Two Sister's Farm

[Broadoak]

Two Sister's Farm came about in a rather unusual way, the layout was built as a competition entry that must not exceed four square feet for the scenic section. It was the beginning of winter so there was no work at the circuit where I worked part time and I had just given up smoking, so I needed something to keep me occupied.
The actual baseboard measures 38 inches x 15 inches and the fiddle yard is 24 inches long and 8 inches wide. The two parts when bolted together sit on an ironing board. Originally it was going to be a diorama with movement but I got talked into exhibiting it hence the fiddle yard.

I wanted something a bit different from the norm and as my eyesight is not as good as it was, so this meant a model in a larger scale. Due to the small space available it meant it would have to be narrow gauge. I have always had an interest in tractors and farming and I had a few 1/32 scale white metal kits of tractors already made up. I had in my library, a shelf under the switching layout, a book by Stewart E. Squires called “The Lincolnshire Potato Railways”.

This gave me the germ of an idea, a narrow gauge railway on a farm, there were over 50 such railways actually. All the farms used either horses or even men in some instances, but two used small I/C locomotives.
I came across a photo of an OB Bedford lorry running on narrow gauge track on a forestry railway in New Zealand. This really got me thinking, if I could motorise a lorry it would give some motive power that really was different.
I found a 1/32 scale Italeri kit of an Opel Blitz truck and bought it with a view to motorising it.
I should stress that I rubber gauge a little between 1/32 and 1/35 so this is not something for the purists, it is just a bit of fun.
After a lot of fiddling, sawing, and filing I managed to get the lorry body on an Athearn switcher chassis.

 

 

A picture of the scenic part of the layout, all 38 inches of it taken at Northampton.

 

The track plan is very simple and is supposed to be a terminus on a large farm estate railway. The track is code 100 with about a third of the sleepers removed and re-spaced to give a more rustic appearance. The points are Peco set track as they take up very little room. Point control is by wire in tube.

At this stage I lightly pinned down the track and thoroughly tested it with the Athearn powered Opel Blitz. When I was happy I ballasted the track and started to add layers of ground cover, I like to build this up a bit at a time.

 

 

Peter M
 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

I bought a few small resin wagon kits from Sideline, they were similar to ones shown in photos in the book. Actually the real farm railway that I loosely based my model on used second hand bogie rolling stock from the First World War. As room is a bit tight I use the small four wheeled wagons instead.

A few pictures showing the simple track plan and the Opel Blitz being used to check clearances for the buildings. These consist of; a workshop for repairing and servicing tractors and implements, engine shed, loading dock, greenhouse and small hut for yard foreman.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter M

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

The first building was a large asbestos barn of a type common in the 40’s and 50’s made by Atcost where the tractors and implements were to be serviced and stored. I made it from a child’s toy barn made by Britain’s. It came in a dark green and reddish orange coloured loose parts and was supposed to be held together with the small self tapping screws provided. I cut the whole thing up into sections and glued them together to form the shape and size I wanted.
In fact there was enough material left over to make the rudimentary engine house as well.
When they were assembled they were both sprayed with an acrylic grey undercoat as a base coat. The engine house was painted in a humbrol light green.
The supports of the barn were hollow so I filled these with polyfiller to make them look solid. I took some photographs of similar barns we have locally to match the colours more accurately.
A bridge over the tracks was made to hide the fact that it led into the fiddle yard. The green house was started and also a small foreman’s hut and a loading dock.

I bought some Bachmann On30 side tippers, both wooden and steel V shaped and although the wrong scale I thought they looked fine. I also bought a Bachmann On30 0-4-0 gas mechanical and a Porter O-4-2 again in the wrong scale but I felt that with modifications they would be acceptable.

