Seventies Summer Saturdays - BR Eastern Region

[woodyfox]

Hi, 

Here's the latest attempt to recreate the railways of my youth. 

A Yorkshire coastal terminus depicting summer workings on British Rail's Eastern region. 

It's N gauge dcc. 

First up a 37 arrives on ECS for a Transpennine to Liverpool. 

 

Then the Class 40 booked on the working shunts from the holding point to platform 2.

 

A prompt departure - English Electric whistling... 

 

Then over the swing-bridge and into the suburbs:

 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodenhead]

Very nice Stu.

[woodyfox]

More aspects of the layout in progress:

 

 

These are the low relief  station buildings that need some final detailing and fixing in position. This is a view from the parcel depot loading bay. The arches will continue across to the corner of the two storey building here and to the right will be the parcels point. 

A canopy/train shed will eventually cover this area. 

The above area shows the slope up to the parcel dock and the other end of the arches. Below these, at street level is a BR Stores area under the main station platforms. A 108 DMU can be glimpsed through the arches standing in platform 7.

Here's a view back across the parcel loading bay turning area. There will a a smattering of mechanical horses in this area busy delivering parcels. 

The arches are just layers of 1 and 2mm card overlaid with brick papers. 

Cheers 

Stu 

 

[RobinofLoxley]

A coastal terminus with 7 platforms......in Yorkshire? Lol.

[woodyfox]

46 minutes ago, RobinofLoxley said:

A coastal terminus with 7 platforms......in Yorkshire? Lol.

 

Scarborough had 9 in the 70s, Bridlington had around 6 or 7 and Hull (although not strictly coastal but providing direct access to coastal services and maritime routes) still has 7.

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodyfox]

Today I'm starting on creating/refurbishing a Poole Farish HST set. The motor end is a 3 pole growler with poor slow running. 

This will be a 5 car blue/grey set with 2 powered cars and converted to DCC using Zimo chips. I would like to have sound at both ends too. That will be expensive but great if i can achieve it. 

Power wil be provided by the excellent Tomytec TM-07R chassis as here:

 

On the plus side, these are very shallow with lots of head space for speakers and are an easy conversion to DCC. They are also very smooth running. These were obtained from a retailer in Japan. They are cheap (under £20 each) and took just five days to arrive in the UK from ordering. 

Here's a comparison to a 101 car to demonstrate how low the weights, motor and drives sit:

 

First job is to add plastic strip to the sides to achieve a snug fit. 

Then i need to add plastic to the ends so they can be secured into the Farish bodies. The vestibule end will have a captive nut to secure all in place. 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodenhead]

Interesting route to take, did you not fancy the Dapol HST?

 

The Dapol coaches look better imo.

 

Of course there is the cost, even an almost full HST costs a pretty penny.

[woodyfox]

5 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Interesting route to take, did you not fancy the Dapol HST?

 

The Dapol coaches look better imo.

 

Of course there is the cost, even an almost full HST costs a pretty penny.

Yes, it would've been an easier route. The Dapol sets are visually much better. The cost of a 5 car with full sound would be about 2.5x my approach. Plus - detailing and upgrading an old Poole model is more satisfying - if I'm successful..... 

 

The wheel base on the TM-07 is better than the Farish attemp to my eye. The ride height will be sorted via the captive nut placement and a retainer in the nose cones:

 

I've glued in a 0.6mm strip to each inner side of both cars. The TM-07 in 15.75mm wide and the inner body walls measured 17.05mm. This leaves about 0.1mm of side play. 

 

The Tomytec's come with a selection of bogie sides and end attachments for the couplings etc.. I assume these are to fit their various models. 

I messed with these plug in sections on this sprue:

 

When attached to either end of the chassis it is extends to 112mm which is the length i need for fitting to the bodies. I just need to see how this affects the bogie positioning with respect to swing near the nose cone rear. 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodenhead]

Those proper old Farish Mk3s bring back memories - you'd select whether they were loco or hst by adding/removing the buffers.

 

For some strange reason my dad never purchased the HST power cars, so we had Deltics hauling Mk3s on his railway.

 

Those coaches are so old I was a child, I over 50 now 😲

[woodyfox]

Hi, 

Today has moved me a few steps nearer to having the most successful train ever to grace a British railway run a SO service to 'the Cross'. 

 

This is the completed nose cone tab adaptation. This will slot into here:

This provides the correct ride height and leading bogie position on the power cars. 

On the rear I have drilled a hole in each of the rear vestibule doors to take a small bolt:

I have also drilled 2 small pieces of nickel-silver strip that will form the brackets to attach the car bodies to the chassis's. The bolts will be invisible once vestibule connectors are added to the adjacent coaches in what will be a fixed rake. 

Strips drilled out and formed to an L shape. 

 

And here with captive nuts soldered on and tested with the bolts screwed in. They are nice and free moving when tightened and loosened. 

Next stage will be attaching these at the right height on the chassis ends. 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodyfox]

The HST cars are now at the stage where bogies and below sole-bar details can be added to the chassis. 

