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awoodford

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  1. awoodford
    Replacement Windows
    The layout is now in its final stages of construction. For the past two years it has endured cardboard mock-ups for the windows which seperate each of the scenes. Now that the scenery is all but complete, I've finally been able to determine the exact size required for the windows and replace them. Here is an overall view of the layout without its windows, now moved to a corner of the spare bedroom....

     
    ...and here it is with the new windows in place, and lighting on...

     
    The window boards were cut from 4mm ply and just slot into place along the front of the layout, so they can easily be removed for better access to the inside. The 'mouseholes' give the operator sight-lines for checking points and sector plate.
     
    Pressing the Pause button
    In the introductory post, 10 months ago, it was explained that the main purpose of the blog was to give me the impetus to get on with the layout (which was wallowing in the doldrums at the time). Having committed myself to writing an update each month, I then felt obliged to make continuing visible progress. The plan seems to have worked, as I'm sure the layout would not have got to this stage by now without that pressure. There are still a few outstanding jobs (the most notable being replacement of the couplings), but none that really deserve a blog post of their own. For that reason I'll no longer be updating this blog on a regular basis, though I might add the occasional post if anything significant happens.
     
    The 'daily goods' will still continue to be operated, while I move on to other, unrelated, construction projects. However I've not finished with the Tweedale theme yet, and will likely return to it in the not too distant future, at which time the blog will no doubt be resurrected.
     
    I'd like to thank all who have taken an interest in the project, especially those who have posted comments and 'likes'. They've been much appreciated.
     
    I'll leave you with final shots of each of the four scenes.
     
    Grimley and Slaghill...

     
    The Pits...

     
    Poshington-Upon-Twee...

     
    Dale End...

     
    Best wishes, Alan.
  2. awoodford
    I wasn't so happy with how the industrial scene was coming together. It just wasn't as blatantly industrial as I wanted. So I've added an extra elevated track through the middle of the scene - the Slaghill Avoiding Line. Why anyone would want to avoid Slaghill I can't imagine, but it does at least have the effect of enclosing things a bit more.
     

     
    This is just a dummy track, and is there purely for looks, though I suppose it could be used to store or display spare rolling stock.
     

     
    The new viaduct does rather cut the scene in half from top to bottom, so its not ideal, but on the whole I think I prefer it to previously. Construction consisted of a plywood track base, with cardboard plate girder sides, paper tube supporting pillars, and Plastruct truss between the pillars, all painted with Humbrol matt enamels. It has ploughed through the middle of Slagaloid's chemical works at the right, burying or scattering parts to other areas of the layout - a couple of the tanks have now ended up at a paint factory in Grimley. The station at Slaghill is now tucked away at the left and can only be glimpsed beneath the girders. Thank goodness for auto-couplers! The whole elevated line is in one piece and removable, as is the overall roof at Slaghill station, which allows access for track cleaning at the back.
     

     
    With the end in sight for the layout's scenic work, I've been rushing things a bit, so the latest buildings in the low-level Grimley area have been even more 'thrown together' than before. The station building in the foreground was originally intended to be from a Selsey Tramway prototype, but in the end I just couldn't be bothered, so all they have now is a bus shelter. The conveyer at the left of the platform came from a cement works in Bangladesh (courtesy Google Maps), except the sign there said Welcome to Chittagong. As the grand entrance to a city it quite appealed to me. The ramshackle workshops at the back of Grimley also came from a waterfront in Chittagong. I find Google Maps to be a great source of inspiration, especially some of the developing countries, where areas can still be found that are reminiscent of this country in the sixties.
     

     
    Thanks for looking, Alan.
  3. awoodford
    Development of the industrial scene has continued during the past month. The chemical works at Slaghill is now complete, and a start has been made on the lower level Grimley area. The staple diet of Tweedalers is pie and peas, and the demand is met in part by Grossman's of Grimley, whose abattoir, tannery, glue and pie factory is a major industry in the town. It has been allocated 2 siding spots out of the 6 available at Grimley, and has its own loading/unloading platform. Inward traffic comprises livestock from Upper Tweedale (Dale End and The Pits), and chemicals for the tannery from Slaghill. Outward traffic consists of regular van loads of pies for the cafe and restaurant owners' cartel in Poshington-Upon-Twee. Waste material is sent as animal feed to Upper Tweedale (this is the 50/60s before it turned cows mad), and to the chemical works at Slaghill where it is used in cosmetics. Malodorous liquid wastes pour straight from a pipe into Grimley Drain, which passes through the middle of the factory site and under the railway. The factory itself consists of a jumble of buildings that climb up to the right and act as a view blocker to the adjacent scene.
     

    Slagaloid's chemical works at Slaghill
     

    Grossman's factory at Grimley
     
    The Grossmans sign at the right was printed in greyscale using a B/W laser printer at the local library, then carefully coloured in with paint by hand. I'm a bit wary of the lightfastness of colour printers, so prefer that method. I once tried printing brickpaper with a colour printer, and left a sample in sunlight with a sample of Superquick brickpaper. While the Superquick just faded a bit, the sample from the colour printer turned green. OK, so that is rather an extreem test, the layout doesn't live in full sunlight, but it still put me off using colour printers. I have to say, that test was done a long time ago, and things have no doubt improved since then... I believe you can get 'archival' inks for computer printers these days that are lightfast.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  4. awoodford
    Slaghill is dominated by steel and chemical industries, which provide plenty of varied traffic for the Tweedale Railway. However it became apparent early on that there wouldn't be enough room on the layout for loading and unloading facilities for them. So it was decided to make them into 'phantom industries', situated just off the layout and supposedly fed from extensions of the two sidings. In reality the sidings just fizzle out behind buildings. Wagons for the steel works are left in the station platform. To maximise operation they are shunted into a particular order, as specified on a destination list (coking plant, ore, lime, and scrap stockpiles, rolling mill, etc). It is assumed the wagons are moved along to the appropriate loading/unloading spots and returned, magically, between operating sessions. Similarly wagons for the chemical park are shunted into the siding behind the station in a specific order (food additives, chemical fertilizers, acid, plastic pellets, toxic waste, etc). The nice thing about phantom industries is that it's so easy to change your mind about them... remove some, add others, change the order in the lists etc. It also means the backscene and modeled buildings don't need to be too specific, and can just represent a general industrial setting.
     
    Slaghill has turned out a lot different than originally intended. My earlier vision was for the railway here to be enclosed claustrophobically by tall buildings and bridges. However some tests with mocked up buildings showed that it would look rather more boxed in and cramped than I wanted. So in the end I've gone for a more open aspect. The backscene was made up from interesting looking features picked from Internet photos of steel and chemical works, which were then traced and painted onto watercolour paper. I did get rather carried away here, and added more fiddly bits than I probably should have. The scenic gurus are always telling us not to make backscenes too detailed, so just grey misty silhouettes would probably have been sufficient.

     
    There were only a couple of small areas where modeled buildings would fit. In the left corner, some low-relief conveyer sheds help to hide the exit to the short extension stick that holds the spare loco.

     
    While at Slagaloid's premises behind the viaduct, some pipework and tanks (purpose unknown) were added. More sheds and pipework are still to be put in here. Behind the placeholders for those are the miners' cottages at The Pits, which have finally been completed. They don't have much of an outlook, but I've known worse!

     
    One of the advantages of using restricted viewpoints is that it allows you to get away with quite a lot of cheating. Like most of the buildings on the layout, the miners' cottages only have two sides and a bit of bracing at the back. No ground floor windows and doors, as they'd be hidden from view anyway.

    From the bow in the wall, I suspect mining subsidence, surely not cowboy builders.
     
    Finally an overall view of the industrial scene so far. Nearly ready to make a start on the foreground Grimley area.

     
    Cheers, Alan.
  5. awoodford
    Until now wagons for the facing sidings at Dale End have been rope-shunted at Slaghill, to get the engine at the correct end of the train. However the imminent scenic development of Slaghill threatens to surround the railway with tall industrial structures, making rope-shunting impractical. The simplest solution seemed to be to provide the railway with a second loco.
     
