Edwardian

John, this just gets better and better. More excellence on the way. If you were, upon reaching a suitable stage in your current projects, minded to post a few up to date general views of the layout, I would esteem it a favour.

No one will hear it from me, Chris. Thank you for the further encouragement. One day I will tackle these programs again, but I note that I have, somehow, been persuaded to try to build my own track first.

Well, here is the place to which you can safely come for answers to all those track questions you may be too embarrassed to ask (because I'm not)! Some time ago now I had pondered the question of what would be a suitable permanent way for a small independent company such as the Isle of Eldernell or the West Norfolk? I was greatly influenced by the following passages in Railway Modelling the Realistic Way, by Iain Rice, Haynes Publishing, 2007:. The main characteristic of traditional British track was the use of bullhead (dumb-bell section) rail carried in substantial cast-iron chairs and held in place with wooden wedges called ‘keys’. This is a very sophisticated form of track construction only encountered in the British Isles (including Ireland) and on a handful of overseas railways originally laid out by British engineers. The various pre-Grouping railway companies developed their own individual patterns of bullhead track, using different chair designs, sleeper sizes and spacings, and lengths and weights of rail. … As well as the prevalent bullhead (BH) track, a few minor railways adopted PW of the pattern more common on the Continent. This used Vignoles of flat-bottom (FB) rails, usually of quite small size, spiked or screwed directly to the sleepers without any chairs. This was a cheaper but less durable form of track and in Britain was usually only found on secondary lines with lighter traffic – industrial, mineral and light railways of standard and narrow gauges, as well as on a good number of Irish lines. This prompted me to consider the cases of the Isle of Eldernell & Mereport and the West Norfolk Railways. Both were reasonably well-engineered small independent lines, rather than marginal propositions built under light railway legislation on a shoe-string. The thought was that the running lines would use chaired BH rail, but that economies might be evident in the sidings, using FB spiked. The model BH would use Code 75 flexi-track from SMP/Marcway or C&L. Points were always the challenge, and I had thought the cheapest ‘finescale’ option might be the ‘4 for £90’ SMP/Marcway pre-built points. If I were to build points, I confess my preference would be, if possible, to use chairs to match the flexi-track used, though I believe this is not always done, where construction is by soldering to PCB sleepers. For the sidings, I had supposed that Code 75 FB rail could be soldered to PCB sleepers and represent FB rail attached by spikes to the sleepers. I note that Peco supply lengths of Code 70 FB. I don’t know whether the difference between Code 75 BH and Code 70 FB is likely to cause derailments, as it seems to be relatively minor, but the idea of a lighter rail on the sidings appealed. A true light railway project might have all its track and turnouts constructed thus. I have to consider standards, components and methods further, and I have to learn how to build this stuff, but these are my first thoughts of the subject, my starting point, if you like. Finally, here are a number of, more or less random, shots light railways showing (what looks to me to be) both chaired BH and FB laid on the sleepers, sometimes with baseplates. Atmospheric photographs, good for inspiration.

Glad to be in touch and to be collaborating with you. Soon the world shall know of our plans, but by then it will to too late to stop them! Mahahahahahaha!

Gary, I would consider it a kindness if you could please either post or send me a PM details of the guide /manufacturer you mentioned. I feel guilty that I have not preserved with these programs. The Memsahib uses Illustrator. perhaps I could have a go when she's not looking! Best, James

I envy you the ability to do that. I read with interest Peter Smith (Saltdean)'s volume on using printed paper. Having tried Silhouette and Inkscape, I find that I am not adept at picking up these skills. I am sure that I would face similar issues were I to attempt transfers. I made slow progress on Silhouette and Inkscape, and what progress I made was by following the guides helpfully posted on RM. Ultimately, I just could not see how I would ever get from that stage to using such programs for what I wanted, to cut coach sides or produce lining. Faced with hours of frustration with no apparent prospect of ultimate success, I am afraid that I allowed myself to become thoroughly dispirited and reasoned that my time was more likely to be spent productively if I returned to my little cardboard houses. As for Templot .... ! So, I am impressed with this. I suspect that the world needs Brighton lining. it could certainly do with some Great eastern lining and lettering.

Thanks one and all. I am now very much tending towards soldering iron, gauges and track components as against pre-built. Not in funds for either at present, so probably yet more cottages for now.

