Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Thanks Gary,
Yes I love the Southern as well, and fortunately it was very close to the GWR as well.......bonus....
I forgot to mention in the video that the back to backs were out on two of the axles as well. It was usually not much of a problem, but it was binding on the track in a couple of places.
Also had to re-tension the spring on the pony truck.
I don`t know whether this loco is a product of poor quality control at the factory, or whether the previous owner got stuck into it and made some fundamental errors.
Anyway......that`s the thing with buying second hand.
All sorted now
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
A Barclay shunter ( an old one ) has been added to GCJ yard to deal with shunting duties.
It`s all set up to deal with magnetic couplings, in that it`s coupling has no magnet, but rather it has material that is attracted to a magnet, therefore it is not affected by polarity and will work on all my magnetic fitted wagons.





It just needs a driver now




Gormo

 

Change of plan folks,
The Barclay shunter has been withdrawn for major works and modifications.
It`s not running as consistently as it should and I feel it needs some mods to the front axle bearing and maybe some new pick ups.
For the moment it has been put aside until I tackle those mods.
In the meantime, Pannier tank 7768 has been assigned to GCJ to take over shunting duties and probably will remain permanently.
It grinds along but has good slow running and is far more controllable......it`s about 30 years old now.
Edit......I should also add that I have removed magnets from my tracks which used to operate tension locks with the Brian Kirby staple method. The magnets were an annoyance with my new coupling system making them flip up when they passed over the magnets in the track.
Anyway...all sorted now













Gormo

 

G`day Bernard,
I am pleased that you found my tutorials of use.
I would be interested to see your work......you might notice on the bottom right of the page when you`re doing a reply, there will be 3 blue rectangular boxes.
The one marked " Upload a file " will allow you to add pictures ( Max 10 ) from your PC or device into the reply.
There are other ways, but this one is fairly easy to start with.
I look forward to seeing the KImberley.
Gormo

 

G`day Bernard,
Very good...
I think as you add more trees and undergrowth, weeds, bushes etc....you will find the scenes start to blend better.
I have many times used a tree or a bush to disguise a join or whatever and you find that visually, they soften / blend the transition between two scenes that ordinarily may not necessarily go very well together.
Your landscape doesn`t seem to have any obvious clashing scenes so you will find, adding the water and extra shrubbery will soften the whole thing down into quite a believable diorama.
The transition from one scene or cameo to the next will make sense because we can`t possibly model the whole length of the railway, so we must focus our attention on a window view of it. We look and see what`s in the window and our brains fill in the detail for the rest of the railway either side of what we can see.
You`re off to a flying start and I reckon it looks good and is full of potential.....so keep at it.....keep adding the details and before you know it you`ll be on the exhibition circuit.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Another bit of railway fun at GCJ



Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well I think I have successfully nailed down my magnetic couplings to the point where they don`t need any further development.
The topic is covered in the link below and now is complete with a video showing how to build them and parts required etc.
Magnetic Coupling on a Budget
I am also almost out of UV glue, which is used to build said couplings, so maybe that`s a sign telling me to do something else, although more glue is on order.
There is indeed plenty to do, but today I just tried out the couplings with a long train, just to see how they go, and in a way that became the final chapter in the coupling book.
There are still lots more to make, but it will become a part time task from now on.
Here is a short video showing some running



Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well as mentioned above in post #2911, I am moving my attention now back to finishing off Bamford.
There is a lot to do, consisting of model building and scenery.
I have decided to make a start on re-vamping the station platform.....it has been in the back of my mind for some time now and today, finally, I made a start on it.
The entrance was shortened and modified with a sloping end some time back, but now I want to focus on the overall appearance of the platform.
The brick side walls of the platform had sustained some water damage at some point in it`s life, so I intend to paper over them with a fresh paper from Scalescenes..
In order to do this properly, I have removed the ballast between the track and the platform wall......not entirely, but just enough to get the new paper in there and down below ballast level.
In the pic below you can see evidence of the water damage and also the baseboard is now revealed after the ballast was removed.





Sometimes the only way to move forward to a satisfactory conclusion is to take some drastic measures....

