5 times longer in coming than Brunel took making the real thing!

I've just read this thread from the start Mal and I have to say, you have a superb layout there. :thumbs

I love the little cameos and the whole thing is so realistic - a real credit to you and one that will inspire me to get a move on !! :cheers

[user=380]Kaiser[/user] wrote:

Cheers Derek - I've been following your thread with interest as we seem to be at similar stages (the 'endurance stage' - very well put!) - there is also going to be an LNWR influence at Ottersford & I used to live next to the old L & Y Liverpool to Southport line.  The tracks were taken up in the late 50s & many an hour of my youth was spent walking the old track bed & exploring the disused & derelict signal boxes & station buildings.  The old L & Y terminal in Southport became a bus station until redevelopment in the 80s.

 

Hi Mal

I missed this somehow and when I read I got confused for a bit……………the L&Y Liverpool to Southport Line is still in existence as far as I know………..it is the electrified line that runs from Liverpool Exchange to Southport Chapel Street……….if challenged I could probably name all the intermediate stations…….I travelled that line enough times to and from school!

I am guessing the line you are referring to is the old Cheshire Lines Committee (really LNER) that ran from Liverpool Central and wound its way across Formby Moss to Southport Lord Street……..it even had a stop in Birkdale right by the sand dunes for the old Palace Hotel

Great to see the way your layout is developing and I totally relate to your comments about soldering under baseboards….ugh!!

Kind Regards

I visited the old Cheshire Lines near Halsall a couple of years back and nature has completely reclaimed the ground level stuff which remained.
Very attractive in a natural and unplanned way.
Not many people visit it.

:hiMal, Congrats on your railway being chosen for the YMR Photo spot.

Hows the track wireing going, maybe use your motor bike crash hat save a few bruises .

I chickened out on all those electro-frogs and converted most to insulated jobs, I don,t plan on running many 0-4-0 industrial loco,s, although I will have to be careful with the 2-4-2 T types.

Thanks for telling me about your railway walks around your old stamping grounds.

Goodluck with the build :thumbs

Derek

Well, how honoured hi ham to have a pic of Easewood as header!  Thanks guys.

Not much been happening as I've run out of track underlay, wire & er - oh yes, money!

If it was a picture of some money Mal - it won't print !!  Everything is set up to forward money direct to my account so I can check for forgeries.  Strange as it may seem, most of those I've received have in fact been forgeries so I've been unable to return them to their owners ……………..:roll::roll::cheers

2nd try for this post!  Have to remember what I said now.

In the meantime, John you're quite right it was the old Cheshire Lines that I used to amble along - I remember seeing the signs now! The old L & Y (electrified) is still in existence - my Great Aunt used to take me trips to Southport from Waterloo on that line.  However, it was Ainsdale station that was on the beach, not Birkdale!  Birkdale station is still open!  I used to live in Ainsdale not far from the old Palace Hotel, which in the 70's had become the night club Toad Hall.

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, I got caught out with my track plan because the original plan (see page 1) was for 'N' gauge which meant I needed 4' for the dock line & exit roads at the North end of Ottersford.  As this section is against a wall, 4' would be too wide, so I may have to reduce the radius of the exit tracks & there will be a bit less sea! I've also decided to model the river & surrounding landscape before putting in bridges & track.







Sandra's medication comes every two weeks & has to be kept refrigerated, so comes packed in a box insulated with a high density foam.  It's light, cuts very easily & doesn't make any mess like polystyrene.  Unfortunately, I've only just found this out after 3 years so lots has been thrown away!

I've also had a re-think about the control panel.  The main panel is to be 'inside' the circuit, & as I've opted for 3-link couplings & the goods yard  is on the opposite side, any shunting would have involved 'ducking under' all the time.  So I've decided to have a secondary control panel, covering the goods reception loop & the yard, situated opposite the main panel, so allowing completely independent operation of the yard.

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks for everybody's kind comments - it really does help keep you motivated during the 'endurance stage'!

:hiMal Good to see your Post and photo,s, All those high level scenic runs should be great to view :thumbs.

3-links Ahh your eyesite must be good, and a steady hand helps, Have you a lift up section for getting out of the operator well?

Waiting for track and stuff, Part of the joys of the mail order railway brigade.

I have another 20 yards either in the suppliers emporium or the post somewhere.

Cash is another topic  I did have some grand spending plans this week :oops: trouble is the phone and heating bills arrived.

They have no consideration!

Anyway enough rambling!

All the best,

Derek

[user=380]Kaiser[/user] wrote:

In the meantime, John you're quite right it was the old Cheshire Lines that I used to amble along - I remember seeing the signs now! The old L & Y (electrified) is still in existence - my Great Aunt used to take me trips to Southport from Waterloo on that line.  However, it was Ainsdale station that was on the beach, not Birkdale!  Birkdale station is still open!  I used to live in Ainsdale not far from the old Palace Hotel, which in the 70's had become the night club Toad Hall.

