Molinnis - Present Day Cornwall in N

[Revolution Ben]

Hello all,

 

I am starting this topic on behalf of Nick Dibben, leader of the Northants and Cambs area group of the N Gauge Society. At our regular meeting, Nick unveiled his new latest layout "Molinnis." I took some photos and he has sent some text to get things started. Updates to follow as scenic work progresses...

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

 

 

This is Nick's account of progress so far:

 

Welcome to my new N gauge layout Molinnis, an imaginary location on a Cornish branch line. The layout is 8 foot by 3 foot on two boards. I started to think about building this layout, several years ago, but work only started this summer. The delay has allowed me to collect most of the rolling stock that will be used. The track plan is shown below:

 

 

The village and station are assumed to be off-scene at the left hand side. The visible section has the end of the passing loop, some sidings (I have assumed that the Fitzgerald Lighting Company has relocated from Bodmin and kept sending out goods by rail. This view shows the complete scenic section of the layourt. The vans are in the lighting company's loading sidings; I envisage this traffic will more normally comprise Dapol Ferryvans.

 

 

A freight only branch curves off towards the right hand side, whilst the main route continues diagonally across the layout. The layout can be operated as an end to end layout with china clay loading points on both the branch and main route. Here a Farish Class 66 waits with a rake of Peco CDA wagons as the Dapol 153 (Kernow special commission) trundles through.

 

 

The main route fiddle yard sidings (on the right on the plan above) will take a Voyager but are a little too short for a full length HST ( We checked today though and a 2+6 HST is possible). Freight trains will be 14 CDA wagons or 8 silver bullet wagons. The crossover off-scene uses Minitrix curved points that are much tighter radius than the Peco version. During initial testing, one point caused almost 100% derailments. On closer examination it appeared to be out of gauge and will need to be adjusted. The troublesome point is the lower in the image:

 

 

The proposed main scenic elements are: A river running across the layout, a disused china clay works, the electrical factory, a new housing estate and main road bridge. In this view the Class 66 has just taken the branch and is crossing the river.

 

 

The track is laid and wired up and these photos were taken when the layout was taken to a meeting of the Cambs and Northants Group of the N Gauge Society. Fellow group member John Ruff is our resident carpenter and built the boards. This view shows the fiddle yard, which has been designed to be adequate for the intended operations. At the top, the two sidings that curve round the back of the layout can also be seen. If the plan is studied, it will be seen that only the freight branch can actually function as a continuous run.

 

 

Progress in building the layout may be a little slow due to other commitments, but watch this space for future developments.

 

We will of course be continuing to work on our exhibition layout Horseley Fields, which is next on show at the Biggleswade Show on February 23rd, and also the following Saturday (March 2nd) at March.

[ian b]

Cracking layout, cracking plan- can't wait to see more!

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Mickey,

 

Yes, I agree - I was chewing my lip with envy when Nick first showed us his idea!

 

He has a real talent for track plan design. Several of his have been previously published in the N Gauge society journal.

 

So next question: what traffic can be justifiably run? Anything unusual? The layout is "modern" so nothing pre-2000 I guess...

 

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[TomJ]

I agree the plan is a very good one - and maximises the viewing run for trains. It's good to see more china clay and N gauge. I look forward to seeing it develop. Do I spy the Dapol uncoupling magnets in the sidings? If so how have you found them, do they work ok? Am thinking of trying them for my new layout. Do you try to hide them under the ballast or are they not too obvious??

 

In terms of traffic most of my knowledge of the clay scene is steam days or the 80s but I'll try to help. The clay industry has declined markedly since 2000 with many works shutting and traffic lost. At the start of the millennium there was a lot more activity. Mainstay of the clay traffic was/is of course rakes of CDAs to Fowey docks. Out of Cornwall traffic included the 'silver bullets' as a block, although slurry was occasionally sent as wagonload (don't know what period) and Tigers/JIA (not yet avaliable in N gauge - something for the society....!?!??) and polybulks and occasional van traffic, presumably ferryvans.

For non clay traffic there has been a bit, although not at the same time! There's cement to Moorswater (using the old clay works). There has been scrap metal from St Blazey and incoming pipes. More recently there were freightliner trains of sand (a by product of clay extraction) which was used extensively in the Olympic build.

Loco-wise I think it's pretty much exclusively 66s, EWS/DBS and freightliner. The 67s were used for a while before the TPO ended and the 57s on the sleeper but these are both mainline of course. A few other locos/liveries appear on one off or charter trains.

 

Hope this helps, please post more pics as things progress

[stivesnick]

Hi Micky

 

You noticed! The original design was much closer to Bugle station complete with road bridge and steps down to the platform, but constrained by the length of the layout, I could not run long trains that I wanted. Also the scenery is a bit flatter around Bugle which is much easier to model.

