SteveyDee68

Jim is still running a mail order service, and is available to speak to on the phone for enquiries during limited opening hours. For latest news during the Covid-19 shutdown, visit the website www.thelocoshedmcr.co.uk Steve S

Brilliant! I can't believe I didn't see this until doing a Google search for "White Swan coal yard" (amongst others) turned this up! I think you got the look of the original to a T! I am using the original as inspiration as a scene blocker on my 3 foot long Inglenook, Woodhey Quay, although my plan wasn't to accurately model the original but to recreate the essence using some old Metcalfe kits (terraced houses and pub). I am also return to modelling after a long hiatus, so learning as I go. However, your model does reinforce the photogenic nature of this location. If it wasn't for my collection of Southern region locos, I could be sorely tempted to model Great Yarmouth Quay railways properly, with the tram locos, skirted 03 diesels and the tiny Sentinel loco (as I've seen in various photos). Looking forward to your next project.

If still looking for a lifeboat in 1:76, keep an eye on Scalescenes - John has one and a lifeboat station high up on his list of forthcoming kits! Steve S

What I like about your track plan is the distinct lack of S curves through pointwork. Then again, my Inglenook is half the length of your layout! Looking forward to seeing this develop. Stay safe, stay well. Steve S

So many modellers at this time are going to be happily progressing their layouts, whilst non-modellers go stir crazy once they have watched everything Netflix etc has to offer! Assume TT is 3mm/foot? Stay safe and keep well. Steve S

Like this idea and also following. Wagon works do allow all sorts of stock! Your board measurements - do those fit into an IKEA shelving unit? Stay safe. Steve S

Footnote I am using set track. With really sharply curved points. Code 100. It won't win awards for tracklaying or realism. But it is a start. After a gap of 30 years! And I intend to learn a few skills along the way. Actually, quite a lot of skills! Feel free to comment or give feedback. But I promise no more updates for at least an hour a day week! Stay safe and well, RM-Webbers. Steve S

Okay... Can we just agree that I am "thinking out loud in a public space" and not get mad at me? I reread @sb67’s earlier post, and thought maybe I misunderstood his suggestion? After head scratching for a bit, I decided to swap out the full curve angling from the back towards the front with a half curve instead, to ease the angle and perhaps not have to build out to support the track. I need a slightly longer straight between the houses top left but this meant the "hole in the wall" could be narrower (instead of allowing for overhang of locos swinging around the curve). The two short sidings now moved inwards on the board. Swapping the two points at the top meant I could now run a 3 wagon siding parallel to the edge of the board, and there was room for the gatehouse at the end of the siding. (I could, in future, add a fiddle stick beyond the gatehouse to allow longer rakes of wagons to be shunted "into" the complex, too!) Replacing the angled curved front siding with a straight track means I have two parallel tracks running diagonally towards the front of the board. The rear of the two will hold 3 wagons, and the front will hold 4 wagons clear of the kickback point to the quayside. The quayside siding is now straight and parallel with the quayside edge... it will hold 3 wagons comfortably. I mocked up these new straight sidings with some flexible track to get an idea of the look/flow across the board. To form a 5 wagon train the last wagon will foul the kickback point, but I can live with that. There is also an S curve into the middle siding, but I don't see how to avoid that on a board shorter than 4 feet long. The track layout is far more conventional for an Inglenook (gone are the curved sidings) but maybe this is the final throw of the dice? I have the "hole in the wall" entrance rear left, a siding serving the quayside, inset track but pointwork ballasted (easier for me to achieve!), incorporated the gatehouse to imply further buildings off stage to the right, and kept the foreground uncluttered with room to reinstate a riverbank. Being able to post my ideas up here and get feedback and suggestions has been incredibly helpful to get me to think and think again. Looking at the latest photos, the trackbed of the original layout can be seen painted grey on the board. How things have changed since I began this! With thanks especially to @sb67 (Steve) for prodding me into finding a way of getting a quayside siding! HOURS DAYS OF FUN!

Earlier today, I went browsing on my computer looking at inspirational photos I had downloaded from other people's layouts. Trouble is, I tend not to make a note of which layout they are from... And taking a quick peek at Pecketts Wharf and Metcalfe Yard, it hit me that I had a lot of photos saved from those layouts, so without having too much of a fanboy moment I am dead chuffed that sb67 (Steve) is giving me feedback and suggestions! If I could get to half the standard of his layouts with Woodhey Quay, I would be well happy! Anyway, Steve suggested straightening the track in the right side of the board and using a RH point for the kickback onto the quayside. I've pushed track about a bit and come up with the following. MISSING PHOTO To make this work I would need to infill the river bank and extend the quay so the track is supported. The Inglenook puzzle still (just) works, with the final wagon in the consist (in this instance the meat van) blocking the kickback point only as the consist is completed. The factory gatehouse just fits (with a short piece of straight track off the curve through the arch) MISSING PHOTO Any thoughts? Hours and hours and hours of playing planning!

