"Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu May 13, 2021 1:47 am

Here's a close up of the Jeep attached to the Catalina's tow bar.

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In this shot, with the Catalina detached from the movement arm, you can see the two pins which locate in the hull of the Cat to move it.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon May 17, 2021 7:33 am

With the mechanism all working, and the hangar floor all skinned, the concrete floor panels were scribed. The hangar floor was then sprayed in grey primer.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat May 22, 2021 1:17 am

The pump house for unloading bulk fuel from rail tankers. Like many brick airfield buildings, it has a blast wall in front of the doorway.

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Here's the airfield fire truck, a modified GMC 6x6. One of my resin cast cab/chassis with a styrene rear body. Behind it is the fire truck shed.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat May 22, 2021 1:21 am

First coat of paint on.

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The start of some blast shelters for around the airfield.

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The 'earth banks' were built up from balsa, and will be grass covered once complete.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu May 27, 2021 3:28 am

April 2nd 2014

A shopping trip that morning resulted in a large 8ft x 30inch sheet of MDF filling my workbench. Most of the rest of the day was spent plotting and marking out where everything goes on this section. Here's an overview with the completed items in place.

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To the left of the perimeter track is the airfield itself, where an RAF Lancaster has made a forced landing. Its landing gear has collapsed, dragging it off the runway, and onto the grass near the perimeter track.


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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon May 31, 2021 4:21 am

The Control Tower, fire truck shed and blast shelter. The tower was made for another project some time ago, and then never got used. It finally found a home on this layout.

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Looking to the right of the tower, over the perimeter track, is the T2 hangar. The C-47 Skytrain is parked outside this end of the hangar. In front of the hangar are two loop dispersals with the B-17 Fortresses parked on them, being prepared for the next mission.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon May 31, 2021 4:22 am

The other end of the hangar shows the Catalina being towed out and near by, the "Hangar Queens"; damaged airframes slowly being stripped of useable parts.

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Here's the hangar queens and other wrecked airframe parts. I think I still need to add a few more bits and pieces here. Near by, more of the technical site buildings and blast shelters.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Jun 05, 2021 12:56 am

To the right of the technical site are the two sidings for supplying goods to the airfield. A raised platform will be behind the rear track for unloading of goods from wagons and flatcars, while the nearside track has the pump house to unload fuel tankers to the underground fuel stores.

The track going into the tunnel is the climbing track from the main line leading up to the airfield and branchline.

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Moving forwards on the layout, the three mainline tracks from the station, merge into two lines which vanish into tunnels below the airfield. These three lines through the station allow a passenger train to be stopped at either platform, while allowing goods trains to continue on their journey.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Jun 05, 2021 12:59 am

At the front of the layout, is the branchline that leads to the quayside and a siding to a small industry.

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After everything had been marked out, the whole board was painted with dilute PVA, as this made it easier to use cyano glue to attach the perimeter tracks and dispersals. Once dry, the last job of the day was to cut the board where the hangar floor and its mechanism goes and to start gluing a small stiffener to the airfield board. This upstand would give clearance to the hangar mechanism and other wiring on the bottom of this piece while I was working on it.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:55 am

April 3rd 2014

The first part of the morning was spent gluing further stiffening strips to the bottom of the baseboard. The hole for the hangar base had some strips glued around the edge to support the hangar base piece, and once they were dry, the hangar section was fitted.

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Time for the perimeter track. Styrene strips were cut to suit the standard 50 feet wide track. The concrete slabs were scribed into the top surface and the bottom was roughed up with 80 grit sandpaper to key it for gluing.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:57 am

The track end of the board was cut away and the cork bed was added to the airfield sidings. The trackbed for the main lines would be a few inches below the airfield level.

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The first two sections of the perimeter track and dispersals added.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:58 am

By the end of the day, most of the dispersal was laid and scribed. Next would be the rest of the peri-track and dispersal, plus the roads and pathways added. A bag of LED's and wire turned up in the post, so the airfield lighting could begin.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:25 am

April 4th 2014

The first job today was to finish the aircraft dispersals. Known as spectacle dispersals, they usually featured two loops either side of a central track, forming a figure 8 shape, or a pair of spectacles. Depending on the airfield's surrounding topography, they could be seen as a set of eight, with four loops each side of the perimeter track. Sometimes, just an opposing pair off a spur from the track. Plans dictated that no more than four in a single row were built to minimise aircraft damage from a stick of bombs dropped on the airfield. They were large enough to park two B-17's on, tail to tail, as squadron numbers grew from 12 to 18 aircraft each. A typical 8th Air Force bomb group would have 72 aircraft later in the war, but only 50 dispersals. The round frying pan type 150 feet diameter dispersals could also squeeze two B-17's on, with the mainwheels on the concrete and the tail on the grass.

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While those bits were weighted down, I started on the curved area of the peri-track. I decided it was least wasteful by making it in individual concrete slabs, rather than cutting a curved section.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:26 am

In the centre of each dispersal area, is a ring of tie down points. These were metal loops concreted into the ground. To represent these, I drilled holes for the depressions in the concrete around each ring.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Jun 23, 2021 5:19 am

The curved section almost done.

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A general view with most of the concrete laid.

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