K&NWLR: Update on progress

Some superb modelling on show here!

Many thanks. Looking forward to posting some more stuff soon, but first I have to take a saw to some of the scenery to fit it in .....

Damp and cold out, so I´ve finally gone back down into the cellar to do some long needed landscaping and tree planting around Stokesay Castle. If the National Trust knew that I had turned it into a rack railway station (work in progress) they might be in contact with Interpol. Better keep my head down.

K&NWLR: Stokesay Castle in the background with bridge of rack railway (in prep.), and a Pearse W&L "Earl" on the upper loop, and  a Peter Angus Single Fairlie on the lower. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Both parts of Stokesay Castle after landscaping and tree planting by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Left hand end of Stokesay Castle by kandnwlr, on Flickr
  
K&NWLR: Stokesay Castle from below with rack railway entrance to the right by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: View of Stokesay castle from the level of the company warehouse by kandnwlr, on Flickr

A quick flashback to the photos of Stokesay castle, which has been "given" an unexpected rack railway station. After ordering in 2012, finally the Regner live steam rack railway Rigi No 7 arrived on Friday. They forgot to install R/C, which is going to be a problem (see photo below), but I think I´ll deal with it myself, rather than giving it back.

K&NWLR: Stokesay Castle in the background with bridge of rack railway (in prep.), and a Pearse W&L "Earl" on the upper loop, and  a Peter Angus Single Fairlie on the lower. by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR: Stokesay Castle in the background with bridge of rack railway (in prep.), and a Pearse W&L "Earl" on the upper loop, and  a Peter Angus Single Fairlie on the lower. by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR: Rack railway with Portmeirion base station and Regner "Rigi No 7" locomotive and Perfect World coaches with sloping seats. by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR: Regner Rigi No. 7 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR. Regner Rigi No. 7 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

French Chuffed wrote:

All amassing stuff. I am giving up with my outside railway and following you indoors. J

Initially, I had suggested to the current Ms K&NWLR, that I would think about a little point to point line on a bookshelf ... these indoor things have a habit of developing beyond the first draft ..... And this is just the (smaller) Kent side of the Kent & North Wales Light Railway.

K&NWLR: Kent - an overview of the Kentish side of the layout. The Wallace & Gromit space rocket next to the half-timbered building is a termporary attraction. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - the view from the castle toward the oast house and St Trinian´s. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - looking back at the castle with the Gn15 line to the left of the lower loop, ending underneath the upper loop bridge. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - the Green Man pub to the right, St Trinian´s in the background and the oast house to the left. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - the bridge across the river at St Trinian´s Halt, with the oast house and St. Trinian´s to the right. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - the Kentish corner with a mill building in the background. Watch this space for new Canterbury buildings soon. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - the terminus station on the left with the village and pub above the upper loop in the background. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NWLR: Kent - a view onto the Kent terminus station with footbridge. by kandnwlr, on Flickr
K&NET: Kent - a view over the Kent terminus looking up to the pub above the upper loop. by kandnwlr, on Flickr

French Chuffed wrote:

Well it won’t be up to your standard and I only have been allocated 12 m x 3 m ish so in the planning stage at the moment.

That´s still a lot to play with. End to end or are you going to attempt a loop?

That would have been my second question. I got some good advice when I started. One piece was to choose a multi-level layout, as it gave more scope for action and provide depth.

I´m travelling at the moment, so you´ll have to wait for a bit so that I can go down to the cellar and get my tape measure out.

Tonight I´m currently sitting in a McDo (believe it or not), opposite the old SLM locomotive building shops at Winterthur in Switzerland. Sadly, nothing doing nowaways, but it´s a reminder of an industrial past that´s not soooo long gone.

Coming back to the questions concerning the K&NWLR dimensions:

Height of the lower loop is 100cm above sea level or floor; the upper loop is 30cm higher. Why two loops at different heights: Disadvantage - you can forget about running up from the lower to the upper loop, unless you have a couple of 100m at disposal; Advantage: I was in the cellar and the only natural light was from two small windows at the top of one wall. Why not use all the space and put some height and "depth" into the layout. You´d be surprised about how height fools the eye into viewing things in perspective (and of course you can cheat a little on the buildings to help, too).

