mikemeg

Post of the week... and it's only Wednesday!

 

You are so lucky Mike, to have been around at that age and to have seen so much, I'm green all over with envy. As much as I love my hydraulics and WR steam, I'd give my right arm to go back to the '50s and see working steam in BR days on a daily basis. My Dad grew up with the WCML on his door step in the same period but had no interest whatsoever, when I've asked him what it was actually like but he just shrugs his shoulders and says 'didn't take any notice'. Go figure!

 

Nidge

Nidge,

Many thanks for the comments. Perhaps, when next we get to July and August dates, I will try and describe one August Sunday afternoon in 1959 when we did Camden, Willesden, Old Oak Common and Kings Cross, all between 12.00 pm and around 6.30 pm.

To see the lines of Pacifics and V2's in 'Top Shed' or the first time I ever saw the copper capped chimneys and brass safety valves of the Kings, Castles, Counties, Halls, Granges and all of those other ex-GWR locos on their 'day off'. There again, perhaps first seeing the ex-LMS Coronations and Princess Royals, along with the Royal Scots, Jubilees and Patriots on Camden and Willesden.

And that day the notebook shows seeing nearly four hundred steam locomotives, all in a single long, warm summer's afternoon. The following Saturday was Kentish Town and Cricklewood and the final Sunday of my 1959 summer was the various southern sheds.

I used to stay with an uncle and aunt in Romford, near London, for about three/four weeks, each summer during the late 50's and early sixties. As a twelve year old (at least in 1959) I did get refused entry or just 'chucked out' of a number of sheds but, more often than not, perseverence paid off.

The highlight was Stratford that same summer, for even by 1959, Sunday in Stratford was simply incredible, with well over two hundred on the one shed. Yet only four or five years earlier it could have been well over three hundred locos on that same shed on those Sunday afternoons - now it beggars belief!

I would give a few quid to be able to see one of those sheds again, just as they were on those long, lazy summer Sunday afternoons of the late fifties for there were no places quite like them; they were 'cathedrals' dedicated to the steam locomotive - simply magical places.

Cheers

Mike

This day in history - York - October 11th 1958

On that day, now more than half a century ago, an eleven year old lad with two of his mates, made his first spotting trip away from his home town. Platform 9 at Hull Paragon station for the 8.25 all stations to York - an eight car multiple unit; four two car Cravens sets. The line from Hull to York still had many NER slotted post lower quadrant signals, stations with working goods yards and pick up goods trains. The entire line was much as it would have appeared in Victorian times, though then none of us had any idea of what we were passing through.

As we drew into York, over Lendal bridge, we saw our first green engine of the day and the first V2 any of us had ever seen, as it slid into the station - 60872 Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. I can still see that V2 as it moved majestically into York station.

Too many locomotives on that day to enumerate and you don't want yet another long list of numbers. Memories of that day - hundreds :-

Looking through the window of the repair shop at the back of York shed to see three A1's - Boswell, Sea Eagle and Balmoral, 60138, 139 and 140. Where did they get those incredible names from. Later we would see another seven A1's but none more appropriately named than Hal O'the Wynd, was there ever a more evocative name for a locomotive.

We saw nine A3's, six A2's - including an A2/2, Earl Marischal - on that day but only once would we thrill to the unmistakable sound of a chime whistle announcing the passing or arrival of an A4, 60015 Quicksilver.

Jubilees and an Unrebuilt and unnamed Patriot came in on the Bristol and Birmingham trains; those going on northwards changing locomotives to Pacifics or V2's.

Though we couldn't get into or round the two turntables in the shed, we were able to find a hole in the fence and do the locomotive yard and what a sight that was. Row upon row of locomotives, of two dozen or more different classes B1's, B16's, K1's, K3's, D49's and many more.

An almost incessant stream of freights passed, either through the station or taking the avoiding lines at Holgate. Ex LNER 2-8-0's, LMS 8F's and Back 5's and Austerities and 9F's, over twenty different 9F's in the day, plus J39's, one J27 and a host of B1's, K1's and K3's.

