7mm Scruft's Junction:- Down the Garden path

[Dog Star]

I've just gone through the recent Heyside postings, and can't see any unanswered questions. Probably me being thick, but can you point me in the right direction.

I have just spent a happy half-hour re-reading the Heyside thread and I am as confused as Richard.... I intended to write something about the subject... and I think that I started to add another post - the post must have found its way to the Black Hole which resides under most modellers' workbench (as reported regularly on the 7mm Yahoo Group).

Anyhow the question. Depron seems to be a good starting point for the retaining walls of our layout as those walls are to be a representation of the wall behind the platform at Parkend. In this case the face of the stone wall is fairly smooth with very few stones standing proud of adjacent stones. The same cannot be said for the bridges at Mierystock and Dilke where a fair number of stones have the face proud of the surface.

I thought that some of the retaining walls of Heyside had some of the stones standing proud.... and I guess the first question ought to be:- if my recollection is correct, then what material was used for those walls? If the walls are made with Depron then what is the method of reproducing stones which have more depth than others?

In discussion with John Lewsey recently John has suggested that he will try DAS and the Gordon Gravett method for the stone terraces of Hartley Hill. Whilst I am a fan of Gordon's buildings I do not see how to reproduce the stonework of the bridges for Scrufts Junction from DAS when the general method of applying DAS is to roll a piece and then attach to the building (with PVA). Surely the DAS is then flat / smooth like the Depron sheet?

regards, Graham

 

[28ten]

The das is not as flat as depron, it is much more uneven and you can always add individual stones later.

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi Graham

I think you have to select the best medium for the effect you want.

Depron does very well for dressed stone. Once scribed, it is not as flat as you would think as the act of scribing leads to rounding like a meniscus along the course. It is always possible to compress parts of the Depron before scribing - there is no elasticity so it doesn't resume it's former shape - thus giving some unevenness.

Das is 'thumbed' on in thin layers, so if it is not sanded, it naturally has more variations in the surface depth.

What you can't do is easily add anything to the surface of the Depron to represent proud stones, though I guess it would be possible to cut some out and add deeper ones, but life is short enough as it is.

All the original walling on Heyside is Depron. However, as has been identified, this doesn't always give you the relief you want. There are places on Heyside where we have used a combination of Slaters stone sheets and Depron to try to address this. I think you have to be selective how you do this, as joining Slaters sheets is a nightmare, and I find vertical joints worse than a lack f surface texture.

The following shots show a combination of Slaters sheets for the walling, and Depron for the buttresses.







The capping stones were scribed plastic card glued on with UHU POR.

Regards

Richard

Edit: just noticed that the first shot shows some of the baseboard join sleepers

 

[Dog Star]

Thank you Richard, "horses for courses" is wisdom indeed for this subject. After some consideration (read procrastination) there is a good case for saying that the bridge is best suited to DAS and the station retaining walls to Depron. This current thought is primarily because of the possibility of adding depth through additional DAS to selected stones of the bridge. A further point which had not come to the front until now is that the bridge is likely to be "faced" before scribing and hence one of the faces will need protection whilst attending to the other side of the bridge... your comment about damage to Depron has gone home.

regards, Graham

 

[john lewsey]

Hi Graham I have an article in an old Railway Modeller that shows how to carve stone with Das I will bring it up next time I see you
John

 

[28ten]

I think depron works really well for the paving and cobbles and as an added bonus it can be lasered (carefully!)
one possibility would be to laminate depron to thin card of different thicknesses and to cut individual stones and lay them onto the wall. this would give the variation in stone and height.

 

[Spike]

Scruft's Junction has been setup over Christmas and New Year, giving the chance for some work to be carried out for the first time in over 2 years.

I have been working on the wall that retains the bank for the upper line. This has involved scribing templates and then transferring these to depron. Really pleased with the overall effect.





Peter

 

[Dog Star]

Please do not ask, I have no idea why there is a LNER D175 down in the forest. Spike has applied rule no.1.

When Peter and I started this layout, sometime in the early years of the current millenium, our intention was to run stock of the Edwardian age, hence we have a couple of GWR 2021 class tanks as those engines were classic Forest motive power. Over the years our "window" of interest has expanded to include LNER pacifics with teak carriages... Westerns in maroon... and Class 37s in large logo blue with Mk.1s. In support of the Eastfield locos with West Highland White emblems the wagon stock has taken on an "engineer's" flavour with more than a handful of the finest Cats and Dogs from MMP plus a Walrus from PRMPR.

Catfish and Dogfish were not unknown in the Forest although I have no recollection of seeming them above Lydney. As an update of our Line History is due maybe other WTers are able to help with a simple question or two.

How far did cats and dogs get up the Severn & Wye? Lydney? Whitecroft? Parkend? Whitecliff Quarry?

Apart from Class 25... what classes of diesels were seen between Lydney and Parkend?

