Woebegone-by-sea

'Gone for a burton' is a phrase that has a few different meanings Brian, in the RAF it is most certainly referring to a death in service. This came from a pilot crash landing in the sea or 'in the drink'. But in general terms it often meant going to the pub. In its hey day Burton produced a quarter of all the beer in Britain and with 36 breweries at its peak. Most companies had Burton on the label. Other connotations included 'go for a burton' as in getting a new suit. However most people locally know it as going to the pub.

Working in the brewery Pipe bridges and gantries are fairly common place. So I have decided to build one for the model. I have utilised a Faller model which is quite a handy model with lots of pipework which can be used elsewhere. I can highly recommend this kit to anyone doing a model based on an industrial setting.

Excitement grows every time I see an update on this Peter! Looks superb!

I have modelled the grey malt wagons on my layout Gone for a Burton, also one of the tractors. The Red Bass Charrington ones where much later at the end of thd internal system of Bass. There is also still a tractor in these colours that has survived and recently been done up.

So I've had the layout up for the first time in a while, which has allowed me to take a few pictures. As it goes to its first model railway show at burton (November 5th). I'm no photographer, but some of you have previously asked for more pics so I've done my best with the tools I have.

Looking forward to seeing this completed Pete! Really capturing butons brewery in a small area here. Cant wait, you must bring this to burton as it would be really well recieved.

Hi G, Number 5 is scratch built but uses a tenshodo chassis, Number 11 is a Lilliput loco heavily bashed into No11. Thanks Joe

As a child from Burton on Trent, Beer and brewing was all around me! My family worked in the brewing industry, little did I know later in life i would be fall the same fate. As a child I would often visit the Bass Museum of brewing of a weekend for something to do, the two main attractions as a child were the shire horses on site and the Model of Burton, this was a superb and stunning N gauge Model built to show the three breweries of Bass in the town centre. They Also included other breweries, including Worthingtons, Allsopps, and Eadies. At the time it made a big impression on me and was something I was to see at least once a month throughout my childhood. Fast forward a few years and at the age of about 9 I started to show an interest in cars and historic vehicles. A friend of my dad got me involved in some volunteer work at the museum, assisting in the looking after of the large collection of historic vehicles. During My time there I got to know the curator, who found out that I and My dad had an interest in model railways, It was at this point he asked us would we be willing to look after the museums Model, which by this point had suffered some neglect.This was a task we gladly undertook and still do to this day. My Interest was sparked and I continued to learn more and research/ look into the history of the breweries and their railway systems. My interest continued as I continued to gain an apprenticeship and later work as an Engineer for a brewery. I decided a few years ago I wanted to capture some of this past, in two of my interests, in classic vehicles I restored a Vehicle into Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton Livery. In railways approximately 2 years ago aged 24 I wanted to build a model of a small part of the railways Just to catch a snapshot! . My first point was to build some of the locos, these were a combination of ready to run adaptions, 3d prints and scratch builds. Once I'd built up a large quantity I needed somewhere to run them on! I looked for suitable self contained small pockets to base my layout on. Fairly early on I decided this should be Worthingtons. Worthingtons was still largely visible in burton and was retained in the Coors brand portfolio, I found the beer featured quite allot in my life for one reason or another. Anyway, Worthingtons was a nicely contained unit and could be built in a small area. From pictures it certainly looked as though it was achievable. Later from the track plans I found it was more difficult than I first thought. the points would have to be completely constructed from scratch, as this was the first time I had laid track on a base board for myself I decided against this and thought I would use pre manufactured Peco points. I was happy with the resulting track layout and found it worked quite well. Once constructed I built and adapted the buildings to suit, as best possible I attempted to match these to the photographs of Worthingtons I had. This resulted i think in a worthington like feel. I had to decide a name and how to display it. Appropriately over a Beer I sat with a friend and told him about my model, and discussed names. He suggested Gone for a Burton after the famous phrase when Burton was responsible for 1/4 of Britains Beer! I drew out a few Ideas of how to display it. I wanted to display it in something beer beer related, my first thoughts were based on a barrel but found the resulting barrel would need to be huge to encase it, then I looked at making it look like a stack of crates but this looked to cumbersome. I had seen some ideas used before as though the viewer was looking into a picture frame, which i thought was a great idea! I looked around the Pub we were in and could see nothing suitable, so I thought id sleep on it. As I left the pub and I looked up, there it was a ready made picture frame, the Pub Sign. So I imitated that as the frame. I thought now was a good time to show the model as it nears completion, and its first outing will be next weekend where Ive been asked to bring it to the Chasewater brewery day. Well worth a visit if you enjoy industrial railways! Hope to show you some more on the construction soon, also on my curiosities about how to go about showing it and how to book it into shows?! Thanks Joe

