Following the success of the above post, I will share a few more pictures with you

1.  Laser cut MDF girders, brackets, uprights and trusses that go to make up the canopy framework for Trinity Square.  The photo shows that superglued joints do break!
2.  The back of Trinity Square station building showing the rooms
3.  The Station Manager's office before the installation of his telephones
4.  The Stores office before the arrival of his telephone and typewriter
5.  Laser cut LNER signal box under construction to replace the old Airfix example at Yarslow South.  Luckily it fits in the gap I made!  The steps are actually the L&YR style but, hey, Rule 1.
6.  A total Xmas indulgence.  A Model Rail Sentinel via TMC.  I liked it and bought it, no other reason.  It will deal with the PW yard traffic at Yarslow.  When it arrived, the gears were not meshed (it was a used model) but TMC took it back and mended it.  3-4 day turnaround.  Excellent service, no quibble.  Not sure how it was not found out during their testing, but at least they stepped up with a fix.

Regards

Barry

Nice interiors Barry  



Ed

A total Xmas indulgence.  A Model Rail Sentinel via TMC.  I liked it and bought it, no other reason.

A good move Barry. I secured a GWR version from Hattons, after a very long search. Tthe GWR purchased two of them, but one went back after trails on branch passenger services, as it couldn't pull the stock !

The gearing is brilliant for shunting, as it will crawl like a well mannered tortoise on DC and a small Zimo decoder should fit well enough fr DCC, but the crew will have to lose some body parts to gain the cab, opps!

Bill
 

The Sentinal looks really good.

The interiors of the building must have taken you quite a while to do.

Hi all

Its been a while - I have been busy doing so many things that posting has just not made the list but I have kept in touch and continue to be inspired by everyone's work.

A few updates at Yarslow for you;



Yarslow South now has a new signal box - an LCut kit and very nice it is too.  I am building a smaller version for Trinity Square.  This one is fully detailed inside and is more NER than the old AIrfix box that once stood here.  Along with the box, bicycle bells, pretending to be signal box bells, are now fitted to the layout.  The timetable is written out but needs testing.  104 train movements for WS, SO, WRX etc etc.  Wish me luck!!



Trinity Square now beginning to look like the grotty inner city secondary terminus it is.  Think Nottingham Victoria!  The gateline and canopies, ticket booths and concourse roof have created a lovely atmosphere.  The wonky blue leg of the platform canopy has now been straightened as the canopies are glued down.  All figures are on clear bases so that I can move them around when I want to.  Little Billy and his Mum will probably appear at the shops at some point.



This Ancorten (?) kit is thin ply and mirrors the design of the old Dapol kit.  Magazines cut from images captured on the internet or from the PC.  2nd left is the February 1972 edition of Railway Modeller and two from the right is a B&W print of Fishing Weekly from the 1970's.  They are about 8mm x 4mm so no-one is going to spot the wrong dates!!  On the counter are prints of The Telegraph, Financial Times and London Gazette.  They are a well educated lot who get the trains here.  J (Jon) Snow, well-known newsreader follows the trend for witty shop names that include (on Bridge Street), James Fraser  [Undertaker]and Lesley Hornby aka Twiggy [ladies fashions].



Finally, the state of play at Yarslow.  The island platform shelter is scratchbuilt from a photo of a NER structure, much licence having been taken for ease.  People and platform junk appearing along with a NER water crane in the loop.  Since joining the NER Society, I have realised that the layout was very un-NER like so changes had to be made!!!

A professional photographer is coming in a few weeks to take a few snaps so I will be interested to see his take on things.  He'll probably want trains - I've got a few of those but they are somewhat camera shy.  There is a lot of weathering and detailing to be done to get them looking decent.

Three years ago (May 4th 2020), I started this project with the idea that it was a 5-year job.  The main construction is finished and its now just detailing and weathering and tweaking, correcting the one or two things I wish I had done differently.  For those who need a cure for insomnia, YouTube carries monthly updates (search Yarslow Model Railway to avoid lots of horse-racing videos about a horse called Yarslow).

At the start and along the way, I have been grateful for the comments, advice, warnings and constructive crticism I have received from YMRC.  Hopefully, now that the workload is relaxing (although the shoulder is still poorly!), I can get back to contributing more frequently.

Barry

No criticism here, Barry. That's looking good.

peterm said

No criticism here, Barry. That's looking good.

From “Post #290,427”, 3rd August 2024, 5:35 am

Seconded  



Ed

No complaints guys, I am happy to get constructive crticism and have received some very good stuff from contributors. 

Just to prove I've got some trains!

The Dapol Class 22 on the left is a Scottish based engine and by the early 1960's didn't roam too far from its North British maker so that inevitable failures could be sorted out.  It heads my Northbound cement train but for some reason carried "F" headcodes.  I hadn't noticed until I took this picture.  It has since been changed to "C" to reflect the fitted nature of the train.  As usual, the formation is copied from a photo I have - a fitted van at the head of the train may have carried bagged powder(?)

On the right, an ancient Hornby Standard 4MT 4-6-0.  Its loco drive so from the "China" era and still runs quite well but, to be honest, it's on the "replace" list.  The train is an excursion towards the seaside/holiday camp destination of Inglethorpe and has been captured passing the new Yarslow South signal box.  This is an MDF laser cut kit and jolly nice it is too, despite being a bit tricky to build.  It has a full interior.  Both kits from Ancorton (or similar, I can't remember) and the toal cost for building and interior was about £16 - bargain!!  The actual design is a bit more L&YR than I would have liked but, hey, Rule 1.  And its a lovely looking thing.



