Undercliff

[JZ]

With the arrival of the Kernow/DJM O2, thoughts have turned to building an Isle of Wight layout. This is something I have fancied doing for a long time, perhaps inspired by a summer evening in 1963 when my father to me, aged 7, for a walk over St.Boniface Down and we sat and watched trains in Ventnor station. While Ventnor would make a fine home layout, to my mind the station buildings get in the way for exhibition viewers. With that in mind, I looked for other locations along that stretch of coast where similar conditions could exist. First thought was for Bonchurch. But a line to here would possibly have followed a coastal route from Shanklin, via Luccombe and probably continued to Ventnor. Then I had a look at Niton and hatched a couple of ideas. First was to have the line to Ventnor Town/West turn east at St.Lawrence and run along the Undercliff.

 

Second was for the line to run to Niton from Whitwell and through a short tunnel to Niton Undercliff. The second option is, I feel, better for exhibiting, as it has a convenient scenic break, the station can be at the back with a chalk cliff behind it and the open goods yard at the front.

 

Work will not start until the new Peco bullhead track becomes available and in the meantime I will get some stock built. The full fleet of loco's arrived yesterday and the coach behind is a converted ratio Midland suburban.

 

Edited October 31, 2016 by JZ

[exmoordave]

Good luck with this, I shall watch with interest! There are far too few IOW layouts around I'm afraid. I've always had an interest in Island railways and can remember seeing a 2mm model of Ventnor station many years ago, so I hope it goes well for you! All the best

 

exmoordave

[Allegheny1600]

I too have long taken an interest in this island, although in my case it was because of a lovely girl I once knew!

Seriously, good luck, I'll enjoy following your build.

Cheers,

John

[JZ]

Finished the first of the Ratio conversions.

 

Also fitted decoders, Lenz Silver Mini+, to the locos. Set the top speed to a modest 20mph, but set the acceleration and braking fairly low for maximum control. I noticed on the O2 topic that a few have complained about haulage capacity, but mine will take three of these coaches up the 1:50 return gradient between the fiddle yards on Gurney Slade and thats more than enough for me. Not going to review them here, as enough has been said already, but I do like the ease to access the cab to put crew in and I like the decoder access arrangement. I don't like having to modify the packaging to put them back in the box with couplings. And that is my only gripe(which I have also had with Bachmann and Hornby models).

[JZ]

Here are my two little beauties.

 

 

 

Still to fit the nameplates.

Edited April 13, 2016 by JZ

[Andrew P]

Looks good to me Jules, nice pair of Locos as well.

[Peter Bedding]

With the arrival of the Kernow/DJM O2, thoughts have turned to building an Isle of Wight layout. This is something I have fancied doing for a long time, perhaps inspired by a summer evening in 1963 when my father to me, aged 7, for a walk over St.Boniface Down and we sat and watched trains in Ventnor station. While Ventnor would make a fine home layout, to my mind the station buildings get in the way for exhibition viewers. With that in mind, I looked for other locations along that stretch of coast where similar conditions could exist. First thought was for Bonchurch. But a line to here would possibly have followed a coastal route from Shanklin, via Luccombe and probably continued to Ventnor. Then I had a look at Niton and hatched a couple of ideas. First was to have the line to Ventnor Town/West turn east at St.Lawrence and run along the Undercliff.

The_Isle_of_Wight_RJD_135v1a.jpg

 

Second was for the line to run to Niton from Whitwell and through a short tunnel to Niton Undercliff. The second option is, I feel, better for exhibiting, as it has a convenient scenic break, the station can be at the back with a chalk cliff behind it and the open goods yard at the front.

The_Isle_of_Wight_RJD_135v2a.jpg

 

Work will not start until the new Peco bullhead track becomes available and in the meantime I will get some stock built. The full fleet of loco's arrived yesterday and the coach behind is a converted ratio Midland suburban.

 

Gurney Undercliff.jpg

 

I am much fascinated to see the resurgence of interest in the Island rail network and its rolling stock. One addition I am able to make to the eye-witness accounts is that, unlike the mainland, a lot of effort was placed following nationalisation in repainting the Island's carriage stock into BR crimson. In summer 1956 I came across a number of grounded coach bodies parked in the field immediately to the North of Newport station. To my untutored eye, all were seemingly in good condition, and all were in crimson.

 

PB

[IWCR]

Re  Carriage  bodies:

It  was  the  railways  practice  to  paint  out  all  ownership  lettering  etc  when  these where  being  sold  on.

This  often  meant a  quick  all  over  coat  of  the  current  livery  colour.  This  could  result  in  a  new  livery  colour  appearing  on  an  already  withdrawn  vehicle.

The  bodies  you  saw  may  have  been  ex  LCDR  bogie  vehicles  which  had  been  withdrawn  around  1949  although  I  would  not  expect any  of  these  to  have  been  left  by  then.  Many  of  these  bodies  were  sold  from  a  field  near  Cement  Mills  north  of  Newport   

More likely  it  would  have  been  surplus  stock  withdrawn  following  the  Sandown  line  closure  (Feb  1956)  which  would  have  been  in  BR  Crimson  of  fairly  recent  application.  These  vehicles  would  have  been  mainly  LBSC  with  perhaps  some  SECR

Most  of  these  were  scrapped at  St  Helens  Quay  though  it  is  possible  some  were  at  Newport.

 

Pete

[JZ]

Despite the effects of a heavy cold, I put together 3 opens.

The 7 & 5 planks are Parkside kits, the 4 plank is a Cooper Craft GWR kit, but it closely resembles some of the wagon seen on the IoW. Still to weather them, but that can wait until I'm not under the weather.