Once the ballast was removed, I then moved onto removing the platform surface paper because I want to do a new surface, and removing the old one will help with platform height.
I am still not 100% sure of what surface I will do yet, but I`m leaning towards a paved edge with a gravel interior and maybe some grass at the other end.......anyhow...not sure yet...
This paper came off fairly easily leaving just a little bit behind which will not affect things to any great degree.




So here we are with the old paper all removed, but you will notice we still have a squared off end of platform towards the bottom of the picture.




I have never been completely happy with the squared off end, so I`ve made an appropriate sloped extension to fit in here.





I managed to get a pretty good fit although some packing was required to bring the height up to flush with the original





It`s under weight while the glue dries.....overnight at least




I have Scalescenes paper drying out after sealing, plus with the glue drying on the above extension, it was time to do something else.
So I made a start on the footbridge that will allow passengers to cross the tracks from the terraced cottages above the control panels, to the platform and town side of the layout.
I am using this Dapol kit, but I would like to modify it from it`s original set up.......research required before making a final decision on how it will look.
I am thinking about closing it in with a roof...?????...we`ll see...????





But first we`ll get the main structure together





The important thing with these old kits ( Airfix ), is to firstly remove all the flashing before putting them together. It makes for a much better fit.





At this stage I`m thinking of leaving the bases off from under the side stairs.......they tend to give the bridge a heavy look and make it look like it was just plonked down on top of the platform





Anyhow........I`ve had enough for today.......time for a beverage

Gormo

 

Thanks Gary,
Yes it is too high as it is.
The original idea was to build up the land side ( no platform ) to match the height of the platform on the other side of the tracks, however due to the bridge being too tall, the land side will stay as it is and instead , one section will be taken out of the bridge stairs to bring it down in height and level everything up. It will also make it look quite unique.
It should also be quite easy to do......
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
A bit more done today after household chores were done and dusted.
The footbridge is now completely assembled after modification to reduce it`s height. Gary was right....they sit too high these models.....so you can see I have removed one section on the top right hand angled section of stairs. This suits the application that the bridge was destined for, however if it were to span two tracks with two platforms, some other type of modification would be required.
My little pannier sits easily under the bridge and this is my tallest locomotive.....the chimney is considerably taller than you find on most locos.
Now it`s time to reflect on any other additional modifications or not.....so we`ll let it sit for a while and consider those possible mods....





I think it looks the part already and suits this branch line terminus.





Good clearances all around and there`s just enough room to position the smoke deflectors over each track





I then turned my attention back to the platform.....poor old platform needs a new lease on life. So prior to new brick paper going on, I have blackened the platform edges either side vertical and horizontal. We don`t want to be coming back after new parts are applied to black out light areas.





I have gone for a dark paper this time......it`s one of Scalescene`s papers that I have played with a bit to alter it`s appearance.
The ends will be trimmed with a sharp knife once the glue has set.





The full length is complete now





I`ve then started adding a lighter coarse of bricks set vertical. Normally I would have this coarse mounted on some 3mm MDF, however clearances are very tight here and the platform is not being used for the type of trains it was originally intended for.
I think the vertical coarse, even though it`s only the thickness of a piece of paper, appears to have more depth than it actually does have, due to the change in colour and orientation

.


The vertical coarse will be finished off tomorrow after the ends of the platform have been trimmed.




More as it happens
Gormo.....drinkies....

 

G`day folks,
A little bit more done today.....nothing significant yet....but bit by bit we`ll get there.
The sloping platform ends have been trimmed and the vertical coarses of bricks have been applied.









Then some Whitish / Cream cereal box card was scored into a 10mm grid pattern.





!0 mm strips are then cut off and applied to the platform edge. Where a curved edge is required the strip may have to be cut down to as little as three pavers to negotiate the curve.
The other alternative is to lay each paver individually, but I reckon you can get the same result by using the first method. Obviously with a straight run ( most of the platform ) you can lay full length strips.





I then use a sharp HB pencil to highlight the joins in the pavers.








Once the strips are complete, I will mask off half their width ( 5mm ) and colour the other half with grey pastel. I have used this method before on Little Bardfield and it gave a good result as shown below





At the moment I`m about one third the way through




More as it happens
Gormo

 

Good one Ron.....
LibreOffice is a great tool for designing various parts for our model railways
Gormo