Above left - This is a new addition to Yarslow Down platform.  Based on photographs in my North Eastern Record books, its a double sided waiting shelter providing bench seating.  The structure is scratchbuilt in plastic card, scored to represent the planks where appropriate.  Posters from Sankey I recall.  The "leaded" windows are simply clear plastic card with fine tip "leadwork" drawn on.  It looks better from normal viewing distances than it does close up!  The porter is a whitemetal Montys figure painted and given a wash of Vallejo black to bring out the creases in his uniform.  The woman is an old airfix figure - pity her feet don't touch the floor!  The porter is on a clear plastic base as I intend to move the figures around from time to time.

Above right - the joy of going to exhibitions and avoiding the endless piles of "cheap" locomotives and rolling stock is immense.  I spend hours scouring the trade stands for detailing bits like these water taps.  West Hill Wagon Works are good as are Langley Miniature Models although the advent of 3D printing has caused an explosion of detailing bits and bobs.  I usually come back with at least 5 or 6 little bags of goodies having spent £30!!!  This picture also shows up how well the old Airfix engine shed paints up with a bit of practice.  Years ago a chap taught me to "flatbrush" brick colour over a basecoat of light mortar - holding a flat brush very flat to the surface and painting diagonally with not much paint on the brush and using light strokes.  More than dry-brushing but less than painting.  Individual bricks can be highlighted if required for effect but I have not done that here.  The wooden lean-to on the right also demonstrates the benefits of weathering powders - in my case, pastel chalks from shops like The Works.

B

ps - having picture sizing issues so apologies for the huge photos!!

Don't worry about the picture sizes Barry, they look great.

You've done a good job on the waiting shelter and I think the standpipe detailing really makes a difference.


 



Ed

Some excellent photos there Barry.

The cement train shot is a real beauty - love the way you've done the trackwork and the point rodding adds far more to the scene than I'd have imagined - really worth all the effort.  I'm not that keen on the bright yellow wagons - they may well be prototypical but they remind me too much of the garish colours Hornby use in their plastics ………….sorry about that.  

The signal box looks good - I'll have to have another look at Ancorton Models - I'd rather written them off in the past.

Tell me more about the platform shelter - you say it's scratch built from plasticard.  Did you buy the main posts or are they made from standard square plastic rod - I see you've cleverly shamfered their edges but left a square bit where the cross beams fit in - not an easy task with plastic stock !  Also, you seem to have mastered the art of painting embossed brickwork - not easy to get right.

As for the water tap - wow !!  Love it.

Hi Peter - thank you for your kind comments.

The yellow cement wagons are not so bad in normal viewing but definitely need a good dose of weathering to tone them down and stop them looking like train set items.  Some of the bauxite wagons have already been weathered with a white/cream powder following photos of actual wagons, added after the usual track-grime and brake-dust applications from my trusty cheap airbrush.  Hopefully the same treatment will sort out the yellow.

Ancorton are well worth a look - a bit fiddly to make (I use Roket card glue as an adhesive) and painted whilst still unassembled but nice things.  You can see, in the picture of the 4MT that the steps to the box are all added individually - a bit of a faff!  Parts are included to build their signal boxes as left-hand or right as required.  I have only used the signal boxes but believe they have various small buildings in their range.  Also cheap (here) - not sure about availability outside the UK.  Various traders carry their wares at shows so I cannot believe they would be tricky to get hold of and shipped out to you.  My box has an Ancorton interior but, as yet, no nameboard.

The platform shelter is entirely scratchbuilt as it sits on a curve and is wider at one end than the other.  Made from plastic sheet with the posts and crossrails simply cut from 20thou strip and stuck on with MEK.  This allowed me to make actual frames for the windows of clear material.  The planking is individual strips stuck on - I use the Plastruct series and have built up an extensive collection of strip, tube, square and beam.  They are all variously useful for all sorts of projects including guttering and downpipes etc.  The girders at Trinity Square are made of bits stuck to plain sheet.  The waiting shelter poster boards are a piece of plain sheet with a border of strip carefully added to ensure that the posters fit.  Benches are a strip with triangle supports.  The valances are from Scale Model Scenery or York Modelling, I forget which - both have an extensive range of laser cut MDF valances, edgings and decorations, very useful when making buildings look pretty.  MDF to plastic joins are made with contact adhesive.  The roof is Slaters tile cut from a sheet and overlapped.  Individual slates can be cut to give the appearance of slipping but as railways companies looked after their buildings, I haven't done this on this roof.  Humbrol 27 (slate grey) with other tones worked into odd tiles and weathering with powders gives a worn look.  The ridge tiles (seen in the earlier photo) are paper, folded and cut to create the fancy top the same way we used to make paper chains as kids!!  The end panels of the shelter are simply scored horizontally and match those on the canopies at Trinity Square in an attempt to add some "company" symmetry.

Incidentally, the cat on the walkway of the signalbox next to the 4MT, is one of 4 secreted around the layout to keep non-railway visitors amused!!

B

p.s.  Peter - I found this picture from the old Yarslow layout in London showing the weathering on the cement wagons.  Hopefully I can remember how to do this on the yellows.

B

Really great pictures Barry, those little details make all the difference. Wish I could get those results.

If you can do that weathering Barry, they would look fantastic !

Thank you for your kind comments.

Its "all hands to the pumps" for the next 10 days as I am expecting a visit from Jonathan Newton, Associate Editor Hornby Magazine who is coming over to take pictures ahead of Yarslow appearing in Hornby Magazine sometime soon.  Hopefully he will bring some guidance notes on writing photo captions and text as it's something I have not done before.  I fear I am more of a waffler than a coherant writer!!



In the meantime, as I start doing all those jobs I have been thinking about for ages, I am discovering a thousand others - like the cobwebs on these ballast wagons that haven't moved for a while!!!  The Foreman is a newly painted addition.

I will try to get some pictures of Jonathan's visit for a "behind the camera" piece.

B