HeatonLodge40

Bit of scouting around the country for temporary locations for HLJ to reside in whilst ‘on tour’, has meant I’ve dropped back schedule wise this last week.

However, I’m on the last lap of the scenic section before embarking on the triangular section (the Huddersfield lines) before long.

The second (Allan Downes built) derelict mill is next on the list. This frame and the one before with the rail over bridge have had walls & fences added. The Ten Commandments stonecast walls I’ve cut down to represent the tumbledown stone normally seen. Getting them to follow contours in landscape is difficult so I resort to snapping them into pieces before reconstructing them over mounds etc.

One of the other features will eventually be a haulage yard with 15 or so truck trailers from a company called Pattersons. They operated road tankers for food stuffs, and for a while used the old steam shed at Mirfield. 
After spending hours last year trawling the internet for a suitable 1:43 road tanker I eventually got 15 direct from IXO - a Spanish company that makes exquisite O gauge models.
 

Unfortunately these model road tankers are 1990’s era with 3 axles so I’ve just spent the last hour with a slitting disc cutting out one axle and shortening the mudguards as a trial. I’ll repaint these in Pattersons colours when I’ve time and add a bit of detail. 

Pictured is a (crap) photo of one of the original Pattersons road tankers and another pic of my butchery on one of the lovely IXO models.

Finally a pic by Terry Jamieson shows an MGR train heading under Woodend Bridge in the mid ‘80’s. Ref an earlier conversation on here, the coal is indeed like dust.

My pic (with no train sadly) is the same view from the same bridge 

As an aside, the face of my cat Wizardora when I explained I was going to extend the river 

And the basically finished field and embankment.

Lots of detail yet to add such as grates and drain covers in the road, couple of street lights in the adjoining road, bit more fence and lots of mud and puddles.Going back to the new frames on the left and the view from here shows just how far away the trains will be spotted appearing under the bridge.

As I mentioned the two lower tracks join the two higher tracks at the same level around 10m further on..

The backscene will curve past this bridge and join with the bridge on the right at the end.

What to fill in the middle? I might even extend the river  

Dried out dead leaves go into the magimix followed by the coffee grinder. The resulting powder is sieved onto the dolls hair..Heres the result of a lot of coated dolls hair..And a lighter covering 

Here’s a step by step of the embankment coverage..

4.5mm & 6mm mini natur & noch grass mixed in a magimax prior to being laid.

First layer straight onto neat PVA. The tufts are made by a hand held vac nozzle just touching the wet grassA heavy sprinkling of crushed earth..Second layer laid onto sprayed matt varnish Dolls hair also known as canopy or posticheTeased out and laid on top of the grass after being heavily covered with spray matt varnish 

Afternoon folks once again thanks for the interest. 
Had a few days up at Dent again watching the Staycation Express rumbling past every couple hours. Great to see the large logo 47 ‘Galloway Princess’ & the green 37 at each end..

Anyway this week Tim Horn kindly delivered another batch of (very complicated) frames to form the first part of the Huddersfield line on two levels.

As many will know the dive under line & the two tracks above it eventually meet at Heaton Lodge South junction half a mile further on.

Believe it or not I’m actually short of space so I plan to bring the road bridge at Heaton Lodge South junction forward a touch - this also being the third and final scenic break.
 

That, as I envisaged, also means I will still have a hefty triangular gap where the top level Huddersfield line diverges.

Its dawning on me just what a superb view this is going to provide since this superelevated curve is on a 40’ radius for 5 metres or so. 
However I’ve still got a lot of complicated removable scenery to make in ‘the gap’ as well as working out how to fill the rest.

I’ll probably end up constructing a trolley made from aluminium square tube with castors on and build scenery on top of it.

If this scenery is triangular in shape the trolley will wheel in to plug this gap. 
 

Today I’ve finished another load of static grass to cover the embankment and surrounding ground.

I’ve used a heck of a load of postiche (dolls hair) here to give the impression of thick brambles which ironically totally cover the painstakingly made stone work and fences of the nearby road under bridge.

view looking east of the new stretch of line..View looking west 

Additional pics of the dive under surrounding scenery & the prototype pre painted taupaulin..

