HeatonLodge40

Likewise I spent a lot of time there as a kid sitting on the embankments. I like working with brass so I’m looking forward to building those lighting towers. I’ve about 30 close ups of them so should be able to copy the basic design. The main challenge will be fitting the lighting banks at the top and making them work (I’m not going to use LED’s - wrong kind of light). Right, back to the fiddle yard

Yes it does - the stock is going to be the biggest outlay after the track & frames. I’m still working on how to get what I’ll need, but to give you an idea to fill HM siding near the shed with full length empty MGR’s and also have enough for 5 empty trains of them in the fiddle yard/scenic side I’m going to need 360 of them (10 x 36)

Thanks the encouragement is very much appreciated. I’ve started so I’ll finish !

Believe me it frightens me sometimes too

For those interested I’ve made the decision to model part of Healey Mills. The fiddle yards in the previous pics will be moved towards the camera by 40ft to provide room for the depot. (Originally this 40ft was just plain linking up track). The yardmasters office on the north bank, the shed itself and fitters shed will all be portrayed together with 3 of the 6 giant lighting towers. I’ll make these towers from brass angle and they’ll scale out at 1.1m high. Basically what you see in the pics (taken from opposite ends) will be modelled. Needless to say although the track will be laid by the layouts first outing, HM itself won’t be complete. I’m planning to use Marcway points for the track formation.

Thanks Andrew for those memories, loads I didn’t know. I caught the 08 many a time travelling towards HM for refuelling. Didn’t realise either those banks had a name! Back in the basement I’ve lost count of the number of droppers I’ve soldered (see pic). The fiddle yards for tracks 1 & 2 are nearing completion. The slightly longer yards for 3 & 4 will then begin.

Meanwhile on the scenic side I’ve just got round to super detailing the ex LNWR lineside hut kit by Intentio models. Originally concrete, this example is typically delapidated with the roof caving in, door hanging off its hinges and the steel reinforcing bars showing

These days I’m spending half my time on the fiddle yard and half on the scenic side. I’ve just finished the latest scenic frame and am awaiting a new batch of 3 on that side. On the fiddle yard side I’ve just been and collected another 15 frames (each 4’long by 5’wide) so plenty to go at now.. At a push I can lay and wire one board a day (with just straight track ) and there are 40 boards in total. Hopefully the whole fiddle yard will be done in 3 months.. Photos show progress and how far to go. I still sometimes walk in and think it would have been easier to model an 8’x4’ branch line station

The fiddle yard cometh.. Exactly a week ago I started on the fiddle yard opposite the scenic section. What you see is the up and down fast lines on the extreme left bypassing the beginning of the 2 fiddle yards for the up & down slow lines. These first 2 yards are a tad shorter at 45ft each. All didn’t go to plan though since I forgot to plan for avoiding points over board sections. This meant with the necessary filling in bits of straight track, I couldn’t fit as many roads in. However it turned out ok as I installed 4 kickback siding just for DMU’s. As each ‘road’ is 34-40ft long and each train has its own ‘road’ to itself makes more sense for the DMU’s to have something more their size. After reading some threads on here I modified the Peco points by cutting the factory wiring joining the frog to the outer rails, (ie totally isolating the frog), connecting the stock rails to each other and soldering a lead to each frog for polarity switching by the cobalt motors. I’m very tempted to make this fiddle yard into a giant TMD but I’d be collecting my pension before finishing that. As you can see by the photos only another 150ft to go

James here you go.. the grass is 12mm noch wildegrass mixed with mini natur 6.5mm late fall.

The other end of the subway - awaiting a few details

Couple more snaps - one of the ingredients

My mini diorama on the latest board isn’t too far off now. I’ve layered the static grass twice then used postiche or hair sprayed with matt varnish before covering with woodland scenics earth blend. This gives a good impression of dense undergrowth and weeds. Other ingredients are crushed sieved earth for the paths and PVA for the static grass base. 08579 was a Healey Mills shunter for years and is built from a MMP kit

Thanks. I do enjoy adding detail, so for the muddy sides of the puddles (up to the footbridge) I used AK interactive aptly named ‘muddy ground’ . The rest of the path is finely sieved ground up earth. Should finish this board in the next two days then it’s over the other side of the basement to crack on with the fiddle yard

