The Burford Branch

Tell us about your layout, where you put it, how you built it, how you operate it.
martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:45 pm

In November last year, when there was a lull in activity on the layout, I posted some photos of some of the passenger stock intended for the layout. There is another slight pause at the moment before progress on the layout resumes, and so I thought I would show you another passenger train that I have been building (slowly, oh so very slowly!) for the layout. This comprises a set of four close-coupled 4-wheel coaches, of a type that had mainly disappeared from the GWR by the end of the 1920s. Such trains were not always close-coupled, but I was aware that examples of this particular ensemble were seen as close-coupled sets in some cases (comprising a Diagram T47 Van Third, an S9 Third, a U4 Compo, and another T47 Van Third to bring up the rear). Another possible combination was a 5-coach set, with an additional S9 Third.

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The models were built from the well-known Ratio kits, and this train is still very much a work in progress, as much of the glazing remains to be done, plus hand grabs on the outer ends of the set, and various other details. I pay quite a lot of attention to roof details (which are clearly visible from the angle at which we usually view our models), but I give very little attention to underframe details (which are largely impossible to see in the gloom beneath the vehicle).

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So far as close-coupling is concerned, I tried to get the gap between the coaches as near as possible to the correct separation that the prototype vehicles had [18 inches at the headstocks, and 12 inches above waist level], but the means by which I originally joined the vehicles together caused derailments and had to be re-thought. A short wire loop between the headstocks was not the answer, and so I fitted a long length of thick brass wire pivoted from well inboard, which engages with a similarly positioned length of thick-walled tube under the next vehicle. A wire stirrup below the end of the coach prevents the coupling wire from flopping down and disengaging from its neighbour. These wires will be blackened or painted when completing the models.

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The arrangements on the prototype involved a short pair of buffers on one coach, and dumb buffers (wooden blocks) on the headstock of the adjoining coach. I used the shortest sprung buffers I could find……………..

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………but in order to get the coach ends close enough, thin ‘plates’ of styrene sheet had to be fixed to the opposing headstock, in place of the dumb buffers that should have been there.

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The lower footboards, by the way, are 3mm x 1mm brass section, as I found the plastic mouldings in the kit far too fragile. I really must get around to finishing this train.

IMG_6292 (2).JPG
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Dave K
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Dave K » Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:24 pm

Martin,

I like your rake of close coupled Ratio 4 wheeler coaches and your method of getting them run as close coupled but have a couple of questions.

What buffers have you used for the internal coaches, someone once told me to use GW wagon buffer bodies with coach buffer heads? And I remember an article from a Model Railway Constructor from the 1960’s about upgrading these coaches, such that was possible then, but I can’t tell from the photos if you have replaced the door handles, grab handles etc or just painted over them with brass paint?

Dave

Philip Hall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Philip Hall » Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:03 pm

I am impressed with this little rake, Martin. And your ingenious coupling. My solution is to have very heavy carriages and very lightly sprung buffers, and the weight means buffing forces cannot force the vehicles off the track.

As for grab handles, enlarging the picture shows that you have indeed left them as moulded, which just goes to prove that they’re not at all obvious! I’ve left moulded handrails in place before now and with a bit of shading on the moulding it’s a very tidy option.

Philip

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David B
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby David B » Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:09 pm

Martin. I am intrigued by the guard's ducket which I alway assumed allowed the guard to see along the side of the train without getting his head knocked off. The ducket on your coach has no windows. Is this right or does the ducket have some other purpose?

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Tue Jun 22, 2021 12:29 pm

Thanks, gents, for your kind comments.

I didn’t mention which buffers I had used between the coaches, because I couldn’t remember precisely where they came from (!) I can confirm though, that they were the shortest sprung wagon buffers I could find. They span a gap of only 6 mm at the level of the headstocks; hence the need to reduce the dumb buffers on the opposite coach to a thin (10-thou) layer of styrene. Prototype photos in Volume 1 of Russell’s GW Coaches show that only very small buffer heads were used here. They are, as Philip suggested, very lightly sprung (just enough to keep them in contact with the headstock of the next coach).

I have added substantial weight to these coaches (100 grams each for the two Van Thirds, and 75 grams each for the other two coaches), comprising areas of lead sheet on the floor of each compartment. I agree with Philip’s approach to the weighting of coaches, although the wheels do need to be very free-running in their bearings when this amount of weight is added to a coach.

