GWR/LMS OO Gauge DCC RR&Co

Nice work on the roundhouse, John, with the 'Flantastic' roof system, and the pastel joint lines is an idea I have tucked away  :thumbs

Doug

That really is an awesome layout!

[user=394]ddolfelin[/user] wrote:

"a somewhat dry and dusty post."
I told you to use fixative on that pastel!

Seriously, a grand job and I'm sure all will be well.
I hope my comments on the pastel haven't given you something that will be bugging you on the boat!

Look forward to seeing more.

  The dry and dusty was purely accidental DD……..no problems …..I knew about the omission and meant to mention it initially in the post .

My style of modelling is such that I have long since learned to live/work around my errors!

Chinahand wrote:

Great  work as usual John and I really love the 3rd picture of the overall  view of Granby. That's one heck of a fine layout and definitely worthy  of a . . . . .

Wow I havent seen one of those before……….I guess they rank higher than an elephant?;-)

Its very kind of you Trevor and much appreciated…..and thank you again for all the photos you sent of Didcot:thumbs


dooferdog wrote:

Nice work on the roundhouse, John, with the 'Flantastic' roof system, and the pastel joint lines is an idea I have tucked away  :thumbs

Doug

Somehow I dont think that was a typo !!!


Nevertheless…….many thanks Doug…..you may recall .I was a plastic man before you converted me, so praise from the master is praise indeed

Ste and Ted…….thank you so much for your kind comments…….glad you like the layout!

:cheers:cheers

Finally……….


The Last Spike






I am afraid this is a rather self indulgent post but,of all the fora to which I have contribuited, YMR contains the most complete record of Granby so it seemed only right to include it here.

 

This is the earliest photo I could find…… December 2008




I havent done a great job keeping records but, for what it is worth, I  guess there must now be about 200 yards of track……RR&Co tell me I  have 80 turnouts and 120 blocks.

Anyway the great moment has arrived……the final piece of track has been laid. 



To get the length of carriage sidings I needed we had a bit of an issue  with the brewery and the railway had to slap a compulsory purchase order  on the Star and Dragon's yard





So here are the three sidings all ballasted with the retaining wall  rebuilt and re aligned …….complete with cosmetic Outer and Inner  Home Signals for the adjacent Down Main





Fortunately the landlord can still get his barrels delivered









This aerial view shows why I was so keen to get the carriage sidings in




The two far sidings can each accommodate up to 3 carriages……one will  be used as a headshunt for parcel and milk traffic and the other for  coaches that will be added and detached to trains from Birkenhead to the  South

The near siding can accommodate a rake of 4 60' carriages which means  that I can now run regular out and back services from Granby to  Manchester, Shrewsbury (LMS) and Aberystwyth on the old Cambrian Line  (GWR)…………….more on this in later posts




A picture is worth a thousand words. This is the last time these older  (12+ years) carriages will carry coachboards…….in prototypical  fashion they are being cascaded down to the Ordinary Passenger service  to Shrewsbury and their place on the Express service to South Wales will  be taken by a rake of super Hornby carriages I have just treated myself to.  

So thats the background to the last spike……..now back to the party













In March we invited the family round to lunch……ostensibly to   celebrate my eldest daughter's birthday………although in reality there was a far more   significant event to celebrate:lol:









My daughter's dog wasnt too impressed…..our dog had the good sense to hide.

Everyone else had a great time




I should stress this is by no means the end of this thread ………..I have loads of buildings to construct and far too many unfinished projects ………..but to paraphrase the great man it is perhaps

                                 The end of the beginning :doublethumb

Nice family, John.
Don't get too spiked.

Congratulations John.Not many of us get to put in that "last spike" so you truly have something to be proud of.I have read your thread from start to finish so i have nothing to read now.:thumbs:thumbs:thumbs

Thanks DD

There is still a lot more to do, and write about, I am afraid Alan:lol: but I am glad you have enjoyed my scribbling!

Regards from a very wet Vancouver

After the summer break its time to try, yet again, to bring this thread up to date.

Before adding the other three bays to the roundhouse I wanted to make sure the exit roads were set up properly and complete the concreting



This shot shows the six shed roads, the wheel drop road and the two roads leading to the LMS shed…..the kink on the right hand road never looked right and I now know it is not great for smooth operating…..one lives and learns:twisted:

Having got the concrete sorted I then added the service road detail

Water hydrant……..not modelled that often but seen everywhere on the protoype …….these are Gem kits




I was really lucky with the light when I took these shots with the  setting sun creating some quite unusual effects

GWR Water Crane with Firehorse…..Mikes Models






As above with a Mikes Models Yard Lamp






To finish post #2000 (that must be a milestone of some sort:lol:)…..a Black and White Shot

That is very impressive as usual John and a lot of work has obviously gone into it.The black and white shot is my favourite,i love those.

John, I'm not prying, but in Post 824 Photo 3, you are either modelling the Minellium Dome a 53 years early, or have the aliens landed to take away one of your panniers…..?

Doug

spurno wrote:

That  is very impressive as usual John and a lot of work has obviously gone  into it.The black and white shot is my favourite,i love those.

