BobM

Evening all...Hope everyone's had a Happy Easter Sunday...? The wood for the reinforcing batons has been sourced and cut to length, if after a tiring days volunteering at Arley today I wasn't so bushed, I would have screwed these into position this evening, but as it is will probably do this tomorrow evening..... Have a Good Bank Holiday Monday. If you're working like myself then equally have a good Monday! Regards always Bob

Thanks Chris, No I wasn't aware of its function and I therefore believe that it will be superfluous to requirements? Regards always and much appreciated, Bob

Evening my friends, and a Very Happy Easter to all, Have started to make a scan of what we have....and potentially to do cosmetically at least....? Starting at the 'northern (Highley) end....... There appears to be water damage to the landscaping with the polystyrene packing beneath breaking up and perishing........ The rail joints across where the boards join are completely shot and the sections of track will have to be replaced, possibly as a removable pieces to insert to allow for future transportation? The station section requires much cosmetic work.....the station house is exceptionally fragile, I have had to repair sections that have become detached and weakened......I wonder whether painting the whole structure painted with pva glue will bond everything together for its benefit? The chimneys are missing on the station house and bedroom extension and the station canopy is not attached to the building....... The platform also requires cosmetic work, and the road bridge is in a sorry state, the bodywork very fragile indeed, the again missing pieces of 'stonework' from the base and top, I have undertaken immediate repair and inserting (available) missing pieces back into place, and using epoxy glue to strengthen the bond where possible? The Bewdley facing section of the roadbridge, was extremely weak indeed. pieces falling away at the slightest touch, the glue bond degraded to be rendered useless? Have rejoined the available pieces to the bridge where possible and practical and used emergency filler to close the gaps. The southern Bewdley Section requires cosmetic work....and beneath I have some electrical connections, terminal blocks and point motors, the viability of which I am uncertain? There's a great deal to assess, think about and consider, so this will undoubtedly take time, much thought on how to go forwards, what we want to do with the layout and where it'll be stored and potentially operated? Regards always.... Bob

Hi Just to say that the intention next is to strengthen the chipboard edges which are not currently supported to prevent future warping.....I think we may have caught the layout just at the right point in its life, as I am discovering discovering just how much some of the glue holding some of the structures together has degraded the sides of the road bridge in particular requiring strengthening.....but that is part of its charm.... Regards always Bob

A poor quality (due to the bad lighting ) video of the layout as it stands united this evening.... Regards always Bob

Evening guys.... Happy to announce that the three sections of the main layout are now 'one'.....the 'North'/ 'Station' and 'Southern' having been hoisted onto the metal trestles, held in position with 'G' clamps each being held together with joiners on the sides....the next stage will be to insert reinforcing batons beneath to prevent any further warping and then I can assess what needs to be done to make a decision on its 'operational' or 'cosmetic only' future, either partially or fully in all aspects? Will post further news soon... Regards always Bob

Evening guys, We make steady initial progress, four trestles have been assembled and the main station section is now sitting at a workable height, the two end sections require ‘g’ clamping to this to rest securely on the outer trestles when working on them, nice to see the layout becoming rejoined as one entity once more! Will update further as we go along, Regards always Bob

Beautiful thank you Regards Bob

Hi Arley is my second home having been a volunteer there for nearly 20 years now and is a big piece of my life, we do try to keep on top of everything but it gets harder as the station and ourselves age! The layout may regress to the 1930’s as that is the time period of Arley itself? Regards Bob

Hi When I have chance I’ll post an image of the Victoria Bridge section that I have at home, the metal work section is about that length. Maybe we could have a separate project to build ‘Vicky’ alongside the layout rebuilding and then ‘marry’ the two together later, need to concentrate thoughts and resources on the latter first perhaps? Regards always Bob

Hi Using metal trestles was the easiest and most straightforward way of supporting the layout in my spare room I could come up with and as you mentioned it will also be ideal for when we can have it out on display somewhere when repaired? Cheers for your kind comments Regards always Bob

Have built one of the three trestles destined to be the supports and on first impressions these seem just the job Regards always Bob

Hopefully yes that'll be something which we can pick up and run with later...we'll keep all of John's pieces of lovely work for just then...the woodwork may not survive but the partially built bridge will be retained. Regards always Bob

Hi. Just, that I must apologise most sincerely for the state of the spare bedroom in this evenings posted video..... I took custodianship of this layout at very short notice as we needed to keep it safe and secure immediately as there wasn't a suitable site on the station or railway so having ferried it over here to home, the room had to be quickly rearranged, including the dismantling of the bed!, which is now propped up against the wall...! Good job I can and do sleep in 'the box room'....the things we do eh? Regards always Bob

