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turtlebah

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Posts posted by turtlebah

  1. Warehouse bridge now has it's first lick of paint - a base coat of engineers blue.  Next up is the light stone mortar wash before some more general weathering will be applied (soot marks, water marks etc).

     

    Abergavenny Castle is leaving platform 1 light engine after bringing in a semi fast service from Oxford.  The collet 0-6-0 is on station pilot duty today.

     

    IMG_7118.JPEG.33958fca7afc2b2c460097b7d70eeee3.JPEG

     

    • Like 9
  2. On 20/12/2020 at 05:26, danstercivicman said:

    Looks good- a very important type and glad to see it made in OO :) 


    With the forthcoming Manor class it’ll almost complete the set.  It really is a wonderful / expensive time to be modelling western region steam.

     

    If I had one request of the manufacturers I’d love a Class 120 Swindon in OO.

    • Like 1
  3. 34 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

    Yes!

    Until the big changes in ‘67 on completion of New St, there was a 2 hourly Snow Hill Cardiff via Hereford.  In the very early days the 3 car GWR flying bananas were for this service.   I think that Swindon Intercity units were used for a while and Cross Country units after that.

    All went in ‘67 when it became not much more than a suburban service to Worcester.

    In my little world they were diverted to Low Level using the Crewe Cardiff type sets (so I can have Hymeks and Comptons).

    Paul.

     

    That's another service I can add on to the timetable in that case!

    • Like 3
  4. 5 hours ago, Melangoose said:

    Nice progress with the overall roof.

     

    Thought that you might like to see this old 1958 timetable poster from Stourbridge Junction. As there are various trains during the day to Wolverhampton L L (which of course would continue to West Park to terminate).  The poster belongs to my Dad, Dennis (or Jim as he likes to be known).  He was great friends with a chap called Bill Evans who was the Stationmaster at Stourbridge Junction during the 1970-1980’s. 

     

     

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    Really great resource thanks, Melangoose.  Nice hourly (ish) service to Wolverhampton, which at West Park will likely be in the hands of Class 121 / 122 railcar or a 14xx and auto coach.

     

    Some other interesting services on there provide inspiration.  Maybe I've not read the timetable correctly, but was there really a Stourbridge Junction to Cardiff General service?  Need to find some pictures of motive power etc.  I'm assuming this was a through service from London, but maybe not.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  5. 16 hours ago, Melangoose said:


    Your grass work looks very effective, a nice choice of subtle shades you have used. 

    Spent a nice half hour looking through all your video’s, which are fantastic. You have some really nice stock and the weathering is spot on.

     

    Kind words - I can't take all the credit for the weathering though.  Lots of the stock has been weathered by TMC.  I'm still learning the dark arts in that respect.

     

    I've enjoyed doing the grass work, although I've noticed that the grass strands can look a little shiny in the wrong light.  I'm wondering whether some weather powders might do the trick blown over the top to dampen things down a little!?

  6. 8 minutes ago, danstercivicman said:

     

    There is a thread on rmweb of Glasgow  queen street being built using Peco in a very clever manner.  Low level is way more complex due to the diverging junctions.  I like what you have done on west park it gets the same effect without the point work :) 

     

    Being space restricted I didn't want to try and squeeze in a station throat making look unrealistic.  I also wanted to get the illusion of a bigger station than the modelled reality by filling the entire board with platform, but running shorter formation trains (max of 3 coaches).  It kinda works combined with the run down back story where the station is only really used for local stopping and semi fast services (with a bit of imagination).  One day I'd love the space for prototypically running.

     

    I've spent a fair bit of time on that Queen Street thread - looks great and super keen to see how the project evolves.  If I wasn't such a die-hard western region fan Queen Street would have been very appealing as an inspiration.

    • Like 1
  7. 12 minutes ago, danstercivicman said:

     

    Yes very very very lucky not to be dead :) 2mm more and I’d have been gone... 

     

    Yeah I’ve been tempted by Low Level many times.  It needs a lot of space and the pointwork is very complex at the southern end.  

     

    There are are some great old former factory branches, good sheds and routes dotted around Wolves :) 

     

     

     

     

    I had enough trouble learning how to build C&L points for my simple West Park track plan - the thought of all those double and single slips makes me (and my wallet) very nervous.

  8. 2 hours ago, danstercivicman said:

     

    This is where I was due to fight in a charity/white collar boxing match.  It was a good job I didn’t as a few weeks before I had a scan which revealed a bleed on the brain from sparring!

