Electrical planning for Hackney
For a couple of years (I'm very slow) I’ve focused my efforts on the electrical needs of the layout to support the operational aspects I envisage. Virtually every aspect has been learned from scratch by reading much of what I’d archived from magazines, articles on the web (Brian Lambert’s electrical tutorials are fantastic!) and from checking various aspects with EBMRS club members, as I’ve been a complete novice. I’ve now graduated from complete no
I thought it would be interesting to have a brief overview of the movement of oil by train, as i’ll have at least one block train on Hackney. This information has been garnered from the HMRS-published book by Alan Coppin, ‘Oil on the Rails’, an interesting read.
The first recorded imports of oil date back to 1860, and the RCH first considered the construction of rail oil tanks in 1868.
The oldest refinery in the UK was Pumpherston, adjacent to the new town of Livingsto
For quite a few years I had been collecting kits, stock and materials, but it has not been until I researched Finchley Road for a club layout that I got drawn into the North London Line – the scale and variety of traffic is astonishing and I kick myself for having missed the opportunity to trainspot on the route in my youth. I managed to travel between Broad Street and Willesden only twice in about 1979/1980.
I like the run-down element of the east end of London in the fifties & s
Like perhaps many of you I have started more than one layout only for circumstances to contrive its demise before getting too far. The aim for this grand scheme is to address all those years of under-achievement, but there have already been challenges – not the least of which is a 250-mile house move.
Originally the layout was to have been in the garage, but it quickly became a dumping ground. And it was cold, damp and dusty. I do not recommend garages to anyone contemplating
It’s quite common for modellers to come up with a layout based on a ‘might have been’ railway. The East Beds club layout ‘Sutton’ is based on the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway’s proposal to build a deep sea port on the east coast, and their aborted model of Finchley Road was to be an adaptation of both what was really there together with the genuine proposal for a link line from there to Bushey. But other proposals for north London railways never came to fruition…
Hackney (the model) is (like the reality) on a very busy route for cross-London freight trains. With the oil terminal at Thames Haven as well as other local facilities, there's a need for a few fuel tanks. This is a selection set up especially for a mate who sold a few tanks to me, so I promised a photo when the baseboards were erected. All in the foreground are Bachmann models of Esso and Tarmac liveries, most with Sprat & Winkle couplings. In the background there's a short tra
It's a very long time since I posted - a house move and subsequent house renovation has meant more than 2 years for any serious modelling, so the layout has been in the doldrums.
I now have a dedicated room rather than the original shed, but I've had to trim 15mm off the layout to get it in, and slightly rebuild the layout supports for access under the centre rather than from one end.. A small price for having an indoor room.. My current work is to ensure the layout is level, and to fi
I've spent a long time planning a model railway, and I now have the space in a 20' garden shed. The plans are to build a representative railway based on the North London Line, blurring the geography and history between Dalston and Hackney Graham Road such that the original Graham Road yard developed differently as a small exchange yard. It has links to the (originally planned extension to) East London Line, and a junction to the Midland Line (near to Harringay) as the Midland wished to benefi