As regards the door handles and grab handles (‘commode handles’?), I did indeed retain the kit mouldings intact, and simply painted them brass colour (although they should strictly speaking be bronze, which is slightly darker). My approach to this is to consider the appearance of the mouldings before deciding whether to replace them. In this case, I decided that they looked perfectly OK, so I didn’t carve them off. [I have seen some models where the bent wire that has been substituted is less convincing than the original mouldings!]

Lastly, the guard’s duckets [known by the GWR as ‘projections’]. David Brandreth is absolutely right in querying these, and it has been on my To Do list for some time to add a representation of the narrow lookout windows. I did try making some extra panelling for this purpose, but then found on looking at photos of the prototype that there was no panelling on the narrow sides of these projections. I think I have devised a way of representing the lookout windows without bothering to drill or cut into the plastic, but I have yet to try this on the ‘B’ side of the two Van Thirds, before applying it (if successful) to the projections on the ‘A’ side.

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Wed Jun 23, 2021 7:06 pm

I should perhaps clarify something I wrote yesterday, when I said that I “found on looking at photos of the prototype that there was no panelling on the narrow sides of these projections”. The panelling was in fact still there but, in the 1920s, it was no longer picked out as it has been in the pre-WW1 period. This photo shows what I mean:

Guard's Projections (alt livery).jpg

……compared with this pre-1WW example, where the mouldings had been picked out in black, like the other mouldings on the coach side:

Guard's Projections_0001.jpg

What I am proposing to do is to produce a sort of ‘trompe l’oeil’ waterslide decal on the computer, which reproduces the shadow thrown by the raised mouldings in the 1920s example, as well as the look-out window itself.
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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Thu Jul 01, 2021 3:12 pm

In the past week or so, I have been laying paving in the goods yard. Part of the aim in doing this is to disguise the baseboard joint where it cuts across the goods yard. In this first shot, the paving either side of the baseboard joint had been cut out and filed to fit, and was being tried in place. The material used is Wills Scenic Sheet SSMP204 Granite Setts.

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When this and the adjoining sections were firmly fixed down, the slight gaps seen above had disappeared, and even the baseboard joint itself was no longer visible, although the paving either side of that joint has not been glued together, as the baseboards must still be capable of being separated. (The paving in the 4-foot will be added later.)

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At this stage there are quite large expanses of bare paving, but various coal merchants’ paraphernalia will take up at least part of this area. Slight variation in the colour of the plastic mouldings is of no concern, as I shall paint it all white to start with to kill the colour, and then paint the stone setts a light brownish grey, picking out the joints between the setts with sepia watercolour.

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Further pieces were gradually added to this jig-saw, which involved some subtle changes in level across the yard. This next shot is another example of pieces of paving having been fitted together but not yet fixed in place.

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Again, the joints were tightened up when the adjoining sheets were joined together. Discolouration of the paved surface near the joints has been caused by an over-generous application of Mekpak, which will be painted over later, and the stone setts will then have a much more uniform appearance, with fewer apparent changes of angle and colour.

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In order to show the finished appearance I am aiming for, here in the foreground of this shot (in true Blue Peter fashion) is one I made earlier. This paving was laid some time ago when I built the brewery maltings, and served as a useful test-bed for the paving I intended to use, including my aim to achieve seamless joints so far as possible.

IMG_7120A.JPG

Other commitments have enforced another pause in further progress, and it may be another week before I can get back to this project.
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steve howe
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby steve howe » Thu Jul 01, 2021 3:34 pm

Looking very nice Martin, good to see the layout back up and running. :thumb

I used the Wills setts on a couple of projects but because I like using watercolours to tint stonework I made moulds and took Das castings which was quite successful. I coloured the setts when laid, and then 'grouted' them with dry Polyfilla to reduce the depth of the mouldings, subsequently sprayed with water and weathered with dilute enamels when dry. A more detailed bit about it is here:

https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=3745&hilit=inglenook+in+p4

With the mouldmaking series starting about halfway down page 1.

Steve

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Thu Jul 01, 2021 5:00 pm

Thanks, Steve.

I have just refreshed my memory of your own thread. Yours is an interesting method, and clearly produces excellent results. However, I am basically lazy, and so I am always looking for the quickest and easiest way of producing any desired result. So I am happy to use (and adapt where necessary) commercial products like the Wills scenic sheets.

