HeatonLodge40

I did try painting the whole length then cutting it up but by the time I'd touched in the ends where the cut had exposed the unpainted part I thought might as well go back to plan A! It's like you with roof tiles too, unless you lay them individually I don't think it's possible to get that random realistic effect. Like I said I'll be at the Docs next week for the OCD treatment

Forgot the last touch.. Brush dark grey or black weathering powder on the top of the concrete to tone it down. Finally re. The first pic. I experimented with trying to speed up this procedure (given I've almost 500ft to lay of concrete trunking-yes I've had to buy a lorry load of evergreen channel 7.2mm) by laying 3 wires the full length of the board ie 4ft first. Then covering the 'cables' with the painted trunking. This has the advantage of simply missing out sections knowing the cabling is already there and just like the prototype there is in fact cables under all the trunking not just in sections for show! As it turns out once I'd mucked about getting the 3 cables arrow straight over 4ft I might as well have stuck with the first method. Oh well. Seemed a good idea at the time.

While I'm on here and not in the garage for a change I had a few people ask about laying realistic concrete trunking complete with exposed cables. As Allan will say there is no substitute for laying individual roof tiles to achieve that superb realistic effect, concrete trunking is often neglected and gives a model a real boost if a bit of time is taken laying it. BR used concrete sections 3ft long although it varied being up to 5ft occasionally. It was about a foot wide and concealed varying amounts of cable. After a few years some of the concrete lids invariably broke leaving the cabling exposed which then filled with dead leaves. To mimic the shape of the trunking I found Evergreen styrene channel best for this. In 7mm scale there is one that is a scale 7.2mm wide - perfect. In 4mm you will need something about half that width obviously. I start by cutting the channel into roughly 2cm lengths. Once I've a tub full I'll spray them with good old Halfords primer before using Precision paints weathered concrete on them to finish.. Immediately after painting I sprinkle on talc to give that rough effect concrete has. I'll then simply superglue direct to the board maybe 5 or 6 lengths to the board before turning say the next two upside down. Into this I'll 'lay' 3 lengths of standard layout wire - 2 black and 1 red in the middle. Continue again with the channel normal way around for another 7/8 sections before repeating the above process again supergluing the 3 lengths of cable inside. I also buy Evergreen styrene plain lengths also 7.2mm wide and using the same painting process superglue 2cm lengths on top of the exposed cable at all sorts of weird angles. Some I break in two and glue in the two halfs. Don't worry about your length of trunking being straight either. I soon gave up using a long metal ruler when on studying more pics of the location the concrete trunking was all over the place! It takes me about 90 mins to do 4ft of trunking including exposed cables and broken lids. Here's some pics..

Giles- yes I've heard much about the Polak range but never been able to get my hands on any of their stuff. I'll be over to Pickering when it opens Ben, the wet effect on stonework came about by accident when I spilt superglue down part of the wall. I realised next day it dries with a wet effect so then coated all the corners and inside the bridge with half a bottle of the stuff! Add AK interactive slimy green or model mates moss green and the effect is complete. Looks great on retaining walls and platform sides too..

Cathedrals? I'll leave those to you. Haven't the foggiest mate!

Now this is the critical stage that lots miss. Either.. Get some soil from the garden, bake it in the oven till dry then crush or sieve it till extra fine. Or get some of Treemendus' earth powder and liberally sprinkle it all over the grass. It immediately gives it that authentic matt look. Next get the vac out and pass the nozzle close to encourage the grass to stand on end even more. Almost there now.. Liberally spray Matt varnish all over the grass. Before it dries I use woodland scenic blended turf earth blend and drop it randomly here and there to mimic weeds. Finally.. Rough grass is different lengths so to replicate this spray more Matt varnish in random places before going over these patches with the static grass gun again. Give the whole lot more Matt varnish and we're done. Four foot of embankment not including carving (which is about an hour) and overnight drying time for the plaster is 1 hour and 10 mins. Beats a grass mat!

Static grass machines..given I'm doing a huge amount I needed a powerful one but that's not to demean the others available. Mine is the RTS Greenkeeper from Germany and it's very good. On with the blend..

