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The Isle of Alnogg - Dogger Bank


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17 hours ago, Player of trains said:

If there is the interest I can go into far more detail concerning the other companies and the island's history if people would be interested in a big slab of text. 

 

Sign me up!

 

Looks to be an absolute corker of a plan and layout, thanks for sharing :) Following with interest...

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On 17/06/2020 at 16:34, Schooner said:

 

Sign me up!

 

Looks to be an absolute corker of a plan and layout, thanks for sharing :) Following with interest...

 

Thanks for the interest Schooner. 

I've finally had a new bottle of printer resin dispatched so I've gotten on with the cab for the 0-4-2 loco, I've given up with working the belpaire into the design at the moment so I've put a basic wagon-top firebox onto the cab.

 

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Whether it'd be exactly humane to just have a weatherboard in the middle of the North Sea remains to be seen and I'm very much in the mind of giving the poor saps crewing it a tarpaulin.  

 

Edited by Player of trains
posted too soon.
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Hello everyone, I'm back, the 0-4-2 has had it's cab and a new chimney printed out in resin and it's starting to look the part.

 

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On the narrow gauge front I've been printing off the final prototypes for the CM&BFR coal wagons, these are replicas of the Campbeltown and Machrihanish light railway, the 1907 batch of 5 plank 3.5 ton wagons, 1914 batch of 6 plank 4.5 ton wagons and the proposed yet not built 4 ton hoppers Pickering proposed but the CM&BFR ultimately never bought.

 

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The plan is for coal traffic to be modernised around 1910 with the purchase of a large garratt and better material handling with automatic discharge into the holds of ships. Heavily inspired by the NER practices 

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Huzzar, some progress! Over the course of July I've spent time wiring the boards for Port Chevril Magna installing point motors and the track power, I've bitten the bullet and decided to go fully DCC and have so far chipped the tramway Peckett and surprisingly the electrics worked first time round. 

 

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The trackpower feeds are supplied from a central bus made from some lengths of OO flexi-track and all the point motors are wired to a stud contact panel of the layout, its a rats nest but all colour coded and tied up depending on the motor number.

 

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Now onto something more Pre-Grouping in style; scenery and locos. I've been starting to apply the brickwork and cobbles to the nearside of the quay, the idea behind Port Chevril Magna is that its a port that's seen several different uses over its long life from a fishing village at the mouth of the River Ruth to investment in the 1500s by Henry VIII into a naval port before being abandoned due to silting up constantly and then repurposed for coal at the start of the 19th century. I'm trying to reflect this with the walling with irregular blocks, older chunkier stones for the Tudor age walling to neater cut blocks showing where the walling has been restored.

 

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I'm yet to properly weather the stones to show differences in age aside from an overall black wash but they're all painted the same basic shade to show they've generally come from the same location, a small quarry several miles upstream which will eventually be represented by a few PO wagons, both narrow gauge and standard.

 

The water uses the loo roll method by layering toilet paper and brushing on a PVA and water mix then sculpting waves and patterns into the paper to simulate water and it will get all painted a muddy green and gloss coated. Cobbles are all the now traditional method of DAS clay and made by depressing them with the handle of a razor saw, painted grey and I'm going to give them all a white wash to bring out the mortar courses.

 

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The final thing I've been working on are the designs for the 1875 built 0-6-0s that formed the backbone of the coal traffic until the 1910s they were originally based off of a freelance design by a friend of mine which I've adapted for my own use. Chunks of inspiration came from Beyer designs of the time with the bent iron cab and the Ffestinog Englands, heavy expensive locomotives for the time.

 

The body is another 3D print and fitted onto the long wheelbase Grafar 0-6-0 chassis, eventually they'll be fitted with RT models valve gear although I plan to do it as a batch when I've built the other three locos as the plan is for a class of four locos, the tender is a print too with the frame and body printed separately, fitted with tophat bearings and greenwich 8mm wheels popped in. 

 

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Nameplates for two of these locos are on order from Narrow Planet No.2 Parzifal and No.3 Berrenger and they'll probably be the first two completed. 

 

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Hello everyone, sorry I haven't updated this further. I admit I was a little apprehensive thinking I'm in the wrong part of the forum but Tumm was always inspired by pre-grouping practice and this is the part of the forum that appreciates large narratives and backstories most of all with Castle Aching and Annie's work which have always been so nice to read though so I'm going to continue here. 

 

I've done more work on the CM&BFR since my last posting and started on the town and a few other bits and pieces like newer maps to work off and writing the formal history.

 

Maps

 

Work in progress map of the islands

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This is the island at the height of the network in 1931, after the earthquake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Dogger_Bank_earthquake) in June of that year the network would begin a slow rationalisation due to the damage sustained and a good amount of overexpansion in the days of railwaymania especially on the Mostad Peninsula. Not all of these companies would be independent at the same time but they did exist at one point or another, the exception to this rule is the inclusion of the branch to the Burkreid nuclear power station that was built in the 1960s to serve the plant. The map is still a work in progress and I'm working on the topography of the map.

