TWICKENHAM MRC'S OO GAUGE LAYOUT - NORTHWICK

last week we had both a Friday evening and a Saturday workday so a lot was done to both boards 1 and the station boards, couple this with the fact that we have been busy working on the station board during the week means that this has changed quite drastically.

So lets start off with the station board, the first job to be done was to remove the big thick wall that runs along the front of the houses and shops.

before




after




As you can probably see in the photos above the paving (which is printed paper) sustained a lot of damage during the wall being demolished so this will also have to be replaced - although some how the window cleaner on his ladder was unaffected, luckily we had some slaters textured sheet to hand so this was used to give a new paved surface.




A curb stone was then added along the edge of the paving along the top of the wall - this is a strip of plasticard measuring 1mm x 3mm, also the white section of the walling was also covered over with some brick paper that matches the original and the paving was painted and then given a black wash.



Next up was the last of the red on the station board has now disappeared with a layer of the vermiculite mixture to give a relatively flat and yet uneven surface in the timber yard and also create a small mound in the triangle between the 2 roads, once this had dried then the road surface for the road that runs along the side of the yard was given a fine layer of pva and then finely crushed road stone was sprinkled over and rolled in place with a wall paper seam roller, once dry the rest was hovered off (with a stocking over the end to save the loose for next time),




On top of these 2 changes there are quite a few other changes that can be seen in the picture such as the new railing have been added along the front of the shops and houses, all of the adjustments that have been made to the pavements on the station building side have been painted and then weathered in so that the old paving now blends in with the new and the hotel can be seen in the background having received a coat of light cream paint and had its windows fixed in position.

The next job was to fit the new fencing round the timber yard as well as try out the new wagon body that has been built for the yard - this has been scratch built by Tim Thomas and is based on a S&DJR 8 ton covered goods van.




After that was to put the ground cover down in the yard, this is a mixture of soil from the garden, ballast, the road stone and ash, also the small triangular mound got some static grass.




Lastly the road was weathered by rubbing the fine crushed road stone where we wanted it to be lighter and the streets were re-populated.











Now onto board 1, on the Friday night we hit another issue, the same issue as before some of the ballast that we applied hadn't stuck again! , but we think that we have worked out what is going on which is that the area affected is where the cattle dock siding used to be and under the track was roofing felt so this is what we recon in causing the problem. but this worked in out favor in that we realized that we had forgotten to put the drainage in for where you would wash the cattle pens out and the contents would go on the track, so we installed these (once the loose ballast had been removed), we also took the opportunity to modify what is currently the brake van siding and lengthen it so that it will become the coal wagon siding which will then free up the goods building siding so that you don't have to move the coal wagons each time you want a van from the goods shed (which is what we do currently), so the buffers were removed along with the coal merchants, their office, staithes and yard light and the area for the new track was dug out and the new track was laid in place and fixed down.



once we had done this we roughened the roofing felt up, applied a layer of glue and then some ballast we then wet the ballast down and put dilute pva on top and left it. when we returned on the saturday workday we found that the ballast had stuck! so we moved onto the next step which was to dampen the ballast and apply the layer of ash to blend it in, for where the coal siding is we ground down some of the bigger bits left over from the bonfire ash that we collect in a coffee grinder and then sieved over the area we wanted it. Also whilst the ballast was damp we went over the join between the ballast and grass with a layer of static grass which then makes it fade from one to the other better.




The new positions of the coal merchants office and staithes were tried out at the end of the day.

Last friday was a productive one, the first thing to be done was to place the new hotel since its details have been added to see how it looks.

a view from the goods yard entrance



a closer view of the hotel.



