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4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

There's a British Transport Film Unit feature about moving an out of gauge load, a transformer bound for Blaenau Ffestiniog, up the Conway Valley line; can't remember the title but it's well worth seeking out.  Llandudno Jc 4F and a very good explanation of how the load could be moved sideways to negotiate obstacles.  

Measured for Transport (1962). Here's the YouTube link if anyone's interested. 

The white really shows off the careful 'contouring' (if that's a word) you have managed to achieve - it really looks like a mountain from far away.

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Fairly standard WR arrangement for DMU fuel and inspection site.  An office (small); mess room;  probably a drying room (for wet clothing) but they didn't all have them I believe; toilet and wash room; and a stores for consumable items and commonly needed small spares.  They were not wonderful places at which to work although that did vary a bit depending on how exposed the site was  but I doubt if any of them were much liked during any sort of bad weather - at some of the worst (such as Triangle Sidings at Reading) you could even get wet from rain when you were working in a pit underneath a unit

 

The canopy is not quite to the usual WR design and that is - in my view - one of the most neglected and under researched things of the WR dieselisation period as they existed all over the Region at DMU F&I locations with the majority of them on former carriage sidings sites (such as this one).  It would be really interesting to at long last see a fully researched model of one of these once ubiquitous locations.

Thanks for your input Mike. The Hereford site would have been pretty barren in the winter, I imagine. Although it's overgrown now with trees, the older pictures suggest they were kept under control but would have meant no real windbreak. The Hereford site was also lined by a stream, albeit in a deep ditch, so I imagine the whole place had a general dampness to it (an apt description of Hereford more generally, some might say!).

There was a similar canopy at Marsh Junction in Bristol, at least judging from this picture from another thread (linked below), and a much bigger one but of broadly similar construction at the Godfrey Road depot in Newport. I assume at some point all of these various trackside structures would have had some form of engineer's drawings or similar, and that those must exist somewhere in an old BR Archive - even a simple modular/ largely pre-fab structure would have needed some form of instruction book for those putting it together (I would assume). Being nearly 5,000 miles remote from the NRM at York, I doubt it's a question I'll get to research any time soon, at least beyond what is available online and in the memories of those contributing here.

I have pieced together a 3D model of the structure based on all the photos I can find, which I'm happy is sufficiently accurate for assembling a model in a much reduced scale and with my limited modelling skills. Screenshot below, in case it is of service to anyone contemplating anything similar (happy to share the model too, if useful).

Reviving an old thread on a subject dear to my modelling heart, on the off chance anyone has any memories, photos, thoughts or guidance as to what this little building may have contained? It was part of the Hereford DMU sidings so presumably contained offices, a bathroom, 'waiting around' area for the fuelling point workers to rest between jobs. The building still exists but is abandoned now and largely overgrown.

The NRM has a couple of track plans for this area, both of which I have obtained from their research service, but no details about the building.

The attached image is a screenshot of my Sketchup model, which has been drawn from every photo I can find of this building, which are very few indeed as the vast majority of photos taken in this part of the railway understandably concentrate on the stabled locos / DMUs.

It is of course a fairly simple brick building with some doors and windows, so modelling it is not particularly difficult. I'm just curious about its history and anything else anyone knows or remembers about it, just to complete my understanding of the scene.

Edit: the best photo I have is the one below, which is from Hydey44 on Flickr.

Agreed Phil - if it works, especially if it works better than another method, then I say go for it! We might be modelling times gone by but we don't all have to restrict ourselves to cereal boxes and loo rolls, though I have seen superb modelling using both on this website!

5 hours ago, Anthony Ashley said:

...The curve of the arches on hte road viaduct vary and I have tried to create a template to replicate the seven arches I need to install. I am using the same material as for the rail viaduct except the piers are plastic N gauge form ratio, I am  not sure how well I can cut the arches using the template. Does anyone have any ideas for creating an accurate arch apart form the jigsaw. 

Might be a bit 'cheating' but you could always see if there's a local plywood supplier who will do CNC routing to order. 

Those windows look superb - the shadows and the perspective they give are excellent. I had a look back at your earlier construction posts for this building but didn't see any details - they just magically appeared in the post where you kindly explained the wooden door. Would you mind explaining a little about how you made them / where they're from, particularly the transparencies?

Finally a topic I can contribute more than a 'Like' to!

I'm in the early stages of planning a layout / large diorama based on these very sidings. I think I have amassed pretty much all of the photos on Flickr, Facebook, this wonderful site and others, as well as various maps and other bits of trivia about the place and its surroundings.

Over the last few months, I have created a reasonably detailed 3D Sketchup model of the place as it would have been in late 1980s/early 1990s, mostly for taking modelling measurements in due course, and generally getting the feel for whether a model would fit in the space available in my garage. That was a fun research project - particularly working out the floor plans and layouts of the various trackside buildings.

I don't think I would feel right uploading the various pictures I have culled from other sites (they were taken for my own use) but if you have any requests or questions, I can probably point you in the right direction. 

The Edgar Street sidings are at the other end of the station and were the more substantive sidings back when Hereford was a more significant freight terminal. Now all that remains in active use is the Network Rail depot.

Many thanks all. I shall return to my school days mantra: if in doubt, make it up. Fortunately I'm currently at the '3D model in SketchUp' phase rather than putting knife to plasticard, so can play around until I find something that looks convincing.

Hello all

I am in the middle of researching a diorama being the Dinmore Tunnel (south end) and the first couple of hundred metres of line towards Hereford (past the old Dinmore station). I think I have found virtually every online image of this short section of track.

Anyway - at the southern end of this section of line are a pair of bridges at different levels. There are very few images of these bridges, but here's the best one I found (via Facebook, of all places).

On the other side of the far bridge, there is a footbridge that links a footpath to the old Dinmore station. The footbridge survives - here's the best picture I have of it: 

And from the other angle (1984 shot from Jamerail on Flickr):

As best as I can tell, this bridge must be somehow supported by brackets attached to the side of the bridge. There is no pier in the middle of the river, and the arch of the railway bridge appears to be the width of the track and the side of the track only - i.e. the footbridge doesn't have its own arch, but relies on the main bridge for its support.

Does this sound right? If so, are there any similar examples nearby that I could use as inspiration? Unfortunately I live about 4,000 miles from the bridge so research trips are out for a little while!

Any thoughts gratefully received. And if anyone has ever done the walk and taken meticulous pictures... well you'd be a lifesaver.

My favourite thing about this layout is your ability to plonk something down, having shown us what its constituent parts looked like earlier that day (usually something borrowed from a coffee shop) and then, as if by magic, it looks like it has been there thirty+ years and has become part of the scenery.

Of course, it's not magic, it's modelling talent.

You have absolutely cracked the scrubby, unkempt and natural look that I remember so well from living near Westerham (Otford, in my case). Your ability to turn some pan scrubber and hairspray into something that transports me back there in an instant, and to buzzy summer days in that part of the world, is quite remarkable. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Here's the video.....

 

LNWR Ground Signal

(Sorry the last section is a bit blurred)

 

Steve.

Think your link is wonky there - goes to an edit page, which then directs me back to my own YouTube account page. Think it should go here?

edit: fixed, nothing to see here

Hi Stu, thanks for pointing that out, hopefully it won't be difficult to correct all the best adrian's

To be honest, it's a classic sign writing mistake (you see it quite a lot on builders' signs, I think). Though of course your layout is set in the days of Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic, so even signwriters knew how to spell proper...