LBSC123

Whatever the brand, I will be getting (at least) one of these!

Looks good, out of interest have you noticed a change in what rolling stock will negotiate these points as a result of making these changes?

Have done a bit more work on the boards and they’re now effectively complete, just in need of painting, wiring and lights which I hope to do next week. I’ve offered the track up which hopefully shows what I am trying to achieve, the cardboard box in the rear is to gauge the height for the coal shed. I would’ve loved to have squeezed a bit more height into the backscene but would’ve made storing the layout much harder, so I had to compromise in order to aide operability as per @James Hilton’s mindful operating principles. I also got a new arrival, a Dapol terrier in IoW condition, which will look lovely shuffling up and down with some wagons.

Many thanks, I think I’m going to use this sand designed for aquariums: https://www.trustleaf.co.uk/1kg-tub-of-natural-colour-medium-grain-silica-sand-7360-p.asp

Many thanks for this, do you know what brand you used? There seem to be a baffling array of choices!

Sorry to bump this old thread but does anyone have any suggestions for what would be best to use for 7mm scale shingle ballast? I am modelling the isle of wight and need to replicate some. Have got some sand from Swanage beach but initial inspection suggests it’s too fine and has too many black bits of sand in it to look ‘right’…

Well I’m now onto scheme number 3 but at least this has got past the design stage. As you might be able to tell, I don’t have too many problems coming up with ideas for model railways to build, my barrier is space and the time to build them. Both previous plans would’ve been lovely but realistically I don’t have the space to keep them up all the time and the costs of building them and then packing them away constantly puts them in the ‘too difficult’ pile. This means I’ve got nowhere to run my growing collection of IOW locos and rolling stock, something that must be changed! I’ve been a follower of James Hilton’s ‘Paxton Road’ blog for a while and was recently really struck by the ‘mindful operation principles’ whereby one thinks a bit more about when/how you’re going to use the layout, rather than only what you’re modelling. For a full summary you can read more about it here: https://paxton-road.blogspot.com/2024/02/kohlenbachbruke-eastern-european.html?m=1 This really appealed to me, and I looked at doing something like this in 7mm scale, unfortunately if you use any point work the board rapidly grows in size, somewhat defeating the point. I’ve got a couple of shelves in the spare room that I thought would be good to be able to use to keep the layout on, enabling it to be used in those spare minutes throughout the day. The shelves are 120cmx30cm with a 20cm gap between them and the bracket for the one above, so that’s my space. I’ve opted to go for a scenic section of 90cmx30cm with a 65cm long fiddle yard (yes that’s longer than the shelf but I think a bit of overhang won’t hurt!). The layout will just be two sidings, with a Bembridge style coal shed at the rear, hopefully portraying the IOW location. It will be viewed through ‘letter box’ at the front hopefully controlling the angles you can get on the model and keeping it realistic. In terms of operation general idea is that there will be a few wagons on stage, a loco will come onto the layout with a Brakevan and then will build up a train before going off scene, the process will then be reversed with a train arriving on stage. I’ll elaborate about this more in another post. I’ve made a start on the baseboards and will be getting track down soon. Will keep you posted with more updates.

Thanks for this NHY 581, very helpful. I think there were some comments about ‘Sheepcroft’ a few pages back at Ally Pally show, I attach a photo of this for interest! It was a rather nice little EM gauge shunting layout.

Apologies if it’s been answered before @NHY 581 but how do you attach the fiddle yard sections of the layout to your IKEA lack baseboards? Keep up the great work.

Is anyone able to advise if this happened? I am after some BFW020 coach W irons (happy to join the society to get them!)

Which shop and which colour lined green? I’m on the hunt for one in Apple green

Following with interest as I have myself opened a bit of a Broad Gauge Pandora’s box. How hard could a little shunting plank with a possible transfer shed be? (Probably very…?)

Looks interesting, would be interested to hear what the largest loco you could get round those curves was!

Looks good, always enjoy seeing a layout built in one of these boxes, as a fellow small flat live-r I feel your pain!

