Focalplane

Western Thunderer
The south portal of Snow Hill Tunnel is beginning to take shape:

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And here it is in its proper position with trains posed for scale:

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The brickwork will be weathered Staffordshire engineering bricks, suitably blackened. Further walls will be added in front of it so not a lot will be visible eventually.

The next job has been to glue down the sand trap troughs on the Down Main, then ballasting can commence, inside the tunnel as well as along the main lines. Capping for the viaduct wall is currently being produced. I’ll wait before posting further photos.
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
It's an interesting tunnel portal that, presumably a deep/wide bridge in reality.
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Looking at the photo I think the steelwork would be 2'-3' wider and sit deeper into the abutments. It looks narrow because there's a brickwork column (pilaster) I front of the steelwork. I presume you'll be adding the pilasters on top of what you've modelled so far?
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Yes. It’s not a tunnel! It was created by cut and fill and in one place the fill was and still is the Great Western (shopping) Arcade. The top of the portal bridge (that is correct) has a fence with hoardings facing Moor Street. I plan to add that eventually. There was a dead end lane “Shut Lane” that ran down the face of the “Birmingham Fault”. This cobbled street was filled in in the 1980s. Also missing today is the large Moor Street Warehouse Depository which burned down. This will be recreated as a space filler. The exact geography will be different but hopefully recognizable.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
The magClic couplers arrived today. No customs hassle! I have spent several hours fitting them to the non driver ends of the two auto coaches and also to the two 14xx locos. The MOK 14xx was relatively easy, the Dapol 14xx was a £&?@/. But they now both work nicely though again the Dapol had issues with the decoder not behaving after reassembly . I did something right and it now works.

Here is a photo:

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The auto train gubbins fits nicely with the couplers, better in my opinion than with the scale link ones. Purists may not agree but they will need better eyesight and finger dexterity than I have!

More by luck than judgment I fitted the polarity of the locos’ magnets as opposites.

I still haven’t chosen a name for the Alcester set. But I am leaning toward Alcester Arrow. The Arrow is a small slow moving river that flows into the Avon from Alcester. Give it 24 hours while I sleep on it!
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Alcester Arrow it is!

One of the benefits of using magnetic couplers for what is essentially a “push me pull you” train set is the rigidity. This is particularly relevant for avoiding buffer lock on tight curves (1.8 m radius!) and the springs on the buffers still do their job and the couplers themselves are sprung, so there is plenty of slack to take up any potential derailing. The Dapol auto coach is also a long beast.

The swing magnet allows the hook to be used with other stock, goods vehicles, for example.

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Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Ballasting of the Snow Hill Main Line was completed today. Once the ballast is dry I’ll try to shoot a movie. Other jobs today included a big clear out of stored stuff, both photographs and OO and HO models. Discovered a DJH Princess Coronation kit in 4mm I had completely forgotten I had. Also a Wills Finecast Castle kit. But the real deals were several US HO locos, SP GS4, MT4 etc. I do like big North American HO!
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Over a week since the last post. Moor Street has seen more ballasting of sidings, etc. and now I have run out of medium cinders, an essential component in my mix, so that's that until later in the year. The rest of my time has been sorting through stuff under the layout, boxes of OO and HO trains collected over the years. I am not sure what to do with some of them so the best thing is to take them back to England where we now have plenty of storage. But the main reason is that I have been decorating the attached village house, a job delayed by the pandemic. And as it has been hot, while watching paint dry I have started a new thread on Southern Pacific Remembered. I have a lot of memorabilia, models, books and memories, so it's not a bad idea to put something together on WT. With the company swallowed up by Union Pacific I fear there's going to be some rewriting of history.
 

Stephen Freeman

Western Thunderer
Perhaps a visit to your local pet supplies store will yield what you are looking for. It's the black stuff (volcanic I think) that they sell for reptiles.
I am liable to be offline from 30th June for the next 2 weeks as we are moving house and apparently it takes that long for Talktalk to organise the broadband if you are lucky. It's what I use, I think Pets at Home sell it in the UK but I am still working my way through the bags I bought in France (I think, whatever it is, it is packed ready to be moved). Should you be passing I bought from the store opposite 3mmm in Ruffec, (Northern Charente).
 
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Focalplane

Western Thunderer
First post in quite a while. Good news, some ballasting done today after arriving last evening. Also more sorting out to clear the way forward. OO stock boxed up and HO set aside to bring back to UK for Eureka Heights. The OO stock may be put up for sale, we shall see.

More ballasting tomorrow but clearing the work surfaces is a priority so that more interesting modelling can be started, e.g., the coaches, tortoises, and so on.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Although a lot of ballasting has been completed, there comes a point where it has to stop as the city back scene will take over. Although I have ideas for the back scene based on the prototype, the spread of the layout due to fitting it into a curved space means that there is more space than actual buildings. The largest building close to the tracks is the Moor Street Warehouse, a discount store that burned down in the 1960s and this will fit nicely in between the main line and the surface goods yard around the smaller hoist.

