Moggs Eye

Hi, Slowly I'm afraid. I seem to be spending most modelling time updating/repairing/refreshing my other layouts for exhibition outings. I haven't forgotten to return your pictures. I should get them back to you soon, thanks very much. Cheers, Ben.

Apologies to Mr Class "66" over the further signal pictures - I don't enough room in the house to put up both scenic boards at the same time and the garage is a little cold an unwelcoming at the moment. I'm working on the station board at the moment, replacing a load of Metcalfe paving and repainting some of my population. The only signals on the station board are the remains of those that once protected Crow Lane level crossing, now with their arms removed. My backscene boards are usually permanently affixed to the layout, but this one had to come down to allow better access to Crow Lane, for the roadworks meaning I was able to get these previously unseen views of the former good shed. How come you never notice those wonky lamp posts until you take a picture? You'll notice that after some major working and fettling over the weekend, Sprinty the 153 (now renamed Suzie by the Boys) is able to fit inside the goods shed! Not long until Telford now. I can't decide whether to transport the layout in the Skoda or my Land Rover - it may depend on the weather forecast! Cheers, Ben.

Here's the latest 153 in my collection - "Sprinty" the East Midlands Trains promotional thing! I like the livery, the wheel standards are a little coarse and I can't see where the decoder goes! Ben.

A whistling chicken leg? As long as it's an Army Air Corps one.

Thanks for the comments. I'll see what I can do about some pictures of the signals. I see what you mean about the distance. We could come to you - an expedition to an exhibition in Great Western Railway territory would be a first for us.

Hi Bob, I haven't got many, but I've had a trawl and come up with these. None of my models are definitive representations of the real things - "inspired by" would be a better description. This is the Wild Boar Models Warwell with an S&S Models CVR(T) Sultan load (awaiting tie down straps). The wagon is 3D printed and in my opinion is a good representation of the real thing and makes for a relatively easy building project. The only difficulty I found was in smoothing out the stippling left by the 3D printing process and then arranging the couplings. As the wagon has jacks at each corner, to prevent it tipping while loading/unloading, the arc allowed for a coupling to swing is restricted. The Warflats have the same issue and to ensure my rake will go smoothly through reverse curves, towed and propelled, they have to go in a particular order. It seems to work okay for me, though a more precise modeller than me would be able to use one of the many decent coupling systems to achieve good running. I wanted a model of one of the cradles used to make the Warrior sit within the loading gauge, but since Genesis stopped making them there are none around. Scratch building may be an option if I get time. The Sultan is a resin kit which goes together well. It includes a GPMG which I left off! It probably wouldn't stand up to the exacting standards of modern military modellers without lots of detail work, but having some not so fond memories of working out of the back of a Sultan somewhere hot and uncomfortable I had to have one. These are the best shots I could find of a Warflat. They are Genesis metal kits which Paul Bason built for me, I didn't have the kit for low melt soldering, before I painted them. I had the same problems with the couplings. Even three of them make a very heavy trailing load which none of my mainline locos struggle with. However, my two MoD shunters, both of which run on Black Beetle chassis, didn't have the weight, no matter how much I crammed in. So I had to buy this... The cover story for this Modelzone representation of a Longmoor Military Railway shunter goes along the lines of a heritage vehicle maintained on the Cottleston Military Railway as a depot 'pet' for special occasions - and to shunt the Warflats! The FV432 at the front of the train is a GRA Models resin kit, again the detail is rudimentary but it goes together well and makes a nice model of a vehicle that has been used by the Army for years and years (it's still in service, in a modified form today. The Scimitar tank is Airfix - a very old kit that I needed to take more trouble with, but building six at once was tedious! Cheers, Ben.

Interesting comparisons between Airfix kits and generic model railway kits. If you pick up an Airfix Spifire, for example, you can be confident of turning out a model that will represent a snapshot of a particular aircraft in a particular squadron on a specific date. You get a much more generic product with a railway kit, there's a much bigger buy in terms of research and study by the modeller to make the kit that suits their layout in their chosen era and location. I have only ever built one loco kit, a Judith Edge shunter, as I model the post-privatisation world and most of what I need comes out of a box from China, but I wonder about the demands from people for everything, from operating signals to level crossings, to come from that route. Each to their own I suppose. Cheers, Ben.

I've been weeding today - not the sort that Ms Adlington prefers! Here's a view along the Bank Road showing the loading bank in its clearly disused condition and the neglected sidings beyond. I don't think the MoD would put up with them like that so they must be under Network Rail control. I didn't know what else to do with the loading bank, apart from weeds, so I found some leftovers in the S&T spares box and planted them there for the weeds to grow around. Cheers, Ben.

