7mm Heyside: 7mm L&Y, late 50s/early 60s

[oldravendale]

A Jubilee stops in the goods loop, and the crew pass the time of day with the gardeners.

Just gone back to that wonderful photo. And look - there's even a white rat on the roof of the shed....... Living in the country we have special "once only offer" food for rats. Well, they only seem to come back once. Perhaps they don't like it.

B

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi

Although I have not heard anything to confirm, I am working on the assumption that Heyside is going to Telford in 2015. This being the case, we are just starting to accelerate the process of building improvements, aided enormously by the help being given by Phil (BrushType4) as he learns how to use his new laser cutter.

One of the things that jarred enormously about the buildings on the minerals/factory side of the layout was how they were finished off at the apex of the roof. Not a problem if you are looking at them straight on, but awful when viewed from the side - and at exhibitions, Heyside is viewable for 50% of each side.



This is the original layout. The building far right was dispensed with at a very early stage. But look at the factory with the fire escape (so too the smaller building attached) and the block to its left which are precipitously cut off from this angle, and it got worse the further round the layout you moved.

We felt we had to make these buildings more 3 dimensional, so much of our energies over the last few months have gone to doing just that. The raised building was doubled in width, as were all of them along that 8 ft row, but the factory has been changed beyond recognition. For starters it's being converted to a mill, which means a flat roof and an exterior staircase. New sides have been added from 4mm ply, cut out for loads of windows, and we are in the process of scribing the new walls from Depron, detailing them with plastic card quoins, lintels and window ledges, and adding/replacing the hundreds of windows. Fortunately, I was able to get out the original window frames and glazing with little damage to the front aspects we were keeping.

This is the state of play after today's session.



It looks much better, doesn't it?

The new walls will be fully finished, glazed, window framed and weathered before being installed. This is the end wall facing you in the above picture for the block attached to the mill. Scribed, detailed and ready for painting.



and with the first coat of paint.



and this is the wall of the mill facing you part way through the detailing.



The idea is that the glazing is sandwiched between the back of the Depron wall and the front of the wooden wall, and Phil's window frames are painted off-piste and just dropped in. That's the theory anyway.

The mill floors will be removable so they can be lit and detailed later. That's when all the group find pressing tasks elsewhere.

Cheers

Richard

 

[7mmMick]

Looks a million times better Richard. Definately worth all the effort, the second picture leaves you guessing where the layout ends where as the first leaves no doubt and lacks the depth of the second. Top draw stuff

ATB Mick

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

At the same time as we have been redeveloping buildings, we have also been considering the lighting. Following the earlier thread on layout lighting, and following Simon T's comments on LED lighting, we went down the LED route, and are very pleased with the results.

Tony has wired up half the layout, and it's been well worth the effort. This is the first photo taken under the new lighting:



The LED lighting strips are on 32mm x 13mm wooden battens and are very lightweight.



This shows the 4 of the 8 done so far. Note the CCTV camera on the 3rd batten. That is focused on the signals so that the drivers can see what's what from the other end of the layout. It's very difficult to see other than by peering round the buildings on tip-toe!



There are 2 full lengths of warm white LEDs on the outside of the batten, and intermittent short strips of cool white LEDs between them. I'm looking forward to getting the other end done as the room lighting is poorer there.

Talking of lighting, and connecting with the earlier post, Brian has been adding the interior walls and illumination in the raised buildings behind the station.



All the lights can be switched on and off independently from a panel behind the building, but only Brian knows which switch is which.

Again, the buildings have been doubled in width and the roofs stripped prior to being re-slated. So a lot of hard repetitive work both behind us and ahead of us.

Richard

 

[Dog Star]

It looks much better, doesn't it?

Yes, visibly so. The increased depth of the buildings enhances the impression of a railway in the (industrial) landscape.

 

[SimonT]

It looks much better, doesn't it?

The buildings now dominate the railway and give it a truly convincing setting. Looking forward to the next Telford already!

Simon

 

[danielb]

Wow, what a beautiful layout. Very impressive, especially the factories and big mill buildings.

The level of detail is superb.

 

[Ressaldar]

Great work all round there Richard. One question, how is the horizontal lighting batten fixed to the vertical? Some seem to have a slight 'sag' and there is no apparent support/bracing to stop this happening.

cheers

Mike (worried of Wirral)

 

[Dikitriki]

Great work all round there Richard. One question, how is the horizontal lighting batten fixed to the vertical? Some seem to have a slight 'sag' and there is no apparent support/bracing to stop this happening.

cheers

Mike (worried of Wirral)

Dear Worried of Wirral........