    Luckily in the spares box I had a Tenshodo SPUD (24.5mm wheelbase), which could be used as the basis for a small industrial critter. So a Knightwing Industrial Loco plastic kit was purchased, with a view to kitbashing it to resemble something like a Ruston 48DS. I must say it's only a very approximate resemblance, and probably more freelance than Ruston, but as Tweedale is an overtly freelance layout anyway, I'm not particularly concerned. Drawings for the Ruston were found on the Internet, so at least I had some basic measurements to go by. I started by making up a plasticard footplate and side frames (using the Ruston dimensions), with buffer beams cut down from those in the kit. Plasticard clips were glued underneath to hold the SPUD in place.

     

     
    The kit's cab was reduced in length by 2mm, which gave the roof a more Ruston-like overhang. The engine housing was cut back to fit the remaining space on the footplate. A 4 ounce lead weight was obtained from a local fishing shop for 50p, and cut up into chunks, from which I managed to squeeze about 3 ounces into the engine housing and lower half of the cab.

     
    The cab and engine housing were glued to the footplate, and details added. The loco was fitted with Alex Jackson couplings, as I wanted to test whether AJs would be a feasible replacement for the obtrusive hook and bar couplings currently in use. I'm not very optimistic, what with the amount of sideplay on the OO stock and the 18 inch radius curves, but it's worth a try.

     
    The loco was then given a base coat of 'mucky black' paint. The formula for that, using Humbrol matt enamels, was 2 parts black to 3 parts dark-earth.

     
    When dry, most of the body was dry-brushed with dark green, the buffer beams with red, and the cab roof grey, leaving me with a loco suffering from years of neglect beneath soot laden skies. Bless.

     
    Hmmm, shame about the windows... I should have painted the openings before glueing in the glazing, and the unpainted cab interior is annoying me too now. Heh, live and learn.
     
    To accommodate the new loco, the track at Slaghill was pushed through the backscene onto a short extension made from scraps of wood and card. The railway's 04 shunter can now leave wagons in the station ready for the new loco to push up to Dale End.

     
    The finished loco weighs in at about 3.5 ounces and I'm very pleased with how smoothly it runs, especially compared to the 04 which has always limped along on crutches.

     
    Cheers, Alan.
  6. awoodford
    Dale End Diary
     
    26 October. Yes, the Dale End scene is now declared to be finally complete. No more fiddling. Three months fussing over one square foot of scenery is quite long enough I reckon.
     

    Here's an overall view of the scene.
     

    Beneath the covered area at the right a chute dispenses sawdust into an open wagon, to be transported to the chemical works at Slaghill for processing into ethanol. I can't say I've ever actually heard of sawdust being transported by rail before, at least not in the UK. Anyone know if it was? If the traffic did exist then I assume the wagons would have been sheeted to stop the contents blowing away or turning into porridge in the rain. I gave up on an earlier idea of locating the ethanol plant at Dale End, after consulting Wikipedia and discovering the process of turning wood into ethanol is rather more complicated than just setting up a still in a shed in the forest. The ramp by the goods shed at the rear is for loading livestock. It came from a Canadian prototype - the layout is getting more freelance by the hour.
     

    A passenger train waits to depart. The only folk travelling are some miners, who have been moonlighting as lumberjacks. The passenger service is so basic I thought its image might be improved if it was named. After considering 'The Dalesman' and 'The Tweedale Forester', I've finally plumped for 'The Pines Express' as sufficiently outrageous for the Dale End service.
     
    Anyway, time to move on. I've had my fill of trees, and the industrial zone of Slaghill beckons.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  7. awoodford
    September turned out to be a busy month, so I didn't get as much done to the layout as I was hoping. Still, every little helps, so here are a few more progress shots from the Dale End sawmill scene...
     
    Dale End Diary
     

    12 September. Nearly half way through the month and about all I have to show for it is a pile of pitprops. It contains about 100 poles, cut from bamboo skewers, and was as tedious to construct as it looks. In the prototype reference photos I'd found, the stacks were about three times as high, but there are limits to my patience.
     

    21 September. Roofs have been painted and weathered. I think I might have gone a bit over the top with the rust though. A few more stacks of timber have been made, from strips of balsa. I suspect the timber should have coloured ends - I must check up on that. Heh, it's so easy to get sidetracked with this hobby.
     

    28 September. Talk about a glutton for punishment, as another zillion pitprops get cut for a wagon load. There's nearly a whole packet of skewers gone into those two lots. I'm quite pleased with the cyclone, which was constructed from paper cones and tubes. It's a bit fragile and has already acquired a few dents, but now it's in place on the layout it should be safe. The supports are from Evergreen strips, and the curved inlet pipe is a section cut from a plastic shower-curtain ring. I dare say there are kits for these things, but it was very satisfying building it from scratch, even if it is more hassle and probably less detailed than a kit. Some heaps of waste wood and sawdust are starting to appear. They were sanded to shape from 'oasis' flower-arranging foam, then covered in PVA glue, and sprinkled with real sawdust and wood splinters collected after sawing jobs.
     
    Thanks for looking, Alan.
  8. awoodford
    This month's blog looks at progress on the Dale End sawmill scene, a method for creating low relief conifers, and the latest update from The Pits.
     
    Dale End Diary
    Dale End is the upper terminus of the line, situated at the edge of the extensive Tweedale Forest. The main industry is a sawmill, supplying pit props, sawn timber, and wood waste to other industries down the line. This month a start was made on the scenery for this section of the layout. Here are some in-progress shots...
     

    9 August. An awkwardly placed support post for the layout's lighting rig has been moved, allowing the viewing window to be widened a few inches, which helps make things look less cramped. The whole scene is 12 inches wide by 12 inches deep. Ground work has started, with the station platform at the back and loading area for the sawmill at the front.
     

    11 August. A revealing view of this end of the layout. My old woodwork teacher would be, ahem, 'turning' in his grave. You can see where the original layout was extended by 9 inches in the past, and where the support pillar has now been cut out to increase the size of the window, then extra bracing added to try and restore the structural integrity. What a mess. It also shows the lighting problem in this corner, with the light-fitting being 12 inches from the end of the baseboard. The whole baseboard was constructed from 25 x 6mm pine, as an experiment to see just how lightweight it was possible to go. It is actually quite rigid (possibly due to the boxlike construction), and for a home layout such as this it seems to work fine. It probably wouldn't be robust enough for an exhibition layout though.
     

    13 August. The 'hills' have now been sealed with grey undercoat paint, and a few early mock-ups for the sawmill have appeared. It is not based on any particular prototype. I grabbed a load of sawmill images from the Internet, and will just pick features from them that appeal to me. I have a vague idea of what I want, but the details will be sorted out as I go along.
     

    15 August. Let there be light. I've managed to squeeze in a 10 inch, 6 Watt fluorescent tube at this end of the layout, which has sorted out the lighting problem. A start has been made on card buildings for the sawmill at the front. A mock-up for the backscene has been propped up at the back. The conifers at the left are being constructed using the methods described in my previous blog. The wooden decking on the front platform came from a Faller embossed card sheet, purchased as an invaluable investment in the 1970's. I knew it would come in useful one day!
     

    23 August. Painting the backscene was a job I kept putting off, for fear of mucking it up, but it was starting to hold up progress, so I've eventually been forced to get on with it. It was with some trepidation that the first blob of paint was applied to the pristine surface of the expensive watercolour paper, but it seemed to work out ok and I'm happy enough with the result. It was carefully cut out around the outline and glued to the sky background. The grassy ground cover is made from a paste of scatter material mixed with dilute PVA glue and spread on like plaster, then sprinkled with chopped up plumbers hemp. Its a method I've used for years but is rather outdated now in these days of static grass.
     

    29 August. This is how things stand to date. The buildings are gradually taking shape. The roofs, chimneys and cyclone are still in grey undercoat and need painting and weathering. Foliage needs to be added to the trees on the left. The most obvious things still missing are stacks of timber. It looks like the mass production of pit props is the prospect for the coming month... what fun.
     
