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SEPTEMBER 2012 UPDATE
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HYWEL THOMAS *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
KIER HARDY *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
KEITH TRUEMAN *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
GREG BROOKES *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
PETE JOHNSON *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
IAN MANDERSON *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
OCTOBER 2012 UPDATE
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PETE JOHNSON *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
KIER HARDY *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
NOVEMBER 2012 UPDATE
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PAUL JAMES *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
KIER HARDY *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
KEITH TRUEMAN *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
PETE JOHNSON *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
DECEMBER 2012 UPDATE
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KIER HARDY *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
PETE JOHNSON *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
KEITH TRUEMAN *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
More departmental conversions at Morfa Bank Sidings - this time a start has been
made on this ex-GWR TOAD brakevan for carrying and operating P.W. machinery. Inset photograph of
converted brake van by Roy Hennefer.
This pair of Bachmann Deltics have just been completed with bufferbeam fittings and final
detail. 9012 CREPELLO and 9009 ALYCIDON await their next turn of duty at Hornsey Road depot. 9009 was the
first Deltic to receive ETH equipment in October 1970.
Another snapshot for the album - D8242 & D8204 are seen on shed together.
9002 The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry looking rather grubby
but not uncommon for a Gateshead allocated Deltic.
Photograph courtesy of Andy York - 9009 is seen at Hornsey Broadway as a class 501
trundles overhead.
Recommencement of the pointwork for L.P. shows this 4th point under construction.
Recent scenic activity and diversion into other projects have seen the trackwork lag behind slightly.
Two completed points ready for laying. Composite construction for strength and reliability.
Point number 5 layed in position and ready for wiring to take place.
A view showing the cross-over in place.
A bit more work has been carried out on the class 22. The other class member is trailing
behind a bit, and awaiting a repaint into something more authentic than Dapol's representation of BR blue.
Other interests arrive on the work bench from time to time - plenty of Australian
HO scale models, and this British 00 gauge kettle starting to take shape.
D6327 waits with a departmental working at Shenston Road station, whilst
sister loco D6328 heads north with a rake of hoppers. These 2 locos have been repainted into BR blue
livery, as the Dapol blue just doesn't cut it.
Gloucester allocated D6320 waits in the loop with a southbound departmental train heading
back to Newland with amongst other things a Ruston & Hornsby PWM shunter in tow.
Recently into service is this Metro-Vic Co-Bo, on a Derby RTC working to
Shenston Road.
The basic structures of the buildings for Canada Street continue to be worked on. These
two views show a couple of the main building walls. 80 and 100 thou plastic have been used, the large
sheet size available from Eileen’s Emporium has allowed the biggest wall to be a single piece.
Since these are only the underlying structure the window and door cut-outs are oversize
and quite roughly cut, the final framing will be in the brick texture facing. The cut-outs were made
using a disc slitting saw on a minidrill, before some tidying up with a square section file.
This was the scene with just a week to go before Railex NE. At this point one
half of the scenics had been completed on the extension board. In the background can be seen the
method of underpinning the scenery - good old cereal boxes. This was then covered by a Gaugemaster
grass mat, then over that the hanging basket liner was laid face down. Once dry, the backing was
peeled off and the 'grass' trimmed.
At Railex NE, J27 65819 takes a loaded coal train along the new embankment. In
one of those strange, wonderful, coincidences, whilst operating this loco on the Saturday a gentleman
watching the layout pulls out the works plate from his bag for the very same loco!
A single 16-tonner sits having been unloaded. The wagon was built by Pete
Johnson, the scales are merit and the open sack is a Dart Castings product.
J27 65860 runs along the extension with a mixed van train. The state of this
loco stirred memories in a lot of the watching public.
The layout set up and ready for action on the Saturday morning. The scenic section
is now around 10ft and allows for a nice trundle through the scenery between fiddleyards. It also
gives the operator that bit more time to turn trains around in the fiddleyard whilst one is in motion
on scene. It was certainly worth the effort, even if I was still bolting bits together on the Friday
morning before travelling to North Shields. In fact, the supporting leg for the new information screen
was fitted with the aid of a drill on the Friday evening! At least the paint was dry.
