Emsworth

[Moggs Eye]

A Google Earth view of the layout taken as I was unpacking it from the Land Rover after the exhibition on Saturday.

 

 

 

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[MartynJPearson]

Wow, they must have flown the satellite especially low!

 

Great looking layout!

[Moggs Eye]

Wow, they must have flown the satellite especially low!

 

Great looking layout!

 

Thanks.

I believe the images were taken from by the latest Russian satellite, before being given to the current US President's team and then leaked to the Washington Post.

[Moggs Eye]

Unfortunately Photobucket has stopped me displaying pictures of the layout from its site.

However, the August edition of the Railway Modeller has some of Paul Bason's pictures of Emsworth in its original form and some nicely done artwork to support the accompanying article.

I'll get some pictures posted here when I get the chance.

Cheers,

Ben.

[sammyboy]

I enjoyed reading the article about your layout in this month's current Railway Modeller magazine, and some great photos too!

 

Sam

[Buffin]

You must have written that article a long time ago, as I see you were at Southwold LAST year!

[Moggs Eye]

Railway Modeller had a backlog of articles and I didn't get much warning of when the layout was going into print.

We'll be at Peterborough in October, Weston on Trent in November and Lincoln in February.

[Moggs Eye]

 

Emsworth will be on show at the Peterborough Exhibition on the 14th and 15th of October - Stand 66A, with our backs to the North of England Line.

If you're about, come and say hello.

Cheers,

Ben.

 

[Moggs Eye]

It was a cracking weekend at the Warner's exhibition at Peterborough; we had a great spot in the hall (back to back with the excellent Yorkshire lads from the North of England Line), the food was good, hotel was fine and the beer in the next door Harvester pub went down very well. My operators bickered playfully with each other over both days and the layout behaved itself, mostly, with the usual digital gremlins and a set of points that needed its spring replacing on Saturday morning - what fun. The layout was well received, but the highlight was the elderly gentleman who'd come to see it after enjoying the article in the Railway Modeller.

We've had a few more invitations, which is nice, so the Land Rover and I will be covering new ground to take Emsworth to different parts of the country.

Here's 50050 waiting for a path down the Main Single Line while the Lookout wandering back from the signal box is wondering if he has time to cross in front of it. 

66013 is my oldest class 66 (it was originally Bachmann's first release 66153) and an early attempt at renumbering and weathering. It's been withdrawn from service for a couple of years, but after some diligent wheel cleaning it ran perfectly all weekend.

20188 is the celebrity shunter at the off scene railfeight yard at Emsworth. It's seen here with a single wagon that has just been released from the wagon servicing point. The Sebastian Beach shopping centre forms the backdrop.

Another yard shunter, the more ordinary 08847 takes its turn on the Inspection Point while a train of various types of military Land Rovers is help up in platform 1. The remains of the old Midland Railway building on platform 3 contrast with the shopping centre behind it.

That class 20 again, just emerging from under Hope Street Bridge.

Suzy the Sprinter keeping an eye on the Yard Operator and Wagon Repair Shed.

Finally, for now, one of my favourite classes trundles in front of St Vincent Junction box with a Sheffield to Leeds semi-fast. Not sure who rostered a single car unit on that turn, but I'm sure the passengers who had to stand for most of the way enjoyed their journey on this pinnacle of public transport engineering. That Lookout still hasn't got across the track and he's looking the wrong way at the moment.

We're at Weston on Trent in a few weeks helping to raise money for the school there - should be a good show if you're in the area.

Cheers,

Ben.

 

[Moggs Eye]

Weston on Trent was the last show of the year for the Emsworth team, with a notable couple of firsts;

1 - Nobody commented on the real Emsworth being in Hampshire,

2 - We had a rather nice compliment from a visitor who liked it despite their being only diesels on it. Happily the timetable had a Britannia moving with it's support coach to Wansford coming into the platform at that moment.

 

It was a really friendly show and I'm pleased to report they made £900 for the school funds. We donated our time and transport costs and would happily do so again if they run another show. 

 

A view under the Hope Street bridge along the Up Main Line with a couple of locomotives awaiting attention in the inspection bay and some passengers waiting hopefully for a Leeds train.

 

Looking in the opposite direction, under the signal box.

The 60 in platform 1 has a ballast train for Derby, the 150 in platform 2 is waiting for its crew to change ends so it can head to Sheffield while the Pacer in platform 3 will soon be squealing through the junction curves for a bouncy trip to Doncaster.