I am looking forward to seeing the Gladstone progress. I find it hard to comment, though, because the jumble of colours and fillers makes it hard to judge how well it has come together so far, but I think you have the basis for a good model. I think a shot in grey primer will help us, and you, better to judge the success of the conversion and the degree of work the body still requires. Have you fixed the hand rails and the air brake permanently? If it were me, though I speak as one who has yet to get so far as trying what you are doing, I would leave the hand rails off until sanding and filling were complete. In fact, I might well paint and line the boiler bands first. It is a clever project and I hope very much that it comes together successfully. It is the sort of thing I have, so far, only thought of doing, so well done for doing something like this. Umber or IEG, and have you identified a source/method for the lining?

I am surprised. Fooled, in fact, and impressed. I thought "that looks Great Eastern" and I also took it to be scratch-built because the way you have finished the masonry matches your scratch-built models. To use a 'plant and go building' in such a way as to blend with the scratch-built models is a minor art in itself.

Yes, but Castle Aching is set c.1901-1910, so I'd be knackerd anyway!

Fair enough, though if my RM nom de guerre was Great Western Centenary Man, I'd have a real problem in the Pre-Grouping section of the site where I mainly hang around. As it is, I did get picked up for proposing a layout set in 1912-14! Bit of a stupid name, on reflection [sigh]

I agree, though you'd have missed me, as I would have been there in 1935.

I especially like these!

Nah (I mean, the way you keep posting pictures, anyone would think this was a layout topic!)

Beautiful, that new goods building, and a clever composition.

Yours in haste this a.m., but wanted to acknowledge the advice and suggestions. Don, that was a particularly helpful description of matters hitherto beyond my ken. Simon, thank you for the invaluable information in your PMs. Influenced by my long years of reading in the armchair, notably Mr Rice's 'Bible', my thoughts on the appropriate track for the WNR are: It's not a true Light Railway or that brassic. The running lines would probably be bullhead and chaired. Easiest way for me was the R-T-L SMP/Marcway stuff. It looks better than Peco, and, though more expensive, I could get R-T-L points at half the cost of a C&L kit. The sidings could be more lightly laid with FB. This would be only if I proved capable of making this track up myself. I am that brassic, however, and, if I am correct in assessing the General Will of topic contributors, it is being suggested that I build track and points from scratch based on templates. Leaving aside the risk of a nervous breakdown at the mere thought of this, I would need components and equipment. And this requires further research and calculation: What components/method do I use? How much would it all cost? Track gauges are expensive. I would need an iron and all the stuff that goes with it. In the long term (and I fully intend to build very many model railways) this would be a wise investment. Cash-starved, I will have to consider the upfront cost compared with the SMP option. Still, you have at least got me thinking about this!

Thank you. I am not even able to understand what you are so kindly offering, I am so completely ignorant! True, I could certainly do with minimising the expenditure, and thanks to you and everyone who encourages me to try new things, but when you speak of building points, my head just unscrews and clatters to the floor. I fear that I would merely add this activity to the list of things I panicked over, failed at and never had the nerve to try again (using a soldering iron/airbrush/Templot/Inkscape). Hopeless. Please believe me, if you're me these things are that difficult!!! That is very kind and would leave me no excuse! I will send a PM. Thanks. Must, somehow, try to regain some confidence. Repeat after me, "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"!

Modeller! Do you lack time, tools or even a basic level of ability? Then you need Eezilay pre-built points. Eezilay - The Duffer's Choice So, after some thought I concluded that the best chance for me to achieve track of reasonably prototypical appearance might be to go for SMP flexi-track combined with the company's Marcway pre-built turnouts, taking advantage of their 4 points for £90 deal (36" or 48", left or right handed); http://www.marcway.net/list2.php?col=head&name=Marcway+00+%26+EM+Pointwork Nevertheless, I did try Googling "tinplate points" and got A Complete Course in Canning and Related Processes: Volume 2. Maybe it's just me [sigh]. Anyhow, you will notice the deal is 4 points for £90. You will see from the plan that I had even tried to get away with 3 points so that'd I'd have one spare, such is my parsimony! That said, I fully accept the advice to extend the shed road to form a loop, for the reasons given. I can then clog either this road or the run-round loop with stuff; another engine, loco-coal, ash or sand wagons in the former, fruit vans or carriage trucks in the latter. Or, for a bit of fun, I can clog up both and create a shunting puzzle! I also take the (pun unavoidable) point about siding space. An extra siding would mean an extra (full price) point, but I would certainly consider this. Where might we place the third siding? Malmesbury; yet another prototype crying out to be modelled!

If only I did own Maristow, or those lovely coaches!