Lots done this past week - I try and vary the work so it doesn’t become repetitive..

First up is the finished dive under tunnels complete with fully removable roof.
The rough ground both on the top and next to the dive under walls have had multiple layers of static grass and ‘canopy’ (basically dolls hair) layered to create depth. Finished off with large trees and some seafoam bushes sprayed with varnish and sprinkled with ground up dead leaves.

The sewerage farm is progressing with a resin pour in two of the circular tanks. However disaster struck with the smaller one - the resin reacted with something - still don’t know what, and once dried left an ‘interesting’ effect I wasn’t expecting. 
On closer inspection it reminds me of some sort of whirlpool so I’m going to keep it! 

The scratchbuilt gates now have the Yorkshire Water logo although this is too modern - in the 1980’s it was a white rose. Pinning a copy of this down is proving difficult.

The first 50ft of the model has now had the backscene boards added which even bare, is a big improvement. I’ve also fitted the black banners underneath (instead of curtains). 
I was persuaded that having the ‘80’s logo ‘This is the age of the Train’ printed on the banners complete with Jimmy Savile probably wasn’t a good idea.

The second mill has had fencing added and dirt roads constructed. Still a lot of work to do on this yet.

Finally I’m trying to create a realistic taupaulin over one of the Cargowaggen loads. Layered tissue paper laid on the load before being soaked in diluted PVA is looking promising. After painting the ‘taupaulin’ and throwing a couple of miniature chains over it it should look pretty good..

Well I am touched Simon thanks again!

I might have a pint of Colron Dye in honour of Mr Downes 

The first loaded Cargowaggens are rolling out of the workshop. 
Given the amount of plastic rod & ‘I Beam’ bar I need to fill 25, I acquired it in 3m sections from The Plastic Shop (online). 
After cutting to fit and priming they are sprayed with a variety of steel shades and secured with fine chain from Cambrian models. 
The wooden stakes to separate the beams are thin plastic rod painted with Lifecolor wood colours.

I’m amazed just how impressive these Cargowaggens look once loaded. Rear working brake lamp is Dapol.

15 of these should look fantastic growling up the bank with two 37’s at the front

On a final note I thought I’d been clever in locating a large amount of ultra fine chain to secure the steel loads I’m making to fit the Heljan Cargowaggens.

So this turned up in the post today. 

And the brake lamp fitted Wagons..

This last week I’ve been completing the lift out section for the dive under, and adding high security fencing on both the second old mill & the sewerage plant.

Its fiddly and painstaking the latter job, but does look good. The gates I had to scratchbuild from brass and these await some more detailing.
 

I’m grassing the sewerage farm a bit later - certainly with a bit greener grass given what’s in the tanks.

Also awaiting some ‘Yorkshire Water’ transfers for the fencing.

On another subject I’ve begun fitting the final wagon in each train with a BR era working brake lamp.

Dapol do a lovely O gauge one which I’ve powered with a CR2032 watch battery. This and the on/off switch I’ve hot glued underneath the wagons. 
They are too bright just wired with no resistor so experimented with a few different sizes until I found a resistor that dimmed the light a touch.

Next week I’m going to fit a Magnorail system in the far edge of the last few frames to add some interest.

For those who haven’t seen it it’s a moving bicycle complete with cyclist.

Whilst it’s HO it should give some perspective from a distance and I’ll be modifying both cycle & cyclist to fit in with HLJ.
I’m planning to make the whole system about 4m long and have it self contained within it’s own removable ‘tray’ in case it doesn’t turn out how I want it.