 

Standard Gauge Key

Red - Chevrilshire & South Coast Railway

Yellow - Isle of Tumm Central Railway

Dark Blue - County Eastwich Railway 

Pink - Postgate & Granthwaite Railway (Absorbed into the IoTCR in 1909)

Blue - Great Northern Navigation Railway (Semi industrial network inspired by the MSC railway)

 

Narrow Gauge Key

Light Blue - Chevril Magna & Bramble Fosse Railway

Dark Blue - County Eastwich Railway (needs distinction but the northern CER route and Castrum Head lines are 2ft6in)

Dark Blue (isle of mort) Isle of Mort Railway, 3ft

Cyan - St Williams' Isle Causeway Railway, 3ft

Purple - Fludir Railway, 3ft

Green - Cottoness & Mumbling Hill Railway, 2ft6in

Dark Green - Isle of Tumm Central Narrow Gauge Railway, 2ft6in

Lime - Codsollop Tramway, 2ft6in

 

Mostad Key (Because its a railwaymania induced mess)

Blue - Sigda Ind Railway, 2ft6in

Yellow - Nestad Military Railway, dual standard and 2ft6in

Red - East Mostad Railway 2ft6in

Brown - Hofyorness Cableway 2ft6in

Purple - North-Haven, Laudark & Prestad Railway 2ft6in

Cyan - Nor-Haven Bay & Casrum Railway 2ft6in

 

The companies on Mostad are the result of late stage railwaymania and early narrow gauge resulting in several poorly thought out and competing companies in a very cramped area, they were all absorbed into the CER after WW1 which instituted several policies of rationalisation to that small network.

 

Chevril Magna & the Ruth Valley

 

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The CM&BFR is the portion of the island I'm modelling with a permanent layout as I've already posted. This is the expanse of the company at its largest with several branches and the mainline and it really is much easier to come up with ways to model it with it properly mapped out. The company began with the mainline between Chevril Magna and Bramble Fosse in 1875 replacing an earlier gravity tramway and the incline at Cavaliers Stand and the bulk of the traffic is coal to be exported out of the port at Chevril Magna. The Pidd vale line was opened in 1886 to serve the chemical mill at Tuton Lowe which remained a stable source of revenue as the mill produced various chemicals for munitions and explosives.  The other branches were opened later post WW1 with Catspaw in 1919 as part of the post war construction of the reservoir and dam over the river Dare and the Harrowsford line was opened in 1923 with a heavy subsidy as an investment in the farmlands and towns of the area. 

 

Modelling (yes I do occasionally do some...)

 

I've begun ballasting the boards for the port and laying down cobbles on the roads and quayside and starting to make the buildings for this part of the layout.

 

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I intend to be able to take the boards out of the loft on occasion so in order for it to fit though the hatch the buildings are designed to be removable. The bases are foamboard and eventually will plug into the gaps in the paving. I'm using these buildings as a bit of an experiment to play with both traditional methods and printing for the buildings. 

 

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I'm making the station buildings from templates drawn up in Publisher and backed onto card with Scalescenes sheets. I want to keep the architecture for the railway buildings consistent with red ballast brick from ships docking at the port and ashlar edging and sills locally quarried at Catspaw.

 

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Next is an attempt I'm making to print a building, this is the market hall that will sit on the side of the layout though it's not really progressed beyond this point. Locos are much more fun to make in CAD.

 

Cheers for sitting though and reading this update and I'm hoping to discuss more about the island in a bit. 

Thanks, Alec.

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Thank you so much for the responses, I'm so happy everyone likes it.

3 hours ago, scots region said:

Ooh, excellent alternate history. Do you mind me asking if you’ve done a post on the Island in WW1?

I haven't just yet, the formal history is only concrete until 1086 when Tumm was included in the Domesday book but I do have a variety of plans for both world wars. The island's main importance is fuel as it sits over the edge of the real Ekofisk oilfield and the southern natural gas field and these have been being exploited since the 1890s. This means it was heavily bombed and shelled with the aim of disrupting oil fields and refineries as well as the railways during both world wars with several Zeppelin raids in ww1 and bombing raids in WW2 and later V1 rocket attacks.

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2 minutes ago, Player of trains said:

Thank you so much for the responses, I'm so happy everyone likes it.

I haven't just yet, the formal history is only concrete until 1086 when Tumm was included in the Domesday book but I do have a variety of plans for both world wars. The island's main importance is fuel as it sits over the edge of the real Ekofisk oilfield and the southern natural gas field and these have been being exploited since the 1890s. This means it was heavily bombed and shelled with the aim of disrupting oil fields and refineries as well as the railways during both world wars with several Zeppelin raids in ww1 and bombing raids in WW2 and later V1 rocket attacks.

 

I imagine that Tumm would become an investment hub once the Oil and Gas and the 80s roll, in fact having the ability to exploit oil reserves without the need for sea born infrastructure would probably make the Island more heavily targeted for industrialisation than Scotland. But thats too thorny of a subject for a thread like this. Jutham is quite an excellent natural harbour, I imagine the RN would take quite the fancy to it.    

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Given that the Norfolk Fish Oil & Guano Company had obtained the Heligoland Guano Concession (much to the chagrin of the Imperial German government, which was obliged to honour the arrangement following its acquisition of the island in 1895), I wonder if the NFO&GCo might be allowed a guano concession on Tumm?

 

Cheeky, I know, but if you don't ask ...... 

 

Valuable stuff, guano; in South America, they were happy to go to war over it.

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6 minutes ago, scots region said:

 

I imagine that Tumm would become an investment hub once the Oil and Gas and the 80s roll, in fact having the ability to exploit oil reserves without the need for sea born infrastructure would probably make the Island more heavily targeted for industrialisation than Scotland. But thats too thorny of a subject for a thread like this. Jutham is quite an excellent natural harbour, I imagine the RN would take quite the fancy to it.    

Indeed they do, it's the capital of the island because of being such a large natural harbour and has been a military port since the 600s, the island was settled by the Jutes and the name literally means Jute Town. Both Chevril Magna and Jutham were established as naval ports under Henry VIII and though the Tudor docks are now serving colliers and trampers the naval docks at Jutham are still in use. Nor'Haven also saw some use but never as a dock for large warships, instead it was protected by two shore batteries erected on Og's Lump. And no subject is too thorny at all politics of Tumm is something I've had on the backburner even if it may be idealised. The island is a crown dependency which makes jurisdiction a little bit flaky so the industrialisation compared to Scotland is something that I don't intend to change much.