These:

Shadow, that is again most generous and I have sent you a PM. Now that the printer is in remission, I will be able to prepare the Ostrich and some buildings that were new to me from your excellent photographs. That is very kind. Thank you. Whether anyone will pass through via the railway ..... Thank you, David. Yes, you are quite correct. The rare instances of Welsh Slate (aka Scalescenes' slate) is due to the advent of the railway in Castle Aching. I suppose that if the railway entered from the left, the station would be as you imagine, and something reminiscent of Gammon End. The strong mental picture that led to the layout envisages the railway entering from the right and then curving round in front of Bailey Street and the mound and terminating in a station on the right. The inspiration for the station comes from a 'mash-up' of ideas from Rothbury (NBR), Alston (NER), the Isle of Wight-inspired designs for the Isle of Eldernell & Mereport, Lewes (LBSC) before the rebuild, and, the last piece of the jigsaw, the architecture of Aylesford and Wateringbury on the Medway line (SER). Next week I plan to break the present moratorium and splash out £4.50 on some SMP/Marcway templates. Only then will I plan the track and do so full size (must get some lining paper too). In the meantime, I have attempted to sketch out my ideas to date in the rather crude sketch below. It will need revision, but it at least gives a general idea of the relationship between the railway and the embryonic village you have seen. Yes, though I have not visited for some weeks. It is a superb layout in every respect.

Today I managed to print out a building that R-A-R David had very kindly prepared for me. I did not have the necessary photographs to create the building in Word, and could not have obtained suitable views of the elevations due to the position of the building. So, this building was only possible thanks to the jiggery-pokery of Photoshop, for which I am extremely grateful to David. It is a fairly important piece in terms of tying the composition together and it took me three attempts to get it the right size. Though they looked fine on screen, I found that the textures were a little too dark when printed for the muted palette of Castle Aching. I lightened the images, dialled down the green and brown of the woodwork, and cut and pasted to form the component parts of the 'kit' for printing. The sheets were printed on "vivid", which works best on my machine. This seemed a good opportunity to illustrate what passes for the 'Edwardian Method' of Norfolk cottage building! Below is a picture of the artwork before and after I lightened it. Also are shown the component parts for cutting out and mounting on card. The windows are printed on self-adhesive label for mounting on clear plastic. I have assembled the sides of the building and put it in its place. The coaches represent the approximate intended location of the single line as it runs into the station. I must apologise for the landlord's rather emphatic wallpaper.

I wouldn't have said "tears" exactly. Anyway, I thought his name was Sandro?

Thank you all for the constructive feedback. I may well re-arrange the relative positions of pooter and printer! The trial looked better in the flesh than in my photographs, taken in dull light, which does nothing for the focus.. The only way to really tell is to build a bit of the station and photograph in decent natural light, which is, I find, surprisingly rare in a North Country Spring! So, yes, the texture sheets will get a couple of coats of artist's matt spray. This makes it only fractionally darker. I am pretty happy with how it turned out first time. This is probably down to luck, but also partly down to having my "eye-in" when it comes to lightening photographs and dialling colours up or down, which I have had to do where using photographs taken on dull days. What is interesting (to me, anyway!) is this: Photograph on the left featured my first texture sheet (the one with repeating patterns and the faces). The one on the right was a texture sheet made using R-A-R David's scaled photograph (Post 628). I used his original one, not the more accurate browner one because the browner version seemed to me to have lost some definition. Mine used a picture taken on a dull day, so I lightened, and enhanced the yellows slightly, trying always to maximise the definition, which is so easily lost with the small slips at this scale. I scaled by eye. What interests me is the colour match between my dull picture made artificially sunny and David's original taken in good light, and the scale looks a match too. I think David's is better, as he had a better bit of wall without the variations that cause my patterns, but I anticipate using both sheets during the construction of the station.

I have managed to persuade my printer to work. Hurrah [insert smiley] ! It turns out that the "error state" was not due to the low ink, though it grumbles constantly about that, but some other issue. I downloaded the printer driver again and now can print, but not wireless (so I have to move a lot of furniture each time, which is not popular with the Mem). Anyway, this is good news, because, providing the ink holds out, I can have a bash at the buildings R-A-R David has prepared, and those that I have derived from Shadow's excellent photographs, so work on the post office, a shop and house , the post office, and the Distant Ostrich may soon be possible. In the meantime, as I have been a bit starved for time, all I have managed is a couple of hours trying to get the Wateringbury Station plans (courtesy of T&A Jan) to scale and testing how it might look with my home made carstone sheets. Now it may fairly be said that the carstone could be darker and could be browner, but like a lot of stone, its appearance is affected greatly by the light, so I am assuming that we view the building in bright sunlight and I also consider the need to lightened colours at smaller scales; if I did it much darker, I doubt you'd see much texture at all.