RMweb Gold Nick C Posted May 11, 2017 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 11, 2017 Hi Nick Thank you for uploading the photos - unfortunately I cannot see the arches! I have saved the photos and enlarged them but it all becomes distorted. Pete I didn't upload them, they belong to Historic England - if you register for that site and sign in it will let you enlarge the photos quite a lot to see them in much better quality - obviously I can't post them here directly as that would be in breach of their copyright. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chris116 Posted May 11, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 11, 2017 The only one of Dad's photos to show any of Cowes is this one, but it is train not town! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/77664-sr-iow-0-4-4t-30-shorwell-cowes-18-5-1963/ Not only does it have the train but also the footbridge. Many thanks for sharing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold phil_sutters Posted May 11, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 11, 2017 Not only does it have the train but also the footbridge. Many thanks for sharing. You are very welcome - I also see Ganges coal office in the background. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted May 16, 2017 Share Posted May 16, 2017 Thanks! I've got a few ideas as to how to simulate the 'gravity shunt', not sure what will work yet though... Hi Nick and all other honorary "Islanders", Many years ago I made contact with Dennis Nix, who had built a model of Cowes with the gravity shunt. I think it was featured in the Model Railway Constructor at some point. He was basically an LNWR modeller and a built and exhibited Cowes as a temporary diversion. He sent me a video of it in operation, which I probably still have on a VCR tape and should find and get copied. It also had some footage of my old Cowes layout, dating from before my own attempt at the gravity shunt. Dennis's was an authentic approach because he built the layout on a slope and let the stock roll down by gravity. The video showed the fairly vigorous descent and hard stop at the bottom! It certainly was a talking point at exhibitions. It needed careful setting up with adjustable feet on the baseboard legs and his stock all had to have the same rolling characteristics. My own version used a rake of carriages with a black beetle motor bogie. The layout still exists but has spent the last 15 years stored in the roof of our garage following a) an attack by a marauding 3 year old which damaged a lot of the scenery and track and b) a change of life's priorities. If I bring it down it will probably be to scrap it, but I was fond of it as the first layout I had ever got to anything like completion. From memory, there was a controller built into the baseboard and set at a fixed speed for the gravity move. Once the loco had detached and run back over the crossover, the points were thrown and switches thrown to connect the track to the fixed controller. The carriages moved to the end of the platform where they were stopped by an IRDOT. The operator remained in charge of the loco and with another flurry of switching brought it back onto the front of the train. As the designer of the system I used to be able to work it but visiting operators tended to struggle. I realised at the time (this was before I had DCC) that it could have been completely automated with more IRDOTs, but the layout met its end before I got around to doing that. It was exhibited maybe four times in its short life and I got a lot of pleasure from it. My new attempt is part of a more ambitious loft layout, it has no gravity shunt, although as a DCC layout it could be implemented with motorised coaches. However, for the complexity it involves I feel it doesn't bring enough extra to the overall operation of the layout and the complexity of having coaching stock which is motorised in circumstances other than a simple terminus-to-fiddle yard layout puts me off the idea. It might be worth fitting a motor bogie to one set of carriages, and operating these as a fixed rake on a Cowes - Newport - reversing loop shuttle diagram. I'll have to think about that! My Cowes to Newport layout is currently rather sidelined whilst I build an exhibition model of Ventnor West, and I expect to get back to it next Winter. Medina Wharf (compressed) is the next section which needs trackbuilding. There's a blog covering its construction somewhere else on RMWeb. p.s. shall we all get together and built a modular exhibition layout of the whole Island? Chris Gardner Alton Hants 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted May 16, 2017 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 16, 2017 Thanks Chris! I made a bit more progress last night, plotted out the rough locations of the buildings along Cross Street from the OS 1:1250 map. It looks like the terrace on the left-hand side will fit (looking uphill towards the station) will fit - the final scenic boundary for the first board will be along the end of the terrace, side wall of the former methodist hall, and southern edge of the car park. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted May 18, 2017 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 18, 2017 First point finished, the #1 road half of the crossover... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GloryDays Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Hello Nick! As a fellow Isle of Wight modeller I am keen on watching your layout progress. I am currently at a similar point in building a layout of Ventnor station. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold melmoth Posted May 19, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 19, 2017 Many years ago I made contact with Dennis Nix, who had built a model of Cowes with the gravity shunt. I think it was featured in the Model Railway Constructor at some point. MRC April 1979. The same issue also featured Trevor Jones's Okeminster. Quite a few years ago there was a model of Maiden Newton on the local exhibition circuit. Built by a late, much missed member of the Bridport club called John, but whose surname I can't remember. That had a gravity shunt for the Bridport train, that was held in place, at the top end of the shunt by a electro-magnet stop between the rails, against one of the coach axles. John Coggins. I think the layout still exists in the hands of the Bridport MRC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 I am currently at a similar point in building a layout of Ventnor station. West or Town ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GloryDays Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 Ventnor Town. But rather than hijack this thread, I will soon make one of my own! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyram Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 Ventnor Town. But rather than hijack this thread, I will soon make one of my own! When you do, make sure you post a link on here so we can all follow your progress too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectispete Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 Ventnor Town. But rather than hijack this thread, I will soon make one of my own!what scale are you modelling Ventnor Town in? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectispete Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 what scale are you modelling Ventnor Tow Signal box just requiring it's true surroundings !!! 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GloryDays Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 Quick question: how does your o2 like pulling that rake of coaches? Mine struggles with anything more than 2 58' Maunsell Hornby coaches... Meanwhile the signal box looks good! Can't wait to see the layout to match! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectispete Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 Quick question: how does your o2 like pulling that rake of coaches? Mine struggles with anything more than 2 58' Maunsell Hornby coaches... Meanwhile the signal box looks good! Can't wait to see the layout to match! the honest answer is I don't know.! I have 6 O2s - 4 Mashima motored and 2 porterscap. They all run very freely on my test track but alas the track is not long enough to add the coaches. They are fantastically constructed by Rodney Cooper at Rocar so pulling 4 coaches shouldn't be a problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWCR Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 Nice to see the pointwork underway, I am half way through building the same turnout in N. I am including the continuous check rail which runs from this crossing to the end of the platform road curve. Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 Signal box just requiring it's true surroundings !!!rake1.JPG That's a beautiful model of Cowes signalbox! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyram Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 Signal box just requiring it's true surroundings !!!rake1.JPG Great signal box model and lovely to see an O2 with a rake of appropriate coaches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Do you mean Ventnor Town or Ventnor? Ventnor Town was the station which was renamed Ventnor West and closed in the 1950s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted June 8, 2017 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 8, 2017 I've been really busy at work recently, so not had much modelling time. Managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions this week,and got the second point built... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 It's been a month since we last heard from you Nick. Have you been able to make any recent progress? Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted July 10, 2017 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 10, 2017 Hi Chris - there hasn't been much progress recently, as I've been too busy with other non-railway stuff. I have built one and a half more points (the main station throat one and halfway through the coal siding one), and the frame for the baseboard under St Mary's Road bridge - photos will follow when I've got a bit more done! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Hi Chris - there hasn't been much progress recently, as I've been too busy with other non-railway stuff. I have built one and a half more points (the main station throat one and halfway through the coal siding one), and the frame for the baseboard under St Mary's Road bridge - photos will follow when I've got a bit more done! Life's often like that unfortunately: other things come first. Still, it sounds like progress and doing a little whenever you get the chance soon accumulates. I've just sent off the CADs for the Ventnor West water tower. Base to be cut from 2mm ply and the tank will be plasticard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Yes, I know Mark - and I've operated Bembridge quite a few times! He's retired it from the exhibition circuit now though... And intends to return it to the circuit in due course having replaced the trackwork with handbuilt and simplified the electrics... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted October 27, 2017 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted October 27, 2017 I've been a bit quiet on here, but the layout has been progressing slowly - and this week the first train ran under it's own power. Naturally the honour went to an O2, albeit with a Birdcage set as I've not built enough Island coaches yet... 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now