Depth is a little more tricky. I started off with a "rule" of 110cm depth of baseboard between front and wall. Along the straight parts I´ve kept to that (if you exclude the terminus stations which jut out at each end of the room. Of course, going round corners is a little more tricky. I´ve made it a rule that the upper loop should always be able to be reached by a number 6 iron golf club (don´t ask, but I feel that they are of more use to me here). That means with an arm and a golf club, you can manoeveur a stopped train (live steam) to an access point. Of course , in the corners the scenery is further away. I´ve made sure that the baseboards support me kneeling on the lower loop to reach the parts behind (using a wooden board to kneel on). Where I really need access, there is an "emergency" access point (make sure shoulders fit). If you look carefully at my photos in Kent, you´ll see a lot of birch trees and weeping willows in one corner. Hidden behind the viaduct is an access point, which I will use very shortly to re-landscape the corner and add more buildings. And yes, I won´t paper over the access point, but simply stick stuff on top, which can then be removed.

Live steam: It works inside, and it´s a joy, but if you think electricity to the rail is a problem, you ain´t seen nothing yet. But it´s worth the effort for the sheer excitement of seeing the steam.

All for now, but I look forward to progress reports.

I got so carried away during landscaping the corner around Stokesay Castle (see prev. page), that I decided to install a little Treddol slate station below, which will get the name Stokesay Halt. If it looks as though it´s in the middle of a building site, then there´s a good reason. It´s a still a real building site still missing the slate platform, entrance, steps, and greenery.
But after putting the station into place, there was no going back with a job that I had been putting off, that is building dry stone walling in real slate to match the station. This was something of an experiment.
I first built a foundation of modelling clay to provide a base into which to push the first layer of slate. The I did a little practice around the station, before I set out to build around 90cm (or 3 foot in old money) worth of walling round to the point where the rack railway will cross both tracks. It´s not perfect, but this is as far as I got before running out of slate. There´s a temporary vegetation strip hiding the modelling clay from the camera, and no trees have been planted yet, which will be needed to match the other side of the track.

002 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

004 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

009 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

007 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

012 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

015 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

No your kidding us you have been to North Wales taking photographs.

Mais non! Here´s the proof. They don´t have French glue in North Wales.

002 by kandnwlr, on Flickr

I love your stone wall, where did you get the stone from ?

I got the Treddol people, who do the station in slate, to cut the stone for me.

That background is so realistic your quite an artist.

Still got the trees to plant and the static grass to do - amongst a number of other jobs around the station. I´ll post pics when I´ve finished.

I just got this pic, so I wanted to share. Let´s imagine that the French Decauville company opened a branch office in North Wales to take advantage of the rapidly expanding slate business transporting from the quarry to the harbour, with the appropriate locos. And then there´s the question of whether the Welsh weather would have required an enclosed cab .....

Here´s a pic from of the locos by Geoff who runs Lightline and did the livery, here photoed on his tracks in Yorks. after lining out, together with a little idea that is developing in my idle mind.

K&NWLR: Decauvilles with lining by kandnwlr, on Flickr

K&NWLR: Decauville 3 ton closed cab design by kandnwlr, on Flickr

Here are the other pics from Geoff for your amusement. Now all I have to do is wait for Geoff to get to the post office .....

Decauville 7t with lining by kandnwlr, on Flickr

Decauville 3t with lining by kandnwlr, on Flickr

Fantastic! But I wonder how do you manage with dust. Everything looks so clean and fresh. i would expect the dust and dirt would spoil the thing in a very quick time.

Saint-Oblas wrote:

Fantastic! But I wonder how do you manage with dust. Everything looks so clean and fresh. i would expect the dust and dirt would spoil the thing in a very quick time.

These ones look clean because they´re fresh out of the paint shop. The other stuff looks - well - "used"  

That's some fantastic scenery with the slate dry walling as well.

Dry stone walling would look even better if I hadn´t run out of Welsh slate .... and it´s quite a walk to Wales