To disguise the entrance to the fiddle yard I made a tree from thin telephone wire. We had a new timing system put in at work (a motor racing circuit) and there was loads of this wire going spare.
I twisted the wire round itself to make a tree shape adding extra bits for branches. The whole thing was shall we say less than rigid. So I wrapped kitchen towel round the trunk and branches then soaked it in neat PVA. After a few days it had dried out and I then coated it with a thin layer of Milliput modelling putty. When this was drying I scribed it to look a bit more like bark. When this had hardened off I painted the trunk and branches a greenish grey colour with acrylics.
Then I washed several coats of a very dark grey with a little black India ink added to it over the whole thing until I thought it looked right. Then I dry brushed it with light grey and glued on a whole pack of Woodland Scenics foliage.

I don’t think anyone does a 1/32 scale tree. So I had little choice but to make it myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter M
 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Steve O.]

Looks great Peter!

Captures a bright summer day in the country.

The cows certainly make a difference vs. The stereotypical bus on the overbridge.

Cheers, Steve.

[Broadoak]

Thanks Steve, I'm glad you like it.

 

I bought small Wasp kit and collected it from Steve Bennett of Sidelines at an excellent narrow gauge exhibition in Pewsey.

The Wasp loco sits on a Bachmann 44 tonner bogie and has a few details added, an exhaust pipe, air cleaner and a hand rail at the back of the open cab. It was sprayed a bauxite red colour and given a wash of black ink then dry brushed with light grey. Despite filling every available space with lead the little Wasp needs careful driving over the dead frog points on the layout. The driver figure is a Tamiya soldier civilianised with a scalpel and a file.

I also bodged a freelance shunter using a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis, it runs quite well given its humble origin, with a hand held feed back controller. The driving wheels are now hidden behind full skirts which improves its appearance no end, it is not used much but kept in reserve.

Both these locos are fitted with link and pin couplers which work very well with the Kadees fitted to the wagons.
As can be seen a little more work has been done with the addition of a coaling stage and a small water tower.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter M

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

Flushed with the success of how well the Opel Blitz performed I started looking round for other suitable trucks to modify. A trip to my local shop yielded nothing but a look in an Italeri catalogue showed a Chevrolet short wheel base truck I thought rather attractive. I remember as a child a local farmer delivering loads of logs with one of these.

I ordered one and when it arrived found it to be a little shorter than I thought it would be.

Undaunted I made a chassis out of plasticard to fit an Athearn switcher chassis. I found by trial and error that I needed to lengthen the body to suit the plasticard chassis. I inserted a large toolbox box between the cab and the body. I cut out bits of the body floor, cab floor and engine bulkhead to get the body to fit over the Athearn chassis. After much cutting, filling and checking, I got it to fit. I put the model on the layout and disaster.

 

 

 

It looked ridiculous, it sat far too high. I put it to one side and had a rethink.

I found the answer to the powering of the Chevrolet on my next visit to the model shop.

They had a Bachmann Brill trolley, which although rather crude, the passengers were printed on the windows, interested me. It had two bogies with very small wheels and a short wheelbase. It had been ordered by a customer but never collected. It ran well in the shop so I took a chance and bought it.

I got it home and removed the body revealing a flat plastic chassis with two square holes for the bogies. One bogie had a small can motor and gearbox and the other end just picked up current. It ran surprisingly well with my feed back controller but was not very powerful, never mind, it didn’t need to be on Two Sister’s.

With modifications to the pick-up only end it fitted under the Chevrolet perfectly and looked right sitting on the track. I had to fill the hole in the centre section of the Chevy body with Milliput which added a bit of extra weight, no bad thing I always think. I then drilled and tapped the hardened Milliput to secure the chassis to the body with two self tappers. I added some weight in the pick up only bogie to make it track better.

The body had a Kadee coupler fitted to the front and a few bits and pieces added to give it a bit more character. I later added a canvas tilt to the body as it is supposed to be used to transport tractor drivers out to the fields in the morning and bring them back again at night.
 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of pictures taken in the early days of the layouts existence.
Note the Bachmann gas mechanical an ON30 scale model. It is a Davenport actually and has got a raised cab to fit a driver in and an extended exhaust pipe.