Again, thanks for the constructive feedback. The "White Swan" corner is mocked up at present, and I am happy with the composition and so that will now be the entrance/exit to a fiddlestick (should I decide to add one in the future). I didn't realise the second photo hadn't uploaded! Have added it now! The point on the kickback siding is a left hand point - I am using only what I have (hence the use of settrack and some odd bits of previously cut flexible track being swapped back and forth between this and DRS Engineering!) ... plus of course the "Stay At Home" instruction stops me nipping down to The Locoshed (my local model shop) to pick up any more second hand track! That and the shop being closed, of course! I hear what you say about straightening the quayside siding... will mock that up and see what you think -- mock up three times, Dremel once!! HOURS OF FUN!

Steve’s @sb67 comments made me rethink my layout again, not least because he says "most of the layouts I've built enter from the left hand side". And it struck me that my latest plan (above) changed the orientation of the "hole in the wall" by The Swan public house, which explained why something didn't "sit right" with me about the plan... So, up came all the track again! I tried to get a siding alongside the dock edge at the right hand side, but that meant I couldn't get a 5 wagon capacity siding in for the Inglenook puzzle! Starting top left of the board, I needed a loco+3w capacity before the first set of points, for the headshunt to function correctly. If that first point led to the two 3w sidings, the remaining siding had to be 5w capacity. Before, I had multiple curved sidings, which were not conducive to the gatehouse being used. This time, however, I could use it at the end of the first siding! For aesthetic reasons I really wanted track along the quay. Squeezing a kickback siding off the 5w siding meant I could have that, although shunting it would be tricky (in model form). This actually left me with a 4w siding (comfortably) with the fifth and final wagon added when the marshalled train was ready to depart! So, here is my most recent rearrangement. The two photos show the layout from left to right - please excuse the mess! [Apologies - just noticed the first photo is blurred] Any comments or suggestions gratefully received! Thanks again to Steve (sb67) for prodding my little grey cells into action once again! MISSING PHOTOS HOURS OF FRUSTRATION FUN!

Hi Steve Thanks for your thoughts - looking at my previous set up, I see what you mean. However, the empty siding is part of the Inglenook puzzle - the siding at the back (wth the grain wagons) only has room for one wagon to be shunted in/out at a time, so can't be part of the Inglenook puzzle. What do you think of my "new" arrangement? The "White Swan" pub will be in the low right hand corner across the tracks from the half completed terrace house. I like the idea of glimpsing the loco shunting across the road running between the houses at the front, but as the headhunt only just fits the three wagons and loco before the point, it might make it tricky not to run off the edge of the layout! Maybe I should rethink the river banking? Hmmmm.... Hours of frustration fun!

Thanks Steve (sb67) - that is an interesting proposal, particularly as the front curved siding was the entrance/exit route rather than a siding. That has made me think again. As it is, I have a more orthodox Inglenook arrangement on the left with the headshunt to the right. Although this simplifies things a lot, I feel like my layout lost something in the process. I'll add a photo (although the area is currently a bit of a mess!) Another consideration is that my short Y point has made its way over to my DRS Engineering micro, where it has substituted for a medium RH point and means a long wheelbase wagon can now be shunted into the works building (there wasn't quite room before!) Although that layout is also supposed to be an Inglenook puzzle, I messed up with the headshunt length and also the 5 wagon train would be made up over pointwork, so as that is a 'naughty' I am changing the whole premise of that layout ... which means I can't have my Y point back!! Any suggestions/comments gratefully received! MISSING PHOTO HOURS OF FUN!

Update: I crave RMWeb's patience as, once again, I update not with concrete progress but with philosophical meanderings as I ask myself a few questions and perhaps receive some wisdom from others in the process. So, what has been (not) going on at Woodhey Quay? I recently purchased the Metcalfe factory entrance and boiler house kit, as I have the remains of a chopped about Metcalfe Brewery kit that I thought I might be able to use to create an industrial complex, perhaps a maltings, perhaps a brewery. Blu-tacking the basic building carcass together, I realised that the sidings would need re-arranging in order to get a siding to run through the gatehouse. I did this, and was relatively pleased with the result, although now I had some straight sidings and had lost the curvy nature of the right hand of the board. Some more blu-tack and half relief industrial buildings sprang up, together with a second hand Superquick building (which I plan to rebuild entirely!) at the left hand end of the board opposite my half completed butchered Metcalfe terrace house and... And that is where things stopped. I walked away for a while, mainly because life as a supply teacher suddenly became very busy as teachers started self isolating due to the Corona virus. But it did give me a chance to look at the whole again. And I think I lost my way! The industrial side is now heavily unbalancing the look of the micro - and sadly I think the gatehouse is simply too big a structure. I do want some industrial buildings to justify the sidings (even though really this is simply an Inglenook). Annoyingly, I can't serve the quayside by rail. Or, rather, I am at a loss how to do so. If I could, I would simply have a siding running along the quayside... And so, throwing caution to the wind, I took everything up, reversed the entire trackplan so it is back to a simple Inglenook, with sidings serving the quayside area and warehouses at the rear. There's far less track than there was, and the curved sidings have all but disappeared. Has that improved things? I cannot say yet - it is back now to being a self contained Inglenook, goods traffic only. Maybe less really is more. The only plus side to the Covid-19 situation ... plenty of time to find a solution! Hours of fun!