I find that I can paint plastic materials with matt enamels, and still produce a result which avoids a 'plastic' look if matting agent is added, and in some cases also a spray of matt varnish afterwards (such as Testor's Dulcote).
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bécasse
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby bécasse » Thu Jul 01, 2021 7:24 pm

Like much of the range, I find the Wills "granite" setts distinctly overscale for 4mm (although they look more realistic in 7mm), but I have found that the Wills brickwork, which isn't the right size for bricks either, makes reasonable granite setts. The base colour is obviously wrong but that isn't too difficult to put right with a matt grey spray can before weathering effects are subsequently added (using artists' acrylic paint from tubes in my case).

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Thu Jul 01, 2021 7:46 pm

The Wills scenic sheets are certainly overscale, but I think they represent a reasonable "artist's impression", which is all I am seeking to create with my models.

More accurate alternatives can be found if people think the appearance of the Wills products is unacceptable, but for the sake of speed and ease of use I am happy to compromise.

bécasse
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby bécasse » Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:09 pm

I certainly wasn't meaning to criticise your use of them, although it is a shame that they were produced so over-scale, but merely to point out for the benefit of others that the range does include a product which might offer a reasonable and better-scaled alternative.

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:43 pm

So far as I am concerned, David, your remarks were fair comment. I didn't regard them as criticism (but my model-making is certainly not immune from criticism, and so I am perfectly happy to see criticism of my efforts).

There is no denying that the Wills scenic sheets are overscale. I fully accept that quite a few model-makers will find them unsatisfactory for that reason; this is a perfectly valid point of view. I simply wanted to explain my reason (my excuse, if you like) for using them nonetheless.

I had a very good friend, who is no longer with us unfortunately, who thought my approach to model-making was disgracefully slipshod. He was certainly justified in his point of view, being an extremely accurate model-maker himself, who would never compromise in his pursuit of scale accuracy in the way I do.

Terry Bendall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri Jul 02, 2021 8:49 am

martin goodall wrote:I had a very good friend, who is no longer with us unfortunately, who thought my approach to model-making was disgracefully slipshod. He was certainly justified in his point of view, being an extremely accurate model-maker himself, who would never compromise in his pursuit of scale accuracy in the way I do.


We all have our own approach to "standards" and they might differ depending on what we are building. That loco may be totally "correct" down to the finest detail but we might accept a different standard elsewhere. In the end rule No. 1 (This is my layout) applies. :)

Terry Bendall

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:34 pm

After a week away from the layout, I did some further work on the goods yard paving, completing it up to the bridge, but leaving the remainder of the paving behind the Goods Shed until later.

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I also completed the board crossing, the last section of which had been deferred until I knew precisely where the paving would be laid. (I had considered the possibility of laying it right up to the rail, but decided in the end to leave a gap, which will be filled with mud/ash – as seen in several prototype photos that I found).

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I then returned to the Goods Shed, adding the main roof, and the roofs of the various lean-to extensions.

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During my next enforced absence from the layout, I took the Goods Shed with me, so that I could make some further progress on the model. The work done so far has consisted of adding fascia boards to the gables and barge-boards (or ‘verge-boards') to the verges of the main roof, and also fabricating boxed eaves for the main shed structure.

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The boxed eaves proved to be slightly problematic. (“Slight cock-up in the Drawing Office.”)
I managed more-or-less to sort out the boxed eave on the near-side of the building, but a correctly measured replacement will have to be substituted on the other side of the building (facing towards the back of the layout). In addition, I had failed to sort out precisely how a junction was to be arranged between the boxed eaves and the fascia boards/bargeboards, so this will have to be ‘fudged’ in some way after the main roof has been slated. The problem is clear in this shot of the corner of the building.

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One item that remains to be dealt with is the addition of brackets extending from the fascia boards to support the bargeboards. On these GWR goods sheds, there could be more than a dozen at each end the building (too many for them to be extended purlins projecting through the gable end, as I had originally thought). I have found one goods shed, at Watchet, with only nine brackets at each end of the roof including one at the ridge, so I shall use that as the prototype for this feature. When the brackets are stuck in place I shall also paint the soffit boards under the roof verge, which I have left unpainted pending glueing of the brackets in place.
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Simon Moore

Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Simon Moore » Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:09 am

I have just come across this post & wow just wow!

Some of the best modelling I have ever seen. I have a long way to go before I am anywhere near as good as this, that station is superb.
I was in Burford a few years ago & looked to see if the gwr had reached it, I was suprised to find it hadn't. Lovely modelling & a superb layout. I will follow with interest.

