Paul Robertson

So today I had a bit of time to do some more modelling and advance my scratchbuilding skills. I need a portakabin type structure to act as a combined office for the ferry and train staff on the quayside. Having done a bit of research on sizes of units and suitably scaled them down to n gauge I started to produce the model (my sketch drawings and scaled dims of a standard 12155x4050mm portakabin. I initially cut the floor and roof out of thick balsa and glued together with strengtheners in the corners to give a bit of rigidity. I then cut out the windows from thin balsa sheet and scored the door which I hope the outline will come out during painting. Windows had clear plastic fixed across them as per the kiosks I showed in a previous blog. For the toilet windows I fixed an additional sliver of white paper across the top (Initial shell construction of the portakabin) Having got the shell complete I used thin styrene L shaped strips to pick out the edges and generally smarten up the box structure. The final finishing touch was to build the support legs and structure over the roof again out of the L strutt. The L strutt was actually a mistaken online purchase which I expected to be another form but it has come in very handy. (rear view of completed structure with blanked windows for toilets) (and a front view) (Rough position for portakabin on layout with kiosks in the background located by train Linkspan to provide joint accommodation for the railway and port workers.) I will need to create another smaller one for the network rail workers by the train station. My next task will be creating the winding house for the linkspan. I'm currently waiting for some styrene I beams to come in the post before embarking on it. Thanks for reading Paul

So having created a security kiosk I was happy with yesterday and with only a limited bit of building time this evening I decided to set up a little production line to produce the two others I required. (sort of cabin I was looking to create found on a Google search with some useful dimensions that just needed dividing by 148) By close of play I had managed to complete all three: (three completed cabins) And located on the layout (two controlling the entrance onto the upper and lower linkspans) (and one controlling the access ramps) Following this trial run with scratchbuilding I feel emboldened to perhaps try a portakabin or two which are required around the place. A bit more research required on dimensions and door / window sizes. That and the Linkspan wheelhouse will keep me busy for this week! Many thanks for reading and happy modelling! Paul

Useful tips there. I'm looking to add third rail onto my n gauge mini layout so this will be really helpful.

Thanks for the comment. Whilst the ferry is currently removable my idea was to have it permanently fixed to ensure good alignment between the rails. I'd also have to create a separate 'sea' cassette to go in its place when the ferry had departed. Perhaps a temporary fix for the time being whilst I get the rest of the layout sorted and then I can think of grander ideas. I take no credit for the photos. Just Internet finds that help to illustrate prototypes. Happy to give credit where it is due if I tread on someone's copyright! Xmas 2025 maybe! My father's layout started when my brother and I were still in shorts is still at the baseboard stage some 45 years later! Still he did decide to model the entirety of Ipswich Station and handmade all the track in the station limits. I'm hoping to have something completed way before that although are model railways ever complete?! A subject for a whole different blog me thinks. Paul

Following on from yesterday's scratch building attempt of a security kiosk I had a look at it again this morning and decided I could do a bit better (yesterday's effort was a bit crooked and lacking in detail) I thought the scale looked a bit too big as well and a quick Google found the the height was a bit on the generous side for this type of building. Out with the craft knife and some more styrene angle to highlight window ledges and to make a door and I soon had a more reasonable looking cabin. In the spirit of recycling the peco clear plastic packaging which my plate girder bridge sides came in was cut up and used as glazing. I made the roof a little larger to give a nicer overhang effect and this was the result: (I even managed to incorporate a shelf for the occupant!just needs a spot of paint.) (And located on the head of the Linkspan Bridge to provide shelter to the poor soul who has to control the traffic in all weather's during loading.) Just another two of those to make! Having finished this job off I wanted to complete the last section of Linkspan bridge to the upper (vehicle deck) of the ferry. To do this I first needed to tidy up the ferry stern, straightening edges and filling gaps with thin layers of balsa. Once completed I created the second 'movable' Linkspan section using 5mm ply as a base with peco plate girder bridge sides cut and joined together. A further small section of ramp was include to allow for a smooth transition between Linkspan and ferry deck for vehicles. (completed up bridge deck) (And from the other direction looking towards the ferry) Both upper bridges can be removed to allow access to the lower level. This now completes the major bridges on the layout the next job will be to build the winding gear housing that will sit above the Linkspan structure. This will be a much bigger scratchbuilding challenge but is basically a corrigated shed on stilts! So lots more balsa with Wills corrugated sheeting kit. Many thanks for reading Paul

As well as more work on the civil engineering today I also made my first scratchbuilt building. A security kiosk. I need to make about 5-6 of these so this was just a trial run With a bit of painting and so correct signage I think it should do the job. Greater scratchbuilding challenges lie ahead. (first attempt at a light mast base. Unfortunately couldn't cope with my drilling a hole in it) (attempt no2. Working better. This 5mm diameter 300mm long brass tube scales to a 44m high light mast in n gauge which is about right for a port complex. I'm hoping tomorrow to give the concrete paper a go Thanks for reading

