Upbech St Mary, Upbech Drove and Pott Row a journey through 00 and then into EM and 009.

[john flann]

Martyn, not so bad as you first thought. That's good and many times the case.

 

But the substance of your comment is in the last sentence as we can lose sight of the fact that running a layout is, and certainly to many the essence of the hobby. We should do it more often.

 

I have found that true in my case as in re-furbishing Hintock TQ i have once again become taken by its overall appearance and qualities of playability.  I had neglected it through force of circumstances and whilst doing other things.

[mullie]

Running trains is always priority for me. Whenever I have built a layout getting trains running is what fires me on to the next step. I really enjoy all aspects of modelling but running trains is great at the end of a difficult day at work or when I get a more substantial block of time at weekends. Really therapeutic.

[mullie]

All work on the actulal layout has stopped as the fiddle yards dry out. They seem to have survived quite well though I am allowing an extra week just to see if any of the wood starts to warp. All stock has been removed and at least the scenic part of the layout was unaffected.

 

Work on the station building continues based on Cressing near Braintree. It has taken since September to get this far and still some way to go. Built from Slaters and Wills parts in plasticard.

 

WP_20151212_12_20_06_Pro.jpg

 

The black around the bottom is the building extended downwards so it can be bedded in.

Really enjoyed building this model and it has taken since September to get this far. However, the building looks wrong when put in place as it is slightly too wide, I could put it in place but it would look wrong so back to the drawing board.

 

I have a Wills bus shelter which doesn't look unlike some platform shelters in East Anglia e.g. on the Buntingford branch and lines around Wisbech, I have a ground level signal box which I bought as with some work I believe it could look similar to some platform huts and some Wills cast iron toilets so there is plenty of scope for sorting out this problem. Space is very tight on the layout and buildings are wide.

 

Believe it or not my thoughts are turning to future developments on this layout beyond next year. To build my own pointwork was a massive step and I've surprised myself with how well the layout works. However, next summer I might start slowly building some more pointwork with a view to completely rebuilding the station board in around two years time around the tenth anniversary of starting the layout.

 

Freight flows have become more important and I am inclined to rebuild based on the exchange sidings at Abbey and West Dereham station on the Stoke Ferry branch where traffic for the Wissington sugar beet factory was worked. The station building I have just built would be part of that plan. Only the station board would be rebuilt not the mpd board, at least initially. However, that could of course all change!

[john flann]

Martyn, all food for thought-and it appears you have made some New Year resolutions.

 

A step back, as you have done when things aren't going right is always a good idea.

 

Whatever you decide will be interesting to follow.

[mullie]

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all those who have followed my ramblings during 2015.

[mullie]

Amazing what we build over the years. the recent flood has caused me to go through many of the boxes I had been hanging onto just in case I needed them. I got away lightly as no stock or the layout were damaged but some tools were damaged, spare wire, some books etc. Most of it can be replaced but living here that is always an online order as my nearest decent model shop is well over an hours drive even if I have the time. Bit of an indulgence but I bet many of us have a collection like this. Due to lack of space my collection is relatively small compared to many and due to limited budget I try not to buy anything I'm unlikely to use. OK here goes:

 

The chaos of reorganisation!

 

 

Colchester station building in low relief built for a project back in 2008. The slots in the rear are for lighting.

 

 

Essex cottage based on a prototype but looks nothing like it!

 

 

Wills bits and pieces.

 

 

Two goods sheds one scratch built, one heavily adapted from Wills garages.

 

 

Bet lots of people have or had one of these! This one picked up cheap off Ebay years ago.

 

 

Wills again, this time some huts, signal boxes and a pill box.

 

 

Loco projects. I'm itching to get the J70s working so they will be a priority this year I think. 4mt tender without tablet catcher and an old Jaycraft Claud body for fitting to a Hornby L1 4-4-0. I now own a lovely Hornby Claud so this will never be completed but shown as this is how we used to have to think!

 

 

Cottage, a starter project from the Peco book by Mike Gill, built over 15 years ago and retained for sentimental reasons.

