NeilHB

A track plan, a track plan, my kingdom for a track plan... So, it's only taken me the best part of a year, but I think I've finally come up with a track plan for EW that I actually like, and that hopefully won't drive me round the bend having to hand lay all the track and points for: The railway enters from the right hand end, hidden behind some large trees to pass across an ungated level crossing (minor road) and past the tramway cottage that now serves as the station masters residence. The line then splits to form the run round loop, with the left hand line giving access to the small goods yard (goods shed and coal staithes plus coal merchants office). The right hand side of the loop gives access via a kickback siding to the engine shed - wood and corrugated iron I think would be suitable here - before both lines rejoin at the beginning of the platform. A nice timber overall roof for the platform also doubles as a carriage shed and serves to give the passengers some protection from the wilds of the Sudrian landscape! Still trying to work out board sizes, probably no deeper than 2', and each board maybe 3'-3'6" in length - the room the layout will live in is a tad over 9' long, so ideally it's got to fit in that space.

Is it the 0-4-0 you've got? The trick with them is ensuring that the crossheads have enough room - I think Tim said he'd replaced the crankpins on mine with Markits one as they were smaller, plus fitting different pickups as the Slaters one supplied (and already fitted) weren't that great. Hopefully yours isn't in the same situation that mine was where the rear wheels were glued to the axle. Which motor/gearbox does yours have - mine is fitted with the original two part plastic gearbox - I don't think they've made that one in a while which shows how old the kit is. Incidentally I've got an unbuilt kit of the K class 0-6-0s in the to-do pile...

Thanks Dave - I really must get cracking with coffee pot again! The MW would look good too - currently with Tim for rebuilding as the chassis when bought was decidedly wonky...

Edwardian - I've been following with interest. Norfolk was my home from home as a child - two weeks every summer spent round Hunstanton/Brancaster etc. - journeys over there from Leicester always had a stop off at Castle Rising so I became quite familiar with the place. I really do like what you're doing with this project, particularly the buildings which are exquisite. As Argos has already said, I would recommend posting the railways history as I am also interested in reading it please!

As promised, some photos of the tramcar conversion - I will say this - it's a bit small! So perfectly suited to Elsbridge Wharf then. Makes a Slaters MR 8T van looks positively huge next to it...! Still a fair bit to do including cutting down the clerestory roof to fit and filing in the various gaps etc. in the sides/roof. Livery wise I'm thinking the reverse of what it currently is - maroon with a white/cream body side panel. I wasn't sure when I started this project how it would look, however I'm quite pleased with it so far - hopefully it gives the right impression of a railway struggling to make ends meet and having to make do with whatever stock was to hand. Speaking of maroon - I got the minidrill out the other night and played with the polishing attachments - cue one shiny brass Peckett dome/safety valves: Shiny!

Productive afternoon today - got the W&U luggage van to the point where I could put a coat of primer on it, while that was drying I built the other kit I purchased at Kettering, also from Ragstone Models this is a GER dumb buffered ballast wagon from the 1880s - I can't resist a nice dumb buffered open... Next I started on cutting down in length the resin tramcar I bought from eBay a month or so ago - no photos yet as I'm still waiting for the glue to dry...this will replace the scratch built tramcar built previously as I wasn't happy with how it looked (don't worry I will come back to it one day). Lastly a quick photo for Mr Young - 3 red engines all in a row... Really must get the Peckett and the HC finished off and put back together properly!

Hi Andy, Thanks. The van is from Ragstone Models - http://www.ragstonemodels.co.uk - I picked it up from Kettering along with me of their Great Eastern dumb buffered ballast wagons. All it needs adding is some lowmac wheels from Slaters for the van - total cost about £55 so not too bad all in. Tigger - yes definitely a hindrance - spent more time turfing him off the layout than doing anything else tonight! Yes well spotted about the locos - need to actually get round to finishing off the repainted of the Peckett and the Hudswell Clarke. I bought one of Paul's cast brass Peckett domes at Kettering so need to sort that out and get it fitted - should hopefully look quite nice when it's finished. Cheers, Neil

Finally some progress! I haven't made much progress on the layout at all in the last month, in fact I haven't really ventured into the train room for the best part of a month...finally made it in there at the weekend and managed to have a good tidy and clear out. Buying a nice new bookcase from Argos for some (!) of my railway books to live on has made a big difference and means that I can actually see the floor... Having had a good (if somewhat cold) day at the Kettering show I returned home with a couple more times of rolling stock to build courtesy of Ragstone Models. The first item up on the workbench is ex Wisbech & Upwell Tramway luggage van No.9 (or to those of you familiar with the work of the Rev. Awdry - Elsie) - a very nice whitemetal kit with a minimum of flash. Just over an hours work has seen the basic chassis and body assembled: Having done that I realised the layout needed a good tidy - having become a bit of a dumping ground for various tools and projects I couldn't use it - now I can: I would have made more progress tonight where it not for the actions of youngest helper (Tigger) who decided that both the layout and the workbench needed a good inspection...

Looks good Dave! If you are going to be at Kettering come and say hello - Tim and I will be manning the 7mmNGA stand and a friendly face will be very welcome!

Oops - yes that's what I meant! Really should check before I post things...!

Very much looking forward to the announcement...will be there with bated breath at 11.00 on the dot! (Assuming that I can sneak away from the 7mmNGA stand for a moment...)

What a lovely little coach! The complete train looks very nice too. Re the Terrier - I give you a week before the temptation kicks in! Think I lasted three days before I repainted mine - though that was mainly to stop me from thinking about an LBSC branch terminus with a fleet of Terriers...

The Rother coach is looking good Andy. I wondered when you'd give in and buy a Terrier...assuming it will appear in a similar to the other locos? Nice choice of reading material too!

