Wigan Wallgate

Thanks for the nudge Andy, September was my last post , Wow.
Besides slotting Christmas in there ,Mum lost her battle in October , I hope I can battle this 'C' as long as she did Breed 'em tuff in Wiggin!
I have been on 'Immunotherapy" since my last post, I have never slept so much in my life.
I once worked 27hrs straight on a major breakdown at work and felt nothing like this afterwards ( mind you I was also 35 years younger!)
Anyway enough of that
In the hour or so I can muster each day between eating, sleeping and trying to achieve anything else I have been working in the area that backs onto the goods yard from King St.


Now that I look at the above comparison photo I haven't managed to finish anything. Hmmmm!

Anyway, It did involve pulling it all out to improve the base it all sat on then working on the backyards etc.

Not much to show with the buildings but I did improve the retaining wall and fitted the coping stones along the top edge.

Still no roofs in evidence in places, still some coping stones required and probably some more weeds.


The front of Fyffes warehouse, the building of and it's location has taken up a fair bit of my time recently, most of the problems coming from the
modellers licence creating the bend in this area resulting in alignment problems. Oh well.



I thought the granite sett moldings would be ok around this area but they seem to be overly large, many of them scaling out at 12 x 9" rather than 9 x 6" ish as I seem to remember them.
Any thoughts on size?
I will have to try the rolling mold doofers that I tried out a while ago, I think they might be a better size.

When I get the light wired up in the office below you can actually see the man sitting in his chair in the r/h side of the window.
( Unless that is the wrong photo and you can't see him anyway, perhaps it is? ) ( Perhaps I need to go to bed, it is 3:20 pm here after all!)


That sounds appealing, will try for more update shortly.
Kev

 

Thank you all for the support, well wishes and compliments, it certainly goes a long way towards keeping me moving forward in all aspects of life!
Below is an extract from an old Ariel photo that I currently have been using but have no idea where I got it from ( Damn!)



I have added the ( to the best of my knowledge / research) the buildings currently under discussion or shown above.
Please excuse the Typo in Uncle Joes Mintballs.
The Co-op building as far as I am aware apparently had the whole of the top floor allocated to use as a Dance Hall seemingly in the 40's-50's.
Timing of that tenure is a little 'unprecise'.
The Station Hotel at some stage in it's life ( post 1930's ) lost the top two floors in a fire, I believe it was subsequently used as the local Labour Club
and was at one stage known locally as the 'Bolshi' (apparently due to it's 'Red' connotations.
I was reliably informed by my late mother that her father was a member!!!!!
I am also led to believe that it was at a later time known as 'Pemps Nightclub' run with an iron fist by Barbara Calderbank, Wigan R L players were rumoured to get in for free although they were also known to be 'slung out' at a moments notice!
Anyway several of these buildings are in my typical manner part constructed / cut out / drafted. Particularly that lot in the bottom L/H corner.
One of these days.

Cheers
Kev

 

Hi all,
Cheers bobcom, still trying to move forward on both fronts, although the results of the scan last week weren't what I wanted to hear, however I'm now enrolled in a clinical trial of some new treatment! ( ANY port in the storm , hey ?) ANYWAY.........

In order that I can position the Fyffes building I first needed to get the tracks positioned on the approach to it. This also meant that I would be having to step up and lean over the top yard in order to to do a lot of the other associated work eg, the setts and the road access ramp etc.
So I decided to cut a piece of 3mm mdf to use as a seperate base and fasten that down afterwards, this enabled me to work sitting at the workbench and minimize the strenuous excercise of stepping up one step repeatedly.
The surface was to be a mix of plaster molded Setts and some compacted gravely substance so applying it while being at the workbench allowed me to take more time over the application etc.
Anyway the pics probably show better what I have been up to,
First up a bit of a long shot showing the area I am working in,



The higher end of the access ramp complete with setts but without the edging finished off, the surface was given a wash of a darkened Burnt Umber and then a light rub with fine emery paper when dry. Some of the black spots are blowholes in the molding, I thought I may fill them with 'muddy water'.
The broken sleeper will get covered over eventually.



A view looking back up the ramp with a painted but unsanded area of setts in the foreground. Also in the foreground is my ( as yet unfinished) portrayal of one of the wagon turntables that had at some undetermined stage been removed. Looking now there should obviously be the two rails still embedded in the setts to the left of the TT. Also need to slowly fill in the gaps without gluing the point , fortunately the fill material doesn't leave joint lines and remains workable for several hours after applying.



