Shepherdswell EKR - 1960’s , next show is Stafford in September 2024

[roundhouse]

Recently, I have been thinking about a new layout. I have some Harz HOm stock with plans to build a real location but in the Summer we didn't get chance to revisit the location as the German trains were way too busy to chance breaking our journey, so another trip is required aswell as more stock. I have also been thinking of a Scottish OO layout but again a lot of stock would need to be purchased.

 

Whilst browsing the forum I came across the Planet Industrial Victory loco. It looks superb. So thoughts started coming to mind on doing an industrial layout. I have a lot of OO scale wagons plus plenty of locos and coaches if I were to build something  within the Southern region. I also have two sheets for baseboard tops left over from a previous project.

 

At Warley last weekend Anoraks Anonymous had some Hornby Industrial locos at a very good price. One being NCB Kent Hunslet. The seed was sown and the green Victory was purchased from the Planet stand.

 

The NCB locos has now had a decoder fitted and weathering just about complete after resolving an issue with the chassis. There was a small moulding blip on the chassis where he centre axle bearing rests meaning that he loco rocked on the centre drivers. That was soon taken care of. It now runs very smoothly.

 

A book on the East Kent Railway was also obtained from the Warley show.

 

Whilst the current rough ideas don't call for an accurate model, it will be loosely based on the EKR. This meant to be a fairly cheap and quick layout using a fiddleyard that also fits on two other layouts really due to the fewer shows likely to still happen in our area and the affordability of long distance overnight shows, this layout should be highly detailed with a twist on the history of the EKR.

 

A name is still to be chosen.

 

Photos of the Hunslet to follow.

Edited May 26 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Here is the NCB Hunslet which has been weathered based on a colour photo including the rubbed out wording below 'National Coal Board'.

 

This loco survived in use till 1970 but was cut up.

[roundhouse]

Currently on the workbench is a Hornby Sentinel that I got from an estate that a friend has been dealing with. I have fitted a Hornby four pin decoder for now and painted the cab interior plus fitted a driver.

There were a few missing parts such as one of the sander pipes on the underneath of the body plus one of the lights. These have now been replaced and just requires a touch of paint.

 

This loco named 'Graham' was new in 1965 and was not for the East Kent Railway but with my planned change to the history of the line,  the engine shed that was demolished by 1950, survived quite a bit longer to become a maintenence base for industrial locos, so in my world this loco paid a brief visit to the line before heading to its new owners.

 

I am also thinking of keeping the passenger service till 1965 as new housing was planned for the area which in the end did not occur hence Beeching ending the service.

 

My time period will be 1960 to 1965.

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

I have been working on various minerals wagons on and off for a few weeks.

The first was an Airfix 16t wagon that I build many years ago and had been resting in a box of redundant wagons till I pulled it out, changed the tension locks to Kadees,  weathered it and added a better layer of coal.

 

Also I found an Ian Kirk 24.5 t wagon kit whilst looking for something else. I think this was one that a late friend had but I ended up with it after clearing all his modelling bits. It had a price tag of 75p. It took a bit of cleaning up of the moulded parts plus some wheels and Kadees.

 

These two wagons had a good run. On Bodmin Generally at Warley a few weeks ago.

 

The most recent wagon is another Airfix kit purchased on ebay and even came with a set of metal wheels. It has been weighted underneath and fitted with Kadees.  It's now almost ready for decals.

 

I will require quite a few more open wagons despite having a fair few in the stock box apart from these.

Edited August 15, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

I have been working my way through all the 16t mineral wagons in my stock box over the last week.

 

They have all had a weathering upgrade with some now having coal loads added. The loaded ones are generally the rtr ones where the sides had slightly bowed in. Using black styrene a false floor was created then black tissue paper added ontop to create the mound for the coal.

The latest one is a Parkside kit that arrived Friday afternoon and has just had the decals added. Hopefully it will be weathered tomorrow.

 

At present I have around 15 mineral wagons with three more kits on their way to me. I am planning on having 14 wagons per train, one loaded and one unloaded which will pass on the exchange sidings.

 

The loco will be heavily weathered and will probably remain without the EKR branding.

[roundhouse]

The current phase of building mineral wagons has now been completed. The empty Rake has had a good test run early this morning.

