No not that kind.........
Whilst wading through my kit pile for Three Shire's Head, I became aware of the conflicts imposed by my chosen dateline of 1890-1900.
Like any 10 year period this decade saw large changes in the appearance of the railway, loco classes vanishing and new ones appearing. Existing classes rebuilt with new features etc.
I was finally prompted into action by a comment by Tony Koester in the editorial for this years Model Railroad Planning annual (I have been know to
A couple of weeks ago I visited the Stafford show looking for inspiration.
I always find the Stafford show a good source. It's big enough to attract some quality layouts, but small enough not to be over-facing. You can leisurely meander, taking time to view the layouts.
When I first got there, around noon on the Saturday, the show was rammed, so I took the opportunity to visit the trade stands, stocking up with my favourite Heywood's buffers and wheels from Invertrains, thus the saving o
The Milk train
When we think of milk traffic we tend to think of the West Country. I suppose this is down to the fact that this area clung in to rail borne milk traffic when other areas had migrated across to the road. Branches like the Culm Valley remained open almost exclusively for this traffic into the 70s and short diesel hauled formations are burnt on the imagination.
This wasn’t always the case, a quick look through every pre-grouping company’s wagon diagram book will reveal speci
Imagineering a fictitious history for your layout used to be quite common, however it seems to have fallen out of favour of late. None the less I've always liked the concept and develop the history below for the creation of Three Shire's Head.
The Buxton, Leek & Macclesfield Railway
Railways came early to Buxton in the form of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, originally a horse drawn waggonway built to link the Cromford and Peak Forest Canals. Bizarrely the promoters of this waggo
No pre-grouping layout would be complete without a P.O fleet.
These three wagons represent the current status of the fleet. More wagons will be required to reflect the loads carried, crushed stone, lime, coal, coke and fluorspar. Given that limestone and fluorspar are ingredients in the steel industry I'm planning to add a few steel work wagons to the fleet.
Coal was mined locally at Ladmanlow but of poor quality and used only at lime works nearby (Grin quarry). This coal was transport
The 5’ 6” Precursor tank may seem an odd choice for a goods layout, but it fits into longer term plans. I originally went out to but a coal tank kit but found this on offer £60 cheaper. What can I say? I’m half Scottish, half Yorkshire…….
These useful locomotives were introduced in 1890, the starting date for the layout. They were tank versions of the earlier Precursors and thus perpetuated the annoying habit of the LNWR of giving the same name to more than one class of locos as the 1907 4-4
Next up we have representation from the North Staffordshire Railway.
The North Staffordshire has always intrigued me. It came into existence due to the railway politics of the 1830's. The planned Grand Junction Railway route through the potteries was diverted via Crewe by agreement with the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in preparation for the creation of the LNWR in 1846. In order to fill the void, funds were raised, significant funds, as the Trent and Mersey canal was bought with a vi
I’ll present the current status of the rolling stock in groups of three, as for some bizarre reason, this just seems to work.
First the LNWR, as this is their line the plan is to have the Premier line (would a modern company get away with such conceit? Probably……) most numerically represented. All these wagons are in the process of having the paintwork finished and being weathered.
So, from Left to right, we have a D1 9” sided 1 plank open wagon constructed from a Gladiator kit, a D
It's been a while since I posted anything on my 2mm blog, over a year in fact.
Progress stalled due to the fiddle yard board warping and requiring a rebuild. I was also struggling to get the loco build operational.
The project still exists and I've no doubt it will be resurrected when enthusiasm bites again.
In the time since my last 2mm post I've been focusing on my 7mm layout, spurred on my 8 year old's "when am I going to get to play with this......" comment (more importantly when is
