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rovex

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  1. rovex
    As promised this is the link to my topic on the ols rmweb site
     
    http://www.rmweb.co....php?f=8&t=49301
     
    Hope to post some pics soon of the underframes for the restauarnt car and composite.
     
    Have decided to build the restaurant car with six wheel bogies, using the bogies from the LMS 12 wheeler - got these as spares from East Kent Models - not accurate I know but more likely to run smoothly then me trying to build a kit of some and probably cheaper in the long run.
     
    Hopefully should have a few more Hornby 57 ft brake coach donors soon - purchased cheap on ebay, should allow me to have a go at the 70 ft brake and the third - which I think I've worked out how to do.
     
    Rovex
  2. rovex

    70 ft update

    By rovex,

    Just thought I'd post a few more photos of the restaurant and corridor composite now they've had a coat of undercoat and the underframes have been put together.This is the underframe for the composite, the trussing is made from 60 thou square plastic strip. This shows the extension of the interior by adding an extra first class and third class compartment.
     
    both sides of the composite.
     
    the restaurant car
     
    underframes for both vehicles, showing the six wheel bogies on the restaurant car.
     
    Well today I'm gonna start of on the brake third and possibly the all third - if the cat will keep off the workbench
     
    Wouldn't you just know it, someone is selling all these coaches on ebay as old BSL kits.
     
    Rovex
  3. rovex

    A Cornish diversion

    By rovex,

    Since I'm out of "W"s I decided to finish off the Cornish Riviera kitchen car that I'd been renovating. This was originally bought off ebay some years ago, together with a brass toplight composite and a Centenary brake third. I stripped it and the toplight down using Nitromors which proved highly effective, so much so that anything that had been superglued on fell off (the kitchen car disintegrated into its constituent parts).
     
    I had to take the soldering iron to the toplight to remove excess solder from when it was first built and the previous owner had inserted the compartments the wrong way round. It remains on the workbench awaiting further surgery.
     
    However the kitchen car has now been reglued and painted and is I think now finished. I won the Phoenix kit of the restaurant composite on ebay recently so I might make a start on that sometime soon. So that just leaves the restaurant third to complete the set.
     
    Heres the photos
     

     
    In a recent auction I also won the BSL kit for the Centenary all third. I tried this out against an old Hornby composite and it fitted the sides and underframe quite well. Encouraged by this I constructed the sides and ends and glued them to a slightly modified Hornby chassis. - Saves having to make one up. The chassis just needed a couple of mm cutting off the subframe above the buffers - I forgot to take some phots of the area - but perhaps next time. I will have to sort out a few errors in the chassis (new battery boxes etc) but I think I'm off to a good start. I think I've mentioned already that I've got the first kitchen car and third diner for the Centenary stock in storage. When I'm back in Leeds in December I'm going to try to dig these out and see if I can do the same with them.
     

     
    Rovex
  4. rovex
    The Vollmer kit has now arrived for the station hotel (honestly I've got far too much time on my hands) now how do I turn this into something with a passing resemblance to Snow Hill
     

     
    The ground floor needs extending, so I've sliced the pieces in half and inserted some plasticard, scribed to carry on the stone courses. I've also spliced one side vertically and glued it either side of what was the main entrance to one of the buildings. All the cut sides were then glued to some 40 thou to give more strength and thickness to the sides.
     
    Its then been built up on some 80 thou sheet which will form the basement area, I've not bothered to put windows in this since the area wall will be quite close and you wouldn't see them in any event. I might put some plasticstrip as window surrounds to give the impression that the actual windows have been bricked up.
     
    Sorry buts its a bit difficult to make out any detail with all the white plastic but heres a photo or two.
     


     
    Anyway this will form the ground and basement floors of one of the end pavilions. Think I'll do the columns on the front when the other floors have been added. The other end will be done in the same way, but with the back wall blank as this had an extended rear.
     
    Have also got a faller overall roof kit ref 120199, this will form the basis of the booking hall.
     

     
    well should keep me out of mischief for a while
     
    Rovex
     
    P.S.
     
    Sunday has seen me getting a move on with the building work. The upper floors of the west pavilion have been made and glued in place. The sides from the kit were glued to slaters plasticard, this gives a smaller brick size and helps to hide the joins. With the windows cut out, and the kit window surrounds attached to the side ansd back these were glued in place on the ground floor. Stengthening strips have been glued inside. The front has been left plain (without window surrounds) until I've attached the columns and pediments which decorated this front. A pediment from plasticard strips has been stuck round the top floor. I'm in two minds as to whether to start the east pavilion or to have a go at the top floor. The sensible thing wqould be to do the east pavilion whilst I still remember how I did this one
     
    Heres the progress.
     

     
    P.P.S.
     
    Work has started on the east pavilion, a mirror image of the west pavilion but with a rear extension. The two are shown here, set approximately the right distance apart.
     

     
    And this shot just shows detail of the ornamental brick corner quoins.
     