I want to look into Tumm having supported its own military after gaining its semi-independence effectively as an auxiliary to the Royal Navy and British army though this is something that I need to research more. 

 

1 minute ago, Edwardian said:

Given that the Norfolk Fish Oil & Guano Company had obtained the Heligoland Guano Concession (much to the chagrin of the Imperial German government, which was obliged to honour the arrangement following its acquisition of the island in 1895), I wonder if the NFO&GCo might be allowed a guano concession on Tumm?

 

Cheeky, I know, but if you don't ask ...... 

 

Valuable stuff, guano; in South America, they were happy to go to war over it.

 

Mr Edwardian I do indeed love that idea even if its not on the mainland there's plenty of outlying rocks and islets that would be very valuable to any guano concerns. It also allows some very interesting private owner stock. 

 

I'm going to begin setting the rest of the history in concrete when I have the time but for now I'll include the first part below.

 

Origin of the Name

 

 

The name of the island is derived from a mix of sources from both Roman Latin and the native language. Tuool is the Tummish word for land and as judged by old roman records written by Pliny the Elder it is believed to have been adopted by the occupying Roman forces due to the similarity to the Latin word Tumulis, meaning tomb (which historians believe may also reflect on the native Celtic practice of burying their dead in the peat bogs of the island), and is what the Romans knew the island as.

With the departure of the Romans the island reverted to it's ancient name of Tuool though the name in continental Europe remained as Tumlis. With the investment of the island into the English crown following 1067 and the compilation of the Domesday book by William the 1st the island was firmly named Tumm in the book's penning.

 

History of Tumm 6500BC - 1086AD

 

 

Tumm is formerly a region known as Doggerland, the land bridge that connected Britain and Ireland to continental Europe and was disconnected from both some time around 6500BC and it is primarily made up of a large deposit of glacial rock dumped onto the island by southern travelling glaciers which stumbled on the extant Dogger Hills which has led to historians nicknaming the island a "Glacial Speedhump". The islands first occupants would be hunter gatherers and settled fishermen from Britain, Europe and Scandinavia who settled onto the island or were isolated when sea levels rose.

 

Several Bronze age burial mounds and even villages have been unearthed on the island with the mounds becoming smaller and more ornate as the era progressed and several survive as landmarks today.

 

The Romans knew of the island as Insula Tuoolim and would conquer the island after the Iceni revolts in AD64 but their control was limited to the interior port of Chevril Magna and the modern day Silver Head peninsula.

 

Various groups would claim the island in later years with Angles, Saxons and Jutes laying claim to the island throughout the sixth and seventh centuries. The Jutes would ultimately be the main presence on the island with the name of the capital Jutham being derived from Jute and the Saxon Ham meaning town. This led to the kingdom of Tooul under King Cedric forming out of the Jutes comingling with the resident islanders which closely parallels the kingdoms on mainland Britain and the Kingdom of the Isles formed from Man and the Hebrides.

 

Into the 8th century the Norse invasions of Britain began with coastal raiding and the Kingdom of Tooul was very quickly subdued and invaded by the Vikings and would later form a stopgap or midway point on voyages from Denmark and Norway for these raiders with the forces rebuilding or even expanding some long abandoned Roman ports and quays, these are known as the First Invasions. With the culmination of these invasions in the 890s a considerable portion of the occupying Vikings either left for mainland Europe or settled on the island permanently.

 

Tumm was left in relative peace under various Norse lords as a small independent nation without a formal ruler for the next century until the 1000s. This was when the second Norse invasion would occur with the island being invaded by Sweyn Forkbeard in 1014 as part of his North Sea Empire. With the following death of King Cnut in 1035 and the collapse of the empire the island would again be left to its own devices.

 

In 1064 Harald III Hardraade, then king or Norway initiated the third invasion of Tumm in 1064 in an attempt to intimidate any other competitors for the throne, specifically William Duke of Normandy as well as Edward into making him the heir to the English throne. With the coronation of Harold II in 1066 sending waves through early medieval Europe designs were set into form and Harald and Harold’s brother Torsig invaded using the Isle of Tumm as a launching point for their invasion. This unfortunately did not help Harald and he was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge rendering his invasion and preparations of Tumm pointless. The remaining men of Harald’s army retreated back to Tumm.

 

However with the defeat of Harold at the Battle of Hastings several days later and William pushing victorious into England, the survivors fully retreated back to Norway realising they would easily be defeated if William chose to then secure Tumm.

 

After William’s coronation in December he did indeed send men to secure the island, brining it officially under English rule in the start of 1070, and solidifying this rule with the compilation of the Domesday Book in 1086, although documentation has survived indicating that clerks were compiling information for the crown from 1080 given the island being a newer territory. This Norman control also cemented the name of Tumm due to poor translations of Tooul into Norman.

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1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Given that the Norfolk Fish Oil & Guano Company had obtained the Heligoland Guano Concession (much to the chagrin of the Imperial German government, which was obliged to honour the arrangement following its acquisition of the island in 1895), I wonder if the NFO&GCo might be allowed a guano concession on Tumm?

 

Cheeky, I know, but if you don't ask ...... 

 

Valuable stuff, guano; in South America, they were happy to go to war over it.

 

So might this feature as part of the Achingverse Canon?