 

 

Suffolk pub or part of it based on a prototype from years ago.

 

 

I suppose the last two show how long I have been building things sometimes when I didn't even have a layout. Some will be reused but I suspect the majority won't but you just never know so I suppose that is why we all hang onto so much. "It'll come one handy one day!"

 

My spare stock collection is very small as I have few childhood trains as many got lost in the numerous moves I made in my twenties and I have almost no rolling stock. I started again pretty much from scratch around 1995 after getting married and finding I had somehow purchased a house with a loft, how did that happen!

 

 

 

 

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

Getting those J70's running again will be fun, love that type of tinkering.

 

All the best, for the New Year,

 

manna

[john flann]

Thanks Martyn for sharing that, yes it is amazing what we have tucked away-when we find it!

Edited December 28, 2015 by john flann

[mullie]

Warmer today so ventured out into the garage. While the layout is not being regularly used I took the time to replace an uneven piece of track where locos, especially short wheelbase ones, occasionally stalled. Having dug everything out a foundation of balsa was laid. The track has since been fixed and copperclads will be used at each end to secure the track and wiring. Soldering should be completed tonight.

 

 

Canopy built for the station building using Wills parts. I've tried to find the correct valence style  in 4mm for Cressing but to no avail and scratchbuilding from plasticard defeated me. I don't have access to any sort of laser cutter at the moment though that might change. Once on the layout the station building will be seen from the back so I think I can live with the compromise. The Wills valence is not unlike some in the GE area but a shame not to be able to use the correct one.

 

 

[john flann]

I agree with you Martyn, if it doesn't run properly what's the point. Fix it, enjoy it!

[RAYTHEROCK]

Mullie - just one question on this  superb GE layout - how did you make all those sugar beet please?

 

Hornby has certainly served us swedies well - B17, J15, D16/3, new B12 coming, -  'tannia's, Sandies and Dub-D's were the locos of my first interest in Elsenham 1950-2 - love them all.

[mullie]

Thank you for the kind comments.

 

The sugar beet loads are Ten commandments, mine still need a bit of toning down and I've just taken delivery of another three.

 

My layout is changing to be more rural and Fenland inspired and I'm increasingly interested in the very early BR time frame when much of the stock was pre grouping in places like Pott Row. This is a very long term project as I buy just one or two major pieces of rolling stock per year but it remains an absorbing project.

[RAYTHEROCK]

I thought maybe you had rolled them all out of DAS or something!

 

Raytherock

[mullie]

I thought maybe you had rolled them all out of DAS or something!

 

Raytherock

I simply don't have the time. The Ten Commandments castings are really good so it seems silly not to use them.

[mullie]

Garage way to cold so a bit more work has been done on the sugar beet train. Information is being gleaned from period photos and in the early 50s most wagons seem to have been wooden. Still a long way to go but additional colour has been applied to the loads as they were too light.

 

 

All loads are removeable so both full and empty trains can be run.

 

Also started applying some colour to the platform tonight involving much dry brushing but nothing worth showing yet.

[john flann]

Martyn, a nice collection of wagons there looking well worn and weary as they might well do, considering their use and your period.

 

But I can't forebear remarking that if Kadees are criticized for their unprototypical appearance (and which I'm happy to use) the same could apply here!

 

However, seeing that your happy with them that is the end of the story.

[mullie]

John

 

Any sort of auto coupling is a compromise. I've looked into using Kadees lots of times and even got as far as pricing them up and researching how to fit them to UK outline stock and convert my layouts. What has kept me with S&W couplings is the fact that a loco can have full buffer beam detail and a largely unobtrusive loop on the front. Some people have problems fitting them to coaching stock but the system I use, not my own I hasten to add, is quite easy and with 3 feet as a minimum radius coaching stock is just as reliable as wagons.

 

As you say it is a personal choice, the S&W couplings were once described to me as looking like instruments of torture close up and I can see their point. Another factor for me is that having seen Kadees in action at the few exhibitions I attend they don't seem to be any more reliable than S&Ws if set up properly. S&Ws are also a bit cheaper but require building and soldering from etched parts which will put some people off.

