TEAMYAKIMA

I have been working on tenement # 2 for about 5 weeks. It is 50% longer than # 1. #1 was four flats wide, # 2 is six wide. Eventually there will be two like # 1, two like # 2 and (hopefully) one monster eight flats wide. Here are both just posed on the layout ... # 2 is about 80% finished .... needs interiors and some extra weathering...... and some more air conditioning units!

Last Friday was a semi-social Xmas event at club with the Multi-Gauge Running Track (MGRT) taking centre stage rather than individual club layouts. The MGRT has five circles of track and can accommodate models using 14 different gauges from 'Z' to 'G' ... YES, REALLY! Members brought models to run and there were mince pies and mulled wine .... all part of club life! Meanwhile ..... Eddie delivered a fully painted signalman for the AR box And Keith brought along the latest signal operating device ... using MERG servos.

==================================================================== Addison Road Catch-up 2: Baseboards ==================================================================== Almost all the track-work and associated electrics fit onto five ‘Core' boards (C1 - C5 ). These core boards also carry the up platform, station buildings and the road bridge at the southern end of the layout. There are also eight add-on boards, five at the rear (R1 - R5) and three at the front (F1 - F3). In addition, there are rotating fiddle-yards at each end. The scenic boards overlap the core boards, which helps hide baseboard joins where there are platform faces. This graphic hopefully explains all of the above...... [Diagram created using ‘SketchUp Make’ - free design software from: www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-make] The core boards are made of ply and use ‘stressed beam’ construction (as used in flush-panelled doors) which gives great rigidity and is reasonably light weight. The sides and ends are 9mm thick and the top and lower surfaces are 6mm thick. The lower face has cut-outs to provide access but these do not significantly reduce the inherent strength. Here are two photos from November 2009........ The first shows some of the team posing with one of their new lightweight ‘Core’ baseboards. The second photo is far more interesting as it shows the underside of the board and the leg arrangement. Notice how the track-plan is drawn on the underneath of the board to help with identifying ‘droppers’, turnout-actuators, etc when wiring starts and avoiding any bracing interfering with tie-bars/point motors - well that's the theory anyway! Just before Easter 2010, the group set up one of the fiddle-yards for the first time. The layout is stored in three open-framed trolleys, two of which are as tall as the erected layout and house a fiddle-yard on the top. We wanted 9ft long yards (to hold trains of five coaches and a loco). As the trolleys are only 6ft long, each yard is hinged in the middle and can slide laterally within a ‘cradle’ which can pivot around the centre of the top of the trolley. In January 2012 a start was made on the front and rear baseboards. As shown below, these boards have a simpler construction than the ‘core’ boards – using 6mm ply with joints reinforced by planed whitewood.

Twickenham & District MRC are a club with a long history and we love to be reminded of past layouts. Some time ago someone contacted us about one of our layouts from the 1960's - 'THE MONSTER' - a privately owned TT layout which was a combination of three individually owned layouts....... a sort of early modular layout. Here is a recently found photo of 'The Monster' probably from the 1960's. The layout was jointly owned by founder members John Christie, Gerry Burt and Joe Hodgson. Whilst the exact date and location of this photo is unknown, it is thought it may have been taken at one of our early exhibitions at All Hallows church hall, Twickenham. We do know that the layout was shown at least once at a combined length of 100ft .... at the Dorking Halls show.... a well known exhibition in the 1960's/70's.

The big news this week is that Pat has completed the Up Advanced Starter.......... This is modelling of the highest quality .... at the start of the project Pat undertook to build ALL the signals ....... did he know what he was letting himself for?

Yes, to be honest that was my plan .... it's the interiors that take the time. However I will still limit the number of interiors as otherwise there would be a lot of similar ones ... very often (back in the day) many Chinese shops sold exactly the same items.

Hello Al I am (quite seriously) thinking on setting the layout at about 6.30am to 8am .... so most of the shops haven't opened yet ! And so I can model them with the shutters down!!And it also make sense for the industrial passenger train ... probably only runs at shift change. Joking aside ( was I joking ?!? ) there will be dozens of retail units and I can't afford the time or money to fit them all out as per the ones I've done already .... here's my justification for lots of closed shutters ....