The next task was to apply the next layer of ash to yard on board 1, this was then followed by the main task/event for the evening which was to tackle the back scene for the station board, this was the part that we were least looking forward to doing as we had had several failed attempts on the first time of doing it. The first bit of good news was that we found that we actually had the correct piece to join onto the existing back scene on board 1 - sometimes it is useful to get it wrong initially, before removing the plywood for the back scenes from the station board we marked out where the tree line was so that we could ensure that everything would line up once it had been reassembled, the 2 pieces of plywood were then removed from the station board, sanded down to give a better surface for the glue and wiped down to remove any dust. The paper back scenes were then cut roughly to size, it was then time to take the plunge and stick the paper to the plywood, we decided that we would stick to the method that we had found had worked for the original back scene which was to have someone spreading the copydex glue whilst another person follows laying the paper on and a third person with a wall paper seem roller going over the whole thing to make sure it stuck and to get the wrinkles out. Once this was done then the plywood was turned over so that the paper was against the table and weights were applied to the top of the plywood until the glue had set. Fortunately the glue had set in time for us to reattach the back scene to the board and then attach the station board to board 1 to see if we had lined it up successfully or not. As you can see in the pictures below we managed to line it up and it has really changed the look of the town.





The top edge will be neatened up in due course by adding a triangular section of wood along the top so that it will be the same as the other boards - it has been roughly cut down at the moment

Since the last update quite a few things have been done, the first being to fix the triangular piece of wood along the top of the station board back scenes.



some of the details were added to the cattle dock, as well as the fencing receiving the first layer of weathering.




The coal merchants office has been fitted to its new position along with the staithes and the fence poles for the edge of the field on board 1





The grounded wagon body for the timber yard was first painted grey then brown and finally blue with the intention of gently rubbing back through the layers to expose the colours so that it looks as though the paint is peeling off, the roof has also been fitted and has been made to look like the roof canvas has ripped. This was made from a layer of brass with a piece of slaters plastic planking stuck to the top, this was the followed with taking a square of toilet paper, separating the 2 layers and ripping a small hole in 1 layer before sticking it to the plastic planking using plastic weld, the excess paper was then trimmed off and painted in primer, the exposed planking was then given its base colour.





A new tree has also been made by Tim and fitted to board 1.






And finally the name for the hotel has been applied.

Over the past 2 friday evenings we have been busy making sure that everything on the to do list is completed before our next exhibition outing which is the West Essex Modelrail which is on the 22nd/23rd April, why not come along and see the additions to the layout in person.

the first evening we spent trying to blend the existing grass on board 2 with the new grass. The new grass was too green so we have gone over it with a mixture of straw, burnt grass and hay to help blend it in, it looks a lot better now but we may have to have another go in some places the joint of old and new can still be made out mainly due to there being no bushes, trees, etc. on the extension yet.




Last friday evening we spent testing the layout and some of the stock to make sure that everything was working as it should be, fortunately it was so we had a running session with the theme this time being "Exhibition", here are a couple of pictures of what was running.







Also running was a newly weathered 9f which is pictured here outside the engine shed.



As you can see a person who shall remain anonymous is trying to give a subtle hint about the cleanliness of the loco.

Last weekend Northwick was at the Illford and West Essex Model Railway show, we had an enjoyable weekend and we hope that if you did see us there then you liked what you saw, here are a few pictures from the weekend.





















There will be a short video of the layout in action from the weekend later.

Last Friday was the monthly running session for Northwick, the theme for this month was unique/unusual prototypes and there was a great selection running.

Kestrel is seen pulling into the station



DP2 was also seen arriving with the Hawksworth dynamometer car in tow




Lion was resting between duties



Kestrel passes lion with the great northern directors saloon and the LNER dynamometer car in tow



a close up of the great northern directors saloon and the LNER dynamometer car



Gas turbine prototype 18000 also made an appearance.



Lion, kestrel and 18000 are seen posing in the engine yard.



De Glehn class "President" is seen here on the way to the turntable



The only 4-6-2 paciffic built by the GWR "The Great Bear" arrived.




which was followed by a strange looking beast, a Dean goods locomotive with pannier tanks added to the side of the boiler along with condensing gear and Westinghouse brakes.




The Duke of Gloucester also made an appearance with a freight train which consisted of the 12 axle GWR Crocodile L with flat girders, 12 axle GWR Crocodile L with the well girders, 6 axle 40 ton LMS well wagon, GWR Crocodile F, GWR Bogie open wagon (known as a Tourn), GWR Mink F and LMS 40 ton bogie brake van. All of the wagons except the last 2 have been scratch built by Tim Thomas.






Although the freight train only consisted of 7 wagons the total length was just under 6.5 ft!

