turtlebah
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Posts posted by turtlebah
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On 10/05/2020 at 16:03, RichardV said:
Interesting to read about a fictitious station inserted into the town in which I grew up.
It looks like the layout's coming together well. I hope you get more time to work on it soon.
Thanks, RIchard. I do hope i get some more time soon too - juggling a 6 month old and a job doesn’t always lend itself to modelling free time.
As a resident of the area, if you have any insight on historical railway workings please do share!
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On 07/05/2020 at 15:02, Lacathedrale said:
Looks really really lovely - with the mockups of the bridge and throat it looks even better!
Thanks Lacathedrale. Hoping to get some more permanent fixtures in place soon and then it’ll be easier to picture the final details and how it all comes together.
Enjoyed catching up on your Holborn Viaduct today - a man after my own heart modelling an urban terminus! Secretly i wished that i had the foresight to build West Park atop of railway arches.
Looking forward seeing that one progress...
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Work's pretty busy this week so there's no real time for modelling, but hopefully the laser cut shells for the station, road bridges, retaining walls and warehouses should be arriving next week so there will be plenty to crack on with (providing work is a little less busy).
After nearly completing all remedial works and getting the track working the next major project will be mocking up the signal box. The example in the background of this picture (Truro Bachmann special edition for Kernow) is far too mainline west country for a tight terminus set in Birmingham. Hopefully I'll post some pictures later this week.
Llanfair Grange takes on water before heading off for turning after bringing in a local stopper from Shrewsburys. A class 101 arrives in the background on a local service from Stafford.
I've also started building more cassettes and hope to get the rest of the fiddle yard wired up this weekend. It'll be nice to show trains leaving platforms other than P1 & P2!
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10 hours ago, chuffinghell said:
You can never have too many PanniersThat's good to know because I've got another on the workbench awaiting overhaul
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A new arrival on shed today. 6439 needs a bit of extra weathering and some details fitting. I probably need to have a little play with the chuff rates and random sounds as well (they're a bit too random and loud at the moment).
Unfortunately this is a rare outing on a passenger service, as primarily she'll be station pilot going forwards. Been desperate to get one of the panniers up and running to fulfil this duty.
Apologies for the solder in the foreground
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The order for the laser cut building and infrastructure shells has been placed with York Modelmaking! Very excited to see the end results in a few weeks time.
I had a spare hour this afternoon and so managed to get stuck into some of the remedial work on the crossover.
I replaced the guide rails giving tighter clearance, which seems to have helped send almost all engines across the points without riding the crossover.
I also resoldered the switch blades on the point at the station throat end to give a bit of extra clearance as a few locos were riding up here too.
All fine now apart from my Hornby Black 5 that still can’t navigate the crossover. However, I can’t see an operational need that would ever result in the Black 5 needing to crossover and even if I made perfect point work I’m sure it would still find a way to jump the points. Pretty convinced the gauging is a little loose on my model.
Hope everyone managed to get some modelling in this weekend
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7 hours ago, saxokid said:
Some very nice work throughout ...
Thanks Saxokid. Itching to get on with the next phase, but putting off the remedial work
Enjoyed catching up on your flask depot this morning - it's come on a lot since i last check in
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On 20/04/2020 at 02:25, saxokid said:
Thanks my frend..
Been adding more woodland scenic turfs and Noch static grass today..
Love the vegetation and track weathering
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On 25/04/2020 at 14:11, Gopher said:
Next building replacement project is to replace building in photo 1 (Skaledale), by completing the kit in photo 2, to hopefully look something like the building in photo 3.
The challenge for me will be cutting and applying my preferred wall covering (Redutex textured sheets), to accurately fit the laser cut wood carcass. So far I have only used them on smaller half relief buildings. This kit is full relief, and a more challenging shape. So with a bit of bad language I'll hopefully get there !
Hi @Gopher, how did you get the building shells laser cut? Was it something you did yourself?
I've just completed a whole series of drawings and need to get some shells cut myself. Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Layout looks great by the way - you now have another avid follower.
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Unfortunately before I can progress with buildings there is a bit of remedial work to do...
The cross over at the end of Platform 3 really needs ripping up and replacing, but i don't have the heart to do that at this stage of the West Park's development. The two points that comprise the crossover were the first i ever hand built and my point making skills certainly improved as the layout progressed. I figure that tightening the guide rails (see below that one has already been removed) should help some of the locomotives stop riding the crossover fork, which is happening a fair bit now (more so with Hornby than Bachmann or Heljan locomotives).
I suspect the real problem is a bit of wonky gauging between the two points so when i do eventually replace the whole crossover i would do two things differently to help combat this...Firstly, build the points in situ and not directly on to the C&L paper template, and secondly, build the whole crossover as one section of track rather than two separate points.
It actually worked fine when originally laid, but a combination of a hot train room and slight changes to the track positioning whilst ballasting and the replacement of one of the crossings has meant that the derailments are starting to increase in frequency. Time to nip it in the bud (sort of).
In addition, one of my other points has a dead spot where a bit of solder connecting the outer rail and point blade has clearly come loose. Fixing this one is going to be a little fiddly.
As only my second ever layout attempt and my first with hand build finescale track it's all a learning experience (1 step forward 3 steps back)!
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10 hours ago, Calidore said:
Drawings look great! I find those kind of plans endlessly interesting to pore over, whether for real buildings or for models. The Brit does look the business there too, I hadn’t realised it before but I think what gives this such a nice ‘main line’ feel is the wide track spacing. Looks fab.
Adam
Hi Adam,
In hindsight, the drawings were the easy bit. I've now got to build the bloomin things (and to match the drawings - eeek)!
I just love the Class 7 locomotives! Not very pretty, but they definitely look the business. Unfortunately my Class 7 has by now been relegated to secondary passenger workings.
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Drawings for the West Park infrastructure are now complete, which took way longer than anticipated
A BR Standard Class 7 waits for a clear road to proceed to Crewe via Stafford with the West Park portion of a service bound for the North West. The 56xx is on station pilot duty today and waits patiently in the centre road for an incoming Shrewsbury service and the subsequent stock moves.
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13 hours ago, TheLaird said:
The Fairburn has departed with the Sheffield-Bradford and the B1 has followed out. The sectional appendix is quite specific about this manoeuvre, drivers being required to do it unless instructed otherwise. They are advised to proceed cautiously at a safe distance in case the train stops suddenly so as to avoid a rear end collision. They are required to stop at the first signal regardless of its aspect until they see it return to danger and then be subsequently cleared. I assume the main purpose of this is to ensure that the signalman does not forget a loco standing at the buffer stops, something we have found very easy to do. I have therefore installed track circuits for the platform roads as a precaution, even though they were not employed on the prototype at this time.
B1 61392 awaits the starter from No6 to give him the road to Holbeck shed.
Great pic, John. So atmospheric.
On a slightly different topic, and after watching some of your vids, your loco’s always sounds great (Bradfield loco’s included). What sounds decoders do you use?
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Whilst I would dearly love to just play trains the time has come to crack on with the next phase - the rather mundane task of producing detailed measurement drawings for the scenery shells before laser cutting can commence.
A lonely evening spent at the kitchen table with obligatory beer and documentary on North West steam for company
The retaining wall and Waterloo Road bridge sketch
West Park station building basic shell
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14 minutes ago, Adrian Stevenson said:
Nice video. I like the weathered Black 5 very much.
Cheers, Ade.
Thanks Ade. I wish I could take credit for the Black 5, but that was the handy work of the guys at TMC who did a great job as always.
It does still need detailing though and I've got a parts pack to fit, but there's more pressing scenic work to get done for now.
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On 26/01/2020 at 22:43, colmflanagan said:
Saturday 18 January 2020. 2.15 pm. A big day on the Ballycrochan Line. The "Caledonian Princess" berthed at her new home at Stranraer (Mk2). She had been roosting on the top of a wardrobe in our spare bedroom for over a year until I deemed the Stranraer end sufficiently finished - no major works would be needed which might cause damage to the delicate rigging and masts.
The new berth is at right angles to the railway station (more like Larne!) but it now has a diorama behind it, with which I am very pleased. The Western bus awaits passengers, but like the current Stena rail & sail bus, is often nearly empty....
There's still lots of detail to be added to the station interior and it needs some sort of canopy(s). But I decided to re-use the existing buildings and they work well in this location, after a bit of hacking, glueing cutting and fettling. Keen eyed older modellers will realize that the buffers are cut down old Hornby Dublo ones; the lamps are 3mm LEDs though.
The puffer "Moonlight" has been laid up at the village "old pier" for now but will resume her sailings to and from the rear facing station pier in due course. Another Dublo buffer stop is here... The twin tracks of the main circuit run behind the darker blue strip.
A close up of the fully detailed bridge area. Carl Fisher who lived in Scotland ,built the ship using original plans, over a period of nearly 4 years from 2010 to 2013. It is actually to 3.5mm scale, as both model sites required this so that I could model the vehicle linkspan area. The ship has LED lighting throughout. I collected it in Stranraer!
