East Lancashire Railway in N-Gauge.

Well I have finished the wiring for the fiddle yard which I extended the tracks by 12”. I have fitted all the point motors and checked the polarity of the frogs. I had a slight problem with one side, then I found I had missed a insulated joiner off one point. I have a mixture of old points and the new unifrogs points which do not need insulated joiners, that’s my excuse anyway. I need to shorten some of the tracks where the scenic section meets the fiddle yard, I have got some very close joins, the fiddle yard is on a different district. After more testing I can start on the dreaded ballasting, I will be using Ballast magic again I think.
Then the part I love doing the scenics, the first job will be a small station based on Ringley Road ( Radcliffe) off the old East Lancashire Railway. That station was in a deep cutting, unfortunately my interpretation will be in half a cutting, the north bound platform to Bury is still there on the Outwood Trail, that was the platform that had a small station building. I will be putting the station on the northbound down line on my high level section, I have calculated I can just fit it in and maybe the road over rail bridge too. If you look it up on Disused Stations web site the one and only pic shows a signal at the start of the platform, not the end of the platform, that puzzles me a bit. Chris

Thanks Kris for your comments. Of course the original East Lancashire railway went from Accrington to Clifton Junction through Bury and Radcliffe. The old station's re Bury Bolton st now East lancs railway again, and Radcliffe Bridge now well buried under a road. The old line has been made into a trail and goes over the Radcliffe viaduct, at the back of Radcliffe Asda, over the river Irwell. I have walked and cycled down there many times, the north bound platform at Ringley station is still there. I am planning on modeling part of that station, it was in a deep cutting, unfortunately mine will be half a cutting so not completely accurate. Re the sound steam loco's I quite like them, the 8f is amazing the things you can do with that loco. I made a video on my old layout Irwell Valley Railway of that loco with unfitted wagons coming down a gradient approaching the signal, the video was well recieved, it sounded pretty good. I am on youtube has lilchris26, it is still on there I think. Chris

This is where I am up to at the moment, I am waiting for a parcel with more ballast but I am preparing the site for Ringley Road station. I have done most of the woodwork now I need to measure up the road over rail bridge which is going across the board join on the left of the picture. I have extended the board back about 2 " to make room for the station building, it was a bit tight for room. This will be the north bound platform, which is still there on the Outwood trail. There will be the path going up to the road to the left of the platform. In the real location the station is in a deep cutting, my station will be a compromise with half a cutting because of course I have the lower level track across the front. It should be good though the bridge to the left was fairly high, I want to get that effect if possible. Chris

Well here is a pic has promised, I have now fixed the two pieces of ply to the front. It needs some more sanding and painting, it will fit in with the scenics better. I have also fitted two pieces of dowel inside the bridge support pillars, with two matching holes in the baseboard. This will locate the bridge in position, for easy removal if required. I am not happy with the ballast magic, bits of ballast all over the place that has not set, kind of defeats the object of using it. Chris