 

Different generations of BR traction in between jobs at Emsworth.

 

Our next expedition will be to the Lincoln Club's show in Newark in February. Where did 2017 go?

Cheers,

Ben.

[Moggs Eye]

Wow - and that was 2018 gone.

Our last show of the year has just gone, Emsworth was dusted off for a trip to Bury St Edmunds in the back of the Land Rover.

Unfortunately, despite the pre-match warm up, a point motor failed in the yard resulting in the Chief Engineer spending much of the morning crouched under the layout, scratching his head, getting in the way and swearing under his breath. 

For any of you who wandered past in the morning and wondered why the same pair of 66s and a lonely 31 hadn't turned a wheel in the loco yard, I apologise. A limited shunting service resumed in the afternoon when I gave up trying to replace the point motor and clipped it out of use.

The main lines ran well and we had a good day.

I can have a break now before I start panicking about Holland Beck's debut next year.

Cheers,

Ben.

[Moggs Eye]

While East Lincolnshire is flooding just down the road from my house, I've been at Quorn and Woodhouse Station on the GCR showing Emsworth at the big event there.

Aside from the weather, it's been a great weekend so far and exhibiting beside a finer, heritage railway like the GCR is an experience not to be missed. However, the operators of the 12" to the foot railway next near near to drop the volume on their sound decoders! It's hard to communicate with your operators while some steam engine is blowing off close by. We did manage to have a class 37 depart our loco yard in time with a real 37 heading south yesterday. By contrast, a 4mm Pacer leaving Emsworth Station to the sound of an 8F (I think) making a spirited departure was a little odd.

New for this exhibition (well, second hand) is this Heljan 47 - it performs well, though the characteristic Heljan droopy couplings are a little irritating.

 

Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day, before I head back North to see if anything is left of the house.

On a big downside was the burglary from some of the traders on Friday night and the reports today that there were prolific thieves circulating the exhibition.

[Moggs Eye]

I have finally got tired of operating Emsworth as a through station. Here it is being reworked with the former double track mainline reduced to a headhunt. 

The layout will be running in its new guise at Loughborough in September. 

No pressure! 

[Moggs Eye]

Initial, rapid progress on the Emsworth rebuild has been slowed somewhat by a bout of Sudden Onset Manflu and an overtopping water tank in out attic. Thankfully the damage is all to the house and decor, not any of the layouts.

However, the wiring is done and the platform extensions are nearing completion.

I always think a modern layout should have a nod to the Victorian railway, so there should be enough here to lead the imagination to glory days when there was a double track main line heading past the buffer stops at the top end of the picture. The cut out in the middle distance of the disused portion of the platform is to allow step free access to the island platform and is inspired by a similar arrangement at Ulverston in Cumbria - my island platform isn't wide enough for a footbridge.

The original station building has been saved from its former position on the now dismantled bridge while the building beyond will be a signing on point for Northern Rail train crews.

The large model building to the left of the picture is another project.

Have fun.

Ben.

 

[Moggs Eye]

Apologies for the poor lighting, but here are Emsworth's two scenic boards brought together to get the backscene correctly lined up. We're looking towards Sheffield with the buffer stops on the truncated main lines behind us.

Next job is putting the weeds down, putting in the platform canopies and then sorting the people and details for the platforms.

 

Looking in the other direction you can see the scarring left by the bridge's removal. The bay platform has been extended slightly while the new platform face (with the station building on it) is just long enough for a two car DMU.

 

 

 

[Moggs Eye]

The first train to move into the rebuilt station under its own power.

The view from the headshunt (formerly the Down Main Line) with the freshly wired and powered position light signal.

Only two weeks until the next show!

 

[Moggs Eye]

Loughborough has come and gone; Team Emsworth and I had a thoroughly good weekend - good food, good accommodation, good location and good hosts in the Soar Valley Club.

Taking a largely rebuilt layout for the first time caused a few butterflies for me, I'm sure you understand, but in the end the layout performed very well and with only slight teething trouble (over-enthusiastic ballast shoulders catching the suspension of a Realtrack 144 on one of the new platform roads. Easily overcome.

Even the brand-new sequence, which was only finished at 1000 on the Friday, flowed well without issue and kept the whole thing moving well.

 

Here is Emsworth V3 set up and ready to go on the Saturday morning. By this time a quick trip to Tesco had replaced the 6-way extension lead I'd forgotten. The loco yard has its three engines placed ready for the shunting puzzle to start. For Sunday we increased the starting stud to four; partly to make it more complicated, but mostly because I realised I had sufficient stock.