I know a while back you expressed your interest in a Doggerland-esque Island too: 

 

Edited by Hando
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just thought I'd chip in alongside PoT, as I've also been helping to bring this Island to life in some small manner, particularly with the County of Eastwich, and the lines mapped out thus far in that area are mostly of my own devising image.png.39de46f108ac9f19fbf33a406ad1ff2b.png
 

a brief bit of geographical context, the county as a whole is rich in peat and coal deposits, which have classically formed some of the primary industries in the region, with these most concentrated in the twin peninsulas of Castrum Head and the Mostad Peninsula.

The neck of the Mostad peninsula, known locally as The Drifts is not entirely stable ground, laying extremely close to sea level in a sort of shallow valley, and can best be described as a saltwater delta or even a bayou akin to those found in the southern United States, there are a few scant settlements in this region, but they can be described as little more than loose communes of stilted shacks built in relatively close proximity to each other. As can be expected this makes reaching the Mostad peninsula a less than simple task. Two lines directly cross this region in piers; the standard gauge County Eastwich Railway mainline to Sigda Ind, and the 2ft 6in gauge Sigda Ind Railway. another 2ft 6in gauge railway, the North-Haven, Laudark & Prestad Railway, avoids much of this region by skirting the Northern edge and proceeding up the northwest coast of the peninsula. after WW2 a project would be undertaken to convert these wooden peirs into stone causways, much like The Cob on the Ffestiniog, and at the same time provision for a main road accompanying the standard gauge line was also provided, finally connecting Mostad with the rest of the country without requiring the use of the railways alone.

 

 

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Eastwich is notable in having an expansive network of narrow gauge lines crisscrossing the county, particularly in the two peninsulas where these lines for the longest time were the primary means of traveling from town to town beyond seldom maintained unofficial pathways. The history can be summed up as follows

in the 1700s a number of archaic wagonways of varying gauges sprung up coinciding with the industrial revolution, with gauges varying from 2ft to 3ft 6in. As the mid 1800s rolled around many of these wagonways became brought under the control of a number of private concerns through a series of separated mergers, around this time many of the companies took note that the combined networks were expansive enough to interlink, and so as these wagonway mergers occurred work was also undertaken to standardise to a gauge of 2ft 6in. just to recap, the companies that came about as a result of this were as follows:

The Laureyda Railway (Dark Blue, Castrum Peninsula)
The North-Haven Bay and Lusager Railway (Orange, Castrum Peninsula)
The North-Haven, Laudark, and Prestad Railway (Blue, Mostad peninsula)
The East Mostad Railway (Red, Mostad Peninsula)

The Hofyorness Cableway (Brown, Mostad Peninsula): this line is a very notable exception in deriving power in much the same way as cable powered trams, with trains propelled by control vehicles marshalled at either end of the train.

The Sigda Ind Railroad (dark Blue, Mostad peninsula): heavy influence by an American oil mogul lead to a decidedly North American flavour to the rolling stock on this line
the County Eastwich railway (denoted through thick green lines and dotted purple lines)
the Nestad Military Railway: (Orange, Mostad Peninsula): Tumms Equivalent to Longmoor.

in addition there in an 18in industrial line constructed to serve the industries on Ogs Lump.

though I'll note that this did not signify any degree of friendliness from ANY of the new companies, and if anything an environment of fierce competition and hostility would develop until reaching a head that I'll get in to later.

the County Eastwich railway does require delving into on a deeper level, it started out as a 6ft line, though conversion to standard gauge would follow in due course, in the 1870s it would become subject to a buy out by the North Eastern Railway, which would go on to heavily influence its locomotive fleet with additional batches of NER locomotive designs also being built for the CER. In the 1880s it would undertake the decision to build a heavy duty 2ft 6in gauge line to not only better link the Mostad and Castrum lines, but also increase their reach as far south on the western coast of Eastwich as Stovavik where a large purpose built interchange yard would be constructed. This wasn't to be just some simple back water feeder line, it was designed from the outset as a full mainline, albeit running on narrow gauge track, with full signalling and timetables along with the introduction of transporter wagons to allow standard gauge rolling stock to be carried well beyond the reach of the main SG network.

This coastal route was built in stages, with the Laureyda Railway reached and the entire northern Eastwich narrow gauge network linked together in 1901, extended again to meet up with the CER's secondary standard gauge terminus at Olenneyri in 1907, with the first train officially reaching Stovavik in April of 1913, just in time to see the beginning of the Great War.

the Great War would prove to be the powder keg that would set off a long standing tension between the many narrow gauge companies, particularly in the isolated Mostad peninsula. Up until this point the companies had ran to their own timetables and relations ranged from cold indifference to outright hostility, with incidents of not just tools or fuel being stolen from the sheds of opposing companies, but sometimes wagons, coaches, and even in a few rare cases locomotives would be commandeered and quickly repainted, in many cases the retaliatory actions of the affected company simply being to steal different but equivalent items out of spite rather than seek legal action, in fact the entire situation was exacerbated by the fact that the NHL&PR was secretly funded by coastal smuggling operations in the area, and was quick to resort to utilising similar tactics on its railway front.

this would all come to a head in 1915 after a rail disaster at Mostad Ogs, which I'll describe breifly as two separate termini built on the same patch of land with their own separate servicing facilities and yards and linked by a single diamond crossing at the throat, in which a breakdown in communication lead to two passenger trains colliding at the throat of the joint terminus, and subsequently employees from both the NHL&PR and the EMR descended from the nearby railway buildings intent on finding the blame for the accident through an all out brawl whilst many dazed and injured passengers were left to look on in bewilderment.