Thanks. The layout's name come from Winnie the Pooh, specifically the song 'Cottleston Pie'. Cheers, Ben.

Those sheds are spot on.

Thanks Rob, I confess that the locos are usually the last thing on my mind when building. I do like big, modern diesels, but I don't know much about what they get used for. Knowing about the 58s is good news, I got mine on a whim and have used under the tired old Modeller's Rule Number 1! On loco names, I have an EWS branded Mainline liveried 60078 named for Noor Inayat Khan GC, a British/Indian war hero from SOE. Cheers, Ben.

A back rest day with the house to myself meant I got a fair bit done today. These two shots show the ongoing work with the former loco siding, I think I may have to call it the Bank Road from now. In the absence of any fine ballast I've used sand (from Skegness beach, not the bit with whales on) and it's awaiting painting into a suitably grubby colour. The concrete apron and huts are some kind of military admin area. This is the new ground frame, a very nice Wills kit. I didn't used to have a ground frame there but a couple of my operators, Mr B and Mr J, insisted that a ground frame was needed to prevent conflicts with movements from one exchange siding to the other and the connection to the main line. The four levers are, from left to right, 1 - Ground Frame Release (unlocked from Moggs Eye signal box), 2 - spare, 3 - Signal Military Branch Home, 4 - Military Branch to Near Siding/Far Siding. 60007 is posing in the back ground. I've had her out of the stock cupboard to check clearances around the loading bank and test the electrics. Though class 60s are probably not very prototypical for military trains (though I have seen a picture of a 60 on some military vans down south) I like the Hornby version's slow performance so much I have four. The cut down EWS branding on one side gets a few adverse comments from People Who Know at shows, but 007 was photographed at least once like that while at Thornaby ages ago and I liked the look of it very much. It carries the name Lilya Lytvyak - she was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down another aircraft in aerial combat somewhere near Stalingrad in WW2. She managed another 11 victories before she was killed herself. I'm not sure the DBS Big Bosses would be impressed with one of their locos being named after a Russian! I was pleased to have met a guy at Grantham last year who recognised the name and knew something of the lady's eventful and short life. 007 posing again behind Moggs Eye signalbox. While I was at Southwold last year I had a lengthy chat with Mr Tony Wright. While he's not that interested in post-privatisation modelling he approved of my lack of graffiti (hate the stuff) and suggested that the signal boxes would be improved with the addition of Great Northern Railway style name boards. To show I am open to feedback here is Moggs Eye as though somebody in the 1970s hadn't nicked the originals and sold them! While peeling off the old name boards I found another set underneath - apparently at some time in the past the signal box was named Cottleston! Hardly seems very exciting, I'm glad I changed it. Cheers, Ben.

This train was inspired by an article in the DEMU magazine. The good thing about these military trains is that the length of them, very modleable, and just the thing for a short fiddle yard.

Rob, You could think about some of the Airfix, ex JB Models Series 3 Land Rovers to fill your wagons (and they come with trailers) as there were still a number of the series rovers kicking about in the 90s - we had two in our squadron until 1991 ish.

I could never get my head around HF - too many crackles and whistles.

Thanks, nice to meet a kindred spirit. We need more diesels and semaphores, now the poor mechanical signals are fast disappearing out there in the real world.

TUAAM - Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching - convinced the radio that it had an antenna that was the precise length required for whatever frequency was being used rather than just an inefficient 2m whip - Still got it! Regarding RAF vehicles and Army depots - I'm not sure when it started but the military supply system is very much joined up rather than having three separate supply chains. Until fairly recently, I think, places like Bicester were under the Defence Logistics Organisation. Parts of it have probably been privatised by now.

To be really picky, the antenna mounts wouldn't be carried either, except on exercise or standby for deployment - they were expensive pieces of kit! However, if anybody points that out at an exhibition they probably need help! (I'm off to get mine now) The wagons look good. After seeing some pictures in one of the DEMU magazines of MOD vehicle traffic, I got a couple of the Oxford Diecast 'civilianised' Land Rovers and a Transit van to put in my open trucks. They do a nice red and white 'Battenberg' style airfield Land Rover which looks good.

