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(All photography courtesy of Tony
Wright.) |
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HARTSHILL BANK - MRM MAGAZINE FEATURE
(Hartshill Bank is
appearing at the Bristol Model Railway Exhibition April
28-30.) |
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Encouraged by his experiences on the
exhibition circuit, Fred Johnson describes how he built his
own N gauge layout.
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Activity on the depot with two Class 37s,
two 60s and a 59 in attendance. |
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I started to build the layout in l998.
Having helped Steve Farmer with his Barton Road layout at a
few exhibitions, I was encouraged to have a go myself.
I decided to incorporate a station at one end and a diesel
depot at the other end of the layout.
As it was to be an exhibition layout, I started to build the
layout in five sections of 2ft x 3ft each, giving an overall
length of 10ft by 3ft. My cousin, John, built my
layout boards using the tongue and groove method which we had
previously tried out on our club layout. The track is
Peco code 55. It is laid on a base of cork and
ballasted using Greenscene's N gauge product.
With the track laid, next came the wiring, which I kept as
simple as possible. The points are operated on the
stud and probe principle. The layout uses K.P.C.
hand-held controls. |
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A Gloucester parcels railcar in the station bay platform. |
Hartshill Bank Track Plan - Layout size 10' x 3' |
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Scenery
Hartshill Bank's town scene is made up from kits by
Faller and Polar plus a few scratch-built buildings.
The continental kits have been altered slightly to make them
look British. The market stalls and the bus shelters
were made by my friend, Mick Tooth. The diesel depot is made
from two Peco kits utilising one full kit and half of the
other one. The yard lamps are from T.P.M. Models. The
depot yard is formed by plaster of Paris dragged across the
tracks to make it look like concrete.
A prominent feature behind the depot is the rock scene which
was constructed from plaster of Paris, nappy liners and
tinfoil. The tinfoil was put into place just before
the plaster of Paris dried out to get the indentations of
the rock surface. This was then scattered with
Greenscene's scatter and trees were put into place as
desired.
Another scenic feature is the canal, which was formed by
painting varnish on top of varnish with a layer of paint
in-between. |
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A busy time at the depot and in the Civil Engineer's yard. |
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A view of Hartshill Bank's station buildings. |
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Canal scene with EWS No.66 003 and Blue Circle cargo-wagons
heading south. |
Rolling Stock.
The rolling stock is a mixture of my own loco
re-sprays with a few C.J.M. models, plus a bit of stock
from Mick and John, together with some scratch-built
engineering rolling stock and kits of Steve Farmer's.
All the stock on the layout has been detailed or modified.
Having taken nearly three years to build the layout, which
was set up in the lounge, my thanks must go to my wife for
putting up with it all that time. Also many thanks
to Mick, John and Steve for all their help and to their
wives for letting the lads come away at weekends to attend
exhibitions.Right:
A bird's eye view of the station with a Midland Main Line
HST arriving as a pair of Loadhaul-liveried Class 37s head
away with a nuclear flask train. |
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One for the 'bashers' as Freightliner
Class 66 No.66 503 arrives at the station with a
northbound charter. The first vehicle behind the
loco is a generator car. |
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Hartshill Bank station with 59
102 heading north with ARC box wagons while
Freightliner's 47 306 heads southbound. |
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Class 58 No.58 042 heads south past
the diesel depot with a MGR working.
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