 

By this point the Tumm Government was well and truly aware of just what had been going on, and its solution was as effective as it was vindictive. In no uncertain terms it gave the Country Eastwich Railway permission to use its sheer clout to perform a hostile takeover of the two offending companies, followed by a series of further buyouts of the remaining companies in quick succession, at the same time purging the employees seen as the largest perpetrators of hostilities between the companies. simultaneously the Tumm government loaned the use of trainees from the Nestad Military Railway to oversee operations on the offending companies until such a time as new staff could be employed to refill the ranks.

 

The result of all of this was that by the end of WW1 the entire narrow gauge network had fallen under the control of the County Eastwich Railway, who now had the monumental task ahead of trying to rationalise this newly expanded fleet, a task which was made even more difficult due to the company coming under the control of the newly amalgamated LNER on the mainland and deciding the spin off the narrow gauge operations from its own organisation, thus the standard gauge remained as the CER, whilst the new seperated network became the Eastwich & Peninsula Narrow Gauge Railway, or simply E&P on rolling stock.

the County Eastwich Railway would remain under LNER control, with the motive power solution simply being to send over redundant pre-grouping designs to the CER network to meet whatever motive power needs were particularly pressing at the time, as the already cash strapped LNER didn't particularly have the capital to justify entirely seperate new locomotive batches, until 1939 when the CER would be brought under the control of the nationalised Isle of Tumm Railways.

the E&P would find itself struggling through much of the 20s and continuing into the 30s as the Great Depression hit, with its motive power scheme simply being to build new locomotives for the ex-CER mainline and trickle down redundant, yet still usable, classes to the other parts of the network, before it too would become nationalised in 1939, merging with the 2ft 6in third rail electrified Isle Of Tumm Central Narrow Gauge Railway to become simply the Isle of Tumm Narrow Gauge Railways, denoted on rolling stock as the simple initials of TNG.

I'm taking the decision to end the outline here to save dumping all of the information at once, and in the next large post I shall delve into the Isle of Tumm Central NGR along with the Nationalised TNG.

Edited by 36C
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Many thanks to 36C for outlining Eastwich. Tumm was initially their idea during talks a year ago now and I ran with it from there. And speaking of running I have written up the rest of the history of the island and although it's all subject to change this is the overall history I've been working too though the finer details always need tweaking as I find out more about the area and history. It's both entertaining and confusing trying to come up with reasons for not massively changing the course of European or global history in some respects. The previously posted text block and the following are just outlines but there's plenty more behind it if anyone has more questions to ask. 

 

History of Tumm 1086 to the modern day

 

 

Under Norman administration Tumm was broken up into counties that today form part of the Tumm Administration for the island. These counties were Chervilshire, Meadeshire, Torrshire, Rardwicke and Eastwich. Much like the rest of feudal England the island continued much the same as the rest of the country but developed with some autonomy due to its distance and soon would become a large trading hub for the countries of Northern and Western Europe. The island would further its own economic standing with the easy exploitation of timber, peat, sea coal and iron ore mined from the bogs of the island.

 

Trade would be significantly disrupted in the Hundred Year War with the island receiving several coastal fortifications financed by the crown to protect the island from a theorised French invasion of the island which could act as an ideal staging area for a northern invasion of England. During the Wars of the Roses midway through the 14th century the affluent groups of interest on the on the islands backed the house of York namely to protect their trading interests and money than any true political siding with Richard of Henry as the York troops could have easily bared ships from Tumm docking in the Humber and cutting off significant revenue stream to the island. When the House of York was overtook by Lancastrian forces the island happily changed allegiances to keep trade flowing.

 

By the time of Henry the VIII the islands were brought out of their relative autonomy into a closer ruling by the Crown due to Henry’s administration and it was here that the islands trading ports were upgraded to capacitate his large new naval vessels beginning a long tradition with the royal navy. In this time the monasteries were included under the disillusionment and their dismantling largely funded the rebuilding of Port Chevril Magna to service naval vessels. As a final addition some of the existing coastal emplacements were upgraded with better guns turning some into the now intrinsic idea of a Tudor gun battery and several coastal castles were erected such as Fort Barrows. This was continued under the reign of Elizabeth I and the guns were used in anger when the remnants of the Spanish armada were shepherded up the North Sea and came too close to Tumm while hoping to shelter in shallower water.


Under the Stuart reign the island largely kept its purpose as a trading hub and fortification in the North Sea allowing the Royal Navy to comfortably patrol the east coast as and when needed. And served as a heavy naval deterrent to other countries operating in the North Sea and indeed played a part into supporting various conflicts throughout the 17th century. At the start of the English Civil war the island's county families and local governments sided with the royalist forces contributing resources, money and manpower to the royalist side. In 1649 during the second rebellion of the war, as royalist forces and resistance were gradually eradicated by parliamentary troops, a detachment of royalist troops sailed to Tumm in an attempt to safeguard the island against a parliament siege and provide a safe haven for Charles I in case the war did end in a loss. This plan was unfortunately jeopardised as Oliver Cromwell and his associates dispatched their own troops to Tumm in order to sabotage this effort.

The royalist troops were caught in the town of Pidney and the castle triggered the Battle of Pidney in the early hours of the morning with an overwhelming parliament victory. Pidney castle was slighted and is now known as Cavaliers Stand and the island was secured to the side of parliament and the resources diverted to the parliament war effort. Despite the parliamentary efforts this did not stop royalist sympathisers and abettors being able to escape via Tumm at the conflict’s end and join Charles II in exile.

 

During the 18th century the Enclosures Act bought about radical change by dividing up much of the common land on the island to create several large landowners such as the Whenbarrows and further bolster others like the Earldom of Eastwich. The second to last large scale naval engagement around the island would take place in 1781 in the 4th Anglo Dutch war with the battle of Dogger Bank and Tumm with the British and Dutch fleets being drawn into a battle on the large sandbank south east of the island known as Dogger Bank while they were escorting respective merchant convoys. Although a large bloody engagement neither side won a military victory instead being a strategic victory for the British, crippling Dutch trade and pinning their Navy to Texel while the British convoy sheltered on the island.

