Shalfleet Quay, Isle of Wight 1927-35.

[LBSC123]

On 06/02/2021 at 10:46, Mick Bonwick said:

I admire anybody who even thinks about one, let alone models one. Splendid modelling, Will.

 

Thanks @Mick Bonwick for the kind words!

 

On 06/02/2021 at 11:32, wainwright1 said:

Hi  LBSC123.

 

There is/was a sailing barge museum down at Kemsley on Milton Creek, fairly close to the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Steam Railway. Visited it quite a few years ago. They did have a couple of barges under restoration and a small museum building with some very interesting displays on the barges and other local industries including especially brick making, with strong links to the area in London where I live.

 

Definitely worth a visit if it is still going.

 

All then best

Ray

 

Thanks for the tip off @wainwright1, the S&K has been on the to do list for a while, so maybe I'll try and co-ordinate the two!

[Guest Jack Benson]

What was the source of the foamboard, was it branded?

 

Thank you

[LBSC123]

Hi Jack, 

My foamboard wasn't branded, I just bought it off eBay. I have written about this before in another thread, I had to add some strengthening to the underside after construction, if I was to do it again I would opt for 10mm foamboard rather than 5mm. 

Hope that helps.

Will

[SteveyDee68]

3 hours ago, LBSC123 said:

Hi Jack, 

My foamboard wasn't branded, I just bought it off eBay. I have written about this before in another thread, I had to add some strengthening to the underside after construction, if I was to do it again I would opt for 10mm foamboard rather than 5mm. 

Hope that helps.

Will

 

Interesting - I hadn't realised it was available deeper than 5mm, but a quick search revealed two things:

1) Five A2 (?) 5mm foamboards from The Range for £10 is a pretty good deal!

2) 10mm foamboard is a lot more expensive!!

 

Admittedly, I've not done any investigation other than visit the first result from a Google search for 10mm foamboard, but the website www.foam-board.co.uk has lots of different types, depths, sizes and colours not to mention a raft of accessories to chose from.

 

One item that caught my attention - foamboard glue that doesn't cause the surface to distort (I read warnings about that elsewhere!) which at £4.99 for 100ml sounds like something to take note of.

 

Steve S

Edited February 9, 2021 by SteveyDee68
Typo

[LBSC123]

28 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

 

Interesting - I hadn't realised it was available deeper than 5mm, but a quick search revealed two things:

1) Five A2 (?) 5mm foamboards from The Range for £10 is a pretty good deal!

2) 10mm foamboard is a lot more expensive!!

 

Admittedly, I've not done any investigation other than visit the first result from a Google search for 10mm foamboard, but the website www.foam-board.co.uk has lots of different types, depths, sizes and colours not to mention a raft of accessories to chose from.

 

One item that caught my attention - foamboard glue that doesn't cause the surface to distort (read about that elsewhere!) which at £4.99 for 100ml sounds like something to take note of.

 

Steve S

You could get 5xA1 sheets of 10mm stuff for £36 on ebay, not cheap but not awful....

[NHY 581]

Evening Will. 

 

Any developments on Shalfleet? 

 

I'm 'sponging' as much as I can regarding the Isle of Wight...........

 

Rob. 

[LBSC123]

On 05/06/2021 at 19:49, NHY 581 said:

Evening Will. 

 

Any developments on Shalfleet? 

 

I'm 'sponging' as much as I can regarding the Isle of Wight...........

 

Rob. 

Hi Rob,

I am afraid to report that I haven't touched the layout in a number of weeks, life and other hobbies have been getting in the way, such as firing this mighty stead: 

I have just returned from the IOWSR 50th Anniversary Gala, if that helps to wet the appetite.... I must find some time, and inclination, to do some modelling.... 

[wainwright1]

14 hours ago, LBSC123 said:

Hi Rob,

I am afraid to report that I haven't touched the layout in a number of weeks, life and other hobbies have been getting in the way, such as firing this mighty stead: 

I have just returned from the IOWSR 50th Anniversary Gala, if that helps to wet the appetite.... I must find some time, and inclination, to do some modelling.... 

That's inspirational. What have they used for ballast in the last picture, looks almost like beach shingle ?

I will be over on the island in October.

All the best

Ray

[Nearholmer]

54 minutes ago, wainwright1 said:

looks almost like beach shingle ?

 

Probably is shingle.

 

Shingle was the normal railway ballast in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, parts of Hants, and the IoW until the 1920s, when it started to fall out of favour very quickly as a result of the track instability highlighted by several derailments, notably Sevenoaks in 1927.

 

The LBSCR main ballast pit was The Crumbles, a big area of shingle above Eastbourne east beaches, the SER I think used a similar pit at Dungeness, and the LCDR one that yielded river shingle/gravel near Maidstone. The LSWR original sources I'm less sure about, but they opened, then expanded, Meldon Quarry in the late C19th, and were first of the southern companies to have a source of decent, sharp-cornered ballast.

 

I'm guessing that the IoW railways may have persisted with shingle, because it was easy to get locally, and because their speeds and axle-loadings didn't challenge its rather poor qualities.

 

The word "ballast", comes, of course, from the ballast used to stabilise unladen ships, and that was very often ungraded shingle, or "beach", which contains sharp sand, as well as stones.

