Bacup - Mills in the hills

[Jason T]

Hi, thanks for the comments. To tell you the truth, although it has been repetitive I have really enjoyed constructing all the buildings and with the houses, I never thought about getting them made individually and the line between each one would probably grate on me. Not so much of an issue with brick houses I suppose (e.g. Skaledale) but with stone, if they were separate, you would never be able to line the stone courses up.

 

There has been some progress as well. I finished sanding down the filler in the sleeper gaps and as such, had no further excuses to no start laying track. So far, the station board (the easier one by far) has most of the track laid but not wired up yet and the point motors are still to be affixed. The run-round for the front platform is not laid as I am trying to determine the best place to lay the point into the goods yard. None of the track is painted as I want to get everything up and running and test (again and again) before committing.

 

You may notice some white bits between the foam underlay and the track; this is for where the SMP flexi is at a slightly different height to the PCB points (a marginal difference - a single sheet of 150gsm card is enough to make up the difference). Anyway, all seems to be in order and in line as well, something I was dreading and wondering about as I've never laid track without fishplates before.

 

As neither of the raised sections are fixed down so far, it was relatively easy to align and glue the track down on the far side of the station. With my last layout, that is something that I gave no consideration to and it was a pain in the backside tracklaying at the back of the layout. You live and learn

 

I even managed to momentarily get my broken camera working so for once, you may be able to see what's in the photos.

 

High level view of the station and corresponding track. The real Bacup has a few coach sidings but Inspiration Bacup just has the one, which is currently home to three Bachmann Suburban coaches (the only ones that don't have boxes, hence it was easier to get them out):

 

Operator level view:

 

The bit that is giving me cold shivers:

[Jason T]

Looking at the above post, the camera seems to have added a rust / grime effect to the track. Wish it could do that in real life as it would save an awful lot of painting

[lmsforever]

You deserve a niece peice of "parkin" after making all those houses,they look brilliant now all you have to do is the backyards ,good luck.Coming on really well and its looking like the real thing ,keep up the good work.

[Jason T]

Today, I bit the bullet and laid the pointwork on board 2; went rather well but after adding the adjoining sections of flexi between boards one and two, I wasn't happy with the alignment so up they came again, ready to have another go tomorrow. One of the beauties of using Copydex is that this was a painless exercise and has caused no damage to either the flexible track or the foam underlay. Need to give it a bit more thought, and it had highlighted the problem with modular trackbeds rather than fixed.

 

Got a delivery of point motors and decoder accessories arriving tomorrow so will hopefully be able to start wiring up and testing next week.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Sandside

[Jason T]

As mentioned in my update from last night, I've been progressing with laying trackwork and had come a bit unstuck where the baseboard joins are / will be. It then struck me that at the moment, it doesn't need to line up properly and trying to do so with modules that aren't fixed down would be an impossible task so I did what I should have done in the first place and replaced the last sleeper on each board with PCB. The track leading onto this (board 2 to 1) is not soldered or glued down for the last inch so that when I come to affix the trackbeds to the frames (e.g. their final positions), I can glue and solder then to make sure everything lines up properly.

 

Now you're probably thinking that doing so is blatantly obvious but I've never done this before. Sure, my last layout used the same frames but the track was laid in such a way that to split the boards would have needed a hacksaw taking to the tracks. With this layout, I intend it to be around for quite a while and also need to access the rear of the layout from time to time so separate baseboards it had to be. Alignment between the frames is done using C&L dowels, in case anyone was wondering; another job that had me scratching my head.

 

Anyway, here are some photos of progress.

 

Not pretty but hopefully the solution I need and the PCB sleepers will be filled and painted which should disguise them

 

Boards together

 

Approaching the station. The turnout following the crossover (e.g. the turnout that will lead into the run-round loop) needed a bit of fettling but all seems to be ok now)

 

A maze of turnouts

 

Still got the run-round and entry to the goods yard to lay

[Jason T]

I've progressed quite far in the last few days, with Board 1 (station board) all wired up and point motors installed but as for board 2, I've drilled the holes for the wires and then decided to have a break from the smell of solder for a day or so.

 

So, instead, I started to build a mill that will be situated near the station. The idea is that it will be low relief, have a hipped roof and disguise the blue bit of wall that is intrusive to the overall view and can be seen in many of the photos.

 

Construction is the usual for me; mounting board with plastikard embossed sheets stuck on the outside. The only difference with this one is that I am using 7mm SE Finescale plain bond brick to represent the stone (I've seen it recommended a number of times for this purpose) and for the window recesses, I painstakingly marked out each one and used the Olfa Cutter so that they bend round the wall. It may not look it yet, but the stonework all lines up on corners, etc.