    Low Relief Conifers
    This is something of a supplement to my previous blog on cardboard trees, and shows how the conifers behind Dale End station were constructed. Cardboard cores from rolls of toilet paper were used, which gave the trees a built-in convex shape.
     

    1. With a bit of canny cutting, four trees can be obtained from one tube.
    2. A Christmas tree like shape was cut from the card.
    3. A bamboo skewer was glued to the back. This was mainly to add strength to the tree, but could also serve as a trunk if extended.
     

    4. The tree was painted with dark green poster paint (green mixed with black).
    5. Foliage pieces were glued on, starting from the bottom and working towards the top, with pieces overlapping slightly like tiles on a roof.
    6. I found the foliage looked an unnatural green under the fluorescent lighting used on the layout, so it was toned down with dark green poster paint, using a 'poor man's spray gun' - paint flicked from a stiff brush by dragging a finger across the end of the bristles.
     
    News from The Pits

    In order to appease Health & Safety's Chief Tutting Officer, road signs have now been installed approaching the level crossings, and the fencing has been painted white. The sign on the far side of the crossing looks like a hazard in itself - if a passing pedestrian doesn't clout his head on it, the next vehicle entering the yard will probably demolish it. The 'end of shift' on the platform is still awaiting its train home. A recent visitor remarked "Oh look, a choir." Then someone else reckoned they look like mourners at a funeral. Heh. It would seem the sign on the platform and pithead gear on the backscene are not clues enough. Perhaps I should give them pickaxes and pointy hats like the seven dwarfs.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  9. awoodford
    Here is the July progress report for Tweedale, which includes a method for creating dense woodland from corrugated cardboard shapes.
     
    Firstly, the Poshington-Upon-Twee scene is now declared to be finished. The station has acquired a canopy (as befits a town of such importance), plus a coal yard, some fencing and other details. Nothing special about construction, the canopy is from card and balsa, and the coal heap from a piece of 'oasis' flower-arranging foam shaped with sandpaper.

     
    The other main progress this month is at The Pits, where extra trees have been added. The sequence of photos below shows the method I use for creating dense masses of trees. The individual trees are quite low-relief so the method works best where there is a restricted viewpoint (as on Tweedale), or towards the rear of a layout near the backscene.
     
    For those who don't know, the Tweedale layout is divided into a number of micro-sized scenes viewed through windows at the front of the layout. In the scene below, a lane winds its way in from the front towards the station. I wanted some woods in the foreground at the left and right of the lane to act as view-blockers for separating this scene from those adjacent...

     
    Tree and foliage shaped pieces were cut from a corrugated cardboard box...

     
    3d shapes were created by gluing the pieces in layers, with corrugated card seperators (about 1cm) between the layers. They were then given a base colour of dark green poster paint...

     
    The exposed corrugations at the edges of the card were filled with a paste made up from used tea leaves and dark green scatter material mixed with dilute PVA glue...

     
    Pieces of Woodland Scenic Foliage Net were used for the foliage, but they were treated first to make them less fragile. More of the green paste (as above) was made, and pieces of foliage net were dunked into the mixture, which then was worked into the net. The pieces were laid out on a plastic bag to dry...

     
    When dry, the pieces were quite stiff, and were glued to the visible side of the tree shapes, overlapping the edges of the card slightly to break up the outline...

     
    The trees were then installed on the layout. Suitable looking twigs from shrubs were added here and there between the layers to represent trunks and branches...

     

     

     
    There's not much more needs doing at The Pits. Road signs approaching the crossings would probably be a good idea! The miners' houses still need constructing, but as they will also be visible from the adjacent industrial scene, I'm waiting until I've finally decided what I'm doing with that area first... there seems little point adding details to the back of the houses if they end up hidden behind a factory.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  10. awoodford
    This 3rd blog installment describes how the Tweedale layout is currently operated.
     
    Some people relax with crosswords or sodukos, I like to solve shunting puzzles. I endeavour to fit in at least one 20-30 minute running session each day where possible. I find the regular operating sessions help to maintain my interest. Tweedale was designed to work for its living and has been operated ever since the track was laid and wired, but that's not to say it's run in a prototypical manner. I treat the layout as a kind of board game, and part of the enjoyment is from devising new sets of rules or constraints for the 'game'. Furthermore it's run in a more casual US style than British, allowing such suspicious practices as pushing trains between stations, loading and unloading wagons on the main line, and carrying passengers in the brake van.
     
     
    Rolling Stock
    Somewhere on the Internet I came across an article that claimed the ideal number of wagons for a shunting layout is about 70 percent of the total siding capacity. With fewer wagons, shunting can become too easy, with more it can get frustratingly bogged down. It seemed a reasonable assertion, so based on that I worked out I'd need 11 wagons for Tweedale. I then had to determine what proportion of each type of wagon I would need for the kind of traffic I had in mind. This was the resulting wish list...
    4 open wagons
    4 box vans
    1 cattle wagon
    1 tank wagon
    1 brake van
    The stock was gradually built up by rummaging through secondhand boxes at shows (the cattle wagon was the hardest to find). I've retained the hook and bar couplings for now, even though they are rather obtrusive. They work well enough using Roger Nicholls 'Yorkshire Kadee' uncoupling system, which just involves removing the hook from one end of the wagon, and inserting tufts of plumber's hemp between the rails at uncoupling spots.
     

    Uncouplers at The Pits, with a spare untrimmed one on the platform. The tufts are held together with glue and cotton and are a snug fit (not glued) into holes drilled between the sleepers, where they can be adjusted by moving up or down slightly.
     
     
    Card and Waybill System
    The currently preferred operating scheme makes use of what Americans call a 'car card and waybill' system. I don't know what the correct British term for a car card is, so I'll just call it a wagon-card. Each wagon has its own wagon-card, labeled with wagon type and a description. The card is kept in a card box (provided at each each station) where the wagon is located, and is moved along from place to place as the wagon moves. It looks rather like a pre-digital library card with a pocket (if you remember those), in which a waybill can be placed. The waybill, from a shuffled pack of about 40 assorted waybills, gives details of a shipment - its origin, destination, load, and type of wagon required. As Tweedale is a self contained system all wagon movements start with an order from the shipper for an empty wagon. Each waybill covers two journeys, the first for the empty wagon being delivered to the shipper, and second for the loaded wagon from the shipper to the customer. It is placed in the pocket of the wagon-card such that only the current journey is displayed.
     

    Card boxes for Grimley and Slaghill. The tab separates cards for wagons that have been delivered, from those that are to be picked up. Also shown is an example of a wagon-card and a waybill.
     
    Typical Operating Session
    The session consists of two parts, preparation and running the trains, which aren't necessarily done together. The session might be prepared before breakfast, but the trains not actually run until later in the evening.
     
    To prepare the session the operator, as 'goods agent', first goes through all the cards in the boxes, turning over waybills for wagons that have been loaded, to show the final destination for the goods, and removing waybills from wagons that have reached their final destination and been unloaded. New waybills can then be assigned to empty wagon-cards. A 6-sided die is thrown to determine how many new waybills are to be picked from the shuffled pack. For each of these selected waybills, a search of card boxes is made to find an empty wagon-card of the required type, and the waybill is placed in the pocket. If there are not enough empty wagons of the required type available, or siding space at the destination is likely to be full, the waybill is placed in an 'outstanding orders' box, and gets priority in the following session. Actual physical wagon loads are also added or removed where appropriate.
     