Back to the ramp area again the Coping Stones have been fitted to tidy up the edge.





Mr Jones has arrived in his apparently brand new lorry. More setts req'd to fill in those gaps @ the rails.



Same shot but after giving the setts more of a rub



Must find the cable and go back to using my camera instead of the phone which has no depth of field judging by these shots, sorry 'bout that.
Popping over to Sydney in a couple of weeks to catch up with my daughter and have a bit of R & R even for a couple of days.
Cheers all
Kev

 

Hi all, thanks for the likes and comments all helps to bolster the job in hand!

Timbersurf, glad you like the setts, I got the mold from Scalecast via ebay several years ago,
Although as i recall I bought it as a wall section, but at the time I thought it looked like setts more than a wall.

"GRANITE SETTS Sheet Mould - OO Gauge Model Railway Scenery - CM01" is I think how it is currently listed

I did think that some of the stones looked a little large at first scaling in at around 12 x 9" but having laid a few panels cast in basic plaster of paris
( but with a reinforcing mesh a la concrete) I think they look quite ok.

The coping stone section on the ramp is two pieces of 4 x 1mm plastic strip glued to form an 'angle' and wrapped in a length of (ssshhh) slightly modified
(ie length x width) downloaded paper based stonework (sssshhhh ). I had it printed by a laser printer onto A4 sized self adhesive label paper which tends to come out somewhat shiny so I gave it a wipe with one of the wife's "Distressing Ink pads" ( SSSHHH!!!) available from "Papercraft" stores here in Oz, I would guess in the UK also, great range of colours can be applied with a sponge.
As it 's 1am here I going to try going back to bed, these damn chemical treatments have buggered up my body clock completely.
Cheers
Kev

 

Hi all, it was 2:00 am when I started putting this bit together, can't sleep, news on the C treatment hasn't been good of late so I here I am !
Never mind what some people say, I say " Railway Modelling Preserves Sanity "( Hmmmm, think I'll have that printed on a tee shirt!)
It is certainly helping me at the moment, a good portion of this latest offering has been done between 1 and 5 am in 1 hour lots!

Anyway, other than some weeds and a bit of rubbish ( Chip papers etc ) this small part is ready to be located and secured in the Goods Yard area adjacent to Fyffes warehouse.

Fyffes will be at the top end of the photo with the l/h line entering Fyffes and the r/h passing on into further areas.


Coping stones in place on both sides , the l/h side butts up against a 'platform' face allowing access to the cattle vans.


The other old T/T well has different treatment in the centre fill to allow lorries to turn and reverse into Fyffes without churning up too much of the gravely / coal dust area.


The crew seems to have buggered off for a cuppa or some chips. ( badly needs a layer of dirt and grime on the 1F )


Some lazy sod left a pile of the T/T Well edging behind after the job was done, surprised there isn't a greater load of weeds on there by now!
Just thought, I had better add a couple of old rusty capstans and probably a cable or rope or two.

Off over to Sydney in the morning for a couple of days R&R and to catch up with my daughter who is now based over there with work.
Hopefully will hear something positive from my latest bloodtest that will get me onto a new drug trial, failing that, more chemo. errrrgggg!
Oh well, got to try and get this railway sorta presentable.
Cheers
Kev

 

Thanks all for the 'Likes'
Ian & Gloria I will need to start a casting production line for more of the setts, still got a couple of good sized area's to do.

Sydney trip went well, if somewhat exhausting, my daughter organized a full day starting with a walk ( slow amble) down to Darling Harbour via the Chinese gardens.




As you can see a beautiful oasis among the high rise background.

Followed by a private water taxi around to Watsons Bay where we met up with some of her friends and had a picnic among the fish cafe's and a few local seagulls

R. to L. My wife , me, My daughter, some of the friends. The young chap in the middle is a Radio presenter on JJJ morning radio and does wonderful Impersonations of celebrities ( Including THE best Billy Connolly I have ever heard. )


A couple of other friends at the picnic, 2 others were off buying the fish and chips.
Didn't bother eating until brekky the next day after all that.

Flew home Sun night, then spent Monday at the Flinders Cancer Clinic being dosed with the new mix of Chemo.
THUDDED back to reality, oh well
Cheers all
Kev