Chiltern Court Coal Siding

[bécasse]

But the "Smoking Gun" that has yet to be found is a photo of the siding with just a wagon in place. I know that's not exactly the subject matter that a photographer would have pointed his camera at in the 1930s, but I'm hoping something will turn up one day.

 

 

Of course one will, almost certainly just a few weeks after you have irretrievably completed the cameo layout - and it will show for certain that that tiny but logical guess that you made doing it was wrong. Been there, done it!

[298]

A view of the old brick structure, still in place, which I guess was a 'rest room' for the crew unloading wagons of coal into the Chiltern Court bunkers.  The picture gives an impression of the space behind this structure where the siding would have been.

IMG_20180612_221922.jpg

 

From the info in the plans you sent, I think that's a Lavvy..

[298]

I thought I'd better offer an update to show the progress to date (Hi Keith), having decided to go ahead and build a small micro layout, although my main modelling time is being spent finishing another US layout for a show in six months. This is in a folding Ikea Apa box, cut to give two areas of approximately 27" x 10", one half being the siding next to P1 and the other acting as the Fiddle yard/generic photo plank/shunting area. The dimensions are based around it's intended purpose to show the coal siding being shunted, and and may not be operationally suited to other trains that used the platform (ie I might have to build a longer sector plate to allow 3x car A or T stock or Bakerloo 1938 stock to run instead of just being posed for photos).

 

 

 

 

Having studied the very handy drawings supplied from here (many thanks again) I came up with the following arrangement, having not seen the real P1 yet I'm still not sure of how much of the S curve would be seen and am presuming it was a RH turnout into the siding- the platform road immediately follows a 400' radius and the siding has enough of a wiggle (and 6" drop) to end up in the right place. It may look too long but the buffer stops were parallel and the platform road has to be long enough to clear a Met loco/wagon/brake van, as mocked up with stock from the Midnight Metropolitan set.

 

 

 

 

The other half depicts an open section between two tunnels, with a short loco/engineers siding into an abandoned tunnel. There is a small shelf behind for storing stock on.

 

 

 

 

[298]

Mrs 298 is also pleased that I've managed to add to her Underground book collection, thanks to recommendations on here and sourced through eBay/Amazon/ Quainton Road bookshop.

 

 

Still not seen a photo of an unattended wagon in the siding though....

Edited December 26, 2018 by 298

[298]

ByDue to other modelling commitments this box project hasn't progressed since the photos above, but we did manage to visit the location twice yesterday on the way to and from Mail Rail. The first time saw a train of S stock stabled in the way, but I managed a few moments later before a terminating train arrived in P1. 

 

Ideally I'd like to laserscan the area to map what's there accurately, but that isn't going to happen and I'm now debating whether to keep with the APA box or build something longer in the fiddle yard to accommodate 3 or 4 coach trains of EFE 38 stock or Bachmann S stock, of which I have neither but am quite tempted by.

[sb67]

I like the look of your project 298, I envy people that are able to build layouts based on actual locations or photo's, something I've never been able to do. One question, what are the retaining walls you've used?

Steve.

[298]

54 minutes ago, sb67 said:

I like the look of your project 298, I envy people that are able to build layouts based on actual locations or photo's, something I've never been able to do. One question, what are the retaining walls you've used?

Steve.

 

Bachmann....!

[298]

On the contrary though Steve, I've admired those who have enough of an artistic eye to crack on with a layout and place items so they look right, the project I'm currently finishing is supposed to be freelance but the first thing I did was spend a month perfecting the track plan in Anyrail5 so it'd work.

 

Having tried to model other locations as accurately as possible, regardless of how much information you can get (once again a big thank you to those who have contributed towards this here), you still need a photogenic and modellable location, and many prototypes aren't. Perhaps that's why Ashburton made such a popular model....

[298]

Not quite the same camera position so I've had to Photoshop it as best I can....