Fishplate

A new addition to the fleet this week. Maunsells Schools 'V' Class "Dover" is seen in the picture below. Built 1932, withdrawn 1962, surely this must have been allocated to Dover shed? Not sure about Southern ownership, but a quick look at my BR Steam Allocation book (references in the post of April 19th) shows she was a Ramsgate engine from 1948 to 1960, appearing in that years record at Nine Elms. So for much of the time in BR livery did she pass regularly through Faversham? Or go via Dover and Ashford? What about Southern ownership?

Hi @Geep7 On Feb 17th you have a picture of the road into your oil depot from above and you asked if it looked ok. I knew I had a road vehicle swept envelope drawing from my early BR days that showed a similar road profile. I've located it today (straight away!). See below. Hope this helps and is of interest. Best regards John ps, bang on the date period for your layout as well if you look in the bottom LH corner of the drawing.

Hi @Geep7. I've read your thread throughout over the last few weeks. There is a lot of great modelling going on for Southern fans such as myself. I am also following the Warren branch by @chuffinghell . If you go to his post for April 25th he has devised a method to cross baseboard joints with point rodding which you might find useful. I look forward to seeing more developments on your layout. Best regards John

Hi Chris, Thought I'd just stop by and say it was great to see your layout featured in the Virtual Exhibition over the weekend. I look forward to seeing more of your modelling. Best regards John

Main Line Video Tour Following my last post on Class R1's, the link below brings out the latest models I have be fortunate enough to be able to own. These are a King Arthur N15 Class locomotive in BR livery (something I've wanted for a long time) and a 2-HAL unit, which I've had for a few years now. Whilst the latter is not necessarily an inhabitant of the Eastern section of the Southern, the King Arthur definitely was. Sir Hervis de Revel carries the 73A shed plate for Stewarts Lane. On the video she (?) is pulling a boat train whilst the 2-HAL trundles off in the opposite direction. As its only a 2 car set, I guess it must be an early morning Sunday service today. This is the first time I've seen the layout from some of the angles I've put the recorder at. A couple of things that I have noticed can do with improvement, and I expect you'll be able to spot those. For anyone who thinks the platform edge is a bit rough that Sir Hervis passes, then this is explained in an earlier post where I described the construction of my island platform mock-up. As time progresses all the cardboard mock-ups will get replaced with proper models. Thanks to @AY Mod for his help and pointing me at how to upload a video that fits on RMWeb and also for arranging such an excellent virtual exhibition. Some great modelling to aspire too! Maybe one day I will be able to enter Canterbury Road in a virtual exhibition that I have enjoyed looking at over the past couple of days. Maybe I'll be able to arrange some future videos for the docks and goods yards as more areas get fully wired up and controlled centrally. Anyway, I hope you enjoy a trip round the main line on my layout. The sounds are "as recorded". I am very happy with the diddly-dum sounds generated by pure DC .

Brilliant

Hi Gopher, I've recently found your thread and read through with interest. You have created superb, realistic scenes and details which are so evocative of the period. I particularly like: the long timber bridge over the canal on the approach to the station (I can't think when I have seen a multi-track example modelled before) ; the street and platform scenes; and (possibly an odd choice some may think!) the oil soaked track beneath Western Enterprise in your post on Tuesday. These are scenic modelling skills for me to aspire to for my layout . Thank you for sharing. Best Regards John

Hi Pete. I have been fortunate to see your other layouts at exhibitions and remember your very helpful comments when we were discussing your buildings on Worlds End at (I think) Wakefield. I first found out about the brewery railways in Burton when looking at a project to increase speed on the main line though the area. BR had all the old line plans in big linen books. The one for Burton had leaves that folded out to show long-gone sidings going off into town, with crossings like that on your High Street scene. I have had a very pleasant wander through six pages of inspirational modelling. I look forward to seeing this one at a future exhibition and seeing more great modelling on here. Best regards John

Hi Chris. All excellent modelling ☺. I would expect there would be some space to the fence behind the lamp post. This would allow for the foundation and some access for maintenance / future painting. I would assume (but don't know) that lighting would have arrived later in a rural stations life, so the fence line would have been there when the lamp posts arrived. Others may be able to confirm better than me.

