stivesnick

Some track laying progress

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

Ian

Just finished reading the article in RM. Well done and some great pictures.

Look forward to seeing the layout again at Warley.

Regards

Nick

Thanks Julian

The layout is off to the Warrington Show in a few weeks time. One of many N gauge layouts, also Camel Quay for us Cornwall model types.

Nick

Les

Great to see the layout at the Grantham Show today and have a brief chat. The weathering on the freight stock is first class. Keep up the good work.

Regards

Nick

Paul

Regarding the engine shed -

The shed at Kings Lynn lasted until the 1990s, I think, as there were some Class 08 shunters based there for local trip workings to the docks and other sidings. Also before the wires went up loco hauled passenger trains ran to London Liverpool Street so locos were stabled there overnight. When the freight finished and the wires went up, the shed was removed. So I guess the question to ask, is would the real railway need a shed? These days, locos and multiple units tend to return to the mainline overnight so local sheds or staff signing on points are seldom required.

But its your layout, so do what you want!

Regards

Nick

Some extra tracks have been added to the fiddle yard. A long siding, around 40 inches, in the "St Blazey" end and a shorter, suitable for a 3 car DMU at the Newquay end.

Picture shows the long siding with the new 1990s wagonload train. The first two wagons are repainted continental wagons for scrap traffic, the rest of the train are Bachmann items; Class 37, 3 x Tullis Russell hoppers and a Speedlink VGA.

Due to possible high winds and rain tomorrow, the show at the Ramsey Rural Museum has been cancelled. Some of the exhibits are located outside under canvas and the risk of damage was considered too high.

Was advised of the cancellation by the organiser this morning.

Nick

This is a great idea for a layout, with a very interesting setting.

Look forward to seeing progress.

Thanks Paul

The dummy RR Class 153 will be next into the paint shop. A class 150 + 153  would be a good summer branch line train.

Nick

Molinnis will be at the Ramsey (Cambs) show next Sunday. The venue is the Ramsey Rural Museum which has a large collection of old farm and household equipment - well worth a look if you are modelling a rural location in times past.

As for Molinnis, hope to have some new rolling stock for the layout.

Hope to see some of you there.

Nick

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 !!

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.

Paul

For this sort of railway, there was often a maintenance stair way along side the track. Is this something you have considered

Regards

Nick

Having sorted out problems with transfer of pictures from camera to computer, here is a quick update.

The show at Motspur Park went very well, and the layout behaved itself once I sorted out a short caused by the boards being too close together.

A couple of photos:

Now that Civic Duties have finished, time for some modelling. First up is a Tomix bus. Although the front window is large and modern looking, the side window supports are rather heavy. So these have been cut away. The drivers side looks better than the door side. Green is original bus, red is modified. Need to think about painting decals etc.

Second project; the Regional Railways Class 150 has been to the Electra Graphics paint shop and emerged in FGW livery. First step was to paint around the doors as suggested. Bit difficult when the new livery is a changing colour. I used Humbrol 222 which was about right. To apply the new livery I tried doing it in sections and in 1 go. The sections were slightly easier. There was still a gap around the doors but hopefully the finished article is not too bad. Need to add varnish coat - would a matt finish be best?

Molinnis is at small local show next Saturday in SW London.

Holy Cross Church Hall, Motspur Park - 11.00-4.30. Exhibition is in support of charities that mum is involved in so could not refuse really!

From memory there is very limited parking on site, so best come by train to Motspur Park station (SWT Waterloo to Chessington / Epsom) which is only a few minutes walk away. Could also park at Tesco Shannon Corner on the A3, again a few minutes walk away.

A few additional trees added and a few more details have gone in. Plans to lengthen the fiddle yard are on hold until the new Peco setrack curved points come out. I did look at moving the existing points but this would only give me an extra CDA or 2, the curved points would allow trains up to 20 CDAs!

Like the staircase - is it a kit or did you build it from scratch?

Don't want to appear to be a "grumpy" but the supports don't look right. It either needs a second leg at each landing with some bracing or the steps need to be tied back to the stone wall with some supports, otherwise the stairs could fall over.

In terms of colour black was the most usual colour for metal work, although it could be green. Either way, unless freshly painted, there would be plenty of rust showing.

Hope this is helpful

Nick

Hi Dave

Great idea for a layout.

Are you planning to use DCC and will you be running proper Atlantic Coast Express trains that split / join sections at the stations? An operation just made for DCC and Dapol easy-shunt couplers.

Regards

Nick

Hi

Like this a lot, the scenic work so far looks great. I especially like the way you have managed to give the impression that the branch and main line are separate and head in different directions.

At the station end, have you thought about how you are going to include part of the town that the station serves? It would help give the layout a good sense of place.

Regards

Nick

_{Hi Paul}

_{Like the layout and good to see John hard at work!}

_{Been trying to think of a suitable history for the layout. It could have been that the station was the original terminus and then the single track line added on later as an extension to the next town or china clay facility. In that case a run round loop on the branch would be needed but not an extra platform ( although a disused platform would look good). It would be worth locating the site of the former goods yard/loco shed which would now be used for something else ie car park or new supermarket etc.}

_{Have you told John where the bus and lorries are going to run yet!!!}

_N

Saw layout at Nottingham today - excellent layout, with good detail, and unlike many layouts at the show, something moving!

Regards

St Ives Nick

I have been keeping an eye of this thread since it started. There are some extremely interesting techniques being put to use here that are acting as inspiration for my next project. I particularly like the housing estate; very well executed.

Thanks Claude

The track plan lends itself to having a scenic feature in front of the tracks and a modern(ish) estate is something that is seldom modelled.

The buildings are Muswell Models resin kits, I brought them many years ago. Not sure if they are still trading, but there are not many modern house buildings available in N. I wanted kits to ensure consistency of the buildings.

The layout was very much trial and error - you will see from early photos that they moved around a little bit before they were finally stuck down.

The gardens were a case of think of something different to put in each one - so we have some sheds, a BBQ, new extension, vegetable patch and a rather overgrown garden.

Regards

Nick

Some more photos from the March show - just to prove we did run passenger trains as well.

1) the operators "what does this switch do again?"

2) Passing local and cross-country trains - looks like wrong line running is in operation.

3) Close up of the Dapol Class 153s. At the start of the show the St Ives bay version was poorly but Paul managed to fix it, by the end the FGW one was a non-runner

4) Cross country train by the signal box - the signaller is about to get an unexpected visitor.

Thanks to John, Paul+daughter and Ben for helping on the layout today.

The public spotted the alien and UFO, couple having a snog behind the garage and the shopping trolley. Nobody pointed out the owl box - it can be seen in the pictures on post 81.

Nick

The big day is tomorrow: 1st March

Layout is making it's debut at the March & District Model Railway Club show Westwood Community Junior School, Maple Grove, March PE15 8JT.

Do say hello if you are visiting the show.

Regards

Nick

As this is 'present day' presumably you haven't got any trains running!

I could get some clear plastic sheet to represent a flood to cover the area either side of the river. Or to be totally correct I should build some more houses on the flood plain!