What buildings/ structures will you be backing etc here? Very interested in seeing this, being from burton myself

Thanks Sleeper, hopefully all the little bits will make it a believable location. All the items hanging up have been engraved in my head since a visit to poole as a kid, a shop there had all this sort of stuff.

Been busy for a while, and only just had oportunity to update the blog! So things are moving on fast, baseboards have progressed to the point where the land is built up to take the houses, and the road is laid, on one baseboard. The levels are built up using polystyrene, then plaster, later they will recieve plasticard edging to complete, then onto detailing. I have also been busy on the detailing of buildings. First the Aquarium/ shops, these have been completely painted and shutters have been added. signs are added and starts of display in the shop window have comenced. All complete now, with stairs in up to the aquarium and all shop windows / shop shelves filled. Ruber dingies hung up, Baskets with inflatables and and balls, aswell as beach balls hanging up with flags. I think I will also add an umbrella hanging from the roof. all of which i hope will add to the scene to create a general seaside souvenir shop. Terraced houses, As you may see some on the layout are metcalfe kit bashes, these where for the three story ones, but i wanted to have some two story standard houses, although I considered metcalfe I wanted something slightly smaller, having looked around to see what was about i decided to go with the terraced houses from skaledale, I could of potentially scratch built some but in order to save time i used the off the shelf resins, though i did decide to go with the unpainted ones, as (1) they were cheaper and (2) I wanted them in loads of different colours. So decided to buy a number of them and get painting, they are nice resins with lots of detail. The latest building completed is the tower fish and chip restaurant, this is adapted from an american kit and I think really does not look out of place in an english seaside resort. Due to the large windows it was necessary for me to add tables and chairs etc. the Tables are faller and the plates are created from Cotton bud sticks cut up thinly. I hope this works I thought it looked fine, hoping others agree. I will update again soon as will hopefully be doing the other baseboard to a similar level within the next few weeks. Joe

Over the past few months I have been building various kits and some scratch built buildings at a rate of roughly one every 4 days, i like to have a new project each week and due to my shifts im able to work on them several hours a day. Heres completed builds so far. The Boat House Royal Bath Hotel Market Hall Cinema Pub Bank Joe

80002 was still in service early 1967 so decided to purchase Bachmann's one and weather it, think it looks right Coaching stock will be a fair mish mash and so bought these from ebay, they are un marked so im unsure of the manufacturer but were cheap enough to attempt first weathering, decided to play with the roofs the one with the silver coming through is an effect i'd seen on one of bachmanns DMU's I liked it so attempted to re-create, Unfortunately i wasnt' even a twinkle in my parents eye (23 years old) so excuse if the details aren't bob on!

Hello everyone, I havent posted on here before so this is all a bit new to me so excuse me if not all objects appear in the right places! last year I decided to design and construct a model railway and have always been attracted to the idea of running steam with BR blue stock, this limited me to a very tight time period of 1967-68. As a result I have put allot of research into the locos still exisiting in this period. My location is a small seaside town that is now suffering from a loss in buisness due to holidays abroad becoming very affordable, and the trend in seaside holidays droping off. The trade has dropped and only the regular holiday makers and holiday makers who travel by train return to the town each year. The layout is a exhibition layout and consists of a 6ft by 3ft scenic section split into two 3ft square boards and a fidle yard/ traverser behind the scenes, I decided on these sizes as im not keen on spliting of baseboards to much as i feel it detracts from the viewing pleasure. The baseboard is now complete and I will show you progress from here on and keep you up to date.