Thank you my friend..... I hope that you can begin your Arley based layout soon,,,, don't hesitate to ask if there is anything you wish photographing at Arley, I will gladly assist in this manner if required. I hope that I have the artistic ability and knowledge to carry this through..... Regards always Bob

Evening my friends, hope all are keeping well...? Updating you good guys into what has happened this evening......taking advantage of the dry and thankfully warmer evening to work outside on the plan to shorten the Southern section of the layout, dispensing with for at the moment the approach to what would have been Victoria Bridge on John's original plan for the layout.....so after the water damaged ground matting and track, cut through the chipboard baseboard to remove. The overall length of all the sections, now makes the layout end to end (without cassette) 156" or just shy of 13'....it is a good job that either the layout isn't longer or the bedroom shorter otherwise it wouldn't fit in the space available....! The next job is to construct the trestles I have and purchase further for supporting the whole thing, before I move onto an assessment of the layout. Regards always Bob

Hi Guys Initial thoughts are that for some time and maybe forever, we will have to jettison any plan to build the Victoria Bridge section that John had begun, concentrating all our efforts on restoring and repairing the damaged sections of the station and the approaches, shortening the southern section considerably for ease of storage and future operation, which we hope will be cassette method.....failing this due to funding, time and resources we may have to 'comfort' and content ourselves with a 'cosmetic and static' display, with a hint that we may timeline ourselves to the mid-1930's? The track and some of the points overlapping the board joints are damaged and will have to be repaired or replaced. On first look, we do have point motors and need to inspect any wiring that remains. All this will become clearer when we can get them up on the trestles and have a look underneath easily. Will keep you posted folks..... Regards always Bob

Hi Just for info these are the three intact sections we have to work with.... Firstly what we will catalogue from hereon in as Arley North (the approach from Bridgnorth) secondly (the approach from the Bewdley direction ) Arley South and finally The Station Section - Regards always Bob

Hello and welcome to a long term project...... As some of you may know, if you are familiar with the 'Cambrian Street' topic here on RMWeb and the layout that I have been slowly constructing over the last few years I am also a volunteer at Arley Station on the Severn Valley Railway? On many occasions as a station, we are greatly appreciative when we are donated railway themed items of all types and sizes, all of these put to good use for the benefit of the station, our passengers, visitors and the SVR as a whole. Recently we have become custodians of something very special and specific to Arley Station. Earlier this month, the family of the late Leslie John Smith (always known affectionately as 'John') approached us to inquire whether we as 'a station' would like to have something that was very special to John and epitomised his love for the Severn Valley Railway, steam locomotion and the environs surrounding Arley? John had put many hours of loving work into building a 00 layout themed in particular on Arley and its approaches, together with starting work on Victoria Bridge just to the south, the station environs complete the latter in its early stages of building. We gratefully accepted the families offer and arrangements were made to transport this layout over the station. The station section of the layout consists of three main sections, suffering sadly from some damage over recent years, requiring some major restoration work, and investigation to assess its operational viability. Although the basic structure is sound it will require strengthening to secure its immediate future and then we can move on to an initial cosmetic restoration for hopeful display at the station on special days perhaps and potential return to fully operational state once the electrics are safe and reinstalled. As storage space is limited on the station site, the layout is has been ferried over to, (and is now safely stored here at) my home for the moment, where the intention is to get it up on to trestle supports so that we can get it up to a workable height, for all the necessary and immediately required TLC work to commence easily. We'll endeavour to retain as much of John's work and artistry as possible during the restoration process, perhaps adding one or two features which will hopefully enhance the fine work that the layout already possesses. This restoration is going undoubtedly to take quite a time, so postings may be intermittent? Regards always Bob

Hi All Had a splendid day at the NRM yesterday.... Regards always Bob

Thanks Lez, I'll let the 'dust settle' to see how things go, I'm planning to upload images of what I have and take it from there.....? At least loosing some of the images will hide many mistakes I've made eh?....😉 Bob

Evening all... Hope all are well? Just a thought on the way ahead following the loss of much of the visual record of building Cambrian Street, rebuilding the imagery would take an awfully long time but is possible as all the images are stored on a cloud drive and there for rebuilding, however doing so would be a diversion from advancing the layout, so will be done slowly and overtime. What I will do is post images of the sections on the layout as they stand now for a base start for the future....hope that makes sense? Regards always, stay safe.... Bob

Happy April Guys....... Hope to start posting updates on Cambrian Street again soon...... Regards always Bob