If you do manage to find it Martin would you post some photos please? Be interesting to see how it looks.

You are quite correct Martin, however I think it should be relatively easy to widen the body with new ends and roof. The curved dashboards at each end will go and be replaced with some of a more suitable design - just got to decide what that design is first!

Thanks Edwardian, very much appreciated. Will admit I haven't made much progress in recent weeks, other than odd little bits here and there which weren't worth posting about. Managed to snag a bargain on eBay the other day though so gained a couple of trams which will be converted into ex-horse drawn tramcars converted to run behind the coffee pots during the early days. One Bachmann 0n30 streetcar converted to standard gauge, and the other looks like it was a resin kit mounted on a modified Hornby motor bogie - so not only have I gained two coaches but two nicely running chassis' as well - just need to work out what to use them for now!

Dave, good to see you and see Coxheath Sidings in the flesh - lovely layout! Thanks for the chance to give the Terrier and the tramway coach a spin too - much appreciated.

Dave, that's great thank you very much.

A plea for help from the power of RMWeb! I snagged myself a bargain on eBay over the weekend, a part built Slaters Dean non-corridor All Third...completely out of period for Elsbridge Wharf, but it wil fit in with future plans at some point in the future. Now, the only problem is is that there aren't any instructions with it, and there's rather a lot of parts for this kit! It's Slaters kit reference 7C08 - does anyone have a set of instructions going spare that I could copy please? Lots of lovely parts and brass castings - looks like enough brass castings for two coaches in fact. Current thinking is that it will probably end up as a Wellsworth & Suddery Railway coach, with WSR lettering on one side and North Western Railway lettering on the other, two time periods for the price of one. Livery wise I can say for definite it won't be staying in chocolate and cream, current thinking is something along the lines of LNER tourist green and cream, mainly because I like it and it's a bit different!

Looks very good David! Cab interior looks much better than the lovely(!) colour it was supplied in - will have to try and do something similar to Crosby in readiness for the Mickleover show at the end of the month.

Martin - the motor/gearbox is under slung off the axle nearest the bunker - the motor sits at an angle in the bottom of the boiler, but as its only small there's over half the boiler left for filling with lead. In the photo below the gearbox drives off the axle at the left hand end: As you can see the water tank has been built, just needs the corners rounding off a bit and lots of lovely rivets adding next! I'm aiming to build this version with an overall cab, which will hopefully hide the fact that I've chickened out of making working valve gear on this one...

Martin many thanks - that was indeed the cause! Oh well the new wheels I've ordered can be used for the second coffee pot. I've managed to get the first one running today, not too bad but needs a good run in I think. Also need to find a way to stuff it full of lead too as it's very light on its feet! So far the water tank is full of scrap white metal, but it's going to need plenty of weight over the boiler and in the 'bunker' to get it to manage a respectable (for its size,anyway) load.

Gainford Spa is looking great Andy! The ballasting has made a big difference to the layout. I think I will have to keep an eye out for the clay material you've used between the rails as I need/want to try something similar for Elsbridge Wharf. Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

Thanks for the info Martin, much appreciated. Will admit my knowledge of railway practices in Australia is somewhat limited, so nice to know that there is almost a prototype for everything! Today I managed to do something that I never thought I would be able to do, I built a loco chassis from scratch: Copperclad PCB sheet and some frame spacers from Meteor Models (I think - they've been in the one day projects box for so long...), plus Slaters plunger pickups. A couple of hours of work with some plasticard and a scalpel then produced the below: Will admit I quite chuffed with how it looks so far, certainly not an accurate representation of Coffee Pot no.1 at Beamish, but then the Knapford and Elsbridge coffee pots were designed in house so anything is possible in my opinion. Tomorrow should hopefully see the rest of the bodywork completed, I have some castings in the spares box which I can use for the reversing lever etc., however I need to wait for some new wheels to arrive from Slaters before I can proceed with motor and gearbox - the ones on the loco have developed an annoying habit of trying to turn in opposite directions...grrr. Lastly a couple of photos of coffee pot on the layout, nice to see a loco which makes a Terrier look large!

No more progress to report on 'Henrietta' as I've been distracted with a couple of other projects that actually fit in the timeline for Elsbridge Wharf. First up is the first building for Elsbridge Wharf, a Petite Properties 'Cemetary Lodge', built as per instructions (for once!), it's gone together really nicely, and I now just need to decide on the wall finish and door/window frame colouring - my thinking is that it will be the tramway cottage that will sit at the entrance to the station/wharf and hopefully act as a view blocker for trains entering/exiting the scene: Next up is another item of rolling stock, a Hurn Models LSWR goods guards van of 1875 vintage, however lets just say I didn't follow the instructions for this one and it doesn't exactly look like the picture on the instructions...! I decided that the vehicle had been purchased third hand (from one of the other railway already in existence on Sodor, who in turn had purchased it from the LSWR) when they were in need of a brake vehicle for running with passenger and goods trains. However being in need of a suitable vehicle that could be used to convey passengers and goods when traffic was light, such as during the winter months, they converted one end into a rudimentary passenger compartment: Plenty of work later with the drill saw the necessary windows opened up in the very nice resin castings, I also took the opportunity to open up the birdcage roof part of the roof moulding, so that I could model part of the interior, which is also why one of the side doors has been removed so that I can add some items in there such as milk churns, crates etc. Lined up alongside the tramway balcony coach makes you realise just how small the brake coach/van thingy (for want of a better term - suggestions on a postcard please!) really is...and I thought the balcony coach was small! One more for good measure showing a three coach train in the station, it must be market day in Elsbridge so all available passenger stock has been pressed into use: