Moggs Eye

I haven't had a great deal of spare time for modelling of late, but have been working on converting a Hornby Class 153 into a Network Rail track inspection unit.

The finished unit is seen on Holland Beck at the Lincoln show today.

Holland Beck is journeying well beyond the borders of Lincolnshire in November when we head to Cumbria for the Workington show.

https://sites.google.com/view/solrail/2023-exhibition?fbclid=IwAR2SypPzo82d9WYlB-mHmJw6pQt_wSSyzUjUWIIyq36h8Mg8E9zHM9NxByE

Since I last posted there have been some alterations at the fiddle yard end to make the layout a little more interesting to operate.

An overall view of the layout with the new industrial area hiding the single line fiddle yard.

37114 positioning the first wagons into the new building.

The dockyard shunter having a break between duties.

After being laid up in my garage since 2020 and the pandemic, Emsworth was set up for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

I had to fight through the life's work of many spiders and much dust before connecting all the different power supplies, flicking a couple of switches, and...

It all worked perfectly!

Which was very good news as I had committed to take it to the Boston Exhibition last weekend.

Happily there were no challenging problems over the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with the busy commuter timetable and the head-scratching shunting puzzle we use for the loco and wagon yards.

Next outing for this layout will hopefully be at Howden next March.  If I get the paperwork in today!

Three generations of traction awaiting their next duty at the signing on point.

The Branch Line Society almost made it to the buffers in the wagon repair yard.

60007 awaiting the fitters' attention in the inspection bay.

66773 waiting to run around its train in the station headshunt.

A view across the servicing point, fueling line and East end of the station. The 144 is waiting to depart with a service to Goole.

St Vincent Junction signalbox.

We're looking forward to taking Holland Beck to the Carlton Railway Society's exhibition in Howden next weekend, March the 19th and 20th.

I have decided to acknowledge the RAF's history by allowing their centenary Class 156 onto the branch.

See you in Howden.

Another great show from the Caistor crew, thanks for your hospitality, the Holland Beck had a very pleasant weekend.

With our masks on, like many of the other exhibitors, traders and visitors. 

The Holland Beck team enjoyed a pleasant exhibition at Caistor in Lincolnshire this weekend.

This was the first time I had exhibited it anywhere to its supposed location on the South Bank of the River Humber and a few locals were a little perplexed how they had never passed through Holland Beck or enjoyed a meal at the Black Cat pub!

It was good to see so many folk supporting the club by turning out  for a visit.

The layout behaved itself, which was more than could be said for the operators, particularly the pro-celebrity team who took over Sunday afternoon. 

Thanks to the Caistor club for the invitation and for their usual friendly show.

47744 gets the road with a trip working to Immingham. 

The same train seen having just picked up the single line token from the crossing keeper.

A class 153 bound for Barton from Lincoln slows down for its stop at Holland Beck.

With Carnival Bank level crossing activated the service is about to depart.

I'm not sure why they would put a 60 on a trip working like this, but here is 60065 fouling the level crossing while its driver has a chat with the crossing keeper.

A track maintenance team ignore the Lincoln train, the Gazelle helicopter is much more interesting. 

The next exhibition outing for us will be at Howden in March.

Have fun.

I had a very pleasant day at this friendly show today.

There's a good selection if layouts and excellent cake; well worth a visit.

Waiting for the train at Holland Beck this afternoon at the Boston exhibition. 153382 is on a Lincoln to Barton service.

Humber Logistics Services locomotive number 2 rumbles over the Beck. 

31466 waits on the headshunt, presumably while the crew has a brew with the crossing keeper, while a Lincoln bound 153 halts at the platform.

Hi,

Thanks for the comments on the magazine article.

As much as it's nice to see pictures of your layout in the magazine, and Paul Bason did an excellent job with them, the hardest part is trying to get across, in words, a flavour of what the layout is all about. The editorial team did chop the wording around, which means some of it doesn't make as much sense, particularly at the beginning of the article, but it's their product.

I do appreciate the comments about the single line working. I've always been convinced that good operation is the heart of a decent exhibition layout and I enjoy operating prototypically, even if the timetable is a little hectic for a sleepy branch line. (Barton gets one train every two hours at the moment!)

Really I ought to get the thing set up and have a running session, I'm missing driving my trains!