In the day we saw almost two hundred steam locos and various diesel shunters and multiple units; the later main line diesels had not yet made their appearance beyond the first examples of some classes.

Home on the 7.13 stopper to Hull, sitting in a compartment of a Gresley coach and pulled by B1 61304. Tired, quite grubby but with three full pages of the new notebook filled with numbers.

Now, it seems almost beyond belief that so many trains, so many locomotives of so many different types could be seen in a single place on a single day.

I still consider myself lucky to have seen those days, yet only seven or eight years before that the locomotive numbers and variety would have been even more staggering.

Cheers

Mike

If ever there was a thread which espouses the view 'just get on and try it, you'll never know what you can do until you try' it is this one. For me, this thread is just essential reading on building model locomotives and shows just what can be done without expensive and complex machine tools.

Many thanks for a truly inspiring thread.

Cheers

Mike

Here's another photo from the Hessle Haven 'archives'. One of the things which fascinates me is light; this largely through taking up painting only a couple of years ago. So though the railway ends abruptly on this photo, it was the light which gave rise to its being taken, the natural light of approaching evening.

So in the lengthening shadows of evening, a Gresley V2 brings its train under shipyard bridge and on towards Hull.

Cheers

Mike

Pete,

The chairs are glued to the sleepers using one of the proprietary plastic solvents, mek-pak or similar. I normally dose the sleeper in the solvent, at both points where chairs are to be attached, prior to glueing the chair. I normally allow the solvent to soak into the sleepers for around half an hour and then fix the chair with more solvent. It's not absolutely foolproof and I have had the odd chair loosen, but it does seem to provide a durable and lasting bond.

It also affects the wood dye, around the chair, by somehow accentuating the brown, which, quite accidentally, gives that pool of rust around the chair seating on the sleeper.

Yes if you look closely the lengthman has missed a few fishplates. I'm gonna have to 'walk' the entire track and put a few back.

Cheers

Mike

Hi Mike,

Good to hear from you. You ask what was the colour of the ballast, as supplied. The ballast is a commercial product, for 'n' gauge, and is actually very fine granite chippings with a very light greenish grey colour. When this stuff is damped, then it really does turn a very discernable green colour, which doesn't seem to go away when it dries. I had hoped that by using the real thing it might be the real colour but I've never seen any ballast which was green, hence the need to paint the stuff.

As supplied the stuff also has a very even colour, so even without the 'all over' grey base colour, I would still have needed to pick out the highlights in the various whites, browns, greys and black.

Yes, the ballast was painted avoiding the sleepers, which were already couloured prior to laying them. I found this became reasonably easy after practice though maintaining the concentration to do this was a challenge.

There are loads of good colour photos from the 1950's and 60's which show the colour and the effects on the ballast of years of weathering and I might yet just airbrush another coat of 'muck and oil' over various areas just to tone it all down a little more and to add some more variation, especially where locos would have been stationary i.e. ends of platforms, by signals, etc.

Cheers

Mike

Top bit of work ! will follow this one .

Just love the look of the track work, keep up the good work

All the best

Darren

Darren,

Thanks for the posting. I spent a long while experimenting with ways of building and colouring the trackwork, to try and achieve that prototypical look. For me it is all about capturing that elusive 'essence' of the real thing. Hard to describe, harder still to define but recognisable when (and sometimes if) it is achieved. I use the digital camera throughout every aspect of the build, not just to record progress on here but to check whether that 'essence' is there. This by photographing various aspects of the models from vantage points as the prototypes would have been photographed.

I was very lucky in finding a source of information about this place; someone who had plans, drawings, and a huge archive of photographs of not only this locale but much of what was the old NER and LNER - Mick Nicholson. Without Mick's incredible archive of information, none of this could have been done. It's strange just how my own recollections of this place had become almost idealised and bore no relationship to how it actually looked. Perhaps not surprising as the model represents the scene of sixty years ago - long before I knew it!

I still have to 'plant' the banks on this section and build the fences, along with mounting point rodding (dummy) on those rodding stools by the up slow. Then some signal wire posts (dummy again, hell life's too short to try and use wires) and this scene is about complete.

