Crowland Green

[stivesnick]

Welcome to the new N Gauge layout from the Cambs and Nothants Group of the N Gauge Society. Our existing layout Horseley Fields will continue and there are plans to extend it.

 

The new layout is based around Eye Green on the M&GN route just to the east of Peterborough. We have made some changes to the original track plan to make it easier to operate at exhibitions. A goods loop has been added to allow the pick up goods to keep clear of the main line whilst shunting takes place. We have flipped the goods yard round so it can be shunted from the Peterborough line. We have also added the grain silo from the adjacent Dogsthorpe to the goods yard.

 

The original track plan is shown below.

 

 

 

The new baseboards, made by John the Carpenter, with the track plan marked on.

 

 

[stivesnick]

Some more thoughts on the layout design and how it will be operated.

 

The M&GN being a secondary route, had a modest train service. Each day there were 8-9 passenger trains in each direction, although not all stopped at Eye Green. A typical train was 3-4 coaches so realistic to model. There were several pick up goods trains that shunted the sidings each, as well as through freights. As noted in Post 1, a goods loop has been added to allow shunting to take place whilst traffic continues on the main line. The idea is to have 3 operators, one for each main line plus a yard shunter. Once the main line operator has dropped off wagons in the brick sidings, the yard operator can take a few wagons at a time through the backscene where they can be loaded with bricks and then returned to the front of the layout. This is a similar approach to one adopted on our first group layout Ketton. Hopefully by using the Dapol easi-shunt couplers the operation will work much better.

 

One of the features of the M& GN route in its last few years was the near universal use of LMS 4MT 2-6-0 tender locos. Bachmann do the BR version and group members already have several examples.

 

Question 1: Has anyone done a conversion from one type to the other, or are they so close in appearance that it is not worth doing?

 

Question 2: What do people, as an exhibition visitor, think about have most trains hauled by the same type of locomotives? Is it....

 

a) That's the prototype so it is the right thing to do

b) That is boring, I want to see lots of different types of loco

c) Don't mind as long as you keep something moving unlike the layout next door where nothing has moved for 10 minutes!

d) I hate steam, why not run diesels instead

e) None of the above

 

Comments please !!

[Corbs]

My immediate thought was that I don't often see lots of locos of the same class on layouts, in my experience it is usually models of TMDs or MPDs which do this, so I would say go for it, nothing wrong with a fleet!

[stivesnick]

Some track laying progress

 

The Peterborough line has been laid along with most of the goods yard. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Nick,

 

Great job with the track laying - sorry I couldn't make it.

 

I still think the name Eye Green has a great ring to it, but can understand the decision to alter it to Crowland Green as the layout is representative, rather than a faithful reproduction.

 

In answer to your question about locomotives, I have no idea whether LMS 2-6-0s looks similar to BR ones, but I do think that having a fleet of the same type of locomotive is one of the things that differentiates a model railway from a trainset or a collection.... and yes of course there should be more diesels!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Flying Fox 34F]

The Ivatt 4MT is similar in basic appearance to the BR 4MT, but there are differences. John Spence of Melton Mowbray North fame has converted one which is a reasonable representation!

As for the comment of getting fed up with seeing the same class of locomotive, just take variety from what used to be based at South Lynn and Spital shed in Peterborough. I'm sure you can justify B12/3, D16/3, J6, K2 and 4f types. A bit of scratch building perhaps may be required, but not impossible.

I look forward to seeing progress

Paul 4475

[TonyMay]

The BR 4MT is a development of the Ivatt Class 4.

 

AFAIK the boiler is mostly the same shape though, and the chassis has the same dimensions which is the critical part.  There are lots of detail differences though, including much fiddly looking pipework.  I can easily tell the difference although I'm a bit of a geek.

 

Bachmann have done both LMS and BR versions in OO and the usual way in which they develop N gauge offerings is reducing the OO gauge model, and with the same chassis it would be an "obvious" move to produce the Ivatt in N.  When this happens though is anyone's guess.

 

Meanwhile, a body kit might be available from http://www.atso-cadmodels.co.uk/ at some point.  Why not ask? 

Edited October 13, 2014 by TonyMay

[TonyMay]

PS, if you go for a slightly earlier period i.e. 1950s you get more variety in traction and say the 4MTs are just starting to dominate.  Don't be put off by photos, because camera ownership increased after as variety decreased, so most of the variety in the 1950s didn't get captured on film that much.  For that, you'd also need some 4Fs (which were used as mixed traffic engines and the LMS had *a lot* of 4Fs), some ex-LNER types, and whatever else you can find in the history books.

Edited October 13, 2014 by TonyMay

[stivesnick]

Thanks for the comments.

 

Union Mills have just released a D16/3 so we will need some of those for the passenger workings.

 

The real M&GN route had bans on larger tender locos such as A3/A4 so we will follow this rule.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[MGNorthern]

I was very interested to come across this. I run the Eye village website http://www.eyepeterborough.co.uk/heritage/railway.html and have done a lot of research on the the station so I'll be interested in how this progresses. I was at the The National Festival of Railway Modelling at East of England Showground last weekend and there where some nice N-gauge layouts. The entirety of my models is a OO gauge Bachmann Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0. I've also got a Dapol signal box I need to build at some point, its reasonably close to the Eye Green one. I have got a copy of BRM from December 1999 that has a scratch build of Eye Green Station if its any use to you. Good luck with this. Adam

 

[stivesnick]

Thanks Adam

 

Any information, you have will be most welcome. The aim is to base the layout around eye green rather than an exact copy. You will note we have changed the track plan.

