Hello again,

Things have been progressing well, board 1 has begun a re-scenic build and the addition of a new building. The plan for board 3 has been finalized and board 4 is now on the road, I now have all the materials to build the board and lay down the track and begin working on smaller scenic pieces. If interested the Whitwell & Reepham Model Railway Club will be hosting a model show at the Whitwell & Reepham Railway, this also tie's into the railways first ever diesel running event. N&SBLR Board 1 & 2 will be operating, I will be working on the scenic's and track work while at the show for board No. 4.

So down to what has been done...

Board 1

With board 1 it's been going through quite a repair I'm going to put three photographs up of start middle end. Which basically covers what has been changed, but in simple terms, it's been given a storage building, the station buildings have been changed and painted into the LNER trademark livery of Cream & Green with the addition of some LNER Posters. Further scenic work has been added and the coal stage has been moved, however, this version will be completely removed and a new coal stage will be built.

Before

After

Board 2

A shed has been planned to be added over the pit, for crews to work & prepare their loco for the day, the cattle dock is also planned to be finished to allow the scene to feel complete.

Board 3

Here is the drawing for Board 3, so the idea is that you are not supposed to see the locomotive in this scene. You should only be just able to see the locomotive as it runs through the mass of trees heading towards board 4. On the other hand, the drawing shows a siding with a small passing loop to allow loco's to run around the cattle wagons before they are propelled into the siding for the cattle-dock.

Board 4

With board 3 planned and me working my way through the build I've spent a bit of time with a fellow club member planning how the scene will work out and although the board is 3ft long by 1 ft wide and there was an initial thought that there wasn't enough space to play with but there is a lot of space to play with. So working on the layout allowed me to make some changes, which resulted in me not being happy having a pillbox on the layout so that has been removed and the level crossing is being moved forwards towards board 3 as per this drawing.

This picture gives you an idea of the space I will have to play with when the board has been made.

Initial work has begun getting everything I need together, to sort the layout out so once the boards are built I can move forwards

Wagons & Coaches

Wagons...We have to create a certain amount of wagons which we can use, there will always be the same and it's agreed that all the wagons will be 3 linked together (Shunters poles will have to be made) this is to add realism and add more authenticity. But recently a club member bought two more wagons for the fleet and I was given the task of adding the three links to the wagons. This was the result...Again not much has changed but it will add to the wagons when being hauled along the layout.

Plus plans have been set in motion to get our Wisbeach & Upwell Tramway coaches on the way to being built and working, further W&U carriage kits have been acquired for the layout when we decided to go for a W&U theme.

However in the carriage shed, I've been working on something, in this case, I took 2 Hornby 4 Wheeled coaches which many will recognize from the Little Blue Embarrassment (Now Americanised) TV Show. Which have been called upon to perform the ultimate act of loyalty... To become what will be a 6 wheeled LNER Coach.

So to begin, I began doing small fixes to the model mainly in repairing the roof of one coach. I began marking out where I was going to make the cut, to which I made and tested, the result has been rather good, following this I needed to work on the chassis.

So I measured the new coach body length, which was 113mm and each coach chassis was 85mm cutting down one of the W irons I had the center of the coach 2mm in length, so I had 46mm to play with at each end of the coach. After trial and error, I managed this result. Following that filler went in and the coach roof was sealed, this has been initially painted black but a change of plan has meant that this coach will go into LNER P-WAY Blue and a Celestory will be used for the BR Period:

Club discussions:

As you know we plan to use a variety of (GE) LNER Locomotives; This discussion finally came to ahead with written down plans for the loco's, rolling stock and the era to run the whole layout so what has been written down so far is:

Locomotives

To match the two main periods which are

LNER - Pre War 1923 - 1941

J15 -7554
J15 - 7564
J15 - 7524
J15 - 7510
J70 - 7137 - Full Skirts
J70 - 7139 - Partial Skirts
J68 -
Y3 - 148

LNER - During and Post War 1942 - 1947

J15 - 5471 -War Time
J70 - 7128 - War Time - Full Skirts)

J70 - 8223 - Post War - Full Skirts)

BR - Early 50's

J15 - 65471 - Vac & Air fitted
J15 - 65388 - Vac fitted only
J70 - 68222 - Full skirts

Rolling Stock

Coaches

Wisbeach & Upwell Tramway - Kit which we need to build
Wisbeach & Upwell Van - Kit which we need to build
Any Hornby 4 wheeler which can be mocked up into period light railway coaches.

Wagons

Basically, any Eastern region fruit van, open wagon or cattle wagon we can get our hands on. Which as a club we can provide plenty of stock

So that was a rundown of what is going on, so until next time