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About this blog

Follow the progress of Addleford Green, a fictional station on the now lost Hawkhurst Branch Line in Kent. Addleford Green is a "what-if" scenario, assuming the line had been extended beyond Hawkhurst to the titular fictional Kent town. This facilitated a connection with the Express Dairy creamery and the subsequent diary traffic would keep the line open into the 70s.

 

Addleford Green measures 5ft by 16 inches, is modelled in 4mm and utilises standard analogue controls. All buildings are scratch built where possible, some based on existing locations, some completely imaginary! The time period is intentionally left open, anywhere from the early 40s up to the 70s, allowing me great freedom of motive power and rolling stock.

Entries in this blog

Addleford Green Blog

Cattle dock - Part 2

The cattle dock build continues...   A concrete 'apron' was created out of some mount card painted a concrete kind of colour. This was then simply stuck to the outside edge of the track, sloping slightly away to allow for drainage. Care was taken to ensure it didn't foul any wheels and that it sat just below rail height so the rail heads could still be cleaned. Constant testing with a spare wagon is essential.       A buffer stop was made out of some cof
Addleford Green Blog

Ground cover in the yard

From my research it seems that a great deal of rural lines (perhaps some major ones too) would not have used proper ballast for sidings and smaller lines. Instead the substrate would be ash or just compacted earth, probably mixed with whatever was cheap and easily to hand. I really wanted to achieve this effect on Addleford Green and have been thinking about how I would do it for a long time.   Images of Hawkhurst's yard show that a lot of the sidings, particularly around the goods she
Addleford Green Blog

Engine shed - Part 1

Hawkhurst originally featured a two-road engine shed but it was closed in 1931. After that, one of the lines was removed leaving one for access if required. I wanted to feature an engine shed on Addleford Green. My reasoning was that those in charge would not have repeated the same mistake twice and opted to build a single track version. I used the plans for the original two-read shed as a template for my own paired-down design.   Once again, I must give huge thanks to the Wild Swan bo
Addleford Green Blog

Cattle dock - Part 1

Originally, I had no real plans for the two sidings on the right side of Addleford Green. Eventually I settled on a creamery building for the rear siding, my interest mainly being in having a different form of traffic on the layout. I had a loose idea that the other siding would have a goods shed, likely based on those present on the real Hawkhurst branch. But in reality it would have meant two large structures (the other being the engine shed) close to the front of the board and I felt it would
Addleford Green Blog

Station garden

This weekend I turned my attention to adding some planted areas to my station, as per the prototype. Looking at images of Cranbrook station gave the most inspiration and it seemed to be among one of the most adorned locations on the line in terms of floral displays. Clearly someone took a lot of pride in keeping the station looking its best!   The border is oversized ballast applied grain by grain with tweezers. It took about 30 seconds for me to hate myself for taking this approach...
JRamsden

JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog

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Addleford Green Blog

Model railway figures

WARNING! Snob opinions incoming... I've lost count of the amount of images I have seen of stunning model railways which are marred by less than convincing model people. Every modeller has their own areas of interest; some enjoy scratch building, some prioritise complex electronic systems and some just want to get down to running trains, all pretence of "finishing" their layout out the window. This is fantastic because this kind of diversity in approach is what makes any hobby interesting. But I
JRamsden

JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog

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Addleford Green Blog

Addleford creamery - Part 4

The Christmas period has been useful for getting more done on the layout - particularly when you're in Tier 4 and really can't do much of anything else. I've made a start on various different elements but, as I so often tend to do, I've held back on mentioning any of them until significant progress has been made. Also, because I'm pretty rubbish at keeping up with any kind of running commitment such as a blog!   I finally got to the stage where I can consider the Addleford Creamery bui
JRamsden

JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog

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Addleford Green Blog

Fiddle yard adventures - Part 3

With the fiddle yard board constructed, I rolled up my sleeves and had a grand tidy and move around in the shed! Everything was put into it's new place and I made a simple removable stand for the fiddle yard to sit upon.     Next up - creating the piece that would join the main layout to the fiddle yard. This would need to curve the track so that it met the fiddle yard at it's centre. I did some measuring, calculating, crude offering-up and plain guesswork to create a templa
JRamsden

JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog

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Addleford Green Blog

Fiddle yard adventures - Part 2

I recently lost my enthusiasm with Addleford Green. I realised that I just wasn't all that interested in running trains on it. After some thought I realised this was due to the fiddle yard. The thought of using my clunky cassette design filled me with dread and would ultimately break the careful illusion that I was running a railway. What I really wanted was a traverser. But I just didn't have space.... did I?   Long story short, I made space!   Another issue had always been
JRamsden

JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog

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Addleford Green Blog

Addleford Green's new terrier

I haven't done as much work to the layout as planned over the last couple of months. The creamery is pretty much complete and photos will follow the moment I finish painting a few figures to go with it.   Until then, my interest has been side-tracked by the arrival of my new Rails/Dapol A1X Terrier in Southern lined green livery. What a stunner! I just though I would share some sub-par quality photos of her in place.       All for now, Jonathan  
JRamsden

JRamsden in Addleford Green Blog

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