Cheers

Mike

And when the next section of the railway is built; the section shown in one of the first photos on this thread, then the centrepieces will be these signals which stood here. Now, of course, they are long gone, replaced by colour lights, but this is what they looked like, now more than half a century ago.

Cheers

Mike

Not a lot of progress on the railway itself while I build the signals which stood in this place. This photo has been posted to the signal building thread but, I guess, it really belongs on here for this, for me, is what this modelling is all about - re-creating those scenes of our boyhood and youth.

I can never think of this place without remembering the final lines of A. E. Houseman's immortal poem 'A Shropshire Lad' :-

It is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain.

Those happy highways where we went

And cannot come again.

Needless to say, the gantry is scratch built, as are all of the signals; there are no etches available for these things.

Cheers

Mike

Many years ago there was a bridge over the railway, at a place called Hessle Haven, just outside Hull on the mainline going to all points west. It was a railway kind of place with lots of intricate pointwork and three of those wonderful McKenzie and Holland gantries and signal bridges.

As kids we would spend hours and days at this place, just watching the never ending procession of trains. So this was the view from Gasworks or Shipyard bridge looking west through the down gantry.

This photo confounds all of the 4mm norms - too close, very dark, etc. but, hopefully it conveys just something of the atmosphere of the steam railway of the 1950's.

Everything on here is scratch built.

Cheers

Mike

Can I add my endorsement to the comments above. This really is an excellent and very informative thread. This latest signal model really does look 'the business'.

Well done and I look forward to the next thread(s)- did someone mention gantries?

Cheers

Mike

How to secure the pivots and lamps to the post.

John,

For securing the pivots to the post, especially as you are building in 7 mm, you could do worse than follow the prototype. The pivot was a single casting with a bearing housing and a flat base, which was bolted through the post.

So a rectangular piece of .010" brass or nickel silver to which is soldered the pivot. Drill each corner of the baseplate (0.5 mm?) and use this to mark the post. Then drill four holes through the post, slightly more than .5 mm to allow the wires to pass through more easily.

Solder a length of wire (.5 mm) into each corner of the baseplate, long enough to pass through the post and leaving a couple of mm protruding, and leave about .5 mm proud to simulate the bolt at the baseplate end. Pass the wires through the post and either glue them, or solder a small bolt at the back (14 BA) and trim off the wires to size. The whole lot shouldn't then move on the post.

Just a thought.

Cheers

Mike

It's still June 1950 but on a glorious spring morning. A Peppercorn A1, then almost new, coasts under Hessle shipyard bridge into the early morning sun (and that really is the early morning sun - no-one could produce light like that) as it brings its train into Hull. I've posted this photo a few times and, as photos go, it isn't good; the depth of field has just gone. But for all that it does seem to work and convey something of the wondrous place which was the railway of our childhood and youth.

The picture is simply called - Early Morning A1.

Cheers

Mike

It's June, 1950 in the early morning of a grey (well magnolia actually - I really must paint a sky backscene for these photos) day. A T1 4-8-0 tank slides along the down slow, passing the hawthorn blossoms, with its guards van as it returns to Hull and its days work.

I do enjoy taking these lineside pictures; it seems to re-create that wonder which we knew as kids just watching the trains.

Cheers

Mike

A bit of hydraulic action on Shillingstone:

 

It isn't steam but that is just lovely.

Cheers

Mike

Nice picture above, but what is it, where is it? Are those r-t-r models on r-t-r track or are they kit/scratch built or a mixture of the two?

Cheers

Mike

Or perhaps this one. This is the scene under the shipyard bridge at Hessle Haven - a real bridge which stood in a real place.

Everything on here is hand built; the bridge - plasticard and various microstrips, the bridge abutments with hand made brick work - scribed card, painted with water colours and then sealed - the track (P4 track company chairs and rail, hand made and stained sleepers). The J72 started life as a Bachmann but has been heavily rebuilt with a new P4 chassis and many body modifications.

So the picture is simply called 'Passing a century of grime'.

Cheers

Mike

These are just the models, as yet not located on the railway. I leave it to you to judge how realistic they are.

These are not r-t-r models, weathered; they are not etched brass and nickel silver kits; they are scratch built. More fool me for doing it, but there are no etches for these prototypes, just photographs and memories.

Cheers

Mike

All top class models, but that A3 is utterly magnificent!

 

Dave.

Certainly echo that; they are lovely and capture the 'essence' of those locos superbly well.

Cheers

Mike

Isn't it interesting how the camera lies to us. In one of the first photos of this thread, the track behind the loco is definitely straight as a ruler but in the later pic where the ballasting techniques is discussed, the track looks like a dog's hind leg. Just as well we're not using the photos to find faults with the build!!!!!!

Go for using the early picture to judge the track. The picture related to the ballasting technique has somehow deformed the straightness of all of the lines - honest guv!

Mike

Almost all of the pointwork on the railway uses the P4 Track Company point kits - normally the B8 kits. However one of the turnouts on the prototype was an NER sleepered turnout which necessitated a scratch build. I could have used a P4 Track Co kit and modified it but I did want to experiment with scratch building pointwork, especially as on the third section of the railway, yet to be built, there are a number of formations which will need to be scratch built.

I also intend, on the third section, to revert to using 'C' switches for the turnouts as opposed to the 'B' switches used thus far. I may also use 1 : 9 turnouts rather than the 1`: 8 which I have used so far. This will add a little to the turnout length but should make the running of locos and stock, into turnouts, much smoother.

The photo, below, shows the single scratch built turnout on the down slow.

Cheers

Mike

The method I used for ballasting has been described many times so I won't elaborate on it other than to say :-

1) I always use 'N' gauge ballast for 4mm modelling. Somehow the 'OO' gauge ballast just seems too coarse.

2) I found that misting the ballast, to be glued, with water in a plant mister, after spreading it around the sleepers, allowed the diluted PVA mixture to flow freely without the 'blobbing' of the ballast through surface tension.

I guess like everyone else who has used this method, the resulting colour of the ballast as it dried filled me with horror, for it went a very strange shade of green.

So to the painting of the ballast and, again, this was done before a rail was laid. It should be mentioned that for pointwork, I normally write the timber numbers on the paper underlay beyond the extent of the ballasting. Where multiple turnouts are placed, effectively overlapping each other, then I use different coloured pens for the timber numbers. This 'notepad' area of the paper underlay is where the cess will be created, once all of the trackwork and ballast is done.

For painting the ballast, I use white emulsion - the sample pots sold by those diy outlets who provide computer mixed colours. This is very heavily diluted with water and is coloured with water colour or gouache paints. Even though everything is water based, the resulting painted ballast is impervious to water, at least it is colour fast.

So the first colour applied is an all over coat of a mid grey. As this forms the base colour for the ballast, then the actual shade chosen for this coat does determine the overall look of the ballast. Light grey for reasonably newly applied ballast (at least on what was the old North Eastern region); a darker, browner grey for well weathered ballast. By using a very watery paint mixture, the stones of the ballast don't become an amorphous painted mass but actually retain the texture of ballasted track bed, where individual stones are visible.

Painting the ballast, in this way, does sound like a very time consuming job but I did a seven foot board with four tracks and seven turnouts in a day. It is a good idea to accompany this task with your favourite music just in case boredom does get the better of you.

The highlights on the ballast are again done using the diluted emulsion but coloured with various different greys, blacks, browns and whites. I use the emulsion mixture almost as one would with dry brushing and just 'flick' the brush over the tops of the ballast. Again, the same seven foot board took less than four hours to colour in this way and the difference in the look of the ballasted track bed is amazing.

The photo above shows the result of this painting process.

It is worth pointing out that for the cess I used an entirely different material to reproduce the much finer texture of this area and a much darker grey, again using the emulsion as a base.

Cheers

Mike

So to the building of the railway; at least what has been built so far. Baseboards are built in a fairly standard way, though for the actual trackbed I used 12 mm mdf, braced every foot or so. To date I have had no problems with any distortion on the trackbed, through the mdf twisting or warping; hopefully this will continue.

