Bottom Works Sidings - An industrial what if.

ChrisM

Active Member
Hi all,

As promised, a quick progress update!

Plenty has happened since the last post at the start of October, which is probably a good thing or it would be time to panic! I'm pretty comfortable that with a deadline of 'end of the first quarter 2019' I am still more or less on target even if it looks like there's still a lot to do... I'm still enjoying working to the deadline and it's certainly helping inspiration wise.

I've now ballasted the 'main' lines - for this I've used Woodland Scenics fine ash ballast, which was a bit of a nightmare to lay due to the small size of the granules! I think it looks about right for a freight only branch...

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On the industrial lines, I felt this was still too large, so instead have been using DAS for ballast - while slow, this does look good to my eye. I'm progressing back along the second siding now and only have around 16 inches left to go so the end is in sight.

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The building visible is a laser cut Rowmark kit from Stonebridge Structures, a company I came across almost by accident while reading the EMGS newsletter one evening. As I was looking for an LNER standard sectional hut, this was ideal... the overall inspiration coming from the one that stood at the junction from the ex GC mainline and he industrial line into Orgreave coking plant and colliery.

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Still some detailing to go but it's fitting into the scene quite nicely. There are also a couple of mucky oily puddles which have been made from microscope slides as per Gordon Gravett visible in he foreground, which I am pretty happy with so far.

I've also got the JCB I'm planning on using as the coal yard workhorse painted, the annual modelling competition at the local club this week spurring me on with this side project! I've reworked the Dapol kit a fair bit but am more than happy with the outcome.... it's not perfect by any stretch but that was never the idea, more to produce something looking noticeably better than the kit that blends into the overall atmosphere of the layout.

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Finally, as I don't think I've shown them in any real detail before, here are the signals for the layout. Mark Tatlow kindly offered to build these for me and the results are spot on, thanks Mark!

LNER ground disk. This will control access from the industrial line into the main yard.

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This ex GC square post signal will control access to the 3 main sidings/loops., each calling on arm controlling a different route. The arms are Upper Quadrant presumed to have been replaced during LNER days, as per a couple of examples at Orgreaves.

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Finally, there is this LNER round post bracket signal, controlling the exit from the sidings - the bracket will control movements on and off the BSC lines. This will lead to a slightly unusual method of operation with trains having to stop in the sidings then draw forward before being released by this signal... this was deemed a good idea to slow down the overall pace of operation, quite an important thing on a small layout.

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Think that's about it for now! I'll try and get the next update out in less than 2 months time!
Chris
 

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ChrisM

Active Member
Hi all,

Seemed to get bogged down over Christmas fiddling around with various bits on the layout and not really making much visible progress, other than getting some vague landform onto the back scene.

Inspired by ChrisB's Cessy-en-Bois update the other day however, I sprung into action and with a couple of decent sessions over the weekend, things are starting to look a bit better!

First up, the back scene has had some distant relief added. Nothing too detailed as I want the impression of a miserable overcast January day. A mix of green, brown and black water soluble colouring pencils were used, these being blended together with a slightly wet paintbrush. I plan a hedge to run along the joint between the back scene and layout and as such this relief has been designed to work with this when viewed at track height - there wasn't much in the way of relief in the Dearne valley at this point...

I've also finished ballasting the 'main lines'

Having borrowed a Grassmaster from the club on Thursday (which I'd forgotten to do before Christmas...) I started work on grassing the rear of the layout, the left hand corner being the first to be treated, so that I could assess colour on a small patch before moving on:
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Pleased with the results, I decided to crack on, and was really pleased with the progress made:
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Grass is 4.5mm, 3 different shades from a couple of sources (including Mini-Natur) which is layed over a variety of different textures of ground cover. This has then had some 10mm fibres added for variety, while some chopped dead leaves have been added where the trees will go.

Hopefully from the above it's noticeable the road leading to the crew room at the rear of the layout has also been treated... for this, with reference to Gordon Gravett's book, I used ash on top of some grey emulsion, then flattened this right back before removing the excess. This has then been given some attention with a fibreglass brush to remove certain areas which has created quite a nice and convincing broken up tarmac/rough surface. Colouring has been exclusively using weathering powders.

While down at the local club on a Thursday I've been working on the train crew room, which is now together and starting to look like a building. It's not perfect but is my first scratchbuilt structure so I've been making it up as I go along to a certain extent and I've learnt quite a lot from it!
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That's left The rear of the layout needing extra detailing and some hedges and fences, but looking a lot more complete than it was! The view down the layout now looks much better in my eyes, even with tons of junk on it!
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Chris
 

ChrisM

Active Member
Evening all,

Been cracking on with various bits for the layout over the last couple of weeks, having had a manic first 2 weeks of January work wise which cut my modelling time and enthusiasm somewhat.

