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

[mullie]

20 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

East Anglia was indeed very well represented.......and is it not the right time to embark on another segment of the Upbech Saga...? 

 

Just saying......

 

 

Well @NHY 581 you did ask. I have had this for a while.....

 

 

These are Dundas, no-one wants them now the rtr model is available so picked up for a song.  The potato railway made extensive use of them.

 

 

There are locos too.

 

Pointwork is already built from pcb, there is a base board with room for standard gauge exchange sidings too based on the M&GN. The narrow gauge ran until well into the 50s

 

Could be ready for SWAG 2025, just saying.......

Edited April 25, 2023 by mullie

[robert17649]

Shame i had dreams of Southwold

[mullie]

51 minutes ago, robert17649 said:

Shame i had dreams of Southwold

I did consider it, the potato railway fits into my time frame and as a line conveying sugar beet as well it feels the right one to tackle as an 009 toe dipping exercise.

 

A Southwold project is tempting though would need a lot of kit building, field research would be good involving Southwold beer!

[mullie]

Now SWAG is over attention can be turned to the new module. The pointwork was built around 18 months ago on Peco templates but then had to be set aside while Upbech was put into a fit state to exhibit. 

 

 

Essentially the plan is what would be called a timesaver in the U.S. I haven't built anything with a proper run round in at least twenty years. This is a sort of overall view, each siding will hold around two WD wagons and if absolutely necessary the layout could be shunted without a fiddle yard.

 

 

The section with the steel rule on it is at a lower level, this will form a simple exchange siding. I plan to use chaired track as the M & GN had more of a mainline feel to it. Next stage solder some rail into the plain track areas. Sleeper spacing is wider than it should be as it will be buried under weeds and general detritus. The dark green line is for the wire in tube point control.

[mullie]

The entry to the fiddle yard is nearing completion. This afternoon I experimented with some sea foam to see if some trees would add to the scene. Putting the mount board all the way across has helped tidy things up I think. The factory is back in place too with some minor fettling.

 

 

 

In other news, a Claud was caught running round the bogie coaches that will run thorough beyond Pott Row. Again the new back scene helps to make a tidy photo.

 

[mullie]

It's all gone a bit Colonel Stephens.  A nice 3d print of a Rye and Camber tramway loco fora Kato chassis.

 

 

I do see the layout as a bit of creative freelancing and it has crossed my mind not to make the module too region specific as there will be no railway company buildings. I may indulge my interest in things Southern as well as    M &GN.

 

In other news the first plain track was soldered last night.  As the track will be buried I have aimed for strong joints rather than elegance. 

 

 

A certain sheep bloke @NHY 581 has dubbed this module 'Operation King Edward.' Seems good to me. 

[sb67]

I like the 009 developments, the track's coming along nicely. Looking forward to seeing it all grow 👍

Edited May 4, 2023 by sb67

[robert17649]

why is your workbench so tidy .I am truly envious.

[mullie]

4 minutes ago, robert17649 said:

why is your workbench so tidy .I am truly envious.

The junk is on a different bit. What you see is sat on the the trusty workmate. 

[mullie]

This is where the rest of the cr*p is including two half built narrow gauge wagons.

 

 

I don't have a workbench as such.  A slab of kitchen worktop on the workmate in the garage suffices in summer,  the dining room table with all the inherent restrictions in the winter .

 

[robert17649]

phew i was worried there for a minute great work by the way. Thank you for the inspiration

[Nile]

On 03/05/2023 at 19:17, mullie said:

A nice 3d print of a Rye and Camber tramway loco fora Kato chassis.

That's a rather nice print, may I ask where it came from?

[mullie]

1 hour ago, Nile said:

That's a rather nice print, may I ask where it came from?

Came from here.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/narrowmindedrailworks?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=33c7Qd7jQwO&sssrc=3418065&ssuid=auMLyRFMSru&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[john new]

23 minutes ago, mullie said:

Came from here.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/narrowmindedrailworks?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=33c7Qd7jQwO&sssrc=3418065&ssuid=auMLyRFMSru&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Very useful link. Thank you for posting it.

[mullie]

The  permanent way gang have been in.  The St Mary end is the original part of the layout and is currently undergoing a bit of a revamp. The module runs well but there was a bit of a bump when locos ran through this point as the blades didn't quite sit true. Last night out came the soldering iron. 

 

 

 

The J72 is a good guinea pig as its Comet frames don't allow a lot of slop.

[mullie]

Renovation of the St Mary end continues (but can't keep them in the premiership and I support the Hammers anyway!)

