So what is happening in Basilica Fields?

[Dog Star]

Not a lot if the absence of posts is anything to go by... however recent bursts of activity have gone without report in the different internet worlds, hence this topic.

I am not sure what I did or when I did it.....  however, I found myself offering to help Adrian with some S7 track.  The next thing I knew was reading in a post to Basilica Fields that a quantity of sleepers, rail and other track necessities were on their way to my letter box  .  After putting my head above the proverbial parapet I asked just what I was supposed to be doing....  "how about 80 feet of track for the Metropolitan Railway in the first module?" was the reply  .  Now I knew nothing about Met Rly track at that time so oft we jolly well went and questions were asked, replies were considered and a very large number of photograph thumbnails were studied (where large means more than 4,500 images).  Slowly a picture emerged as to what the Met Rly was doing with track in the period 1885-1905 and that information has been written-up as an entry in the Basilica Fields journal.  Now all that I have to do is build the track.... after converting around 1,500 4-bolt Midland chairs into 2-bolt Metropolitan chairs  .

Adrian is not content with giving out one interesting exercise....  the next challenge came swiftly.  "Just what did the GWR do for PW and S&C work in the 1880s?" was a simple enough question and one which could not be ignored as the first part of Basilica Fields has a GWR Goods Depot connected to the Metropolitan Railway "main line".  Yet another post to the Basilica Fields journal provides the starting point for this bit of the model.

So there has been a lot of digging in books, a tremendous amount of reading of accident reports and a fair bit of preparation....  and the first batch of sleepers have been stained.  Adrian might have his 80 feet of track by the end of the month.

The Basilica Fields journal can be found at:- http://basilicafields.wordpress.com/ and your comments will be welcome there.

regards, Graham

 

[Scale7JB]

Very surprised, but glad to hear that track is being built..

Have the baseboards been built? Where will it be based? I've been looking forward to seeing Basilica Fields since
I first met Ade years ago..

JB.

 

[Dog Star]

Very surprised

Now that is an interesting response and not one which might have been predicted...  please tell us all why you are surprised.

Have the baseboards been built? Where will it be based?.

Adrian is having to face up to building baseboards...  'cos there is nothing else upon which to lay the track!!!!  Readers of the Basilica Fields journal may have seen the plan for the Artillery Lane module of Basilica Fields - that plan is all that I have as reference for making track so Adrian is going to have to get going fairly soon otherwise there is going to be a pile of track panels on his mantlepiece (roughly 90 feet of model track to be made.... at around 7 or 8 inches per panel).

Where...  that is for Adrian to decide.  As an interim, there is a good chance that the baseboards will be built north of the M25 and the track laid, on pre-prepared formations, in the Basingstoke area.

regards, Graham

 

[Buckjumper]

Probably surprised that after all these years of procrastinating there is progress of sorts, albeit by someone else...!  ;D

It's impossible for me to hazard a guess as to when the baseboards will be built; that is determined by things out of my control, but if at all possible I'd like it to be within the next couple of months or so. Time and other factors will tell.

 

[28ten]

Really looking forward to seeing this progress, the concept is right up my street, as is the late Victorian period. I do hope we will be seeing pictures 

 

[Buckjumper]

I do hope we will be seeing pictures 

Yes indeedy. Once there's something worth showing...

 

[Scale7JB]

I do find it amusing that so many S7 layouts being built at the moment are turning into lifetime projects!!

All I want to build is either Saffron Waldon or Highbridge...??

Oh bu**er, they're not that quickly achievable either..!!

JB.

 

[Buckjumper]

Saffron Walden would make a lovely model - perfect for your G5 and N7. you'll just need the GE Westinghouse push/pull set from D&S for the G5 and a Gresley vacuum set for the N7.

 

[28ten]

I do find it amusing that so many S7 layouts being built at the moment are turning into lifetime projects!!

All I want to build is either Saffron Waldon or Highbridge...??

Oh bu**er, they're not that quickly achievable either..!!

JB.

I think most 7mm layouts are lifetime projects. Even Leamington Spa with all PW's resources isn't happening overnight..

But, i just love the the idea of Victorian/Edwardian London. if I hadn't been distracted by Hydraulics its what i would be doing.

 

[Dog Star]

All awake at the back there?  Here is another update on progress down in Basilica Fields.

[  No worries Jordan, no BLUE diseasels here although Adrian might just be getting round to thinking about a Blue kettle if the recent arrival of GER track details is anything to go by...  and to avoid any shock horror reaction on the Locomodels workbench we are talking about track details for the GER company rather than details of any track in the GER locality ]

The first piece of S7 track for Artillery Lane has appeared - and it is for the GWR siding(s) of Gun Street depot.  As Basilica Fields requires track from at least three pre-group companies (Met. Rly., GWR and GER) Adrian and I have been experimenting with ways of building track economically (does not take too long to build / lay / weather).  The results of the experiments are recorded in a recent update to the BF journal, see here:-

http://basilicafields.wordpress.com/201 ... ca-fields/

regards, Graham

 

[phileakins]

Very nice work there Graham. I just wonder though that after a pounding from passing trains and having been smothered in brake dust, etc, whether the keys would have been so pristine, or are they going to be weathered down?