Simon

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:54 am

It really is surprising that the railway never reached Burford, although it is very unlikely that Burford would have been a terminus. The line would have run from Oxford to Cheltenham, via Witney, Burford, Northleach and Andoversford. There were in fact repeated proposals during the 19th century for a line following this route. The earliest was put forward in 1836, and the last was proposed in 1904. The GWR itself obtained an act for a broad gauge line in the mid-1840s, and a light railway order was granted in 1904 to the Witney, Burford & Andoversford Light Railway Syndicate.

The problem was that this area was a battleground between the GWR and rivals such as the London & Birmingham (who were behind the 1836 scheme), its successor the LNWR, and the short-lived West Midland Railway (as successor to the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton). In the early 1860s, even the Midland Railway was casting covetous eyes in this direction.

The GWR never had any intention of building its 1840s scheme; it had purely been a spoiling tactic to keep the LNWR out of GWR territory. The light railway scheme dating from the late 1890s, which got its LRO in 1904, simply couldn't raise the necessary finance, and finally died the death when the Treasury pulled the plug on their contribution to the scheme under the 1896 Act.

The East Gloucestershire Railway got their Act for a rival Oxford to Cheltenham scheme in 1863 (revised in 1864), via Witney, Lechlade, Fairford and the Coln Valley to Andoversford and Cheltenham. This scheme actually got started, but petered out in a field near Fairford, never to be completed beyond this 'temporary' terminus.

So Burford might easily have found its place on the railway map, though as a through station on the Oxford to Cheltenham main line. But it could just as easily have been built by the LNWR, rather than the GWR. Such were the vagaries of Britain's railway politics in the 19th century.

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sat Aug 28, 2021 12:18 pm

There has been a distinct pause in work on the layout in the past month or so, while I turned to the assembly of new bookcases for the railway library, providing a solution at last to my long-standing bookshelf crisis. Some time was then spent in re-organising books and magazines to make more sensible use of the shelf space now available, and model-making inevitably went on the back burner for a time. This, together with some armchair modelling in the form of research for future rolling stock, is my excuse for having neglected the layout project for several weeks.

Having finally turned my attention back to the layout, I have now slated one side of the Goods Shed roof, together with its two lean-to extensions (the goods office at one end and the goods lock-up at the other). For this I used self-adhesive laser-cut slate strips from York Modelmaking. The first course of my slate-laying was a bit ragged, and I shall have to see if I can tidy this up, or at least ‘fudge’ its appearance at a later stage. I also omitted to lay a row of under-slates at the eaves, but this omission will be hidden when I paint the roof, which at present is far too dark for slates that have been in place on a roof for some years.

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My slate-laying is far from perfect, and will not stand up to really close scrutiny (with rows of unequal depth, and some rows waving around a bit), but its overall appearance is reasonably acceptable.

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One detail I remembered to incorporate this time (which I had omitted on previous slate roofs on the layout) is the need to lay a ‘slate-and-a-half’ at the end of a row where there is not enough room for a full-width slate in that position. Slaters would not have used only half a slate in this case, but would have had a number of wider slates to hand that could be used in this situation. The laser-cut strips did not include any provision for these wider slates, but I was able to cut suitable pieces from the margin of the sheet to produce a ‘slate-and-a-half’ where required.

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The back of the roof will be visible only at an acute angle, and so I may try to find a quicker way to represent the slates on that side of the roof, as the time and effort of laying laser-cut strips would probably not be justified. After the roof is painted a lighter shade of slate grey, I can then add the lead flashing on the roof ridge and around the chimney. Gutters and rain water pipes will then follow, and I really must get around to re-fixing those glazing bars on the windows.
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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sat Aug 28, 2021 3:09 pm

I seem to have omitted to post previously some photos showing the brackets that support the barge-boards [or ‘verge-boards’]. These were added to the building back in July. I reduced the number to match those on gable ends of the goods shed at Watchet.

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martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Sat Oct 02, 2021 9:44 am

More than a month has passed since I last reported on progress on the layout. I had put further work on the goods yard paving aside after mid-July and resumed work on the Goods Shed. This carried on for a time after the end of August (of which more anon), before I resumed work on the goods yard paving. This proved to be a time-consuming and rather tedious process, but it takes as long as is needed in order to produce the desired result. (It’s what the Germans call Eigenzeit.) I used Wills Scenic Sheets (granite setts) for this paving.

