Ch4lkst3r

Slow progress, as usual, on the layout due to work etc. Here's a list of what's been going on! Base card for the town area has been put down in the area of the terraced houses. I've done this to provide a nice smooth surface for the roads and also allows me to remove some to provide a void under the buildings to run lighting cables. Spent what seemed a long time watching Chandwell Youtube videos on how to use Inkscape to design roads. Have now managed to sort out the awkward corner junction area and print that out and stick it down. Spent more time playing around with the image for the road off into the horizon in Inkscape and Gimp. That is now stuck on to the backscene. Added the chimney pots onto the low relief buildings and now that the road surface and backscene were in place they have been glued into place. Lighting wires have been run through the baseboard so next job will be to go underneath and connect them all up. Here's a little picture of the buildings, road and added backscene section. The Boots low relief roughly joins up with the Boots on the backscene. It's near enough for me anyway! The rest of the corner junction does look a bit strange at the moment but once the pavements are in it will hopefully make sense!

The roofers have finished and the shopfitters (or should that be pubfitters?) have been in and The Great Eastern pub is nearly open for business. Like the other side of the road the only thing missing is the chimney pots but I'll leave them until later so I have less chance of knocking them off! Now to work out the back gardens etc.

The other side of the road is now nearly done. The roofers are in putting the tiles on. Shopfitters are due soon to put the windows in the pub and then the building for the other side of the first of the town's roads will be done. Once that's done I can finalise that part of the road layout and design the backyards for them to fit. After that it's on to yet more buildings for the main high street of the town. Other tasks are to have a little tidy so that I can run some trains around again!

Work slowly continues on the town scene with the construction of the terraced houses for the opposite side of the road. The finished buildings for the opposite side of the road are now mounted onto the pavement and I've built a little gate between the two sets of terraced houses. The two sets can't be one long row as they'd go over the join in the baseboard and the backscene doesn't have an appropriate image at that point so it seemed easier to cover it with a gate!

Think I've found the answer here (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/19581-hattons-announce-lms-twins/). Looks like the lined green version was only around for a short while in 1956/7. Then they got the large white stripe as per 10001 but without the yellow warning panel till withdrawn in 10000 case. The announcements say that those are the liveries for now so hopefully we'll see the twins released in green with white stripe but no warning panel in a future announcement

Going to have to buy the twins! Quick question for those that know these things. Would 10001 with small yellow panels have run with 10000 in lined green or had 10000 been withdrawn before 10001 was repainted?

Well I've now returned from the land of Oz but not the one with witches and a yellow brick road! Unfortunately a return to modelling was delayed due to me picking up some kind of bug that knocked me about for a couple of weeks but thankfully I'm now over that so can get back to the layout. I've started on finishing the buildings for the town section. First was to build a few more low relief terraced houses followed by a corner shop to end the road previously seen in photos of long ago! These are now pretty much finished although chimney pots need to be added but I'll do those when they are going to be installed to save knocking them off! Photo shows roughly where the new buildings will go. Before they can be permanently fixed I need to add the road and pavement but I need to get a few more buildings built first to finalise the road layout. Next on the build list is the terraced houses on the opposite side of the street. Fortunately now I've built a model shop I won't have to go as far for supplies 😂

Just a bit done on the layout this week. The loop line platform starter bracket signal, complete with a disc signal on the ground for access to the shed headshunt, has been planted and ballasted in. There is a bit of a hump around the base of it as I've had to raise it to give clearance under the bracket. Behind that you'll be able to see the barrow crossings I've installed to give access to the steam shed which will run from the end of the island platform. The island platform will be in the big grey gap in the centre of the photo. The town area has been cleared of tools etc. ready for some planning of buildings. I've got a partial plan of what is going where but there's plenty of buildings to be built for the area. That's all going to have to wait for a few weeks as I'm off on holiday for Christmas!

The diesel shed is in place and blended into the hardstanding which was slightly awkward as the building can still be removed. A couple of lights have been added in front of the shed. One of my recent additions (the lovely class 128 by Revolution - thanks @Revolution Ben) takes fuel alongside the shed. Now that's finished it's onto the town above the retaining wall where all the glue/scatter currently sits!

It's been a quiet couple of months in terms of layout progress. I've been busy with other hobbies and any model railway time has been spent running trains for a bit of a change and to finally get the locos run in. A lot of stock has been in the box since purchased with the exception of a quick test run. Anyway over the last couple of days I've finally got the hard standing for the diesel shed completed and the fuelling point installed. The shed is ready to be placed onto the pins in the hard standing (made from cocktail sticks!) which will hold it in position but enable it to be removed for access. A trip to the Warley show yesterday enabled me to get a few finishing touches for the area.

The work on the diesel sidings continues when time allows. The diesel shed building is now built. The picture below shows it sat on the layout roughly where it will go although the hard standing needs to be put down first before it can be permanently installed. Round the back of the shed I've installed a little pump house along with storage tanks. The plan is to have a couple of tank wagons here as a supply for fuelling the locos. Now to sort out the hard standing and ballasting of the diesel sidings which will complete the whole of Northbridge steam and diesel depot. Then it's on to the rest of the town above the tunnel which I've kind of got planned in my head but if it's like the rest of the layout it will end up nothing like that plan!