 

 

 

A view of the Chev entering the yard and passing the yard foreman's hut.

 

Peter M

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

 

 

The bridge with the cows being driven over for afternoon milking hides the fiddle yard entrance. The cows are actually Britain’s Jerseys, but a farmer friend told me they look more like Friesians, they are too big and the wrong shape for Jerseys. So I re-painted them by spraying them white then painting on black patches in a random fashion. I finished them off by painting the udders a very pale pink and touching in their eyes, noses and hoofs. The cows are clean at the rear end as it is summer. They only get really mucky in winter when they have to be kept inside.
The man herding the cows is a German soldier modified and painted with acrylics.

 

Peter M

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

 

 

Both tractors in these pictures are actually Fordsons, the taller one being a Fordson Major E27N and the other a Fordson Standard N. Both run on TVO (Tractor Vaporising Oil, or Paraffin), they are started on petrol and when the engine is warm changed over to TVO.
They are rather delicate white metal kits.

The two bending mechanics are Tamiya military figures that have had hats added to them then painted to look as if they are wearing overalls.
The balding gent in the middle with a can of fuel is an Airfix racing pit crew figure.

 

I painted both the main workshop and the small engine shed a grey asbestos cement colour as I thought it unlikely that a farm would go to the trouble of painting them. Looking at asbestos buildings locally showed they had a sort of orange coloured lichen growing on some of them, easily replicated with a blob of paint.
The walls were lined with balsa and some shelves put up. An Italeri kit provided a bench and many of the tools in the workshop. There are lubrication charts on the walls, these are reduced copies of the real thing. Actually for the tractor models shown.

 

 

 

The coal stage in the foreground is a basic box shape made of Tamiya battle damaged walls cut into sections and glued with MEK. The corrugated iron is actually the inner wrapper of cup holders we use at work. I found this material by accident one morning after a holder had been left out in the rain overnight and had de-laminated. It was painted with several coats of grey with a little silver paint added, when dry it was touched up here and there with various rust colours. The corrugated iron sheets are held in place with wooden corner posts and rusty wire. There is some crushed real coal on the loading platform which is made of coffee stirrers. A few tools are found there, shovels, a coal hammer and a pick. The coal is carried on the footplate of the only steam locomotive the farm has in small sacks.

The Logs in the foreground are used for lighting up the Porter 0-4-0t during the summer months when she helps out the diesel fleet during busy periods.

The small water tower is made from odds and ends in the scrap box mainly and parts of an Airfix bridge kit. The platform the tank sits on is a few more wooden coffee stirrers from work. The tank itself is from an HO scale re-fuelling facility. The box housing the controls is made of balsa.

 

The other bits are an assortment of wire, chain and masking tape. The tape is used to make the leather bag for filling the loco’s tank. It is also used to simulate the lagging on the rising main which feeds the tank. These are painted in appropriate greyish brown colours.

The main parts being painted with Humbrol oil paint in a colour I mixed myself which I call industrial green.

 

Peter M

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Removed a/c]

Nice to see this layout again, I remember it from the Farm Toys Forum. 

[Broadoak]

Thank you Brit farmer.

 

Most of my original posts no longer work so I am redoing them all.

 

Regards Peter M

[maunsel]

Me muchee likee Two Sister's.

 

I have two of these Britains Barns in marination awaiting their début on a 1/32 layout - shades of Woolwich Arsenal or something from the RNAD for me. The biggest hold up is taking the hacksaw to a rather nice Piko German Kof 1. It's not my most expensive loco - but it's ever so cute...........   Every time I take a craft knife blade to it - I see pictures of baby seals being clubbed to death.  

 

But on a happier note - the layout gets further up the "must-do" list every time I see mention of this layout!

 

It's lovely stuff!

 

Eric

[Broadoak]

Thank you Eric I am glad you are liking it so far.

It is odd that you mention the Britain's Barns, I glued mine but found the small self tapping screws very useful to secure the body of the Opel Blitz to the false chassis I made for it.