Hi Mike,

Fear not. The horizontal batten is bolted to some aluminium angle, which in turn is bolted to the upright. The horizontal is sandwiched top and bottom in fact, so it's not going anywhere, even if the bolts are removed -and they are permanent. The advantage of this lightweight construction is that no additional bracing is needed.

The angle is deliberate - it is the truly horizontal ones that have not been adjusted yet. Empirical experiments found that you were less likely to be 'blinded by the light' if there was a slight downward cant to the batten. I believe Simon T came to the same conclusion....or his droop

Cheers

Richard

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Richard,

thanks for putting my (tiny) mind at rest - a question of 'what the eye does not see', I can now sleep sound in my little bed tonight.

cheers

Mike

 

[Dikitriki]

I'm not going to go there, but it struck me last night looking at this photo.....



.....that the mill as it is would be a great basis for a derelict building.

Richard

 

[TheSnapper]

I'm not going to go there, but it struck me last night looking at this photo.....

View attachment 34930

.....that the mill as it is would be a great basis for a derelict building.

Richard

Yeah, let's go BLUE!!

(Hides behind pile of unbuilt kits.......)

Tim

 

[SimonT]

slight downward cant to the batten. I believe Simon T came to the same conclusion....or his droop

There is a built in cant and then there is some sag, a condition that we all are destined to suffer from!

Fire ravaged mill?

 

[john lewsey]

When I saw Heyside at Railex last year I could have just stood there all day it was superb .i will say that the work that your all doing on the buildings does give a lot more depth it looks like there's something beyond the railway brilliant
John

 

[Dikitriki]

Thank you John.

I took some more photos of the lighting.

For Worried of Wirral, the mounting:





The full length showing the warm white outer strips and cool white inners.



and a close up of the LED strip.



Also, courtesy of Phil, the first test cuts of the windows have arrived.



There appears to be a tiny bit of ragging which I guess can be removed with a soft brass suede brush, and I want to run a rule over them as they could do with being just a wee bit bigger - though they are perfectly useable as they are. I have to be a bit careful in the measurement as all the holes are hand cut, therefore will inevitably vary in size, and I don't want to spend any time trimming the windows, so a bit of a compromise.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Richard,

many thanks for trying to put my mind at rest. I think that I may well have taken a slightly more 'Victorian over-engineered' approach and made the horizontal 'leg' at least twice as long as it is, just to give the batten a bit of support and if the bracket is aluminium, it would not be adding much in the way of weight.

As far as the windows are concerned, Phil has made a grand job. If as you say the apertures are all hand cut and therefore possibly different sizes, it would be better to work to the windows themselves and where necessary, use some mortar (No Nails) for fixing, with the window held in place with low tack masking tape across the rear, while the glue sets. All looking really good though.

cheers

Mike

 

[mickoo]

Richard, I find a fibre brush pen pretty good for getting rid of burrs on plastic

I used one to get rid of the raggies left over when turning Slaters spoked wheels to S7 in the lathe.

Having said that, I have three fibre brushes, one the standard propelling type available from local stockist, the second a firmer motor com dressing stick about 10mm in dia and finally a larger softer motor com polishing stick about 20mm in dia, the latter is very good for polishing large surfaces. I've no idea where I got the last two from, picked them up at work over the years and will be lost when they run out, mind they're both still about 6" long so shuld last a few years yet

 

[Osgood]

Richard - I take it these are the high output, non-dimmable type strips?

I would appreciate your opinion as to the desirability (if any) of dimmable LED lighting given your experience to date?

Do you consider that regulating the level of lighting by reducing or increasing the spacing of lighting bars would give adequate variability?

Given my cramped room height and width I'm tempted to install layout lighting bars on a flexible mounting system (tracking) to give background lighting too instead of separate flourescents / other.

Tony (poised ready to order a load of LED lighting).

 

[BrushType4]

Have you measured those windows yet? I think I can adjust the laser settings to reduce the burrs on the edges but I liked the way the laser tapered the edge and gave the windows the look of having a bead.

Reducing the burrs will shapern the edges so will be a bit of a compromise. I can get Rowmark at 0.75mm if that would suit better?

 

[Dikitriki]

Hello Phil,

I agree - the slight taper is excellent, as are the windows in general.

As regards appearance, the gang will be around tomorrow morning, and I would like to get their opinion. Slightly thinner might be good - we are generally talking iron rather than wood, so that tends to be much finer, but I don't want to reduce the strength of the windows to any great degree.

I shall check the sizes later this evening - try a sample of a few dozen holes!

Yours

Richard