 

I may have put the windows too close together but there seems to be no standard distance between each, sometimes even on the same building. Inspiration for this one is Forest Mill in Bacup, found using Google and the images copied into my ever expanding Word document (where I keep all the images I find). The recessed doorway on the second floor is on the real building; it's a bit quirky so I had to add it.

 

Anyway, here are some really bad photos. Lots more to do yet.

 

Held together with Blue Tac at the moment.....

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Jason

[Guest oldlugger]

Tremendous Jason; most impressive.

 

All the best

Simon

[Jason T]

Cheers Simon,

 

I'm not 100% convinced with it as there are a lot of windows and they still seem a bit close together but hopefully, when the frames, etc., are added (microstrip) and it receives at least one coat of paint, then it should help to reduce their size and hence the impact. Thing is, the real building does have a lot of windows and they are quite closely spaced - seem to be about the width of a window between each one - and it is only inspiration for what I have knocked together. For instance, I won't be building the rather nice tower mine will have a pitched roof to hide the annoying blue wall, etc.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossendalewadey/5422981426/

 

If I'd have built anything like this three years ago, I'd have been over the moon but now, I'm getting a bit too critical of my own efforts.

[clecklewyke]

Cheers Simon,

 

I'm not 100% convinced with it as there are a lot of windows and they still seem a bit close together but hopefully, when the frames, etc., are added (microstrip) and it receives at least one coat of paint, then it should help to reduce their size and hence the impact. Thing is, the real building does have a lot of windows and they are quite closely spaced - seem to be about the width of a window between each one - and it is only inspiration for what I have knocked together. For instance, I won't be building the rather nice tower mine will have a pitched roof to hide the annoying blue wall, etc.

 

http://www.flickr.co...dey/5422981426/

 

If I'd have built anything like this three years ago, I'd have been over the moon but now, I'm getting a bit too critical of my own efforts.

 

It does not look to big compared with these, and the window spacing looks spot on. After all, the workers needed a lot of light to manage their machines properly.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40458&start=25

 

How on earth do you get things done so quickly? I'm terribly impressed!

 

Ian

[Jason T]

Hi Ian. The mill isn't too far on really, once the card is marked and cut, it doesn't take too long to get the embossed plastic on and cut. The next stages, adding lintels, sills, windows, doors and then cutting the dreaded slates from the 150gsm card are the bits that seem to drag.

 

I work from home, in IT, so I can get on with stuff whilst having to listen to my American colleagues drone on whilst on endless conf calls. When I worked for IBM, I had to attend one that lasted for seven hours and had a lunch break in the middle!

[lmsforever]

Dont get critical of your fantastic modeling skills ,the mill looks good and the trackwork flows looking forward to next instalment. Chris.

[Jason T]

The mill has progressed. First, the formers that will hold the thing together and keep it rigid. An odd shape, but it is designed to fit around and over a wall so they are 'L' shaped, and the roof will be the normal rectangle and sit over the offending wall. Confused? All will make sense when finished, hopefully

 

 

I have added the lintels and sills; lintels are flush so the stonework was cut back and inserts added, whereas the sills sit proud of the wall so are glued on the outside

 

 

And I have given it a base coat of paint, as doing so when the windows are added will be a right pain (as I am finding out with the various houses which I am currently daubing with the leftover paint)

 

[Jason T]

Not much of an update as I was out on Friday night and all day yesterday so made no modelling progress whatsoever but with the weather being a bit, well, biblical today, I've managed to get a few hours in on the mill. since the last update, I've given the stonework a couple more coats and whilst not 100% sure with the colour or with the properties of Humbrol Matt paint, it'll do, especially as it's going to be weathered to within an inch of it's life at some point. Additionally, I've made a start on the windows.

 

Nothing out of the ordinary here really; they're made from glueing Microstrip onto clear Plastikard which is itself glued to the inside of the structure. Again using Forest Mill for inspiration, the windows are three panes tall by two panes wide, those on the ground floor having both the horizontal and vertical centre bars the same width (most which are non-opening, I presume to keep burglars out?) and those on the first and second floors having the centre section opening and therefore represented by wider horizontal bars. On the second photo, you may be able to make out the faint lines I score on the back to assist with alignment.

 

 

[artizen]

So are the crossbars on the windows butted up to the vertical bars when gluing the whole thing together? Or do the strips overlap?