Here's the n/s tabs in place to secure the bodies with a single brass bolt and tab:

 

And the power cars secured on the chassis:

 

I have several things on the go with this project at various stages of completion. It enables me to flit from one to another avoiding the tedium of repetitive tasks that generate boredom. 

One such is the construction of a 100+ room low relief hotel next to platform 2. There are a lot of windows to make up and lots of masonry details to add. This will have an upper pitched roof in the central section with windows too. The ground floor will sit below the gutter level of the station trainshed roof. 

 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodyfox]

The HST cars now have bogies attached to the chassis. These need to be run in before DCC conversion. There are two synchronised sounds chips on order from DC Kits loaded with Paxman engine noise. 

Meanwhile, playing trains continues:

Here a mid-morning inbound 108 DMU working crosses the river. The clickety-clack brings back memories of old 'tin cans' rattling along:

 

Followed a few minutes later by an EE type 3 bringing in ECS for a lunchtime KX service:

 

This will return with a Deltic... 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodyfox]

Hi, 

Latest little project is nearly finished. The below is a representation of the old BRSA club in Hull - now known as the Tiger's Lair. 

 

This was drawn out to scale using Google maps and brick counting to get an approximate measure. The chimneys are not present on the current building and i did a bit of back dating. 

 

I used scrap 1mm thick card and cereal packet card overlaid with Scalescenes' papers. The windows are 160gsm paper with clear plastic packaging backing. 

Here's a ruler for scaling. 

The whole thing was drawn in Design Space - a CAD software program free with Cricut machines. The walls, roof and windows were then cut out by the Cricut (Maker 3 model). The window frames are down to 0.8mm width. I'm not sure i could get a much thinner cut on the 160gsm paper. 

I may try scoring clear plastic next time and the use the brush on/wipe off paint method to get really thin frames. 

The Cricut is a remarkable and versatile machine and the design software is very easy to use. 

I have plenty of buildings to create and this is a great investment. 

Just need to weather down the building and add a bit of signage. I think it will be a BRSA club again... 

Cheers 

Stu 

[eastwestdivide]

Like the swing bridge - Goole or Selby? And does it swing, or is that a bridge too far?

[woodyfox]

54 minutes ago, eastwestdivide said:

Like the swing bridge - Goole or Selby? And does it swing, or is that a bridge too far?

Thanks. It's Selby and it doesn't swing - that would require ingenuity beyond this project... 

[woodyfox]

Here's the actual building compared to my 2mm scale effort. 

 

For anyone who likes to scratchbuild in card, thin wood and plastics, I can't recommend the Cricut enough. 

[woodyfox]

Another venture has begun to enjoy some holiday train running (eventually. 

I'm recreating Malton as it was from about 1966 to 1980. Two mill scale again with code 55 N gauge p.way.

 

I'm busy with the station building section at the mo on a 1220x450mm board. I've attempted to recreate the gentle curvature through the station.  All is wired up for DCC with the turnout operated using a Cobalt motor. 

Looking west. The DMU car is sat in what will be the centre of the GT Andrews trainshed roof. 

I've added the slight cant to the down line curve at the west end of the platform using a card shim. This view of the side of the Station Master's house is no longer possible. 

This is the front of the house and is the last building from east to west of the various ones that made up the station complex. The model is designed to be viewed from 360 degrees. 

 

This is the bay area that's a small supermarket now. The interior wall held up the canopies and was whitewashed in images i have. Track was lifted in '66 from what i can tell. 

 

This is the waiting room towards the west end of the platform. Cruel close-up to show the detail of the windows. I scribed polycarbonate sheet and filled the grooves with with acrylic paint. 

Lots of weathering to do in stages as the various layers of construction take place. 

 

Cheers 

Stu 

 

[woodyfox]

Today's efforts have concentrated on the station exit, news stand and cafe area plus roof base and chimneys for the SM's house. 

 

The colour scheme for the news stand is a 'guesstimate' based on grainy b/w images.  Guttering drops and cable runs will be added before the sections are glued in. 

 

The exit opening is based on the current refurbished version which I think is almost certainly very,  very similar to the 70s version. 

The frames are made from a white sticky label sliced to size and backed appropriately with clear plastic sheet. 

Again,  this section will be within the cover of the overall trainshed area. 

Cheers 

Stu 

[woodyfox]

Hi, 

Most of the platform facing wall-mounted items are now in place. Posters, signs, postbox, litterbins and the clock are done. 

 

Time to turn the board to tackle the station approach view. 

Cheers 

[woodyfox]

Lots of progress on the station approach view of the station buildings. About half are complete bar slate tiling, detailing and chimney stacks. 

I've detailed the ticket office a bit as this will be almost viewable through the open entrance. The phone box has also had some basic details added. 

 

The best images i have of this section date from 1965 +1978. I've gone with the 78 images for paint schemes etcetera. 

 

Cheers 

Stu