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Fenchurch St Peter


George Woodcock
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       Only two wires and a lot more to add yet. The grain store is based on the one at North Elmham which closed in 1989 and the one at Kennett which still exists today but is no longer rail connected. The majority is scratch built while the three large grain bins are from Walthers with scratchbuilt additions. The signal box is, as mentioned earlier,  an adapted Wills kit with all the interior detail fitted which sadly is not very visible but at least we know it is there. The buffer stops are from the wonderful range of buffer stops made by Dave Franks of Lanarkshire Models. The road and level  crossing are the only bits glued in place yet as they should survive us still tipping the layout upside down to complete the wiring. The station platforms are also complete though I still have a little more weathering to finish off and the platform shelters and a parcels hut also have to be added. As mentioned earlier we do have a blue Derby Lightweight; also a green one which will enable us to run in mixed livery rakes which were common in 1967. We also have a green Cl101 and a green Cravens Cl105. All of these units saw use in this area at the time.  The locos comprise two Hornby Brush type 2s in different versions of green livery as well as a Sulzer type 2 and an EE type3 which are also in green. I would like a blue EE type 2 and am keeping an eye out for one with the correct body type. The freight traffic will consist mainly of various types of box vans mainly from the Parkside range plus a few opens with grain traffic in the Bachmann blue hoppers and the new BR wagons when they arrive. There is also a parcels train featured which ran with a variety of vans from Kings Lynn to Peterborough. Hopefully next weekend we will fit the last two point motors and some other bits of electrical gubbins while I tiddle away during the week on various bits of scratchbuilding.

 

 

                                                                                                                                    Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                               George 

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     It is indeed blue Clive, as were all the boxes in this part of East Anglia at the time of my layout. The green boxes seem to have been more in the east of the area. I don't know why this should be, I merely copied the one in the place I based the layout on. The blue I used is an aircraft colour from Precision Paints which is a perfect match for the faded colour so common on these branch lines that were about to close in such numbers. I am always glad that as a teenager I travelled on so many of them. If any-one wants to see these lines for real I can heartily recommend  a series of DVDs published by TVP which feature so much of the demise of not only branchlines but also mainlines across East Anglia and Lincolnshire in the late 1960s and early 1970s.The two that formed the man part of my inspiration are 'Pick-up Freight' and  'Branch-line Journey' . The man who filmed most of the material on them was called George Pring who also wrote an extremely useful article on Middle Drove station for the GER Railway Society magazine in the early 1990s. Not only did I find the DVDs very useful but also they are a very moving testament of a long by-gone age.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                        Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                                                                 George

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   Looks more like I'm about to be executed but in reality I was just soldering a wire onto a point motor. Hopefully it will work OK, after all I've had enough practise over the years; someday I may get it right. glad you like the East Anglian concept , as I said in the previous post it is a little homage to a by-gone age which possibly never existed as we remember it anyway.

 

                                                                                                                                                                   Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                                                             George

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                             Oh, oh dear, oh dear :scared: :scared: :scared:

 

                                                     Cheers

 

                                                               George

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     John and I have finished fitting the point motors, as well as the connection plugs across the baseboards, fitted the controller socket and controller pocket on the end of 1 scenic boards. hopefully in few weeks we should have trains running on the layout when John has completed the control panel. The layout is powered the same as on our Towcester layout with DCC operation for the tracks while the points and signals are DC controlled. I have also built one of the platform shelters on the Wisbech bound platform, just need to glaze it and fit the roof on. Next job will be to build the platform shelter and parcels shed on the other platform. The shelters on each platform are different  as they were built by two different companies. The one I have nearly completed is a GER type. Luckily the two on the other platform are still in situ at Middle Drove so I was able to measure and photograph them last year. Amazing that they are still there 50 years after closure..Back to work now.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                      Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                                              George 

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  • 2 months later...

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     So glad you approve Michael, it was a difficult decision. The snow effect on the latest ballast has now gone as it has dried through properly , I shall carry on with that later after I have installed the token exchange apparatus. Hopefully the sky will be painted properly later this week when the 'cloud lady' flies in.

 

                                                                                                                                                          Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                                                  George

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     Sadly not Clive. The original plan was for them to work but we considered that they would be too fragile for use in exhibition conditions or rather the operating parts would be. I had this vision of them ceasing to operate after ten minutes at a show and being unable to fix them. So they will have to remain in the closed to road traffic position. I hope people will not be too dis-appointed though I am sure there those who will mutter about lack of accuracy.

 

          

                                                                                                                                Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                         George

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     Thank-you , I'm glad it brings back memories. That is the desired effect I'm aiming for. The grain store buildings are, as I mentioned earlier, based on Ketton and North Elmham in Norfolk they could indeed be any-where. I will be getting my new Bachmann 21ton BR grain hoppers later this week so there will ,hopefully, be plenty of shunting in there in the years to come. For any-one who is interested in seeing the places the layout is based on in the 1960s try and lookout the Eastern Region DVDs published by TVP, particularly Branches across East Anglia and Pick-up Freight. Without them I probably couldn't have built this layout. Nostalgia just oozes from the screen, not a dry eye in the house.

 

                                                                                                                                           Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                                   George 

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     Sadly not Clive. The original plan was for them to work but we considered that they would be too fragile for use in exhibition conditions or rather the operating parts would be. I had this vision of them ceasing to operate after ten minutes at a show and being unable to fix them. So they will have to remain in the closed to road traffic position. I hope people will not be too dis-appointed though I am sure there those who will mutter about lack of accuracy.

 

          

                                                                                                                                Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                         George

If anyone COMPLAINS about them not working, ask to see how they got there's working, :O bet they do a runner :stinker:  :stinker: :stinker:  

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Hello

 

     Sadly not Clive. The original plan was for them to work but we considered that they would be too fragile for use in exhibition conditions or rather the operating parts would be. I had this vision of them ceasing to operate after ten minutes at a show and being unable to fix them. So they will have to remain in the closed to road traffic position. I hope people will not be too dis-appointed though I am sure there those who will mutter about lack of accuracy.

 

          

                                                                                                                                Cheers

 

                                                                                                                                         George

Hi George

 

That is a pity but fully understand your reasoning. In fact when I think about it everything would be going at East Anglia speed so the drivers of the cars would be so relaxed as not to notice the gates not opening. It would give them time to get out their cars and have a chat about the state of Auntie Ethel's  bunyons. They are bound to be related.

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I reckon the real reason for leaving the gates open to the railway is that George is afraid that either he, or other senior members of his team will drive a train through them..................................

 

Cheers,

Mick

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