Northwick Group

Last week saw some progress being made to the fields on board 4, since the extension there has been a large gap between the hedge that runs along the side of the road and the field boundaries that separate the scouts, horses and cows. this involved pulling up the fence that runs between the cows and horses and replacing it with a new one, whilst replacing this we decided to change the orientation of the fields so that the boundaries that separate them are not parallel with the board ends, the new boundaries will carry onto the other side of the railway track to make it look like the railway just cut straight through the existing larger fields and split them in to two smaller fields. Here are some pictures of the new field boundaries: Here is a view from "the other side" (operators side) this view would not have worked before the scenic extensions to the front. Also the newest item of rolling stock for Northwick was brought down, it is a Wickham type 27 trolley and trailer that has been built from a brass kit by Tim Thomas and was being returned to Steve Bolton for painting. The wickham will hopfully be painted and ready for it to take up residence in the wickham hut for the next exhibition! (Aldershot 8&9th October)

Recently one of the trees has been replaced on board 4. Here is the tree before. Here is the tree after. What do you think? is it an improvement?

As promised here is a link to a video of Northwick at the Woking exhibition.

Here are a selection of pictures from day 2 of the Woking show. There will be a video of the action on Northwick from this exhibition to follow. The next exhibition that we will be attending is the Farnham & District MRC exhibition which is on the 8&9th October and is being held at the Connaught leisure centre.

Here are some pictures from day 1 of The Railway Enthusiast's Club Model Railwayexhibition at the Woking leisure centre. If you are wanting something to do tomorrow then why not come along to the exhibition and see Northwick in action!

More progress was made last Friday, with the final preparations being made to the layout in readiness for the exhibition that we will be attending this weekend - The Railway Enthusiasts’ Club Model Railway Exhibition 2016, which is being held at the Woking Leisure Centre - hope to see you there. The first thing to be done was to make the final connections to the turntable so that it will be fully operational for the exhibition - we intended to take a video of the turntable in action to show but we forgot , so here's the next best thing - a couple of photos of Frankton Grange on the turntable. Next job was to repaint the road surface to cover up where we had sanded the plaster a bit too much so had exposed the surface beneath. Another job tackled was adding the static grass to the track way that goes through the field on board 3 - here is a before and after shot. Whilst we had the static grass applicator out we decided to do the road verges on board 3 and add grass to some parts of the loco yard.

Bit of a late one this week, I have been on holiday with next to no internet access. Last week the green fingered members of the group attacked the dead hedgerow on board 4 which were treated to some scatter to provide some much needed colour - there are only a few things to do around the hedges before we take the layout to the Woking model railway exhibition on the 10th & 11th September.

The new hedges that will line the edge of the current fields have started to be installed, they currently have the middle of winter look to them (no greenery) but that will change this Friday, also the fencing has been installed on the edge of the road nearest to the board edge. We took the opportunity to put some rolling stock that we had on the road and track and took some pictures. The old stone walling that ran around the edge of the cow field has been replaced with a new hedge row and the field has been extended slightly to the board joint to help disguise it a bit more. There will also be grass added to the gap between the road edge and the hedge/fence.

More progress was made last Friday evening, the first job was to work out exactly where the road was going so that we knew what parts to paint brown for going under the static grass. once this had been done then it was time to lay the new surface for the road which is plaster with a few drops of black paint in to get the colour that we were looking for, we also decided to re-do the road surface on board 3 as we weren't too happy with it. Below are some pictures of the work in progress. The rest of the boundary fence for the engine yard was installed. Once the plaster had dried off sufficiently (didn't take long as it was very hot and the layer of plaster was very thin) it was time to apply the static grass.

Last Friday saw a lot of change happening to the layout with the extension for board 4 being attached, this was a lot easier than the extension for board 3 as we didn't have to cut a section out of the existing board, so it was just a case of attaching the new section on. Here are some pictures of the new wider board 4. We also managed to carve the hill out of polystyrene. The vermiculite/art mâché mixture was the spread across the top of the polystyrene, here's a picture of the work that was achieved. Here's a picture of boards 3 & 4 now that they have the extensions fitted. The plan for the extension on board 4 is to have the road that goes over the bridge to turn 90 degrees and meander along the front of the current fields and link up with the road on board 3.

I've finally got the computer and camera memory card to communicate with one another so here are a few more pictures from the open day. Ex LMS Ivatt class 2MT 41211 arrives with a goods train. Ex LMS Twin 10000 gets ready to depart with a passenger train Ex GWR 56XX class arrives with a pair of auto coaches Ex LSWR M7 arrives with the gate stock BR Class 37 D6781 Departs with a passenger train A pair of Ex midland 1F's 41661 & 41671 double head a local freight BR class 20 D800 arrives with a freight train Ex GWR hall class 4948 "Northwick Hall" sits in the engine shed Also on the layout in the back siding were the Northwick unusuals, consisting of H.M.G. Boche-Buster, Scratch built by Tim Thomas Going from left to right a Twin Gas Tank, A.P.O.C. twin tank wagon, LBSCR Billington brake van and BR Grampus all built by Steve Bolton Again going from left to right - a tar wagon and a twin bolster, also built by Steve Bolton. Here is an overall view of the siding. There may be a short video on the goings on of the day, will need to see how the footage came out.

