Swaynton for Millcliffe-on-Sea

[brightspark]

I can report that all went well at the Wimbourne show. The layout ran very well but we were squeezed up against the wall. (On future exhibition forms we will specify more exactly how much space we need behind the layout)  Plus there were no barriers. But thankfully there was no damage to the front of the layout.

There were a few local railwaymen and enthusiasts who were able recall the line in the 1960's including one visitor who showed me some rather nice photos that he took at the time. He plans to restore the photos as they have lots a spots on them and post them online. He remembers a young Nigel Kendall with a recollection that he was the guy with the posh camera.

Nigels photos, by the way, have been a huge help in producing the model. 

 

Now onto progress reports.

Richard Stevenson has been working on some Bulleid coaches that had been lurking in Douglas Smiths to do collection. These are coming along quite nicely. A three car set has already replaced the blood and custard Bachmann's.  

 

I have been doing more work on the lever frame. I wasn't able to do much on it until the Christmas holidays. But I have made up time since then and have made good progress. The locking frame for all the levers now complete and covered in a sheet of perspex. I took the frame along to our meeting (EMGS NWSAG) to get feedback which was positive even though there is some fine tuning required. I noted that some members struggled a bit with identifying the lever numbers to the track diagram and a few had problems understanding why some levers wouldn't unlock when they expected them too. 

 

Anyway a few pictures are posted below.

 

 

pictures of the levers.

 

Part of the locking frame and the interlock device from the block instrument.

 

 

Andy

Edited February 16, 2023 by brightspark
reattached pictures.

[brightspark]

Gosh, a year since the last post.

Not much to report on layout progress apart from it now having a new home with Douglas's son Richard in the Midlands.

We get occasional reports of progress, mostly to do with running repairs and little modifications to ease setting up time.

The lever frame is in the Midlands and is too be eventually mounted into a new control panel. But this won't be until next year.

A few more train cassettes have been made up, so we can rune more trains (keeps the operators happy) but not longer trains as we are at the limit of what a cassette can comfortable handle. One day a new fiddle yard will have to be built. 

 

The big news is that Swaynton is booked for another outing and will appear at the Fareham Show on 5th & 6th October. Which is starting to look very close now.

Details of the show will, I am sure, appear on the exhibition page.

[brightspark]

Good news is that Swaynton is going to be at The London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace.

This weekend the layout comes out out storage and we will set about cleaning off the cobwebs, fixing the things that broke at the last outing and trying out the rolling stock that has been acquired since then.

 

[brightspark]

Yesterday team Surrey dashed up the M40 to meet up with Heart of England team to revive our old friend Swaynton.

It was great to see it up and running well. After a bit of maintenance we plugged it in and trains ran with no gremlins to report.

 

All stock was run, we had a couple of cripples to be either reworked or withdrawn. The team of operators familiarised themselves with the layout operation.

We have a new operator for the centre and also a new fiddle yard operator signed off.

 

So ready for  for Ally-Pally.

 

Set up and ready for the first train.

 

Lots of Green stock.

Slowly, oh so slowly we have managed to get the stock correct for 1960. Lots of green, a bit of red for foreign trains and the dregs of blood and custard.

 

 

A view over the station. 

Note that the trees have not been set up. They are getting some attention as they were starting to go bald.

 

 

Sir Brian, dashes out of the eastern tunnel on an inter-regional. Possibly the Birkenhead-Bournemouth.

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by brightspark
reapply photos

[pirouets]

Good to meet you today and look forward to seeing the layout in action next week.

[brightspark]

Swaynton performed very well at the Ally Pally show. The crew, some of whom were new to the layout got the hang of it and we managed to keep the public amused.

There seems to be favourable comments on this and other media.

 

I was surprised to see on the Severn Models stand a really lovely LSWR footbridge. Just perfect for Swaynton, in fact too perfect, having measured and photographed the prototypes at New Milton, Addlestone and Chertsey.

I was delighted to find out that it is our bridge and has been prepared from the drawings that Douglas Smith made and that the etch was commissioned by his son and current owner of Swaynton Richard.

 

Here is a  link to the Severn Models bridge

 

The display model was tried out on the layout on Saturday evening after the show. (Sorry no photos were taken) and it fits in perfectly.

 

Here is a couple of detail photographs I took of the prototype in March 2020 should you be inspired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also here is the google earth image of  Addlestone  that was also measured up and there is a similar structure at Chertsey.

 

I look forward to seeing this in place soon.

 

Andy

 

 

 

[John Besley]

Any chance of reloading the pictures?

[brightspark]

Yes. Will do.

[brightspark]

I have reloaded what pictures I have found.

There are a few missing and I am a little miffed that the dog chart can't be found. I spent a lot of time on that.

 

We are booked for the Bristol show this April. So preparation is ongoing. Hopefully the foot bridge will be in place and the "Do not cross the lines" sign that Douglas etched all those years ago can be be installed at the end of the platforms. If Richard can find them.

 

Going through the photos, I found a few more that might be nice to share. 

 

United States Line on a down Bournemouth Express.

The lever frame, ready for installing into the control table. (it is still waiting)

 

 

The station building. Phillip Hall. Taken for the MRJ photo shoot sept 2007.

Phillip Hall 2007

 

[John Besley]

On 14/02/2023 at 21:47, brightspark said:

Yes. Will do.

 

Many thanks, I've been following Little Muddle on account of it excellent scenery amongst others and enjoyed seeing some of your layout,

 

What other Southern layouts are there here on a similar vein... ? While I model in 7/8ths as an minimum gauge works layout I lean heavily towards BR(S) there are subtle hints on my Exhill thread

[brightspark]

In preparation for the Bristol Show at the end of this month, Richard Smith got together the crew and dusted off the layout to see if everything still worked. That is both the layout and the crew. One problem that we have is that there are 4 Richards on the team. 

The layout worked fine and the only snags we hit were placing a signal in the wrong hole and a couple of loco's playing up.

In my excitement I forgot to take any photos, but not much has changed.

The new footbridge has been semi- assembled but is a long way from being ready. So will not be on the layout at the show. But I am sure that we will have it available should anyone wish to see it.

 

We are now all looking forward to seeing you at the end of the month.

 

[brightspark]

So we are getting ready for the Great British Model Railway show at Gaydon this weekend. 

Stock is all cleaned and the time-table sequence cards are sorted. 

My motor train is scheduled to run, so hopefully I have fixed the bugs and it will run perfectly. 

This is a Hornby Maunsell Pull-Push set and an old Triang/Hornby M7 no 30111, that has been done up a bit.

 

Also making its show debut is my model of 34055 Fighter Pilot. This is an Airfix kit and the build is described here.

At last we will have a Brighton loco pulling the Brighton train.

 

If you at the show, do pop by and say hello.

 

Andy