This first shot (entirely un-posed) shows the neat and tidy way in which I work (!) [There’s a simple rule of thumb – the tool I need next is the one at the bottom of heap.]

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I deferred laying the paving in the 4-foot at first, and laid in a central gulley and drain (trying the etched drain cover in place to check its fit).

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The paving is set back from the front siding, and the space between this and the outside rail will be filled either with packed earth or planking.

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The paving in the 4-foot was cut from the same moulding as I used for the curve on the outside of the rail, and this provided the required radius for the inside curve of the paving in the 4-foot. A scratch gauge was then used to mark the other side of the 4-foot insert, set to a width of 17.5 mm (a shade under the minimum P4 back-to-back), checked with a vernier gauge and filed if necessary. A crossing flangeway gauge was used to set the paving in the correct position between the rails, and the inset paving was given a final check with a roller gauge.

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Levels had to be carefully adjusted to take account of a discrepancy in the height of the baseboards at the baseboard joint. [I explained how this arose, and how it was resolved in an article in MRJ 71.] There was also a need to slope the paving up slightly towards the rear to ensure it was at the right height in relation to the doorsteps of the coal offices (former cottages) behind the siding.

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As I explained earlier, the brewhouse is based on the prototype at Donnington Brewery, near Stow-on-the Wold. I have modelled the chute by which spent grain and hops were tipped out, and this involved modelling the pit enclosure into which this waste was poured, for later collection as animal feed. The main door of the brewhouse was also raised above the level of the ground in front of the building, and so it was necessary to build a ramp up to the door. This has yet to be filled in with an earth bank.

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The last section of this do-it-yourself jig-saw puzzle was finally stuck in place, and only a limited amount of filler (Squadron White Putty) was needed to deal with a few minor gaps in the paving. The key to accurate assembly of the paving was to cut sections slightly oversize and then to trim and file them back until a perfect fit was achieved. Accurate cutting is easier if the sheet is cut from the back, using a sharp Stanley trimming knife. For complicated or awkward shapes, I found it helpful to make a paper template first, before cutting plastic. On the prototype, the paving was level with the head of the rail but, as a result of previous experience, I set the paving about half a millimetre below the head of the rail, in order to avoid the risk of loco wheels being lifted off the rails and losing electrical contact and also to prevent paint being rubbed off the paving when cleaning the rails with a track rubber.

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The next job will be to paint the whole of the paving with Matt White enamel to kill the grey colour, before painting it in a lighter granite colour.
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Mark Tatlow
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby Mark Tatlow » Mon Oct 04, 2021 11:32 am

Hi Martin

There is a fair value of Wills sheets in that little effort!

I found cutting Wills sheet with a blade a tough ask as the material is quite thick and as it has the moulding on one of the faces it doesn't bend and snap in a particularly predictable manner.

Thus, I cut Wills sheet with a piercing saw but with a no 4 or courser blade in it. Each time I ask Derek at Eileens for such a course grade blade he queries if I really do want such a crude weapon or not! Like you I cut from the back and I take fairly slow strokes so that the blade cuts rather than melts the sheet.

Mark
Mark Tatlow

martin goodall
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Oct 04, 2021 2:42 pm

As Mark suggests, some modellers prefer to cut Wills scenic sheets with a piercing saw. I do use a saw when making internal cuts, such as window openings. In this case, I drill holes inside the four corners (slightly inboard from the actual corner), and thread a fairly coarse piercing saw blade through one of the holes before stretching the blade and tightening up the frame. The cut-out is fairly rough, but I am careful to keep the cut inside the line and then file the opening carefully to the required dimensions.

However, when cutting the Wills scenic sheet for the paving, and also the stone sheet for the overline bridge (described here last year), I found a Stanley trimming knife perfectly satisfactory, provided one uses a sharp blade. Straight lines were cut against a heavy steel straight-edge, but I found that curved lines can be easily cut freehand, first drawing the knife along the marked curve and then deepening the cut by several passes until the workpiece is cut through. Of course, this only works if you are cutting on the smooth side (i.e. the back) of the sheet.

I have made extensive use of Wills scenic sheets for buildings and structures on this layout, and for the goods yard paving. As Mark observed, this involved buying a significant quantity of these sheets, but if you were to value your time in monetary terms, you would find that the cost of such time-saving products is fully justified.