I don't blame you not wanting to take a saw to the little Kof 1. Instead why not get a cheap Hornby chassis and make a body for that to get you started. They run quite well if suitably ballasted and you use a feed back controller.

 

 

 

 

A couple of pictures showing the little Hornby device with every crevice filled with lead, which it improved its running no end.
Also the Opel Blitz and Scaledown white metal kit of a Fordson Major E1A diesel.

 

Peter M
 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

 

 

A rough sketch showing the track plan and positions of buildings/track. With a big complicated layout like this it is useful to see everything in their relative positions.

 

Peter M
 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

 

 

 

A picture showing the lubrication chart on the wall for the tractor standing in front of the building, a Fordson Major E27N. In this scene I have also made a start on adding some workshop clutter.

 

 

 

The foreman’s hut/office is a scale model of the huts we used to have at work. It is made of strips of balsa wood with a corrugated iron roof, the same material as the coal stage sides. The door is set in the open position to show the interior detail. There is a small stool and a bench with paperwork, a mug, a clipboard hanging up, and some bread and cheese. The foreman figure is a modified Tamiya German soldier. He has obviously cycled to work on the day the photo was taken.

 

 

 

The cold frame next to the hut is a mix of balsa and plasticard with the vegetables being made of Milliput and painted with green acrylics. One of the panes of glass is broken, a bit hackneyed I know, but the children seem to like it.
The horse drawn implement covered with a tarpaulin is in fact a Tamiya German Army field kitchen. On the farm it assumed it is a seed drill or something similar.
The reddish tinge was caused by the poor lighting at an exhibition at Crewe Works.

The farm grows potatoes, wheat and sugar beet and rotates the crops annually to prevent disease. It also keeps cattle, sheep and pigs the manure being used to improve the soil.

 

 

Peter M
 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Broadoak

[Class 74]

Lovely!

[Broadoak]

tsf111 by 

 

The Davenport didn't run particularly well when purchased because it was fitted with the DCC gubbins. This was removed and a blanking chip put in and this transformed its running for the better.

When this photograph was taken only very slight modifications had been done. The cab height had been increased to clear a standing 1/32 scale figure. The control cluster in the cab was raised and a couple of handrails added and the model lightly weathered. Since then a few more changes have been made. An air cleaner and fuel filler have been added to the bonnet top. In the cab a reversing lever and brake wheel have been added, these can’t really be seen but I know they are there! It has also had a bit more weathering added to give a work stained appearance.

 

P1010003 by 

 

P1010009 by

A couple of pictures of the other Bachmann On30 model I have. The Porter 0-4-2t steam loco is the only steam engine on the roster. Although I do like this little loco, I must confess to being an unashamed internal combustion engine fan.

The Porter has been modified very slightly. It has had the cab removed and the cab sides built up a little. A reversing lever, a hand brake wheel and a bonnet for the safety valve have also been added. The driver is an ex-German soldier.

In the second picture the locomotive has been lightly weathered. I usually apply weathering a little at a time, adding a bit more is easier than removing it if you have overdone it.

 

 

Peter M
 

Edited April 18, 2018 by Broadoak

[Broadoak]

 

I felt that the farm needed more small locomotive power so my next model was a Simplex type 0-4-0 shunter. It was assumed the farm bought a damaged Simplex from the War Department and re-built it their own workshops.

The model is made of plasticard and bits of wire. It runs on a Model Power chassis with a vertical motor in the cab, so there is no room to fit a driver. I added more weight where ever I could and bent the pick ups outward to contact the backs of the wheels better. It runs reasonably well given its low purchase price, but needs an extra bit of welly when going over dead frog points.
It is seen shunting in the yard, the man sitting on the bonnet will be getting a lift out to the fields later when the shunting is done.

 

Peter M

Edited April 18, 2018 by Broadoak

[maunsel]

 

 

 

I felt that the farm needed more small locomotive power so my next model was a Simplex type 0-4-0 shunter. It was assumed the farm bought a damaged Simplex from the War Department and re-built it their own workshops.

