Edinburgh Princes St in EM

[Stephen Freeman]

Having built a few of the kits, I think I have a few spare plinths if needed. The fun will start if you want to make the signals fully operational as most of the operating bits were usually to be found below walkway level. At least the hole in the wall may prove handy even if not entirely prototypical.

 

[Ian N]

Hi Stephen

Thanks for the offer, but I'm 99% certain that I'm happy with the appearance of the partially buried effect even while it's at the unfinished stage.
It was the underside of Tony Gee's gantry that he had on a demo table at last years ExpoEM Summer that provided the motivation to get this started. It provided a plan B if the hole-in-the-wall approach didn't work out. As it is, there are timber supports under the leg, so this one is back to Plan A.
The station gantry is probably next, but is quite different in appearance with the dolls and walkways mounted outside the gantry As partially evidenced in these images - Station Gantry 1 and Station gantry 2 . Much more modelling involved, and I think I've worked out how to do it while keeping the character. The usual dearth of good quality photos of the bits you really want to see doesn't help though

 

[Ian N]

Work on the dolls is nearly finished. Another quick check to make sure it looks like the prototype, even if not an exact model.
It’s now getting to the stage you think it’s nearly finished, until you realise how much still has to be done.

 

[Ian N]

Time has recently been spent building signal ladders. I don't mind the soldering of individual rungs, although discovering you've included more rungs than are actually needed is a learning curve.
It's the amount of time to clean up everything the cutters don't leave flush. To save time ( sanity already gone...) I'm going to try 0.3mm wire soldered to the outside edges of MSE ladders next. Construction of the dolls has been completed, the vertical operating linkage installed, the dolls soldered into the span and the first plank of the remaining walkway added.
It's planned to use 1mm x 2mm magnets superglued inside 1.1mm inside diameter tube which have been previously soldered to the operating wire as a way of making the gantry detachable from the servo's. This enables the gantry to be removable from the layout for transport. These magnets have little attractive force end to end, and negligible force transversal. However there will be a degree of separation between " connections " to ensure complete separation.

I was going to say here's one I made earlier.... this is the departure & call on signal for platforms 2 & 3. Turns out it was started quite a few years ago! The holes in the lamp were for the inclusion of LED lighting. Suffice to say, it seemed a good idea at the time!

 

[Ian N]

And this is where progress stalled on the departure signals for platforms 5 & 6 due to problems getting the second leg attached. In the following 11 years, the deck has developed a slight bow, which can hopefully be addressed after temporarily removing the handrail and replacing it so that it doesn't jar to my eye as much. It's not too far from finished, or so I thought. Definitely less than building the gantry!


As seen from the other side, maybe slightly more work than I first thought
Platform 5&6 departure signals

 

[Ian N]

In what is likely to be one of the last photos of the layout in the garage, fingers crossed it'll make its way to the ScRSG club rooms this afternoon where it'll be reerected in due course in it's entirety. Having been untouched for a few years, there are bits needing attention. The steel rail tarnished where left uncovered, but a surface layer of rust where things were placed on the track, restricting airflow.

 

[Ian N]

It looks much smaller like this! All baseboards and two of the original legs successfully transported to its new location

 

[Ian N]

Four and a half months later, the reassembly continues. Only being able to attend the club rooms once a fortnight slows progress on the major work, and a decent summer and other activities have affected home modelling. On the bright side, the dark evenings have returned, and the dogs are now happy to chill, instead of wanting to play, after their walks.

Although progress has been slow, important steps forward have been completed. The original Garage legs for the station boards where one end was against a wall to prevent movement


have been replaced with something more substantiaL The original legs will probably be reused to create a frame for the control panel to sit on. Two boards now fit completely on the new table frame and the other two rest on the frame with plug in legs at the outer edges.


