PAT JAYA 185

And this is the finished model

Here is the finished Backwoods miniatures crane tank. It’s taken many days sat fiddling with this thing to get to this stage. I will admit it almost got thrown across the room a couple times. By far the biggest part of this diarama has been completing this old beastie.

Testing stock for the layout.

Building the locomotive

Doxford crane locomotives in their sheds.

Hello, My name is Pat and I am 32 years old. A married Chef with two young boys. After fiddling about with some airfix models about 6 years ago I decided to build a model railway. After starting out in 2mm, I discovering 009 gauge And change to 4mm narrow gauge modelling fairly quickly. I have been building my 009 gauge layout for a few years now, and have at least a few more years let in the build, but I have mostly been building 009 locomotives and stock. With a few locomotives completed I feel like I’ve now past the pain stackingly frustrating part of build a narrow gauge model railway. I decided to try my hand at the cake box challenge to expand my modelling techniques and explore further possibilities for my main layout. Having decided my diarama would be based on the same setting as my main project I would benefit from the research I have already done, and benefit from any new techniques gained. The diarama was heaverly influences on the Doxford ship yards in Sunderland. I already had a Backwoods miniatures kit of one of the four Crane tanks built for the ship yards by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn. I have altered this to narrow gauge to fit the 9mm gauge track. I’ve always adored the crane locomotives and the dirt and decay of them and their surroundings in pictures from the Doxford ship yards. The oigin of my 009 layout was based on Hayle harbour on the north coast of Cornwall where Harvey and sons Foundry actually existed. The history of the layout is based on the copper and tin mines in the area continuing production until the mid 60’s. this is my example of could have been...... A substantial 2.6ft gauge line is built between a number of mining districts in the area linking them with the harbour and the Angarrack smelters. Therefore the harbour, foundry and the nearby smelters continued to flourish until the second would war when production almost ground to a halt. During the years after the war the mines slowly start to close and the smelters and foundry also followed. Reducing trade until the late 1950’s till full closure in 1963. The diarama is a slice of the of the foundry and apart of the crane loco sheds. The crane locomotives worked in and around the harbour and foundry. Although there was never a narrow gauge railway in this part of Cornwall there had been in other parts of Cornwall. They supported clay, granite, tin, copper and gravel industries, so I feel this is a perfectly reasonable representation of an industrial railway in this part of the world.

Harvey's foundry

I've been modelling in 09 for a sort while and it can be super cheap if scratch build everything. i have found that you save more on the chassis cost if you stick to modelling diesel's and use the kato 103 or 104, but yes i model in both 009 and 09 and i find 09 much cheap and less frustrating. :-)