 

Nice and tidy and I need to do something like this on my layout which is why I am asking these basic questions!

[Jason T]

Hi,

 

the strips are butted up although where the central section is supposed to open, a second strip is glued over the base one to give depth, which hides any small gaps. I find that if there are any small gaps, gently dragging the knife blade along the strip in the direction of the gap fills it anyway.

[artizen]

I had to ask because all the strips are so neatly squared up. Fantastic work!

 

Off to watch the Coconut Dancers do a spot of clog dancing on YouTube now!

[Worsdell forever]

Here they are Ian, over our way.

 

That warehouse looks superb Jason, the 7mm brick looks just right for the type of stone used on those buildings.

[Jason T]

Thanks. The only slight problem that should hopefully not be too noticeable, is that the mortar courses are a bit to widely spaced.

 

Funny how with all the stone buildings I've constructed so far, I've not once used any embossed plastikard that was actually designed with 4mm in mind - 2mm for the house and now 7mm brick for the mill.

 

I do have some 4mm Slaters stonework squirreled away; maybe one of these days I will get to use it

[Jason T]

I got the windows finished on the mill, painted the interior in a suitable dark colour (grey) and glued the main structure together. I still need to do the roof and am now undecided on a flat roof (means building up a few more courses of stonework on the top and then recessing the roof in) or the originally planned hipped roof. Either way, I need more 7mm brick or mounting board so it will have to wait.

 

However, I thought I would take a couple of photos showing where it will be situated, it's purpose and why it was built in an odd 'L' shape. Please remember that there is a lot of scenic work to be done here, basically building up the land in front of the railway so that it forms a hill rising from the under-bridge, seen in other photos.

 

Before: the dreaded blue wall that stands out like a sore thumb

 

 

After: Wall? What wall?

 

 

And here is a bonus shot taken from platform level. I imagine that class 25's were rare, if never seen beasts in Bacup; it just happened to be out of the cupboard.

 

 

Of course, the mill does a pretty good job of hiding the houses I took a while building but I always knew that would be the case. It's also highlighted that I need to build another odd-shaped building between the house and the dreaded wall.

 

Oh, and the perspective of the railway and the backs of the houses appear to suggest that their back doors open out on to the run-round. I can assure you that this is not the case

Edited March 5, 2012 by Sandside

[Jason T]

Last night, after taking and uploading the above photos, I couldn't help but stage a couple of others (although the 105 could actually move the length of the platform if desired as that board is wired up). I know I really shouldn't be doing this and should instead be concentrating on getting the layout built but it's also nice to get an idea of what it may look like in the future and surely it's a step up from putting together full train formations on Templot printouts........

 

105 in the station

 

Black Five arrives with a pick-up freight

[Dave Holt]

I do like the general look of your mill building - i think you've got the windows spot on.

I notice you say it's inspired by Forest Mill in Bacup - did that only have 3 storeys? I ask because the style of the mill is from the early days - small windows with fairly thick support pillars between - and these early mills were generally quite tall compared with their length & breadth - often 5 or 7 floors, for spinning, at least - 3 floors would be quite rare, though not unknown. They would definitely had pitched roofs - either an overall hipped type or perhaps multiple ridges. Flat roofs came later, generally in association with much larger window area and brick construction on a steel frame.

Weaving mills are normally only single storey with a north-light roof, so perhaps your mill could be for one of the associated trades such as cotton waste?

 

The layout looks to be coming along nicely, so you must be very pleased with it.

 

Looking forward to further progress reports,

 

Dave.

[Jason T]

Hi, thanks for the positive comments.

 

Forest Mill is still there and does indeed have only three storeys and a flat roof. It's not the nicest looking of mills and my rendition of it is a long way off, but the below link is to a photo of the real thing:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossendalewadey/5422372593/

 

I'm pretty chuffed with how the layout is coming along. Got the droppers in on board 2 tonight (the one with all the turnouts), point motors are still to go on but have just run my 'trusty' Class 25 over each and every bit of pointwork and it works fine which I find a bit surprising, as the frogs aren't wired up yet and are most definitely isolated.

[Jason T]

Here's a video of the first train (incorrectly formed but hey, it's testing so who cares) passing from board 2 to board 1. All point motors are now fitted and operational, so when the testing of the main lines is complete, I'll start on the goods yard

 

[Worsdell forever]

Runs very smoothly through the point work, very good, I hope you're pleased with it.

[Jason T]

A couple of the points need a bit of fettling as the CCT isn't overly happy on them but in general and for the first time I've built my own track then yes, I'm chuffed to bits.