Elsbridge Tramway Company: Elsbridge Town - NeilHB's layout

[NeilHB]

Some actual cut and stick modelling today, starting to sort out the cylinders for ETCo No.3 “Gerda”:

 

 

Valvegear to sort next using tube and rod. Once painted black it won’t be too noticeable but I’ll know it’s there!
 

 

[NeilHB]

Valvegear and main steam pipe now in place:

 

 

A fun little exercise this morning using plastic tube and rod. Boiler fittings next and then I can finish off the roof and get it all painted. The finish line is getting nearer! 

[NeilHB]

Last week I treated myself to a few bits from 422 Modelmaking, and these arrived yesterday morning. He produces some rather nice 7mm scale resin kits for buildings, coaches and wagons (for both standard and narrow gauges), plus a range of accessories. These are all nicely cast, and for a very reasonable price too. 

 

I wasn’t happy with my attempted scratchbuild for the station building, so the first item to land in the basket was his ‘Timber Station Building Kit’:

 

I also purchased his Corrugated Iron Provendor Store kit, which will do nicely as the basis as the Farmers Cooperative Society Lockup on the front siding:

 

Some platform sections also arrived too, some of his narrow gauge ones for the main tramway platform as I wanted it to be fairly low to the ground:

 

And a couple of standard gauge sections for the loading/milk van dock and the farmers cooperative loading/unloading point:

 

Last night I finished off the roof on ETCo No.3 “Gerda”, and then had a little play around on the layout looking at some different viewpoints for photos:

 

 

 

 

[Annie]

Those resin building kit parts are seriously nice.  I'll be interested to see what you do with those.

[NeilHB]

They really are rather nice Annie. I could have quite happily bought a few more of his kits but I don't have the room on the layout sadly! 

 

I'm just trying to decide on a suitable colour scheme for the Elsbridge Tramway Company buildings at the moment; the current thinking is a Green (either Brunswick or Bronze on the horiztonal board and window/door frames) and Cream (vertical boarding) colour scheme. 

[NeilHB]

Thanks, but I’d appreciate it though if references to the TV series weren’t posted in my thread as it’s not something I’m interested in replicating. 
 

I have settled on a colour scheme for the station building, as per my previous post I’m going for a green and white colour scheme. I applied the first coats yesterday to one side and end, and am liking how it looks so far:

 

 

Another coat of each colour needed, and then perhaps some gentle weathering to reflect a timber building that’s been in existence for a few years. 

[NeilHB]

I tacked the station building together tonight so that I could see what it looked like on the layout. 
 

It fits in very nicely, and will do the job quite well for the top terminus of the tramway:

 

Obviously this meant that I needed to pop some stock on the layout to see how it looked together! 
 

ETCo No.3 ‘Gerda’ arrives with a passenger tram: 

 

 

Later in the day we see ETCo No.4 ‘Sigmund’ with a goods tram (ignore the incorrect plates, they’re just temporary):

 

 

 

[NeilHB]

Elsbridge Tramway Company No.1 “Godred” has been away for some time for repairs, but has now returned home and is seen here shunting at Ffarquhar Road as part of his running in trials:

 

 

In reality he went off to Paul at EDM Models for sound fitting. Paul has done an excellent job fitting sound and stayalive into what can only be described as a flipping small space! 
 

Stuff work for the afternoon now, I’m off to play trains!  

Edited November 25, 2021 by NeilHB

[Corbs]

Yes! Love the bell sound.

[NeilHB]

13 hours ago, Corbs said:

Yes! Love the bell sound.

 

Me too! Paul has modified the sound from the Minerva Peckett for this (altering the timings of the chuff to reflect that this is a vertical boiler), but the bell is one of the standard sounds. I just need to fit an actual bell to the loco now!

[NeilHB]

A rather productive couple of hours at the workbench this evening.

 

First up was my Wellsworth & Suddery Railwah Horsebox, this came in for a repaint as I decidedly ultimately that I wasn’t happy with the green colour scheme: 

 

I much prefer this colour now (SE&CR Crimson). 
 

The next item on the workbench was a Sixteen Mills laser cut kit for a GCR Milk/Fruit Van. I started with this at 8.50pm:

 

And by 10.15pm I had this:

 

Its a rather nice kit, though the sides/ends will need a bit of plastic strip as they don’t quite meet, despite all the tabs/slots being in the right places. Tomorrow I shall finish off adding the small details and sorting ok the roof. This will end up in ETCo Blue, being a Milk/Fruit Van owned by the tramway company. 

[NeilHB]

Another hour or so’s work this evening has seen the main construction on the ex GCR Milk/Fruit Van completed:

 

 

 

Later on, we see it attached to the rear of an incoming passenger tram:

 

 

After arrival, the van is detached from the rear of the passenger tram, and shunted down to the milk/loading dock at the end of the headshunt:

Here it will be loaded with churns etc ready for taking down to St Pedrocs Dairy at Elsbridge. 

[Annie]

Those laser cut wooden kits are really lovely Neil.  If I was still working in 'O' gauge I'd find it difficult not to spend all my pocket money on buying them.

 

I must comment as well that your lovely horsebox looks much better in SECR Crimson.  I know you based it on a Midland Railway drawing, but when I first saw it I was immediately reminded of this drawing in Colburn's Locomotive Engineering.

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by Annie
more to say

[MarcD]

I've built some of his kit in the past. The ones I built were London Brighton and South Coast Railway ballast wagons. They were little bit basic as there was not strapping and I had to add all the rivet heads and I also found that the Axel boxes which were made from MDF weren't very good. Once I replaced the Axel boxes coupling hooks and added the rivets and strapping they looked okay but I don't think I would buy more, too much hassle.