     

    The old station is now a banqueting venue.  It’s quite big inside and they have kept quite a lot of the old canopy/roof. 

     

    It is is a lovely location and high level is just behind it.  

     

    Theres is a great deal of old railway infrastructure still left in Wolverhampton.  Worth a visit when it’s out of lock down level high...

     

    Sorry for the massive diversion!  Hope you don’t mind. 

     

    Great work on the layout :) 

     

     

    Sounds like you dodged a "bullet" there.

     

    It's nice that they've worked with the original Low Level station architecture to create the new development.  One day I'll hopefully have the space to start work on a replica version, but until then West Park will have to do.

    • Like 1
    • Agree 1
  9. 11 hours ago, Melangoose said:

    My son has gone to Wolverhampton University last month, we had a weekend there to get him sorted and settled. We stayed at the Premier Inn which overlooks the old Lower Level station (it was nice to have a wander round during a quite moment on the Sunday).

     

    I like what you are doing with your layout, I will look forward to following your progress.

     

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    Thanks Melangoose.  Spent a lovely couple of hours on your thread the other week.  A super little layout you’ve got yourself there.  Just the wrong era unfortunately :D

     

    Thanks for posting the aerial shot of Low Level.  Really helpful in sorting out some of the architecture on the roof.

     

    Hope your son’s getting on ok at uni.  There’s been some bleak stories regarding university lockdowns...

     

     

    • Thanks 1
  10. Finally got round to playing trains after a big tidy up.  It’s helped me find my modelling mojo again and after months of inactivity I’ve started to crack on with the retaining walls and station canopy (post this video).

     

    As you’ll see on the video, although I’ve got the basic MDF shells for the warehouse above the bridge, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to finish the design.  Any photos of GWR warehouses or Birmingham area warehouses would be greatly appreciated.

     

     

    • Like 8
    • Craftsmanship/clever 1
  11. On 27/09/2020 at 14:08, danstercivicman said:

    I may have missed it but where are the retaining walls from? 

     

     

    Hi Dan, the retaining walls are laser cut from 2mm MDF by the lovely folks at York Model Making.  I sent them a scale drawing of what I was after and they turned up on the post 2 weeks later.

     

    I thought getting them laser cut in MDF would be much sharper than me whittling away at some plasticard.

    • Like 1
  12. After a couple of months off work to look after my little daughter whilst my partner finished her maternity leave I’m nearing my own return date for work.  With the little one settling in at nursery I’ve got next week off to sort out the railway room, which will now have to double as a home office.  It’s unlikely that I’ll be commuting into central London on a regular basis anytime soon.

     

    A few goodies turned up in the post curtesy of TMC this week.  I’ll be posting some videos sometime next week hopefully with a short running session.  I’ve not made any real progress on the layout and tried to have a running session this morning, but given that i haven’t touched the layout for 3 months it needs a bloody good clean up first (so much poor running).

     

    I did manage to get this lovely shot of Abergavenny Castle on a short formation TPO portion for Oxford.

     

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    • Like 18
  13. On 04/07/2020 at 15:52, Calidore said:

    Hi @turtlebah, I was just here to look again at something I'd remembered you featuring in a previous post. So while I'm at it, is there any news to report from West Park? I love the sense of scale in the photo above, by the way -- the huge starting signal looming over the platform, and the even bigger buildings rising behind it make for a wonderful scene.

     

    Hope all is well.

     

    Adam

     

    Hi Adam,

     

    Rest assured all is well and thank you for the message.  A hot summer does not lend itself to being stuck in an attic bedroom working with enamel paints, and so with that in mind I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from West Park.  West Park is still up and operational and now autumn is fast approaching i hope to get back to it soon.

     

    I’ve also been on shared parental leave from work so looking after a 10 month old full time leaves little mental space for modelling.  I’ve spend most of my summer free time on the River Lea trying to catch barbel :D

     

    I’ve just ordered one of the superb Bachmann Class 117 dmus, which although wouldn’t have been seen a West Park until around 10 years after closure, is just too lovely not to run.

     

    Hopefully the next month or so will yield some modelling results.  Fingers crossed.

    • Like 3
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  14. Michael - i love your track plan and viaduct / arches junction.  I guess this kind of track plan demonstrates the joy of building n-gauge in a comparatively tight space.

     

    Very much looking forward to seeing how this layout progresses. :)

     

    Cheers,

    Nick

    • Thanks 1
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