Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Thanks Echidna,
You are confirming what I already new to a lesser degree.
The buzzers I have were only tested once or twice and that was enough for me to think this is not a good idea
Thanks for sharing your real life experiences.......
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Not much happening on the railway at the moment as I have been doing some jobs around the house.
After a full day with a paint brush and or other tools and doing repairs, I don`t much feel like getting creative out in the shed.......
However at down tools time today........I had my small step ladder out in the workshop and I viewed the train room from an elevated position through the door.
I thought some photos from this height might give a better insight into how the room is set out.
It`s not as big as it appears in my other photos.
This is the view from the top of the doorway into the room, the room is 10 feet wide and 14 feet long.





An aerial view of the bridge across the doorway.
As you can see, it`s completely covered with scenery. The factories and the grass bank opposite are removable and once removed the bridge with the track on it can be folded down.
I do try and leave the bridge up to make myself crouch down and crawl under it just to keep my bones and joints working.....
In the early stages of the build, I had seen a number of layouts on line with bridges / flaps across doorways. None of them had scenery on them and basically were just used to carry track across the doorway.
I felt this was a missed opportunity and decided my bridge was going to have scenery on it. It was not terribly difficult to achieve and the bonus / result is that I do not have a glaring gap across the doorway.
Interestingly, I was also told by a chap on another forum that a bridge dropping downwards rather than up, would not work.....
Strange...????? because I was 150% sure it would work....I had done preliminary testing with off-cuts of wood etc across the divide so I was very confident.
I proceeded to build the bridge and kept a photographic log, and eventually when the bridge was finished to the working stage, I did a video showing it working up and down, locking it off etc. etc.
My doubting Thomas watched the video and replied with the words....." I can see that it works, but I still don`t believe it "
What can you do folks..??????...............the bridge has been working now for about 10 years





And a view from the other end.......it`s difficult to get far enough away from things to show what the eye can see.





Gormo

 

Thanks Phil...
Yes the curved section may appear difficult but really not much more than a straight section.
The track at the ends of the bridge and the adjoining neighboring sections is soldered to PCB sleepers.
The PCB is fitted to the baseboard ends first.......mine is glued and pinned.......the track, minus sleepers for the PCB sections, is laid over the top and soldered to the PCB..
An isolating cut through the copper clad PCB is done down the center of the track, and then the rails are cut at the baseboard joins.
On a curve the sleepers are cut through as well as the rail at the join
Doing it this way ensures the rail matches perfectly at the joins
The pic below shows the sleepers for the curved end of the bridge




Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well the latest project is a semi low relief Goods Shed that will slot into Siding No.1 opposite the bay platform at Bamford station.
This was not the original plan, but rather a suggestion from Gary that I adopted happily as an obvious great solution to what would occupy that area.
Prior to this I was contemplating a creamery or a bond store, neither of which turned on that little idea light in my brain.
Gary and I measured up the area and realized that the Scalescenes Good Shed kit would fit the space with minor modification.
When I looked into the specifications on the Scalescenes sight, I found that the brick options for the kit did not match the bricks I had used to build the station building, which was TX07 Aged Brown Brick.
I reckoned that the Goods Shed would have been built at the same time the station building was built, so therefore they most likely would have used the same bricks for both buildings...??
Rather than down load the kit and try and re-skin it with TX07, I have decided to just design my own Good Shed. I am using ideas from the Scalescenes kit and also from an an old Superquick kit that I built years ago.
The most important area to concentrate on and get right is the dimensions for the Goods Shed access doorways, everything else will follow those dimensions.
I have started drawing the building in LibreOffice Draw, but realized that to take the guess work out of it, I need to know platform dimensions, and actually make a decision on platform length.
The Goods Shed will be 180 mm long, so I need a platform to accommodate that length plus an office, plus a cattle dock, plus some open platform area outdoors.
The magic number has come in at 500 mm x 50 mm.
I have cut a piece of 16 mm particle board to the above dimensions and will build on this create the final platform
Below is an aerial view with the new platform on the right and here we are checking clearances.





Here is it`s location at Bamford.





I`ve got a Ratio cattle dock kit that will be modified to suit the platform





The gap between the end of the platform and the grassed area will be filled by a building or buildings yet to be determined.
You can also see I`ve cleared out the ballast between the tracks to allow the new building to sit squarely. The building will be removable for track cleaning, so the wall that sits between the tracks will have to sit in a purpose made trough free of ballast. The ballast will be back filled around the outside of the trough.




So it`s still early days and you`re probably thinking it all looks a bit ordinary at the moment, but that`s how it goes with these projects. Over the whole railway build, everything has started out this way and eventually transforms into something railway like eventually.
A short video below showing shunting along side the new platform.......and checking all is good clearance wise.



Gormo

 

A slight change of plans.
The cattle dock will now go at the other end of the platform and to achieve this the platform has been lengthened by 100 mm to almost 600 mm.
I`ve cut a ramp into the platform that will lead to a holding paddock just to the left of the cattle dock.
So the Ratio kit is now being bashed to suit this configuration. It`s had it`s depth reduced and as a consequence of that, the post holes have been lost, so I will drill some new post holes and that will sort that problem.
The ramp will need a fence and so will the holding paddock, so at least things are moving forward now.





Once it`s painted it will be transformed......I hope....





There is a little set of stone steps in the kit that I will fit to the end of the platform





The platform is not fixed down yet.......I will add all the paving and edging first and then set it in place





Gormo

 

G`day Gary,
Thank you for the offer but I have what I need, including the painted brick for the interior.
I`ll just have to crack on now and get it done
Gormo

 

Well I`m cracking on folks,
I`ve drilled all the missing post holes and some more as well.





Then painted and weathered the dock and the side of the platform.........there was enough of the dock stone work side left over so that I could do the full length of the platform.
This will give a more consistent look to the overall platform.





A closer look at some of the weathering





Then made a jig to hold the fence posts for painting..........still a long way to go here




How it looks onsite with stairs also added on the left hand end of the dock





I will do a card surface for the rest of the platform and try and match the edging with the cattle dock edging





And with a couple of cattle wagons in place




More as it happens
Gormo

 

Possibly Brian,
But it`s a kit, so it is what it is, plus my modifications make it more difficult
Gormo

 

G`day Gary,
No.....no more gutters, but I will be effectively blocking the right hand / platform end of the gutter with the platform top.
The plan would be to flush the gutter to the left.......I can model a dirty great big pile of cow pats down that end to make it look more realistic......
Actually, cow pats came with the kit.......
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Progressing along with the cattle dock.
The posts were given a coat of grey concrete like paint.......the jig was helpful here and made the job of painting relatively easy.





The posts were then given a dark wash to dirty them up a bit





The first line of posts were then Super glued into position. Prior to fitting , the corner post had holes drilled for the rails at a right angle to the pre-drilled holes, to enable the rails for the short section to be fitted




Short section completed





Then the rails were fitted to the longer section




Gormo

 

I`m putting a gate in that end Gary,
The kit is being modified to some extent.......it`s depth has been reduced.......the ramp into the dock is set up in a different way and feeds from a holding paddock.
The gate access from / to the platform is for staff or handlers.
Gormo

 

Well Brian,
I reckon they are made to suit the site, therefore, anything goes as long as it makes sense......
Gormo