Hi GWR, that’s definitely a good suggestion that I will incorporate into future plans. thanks, Will

While I have not updated this thread in a while I have been pondering options behind the scenes, resulting in a bit of a re-think and change of approach. The layout proposed in the first post is a bit of a WIBN, and as I live in a London flat I don’t really have space to progress such an idea and this isn’t likely to change any time soon. So the new approach: Newport Shed (IOW) With two locos I’d quite like to have somewhere that I could stage these locos and shuffle a few wagons around. I’ve looked across the Isle of Wight and have settled on Newport Sheds. This might seems like a bizarre choice, as it’s anything but small, however I think I can make a suitably staged micro layout work, making it appear part of a larger complex. The other reason for choosing this area was the fact it’s the background to most locomotive portraits in the 1930s, so makes sense as a photo plank. Some Flickr links below will hopefully show what I am trying to achieve: © Peter Heelas: Photographer unknown © Ernie’s Railway Archive © Peter Heelas: Photographer unknown © Peter Heelas: Photographer unknown. Copyright O J Morris This 1908 OS map shows the track plan at Newport Shed at the time, the red box is the scene I want to try and portray. The draft track plan is as below, I’m hoping to fit it into 3ft 6in-4ft by 18inches-2ft. With a bit of luck. I think the track plan might also work as an Inglenook shunting plank too, when the left hand sector plate is attached. The plan is for the front and rear lines to go to a fiddle yard on the right, the front going to the ‘mainline’ and the rear heading to other areas of the works, enabling me to shuffle around a few wagons, coaches and anything else I fancy too. Trackplan for Newport MPD A rough sketch of the scene and what I hope it will look like, I am not artist! Hope this is of interest, next stage is to make a full-size mock-up!

Hi there and thanks for the comment, yes hopefully digital, the O2 has a sound chip in it so that will make those sort of things easier!

I have still been musing about this although no real progress to report of late, however I have ‘accidentally’ come into the possession of another locomotive in the form of a Kit Built E1 in need of a repaint. I’ll duly repaint this into appropriate Southern Railway livery in due course (probably for my own sanity I’ll go for SR black with sunshine lettering). I also picked up three kit built wagons which need a little bit of work but are suitable for ex Isle of Wight Central Railway prototypes. Finally, I also picked up 3 Peco set track points for a very good price, which neither loco will seemingly go round, but it’s better to work this out now. I suppose that means I’ll plump for their medium radius points, or something hand built or from Marcway. The thinking is three 3ft x2 foot boards, two scenic and one fiddle yard (which might potentially have some scenery on it too, which using a turntable for one end of the loop should be just about workable. There’s the possibility of a scenic section in font of the fiddle yard too. More news and photos-graphs when I have some progress to report!

Lovely layout. Apologies if I have missed it somewhere but what are the dimensions, please?

Lovely looking vans, where did you get these from?

Not entirely sure on what track might be best for you but you can get these kits from Greenwood too: https://greenwoodmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/shop/o-gauge/a-5-point/ (someone more knowledgeable than me would have to tell you what the various A5 etc mean). A more general query is, if you’re pushed for space and only intending to use small locos, could you reduce radius below 72”? I see Marcway do points in 4/5ft radius?