 

There has always been a tree in the left hand corner, and I've never been completely happy with it so out it came and was stripped of its foliage. I have been watching some of Luke Towan's fabulous scenery tutorials on YouTube and this gave me inspiration., although his video uses Woodland Scenic armatures.

 

My trunk is made using florists wire covered in DAS clay covered with PVA. I have a box of sea foam that has formed all the trees on the other parts of the layout. Using the offcuts, I glued foliage to the trunk that will hopefully give the the tree a sense of space.

 

 

 

Tonight, the tree was given a coat of Halfords grey primer and Tamiya red brown at the same time so they blend though this doesn't show up well under my work light, looks too grey, it is there really. The trunk will now be highlighted before foliage is added.

 

 

Here is the link to the Luke Towan tutorial if anyone is interested.

 

 

The greenery on this board has also been refreshed. Every time I play around with the scenics of the board I see if another building could be added and every time I put it away, less is very much more. The setting is inspired by a superb photo of Scratby halt just north of Great Yarmouth, very open and exposed, there is a pillbox behind the halt but adding one makes the scene look crowded. The photo is in the Middleton Press book on the line from Melton Constable to Yarmouth Beach though mine has been transplanted to a rural Norfolk byway served by a W&U inspired tramway.

 

I like this board!

Edited May 12, 2023 by mullie

[mullie]

Excellent day out at Expo EM today, well worth the considerable journey, all the layouts were excellent and lots of small traders for picking up the elusive bits as follows:

 

Brassmasters detailing fret for the Bachmann type 2. also looked at the detailing frets for the Bachmann 4f I have and talked through the process with the very helpful staff. The 4f and a second J15 are top of the to do list.

 

Wagon wheels including split spokes for the Oxford diecast GE van and another set as it is highly likely I will buy another one.

 

Tree foliage by Green Scene.

 

That's at least six months modelling when combined with everything else I have to do.

 

I visited the track demo as I want to start building fully chaired track. As expected, there is no way I can use Butanone as my breathing won't cope with the fumes so a bit of research is needed. For the exchange sidings on the narrow gauge module I plan to use a British Finescale point kit linked to flexi track or I may try building the plain track so as to learn the technique.

 

Now off to avoid Eurovision.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by mullie

[mullie]

A J70 at Upbech St Mary.

 

 

The east wind has caught the life belt stand.

 

[mullie]

Bit more work on the tree trunk tonight. Having been sprayed with grey and brown, tonight the texture has been highlighted. The aim is give the impression of quite a gnarled old tree, looking at tree trunks the colours are quite complex, this can only be a suggestion.

 

 

 

Bit more work to do then foliage can be added.

[mullie]

Re worked tree is in place,  not easy to photograph due to its position. 

 

 

View through the crossing. 

 

Top of the water tank,  this has been re worked too.

 

[Schooner]

Although it's in South Gloucestershire, saw this and thought of you

The Wool Barn, Frampton on Severn

[mullie]

5 hours ago, Schooner said:

Although it's in South Gloucestershire, saw this and thought of you

The Wool Barn, Frampton on Severn

Very nice and very different to an East Anglian building. It is amazing how regional British architecture is. Living on Portland, no prizes for guessing what everything was made of until recently when it became to expensive to use and so is kept for expensive projects and renovation of places that have already used it, e.g. St Pauls, Buckingham Palace, the cenotaph, a long list.

 

Our house , built in 1995 does have large slabs of stone and fossils in it, more recent houses use reconstituted stone apparently. Go to Purbeck and though built of stone, the architecture is very different again though only twenty miles from here.

 

Thanks for posting.

Edited May 20, 2023 by mullie

[mullie]

The water tower is now back in place in the minimalist loco depot. The panels are Wills, ladder is a spare  I had laying around, fire devil is Mikes Models I think, everything else is scratch built.

 

 

 

Operation King Edward has moved forward, there is now a fiddle yard and track has been laid into it. Likely to be my usual cassettes joined to the mainline by fishplates.

 

 

By the way, the baseboard is foam core board with thin mdf on top because I had quite a lot of this stuff laying around, nice and light, surprisingly sturdy when bracing is added for various purposes.

[Flying Fox 34F]

10 hours ago, mullie said:

 

 

 

“Operation King Edward”

 

 

That’s a fine name for narrow gauge section

 

Paul

[mullie]

1 hour ago, Flying Fox 34F said:

That’s a fine name for narrow gauge section

 

Paul

 

 @NHY 581 is to blame!