Longstone

Longstone

(21st layout)

An early photo of the village board.

Here is summary of the layout with some early photographs. 

Legend

The fictitious layout "Longstone" depicts an 15" gauge estate railway 3.25 miles long.  It runs from Longstone village southwards to Hobground sidings alongside the standard gauge York to Scarborough line near the village of Whisperdales, entirely within the estate owned by Lord Mitchell who took over ownership of the woollen mill at Spring Head.  The line started as a horse tramway in the late 19th century for transporting supplies, coal and products to and from the mill and was gradually improved by it's previous owner for use as a railway.

From the Longstone Hall maintenance shed the line runs into the village station, at 1/4 of a mile there is a small halt at Spring Head (Mill), and, running over moorland at 1 1/2 miles (the steepest part of the line), the village of Dalebrook is reached where there is a passing loop and siding.  Attaining a low lying valley at 2 1/4 miles High Bank Farm is reached where there is a farm siding, then proceeding along the lowest part of the line by the Whisper Beck and after another mile the end of the line is Hobground (for Whisperdales village).

(Click on images to enlarge)

Loco No.1 "Proteus" in the rock cutting at Fox Gill. 

The small railway has many sources of traffic: supplies, coal and raw wool to the mill, and woven products leaving the mill, mill workers transport, guests to Longstone for "Longstone Hall" and gardens, and also visitors and walkers for the moors area around Longstone.

"Proteus" again, seen leaving the mill sidings with a goods train. 
 It is about to go through the "hole in the sky" which leads to the village station.  
On the back scenes we have used cut-up Yorkshire calendar pictures to give more depth to the scenes.

The Layout

The layout shows three scenes, the village with station, Fox Gill and moorland area, and Spring Head Mill.  It is viewed on three sides, with a fiddle yard and operating area on the fourth side.

At present I have five Smallbrook Studio locomotives:
No. 1 "Proteus" - a Harlequin kit, and the loco that started it all.
No. 2 "Jiro" - a Columbine kit.
No. 3 "Triton" - a Pierrot kit.
No. 4 "Delta" - another Columbine kit.
No. 5 "Quinto" - a modified Katie kit.

The wagons are a mix of Sidelines (Black Dog Mining/Pepper7) and Smallbrook Studios kits.

Coaches are mainly scratch built, but include two Decauville open sided 4-wheeler's by Smallbrook Studio.

I hope to add a later post with details of the locomotives and stock.

This is the passenger shelter just after completion with loco No.4 "Delta" passing by on test.

The wooden fencing in the foreground is a Lemax product.

No.3 "Triton" in the mill yard with general supplies for the mill.

Baseboards are made of 6 mm and 9 mm ply wood.  Two baseboards are 39" x 22" (1000 mm x 550 mm) and are supported by built in legs.  They are the fiddle-yard and Fox Gill boards.  The village and mill boards are suspended between them and are 43" x about 19" each (1090 mm x 490 mm), but the mill board is slightly wider to get the turnout to the mill fitted in.

Track on the scenic sections is Peco "0-16.5" Streamline, and in the fiddle yard is Peco "00" Setrack.  The turnouts in the fiddle yard are controlled by Peco PL-11 Side Mounted point motors, and in the scenic sections we use Tortoise Slow Motion Machines. 

The first scene constructed, at the village stores.  

The street lamp is an altered Lemax product, and the post box is one of the "Miniature World" stone resin items.

A longer view of the village board while the station was under construction with "Triton" and empty wagons.  

No.4 "Delta" shunting at the mill rail entrance.

"Proteus" is seen crossing the bridge at Fox Gill.  

We later added some low trees, sheep and other animals to the scene.

"Proteus" again, with bogie coach arriving at the newly constructed station.

I wasn't happy with the back scene picture of Longstone Hall above the bridge, so later we changed it for another building.

"Triton" passing the end of the road in the village.

The chapel was an amalgamation of several Yorkshire chapel features from photographs.

Figures, Animals and Birds

Figures, Animals and Birds

The first three figures I bought by Modellers Resource, and a Henry Ford & Co worker from the ICM kit.

Trying to get 1:24 scale figures and animals was a bit of a worry at first.  My first and only purchases were three workshop figures by Modellers Resource, these could be used as loco drivers or as mill workers, they are resin kits and can be positioned on many poses.  Many of the other figures I could find were proper "G" scale items, being 1:22.5 and therefore some being too large.  

However, it has been fun trying to source other suitable makes through the internet with the help of the GnATTERbox forum (Gn15info forum) and now I have several manufacturers products:
Modellers Resource, Prieser, ICM (Henry Ford  & Co kit), Graupner, Chalk Garden Rail, Deans Marine, Bachmann, Lemax, SLM online, and cheap figures from the internet of Chinese manufacture.  I have also found one or two second hand figures of unknown make at toy fairs and model railway exhibitions.

Some figures from these manufacturers are not exactly to scale, being slightly too small (or large!), but with careful placing some can look acceptable.

I haven't yet got my system of painting them good enough though, but I'll keep trying. "Eyes" seem to be the main problem for some reason.

US, SLM online figure.

This (under scale) old lady is a re-painted Lemax figurine. 

Examples by un-known make, Graupner, Prieser, Modellers Resource and Deans Marine.

A cheap Chinese figure which has good detail and re-painted well.

Another selection, by Chalk Garden Rail, Prieser, Deans Marine, Chinese and also unknown make.

First lady figure, by Prieser.

Another figure from the ICM Henry Ford & Co kit, as yet un-painted.