    For the second part, the operator takes on the role of train crew, and looks through the waybills in the card boxes to determine the best strategy for moving wagons to their destinations. The challenge is to try and do this with the minimum number of trips between stations, with the minimum number of light-engine moves between stations, and without 'reprimands'. Reprimands are for such things as having to reshunt wagons due to insufficient forward planning or lack of concentration, not clearing the main line in time for a through passenger train, and so on. It sometimes helps to list the moves on a scrap of paper first. It's satisfying to get to the end of a session without reprimands, but doesn't happen very often! The simplest session would involve just one trip from Grimley to Dale End and back, picking up and dropping off wagons en-route, but this is seldom achievable due to inbuilt complications on the layout...
    The headshunt at Slaghill and the sector plate each have a restricted capacity of a loco plus 2 wagons
    Wagons can be spotted on the main line in places, but they have to wait until no more train movements are expected along that section of track during the session.
    The sidings at Dale End face a different direction to elsewhere, so rope-shunting at Slaghill is needed to put the engine at the correct end of the train. That is a space-hungry manoeuvre requiring empty siding space at Slaghill, which needs to be considered beforehand.
    As there is no fiddle yard, all stock is stored on the layout. Empties are generally left where they are until assigned to another job, but might have to be shunted elsewhere if they are in the way.

     

    Rope shunting at Slaghill. The railway's only loco, a Bachmann 04 shunter, has pulled the wagon down from Dale End. A rope is used to haul it into the siding, so that the loco can then reverse back and couple onto the other end for the onward journey to Grimley.
     
    Passenger Trains
    A rudimentary passenger service is provided, using the brake van, and runs from one end of the layout to the other with stops at each station. The passenger trains have waybills in the shuffled pack the same as for goods, but they are given absolute priority and there is a time element involved. If the session includes a passenger run, then a kitchen timer is set to go off at some random time during the session. Normal shunting can still take place, but the operator also has the pressure of watching the clock. By the time the alarm goes off, the main line must be clear of wagons from one end to the other, and the loco must be ready to depart with the passenger train.
     

    A passenger train arrives at The Pits with a removable load of miners.
     
    Less-than-wagon-load goods
    Occasionally a van for small loads travels from one end of the line to the other and back. During each session it is moved to the next station along. It takes about a week to do the return journey... not the most efficient delivery service, and it ties up a van for a week, causing a shortage elsewhere.
     
    Wildcards
    The pack of waybills also contains 'wildcards', like the Chance cards in Monopoly, designed to disrupt normal operation. For example a card may pop up specifying that the last wagon assigned a waybill has developed a fault and must not be moved. That can cause more or less of an obstruction depending where it happens to be located. Another card may report that the loco has blown a gasket and can only haul a maximum of 2 wagons at any time... a limitation that can turn shunting into a bit of a nightmare.
     
    Conclusion
    Perhaps surprisingly for such a simple layout, I still enjoy running it after a year of regular operation. Some of that I put down to the fact that its a system (if that's not too grandiose a word for it) rather than a single-station layout. I find there's something more satisfying about running trains from one station to another rather than just to a fiddle yard. Also the rules are constantly changing and evolving, which keeps the interest alive. The more I learn about prototypical practices, the more they get incorporated into Tweedale, and I'm always on the lookout for new ideas that would enhance the layout's operations. Probably the greatest help in retaining my operating interest though is that the layout is set up all of the time, and ready to run at the flick of a switch. I'm sure it would soon lose its appeal if it had to be unpacked and repacked whenever I wanted to use it.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  11. awoodford
    This 2nd blog installment describes the Tweedale layout in a bit more detail, with a tour of each station in turn.
     
    As might be guessed from the name, the railway supposedly serves an area known as Tweedale, but apart from that it has no particular history or geographical location, it just is. My interest is in shunting puzzles and the layout was designed with that in mind. A number of industrial supply chains have been set up as a foundation for the layout operation, best explained in a tour of the line.
     
    Here's the track plan again for reference...

     
     
    The rightmost scene (scene 4) represents the top end of the line and is called Dale End - an unimaginitive name but gives it a sense of place.

    This section was added as an afterthought on a 9 inch extension to the original layout, and is the smallest of the scenes. It is also rather dark, being beyond the original extent of the flourescent lighting tubes. The scenic work has not yet commenced, and is likely to be quite a challenge in such a small space. The intention is that there will be a sawmill, with a forest of conifers rising up a hillside at the back to hide the corner in the sky. The sawmill is the main industry here but the area also generates some livestock traffic. An ethanol plant, utilising waste wood from the mill gives an excuse to bring a tank wagon up here occasionally.
     
    Next down the line we come to The Pits, the rural area in scene 2.

    A lane winds down into the scene from the front, which turned out to be a bad design decision - the higher ground at the front tends to block the rest of the scene beyond, unless you are standing very close. That will have to be dealt with in due course. The siding behind the station serves a mine, represented on the backscene. Due to the complicated geology hereabouts almost anything of a mineral nature could come out of that hole in the ground. A cattle dock and a store for the local farmers' cooperative are also provided here. The scene still needs some work - the miners' houses need constructing, and there will be more trees in the foreground to act as view-blockers to the adjacent scenes.
     
    Those two stations provide Tweedale's source of raw materials - timber, minerals and agricultural produce.
     
    Continuing on, we come to what will eventually be the heavy-industrial town of Slaghill, the upper level of scene 1.

    Again scenic work has not started on this section. This is where minerals from the mine are processed. I envisage a complicated mishmash of chemical, steel, gas and cement works, mainly on the backscene, but with selected bits protruding into the 3D space.
     
    The line next passes through the quaint old town of Poshington-Upon-Twee, in scene 3.

    With its old houses and narrow streets, it is home to most of the consuming population of Tweedale. It was supposed to represent a 'superior' sort of place, like Harrogate or Beverley. Unfortunately the retaining walls and housebacks rather let down the image, so the minster was added to the backscene by way of compensation. This is the most complete scene so far, and just needs a few more details around the station area. Wagons for the town are parked on the main line, which adds a bit of spice to operations. I could probably have squeezed a goods siding in at the front, from the sector plate, but the lighting would have placed the rolling stock in deep shadow.
     
    Lastly we come to Grimley, the lower level of scene 1. This is the manufacturing centre, turning the processed materials from Slaghill into the useless commodities demanded by the public of Poshington. Here I envisage a shanty town of artisans' workshops and factories. Slaghill and Grimley will likely merge into one industrial mess, but in my mind I'll treat them as completely seperate towns. Livestock from Upper Tweedale also makes its one way journey down here, to an abattoir and pie factory. The pies go on to Poshington. Offal gets sent to the chemical works at Slaghill to be turned into cosmetics. Toxic waste from the chemical works gets taken to The Pits to be dumped into disused mine shafts, where no doubt it gets into the local watertable to be absorbed by the next generation of livestock. So it goes round.
     
    As can be seen, prototypical realism comes quite a way down the list of priorities. I guess its not to everyone's taste, but it suits me just fine, and provides plenty of operating potential despite its simple design.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  12. awoodford
    Welcome to the Tweedale Layout Blog.
     
    Good Intentions
    Tweedale has been under construction for just over a year now, but work on it has been slowing down noticeably of late. When I set out I was hoping to get the whole thing finished in a year - hopelessly optimistic in hindsight, but I suppose a useful measure of my 'production rate' for planning future projects. What was needed, I figured, was a boost in motivation. So I've created this blog, with the pressure of a regular monthly progress report, in the hopes that it will give me an incentive to get on.
     
     
    Overview
    Tweedale is essentially a freelance OO shunting layout on a 4 x 3 feet L-shaped baseboard. I call it a multi-micro layout. Although it's larger than a traditional micro layout, it acts as a sort of container for several connected micro-sized elements. It has 5 ridiculously small stations on 2 levels connected by a zigzag line, all crammed into an area of 7 square feet.
     
    Here is the track plan...

     
    This is a view of the whole layout in its current state...

     
    As can be seen, the front of the layout is divided into windows (currently card mockups but will ultimately be of ply with picture frame surrounds). The windows give some seperation between stations, which are in reality only inches apart, and also help to focus attention on the area being operated at any one time without distraction from adjacent areas... the idea being that while shunting one station, you don't notice that the train may be intruding into the next station along the line. The windows also provide restricted viewpoints for the scenes, which has allowed me to experiment with visual trickery such as forced perspective and so on. Currently the layout is fully operational, but still requires a fair bit doing scenically. The rolling stock, all from secondhand boxes at shows, also needs tidying up.
     