 

It would be two years later under King George the III the island gained its current status as an independent nation, as a Crown Dependency to the throne of the United Kingdom, following suit of the Isle of Man becoming a Crown Dependency a few years prior the crown and government declared the island a dependency in 1783, and similar to the Isle of Man the Isle of Tumm setup its own parliament, Stornget, and government with the 4th Earl of Eastwich, William Eastwich elected as its first Prime Minister. The creation of the government also led to the creation of a new county in the form of the current day, Tarland and Island Representatives, representing the constituents of Tarland and the other smaller islands around Tumm.

The defeat of the Dutch forces as well as the American War of Independence are arguably the greatest influences for the allowance of Tumm to become an independent entity. The 4th Anglo Dutch War safeguarded Britain from naval invasion for the foreseeable future and the island was able to take advantage of the American Revolution and the restriction of funds to the crown by effectively buying its freedom by lobbying with trade profits to the crown.

 

Despite this independence the island still retained strong links to the UK and by and large the rest of Europe, keeping its position as a trading port and shelter in the North Sea. The Royal Navy continued to maintain its bases on the island as part of the dependency agreement from its own docks to the gun batteries which saw infrequent use in the Napoleonic wars and small conflicts between European nations as the 1700s came to a close.

 

With the development of the industrial revolution the island’s mineral wealth was fully realised and with steam pumping engines imported from Britain the first deep shaft coal mines were sunk at Bramble Fosse in the 1790s by the Whenbarrows, a feat previously impossible due to the marshy makeup of the island with the mined coal transported by boat along the canalised River Ruth to Port Chevril Magna. The islands mineral wealth would further be exploited throughout the 1800s bolstered by the development of modern canal and railway links built from the 1840s onwards; coal, iron ore, aggregates and other metals would all be exploited as well as petroleum becoming a crucial industry into the 1890s and beyond. Holiday making would become another popular industry and several coastal towns would make the change from fishing to resort towns and became popular destinations for tourists from all over Europe.

 

During both world wars the island was host to several internment camps for prisoners of war and vitally important as a supply of domestic oil. Resultantly the island was heavily bombed by conventional explosives and attempts at targeted incendiary bombing of the oil wells by both zeppelins and the Luftwaffe. Oil production and railways were the chief area of concern but Jutham and other major towns would be bombed heavily throughout 1941 to 1943. Coastal shipping was disrupted heavily by U boat activity and coastal shelling by the Kreigsmarine wasn’t uncommon in accompaniment of the bombing.

 

Since the end of World War Two and into the modern era the island become a large tourist destination due to its unique landscape and architecture formed from various European influences with buildings of a British, German, Norwegian or Danish flair all found on the same streets in the maritime towns. The island's coal reserves were largely exhausted in the 1970s or deemed no longer economical to work although mining did continue in part until the early 2000s. Oil has remained a consistent mainstay although inland fields have a limited expected lifespan remaining and instead pipelines have been laid to North Sea oil and gas rigs to the refineries on the island.

 

The heavy industry does remain on the north face of the island as several shipyards have remained open and expanded to  accommodate full drilling rigs and carrying ships for maintenance to save on costs of towing the rigs further afield to the coasts of other European countries. Agriculture remains a predominant industry on the island with open farming on the common ground remaining a common practice amongst the Tummish farmers, the grand majority being livestock like cattle and sheep although cereals are grown in the east of the island on rockier ground.

Edited by Player of trains
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Now for something a bit different but actual modelling. Now I posted way back in the summer some narrow gauge 0-6-0s but they've had a further remodelling (I mean did you see how squat that chimney was) and they're probably headed towards another remake using the modern Farish Jinty chassis. 

 

These locomotives are intended to be completely freelance but taking inspiration from the time period and other builders. Four of these locomotives were built and delivered to the Chevril Magna & Bramble Fosse in 1875; No.2 Parzifal, No.3 Berrenger, No.4 Boatman and No.5 Orphean. (No.1 was a Fox Walker 0-4-2st purchased from the contractors). The builder in question is the small time builder Alistair McKenzie based out of Ringsend Dublin and an Irish based builder is probably the most unrealistic part of all this. 

 

The locos were built to rather high quality and expensive to boot costing around £1000 each and they're largely inspired by the Small and Large Englands delivered to the Ffestiniog which were inordinately expensive compared to other tenders. Though the main reason for Alistair McKenzie being chosen is because the man in question was friendly with the Whenbarrows, the main financiers of the route.  For once hobnobbing paid off without a catch as the engines proved popular to the point other companies on the island would purchase them with the County Eastwich opening their narrow gauge arm with them and the Codsollop Tramway company operated at least one.

 

I've drawn all these designs up just using Tinkercad and printed them on my Anycubic Photon and the plan was to fit them onto the old long wheelbase Graham and Farish mechanism but they're a bit difficult to fit motion to with the way the existing rods are fixed with one pin. So I'm looking towards the newer Jinty mechanism or the revised Dapol terrier.

 

Below are all the variants I've made so far but one or two more might emerge in time. 

 

 

mtkQi6q.png

 

Left to right, CM&BFR locos on delivery, Middle CM&BFR locos as rebuilt, CER locomotives with NER Style cabs. 

 

Ys1ZLsj.png

 

Inspired mostly by Beyer Peacock and other builders of the time with the bent sheet iron cabs, this is a depiction of how they were delivered in spring of 1875 to Chevril Magna.