Since the last update I've been focussing on filling in the bits to the rear of the layout and holding off on the temptation to go charging forwards with the grass and then risk damaging things accessing the rear later on.... to that end I've made up some lineside fencing, using a very simple jig to cut and drill the posts from plastic and then threading EZLine through for the wires:

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I've also installed numerous bits of florists wire (which are now painted) where the hedge will run at the rear middle of the layout, a job that took longer than I expected as I under estimated the number of trunks needed!

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I've also been working on the drivers mess room away from the layout, which now just needs some drainage arrangements, some minor detail (door handle etc) and painting before I can glaze it. For my first scratchbuit building I'm chuffed with how things are going and it's been rather enjoyable to build.

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This weekend I started looking at trees, and, using the Footpath Scenics range of armatures have got a good base to work from here. These armatures really benefit from the time spent twisting them a bit further to get a more convincing shape I've decided, before covering with a filler/PVA glue mix. Most of these will be silver birches, colonising an industrial landscape, and I have based the shape on a local railway embankment examples... but downsized somewhat!

Prototype inspiration- it's also noteworthy how little vegetation there is under trees in winter, something I'm aiming to recreate:

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As a warning though, taking pictures of overgrown areas of the local country park may result in some odd looks from bemused dog walkers

With my trees mocked up in position, I'm getting a scene looking like this which I'm quite pleased with:
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Finally, tonight I've roughly fitted some rubberised horse hair to the hedge trunks, ahead of painting and detailing it and final figment, but am pleased with the overall look - obviously I need to do some trimming before installation though!

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Next up is a trip to Halfords for some appropriate natural shades ready to do some tree painting.

Chris
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Comkng on nicely. Is that thicket of young silver birch in the prototype picrures round the back of the Redhill end of Tonbridge West Yard perchance?

Adam
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
The snowplough! I've walked down there a few times since we moved down this end of the world (we're up in Hildenborough now but were in one of the jerry-built new flats in Tonbridge).

Adam
 

ChrisM

Active Member
With apologies for the delay in posting an update... (I'll go with the busy modelling excuse)

To say I was astonished when I got an email through from Simon telling me I had been selected as a finalist in the competition is probably an understatement, but I guess the judges must have liked it so I am honoured to be given the opportunity to exhibit at Railex!

Much work has been going on since the last update, and things look considerably closer to completion than before - I've been waiting for the opportunity to pop into a very good timber merchant in Deal that sells wood in sensible sizes to get that required for the cassettes, and that opportunity will come this weekend as we are going down that way. As such I've not wanted to push on with too much in the foreground as I need to add cassette attachments which will, therefore, hopefully be done within the next week.

I'm still planning on sticking to the original deadline I set myself, which was to have the layout substantially complete by the end of March, this will give me the best part of 2 months for tweaking and small detailing before it's first outing. I'll also be doing a couple of dummy runs to the local club to ensure all is well.

Anyway, a quick summary of where we are:

The crew room that was under construction is now complete and bedded into its home. I'm really happy with how this has turned out, having never built a building from scratch before.
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Bedding this in has meant I can finish the track that leads to the building. The hedge has also been planted to the rear, along with the DC feeder cable for the overhead.
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The track then drops down to the gate, hiding the transition between layout and backscene. Point ridding has also appeared in the foreground.
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ive also filled in the sections behind the back scene, using bushes to hide the joint as much as possible.

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Zooming out, the trees in the foreground do a pretty effective job of hiding the hole in the backscene, despite not having any foliage... (it is January after all)

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Colouring the DAS ballast at the front has made a big difference. The area in front of this will be treated once everythimg else is complete. Trees here are still awaiting final attachment as they make access behind a bit tricky! OHLE gantries are progressing and starting to give the layout a very distinct look I think.

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This leaves the whole scene looking like this. I'm picking the signal box up from Oly (who wanted to help out with the layout) at the weekend so with the cassettes done and that in place it will make a big difference to the left hand end. I can then focus on the OHLE wiring and finally filling in the grass at the front.

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Incidentally, you may have noticed the Pway hut is currently lacking a door handle. I've been unable to confirm what the correct style should be as, understandably, they weren't usually the main focus of photographs! Does anyone know what style of door handle I should be using?

Hopefully there will be more visible progress in the next week or 2!

