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Parkend in Forest of Dean (N Gauge)


ParkeNd

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Excellent picture !

Thank you for your two kind recent comments. My main hobby is photography and making the model railway layout has helped me to learn another few photographic skills. It is much harder than photographing real trains.

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Your grass looks like our back garden right now!  Seriously, what goes on beyond the crossing gates at Parkend and any chance of the DFR extending somewhere on the future?

 

Brian.

As you can see I don't go for bald fields in my forest !! That 0.5 mm coloured sawdust look doesn't do it for me.

 

The real DFR beyond the Parkend crossing gates is a mystery to me. The track continues for a very short way and the track bed is clearly defined for about 600 yards until it reaches Fancy Road. Beyond there minor encroachments at what used to be Travellers Rest crossing and the cycle path on the old track bed would seem to pose difficulties if not real problems. I will ask next time I visit Norchard which will be 1st April. I have seen that the ultimate aim of the DFR always used to be Speech House Road but only the chosen few will know how realistic that is. In the short term efforts in the opposite direction would seem to me to have greater chance of bearing fruit - Lydney Junction looks terrible from a passengers eyes.

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The opposite direction? You mean rebuilding the Severn Bridge is easier than getting to Speech House Road? :jester:

You don't have to cross the Severn to get from Norchard to Lydney Junction.

 

In any case what I meant was that the platforms at Lydney Junction are pretty well devoid of buildings and look a little like Malta at the end of WW2. It would seem logical to replicate the work done at Whitecroft since the trains already run to Lydney Junction - and looking out of the window is not the treat it might be.

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Just a photo today of the forest area of the layout. In particular the part frequented by the dog walkers. It's a fair representation of the real area with it's paths and trees surrounding the scout hut. Oh - and two wild boar.

 

Pity there's no detail in N gauge. :scratchhead:

 

_DSC2902_zpsrf02nm7f.jpg

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Just a photo today of the forest area of the layout. In particular the part frequented by the dog walkers. It's a fair representation of the real area with it's paths and trees surrounding the scout hut. Oh - and two wild boar.

 

Pity there's no detail in N gauge...

I dunno... 2mm scale doggy doodoo would hardly be noticeable anyway..... ;)
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I am continuing to play with the TV/Film like green background which prevents the background showing through the foliage of my Model Tree Shop trees in photos. Rather than adding a 3 foot high card scene on 3 sides of the layout which would prevent photos at both ends, I am adding digital backgrounds rather than what would probably be an amateurish physical background. The stand of real trees is at Norchard because the background at Parkend is now new houses and power lines - but it looked like my photos back in 1960.

 

Here are some examples - also taken using the horizontal arm on a tripod that lets me get the camera out over the board for some different angles. The last but one is maybe too great a fantasy though.

 

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Thank you. Post 27 and several others have clarified the track layout at Parkend. I visited there just a few weeks back and was wondering where the 'branch' had gone after passing the pub. Neat layout by the way.

Phil

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Thank you. Post 27 and several others have clarified the track layout at Parkend. I visited there just a few weeks back and was wondering where the 'branch' had gone after passing the pub. Neat layout by the way.

Phil

Hi Mallard and thanks for your kind words.

 

The Fountain Inn is just opposite Railway Cottages 1,2, and 3 which are the white cottages in this photo. The "branch" crossed the road twice after leaving the station and after passing across a second set of crossing gates the tracks skimmed the window ledges of the cottages and ran up to the green area you can see above the knot of four parked cars. The tracks then split either side of a triangular raised loading wharf called Marsh Wharf. There were three tracks to the left and two to the right. The area has now been flattened for safety - it was originally where the tramroads from the quarries and forest met the railway.

 

_DSC2337_zpsxlmzncgy.jpg

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Hi ParkeNd,

 

Excellent thread, layout and prototype choice. I was going to mention about the ground floor of the Railway Cottages being buried when the railway turned up, but I see you've already mentioned it... I guess you've read the Parkend Village history book too!

 

I've built up quite a lot of railway notes for my own model of the Marsh Sidings, let me know if you need anything at all. Likewise, if you have any photographs or information I'd love to see them. Some real oddities have turned up in BR days - Matisa Track Machines, Mk.1 Inspectors Saloons, occasional 12T vans on Newspaper traffic and even the odd class 31.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

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