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JUNE 2022 UPDATE
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GREG BROOKES
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PETE JOHNSON
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STEVE CARTER
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KIER HARDY
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A preview of the latest motive power for Hornsey Broadway.... something to keep the
Grandchildren entertained!
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KARL CROWTHER
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HYWEL THOMAS
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With a few extra detailing projects having been carried out on the layout,
we take a tour to see some of the latest work. Starting off at the steelworks
the new water tower is constructed mainly from styrene section with a Walthers tank atop.
A view of the coke ovens with new pipework and gantries added.
Recently work has been carried out on these chimneys with access ladders and safety
cages added, consisting of bits from Walthers Cornerstone, Plastruct and Kibri kits.
Road transport loading area, detailed with Bachmann coils from the BAA wagon. One gantry
crane is a Walthers kit with the other one scratchbuilt to match.
The steelworks administration block made from an ancient Tri-ang Arkitex construction kit.
Works loco shed, and the relocated water tower from the other end of the steelworks,
which has been given some extra detail and pipework.
A view of the gasworks occupying a corner area of the layout. A new backdrop by
iD Backscenes has been fitted directly onto the wall.
Showing the rest of the gasworks on the boundary of the railway. Good use has been made
from HO scale kits which fit nicely into the background scenes, with the concrete silo
building scratchbuilt by Kier from plastic card and Evergreen styrene strip.
Heavy traffic again with things at a standstill. The office block (Kibri kit) was originally
sited on the Holmeworth layout and has been rebuilt for use here at Shenston Road.
Awaiting the mail train with loaded BRUTEs in tow.
The busy station entrance is seen here with the brewery dominating the background. The
station building also originated from Holmeworth -
click here to see the station building and office block in their previous roles.
Extra detail work has been carried out along Station Road with work on the front gardens to
include fence painting, flowers and people.
A single car Class 121 DMU departs for Wolverhampton whilst a Class 47 waits in the centre
road with a southbound van train.
Fresh out of the Shenston Road works is this Hornby Stanier Black 5 with extra detail work
and weathering, seen here on an outing at Hornsey Broadway.
A wave from the driver as it passes by.
After a few months pause the Vitrain Class 47 body shells are back underway. External detailing
of the two GFYE examples is almost complete with just lamp brackets and buffer beam detail to go.
47 367 was a loco I encountered in this livery several times during 1975-76, and was to become
the last member of the fleet in these colours.
The other shell is being finished as 1885 in its 1968-1973 appearance. Detailing parts from
Extreme Etchings have been used for the glazing, fan grills and wipers. This loco went on to
become 47 366 after renumbering and was another green TOPS example.
Attention has switched to preparing the six scenic boards in readiness for assembly together.
When ordered from Tim Horn, the final orientation of the boards had still not been fully
settled upon and so they came with end fitted alignment dowels. The first task was to adapt
each board to accept them on their sides but unfortunately the supplied metric dowels
(intended for fitting into accurate laser cut holes) do not have the 'pip' on the rear of
the male component which is used to mark out the position of its female counterpart.
Imperial 1" dowels were used as substitutes and were fitted into holes bored with a
Forstner Saw bit to ensure they were clean cut and accurate.
With all boards dowelled then it was the turn of creating the necessary support structures.
As the boards are arranged in a staggered formation then boards 3 and 4 were tackled first
as these two boards are not offset from each other. This essentially gives a 4' x 3'
central 'column' supported at each corner by an aluminium 'I' section leg set to provide
a operating height of approx. 46" and with a central integrated shelf to house the layout electronics.
The entire supporting structure consists of four legs, four horizontal beams, four diagonal
cross braces and the shelf assembly. The alignment dowels also act as a keyway allowing for
easier identification of each board's position within the run.
Before being installed on the support structure the two boards are first joined together.
To minimise the number of fixings whilst also providing minimal movement then two M10 hex
head allen bolts are used in conjunction with four 75mm square stainless steel washers of
3mm thickness. The thickness of the washers means that as the allen bolts are tightened,
they clamp the board sides tightly and ensures the clamping force is spread over a wide
area resulting in a strong and stable interface between boards.
Each of the support legs is made from a reclaimed aluminium 'I' section material of a
type used in the construction of lightweight office walls. Measuring 54 x 25mm, each has
been provided with an adjustable foot to allow for uneven floors when setting the board level.
The support structure has been designed such that as few tools as possible are required
when being assembled. With this in mind then use has been made of Type D Wood Insert nuts
which are used by the furniture industry in the manufacture of flat pack items. These come
in various forms and provide a quick and effective method of assembly without the need of
the traditional nut & bolt arrangement. Seen here are (top) an M10 thread used on the
lower horizontal support beams and (bottom) an M6 thread used for the diagonal cross braces.
Support legs are fitted into close fitting sockets made using a hard wood to give some degree
of robustness. Also in view is a diagonal cross brace and a upper horizontal support beam
which has been constructed in an 'L' girder form. By comparison the two lower horizontal
support beams (on which sits the electronics shelf) are solid and have been made to size
such that they sit in the recess of the support legs without being able to rotate.