So today has been spent on alot of detail. Taking lots of thin balsa strips and neatening tunnel mouths and providing a bit more structural detail on abutments (additional bridge abutment detail) (tunnel mouth neatened up ready for some 'concrete' paper After a comment from another user here I spent a lot of time checking clearances with two types of wagon before sticking down the walls to the HM customs warehouse (an early train load of taxable goods - probably scotch whisky) heads into the customs warehouse siding to check clearances) It took about 4 attempts in shaving off plywood before the wagons would clear the walls! Another small step on the ferry was to round off the stern to give the end of the ship a more boat like feel. (ferry stern cut and sanded down) I'm also looking at the lighting masts and have created some balsa wood bases for them. The first attempt got destroyed when I tried to drill some holes through them. A second attempt was more successful.

Thanks for the offer Phil. I'm more looking for prototype photos around Admiralty pier, the linkspan, the Nord-pas-de-Calais birthed up so I can check out moorings, operational clutter, etc. The station I want to build is probably going to be something art deco in style imagining a 1930's railway terminus built for the original boat train traffic (imagine Surbiton station by the sea!) but a bit run down and unkempt now but with some of its original grandeur coming through. I'll keep your offer in mind though. Thanks again Paul

Ah! oh well, nothings totally original I guess! I'll have to look that one up. Many thanks for the gen!

Thanks for the advice Will. I've been running one of my ferry wagons up and down as I've been going so fairly confident all is well. Thankfully did this before I stuck down the wall to my customs house which has a very tight radius curve on it and the entrance needs some adjustment to get wagons in. Hopefully will be rectified shortly.

Interesting to see and some great prototype photos. Building my own version in n gauge currently which I've set up a blog for here to follow progress called 'Seahaven'. Based on the admiralty pier / Nord-pas-de-Calais Service rather than the old Southern Railway Train Ferry Dock and imagined as still operating in competition / co-operation with the channel tunnel . Will be great to swap ideas and watch your progress

Hi Phil - Many thanks for your reply. Choosing Imaginary names is always tricky as they always seem to be taken up by someplace else before! My paternal grandfather had an O gauge layout with white cliffs and a little terminus all scratch built in his garden shed called 'Whitehaven'. This was freelancing on the original Whitehaven name which I know exists in Cumbria. My Grandfather was also a hobbyist model engineer who had a combined interest in ships and trains (must run in the genes!). My father still has a gauge 1 ex-working LNER B12 loco (memories of my brother and I being propelled behind it on a short demonstration track in the garden on sunny weekend afternoons in our youth) and a roughly 1:76 scale model of the paddle steamer 'Golden Eagle' in glass cabinets on his stairs. Unfortunately the copper boiler tube of the B12 sprang a leak in the late 80's after approximately 50 years service and thus its steaming days are now over. At least I'm in the same rough BR region. Interestingly my first ever railway layout as a teenager was named 'Seaford' which I had deliberately named after the place having wanted to find a modern third rail seaside terminus small enough to fit into my tiny bedroom. Never having visited the place that layout too was borne from my imagination although I had caught the ferry from Newhaven for a family holiday once. The name popped up after scanning through some detailed AA road Atlas's. Liking the look of your diorama some lovely detailing on the small ships. Wasn't aware of Highbridge Wharf, but its fascinating to find about all these little ship to train transportation nuggets that are slowly receding into history. A little further down the coast at Bridgewater is another small Wharf by the River Parrett I believe is still used by Hansen Aggregates which from an aerial reconnaissance via google earth still seems to have some wharfside track in place although unfortunately long since disconnected from the national network. (See screenshot below) Anyway many thanks for taking the time to comment and good luck with your project too! Hope to see you back here soon Kind regards Paul

With family games night limiting my time on the baseboard today I decided instead to do a bit more on the signage sheet I've been putting together. I noticed that with the commercial sheets you buy there is inevitably quite a lot of wastage as I don't need most of the signs they supply. Also due to the very specific nature of my project there are also a lot of signs that I require that are not available commercially. I therefore decided to try and create a sheet myself. For the standard signs there are plenty of jpegs of DfT appropriate diagrams I could download, copy and paste. For the others it was a mixture of looking at prototype signage gantries and bashing it together on the computer I use Microsoft publisher as my preferred graphic design tool as it is relatively simple to use. The below it the result: I've already done one trial print when I was halfway through to check quality using a sheet of photopaper to give a bit of reflectivity feel that modern signage has. Whilst relatively happy with the outcome I've since changed some of the text sizes to get them a little more readable so the detail stands out a bit more. It will be a long time before these end up on the layout (final dressing stage) but I've enjoyed the research that went with creating this as well as the chance to have fun with create the Seahaven Harbour Authority with their own unique logo. I also managed to get my favourite tipple and chocolate bar on the advertising hoardings! Such is the fun of modelling! Will hopefully be back to physical modelling again this weekend.

