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Mid Suffolk Light Railway Diorama.


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At the Christmas meal of my model railway club One Track Minds we were each given a piece of mdf 8 inches square. This was for our competition which is to build a railway related diorama in 8 inches square. To be judged at our show in Haverhill, suffolk on the 7th of November 2015. Well after lots of  beer fuelled jokes about building a model of Kings Cross, I was at a loss at what to model.

 

post-17982-0-40386500-1426976560.jpg the 8inch square mdf

 

Even though I have built lots of kits of loco's and even scratch built some, I have never built a layout. So I thought here is my chance to try out some techniques which I could use on a layout. Well that got me thinking if I could not fit kings cross or even most stations into 8 inches square I could fit a Mid Suffolk light Railway station building. On the Mid suffolk Light everything was done on a much smaller scale. Admittedly the station platforms were only 130 feet long which scales to 52cm or 20.5inches which still will not fit. But the main section of some of the smaller stations comes in at under 4 inches which will fit. So I have my prototype. One of the smaller style stations on the mid Suffolk such as Horham or Worlingworth. As some of you may know the stations on the Mid Suffolk were made from corrugated iron. The best way to represent this is with Wills plastic sheets for corrugated iron. So a trip to model junction in Bury St. Edmunds was needed to obtain a pack.

 

post-17982-0-16665200-1426976517.jpg Wills corrugatd iron sheets.

 

So with the raw material purchased I set to work using the sketch drawings in the back of Peter Paye's fantastic book on the Middy as a basis to draw myself a sort of scale drawing of the station building.

 

The basic sides were cut out.

 

post-17982-0-39601900-1426976521.jpg the back

 

Plasticard was used to build a window frame in the front and a door way in one of the sides. I had never realised how complicated a window frame could be until I started to work out how I could model it. 

 

post-17982-0-40913000-1426976578.jpg the widow frame in the front.

 

post-17982-0-01172100-1426976518.jpg Door in the side.

 

The inside is all wooden planks on the prototype so the inside side of the office needed to be made from scribed plasticard.

 

post-17982-0-96550700-1426976590.jpg

 

The inside of the ends and back were also scribed to represent planks.

 

post-17982-0-07289000-1426976522.jpg scribing the back.

 

post-17982-0-58293700-1426976559.jpg the end with planks scribed in

 

The inside of each piece was chamferd to create the illusion of thin sheets of steel at the joins and along the bottom of the roof.

 

post-17982-0-77050800-1426976522.jpg trying to avoid chamfering the edge of the dinning room table.

 

 Once the sides were complete,building the station commenced.

 

post-17982-0-13574300-1426976519.jpg things start to go together. 

 

post-17982-0-64696700-1426976520.jpg the back of the roof goes on.

 

post-17982-0-03754800-1426976520.jpg followed by the front 

 

I have a part completed connoisseur models kit of a j65 which has lost its chassis and some of the castings over the years and gained a scratch built chassis. So this will be completed to provide a loco for the diorama.

 

post-17982-0-63292500-1426976591.jpg the state of play at present.

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I spent another afternoon working on the station building and made considerable progress.

 

post-17982-0-89443200-1427834903.jpg

The valance is cut out then planks were scribed.

 

post-17982-0-22157600-1427834905.jpg

The pattern at the bottom was made by first drilling a row of holes, which were then extended to the edge before the edges were cut at an angle.

 

post-17982-0-86670900-1427834852.jpg 

the completed valences.

 

post-17982-0-09392900-1427834854.jpgpost-17982-0-04124800-1427834855.jpg

The completed canopy before it is fitted.

 

post-17982-0-02082500-1427834856.jpg

The station is starting to look at the part.

 

post-17982-0-63536700-1427834856.jpgpost-17982-0-65626300-1427834857.jpg.

Adding the barge boards really brings the character out.

 

post-17982-0-29248600-1427834747.jpg

As I have never ballasted some track I thought I should have a practice. So I set up a test piece with 3 different types of ballast to see which is best.

 

post-17982-0-92677400-1427834743.jpg

This is commercially available ballast though it is for N gauge. (looks the correct size for 4mm though) Great for good quality track but to uniform for the Middy.

 

post-17982-0-26370800-1427834739.jpg

This is sand from the desert in Abu dabi. Would need painting if it was to be used.

 

post-17982-0-14418800-1427834748.jpg

This is ash from the log burner. The Mid suffolk was ballasted with ash and I think this captures it fairly well. Nice and fine and not uniform.

 

 

 

 

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