nickwood

What a wonderfully amotspheric shot. Not a train in sight but so much to take in. Love it

Another of the buildings from Much Murkle. The station building is based on the design of the original GWR timber building at Tetbury with bits of Shipton on Stour and Culkerton thrown in. Unusually for me I constructed the shell in styrene rather than card. Reason? Because I came to the conclusion that this one would be easier in styrene due to the amount of fiddly cuts that had to be glued and mek would be a lot less messy than pva. The roof is card though using Scalescenes slates. The bare wall sections An end view and finally a full frontal

We successfully test ran the first bit of track tonight. Everthing ran smoothly after a thorough clean and a couple of minor and one major tweaks. I'll say it quietly in case he's listening, but someone forgot to gap the copperclad sleepers at the board joints didn't they Andrew? !!! OOPs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Rxay12iTY&feature=youtu.be

Ahh! but those Westerns may have been filmed in the Southern hemisphere

Built a little while ago now, this is the goods shed on Much Murkle

I've made some progress with the bridge and completed the main piers, wing wall piers and abutment walls using Slaters english bond brickwork. This is where it will be positioned in relation to the track plan right under the scissors crossover. I don't usually work in plastic and I'm having to learn a few new techniques, particularly in terms of laminating the brick sheets to the base layer. Card and papers are so much easier, just glue and wrap At least it is some progress.

A major step forward Andrew. Sorry I wasn't there to see it. What did you stick it the track down with, looks like PVA?

While Andrew has been getting on with the trackwork my attention has turned to the road underbridge and station access. As the platform is an island design we decided at an early stage that we wanted a lower street level station building with access to the platform via a subway and steps. It took me ages to find a suitable prototype that could look right in a relatively rural area. I finally stumbled across Bourneville station and this link clearly shows the access arrangement we intend to use. http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrb476.htm However we didn't like the bridge much and really wanted a plate girder design. A bit more research found this bridge in Patriscroft, Manchester which we have settled on with some adaption to fit our site. https://www.flickr.com/photos/salford_ian/2170082066/ As you can see the original is actually two bridges, the rear is stone with a traditional arch. Ours will be a plate girder throughout and a bit narrower. The overall size and design has been replicated by counting bricks to gauge the size of piers and depth of the girders. I started by fabricating the plate girders out of various thicknesses of styrene all pieces individually cut. The completed girders which will be cut to length. The top one will be used for intermediate girders projecting up either side of the diamond crossing on the track plan The bottom two will provide the girders front and back of the bridge. Work on the abutments next.

Jim, I remember the excitement of this stage when I was building Much Murkle. You certainly have the eye for a believable scene.

Hi MIB I did remove the chip and fitted the blanking plate. Like you I had been told it should run ok with the chip in but I have to say that I didn't try it on DC at all so I can't confirm this.

John Thank you and yes you did see a Dukedog, a recent addition to the roster. It's main duties are hauling outgoing ciders and perrys from Rancoutt's to the marshalling yards at Worcester ready for onward distribution to discerning customers around the West Midlands and beyond. It is a lovely loco and the control is probably the best I have experienced in DC. Annoyingly though, Bachmann in their wisdom have chosen to only make the GWR version DCC fitted which means those of us who run on DC have to purchase a chip which is of no use to us. The BR version is available with or without.

Chris Seeing North Haston at Sutton Coldfield this weekend I'm really liking the changes that you've made since Warley last year. I have a NAM itch I really do need to scratch some day soon.

I've just got home and unpacked Much Murkle. What an enjoyable weekend. Great organisation by the Sutton Coldfiled MRS and my thanks go to Nigel Gosling and his team for looking after us so well. The audience was a very mixed bunch from grandparents and parents with their offspring who were very well behaved through to the very knowledgeable enthusiasts. We had a great time sharing many laughs and answering many questions with everyone who stopped and spent time in front of Much Murkle, and there were many of them. We were very busy all weekend which made the time pass all too quickly. It was great to meet Andy, I love the photos by the way, particularly the one of the Cider Factory and Rob and have a chat with some fellows who appreciate the finer points of the GWR It was especially gratifying for Much Murkle to be awarded "Best Visiting Layout" I'll finish with a message to Andy Yorke. If you're reading this Andy watch out for Phil Parker's boot !!! I'm now going to sink a few glasses of RLW

Make sure that you do Robin. I look forward to it.

Thanks Andrew. Please make yourself known, it's always good to meet fellow RMwebbers

Bumped to remind anyone who is interested that I will be at Sutton Coldfield this weekend with Much Murkle. Looks to be a good line up of layouts and should be well worth a visit on either Staurday or Sunday. Details in post no 206 above.

Can't agree more. Have you seen the latest issue of MRJ (230) Jim? A really nice feature of Chris Lamacraft's EM verison of Hemyock but I have to say yours has the potential to be every bit as good. I may have missed it but is your intention to exhibit it eventually?

Thanks, yes you are correct the plan only shows the scenic section and there isn't a dead straight piece of track anywhere.

Another day another point (or two). At the club last wednesday evening Andrew brought along this point which he had made ready for making a start on the access to the goods yard. After getting the templates ready the first job was to cut and lay the sleepers and timbers When the sleepers and timbers were laid the next job was to install the common crossing Three hands are better than two when it comes to the fiddly Exactoscale chairs After fielding many questions from club members all evening that is as far as we got. Luckily we are not relying solely on club nights to get things done.

I'm fairly confident he is a Monty's Models signalman. MSV58 I really enjoy seeing your work Rob

Thank you kind sir.

Much Murkle will be at the Sutton Coldfield exhibition on the 26th & 27th April. Details of the event can be found http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/ click on events and scroll down the list. Should be worth a visit and please say hello if you do.

Paul and Andrew arrived this morning for a baseboard building session in my garage. After a cup of coffee and a quick project meeting we set to. The first job was to cut the trackbed. Using the full sized Templot track design as a template, Andrew had already marked up the baseboard tops so all that we had to do was cut them with a jigsaw. The photo shows the tops cut for the first two boards. The first board takes shape, just needs the intermediate bearers to be fixed under the trackbed. Progress as the first two boards get joined together All four boards constructed and bolted together for the first time. Note that the two intermediate suports for each board are not all evenly spaced, some have to be adjusted to avoid point motors. We have a good idea as to how we see the scenic development but some detail still has to be worked out. All baseboard joints are just screwed at present so that they can be taken apart to cut the intermediate supports to shape more easily once we have finalised our thoughts on the scenic developement. They will then finally be glued and screwed. These four boards totaling 12ft in length form the scenic section of the layout. Still to be built are the fiddle yard boards which will be either cassette based or traversers, we haven't decided which yet although traversers are the favourite at the moment. Andrew has taken the trackbed tops away to start laying the track and Paul has taken the rest of the boards to give them a sealing coat of matt varnish.

Great tree Jim. I would concur that you are better off keeping everything to do with Hemyock on this thread. I made the mistake on the first forum that I joined (YMR) of having seperate threads for buildings,stock etc and I wish I hadn't as MM's build details are all over the place and lost in the depths of the forum. I love how the view from behind the tree is developing by the way, just about all photos you see of Hemyock model or real, are from across the river, makes a nice change to see a different perspective.

Thanks Jim, although I'm not sure anything is ever complete, I still seem to make small changes and improvements to MM every now and them but I know what you mean. I'm really looking forward to this project now that we have made a start on the real work.