Bit of a stretch to get to the late 70s! They're a pair of old Poole Farish ones that I use for clearance testing. The HST from which they came went via ebay a long time ago but kept them for just that purpose.

Well again it's been a while since the last update on activity at Northbridge. That thing called work getting in the way again! Not much has changed since the previous post. The coaling stage has been completed and point levers installed on the tracks behind it. The area for the diesel shed and sidings has been the main area of work. The sidings were laid before but I wasn't happy with how they were looking so they've had a little bit of a re-jig and a pit has been installed on one of the roads. I've also finally got some locos out of their boxes and given them a little run. They're now having a rest in the shed. It highlighted a couple of track issues that weren't there before ballasting/weathering but have thankfully now been resolved. Work continues on the diesel depot and items for that area then there'll be somewhere for the diesels to go!

Hi all. Thanks for the responses. The proposed area is attached to the already build steam shed (pictured below) which also has a coaling stage and turntable etc. My use of the term stabling was probably the wrong word so if I could slightly reword the query for further advice. The area of 3 sidings is linked to the established steam shed so was thinking that they may have built a new diesel shed for the new incoming diesel replacements. Would this have been likely in the early 1960s on the Western Region or would they have been using the steam shed for maintenance etc. Thanks again for your replies

Hi, my layout under construction is based in the early 1960s Western Region somewhere in the Midlands around Birmingham. I've got an area that will consist of 3 sidings for fuelling/stabling my hydraulics. My question is when did BR start building purpose built diesel depot buildings such as the Scalescenes one below? Hope someone might have an idea as to whether this type of building would be prototypical at that time or whether it would be too modern and that the stabling roads would just be plain sidings with some hardstanding. Thanks in advance for any advice

The next update comes a bit quicker this time! Over the weekend the grass has really grown on the ramp to the coaling stage. Just need to add a few bushes to cover up my mistakes like the gap in the wall between the ramp and the coaling stage! Using some bits of rail and after much attacking with grinding wheels and files we now have a dummy catch point at the base of the ramp (awaiting point lever) and a dummy trap point at the exit of the coaling stage/diesel depot roads. The trap point is looking a bit manky at the moment but once it's been weathered up and ballasted I'm hoping that it will look OK. I've also added a zebra crossing to the siding that runs to the buffer stop by the coaling stage. Only joking, it's actually a Dapol easi-shunt magnet with some thin card added on top that once painted up and ballasted will pretty much disappear. In true Blue Peter fashion (the children's TV show not the steam loco!) there's one I made earlier at the top of the ramp at the entrance to the coaling stage (in the first photo) to see what the final result looks like.

Well it's pretty much a month since the last update and it's been slow progress again. July has been a busy month away from the railway with work and breaks away so not much has been happening. However, the coaling stage is now fitted to the layout and the ramp has been built which was a slightly awkward build as it crosses the baseboard join at an angle so wasn't as straight forward as it could have been! Anyway here's a couple of photos showing the coaling stage and ramp. The ramp is a bit steeper than in real life and the photo does make it look steeper still but it's been tested with the 08 pushing 4 wagons up which it managed easily so I'm happy. Ballasting of the track on the ramp and surrounding area is underway and then some grass/bushes need to be added. The area around the buffer stops by the turntable and along the retaining wall has also had some undergrowth added as can be seen in the background. Current to-do list: Finish ballasting around coal stage and add point levers, scenery etc. Build diesel depot. Make dummy trap point.

The coaling stage is now pretty much complete. Just need to add a ladder up to the roof hatch. Might need to do something with the track either side of it too 😂

Not much has happened for the last couple of weeks as I've been away on holidays followed by a week at Worthy Farm. Was meant to post these couple of photos before leaving but didn't get chance. The p-way team have been in to do some ballasting around the turntable. The coaling stage build is coming along. Here it is sat inside my homemade spray-booth (aka a cardboard box with a circle of card for a turntable!) after a coat of protective varnish. I keep the card bits cut out of the windows to be able to put these back over the windows to prevent frosting from the spray. Now I'm back work continues on finishing the coaling stage.