Two weeks later here is the state of play with the new building ............. I have decided to extend it by 50% compared to the first one..

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ When I started this thread I pointed out that Twickenham & District MRC's O gauge group had been working on our Addison Road project for some time; I promised a 'catch-up' to bring everyone up to date. Below you will see the first of these giving the historical perspective to the project. We will post further 'catch-ups' over the next few weeks - keep watching! ============================================================================================================================== Addison Road Catch-up #1 : The Prototype Kensington Addison Road is the principal station on the West London Joint Railways which by-pass London to the west. Today it is known as Kensington Olympia. It was built in two stages: Firstly, in 1844, the London and Birmingham Railway (later LNWR) and the GWR jointly built the West London Railway linking them to a basin at the northern end of the Kensington Canal (immediately south of the current station). Secondly, in 1863, they, together with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway, built the West London Extension Railway - partially on top of the in-filled canal to link with these two partner’s lines south of the Thames at Clapham Junction. By setting our layout in the mid-1920s we can run trains in the liveries of these four owners and the companies that replaced them after the 1923 ‘grouping’ (GWR, LMS and SR). At that time, there were numerous freight workings by the GWR to its South Lambeth depot and the LNWR supplying coal to south London yards. The LNWR/LMS ran regular passenger trains (four-rail electric) between Willesden Junction and Earl’s Court (a mile south of Addison Road). There were also shuttles from the south-east bay to both the South Western and Brighton sides of Clapham Junction. The principal through passenger service was the ‘Sunny South Express’ that ran from Liverpool and Manchester to Brighton and Eastbourne. The platforms at Addison Road were the longest of any London station. We do not have the space to store or erect such a long model, so we have restricted it to the southern half with station buildings and a footbridge conveniently concealing that the northern part is missing. Kensington Addison Road Station with the area modelled outlined in red. (Reproduced from the 1916 Ordnance Survey map):

In another forum we received a question about how we produced the signalbox diagram. Rather than clog up that (and this) thread with a long tutorial we have produced a pdf version of how we did it. Surpringly, the diagram was produced in WORD (but is easier in POWERPOINT) and our info sheet takes you through it stage by stage. If anyone would like a copy please send me a PM with your email address. Here is our signalbox diagram in situ above the lever frame which controls our layout - the layout is controlled by the lever frame, there is no control panel as such.......

OK ..... not so much physical progress to-day but lots of planning progress. Took the opportunity to fit some advert/signs to the existing (1940's style) tenement, plus added a couple more air conditioners - and a chicken! A rather poor photo of the signs And started on the next .... I have decided to modify the design slightly with regards the 'shops and businesses' on the ground floor ... eight single units as opposed to four double ones. Here is one panel to the new design (r/h) and one unmodified one (r/h)

Al ( of Remagen bridge fame ) has been over to see the layout and brought the bridge he's working on for this project ... Amazing work - thanks Al!

I'm hoping that one of the signs can hide to problem ......

Have had a major disaster with this building - more on that later. For the meantime am experimenting with signs and adverts ... here's one and another

A member of RMweb has posted elsewhere about one of our layouts from the 1970s ... luckily we had some details in our club archive, which made us think ..... does anyone out there have any photos of our old layouts that would fit into our archive? Or are you an ex-member who would like to make contact? Or, perhap, most importantly, are you a prospective member? Remember we have layouts in N, N trams, OO, O and G and our running tracks accomodate 14 different gauges - YES 14 !! So, whether an ex-member or our next member - why not contact us www.tdmrc.org.uk .... remember we have members in Woking, Staines, Chiswick, Camberley,Barnes, Watford - even Boston (USA)