On the same note progress is being made on a modified track worker who lifts his arm to acknowledge a horn from a passing train. All good fun.Space here for the moving cyclist system..The sewerage farm is coming on

Finally for this week the rail ‘over bridge’. This had slipped my mind until I realised the sewerage works had no access then checked the photos.
Worst thing about creating an unplanned bridge is the amount of ply cutting needed. Thank goodness for multitools.
I’ve used Peco OO gauge girders with added rivet and steel sections. Measuring them they seem a good size for small prototype bow girder bridges. 
After priming the girders with the usual Halfords rattle cans I’ve sprayed them a dark rust colour with an airbrush. One coat of AK interactive ‘heavy chipping’ fluid later and then on with an acrylic rail grey. 
The satisfying bit comes next with using some cotton buds dipped in water to rub away the acrylic grey to reveal the rust. Easy to overdo it though so careful. But the result is a chipped and worn girder.

The interior walls are plywood with ‘stone’ sheets from Slaters.
I also wanted to light this tunnel so used a pair of OO modern image streetlights extended with brass tube. A sod to fit from underneath I hot glued them into place after weathering them (not that you can see it). 
Since they had bright white LED’s I dabbed a spot of yellow paint on the lenses which results in a nice yellowy 1980’s glow. These will work off a separate 6v supply. 
The huge coping stones are plywood cut into sections then sanded to form the ends. Most of these will be covered over when painted anyway.

Nearby roads await grates, manhole covers and detailing.
 

I’m doing all the boring civil engineering work on these remaining frames before detailing the whole lot in one go..

From now on until the end of this project I’ll be updating on a Friday.

Apart from anything else it gives me motivation to crack on.

This week I’ve been working on 3 areas. Mostly one handed I might add as the circular saw kicked back last week and badly gashed my hand. Oops. A load of stitches and cursing later I’m back on it. However the Doctor in A&E follows this thread (as it turns out) so if he’s reading this cheers for patching me up.

First up is the Dive Under. Situated on the final frame I’m working on this is the best part of 3 metres long and consists of two separate single tunnels (the construction of the portals of which I’ve covered earlier).
 

Given the tunnels length I needed to construct a removable roof and make these tunnels completely ‘light proof’ - as I want to see the trains appearing out of the gloom.

All this and the lining of the tunnels, ballasting for the first meter, and laying & super elevating the track even tho it’s out of sight has been a ton of work - especially since I’ve had to work from underneath the two tracks running above. One handed

Plugging the gaps which let light in with foam board, clay and card is now complete and the roof now fits like a glove. Here’s some pics..Aluminium bar cut & hot glued in to support the floor.Heck of a lot of foam board, ply and card goes in before the tunnel lining is installed Foam board sides supported by ply. The only ply I had to hand was too thick to bend so this worked wellRoof cut from foam board to form a template. I’ll carry this over to the friendly circular saw which will cut the ply to the same shape.Out with the foam board and on with the ply. The edges have slices of card here and there to plug the light gaps.A gloomy interior beckons.. just what I’m after

Friday update..

Ref the backscene I’m using Dibond sheet which is a semi flexible plastic with thin aluminium sandwiched between.
Had a helpful fabricator make me up some laser cut aluminium brackets which allow the sheets to sit 50cms from the edge of the frames. The gap will allow me to build in some more scenery with fading perspective.
Even without the backscene and just the plain white sheets the improvement is there to see.

The sewerage works is coming on nicely. It looks a bit rough and ready here but the basics are in place. The filtration booms were an absolute sod to make, never again.

Plan is to finish the sewerage works by the end of the month and quickly tie up the remaining bits inbetween.

With the river banks just having the static grass & frost treatment I thought I’d post a few more pics of the (almost) finished last two frames before the scenic break.

I scratchbuilt from brass another 5 derelict relay boxes and gave them some heavy rust treatment. 
The Absolute Aspects redundant colour light signal has had similar treatment and will be planted horizontally in the ballast soon enough.

I know this signal should really be a semaphore post but this last frame as I’ve mentioned has a fictitious element to it. Besides I reckon any semaphore would have found it’s way into someone’s garden  
 

With just four frames to go these will feature the filter beds from the sewerage works. 
Once the last frames from Tim Horn are dropped off to complete the middle curves (the Huddersfield route see track diagram above) I’ll figure out how to make the backscene wrap around this bit..