 

There were actually two Ainsdale Stations (Well 3 if you include Woodvale)…….there was and still is Ainsdale on the Electrified Line. Ainsdale Beach used to be on the CLC……..it was the station before Birkdale Palace

What really got the old nostalgia going was your mention of Toad Hall……….spent many happy saturday nights there in the early 70s……………isnt life bizarre a guy in Vancouver reminiscing with a guy in South Africa about an obscure night club in Lancashire in 1970……on a railway forum……………go figure!!:roll::roll:

Back to your thread:oops:…….good solid progress Mal until like me you ran out of track…..probably lots of other stuff to do though:cheers 

 

 

Aren't all nightclubs in Lancashire obscure ? ……………………..:pedal

Aren't all nightclubs in Lancashire obscure ? ……………………..:pedal

Petermac - you're obviously a child of the 60s & still popping the odd sugar cube!  Obscured By Clouds maybe!  And the picture would only have been of small change so you couldn't print it anyway.


John - I stand corrected again.  I remember the old Palace Hotel in Birkdale - I was thinking of the Station Hotel Ainsdale. A friend of mine got a job on a local newspaper (Ormskirk Advertiser I think) around the time they were demolishing the Palace Hotel.  Story was the Hotel had been built back to front & the owner or architect had committed suicide & the Hotel was reputed to be haunted by their ghost - lifts going up & down with the power off, that sort of thing.  The Hotel had been emptied prior to demolition & he was commissioned to spend the night there & write a story for his paper.  He lasted till about 2am & said it was the scariest thing (still, we were only in our 20s!) with doors slamming, creaking & indeed the lift did go up & down even though all power was off!  Maybe journalistic licence as if nothing had happened he wouldn't have a story!

Bizarre indeed that this communication is going on - makes you realise how the Earth has shrunk.  I've just had an email from a guy I used to be at Grammar School with & haven't seen since.  He moved to Durban in 1976!

Done a little bit more work on Station Road, Easewood.



Compare this with pic on page 2 - not much to show for a few months!



Nanny hurries down Station Road with her charge, no doubt frightened by the large Rose blooms!  The cottage is my 2nd attempt at scratch building - card & plasticard. The wall surface is fine surface Polyfilla stippled on with a brush.  Plant in the window is the tip of a chicken feather, of which I now have plenty, dipped in green paint then teased out with a pin.  The bush on the right has been compared to a Hydrangea.  Some one said "That bush on the right looks nothing like a Hydrangea."  Ah well.

That looks great Mal…………..where did you get the nanny on the bike ……..I have never seen anything quite like that before……..in the nicest possible sense

I would tell your gardening critics that Hydrangeas were always that size in the 1920s

Kind Regards

Lovely work, Mal.  :thumbs  

Pity about the date stamp.  I'm having a devil of a job photoshopping it out when I nick your photos. 

Station road looks very effective and atmospheric. Some super scratch building going on and it is great to see nicely painted figures on a layout.

Excellent, Mal a delightful little scene.

Unfortunately, not a lot to report as 2 puppy St Bernards & various other things have conspired to keep me away from the layout.

Gremble & Honey are coming on fine - this is them after the first rain fall of the summer:



I still can't believe how long everything takes.  I've got in excess of 100 kits accumulated over the years & at the current rate of progress I hope I keep going long enough to get my telegram from the Queen (or King as it may be by then).  I just completed a 40' Siphon from a K's kit (£2.99 on the packet!) This is it being loaded with the morning milk at Easewood:



Didn't have an 'F' on my transfer sheet but the running number is authentic!

This is a train spotters view from the road as Dean Goods shunts the Siphon to join the 5.45 to Ottersford:




I also spent quite some time putting together a Scalescene's Coal Office for Easewood, but Gremble can now reach the bench and his opinion of my work was unequivocal:



I've also been building a horse drawn parcel van but it's not quite complete - still, it's only been 3 weeks work so far!

Main line track laying has stalled at the Northern end of Ottersford as the river section needs to be completed before the two bridge sections can be installed - I thought this would be easier than try to add the river under the track!  I using the proven method of shaped formaldehyde foam covered in plaster soaked cloth:



I've also found a home for the weigh bridge at Easewood. I eventually went with Martin's suggestion & did a bit of re-landscaping.  also took the opportunity to re-work the fencing:



If you compare this pic with the one earlier in the thread I think it's a bit of an improvement.



This shows that I only lost a few inches from the siding & the office looks OK.  I set it a small angle for an easier 'flow' through the station gate:



So that's about it.  Not much for three months or so!  Next push is to get the river landscaping finished, the main line completed & get Easewood connected at last to the outside world!

Best wishes to all - Mal

Great Photos Mal…………….including the dogs………they are clearly enjoying life.

Thats a lovely model of the Siphon……..I havent seen one like that before.

I hope you have more luck than I with the Dean Goods…………I hate tender drive with a passion and despite installing a Lenz Gold Chip and stay alive (cost far more than the loco) its running is still not really acceptable.

I am so glad you adjusted the layout to accommodate the Weigh Bridge…………it looks perfect there :thumbs……so much better than the various compromises…………

………a diffident suggestion……….now you even have room to install the guard rail:pedal

 

 

Thanks John - now job no. 137 on the 'to do' list - guard rails for weigh bridge!