Will have a break from modelling now till in the new year when the track planning will be underway. I am very tempted to try and model the EKR side of Shepherdswell as it was at nationalisation but I will probably keep it like that till the mid sixties. Just need to find a good track diagram.

Edited December 22, 2022 by roundhouse

[nick_bastable]

http://disused-stations.org.uk/s/shepherdswell/index.shtml

 

may help

[roundhouse]

On 22/12/2022 at 19:30, nick_bastable said:

http://disused-stations.org.uk/s/shepherdswell/index.shtml

 

may help

Thankyou for the link. I have seen that and it gives some very good photos showing a fair amount of the track layout including the platform but its the track around the engine shed that I am a little unsure of.

I did see a track plan in a book but can't remember which one and so far nothing has shown up online.

Edited May 22, 2023 by roundhouse

[Curlew]

NLS Maps have the relevant details for a track plan 

 

View map: Kent LVII.11 (Sibertswold; Womenswold) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952 (nls.uk) and

 

View map: Kent LVII.12 (Coldred; Eythorne; Sibertswold) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952 (nls.uk)

 

 

 

 

[roundhouse]

On 22/12/2022 at 23:13, Curlew said:

NLS Maps have the relevant details for a track plan 

 

View map: Kent LVII.11 (Sibertswold; Womenswold) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952 (nls.uk) and

 

View map: Kent LVII.12 (Coldred; Eythorne; Sibertswold) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952 (nls.uk)

 

 

 

 

Thankyou very much for those links. That particularly helps with the engine shed track layout as I thought that there was a siding next to the two shed roads.

Edited May 22, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

After our trip away over Christmas and the new year I have now turned my attention back to the proposed layout. In the next week or so I hope to mark out the the track plan to see how it fits onto the boards.

In the meantime I have been running in the NCB loco on the High Line test circuit.

I have also been researching photos for a few other locos in my possession. This one is from Bristol Docks.

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Work on building further Airfix /Dapol 16t mineral wagons has continued. I now have just about enough for the empty train but still require a few more loaded wagons.

 

In the last week I temporarily laid out track and turnouts to make sure the proposed plan fits. Luckily it fits very well and I did consider using three foot boards instead of the planned four foot ones but it will be nice to make the layout look a bit more spacious. Also it would have made pairing one board with the already constructed four foot fiddleyard a bit tricky.

 

One existing board has been stripped of its American Freemo contents. This three foot board was only used once or twice some years ago, so once I add another foot to it, the board will at least have been repurposed rather than languish in the garage taking up valuable space.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Today the first board was lengthened thrn the legs fitted. The legs are those that are used on a few other layouts

So far there has been nothing spent on building the first two boards as I have used left over timber from previous layout construction but I will need to purchase more softwood to complete the third scenic board plus for the fiddleyard that goes on the end where the mainline connection would be.

 

The two coaches are where the single terminal platform will be.

 

 

[roundhouse]

The second scenic board is now up on legs.

 

A little bit more playing around with temporary track, I am now hoping to lay the platform at an angle along with the start of the loops. This should then allow the Eythorne end of the loops to curve as per the prototype.

However I will have to wait till the third scenic board has been constructed to finalise the track. Softwood for the board has been purchased and is now acclimatising prior to cutting and fitting to the board top.

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Today quite a bit of progress has been made on the layout.

 

Firstly I made a visit to Kernow in Guildford to get the Peco bullhead track and turnouts. Unfortunately they did not have any left hand turnouts so one has been ordered from elsewhere.

 

Luckily that didn't affect me laying three turnouts.

 

Back home we more accurate track position was marked on the boards using the new track then I could cut out the front area of thr board tops and fit the cut off pieces lower down. This will allow the shallow embankment to be formed.

 

As of this evening, two turnouts have been laid along with some flexi track.

 

The rest of the sidings will be formed from flat-bottomed rail on copper clad sleepers as per the prototype once I obtain the sleepers.

 

Hopefully tomorrow the first train will be run from the platform road along the front.