    More details and close up photos in the next installment.
     
    Alan.
  13. awoodford

    Tweedale - Double Deck

    By awoodford,


    dunno
    As mentioned in an earlier blog, the intention for this incarnation of Tweedale was to make it a double deck system, by stacking modules on top of others like bricks. Some progress has now been made in that direction. 

    The Castleport and Docks Branch modules were built before the double deck idea came along, and for best viewing they needed to be at a particular height. That meant everything else had to be fitted around them. As I wanted to operate both decks from a seated position, the new deck had to be inserted beneath the old.
     

     


    The frames at each end of the layout are where cassettes are located for transferring trains between decks. 

    Due to the viewing constraints, the lower modules had to be restricted in height to a mere 7 inches. That in turn has forced the track layout to be fairly simple and near to the front edge. It will also require a low horizon to the scenery when I get that far. There are two station areas here, seperated by a longish 4 feet section of (literally at the moment) empty countryside, where the trains have a brief chance of stretching their wheels.

    The current track plan is shown here...
     


    In order to maximise the length of run, I'm treating the lower deck as if it represents two different sections of the route, as shown in the operational diagram below. Keeping everything synchronised, so that the Poshington to Castleport trains don't clash with the Mine to Tweemoor trains, all adds to the operating challenge. 
     


    Note that although the gas works is actually located at Poshington, it is considered to be on the same branch as the power station, and both industries are worked by one trip out from Tweemoor.

    It will probably take some time before I get around to the scenery on the bottom deck. The next section to receive scenic treatment will be the industrial area at the top left of the layout, adjoining Tweemoor Yard....
     


    However as the cold dark days approach, I've started winding down for my usual winter break from model making, so little else is likely to be added before next year.

    Cheers, Alan.
  14. awoodford
    The standard tension lock couplings in use on Tweedale have been an ongoing source of irritation. They work reliably enough, but they are just so darned ugly. The original plan was to replace them with Alex Jacksons, but that has now changed and I've decided to stick with tension locks but make my own from from thin wire. They seem a bit less fiddly to set up than the AJs and the tolerances are more forgiving. I'm very pleased with the results, so I thought I'd share the details below on how they were made and fitted.
     
    I've been using Roger Nicholls 'Yorkshire Kadee' uncoupling system (see the 'Operation' blog), and for that I only needed a hook at one end of a wagon and a loop at the other. The uncoupling system is beautifully simple, but has its limitations and only really works on trains being pushed in one direction. As most of the sidings on the layout face the same way this is fine. However on the sidings at Dale End, which face the opposite direction, wagons had to be uncoupled manually. One unexpected bonus with the new couplings is that they are so fine and light that, with a bit of care, it is now possible to automatically uncouple wagons in the other direction as well.
     

    Here's a wagon to be converted, a Hornby box van.

     
    The van body was unclipped from the chassis to make things easier to work on. The old couplings were unclipped, and the associated mounts removed with a hacksaw and craft knife, to leave a flat base beneath the floor for the new couplings.

     
    The sketch below (not to scale) shows the critical dimensions for the new couplings.
     
    Dimension A needs to be a bit less than than the minimum buffer length, so that the hook doesn't hit the buffer beam of the next wagon in a train. The buffer lengths on my stock are around 5-6mm, so I set this dimension to 4mm.
     
    Dimension B depends on the minimum track radius of curves. The sharper the curves the furthur the loop needs to protrude beyond the buffers. For the 18 inch radius curves on Tweedale I found 3mm to be suitable for this dimension, and allows coupling and uncoupling on the curves.
     
    Dimension C, the width of the loop, depends on the severity of reverse curves in the trackwork. There are a couple of nasty ones on the layout (added to my list of things to avoid in the future) so a wide loop of 14mm was used.
     
    The coupling height was set to 10mm above the track, higher than standard tension locks, but it means the fittings under the floor are less visible.

     
    The old steel wire that I'd used for AJs in the past had turned brittle over the years and just broke when trying to bend it, so I used 0.3mm diameter nickel silver tramway overhead wire instead (I happened to have some in the spares box). The hook was was made by first bending the wire at right angles 4mm from the end, then bending it back on itself. It was then gripped in pliers 2mm from the end, and the long tail was bent 45 degrees. The tail was bent at right angles for the striker at 15mm from the point of the hook, and cut off 9mm from the bend.

     
    A small piece of brass rod (not sure of the diameter, but it's a loose fit in a 1mm hole) was soldered in the right angle bend of the hook wire. Any burrs were filed from the ends of the rod. The mount for this pivot rod was made from plasticard and Evergreen styrene strip, into which 1mm holes had been drilled. For the loop end, wire was bent to shape and soldered to a piece of copper clad sleeper strip.

     
    The wagon was pushed up to a 10mm height gauge (made from plasticard) to determine how much packing, if any, would be needed for the coupling assemblies. This wagon didn't need any. And yes, that chassis really is bowed, its not just the photo!

     
    The loop and hook assemblies were glued in place with UHU. Scraps of paper marked with dimensions A and B (mentioned above) were used to set the final positions. A piece of plasticard (X on the photo) was glued behind the striker to hold the hook at the correct height.

     
    The glue was allowed to set overnight, then the couplings rechecked against the height gauge. Any final tweaks could be done by bending the wires slightly.

     
    Cheers, Alan.
  15. awoodford
    For some time now the denizens of Tweedale have been clamouring for better passenger train accomodation, having become dissatisfied with the old brake van that has been used hitherto. Personally I can't think of a nicer way of travelling along lazy bylines, but there is no accounting for taste, and the Tweedalers disagree. So the railway company has finally given way and obtained a Park Royal railbus. Sadly this was found to be too long for the line's sharp curves and short platforms (both practically and aesthetically), so Grimley Engineering were entrusted with the task of adapting it to suit the railway's needs.
     
    OK lets face it, Tweedale doesn't really need a railbus, but I saw shortliner's thread describing a cut-down Budd railcar in the US subforum, and couldn't resist having a bash at something like it myself.
     
    The chassis came from a Model Power Plymouth diesel, picked up at an exhibition for 16 pounds. You don't see many locos around at that price these days, so I wasn't expecting great performance, but it was cheap enough to risk a try.
     

     
    The body was unscrewed and removed (I'm sure it will come in useful one day)...
     

     
    The chassis was attacked with a hacksaw and cut down to the bare necessities...
     

     
    The wheelbase is only half that needed for the full length railbus, but as the motor drives just one set of wheels it looks like it would have been fairly easy to cut the chassis and move the unpowered wheels out to suit. Instead I chose to leave the wheelbase as it was and halve the length of the body (approximately), giving a dumpy little railbus more in keeping with the layout's compressed nature. The body is of course from the Dapol plastic kit. Shortening the sides was straightforward, but filling and sanding the cut in the roof to blend it in was a chore.
     

     

    The railbus arrives at The Pits on a test run. The crowd look suspicious. Nobody gets on. Perhaps they haven't grasped the concept of sliding doors on a train. Whatever next, disembodied voices telling them to mind the gap?
     

    At Poshington Upon Twee nobody greets its arrival. The novelty has worn off already.
     
    I have to say, its not a particularly smooth runner. On the level its not too bad, but it struggles getting up the gradient at Poshington, with a lot of wheelslip and shaking, despite a traction tyre on one wheel. Still, I enjoyed myself building the thing. Some interior details will be added in due course, which might help distract attention from the motor and ballast weight inside, though they are not too noticeable.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  16. awoodford
    As I continue to wallow about in Tweedale's little backwater of dubious freelancedom and outdated technology, I keep getting these feelings of deja vu. It started with the reappearance of Castleport. Now Tweemoor Yard has also made a comeback. If I'd known I would be going around in circles like this I would have hung on to the original versions! Although the new scene is not an exact copy of the original Tweemoor, there is a rather creepy family resemblance.
     


