Wickham Market for Campsea Ashe

[jwealleans]

Wickham Market (as it will be known, because the above is too much to say quickly) is Ely MRC's new large layout to replace Thurston in the club's group of active exhibition layouts.  It was publicly exhibited for the first time at the weekend at the Ely show.

 

The layout has been seven years in the planning and execution so far, during which time the club has moved premises and grown in personnel.  One of the principal contributors was still at primary school when the idea was adopted by the Committee.  A layout plan is attached below.

 

 

The layout is structurally complete but scenically still developing.  Not all buildings are present or complete and those which are are still to be bedded in.  There are two more semaphore signals to make along with all the ground signals.  Electrically there is still work to be done and one or two new problems arose after it had been dismantled and transported for the first time.  Here, for those who weren't able to attend the show, are a few photographs I was able to take late in the day.  It was good to see one or two familiar faces who did attend and thanks to you for coming.

 

A couple of overall views taken in the clubroom before dismantling for the first outing:

 

 

 

 

Starting at the left hand end as the public view the layout, this is Wickham Market Junction for the Framlingham branch, with signal box and crossing keeper's cottage.  All the signals have been built by Jamie Rands, the club's most junior member and all will be operational.

 

 

View across the level crossing Wickham Market Junction.

 

 

.. and the same location viewed from further round the curve towards the station.

 

 

Moving along the line in the Up (Ipswich) direction, the magnificent station building made by Malcolm Hine.

 

 

Looking back across the station car park towards the direction from which we have just come, the Station Master's garden.

 

 

Moving on to the right hand end of the layout, I'd never heard of an Airey House.  These were made by Jamie's father Andrew Rands, clearly a more than competent modeller in his own right.

 

 

The four cottages at the south end of the goods yard were built to house railway staff by the GER in 1887/8. Model by Bob Elmore.

 

 

Some of the stock will be familiar to those who saw Thurston or follow my workbench thread, but hopefully we'll present some new and interesting items as well.  Here a WD pauses at the Up starter, viewed across the goods yard.

 

 

B12 61571, built by Graham Varley, takes an Up parcels working towards Ipswich.

 

 

The Framlingham Branch was not able to operate due to the failure of a microswitch.  I was also too dim to think of parking the branch train in the bay platform until very late in the day.  It did get there eventually, though and here it is.

 

 

 

When the crowds thinned at the very end of the day we gave it a few circuits of the main line.  Here it is almost looking as if it's joined from the branch.

 

 

 

Video from the show has been posted on YouTube here. 

 

The layout is now back in the clubroom for snagging and further scenic work.   You can keep up with developments on the Club website or Facebook page.

Edited May 21, 2019 by jwealleans
Add link to YouTube video.

[lmsforever]

Good to see a GER layout well designed and the scenery so far is excellent plus the stock is coming on nicely ,the Fram local is a fine example of a local service in the east will keep looking for it at shows.

[Jerry1975]

Very nice Indeed.

 

Jerry.

[JamieR4489]

For anyone interested in the signals, they are featured heavily here:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/143104-jamier4489s-workbench/

 

Jamie

[stivesnick]

Enjoyed seeing the layout at Ely on Saturday - look forward to seeing how the layout develops.

 

Nick

[south_tyne]

Absolutely wonderful! It is great to see a depiction of Wickham Market station in its heyday.

 

I had a spell working down in East Suffolk and actually lived in Campsea Ashe, so it brings back some very happy memories. My old digs are actually just off scene.... they may be depicted on the backscene!! Whilst I was living in the village I was a regular user of the line, catching the train every weekend and also using it for my commute to Woodbridge from time to time. Standing on the platform today, it is hard to imagine a scene from the 1950s, such as depicted from your fantastic layout. It must have been a wonderful location to visit when the Framlingham branch was in operation and the route to Lowestoft was operating as a secondary mainline.

 

It is great that the station building is now being utilised again for community uses. When I was living there the project was still in its infancy and I attended a number of open days to help with the fundraising. It was really interesting to have a good mooch around the building! It's fantastic the project has come to a successful fruition now. You have done a great job of modelling the building. 

 

I have always loved photos of that imposing grain warehouse too. I remember there was a fantastic article about the prototype in one of the monthly magazines a few years ago - Steam Days maybe?? - I did have a copy but I am unsure as to where it is..... I'll have to try and hunt it out. 

 

The layout is now on my 'wish list' to try and see one day. I'm a regular visitor down to Suffolk and also Norfolk to see relatives, so hopefully I will be able to catch you when you are exhibiting at some point. 

 

I can't wait to read more about the layout and see some further photographs in due course. Thank you very much for sharing. 

 

David

 

[Chris Turnbull]

I couldn't be at the show on Saturday as I would have liked to have seen Wickham Market on its first outing.  The Ely Club has built a splendid layout which I am sure will win as many accolades as Thurston if not more.  Well done.

