Grahame's N/2mm bashes

[Grahame Hedges]

Just a little woodwork today. It's been too hot and humid for undertaking much physical work like that, but I did manage to add the rear, low level horizontal struts and complete the main baseboard to the road level with all the surface ply cut, glued, screwed and pinned in place. Next will be the viaduct level and the ends/side baseboard extensions for the return loops.



The modelled road section, just placed down to check positioning, is the left hand end end of the layout with Borough High Street rising up towards the back and becoming the start of London Bridge itself. The railway, from Charing Cross and Cannon Street, crosses the road between the two columns and swings around in to London Bridge station.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

This is going to be interesting - a lovely slice of London Bridge .

Given the space I assume you'll not be modelling the ex-LBSC lower level platforms . One of my photos.

 

[Grahame Hedges]

I'm planning on including all the important elements to capture the overall character. There will be through lines and terminating lines, just that everything will need to be compressed and simplified. Consequently I'm planning on two islands (4 platforms) for the high level through lines and fewer terminating platforms which will all be reduced in length. Trackwork will also be simplified with fewer approach roads. Buildings have also been similarly reduced and compressed. But I hope that the overall look will be redolent of the real station.

 

[Grahame Hedges]

Yesterday the postman delivered something to put up in the new shed this morning. It's printed on thin ali-sheet and gloss finished with sticky pads to save drilling in to the shed walls and potentially damaging the weather barrier.



This morning I undertook a little bit more wood hacking with a start made on the baseboard framework for the west end return loops. It's a little higher than the scenic baseboard so that the trains run can straight on to (and off) the viaduct height with no slopes. You can see that it lines up with the bridge across Borough High Street abutments (Just under the right hand side of the window).

The wider area allows for a double return loop from Peco No3 and No4 radius setrack curves (currently on order). The entry, along the wall under the window, will be angled roughly in line with the wood moulding strip lying on top. But that requires more wood mangling and I spent the afternoon down at the local for a few sherbets.

 

[Grahame Hedges]

This morning a little more work on the 'off scene' west end return loops baseboard. But now I need to go out for some more supplies. I've used a complete box of 200 screws and I need more and some panel pins. I'd also like to get some grey emulsion to paint the wall behind the scenic section - the London skies are often grey. Snag is I need to wait until the window cleaner has been.

 

[Joe's Garage]

"the London skies are often grey....". I think Grahame that every where is grey at the moment!
Hope you enjoyed the "sherbets"
Cheers
Julian

 

[Grahame Hedges]

Nice blue skies, sunny and a few white fluffy clouds here. We've hardly had any rain or overcast days in July and I've had to water the grass seed I put down a couple of weeks ago.

I was always aware that the reality of building an operational model railway and fitting pre-built structures would cause some opportunities and necessary amendments. The first two have now already arisen.

Firstly, the 'lowish relief' row of shops on the west side of Borough High Street will need some modification. This is due the extra curveage required to get the tracks off scene at the left end of the layout with an acceptable radius. The back corner of the building will need slimming down - not an excessively onerous or difficult task. And besides it needed to be re-visited as it had never been fully completed.





Secondly there is an opportunity to widen and improve my Southwark cathedral model which is very much a progressively compressed low relief effort. This means I can increase the depth and make it overall more prominent. I'll need to check out the real building and ascertain what I can do without too much destruction.

 

[Tim Watson]

Great to see LB back on track.

Tim

 

[Grahame Hedges]

The row has been trimmed to fit. That's the first issue dealt with although the shop fronts do still need finishing.



And I've made a start on making the cathedral deeper. I've kept the Lady Chapel/Retrochoir as I'd originally made but extended the choir and high altar area by two inches necessitating adding in two new flying buttresses. The transept/crossing and tower remain as the flat facsimile with minimal relief detail. The model is effectively partially hidden behind the railway bridge/viaduct and is lower than the road with a herb garden in front of the Lady Chapel meaning it can't be any deeper.

The new additions have been primer coated and now need painting to blend in with the other parts. And that'll have to wait. The 3D part is not properly lined up in place with the 2D section in the pic below. Currently they are not joined.

 

[Grahame Hedges]

A little bit of progress to report on since my last update. I've painted the back and sides of the scenic baseboard area with grey emulsion. And I've tried to fade it lighter downwards with white from an aerosol can to represent that skies get lighter downwards towards the ground/horizon. It's not been particularly successful, but hey, I tried.



