Twickenham MRC's O Gauge layout - Addison Road

Last weekend we were at RMwebLIVE in Coventry.... or at least Peter and Grant were!!

We had a large stand showing how new techniques and technologies have been used to produce ADDISON ROAD.... for the record, Peter is standing and Grant is sitting in this photo ...



Here Peter is giving a talk on how the ADDISON ROAD WEST signal box was made ....



In honour of meeting Richard Johnson of DCC Concepts we wired up the first of 27 of his working oil lamps......

Some new areas under development this week .....

99% of the track is on the five 'centre spine' boards, but there is a siding at the back of the layout on board R4. This siding includes a disused wagon turntable and here Grant has started work on making this feature.



Another new feature is the interior of the Downside Booking Hall - the building closest to the viewing public. This is crying out for lights to illuminate this are modelled by Keith.

October 4th saw the UP canopy supports spray painted....



And the shortage of suitable EMU's is being addressed..... here's Mike Oerlikon set (or part of it!) ......

Not much to report this week other than two requests to all of you 'followers' out there in MRF land ..........

1. We need some LNWR style station seats ...... there were some made in the past by SOUTHWARK BRIDEG MODELS, but they now seem to be out of business. Anyone got any they don't need? Or any other suggestions? They look like this ....



2. TDMRC's O gauge group has made great progress over the last five years with this VERY ambitious project, but we could still do with some new recruits to help bring this project to fruition and hence onto the exhibition circuit. If you have been following our story why not come down to one of our monthly running sessions and see if you'd like to join us? Remember we have members living all over the South East including Camberley and Watford - we even have a regular contributor who lives in the USA - so you don't need to live in Twickenham to participate! See our website www.tdmrc.org.uk details or send TDMRC-MOD a PM.

This week Pat brought along his latest signal ......... this time 99% complete ........... pit the best side is hidden from view ...............



Just to show everyone that Pat did fully detail the other side as well ......

Err.............

Short answer Robert, yes, it is a historical fact that distants were, once upon a time, red and not always with the "fishtail" either. That was a later modification/change to aide being able to distinguish a distant from a "home" (be it an outer home, or inner home, or starter, or advance starter.... Have I missed any?), as was the change from red, the same as the home, to Yellow to be even more distinct and easily "read" at speed by Locomotive / Train crew/s.

Different companies used different methods and designs of Signal arm in respect of distants. Guess what subject I have been glancing over

Actually, I have all this fun yet to come, only at half that size. Funnily enough, the left hand side of those signals looks remarkably similar to some that I have to build.

A recent running session saw a sound equipped ER pacific making a visit .....



and a GWR goods .......

This thread started out somewhat as an experiment in publicising Twickenham & District MRC's O gauge project and thereby attracting new members to the club. As a result news has been a bit piecemeal ... a week by week diary so to speak. So I thought some background info on the project and why we chose to model Addison Road might be helpful at this stage.

Addison Road : The Prototype


Kensington Addison Road is the principal station on the West London Joint Railways which by-pass London to the west. Today it is known as Kensington Olympia. It was built in two stages:

Firstly, in 1844, the London and Birmingham Railway (later LNWR) and the GWR jointly built the West London Railway linking them to a basin at the northern end of the Kensington Canal (immediately south of the current station).

Secondly, in 1863, they, together with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway, built the West London Extension Railway - partially on top of the in-filled canal to link with these two partner's lines south of the Thames at Clapham Junction.



By setting our layout in the mid-1920s we can run trains in the liveries of these four owners and the companies that replaced them after the 1923 'grouping' (GWR, LMS and SR). At that time, there were numerous freight workings by the GWR to its South Lambeth depot and the LNWR supplying coal to south London yards.

The LNWR/LMS ran regular passenger trains (four-rail electric) between Willesden Junction and Earl's Court (a mile south of Addison Road). There were also shuttles from the south-east bay to both the South Western and Brighton sides of Clapham Junction. The principal through passenger service was the 'Sunny South Express' that ran from Liverpool and Manchester to Brighton and Eastbourne.

The platforms at Addison Road were the longest of any London station. We do not have the space to store or erect such a long model, so we have restricted it to the southern half with station buildings and a footbridge conveniently concealing that the northern part is missing.

Last week Pat brought along his latest masterpiece ..................

Firstly, the BIG news this week is that the AR team are on the road again! Peter and Grant are giving a talk at The MRC (Keen House) on Thursday January 15th. It will concentrate on new technologies and ideas used to build the layout .... send us a PM for more info!

Now back to normal stuff ..........

Sat Dec 20th saw the last work Saturday of the year and some of the 'scenery only' boards were added to the central spine of boards carrying the track.





Pat was making signals ........



Keith was fitting signals ....



Here's one of Pat's (simpler) signals connected on one of Keith's new signal mechanisms ... note the lit red aspect



And Keith brought the first of his new scratchbuilt station seats complete with station nameplate ....

With the Xmas break now over, it was business as usual at TDMRC last Friday.....

Not that members had been idle over the holidays!

Keith had been making signal control mechanisms ...



And preparing the baseboard ...........



Whilst Keith had been making pulleys and balance weights for just ONE of his many signals .....





Just to remind everyone that Peter and Grant are giving an illustrated talk at the MRC, Keen House, London tomorrow night Jan 15th on the techniques used to design, plan and build this project .... ALL WELCOME ... come and say hello.

This is looking great those signals are a work of art.

The January running session produced a wide variety of stock .....

Mike's Oerlikon set ........



Mike's MET electric set .....



Pat doesn't only make signals! Here's his new baby American diesel ..... in 1/48 scale!



Here's Nick's Southern H2 Atlantic..............



Last, but not least, here's Keith's GW Hall and some new Collett coaches........

This week we added some more paving slabs on the down platform......



We also test fitted the latest 'monster' signal .... it just fits!



And fitted the first permanent working signal .... although there is still some work to do with bedding it in and fitting the dummy operating wires.....