 

Although I could run just DMUs up the main line, I suspect the odd freight will end up along the line, if only due to the operator not changing the points!

 

I am thinking of modelling the period around 2005/6 so I can still run my Virgin Trains Voyager and their was still some wagonload traffic about. I also have some Shapeways Tiger 55 wagons to build and some of the Farish Tullis Russell hoppers which I believe did not operate beyond 2003 and 1992 respecively. Has anyone got any more accurate information on this?

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

I agree the plan is a very good one - and maximises the viewing run for trains. It's good to see more china clay and N gauge. I look forward to seeing it develop. Do I spy the Dapol uncoupling magnets in the sidings? If so how have you found them, do they work ok? Am thinking of trying them for my new layout. Do you try to hide them under the ballast or are they not too obvious??

 

In terms of traffic most of my knowledge of the clay scene is steam days or the 80s but I'll try to help. The clay industry has declined markedly since 2000 with many works shutting and traffic lost. At the start of the millennium there was a lot more activity. Mainstay of the clay traffic was/is of course rakes of CDAs to Fowey docks. Out of Cornwall traffic included the 'silver bullets' as a block, although slurry was occasionally sent as wagonload (don't know what period) and Tigers/JIA (not yet avaliable in N gauge - something for the society....!?!??) and polybulks and occasional van traffic, presumably ferryvans.

For non clay traffic there has been a bit, although not at the same time! There's cement to Moorswater (using the old clay works). There has been scrap metal from St Blazey and incoming pipes. More recently there were freightliner trains of sand (a by product of clay extraction) which was used extensively in the Olympic build.

Loco-wise I think it's pretty much exclusively 66s, EWS/DBS and freightliner. The 67s were used for a while before the TPO ended and the 57s on the sleeper but these are both mainline of course. A few other locos/liveries appear on one off or charter trains.

 

Hope this helps, please post more pics as things progress

 

 

Hi Tom

 

Thanks for the information.

 

Yes they are the Dapol magnets. We use them on the Horseley Fields layout and they work very well, especially with longer rakes of modern rollings stock.

 

You mention the lack of Tiger wagons in N. You can buy the basic bodies as a 3D print off the Shapeways web-site. You can get the bogies and buffers from the N Gauge Society and Scale Model Transfers do the decals. I have got some spare etches from the N Gauge Society Polybulk wagons to make the end walkways. Hopefully a project to be done this winter.

 

Nick

[TomJ]

The Tullis Russell hoppers were for wagonload traffic to Scotland which I think stopped at the end of Speedlink or soon after. Definitely well before your period. No idea when the Tigers were withdrawn but 2003 sounds about right, the JIAs are quite similar modern examples.

[stivesnick]

Progress update

The first buildings for the layout are nearing completion. The intention is to construct all the buildings in one area, and then finalise their location along with any associated roads etc. before starting to construct the basic scenery.

The first is the disused china clay dries which was actually completed some time ago. The model is scratchbuilt using plastic sheet and covered with Scalescenes paper. The windows and doors have come from the scrap box. The original chimney used a plastic pipe, but the straight sides simply did not look right. So John (the official carpenter) turned a chimney on his lathe to achieve the sloping sides. The building is designed to be set into a hill side with the wet china clay loaded from the upper level at the rear. See photo below

 

 

 

The second building is the electrical factory and uses two Tri-star industries kits plus a loading dock, from Pikestuff. These kits are modular so it is possible to move the various wall sections around to get the doors where you want them. The canopy over the track is scratchbuilt. There are a few details still to add, such as roof vents, signage and external lighting, but hopefully it looks like a suitabel building that would dispatch products by rail.

 

  

The bridge of the river is under construction – pictures soon.

[engage]

Hi Nick

            From what I can see of it I think you building looks very suitable  as a track-side building and the Dries have been modeled

very well indeed. It is no doubt a trick of the light but it looks like there is a light on a pole shining to the right above the roof of the

Dries. . I like car to the right of the chimney parked on the grass and the sheep, will you be keeping them ?...  and that chimney,

Wow !. .   It's a bit late now but there was a modeling challenge on  the RM web, you could have entered loads of models.

Thanks for the update and we look forward to seeing the bridge over the river......,. the river........has it actually got a name ?

 

Cheers

John

[stivesnick]

Some progress at last!

 

The road bridge at the left hand end is underway. I had intended to use a Scalescenes arched bridge but this was not wide enough to allow for the curved track, so I made a plastic bridge from 1.5mm sheet, covered in Scalescenes stone paper.

 

Picture 1 shows the basic elements.

 

Picture 2 shows the bridge in location for clearance check, at this stage the bits were not glued together.

