhance' it in 2020 it was sawn into many pieces and the remains were incorporated into the side wall where lorry is unloading. The other three walls were all new, still using Wills sheets to match; only the office part was salvaged intact from the original model, although it was also completely re-detailed. Having said that, I must confess that I regret using the Wills material as it is too 'rustic' for the rather fine Victorian brickwork found on the prototype!

Ground texture is buit up from fine horticultural silver sand and diluted PVA, laid very wet and rubbed down with various pieces of wood, fingers etc. when dry, then painted and rubbed down again until tone and texture look about right - luckily I had a colour photo of the prototype in the 1960s for reference.

The shed was bedded to the ground on a layer of filler mixed with PVA, (with clingfilm over the base of the building to make it removable) with some of the mixture blended into the ground to smooth out the heavily trodden areas.

9 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

A pity, it would surely be a key attraction at a show!

 

So has the layout actually been developed in the same loft location for the 40 years you mentioned?

That's right, although there have been times when it was virtually abandoned, rebuilt, decayed and damaged by heat, neglected and revived again before arriving at it's current state. Luckily, having two of us working on the project has kept it going when other interests take over or enthusiasm sags.

4 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

Just wondering if any part of the layout is transportable, in other words, is it likely to appear at an exhibition, please?

 

Sorry, the only way it would be transportable would be in small pieces, probably in a skip!

53 minutes ago, Kelvin Pinnock said:

Back to January 2016, and Robin repainting the backscene of Stratford St. Mary.

The original (imaginary) location of the station was to the west of the village of Stratford St Mary, with open fields in the background and a fictional large house beyond the level crossing. Years later, when cycling around the area, it occurred to me that a better location would be on the B1029 Dedham Road, east of the village, and the photos show me referring to Google Street View images of the area during the repainting, although I kept the large house with Scots Pine trees from the original painting. The sky had also faded badly, and was repainted with some trick perspective for viewing at different angles.

2 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

Although not in remotely the same league as the brilliant work of Kelvin and Robin, I was inspired to take a couple of level-crossing shots on my own layout.

 

 

 

These gates are servo-operated which is fine if you're a mechanical or electronics wizard. In the hands of a bodger like me, though, they've proved quite a pain to set up and then maintain. Also, since they're not interlocked, I live in constant fear of driving a train through them, so they mostly stay closed to road traffic. However, they are fun for the occasional photo.

Hi Barry Ten

The gates at Stratford St. Mary have very delicate copper wire infil rods, although the gates are brass and quite sturdy, a collision is something to be avoided at all costs. There are relays incorporated in the operating unit which isolate the approach tracks to the crossing when the gates are open to the road. These isolating sections stretch for several feet before the crossing on the approach to allow for DMUs and push-pull trains powered from the rear, to be halted in time. The system allows trains to depart from the platform road when the gates are closed behind it, but a diode does not allow trains to reverse into the gate. Similarly, trains are able to proceed along the single track away from the crossing in the opposite direction, and once the crossing is clear the gates can be closed behind it.

It's not a foolproof system, but it has avoided careless mistakes so far!

Robin.

13 hours ago, Paul_C said:

Robin,

 

I have a working model of the Kingsferry Bridge (Isle of Sheppey) and it's carved from European oak so it's nice and sturdy. The wood finish looks great (if you're a woodturner) but I want to paint it in "concrete". If I had that self same formula that you've applied to your gate posts it will look absolutely spot on.

 

The gates are also made and I have the servers for them so hopefully I can get them hooked up to operate similar to yours.

 

Paul. 

Paul

I assume you are referring to the concrete level crossing posts at Stratford St Mary.

Firstly, use a grey aerosol primer, assuming the wood surface is smooth.

The gate posts are quite small compared to your bridge, I tried to keep the surface free of brush marks, and used a couple of coats.

I normally use Humbrol 64 light grey as the basis for mixing grey tones with very small amounts of other colours added - 67 Tank Grey is my usual substitue for black, and to tone things down if needed. I had some good photos of the prototype concrete posts, so it was relatively simple to match the colour; after all, it is what I have been doing as an artist for forty five years! I think I used Humbrol 71 Oak to give it a yellowish tinge, but this colour is difficult to find these days, 103 cream might do as a substitute. But I might mix colours that I have to hand in ways that are best avoided by the inexperienced! Mix a small amount of talcum powder with the paint to give a good matt surface with a subtle texture.