Fred (the driver of the Ivatt class 2 tank 41302) didn't have a good day as he drove the locomotive into the turntable well, whilst waiting for the crane to come and help the engine shed crew decided to try and pull it out with rebuilt Battle of Britain Class 34050 Royal Observer Corps by attaching a rope between the 2 locos - at least the AA is on the way . The crane arrived and the crew decided to have a brew and discussion on the best way to remove the tank from the turntable well. Class 23 D5905 passes LMS twin 10000 at the station Class 128 DPU arrives at the station Ex LMS class 3f jinty 47482 shunts the goods yard Ex GWR class 8750, 9736 prepares to depart with a goods train Ex LSWR class O2's 30182 & 24 "Calbourne" arrive in the station with a passenger train More photos to follow once I've convinced the computer that the camera memory card is not the enemy.

It was the clubs open day this Saturday, here are some pictures of Northwick. Mini Steve and Bob stand there thinking "blimey they've brought out the big guns I hope everything goes well...."

Yet more progress was made on the Saturday workday. First thing to be done was to put down a layer of plaster coloured with a few drops of black paint for the road surface - this also means that all of the red surface of the board has now been covered up. Here are some pictures showing the work in progress. The 2 pictures below show the arrangement for the road access to the engine yard it also has the track way that goes through the field joining it. Here are some more pictures showing the rest of the road and with the last remaining bits of red being covered - any one for some fish food? The picture below shows the junction of road ways better The next job was to move back to the hill which was now dry enough to have the static grass applied, the track way through the field has been left as this will be done separately and once the ground cover has been applied to this area first. There are a few small things that need to be done before the clubs open day which is this Saturday (23rd July) go to www.tdmrc.org.uk for more details, Hope to see you there.

Good progress was made on Friday evening. The hill was put on, this was first carved from polystyrene and was then stuck to the baseboard, it was then covered in a mixture of art mache and vermiculite which was mixed with a blob of brown paint to give it some colour, this mixture was then mixed with water until it formed a thick paste, the last step was to spread the mixture using a spatula over the polystyrene and leave it to dry. Here are some pictures of the hill drying. The next job was to install the over runs for the turntable and then start to do the ballasting - once the train with the ballast had arrived (any excuse to operate trains ). Here are some pictures that show the progress with the ballast, it still needs weathering to blend in with the rest of the layout but it is an improvement to the red that was there before.

More progress was made last Friday, with the first job being to lay the stone slabs around the edge of the turntable - the first step was to stick a piece of 1mm square plastic strip on the outer edge of the top surface of the turntable, this was then followed by sticking the metcalf adhesive paving slabs on top (these will be painted a darker grey and weathered later, ash will also be put in the gaps that currently exist between the slabs). The copper clad sleepers that lead up to the turntable were also glued down and then soldered to the rails (the grooves have not been cut in the sleepers yet as we didn't have the tool with us) here are some pictures. The next step was to install the fencing that will separate the engine yard from the roadway that runs along the front edge of the board. Here are some pictures showing the fencing after it has been installed - the white staining on the fencing is from the accelerator that we used to get the glue to grip the fencing quickly, this will be painted over. In the last picture the gap in the fence is so that road vehicles can get access to the engine yard if needed and where the fencing ends (nearest the camera) is where the small hill that is currently on the board will go on the extension. The next things to be done will be to lay the ballast in the engine yard and install the hill.

Last Friday evening we spent laying the new track work to the turntable whilst laying the 2 existing roads to their new alignment we decided to add a refuge/ash collection siding and a siding for the wickham trolley complete with a hut at the end. Here are some pictures showing the progress made.

