Belstead Lane - Mid 2000s East Anglia Nostalgia

[BelsteadLane]

Belstead Lane - A Mid 2000s OO gauge layout set on the GEML during the Anglia Railways to One transition.
 

My previous later, Wratting Road, met the skip a month or so ago and I’ve since then starting building a new layout taking its place. I fell out of love massively with WR, the motivation to carry on kept coming and going really quickly, I was fed up of its small size (10ft x 8ft) which meant I couldn’t push myself anymore, I was outgrowing it and it was holding me back. In the end, I entered negotiations to have a new layout take its place on a few conditions - the new layout ran around the perimeter of the 19ft x 12ft shed/outbuilding, it allowed a 7ft x 4ft pool table to reside in the middle of the room and still be used, and access to the shed was still easy. After coming to an agreement that ticked all of these boxes, the go ahead for the new layout was given and I filled with excitement - I had a lot more motivation to take the old layout apart than I had done building it the last couple of years! 
 

WR has been gone a month now and the baseboards for BL are half - completed. So far, I’ve built the boards for the fiddle yard with the scenic boards still yet to be built and will be laying all the cork and track before the I continue with building the scenic boards. I decided to go down the open frame or L girder method with baseboards as I intend to have the scenery both above and below track level and try to avoid the common issue of ‘forced scenery’ seen on most layouts.
 

 

Layout Setting: 

 

 

The layouts name will give a big clue on where it will be set. Belstead is located just South of Ipswich and Belstead bank is a very popular location for photography and spotting - I live about an hour from Ipswich/Belstead but fortunately there’s endless photos of trains on Belstead Bank on websites like Flickr which is what I mainly use for research and weathering inspiration - the joys of the internet I suppose! Im planning a suburban scene also based on the outskirts of Ipswich and a scratchbuilt replica of the Ipswich tunnel mouth will be one of the scenic breaks.  Following photos are from Flickr and aren’t owned by me. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Belstead Bank is very uneven and the terrain is all over the place in terms of height which will make the L girder baseboards come into their own. The 19ft of length should make some photos above possible in model form. The layout wont just be a simple two track mainline, I’m still in the process of deciding what else to include. The baseboards dimensions have been  4ft x 2ft as standard and will screw together.  some sections are 4x3 and a 3x2 section as well but I will make another post about track plans and baseboard plans in the future. But with only 2ft width to play with in most places, it’ll be difficult to facilitate a big depot or loads of sidings - the previous layouts main focus was a freightliner depot but I never used it and much preferred watching trains run by which is what I’ll be focusing more of with this layout.

 

Chosen Era:

 

WR was set in the mid 2010s in the ‘Abellio’ Era of Greater Anglia. Specifically 2014 to 2016 to which I believe was the last few years of when the GEML was actually Great. BL is being taken back another 10 years to the mid 2000s, focusing mainly on 2004 to 2007. During this Era, Anglia Railways had lost the Anglia franchise to National Express - along came National Express East Anglia  branded as ‘One’. The Anglia Railways turquoise Class 86 and Mk2f stock was slowly being replaced with Virgin Class 90 and Mk3 stock being transferred from the WCML as Pendolinos were entering service. The Class 90s and Mk3s would enter service on the GEML still in their Virgin colours , however they would lose the Virgin branding - The 90s would also loose the stripes leaving a plain red/black livery behind whilst the coaches would retain the stripes and only loose the logos. 90s and Mk3s would also go in for Overhaul and get repainted into a new Dark Blue ‘One’ livery featuring a rainbow design. The dark blue didn’t last very long only to be applied to a handful of stock - quickly to be changed for a lighter shade of blue which was applied to the rest of the fleet. The whole 90 and mk3 fleet was repainted by late 2006/early 07 judging from pictures I’ve seen so the Virgin livery did stick around for a little while. The Anglia 86 and Mk2f stock also stuck around til mid 2006 running alongside their replacements for quite some time.
 

EWS and Freightliner 90s were also hired in throughout this era, they were initially used in the early 2000s to test as potential replacements for the 86s and would be seen on the Mk2f stock. EWS Class 90s would still be used to cover for One 90s being overhauled. Many EWS Class 90s still carried their relevant predecessor livery - for example, 90036 seen above still carrying a two-tone grey  livery from its RFD days. Other examples include 90024 in Ex-GNER and 90019 ‘Penny Black’ in RES. It wasn’t uncommon for the Mk2 and Mk3 stock to run with eachother and I have plenty of photos of the two generations of coaches being mixed. Mk3 buffet coaches were common amongst the Mk2 sets and the older mk2 DBSOs would run with the newer Mk3s substituting for DVTs. As well as Anglia on the Mk2Fs, intercity swallow was also holding on to some stock. As a result of all of this, there is lots of variation to be had just on the  loco hauled passenger workings! 