The signal box (1960 version) has been placed in position; I had to tweak the track away about 5mm extra on the quayside sidings behind it give sufficient clearance - its a pretty narrow board. From this angle you can't see the trains in the 6 storage loops behind the station.
And finally, the whole ship setup was inspired by this wonderful 1961 British Railways poster which used to be displayed at the old terminal building at Stranraer. (it was over four feet wide!). I coveted it for years but finally got a very good quality copy for the wall of the railway room. Stranraer didn't really look as lovely as this except on rare summer days! the painter took some liberties with reality, though the actual DMU and steam trains and ship were very accurate. I have taken some liberties (and a wee bit of photoshop) also, so am in good company!
So, onward now with the narrow gauge and lots of scenery to do.
Hi Colm,
A great layout and really atmospheric. Really pleased to have found this thread
Cheers, Nick
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11 hours ago, danstercivicman said:
Very nice
Thanks, Dan. Still a long way to go.
When you have an hour spare in the evening it is just too tempting to play trains
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On 14/04/2020 at 22:08, danstercivicman said:
22:06 sees the delayed ‘Northern Irishman’ begin it’s journey to Euston.
The Clan will be changed for a waiting Class 45 or Britannia at Carlisle and I think a buffet car attached at Crewe for breakfast?
Arriving in London for around 7:30 am.
The ECS from the Carlisle train is being shunted into this siding.
That move will allow the 5MT to depart to the shed.
Lovely shots.
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Back to work today after an extended Easter break and so little time for modelling. A good excuse this evening to play trains for an hour.
It really would be much easier (operationally) to make these videos if i bothered to wire up the fiddle yard cassettes for trains running out of platforms 1 and 2 (that’s why you only ever see departing trains running from platform 3 unless a DMU. Perhaps a job for the weekend...
In the meantime, here’s the latest trainspotters chronicles at West Park.
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14 hours ago, Calidore said:
The views from the bridge are just the ticket, very nice... Should look great once the buildings come to life too.
Adam
let’s hope so
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@Rhysb looking good so far. Nice weathering on the class 37. I'm looking forward to seeing how this project evolves.
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10 hours ago, wiggoforgold said:
Proscenium nearly finished. I need to trim the centre support a bit more
Hi Alex. It's all coming along nice. You've got yourself another avid follower.
I look forward to seeing future updates.
Nick
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On 17/01/2020 at 13:02, pelhama said:
Afternoon All,
So, it’s been a fair while again since my last update – Christmas has been and gone and we’re in to 2020.
Not a great deal has happened – a few boxes have arrived with various rolling stock manufacturers’ latest releases, but possibly the most significant delivery was on Christmas Eve. Santa, cunningly disguised as the local Postman, dropped off a nice parcel from British Finescale containing:
This was my two pledges worth of kits and jigs, which covers the scenic trackwork for the layout; now I just need the time, space and money to get the baseboards ordered.
The previously mentioned changes to the track alignment for using the British Finescale products has led to a review of the scenic plan, and revisions to accommodate the changes. This is currently a work in progress, and probably will be for some time as it is a very time-consuming process. The Templot plan has been imported and ‘tidied up’, I am now adjusting the scenic elements around it. Some of the tweaks are just that – to fit correctly around the realigned track, some others are a little more substantial, such as re-positioning roads. The latter is part of my plan to avoid the road disappearing into the backscene, and to obscure all scenic ‘exits’ as best as possible. I'll upload some images once I've made progress worth sharing.
This of course also means the scale mock-up will need revising and will probably be better to start from scratch on that; I can hopefully reuse the buildings though.
Anyway, better get on, I’ve got tea to drink, layouts to plan and build…
Cheers,
Mark
Hi Mark - I really liked the original layout design so excited to see what revisions you come up with.
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On 21/09/2019 at 09:19, andy stroud said:
Here is a short 4 minute video of my layout. Nothing fancy, just done on a phone with some corny music added, but I do think it does capture the feel of the layout quite well. It is three years since I posted the last video.
Also, as Jerry mentioned earlier, I will be taking the layout to the Uckfield exhibition on 19th & 20th October.
I've only just come across this. Wonderful video of one of my favourite layouts.
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Looking forward seeing that one progress...
Wolverhampton West Park - A run down city terminus
in Layout topics
Posted
Richard, what a wealth of useful information - thank you so much. I will certainly be adding the semi-fast to Chester on to the timetable going forwards (maybe even a service to Woodside too).
I've also just order several new books thanks to your post
Looking forward to the Dapol large prairies, which will hopefully be released soon, to recreate the Snow Hill services and hoping to devise a suitable timetable at some point to help with running sessions.