We had a work day on the layout this Saturday and a lot of progress was achieved. The first job was to finish off cutting out the top of the layout so that it was ready to receive the extension, it was decided that it would be best to cut out a rectangular section from the top of the baseboard and involve a replacement piece with the extension instead of trying to enlarge the existing hole as it would have been difficult to achieve a perfectly round hole for the new turntable well and more importantly as the new turntable well goes over the edge of the existing edge of the board then it would guarantee that the surface around the well would be flat. Here is a picture of the board 3 once the rectangular piece from the top had been removed. The extension board was then offered up to see what adjustments needed to be made and were the existing framing under the surface needs to be cut to allow space for the new well (this is the reason why the well isn't sitting level with the surface of the extension in the picture) The adjustments were then made and the framing cut and the extension with the well were then offered up again, this time with a perfect fit being achieved! A length of wood was then fixed to the front of the existing base board and 9mm from the top to allow for the thickness of the plywood top and the extension was then slotted over the top of this and fixed on. It was then time to start to think on where the track was to go (we are using code 75 flexi track from C&L finescale), a length of this was placed on the board and shaped to how it's needed. Here's a picture of the first piece in place. The current surface of the board was then scored either side of the track with a Stanley knife and a chisel was then used to carefully remove the existing surface whilst not damaging the top of the based board where the new track is going, a layer of 2mm thick cork sheet was then stuck down - this was necessary to ensure that we would be starting off at the correct level whilst also ensuring that the surface will be level for the new track. This process was then repeated for each of the tracks leading to the turntable. We decided that as we are making adjustments in the area to add a new length of track from the turntable (strip of cork nearest to the bottom of the picture) to creat a refuge siding whilst also allowing us to pose some wagons with ash in if we want, also coming off the turntable will be a short length of track with a wickham hut at the end of it to house a wickham trolley. Here are some pictures showing how far we got by the end of the day.

We've had Bob the builder in! After several failed attempts to repair an ailing turntable we decided to throw in the towel and replace the whole thing. The replacement is slightly bigger so the shed area is going to need a slight *ahem* adjustment. This coincides nicely with a scenic extension we have planned for the front of all of the boards. In true Northwick (and Time Team) style, we've got just 5 weeks(nights really as we only have Friday evenings available) to get the turntable installed and the scenery replaced in time for the club open day on 23/7/16 . Can we do it? Here is a picture of the board 3 before any adjustments where made but it does have the new turntable well in the foreground to show the size difference. The contractors then moved in to start the work, here is a sequence of pictures showing what's been done so far. Here is the finished work after the first evening. Now that the demolition is pretty much done it will be time to fit the baseboard extension and then start to reconstruct the scenics.

Get your copy of the TDMRC Northwick with the June copy of BRM and enjoy the layout before coming along to see us at Woking, Farnham and High Wycombe later this year. Not forgetting our club open day on the 23rd July 2016 10:00 - 16:30 free admission, light refreshments and a sales table.

Recently we had an unusual visitor to Northwick in the form of H.M.G Boche-Buster, this model has been scratch built by Tim Thomas. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

Last Friday we had a running night and because of the recent surprise win of a certain football team we decided that it was only fair that the locomotive named after their city should make an appearance. Ex LMS Duchess class 46252 "City of Leicester" passes the horses on the way to the station. Ex LMS Duchess class 46252 "City of Leicester" arrives in the station with a set of stanier coaches. Also running was Ex LMS Princess coronation class 46203 "Princess Margaret Rose"

Steve B has decided to re-number one of his jubilee class locomotives as they were both named Hong Kong, the one that was re-numbered was the one which has yet to be weathered, it is now called Bellerphon here it is posed on one of the points which he has also built. And here are both of the jubilees running together on Northwick Please let us know what you think

Now that all of the points have been made we decided to place them on the layout to show where they will be going, here is a general view of the board with the points on. Here is a close up of the new route into the goods yard/engine yard. For the goods trains they will travel onto the layout on the track nearest to the signal box and will then turn off at the first set of points, through the double slip, through the 3-way point and continue on to the goods yard. For the passenger trains they will start off on the same track and will then have the option to continue straight into the bay platform or platform 2 or can turn off at the first set of points and go through the double slip to end up on the parallel track and continue to platform 3 When a passenger locomotive has uncoupled from the train it will usually reverse from platform 2 and turn off at the 2 current points (that will be staying where they are) and go straight through the double slip, it will then go forwards through the double slip to the 3-way point and stop the other side of the 3-way point, the loco will then reverse through the 3-way point and go through the new A5 point and go onto the turntable. If any of this doesn't make sense or you would like to see diagrams of the movements then let me know.

Here are some pictures from one of our recent running nights, the theme was the bluebell railway. BR standard class 4MT tank 80151 arrives with a Pullman train consisting of parlor third "Christine", Kitchen 1st "Fingall", Ex-LMS stove R repainted in Pullman livery and Parlor 3rd "Lillian" BR Mk1 and bulleid coach set sit in platform 2 with the Great Northern Railway Directors saloon attached to the rear. SR West country class "Blackmour Vale" awaits to depart with the Pullman service consisting of parlor brake 3rd "Car No. 54", Kitchen 1st "Carina", Parlor 3rd Lillian, Ex-LMS stove R repainted in Pullman livery, Kitchen 1st "Fingall" and Parlor 3rd "Christine" whilst King Arthur class "Sir Gawain" awaits to go to the turntable.