 

The model is made of plasticard and bits of wire. It runs on a Model Power chassis with a vertical motor in the cab, so there is no room to fit a driver. I added more weight where ever I could and bent the pick ups outward to contact the backs of the wheels better. It runs reasonably well given its low purchase price, but needs an extra bit of welly when going over dead frog points.

It is seen shunting in the yard, the man sitting on the bonnet will be getting a lift out to the fields later when the shunting is done.

 

Peter M

 

 

I really like this model. With the radiator one just knows it's a Simplex. The locally sourced bodywork confirms it. There must be some very able agricultural engineers on Two Sister's! Well done!

 

Eric

[Broadoak]

Thank you Eric, I built another Simplexish loco then modified the body on this one as you will see later.

 

The farm estate Two Sisters’ is very loosely based on had some twenty odd miles of main line and ten miles of sidings all of it two feet gauge. It had a connection with the GER and a facility for loading the crops, mainly potatoes but grain and sugar beet as well into lorries.

They had an assortment of Simplex locos in reality and ex First World War bogie rolling stock. They even had a small Fowler 0-6-2 but this proved to be too heavy so it was sold.

I felt the need to build something that could be used to haul these main line trains to the railhead or road interchange.

That is how the yellow beast came about. It is totally freelance and is supposed to have a Gardner four cylinder diesel engine which drives a small generator which in turn powers the rear bogie which has two traction motors. The front bogie is un-powered and is purely for load carrying and braking. All this is fiction of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The model runs on another Athearn switcher chassis, this time with the rear drive shaft disconnected to give a bit more room in the cab area. The body has bits of its original donor loco, a Baldwin S12, with the cab removed and doors and handles on the bonnet sides added. The cab like the tractors of that time is open to the elements. The driver is a converted army figure with his tin helmet filed to look like his hair.

Peter M

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by Broadoak

[travelintrev]

Thanks for posting these photos Peter.  (I have seen them "elsewhere"!)   But it is nice to see more large scale stuff on RMW.  (which reminds me I must get on with one or other of my projects)

 

 

Trev

[Broadoak]

Thanks Trev.

 

I expect you have seen the pictures on Gnatterbox forum.

 

Many of the photos no longer work so I am re-doing them.

 

I wasn't sure about the larger scale but it seems to be in order so far.

 

Regards Peter M

[maunsel]

I thought I'd add a little flavour to the mix. Here's the Dennis Estates line at Deeping St Nicholas:-

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFi1Tv11WgA

 

 

 

Regards

 

Eric

[Broadoak]

Many thanks Eric, that is fantastic.

 

I have of course seen stills of the little rascal but never a movie.

It was fired by paraffin in flash type boiler I think.

 

Thanks again

 

 Regards Peter M

[PhilJ W]

Many thanks Eric, that is fantastic.

 

I have of course seen stills of the little rascal but never a movie.

It was fired by paraffin in flash type boiler I think.

 

Thanks again

 

 Regards Peter M

It was converted from a Stanley steam car. The hand pump was to pressurise the fuel tank.

[Broadoak]

Just after I had finished the layout I found a newer version of Stewart Squires excellent book that had given me the idea originally.

He mentions the little device which he describes as a LIFU steam lorry. “It was one of a small number made by the Liquid Fuel Company on the Isle of Wight. The principle was a flash steam boiler that could be ready for use very quickly by spraying paraffin on to a hot surface. This drove one pair of wheels and was permanently coupled to a trailer. It looked a lorry on rails which was not surprising as road versions were also made.
Iittle is known about the number produced or where they were used. One is known to have been used on another farm railway in Ireland. This was at Kildystart in County Clare on the farm of John O'Connell Bianconi. A description of its operation has survived;

There were twelve coils in front of the cab and a burner underneath with fourteen jets. The burner started with methylated spirit and when it was warm a supply of paraffin was turned to steam and when the gauge got to 50ld you were ready to go.

Peter M