The excellent new name board for the layout, done at the Thornbury show earlier this
year. The layout received some very favourable comments at North Shields, with many saying how well
the essence of the rural Northumberland branchlines has been captured. Such kind comments made it all
worthwhile and I can only reiterate my thanks to everyone who has helped me, both with the building
and in providing information. Now just need to get the J21 and G5 done....
A start has been made on another of the main buildings. This view shows one of the '80
thou' panels in progress. Windows and doors have been marked out in pencil, then drilled at each corner,
before using a slitting saw on a mini-drill to roughly cut out the blanks.
The sides of the openings are then trimmed closer to the finished size using a sharp
knife, before final smoothing with a file.
One of the finished panels, ready for window frames and assembly.
Assembly of the panels pictured on last month’s update, has also begun and allows the
overall layout of the building to begin to be appreciated.
Recent work on the layout has been slow, but attention has now turned to the locomotive
depot area. Concrete surfaces around the shed entrance have been installed using black plastic card, laid
slightly below rail level to allow cleaning without affecting the finished painted surface.
After adding the electrical feeds to the rails, the whole area was given a blast of
Humbrol brown aerosol. The shed entrance roads have been initially ballasted with a mix of fine brown
and grey ballast, and will be further enhanced with chinchilla dust (a fine grit available from most
pet shops), as shown by the nearest sidings. A blend of diluted paint is then applied to enhance the
grime associated with loco stabling areas.
Showing the shed entrance roads with ballasting complete and awaiting weathering. The
gantry for unloading large Enparts is in place adjacent to the stores siding, and engine stop boards have
been fitted.
If you're modelling urban decay, here's a selection of huts and privvys that have seen better
days and were snapped whilst out and about with the camera.... draughty, but newspaper included.
Unattended holes in a roof will only get bigger!
Plenty of surrounding clutter, including a rusty old oil drum.
I recently purchased a Langley whitemetal kit of a cement mixer, and spent a couple of hours putting
it together and painting it. The mixer will form part of a load on the back of a builder's pick-up truck, together
with ladders, tools and other associated clutter.
The chosen vehicle for the builder is a Base Toys 'Sunblest' delivery van with a swapped dropside
body, suitably weathered and fitted with a dashboard and driver.
A selection of people have been assembled ready for painting and populating the area around the
station to emphasise what a busy place Hornsey Broadway is. There's a real mix of Prieser, Airfix and some
whitemetal figures, which have had their bases cut off and pins fitted to the legs. This method makes for easy
placement and handling during the painting stage, and for securing the figures to the pavements when finished.
The locomotive depot baseboard was shown at the Cheltenham model railway exhibition in October,
and this image was snapped by our roving reporter Steve Harrod from the top deck of a passing bus.
Excited with what was on shed, he quickly disembarked and managed a few more snaps. Western
Region NBL diesel hydraulic interloper is seen awaiting a trip back to Old Oak Common after working a transfer freight.
A brace of BTH type 1 locos D8242 & D8228 await their next turn of duty.
Eastern Region motive power undergoing maintenance inside the shed.
Hornsey Broadway featured in the Model Railway Journal No 218 (published on the 11th of October 2012).
I have reduced the length of the boiler exhaust port grille fins by half on my Dapol class 22,
by first using a scalpel to scrape them away, and then to be filled in with a shim of styrene sheet and finally
smoothed over with some model putty.
The now corrected boiler exhaust port on 6320.....much better!
6320 recovers after its minor surgery in the parcels platform road, and now sporting its
modified boiler exhaust port. The loco is also sitting on its now re profiled and regauged wheel sets to EM
gauge, done for me by a good friend.
Having purchased some Hornby Mk2d coaches to go with my Deltic fleet some time ago, I
decided that they sat too high above rail level, and so didn’t look right. As seen here, the coach is
dismantled in readiness for the lowering process.
The Hornby bogie pivot securing method was discarded in favour of a metal screw to pivot
around instead. This requires the hole to first be filled in, in this case using some scrap sprue from a plastic
kit after which with a little sanding, was a nice fit.
The plastic plug now glued into position, and when dry will be drilled out to accept a fixing screw.
This photo shows the underside of one of its bogies about to have the centre pivot hole
rim removed by a chisel knife. This is done in order to glue a plate flush on the underside that will accept
a fixing screw through to the chassis. Thumbs, digits and other appendages well out of the way for this operation!