Thanks Alan……I am glad you liked it………and particular thanks for posting a shot of Granby in the header slot……..I am more than a little chuffed. Its actually one of my favourite shots although,sadly the Dean Goods is no more………failed the running without supervision test:twisted:

Bachmann have done such a great job with their LMS 4F perhaps they will take on Hornby in similar style with their version of a Dean Goods?

:cheers:cheers


dooferdog wrote:

John,  I'm not prying, but in Post 824 Photo 3, you are either modelling the  Minellium Dome a 53 years early, or have the aliens landed to take away  one of your panniers…..?

Doug

……………..I guess you mean this?





Its actually a Wok cover:roll:

As I have observed elsewhere the Heljan Turntable is very very susceptible to dust or grit so this was my attempt at protection while ballasting.

I inadvertently turned the track power on at one stage which created some quite interesting effects:It's a no no

ps I am so sorry we were unable to meet up while we were in France……the best laid plans etc etc.

Kind Regards from Vancouver

Looks very good and is full of atmosphere...I love it...

John,

 

That area down by the Viaduct is magic!

 

Phil

[user=753]Phil.c[/user] wrote:

John,

 

That area down by the Viaduct is magic!

 

Phil

One of my favourite areas too Phil but there are so many on this layout.

A real masterpiece John - both the narrative and the physical results - one I'll never tire of watching and learning from . :cheers:cheers

Good to see you getting back into the swing of things after your Summer break John.

Nice bit of concrete laying.

Thanks for the comments guys……..good to hear from so many old friends :thumbs

This post continues to cover the completion of the roundhouse with addition of the remaining 3 units




As I have remarked in Toto's thread lining up the narrow shed entrances with the track geometry was very much a chicken and egg scenario…….both had to be dead accurate

You can see the adjustments I had to make to the side walls from the next shot which shows the three new rooves in place……although in fairness I set the end wall at 90o to give a bit more clearance for the wheeldrop.




The rooves are scribed prior to cutting out the apertures for the "North" Lights ( of course they cover rather more than one compass point;-))

The end unit shows the start of the Yard Office which will be part of a complex of offices and stores that seemed to spring up in random fashion at Sheds like this





Again you can see how a slight change of angle transposes into a not insignificant change in the width at the end. Given hindsight I wish I had put windows in each end panel but hindsight is hindsight……I subsequently made it less obvious with some air intakes.

Next to the roundhouse on the wheeldrop road is a Scalescene small engine shed which will be disguised as a maintenance shed and the ugly duckling on the right is a Metcalfe shed rescued from Granby II …….I hope to be able to upgrade it to Scalescene standard as an ex LNWR  LMS Shed

To finish a couple of shots from the front



Pity about the drunken cleaner…..not a sight you would expect to encounter on the GWR;-)



Best wishes from a very sunny Vancouver

Beautiful work John. It's starting to look really busy now John and there's a real atmosphere building up in the area.

Looking very lifelike John,you can almost smell the locos.There can't be a lot left to do,or is there?.

Hi John

I started reading your thread over a week ago, before it became 'Alan's picture of the week'.

It's been absorbing and totally fascinating, bit like a book you can't put down.

Very little I can add to the comments everyone else has made although personally, I did particularly like the canal and lock.

Apart from the buildings and adding to the incredible scenes you have already created, what on earth do you do now?

Extend in to the garden?

(A ceiling railway has already been mention


Ed

Alan and Trevor, I am so pleased that you feel that the shed is beginning to develop something of an atmosphere…….its certainly something I strive to do……….although not always successfully :oops: . I guess most model railways are severely compressed and none more so than MPDs so I have had a constant struggle to try and make the shed area look realistic within what is, in reality, quite a small corner.

There is just a bit more catch up from my "sabbatical" Alan and the thread will be up to date 


[user=1338]Ed[/user] wrote:

Apart from the buildings and adding to the incredible scenes you have already created, what on earth do you do now?

Extend in to the garden?

(A ceiling railway has already been mention


Ed

Thanks Ed……..There is an adjacent room with easy access but I am very dubious about getting permission from "her upstairs" :lol:

 I have to admire your stamina in wading through 42 pages of my somewhat mind numbing prose:roll:  I like having the  5 year history of Granby III under one roof as it were but I do sometimes worry that the sheer size of the thread must be a little offputting  to new members of the forum.

There is a surprising amount of building still to do…..I keep meaning to list it in a post……..but now that the track is virtually finished I tend to spend a lot more time operating…….the ultimate objective is to have 6+ trains operating in a realistic fashion controlled through the computor by RR&Co:shock:

Here is another update on the roundhouse

The North lights installed along with ventilators…….all 18 of them 





I am a great admirer of John Wiffen's kits but occasionally his instructions are a little sparse

Making the ventilators involved solving Rubrics cube:roll:











After a few false starts…..but better late than never……I remembered some great advice from Doug (Dooferdog)…….lightly scribing  the reverse of a fold line enables one to create very crisp corners.

Add some pastels and gunky paint to conceal join errors and then assemble en masse


 
 


Far right the booking in office is now almost completed……..On the left I eventually found a better home for the shed steam boiler (and the long lost chimney)


And finally I added some roof access for maintenance  (it also serves to conceal the last satisfactory subroof join:))







Hope you like it…….next post…….the Wheel drop.