Photos don’t belong to me again. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The variation doesn’t stop there, on freight, Class 57s were still seen on container services alongside the newer Class 66s. Class 60s operating aggregates trains from the various terminals across the region. Class 47s were used as thunderbirds as well as set drags across the Wherry lines. Ipswich tunnel was closed in 2004 and trains had to be dragged by diesel to Cambridge. I won’t be modelling this event but will take inspiration from it for sure. The 47s were owned by Cotswold Rail and were hired to Anglia/One, with 47714 and 818 receiving Anglia Railways livery and One livery respectively. Ex-Virgin 47810 ‘Porterbrook’ also made appearances amongst a few others. Class 20s we’re mainly seen on RHTT circuits and nuclear flask trains, Class 37s were typically on test trains but I have pictures with them running alongside the 20s on RHTT and flask trains. 
 

With DMUs, the Class 170 is the main unit seen south of Ipswich, Class 150 and 156s were occasional on Harwich services but these were mainly seen on the regional services to Cambridge, Peterborough, and Ely. If I ever see a RTR Class 321 come to light then that will be the only EMU I purchase. There’s potential to convert a Bachmann 350 into a 360 but the 360s were brand new at the time I’m modelling so a 321 would be preferred- plus there’s a few liveries to be had with the dusty bins! 
 

 

This is more than long enough now, but hopefully this gives a good impression of what’s to come. Baseboard plans, Layout plans etc will follow soon! 
 

Jack. 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by WrattingRoad

[DavidMcKenzie]

Hi Jack,

 

Looks like a great idea for a layout and the potential to run class 90s in many different liveries is always a good thing 🙂.

 

All the best,

Dave

[tstageman92]

Will be following this with great interest Jack, I live in Brantham, a mere 10 min drive from Belstead Bank, and have been out photographing on the GE since the mid 2000s! 

 

 

[BelsteadLane]

Progress is coming on well - I’ve recently been on the laptop more than anything coming up with track plans I like the look of which also don’t quite break the bank and use up all the old track and points from WR. 
 

The baseboards were designed to be modular so when/if the time comes the layout needs to be moved, it can be with ease. Plywood was adopted as the main material The layout consists mostly of 4x2 boards, with a few 4x3 and a couple of 3x2 boards - one of the 3x2s is the lift out section. The fiddle yard boards are all built so far and are traditional flat boards whilst the scenic section will be open frame. The fiddle yard will be on the same side as the shed door so then I don’t have join lines in the scenery and the OHLE won’t need to be messed around with everytime I use the shed. Instead, I’ll have to take stock on and off which I can live with.

 

Here’s the overall Baseboard Plan
 

 

These photos show the fiddle yard boards and their basic construction using plywood framework and tops. The very first time I’ve built baseboards or done woodwork to this level. The legs are a metre tall and the tops sit flush with the tops of the framework. The scenic area will be built with the same framework but the legs will about 6 inches lower making them about 850mm tall. And then the track base will be brought up to the same level as the fiddle yard.  
 

 

These photos show the lift out section , which can also be slid into position. Quite pleased with how this turned out. 

Sliding bolt racks used on each corner to lock it in place with no lateral movement 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were all primed with white exterior paint and I took the time to paint underneath too to aid visibility when working underneath the layout. Whilst my eyesite is perfectly okay,  I can’t deny that it does help! 

 

 

 

 

 

The cork is currently being laid and not much left to do now so I can get cracking on with laying the track. Which brings me on to the track plan. It took a while to come up with something I was happy with but I finally got there. 

 

 

 

This is just the fiddle yard for now - the scenic is still a WIP. The fiddle yard is a traditional ‘up and down’ fiddle yard with a total of 13 lines. 4 up freight lines , 4 down freight lines and 5 bi directional lines. The freight lines are split between 2 shorter lines and 2 longer lines - this applies to both up and down. The longer lines will hold the longest freight trains - mostly the Felixstowe container trains. I’d like to model the North Walsham - Harwich tankers too. With the 19ft length, I should be able to have these close to their prototypical length! The shorter lines will hold examples like RHTT, Nuclear Flask, Test Trains and any other short example. The bi directional lines will hold DMUs along with the Class 90s and 86s with their Mk2 and mk3 coaches and these have the ability to enter and exit the fiddle yard from both sides and cross over to the correct running line before entering the scenic section.  They’re long enough to hold them in their full 2+9 length. The short terminus on the left will hold a few freightliner locos for a some sidings I plan to have in the scenic section. 
 

