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A long awaited post about my news.

After receiving the latest edition of the em gauge society newsletter on the back page was an advert for the layout of my dreams.

A layout of Holmfirth in em.

Having never seen one before and being in the very early stages of the build of mine I picked up the phone and made enquiries.  I couldn’t believe my luck.when I was told I was the first to enquire about the layout so thus had first refusal.  Arrangements were made to go and visit the layout.

The layout was built by Mr Eric Robertson of Huddersfield who was a keen em modeller and a fellow lanky fan. Eric was also very highly regarded in the Huddersfield mrc. 

Unfortunately Eric passed away earlier this year and his wife and two sons had the task of clearing his railway room.

The layout has been collected and is now back in Cumbria.
Now fate has had a huge part in me finally getting a Em gauge layout of holmfirth.

As I said before to see the add and to be first in line was unbelievable. Then after having seen the layout an add appeared on eBay for the Locomotion models special edition of the lanky 2-4-2 no 1008 which I ended up winning these locos where the bread and butter of the line. So fate number three.

Then when I collected the layout and was having a good chat with Erics widow more came to light that it was written that I should be the new owner.

The layout is booked for its first appearance in ten years at this years SOLRAIL held in Workington. When I mentioned this to Erics wife she said ‘Its going home. Eric and I are from Workington, he worked the railway there. ‘ spooky or what

She carried on in saying ‘ the Robertson family are from Wigton which is close by ‘

I work in Wigton. fate works In mysterious ways.

More on the layout soon

UPDATE…..

I know have two of the layout boards up and connected together. These two have had a good clean, trackwork cleaned and checked. Scenery cleaned and hovered. Locos and stock running nicely.

Now time to bring the scenery upto date and freshen the layout up.

I have chosen to start on board number 2 first whish has quite an Embankment.
First up was repainting the sky to give it the all important Yorkshire atmosphere.

Once happy I started to add more bushes and trees to blend the embankments to the sky.

Here is the finished Embankment including the fruit trees and gorsen. The clouds to the right still need a touch of white clouds adding.

Here is the first trial fit of one of dcc concepts station/Road lamps to replace the underscale non functioning lamps that was fitted to the layout.

Very pleased with the look.

Next up was the addition of a flowering weed growing up through the ballast at the Bufferstop.

More as we progress.

I have finally got to a point on the first baseboard where I am happy with the upgrade to the scenery. The last thing I will be installing after the first outing is point rodding and signal wiring.

Well its been ages since I poated any updates.  Much has happened in the last few months.  More on that in the next coming weeks.

Well whats this post about.

Sitting here on nightshift it came to me lets bring some wagons in to try to finish off. So I did. 
Tonight I have managed to get the L &Y onto a few as well as the red line on the horsebox. Tomorrow night I will be adding the running numbers and tare etc.

Enjoy.

####UPDATE#####
I have now sold this building on more details to be found in another blog….

The first part of the long awaited station building arrived a few weeks ago.  This has been built by well known model maker Mr Peter Leyland. He is currently working on the waiting rooms and the canopy section now which will just leave the tranship shed to complete the buildings on the platform.
I have started to.build the platform up using foamboard and plasticard sheet.  The height above rail is correct at 3feet. I am happy with my first attempt and will be extending it once the waiting room arrives. In the meantime I will be making the ramp area and painting it. Then I need to create the window boxes for every window and add lights and signs to the station buildings.

Following on from last years post in the 52’6 test coach i was building in n gauge.  Here is the update on the 51’1 Gresley coaches.
These etches turned up just before Christmas and were put aside until the big day was over.
Well Christmas has been and gone and today I took some downtime and set to on the Brake third.

The etches where from Worsley works and once again the quality is outstanding.  The sides were cut. These came in eight pieces.  Four per side. The way they are designed is the bottom panels overlap the top just under the bottom of the window frames. 
Once I was happy with the fit i turned to.fitting them to the chassis.
On this particular kit there is a central bulkhead that separates the seated area to the guard compartment. The guard compartment sides fit into this via locating tabs.

Once happy with both guard sides the end was fitted

I then continued on constructing the seated area sides. These follow the same principle in that the lower panel overlaps the top to form the panels. This then solders flush to the centre bulkhead and then the end fitted.

Once happy with that the bufferbeams were fitted and the solebars fettled. 

Then the dapol 8′ Gresley bogies were fitted using an etched pixels bogie mount and also fitted with their nem coupling mount.
Once all was happy it was a trip to dads to check the running of the empty carcus before proceeding.

The initial test run was a complete success. It performed faultlessly.
Next step is to attach under trusses and underframe details. Along with door handles and grab rails.Which will give the needed weight. I will also be attaching wires to the bogies for internal lights and a guards/tail lamp.
Then its off to the paintshop for the teak effect and decals
The interior i will be using farish mk1/2 seats cut and modified to resemble Gresley seats. Then it will be glazed and  detachable roof Fitted. Check back for progress.

Many thanks and Happy New Year.

Right. The cold dark nights are upon us so it’s a good excuse to knuckle down with some serious modelling.
I am juggling between models of mine for Holmfirth and bits for my father’s n gauge layout. 
I have been on with building him a merg dcc command centre and handset. Linking all the units via canbus. I have one more board to build for him which is a canusb which allows connection to a pc via USB and then allows control via pc or smartphone.

