WEST ORTON

[Steve M]

Too late - I've left the country. R-

I will hunt you down.

I spent the day cutting ‘sleepers’ and forming bolt holes from the rail chairs with a soldering iron. I have stuck them in place around the TT and will paint them tomorrow.

As I said, I need therapy.

[Steve M]

The sleeper wall in its raw state. Now for painting - trialing giving the walls a coat of dark woodstain, both straight from the tin and mixed with some black weathering powder to give that old creosote look. I could just paint the whole thing with sleeper grime and a black wash - time will tell.

2021-10-02_09-00-53 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[RogerB]

That’s going to look very good. R-

[bulleidboy]

Why was a wall put around the turntable?

[Steve M]

It’s based very loosely on one on the Settle and Carlisle. It is so windy up there that they found that when a loco was on the TT it turned in the wind like an oversize weathervane. They built a large circular fence to stop that happening.
My fence is primarily to stop a way ward loco running off the baseboard.

[Steve M]

Two coats of Colron wood dye with a dash of soot weathering powder. I will add some rust stains where the rail chairs would have been and give a mist of sleeper grime when I have some in the airbrush. Reasonably happy with the old tar/creosote look.
I also added a very thin layer of DAS clay around the TT and gave it a coat of the wood dye to resemble greasy concrete.

2021-10-03_09-31-59 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

In fact I had every intention of getting on with weathering the track today but events conspire against me. I’ve had a bit of a cold for a few days but today I feel like cr@p - so I’ve had to cancel my scheduled flu jab today and instead book myself in for a PCR test just in case. The weathering can wait until I can concentrate better.

[bulleidboy]

I hope you feel better soon Steve. The turntable and surround look very good - well done. Barry

[Chops]

That looks amazing, especially with the unique fencing. So, to be clear, this rather big investment, of the prototype, was to simply change
from one track to another? Or just turn it around? Seems like a huge amount of trouble for a relatively small task. Quite remarkable, regardless.

[Steve M]

Hi Chops. TTs were commonplace on the 'old' railway. Tender locos weren't ideal going backwards through reduced visibility and coal dust blowing into the cab from the open tender. Loco's would be turned for return journeys.
In these days of heritage lines it is quite rare to see a TT as running a loco backwards for a few miles is now not seen as an inconvenience.
These days a TT is a major investment for historic lines - it's easier to occasionally turn a loco using a Y section of line. Done these days to even out tyre wear I believe.
It's a bit of a pain when taking photos as the locos are the wrong way round for 50% of their journeys.

[Steve M]

If anyone is interested, there are 140 individually cut sleepers with 420 bolt holes in this construction.
I told you I need therapy.