Then on with the static grass blend. I spent literally weeks of using various mixes to get the basic final blend for Heaton Lodge. It's 60% Mini Natur Late Fall 6.5mm and 40% Noch wildegrass beige in 12mm. Mini Natur is tough to get readily in the UK but it's first class stuff. I go to their German website and order in direct..

Ah sorry upside down but you get the drift. The walls are plaster cast from 10 commandments and using a hot glue gun glued straight onto the polystyrene. Then given a wash of dirty grey watercolours. Doesn't matter if the plaster hasn't fully set next on goes the PVA glue for the grass. I've tried all the static grass glues and to be honest PVA works just as well for me

My banks are simply expanded polystyrene sheets glued with no more nails type glue leaving a square block about 9-12'' high. It's possible to use the old bread knife but an industrial hot knife that cuts/carves about a metre at a time is a good investment if your layout is large. Once the banks are carved to shape I use B&Q's ready mixed filler/plaster to coat the entire embankment. Once this is done I'll nab yet more pebbles from the garden path and press into the plaster. Leave to dry.

Cheers Allan. I wouldn't say there's any revolutionary techniques involved but if anyone's interested I'll explain now the materials/techniques to achieve that Wintry rough embankment. That said, if Heaton Lodge had been modelled in Summer I'd have still used the blend of grass I use. It's easy to fall into the trap of green grass as it rarely actually is. Have to say Giles video's on here about static grass really helped a couple of years ago. However.. In the formation of the banks themselves given there is 100 metres it had to be a quick and easy method that gives outstanding result (Allan I took your advice that speed is crucial here). This bank below from carving the polystyrene to this took less than 1 hour which doesn't include waiting overnight for the ready mix plaster to set..its easy to do and gives great results.

One of my favourite pics from the late '60's and before the 1970 remodelling is of a TransPennine DMU about to pass under Woodend Bridge on route to Leeds (courtesy Neil Harvey)

The length of the four tracks from the bridge to the junction seen in the distance scales to almost exactly 40ft in 7mm. This is where we are now - the junction is being constructed by Norman Saunders as we speak. Then it'll all come to me for the scenery. What's impressive to me is Norman has even obtained the drawing for the point motors from Westinghouse (-now Siemens) to make a truly accurate model of the motor housing. The junction here features working cranks on the pointwork and the double junction is over 3 boards - 12ft! I must make an appointment to see my GP for the OCD

Allan - very true about the cutting, the odd thing is the height of the banks seems to have decreased even over the last 30 years. But the work that went into them in the 1840's must have been huge. Originally there were only the two lines of the L&Y the LNWR lines added a few years later. If I'm honest the bank on the North side of the model (where the road is) is a little higher than it should be. But it gives it a bit more drama! Here's the location in a couple of different era's - in the steam pic the girder bridge taking the New Line to Leeds veers away North. Nowadays the bridge and line has gone of course apart from the first mile or so which is now realigned to make the 1970 junction using the original dive under tunnels.. Both these photo's taken from Woodend Bridge carrying the original access road to Mirfield Shed..

Well Allan without your advice and encouragement there is no doubt the project wouldn't have got off the ground as smoothly as it has..Wait while we get to the two huge bridges over the Calder you built

Of course. It will go in size wise. If I was asked of course

Sorry Allan I know covering your bridges with DAS and carving them is a bit like telling RA Riddles his 9F's were cr#p! To answer the questions, and thanks for the kind words, the layout will be going to exhibitions and is tailor made to fit inside a 40ft artic. Fortunately my business runs a few and I've an HGV Class 1 license so will be driving it! Exhibitions - 55m sounds big and is of course but it'll go into Doncaster, NEC will swallow it up and a few more surprisingly. I'm not doing this hoping for costs back I'll gladly take it where it'll fit. It will be housed in an industrial unit when not at exhibitions and I'm hoping to make it available there for as many that wish to see it at that location too. Simon

Few more including techniques I'm using to mimic the cables in the concrete trunking, me at the real location aged about 13 and more detail pics..