So this evening I have been working on the marine architecture and civil engineering with more detailing on the ferry, bridge, abutment and retaining wall. Plenty of balsa wood used to try and replicate the mooring details on the ferry which seemed to have quite complicated bollards on the nord pas de calais prototype. I assume this has something to do with the moorings linked to the computer controlled Linkspan. Anyway done my best to represent it and will make good with a bit of filler! The upper Linkspan bridge now has parapets which will become concrete in the fullness of time. I've also tided up the ramp putting kerbs and footpaths in to neaten the edges. Along with using very thin balsa wood (0.7mm) bent to create the curved retaining wall. Some images of tonight's progress below Mooring detail on deck of ferry The ramp to the lower Linkspan now tidied up a bit The upper Linkspan bridge with parapet walls now included.

An evenings tabletop model railwaying and progress around the Dock area, bridges, Linkspan and ferry with plenty of balsa wood put in to fill in gaps and tidy up plywood edges

Whitsun week in the 1980's for me as a child was always spent camping on the coast at the Warren in Folkstone in a blue canvas clad frame tent. Days would be spent watching the Sealink ferries arrive and depart from the harbour along with the obligatory trip to the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway and building massive sandcastles on the sandy beach, whilst at night I would go to sleep to the sounds of EMUs pounding along the Shakespeare Cliff coastal mainline (or rain on canvas!). My visits encapsulated the changeover from BR corporate blue to Network Southeast Sectorisation and the splitting off of Sealink from British Rail. I wasn't really aware of the Train Ferry just a few miles up the coast and never witnessed its operation first hand. But I enjoyed the atmosphere of the close proximity of boats and trains on our occasional walks in to Folkstone Town and past the Harbour Station where third rail emus would trundle past the fishmarket, over the harbour viaduct and into the curved platforms to await their dwindling number of international foot passengers off the grandly Nordic named Sealink ships. If I'd known now what interesting rail manoeuvres were taking place daily on the Western Docks with a free refreshing walk along admiralty pier to boot I think I could have persuaded my father to make an afternoon trip of it and clicked away a few shots with my kodak instamatic camera. My interest in building a train ferry layout stems from these childhood memories and also a growing interest in freight traffic and why we as a country seem unable to get so much of it off our roads. I appreciate the 'market forces / financial viability' arguments but there seems something intrinsically right about railways moving freight (which is the reason why they were built). I was also really interested in speedlink and wagonload freight and having come across David Ratcliffe's book (see below) it inspired me to think in more detail about a possible layout including childhood memories and my interest in limited freight traffic. Many iterations and plans were drawn up for grand loft layouts to model a whole working n gauge harbour but it quickly became apparent with a young family and lack of time and funds that such grandiose projects would have to be scaled down and so Seahaven was borne. Its primarily a shunting layout that works at 2.5 levels in n gauge and measures approximately 5ft by 1ft. the first 1.5 levels is a wagon shunting yard using a mock up of the rear end of Nord-pas-de-Calais as a fiddle yard connecting via a linkspan to the dockside, with a hidden storage yard off scene. Being new to n gauge and not having done any modelling since my teenage years I'm keeping it relatively simple and not going for movable linkspans or tidal effects! The 2nd level is the harbour station for third rail emus to trundle in and out from a connecting branchline through a suitably Shakespearean Cliff tunnel portal. As a suitably frustrated Civil Engineer I'm also enjoying detailing the structures and ensuring correct radii for roads, etc although I'm trying not to be too OTT on the detail, just want it to look and feel right. I made a start over a year ago one christmas on the base boards although have been collecting suitable stock for a lot longer than that with birthday money being saved up. This summer with staycations happening I decided to spend a few days working on the layout a bit more and this is the current state of play: As you can see still very much work in progress but gaining momentum now and really enjoying getting back in the railway modelling saddle! I'll try and keep this updated as much as possible as I add new stuff. Thanks for reading Paul

And a view from the other direction

I'm currently constructing a hybrid layout on this theme in n gauge. It takes bits of Dover Western Docks, Folkstone Harbour, and a small amount of Harwich as prototypes. The boat is based on the rear end of Nord-pas-de-Calais although scaled down to fit on the base board. Roughly set in an imagined present day if the trainferry service had continued to provide a less expensive alternative to overpriced channel tunnel freight and also the dangerous chemical goods that the channel can't take. I've named the layout Seahaven and spent 4 days of my 'staycation' last week working on it. Have got to track laying although need to finish the 'sea' and linkspan structure before I can do too much more.