The only problem I have encountered with Wills scenic sheets is that some of them may become brittle with age. This seems particularly to affect those sheets that represent brick, but on those occasions when a brick sheet has fractured, I have been able to re-join it without the break showing. Some buildings and structures require more than one sheet to assemble a wall, but I have found that with care one can disguise the joins fairly effectively, hiding them behind drain pipes or making the join down a door jamb and along a lintel. Where a butt joint cannot be avoided, it is usually possible to make the join fairly accurately, applying a limited amount of filler over the joint and then relying on a layer of paint finally to hide the joint. The final appearance of these sheets depends on careful painting and weathering, using my favourite medium – artists’ acrylics (although I used Humbrol enamels on the Goods Shed).

DougN
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Re: The Burford Branch

Postby DougN » Tue Oct 05, 2021 1:31 am

RE Wills sheets... for some reason I have been addicted to building the craftsman kits recently. As Martin and Mark have stated I agree with the use of a coarse piecing saw blade along with a stanley "break off" blade knife, the big version! The other is the trumpeter scribe which is a hook looking tool some times called a Panel line engraver. Takes a nice slice out of the older wills sheets where it has gone brittle. Takes a bit of scribing but does cut through the sheet in time and with less hand ache!

On another note I have been noticing that a number of the sheets don't come square and need to be true'd up with a file/ blade edge before measuring and marking out. The latest ones I have noticed was the slate roofing sheet on the short side this can be seen as a plain edge against the raised texture of the slates. Also the latest sheets from Peco no longer have the Wills name and copy right on the back and are alot more flexible! These are the sheets in the clear boxes by Peco.
Doug
Still not doing enough modelling

martin goodall
Posts: 1425
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:20 pm

Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Tue Oct 05, 2021 10:28 am

Thanks for the extra information, Doug.

I did not mention that, like Doug, I have found it necessary to trim off some slight moulding waste from the edges of the sheet to get a straight line and square corners, before doing any further work on the sheet.

Another point, raised by one of my friends relates to the moulded kerbs on granite setts sheets. There is kerbing along one side and one end. In some cases, this can be used as supplied, but it is an easy matter to cut the kerb off where it is not needed and to save it for later use. I used the same kerbing for the drainage channels, and for kerbs in various positions around or between the paving. There was more than enough kerbing to supply these requirements, and I ended up with a surplus, which has been carefully stored in case it might come in useful in the future.

One final point, again mentioned to me by a friend, is the fact that inset track usually takes the form of 'tram rails' or has a check rail on each side of the setts in the 4-foot. I was aware of this before I started, but I am just lazy, and so I ignored it. I rely on my usual excuse - "It's only intended to be an artist's impression."

martin goodall
Posts: 1425
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:20 pm

Re: The Burford Branch

Postby martin goodall » Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:18 am

In the past couple of weeks, I have been painting the paving in the goods yard. Surrounding buildings were removed to give clear access to the paving and to avoid paint being splashed on their walls.

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The paving was then painted matt white to kill the grey colour of the plastic mouldings and to provide an undercoat for further painting of the stone setts.

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The earth bank in front of the approach ramp to the Brewhouse was built up next from a card former, topped with a layer of Mod-roc, and a sloping base was added to the pit for the spent malt and hops.

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These items were then painted with Buff Titanium artists' acrylic, mixed with Sand Texture Gel. Further painting and detailing of this feature will be dealt with later.

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A light brownish grey mix of enamels was thinly painted over the white undercoat, but this proved to be too light.

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My intention was to wash Sepia Tint watercolour over the surface of the paving to pick out the joints between the setts and to stain them a slightly darker brown. I decided to experiment with this to see if it would be sufficient to darken the colour of the paving to the sort of tone I had in mind. A drop of washing-up liquid in the water proved to be a more effective wetting agent than isopropyl alcohol. (These photos were taken when the watercolour was still wet and it is misleadingly dark in these views.)

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The overall result, however, was still not dark enough.

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I applied more enamels in a slightly darker mix, applied by dry brushing using a light touch and, when dry, Sepia Tint watercolour was generously brushed over the surface.

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All the photos above were taken before the watercolour had dried. The following morning, the watercolour had largely disappeared in some areas, and will have to be re-done.

Some details (such as the drain cover) remain to be added but I am pleased that, after such a long wait, I have now completed the goods yard surface itself, subject to some slight retouching of the joints between the setts. It looks like a rather large bare expanse of paving at the moment, but will eventually be covered by piles of coal and other goods.
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