[JZ]

While I really should be getting on and finishing Gurney Slade, I have mostly been running trains. But I have continued work with rolling stock for this IoW project. Firstly I have finished my Ratio Midland suburban conversions. I have built one of each type. Roof fittings have been left off, as some of the IoW coaches had plain roofs, they run on Bachmann Bulleid bogies, which meant the pivot points needed to be moved towards the ends. The brakes have also had windows cut into the guard's end, each one slightly different. I've tried to get a bit of variation in the shade of green by using different primers, white, red and grey, and also using satin or matt varnish on them. Fairly happy with the result, though it barely shows in photos. The O2s struggle a bit with this load on Gurney Slade's steepest gradients, but as NU will be level, no problem.

 

 

Also continued knocking together some freight.

Still waiting for my Mousa Models brake van, but Bill Bedford has said that the rest of the parts should be in this week.

 

The van. views of vans on the Island are few and far between, but is about as close as I can get from out of focus, half hidden behind God knows what views. Yes, I know it's not the right number, but from three feet, who's going to know.

Since this photo it has been weathered.

 

I have three more wagons and the brake to build and that will probably be it on that front.  Carriage wise, I have a set of Hornby exLSWR coaches on order and may get one or two Bachmann birdcage ones, if and when they appear, just to add some variety. The great thing is that most of the stock can be legitimately run on Gurney Slade. 

[John_Miles]

So where is the Buddle Inn? It's the best thing in Niton.

[JZ]

So where is the Buddle Inn? It's the best thing in Niton.

Last went into the Buddle Inn way back in 1980 or 81. Burts Beers and a very attractive barmaid. What happened to The Royal Sandrock? Their petanque evenings were alway fun, with music and free food.

 

I am imagining the station to be on St.Catherine's Rd, so it could indeed be next to the Buddle. Maybe a sign on the station approach.

[JZ]

Had a Mousa Models LSWR 18T Goods Brake arrive 10 days ago. I'd love to get on and build it, but there are no instructions. Has anyone built one? Any tips?

Edited June 22, 2016 by JZ

[IWCR]

The  Royal  Sandrock  burnt  down  years ago,  its  been  replaced  by  housing.

Would  have  been  still  there  during  steam  days  though.

 

Any  line  along  the  undercliff  would  have  been  a  nightmare  to  maintain,  its  one  of  the  largest  coastal  landslip  zones  in  europe.  The  Ventnor  to  Niton  road  has  been  closed  for  some  years  now  due  to slippage.

In  "What  If"  land  however  anything  is  possible.

 

Pete

[JZ]

My Legacy track arrived at East Somerset Models today and was duly collected. The absence of points yet may be overcome by using SMP plastic point kit bases. Picked up a bargain Peco N turntable for £3.99 on eBay which will be for the sector plate. I will use C&L chairs on this to hold the rails. Also collected  a set of xLSWR coaches which can also see service on both layouts.

[JZ]

Just a quick posed shot of the O2s with the new Hornby xLSWR coaches on Gurney Slade viaduct.

[HymekBoy]

Looking forward to this, something a bit different. 

[JZ]

With the Legacy track and some rail here, I will be building a point or two on my next week of rest days. Main building will start after my US trip in September.

 

Will contact Marcway next week to see if the SMP plastic point bases are available on their own. I have 4 unmade and need 2 more, plus a catchpoint base. But first I must see what hand-built ones I have made up. The main reason for choosing SMP though is consistency in looks.

 

Goods sheds seem to be a bit thin on the ground on the IoW, so NU will just use a Ratio Provender store, or perhaps a Wills timber shed. The station building itself will be of timber, maybe bash the Peco one and add some canopies.

 

I can see no water tower/tank in photo's of Ventnor. Was it remote from the station?

Edited August 3, 2016 by JZ

[JZ]

Not much done with this due to holiday and illness, but at least I have made a start on the station building. For this I am using a Peco LK-200 Wooden station building, canopy uses a couple of Wills SS54 plus the one from the Peco kit. More to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: The layout will now be called Undercliff. Signs from Station Signs have been procured.

Going to use a mix of BR and Southern.

Edited October 31, 2016 by JZ

[andyram]

Just found this thread. Has there been any further progress? I love the posed shot of the two O2's with the maroon coaches.

[JZ]

Just found this thread. Has there been any further progress?

Not yet. Just pottering around getting stock together. Really waiting for Peco or DCC Concepts to bring out some BH pointwork. In the meantime I have been doing some repaints for a work colleague. Research for that is taking time. Also I have been working a few extra rest-days and that takes a chunk out of modelling time.

[GloryDays]

So nice to see another Isle of Wight modeller! I am building a 00 layout based around Ventnor.

 

I agree that the station building can get in the way very easily, so I've turned the plan around so that the viewer is sat on top of St. Boniface down, looking over the yard towards the station.

 

Of course, I am happy to see you model a different bit but in the same sort of time frame. I will be following you!

[JZ]

After this project stalling for the last few months, I hope that some progress can be made over the winter. Picking up a new car tomorrow, actually it's 7 years old, but a with low mileage, and can measure up to see how the boards will fit in. Still waiting on points, but it looks like it could be to use SMP plastic points bases. I'm still getting together a few suitable rolling stock kits, the hardest to find being the ex Midland brake kit from Slater's. At the moment they are fetching stupid money on eBay. 

 

So, maybe around Christmas, you may get another update. But first, off to the Arctic.

[Andrew P]

Just had a catch up Jules, and looking forward to more pics over the coming Months.

[JZ]

I did pick up one of Peco's new Bullhead points in East Somerset Models today and I must say it looks good, however for the rest of the pointwork I will want 36" radius to save space. Probably going to Warley at the weekend and will speak to both Peco and DCC Concepts about timescale for the rest of the pointwork. So it may still be SMP plastic point kits.