By following this thread you will get the latest news of Twickenham & District MRC's OO gauge layout Northwick.
Northwick is an exhibition layout that is based on a might-have-been, seaside town on the Bristol Channel between Weston-Super-Mare and Highbridge. It is assumed to originally be the terminus of a secondary mainline of the Somerset & Dorset Railway and so the infrastructure is based upon LMS practice. The line was, however, later linked to Yeovil junction and the Great Western mainline between Bristol and Exeter. As the layout depicts a summer weekend between 1952-1957, a wide range of services emanating from the Western, Midland and Southern regions will be seen as well as occasional pick-up goods trains and eastern region excursions. Although services are predominantly steam hauled, a few early diesels appropriate to the location can be seen.
This layout has been built over the past 25 years and was pretty much complete in 2009. It was recently decided to modernise some scenic parts of the layout as some parts where beginning to show their age, progress that has been made so far is covered on our model rail forum thread. More details can be found on the club website.
The next exhibition that we will be attending is the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition, which is being held at the NEC in Birmingham on the 28th & 29th November 2015.
Below are some pictures of the layout.
A video has now been posted on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHaYIRlPpN4//// showing all of the layouts that were at Kempton Steam Museum's Model Railway Exhibition earlier this month. Northwick features in this video from 0:42-2:04.
Very nice layout you have here!!
Since the last update we have decided to update some of the electrics on the layout. We decided that board 4 would be the best one to do first as it has the simplest wiring and is also the one that was causing issues with the running of the layout - we have isolating sections on this board to stop the trains from coming onto the layout until they are needed and these were not working reliably, there was also an issue with the two controllers that can be used on this section conflicting with each other and causing a short circuit.
We have also decided to put a brass screw near where each dropper comes through the baseboard, this is to make it easier when we need to test the circuits to make sure everything is working. The wires have been put in plastic spiral combs which have been stuck to the underside of the baseboard, this is to keep the wires out of harms way when the layout is being set up or dismantled.
The wiring was finished on Saturday and tests were done, everything now works! Minus a few small gremlins that will be sorted this Friday. Below are pictures of the wiring before and after the work.
We have also decided to fit a new mechanism for the turntable, this is because the old one was showing signs of wear and tear as when the turntable was operated it would judder whilst making the occasional squeaking and clunking sounds and when it was stationary there was a lot of play. The new mechanism was made by Brandon and involves two bearings compared with the old one having only one, it was also found that the drive shaft for the turntable needed replacing as the old one was severely distorted. The turntable now runs very smoothly and all of the sound effects are a thing of the past, also the the turntable bridge is now level which also eliminates the risk of derailments. The motor still needs to be wired into the layout which should be done shortly. Below are pictures of before and after.
The new water tower has now been permanently fixed on and the base of it weathered in.
Here is a link to a video of the new turntable mechanism being tested.
I forgot to say that the wagon pictured in the previous post (the one with the peak roof behind the wagon with the tractor on) is a ex-SR wagon built to Diag 1458 in January 1939 as part of order A969, it is one of Bulleid's experiments, 3 of them were built and at least one of them survived in service until 1966. Part of the idea of the wagon was to solve the problem of leaking roofs that the usual shape SR vans were prone to (solved, apparently, by the adoption of plywood sheeting for the centre section of the roof) the other part was the cladding which was actually lots of rather small planks clad, and presumably held together, with something called 'Ruberoid' which the SR apparently used for roof coverings. This vehicle was created using a ratio SR plywood van kit with new ends, roof and some new bits of metalwork added to the sides. Below is a picture of the wagon before painting showing the new bits (the white parts) that where created using plasticard.
I have finally managed to get round to drawing a layout diagram which should help with putting the pictures into context. The 4 boards with track on are 5ft x 2ft and the station board is 2ft x 2ft. The light grey is the platforms, dark grey is roads & Orange is buildings.
We have now sorted out the electrical problems which remained on board 4, this now means that we can send one train off the layout while bringing in another one at the same time (previously when we tried to do this the two controllers would cancel each other out and cause a short circuit thus making the whole layout grind to a halt).
Below is a diagram showing what tracks can be operated by which controller (there are 3 controllers for the layout). The first one (yellow) operates the goods yard and engine yard, the second one (green) operates all out going trains and the third one (red) controls all incoming trains.
We have also had to replace one of the tortoise motors which controls the points into the bay platform, this is because it had stopped working, we have replaced it with a cobalt point motor. This point motor was chosen because it is smaller than the tortoise one and so reduces the risk of the legs of the layout colliding with it when the layout is packed away. The diagram below shows which point motor has had to be replaced.
With the electrics there are a few things left to do which are to install the new turntable control panel which is going on the back of the backscene directly behind the turntable which will help us to see when the rails are lined up. Previously when we were operating the turntable we would be about 5ft away from it as the control panel is on the back of board 2 this resulted in a lot of going back and forth to line it up. There will also be a reverse function for the turntable so if we overshoot the rail then we can turn it the other way to line it up, this is a new function as previously if we went past the rail then we had to send the turntable all the way round again resulting in a long delay as it takes about 2 minutes to go all the way round.