After using some track to test clearances, I was happy and ordered the points I need! Once the track is laid, I’ll be adding some boards either side to stop stock from falling if a derailment occurs. The tracks are spaced 30mm apart from the short sidings which are 25mm apart. Just about squeezes into the 2ft wide board! 
 

 

 

 

I already have a couple of boxes of new track and the points should be here early next week. Hoping that I can have it all laid and powered up by the end of this month! 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by BelsteadLane

[Clive martin]

Hi this looks like its going to be a fantastic layout,your wratting road layout was built to a high standard,Belstead bank is a great location to model ,are you going to include the road beside the bank? I look forward to seeing more of this layout,flickr is a great place for finding inspiration over the last few weeks i have been working on a lot of anglian traction ,today i have just started work on 47 579 and have found over four hundred photographs of this loco on Flickr!keep up the great work 

[BelsteadLane]

13 hours ago, Clive martin said:

Hi this looks like its going to be a fantastic layout,your wratting road layout was built to a high standard,Belstead bank is a great location to model ,are you going to include the road beside the bank? I look forward to seeing more of this layout,flickr is a great place for finding inspiration over the last few weeks i have been working on a lot of anglian traction ,today i have just started work on 47 579 and have found over four hundred photographs of this loco on Flickr!keep up the great work 

Thanks Clive. If you’re talking about the A137 then possibly. Makes sense although the shape of it would mean it wouldn’t run for very long, it’ll run behind the railway and is lower than the track level so may not be seen very well. I am debating whether to model the bridge crossing the A14 - the scenic section overall is still a WIP whilst I think of ideas and what elements of the scenery around the bank I want to include. 

[Clive martin]

Thanks for your reply ,i think building your fiddle yard first is a very wise way of going about layout building, you must be very pleased having plenty of storage for your trains at this stage in your layouts construction ,this will avoid any frustration or disappointment  once you start the scenic section!

[BelsteadLane]

1 hour ago, Clive martin said:

Thanks for your reply ,i think building your fiddle yard first is a very wise way of going about layout building, you must be very pleased having plenty of storage for your trains at this stage in your layouts construction ,this will avoid any frustration or disappointment  once you start the scenic section!

Going from a 10ft x 8ft layout with no fiddle yard  to a 19 x 12 with what I’ve designed is definitely very pleasing … until you realise it all costs money 🤣

[BelsteadLane]

Last weekend, I reached the first major milestone of the new layout and that is completing all of the baseboards thanks to having some time Saturday and Sunday which very rarely happens now. Very pleased with how they came out.
 

I spent a few evenings this week doing some adjusting and fine tuning mainly on the legs to get everything level so I was happy. I need to add some adjustable feet to some legs to help settle them and eliminate any unwanted movement so then all the boards are solid and won’t move at all if knocked. Once that is completed, I can seal them with PVA! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as well as this, I finished laying all the cork down on the fiddle yard boards so now I can start planning and laying the track for it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the feet have been added and the new boards have been sealed then I will take a short break to recharge the modelling batteries. It’s been two months into the build so far so could use a break. At least when I return, the more fun and exciting stages of layout building can begin. 

[Dagworth]

Good to see another Anglian layout, I’ll be watching progress with interest. 
 

Andi

[BelsteadLane]

11 hours ago, Dagworth said:

Good to see another Anglian layout, I’ll be watching progress with interest. 
 

Andi

Thanks Andi. 
 

I think I’ve seen you commenting in threads regarding ohle in the past with some impressive designs and knowledge so may end up picking your brains at some point when I go down the route of building mine 👍

 

Jack

[BelsteadLane]

About time I posted an update! 
 

not a huge amount of progression recently. I took a bit of a break shortly after completing the baseboards as I had spent a couple of months well… building them! I got round to adding the bracing to the legs though and also added some self adhesive rubber pads to the bottoms of some legs as I was having trouble with some scenic baseboards sliding on the laminate floor in the shed - goes to show how lightweight these things are! I havn’t got a photo of the pads added, instead, have a failed attempt at having adjustable feet!

