1995 stock in N scale

Following several more coats of paint and lots of sanding I thought I'd post another couple of pics to show how the 95 stock is getting on.



The rough surface of the printed plastic seems to have been mostly smoothed out by the paint and sanding. Luckily the details have not got lost under the paint, despite being only 0.1mm deep.



The ends still look a bit rougher, but since the front will be painted red getting the white perfect is not so important as for the sides.

I have also decided to build a diorama to display the model once it is finished.

Watching the interesting and also rather funny Unfinished London video about the unbuilt Northern Heights extension to the London Underground Northern Line on Youtube, my eye had been caught by the visualisation of Brockley Hill station, with the platforms on an arched viaduct and a sweeping curve of shops adjoining the station building. Here's the Northern Heights video - the image of Brockley Hill is at 3:05

I thought the station would make a good subject for a diorama, with the viaduct allowing more prominent display of the trains than is possible in a cut-away tunnel or at ground level. My idea is to depict it as it might appear in the present day, so as to provide a home for the 1995 stock.

Though there are almost no further details of the station on line, the subject is well covered in Tony Beard's By Tube Beyond Edgeware, which includes several plans of the area and station buildings, and a double-page version of the visualisation which originally attracted me.

To get a feel for the area and see what is left of the never-completed structure, I paid a visit to the intended site of the station.




The station site is now used to hold boot fairs on Sundays - not the day of my visit so I was able to get a good look around free of obstruction.




Almost the only remnants of the unfinished station are the stumps of the viaduct piers. When work stopped the arches between them had been completed, though the viaduct was never built up to track level. At some point the structure was partially demolished, presumably for safety reasons.




Even on the edge of the countryside, with rolling green fields over the fence, the stumps have been comprehensively covered in graffiti. It is interesting to note that while By Tube Beyond Edgeware states that yellow bricks were to be used for all structures on the new line, the viaduct is clearly built from red brick.







On the Watford bypass is the only other evidence of the station, the lay-by for the bus stop that will be at the front of the model. Other bus stops would have been provided on the service road in front of the station.




Over the other side of the roundabout, this huge new development is under construction, suggesting that had the Northern Line got this far it would have had plenty of passengers even with the green belt in place.

I plan to enter the model in the Model Rail Magazine / RMweb 2011 Challenge, which has a size limit of 20 by 11 inches. To work out the best way to fit the station into the available space, I have created a Sketchup model of my design. Clearly modelling the whole thing would be impossible (it was intended to be 9 cars long), but I think I have managed, with a bit of compression, to include the most distinctive features of the design - the booking hall, the curved parade of shops, and the arched viaduct carrying the platforms.



The booking hall and shops are to the left, with the platforms running along the rear of the available space. To the right is a section of the Watford Bypass, with the bus stop which was constructed before the extension was cancelled and still exists today. Though the booking hall is accurately scaled, I have shortened the curved parade of shops and reduced the number of arches beneath the platforms from seven to four. I don't think this degree of compression should affect the appearance of the model too much.

The baseboard is a simple foamboard box-



This photo shows it before I put the top on, with the reinforcement to prevent warping visible inside.




Over the foamboard top I stuck a layer of mount board to provide a stronger, more damage resistant surface.




I printed out and glued down an outline plan of the module layout to provide a guild for positioning the texture printouts.




I have been very impressed by the appearance of the Scalescenes downloadable textures, so I will be making use of for many of the surfaces in the model.
I will be printing them on waterproof paper which will hopefully be more resilient to minor splashes which can ruin an inket-printed paper surface. It is also supposed to be fade resistant and is less likely to tear.




I have added about 10mm of texture outside the edges of the road, under where the pavement will go, to allow for any inaccuracies in printing, cutting, gluing etc the upper layer.

Next step will be to print out the pavement textures and add them.

I have also had a play with a tube map in Photoshop to show how it might look today with the Northern Heights extension.



It needs a bit of editing to correct the duplicate Essex Road.
With the Edgeware-Finchley line, the route into Moorgate and the Ally Pally branch, the Northern Line is even more sprawling and complex than in reality. Possibly it would have been split up at some point since the thirties, but I'm not about to start inventing whole new tube lines.

Paul

Thanks Chris. I'm not sure this update will improve your opinion of me...

Before finishing the viaduct I have detailed the booking hall, as it will become inaccessible once the top goes on. Like the roads, I designed the surface textures in Photoshop and printed them onto waterproof paper.




I then cut them out and glued them to the walls. The passimeter (booth in the middle) was folded up and glazed.




I also made the ticket gates from styrene, and added some etched brass fencing keep the cattle/commuters in the right place.







The line maps are not really readable when they are this small, but they do show the sprawling extended Northern Line.



All this will become tricky to get at once the viaduct top is on, but it will be quite visible through the station doors so I thought it was worth doing.

Paul

At the end of the SB platform as modelled you will need to provide a four-aspect signal [G/R over suppressed G/Y] if you assume that the signalling was not modernised in 1972/3 (or even 1967/8 - although 1972/3 is more plausible).

Between 1972/3 and June 1998 it would be a single 'X' signal [R/G] after 1998 it would be a simple 'A' signal.

Interesting build. It looks good so far.

Try here, probably without the rail gap indicator (but I can check on that) and the white plate reading 'PK 21' would read 'A digitdigitdigit'.

Might be able to give you the most likely number if you want.

Fantastic attention to detail!

Just a thought though ..... Should a line diagram at Bushey Hill show the High Barnet branch, since it can't be reached without changing? Usually other branches are shown as an interchaneg at the junction (East Finchley in this case) I'm fairly sure the City branch isn't shown on CX branch stations.

What adhesive do you use to stick the foamboard bits together? Fantastic work by the way.

Looks good, keep going sir. I hate ballasting!

Only way this could be better is if all the parts were moving and playing music..

Mmmm, Subway....

Ballast looking great

....I like the second-hand furniture shop...."Junk and Disorderly"

Thanks all.
I've now got the conductor rails laid.



They are made from Z scale rails, attached to track pins which represent the insulator pots.

Paul

Unusual to see 4 rail track in N scale and looks like you've done a good job there.

Beautiful. It really is.