    I had a couple of 'givens' for this scene before I started. In the first place I particularly wanted a marshalling yard (if that's not too grand a description) at this location. Secondly I wanted it to be rural and act as a green belt against the creeping urban-industrial ribbon development that was threatening to take over. The Slaghill Low module had worked well here in the interim and fulfilled the first of these criteria, but not the second. 

    There are only a limited number of track arrangements that can be fitted into these small scenes, so it was pretty well inevitable that the Inglenook configuration would crop up again for the yard. For the rural scenery it made sense to re-use the leftover trees from the original Tweemoor, which had been sitting in a box for years awaiting their resurrection. Then it occurred to me that it would all come together that much quicker, and with less thinking involved, if I more or less repeated what I'd done before. Thus Tweemoor was reborn. The bridge is there, the road at the front is there, so are the buildings at the back and the Jolly Poacher pub. 
     


    As far as the railway is concerned the main differences are the addition of a kick-back carriage siding, where the railbus can rest its weary wheels between trips...
     


    ...and the relocation of the station.

    Mr Yardley the yardmaster can be seen sitting on the steps of his 'portacabin' looking a bit dejected, as well he might. He was enticed out of retirement by the promise of a more spacious yard office, only to find it consists of a disused camping coach brought up from the coast. How it survived the journey is anyone's guess. The company admits that it is in need of refurbishment, but adds that it is ideally situated and includes living accommodation, thus allowing Mr Yardley to work from home. The smell of rotting seaweed will no doubt fade in time, and he can brush up his handyman skills while off duty. A spot of weeding might be in order too while he's about it.
     


    Speaking of which, as I was running short of ballast I decided to embed the yard tracks in crud and weeds instead. This was done by draping strips of thin toilet tissue over the sleepers. The tissue was then fixed in place by carefully soaking it with slightly thinned grey emulsion paint, using a soft brush so as not to tear the paper, which easily disintegrated when wet. Once the painted tissue was dry it formed a hard crust. The impression of the sleepers was still discernible where the paper had sagged between, and they could be enhanced by dry brushing and weathering. Any wrinkles or holes were disguised with patches of weeds. The technique seems to work quite well on plain track, but is probably not very feasible for use on points. 
     


    The new section has now taken its place on the layout, next to the Docks Branch module, and is busy earning its keep. More detailing could be done, but probably won't. I might do something about that jarring caterpillar-like hedge at the front though, before moving on to something fresh.

    Cheers, Alan.
     
  17. awoodford
    Tweedale was declared 'finished' over a year ago, and indeed nothing of great significance has been done to it since. It still gets operated fairly regularly though, and for a small self-contained system I've been very happy with it on the whole. However there are a couple of things I thought would enhance the operation. One is a basic sorting yard, from which trips could work out to other parts of the system. The other is a sea port, allowing the Tweedalers to join the global economy and dabble in a bit of import-export. All of which is a good excuse for extending the layout, especially as I'm now in the mood to get back into this barmy project.
    　
    The new extension is to be on a 48 x 14 inch baseboard, and consist of windowed scenes as before. As well as the port and yard, there is also room for a third scene which has been tentatively earmarked for an industrial estate.
    　
    Here are the track plans for the two levels...
     


    As can be seen there are a lot of unnatural contrivances, in the form of sector plates and a train turntables, for connecting everything together. They will be hidden away beneath the scenery, but still accessible (hopefully). The sketch below shows the general idea for the visible parts of the three scenes...

    No doubt things will change as construction proceeds.
    　
    Baseboard Construction
    To get things started, the baseboard frame has now been made up.
     


    It was built from 25x6mm pine strips, with 19x19mm square section for the uprights - quick and easy to cut with a junior hacksaw and glue together with PVA. Its a method I've used before, and while it's unlikely to withstand the sort of abuse that say a club layout has to endure, I've found it perfectly adequate for my own needs in the past. The frame is rigid and fairly lightweight, weighing in at 1.3 kg (a bit less than 3lb) on the kitchen scales. It will eventually be supported on shelf brackets attached to the wall. I've listed the order in which it was constructed below, in case others may find it useful. The glue was allowed to set for at least half an hour between each stage...
    　
    1) Longitudinal L girders for the base and top were made up by glueing and pinning together a couple of strips for each.
    2) The uprights were glued to the bottom L girders. A set square was used to make sure they were vertical.
    3) The cross pieces at the ends sit within the L girders and were glued to the uprights, again checking everything was square.
    4) The other cross pieces were glued between the L girders.
    5) The diagonal bracing was then glued in place. That quite magically set the whole thing rigid and eliminated any tendency for the frame to twist.
    6) The front top Longitudinal L girder was just screwed to the uprights, not glued. It will support the flourescent light fitting, and is removeable to make working on the layout easier. The back and side pieces were glued in place. They will help support the backscene.
    7) After leaving the glue to harden overnight, the main corner joints were strengthened with screws.
    　
    Cheers, Alan.
  18. awoodford
    Good progress has been made on the new extension in the past month. I've been making an effort to get a lot of the drudge work done while the first rush of enthusiasm lasts. The flourescent lighting has been added, the track has been laid and everything is now wired and working. The weight of the unit has risen to 8lb.
     

     
    This seems like a good opportunity to describe the construction and operation of the gadgetry, before it all gets buried beneath scenery.
     
    Sector Plates
     
    An incline at the rear of the baseboard connects the high and low level tracks. The sector plates at each end are unusual in that they can be moved in 3 dimensions and form part of the gradient. That removes the need for transitions on the incline, so the full 48 inch baseboard length can be used to achieve the 2.5 inch rise at a constant slope. The plates are pivoted on pieces of dowel with enough play to allow for the vertical movement. Below is a sequence of photos of the top sector plate to show how it works...
     

    1. A train pushes onto the sector plate from high level yard.
     

    2. The sector plate control knob is turned clockwise, rolling the wheels along underneath to an over-centre position, which lifts the sector plate slightly.
     

    3. The control rod is pushed towards the back, moving the sector plate against a stop that aligns it with the rear gradient track.
     

    4. The control knob is turned anticlockwise, lowering the sector plate onto a ledge which sets it at track level with the same slope as the incline.
     
    The mechanism was built from odd bits of wood and lego-like wheels. Getting everything lined up was by trial and error, which is why it looks rather scrappy. No precision engineering here.
     
    The sector plate at the bottom of the gradient operates in a similar way, but as the arc travelled is greater, part of the movement is done by pulling on strings. That saves the control rod from protruding too far from the front of the layout, where it could get walked into and damaged.
     

    The bottom sector plate as seen from the rear. A bit confusing but you might be able to figure out how it works.
     
    The third sector plate, at the throat of the high level yard, simply uses a push-pull rod (green garden cane) to move it between the 2 stops. Points are also operated mechanically using green canes.
     

     
    Train Turntable
     
    The turntable can hold a loco plus 2 wagons. The deck is supported on more lego-like wheels (they are just so darned useful). It is rotated by pulling on strings that thread around push-pin bollards and out through plastic tube to the front of the baseboard. A couple of wooden stops limit the rotation to about 160 degrees and align the deck for either the port or industrial estate branch.
     

     
    A period of thorough testing (playing trains) will now take place while I contemplate how to tackle the scenery.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  19. awoodford
    Since the last blog the Tweemoor Yard scene has lost its post-apocalyptic nuclear winter look. Grass has sprouted from the wasteland, trees have burst forth, and buildings have popped up like mushrooms, including Mr Yardley's long awaited yard office.
     

     
    As can be seen the forestry department have been busy. It was a long and tedious job that can be summed up in two words - never again. On the plus side, the newly planted ancient woodland has now become something of a local beauty spot, and the railway, quick to exploit a new source of traffic, have provided an excursion platform.
     

     
    Although very basic, it's claim to fame is that it has the longest platform seat in Tweedale. The only other facility is a pre-loved notice board, obtained ages ago from an ex-military type who had fallen on sorry times and was reduced to hawking his stuff from door to door. Like mugs we fell for his hard luck story, but have at least now found a home for this piece of junk, even though it does still bear an old poster advertising cheap fares to Selsey (wherever that is).
     