Cheers,

Ben.

A few months ago I was invited to join a Micro Layout group on Facebook. Faced with some of the excellent work on there and considering the challenge of fitting something into their limits for OO I have come up with a corner of a military stores facility, Base Ordnance Depot Oakforth, to expend some creativity upon.

It's set sometime in the late 1980s and features the loco facility and wagon repair workshop for an ordnance depot with an internal railway network connecting a series of stores sheds with the outside world.

That's the complete scenic section, looking vaguely Southwest.

From right to left we have the following line/sidings;

The depot narrow gauge line - early in the planning process I found a video clip from the Eastriggs munitions depot in Scotland which had narrow and standard gauge networks. I've never worked in 009 before and the idea was too tempting to resist, particularly when I found some of the excellent Tillig HO/009 track.

The next track from the right is the depot running line which crosses the narrow gauge then has a siding off to the right. This siding will disappear into a Bicester style, low relief stores shed while the running line will continue into a small fiddle yard.

Then we have another narrow gauge line. This leads to a junction then two sidings. One will go into the loco shed, which will be a joint narrow and standard gauge building.

The next standard gauge line splits into four sidings - the right hand pair for the locomotives (one under cover and one outside) the other pair for wagons (one undercover and one outside again).

Finally on the far left is the remains of a Midland Railway cross country route now reduced to single line branchline leading to Oakforth station.

This is the viewing side and I working on the scenery from front to back. To the left is a rudimentary halt serving the depot's South gate, which will sit between the signalbox and platform. As space is tight the depot's perimeter fence runs along the back of the platform.

The signalbox, Black Cat Junction, is a much abused Ratio kit which owes its survival to an imagined junction just to the right. A platform for token exchanges has been added to its steps.

The layout will use the MoD shunters from my other military themed layout, Cottleston with a mixture of MoD internal user wagons and the kind of airbraked stock that would have been brought to the depot via Speedlink.

I envisage using a card based operating system to generate shunting moves for the wagon workshop, loco shed, narrow gauge, running line and main line to keep the operators bickering and getting in each other's way at exhibitions.

The 'main' lines will have a class 108 and 121 shuttling backwards and forwards with the occasional very short freight going to the agricultural merchants sidings at Oakforth.

14 hours ago, saxokid said:

Hey Ben hope your ok,hows this layout coming along??

 

cheers neil..

HI Neil,

I'm good thanks

I was just about to get Cottleston out from under the dust sheets and get it prepared for Redcar in August, but they have just cancelled - though it was to be expected. They have asked me to go back in 2021, which is something to look forward to.

Cheers,

Ben.

3 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

This looks like an interesting project. It is nice to see something regarding the second BEF which is often forgotten. Everyone know the story of the BEF and Dunkirk but few realise while evacuating the BEF we were still sending troops ( the second BEF) to France to help the French via the Normandy and Brittany ports and then having to withdraw them quickly when the French surrendered. 

Back in the days when the British Army was essentially self contained and packed with specialists who could sort pretty much anything.

There are still some specialist RE troops, mainly reservists I think, who have some railway capability. https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/corps-of-royal-engineers/65-works-group/

An interesting project, I hope it goes well.

I like the detail around the signalling and the back story that comes across from your signalling diagram. Given your particular interest I can see why you've gone for all the colour light signals - technology that seemed to come fairly late into East Lincolnshire - I think there may have been one or two somersault signals lingering on the Skegness branch around the era you're modelling!

I will look forward to your updates, have fun with it.

Despite the menace of you-know-what the Perth Green (Jarrow) Model Railway Exhibition last weekend was a chilled, very pleasant event. The folk up there were very warm and friendly so the Holland Beck crew had a fine time up there. 

We did end up being backed into a corner of a small room surrounded my narrow gauge layouts, leading to the revelation that 009 modellers don't in fact bite and have a great sense of humour. Thanks for your company, lads.

A view down Carnival Bank as a 156 heads towards Barton. Some odd photographic stuff means both red lights on the crossing appear to be illuminated together. 

The signalling equipment at Holland Beck Ground Frame. 

60007 gets away with a trip working to Immingham after picking up the single line token from the crossing keeper. 

Humberside Police pointing the way to a decent cup of tea for the downed Army Air Corps pilot. 