Backstory, Shalfleet Quay: Some of you may have seen my previous attempts at modeling the island in the form of Shalfleet Quay, which can be found here. The history of the line is worth a quick re-cap, as follows: Shalfleet of the little known sleepy backwaters on the Isle of Wight located in the sparsely populated western side of the Isle of Wight. The line was the mastermind of Isle of Wight landowner, Sir John Barrington Simeon and was constructed to break the duopoly of goods transhipment of the Isle of Wight Central and Isle of Wight Railways. This line was subject to an act of parliament obtaining Royal Accent in 1890 for the Shalfleet Harbour Railway, costing £35,000 to build. The two-mile-long branch was lightly constructed avoiding the need for heavy engineering works. It connected to the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway (FYN) at Calbourne and Shalfleet station with the junction facing the Newport direction, where there were exchange sidings. The line passed through the centre of Shalfleet, crossing the A3054 and passing The New Inn to the east, in the Village of Shalfleet there were sidings for the Shalfleet Mill and local village before it ran alongside the river before reaching Shalfleet Quay. Traffic mainly consisted of coal, and Shalfleet soon became the source of coal for the majority of the west of the island. The line also carried livestock, flour, beer cement and luggage shipped in advance other supplies coming to and from the mainland. Also, shingle from dredging channels (used for ballast), fish from the Solent and salt from the Newtown salt marshes were all landed at Shalfleet quay. The line was initially worked by the Isle of Wight Central Railway (IWC), like the FYN. However, all this changed with plans to build a Solent Tunnel Yarmouth to Lymington promoted in 1900. Following an Act of Parliament was passed in April 1901, incorporating the South Western & Isle of Wight Junction Railway (SW&IWJR). Shalfleet Quay was the main transhipment point for construction materials coming from the mainland, to support this traffic, the SW&IWJR authorised the purchase of second-hand motive power and rolling stock to handle goods and materials for the Island end works site, delivered later in 1901. Owing to difficulties in raising the necessary £600,000 in capital, the SW&IWJR, stopped work in 1904 having made only a start on preliminary earthworks to the west of the River Yar. The stock purchased remained on the Island in place of any payment for the transhipment of goods by the SHR and FYN, The Solent tunnel company finally folding in 1924. The line soon settled back into slumber, until in 1913 a dispute over running costs led to a break between the IWC and the FYN. The FYN purchased their own stock to run the railway themselves and ordered all goods traffic for shipment to the mainland to be diverted via the Shalfleet. Although relations thawed, this situation remained until Grouping. The Harbour Branch like the FYN, owing to disagreements about the value of compensation to be paid to shareholders was not incorporated into the Southern Railway until 1 August 1923. Following grouping, the branch was improved to allow for the running of the heaviest trains in 1926-7. This was to enable much of the traffic from Media Wharf to be diverted to Shalfleet Quay whilst Medina Wharf was upgraded. Following the opening of the Medina Wharf in April 1931, traffic gradually fell away and by 1935 trains were only run as required. With the outbreak of War traffic did increase and the line became the key landing point of military supplies for the Island, away from the prying eyes of Islanders. Come peacetime, the line whilst nominally open was only run as required to enable the transhipment of goods for some of the last remaining industries at Shalfleet, and in effect became a storage area of out of use rolling stock. The line was closed alongside the Freshwater branch officially closing on 21st September 1953, the final train ran on the 10th September to clear any remaining rolling stock from the branch. Today, very few traces remain of the line, although the quay at Shalfleet is still in use, and the road to it follows the course of the old line past The New Inn. Although you’d be hard-pressed to find much information about the Harbour branch online, this model attempts to capture Shalfleet Quay during the heyday of the branch, during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Newtown: What I failed to mention in that initial thread was the Shalfleet Harbour Improvements and Railway Company (SHIR). Since the 17th Century there have been various schemes to drain and reclaim Newtown Marshes, none of these had been successful until the SHIR which obtained powers in 1896, to construct a 1 ½ mile extension to the Shalfleet Harbour Railway to Newtown. The principal objectives of the company was to turn Newtown into a Holiday resort to rival the likes of Bembridge on the East of the island. The construction of an embankment across the Newtown Marshes would enable to construction of houses and hotels, as well as improving navigations channels, to enable the larger ships to dock at the quay. The scheme took four years to complete, opening on 23rd May 1900. The line was initially worked by the IWC, like the FYN. The line initially proved very popular and was especially busy on summer weekends. The line passed through the breakdown in relations with the IWC, and grouping into the Southern Railway, with relatively little changes. Gradually, the replacement of flat bottom track for bullhead rail, and the replacement of the turntable in 1936 enabled the ubiquitous O2 class locomotives to work trains from Newtown to the Junction station at Calbourne and Shalfleet. The line was closed alongside the Freshwater branch officially closing on 21st September 1953. This model will represent Newtown station in 1936. This thread will likely not progress that quickly as I’ve still yet to determine a track plan, but I thought it would be nice to put my thoughts into a thread, and track the acquisition of appropriate rolling stock. The general aspiration will be to try and fit some sort of terminus with a Bembridge style sector plate/turntable into about a 7ft scenic section, whether this is possible remains to be seen. Any tips on minimum space layouts would be greatly appreciated. What forced a change of scale you might ask? I’ve long been pondering moving ‘up’ a scale, and the availability of a second hand kit built LSWR O2 W24 Calbourne in Southern Olive Green was an opportunity I couldn’t pass by. This will be supplemented with a Dapol O Gauge Terrier in due course.

Splendid work, as always.

Do you have a photo of the chassis without body? It would be interesting to see if a C14 conversion could be achievable.

I always through this chassis would make a good basis for something like a C14…