These photographs were taken by Ian Manderson for the July 2008 issue of Railway Modeller
but didn't make it to the final cut. These previously unseen images show the layout as it
was before the resignalling and completion of backscene buildings.
West Yorkshire Road Car Company buses pass The Fat Ox public house on Bradford Road.
A busy scene at the station with a Class 40 heading north on a passenger service whilst
DMUs shuttle around on local services to Leeds, Bradford & Sheffield.
Class 111 3-car DMU passing the goods depot.
Class 25 and 31 on southbound freights, whilst an 08 shunts the depot yard.
Pete Johnson's 25242 on the stabling point headshunt.
A Class 08 shunts the parcels depot whilst DMUs to Ilkley and Leeds get ready to depart.
Airfix Class 31 and a Lima Class 47.
The demolition crew have arrived. This building was scratchbuilt by Pete Johnson for a
proposed Holyhead Breakwater layout, but ended up on Wibdenshaw after the plan fell through.
Class 25 on a short parcels service, no doubt crammed full of catalogue company goods.
Last in this series of pictures is one taken by me of a Lima Class 47 backing onto its
train in the parcels depot. The layout lives on in Spain and is operational again
after its DCC conversion.
Not a vast amount of progress this month, mainly due to gardening, and a weekend spent at
expoEM in Bracknell. The main thing achieved has been progress on the Kendal turntable; a
laser-cut kit for a Cowans Sheldon (60ft) type from Greenwood Model Railway products. In
fact the well comes partly assembled, while the deck assembly goes together very precisely
and makes up into a robust unit as can be seen. Also fortunately, the carrying rail around
the periphery of the well comes pre-curved, a good thing as it would be difficult to do otherwise.
Of course I still need to fit the handrails and fabricate some sort of an end platform to the
end of the deck, which would house the operating mechanism (this last not provided with the kit.
Painting is part-way through at present, as can be seen. The plan is to use an appropriate kit
from MERG to operate the turntable via a stepper motor.
Before embarking on the next big rolling stock projects I needed an additional shunter to
bolster the fleet. A Bachmann example was sourced secondhand and, after receiving the
luxury of a set of EM Ultrascale wheels, the unwanted boxes on this side of the body were
removed. Some extensions to the existing doors and additional hinges were added and here we
see masking underway to get some primer onto the new bits.
A new set of cylinders and associated parts were built to fit under the front buffer beam.
Here it is ready for final painting.
After priming a bit more blending was needed before painting in body colour. The example
chosen had an additional vertical handrail at the top of the steps, probably fitted for its duties
in the hump yard at Margam. The small lifting brackets on the roof were also replaced with wire.
Here we can see the completed pair of shunters during a loco swap at Morfa Bank, with 3746 soon
to trundle off to Margam depot for refuelling. In real life this shunter was re-allocated to
Cardiff from February 1972, after closure of Port Talbot docks at the end of 1971, but in my
world it never moved and swapped the dock duties for yard pilot at Morfa Bank, remaining
allocated to Margam. By contrast 3432 was a long-term Margam hump yard pilot and remained there
all its life, retaining original green until at least 1973.
The next project is one of the few remaining large fleets of wagons I need for the layout –
Twin Bolsters for imported billet traffic delivered to the quay by the coasters that will back
load steel coil for the near continent. The BR fleet comprised a mix of former Lowfits,
Single Bolsters and Conflat As, with numerous different combinations of brakegear, body types
and buffers. To avoid confusion I put all the required bits into bags for each individual wagon.
Here we see the 28 bags that will form the required 14 sets. Six sets from Lowfits (two body
types and three varieties of brakegear); five sets from Conflat As (one body type and two
brakegear varieties) and three sets from Single Bolsters (all the same, thankfully!).
This is likely to be a long project. First up were the Single Bolster conversions, which all
used the venerable Triang body moulding from way back when. This was always a favourite of
mine as the variant that carried a blue Triang Hornby container was one of the first train
set wagons I owned. That actual wagon can be seen on the left of this picture. The original
bolster moulding has been removed and the resulting hole filled in. Next up will be the
removal of the strapping on the floor and filling the holes in each corner.
After raiding my spares box and finding a few more from various places we see all six, now
with locating pieces for the solebars fitted and new end stanchions.
To keep tabs on the numerous bits littering the workbench each set was numbered from 1-14
and each half carrying either an A or a B suffix. The clasp braked chassis are shortened
Parkside kits, as seen here. Most of the wagons will use the spare centre coupler ends
from the Red Panda Lowfit kits but as I didn’t have enough of these I had to scratch
build several and this example carries one of the these. More on this fleet as they
develop over the next few months.
Finally, one of the reasons that the Twin Bolsters will be used for the billet imports
rather than Bogie Bolsters are the sharp curves on the quay tramway, as seen here. Bogie
Bolsters would have to be worked up to the exchange yard singly whereas the Twins can be
run in short rakes. This was exactly why they were employed on the real railway where they
had to access works where sharp curves ruled out the use of their larger cousins.