OK - Class 14 is accepted so maybe we ought to offer running powers to Jordan.

thank you, Graham

 

[TimC]

Dogfish are seen here at Parkend. No date though but 1972-4 at a guess.

See https://www.flickr.com/photos/39281354@N05/8293504587

 

[Simon Glidewell]

This is really starting to look the business Graham. Great work.

Cheers
Simon

 

[Dog Star]

This is really starting to look the business Graham.

This is a joint project.

I built the first couple of baseboards and most of the trackwork. Peter has done the fiddle yard, some of the baseboards, the ballasting and the walling. Painting and weathering of the track is down to whoever is closest to the brush when painting needs to be done.

I have been trying to keep the line back in the days when 2021s ruled the roost, Peter wants to run dirty and smelly blue things - the deciding factor is whether Peter succombs to a Cl.22. Anyone got a suitable photo of one in the FoD?

 

[Spike]

This week's progress has been finishing the upper platform's retaining wall in Depron, and the building of a new platform, constructed from MDF and foam board.



The platform is held in place by 4 prong nuts and bolted from under the baseboard. This is because the platform spans a baseboard joint and I did not want the join to be visible.




Regards
Peter

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi Peter,

The walling looks effective. The fun is in the painting to bring it to life.

One question - the platform seems very short. What is its intended use?

Richard

 

[Spike]

One question - the platform seems very short. What is its intended use?

Hi Richard

Scruft's Junction was designed when I had just started out in O gauge and as such my stock only consisted of pannier tanks and Slaters 4 wheel GWR coaches. So it was intended to run short trains.

My interests have expanded and as such the platform is a scale 150ft and is slightly shorter than I would ideally like now given my preference for diesels and bogie coaches.

I have considered inserting another baseboard but the downside of this would be that the platform if removable would be too long to store, therefore there would need to be a join in the platform surface.

Regards
Peter

 

[auld_boot]

Class 22 at Parkend on a thread over there:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/84687-d6320-at-parkend-in-august-1968/

 

[Dog Star]

Class 22 at Parkend...

Ooohh, that is nice.

Now, anyone got a similar picture of a Teddy Bear on the line? No, not the fluffy kind... a genuine D9500 class loco and in BR days.

 

[auld_boot]

There's a couple in this collection on the Cinderford line, is that near enough?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcwp/3354644684/in/photostream/

 

[TimC]

There is some excellent Class 14 footage (D9555?) at Coleford on B&R DVD Vol120 (Jim Clemens South Wales Archive - including Forest of Dean and Vale of Neath). My copy is in storage so I haven't see it for a few years so I can't remember if the class 14 at Parkend is included but the loco would have run via there to get to Coleford. BTW, I think this is the same DVD that has a Class 37 coming out of Parkend on the 'last BR working'. Nice footage a little spoilt by the fact it has been dubbed with the sound of a Class 25.

I think some, if not all, of the class 14 footage was again repeated on B&R Vol167 Diesel Hydraulic Heyday.

 

[Spike]

Scruffs Junction has been up for its yearly working session. After seeing Gordon Gravett's demonstration at Warley for scenic ground cover. I purchased the required tools and material at the show with the intention of giving it a go during this week.

Needless to say plans don't always play out as planned. Once the first board was setup it was clear some remedial work was required. The track had sustained some damage in storage. New storage place has been found once the holidays are over.

So new plan for the week was to finish the hills either side of the track and construct a new bridge. Here is where Scruffs Junction was left 2 years ago minus the fresh coat of plaster.



A new bridge is in progress made out of foam board. A well known craft store was selling 4 sheets for £10 so a large quantity has been acquired. The under construction hill can also be seen on the right hand side.


Depron will be used to face the bridge following the same method of scribing stone work as the station. My use of Inkscape this year presented an opportunity to save time. When scribing the station stonework I draw by hand the grid template of 4mm by 4mm squares to act as the guide, I have now produced in Inkscape a template that removes this time consuming process.


Aim for the rest of the holiday period will be to complete the bridge and hill work. Hoping there will still be time to start the static grass work.

Spike

 

[Dog Star]

In Peter's last post there is a photo of the most recent incarnation of a bridge for Scruft's Jcn., this time being a twin arch version of Mierystock / Dilke bridges. The basic construction is 5mm foam board and there is to be a layer of depron for the surface... with extra layers of foamboard to create the pillars and string courses. All of this is fairly easy and rather tedious. The fun comes with the arch invert and the voisseurs.

Both Mierystock and Dilke are skew bridges with the faces in dressed stone... the arches are formed of brick in stretcher bond. As the arches are "skew" then the brick courses resemble a corkscrew and that, I believe, gives rise to the technical name for this style of construction - "Helicoidal arch". I intend to use Slater's Plastikard for the plain stretcher bond brick with foamboard where the arch ring stones run under the arch. I am reasonably happy about setting out the brickwork... the big question relates to the stonework of the arch.

Anyone had any experience in setting out the first ring of stonework for this style of bridge?

regards, Graham