SECR/ Southern Railway/ BR(S) Class R1 A slight change to locomotives today. Progress has been made on the control panel (plug-in subframe completed) and a methodology for operating the upper level point work has been tested out and proved effective on one point. None of this is worthy of a picture, so I thought I would share some pictures of one of the classes of locomotives that I own. In addition to wanting to produce the 'feel' of the Southern Railway in a fictional location, one of the reasons behind this layout is to have somewhere to run the older models that I own (Rule 1 being fully applied). The upper level and cassette system are/ will be in Code 100 for this reason. The lower yards are in Code 75, which will be the exclusive domain of my models with finer wheel standards. The first class of loco's I am featuring demonstrates this split. I own three R1's in differing liveries: Southern Railway 1127 BR(S) 31337 and 31340. All three prototypes started as Class R locomotives, built in 1895, 1888 and 1889 respectively. They were converted to Class R1 in 1914, 1922 and 1913 and were withdrawn in 1949, 1960 and 1959 *. In BR(S) days all three were allocated to Folkestone Junction shed ** The BR green 31340 was part of my first Hornby Dublo train set and came with two green tinplate coaches. I must have had her for Christmas or Birthday when I was about five or six, so she has been with me for a very long time (in fact longer than the prototype was in R1 format). She currently sits on display with her coaches in my railway room. Interestingly she carries 31340 on the cab sides, but 31337 on the smokebox door. She will only run on Code 100 rail, having deep flanges. The photo further down shows her posed on Code 75. 31337 is a Wrenn model which I remember buying myself from the model railway shop that used to be in Sandwich. 1127 is also a Wrenn model, but she used to belong to my Father. As you can see, it has been converted to three link couplings to match the many items of rolling stock he built. So I also have three loco's with three different coupling types. All are in full working order and can give the modern loco's a run for their money in terms of hauling power. I expect they were great examples of ready to run standards in their day. I recently came across a 45rpm record showing R1's heading a boat train out of Folkestone Harbour. On reading the description on the back, one of those recorded was 31340, so it was very necessary to purchase it. I have recently had the pleasure of hearing 'my' locomotive woofing up the bank in August 1956. This was on my friends record player in his railway room . The sound was turned up for the purpose. DCC eat your heart out . . . . . . I now just need to find out how to get this transferred to MP3, so I can have that sound in my own railway room. References above are from : *J H Russell's A Pictorial Record of Southern Locomotives ** Hugh Longworth BR Steam Locomotive Allocations Happy Modelling John

Hi @Tallpaul69 and @5BarVT . Thank you both for your help. I will have a look. Best Regards John

Hi Paul. Have been reading your topic with interest. I copied and pasted the above direct into Google and got a life learning coach and a link to a yahoo site that is defunct. Do you have a link you can post as it sounds like a great resource. Keep safe and carry on modelling in these unusual times. Best regards John

This is all inspiring stuff Chris. I'm enjoying following your build. John

I'd been standing watching the activity on the platform, my hands on the bar above my nine year old head, a red sign, 'No Smoking', nearby. The doors slammed, the whistle blew, a flag waved and we were off. The station buildings moved past with increasing speed. My Dad called out from our compartment "Look out of the window on the other side if you want to see the back off the train". I rushed across the end of the coach and looked out. There, following in procession, was a rake of green coaches. A busy yard, full of wagons, lay beneath us. Now my Dad was behind me. "Look the other way and you can see the engine". We both looked out. And there she was. Accelerating across the viaduct, the rails were turning beneath her wheels to bring her to the foot of the long climb out of the valley. . . . . . . .

Control Panel Trimmed and test fitted the aluminium for the main control panel today. . The track diagram will be traced through, section switches added and different coloured tape put down between switch locations. This will then be sealed with a clear varnish. The panel is intended as a lift in/ out. Iit can then be worked on separately for wiring up. Electrical connections will be via soldered 'D' connectors onto board 4, then to the other boards by the same method. Some of these have already been completed. Goods Yard Track Also completed the copper clad sleepers over the joints between boards 3/4 and 4/5. One siding between boards 5/6 left to do then all the trackwork in the East and West Yards will be complete. Progress pictures of both activities below. Doesn't seem to be much progress to show for the amount of time spent!

Water Tower Under the board today wiring up the Goods Yard turnouts meant moving some boxes. The water tower below was in one of them. This was built for my Mk1 layout on a previous caravan holiday. It was based loosely on the arrangement at Staple on the East Kent Railway. It can be seen in the distance in the first photo on the link here: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/staple/index.shtml. The photos appear to show a replacement tank further down the same link. A similar example can also be found in historical pictures at the Tenterden end of the KESR platform at Headcorn. Both were wind pump operated to lift water into the tank. My version will be fitted with a conventional water supply pipe on the outside and a central descent pipe to a water column. This will be finding a home on the Dock. A small coaling platform is to be provided that will be just big enough for the 0-6-0 and 0-4-0T's that will operate in that area.

