The West Mersea Branch - 1946 Essex in ScaleSeven

by buckjumper

original page on Old RMweb

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Comment posted by 28ten on Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:04 am

A bump any updates or new pictures?

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??? posted on Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:57 pm

Oops - yep. I didn't take my camera along for a couple of months, and by August the layout was looking like this.

The door to the garden was opened for (apparently) the first time in years and allowed this viewpoint. It revealed some alignment errors and a dogleg in the running lines partway down which will need ironing out.

While more wiring was underway, I ripped out all the temporary grass mats, binned them, built some new embankments from balsa strip and a hot glue gun and covered the lot in Modroc and Polyfilla.

The spaciousness of the station environs now becomes apparent. It's not often a rake of 7mm coaches gets lost in while sitting at a platform.

An influx of interloping tanks reveals one member's penchant for the LT&SR.

The loco in brass is being built by Colin Dowling for a customer. It is based on the JLTRT ex-Chowbent Stanier 2 Cylinder 4MT, but is being converted to the 3 cylinder type. It has working inside motion with a scratchbuilt crank axle.

Colin also built the Jinty and B12 in the background (both based on Connoisseur kits) and both have working inside motion. The Jinty utilises Laurie Griffin's castings.

A J68 and B12. How East Anglian!

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Comment posted by Pete-Harvey on Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:00 am

This is all very impressive and very tidy.

Nice to see the progress.

Pete

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Comment posted by 28ten on Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:44 pm

Thanks for the update!

That trackwork looks fantastic I do think S7 is the way to go in 7mm, i have been dithering for the last year but this is convincing me.

do you have any 4-6-0's running? do they give any problems?

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??? posted on Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:34 pm

Thanks guys, but I've really had little input on the track side of things.

As far as 4-6-0s go - the majority of the expresses will be hauled by B12s (I can't remember if it's five or seven examples needed) and I suspect some B1s and (you'll be pleased to hear) B17s will put in appearances too. Tests have shown all the pointwork on the main lines are fine for these locos - some of the sidings will be out of bounds though!

I think S7 is worth the extra effort. There are some advantages: more room between the frames for bigger motors, easier to fit inside motion etc.

Yes, more care is needed to set the stock up properly as well as laying laying the track, but the fact that you'll always have the correct alignment of frames above and below the footplate, the finer flanges on the wheels, the silky smooth running of stock through pointwork, etc is worth it.

I dithered for about six years - but I'm glad I took the plunge.

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Comment posted by 28ten on Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:29 pm

Well I have to make my mind up soon as I have a shelf of stock waiting for wheels!!

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??? posted on Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:06 pm

Yesterday morning I popped along to Sudbury to get some castings and swap some wheels for a job. I took along a couple of emulsion match pots purporting to be Oak Leaf Green or somesuch nonsense which cost about a pound or so each in Wilco's. Nevertheless it's turned out to be quite a good base colour for the next stage of scenic treatment and I was very surprised just how much of the embankment I was able to paint - about 15' in length.

A couple of other members of the group were there - all the tracks are now electrified, and they were busy adding checkrails to the pointwork.

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Comment posted by 28ten on Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:23 am

Missed these last week It looks good, and i'm loving the trackwork

How long do you think it will be untill it's finished?

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Comment posted by Easterner on Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:37 am

Isn't that one of the questions you just don't ask - like a lady's age?

Haven't commented on this thread before - I think it goes without saying that I love it

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Comment posted by 28ten on Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:01 am

I guess so but it seems to be making rapid progress it could be all over by christmas

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??? posted on Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:08 pm

You're kidding We only meet on the last Sunday of each month with small working party (one or two people) on a couple of Wednesdays in between. IIRC next month will only be the 34th time we've met together.

For this section work will progress on the scenery, buildings, ballasting and weathering through next year, though I suspect ballasting will be held off until the cast stretcher bars can be added to the turnouts. We'll then rip out the temporary ones and the wire-in-tube controls for the points and install the lever frame, rods and cranks.

The current plan is to then have the group split into two working parties so some can continue on here while the others work on both versions of the next section. I guess this will start sometime next year. The semi-permanent Section II will go through a hole in the wall and via a long enclosed curve outside will burst through a workshop into a fiddleyard. A second version of this section will be the exhibitable part of the layout which will be about 20' of double tracked line in a cutting and on an embankment with the long headshunt terminating part way down against a backdrop of housing with a fiddle yard each end.

IIRC Section III, is now slated for 2010/1...

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??? posted on Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:41 am

November's update.

Edit: Sorry the photos are a little dark - they seemed OK in photoshop but appear much gloomier here. I'll see if I can lighten them a little later.

The edge of the road far right is IIRC Mersea Avenue, the roadway decending towards the camera leads to the cattle dock. The tracks rising on the right lead to the same. Thirty feet away there is a three coach set in the main platform and for some reason another set in the builder's warehouse siding.

From the overbridge the station throat pointwork. Wiring this up, even for DCC has been fun (so I'm told, for I've shied away from that side of things entirely). Some of yesterday was spent tracking various shorts. When the sparkies got out of the way I continued painting the embankments with the base green paint - Oak Leaf emulsion from Wilko's.

Two views of a new little scene mocked up in card by Peter. The builder's warehouse is on the right with the station extension behind, the little parade of tradesmans' shops/sheds is will get most trade from the railway workmen. There's a coal merchant, an estate agent, a cobblers, a laundry, and one or two other's I've forgotten, based, IIRC on a little scene somewhere like Gospel Oak.

From the station.

From the parcel's dock.

Dave Whitaker's delightful little GER 209 class (note the track join under the loco buffer plank drilled and awaiting the fishplates)...