 

L86IjFt.png

 

Secondly are the rebuilds, most of the CM quartet were given newer more enclosed cabs when sent back to Ireland for overhauls in line with the standards employed by the company. 

TqPRClT.png

 

As already said the CER opened its narrow gauge leg with a few different narrow gauge machines with several of these locos purchased and built with the NER influenced cabs due to the ownership dispute of the company. Most of these were also given dome mounted safety valves (no real reason for that we just wanted some variety).

 

W13FKEv.png

 

Finally is the 'trammy mack' as its dubbed, this being a pun on the frequently used shortening of Alistair McKenzie to Allymack. This is eventually going to a friend and is a model of the locomotive that the Codsollop Tramway employed with full skirts and cowcatchers.

 

DAqIReN.jpg

 

P5pkN8K.jpg

 

I have printed off and assembled the as built variant of the locos but I'm waiting to really perfect the frames and chassis before working towards making a full run to make the rest of the fleet. 

 

Now for a bit more colour, with the opening of the Pidney Vale branch in 1886 there was a need for more motive power and a 2-6-2 was ordered from Manning Wardle, one of their predecessor designs for the Lynton and Barnstaple locomotives. The model itself is one of the Heljan Wardles that I'm modifying to eliminate some of the issues and backdate it as its actually a model of the newbuild Lyd which is in itself based off Lew, the one built in 1925 which presents some advancement issues to say the least. I'm aiming to swap the Joy valve gear for external stephenson and several more period details. 

 

hLpFcFW.jpg

 

8nyhKku.jpg

 

The engine will become No.6 Prydwen and is painted in the rather bright earlier yellow livery of the company with red frames which I have completely not appropriated from the Vale of Rheidol...promise. The lining is LNER lining from HMRS but I had enough to just do the back and one side so there's some more on the list to be ordered. 

 

Moving back to something standard gauge and actually more pre-grouping in style are locos for the C&SCR. I've had the body for a Sparkshot mogul rattling around in the parts drawer for over a year now and I've finally decided to get on with it.  It'd sustained a few knocks over the years and I've been printing detail parts for the loco on my new Photon-Mono as well as other parts like buffers and coupling hooks reused from Dapol kit leftovers or leftovers from other projects. 

 

KUx2XI3.jpg

 

Finally the boxcabs, I posted these way back when I started this thread and they were getting on a bit. They were the first CAD project of a friend of mine and I've been reworking and detailing the original files in Tinkercad.  They're based off the Dagenham locomotives and reasonably applicable for early diesel traction especially with the resources of the island. 

 

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pcL6G1L.jpg?1

 

Thanks again for having a look at my mad ramblings. 

 

Alec

 

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This thread has reminded me of an idea I once had for modelling the narrow gauge system on the little-know Scottish island of Inch.  From the harbour at Less nan Inch a branch line runs on a causeway to the slate quarries on the off shore islet of No' an Inch.  From Less nan Inch the main line goes to the main town of Inch then through Mair nan Inch and Inch na Bit to the peat extraction site at Inch na Hauf.  Lack of capital prevented the line from reaching the fishing port of Twa Inch on the other side of the island and also put paid to the proposals to develop a holiday resort at Fower Inch on  in the North of the island.  I never got round to drawing a map! 

 

Jim

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Kudos to PoT and 36c for such good history on the island's railways and resources. Now we will shift over to another lesser developed part of Tumm, modeled and storied by me. Nestled approximately halfway between Jutham and the Mostad Peninsula is the Sollop River Valley on the south coast. The Valley runs north by northwest from the mouth of the river at Codsollop. image.png.149bd4f50b3ee3a7b6ea5b4cfa2e3173.png

 

History of the Sollop Valley

The first known settlement in the Valley was at the Bridge of Hadrian, where the Southern Coast Road built in 70 AD crossed the river. It created a small hamlet around the toll gate to provide for travellers. For the next 900 years the valley would be relatively undisturbed, seen only as a backwater to the Jutes, and as a good safe harbour for Norse longships traversing the coast. This all changed with Hadrada's invasion of Tumm to use as a forward base, with part of his forces landing at Postgate and traversing west. However due to heavily autumnal rains the marshlands south of the Southern Road flooded over forcing Harald and Torsig's forces north by 10 miles, reaching the Codsollop River slightly north of where the western fork joins the main river. Here they crossed on rafts to continue west, leaving the place with Hadrada's name. During the Norman rule the first known Sollops settled in the valley at Hadrian's Bridge, taking over the town pub. At this time the river was still unnamed, only known as The River to locals, as little as they were. During the Norman era the Valley was grouped into the rest of Torrishire, and the first known settlement at Codsollop would come into existence. It was a small town 10 miles north of the current one, first settled by Henry Swollop as a bog iron mining operation, which would be shipped out by boat to Jutham and other points in Europe. During the Hundred Year's War a fortress was built on Yoke Island, so named for how it sits in the mouth of the River Swollop. Due to this, the town of Codsollop was moved to it's current location on the east bank of the bay. The town's first official mayoral elections were built, and Charles Swollop was named Mayor. To commerate this, they named the river after him, thus giving it the name it holds today. It is unknown why the W was dropped, but we can attribute it to a misspelling taken on as tradition. The next major development in the Valley was when Benjamin B Codswollop found the tar pits east of where Welton sits today,using horses to haul tar from the pits into a barge loading point at Welton, however due to the marshy terrain between the two it was later abandoned. Due to the Enclosure Act, the Swollops were granted land and a baronship, thereby making them the domiant family in the Valley. Another notable Swollop was George Harald, who was Rear Admiral of the Tummian Home Fleet during the 4th Dutch-Anglo War, helping drive the Dutch fleet back. For this the land grants were expanded up the Valley to the site of Lesser Codswollop, and using these he built a turnpike along the bank of the river all the way north to Welton, using horses and boats to move tar down and goods up. The Swollop's had been granted rights to all roads in the area with the Enclosure Act, and was given control of the toll bridge at Hadrian's Bridge as well as the road stretching 20 miles east and west. Bog Iron mining, which had been stalled by the 100 Year's War and layed dormant since, was also restarted to supply the large barrel making operation at Welton.

