Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Thanks Toto..........
Gormo

 

G`day Paul,
My original intention was to grass it up and place a pub there ( the Metcalfe white pub ).
I have since had input from my Grandsons and the Boss, that maybe it should be a car park.? I guess that would make sense to have a car park right next to the station.?
As I write this, I am thinking a combination of the two would be possible with some compression.
Maybe the pub needs to be sliced in half to create a low relief pub.??
The white area is starting to become a blemish on the scene and needs dealing with and of course now I am virtually at the stage where I need to be making buildings to create the town........many things to do.?
Gormo

 

Thanks Jim,
Yes it may be worth a walk through of the process. I`ll have to check through what I`ve done before in previous videos so as not repeat myself.
Gormo

 

..........Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Moving right along now, we have some additions to the town work site.
I have been laying Metcalfe cobble stone sheets today on top of which will go buildings and whatever else I come up with to populate the town.



The whole area has been done as shown in the two pics below






The idea is to have cobbles form all the roadways and pedestrian only areas. The pedestrian areas will be separated from roadways by using bollards and chains. Have to work out to make the bollards yet....
I still have no fixed plan for the arrangement of buildings and will rely very much on how everything looks when I place them here and there on the site.
You may remember that the town background had a row of terraces directly behind the station building as per the pic below. I have heeded some advice from Ray on YouTube, who told me it would be very unlikely to find terraces butting up next to Elizabethan buildings in the middle of a town.



So I had some buildings left from the last session, so I modified them to fit the same space as the terraces and stuck them over the top. The two black and white gables on the right were once three gables. You can see the terrace roof behind.







I am quite pleased with how it`s coming along and it almost seems a shame to place buildings in front of the back scene, however that was always the plan.

An atmospheric shot from platform 1 on the station.



More as it happens

Gormo

 

Thanks Paul,
It`s getting there......I have the disadvantage of being half a world away, so I am relying on memory and images and the vibe of the whole thing......
I think close up photography helps determine a way forward, because when you look at your work in one to one scale.......it`s all small models.......yet when you get down up close and personal with the camera....it comes to life in effect, enlarging the scale models to what it seems is real life size.
So I guess that`s a Gormo tip for anyone going down this route.........take close up pics of your work to analyze what you`ve done and if still unsure, do the pics in Black & White.
The lack of colour helps you focus on the details. If it looks right in Black and White.....it is right !!!!
Gormo

 

Thanks for the tip on the tooth picks Gary...........never thought of that but will seek them out...
Gormo

 

G`day Folks and Seasons Greetings once again,
Well my good people, Santa paid Gormo a visit yesterday and left me some little goodies in 1/76th scale.
The little goodies in question are some Oxford Models cattle wagons, four in all. Description and part no.`s in the pic below




These models, in my local model shop, Woodpecker Model Railways, are usually the lowest priced when comparing them to Hornby, Hornby Railroad and Bachmann.
In my opinion they are a well made model with plenty of detail and metal wheels. Weathering would add another layer of realism and I feel, in that regard, they would stand up pretty well next to the competition.








The signage is all crisp and clear and the under frames are well detailed for a low cost model.





Buffer detail is good and vacuum hoses are fitted.





The underside also has not be overlooked, and it seems to be nicely done. If the wheels on the right need to be removed though, it could be a little tricky, because the rod underneath the axle will need to come off.
You will notice that the wagons are fitted with the NEM sockets, which I normally find to be a right pain due to the droop they seem to suffer from. I find Dapol rolling stock to be the worst offender and it makes uncoupling with tension locks more awkward than it should be.
The Oxford models, on the other hand, have a nice firm fit on their NEM sockets and consequently the couplings do not droop.......Hallelujah !!!!!!!





Being cattle wagons, it would be nice to put some beasts in the wagons, so I`ve investigated how to remove the bodies from the chassis. It seems to me, that the buffers act as locking pins to keep the body attached to the chassis, so it won`t be too hard to add the livestock. You can see in this pic below, how a plastic buffer pin penetrates the buffer beam and locks in under the floor of the wagon to keep the body firmly in place. Lima models of yesteryear, used the same method on some of their models......the diesel rail cars for example.





In this pic you can see a comparison between the new Oxford model and an older Dapol model. The Dapol is quite good but lacks some of the extra detail that has been added to the Oxfords.
These Dapol models had the medium sized tension locks fitted via NEM`s, however I replaced them with small tension locks glued into place to avoid the droop.




And lastly we will see a hand painted Christmas card done by Santas little helper ( SWMBO ) which will be placed into a frame and displayed in the railway room.




The subject apparently is " Christmas Eve 1932, a special holiday train leaves London`s Euston Station for the North "

So all things considered folks.....a very nice Christmas with nice people and nice shineys.

Gormo

 

Thanks Steve.....
Gormo

 

Yes Gary......true...
I suppose it does encourage one to derail more often.?......or indeed factor into one`s running sessions, great train disasters of the last 150 years or so.?
Now there`s an idea for an exhibition layout.....
Gormo

 

G`day Gloria,
Santa has been nice to me this year and Christmas has been good with all the family here. I hope you also enjoyed Christmas and received lots of nice things.
Model railroaders are easy to buy for. My wife never has to think too hard on what to buy me. We just jump in the car and trundle off to the local model shop.....easy peasy !!!!!
The scribe was a very necessary tool Gloria. That project required accuracy in the paving because wobbly joint lines would have looked terrible, and to make the job more difficult, the platforms are curved, so necessity was the Mother of invention.
I have used jigs in a few of my projects now, and the time and effort required to think it through and build the jig, is repaid many times over when producing a few of the same item. The advantage being, that the process is faster and easier and the items being produced are standardized.
Gormo

 

Thanks Pete,
Yes I am quite pleased with them.
The interesting thing about the pricing, which was around 24 dollars AU, is that on Ebay today there was an old Mainline cattle wagon for 14 dollars plus 12 dollars postage within Australia.
So why would I bother with the old Mainline when I can buy brand new cheaper and the new is a better detailed free rolling item. To me the only attraction to the over priced Mainline would be if I was an avid collector of Mainline wagons.
So for me at least, I find the Oxford models good value for money and of course I have no financial interest in or affiliation with Oxford Models.
Gormo