A Box of Cakes in a Cake Box - Smell

[peter220950]

As soon as I saw the challenge my thoughts turned to my late modelling buddy Bob, who worked for many years for Cadbury Cakes until the factory closed in 1971, the site was at nearby Blackpole in Worcestershire.

 

 

Having spent 25 years studying the Cadbury Bournville rail system I couldn't fail to have gained some knowledge of smaller systems in other associated factories, loco's were exchanged and histories intertwined, so the mention of cake immediately said Cadbury Blackpole to me, where Cadbury Cakes were based.

 

 

 

 

Two rail systems existed in the Works, which was taken over as a Royal Ordinance factory during the Second World War. The Standard gauge played host to a Manning Wardle 0-6-0 that moved there from its initial use helping to construct a new line in Bournville in the 1920's.

Also used was a tiny Peckett, ex Royal Ordinance, that moved to Bournville after the War, then back to Blackpole as it couldn’t hack the steep gradients in Bournville.

 

I have a part built MW, and drawings and wheels ready to scratchbuild the Peckett, but they will still be a bit too big for what I have in mind.

 

A Ruston Hornsby also ran in the works, which later worked in the coal yard adjoining Droitwich station, about 200 yards from my house, but again even that is a bit on the large size.

 

 

Also at Bournville in the 20's was a Motor Rail Simplex narrow gauge loco, which when finished with also passed to Blackpole, where a 2ft narrow gauge system existed as well, as witnessed by the remaining traces of track.

 

 

 

At one point the narrow gauge line ran under the British Railways Main line, through a tiny bridge, and on one side ran into the Works almost at right angles to the bridge.

 

The bridge still exists.

 

 

 

 

So the scene is to be the bridge and works building, roughly at 45 degrees to the view point, with the Simplex running back and forth with a small wagon containing........ a box of cakes.

 

Fortunately in my quest to build all the Cadbury Bournville loco's I have already completed a Simplex, so the motive power is sorted, it just needs a coat of paint and it's done.

 

 

 

Seemed to fit the brief pretty well for me anyway.

 

Peter

Edited October 15, 2017 by peter220950

[Guest Midland Mole]

My grandmother worked at Cadbury Blackpole for a number of years, so I have a particular interest in this one.

Alex

Edited October 9, 2017 by Midland Mole

[teaky]

I used to work in an office around 500m from that factory when we first moved to Worcestershire.  I had no idea about the history of that location.  It has always been an industrial estate as long as I have known it.  I have walked past the loading wharf a number of times on the opposite bank of the canal and been interested and pleased to see the building is still maintained to a certain extent implying that loading and unloading of canal barges might still be possible.

 

Like Midland Mole, I'll be watching this one with added interest.

[peter220950]

I think there was some barge traffic between factories until quite late in the 50's, but I also remember regularly seeing the tankers full of,(I believe), hot chocolate that used to run from Bournville down to Blackpole in the 60's and early 70's.

 

Peter

[Mick Bonwick]

 hot chocolate that used to run from Bournville down to Blackpole in the 60's and early 70's.

 

Peter

 

I'll bet it wasn't hot by the time it got there!

[peter220950]

Yes, I could have phrased that better! It went by road tanker, not gravity.

 

Not sure if they had heaters in the tanker, or relied on insulation and a high starting temperature, but yes, it was, it was pumped out at the other end.

 

Like concrete mixers I assume a vehicle breakdown would result in a pretty catastrophic amount of damage.

 

The journey time was only about 35 or 40 minutes, but that was in the days before the M5. With a new four lane smart motorway it now takes around an hour.

 

Peter

[Nearholmer]

Fascinating!

 

What did the narrow gauge convey?

 

I'm imagining skip wagons filled with chocolate-coated raisins and peanuts. (Being shunted to the back door of our house)

 

K

[peter220950]

Fascinating!

What did the narrow gauge convey?

 

K

Almost all of the internal distribution was by the narrow gauge lines.

 

On the map at the top of the thread its everything except the large U shaped standard gauge line with a passing loop that connects up to the main line. Thus there could be pretty much anything from timber, tinplate, ingredients and machinery, travelling from the canal wharf or between departments.

 

Had a quick site visit today to get some decent pictures of the bridge,

 

 

It's a bit bigger than I imagined, so I now need to do a scale drawing, it might be too big for the scene so I will then have to decide on compression or a drop to 4mm/ft, the advantage of using the real thing is that I can get all the details of decay and undergrowth that exist.

 

I was surprised to see that the original buildings are still in evidence, I had assumed it was all new, but in fact most of the cladding is covering the old fabric.

 

 

 

And it's nice to see a nod to its heritage.

 

 

Off to do a bit of drawing now, and then a review to see which way to go.

 

Peter

[MJI]

I don't live too far from there.

 

Used a couple of places in there for hydraulic compnents and machining

[peter220950]

Having made a quick mock-up back in October last year I have done little to any of my cake boxes since.

A combination of building the new man cave shed, Christmas, and a lack of mojo has sidelined all my projects, but there has been some positive movement recently.

Progress on the smelly cakebox has been dependent upon getting some specific parts, but these have been sitting on the workbench for a few weeks now, so it was time to start getting some modelling done.

The more I looked at the mock-up, the more the tunnel looked a bit too small, so the first step has been to create a second mock up with a larger bore.

 

 

I went through the bits box but could only find a couple of bits of brick plastic card, one of which was attached to foam core, these bits were used to refine the mock-up and get something I was happy with.

 

 

At this stage my OCD brain kicked on and I wasted a day on something that was totally pointless, I don't like the burnt edges of the Model Scenics mdf bases, so spent some time sanding the edges to get rid of the dark brown on areas that would show on the finished diorama,

 

 

 

To compound the madness I then spent time with a tiny paint brush highlighting the makers logo, though why I should advertise someone's product for nothing defies logic, I could just have reversed it to lose the logo altogether, but then that's the beauty of these boxes, you can happily waste an hour or two on pointless detail.

 

 

Having completed the base I started on the third and final version, I don't have any brick card left, so the finishing will have to wait until after the Bristol O Gauge show, but the base was cut from foam core in order to lay out all the complicated bits that will be hidden.

 

 

Once the walls were all laid out, and the complicated geometry of walls sloping in two directions mastered, the markings on the base were used to mark out holes for the smelly bits.

 

 

When I originally started modelling Cadburys I thought that the smell of the factory would be good to reproduce. Being brought up in the area the smell that permeates the surroundings is something that leaves a lasting memory in my mind. My first thoughts were to run a chocolate fountain under the layout, but this is not a practical solution, particularly in a cake box, however the discovery of burning oils that are chocolate scented, has solved the problem.

Two of the holes are for bottles of oil, each will contain reeds to absorb the oil and draw it up in front of a couple of computer fans that draw in air through the other two holes. The air will then be channelled out through the tunnel mouth, that's the theory anyway.

 

 

 

Once installed the fans were surrounded by the walls and sealed in with boxings of foam core.

 

 

A switch is installed within the space below the deck, and holes and ducting constructed to suck in fresh air.

 

 

The final scheme will have a battery box built into the below deck void and keep everything within the required dimensions.

The walls have now all been fixed, with the exception of the tunnel mouth wall, and await cladding with brick card when I get it.

 

 

Once the walls are clad I can get the paving in to rail level, then there will only be the other four boxes and a Cameo to do.

 

Peter