Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

Nearly finished the ballasting on this board. Heres an overview of progress so far.



Cheers

Jim

[0121modeller]

Great looking progress jim,
What did you use for the concrete cable troughs between those tracks ? I used Plastruct UFS4 & wills grey plastic sheet cut to small size for top cover slabs, have utilised this feature to convieniently route some surface wires for common track feeds before going down a hidden "common hole" to the rest of underboard wiring.
The polypipes under tracks, another nicely modeled feature, could also be used to route wiring for same reasons as said above.

On the main signal box control building, it looks like you've used multiple sections of plastruct AFS6 joined to create the profile cladding, am I correct ?

Dave.

[egroeg93]

what ballast did you use??

[Jim S-W]

Hi Dave

For the troughing I drew up an etch for a run of closed and individual open ones - here is a close up for you.



The ballast is Carrs, 2mm fine for the main lines, ash for the sidings outside of the signal box and the infils.

HTH

Jim

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

Its very rare that I buy something new (2 class 50's in the last couple of years) but I need sprinters in the original colours and Trains 4 you have done one so...



Straight out of the box and doing its best to balance on my rails!

Cheers

Jim

[egroeg93]

Hi All

Its very rare that I buy something new (2 class 50's in the last couple of years) but I need sprinters in the original colours and Trains 4 you have done one so...



Straight out of the box and doing its best to balance on my rails!

Cheers

Jim

Was going to suggest that lol.. Especially as it has Birmingham New Street destination board

[0121modeller]

Hi Jim, That close-up track scene is very impressive, the troughing , polypipe, & I've just spotted the modified peco concrete platform sides, I see you strive for utmost realism & the results are great so far !

Dave.

[Jim S-W]

Thanks Dave

A good day today! I have for a long time been looking for a tube to make one of Birmingham's most distinctive buildings. I have approached loads of acrylic manufacturers and they have all come back with quotes over the £500 mark! Then my good friend Tim suggested fish tanks (I had already looked but never hurts to have another go) and eventually I found a company called Reef One who make them. Spoke to a very helpful chap called Rob who was able to donate 2 reject tanks. (I say donate as he only charged me a tenner for 2 including shipping!). They are a bit smaller than the real thing scales out to but its that or pay hundred of pounds for a few extra cm's on the diameter. - No brainer! The 2 together are also a tag shorter (a whole 6cm) than scale but compared to a 4mm scale class 47 its not exactly noticable is it?



More info on the real building can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunda_(Birmingham)

I wont be starting this for a fair while yet but its nice when a long search comes to an end! Thanks Rob!

Cheers

Jim

[b308]

They are a bit smaller than the real thing scales

Nothing like a bit of perspective! I'd have thought that the Rotunda in "full size" may dominate the model a bit too much, Jim, so a smaller version in the background would probably help! Just like using TT models in the background of HO layouts... Auhagen and Faller even have a section in their catalogues listed HO/TT... rather like Triang's OO/HO!!

[Rammy]

Hi Jim

As already stated, your attention to detail is superb. Your ballasting, troughs, platform sides, and buildings all look great!
I'll be keeping an eye on this layout for future detailing ideas.

Dave

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

Something that has been on my 'nearly finished' list for a LONG time is my 07-16 tamper. Built from the Roger Murray etched brass bits with a lot of scratchbuilding here she rests in the siding outside of my signal box.



Cheers

Jim

[ste234]

OMG i thought that was real

In other words, bloomin amazin

[Infrontcat]

Hello Jim

I have to say that your efforts are utterly top drawer. I particularly like the feel to your track. Maybe it's just the correct spacing that does it, but the trunking really helps too I particularly look forward to the tall round building that you're attempting next (I've no idea what it's called but I know the one you mrean, lol!)

Cheers fella

Tim

[Durseytu]

Fantastic. I've been through and changed at this station so many times and looking at the shots makes me feel like i'm actually standing at one of the platform ends. Enjoying the progress on this one.

Cheers,

Stuart.

[Jim S-W]

Thanks Tim and Stuart

Eagle eyed visitors to this thread may have noticed a 'gap' in the scenery at the end of platform 1. The real place has a little area with clutter including a large tank. What its for I have no idea!

Anyway efforts to fill the hole are underway and the following shows my progress so far. It all needs a spot of weathering to bring it all together yet.




The tank is actually a prit stik lid wrapped with some etched smokebox wrappers I had in my spares box. The upper bit is the core of a till receipt roll!

Cheers

Jim