Things continued slow throughout 2012 as we negotiated our way through finding funding to purchase our clubhouse.
I (Steve) am Chairman of the Merseyside Model Railway Society, so I have been very tied up in this. However, the very good news on the modelling front is that we now have several new modellers: as well as Gordon who joined us last year, we now also have a new club member, Doug (a South African) and John who has moved back to HO American after several years in the wilderness. Along with Chris, who is sharing his expertise with the EM group mentioned in the last update, this makes 4 and a half modellers. We are raring to go with the next stage!!
Here are a few photos which show quite an atmospheric Mauch Chunk. They also show the completed 2.5D backscene buildings, and repainted hillsides, although there is still work to be done there. Colours are deliberately muted in some photos.
The great task of installing a continuous backscene finally started: A support of 4mm MDF was found to be flexible enough to curve round the ends and the two painted sheets that had previously been used in the middle were used (which is why the painted hills are in the wrong place at this stage). Suitable wooden supports and frame were built to provide more rigidity than hitherto. A new sheet was installed in the middle.
The intention is to use a continuous sheet of matt laminated paper or plastic, which we will paint before lamination. This will stand in between the backscene and the model (it has enough rigidity) and give the portable continuity, without any gaps, that we are seeking. It may even work!
To sit in front of the backscene, slightly 3D buildings – the courthouse and navigation building – are under construction. They are made of perspex and plywood which provides non-warping rigidity and ease of working. Roofs will be made of thick plasticard. These will be coated with matt laminated photos built up from mosaics as used in a flat form before.
Some more grass has been added to the between-tracks area following a close examination of some of the photos “from above” taken in this period. It looks as though a couple of buildings were removed, leaving unleached coal waste from underneath them on which no grass would grow. That’s my interpretation, anyway!
There’s still quite a lot of finishing off to do. Personally I have been levelling the kadees on all my stock and still need a few metal wheelsets. More DCC chips are beeing installed and a few items need remotoring. Biggest is scratchbuilding a CNJ signal bridge using brass etching (if you might be interested in getting one of these, please let me know and I will try and design the etch to handle 2, 3 or 4 track bridges).
Last but not least, an airbrush set-up is being assembled with the intention of serious (but subtle) weathering for everything. Years of fun to come!
So still a few bits to do before we can exhibit it again. A few other club members with American modelling interest are beginning to show their heads in our room, so we hope that we may have more help once Paul, Chris and Dave focus on their new creation.
Things slowed down somewhat after the exhibition. This was for a number of reasons: Firstly some of the group members wanted to move on and build another small layout. Second, the remainder want to make modifications to the staging yard using longer switches so that the stock will pass through it more reliably. However, how this is done (Plan A or Plan B) depends on whether we have more space for the layout and this depends on whether we are able to buy our clubhouse – which has been under negotiation for over a year, although the decision is close.
So, I (Steve) have done much of the modelling this last six months, ably assisted by Gordon, while Chris, Paul and Dave try to decide whether they want to build Patagonian narrow gauge or an LNER branch line. Paul continues to provide able support for the electrics! It’s been lots of little bits, plus trying to get the backscene sorted.
Firstly I have added a few detailed scenes with characters, carefully inserting the ends of pins into legs and then into the sidewalk! (yes, some did lose legs). Many more are still waiting mutilation and gender realignment to fit 1940/50s Mauch Chunk. Awnings were also added to some of the stores and trash was placed in the dead spaces where old buildings have been demolished.
Oval switchstand targets were etched in some quantity and then attached to a variety of commercial switchstands, together with or instead of lanterns, and then painted with enamels to give the desired effect. To date only a few of these have been installed on the layout as they are rather delicate and have a tendency to get flattened.
These photos were taken from June through to October and provide a record of the work we did on the layout in that time period.
Dave spent a lot of time building the variety of telegraph poles and electric utility poles found in Mauch Chunk (according to our photos). These show them as built and weathered and then in situ – showing how they really add to the mood of the scenes.
Steve then did another brass etch including some fencing to go round the back of the park and some windows for the track sheds, which were then built by Chris from laser cut strip wood.
The Mikado M3 was painted for us (still to be weathered) and a Babyface A/B unit purchased from eBay, as the price has dropped since the ARHS body shells became available. Also another K1 unpainted from David in the UK.
Chris designed and built a new lighting gantry that can be transported in two parts but bolts together to give a single 15ft span so that the view of the model is not interrupted. Works brilliantly.
Last, but by now means least, Paul has modified and built DCC kit that gives us separate power supplies to the two directions of travel, so that shorts will only stop one direction at a time. The power has also been boosted so that locos with older motors can be run. As is so often the case, this was not photographed as it is under the layout – I’ll try and do better next time!
So by mid-October, everything was ready for the Warrington exhibition. See the photos on the Exhibition page.
This was Mauch Chunk’s second Exhibition with the Merseyside MRS team and the first off our home turf. We exhibited nearby (about 20 miles away) in Warrington at the Warrington MRS’ annual exhibition, making transport and organisation relatively easy.
The layout generally ran very well: Paul and Chris cleaned wheels all weekend and Ian cleaned the track almost continuously! Paul had modified the electrics over the year to separate the electrical supplies to the two sets of tracks, so that shorts only affect one track. He had also modified some kit built by another club member (Derek Jones) that enables us to run locos that draw more power. As a result disruptions from shorts and overloading the system were reduced. As well as our CNJ stock – brass and plastic – We again ran Paul’s Philadelphia F3s and our two BLI Mikados (hat have not yet been turned into CNJ M3s).