This building will partially hide the London portal of Snow Hill Tunnel. There are plenty of photos on warwickshirerailways.com. The tunnel was actually a cut and fill construction and the portal is in effect a bridge carrying Moor Street. I remember walking down this street on dark winter evenings with my mother, quite scary, surrounded by soot covered walls and the odd bomb site still covered in rubble.

So the next stage will require setting out a foot print of the warehouse. Additional walls and parapets will also be needed to support the lines crossing Park Street, though the scenery below will not be visible.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Two photos to show progress described in the previous post.

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The above shows the foot print for the Moor Street Warehouse, the thick board in front of the tunnel portal. Some artistic license has been required. The broad expanse of gravel adjacent to the main lines is fiction but necessary. I expect I will plant some weeds and shrubs here to break up the monotony. Also a wall adajent to the goods station sidings.

The sand trap will be visible on the Down line. The white plasticard sheets between the sidings will be painted dark grey to simulate paved areas where the wagon capstans will be located. There will be walls and flatted scenery behind the buffers to further hide the tunnel storage loops. The hole in the short siding will be the location for the hoist structure.

Next, two trains pass each other in Snow Hill tunnel. Imagine the warehouse is three to four stories tall.

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I also took a photo of my ballast mix before mixing:

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I will be weathering the ballast eventually, mostly adding the smog and soot residue of post war Brum, but also oily black where locos take on water, etc.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
I have now started on painting the Moor Street water tank (the one that took so much research earlier this year). The "go by" is the pristine tank at Henley-in-Arden.


The one colour photo of the Moor Street tank suggests it was painted a long time ago and never cleaned. I think the contrast between the two is evidence of why my parents moved out to Earlswood in the late 1930s. Clean air and green countryside! There will have to be some deep weathering eventually.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Painting the water tank continues, but instead of watching paint dry I have resumed another stalled project, the Signal Box.


The design for the box on a narrow viaduct required a slim base, but this is not necessary on the model, so rule 1 applies and the compromise is two Bearley West boxes stitched together. West Bearley is on the North Warwickshire Line and so has the same basic Edwardian architecture. It is also a kit by Rail Model and I decided to take two kits and make one long box. Other changes include no steps up the outside, so the two ends including doors at first floor level were discarded. Here’s a link to the Bearley West box. Note its window arrangement front and back.


The first photo linked above shows a couple of details, first the probable modern switchgear hut with no windows attached to the southern end of the signal box. A simple construction from plasticard will provide this. Also, the two boarded walls facing Moor Street Station. The front of the box was actually facing the main through lines, but windows were also needed on the rear to cover slow moving traffic coming and going from the station. Two coal burning stoves supplied warmth and these will be placed behind the wooden panels.

So far I have constructed the two halves without windows or roof. These will be carefully joined together before proceeding, using scrap material.

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The two halves appear quite different in texture but they were put together as kits at different times. Once some sanding and a coat of primer is added I hope the structure will appear to be “one”. The card floor, by the way, is just a spacer to guide a gap in the ballast. As the kit does not include an opening at the base for the point rodding, etc., I may add a small plasticard brick foundation under the box, giving it a bit more height, with steps up to the end doors.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
A lot more work, including scratch building, on the Moor Street signal box. All 38 windows have been put together and are now waiting to be installed.

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According to prototype photos the windows received double glazing in the 1950s so the pane frames are behind the glazing.

The main carcass has a number of additions, again trying to follow guidance from photos. There are some differences between the model and the real thing but I can put up with them. The window ledges are in as is an extra base to give the structure more height. The base provides for the rodding passages, again photos to assist in the design. Most rodding appears to exit the box on the main line side. I have yet to decide on my own take on this, it may prove beneficial to use the station side.

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The roof will be a separate structure to allow fitting of internal furniture and fittings. The basic rafter and ridge from the two kits are ready to be primed. The notches had to be filed open to allow easy fitting and removal.

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The interior appears to be mostly dark from a photo of three signalmen inside the box, the rafters will be stained dark brown to match.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Windows are in the signal box and rafters placed in position. The gap in the middle is the next bit of scratchbuilding before I trim the roof parts to fit.

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There’s some tidying up to do as well on the painting. I am not altogether happy with the box, not the kit but how I am trying to use similar kits in a different setting. As I need progress the model will have to do. The windowless extension should help to make it fit in, plus some rodding, coal bins and so on.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
A year ago I left the railway room with the goods yard partly laid out. The white styrene “concrete” slabs between the tracks and where the wire capstans will be laid out were finally painted black today, also, I did not complete the rails for the wagon transfer system and these are now glued in place (the wagon transfer won’t be functional).

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Although a long way off completion the area looks much better now. Every bit helps, however small.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
You may have been wondering about the progress on the signal box. The instructions for the roof are only covered on the accompanying CD so I had to wait until we have a CD reader to hand. It is now clear what I have to do, so some progress can be expected. Just as well as my intuition would have been all wrong!

A rare sighting of one of my neighbours yesterday. He asked if the cinema was still in use and was pleasantly surprised when I explained it now housed a model railway - Échelle Zéro. His eyes lit up at the description of the scale.
 
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