Adrian's project has almost made me resurrect my Farringdon project - but after a lie down in a darkened room with a glass or two (strictly medicinal of course) - the feeling went away. 

Phil

 

[Dog Star]

I just wonder though that after a pounding from passing trains and having been smothered in brake dust, etc, whether the keys would have been so pristine, or are they going to be weathered down?

Good question.... 

Hopefully, here is a good answer.... 

In the time period of Basilica Fields, the Met. Rly. company was changing rails in some locations every two years (Metropolitan Railway, A.A.Jackson) and I feel that there is a good chance that the keys were replaced with the rails.  My impression of weathered keys, from time spent with the PW gang at Didcot, is that the oak went from a pale yellow to silver grey through a mid-brown with orange tint.
  Adrian posed the same question as you so I went looking for bullhead rail retained by wood keys.  In the course of visiting a Heritage Railway I talked to a Network Rail PW engineer and I was surprised to learn that NR uses wood keys to this day, predominately for keying check rails on curves.  I found some curves with check rails and there were some oak keys...  which were silver grey and definitely not dark / black / dirt coloured  .
  Anyhow, Adrian intends to weather all of the track after ballasting.  In the mean time I am going to dry-brush the oak-coloured keys on the stock of painted chairs with a mix of silver-grey and metalcote.

regards, Graham

 

[28ten]

That does very good. The other page on the chairs was interesting as well, my knowledge is trackwork is about on par with that on DCC, but I need to make some in 1/32 so the drawings are very handy 

 

[phileakins]

I don't know whether you've caught up with the chair development here:- http://www.shapeways.com/model/92016/check_rail_chairs_1_0mm.html Graham.  Looks interesting, but might not fit Adrian's period/area.

Phil

 

[Dog Star]

I don't know whether you've caught up with the chair development here:-

Graham.  Looks interesting, but might not fit Adrian's period/area.

Thank you Phil for drawing our attention to this product...   
Not sure if fits with Adrian's intentions for Basilica Fields, need Adrian to check on what the GER was doing circa 1890.  Unfortunately not for me either as GWR had two bolt versions.

This is interesting for BF... 
http://www.shapeways.com/model/163821/g ... id=sg28085
regards, Graham

 

[phileakins]

There are now some photographs of the product in use on David R's thread on the Templot forum here.

That buffer stop looks nice.  Seems that 3d printing is now becoming a force to be reckoned with at last.

Phil

 

[28ten]

Seems that 3d printing is now becoming a force to be reckoned with at last.
Phil

Yes, that's why I am working on my surfacing skills in Solidworks

 

[Dog Star]

There are now some photographs of the product in use on David R's thread on the Templot forum.

That buffer stop looks nice.

In addition, there are photos of the buffer stop and of the check chairs on the Shapeways site from Phil's earlier comment.  I sent the link for the buffer stop to Adrian who has replied, to me, that David Rayner is one of the West Mersea modellers...  8)

regards, Graham

 

[Dog Star]

I just wonder though that after a pounding from passing trains and having been smothered in brake dust, etc, whether the keys would have been so pristine?

In the time period of Basilica Fields, the Met. Rly. company was changing rails in some locations every two years.... and I feel that there is a good chance that the keys were replaced with the rails.  My impression of weathered keys....  is that the oak went from a pale yellow to silver grey through a mid-brown with orange tint.
  Adrian posed the same question as you so I went looking for bullhead rail retained by wood keys.  I found some curves with check rails and there were some oak keys...  which were silver grey and definitely not dark / black / dirt coloured.  Adrian intends to weather all of the track after ballasting, in the mean time I am going to dry-brush the oak-coloured keys on the stock of painted chairs with a mix of silver-grey and metalcote.

  You know how it is...  just when you think things are going well then along comes a spanner in the shape of a photo, or a chance conversation, or just a few minutes of pondering.  Those keys, which I had just finished with that characteristic silver-grey of weathered oak - weathered from wind, rain and predominately sunshine.  Well clearly that was not the smartest idea of the week given that Gun Street sidings are partly under cover and partly in a brick cutting (is my seat still warm down in the back row?).  So back to square one  :-[ :-[ .

  Glorious weather here today - wild windy and wet so just the incentives to sit indoors and paint another couple of hundred chairs and this time to go for keys with a dose of dirt and dust  .  In this case, I used Precision Paints "Track Dirt" and "Rusty Rails", blobs on the palette and mixed as required, and the result is now more in tune with track in cuttings where the sun rarely shines.

Pictures of the re-modelled track will be posted to the Basilica Fields journal sometime this coming week.

regards, Graham

 

[Dog Star]

Pictures of the re-modelled track will be posted to the Basilica Fields journal sometime this coming week.

Weather still not pleasant today so an ideal opportunity to complete a second track panel with the oak keys coloured to represent a dirty and dusty state... hopefully meeting the critical eye of Phil Eakins.  Photos of the second batch of chairs and the re-modelled track are now available in the BF journal, see link in post of 18th May.

regards, Graham