 

 

 

 

 

something I done recently, was readdress the liftout section. It’s now been turned into a slide out. I found some ‘medium duty’ rollers which have a payload of 45Kg making them ideal. Wasn’t a straight forward job and the baseboard itself needed some slight adjustment but I’m very happy with the result. It fits a lot better than it did previously, and is now much easier than lifting it out everytime. The door can be opened about half way, which for me, is enough room to get out of the shed - It can be extended out further so the door can open fully. It can also still be fully removed if needed. Which means it ticks all the boxes.  I plan to allow stock to remain on the slide out board once I’ve added some fascia’s either side and removeable barriers using magnets - hopefully it works! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All happy with the baseboards now and ready to move on to track laying the fiddle yard! 
 

The new layout made its debut on YouTube as well. Thought I’d give it another go! I talk about what I have planned for the new layout in more detail in regards to what I want to put where etc. but other than that, everything else is already written about here! 
 

Belstead Lane Debut

 

 

About to jet off to Crete for 10 days to enjoy a nice break in the sun. I can begin track laying the fiddle yard once I’m back!

 

[CazRail]

Just watched your video on YouTube, really looking forwards to seeing this develop. 

A really colourful and interesting era for the Ipswich area in terms of the locos and rollingstock, with so much variety. The ability to have such a range of liveries and stock running together will be good to see. 

 

All the best with this layout, I'll be following.

[BelsteadLane]

Had a great time in Crete apart from some severely burnt shoulders 😖 and had to fight off a nasty cold when I got back to the UK. Going from mid 30s to below 20 degrees in ‘summer’ really does hit you! 🤒

 

I did start building the fiddle yard this week, and after much trial and error, and back and forth, I’m finally getting somewhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Managed to lay most of the point work at the start of the fiddle yard on one side, and five of the storage lines. Layed the four freight sidings, the two short sidings and the beginnings of the two long sidings. Using the Tracksetta tools proved massively helpful and managed to keep the bends 4th radius or more meaning even in the fiddle yard, the bends will be kept gentle. The points are all Peco streamline and are a mix of short and medium radius. Added dropper wires to each piece of track and the points had their modifications, dropper wires added, frog wire added, and holes drilled where possible for point motors. A little bonus was, I found a few old Peco streamline short radius insulfrog points from my dads old layout. These were still very clean, no previous ballast or track weathering so I put them to use. But of course, needed some work to ‘convert’ them into almost an electro frog point. 
 

The short sidings will have enough space to hold trains like a 4 car EMU, RHTT and flask trains. The long sidings once fully fitted should hold a loco + 18 container wagons. The sidings for the loco hauled passenger trains should be long enough so the coaches can be split in the middle, dragged to either side and not be on the slide out section. If all this proves successful, I may ditch the slide out rollers and go back to how it was before and remove the last couple of wagons from the trains in the long sidings if required. 
 

It’s all been a lot of work, particularly the prep but it’s far easier adding the wires prior to laying the track rather than lay the track first. The bends in the fiddle yard, I used appropriate vehicles to test clearances - a 170 car and Class 66 to test the clearance on the shorter sidings for example so I won’t have to worry about trains colliding on the corners. 
 

Im getting out of the habit of setting targets as they’re always optimistic I find. But with a lot of spare time coming up, I’m hoping to have this board finished and the slide out tracks laid by the end of next week. 

[BelsteadLane]

Another week of track laying on the fiddle yard. 
 

Made good progress this week which saw the first couple of boards finished for the fiddle yard. Laid the rest of the curves but unfortunately, found that I didn’t have enough room for my original plan which was to have two shorter sidings on each side. The straights needed to sweep out slightly in order to get enough clearance for stock on the curves.
 

 

 

 Instead, I settled for an extra long freight siding, meaning I now have 2 short ‘down’ sidings, 2 long ‘down’ freight sidings, 5 bi directional loco hauled sidings which can enter and exit the fiddle yard on each line and 3 ‘long’ freight sidings on the up line. I took the decision to make the straight tracks over a little, now that I had some more room on the straights. They don’t sweep out so much now and it also gave me more clearance from the baseboard edge. 
 

 

 

these were taken just before laying that final long track. But you get the idea. The medium radius left point furthest to the right on the bottom photo here, the third long freight siding joined to the turnout , whilst the straight has been left blank for now until the scenic section is in place and I can see what room I have for a depot. 
 