    Anyway back to the plasticard
  5. rovex

    Brackhampton back

    By rovex,

    I've started work on the back of the old hotel at Snow Hill, unfortunately I've found very few photos of the back wall of the concourse (plenty - well enough - of the ticket office side and the two side walls but not the back) so i'm winging it a bit, but at least I know what the back wall looks like above the glazed roof
     
    By the way the plasticard is that blue colour, I've not painted yet
     

     
    Rovex
  6. rovex
    Just a series of shots showing the baseboards as they start to creep along the back of the shed. The main basebaords are made from 3 inch strips of 12 mm ply, two are glued together to form L girders and two of these girders form the sides of each section. Single 3 inch strips then span between these. The track will be laid on 12 mill ply boards with 6 mm mdf stips along the sides, (just like Eastwood blog - sort of). Part of the trackbed has already had this treatment, which explains the earthquake zone along the middle of the boards where the trackbed falls 3 inch
     
    This allows an open baseboard and plenty of space under the tracks for wiring etc. Also allows me to have the road on either side of the station rise and fall.
     
    Just waiting for a bisciut router to arrive (bargain off ebay - well, will be if it works), this is going to be used to join the track beds together.
     
    Still deciding whether to model the slopes into and out of the station. Snow Hill was built on a hill (doh) which meant that both the access tracks from North and South fell away from the station. Apparently Snow Hill tunnel was quite steep and it wasn'y unknown for a train to fail to make it up the slope and have to be rescued. I don't intend modelling this, the slopes on my last layout were a bit too steep in parts, although modelling a rescue will add interest to operations.
     

  7. rovex

    Let there be light

    By rovex,

    Not much to report on the modelling front, but over the weekend I finally got power supplied to the shed. A heavily armoured cable has been laid down the garden from the mains fuse box to a separate fuse box in the shed, this has then been wired into the wiring I had already put in the shed for the security lightin, the ordinary lighting and a small ring mains with more sockets then I am ever going to need. Both the main fuse box and the shed box are protected with RCD breakers. I have also taken the opportunity to update all the wiring to the two garden ponds.
     
    The wiring in this house is a nightmare and over the past couple of months I have been slowly getting it all replaced. Is was interesting to see what fuses controled what circuits. Upstairs only had three sockets each on different fuses!!! Its amazing the place hasn't burnt down before now. Only a little bit of the old wiring still remains and this will have to wait until the kitchen is replaced.
     
    I have also been building the baseboards for the fiddle yards. I have dropped the idea of having a traverser, mainly because I have never built one before, and will be going for the traditional ladder of sidings. I think I have worked out who to allow the mainlines to access almost all the tracks of the sidings but its going to be a bit heavy in double slips. I plan to use peco code 75 for the sidings as opposed to the finescale SMP tflexitrack and handbuilt points used on the scenic boards.
     
    Have also built a flap section - another first for me, which seems to line up alright but will only really be tested once some track is laid over it.
     
    Now I have power I must start wiring the layout and get some trains moving.
     
    Rovex
  8. rovex
    As I was in the shed this evening tidying round I thought I would take a few shots of the fiddleyard baseboards.

    These are made of 12mm ply with 3inch wide strips of 12 mm ply for the edges and strapping. I've used this method before (although in that case it was 9mm ply) and found it generally quite sturdy as long as the boards are adequately braced underneath.

    I'm particularly pleased with the hatch (I know sad isn't it). I added the diagonal brace as it was flexing too much when opened and this seemed to have solved that problem.

    The last shot just shows the final gap to be filled, might be a bit more obvious if everything wasn't ply coloured.

     
    As cash is a little short at the moment (when isn't it) I'm trying to concentrate on what I can do with whats around, so any tracklaying on this ection will have to wait. However as power is now down to the shed I might start wiring that part of the station that is laid and start working out what what wires need placing where etc.
  9. rovex
    With quite a lot of the track down, I've been knocking up the platforms (well roughly at least). Nothing spectacular in the methods used. Paper template and a pencil held against the biggest coach.
     
    The photo shows the platforms 1 to 6 (I think - it doesn't help that at some point the platforms were all swapped round). Platform bases are 12 mm ply and topped with 2mm plasticard scored to represent paving slabs. Later I'll build up brick walls to cover the edges of the ply, with suitable wiring strung along it as seems to abound on a lot of platform sides.
     
    In the distance can be seen the basis for the footbridge steps. These are some plastic steps taken from old Triang/Hornby concrete foortbridges, The height will be reduced and the sides covered over with plastic sheet and embossed brickwork.
     
    The bay platforms are very narrow, to my mind, although I think they comply with the regs - but this can't be helped if I am to get the station into a sensible width. It also matches the width of the ratio GWR style canopies which will cover most of these.
     

     
    And this shot just shows the Great Western Hotel and concourse (which hasn't progressed much since the last photos of it, mocked up across the station throat
  10. rovex

    A stairway to heaven

    By rovex,

    Just a few shots of one of the stairways up to the footbridge. Construction is plasticard and slaters embossed brickwork. Doors and windows will be added from Scale link etchings once the stairs have been painted. The stairs themselves come from an old Hornby concrete footbridge glued together to get the necessary width and cut down to the right height.
     
    Still some fillering to do and a bit of fettling to tidy this one up - and oh yes the one for the other platform to build too.
     

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