O Gauge Modelling on the GWR

A personal Journey

The Farringbourne Hill area and Coal Mine

Click on any image to enlarge.

This is the corner that needs developing. First the foreground area is a little cramped with a coal mine and roadway in it at the back of the station. I am going to develop the landscape here and create a road bridge to cross over the track accessing the mine. You can see a rough mock up of where it will be above. the bridge faces etc are on order from suppliers and will need cutting down but more on that later. Behind the other station platform is going to be a line side brewery. As there is less room here than there was for the gas works the backdrop will curve round with a single line following it. (this line also gives access to the coaling stage and other sidings behind the goods shed so it will be dual purpose. Coming back to the road bridge, a corner piece has been glues in to allow the road to flow better either side of the bridge.

This section of track is only able to take small industrial locos of the 0-4-0 variety of which I have one waiting in the wings to be made.

The combined curve and space provided by a single road tunnel just make it possible for large coal trucks to navigate through. The back of the station will disappear in a raised landscape section to accommodate the road properly. A small station car park will have its place on the down side of the adjacent platform

At the back a turnout is going to be moved forward so that a curve can be introduced on the spur it feeds. This will both make it possible to insert the back walls of the brewery and lengthen the spur. the platform will have to be trimmed back to allow this to happen.



As the road twists and turns tightly its important to try to get the camber of the road in keeping with the bridge. Therefore, the approach roads are constructed in slices with the road surface bent according to curvature. Even the track twists around in the tunnel so clearances are tight here but possible. I used Polyboard to create the road surface and interior of the tunnel. Now awaiting the brick faces to arrive.



Next day delivery and the bridge sections are here from Townstreet, (ordered through Invertrain). I had planned to cut down the top to make it shorter but on balance it looks ok as is, (maybe!).

This next shot shows some landscaping. More will be developed once the proper tunnel faces and walls are glued in place. The road is ridiculously steep in places with a negative camber making the road dangerous to traffic even in dry weather! But I hope to hide this with the aid of trees and hedging which will appear later on.



Back to the tunnel mouths, I decided to crop the plates down as it didn't look right. Having used the jigsaw to carefully cut both the pillar tops and central piece it now looks like this:-



Tunnel faces have been stained using a wood stain, (Victorian gold). Approach scenery is also now in place and ready for initial painting when dry.



Track to this new part is now ballasted. As you can see its a tight squeeze at this end. The Felix Pole wagons go through nicely, just remains to check with the 0-4-0 loco ,(not yet built).

The backdrop frames for the brewery have arrived from Skytrex and here they are in situ. There is a boiler room and chimney to be fitted at the right hand side of this section. A platform will be created in the open section as space is limited.

This is how the area is shaping up in total.

The backscene sections have now had 2 coats of dark brick and the windows blackened. A rough sky has been painted on corrugated card to hold the sections together. I need to develop the section to the right so that it blends in with the hilly section.

Modified te sky and added an access portal in a wall to complete the back scene. The open warehouse doorway has a box attached showing barrels stacked high, (just hidden from view by the van. A wash was applied to the brickwork to enhance the mortar and pale off the brickwork. Where will that chimney go?

And this is how it looks with the buildings back in situ. The only changes are the road over bridge and the back scene. Still some work to be done but taking up a fine shape now.

 

2nd Corner Project

less space but a lot to manipulate.