I hadn't realized that it had been over a month since the last update from northwick, this is not because we have disappeared but work has been getting in the way of the updates however we have been busy working on the layout during this time.

One thing you may notice is the lack of pictures on the previous posts this is because photobucket (the website i use to host the pictures) has recently changed their T's & C's and now have to be paid an extortionate amount of money for the links to work again so I am now in the process of transferring the photos to another site and will be working through the previous posts and updating the links.

There was a running night in June and the theme was preserved.


Ex LBSCR class E4 473 AKA Birch Grove is seen running with a rake of maunsells


LSWR adams radial 488 hauling a rake of wagons


A pair of class 20's - D8000 & 20242, sit in the engine yard


BR Standard 5MT 73082 Camelot departs


BR Class 46 d172 passes class 20042


The 2 BR adams radials double head the coaches


A bit of an if only, preserved Adams radial sits outside the engine shed with 2 of its class mates 30583 + 30584


These were then joined by Ex LSWR class 02 24 calbourne


BR class 47 47401 awaits to depart


BR class 08 08417 was busy shunting


Class 57 57305 in northern belle livery was also seen having brought in a rail tour.

More posts to follow on progress made elsewhere on the layout.

One of the main projects that we have been busy working on is the archaeological site on board 2 the aim is to have a roman villa being dug complete with a roman mosaic being slowly exposed by the diggers, there will also be crop marks on the grass around the trench indicating where the walls are underneath the ground. So the first steps were taken and the trench was marked out and the grass was taken off.




There hasn't been too much in the way of progress with this as we have had issues with creating the walls for the villa, first we used maliput but this set a bit too hard for us to carve easily once dry and so it was decided to do away with this and whilst at it we also decided to deepen the excavation as it was looking too shallow.



So once the maliput walls were removed and the trench was deepened, new walls were created using silk clay which was chosen as it gave a good base colour for the walls and dried in the air so this was left to harden during the week.



When we returned the following week we found that although the walls had dried they couldn't be calved because the silk clay had dried to a spongy finish so this wouldn't work either, so we returned the following week with Das air drying clay . So we set about removing the walls made of silk clay and before putting the replacement walls in we painted the polystyrene brown so that any bits that we may miss with the dirt that will be put in the trench shouldn't be too obvious, the new walls were then put in and having tried the sample piece it should calve nicely



You will notice that at the moment the walls are all of a uniform height (just under the grass level), we decided that we would make them of a uniform maximum height and then carve them to the desired uneven height.

As some of the trees are beginning to look a bit tired the decision has been taken to either refurbish the ones that don't look too bad and in some cases completely replace the existing tree with a new one. Whilst doing this we also decided to move the tree that had been put on board 1 from its current position, this was because it was near the front edge of the layout and as it is a delicate tree compared to the others it was getting damaged quite easily, it has now been moved to the field with the scouts in on board 4 and the existing tree removed to be refurbished and returned to the layout. Here are some picture showing which trees have been moved.

The existing tree on board 1.


The other existing tree on board 4.


The tree from board 1 in its new position on board 4.


1 of the trees earmarked for replacement was the main big tree on board 2, here it is before anything happened.


It was decided to replace this one as when it was re-done last time we noticed that the armature of the tree wasn't constructed very well and so couple this with the fact that it was very dense and so obstructed a lot of the layout behind a new more open tree was made to take its place.



The other tree that has been replaced is the big tree in the scouts field, our intentions were originally to just refurbish this one as it had the tree house in, however upon removing the greenery it was found that the tree didn't look very tree like as all the branches pointed straight up so it was decided to replace this one with a new tree and fit the tree house to the new one.

Here is a before and after picture (sorry for the poor picture but I cant find a better one showing the old tree)


Here is the new tree in position complete with the tree house which has been placed so that the kids can see it easily and the adults have to take a close look to see it.



Some of the other trees to receive some attention were the trees that go along the back of board 4 as they were beginning to look a bit tired, so the were re-covered with new foliage and put back into position, whilst doing this we noticed that not only had the been all planted in a row but they were almost all the same exact height so this was addressed too.

Here's a before shot.


and after
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There is still more work to be done to the remaining trees on the layout but what do you think so far?