Since this months BRM magazine has given the ongoing construction of Heaton Lodge an airing I thought if there was any interest I'd update progress here every few weeks. For those who haven't read the mag Heaton Lodge Junction is situated just West of Mirfield in West Yorks and is where the L&Y's Calder Valley & LNWR's Leeds to Huddersfield lines converge. From 1900 it's also where the LNWR's 'New Line' - a completely new route to Leeds began. In 1970 BR completely remodelled the junction, getting rid of the L&Y's lovely box, replacing the existing semaphore and ex LMS unique 'speed' signals with colour lights controlled by Healey Mills power box some 8 miles away. BR also utilised the first mile or so of the now closed 'New Line' and where the track had originally veered North after burrowing under the CV line it was reconfigured to meet with it thereby creating a non conflicting junction which replaced the original flat crossing. My interest in this location is personal as I spent about 3 years of Christmas and Summer holidays here spotting from about 12. I'd always harboured a desire to model the location and originally planned to do it in EM or P4 but settled on 7mm for a few reasons especially since Heljan are manufacturing loco's and rolling stock that exactly fits in this era. The model is 1.3 scale miles in 7mm set in the winter sometime between 1982-5 and works out at 160ft (55m) viewing area or 180ft including the covered curves at each end. The gradient of 1:137 is also being worked into the model meaning over the 160ft the track rises about a foot or so. It's a continuous run with a fiddle yard around 150ft long and 14 odd storage siding. About 40 odd 4ft X 4'6'' frames incorporating the track modules have already been manufactured by White Rose model works up in Bedale. Norman Saunders is the track builder whose using Peco concrete sleepers and flat bottom rail and C&L ballast to get the correct effect. Allan Downes has built the many bridges and tunnel mouths although I've covered his stonework in DAS and carved it to achieve the look of the dirty sandstone common at the location. To be candid I knew unless I spent much time practicing, given I wanted to construct all the scenery myself I was never going to be near to the standard of the above master craftsman so have spent the last couple of years practising static grass techniques, road making and fence/wall construction on about 40 odd mock polystyrene embankments to get near the right 'look' of HL in the winter. I'm a bit of a detail freak so I'm hoping the level of detail on the model will be high but I'll let you be the judge of that from the following photos. From the 40 plus boards in total down the viewing side I've finished 9 as of now. I'm finishing around 3 a month currently so the model is on schedule to be finished end of next year.. Be happy to explain techniques I've used on to get the Winter look of course.. Apologies for rabbiting on..here's some pics..

A pic of Woodend Road that runs for about 30ft parallel to the main line and where I used to walk along to get to the bridge..

Thank you Allan for your kind comments - coming from the master that's praise indeed! Thanks also to everyone else whose offered some positive feedback it's much appreciated. There's a couple of reasons why I've not started a thread on Heaton Lodge..the first being BRM are giving a taster later this month. The second is we all know how many epics get announced and never get completed. Heaton Lodge won't fall into that category. As some may know I spent many months as a child at HL so the place as it was in the early '80's is a special place for me. Allan's right in that I don't do things by halves and the idea of a exact scale replica in 7mm has been at the back of my mind for at least a decade. Of course 1.5 miles in O gauge is a big project and it would look pretty dire if it wasn't to a very high standard. To they end after 4 years of research there's some talented individuals working as we speak on HL. However since I wanted to complete the scenery side I had couldn't let the side down given I'd never even completed a layout myself.! So it's taken 2 years of constant practise on over 40 practise embankments made from polystyrene, complete with over 70 different mixes of static grass and layering techniques to achieve that typical British winters look and get the colours as near to original. Much of the techniques I've used are modified versions of Gordon Gravett's especially the roads which in my opinion don't get enough attention on a model. Worth mentioning HL isn't just 4 straight tracks for 180ft. There are two huge double junctions, a 40ft gradient to two single bore tunnels and some sweeping curves for the line going South to Huddersfield. Currently 4x 4ftx4'6'' fully completed boards are being finished per month and I'm now working on boards 9 & 10 out of the 44 that run down the public viewing side. There will be a few other things that break the mould hopefully regarding exhibiting HL. I'll include this and more in a new thread I'll begin next month if anyone's interested. Anyway.. Sorry for gate crashing your thread Allan Simon G

York ModelMaking happen to do an exact kit in 7mm of the footbridge in question Pete. Simon