As 47744 trundles in with the empties for the brickworks, ex-army Ruston 802 waits to pick them up. 

Holland Beck will be heading North to Jarrow and the Perth Green exhibition next weekend. 

As part of the preparations I have been making sure the Humber Logistics Services industrial shunter are happy on the exchange sidings. 

The Ruston runs beautifully, even on my average track. 

Hopefully I'll see some of you up there. 

Emsworth will be out at the Lincoln Club's show at Newark next weekend. 

During tests in the garage today I decided to try the Ruston I bought in Doncaster a couple of weeks ago. 

Not only did it run perfectly, without its match truck, but it also pulled 7 loaded HEA hoppers the full length of the layout. 

Hornby, I am impressed. 

HI everyone,

Happy New Year.

I'm pleased to be looking at another trip Up North with Cottleston this summer as we've been invited to the Cleveland MRC show on August the 1st and 2nd in Redcar.

The details are here - http://www.clevelandmrc.club/ex2020.html

Have fun,

Ben.

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

 

It feels like it's all heading rather more that way to be honest. It's when people start going on about having to have diversity for the sake of it that those supicions arise, which is why I think overall it does everyone a disservice.

There may be something in that, though it's an easy position to take if you are fortunate enough to be part of a group who frequently sees people on the TV and in the media who look like you, talk like you, have relationships like you, wear clothes like you and so on. It's harder to feel included or engaged if there's nobody in the media who has anything in common with you.

Consider Steph McGovern on BBC Breakfast. There was a furore when she started presenting the economics pieces in her strong north-eastern accent. Is she a token Northerner or is she a competent presenter who got the job on her own merits? Does her accent detract from the information she's putting across? Does it make BBC Breakfast seem a little more relevant to the North?

Diversity isn't for diversity's sake - the UK is a wonderfully diverse society.

6 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Exactly. A while back the former would always be assumed, no matter what they looked like. Now both that and why the role was created in the first place are getting questioned. And it's a perfectly valid question to ask.

 

 

Sadly the former wouldn't always be assumed. I've spent long enough working in organisations where competence was always assumed until an individual with a different gender, sexuality or ethnicity got the job when their advancement was assumed to be  box ticking. Happily attitudes in those organisations have generally moved on.

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

Depends why you put them there. We've deliberately got a BROWN person in a leading role, vs. we've got someone in a leading role who happens to be brown. And ask yourself why they made the Doctor a woman - he'd changed shape before but not sex, and similarly with the other Time Lords we've seen (e.g. Romana). This is not representative evolution, it's political silliness.

 

The arguments are so subjective they are hardly worth having. 

Put there to satisfy a quota or there because they were the right person for the role? 

Viewers or commentators will interpret the whole thing in whatever context they choose, irrespective of the casting team's motivations, the inspiration from the creators or any direction from the management. 

I'm 50 years old and can remember watching Jon Pertwee as The Doctor.

I don't see have a female Doctor, or brown people in leading roles as box ticking, it's evolution and it's representative. 

As for the latest episode, I watched it right after watching Paddington 2. Both were brilliant, entertaining and fun, but not to be taken seriously. 

On 24/11/2019 at 18:14, Simon98 said:

Look forward to another update, will it be appearing at any shows in 2020?

Hi, Simon,

Cottleston's only 2020 exhibition, so far, will be at the GCR event at Quorn and Woodhouse Station in June.

Cheers,

Ben.

I have just got back and unpacked Emsworth after a very enjoyable weekend at the Spalding exhibition. The layout performed well and seemed well received from the comments I got.

Here are a few photos I snatched this afternoon;

St Vincent Junction signalbox with signal 15 'off' for a departure from platform 5.

Modern(ish) traction at the wagon repair end of the loco yard.

The inspection point fitters seem to be bickering about something while 60078 awaits attention.

Our next exhibition is Lincoln in the new year.

See you there.

Happy modelling.

Ben.

Great work, Thomas and the Spalding team. Thoroughly enjoyable show. Thanks for having us.

A few more pictures from the Lincoln exhibition. 

The last train of the day gets away from Holland Beck on its way back to Lincoln. 

Humber Logistics Services Locomotive no. 2 awaiting its next duty at the end of the headhunt. 

Near the end of its trip working from Immingham, 47744 pauses while its crew give up the single line token.