I normally use cork for the actual trackbed, 1/8th inch thickness, which is stuck down with evo-stick. Somehow evo-stick seems to provide more flexibility and noise suppression than using PVA for this. So far, I have only laid totally straight track, so have not had the challenges associated with marking out and laying curves, though I did make a number of curve templates of various radii, simply using mathematics and a flexible ruler.

The shoulders of the ballasted area are made from strips of card, 5/16" which are PVA'd to the edge of the cork to give the required angle for the ballast shoulder. Again, these card shoulders are allowed to dry before any further processes are undertaken. Once the cork and the ballast shoulders are dry then the whole of the cork bed is covered with paper - normally I use lining paper as bought in decorating shops. I lay around 18" at a time pva'd to the cork base. Once this is dry then the positions of the tracks and sleepers can be drawn using a biro and a two foot steel rule. I developed this technique before the advent of templot, which is something I would probably use now.

I did do quite a lot of experimenting with various methods for producing sleepers. I have never liked plastic sleepers so wanted to use wood but I wanted to improve, if I could, on the normal 1/32" or 1/16" thick ply sleepers. I did experiment with balsa which is easily workable but which is far too soft; the chairs sank into this in a very prototypical way. Eventually I discovered obechi, which is far harder than balsa, is close grained and can be stained using white spirit based dyes.

My chosen colouring regime was a mixture of Colron (usual disclaimer) mahogany and colonial oak which, by adjustment of the relative constituents of this mixture, was capable of producing colours varying from the rich brown/black of new sleepering to that faded silvery grey of very old sleepers. So a batch of perhaps two hundred was soaked in the wood dye for around fifteen minutes and then left to dry. Prior to colouring the sleepers, each batch was loaded into a jig and lightly sanded, just to ensure absolute uniformity of thickness; these sheets of obechi can vary in thickness by a few thousandths of an inch. This sounds an involved process but it only takes a minute to do.

Sleepers were then stuck down onto the paper template using pva and the edges lined up against the same two foot steel rule. Once dry, then the whole lot, including point sleepering was ballasted and the ballast painted. On the next posting I'll outline the process for ballasting and for painting the ballast, prior to laying any rails.

Mike

One or two further pictures taken on the railway and then I will begin the description of how some of this was done and also bring the thread up to date.

Off to the quarry A Bachmann J39 heavily modified with new chassis, inside motion (non working) and lots of detailing on the body - new boiler bands, handrails, glazing, etc.

So on a warm summers' day, in 1950, 64914 trundles along the up main on its way to the quarry to collect the chalk train.

Over the Fence The view from the bridge - shipyard bridge - looking over the fence.

Hurrying Along the J39 gets a move on, further along the line, as it passes one of the newly built ex-NER brackets.

Waiting to be turned Inside a T1 tank stands by the Hessle Station up main starter, waiting to be re-routed onto the up slow.

Cheers

Mike

So before I move on to describe how this lot was built and put together, let me post some of my favourite pictures.

These are just some pictures which I took along the way and they serve to remind me of a time when the railway was truly a wondrous thing, when steam was still abundant and when we liked nothing better than just 'watching trains'.

Early Morning A1 - still one of my favourite pictures. The depth of field simply went wrong and I was going to bin this picture but I kept it. Somehow it works, perhaps because that light is real sunlight. Anyway it's early morning on a glorious late spring day in 1950. A Peppercorn A1, almost new, coasts under shipyard bridge as it brings its train into Hull.

Basking in the Sunshine - my first attempt at loco scratch building, as well as at some fairly ambitious scenery scratch building. I don't count rivets but if I did, then I would have got well beyond 3,000 when I made that bridge. The brickwork is also hand done a la the Pendon technique. But I'm out of therapy now!

So an ex-LNER T1, waits for the road, in the late afternoon sunshine. An unusual and probably very unwelcome visitor to the main line.

Half a Century of Soot - A Bachmann J72, heavily modified. Most people forget the sandboxes under the bunker, which were a BR modification and had to be scratch built.

It's a dull, damp day as J72 69003 drifts along the up slow past the soot encrusted brdige abutments.