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Henceforth in Lined Green.


Florence Locomotive Works

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Hello all,

 

After nearly two years of messing about with coarse scale O gauge, I finally saw the light last night and ordered a SECR D class from Rails of Sheffield.

 

But of course, it needs a layout!

 

 

The layout is set in a big town along the SECR, or at least one large enough to warrant a D class. The town is situated near Toad Hall, so often gets some unusual motorcars arriving via LNWR motorcar carrying vans from Liverpool, with their contents destined for the Hall. 

 

I decided to base the layout here as Wind in the Willows is what initially got me into British railways and away from German ones. But that's all the backstory for now, onto some real work.

 

 

 

Trackplan:

 

The image below shows the current arrangement, which I think is the one I will stick with. It is a bit strange looking, but I couldn't afford to buy more track so here we are. Some will see that the baseboard is my old Broad Gauge diorama, which ended up not happening. However it is now being put to good use.

 

IMG_2829.jpg.0a011f9cca435ac3933353405a6f784a.jpg

 

It is thought that another platform will be added up the middle, so a "branch" train can dock there.

 

 

Scenery:

 

On the left of the layout is a twin track tunnel portal, which forms the scenic break no that side. The other side is the station, a Vollmer "werkstatt" I bought off eBay some years ago. It doesn't quite fill up the entire length of the board, so something similar to what @Mikkel has done with The Farthing Layouts, in terms of a street outside the station. On the other side of the tunnel is also about 8 inches of unused length which will probably form some sort of fiddle yard.

 

IMG_2827.jpg.c5b90a993e174b57b8dcced7e55d6469.jpg

 

 

As the time period is 1907, market gardens would still have been plying there trade, so I'm thinking of building a wooden platform into the hillside from whence strawberry's and other such things can be loaded into an express van for London. Some suitable farming folk would also be placed here. As I'm brand new to SECR modelling, I don't know very much about what their stations looked like, so if this building is totally out of line then I apologize. I'm also not sure what color the area under the track should be painted, but I'm guessing gray is probably pretty likely, but if anybody knows please say so.

 

Obviously the station needs a wash applied on one side as well I see now. It like this as it was on a previous micro layout were those parts were covered or not viewed by anyone. Who new German bricks were so yellow though!

 

 

Rolling Stock/Motive Power

 

Coaching stock will hopefully consist of some nice SECR bogie coaches from Bachmann, as I grew up seeing these in the Railway Children movie. Actually quite a lot of the railway stuff seen in that is from the SECR, probably why I'm now modelling it.

 

Goods stock will consist of my modest collection of private owner wagons and vans, although I hope to add some SECR ones, and maybe a milk tanker.

 

Motive power will be the D class, as I can't afford anything else.

 

 

That's all for this entry, I now leave you with this shot looking towards the station.

 

IMG_2828.jpg.0980d54acc3ba320153ee0fce6e750eb.jpg

 

 

 

Douglas

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While I'm sorry that your Broad Gauge diorama has been abandoned, I think the SECR is a good choice.  There are several SECR enthusiasts on here to provide information.  Yellow brick is a feature of some stations - see, for example:

Mike

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4 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

While I'm sorry that your Broad Gauge diorama has been abandoned, I think the SECR is a good choice.  There are several SECR enthusiasts on here to provide information.  Yellow brick is a feature of some stations - see, for example:

Mike

Thank you Mike,

 

 

The broad gauge project ended after I realized that it might be more work than I wished to put in, however I still have the engine.

 

SECR looks very interesting though, and I’ll take a look at that link.

 

Douglas

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Mikkel

Posted (edited)

SECR 1907, this should be good! :locomotive:

 

I like the idea of a strawberry loading scene. Some LSWR examples:

 

gettyimages-146111306-2048x2048.jpg.ebf71aa3eaf5f78b3e2b921677e1118c.jpg

Baskets of strawberries being loaded onto a London and South Western Railway train to market, June 1922. Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted.

 

There is also this little Twitter thread, which I think you can access without an account:

 

PS, see also: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263019784692?hash=item3d3d3369f4:g:iBAAAOSwcgNZNC5Q

 

Edited by Mikkel
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You've found a good image there Mikkel.

 

Look closely at the left-most van, and you will see that it is actually a 6W (I'm pretty sure) passenger coach, with battens fitted on the inside of the windows. If we could see inside, we would find shelves for strawberry baskets, in place of seats and luggage racks. Apparently the LSWR did this with redundant ^W coaches, because they were short of vans for "the flush".

 

Its quite a late photo, I think, post WW1, possibly even post -1923. There is another very good set of photos showing this operation pre-WW1, where all the berries are in long-handled wicker baskets, which were returned empty after use to the farms, but here I think we are seeing disposable cardboard and tin (for the handles and lips), or thin wood, trugs.

 

It ought to be time to discuss the strawberry harvest, berries should be ready in a few weeks from now, but here the weather has been all back to front this year (May was in March; March has filled the whole of April and May), so my few plants are looking very retarded indeed, likewise all other fruits.

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7 hours ago, Mikkel said:

SECR 1907, this should be good! :locomotive:

 

I like the idea of a strawberry loading scene. Some LSWR examples:

 

gettyimages-146111306-2048x2048.jpg.ebf71aa3eaf5f78b3e2b921677e1118c.jpg

Baskets of strawberries being loaded onto a London and South Western Railway train to market, June 1922. Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted.

 

There is also this little Twitter thread, which I think you can access without an account:

 

PS, see also: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263019784692?hash=item3d3d3369f4:g:iBAAAOSwcgNZNC5Q

 


Thank you for that Mikkel, that is a very interesting few photos.

 

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

You've found a good image there Mikkel.

 

Look closely at the left-most van, and you will see that it is actually a 6W (I'm pretty sure) passenger coach, with battens fitted on the inside of the windows. If we could see inside, we would find shelves for strawberry baskets, in place of seats and luggage racks. Apparently the LSWR did this with redundant ^W coaches, because they were short of vans for "the flush".

 

Its quite a late photo, I think, post WW1, possibly even post -1923. There is another very good set of photos showing this operation pre-WW1, where all the berries are in long-handled wicker baskets, which were returned empty after use to the farms, but here I think we are seeing disposable cardboard and tin (for the handles and lips), or thin wood, trugs.

 

It ought to be time to discuss the strawberry harvest, berries should be ready in a few weeks from now, but here the weather has been all back to front this year (May was in March; March has filled the whole of April and May), so my few plants are looking very retarded indeed, likewise all other fruits.


Thank you Kevin,

 

That was a very interesting read as I’m new to southern stock. I think our strawberry’s may already be in the stores, or our season has already passed. All I know is that peach season is mid July through August here. Blueberries have a similar window I think.

 

 

Douglas

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