Cattle Dock. The mock up has enabled me to ponder. From the photo posted above, I've reduced the size of the ramp, which was very generous, and extended the area for cattle pens. The distance from the edge of the dock to the back is a scale 17ft at the buffer stop end. Taking approximately two feet off for construction of the fence leaves 14ft 6in for the cattle pen itself. The length works out at 21ft over the couplings on the LMS wagons shown, less the width of the fence when built. The revised raised extent and ramp, the marked out pens and some future residents are shown below.

Thank you @DIW . Found all that. Hopefully having filled it in it will appear below when I post.

Me neither. . . . :-( Looked on 'My Profile' and there is nothing on signature preferences shown on the extract below.

Hi Chris, ref step-ups that I referred too above, this is a photo that turned up at work as part of a current project. Although new construction, this gives an idea of what I was meaning. John

Hi Chris, I have enjoyed reading through your topic and will continue to follow with interest. It crossed my mind that maybe one of the strips you have used to disguise the join between the stonework sheets on your platform wall could be used as a platform step up. In my mind they used to be quite common in stations. Staff used to use them to cross the line, either from platform to platform, or from a yard. It avoided having to go down to the ramps at either end. Having said they were quite common, I can't actually trace a picture of one on the internet, but no doubt someone on here will have one available. I don't ever recall seeing one modelled. I also created a platform mounted signal on the Mk1 version of my layout. It just creeps into one of the pictures on my layout topic. But I don't think it matches the quality of yours. I had a little wooden door in the side of my platform which I recall seeing at some station or other to give access to the wires coming through the platform wall. Link to my thread here. Keep up the great work. ps now I've put the link in, it appears in the photo below. Not sure if that is the computer being clever . . . . . . ? It certainly isn't me !

I've changed the Title.It struck me that the first page has pictures of my Mk1 branch line terminus which doesn't reflect what the Mk2 layout is. Any thoughts . . . . . . ?

Hi William. I've spent a pleasant time reading developments so far. It is a very interesting project. Thanks for sharing. I was unaware of the SECR website. As my layout is firmly planted in their territory I will be joining in the near future. I look forward to seeing more posts. John

Two options today (after deciding it was just a bit too cold to mow the lawn) . Option a) Wiring. Option b) do a bit of mocking up out of cereal packet cardboard to see what a cattle dock in the west yard and a loading dock in the east yard might look like in 3D. Option b) won, pictures below. The different colours are just the inside colour of different cardboard boxes. All this needs refinement. I find spending a few hours making mock-ups pays dividends for no outlay. The cardboard is "free" and would have just gone in the recycling. It lets you take time to see how things work and what it is desirable to adjust to reflect prototypical situations before commiting to a permanent structure. As mentioned at the start of this thread, this layout isn't based on a prototype, but I do want it to be identifiable by an onlooker as typically Southern. The problem with cattle and loading docks is finding reference photos. Most people tended to take pictures of trains, rather than infrastructure. And often the trains are in front of the infrastructure you want to look at. Fortunately I can recall some of these things, although they had become overgrown, or had been sold off and were going to be demolished. Like so many of us though, I didn't think to take pictures of those everyday objects that are now part of our past. So I am very grateful to those who did. Cattle Dock. Within the footprint of this mock-up I would be looking to create a Mk2 version of the cattle dock shown in the earliest posts of this thread that showed my Mk1 layout. That dock was built for these particular (LMS) cattle wagons. I will ponder on whilst I consider Southern options with a similar wheelbase. The piece of card laid in the 4ft indicates an approximate position for a timber crossing from the yard entrance to the second siding. Loading Dock. The level differences from the east yard entrance up to the end loading dock and back down into the space between the sidings will require some careful landscaping to look right. They don't want to be too steep and mustn't impacting on siding length. The cardboard in this area is pinned down with track pins to give a rough idea on how this can be achieved. At the north end, you can see I initially ran the ramp down to the baseboard joint to make life easier. This will be the route for road vehicles to the coal siding. Unfortunately that does look a bit like the ramp on a toy platform, so it will have to cross the joint. I've stuck a longer bit of cardboard on, again to give an indication. It might be cut back from the track with an earth ramp down to the line, and it might be longer still. As with the west yard, there will be a timber crossing to give access to the coal siding. This crossing point is shown between the two turnouts with some inlaid card.

Hi William, thank you for your kind comments. Having read through your Holborn Viaduct thread over the last couple of evenings, I think our layouts will have a lot in common. Arches for one . . . . . . John