The sound-chipped Mikados and F3s proved very popular with all the visitors, not just the youngsters. The new lighting gantry designed and built by Chris, and allowing us to lose the central pillar (see the Merseyside MRS October 2011 exhibition photos) worked very well, and gave a clear panoramic view of the model. New fascia and pelmet improved the look considerably as well.
There are five of us now in the Mauch Chunk PA team – from L to R in both relevant photos: Chris Bennett, Gordon Young, Dave Williams, Steve Hales and Paul Rees – although we couldn’t coordinate a smile from all of us in a single photo! We were also ably helped out by Bob Powell from the club, Ian Clark who is ex-club and Nigel Baker who was visiting Steve.
Here’s a selection of photos of the layout over the Exhibition weekend. I’ve used a retouch tool to lose the baseboard joins so apologies to the purists – but they just look better.
A lot of detailing work was done in early 2011: grass along the lineside using static grass, lineside fencing and some of the more ‘interesting’ telegraph poles that overhang the river! Additional foliage was also added in various places.
An attempt was made to provide some waves on the river to stop it being mistaken for a lake or a mill poind – sadly this failed. Whether this was operator incompetence or poor material we don’t know. The river was taken back to the base and reworked up to its previous shininess.
For its first ever model railway exhibition outing, Mauch Chunk PA attended the Merseyside Model Railway Society exhibition – i.e. home turf.
On the whole the layout ran very well: Nearly every problem could be solved by cleaning track or wheels and Paul’s electrics proved robust and faultless. We inevitably ‘shorted’ the track many times by running into switches set the wrong way so Paul will modify the system to reduce this. We were running a number of non-CNJ locomotives (including some BLI Mikados that will be turned into CNJ M3s at some point).
This is Chris and Steve being presented with the public’s favourite layout cup by the Chairman, Mike McManus, and a couple of photos of three of us (Chris, Steve & Paul) with the layout. Dave wasn’t present on the Sunday when the photo was taken.
The sound-chipped Mikados and F3s proved very popular with the visitors and may have been the clincher in our winning the cup for the public’s favourite layout (of 12) at the Exhibition! Here are some of the visitors enjoying the experience and lots of photos (probably a self-indulgent amount) of the layout over the Exhibition weekend – all mixed up! Note that the central support will be removed for future exhibitions and the backscene and associated buildings will be prepared anew.
Having settled in in our new room in the new premises, we had put down the rest of the sidewalks. Next was the roadway. This was made with a material we know in the UK as ‘Artex filler’. Artex was used back in the 1970s for creating swirling patterns on ceilings and walls but has now fallen out of fashion. It is a soft, flexible plaster with ‘higlights’ in which can be rewetted at any time and lightly reworked. In this case it was mixed with black acrylic to get various shades of grey.
Although the surface was rough when first laid after a few days of drying (our room is rather damp). the surface can be rubbed with fingers to give a smooth surface, and additional layers can be painted on and reworked in a few hours. As the material hardened, drain covers and kerb grills were pushed into it (for later painting).
Meanwhile, Paul and Chris started to get the front panels and lighting supports ready. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, we had to use a central support at the front which broke the panorama. The first picture below shows the addition of an unpainted backscene and the second shows the layout with only the layout lighting on.
Steve Painted the back panels assuming an angle of view that proved to be inconsistent with other perspectives but, hey, it worked on the day! These panels were only temporary for the exhibition, so he can have another go.
The park was ‘turfed’ with static grass using our Noch GrasMaster and four trees were added using the previously described techniques. Finally we started to dismantle the layout to take the boards to the show!
See out Exhibition page for more views of our incomplete, but now exhibitable, layout.
Since May we have moved to new premises, still in Birkenhead, where we are fortunate to have our own room a little smaller than in our old premises. Despite this, progress is now good because we are committed to exhibit Mauch Chunk at our [end of] October Exhibition. Although it won’t be ‘finished’ it needs to be reasonably complete.
First the move. The layout was dismantled – this proved surprisingly easy and the boards were lighter than we expected which, as we are getting older, was a pleasant finding. Here it is in the original clubhouse prior to the move… …and in the new clubhouse afterwards before moving into our new room.
We (all) painted the walls and then started to clear the mess into the right rooms and then made ourselves at home. As there is now much less room we put shelves behind the layout for all the modelling tools and materials. Our pictures and plans are once again on the wall.
Everyone is lending a hand (Dave and Paul below) to work on the sidewalks and final bedding down of the buildings. Paul and Chris have also fixed the spur in front of the Hooven Mercantile building.
Q1 2010 was really a continuation of the tree/woodland making that started in the last quarter of 2009. Here are more photos of the woodland – now pretty much complete. A separate page shows the techniques used which, although not radically different from most, have a bit of a hairy twist! The trees do transform the appearance of the layout.
Chris is working on the Hotel Switzerland to go next to Paul’s Central Hotel. We are seeing this hotel from the back so it shouldn’t be too complicated. Even time for a cuppa tea.
Most of our attention then (and now) has been on moving clubhouse – which finally happened at the end of April – more in the next instalment. However, we are committed to taking Mauch Chunk to our October 2010 exhibition so we will have to speed up and get all the basics finished.