Not much happening this week - checking for an electrical fault took most of our time. But that gives us time to mention the 'real' purpose of posting these updates - to attract new members to Twickenham & District MRC in general and the Addison Road group in particular. TDMRC has members all over the country (not just in the borough of Twickenham!). We have members of the Addison Road group living in Barnes, Chiswick, Staines, Woking, Watford and Boston - that's the Boston in the USA! So, wherever you read this YOU could become part of the team .... much of the modelling work is prepared away from the clubrooms and brought over completed. And,"YES"our man in the USA has built things for the layout and delivered them during his regular visits to the UK. TDMRC membership is not expensive by club standards being just £63 per year - it's cheaper for members living in the USA! You can come and visit us any Friday night and we will try to remember to flag up the dates of our regular running nights on this thread so that you can bring down some stock to run - anything goes on clubnight running sessions! Or, why not come down for our next Saturday session - DEC 20th. The committee have designated this very much as a 'visitors welcome' day - a chance to avoid Xmas shopping - so why not come down? At this stage it's not clear what will be going on on the 20th, but we will post more details nearer the day. For full details of TDMRC please see our club website .... www.tdmrc.org.uk .... original wrong URL corrected by TEAMYAKIMA after 'daifly' post - see below. Hope to see you soon!

I have been working away on buildings, although somewhat distracted by Xmas shopping and researching some issues for the layout which has resulted in me spending two whole days trawling through my photo library - more of that next time! This shows the original half-relief block at the back ... with the next full depth block shown under construction ...

I am beginning to find my way around RMweb now and so have started threads on our various layouts in the appropriate sub-forums .... The first is our 7mm standard gauge layout ADDISON ROAD; you can find that thread here... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/91730-addison-road-kensington-olympia-in-7mm/&do=findComment&comment=1647023 The second is our 4mm finescale OO BR(S) 3rd rail electric layout TWICKENHAM JUNCTION ; you can find that here .... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/91808-twickenham-mrc-builds-large-oo-gauge-sr-3rd-rail-layout/&do=findComment&comment=1649379 The third will (when I get around to starting it) be about our N gauge group and their various projects - watch this space!

The AR group is presently reviewing all the key elements of the layout's progress since the first sheet of plywood was cut; I will then post a brief history of how we got to the current position we're in. However, for the record we attended the recent RMweb event in Coventry and some of our members gave a talk on aspects of 'new technology' being used on the layout. Here are some photos from Coventry ... Our stand .... The Addison Road signalbox ..... Peter and Grant give a talk .... Some laser-cut components for the station canopies ..... Our new station lamps .... installed the week before and lit for the first time ......

One of the real stars of the TDMRC Addison Road group is Pat. Pat makes the signals .... the more, the merrier! Here is his latest ... The best view is (somewhat disappointingly) pretty well hidden from view by the backscene. But, here's proof that Pat has done his usual excellent job....

You can find out more about this exciting project on TDMRC's website ... http://www.tdmrc.org.uk/twickenham.html

Twickenham & District MRC are building a large SR (3rd rail) layout set in 1961 but based on the old LSWR station which was demolished in the early 1950's. Called 'Twickenham Junction' this painstakingly researched new layout will eventually become TDMRC's new flagship OO gauge layout. Club members have been running a 'blog' on MRF for some time and we will try to bring this new blog on RMweb up to date as soon as possible. For the moment here is a photo showing parts of the scenic section on display at Hampton Station during a recent local event.....

There was a running night on our partly built ADDISON ROAD project last night and that gave me the opportunity to take some photos. I will post a full baseboard plan later (when I can find it!) but basically the layout is approx. 50 ft long including a revolving fiddle yard at each end. There are five main track boards running from the North to South fiddle yards. They are the central spine of the layout and contain all trackwork, but very little else. There then smaller, lighter scenic add-on boards which play no part in running the layout but support the buildings and scenery. These fit either side of the central spine; for clubroom running on a clubnight we tend to just set up the FYs and central spine boards ... as in this photo from last night ... And one of the painted Oerlikon sets turned up. Club members own four sets.... eventually there will be two in LMS livery and two in LNWR livery .....

One of the big problems in building ADDISON ROAD was the need to have Oerlikon stock ........ and nobody made them in 7mm! And so we made our own kits ..... from our own drawings Here is a test etch from the early days ... Then months (years?) later here are some near finished models ... Somewhere we have some photos of some painted sets and I will post those when I find them.

Just as a taster here is some basic info ................. Firstly a trackplan ( we are only modelling the SOUTH end of the station) .... This was translated into a proper signalbox diagram and control panel ..... the layout is DC powered but there are no section switches - control is determined by the signals. More as and when I have time, but watch out for the story of our Oerlikon stock produced from our own brass etchings.