Edited February 23, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

This evening I ran the first trains along the main running line from the location of the passenger platform. The curve from the mainline will be laid once the final Peco bullhead turnout for the running line arrives in the post. The remaining track inccuding yard turnouts will be flat bottom rail on copper clad sleepers as per the prototype. The white plastic card under the track covers the holes in the baseboards for the Kadee uncoupling magnets.

 

The pint of Pilgrim Brewery beer was a toast to Chris F whos funeral was today.

 

RIP Chris.

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

I was up early this morning laying more cork sheet in readiness for when the sleepers arrive to lay the sidings and add the flat bottom spiked rails.

 

I had an old Airfix kit brake van out for repairs so I couldn't resist pairing it with my recently weathered Hornby Peckett.

 

 

[roundhouse]

Last night I completed laying the platform and adjacent siding tracks using DCC Concepts etched sleepers and Peco flat bottom rail. Normally I would have used copper paxalon sleepers but the current price makes them much dearer than buying ready made track. However I found the DCC Concepts sleepers at a much discounted price. They are the 1mm thick type so I did have to add another layer of cork. I have a few more packs of 1.6mm ones on their way. These will be used in the loop track.

 

The track was wired up last night then tested this morning before airbrushing the track with Precision track colour. I did need to put a new filter in my spray booth adjecent to the board in order to get a good ventilation in the shed.

 

Another five turnouts to build.

[Oldddudders]

There must be a tunnel somewhere up that line, because about 40 years ago ISTR organising an emergency exercise, for which an EPB coach was parked half-in, half out of the tunnel. One way to pass a Sunday!

 

Your layout looks a lot more interesting!

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

There must be a tunnel somewhere up that line, because about 40 years ago ISTR organising an emergency exercise, for which an EPB coach was parked half-in, half out of the tunnel. One way to pass a Sunday!

 

Your layout looks a lot more interesting!

It rejoices in the name of 'Golgotha tunnel'

[nick_bastable]

1 hour ago, Fat Controller said:

It rejoices in the name of 'Golgotha tunnel'

designed as twin track but only 1 and a bit excavated

image via 28 dayslater

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by nick_bastable
spelling

[Oldddudders]

That pic shows that there was a "ledge" on the south side, and that extended to the tunnel mouth. When I arrived on the Sunday, Divisional Manager Bob Newlyn was sitting up there, to be an observer. He retired in 1982, along with many, many others, so it can't be later than that Summer!

[roundhouse]

9 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

There must be a tunnel somewhere up that line, because about 40 years ago ISTR organising an emergency exercise, for which an EPB coach was parked half-in, half out of the tunnel. One way to pass a Sunday!

 

Your layout looks a lot more interesting!

Back in the early / mid 80's at the time of closure we tried to follow the line but only found the tunnel from a road crossing. Its a shame that we didnt have Google maps then.

 

The tunnel is a bit further along from the bit that I am modelling but would have made a good exit into the fiddleyard towards Eythorne and Tillmanstone colliery had it been closer.

 

Another couple of books arrived in the post in the last few days showing more useful photos including showing the constructed curve on an embankment from the tunnel towards the mainline avoiding the engine shed and sidings. This would have been a more level and gentler curve to the mainline but track was never laid all the way, so it was used as a dumping ground for old rolling stock with a tank trap positioned at the other end in WW2. I might be able to add the  embankment to the backscene but doubt that I could get any photos these days as the area is now very wooded. There are also some good photos showing the rebuilt engine shed. These will definitely be useful when the time comes to building that structure.

 

Two more scratchbuilt turnouts built today. Tomorrow I hope to pick up furhter materials to allow me to finish the trackwork. There is a deadline for the layouts first show in October, more on that once its confirmed.

[roundhouse]

More track construction took place over the weekend. All the scratch built turnouts have been wired and trains run through them.

 

However I have now run out of sleepers to continue plus attention will be given to other layouts that are due out at shows etc in March.

[roundhouse]

Another loco weathering nearly complete with a bit of weathering on the two workmens coaches. These Hornby six wheelers are quite close to those that the EKR had even the livery but I will have to remove the Southern Railway branding. The brake van is a Kernow ex LSWR one and is very much the same as the one that the EKR had apart from the markings.

 

My C Class has also been taken out its box and will be a regular performer on the layout  moving coal trains to and from the main line.

Edited March 1, 2023 by roundhouse