  I have also been dccing some of his locos and the last one which actually belongs to me but is on his layout is my J39 in lner livery which I have fitted a zimo 648 mini sound decoder to along with firebox glow and working headlamp.

 
This loco will eventually grace another project of mine a local line to me that sadly disappeared. 

On with the title now.

To go with the above locomotive I will be building some Gresley 51’1 ” coaches.  These will be built from worsley works etches. Whilst Allen is reducing the size down for me from 3mm to 2mm I decided I would have a bash at his 52’6 ” Gresley coaches. 
These wee beasts ran mainly into Liverpool street station.

I  wanted to get a feel for how well his etches go together. I am impressed with the ease of cutting.  Cleaning and soldering together of his kits. The quality of the etches is amazing and the level of detail is superb.

Keep checking back for further updates.
I

Bit more done.

All four sides have been soldered together and I’m very impressed. Just waiting on the dapol bogies turning up then I can test run them before I begin to add seats etc

Well not exactly true. Its a left hand catch point.

With Now working on the track work placement on the boards its time to look at other pway that I will be requiring. This left hand catch point was noted. Inter-Linked in with the point in front of the turntable this catch point would stop runaways coming to blows with locomotives moving on to the table.

So this afternoon I sat and duly created one from bits of turnout kits I have purchased.

I still have the tiebars to fit but very happy with the result.

Here it is trial fitted into its location.

Carrying on from the turntable build. (Well whilst waiting for the motor and gearbox to arrive). I thought I would try my hands at building my first point.
The kit is the B6 from C and L finescale. 
Very clear easy to follow instructions with quality parts.

Let the planking begin.

Both stock rails and v fitted

Checking the curve. Straight blade fitted.

Checking rolling stock through the point. .

All runs well .

Well almost. Took a trip to Wigan model show today. Some nice layouts there. The level of detail these days is amazing.

would of been nice to see more stalls selling items to wet the apatite of us kit builders.. Guess we can’t have it all.

Finally got to meet Peter Leyland in person. Peter is constructing the Buildings needed for Holmfirth for me. The details he gets into his buildings are amazing.
this is a shot of some he has recently finished for the huge Carlisle project.

came away with some useful items today as well

Rolling Road sold by ten commandments

These are available from N gauge upwards. here I have gone for the Em version with extra n gauge rollers so I can maintain my father’s n gauge stock. These are high quality made in Germany.

next up from Lanarkshire models Lanky Bufferstops.

Lastly treated myself to a new Dremmel. my last multitool died of a broken heart (burnt out motor). it was only a cheap one so this time went all out.

also nice to see the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway society stall. Stevenson carriages . Merg and many more.

more model show ramblings next week from my second home

Kirkby Stephen East station

Taking a wee breather from lining the rest of the 27 up just so I dont get bogged down by it or send my eyes squiffy.

Thought I would make a start on the first piece of infrastructure.

I’m starting at the Turntable end of the track layout.

This is the London Road Models kit. Which is actually a LNWR based COWANS SHELDON table but I will be modifying it to become a Lanky one.

The etchings are very clean and crisp. The instructions are clear.

I have a copy of the original drawing for the table that was installed at Holmfirth to help me with details and measurements.

Here Is the first part folded

this was done using my latest tool purchase

The 8″ hold and fold. Brilliant piece of kit. makes folding a doddle.

I am currently working on the deck adding rivet detail

.

Rivet detail added to overlays before fitment.

Progress is slow but steady on the table.
with rivet detail being added as I go.
the first balance wheel has been attached tonight.
Starting to resemble a turntable now.

Work on the turntable is progressing well. The super structure is now complete. Attention has turned to adding the final details.
The deck is all planked up now with individual wood sleepers.

All thats left to do with the sleepers is trim and shape the two end ones to match the deck and stain to resemble creosote.

Glue holding the sleepers down is now dry. The end sleepees have been shaped. The lock lever and finishing plate fitted.

Single stantions added along with the handle to push the table round. All to be repeated on the opposite side. Fit the track. Chair up the well and dress well with Yorkshire stone.
Paint and weather.

Now awaiting the locomotech turntable drive kit. Once this is installed Yorkshire paving will be fitted into the well and dressed stone sides. The deck will be painted and timbers creosoted. Then track laid. Very happy with the results

Started on details in the well today. Split into eight segments each lined with two rows of paving. A course of paving will be going around the outer edge of the segments then infilled with Yorkshire cobble. Then the well edges finished with dressed stone.

This little baby turned up today. This will be powering the turntable around.

I hope to come up with some electronics to automatically stop the table in the correct position every time too. Watch this space.

This motor and box combination turns the table at 2 rpm. Which should look quite authentic to being pushed by 2 men.

Right back on with the well. As per the original drawing. Yorkshire built turntables had Random stone walling on the side wall of the well.

Think I have managed to catch the feel of the random Yorkshire stone

Just need to finish the mad amount of single shaped slaps to go around the top of the well and around the tops of the segments.

update time.

Slabs around the top of the well and around the segments are all finished.

after this the segments were infilled with random yorkstone

then an overall wash of york buff was carried out followed by a slightly darker wash .

finally I have given the whole well a few coats of oil and grease wash. Natural wash. with moss picked out using tamiya textured paint in green and Khaki.
next step is small amount of rust wash around the chairs .