 

 

 

 

Once happy with those boards, I moved onto the lift out section. I say liftout because i reverted it to its previous set up as I found I had more room than previously anticipated. The passenger sets I can split down the middle and have plenty of room for them to be stored on each side of the fiddle yard. The long freight trains may just need a couple of wagons taken off in order to be split and stored properly. I’d much rather this than have a slide out with the stock remaining on it and taking risks! 
 

Spent yesterday afternoon and evening laying almost all of the track on the slide out section. I used sleepers with solder pads for the end sleepers to help with alignment - these sleepers are made by dccconcepts. Once soldered, rails are cut if needed and then used a steel ruler to check if it’s level and then the ‘push a wagon over it’ test to check for any nasty bumps. 

 

it’s really starting to come together now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once that final track is laid, I can begin laying the track on the other side - Al going well, it’ll be all completed within the next couple of weeks!

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by BelsteadLane

[WCML100]

Looking forward to seeing this layout progressing - especially with the vibrant selection of mix match rolling stock liveries on offer around this period! Keep up the good work 😄

[Caledonian Gateway]

4 hours ago, WCML100 said:

Looking forward to seeing this layout progressing - especially with the vibrant selection of mix match rolling stock liveries on offer around this period! Keep up the good work 😄

I don't think he's doing any more work on this layout unfortunately. He posted on his Instagram page he was having to stop and since then has deleted the account as well as the Facebook and Youtube account. Not sure what has happened but hope he's OK.

[WCML100]

21 hours ago, Caledonian Gateway said:

I don't think he's doing any more work on this layout unfortunately. He posted on his Instagram page he was having to stop and since then has deleted the account as well as the Facebook and Youtube account. Not sure what has happened but hope he's OK.

thats a shame 🙁

[BelsteadLane]

Don’t worry, I’m still alive! 
 

as others have said, I did indeed step away from the layout and hobby and took my work out of the public eye but rest assured it is all still published, the Facebook page is up and running, YouTube account is active again, but I’m still yet to reactivate Instagram which I may do at some point. But I did step back from the hobby for reasons I won’t explain but I did have a change of heart recently which made me want to carry on with the layout build. I did sell off a lot of stock but fortunately it wasn’t needed for Belstead Lane. 
 

Since I’ve returned I’ve continued laying the track in the fiddle yard making good progress and it’s almost completed with only 3 more lanes/roads to lay. I done a test on the completed down long sidings and found a loco + 18 container wagons will fit on these so I’m happy with this result. 
 

 

 

 

 

Not far off finishing this now and I also have the track ready for the scenic section so track base building and track laying for the scenic section isn’t too far away now! 
 

it’s good to be back. 

[Dagworth]

3 minutes ago, BelsteadLane said:

It’s good to be back

Welcome back!

 

Have you seen my insane Ipswich model?

 

Andi

[BelsteadLane]

1 minute ago, Dagworth said:

Welcome back!

 

Have you seen my insane Ipswich model?

 

Andi

can’t see that I have but of course I’m very interested! Have you got a link?

[WCML100]

48 minutes ago, BelsteadLane said:

Don’t worry, I’m still alive! 
 

as others have said, I did indeed step away from the layout and hobby and took my work out of the public eye but rest assured it is all still published, the Facebook page is up and running, YouTube account is active again, but I’m still yet to reactivate Instagram which I may do at some point. But I did step back from the hobby for reasons I won’t explain but I did have a change of heart recently which made me want to carry on with the layout build. I did sell off a lot of stock but fortunately it wasn’t needed for Belstead Lane. 
 

Since I’ve returned I’ve continued laying the track in the fiddle yard making good progress and it’s almost completed with only 3 more lanes/roads to lay. I done a test on the completed down long sidings and found a loco + 18 container wagons will fit on these so I’m happy with this result. 
 

 

 

 

 

Not far off finishing this now and I also have the track ready for the scenic section so track base building and track laying for the scenic section isn’t too far away now! 
 

it’s good to be back. 

 

Great to have you back - will be following with interest 👍🏻

[BelsteadLane]

The fiddle yard is all complete now with the final curves laid and joining the straights to the pointwork. Wow! Thank god it’s over. I’m going to add the scenic track in first before I wire it all up - I can wait 😅

 

The next task is to install backboards and fascias for protection so the locos and stock doesn’t get hit when the pool table is being used or falls off the edges.