    It's a long time since the railway ran a regular passenger service, but now and then the railbus gets dusted off and turns up here with an excursion, inundating us quiet country folk with hoards of townies. On such occasions the ladies endeavour to make their way up the steep and rickety steps and over the road towards the Kafe In The Woods, renowned for its dainty teas and creamy cakes. Meanwhile the gents prefer to sit on the famous seat, and watch with the critical attention of spectators at a chess tournament, as Mr Yardley (maestro of the marshalling arts) conducts his shunting performances in the yard. That said, once the ladies are out of sight there is a tendency for the chaps to nip across the tracks and over the stile to The Jolly Poacher.
     

     
    Getting down to the practical side of things, for ground cover I used my prefered method of making up a green paste from scatter material (50:50 mix of Woodland Scenics Yellow Grass and Burnt Grass) and dilute PVA glue, which is then spread over the ground contours like plaster. While still wet it is lightly sprinkled with static grass (dead-grass colour), followed by a sprinkling of green ground foam mixture, all pushed and poked about with a cocktail stick. To my eye it gives a good enough representation of rough grass without going to the expense of a static grass machine. The trees were made using the method described in an earlier blog, basically cardboard cut-outs covered with pieces of Woodland Scenics foliage. Buildings were all scratch-built from card.
     

     
    Cheers, Alan.
  20. awoodford

    Tweedale - To The Docks

    By awoodford,


    dunno
    With the Tweemoor Yard scenery all but finished, I was ready to move on to second of the three scenes on this layout extension board. I decided to tackle the (as yet unnamed) port next. This was the starting point...
     

     
    The area is 17 inches wide by 13 inches deep. The trackwork consists of a simple fork, and not a very satisfactory one at that. I had originally installed a handmade point to a smaller radius than the Peco one in order to squeeze in a capacity of 3 wagons for each siding. Unfortunately it was plagued with buffer-locking problems. I now appreciate the importance of adding transitions to curves! I couldn't face rebuilding it, so it was replaced with the Peco point after all, which set me back to a capacity of 2 wagons per siding. As one spot was required for manipulating the brake van, that only left 3 spots for revenue earning vehicles. With the 'card and waybill' operating scheme used, that equated to just 6 waybills for the entire port traffic.
     
    As it happens I've been finding it hard to drum up much import-export business anyway. The Tweedalers are too darned self sufficient, that's the trouble, and most of their needs are provided by the dale itself. The mine and sawmill are working at full capacity so any exported minerals or timber would need to be diverted from established customers which I didn't want to do. Instead the port seems to have morphed into Tweedale's milling zone, a neglected area of enterprise until now. Anything that needs to be crushed, ground up, hammered or rendered to a pulp gets dealt with here. The railway is already moving flour, vegetable oil, animal feed and mushy peas from the port even though their respective industries have yet to fully materialize. The plan is to add a couple of modeled mills in the dock area. I'm hoping these tall structures, one at each side, will help frame the scene and funnel the eye towards the town rising up at the back.
     

     
    The first steps were to embed the track in cardboard roadway and add the water. The latter simply consisted of painting a foam-board base then covering it with a sheet of clear plasticard. Although the water is dead calm and ripple free, some might even say stagnant, I'm happy enough with the result. A timber quayside has been added, which I thought would look more interesting than plain brick or stone. A start has been made on the buildings associated with one of the mills, in this case an oil-seed crushing mill.
     
    At a major port not far from where I live, the waterside mills went in for grandiose names like Clarence, Premier, Grosvenor and such like. It struck me that they sounded more like hotels than anything, so I thought it would be fun to follow in the tradition by looking through a list of hotels in the phone book to come up with a suitable name for the mill here. The Royal Hotel provided me with the impressively sounding if slightly tongue twisting Royal Oil Mill. All I need now is to devise some fictional history to account for the name.
     

     
    The foreground track supposedly continues on to other parts of the port off scene to the left. To indicate this, a low relief box van has been located at the end of the siding. The van body was cut down from an old wagon, but as I didn't want to sacrifice a perfectly good chassis just for a set of buffers, the underframe was built up from scraps of card and a couple of nails.
     

     
    Here's the mill in all its glory. Its not quite finished - there are still a few gutters, drainpipes and other details to add - but you get the idea. The mocked up building at the right is not part of the mill's premises. Operated by Tweedale Oil & Cake Mills Ltd (TOCM), who took over from the former ROCM, the mill is based very loosely on structures from Ipswich and Hull. The business appears to have grown by gathering together all the tin sheds in the district. Everything has been much compressed to squeeze it into the 6 inch square footprint. The tall brick building at the back containing the silos is a very much reduced version of the original, which would have measured some 18 inches high if built to scale rather than the measly 9 inches here. By placing it behind the other buildings and hiding its base, forced-perspective properties emerged and the drastic reduction in size became more acceptable.
     
    Inward rail traffic to the mill consists of oil seed from upper Tweedale (in the season), to augment that arriving by sea from foreign lands. Outward traffic consists of oil to Grey's paint works at Grimley and the Sunny Spread margarine factory in the Slaghill chemical park. The residue from the crushed seed is used to produce cattle cake which is sent back to the rural areas of upper Tweedale.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  21. awoodford

    Tweedale - Florence Flour Mill

    By awoodford,


    dunno
    As mentioned in the previous blog, I wanted to include a couple of modeled mills in the port scene. The Royal Oil Mill was dealt with then. The other, Florence Flour Mill, has now been added to the right hand side of the scene. It was originally intended to be a tribute to Clarence Mill in Hull, an impressive landmark structure beside the river until reduced to a heap of rubble about three years ago.
     

     
    Much time was then spent pondering on how the heck I was going to squeeze it into the 3 inches available. However I was overtaken by events. The millers ran out of patience and took it upon themselves to throw up a hideous concrete edifice instead, a building so ugly it gives me the creeps.
     

     
    Letters of outrage have been written to the Tweedale Times by those living in its shadow. They knew a view blocker was needed in that corner but weren't expecting anything so bad. Rats have even been reported, but that's just exaggeration... they are still on the To Do list. The likelihood is it will be demolished in due course (the one thing it will have in common with Clarence), and be replaced with something less repulsive, but for now it will just have to do.
     
    As far as the railway is concerned, the mill generates just one outward van load of flour per week, for the pie factory at Grimley. Its probably just as well the traffic is light, as vans for the mill are inconveniently parked on the set of points at the entrance to the port, as seen in the photo. Spotting the empty van has to be the last shunting move performed before departing the port.
     
    Behind the mill can be seen the station. Although I don't run a regular passenger service, I do like adding stations. They provide a focal point for each scene and their presence hints that this place here is supposed to be miles away from that place there in the scene next door.
     

     
    The port still remains nameless which accounts for the lack of a nameboard at the station. However I have been assured by the local council that a naming committee has been formed and 'the matter is being deliberated with utmost celerity, weighing up the pros and cons in all aspects leaving no stone unturned'. Hmmm, not expecting anything soon then. The platform is only about 3 inches long, but its enough to cater for the railbus should I decide to bring it down here on a charter or even a tentative boat train service. Meanwhile the station canopy provides a convenient shelter for loafers wanting to watch the dockers and shunters at work. It seems to be in surprisingly good condition for what is essentially a disused station in the sad end of dockland. Perhaps I should invite some of the town's hooligans along, with their penknives, chalks and catapults, to 'weather' it.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
     
     
     
  22. awoodford

    Tweedale - Cul De Sac

    By awoodford,


    dunno
    Last year's slow listless progress on the layout was a sure indicator that all was not well. I finally came to the conclusion that I was being over ambitious in trying to build a room sized layout. Well I'm no stranger to giving up projects part way through, and the decision has now been made to abandon the large layout and go for something more manageable. 

    The old benchwork has already been dismantled and the timber reused to just build a straight shelf along one  wall rather than spread out into the room. The height has also been lowered. The former project had the baseboards at a height of four feet, designed to be operated from a standing/walking position. The new layout is at table top height and operated seated from a rolling chair. The viewing height with respect to the model is about the same in both cases, however the lower structure is a lot less overwhelming when you walk into the room. 



