The Ashbrooke Renewal Project by Whoshotjimmi

[whoshotjimmi]

Well, it has been nearly two years since this thread was updated. Ashbrooke has been in storage - not particularly good storage if I'm honest. It is now in its new home and with a number of damages, but it could have been worse. The platforms need gutting and starting over and the layout needs a full rewire but, to be honest, the platform needed altering slightly anyway due to the space constraints of the new location. Other than that, the whole thing just needs a good clean.

The Ashbrooke Renewal Project will now start again in earnest and, following the work done on a little side project in the shed, the empty space will be taken up by Ashbrooke TMD. Here are a couple of pics of Ashbrooke in its new home and, I promise, I will improve the lighting in time!

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And one for those of a particular persuasion

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Thanks for looking - hopefully it won't be long before I have something else to show you!

[Rammy]

Hi James

Good to see Ashbrooke back and glad it has survived the move and storage. Doesn't time fly. I can't believe its 2 years since we saw your updates. Time to crack on and show us some progress now!



Dave

[whoshotjimmi]

Thanks Rammy. It is good to be back - I have missed the old girl!

I have had a little look at how a TMD may fit in with the layout and done a little mock up. I would be delighted for anyone to comment on how the mock up looks and any alterations you may think necessary.

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James

[whoshotjimmi]

Hi everyone!

A couple of days off work has afforded me the opportunity to pop into the loft and do a couple of little hits and pieces. Nothing is finished, but hopefully the pics will show a little progress. Gone is the TMD idea, replaced by a light industrial set scene. Typically, my local model shop did not have enough security fences for me to finish the area, but you get the gist.

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Forgiveness for the rough edges on the scenery - it is the first time I have attempted creating hills!

Thanks for looking!

James

[skyblue]

Looks good and I look forward to further updates. I can just imagine the squealing of flanges and the roar of the engines as the Pacer goes round that bend!

[TimberSurf]

Coming along well! I like your industrial units, very realistic! Just needs a fork truck and a scattering of empty pallets and some industrial junk to clutter up between them!

[whoshotjimmi]

Hi everyone,

I haven't done an awful lot this week. But I HAVE finished fencing off the industrial estate - thanks to Hattons - and started a little more ballasting. I thought I would take a couple of pics just for the heck of it.

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[whoshotjimmi]

And a bit of DMU action for fun!!

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Thanks for looking!

James

[whoshotjimmi]

Good evening everyone.

It has been over two years since I last took to this thread. A number of factors have contributed to me not spending any time on the layout. I finally gathered enough motivation to get up in the loft and see what was occurring. My my, the layout was in a very sorry state - damaged, dirty and in need of some major TLC. A few days ago, I was driving through Featherstone and saw a model shop so I was tempted to pop my head in. As far as modelling my era was concerned, the shop was not quite what I was looking for but as I was looking through the bits and bobs, I found something that would work lovely, bought it, spent a few days up there and now I have actually made some progress. The first thing I did was tidy the loft (the pictures will show that I still have a little bit of work to do with that respect) and I ended up with a workable space that I could have a think about what to do next. I immediately added a board at each end of the existing layout so the trains had somewhere to go (pic 1) and at the station end of the layout, I removed some track and put down access to a (back of scene) junction that would then lead to a fiddle yard (pic 2) and also for locos to run around stock. Once that was done I was able to make some civil engineering decisions about how the layout would expand around the loft. In the first iteration of Ashbrooke, the fiddle yard was in front of the A Frame of the roof. This was ok but this made the loft very cramped and limited what I could do. I now realise that some simple adjustments would allow me to floorboard just enough to enable the fiddle yards to go behind the A Frame, giving me much more room to move around and also affording the room to build a much larger fiddle yard. That is all to come. In the meantime, I rebuilt the retaining wall on the platform and added a sloped retaining wall to the back of the layout (pic 3). I then fixed some of the broken parts, realigned some warped track and moved everything around. I was feeling quite pleased with myself so I whipped out the RfD Heljan 47 that I have had in my collection for a few years (though it is yet to be run) so it could make its static debut (pic 4). I finished off with a quick pic of the passengers who are still patient despite the lack of service (pic 5). Plenty to do but, finally, I can see a way forward. The next steps will be to wire up the scenic portion to see if it all still works and extend the floor boarding of the loft. Scenic work will take a back seat whilst I actually get on with the job of having an operating layout for the first time in many years.

