Lostock Exchange Sidings

[cheshire lines]

I've decided to spend some of my Coronovirus enforced 'stay home' time to convert the fiddle yard of Lostock Junction into a scenic one. This will depict a double track main line with a set of exchange sidings for a chemical works branching off it (inspired by the former ICI works at Lostock Gralam and Winnington).

So my layout will be double sided, with each side acting as the fiddle yard for the other.

This was the area before I started.



So far I have fixed the backscene sheets to the board (with artists spray adhesive) and cut back to underlay below the track (a sheet of the material normally used under table clothes to protect a polished table), so that it is now only below the actual tracks.

[Mr Bones]

Coming along nicely

[cheshire lines]

Thanks,
The next stage will be to make a single road loco shed for the industrial locos (Metcalfe model - purchased before the CV lockdown) and fix it to a piece of hardboard (removable) to occupy the space where the storage cassettes stand when the area is being used as the fiddle yard for Lostock Junction.

[cheshire lines]

Loco shed now completed and hardboard cut to size. The exact position of the shed is yet to be finalised and the shed doors will be fitted once it has been stuck down. I will probably raid my spares box for a couple of huts etc to go on the removable board and add a small coaling point and water crane once my local model shop reopens.

[IanAlan]

It's looking really good. I'm looking forward to seeing it when you've landscaped the board. I think that the scenery and backscene will look cracking together. There's an austere beauty in those industrial landscapes.

[cheshire lines]

Thanks,
I live quite close to a couple of the former ICI chemical factories at Lostock and Winnington (or what's left of them), so they have been a familiar sight most of my life.
I've also got some models of ICI rolling stock, such as the limestone hoppers, covhops and salt wagons, so can have fun with BR locos bringing them into the sidings and then industrial locos shunting them off scene to the works.
I've got some 8Fs and black 5s which will be suitable for the BR locos, but need to think about the industrial locos. Even back in the 1960s ICI had gone over to diesel shunters, the largest of which were built by English Electric and looked very similar to the BR class 08s. However I'd like to have steam engines. I've already got a Pug and a Sentinel, but could do with some thing larger for the hopper wagons, maybe something like a J94 Austerity tank or a J50 ex LNER tank.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[glencairn]

Looking good, cheshire lines.

Glencairn

[cheshire lines]

Thanks Glencairn.

[cheshire lines]

Shed position finalised and track laid but not yet ballasted. The hut was a plastic kit supplied with Railway Modeller a while back and the coaling stage was scratchbuilt from odds and ends from various sources. The base and steps were constructed from leftovers from a Metcalfe kit and then covered with a floor made from wooden coffee stirrers. The back and sidepiece are offcuts of plastic corrugated iron sheets left over from another project.
The corrugated iron fence attached to the backscene was downloaded from Scalescenes, printed, glued to cardboard and then cut into strips.



The locoshed will remain removable and the workshop area hides a metal handle (an offcut of coldframe glazing frame) to help remove the whole section when the area is being used for storage cassettes for Lostock Junction.

[cheshire lines]

The grounded van body had been in storage for a while, having previously been located on Lostock Junction.



So far everything used has been from my scrap box, purchased before the lockdown or downloaded and printed.