Hi Nathaniel That's a really neat, small structure you have come up with. I am having problems with visual balance with my own Inglenook, Woodhey Quay, due to the Metcalfe Brewery buildings and Gatehouse being too big, but this is altogether a much less overpowering composition. Hope you don't mind if I shamelessly steal (although currently toying with the coach house as the basis for something similar!) Keep up the momentum! Steve S

Hi Chris What an inspirational thread! I am absolutely amazed at the detail and neatness of your modelling in 4mm scale. And thank you, too, for the blow by blow pictures and descriptions, even of when you decide to go back a couple of steps or re-make something. It has been a great read over several days, and I look forward to seeing how your layout progresses. Steve S

I went to Ryman's for my laser acetate to make sure I got the correct type to go through a laser/colour photocopier. At £15 for ten sheets it wasn't cheap but at least now I can search for a better price online. The biggest issue would be printing out a whole A4 sheet for just a few windows - need to find out how to combine the glazing sheets from several kits to fit on one page and not have as much waste. Hours of fun!

Update: No further progress with actual modelling, but have decided to have a retaining wall at the rear of the board with industrial building gable ends behind that. Having recently discovered a list my father wrote out of all the places he had worked through his working life, together with the companies he worked for, I have suitable names for those premises: McCarty & Heaton Dynamic Plastics (Ltd) Turner & Brown Duxbury Ltd Bibby & Barron Hours of fun!

Hi Report back how you get on with it. My instructions suggest having "sacrificial" material underneath, and I have to get some more mountboard before I can try it. I will post results here when I do. Hours of fun! Steve

So, I have been busy using this corner technique to tidy up a small terraced house for my Inglenook layout - it was one of a pair, but I cut them in half to make two buildings, as both will have one end against the backscene! And of course I did not scan them as the terraced house kits are still available. What I failed to remember was that this kit is the same vintage as the pub and is also therefore long discontinued! Colour me stupid. So, before I start the pub, scanning will take place! Hours of frustration fun! Steve

Just had a catch-up on the ET thread. And although I am at the "hesitant returner" stage of competence (I am up to soldering my first power feeds onto my PECO set-tracked Inglenook), I always find your trackwork a joy and suddenly want to rip up the code 100, find the relevant pages in your thread and start producing my own track! Inspiring is the word to use. But common sense kicks in - finish what I have started, then maybe in the future I can start thinking about OO-FS and building my own points! Looking forward to future updates! Steve S

An overall view, the arrows showing how I have managed to give a little more space between the track and the rear and front of the board respectively. The layout can be run as a self contained Inglenook, or with a fiddlestick or fiddleyard attached to the right hand side can run trains on and off scene. The "hole in the wall" idea borrowed from Great Yarmouth could also have a fiddlesticks added, perhaps for runnng coal wagons through to the coal yard? The second photo shows the rejigging of track on the right hand of the board. Amazingly, but for one short piece of straight track and a Y point, all the lengths are what were already on the board, just swapped about a bit! The extra two wagon (possibly three) at the rear provides either a stabling point for a loco or an unloading point for wagons. The grain wagons siding will be partially covered by a larger stone warehouse. The third photo shows a mockup for the "Hole in the wall" area. Bonus find - in some boxes of my dad's stuff I found both a Metcalfe pub and terraced house kits! (As my dad modelled in O gauge, he may have bought these to make a diorama for his 1:76 trams and buses.) The price tags suggest that these have been in the loft a long time... £6.50 for the pub?! Propped up quickly into place and they fit perfectly! So, repaint the track beds, trim a bit of trackage, and press on to the next stage of wiring the track and painting it prior to installation. Last photo shows my latest attempt at murky water colour ... a couple of thin washes of brown acrylic. Happier than before, so may try a few coats of varnish and see how that looks. 4 x MISSING PHOTOS HOURS OF FUN!

Thank you, Nick C - I had not thought of that. I shall give that a try forthwith! Hours of fun! (Trying very hard not to sound like Miranda Hart!)

Update: A recent Facebook post in the Microlayouts Group by Robert Kitching showed the "hole in the wall" next to The White Swan PH on the North Quay, Great Yarmouth, a space between two buildings just wide enough for a train to pass through. A-ha! A way to disguise my upper left track at the baseboard edge, I thought. But not enough room... A rejiggle of track components, substitution of a short Y point and suddenly not only do I have room, I also have an extra two wagon siding. Plus, the short headshunt will take two wagons and my 48DS or one wagon and any 0-6-0 tank loco! Photos to follow showing the realignment! Hours of fun!

Take a look at www.budgetmodelrailways.co.uk - they have a resin tram body kit which sits on the Hornby 0-4-0 chassis; with a face attached it might work out cheaper than either the official Hornby or Bachmann models!