    OK, its not looking particularly tidy at the moment, with a mixture of boxed and unboxed modules on top of the framework. In due course the older open modules will be enclosed and the scenery filled out. 

    The layout itself currently consists of four of the pre-existing modules, with a few extra bits of track hanging off precariously. This is only a temporary arrangement in order to keep the trains running. Although the modules are plugged together in a different configuration to previously, they still allow the operations to continue much the same. The sketch below shows the current setup. 



    The new long term idea for the layout is to eventually create a double deck system, with a couple of layers of modules stacked like bricks. Cassettes would be used to swap trains between levels (simulating an off scene passing place). The double deck scheme has been tested with mock ups and seems feasible. I found that if I restrict the module heights to around 8 or 10" it should be possible to run the both layers in a visually satisfactory manner from a seated position (adjusting the seat height accordingly). The extra deck is not likely to happen this year though. It may not happen at all if this turns out to be yet another dead end! But for now it serves as something to aim for and keeps the enthusiasm going.

    Meanwhile construction has started on a new module, four feet long, divided into two scenes. It will replace the Slaghill module at the left, which will be used elsewhere, but more on that as things progress. 



    Cheers, Alan.
     
  23. awoodford

    Tweedale - Castleport

    By awoodford,


    dunno
    Yes, the port scene has a name. There's a castle at the top of the hill, and a port at the bottom - hence Castleport. How dull, I hear you say, and you may well be right. If Google is to be believed, no other town in the whole of the English speaking world has deemed the name worthy of use, even though there are plenty that would qualify. Where the name does crop up it tends to be associated with mundane things like retail outlets and shopping malls.
     

     
    The town itself, climbing up the hill to the castle, was inspired by the riverside area of Durham, as depicted in the posters below by Brangwyn, Newbould and Taylor...
     

     
    Properties in the town offer little of architectural merit, the recent building boom having thrown up a load of quick-build housing of shoddy cardboard construction. The residents of Castleport can expect a future of subsidence, sagging rooflines and peeling wallpaper. The examples in the image below are typical of the rest...
     

     
    Steps leading up from the dock provide access to the town. Those beside the station come out opposite Evans' emporium and are known, naturally enough, as the Stairway to Evans...
     

     
    A view to the left...
     

     
    ...and a view to the right...
     

     
    That about sums up Castleport. More detailing still needs to be added. No doubt the population will come out of hiding eventually. For now though, I'm happy to leave it at that and move on to the third and final scene on this baseboard, which will be industrial.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
  24. awoodford

    Tweedale Lite

    By awoodford,


    dunno
    One problem with having an exhibition organizer among your circle of friends seems to be that you are constantly subjected to thinly veiled hints and an underlying pressure to provide something for a show. I used to exhibit some 20 years ago, but in the end I found that the stress involved outweighed the enjoyment, so gave it up. I have no great urge to get drawn back into all that again. So far I've managed to fend off enticements to show Tweedale, by pointing out that it was designed very much as a home layout with no intentions of it ever being exhibited, and is in many ways unsuitable anyhow. I would then go on about its unwieldy shape, the onlooker's view being blocked by the operator, the slapdash construction, the lack of transport, and anything else I could think of to get out of it.
     
    Well, I guess you know where this is going... Yes, in a moment of weakness I finally crumbled under the pressure and agreed to bring Tweedale to a show. Anything for a quiet life. Its a one-off I hasten to add, and not the whole of Tweedale either, just the extension I've been working on lately, which is more manageable and built to a slightly better standard than the earlier section. It will be set up as a stand-alone shunting layout, shuffling wagons between Tweemoor Yard, Castleport and the new industrial zone. In this guise it has been labelled Tweedale Lite, in acknowledgment that it doesn't possess the full functionality of the complete system. 
     
    The show itself is a small local one day event in aid of church funds at Filey (North Yorkshire) on 20th July. I helped out there  last year and it was a very pleasant and friendly relaxed affair, which is all to the good.
     
    Now that the official forms have been filled in, signed, and I'm fully committed, the enormity of my folly is beginning to sink in. 
     


    The image above shows the whole four feet of what constitutes Tweedale Lite in its current state. Not a pretty sight. It has been severed from the rest of the system up in the attic room and dragged down to the chaos of the storeroom/workshop/shed to make it easier to work on. I've made a list of all the jobs that need doing, and a long and daunting one it is too. The right hand third needs finishing scenically, followed by the addition of a frontage with nice picture frames. If it was purely for my own use at home, that is as far as I would have taken it and called it finished.
     
    For the exhibition though, extra modifications will also be required. For example, all those the controls spread along the front need reconfiguring so that the layout can be operated from the back, and short trestles made (plus drapes) so that it will stand on a table at a reasonable height. There are still more than 4 months to go, but Speedy Gonzales I'm not, and every time I look at the list I know its going to be a hard slog to get it all completed on time. So much for the quiet life.
     
    Filey is a bit off the beaten track, but if you happen to find yourself in the area at the time, do pop along to the show and have a chat. I'll give it another plug with more details nearer the date.
     
    Cheers, Alan.
     
  25. awoodford
    My old copy of Tweedale Byways (1908 edition) includes a sketch of Frog Fen Lane, which I've reproduced below... 
     

     
    It looks a pleasant enough spot. I imagine the artist sitting happily beside the dusty road on a lovely sunny day, the only sounds being the gentle tinkling of sheep bells and the chuckling of contented chickens, with maybe the odd skylark thrown in for good measure. If you were to have wandered along and informed him that the area was to be designated as a 'green field site', he would probably have complimented the authorities on their forethought in safeguarding this slice of rural idyll. At that point you would no doubt have wished him a good day and walked on, not wanting to disillusion the poor fellow.
     
    The photo below was taken from more or less the same spot, but some half a century later in the 50s/60s...
     

     
    The frogs, sheep and skylarks have all gone of course, but strangely enough the chickens are still there. The industry moved in so fast that there was no time to round them all up, and a feral population have infested the site ever since. 
     
    Actually I've quite surprised myself at how quickly the industry has come together. It's amazing what a looming exhibition deadline can do for motivation. There are still small details that can be added, road signs and so on, but as with the other scenes those can wait until later if I have time left over.
     
    The buildings were constructed using my preferred medium of cardboard, but most have been faced with Slater's corrugated Plasticard. I never quite know what is the best way of gluing these dissimilar materials together. UHU glue seems to work quite well in the short term, but I've found it goes brittle over time and the surfaces can come apart. The method used here, though it was more of a bother, was to add a paper backing to the plastic, bonding it by soaking solvent (Mekpak) through the paper to the plastic. I then used PVA to glue the paper-backed plastic to the card sub-structure. I have a feeling it may be more stable than the UHU, but that has yet to be proven.
     
    The chimneys and pipes are based on paper tubes. They are rather fragile, but at least having the layout contained in a box reduces their vulnerability somewhat. However the large chimney has already gained a dent at the top, where it was struck by a meteorite. Bends in the pipework consist of sections cut from wooden or plastic curtain rings. Paper collars were added to one end of each straight and curved piece, then a great time was had plugging them together. The pipework could really do with more supports, but the space was too tight fit any more in. 
     

     
    As you might guess, track cleaning is tricky, but then the whole layout is a rabbit warren so that's nothing new. It involves the use of a stick with piece of paper towel wrapped around the end which is then carefully manipulated betwixt and between the obstacles. No abrasives or solvents are used but it does a satisfactory job.
     

     
    It's still not clear exactly what goes on at the Frog Fen Lane works. An industrial spy once noted that wagon loads of innocuous materials arrived and drums of noxious substances departed, mostly to Castleport where they were loaded onto a barge and dumped in the Twee estuary. The railway is unconcerned. Traffic is traffic and it pays the bills, with the added bonus that the leaky drums work wonders at keeping the track free from weeds.
     

     
    Cheers, Alan.
     
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