Will Crompton

I am planning to construct a small n-gauge layout as a way of getting back into actual railway modelling after a break of more decades than I care to mention. As is often the case a small layout will enable me to develop basic modelling, wiring etc skills. I built a baseboard a while ago with the dimensions 75cm x 25cm (and yes, so that it can sit on a Billy bookcase shelf). Given the small footprint and an interest in freight workings, a shunting layout appeals. I would incorporate a small offscene fiddle stick or yard to be attached when the layout was taken off the bookshelf for operation (subject to the usual SWMBO permissions). I have a small number of ideas which I am considering, one obvious one being an Inglenook sidings layout. If an Inglenook (see diagram) is built and operated in its most familiar form there are the three sidings with room for 5, 3 and 3 wagons. One is allowed room in the ‘headshunt’ for one locomotive and three wagons and as I am sure most regulars here know, 8 wagons are used in total. I would extend the head shunt to run offscene to the fiddlestick or yard, i.e. so once a 5 wagon consist had been made up it could then run offscene beyond the limit of shunt. If I went with an Inglenook I would like to have a reasonably prototypical justification for the limit of shunt. I would probably set the layout in the 70s railblue era but am also potentially interested in the 50s and 60s. I have thought of some possible justifications I will list below. Are any of these prototypical? If not can anyone suggest prototypical justifications? 1) The limit of shunt is necessary because the line then runs under through a short tunnel in an urban area with poor visibility from the tunnel to the yard (a bit like Gasworks tunnel at Kings Cross). 2) The limit of shunt is necessary because a staff foot crossing is located there. 3) The yard consists of private industrial sidings in a small congested urban area, maybe a factory dating back the late 19th/early 20th century. The sidings are located at the end of a small freight only branch or spur serving a few rail connected industries. Offscene there is a runround loop. A BR locomotive pulls into the loop, runs around and propels wagons into the factory sidings. However in doing so it has to propel the wagons across a public road which runs along the boundary of the factory (a la Fry’s Factory in Keynsham) – cue chaps with flags. Once the train and loco are within the factory yard limits shunting is only allowed up to the factory yard boundary, not out onto the road, and this just happens to be 3 wagons and a loco long. 4) As above but with a road internal to an industrial site such as a factory or dockside. 5) An industrial site such as a factory or even part of a railway works with congested buildings. The limit of shunt coincides with a convenient view blocking building to the front of the layout. The exiting line runs between this and a building to the rear with very little clearance and poor visibility back to the yard once the engine has drawn back between the buildings. Thanks in advance for any answers, advice etc.

Just reading your post over coffee and decided to try a google image search for Garrett and Sons and came up with a couple of possibly helpful results. The first is a picture of the exterior of the works showing a gated railway suggesting a main line connection. Apologies if you have already seen them. https://www.jbarchive.co.uk/sf-1489---tea-time-at-garrett--sons-works-leiston-suffolk-c1912-50503-p.asp Secondly a Wikipedia entry about the works railway which says it was connected to the Aldburgh branch of the GER. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiston_Works_Railway

Many thanks for posting these. I thought I was hallucinating!

Get thee to Munich! SWMBO and myself arrived in Munich from Blighty today on the way to see family in Bavaria. Leaving Munich Hauptbanhof for Ingolstadt (double decker regio pushed by a class 102 E-Lok since you ask) I was gobsmacked to see just outside the Hauptbanhof one of the HST twin powercar sets that I think are being spot hired as locos. Alas I saw it too late to get a photo. It seemed to be involved with an engineering train. Maybe there will be one at Ingolstadt yard. There in 25 minutes. Doh! Just saw Dagworth's post above. The very same pair I guess so I suspect I won't be seeing any at Ingolstadt.

66753 shunting an engineering train just east of Maidstone East on 12th September. Taken on my (very) cheap 'n cheerful phone so the picture quality is not stellar.

That's the one. I couldn't get a picture of it as there was too much reflection coming off the depot windows. The little coaling stage was holding coal so maybe it was due for a outing.

You could be right. The narrow gauge from Prien was running and I got a few pictures. When I get a moment over the next few days I will post some in the narrow gauge section. A diesel was the motive power but the steam tram could be seen through the depot window.