Job done, and back on rails. On the left can be seen the unmodified Mk2d coach compared to the
now lowered item. All that is needed now is to re number it for east coast services, and some light weathering.
The white panels shown last month have made steady progress into the main shell of one of the
principle buildings on the layout. In this view the roof structures are highlighted – aerial photographs of the
UK, available from web-based mapping sites, have been invaluable for research of this aspect.
In this close-up some of the ground floor detailing is shown, but still with much to add.
……and the wife says I never help with painting the window frames!? After prepping with white
enamel, the set of frames for the building are seen drying. These are brass etches by Geoff Taylor. Click
here to visit the GT Buildings website which
illustrates the vast range of architectural etches, and galleries featuring many of Geoff's completed buildings.
The company name on the building has been marked out in pencil ready for painting. The
R&W Paul Ltd building was long a landmark of the Ipswich waterfront, and is the basis for this model. In the
1960s it also featured several times as a backdrop for diesel shunter publicity pictures. Canada Street, as
Canada Road did before it, makes use of real buildings from various locations around Britain as a source of inspiration.
The dockside loading structure has now been clad in Slater’s corrugated texture plasticard, but
still lacks the roof apex strips and downpipes.
Things have been relatively quiet on the layout construction this month, so here are a few inspirational
urban grot photographs instead. A rusty steel door seen at the side of the Christie Miller Sports Centre
at Bowerhill, Melksham......
.... and at the rear of the building a wooden door with paint flaking off.
Whilst out and about this old Freightliner container was spotted at the side of a lorry park, along with
other redundant containers.
An ideal corner filler for any layout.
A start has been made on the last of the large new buildings for the layout. The Burton’s Biscuits building is more
1920s/30s modernistic concrete, this time with external framing. The front wall begins to take shape using 40 and
80 thou white plasticard.
Meanwhile the Victorian brick-built Downing building is beginning to be covered in English bond texture from the
Slater’s range. The raised details are being added first, with the base level panels being trimmed to fit between
these when the time comes.
The bridge for the Downing building is virtually complete and about ready for painting. The main covering is 2mm
clapboard by Evergreen, with plain sheet of various thicknesses and I-beam section used for other parts.
Plank-end lines have been scribed onto the clapboard, and some planks cut away to reproduce the dereliction
found on the inspiration for this building which stands empty in Gloucester Docks. The roof slates are made using
strips of 10 thou, scribed at the slate width before cutting, and then laid overlapped as on a real roof.
Detailing of the Paul’s dockside loading structure has now been completed. This view shows some of the gutter
and downpipe arrangement.
Another view of the same structure, showing the window frame and cladding fasteners. The frame has been made
using overlays of microstrip, and the fasteners by using a sharp needle angled in from below. It is hoped that
the weathering paint will pick out these dimples to give an authentic look.
A view of the Downing building on Merchants Road, Gloucester. This and other views of the Gloucester Docks
(before redevelopment) can be found in the Prototype section of the website.
Lowmac B905021 has been built from the current Dapol kit, and rides on Steam Era Models – RP25
10.5mm wheels. Other enhancements to the kit has been to fit replacement hand brake levers and hangers made from
scrap brass pieces. Smiths instanter couplings are fitted, and the wagon is seen here on a transfer working along
Lesney Park’s third rail section.
Enamel paints were used exclusively for the Lowmac, and also to apply the effects of a knocked
about appearance. The wooden blocks sitting on the deck were cut from lengths of North Eastern Models - scale
lumber. This product has a fine grain and so is suitable for small scale modelling. Dirty turps straight from
the jam jar and with a dash of matt black was used to colour the blocks. The chain is 27 links to the “inch” and
is attached to D shackles that I have bent up from thin wire, then linked to metal rings fixed into the deck ends.
The current scene looking down on Lesney Park’s yards. All six turnouts from the original plan
have now been assembled from the C&L ‘kit in a bag’ components, and are fixed down to the layout. I have since
decided to add just one more point to create an extra siding. The location of this is to the area seen on the
right hand side where loosely placed track sections are shown, and a paper template shows the location for the
added turnout.