 

Picture 3 shows the part finsihed bridge.

 

Finally the scenic contours are appearing. The new hosuing estate in the corner are Muswell Models resin kits. Glue the roof on and paint. Then add the windows.

[The_Cuckoo]

A fantastic start, I'm really looking forward to see this progress.

[porkie]

This is great, love the sweeping curves....

 

Nice to see a nice scenic cornish layout.

 

Keep the updates coming

[Peter Kazmierczak]

This is a very clever design. The second photo in post #1, with the Cl.66 waiting with its rake of CDAs, really captures the look and feel of this part of Cornwall.

[stivesnick]

Thanks for all the positive comments - more progress to report this weekend.

 

The other bridge, over the yet to be named river, (any suggestions ?) has been built. The bridge girders are plastic sheet and strip. The walls and centre support plastic sheet and scalescenes papers.

 

 

Have also been looking at the location of the disused china clay works. The original plan (see first posting) had the building parallel to the branch line track. This proved difficult to work in the scenery. It has been rotated, so now parallel to the river so it fits better into the hillside. I mocked up where the old railway tracks woudl have been, and it works out that a scale 9inch radius curve would work. I also assumed a second siding for coal deliveries.

 

With the building locaion now fixed, I mocked up the settling enclosures behind the building. These were used to allow the china clay to settle to the bottom of the area before entering the building at the upper level on the drying floors.

 

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Nick

 

Rotating the clays through 90 degrees means you can see either side, so viewers will get more of an idea of how these buildings worked, and the curve of the sidings definitely enhances the "lay" of the scenic elements. Nice one!

 

As to the name of the river, online sources suggest that "ynys" (pron: "eniss") means "island", so it could be argued that the name "Molinnis" is already a corruption of "Mol Island", or "Island on the Mol", suggesting "Mol" as the appropriate name for the river.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Tricky-CRS]

Looking intersting Nick good luck with the rest of the project.

[stivesnick]

Looking intersting Nick good luck with the rest of the project.

 

Thanks Richard

 

When the details start to appear, you may find some of the products familiar!

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

All

 

River Mol it is then.

 

I will be with the N Gauge Society Cambs and Northhants Group's Horseley Fields layout at Trainwest Show at Melksham this weekend. Please stop by for a chat. Although Horseley Fields is set in the midlands, there may be the odd china clay train to be seen if I can sneek tham past layout stock control!

[Steven B]

It's almost a shame that it's set in the current era. Back dating it to the late 60s/early 70s would allow all the lovely new Hydraulics to be used. Just imagine a class 22 shunting the works whilst a western purrs past on a passenger train with a warship sat waiting to exit the freight only branch.

 

I didn't know Cornwall had much in the way of an electronics manufacturing industry. I'd have thought a cider or pasty factory would have been much tastier!

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

 

(edited to correct smiley)

Edited April 9, 2013 by Steven B

[stivesnick]

Steven

 

Fitzgerald Lighting have a factory in Bodmin that used to send products out by rail in VGA vans until the 1990s. I have assumed that this traffic continues.

 

I did think about a 1980s layout, but because I have a number of Class 66s it has to be more modern. To backdate to the 1960s, the track plan would need to change. The old clay dries would still be connected and working, plus the junction would be a more tradditional double junction with two points and a crossing. The alternative woudl eb to follow the layout at Bugle station and have a seperate goods loop for the branch connection. 

[bridgiesimon]

Love this layout so far, has the makings of somethign really special!

 

I think that the trains to Fitzgerald lighting stopped running many years ago although I do not know for definite when, an sure there are people here who can confirm this.

 

best wishes

Simon

[stivesnick]

Some more work on the scenery this weekend.

 

The right hand side of the layout around the china clay dries has had the contours created from polystyene packaging and the whole lot covered in paper mache. I started by smoothing out the changes in level with rolled up bits of paper, followed by a covering over the entire surface. The surface is now nearly dry after 30 hours and the next stage will be to paint a base colour (using a poster paint set). 

 

Progress picture below.

 

Following previous comments I check the Freightmaster series of books and it appears the wagonload freight traffic to the Fitzgerald Lighting works at Bodmin continued until late 2000 as a Class 66 hauled trip working from St Blazey Yard.

[stivesnick]

The scenic work continues. Most of the contours are now formed; polystyene tiles covered in paper mache. I have added a base coat of emulsion paint so that if the scatter material comes off you don't see any bare paper. Progress photos below.

 

Overall picture of the layout with a lot are part finished buildings:

 

 

The factory end of the layout:

 

 

The disused china clay works, the hole in the backscene will be hidden by a pipe bridge:

 

 

 

[DanielB]

Liking the look of this layout. Very interesting indeed.

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Nick

 

Good update!  It's starting to really come together.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.