Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Thanks Phil,
Glad you enjoy the waffle......
Gormo

 

G`day Gary,
Yes that`s an oldy and very early days on the layout.
I guess it may be worth showing a few old pics right from the beginning if any of you folks would be interested.?.....
This shows the framing under way setting up the train room......lights are in and wired and at this stage you can see right through into the storage shed at the rear.




Eventually the lining was fitted and progress was being made, but at this stage it was a leap of faith to believe the room would turn out good in the end.




When the paint started going on, I could see it was going to be just as I`d envisioned it thankfully





Just needing carpet tiles now........you can also see the hole in the wall where trains exit GCJ to travel to Little Bardfield and Bamford





Once the carpet tiles went in that was it ........time to build a railway
The railway is supported by these brackets and associated steel system. These brackets are rated at 70 kgs , so no legs required to support anything.





Great care was taken with levels to make sure all of it lines up properly once it had done a circuit of the room.




All the guess work had been taken out of the process because I was working off plans that had been developed over a few years.
There were many changes made in the planning process and plan after plan had been discarded through it all, but eventually I got there.
The plan was drawn to suit the exact dimensions of the room and the room was built to the exact dimensions worked out on the plan.
Even the brackets were marked out on the plan, so I knew exactly what I was doing all the time.......the preparation actually removed the doubts and stress from the build because I just followed the plans.





The plans were drawn using XTrackCad which allowed me to print out a full size track plan on A4 sheets ,which in turn were glued to the baseboard tops.
No stress again when it came to laying track.......it was just fitted down over the top of the plan.
I must say though that by the time I had done a circuit ( total wall length 46 feet ) of the room with stuck down full size plans, I was out by about 50mm. This is mostly due to slight overlaps on the paper sheets and also my printer not being 100% perfect printing to full size. It was easy enough to adapt though, with a little give here and a little take there.





Platforms were also incorporated into the plan which was helpful to check max. train length and assess whether enough room had been left for run arounds etc.
You could also gain a rough idea of how it may look when finished.





So there we are......that`s how it was done.......note the access area in the corner.........everything was thought through before banging a nail in........but it`s still taken a long time to build this railway of mine.




Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
The next victim in the long queue of pending coupling conversions was completed in fairly quick time without incident, whilst my darling wife was putting together one of her culinary masterpieces for our dinner

It`s an old Mainline Collett Goods which has seen some mods over the years, but still cranks along in typical Mainline fashion.........no need for a sound card with these locos folks, the noisy gears and cranking motion gives a sound not too dissimilar to a steam loco at medium pace ...




The wheel arrangement on the loco sees the driving wheels spread over most of the length of the chassis, therefore you get very little movement of the body through curves, which makes fitting of my magnetic couplings a fairly easy job, because the loco behaves like a tank loco




Years ago, I added some better looking coal to the tender.......much nicer than the molded version on the model.....plus a crew





The coupling on the tender had to be set a bit lower to match my height jig.......the brake van is a newish Bachmann and look at the height difference between the van buffers and tender buffers.
As far as I am concerned the loco tender is too high....





Anyhow....it has had some good testing and running and all is working well, or well enough for a cheap loco that has been around for about thirty years.




Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Back to the station building.
I have most of it drawn up, however there is still another small building to be designed to add on to this lot
Also I need awnings and roof sections and chimneys, so nowhere near fully drawn up yet.
I actually like to work on roof sections and chimneys almost as a separate project.......it`s just the way my head works.
I have brick paper drying overnight and windows sorted out.......so we`re getting close to assembly.
Here you can see we are up to page three of drawings, but there will be possibly another two or maybe three pages to go to completion.




The pages were printed out and glued to mounting board card. The card was measured prior to printing because I wanted to get the thickness right and also compensate for a layer of paper going over the top. The card varies between 1.30mm and 1.40mm so I have elected to call it 1.50mm with a sheet of paper attached. The measurement was critical so I could produce some internal bracing........anyhow we`ll see how it goes.





More as it happens
Gormo

 

Thanks Phil,
Glad you enjoyed the look back....
Now ...looking forward, some more of the Bamford Station build.
It doesn`t look much at the moment, but it`s early days.




Gormo

 

A bit more assembled today.
I have some bits and pieces left over from kit builds that I`ve done previously, so they are coming in handy for this build.
Below is a Metcalfe bay window left over from their terraced cottages kit and now employed on Bamford Station building
I`ve added brick paper over the original red brick printed on the card so it will match the building. The roof has been trimmed down a bit too to reduce it`s height.





The windows are left over from The Metcalfe warehouse build. They will be topped with arched lintels and sills will be added to the bottom edge of the opening.