...and his equally gorgeous 8T brake, upgraded from 6T when first built in the 1870s. These were further upgraded to 10T before withdrawal. In the early years these (and the loco tenders) were often the only vehicles with brakes - even the locos themselves were without brake shoes - and at only 6T it must have been a hair raising experience as a goods guard.

At the other end of tank loco design from the 209 is Colin Dowling's Stanier 2 cylinder 4MT. Based on the JLTRT ex-Chowbent kit, Colin has scratchbuilt inside motion and a crank axle.

The small loco servicing facilities include a water tower and coal stage. The loco shed itself is a few hundred yards up the line and will be built at a later date. The homegrown J17 is on shed, but what that ex-GCR C13 is doing here is debatable.

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Comment posted by 28ten on Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:43 pm

Nice to see it coming along, the thing that really strikes me is the trackwork it has totally convinced me that S7 is the only way to go

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Comment posted by Easterner on Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:57 pm

Yes, that's the trouble y

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??? posted on Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:38 pm

That's the idea!

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Comment posted by 28ten on Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:08 am

Well it's worked

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Comment posted by Jamie on Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:57 pm

You don't actually bolt them with tiny tiny bolts surely

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??? posted on Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:52 pm

We may be mad Jamie - but not that mad

One of the group designed the fishplates (to the relevant GA) and they are cast in brass in two halves. One half has a representation of the bolts which pass through the slightly over-large holes in the rail (which had been drilled in a jig prior to laying). The second half of the fishplate is offered up, the bolts pass through the representation of the nuts and are soldered together with a quick dab of the iron. The slightly over large holes allow expansion and contraction of the rail. I'm sure I've some photos somewhere which I'll dig out and post.

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Comment posted by Jamie on Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:14 pm

I did wonder

An ingenious approach to come up with all the same. So much of the layout leaves me dumbstruck even at a relatively early stage - the mockup buildings for example: done with such care rather than just a rough box sat in place. However, you might want to think about that tree, might need setting into the baseboard as the pot's a bit out of scale

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Comment posted by Brian D on Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:47 pm

Living not a million miles away from Mersey Island, me and my wife visited last summer and took the old folding bikes. It is very flat here and ideal biking territory for us old 'uns! Your proposal therefore for cuttings and embankments sounds a bit amiss. Can I therefore suggest a causeway like that the only road on to the island takes. Alternatively a low viaduct would be appropriate.

In all other respects I am greatly envious of the layout and the space to model it in.

Best wishes with you future efforts.

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Comment posted by nobby on Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:39 pm

Not as flat as you may think, my mother-in-law still lives there, i was married there to a girl who comes from West Mersea. The climb from The Strood ( The causeway if you are not a local ) to the start of High Street North is well over 75ft and all up-hill. It then begins to descend to the beach at Coast Road.

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??? posted on Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:26 pm

Thanks Brian & Nobby for your comments.

The cutting on the next board isn't particularly deep, neither is the embankment high, just minor earthworks really, which will undulate around the trackwork.

There have been several survey field trips made by Peter (the madcap behind the project) noting all the physical features. He's also pored over the OS maps for hours on end, so there'll be nothing too incongruous with the topography of the proposed route.

Apparently he's also written a complete history of the line from inception to present day charting the various services, the expansion in the 1880s following the tourist boom and the rundown post-Beeching. Dunno if it's supposed to be a SLT these days though...

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Comment posted by nevardmedia on Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:30 pm

This is stunning - a major project...WOW! Love the end with the beach huts

Not sure many would get away with taking over the whole living room like you appear to have - good man if so!!

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Comment posted by nobby on Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:18 am

Hi Adrian

Great to see this layout taking place, in fact even my mother-in-law who still lives on the island is interested.

Just a small detail to mention that there is no Mersea Avenue on the island, and as most of the beach huts are on Victoria Esplanade i have attached a link to a map of the island for you.

http://www.mersea-is...merseamap01.jpg

Be careful where you put the line as you may put it straight through my brother-in-laws house and garden

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??? posted on Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:21 am

Hi Nobby

I'll let Peter know there is local interest!

Just to clear up a small point - there is a Mersea Avenue on the island - but in a wobbly moment it's not the one I said. The long road down the side of the layout is infact St. Peter's Road (is that a coincidence? Hmmm...)

Mersea Avenue infact links the High Street and St Peter's Road and is the road over the bridge at the end of Module on in the photos above. See the Google map in the link below (I've made it a tinyurl as the link was 245 characters long!)

http://tinyurl.com/2u43yt

As you can see, a lot of more modern housing was never built in our alternate universe; Captains Road and New Captains Road, Churchfields and The Seedlings have been swept away (I suspect they weren't there in the 1850s anyway).

The next section which will be exhibitable spans between Mersea Avenue and Firs Road - though we've realigned Mersea Avenue a little further south so that the section of the layout will be about 18 feet in length. As you and Brian can see, the ground doesn't undulate very much here, but the railway is below the road level so both Firs Rd. and Mersea Ave. bridge the line - hence the cutting, and looking at it I can't see that there can be an embankment, so it's likely I've got the wrong end of the stick with that!

With the railway in situ housing would have developed quite differently with holiday housing for the Victorian middle classes developing in the aread bounded by the High Street North, Mearsea Avenue and Firs Road and it is these and their gardens which will form the backdrop of the exhibitable section.

From there the line passes west of the cemetary where there is now housing on Woodfield Drive, Cypress Mews, Spruce Close and Whittaker Way, and into the big field beyond where our loco shed, and assorted PW and carriage sidings will be.

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