The Town Hall mocked up to check for fit after shortening some of the sides. The main entrance wall is coloured as delivered in the kit, but the long decorative side on the left was experimentally blackened to see if this matched the pictures of town centre buildings of the time.
Disappointingly, for such an ornate and colourful kit, this is exactly what public buildings looked like in the 1960's before smokeless zone legislation and stone-cleaning, so the whole building would have to be the darkened in the same way. Here is the main entrance side again, treated as such, and the steps reduced to one side only.
The Town Hall would boast a tall clock tower when completed, and I anticipated a quite magnificent building. The detail on this kit is tremendous! This end was changed from brick to stone to be more in keeping with the area.
Also in shot is the skeleton of a flats and shops building in position to check its look. These would eventually have to be built-in to the slope of the layout.
The tower makes an appearance, followed by the roof and other small details (picture on the right >)
The finished article. Very impressive, and complements the town scene very well at this end of the layout. (>>)
The block of flats and shops started. Here is the shop part underneath just prior to finishing. The kit has been converted from multiple units to a large Woolworth's store. (>>)
The flats section almost built.
The finished block installed on the layout, complete with scenery, people and a car park. This view also shows the overhead at this end. (>>)
Two more views. From the front (on the left) and from the rear (above), the latter showing the block of flats on its pillars. The church is in the background.
The next job was the station. Here the walls are cut out, detailed and 'flat-packed' ready for assembly. The station is scratchbuilt and it and the location are based on Armley Canal Road. The large opening is for the footbridge.
Trial fit in position on the layout.
The complex roof with its skylight in position, and the guttering, chimney stacks and doorway awning being prepared.
Station building almost finished - just some detailing to do. Next job is the footbridge. (>>)
The main footbridge components made up from a substantially altered kit. As in the prototype location, the walkway will be covered.
Walling and road details now added. (>>)
View of the completed station area from the platform side.
Low level view of the finished footbridge. The whole station dismantles for transporting the layout.
View along the lifted siding towards the finished station and footbridge.
The park area starts to get a makeover. Here, fencing has been mounted on the approach to the left and the wall columns erected ready for the park fencing.
Detail of the park fencing in position, with work still on-going on the Park itself. (>>)
And here is the finished park complete with grass, flower beds, benches, people etc. (>>)
I wanted a stone statue of a soldier on a horse in the park. When I eventually found one, it had to be modified as it was far too big for my small park - but it is still imposing! (>>)
(>>)The roundabout will probably be next to be finished.
Otherwise, this area is now quite pleasing. (>>)
Anyway, the whole thing seems to have worked out really well for the space I had to do this. (>>)
A Bachmann E-Z Command unit can be seen on the right. I plan to have companion units for further trolleybuses, so I don't have to select the right code to change vehicles - simply use the correct controller.
The next one will fit in the space at the side, displacing the DC hand-held controller seen here. The knob above it is to switch the overhead between DCC and DC for evaluation purposes. I'll probably leave this in place to provide a backup in case of failure of either system.
Control panel with DCC and DC controllers in place. A Trix DCC hand controller has now been obtained, and this will program the CV's which the Bachmann unit won't. Note that some of the bus stop switches are 'on' in this view. (>>)
The DCC chip fastened to the ceiling of the lower deck in the trolleybus, where it is out of sight. The Gaugemaster chip has a plug on it, so I can now easily separate the chassis from the body without having to unsolder wires. (>>)
A 1960's style office block has been obtained - from Australia ! This is how it arrived. (>>)
Here it has been completely 'knocked down' in order that I can reconfigure it to the right shape for the space on the layout. It needs to be more a triangular shape and the exterior cladding will be changed while making the storey depths greater, to make it more prototypical of the area.
(>>)
The shell has been reconfigured into its new shape, and levelled up to suit the location between the Town Hall and the park. While waiting for some new glazing material, the structure is matt-blacked and the shop window tops constructed. This side of the building will feature a colonnade inside the pillars. (>>)
The next job is sort out the shops on the ground floor, and change the pitch of the upper floors to 6 floors instead of 8.
Structural steelwork added to the glazing (the dots of white are advertising or office memos stuck on the windows). The shop windows have also been installed but these still require interiors. (>>)
A first view from the other side, showing that one floor is still 'To Let', indicating the recent completion of this town centre building.
Still to be added are the cladding sheets much loved of tower block designers of the 1960's.
As can be seen, this office block will
be quite imposing and reminiscent of 60's-style developments.
(>>)
The Office Block now with its blue cladding sheets in place. The shop windows, however, still have to be detailed. This shot was taken at the Sandtoft Model Weekend in September 2008 and show how this end of the original layout is virtually complete.