Cheers.
Chris
 

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ChrisM

Active Member
Hi All,

Well, 3 and a bit months after the last post.... I'm pleased to say I'm alive and well - it's amazing how much of your time goes into building a layout for an exhibition deadline though, and updating this thread fell by the wayside as a result.... whoops!

Anyway, we had a great weekend at Railex, where the standard of modelling was outstanding, and judging must have been a real challenge. A thank you is also due to Simon Castens both for organising and for the very generous prize for making it to the final shortlist.

It was great to meet a few forum members, and get the opportunity to exhibit next to @Simpas although I was definitely a bit thin on operators (particularly on Sunday) so apologies if we weren't as chatty as I would have liked to have been.

I did manage to put together a couple of blog posts in the run up to the show, which are over on our blog otcm.wordpress.com if anyone is interested, but here are a few photos taken before Railex to show the layout in its 'finished' state:

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Then a few before things got underway:

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And finally some with us at full swing, and some trains!:
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The layout is next out at Uckfield in October and I've given details to a number of other shows so hopefully we will be out a few more times after that!

Chris
 

steve50

Western Thunderer
Really enjoyed seeing your layout at Railex Chris, I'm a big fan of Six Quarters as well. I like the desolate feel you given to the layouts and the weathering of the stock. I've just read through the layout build, all inspirational stuff!
Steve.
 

Simpas

Western Thunderer
Morning Chris, I'm glad you've put on more pictures of Bottom Works Siding. I sneaked out from Callaton a couple of times during the show to get some shots of the other cameos but whenever I got in front of BWS there was always something of a crowd (which tells us something...!) watching, so I regret never got a shot of it at all. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you at the shows you attend so we'll bump into each other again at some stage.

The Cameo Competition was a rattling good do all round and I'm attending next year to see what the others have in store for us.

cheers
Mick S
 

ChrisM

Active Member
Morning Chris, I'm glad you've put on more pictures of Bottom Works Siding. I sneaked out from Callaton a couple of times during the show to get some shots of the other cameos but whenever I got in front of BWS there was always something of a crowd (which tells us something...!) watching, so I regret never got a shot of it at all. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you at the shows you attend so we'll bump into each other again at some stage.

The Cameo Competition was a rattling good do all round and I'm attending next year to see what the others have in store for us.

cheers
Mick S

Thanks Mick - and likewise. I'm next out at the Uckfield show in October but it won't be quite the same not having Madonna's Holiday playing from the layout next to us!

Chris
 

ChrisM

Active Member
Really enjoyed seeing your layout at Railex Chris, I'm a big fan of Six Quarters as well. I like the desolate feel you given to the layouts and the weathering of the stock. I've just read through the layout build, all inspirational stuff!
Steve.

Thanks Steve. I've always thought that the most important bit about weathering is to make sure everything blends together and is from the same colour palette - basically all the weathering, on both stock and scenery across both layouts, is based around 3 or 4 colours mixed to varying degrees and 2 shades of weathering powder. There are some bits which are definitely dirtier than they would be in reality but hopefully it creates an overall picture of a grim winters day in an industrial area.

As we said to a couple of people at Railex, 'you know it's not a June day in Surrey!'

Chris
 

ChrisM

Active Member
Evening all,

It's probably about time I provided an update as this thread has been rather overlooked since May....

As Adrian quite rightly says, the layout will be back out next weekend at Uckfield, which is always a great show to exhibit at (or visit) so we are looking forward to it - if you are attending please say hello, we are always happy to have a chat when chaos isn't erupting on the layout!

I've posted a few updates over on the blog, so for full details head over to otcm.Wordpress.com but to summarise what's happened since Railex, we now have some additional mainline power:
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On the wagon front, I've been bolstering the steel fleet (excuse the terrible pun) with a few new items of stock to work across the layout:
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I've also sorted out the running of the Yorkshire Janus fleet, and upgraded the handrails from the chunky plastic items that come with the base Oxford Rail model:
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Finally for this very brief overview, and not something visual, but I've amended the switching of he point polarity so it's now done when the point is changed and not via a separate switch (how it ended up that way before Railex is a long story we won't go into) but I'm sure the operating team will appreciate not having to operate 2 different switches every time we change the points! It also means this can be done completely wirelessly which will be useful if it gets busy in front of the layout...

Chris
 

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steve50

Western Thunderer
I managed to track down a copy of MRJ and really enjoyed the article. I really like your style of modelling, this and Six Quarters really capture an atmosphere of bleakness, I can imagine standing there watching the trains having to pull my hat down and scarf up when it starts raining and the wind blows! Great stuff!
What happened to a series of videos you did on weathering a class twenty on youtube? I see there's one there but I thought there were some more.

Many thanks.
Steve.
 
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