 

Couplings, as you say are a personal choice and when I eventually build that US outline layout I've been aspiring to for years I will try them.

 

Thanks for your interest.

 

Martyn

[john flann]

Quite right Martyn, Kadees are by no means 100% perfect, but they are excellent for coupling, uncoupling is a different matter, that is why I don't use their magnets ( because they are never in the right place) and employ instead my miniature version of a trusty shunting pole.

 

What you have seen of Kadees at exhibitions gets them a bad name.

 

By the way we had about 8" of snow overnight with more forecast. Something you are not likely to see where you are.

[mullie]

Quite right Martyn, Kadees are by no means 100% perfect, but they are excellent for coupling, uncoupling is a different matter, that is why I don't use their magnets ( because they are never in the right place) and employ instead my miniature version of a trusty shunting pole.

 

What you have seen of Kadees at exhibitions gets them a bad name.

 

By the way we had about 8" of snow overnight with more forecast. Something you are not likely to see where you are.

John

 

It is really cold in Dorset today, there was a relatively light frost on Portland last night and it is colder today.  There is snow across parts of the UK and a 100 mile band moving south over the next few days, who knows if it will come to Portland. We've been to Winchester today and it is always interesting to note how much harder the frost is once you cross the Ridgeway and head north.

 

However, we will never get the kind of snow you get, although as I lived in some remoter parts of Essex when I was younger (yes they do exist) it was not unknown for us only to be able to get out using a 4X4 or a tractor when it snowed as the roads were very difficult to drive on as they never got gritted and probably still don't.

 

Martyn

[mullie]

Progress is very slow at the moment due to life getting in the way! The station building has however moved on and has had its brick painted. I felt I wanted to reflect the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk setting by using the light brick colour typical of the area even though the prototype is in conventional red brick. I may even add the red brick decorations typical of Stoke Ferry branch stations.

 

It has taken since September to get this far and to complete the platform buildings could easily take a year at this rate.

 

 

With canopy leant on the front

 

 

 

Valancing is Wills as I've been unable to build or source something closer to the original so this will do for the moment. Painting to be completed over the next few weeks.

 

The columns will obviously be straight when finished and the building properly bedded down as it already goes below the platform surface(please see earlier posts).

[mullie]

Just found what could be some suitable valence on the York Modelmaking site so have ordered it. Could arrive in the next few days.

[mullie]

At last a small amount of progress, the station building begun in September is at last coming together. Here are some shots of painting in progress. The York Modelmaking valences are superb.

 

 

 

Photos taken with iPad hence the quality.

[mullie]

Trains returned to Pott Row today for the first time since the flood, no trains running just stock put back in place ready for a session although I need to reprint the draft timetable as the original with all my notes was destroyed. A lot of work has gone on in the meantime although only slowly due to pressure of work as detailed previously,

 

I have  got a substantial way towards a new station building complex and I've also been working on increasing the number of open wagons conveying coal and sugar beet, two staple traffics of the line as befits the early 50s status of the line. The wagons are a real mix of kits and rtr mainly Bachmann and even those with factory weathering have been treated as I'm sure I can improve on the factory finish. Quite a number are PO wagons with the original finish obscured and renumbered as ex PO wagons as this seems to have been common at the time.

 

Hopefully the photos are  fairly self explanatory, this is 'broad brush' modelling so rivet counters please look away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost anything seems to have been fair game for sugar beet traffic and I've seen an early 50s photo of an ex PO wagon from Fife in Ongar goods yard, not only is this rural Essex but was soon to be LT territory!

Edited February 20, 2016 by mullie

[john flann]

Interesting collection of stock there Martyn. All look the part-definitely past their best at that time and not surprisingly so

[mullie]

Some work weary coaches for the M&GN Service finished yesterday after over a year! Out of summer services were both short and infrequent so this train could be approrpiate. These coaches have been seen in previous posts and do contain internal lighting when track power is on.