A bit of a big update this time as since the last update we have been very busy with progress made on several fronts, so I will start off from where we left the last post - trees. The last of the trees that needed refurbishing on board 4 have been done and a new tree added to behind the church in the form of a copper beech to add a bit of colour, here's an over all shot of how borad 4 looks now.




We have also added another tree to the front corner of board 4 to help hide the edge of the back scene that separates the fiddle yard from the layout.



Once it had been stuck in place we then adjusted the roots to how we wanted them and then added soil around the roots and stuck that down too.




A couple of shorter trees were added to the boards 1&2 to help hide the board joint whilst not obstructing the overall view of the layout.




Now onto the other main project which is the archaeological site, since the last post the walls have had their stones carved into them and the tops of the walls made less regular.



they were then given a base coat of paint.



various brown and black washes were then added followed by some dry brushing of greys and lighter browns.





On the 22nd of July it was the clubs open day and the scenic parts of Northwick were set up as part of this, for the open day we temporarily added a mosaic to the main room of the roman villa to give an idea of whats to come.



For the open day as we had the goods yard set up so that it could be shunted and posed the rest of layout as though there was a blockage further down the line which prevented the passenger trains from operating so there was a bus replacement service running.

Last Friday we made more progress with the roman villa dig as it has now had the soil added, we also extended the trench slightly so that it continues on a little bit beyond the walls that were right up against the side of the trench.







The next step will be to start adding some of the details to the dig site such as a more damaged version of the mosaic and diggers.

Last friday night was the layouts monthly running session and the theme for this month was the eastern region, here are some pictures from the running session.


Class A4 Dwight D. Eisenhower pulls into the station with a set for gresley stock.


BR Standard class 4 75027 is turned whilst class A1 60147 North Eeastern arrives with a mixed rake of thompson and BR Mk1 stock.


Class J72 68723 was on shunting duties.


Class 45 pulls in to the station.


Class A1 60147 North Eastern is turned


Class A2 Blue Peter poses alongside Class A1 North Eastern


Class A4 Dwight D. Eisenhower awaits its next duty in the engine shed.


BR standard class 4 75027 arrives with a set of thompson coaches


an interesting shot with the archaeological dig in the foreground and BR standard class 5 awaiting to couple up to its train in the background.

since the last update progress has slowed a bit with holidays getting in the way, the main things to have happened with the layout was- sheep being added to the field on board 2.



there is going to be a fence boundary added to the left of the heard of sheep which is why they currently end abruptly, also the farmer has dropped of some pigs to the cattle dock.




We also had a running session on the layout and the theme this month was exhibition which is where we run what we would run normally. Here we have envening star arriving with a blood and custard set of stannier coaches.



and later on in the evening Tavistock was also seen running with the same set.

since the last post, the wire fence on board 2 has now been installed, we decided to go for a wire fence as it was the simplest type to do when the gradients of the land is taken into account.





we have also been sorting out the road on boards 3&4 as the join between old and new road was beginning to show, the first step was to paint the whole of the new road surface again witha mixture of black, brown, grey and off white to help blend it in with the existing.





The next step will be to apply a mixture of ash and dirt to further blend it in and to weather the road some more.

Last Friday we adjusted the wall that usually sits over the board joint between boards 1&2 so that the collapsed part of the wall falls between 2 tree trunks which could give an interesting angle with a loco behind it. Whilst we were adjusting it we drilled 2 holes in the bottom of it and inserted nails with their heads chopped off so that it will make it easier to get the wall in the correct position in the future as the nails locate in holes in the field.



We have also started work on trench 2 of the archaeological dig which will result in a ditch being uncovered and possibly some finds.


could this be a hint of what could be found in the trench?


the position of the ditch is marked out.


and then dug (although it does not show up very well in this picture).

The soil has now been added to the second trench



Also the badger that used to be underneath one of the trees on board 2 has been moved as it was right next to the first trench of the archaeological dig. The badger now lives next to the wall on the board joint between boards 1&2.




The opportunity was also taken to pose a locomotive in the gap between the trees and wall.



We have also moved the sheep around on board 2 as they were not quite looking right, after some scratching of our heads we decided that it was because all of the sheep were evenly spaced so we have moved some of them around, created groups of them and left some open spaces - this seems to have solved the problem.