The bay window just placed on the opening to show how it will look fitted to the building




More as it happens
Gormo

 

G`day Echidna and thank you for your comments and suggestions.
I agree with you about the footbridge, it is a bit heavy, however I have not got my brain cells around to solving the problem just yet.
I think internal board lining and a roof may transform it even further and possibly some filing here and there to slim it down....
I`ve parked it in my to do list for a while until other things are sorted.
I tend to like the look of the sloping ends of platforms over the square cut off method, however people will do stupid things to save a few seconds and put their lives in danger, so fencing off the sloping ends has become necessary. I`ve done that on Little Bardfield to stop the model people wandering onto the tracks, although gluing their feet to the platform seems to have stopped them wandering about.........
I noted there was a sign on Bewdley I think....." Please Use the Footbridge to Cross the Tracks "......or words to that effect. Obviously intended for those who are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
Anyhow thanks once again for your observations and take care
Gormo

 

G`day Gary and thank you,
Yes it`s coming along but nowhere near the end just yet.
Gormo

 

Moving right along with our station building build folks,
This is the core of the building.....four walls bonded together with internal bracing ( not shown here ) and the rest of the building hangs off this.
We now have to think about assembly seriously, because I like to light my buildings and consequently it`s nice to see some sort of interior through the glazing once the lights are on.
This adds complexity to the build, because certain elements such as the room backgrounds have to go in first, and then we have to think about fitting lights and wiring.
It`s much better to tackle these things whilst the building is partially assembled. On top of that, once you add lighting you have to think about internal floors to divide the lit areas / levels otherwise you are just lighting and empty box. You need to be able to look into the window of a lit room and not be able to see the floor below or above.




So that`s why my builds are slow.
We have a good few of the parts skinned with brick paper now and windows fitted, and you may note some of the parts have internal floors added and or dividing walls





A waiting room image has been added to the roof support for the business side of the building. This extra support glued to the core of the building doubles the surface area when gluing the right hand side of the building into position.





Internal scenes fitted to the left hand annex . The annex is only just standing there for photographic purposes to give a better idea of the footprint of the building.





When the roof is on, the view through the window of the annex will be in darkness until the lights go on in the building and it should look something like this





Here we have the blanks for the waiting room and booking hall just propped up against the core of the building and you can see the view through the window to the waiting room suggests a fully fitted out room.





Parts leaning up against the core just to show the building size......actually there is still more to be added to the left of the building, but we`ll take it one step at a time....








We are lucky to have a lot of tools at our disposal these days to help us with our railway modelling.
I have not gone down the 3D Printing route or the Laser Cut route to produce my buildings, but I do draw them up in LibreOffice Draw which helps tremendously to produce an accurate print out that can then be transferred to card.......it`s like Scalescenes but you are drawing the building yourself......very satisfying to produce a bespoke building although it is a labor of love....

More as it happens.........which probably won`t be for a few days yet as my junior engineers are staying over for a few days from tomorrow......so plenty of running trains I would imagine.?
.Gormo

 

G`day Frank,
The junior engineers are here as we speak and tucked up in their beds. No trains run today though , as social events have taken precedence over the railway timetable.
We are hopefully, weather permitting, taking them off to Sydney Aquarium tomorrow, so it may be a short running session tomorrow evening and then possibly Tuesday morning before we really get cracking on the railway.
Anyhow.....whatever happens...it`s a pleasure to have them around.
The building will get done when it`s done and hopefully that won`t be too long.....it`s gaining complexity as it progresses. I`ve now downloaded 1950`s carpet textures for some of the floors visible through the windows.....where does it end Frank......... I am my own personal slave driver trying to squeeze that extra bit of detail out of everything.....
Not to worry....I`ll survive.
Hope you and family are keeping well
Stay safe
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well we managed a couple of running sessions, the young engineers and I, and this was the first real test for my coupling design.
I am happy to report that the boys had no trouble adapting to the system and when quizzed as to whether they found it easy or not, they assured me they found it easy.
So job done to the point where the older of the two was happy working through the system and shunting Little Bardfield to his hearts content ,whilst I gave my full attention to the younger of the two and we were sorting goods wagons and assembling a train to send off to Little Bardfield.
I then got him to send a branch passenger train up to Bamford where he then uncoupled the loco and did the run around to re-connect for the return journey.
All the trains between stations were sent via Bell Codes on the Block Instruments.
The complexity and intensity builds with each session with these two little blokes to the point where they correct each other and or me, if an instrument is set incorrectly.
They are very pedantic and I need to get my act together..........
Gormo

 

I suppose you`re right Sol,
However with model trains and shunters poles etc., it`s the motor skills they need to develop. The ability to judge things just right and have complete control over their movements.......that comes with age and experience.
Gormo

 

Oh dear......
Gormo