I've also got some colour on the extended section of the cathedral. The model is compressed, simplified and effectively low relief with the tower frontage and transept represented as 2D with a little added relief. The larger section, the nave, behind the transept is not represented at all.
Fortunately with it being located behind the viaduct and bridge, lower than the road and at the extreme left hand (west) edge of the layout, I'm hoping it won't be particularly noticeable and that I can get away with the basic impressionistic representation although I might try to add some more detail in the future.



And I've managed to complete the east end/side return loop baseboard ready for track laying. Next I need to plan out the viaduct and cut the track bed for it.

 

[Grahame Hedges]

I've laid out some of the buildings roughly in place along the back of the layout (north side of Tooley Street) except the SER offices 'flat iron' building which is located across the road on the south side against the north side of the viaduct. They should help me pencil in Tooley Street and one side of the viaduct.



And added in Colechurch House to check the road sizes behind;

 

[AdamF]

Goodness, that really gives a sense of what the layout will look like! I cannot wait to see this develop. Urban London is a particular interest!

 

[Tim Watson]

Goodness, that really gives a sense of what the layout will look like! I cannot wait to see this develop. Urban London is a particular interest!

Ditto!

 

[oldravendale]

In error I put this in the Mangapps Museum thread. I'll repeat it here as it seems rather more appropriate!

"I'd be taking this absolutely out of sequence for the Tim Mills files but he shot a film in colour which he entitled "Area surrounding Kings Cross Station" in June 1987. I've almost finished editing it but if it may be of interest right now I'd be happy to put it on WT in the knowledge that you'll see no more of Tim's colour photos until we've finished the B & W.

"Having said that there's another B & W sequence around Shoreditch in the 1980s. It's the very last of the B & W photos I was intending to show but may just be helpful."

Brian

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Just to put it into my perspective the layout will roughly compress this area?

 

[Grahame Hedges]

Roughly, but that's a little older than the period I'm covering. This pic gives a good idea of the area and period:


Basically Tooley Street is the back (north) edge of the layout and St Thomas Street is the front (south) edge. The left (west) is Borough High Street while the right (east) will be rather messy and less defined as the viaduct has to incorrectly curve round to fit in the space and access the return loop baseboard. Guys hospital tower (bottom central in the pic above) is not included as that is the other side (south) of St Thomas Street.

HTH.

 

[Grahame Hedges]

I spent a little time in the layout shed yesterday shuffling the buildings around, measuring, planning and plotting. Although there will be four lines crossing the bridges at the west end (there were four at the period being modelled but there are now more due to the new bridge) I'm planning on seven lines for the approaches from the east compared to the eleven in real life. That'll make the viaduct about eight inches wide compared to a foot wide necessary to accommodate eleven lines. And it has to curve through nearly 90° at the end of the scenic baseboard to access the return loop baseboard. At a foot wide the inner bend will have an unacceptable tight radius so seven tracks it is, besides that is what I'd planned for with the necessary compression and simplification.

Here's the east end with a few more building in place to ascertain the viaduct north wall position:



And here's the other end which I fiddled a little with to make things fit better. The four lines (to Charing Cross and Cannon Street) cross the road (Borough High Street) and curve around behind the low relief buildings at the far left, There is so much to do that I can't see the layout being finished anytime soon:

 

[Grahame Hedges]

I had hoped to incorporate my gas holder station diorama in the layout and with a little more jiggling around this morning I think I'll be able to squeeze it in. However, I'll need to undertake a little butchery including loosing the old warehouses to the right of the holder and the Old Kent Road row of dilapidated shops will have to be relocated, probably to the back of the layout in Tooley Street. But there is hope.

This far end of the layout is more fanciful (right of the David Lloyd Pigott warehouse row) and not strictly true to the London Bridge prototype, but then neither will be the curvature in the viaduct. The Old Kent Road will be running up to meet Tooley Street in a T junction on the layout. Fortunately it will utilise models of real buildings from the area (South East London).

The railway viaduct will run along the front of the warehouses and across the road from the apartments (formerly a printers) on the left.

 

[Tim Watson]

Will it have the Sarsons Malt Vinegar factory? You’ll also need to have a mouldy wine barrel smell from some of the under track tunnels…

Tim

 

[Grahame Hedges]

Remember it well. When the trains had opening windows and Sarsons were still brewing, you could smell the vinegar as you approached LB station.