 

 

Marc

 

[NeilHB]

Thank you Annie, I much prefer the SECR crimson over the green livery, and wish I’d chosen it sooner than be honest! 
 

That is a lovely looking Horsebox - which railway company is it please Annie? It may have to work it’s way into the built queue. 
 

I’ve still got to add the strapping to this one Marc, as he does now include it with his kits. I agree about the fragile nature of the MDF for the axleboxes, I broke all of mine when fitting them! Thankfully a fab of superglue and the (somewhat flimsy) spring assembly was secured in place. 
 

Last night I started on another ETCo three-plank open wagon. In my head the three-plank opens are the mainstay of freight traffic on the tramway, and there have been several batches of them built over the years. The newest example represents a later batch, with different axleboxes etc, and will be fitted with two-shoe brake gear, rather than single shoe like the other three-plank opens. I think I’ll probably need about another half-dozen or so of this type, plus a few other wagons to give me a good representation of the tramway company’s goods stock:

 

 

 

 

Brakegear to sort tomorrow night, and then I need to drill lots of holes for the plastic rod to represent bolts…oh what a fun task that will be! 
 

 

[Annie]

2 hours ago, NeilHB said:

That is a lovely looking Horsebox - which railway company is it please Annie? It may have to work it’s way into the built queue. 

It was the property of the New South Wales Railway in Australia Neil.  During the 19th century almost all of the railway engineers working in Australia were imports from Britain so for a very long time and even into the early years of the 20th century Australian rolling stock was heavily based on British practice.

2 hours ago, NeilHB said:

In my head the three-plank opens are the mainstay of freight traffic on the tramway,

And it's exactly the same on my own railways and tramways too, - three plank opens are everywhere.

[NeilHB]

Thanks Annie, I will do a bit of research later today and see what other delights they had that would be suitable. 

 

I suspect I may well have been influenced by your railways and tramways on the three-plank opens. 

[Corbs]

Yes! Love the stock progress so far. The 3 planks are also making appearances with my FQC.

[NeilHB]

Thanks Corbs. I suspect some of the older three-planks in my 'verse will have been pensioned off to the Croarie Stone Company  when that opened, alongside the ex NER Ironstone hopper seen a few pages back. A good excuse to build a few more I think

[NeilHB]

I sorted (read bodged) some 8’6” wheelbase brakegear over my lunch break today, and thus the main construction work on the latest ETCo three-plank open is now complete:

 

I just need to drill lots of holes and add the bolts from plastic rod now, but that can be done over an evening or two. 
 

A couple of photos showing the evolution so far of the ETCo three-plank opens:

 

 

I probably shan’t build any more of the dumb buffer variety, but the other two examples will gain at least a couple more of each. I think I’ve seen drawings for a dropside three-plank too, must have a look in the archives at Elsbridge again! 

[NeilHB]

A productive evening has seen another three-plank open emerges from the ETCo Carriage and Wagon Shop at Elsbridge, this time one of the lesser spotted dropside variant (only a handful were built):

 

 

Another simple exercise in plastic sheet and strip, I’m finding building wagons quite therapeutic at the moment:

 

 

 

Having a common chassis design across all of my ETCo wagons means that it’s fairly easy to crack on and batch build them:

 

 

I’ve got the basic chassis parts for another two opens also cut out tonight, so I can progress those tomorrow. 

[NeilHB]

Hang on a minute, the three-plank opens have been breeding. Another dropside has appeared! 
 

 

And a little shot of the current ETCo wagon fleet as of this morning:

 

 

Eight wagons built so far, five three-plank opens (of four different designs), a van, sheep wagon, and a two plank dropside.

 

I’ve got enough wheels spare to build another half dozen or so wagons over the next few weeks, so that should give me enough stock for the time being. 

[NeilHB]

Sometimes you have to take a step or two backwards before you can go forwards. 
 

This afternoon the original bodywork for ETCo No.1 “Godred” was consigned to the scrapheap. It was the first ETCo VB tram loco that I built, and since then I’ve refined the design and backstory quite a bit.

 

The sound fitted chassis that was under No.1, has therefore gone under the bodywork for No.2, which was become the new No.1. No.3 now becomes No.2, and a new No.3 is under construction to a slightly different design. 
 

Is anyone confused yet?! 
 

No.1 (the second) on the left, with No.2 (formerly No.3) on the right. This evening I’ve cracked on and got the roof sorted for the new No.1, and it’s now ready for the paintshop and for the last of the lining to be added. 

The new No.3 will be an intermediate design, size wise being between the two coffee pot tram locos, and the larger more powerful No.4:

 

 

Like No.4 it has a locomotive type boiler, and will be fully enclosed etc. like the other locos, although it will remain as a four-coupled loco unlike No.4 which is (supposedly) an 0-6-0.

 

 

L-R Nos.1-4: “Godred”, “Sigrid”, “Gerda”, “Sigmund” (currently carrying incorrect plates at the moment). 

[Corbs]

1 hour ago, NeilHB said:

 

 

The sound fitted chassis that was under No.1, has therefore gone under the bodywork for No.2, which was become the new No.1. No.3 now becomes No.2, and a new No.3 is under construction to a slightly different design. 
 

Is anyone confused yet?! 

 

I admit I had to read it several times 

[Annie]

Soooooo many delightful tram engines.