Finally two abandoned boat wagons (?) on the Fraueninsel.

As promised some more from Fraueninsel. The second of these tracks looked a bit wider than standard gauge. A couple of what looked like disused wagons were also in attendance. I'll have to post these separately to get under the 10 mb limit.

This summer I went on a boat trip on the Chiemsee, a big lake in Southern Bavaria. One of the stops was on one of the Islands, Fraueninsel where I encountered abandoned 'boat launching railways' (er, erm not sure of the correct technical term). I managed a few hurried pics. The first one looked narrower than standard gauge (two photos). Some more to follow.

"Dog" or "Yellow Dog" for the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad. This nickname is immortalised in the story about the 'Father of the Blues' W.C. Handy first hearing blues music while waiting for a train on Tutwiler station in Mississipi in 1903. http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/w-c-handy Handy wrote in his autobiography, “A lean, loose-jointed had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of a guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. The effect was unforgettable. His song, too, struck me instantly. ‘Goin’ where the Southern cross’ the Dog.’ The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I ever heard.” It usually assumed that it refers to a railway crossing of the Southern and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroads in Moorhead to the south of Tutwiler. As I like railways, blues music and slide guitar I have always found this story irresistible.

Thanks for the link to this site. For one mad moment I had thought it was a special wagon for Anderson Shelters!

Many thanks!

What is the interesting wagon behind the 73?

Hope this is ok to post in this forum area. On a visit to Maidstone today I looked in on the Oxfam Bookshop on Gabriel's Hill in the town centre. In the window they have a stash of vintage railway magazines from the late 50s, early 60s mainly Railway Modeller, Railway Magazine and Trains Illustrated. They are mostly in very good condition, indeed some of the Railway Modellers still have C.J. Freezer pamphlets stapled in place. They are selling the Railway Modellers for £1.49 a pop but are open to bulk discounts apparently. I picked up four Railway Modellers very much on my wish list, two with different versions of H.M. Pyrke's Berrow Branch, one featuring Alan Smith's Lydney Town and one featuring J.F. Webster's Borchester which is in my all time top 5 of model railway's even today. I didn't go for a job lot as there is only so much I can smuggle through SWMBO's customs post. On your marks, get set, go! PS there are a few Railway Books on the first floor too.

I remember visiting between 72 and 74 once or maybe twice with gricing chums. Amazing , atmospheric place to our 13 year old selves. Don't remember 8206, curses, perhaps it had been cut by then. Alas we tried bunking Canton but were repulsed by a firm 'gerrardavit' on reaching the bottom of some sort of footbridge. I think on one of these trips we had our only sighting of Falcon as we passed Ebbw Vale. Drifts off down memory lane..........................

Likewise. Also the crew of the 25 appear to be enjoying a brew.

Many thanks for posting this link. I'm a big HP Lovecraft fan so this ticks all sorts of boxes. I might ask to see the British Museum's copy of the Necronomicon now, to see if there are any maps of the branchline to Innsmouth!

Wonderful pictures. Many thanks for posting. I'm always intrigued to see traditional goods depots in use in the Blue era. I particularly like the second picture which features that railway modelling cliche, a (in this case 1:1) figure sitting on a pile of wood in the goods yard.

Here's Ajax at Chatham Dockyard during a 'salute to the 1940s' event in September 2010. Ajax spent the day shuffling wagons around to my great delight as we only turned up by accident. We went to Chatham for some reason or another and I suggested to Ms Crompton that perhaps we could have a look at the Dockyard. On arrival it was all kicking off.

I once worked in a lab where we acquired a very specialised piece of testing kit from a Dutch manufacturer. The company sent over one of their engineers to train us to use it. During the course of the training day he referred more than once to 'rtf' errors. On asking him what an rtf error was he said 'read the f*****g manual errors!'

Doh! Should have remembered that. Many thanks.

Maroon parcels van with a double arrow - what's not to like! Do you know the date when this picture was taken?

Definitely of interest. Many thanks.

Belated thanks for posting these interesting and helpful pictures. The second one definitely comes under the 'prototype for everything' heading.