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3. Some More Orford Pictures and further background notes


orford

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Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments so far. They are much appreciated.

 

Since some asked - Here are a few more pictures of the layout together with some further background notes:

 

ORFORD, SUFFOLK

 

The layout is 16.5mm gauge and is situated around three sides of a 12 foot by 9 foot spare bedroom. It is not portable, so will not be seen at any exhibitions (doing that with a small industrial 'O' Gauge layout - and that's more than enough!)

 

All track is bog-standard Peco Code 70.

 

Control is DCC (is there anything else?) using NCE control equipment, which in my opinion is by far and away the best (others will certainly disagree - but it's in English, as fully-featured as any - and more so than many - and is simple to use).

 

All locos are fitted with full-blown sound, using Zimo Decoders, generally MX645's. Sound files, with one exception, are by Paul Chetter of Hornby Magazine fame, some of them produced to my own specifications/requirements (thanks, Paul). Even the tiny little Bachmann J672 has full sound in it (video on You Tube - search J72 sound).

 

Orford is my first attempt at an OO gauge layout.

 

Having said that, I have been modelling railways for around 40 years, almost exclusively narrow gauge, ranging from '009', through Swiss 'HOm', to 'G'-Scale in the garden. Most of it however was in 'O-16.5' and/or 'On30' American. I am supposed to be something of an expert (whatever that is) on the Two-Footers of Maine - although whether this is actually the case is certainly open to considerable debate.

 

Probably 80% of my narrow gauge stuff over the years was scratch built, ranging from locos in '009' to a gas-fired 'live steam' Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway 2-6-2 Prairie in 'G', which was literally built on the kitchen table using nothing but hand tools. It had a fully lagged boiler and carried water in the tender and could be kept in steam all day if required. It still runs in Denver, Colorado.

 

But I digress - Ultimately I got fed up with narrow gauge and as noted above, Orford is my first ever foray into 'OO' Gauge......mainly because I had never done it before. Never having been one for convention, you could say that I started the hard way ....and worked down!

 

Suffolk as a location was a no-brainer because I am a long-time GER fan anyway and we have taken regular holidays there for years and love the place. Why wouldn't you, when they serve the best Fish & Chips on the planet at Aldeburgh? Bar none!

 

I also tired after 40-odd years of scratch building just about everything - including the track on the last two layouts - and wanted to get this one done reasonably quickly so that I can spend more time with grand-children and my wife, who is about to retire (i.e. more trips to Suffolk!).

 

So Orford (quite deliberately) is largely an exercise in creating a layout 'out-of-the-box', specifically to see just what could be done with proprietary equipment. There are a few kits, both buildings and rolling stock - and one or two scratch built items, the most time-consuming of which was the Jolly Sailor Pub, this being a scale model of the prototype in Quay Street, Orford, which is accurate to within a millimetre or so (of the prototype, that is), albeit in low-relief due to lack of space ...the construction of which was greatly helped by the ex-landlord, who was kind enough to allow me to climb all over the place armed with tape measure and camera.

 

In future blogs I will try to describe specific items on the layout in more detail.

 

Here's some more photos to be going on with in the meantime. All of these are essentially 'work-in-progress' shots, taken as things went along. One day I really must get around to doing some decent ones but until then, I hope you will enjoy these.

 

Don Mason

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OK David - Unlike the pub, I'll admit that the church is not entirely accurate - it's a modified Metcalfe kit. But that kit is actually surprisingly close to St. Bartholomew's in Orford!

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Fair enough! Interesting to discover your modelling background bears some similarity to mine. I too spent most of the last 40 odd years modelling narrow gauge, mostly in HOe, 009 and 0:16.5 scales, albeit with a brief excursion into German N in the early 1980s. All involved a great deal of scratchbuilding, which I finally got bored with, so my current effort is an 00 gauge ex GWR BLT, "Woodstowe" - there's a thread on it in Layout Topics. I'm now planning another BLT, this time another German one set in Bavaria - the only scratchbuilt stuff will be the buildings (which I still enjoy making), but all the locos and stock will be bought in.

 

Incidentally, are the cottages behind the bufferstops based on prototypes at Orford? I vaguely recall seeing a row like yours the last time I was there. 

 

The weathering of your teak Gresleys, by the way, is extremely realistic.

 

Regards

 

David C

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Nothing wrong with "out of the box" modelling, I'm about to embark on something similar so I can just "play trains" so to speak.

Having scratch built may locos and buildings ( this is where I get shot down in flames by the purist !) I have decided this retirement business focuses the mind and I really don't want to be a slave to the micrometer and soldering iron for hours on end. That time in my own opinion needs to be spent getting something running in either a made-up or prototypical layout.

Bavaria here I come too !

 

Happy modelling :)

Best

Grahame

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David - Have just added a photo of the prototype (second-to-bottom pic).  I think this is what you are referring to - it's actually the pub, which dates from the 16th century, albeit not exactly in it's current form. Compare with picture of the model, immediately above.

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I guess that this shows what can be done 'out of the box', together with a good dose of skill and imagination :)

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