Well it's over 6 weeks since the last update and what's been happening I hear no-one ask 😉. The main reason that I've not posted on here since the last update is that there hasn't been much going on recently due to work, playing trains at 12 inches to the foot at the SVR diesel gala and the recent good weather meaning that I've been getting the outside jobs list sorted! That's the excuses covered so what's actually been going on in Northbridge. Well the arched retaining wall build continued which took a long time due to having to work out how I could build it as it's not a straight line so has 2 places where I had to work out angles and how the wall would join together. Once I'd worked out how it was going to go round the corner towards the tunnel that made me another job! I had intended to leave the tunnel till later but the way the wall was built meant that I had to make the tunnel otherwise I couldn't fix the wall in place and in turn complete the area by the turntable. As the tunnel is on a corner I decided to make life easier by building the tunnel as if it was a modern extension to the old tunnel under the town built as a cut-and-cover type box tunnel due to the track being on a curve. Here's the tunnel pre-cladding in blue brick and before the top was added. A top was added covered in grimy concrete and today finally has seen the retaining wall and tunnel finally in position as shown below. Now you can see the issue with the angles! The track in the foreground by the blue paint brush handle is the diesel shed area but at the moment these sidings are only in a temporary location hence why they are all over the place! The photo also shows the other job I've been doing. I wasn't happy with how the turntable was sitting so high above the baseboard. It's the standard Peco turntable and originally it was sat with the pit lip on top of the baseboard and the track being packed up to get to the height of the table itself. I didn't like this as it put these tracks too high in comparison with nearby tracks, for example, the track at the back by the wall. So I attacked the baseboard to get the pit lower so that the table was at the same height as the rest of the tracks on the layout. Unfortunately, this meant having to remove and reinstall the DCC interface and motor to the turntable and as the tracks had moved slightly it also needed to be re-configured so this all took a while. While the turntable was removed I took the opportunity to give the pit and table a bit of a facelift. Using the wife's Cricut machine I cut 2 rings of 1mm card which I then covered in diamond blue edging stones to go round the top of the Peco pit edge so that the table now sits level with the edging stones rather than being proud of the crazy paving top of the Peco pit. To match the red brick walls were replaced with blue brick and the pit has had some weeds added and the table given a new rather grimy paint job. The handrails still need to be applied but I'm leaving them for now so they don't get damaged whilst working on nearby things. Buffer stops have also now been added to the turntable spurs and the headshunt by the wall. That's you all up to date again! So what's now on the to-do list: Ballast track by retaining wall and around turntable now the wall is finally complete! Build coaling stage and ramp. Build diesel depot and sort out depot sidings. You may have noticed that canal wharf buildings is no longer on the current list of tasks. They still need to be built but as they are at the front of the layout I've moved that task down the queue at the moment! Hopefully now the outside jobs are done things will move on a bit quicker with the layout again and the next update won't be in another 6 weeks!

The main part of the left-hand section of the retaining wall is now in place. It still needs the capping/coping stones and wall on top but that will be done when the rest of the town is done. For a bit of a change I've started on some arched retaining wall sections for the far left. The first section is built but won't be glued in place till I've done the rest.

So here's the latest update on what's been going on for the last couple of weeks. The first of the buildings for the canal wharf has been built. Another Scalescenes building in the form of an industrial warehouse as shown in the photo sitting on the wharf cobbles. It's not in it's final resting place as that will be decided once I've made the rest of the buildings and decided where I like them! It's not sat flat as it's sitting on the wires for the lighting. Most of the station throat trackwork has now been ballasted which has meant that I could install the bracket signal which controls access to the main platform or the bay. I've also put a disc signal at the base of the post for shunt moves into occupied platforms although it's not very visible in the picture as they do kind of blend in with all the trackwork and the ballast! I do think I'm going to have to give the post a little weathering as the white posts are a little too white atm. Here's an overview shot of the right hand baseboard where it's now probably 80% complete. You can see the large area waiting to be filled with various industrial buildings at the front. To the left of the board (where the grey areas are) things are kind of dependent on the left hand board having some work done to it. Where the pot is sat is where the coaling stage ramp needs to be built linking up to the 3-way point by the bent bit of card. Where the screwdriver/spoon sit is the end of the station platforms and the unconnected part of the double slip at the bottom will lead to the bay once I've decided on how the station will look. As the coaling stage, station buildings etc. are on the left-hand board these bits will stay like this for a while especially the station bits as I suspect that's going to be the last bit to do! So as there's stuff waiting on the left-hand board it's time to get things started over there so I can carry out things on multiple fronts. I tend to have a few tasks on the go at the same time so you can leave paint/glue to dry etc. and have something else to do. First job on the left-hand board is yet more retaining wall. I've started with the base for the curved section which I made easier by making a former out of some corrugated cardboard to the curve required before gluing the base parts together. Once the glue was dry the former was removed and the wall was nicely in the correct shape. Final picture shows the curved base part of the retaining wall. The rest of the wall is nice and straight so a lot easier! Once the retaining wall is in situ that will enable me to get on with ballasting the track you can see plus the bits off to the left and the coaling stage (once built) can go into the large grey area. That will enable me to build the ramp and now you can hopefully see where it's all going! Current to-do list: Continue with buildings for canal wharf area. Build retaining wall. Ballast/scenic track in front of retaining wall. Build coaling stage and ramp.

Tom, It's kind of an L shaped layout running along the two sides of the room although most of the one side consists of the fiddle yard. It's made up of 3 boards so it can be broken apart if it needs to be moved in the future. As it's a bit awkward to explain all the different dimensions I hope this crude drawing explains it! There's an overall picture back in the first post of the boards after track laying which hopefully will tie up with this!

It is indeed, especially the jib as you say. The one side came detached from the top on mine when building despite me being extra careful! Fortunately I managed to glue it all back together too!

Work has been rather slow but the crane is now installed at the canal wharf. The first couple of disc signals have also been installed although not photographed.