The new legs use discontinued IVAR preassembled 220cm legs cut as required. At the price my local Swedish Emporium was selling them at to clear, it was cheaper than buying the wood.
Finally, a view that wasn't possible in the garage as it was always against a wall. Some of the minor damage is just visible

Now I have easy access to this end, the missing lengths of platform roads, and the platform itself can be made. The platform surfaces, three missing bits of platform and the structures from these boards are still to make the journey through.

 

[Ian N]

My iPad has just flagged this as a memory from 12yrs ago!
Little does it know how much other work has progressed, or not, in the interim.


This was the layout's original location in the garage backed against a wall, before it was decided to extend beyond the Morrison St bridge In the background.
This is approximately 9 feet long, about the time it was discovered it was difficult to get more than four 60+year old modellers along its frontage! The buildings next to the bridge were subsequently discovered to be out of proportion vertically and have since been rebuilt.

 

[John Bardwell]

I had the opportunity to visit the ScRSG clubrooms last night (with the West Scotland 4mm Group) and was very taken with the work done thus far on Princes Street and the enormity of the tasks yet to come. I'll be following this closely (and hopefully coming up to the Bus Depot again!). Super stuff!

 

[Dave F.]

Hi John, we all enjoyed the evening and possibly made new friends which is good and we have said we will do something similar again. If nothing else it means we have to keep the place a wee bit tidy.

Dave.

 

[Ian N]

At long last, and arguably well overdue, the paint factory has finally got windows.


in hindsight, it might have been easier to attach them before internal bracing was fitted, or alternatively have wider strips for gluing to the superstructure. Having some form of alignment guide to make consistency easier might have helped too. It's not apparent, but there's no "glazing" behind the window frames, so as this is a background building, I might leave it like that.
I must do something about the roof though!

I've also been working on windows for the Morrison St/Gardners Crescent cluster of buildings where the test prints have been checked for size and the tenement where the windows have been made and are waiting to be glued in

 

[Ian N]

A long time ago in a different forum, when Princes Street was still pretty embryonic, I posted my first interpretation of the carriage cleaning platforms.

Construction was out of Evergreen Plastic, with a single photo for inspiration. It looked not too bad until better research photos became available, at which point it started to look "clunky"


Plan B, after the purchase of a Silhouette Cameo was to use that to cut the legs, then laminate the layers together

The rotating blade and the plastic I used seemed not to agree. The sides weren't as symmetrical as I would have preferred. The hole, for the same reasons didn't have right angle corners, and it took months for the solvent to evaporate and the plastic to re harden in an unheated garage. A start was made to tidy them up, but they never received the deck and the scenic surface was never cut to accommodate them.

At Model Rail Scotland, I noticed one of the traders had resin printed a "cleaning gantry". Food for thought.......
The leg, the underside of the deck showing the locating strips for the legs and the 2 in 1 alignment Jig. The jig was accidentally made too thick, restricting the cutting ability of a knife blade. The wider slots are for the walkway legs opposite the signal box which provide safe access over some of the point rodding runs
And finally, all glued together, imbedded in the same underlay used on the layout.

2.4 metres to go!

 

[Ian N]

A significant milestone for Princes St was reached yesterday. For the very first time, the six main scenic boards were assembled together, so the opportunity was taken to place most of the structures, bar the few still in the garage, as an indication of what's still outstanding work. It would have been amiss not to take photos......

Most of the scenic section. There's roughly another 10" at the right hand side. The scenic shelf and buildings for the SSEB complex are stored below the layout awaiting completion. A tin of black paint fo do/redo the facia wouldn't go wrong either!





Morrison St bridge in the middle distance, Grove St bridge on the horizon, where the fiddle yard will start. Hopefully, the three fiddle yard frames will be added in a fortnight.







And the paint factory finally has its extraction fan.

 

[Ian N]

And some taken by Davy Scott. Used with his permission.

Some damage still to be repaired


From above Grove St bridge towards the station. Different manufacturers styrene sheet yellows at different rates, and having tenement windows dissected by the baseboard front should have been noticed at the time!



The climb out of the station