Animals and birds are hard to find.  I have some Prieser sheep, but they look like a continental breed and I had to alter them a bit to look more British.  Other sources are: some "toy farm" animals re-painted, "Miniature World" items from garden centres, though some of these are over-scale, and animals and birds cut off Lemax figurines, this though can be a bit tricky, then re-painted. 

Sheep by Prieser, some Lemax squirrels, items from Miniature World and a toy farm dog.

Lemax mouldings cut from various figurines and re-painted as chaffinch, green finch, starling, blackbird, and sparrows.

These crows came from a Lemax "Spooky Town" set.

More Lemax items removed from figurines, and painted as a jay and a collared dove.

All the above figures, animals and birds are now fixed to "Longstone". 

Building "Longstone"

Building Longstone

(21st layout)

Two buildings for the "village" board.

The exhibition layout in Gn15 scale was a much larger affair.  Measuring 7ft 6" x 3ft 3" it was built on four baseboards, two being placed back-to-back with a back scene board between them, and two placed transversely at each end.  This width would give me the space to use 12" radius curves as planned-for.

(click on images to enlarge)

The underside of the layout showing the four boards built of 9mm and 6mm ply wood.

The two back-to-back base boards are suspended between the end boards which have the built-in support legs.

There are scenes on three of the boards, with the fourth being used as a fiddle-yard.  Therefore, the layout will be viewed on three sides.  The scenes are a village scene, a rocky moorland area with "gill" and a bridge over a stream, and a woollen mill.

The top of the boards showing the position of the various scenic elements.  The back scene boards separate the dioramas and the fiddle yard at the far end.

The Peco Streamline 0-16.5 track was cut into short sections to give it a more realistic look, and laid onto ballast underlay.  Over time, the track will be heavily weathered with added weeds too.

Peco 0-16.5 track was used on the scenic boards with turnout control by Tortoise slow-motion Switch Machines, in the fiddle yard I used Peco "00" Setrack with Peco PL-11 side mounted point motors.

The fiddle yard whilst test running.

We built the village scene first as there were several buildings planned, a shop, cottages, chapel and a goods shed.  A very worthwhile exercise was making card mock-ups of the buildings, to place them, and see if they looked sensible proportionally.

Card mock-ups of the main buildings.

The stone buildings were made in the same way as the "maintenance shed", with Slaters 7mm dressed stone glued to foam board, thin mdf roofs with card tiles, and mdf capping stones.  This would keep them as light as possible, as weight would be a consideration all over the layout.

Shop and cottage under construction. 

The completed structure.

Shop window display with familiar products on sale.

The completed bridge over the line to the mill section, made in the same way as the cottages.

The tiny goods shed at Longstone Station.  Made with coffee stirrers and strip wood on foam board, and dressed with a 7mm scale valance by York Modelmaking.

Some items in 1:24 scale are hard to source, but you do eventually find things that will be suitable, and in the village scene several Lemax items were used such as street lights and fencing.  We also found some stone resin items (designed for a fairy garden at a local garden centre under the name "Miniature World") useful such as the post box, vegetable garden and some animals.  

We also added figures, animals and birds to the whole layout and I will describe them in a separate post.

The cottage and village store being developed scenically.

The small garden at the end cottage showing the raised vegetable patch.

The next board to have scenic treatment was the "Fox Gill" board, a moorland scene.  The bridge over the stream was tackled first, made with small mdf sections covered in Das Clay which were scribed with large stones.  Lemax "canal" fencing was used across the span.

The sections for the bridge scribed and painted.

The bridge in position showing the support girders and fencing.

There are undulations added to the gill board, faced with rocks.  The sides of the gill were made with Heki Rock Foil fixed with hot glue and dry-brushed with light greys and browns.  The rock surfaces over the moor area were made with a sawdust/ p.v.a/ grey acrylic paint/advanced lightweight filler mix which worked well.  The surfaces were scribed before it dried.

Adding the rock surfaces.

The colours were then added using thinned acrylics paints, and also dry-brushed acrylics.

Scatters, and 4mm scrub are being added to the ground, and the stream by my wife.

The stream was made using several layers of varnish using small chunks of cork bark for fallen rocks.

Plant life has been added to the stream.

More plant life added.  

Trees should be massive in this scale, but as we were making a moorland scene we tried to model "stunted" tree growth.  Below is a messy workbench photo showing the garden twig/Woodland Scenics Tree Armature skeleton, and beside it, adding the foliage.

Tree construction.

The only building on this board is the passenger shelter made in the same way as the goods shed.

Arriving at the small station is loco No.4 "Delta", under test.  More Lemax fencing is in the foreground.

The woollen mill board, to be called "Spring Head Mill" would have large low relief buildings along the back scene board with two sidings and a water column.  Added details were general industrial rubbish, a stone wall and a dead tree.  Again I did a card mock-up of the buildings before starting their construction.  The same method was used for the buildings, and I used York Modelling (0-105) 7mm large industrial windows, and headers stones for the main mill structure.

 Cardboard mock-ups of the buildings.

The side wall of the main mill building.  The first floor windows were shortened by one row of panes.  Using this "bobbly" Slaters 7mm scale material leaves holes along wall edges/cuts, which were filled with Miliput.

The two main buildings finished.  The building in the foreground is the stores and offices.

The Mill is board finished in this posed photo.  A covered rail entrance to the mill has been added using a wooden structure and home made corrugated roof sheets.

I was worried that locos or stock may fall off the side of the layout accidentally, so we fixed acrylic perspex panels all round the sides of the layout.  Before we did this though, my wife fixed scenic plants and bushes to the inside of the perspex to give the scenery another depth, and this has worked well.  If the trains are viewed from their own level the acrylic sheets can't hardly be noticed.

Perspex panels were one of the last additions to the boards.

The perspex can hardly be noticed when viewed from this level.