A few more pictures I found in a different folder.... My only class 47 is the Heljan Police liveried one which always attracts a lot of attention at shows, many people are surprised it's an actual livery and not something I made up! I added the Freighliner branding and created a cement terminal off scene to give me an excuse to run a train the 47 could pull. Another 153 seems to be in the platform, promoting Cornish branchlines! Central Trains ran a few ex Devon and Cornwall units in their promotional liveries before they became East Midlands Trains and that's how I manage that particular unit. The disused signalbox behind the 47 used to control the level crossing and now is up for sale, while the Army Air Corps bowser on the road behind reminds me of my youth hauling them around the country. Here's another view of the starter signals at the end of the platforms, with their replacements just in front of them. The 153 is on the old Up Main Line, now the main platform road. Signal 3 has been cleared showing that this train will be going over the old trailing crossover onto the Main Single Line in the Sheffield direction. The other signal of the bracket (which sits on the trackbed of the former Down Main Line) is number 4 which signals the route to Nottingham behind Moggs Eye signalbox. The disc signal, a rare GNR rotating shunting signal, covers access to the Military Branch and Exchange Sidings. The line to the right beside the factory comes from the bay platform. The starter signals (6 and 7) are on the same post, but give the same information as a bracket junction signal. In this instance the top arm, number 6, reads through the pointwork for Sheffield trains while the lower arm is for Nottingham trains. The plain lined remains of the points leading to the factory siding are just beyond the crossover on the bay platform line. Cheers, Ben.

Thanks for the comments about the layout. It's good that some inspiration has come from it - I was thinking of extending it past the level crossing a few years ago, with some kind of a West Coast Railways style loco depot for main line steam and heritage diesel. Nothing came of that because of the length available in my garage and I got distracted by building another layout (Emsworth). I'm currently rebuilding part of the exchange sidings as the points leading to the loco siding failed at Southwold last year. This means a revised track plan for the sidings and the addition of a Nissan hut and disused loading bank to replace the cow field. The new siding is to the left. The loading bank will sit in the cleared area just beyond the end of the siding and the new buildings where buffer stops used to be beside the bridge. Aside from appearing at Telford in February Cottleston is booked at Shenfield on September 17th this year. In 2017 I am booked for Dereham in Norfolk in February and have a provisional booking for the Ely show later in the year. It's getting a little complicated organising two layouts' exhibition bookings, but Cottleston is still available to book if anybody fancies it. We come with a team of three or four in two cars and always bring a sense of humour. Cheers, Ben.