 

The GCT 

 

By the 1790s, George Harald replaced the turnpike with a horse hauled tramway, owing to developments in England and river levels running too low for boats during dry spells. It continued working with only occasional interruptions from flooding in the boggish section between Codsollop and Welton, with the tramway being put on pilings.

As the Industrial Revolution kicked into gear, Codsollop experienced a boom in industry, mainly fishing and the continued export to Jutham of tar, as well as a nail factory and foundry. John Henry Swollop was the main proponent of industry, and followed steam developments in England, traveling to see the L&M open. He decided to enact his own steam policy on the GCT as the tramway was now known, using stationary engines and rope haulage to haul more Tar from the pits to Welton. He also searched for locomotives to trial, but due to the gauge of the GCT no satisfactory results were found. However, by the 1860s better steam power was available, and John's son James oversaw it's implementation in 1878, buying a Lewin named Minnow and using it to relay the railway with proper rails, and extending to meet the turnpike at Hadrian's Bridge. A thrice weekly mixed train to the Bridge was insituted, and a need for a second locomotive was apparanent, and James instructed the foundry at Codsollop to fill that need. What they produced can only be described as a sin to Stephenson himself, and it was soon sent to Jutham to be redone. What came out was the GCT's #2 Wollop, named after the family, a Fowler boiler sitting atop a custom 0-4-0 chassis. In the early 1880s news was abundant about another railway reaching Codsollop, as it was building westerly from Postgate along the coast. When it was completed in 1883, a great celebration was held, only interrupted by a very drunk James hijacking the standard gauge locomotive that had brought officials in and taking it for a joyride through the yard. The railway grew well into the 20th century, by 1895 they had reached Trout's Beck in the north for it's mineral deposits and natural springs. By insistence of the Postgate-Codswollop Quarries Co, layed tracks into Hadrian's Bridge to access their copper mines at Skir Beck. As the railway grew so did it's locomotive fleet, which I will cover in another post. One notable order is the two "Trammymacks" ordered to help run trains from Trout's Beck, No.6 "Flotsam" and 7 "Jetsam". During WW1, the port at Codswollop grew busier, and the fort on Yoke Island was given a garrison after 200 years of decay.  A new improved harbour facility was needed, and by 1925 the first sod was broken on the outer harbour. However this drew official's eyes from the UK with the new railway act, and the GCT was forced to register, even if most of it had been built 30 years before the act came into effect. Propsects looked bright for the GCT heading into the 30s even with the Depression. However in 1931 all of Tumm was rocked by a 6.1 magnitude quake, which decimated the GCT. It collapsed the middle span of Hadrian's Bridge, took #7 to it's end when the railway's trestle crossing the marsh buckled and fell in, caused two of the PCQ's shafts at Skirs Beck to cave in, as well as damaging Codsollop heavily, collapsing half of Yoke Island's Fortress and the old inner harbour. The GCT rebuilt as well as it could, but this was  the start of the downwards spiral. As WW2 started, Codsollop was targeted for it's copper and oil exports, and bombed. The oil afomentioned was product of the Blue Shale Oil Co, which had been spun off GCT in 1915 by Edward Swallop to take possession of the tar fields, and as oil was discovered, those deposits. I'll cover it more in a later post. Thanks to the war the copper deposits at Skir's Beck were worked out, leading to the line becoming only used as needed during harvest for the sugar beets grown on the west bank. In addition most of the fleet had been over extended, and with a road built from Jutham around the southwest coast in the late 40s, the railway had competition and worn engines. The railway made the decision in 1950 to cut services back to as they were in the 1870s, thrice weekly mixed picking up traffic wherever it was needed, as well as weekly shipments of goods to Welton for the new refinery and a train of petroleum products back down. Most of the locomotives were sold on, with Wollop, Flotsam, #4 and #11 being kept on. The line saw more decline, and by 1960 it was decided to shutter passenger services entirely, shelving Flotsam and selling Wollop on to the refinery for work. By 1962 the line had become almost devoid of traffic, with the beets and occasional machinery runs being the only trains left, all others were lost to road trucking or the IoTCR meeting with the new Blue Shale extension. In an effort to preserve his family's history, Tom Henry Swollop made the decision to turn the line running between Codswollop and the old townsite as a heritage railway, while shuttering the rest of the GCT. #11, the last engine built for the GCT and the only one succesfully built by themselves, was kept on to run trains. #4 was purchased by a group who had purchased the line running west from Hadrian's Bridge, and the bridge itself was deemed a historic landmark, even with the new steel superstructure composing the middle span. Eventually in  1983 the line to Welton had been re-opened, with Wollop purchased back from the refinery in the mid 70s to help support the extended venture, and Flotsam who had been sold to the hamlet of Trout Beck, was reclaimed in 1990 and shipped down by boat to Welton. As such, the GCT still exists, but the line will never see it's height as it did before the Earthquake, and the echo of a steam locomotive will never be heard in the upper Swollop valley again.image.png.7724a3e732fb164ec00f89414c2fc8f1.png

 

Greater Codsollop Raulway.PNG

Edited by WantSomeSyrup
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