Really enjoyed this thread lovely work Simon

Probably suffering from a lack of vitamin D down here in the dungeon - but it’s all good fun. Anyway lots of recent progress ..on the scenic side I’ve almost finished the ‘mini diorama’ comprising the footbridge and subway which also has all the interior detail. Just the fencing and static grass/trees to add now. The large terraced ex LNWR cottages that are also at this location are being constructed by Peter at Kirtley models. Allan Downes had originally made a card template for the front of it based on the pics I’d taken of the real thing. Id love to have a crack at building it myself but just haven’t the time. On the opposite side of the basement the first delivery of Peco track (in the pic) will be enough for about one and a half of the 4 separate fiddle yards, with more boards arriving from White Rose modelworks next week. I’ll begin by soldering droppers to all the points/flexitrack in preparation, and making holes for the Cobalt point motors before I crack on with fiddle yard no 1.

Still on the footpath..it’s quite a muddy old place so I’ve painted 5 or 6 microscope glass slides a muddy greeny brown then glued them shiny side up to the underside of some card which I’ve already cut holes in. Its just a case of filling in the sides of the puddles with clay and you’re left with what will hopefully turn out to be some very realistic muddy patches of water. Tomorrow i’ll finish this path and crack on with infilling all the gaps with polystyrene before giving the lot a coat of brown paint. Then it’s static grass time..

So now I’m back to completing the latest frame which includes the footbridge and subway under the 4 main lines. The footpath up to the footbridge still has some 6ft high spear type fencing probably put in by the LNWR. I couldn’t find anywhere anything that could replicate it in model form so asked PH Designs to come up with an etched kit. Each panel takes half hour to solder but the finished result is well worth it..

Took a couple of days to break down the whole 26 frames and re-align them with a plumb line and laser. I wasn’t happy with a couple of ‘humps’ which could be seen when you look down the 100ft length but re-aligning both vertically and horizontally has sorted these thankfully. At the same time I refitted the signal gantry which had been repaired after damaging it and wired it up. Happy days..

Some very good points there thanks. I shall look into this in much more detail in the next couple of days. Simon

Thanks 26power for that pic..The relay box hut on the right is under construction right now. Bit of a break from modelling last few days to prepare the other side of the mill basement for the imminent arrival of more fiddle yard boards and a truck load of Peco track. I’m going to be doing the fiddle yard in bullhead as Peco don’t offer long crossing in FB. So spent the last few days fitting LED strip lights so I can see what I’m doing. There’s going to be 4 fiddle yards - one for each main line - each with 7 roads. 3 fiddle yards will be 50ft long the 4th 35ft. Decided also that each of the 28 trains will return to the same road in the yard - so no shuffling up of trains to make room for another (and enabling automation if I want to sit with a pint and watch trains going by). It does mean a DMU is going to be lonely in a 30ft road but hey ho. A laser level is turning out to be critical since it struck me a few months ago if the two sides of the rectangle aren’t exactly aligned to the mm - then joining up the layout will be impossible. It’s not like it can be moved easily since when complete it’ll weigh about 5 tons. As an emergency option I think I’ll also have a number of spare frames/boards of between 10cms to a meter long to ‘slot in’ if disaster looms.

Progress continues.. I decided to make the pedestrian subway underneath the 4 tracks completely visible (to see right through) and in doing so created a whole lot of extra work for myself with a multi tool in order to get the flamin subway lining in & avoiding the droppers. Making this tunnel light proof (no light coming through cracks etc) was laborious as was installing the correct corrugated iron lining. However the end of this section is in sight and I’ll be illuminating subway with an interior street type led light. Pics show subway complete with a card frontage of what will be the very first full size building on Heaton Lodge - a set of 3 ex LNWR cottages & a pic of the real location

Thanks for that Steve I will give that a shot. It’s amazing what you find when you initially think you’ve dropped a clanger. I found out by spilling runny superglue it gives a great damp effect on stonework - plus spray matt varnish on top of static grass (instead of more glue) lets you add another layer of static grass, is another. Simon

Bit of a frustrating and head scratching day. The scenery is now dropping below track level constantly on the north side which creates an issue in that the angle of the embankment is such it doesn’t leave any room to clear the snap catches on each end of the frames - that is if I tried to use my usual method of polystyrene. So to get the required strength and clear the catches the next couple of sections I figured I’d make out of aluminium sheet. It seems to work after I cut a card template before using a circular saw to cut the aluminium. If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this project its never pack up before solving a problem. If you do it’s not a good feeling facing it again the next day.

Chinchilla dust plus talc & ash ballast here secured by PVA and matt varnish spray