Smoke Ash & Steam ( Marches Road Engine shed )

Out of the ashes of Ranelagh Bridge comes my next project, whilst it’s not going to be in the same scale as the latter it will hopefully provide me with a nice home layout I can display and operate my loco’s on.
Luckily I never permanently fixed the track work A friend made for me some years ago and this will form the basis of the layout,
I will have to add a right hand point coming off the three way point.
I do intend to use the signal gantry and most of the ground signals.
There will be a 4 row low relief north light pattern engine shed with a single road diesel shed along side, I may even do another Cantonesque style foot bridge as well,
Scenically it will be 13’ long with an additional 3’ access / cassette area.
The only upside to not modelling RB is I can now indulge in a few other locos, I was pretty strict on my self regarding locos used on Ranelagh Bridge.
This will be a slow project to get going as I’ll dismantle RB a little at a time.

Thinking about adding some tenements behind the signal box for a West London feel. Not sure what bridge type to do as the scenic brake yet

 

Nothing new Loco wise on the horizon but just a few I’d like,
Jubilee, Rebuilt Scot, Duchess,
Princess, black 5, B1, Merchant Navy, BoB,
Plus some of the heavy goods locos from the good old GW

 

Mocking up the other side of the proposed layout, looking very much like my previous Canton layout but the opposite way round, a diesel shed also for a GW rail car and any thing else that may pop in!
I think a low relief carriage shed will be the ideal back drop for this end again emulating Canton.
It will be built in modules so it could come apart for a potential exhibition use,

 

So the inevitable had to happen, over the last few days I’ve dismantled the boards for Ranelagh Bridge, luckily when I built them I screwed everything together so it came apart fairly easily. I reused a lot of the timber to make the frames up for the new project. I’ve temporarily laid some ply down and having a play about with the track plan.
There will be a few turn outs to make up as I don’t want just long sidings.
The left hand road will be the reception/ exit, The second will be a disposal road with pits and piles of ash. The next road will split for the diesel shed and road 1 of the Loco shed.
The castle is on the ready road ( Loco ready in case of a failure) a small stores building will add interest and the space behind will leave room for the steps from the foot bridge.
I’ll order a box of C&L Monday. One of the first jobs will be the back scene between the tenements and the low relief carriage shed.

 

Adding some much needed lighting over the layout today

 

You will need a little imagination or a lot!
A full shed !

 

I would like one or two southern locos, A merchant Navy and BoB are on the to get list!
Lord Nelson would be nice but Sans Pereil kits are hard to find.

 

Kirtley Models terrace house back scene arrived today and fitted along with the landscape back scene behind, next job will be the retaining wall.

 

I noticed yesterday that I glued the terrace houses in place 2” higher than I hoped too! Following the wrong pencil line, I popped to the timber merchant and picked up some 2” square timber and added some additional braces on top of the existing frame work, this has proven to be a bonus as I can stand in front of the layout arms stretched and not have to bend my back at all A big plus for me! For the retaining wall I will fix some additional timber to the wall, I’m going to use Peco spear top fencing along the top, the thickness of the timber will allow a few figures to be posed over looking the shed yard,

I’ve also knocked up the light pelmet, I will pin tin foil to the back side to reflect more light and clad the front in tongue and groove and paint it black.
I’ll do something similar along the front of the framework

 

Light pelmet finalised and the first coat of black applied,
I’ve also fitted the timber along the back wall for the retaining wall