There go the drifters ... here come the carpenters

The last two weekends have seen visits to Corrieshalloch and Fencehouses ... inspirational stuff in both cases, though for different reasons.

Nearer to home, the roofers have done their bit and now the carpenters have moved in to install the window frames.

Will miss the next group session (going to Furness MRC's exhibition in Barrow) but should be there in November by which time I'm hoping that I might have finished the station master's house and the two halves of the building can be joined together and presented as one.

In the meantime, here are some progress shots of the waiting room ...

More scenic developments

Following on from David's post yesterday, here's a few photos taken at the meeting on Saturday showing some of the scenic work which is currently afoot.
 
Firstly, Alan Pollock has built the bridge at the Halifax end of the layout -

This will form part of a group of bridges at the Halifax end over both the main lines and the entrance to Brookes Ltd.

Another photo of David's station building in place, looking up the line towards Bradford -

Some work on checking the clearances of the footbridge also took place, in advance of etches of the footbridge itself being produced by Bob Jones - this is Chris Arthur's 3F Tank and a Stanier Coach being used to check the clearances -

At the end of this month we'll be making a field visit to Lightcliffe to check over what remains there, particularly the bridges. Much of the area has been built upon since the 1930s and Brookes is no more but the visit should be useful.

Also, the layout may be moving elsewhere in the KMRC clubroom, however this is all in the early stages and at our next meeting on Saturday October 11th we'll be discussing this together with fiddle yard plans as well as more scenery work and finising off the linkage for the single slip!

When this old world starts getting you down ...

Twas a good turn out at the weekend and good to see Neil Moxon for the first time in a while (don't leave it so long next time Neil!).

Plans made for the site visit after Halifax show (when hopefully we'll be able to grab Bob Jones for five minutes to talk footbridges) and a good discussion about scenics.

Bit of a bombshell at the end about the space allocated for the layout at KMRC's clubrooms, but we'll just have to see how that pans out.

Anyway, the painters have put in an appearance at last and have tarted up the waiting room, followed closely by the glaziers and now the roofers are in residence!

Thought about using plasticard roofing and experimented with self-adhesive slates, but wasn't happy with either so have chopped up some slate effect slips from Richard Stacey (www.richardstacey.com) and have now started to apply those to the roof. Stick a CD on and it's all very theraputic!

Scenic Developments and The September Meeting

At the August Meeting, there were some new developments on the scenic front.

Firstly, here's David Varley's station building in situ on the layout....

 

 

Alan Pollock has also been at work on the tunnel entrance at the Bradford end of the layout -

As you can see, these are both still in progress and to help with matters some of us will be making a field trip to Lightcliffe at the end of September to confirm a few details.

This month's meeting will be more work on Lightcliffe, as well as running repairs on the test track, meeting at Keighley MRC from 2pm!

Lightcliffe Station Buildings - Part 3 - Anybody know a good decorator?

Well, almost a year after starting work, construction of the main station building for Lightcliffe is almost complete ... just some steps to add to the rear access and then it's out with the paintbrushes.

Photographs of the rear of the building remain elusive, so I've had to rely heavily on the plans for the 1909 alterations. These aren't quite 'as built' but given that the building isn't there any more they're probably as good as we're going to get (cue somebody producing detailed photos of the rear of the building!).

The main parts of the model won't be joined together until after they've been painted and glazed, but I've assembled them to check for fit and thought I'd take a few pictures to show progress.

So, without further ado ...
 

Further progress on Lightcliffe Station buildings

Work has been manic since Christmas, with negotiations for a new station at Kirkstall Forge only recently concluded, so modelling time has been at a premium and I haven't been able to make the last few group meetings ... but I have managed to make some progress on the main station buildings and the shell is almost complete and ready for painting.

Next job is to place the building on the layout next weekend and start looking at ground and platform levels.

The signs are proving more troublesome than I'd hoped and for now I've abandoned the idea of using 1mm brass lettering as I couldn't get a result that I was happy with. I've resorted to producing them on my computer - the ones on the left are early efforts which are passable (though hard to photograph clearly) but I'm much happier with the ones on the right - just got to go back and do the smaller ones again.

The Single Slip Saga Part II and meetings for June

Last time we left the single slip glued in place and wieghted down by some 'Heavy Things' - so after a few weeks of drying, this is how it looked... 

After making sure none of the 'works' were gummed up,we were able to make sure that the blades moved and soldered some droppers in place - here is the slip being tested by running a plate wagon through it...

 
Elsewhere, there is progress on the scenics - here are the coal drops, with some suitable wagons placed above them..

...and this is the view of the underbridge on St. Giles road, with some of the stonework going in...

Finally... my newly converted Class 37 doing the rounds on the test track, which might find itself onto a little project based around Warrington in the early 2000s!

The initial conversion was done in about 15 minutes on finding the conversion wheels in the day's post after a trip to the pub - lowering the body and other bits of detailing and weathering will follow.


As for this month's meetings - the main meeting this month is on the 14th at Keighley MRC from 2pm. 

Also, I and several others will be demonstrating on the 2mm Roadshow at the Wigan Finescale Railway Modellers Exhibition over the weekend of June 7th and 8th - see http://www.wiganfrm.org.uk/ for further details.

May 2014 Meeting and the Single Slip Saga

This month we'll be having our meeting on the SUNDAY (11th) as it's also Keighley MRC's open day - and our main activity for the day, apart from showing off progress on Lightcliffe, will be to wire up the single slip for the Brookes Ltd. sidings.

Yes, the single slip is now installed, complete with some operating units which will allow the slip to be operated manually at first, moving to electric operation in the future.

This is the single slip placed in position to ensure we've got it the right way round...
 

At this point we also made sure that the operating units were in the right place, as next we went and glued it down -

...and, weighed down by various heavy things that was where we left it ready to continue working on Sunday.

For full details of the open day see http://www.keighley-mrc.org.uk/


 

February 2014 Meeting

February's meeting, on Saturday 8th, will involve preparing for painting the track on the scenic section as well as installing the single slip for the Brookes Ltd. sidings.

We're also looking at some of the other work which is coming up in the next few months - this includes buildings, fiddleyards and electrics.

January 2014 Meeting

It's 2014 already and it's time for our first meeting of the year this Saturday (11th) at Keighley MRC from 2pm.

Topics for discussion and things we're working on include the test track, buildings for Lightcliffe and also our plans for the coming year - including the plans for the fiddle yards to turn the layout into a full double-track circuit.

During last months meeting, there was a little work on the test track, fixing a point tiebar, re-doing a few dry joints, and a chance to test my Class 14 out, which has since gone back into the works after a few drive train problems - 

On Lightcliffe, here is a picture of the coal drops -

Another view, across the entrance to the goods yard, showing further work on the Halifax platform -

Refreshments, as usual, will also be available!

Lightcliffe Station Building

The Christmas break has seen me make further progress with the main station buildings.

The Hipperholme end of the waiting room (entrance to Gents on the left).

Another angle of the Hipperholme end of the waiting room.

Platform frontage.

Top: Waiting rooms; Bottom (left to right) Booking office/Station Master's office and Station Master's house.

First attempt at signs (experimental work in progress).

Construction is 1mm plasticard with Slaters stone sheet laminated using Limonene. Signs are Aber 1mm brass lettering glued to Evergreen strip, primed with White Gesso and painted with Vallejo black wash. Next step is to see if I can drybrush the lettering to make it stand out more.