[wainwright1]

36 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Probably is shingle.

 

Shingle was the normal railway ballast in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, parts of Hants, and the IoW until the 1920s, when it started to fall out of favour very quickly as a result of the track instability highlighted by several derailments, notably Sevenoaks in 1927.

 

The LBSCR main ballast pit was The Crumbles, a big area of shingle above Eastbourne east beaches, the SER I think used a similar pit at Dungeness, and the LCDR one that yielded river shingle/gravel near Maidstone. The LSWR original sources I'm less sure about, but they opened, then expanded, Meldon Quarry in the late C19th, and were first of the southern companies to have a source of decent, sharp-cornered ballast.

 

I'm guessing that the IoW railways may have persisted with shingle, because it was easy to get locally, and because their speeds and axle-loadings didn't challenge its rather poor qualities.

 

The word "ballast", comes, of course, from the ballast used to stabilise unladen ships, and that was very often ungraded shingle, or "beach", which contains sharp sand, as well as stones.

The track in the picture looks fairly new, not sure where it is. Could be at the west end of Haven Street near Train Story, or might be at Smallbrook Junction, as I believe that they put in a temporary connection for the works that have been goi8ng on for the 'Main Line.'

I am sure Will will let us know.

All the best

Ray

[Nick C]

24 minutes ago, wainwright1 said:

The track in the picture looks fairly new, not sure where it is. Could be at the west end of Haven Street near Train Story, or might be at Smallbrook Junction, as I believe that they put in a temporary connection for the works that have been goi8ng on for the 'Main Line.'

I am sure Will will let us know.

All the best

Ray

The track in the photo is the connection to the 'train story' exhibition building at the west end of Havenstreet.

 

The temporary connection at Smallbrook is a myth that doesn't seem to want to go away...

[NHY 581]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Probably is shingle.

 

Shingle was the normal railway ballast in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, parts of Hants, and the IoW until the 1920s, when it started to fall out of favour very quickly as a result of the track instability highlighted by several derailments, notably Sevenoaks in 1927.

 

The LBSCR main ballast pit was The Crumbles, a big area of shingle above Eastbourne east beaches, the SER I think used a similar pit at Dungeness, and the LCDR one that yielded river shingle/gravel near Maidstone. The LSWR original sources I'm less sure about, but they opened, then expanded, Meldon Quarry in the late C19th, and were first of the southern companies to have a source of decent, sharp-cornered ballast.

 

I'm guessing that the IoW railways may have persisted with shingle, because it was easy to get locally, and because their speeds and axle-loadings didn't challenge its rather poor qualities.

 

The word "ballast", comes, of course, from the ballast used to stabilise unladen ships, and that was very often ungraded shingle, or "beach", which contains sharp sand, as well as stones.

 

That's both timely and useful as I was about to start looking into this very subject for my own tiny slice of IOWness. 

 

Thank you. 

[IWCR]

Correct  Shingle.  This was used until the end of steam.

The Island had 2 sources of ballast.

The first was shingle dredged from the approaches to Bembridge Harbour, this was a continuous exercise to maintain the channel, the harbour was railway owned and they had a steam crane with grab on a barge for this work named "Ballaster".   This was also the reason that the old timber ballast wagons lasted until the end, an attempt post war to replace then with steel hopper wagons failed due to rapid corrosion from the salt water soaked stone.

The second source was flint stone which occurs within chalk, much of this was from Shide Chalk Pit and ballast wagons were kept and loaded in the sidings adjoining Shide station.

The Steam Railway (and Island Line) now use much better quality ballast brought over by road from the mainland however Shingle is still used on the IOWSR within station areas to maintain the original appearance.

 

Pete

[phil_sutters]

I am fairly sure that the Island Line track, at least in some places, still has shingle ballast or had when these snaps were taken

[LBSC123]

I'm afraid I've still had little inclination to do much modelling of late, but did recently take delivery of these 'Southern' locomotives and coaches. I'm not sure they ever made it to the Isle of Wight (or Wales, my other modelling area, for that matter). So I suppose I had better find something to do with them...

I'

[wainwright1]

Hi Will.

 

Any progress on Shalfleet ?

 

All the best

 

Ray

[LBSC123]

23 hours ago, wainwright1 said:

Hi Will.

 

Any progress on Shalfleet ?

 

All the best

 

Ray

Hi Ray,

 

I’m afraid the only progress on Shalfleet has been the acquisition of a couple of Kernow Road Vans for the layout. 

 

Otherwise I’ve been a bit tied up with work, volunteering at Swanage railway and a holiday. I expect I’ll get time to progress on Shalfleet come the autumn. I must get it out for a play soon.

 

best,

 

will 

[LBSC123]

Hmmm… I’m going to need to extend the time period of this layout….. 

[chuffinghell]

Not necessarily a bad thing if you can get away with it 

 

[Calidore]

Hi Will, I know you said not much progress lately but the layout is looking excellent already in that last photo. It’s a lovely composition and the dock wall is very keenly observed and realistically weathered.

 

The malachite / sunshine lettering really suits the O2s, doesn’t it — looks great. I haven’t seen W24 since its overhaul but I’m looking forward to it. The one in your scene suits the couple of vans just perfectly.

 

Adam