 

The first train ever to run the full length of the layout from the fiddle yard into the rebuilt station was my favourite Pacer. Apparently I should have had a ribbon for it to break, or a bottle of champagne to smash over it, but that wouldn't have ended well.

 

 

The brisk and comprehensive passenger service gets underway. Emsworth is now exceptionally well connected to Yorkshire and beyond. Trains for Wakefield, Sheffield and Doncaster (from left to right) are shown here.

The whims of the card based loco yard movements meant the class 47 didn't get out of the yard for the first couple of hours on Saturday. Every time it was due to escape it came up for another inspection and had to go back to the servicing bay - I suppose the 47s are getting on a bit now.

 

A moment when the sequence has all four available platforms occupied with DMUs for different directions. It looks like the 47 has finally got away.

There are a few jobs left to do;

The position light signal at the headhunt needs moving, because nobody can see it.

I need lots more people - but they take awhile to paint,

The foot crossing between platforms could do with some warning light,

The back scene needs sorting.

All in good time. I have a new layout, Holland Beck, to finish off for October and that is the priority now.

Thanks to all the folk who stopped by for a chat over the weekend, thanks for the encouraging, positive feedback.

The only criticism I got over both days was for the interior of the signalbox - it was suggested that having a woman signaller in there was incongruous. I was very polite, mentioning that it was a modern layout. What a strange place the 21st century must be to some people.

The layout will be out at Boston and Spalding later in the year.

Have fun,

Ben.

 

[Moggs Eye]

I took Emsworth to the Boston Model Railway Club's show this weekend. It's a small, friendly show run by a great team who looked after us very well.

One of the great things about a small show like this is having a chat with folk who aren't necessarily enthusiasts, but who have just stopped by, or potential modellers who want to ask a few questions about different aspects of the hobby; people who were interested in the modelling rather than just hurrying past looking for their own particular niche interest.

In summary - the layout ran well, I enjoyed the driving, food, banter and conversation. Thank you to everyone involved.

 

60078 gets the right away from platform four with the feather on the starter signal showing it's got a trip down the branch with a diverted military train.

 

 

A view down the new section of the layout with the buffer stops at our backs.

I wanted to include a shot of the position light signal which can't be seen by the public, but which I insist is cleared for every movement out of the headshunt towards the platforms.

To celebrate the impending demise of the Pacer, here are all three of mine (with a token 153) offering a rich choice of luxury transport to exotic locations for Emsworth's travelling public.

 

See you at Spalding in November.

Cheers,

Ben.

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Moggs Eye

[Moggs Eye]

I have just got back and unpacked Emsworth after a very enjoyable weekend at the Spalding exhibition. The layout performed well and seemed well received from the comments I got.

Here are a few photos I snatched this afternoon;

 

St Vincent Junction signalbox with signal 15 'off' for a departure from platform 5.

 

Modern(ish) traction at the wagon repair end of the loco yard.

 

The inspection point fitters seem to be bickering about something while 60078 awaits attention.

 

Our next exhibition is Lincoln in the new year.

See you there.

Happy modelling.

Ben.

 

 

[Moggs Eye]

Emsworth will be out at the Lincoln Club's show at Newark next weekend. 

During tests in the garage today I decided to try the Ruston I bought in Doncaster a couple of weeks ago. 

Not only did it run perfectly, without its match truck, but it also pulled 7 loaded HEA hoppers the full length of the layout. 

Hornby, I am impressed. 

[saxokid]

Any new updates Ben....

[Moggs Eye]

After being laid up in my garage since 2020 and the pandemic, Emsworth was set up for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

I had to fight through the life's work of many spiders and much dust before connecting all the different power supplies, flicking a couple of switches, and...

It all worked perfectly!

Which was very good news as I had committed to take it to the Boston Exhibition last weekend.

Happily there were no challenging problems over the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with the busy commuter timetable and the head-scratching shunting puzzle we use for the loco and wagon yards.

Next outing for this layout will hopefully be at Howden next March.  If I get the paperwork in today!

Three generations of traction awaiting their next duty at the signing on point.

The Branch Line Society almost made it to the buffers in the wagon repair yard.

60007 awaiting the fitters' attention in the inspection bay.

66773 waiting to run around its train in the station headshunt.

A view across the servicing point, fueling line and East end of the station. The 144 is waiting to depart with a service to Goole.

St Vincent Junction signalbox.