The other thing is to resolve the power supply issue that we are getting at the entrance of the bay platform at the moment we can set it to be controlled by the green or red controller or neither and the green will move the train through and the red will do nothing. Once this and the turntable are sorted out then the running electrics will be working perfectly for the first time in quite a long time. The area circled below is the affected area.
We have connected up the turntable and it now runs very smoothly compared to the old one. Please click on the link below to see it in action.
Construction has commenced on Northwick's pub, 'The Flying Swan'. This will be installed on the station board, see picture of station board below (the vacant plot in the foreground of the picture is where the pub will be installed).
The pictures below show the progress made so far on the interior of 'The Flying Swan' and the rear of the building.
The scouts camp now has a union flag.
At TDMRC's recent Open Day, the new wagon gets a quick 'once over' from the Northwick group ..... nice job!
As we are currently in a garden shed while our usual base is being refurbished we took the opportunity to turn off all the external lights. The result is a very atmospheric view of the layout.
On the theme of the last post here are 2 short clips.
The first one is of the camp fire working.
The second is of the welder at work in the engine shed.
Below is a set of pictures showing a wagon before weathering and after.
We've also had a go at doing a ripple effect for the water in the water tower, we also took the opportunity to add some wildlife.
Below is a is a picture showing the before (right side) and after (left side) static grass.
Blow is a set of pictures of another field that has had this treatment.
We have been continuing with applying the static grass to the fields. Mainly with the field that is in the middle of the layout, this has included making the dirt roadway into a grassy trackway complete with grass down the middle. Below are some pictures showing the progress so far.
The Northwick group have volunteered the layout as a last minute replacement for a withdrawn exhibit at the upcoming Folkstone exhibition on the 3rd and 4th October. Why not come along and say hello.
During the August brake we decided to extend the platforms by approximately 15cm, we decided to do this so that we can run 5 coach trains into and out of the 2 main platforms with out either blocking the points that the loco needs to use to run round the train or having the last coach blocking the barrow crossing at the end of the platforms.
Below is a set of pictures showing how we extended it.
2. The slopes at the ends of the platform where cut off and the barrow crossing, lamp hut and signal post removed.
3. A set of five coaches where positioned in the platform to confirm the length of the extension, the screw driver is there to stop the coaches from rolling away as the baseboard wasn't level.
4. A mixture of balsa wood and plasticard was used to form the basic structure for the extensions, this was glued and screwed to the baseboard to ensure that it wouldn't move.
5. The top of the balsa wood was then sanded to make the surface slightly lower than the existing platform.
6. New paving stones where installed using plasticard that has been scored to create individual slabs.
7. The central part of the extension was filled with plaster of Paris and then a sponge was dabbed across the top to create a textured surface.
8. The platforms where then painted a dark grey close to the existing colour, the walls of the platform where then covered with printed paper to give the effect of weathered sandstone, the platform fencing added and painted & the platform lights where installed. Also the barrow crossing, lamp hut and signal post that where removed earlier where reinstated.
9. The White lines for the edge of the platform where then painted on.
The extension still needs to be weathered in but that will happen before our next exhibition which is the Folkestone exhibition on the 3/4 October held at Leas Cliff Hall, if you're coming then please say hello.
We have a couple of pages on Facebook if you need more news and pictures of this layout.
Last weekend we were at the Folkestone exhibition, we had a very enjoyable and successful weekend. The layout was well received by both the other exhibitors and the general public alike with the parents and kids picking up on and appreciating different details on the layout for example the parents picking up on the scout climbing the rope and the kids pointing out to them that the scout is going to the tree house.
There was a wide variety of stock which ran over the weekend, including a train delivering a new transformer for the new power station which is being built near by. Below are some pictures from the weekend.
The layout set up and ready to go.
Ex midland 1f 41661 shunts the goods after they have arrived complete with a local kid having a cab ride.
Ex GWR ROD 3036 is poised ready to depart with the parcels train.
Newly out shopped BR Crosti boiler 9F 92023 is reversing having just come off the turntable and is running to the engine shed.
As the farmer desperately runs for the fence the class 101 3 car DMU pulls into the station.
The ex LMS push-pull set passes the scouts.
Ex GWR Grange class 6816 "Frankton Grange" emerges from the bridge.
Ex GWR Collett goods 2217 arrives with a long freight train.
Ex midland 1f 41671 pauses between shunting duties.
The church yard complete with the church and open grave.
A busy town scene - Northwick now has its own bus service!
BR class 20 D8000 arrives with the transformer train.
A side view of the train.
A close up of the wagon which carries the transformer.
The next exhibition that we will be attending is the Warley exhibition which is held at the NEC in Birmingham on the 28/29 November.
Layout was looking great guys. Should have a full video of all the shots that we got on Saturday up on youtube soon!
Well done Northwick, spending the summer in the shed instead of the sunshine has definitely paid off.
I don't think it has been mentioned, so I will; the transformer wagon is a plasticard scratch build and superb piece of work by the group leader, Tim.