 

Chris Turnbull   

Edited May 21, 2019 by Chris Turnbull

[Barry O]

Looks very good. Is it going anywhere in the near future JW?

Baz

[JamieR4489]

Well despite there not being a post here for 5 months, we have actually been doing some work!

We found that there are two crossovers that for some reason the builder of the layout missed out. So myself and another club member have been adding them in.

The mug, bucket and cable reels are there to weight the points down as the glue dries.

 

Other members been doing lots of other little jobs around the layout. The stationmaster’s gardens have been made and planted and a ploughed field is taking shape. Fences have appeared on the boundary between railway and farmers’ land. While we had the boards up to fit the new crossovers (we had turned them on their sides to make working on them easier) we’ve also sorted out some wiring gremlins but there’s still one or two issues.

 

Jamie

[Chris Turnbull]

On 24/10/2019 at 13:36, JamieR4489 said:

Well despite there not being a post here for 5 months, we have actually been doing some work!

We found that there are two crossovers that for some reason the builder of the layout missed out. So myself and another club member have been adding them in.

 

All layouts are a compromise to some degree and Wickham Market is no exception.

 

A scale model of this station would have been very much larger than the club could ever accommodate so the first compromise was to considerably reduce the length.  The design went through several revisions as all members who were interested had their say and the final design was agreed by all parties as being the best compromise.  As such the track layout is not a true reflection of the actual layout, especially at the goods yard end, as those those with a penchant for shunting wanted to be able to satisfy their desires without obstructing the main lines.  Because of this one crossover was reversed and two were omitted as there was a general feeling that the layout was quite complicated enough and there was nothing to be gained by adding further pointwork just to satisfy prototype fidelity.  This was in 2010 and in that time members and ideas have changed and I applaud the work now being done.  A fine layout in my opinion which should win as many accolades as its predecessor, Thurston.  

 

Chris Turnbull

 

    

[Paul Cram]

What have you used for the ash ballast?

[Chris Turnbull]

1 hour ago, Paul Cram said:

What have you used for the ash ballast?

 

The main lines are laid with granite ballast and the sidings with dry builders' sand.  When set the sand is painted with black, white, yellow ochre and brown powder paints.  The method is to wet your brush, dip it in the black powder so that the powder sticks to it and then spread it on the sand.  Keep doing this until you have covered a suitable area then whilst still wet use the same technique to vary the colour slightly with brown, white and yellow (the latter two used sparingly).  If you don't like the finished results when dry, try again.  Simples.   

 

Chris Turnbull 

[Paul Cram]

18 minutes ago, Chris Turnbull said:

 

The main lines are laid with granite ballast and the sidings with dry builders' sand.  When set the sand is painted with black, white, yellow ochre and brown powder paints.  The method is to wet your brush, dip it in the black powder so that the powder sticks to it and then spread it on the sand.  Keep doing this until you have covered a suitable area then whilst still wet use the same technique to vary the colour slightly with brown, white and yellow (the latter two used sparingly).  If you don't like the finished results when dry, try again.  Simples.   

 

Chris Turnbull 

Thanks Chris

[JamieR4489]

5 hours ago, Chris Turnbull said:

 

All layouts are a compromise to some degree and Wickham Market is no exception.

 

A scale model of this station would have been very much larger than the club could ever accommodate so the first compromise was to considerably reduce the length.  The design went through several revisions as all members who were interested had their say and the final design was agreed by all parties as being the best compromise.  As such the track layout is not a true reflection of the actual layout, especially at the goods yard end, as those those with a penchant for shunting wanted to be able to satisfy their desires without obstructing the main lines.  Because of this one crossover was reversed and two were omitted as there was a general feeling that the layout was quite complicated enough and there was nothing to be gained by adding further pointwork just to satisfy prototype fidelity.  This was in 2010 and in that time members and ideas have changed and I applaud the work now being done.  A fine layout in my opinion which should win as many accolades as its predecessor, Thurston.  

 

Chris Turnbull

 

    

Thanks for the info, Chris. I agree that I think members have changed their minds about the layout track plan over the years. I think the main reason for doing the change was so that we could have a branch train come out of platform 2 and then reverse into the bay platform without having to go into the fiddle yard. The crossover in the goods yard near the goods shed was also added to facilitate shunting movements that we found were needed at the Ely show.

 

Jamie

[Chris Turnbull]

You often find that what looks good on paper needs refinement in practice and this is clearly what has happened in this instance.  I bet it was a job to remove the track, though!

 

Good luck with the layout, it looks great.

 

Chris Turnbull

[JamieR4489]

Thanks Chris,

The track wasn't too difficult to dig up- it was chipping away at the ballast that took a little bit of time.

 

Jamie