 

I would be interested in what type of traffic was handled in the goods yard. There appear to be very few pictures of general goods trains.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[Only-Me]

I can help with variety of motive power for the brick yard shunter!!

 

My only kettle is Silver Fox which would look a tad out of place at Crowland...

 

 

 

[stivesnick]

More track laying at our meeting today.

 

Pictures show the track crossing the drainage channel and into the grain silo sidings (top right). A 4MT and 3 coach train shows the overall scale of the layout, the ruler represents the station platform.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

Track laying continued at our monthly group meeting. The second track, towards Sutton Bridge has been laid and the goods loop added. The main line track and goods yard is now complete. The only remaining track to be done are the brick work sidings which will go on the raised area.

 

The passenger train shown in the November post #14 has finally made in back from Peterborough. No bad given the lack of track beyond the station!

 

 

 

 

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Nick

 

The track-laying is really coming on.  I really like the curve of the track leading into these two nearest sidings this side of what will be the characteristic straight Fenland ditch.

 

What with Crowland Green and Horseley Fields both set up in the same room, and two new members, it's starting to feel like a proper "grown-ups" model railway club!!!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[stivesnick]

The brick kilns will be a key feature of the layout and hopefully will distinguish the layout from others.

 

I have had a go a making a basic mock up of the typical Hoffmann Kiln used in the brick making process. Scaling off the 25inch to the mile map, the buildings were around 140 x 85 feet. I have gone for a 90% scale version to fit on the layout. The kiln worked as a continuous process with each section being loaded with bricks in turn whilst the fire was "moved" around an inner chamber by dropping coal through hatches in the roof.

 

Basic construction is 5mm foam board, fixed with PVA glue and pins.  The foam board will allow for the deep recesses to the kiln sections to be included. The idea would be to cover the shell with card/ printed brick paper. The flue is a section of plastic pipe to give the impression of a typical 200 foot flue. The final version would need to include a taper and be turned from wood.

 

Pictures show that most kilns had a roof structure to keep the workers dry whilst loading the coal through the hatches in the roof. This is nor shown on the mock up. One thing I have not seen in detail  was how they got the coal up onto the roof. I have seen some pictures showing a narrow gauge railway to move coal hoppers by hand between adjacent kilns. This suggests a hoist or ramp somewhere. Any information on this would be most grateful.

 

Pictures of mock up ...

[stivesnick]

Some more track laying done on the layout today. The ramp up to the brickworks has been created and some track installed.

 

Operation will be as follows:

 

1. Pick up goods arrives in goods loop (right track at the lower level)

2. Around 8 wagons will be detached, and then pushed up the ramp into the yard to the arrival siding (middle track at the back)

3. Loco can then pick up outgoing wagons and add them to goods train which can then depart in line is clear.

4. Brickworks loco then takes a few wagons at a time to the loading area and then returns loaded wagons to departure siding.

 

In real life the loading track was the right hand track in the yard, but to avoid the "big loading hand in the sky" the wagons will be taken to a separate loading shed over the crossing which can be accessed through the fiddle yard.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

Its been a long time since the last update but the group is still here making slow progress on the wiring.

 

We are the Cambs and Northants group of the N Gauge Society and we meet once a month in the Offords just south of Huntingdon - all society members are welcome to attend.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

An end of year update.

 

Yes we actually had some trains running on the layout today - thanks to some temporary wiring and Mike's trusty 60 year old controller (none of this modern rubbish). Once I work out how to download a video from my camera, there will be some pictures. The controller is generally two speed; 0 or 80mph so some impressive lap times recorded.

 

One thing we noticed was a modern Farish 4F was struggling to start with a load of 20 short wheel based wagons. Is this normal or controller related?

 

Regards

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

Its been 6 months since an update. Most of this time has been working on the wiring.

 

Some work has been going on regarding the brick kilns and station area.

 

First picture shows the kiln based on dimensions obtained during a chat with the archivist at the London Brick Company. The bolt in the centre is for the flue. We have one turned from wood.

 

The second picture shows the road bridge built from embossed plastic sheet. Start of the foamboard based platforms also visible.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Nick,

 

Sorry I couldn't make it to the meeting yesterday.  That road bridge looks superb!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[stivesnick]

Hi

 

A good afternoon track laying has resulted in the fiddle yard tracks appearing on the layout. Have used the Peco setrack curved points to increase the length of each track. 3 tracks in each direction, to be divided into 2 or 3 sections so we can 8 trains in each direction. These points were obviously designed with a crossover in mind and we have used to extra curved sections included with the points to separate them. Has anyone come up with a scheme using other setrack sections to get a series of smooth curves into a fiddle yard?

 

There is a bit more work to do trackwise in creating the brickworks loading shed, where empty wagons can be changed for loaded ones.

 

Pictures  enclosed.

 

Nick

 

 

[ess1uk]

Coming along nicely

[stivesnick]

Some scenic progress to report.

 

The foam board platforms have been replaced by wooden ones covered in scalescenes brick paper. The top surface will be paved around the station building and cinders elsewhere.

 

The station building is progressing. We have used an Arconton kit as a base but covered in with more scalescenes paper. Roof is not stuck on yet in the photos.

 

There has been some discussion on how to build the brick kilns; we looked at 3D printing which was rather expensive. Not wanting to cut out all the arches in the kilns, we have settled on using a card cutter to produce the basic shapes to achieve the consistency between the buildings. Photos show how each side is made up of multiple layers of thin card and the wall buttress fold up into shape.

 

Hope it all makes sense and hopefully we can have something running in the new year.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[stivesnick]

Ooooops

 

Forgot to include the picture of the made up kiln side wall

 

Nick