Cottleston was built to combine my love for rationalised railways, single car sprinters and semaphore signals along with a couple of wardrobe doors left over after a house move. Before I go any further - wardrobe doors are not good things for building layouts on, even pine ones. My inspiration has been a mixture of Boston in Lincolnshire, Bere Alston in Devon, Battersby in Yorkshire and the Bicester Military Railway, along with a thing for Great Northern Railway signal boxes that comes from living in East Lincolnshire where there are a few of them still in operation. What I've ended up with is a 5m x 48cm terminus to fiddle yard layout which represents a station on a former GNR double-track secondary line that ran between Nottingham and Sheffield. In its heyday, when I imagine lengthy coal trains would have featured heavily in the working timetable, there was a small station, up and down loops, goods yard and a curved link to a Midland Railway branchline (whose bridge forms the scenic break). In the lead up to the Second World War an ordnance depot was built a short distance away and connected to the main line just north off this bridge (and off scene). The layout presents the rather heavily rationalised remains of all this activity sometime after the turn of the century - love being able to say that for a 'modern' layout. By this time the line south of the station, to Nottingham has been closed and mothballed, all the local coal mines have closed, the former Up Main Line taken out of use and good yard closed. The military branch is still active, with a mixture of trains inspired by those to be seen around Bicester at the time. However, it's not all decay and impending doom. The station, which originally seen its station close in 1964, has benefitted from a 'Robin Hood Line' style passenger reopening. Though the line south to Nottingham has closed, Central Trains services still come around from the link to the old Midland branch while purple units from Northern trundle in from Sheffield. To facilitate this activity the old Up platform has been refurbished and a new bay platform has been built under the old goods shed - inspired by the genius who did just that on the real railway at Mansfield Woodhouse. Semaphore signals still control the trains and the lofty Moggs Eye signalbox is in charge. Enough back story - here are some pictures... Here is the original station, sadly boarded up. It's built from plastic sheet and based on the surviving structure at Havenhouse on the GNR branch to Skegness. The class 60 has a train of coal hoppers destined for the Ordnance Depot's heating plant. Trains for the exchange sidings have to arrive in the main platform before setting back into the exchange sidings - deep joy, propelling wagons through numerous single slips! Through panful experience the wagon rakes have to be carefully made up to avoid derailments - usually when exhibition visitors ore videoing! The station again, looking towards the level crossing at its southern end. Just beyond the 153 is the out of focus Stop board which is the line's end nowadays. Despite the many very good Hornby 153s in my possession I still use this 155 conversion out of sentimentality as it's the first one I did and the first respray I attempted. Another 153, can never have too many, with a Sheffield train under the old goods shed and the disused down platform in the foreground. I am endlessly fascinated by how the modern railway is superimposed on what the Victorians built. Cottleston's track layout is heavily rationalised, but you can still see how it was once a double track mainline. One of the military depot's Thomas Hill shunters positioning stock in the exchange sidings. It's a top quality Judith Edge kit and the first brass kit I built - it may be the last. It runs very sweetly on a Black Beetle chassis and DCC witchcraft means it's warning beacon flashes. Looking from the fiddle yard end of the layout a class 66, named Temeraire after my cat, is waiting for its path with a short train of armoured vehicles on Genesis Warflats and a Wild Boar Models Warwell. The train is much too short for prototype, I only have so much fiddle yard space, and doesn't really fit with the Bicester Military Railway theme, but I like it and it attracts a lot of attention at exhibitions. Moggs Eye signalbox is another scratch built structure inspired by the tall, very elegant box that stood at Sleaford Junction in Boston until the mid 1970s. I never saw it for real, but when I saw a photo I was determined to build it. As well as its modern fire escape it has a 45 lever frame, a fully modelled interior, including a cat and a female signaller, and LED illumination. Point rodding is a later addition to the layout - good to model if you like a bit of discreet swearing while you fit it. The name, Moggs Eye, comes from a lovely stretch of beach a few miles north of Skegness. As many people point out, there has never been a railway there, but the GNR seemed to like odd names for its signal boxes at it seemed too good to waste. The factory in the background conceals the control panel and is a hosiery manufacturer that once used to export legwear across Europe by rail before Speedlink ended. Now its siding is disconnected from the running lines and heavily weed covered. There is a brake van inconveniently trapped in the head shunt. Photography isn't really my thing, but here are the armoured vehicles again. The FV432 is from GRA Models, the Scimitars are Airfix and the Sultan from S&S Models. Behind it on the main line, is a Class 37 taking a mixed train off to Bicester. All the semaphore signals work, except the two shunting discs, and are a mixture of different types, from a surviving GNR concrete post with a later upper quadrant arm to the latest over engineered Network Rail style bracket you can see over the top of the rearmost armoured vehicle. Though I have DCC operation for the track the signals and points are worked by solenoids so I can have a lever frame to operate. This rather short train is prototypical - I saw a picture of a formation like this in the exchange sidings at Bicester. On the operating sequence we use to avoid too much confusion at exhibitions it is referred to as the 'Short Rake". The PFA container flats are also Wild Boar Models and are still awaiting transfers. Finally for now, a view from the scenic break towards the level crossing and end of the line. The EMT 153 (I do have other second generation units) has been signalled into the main platform from the Sheffield direction while the Northern unit is heading in from Nottingham to the bay. In front of the semaphores are the shrouded, as yet unused, colour light signals to suggest that modernisation is one its way to Cottleston. The yellow-armed shunting signal beside the military shunter (Knightwing) controls movements from the exchange sidings to the main platform. Our next exhibition is at Telford in February. Come and say hello if you're passing. Cheers, Ben.

In the squadron I was in between 1988 and 1991, we had to hand paint ours too, usually when there was nothing else going on. If one of them got bashed and the paint flaked off it was like looking at the rings in a tree, or an archaeological dig! I think if we'd actually stripped the paint back we'd have got a little more speed out of old MK bowsers. To make a serious modelling point though, there are many websites that will tell you how to 'properly' paint British Army vehicles, but many of them were painted using by crusty brushes with no regard to official diagrams or scientific camouflage research. Similarly, the position of Union Flags and until markings were family random, if carried at all. I preferred to finish ours with a nice, rolling line between the black and green, lots of lovely reverse curves; every vehicle, including trailers, had a black circle on them somewhere and 06GB35, a rickety bowser, was posted to our depot freshly painted with tiger stripes atop its pump compartment. It came back after a couple of weeks and we had to repaint it, but it was funny. I have modelled that bowser in its unofficial livery and it periodically attracts attention at exhibtions from people 'who know better'. Apologies for going off-topic. Now, back to the excellent modelling.

Brilliant work on that signal. The layout's looking excellent.

I always prefer a depot layout with a passenger service to add a little interest, and you can never have enough 153s.

Thanks for the Kingfisher link, I've just got myself a couple of kits from there. As for the Bedfords, I was mobilised from the reserves into a foreign policy adventure in 2003 and was hugely surprised to find that aside from the squaddies getting younger the kit, radios and vehicles hadn't changed much. My Bedford MJ out there was christened Roxanne and I was very fond of her.