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Thanks for looking and welcome back to Ashbrooke!

James

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Looking good after a long layoff, amazing how quick everything comes flooding back.

manna

[whoshotjimmi]

Hi everyone,

It's been quite a while since I visited this site - 5 years, in fact! This is primarily because the layout spent a lot of time sitting around, gathering dust and not doing an awful lot. The events of the past year have allowed a bit of focus to be placed on it again and I've done a fair bit of work getting it up and running. Finally, after goodness knows how many years, I finally have an operational layout once again. The pictures below will show just how much it has changed compared to what has previously been posted - the same basic track layout remains but has been enhanced with a small loco servicing area, the station area has been re-modeled and a large fiddle yard has been added to service the scenic portion. I know the layout won't win any modelling prizes, particularly in comparison to some of the other layouts on the site, and there is still lots of work to be done but I wanted to share where it now is.

Thanks for looking and feel free to comment!

James

PXL_20210911_153322499 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210911_140105405 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210911_140014004 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210911_135927298 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210911_125526942 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210827_181658896 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210904_140943444 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210904_152215176 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210904_141028186 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210904_141015555 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210827_182332974 by James Lee, on Flickr

[Dad-1]

OH MY !!
James that is one hell of a development from, errr, 5 years ago !
Do we have to wait another 5 years before we hear/see more ??
Anyway well done, The sheer amount of work there is impressive.

Geoff T.

[whoshotjimmi]

OH MY !!
James that is one hell of a development from, errr, 5 years ago !
Do we have to wait another 5 years before we hear/see more ??
Anyway well done, The sheer amount of work there is impressive.

Geoff T.

Thanks Geoff. I hope it won't be so long! Since I got my head into getting things done, I've actually made regular progress and I now want to see it through. The main thing was to get all of the track in place, including fiddle yards, to increase the roster of rolling stock (which has apparently tripled in price since I last paid attention) and to get the basics of the scenic portion in place.

I've reached an important milestone (for me anyway) which was to get the base layer of the platform surfaces in place and now the obvious bit of the layout to do something with is the station overbridge. Once the basics are in place there, I will start detailing it to make it all look a little less bland. I'm aiming for less than five years....

James

PXL_20210912_175133661 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210912_180003305 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20210912_180747234 by James Lee, on Flickr

[whoshotjimmi]

Hi everyone,

I've been doing little pieces of work on Ashbrooke, most notably adding platform surfaces, building the station overbridge and paving it and adding more detail in that general area. I haven't found a tarmac surface that I'm happy with so the road remains unsurfaced for now. I also fixed a Vitrains Class 37 that has been sitting idle since a botched attempt to change the traction tyres. It is now back in action and has been given a rake of Cargowaggons to celebrate. The pictures below will do most of the talking.

Thanks for looking!

PXL_20211106_190808877 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20211106_191359510 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20211106_175455240 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20211106_192903070 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20211102_212318846 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20211106_193336711 by James Lee, on Flickr

PXL_20211106_193418667 by James Lee, on Flickr

[Mountain]

The buffers on the platforms are a nice unusual feature. They use those when there is subsidence issues or a structural reason for needing trains to stop short of the edge where the origional buffers once stood. Usually the origional buffers will still be in situ behind them.
An example of one of these in use is at Swansea and it was used because Swansea station developed structual issues in the area around platform 4, so they used one of these temporary buffers a coach length away from the origional buffers due to this as the structural issues are right near the end of the platform.

Such features bring a new perspective. Also to add to this, one can put those little movement monitoring things on the side of the platforms as these are a noticeable feature of platforms that have faced any movement that needs to be monitored.
I like your layout. It is interesting.