ManofKent

I'm enjoying this thread - I looked at Wingham and Stonehall with a similar idea (still on the back burner).

Well the good news is the track is ready to collect. The bad news is I forgot they closed early on a Thursday and got there an hour late. The 'don't tell my wife news' is I couldn't resist a reduced 'Sherwood' Peckett when I placed the order. Well you can't only have a blue one can you...

Thanks - I've put in a click and collect order with the local model shop for track - all my plans use roughly the same components.

Thanks - I've got a copy of the first book, but not the other two. Industrial Railways of Southern England in Colour by Jeffrey Grayer is an excellent book and Industrial Railways in Colour (South) by Michael Poulter has some good content. The IRS guide ' Industrial Railways and Locomotives of Kent' ' by Robin Waywell is an excellent and comprehensive reference work, but not great for inspirational images. Low relief wagons are an interesting idea - I've seen it done reasonably effectively with road vehicles but hadn't considered wagons...

Well I now have a baseboard so we have progress and a degree of commitment to producing something! 10mm Foamex, with two foamex strips glued to the sides and three across. It's plenty rigid enough for the size of the board and very lightweight - I can't twist it at all on the diagonal and it takes significant force to get and flex on the length. Mitrebond glued it together in minutes. It's very small... Width will prove "interesting". I need to pick up a couple of Ys to play with to finalise the track plan. I'm probably mainly going with inset track (might have a small amount 'exposed' for interest), which will visually help it looking too congested. Probably paper floor plans or rough mock ups will be needed to get the visual balance with the buildings. I need to be careful not to have too many building materials - mainly brick and corrugated iron - to keep it looking coherent and straddle the line between 'busy' and 'messy'.

William Bradford built a lot of breweries in a similar style to the Tolly Cobold one - you could certainly pinch elements from Hook Norton or Harvey's if they fitted the 'Green' building's size. I'm looking forward to seeing the models take shape.

Snapped this morning - brewery rather than engine shed, but principle applies...

Nice work on the shed. I agree with the lintel suggestion as an easy option, or maybe a short section of H beam?

A couple of possibilities - thinking private quay/wharf for timber : This has the advantage of simplicity and I think fits the space well ^ Only one feed required - could be run self contained, but I could add a fiddleyard to left in the future. ^ operationally the kick back would add extra interest. I'm assuming I'd just need a second feed to the fuel/water area - I don't think there would be need for a switch though. Any thoughts appreciated.

Thank you. What length are you assuming for coupled wagons? I was assuming 85mm per wagon including couplings (I might be being optomistic). Are those the 148mm Wyes? I think I need to look at my AnyRail settings.

Are you sure this is an engineering works and not a canning factory?

It's Richard Drew - Creek is location :-)

Coming along nicely!

Plenty of space Inset track?

Thanks - I couldn't get more than 3, 2, 2. I think regardless of whether it's a true puzzle or not , three sidings are needed for any meaningful shunting. Two just doesn't allow any re-ordering. In such a tiny space there are going to be compromises with 00 (009 would be a better fit but I'm not buying a new loco - as this is very much somewhere to use the Peckett and 44DS). I don't mind limiting myself to small 0-4-0s if that's a compromise that has to be made. I worked out the depth could be 230mm and still fit in the alcove - not your generous extra 30mm but 10mm is 10mm! Scenery and buildings are going to have to be pretty minimalist in scale but I don't mind very low-relief. Once the board arrives I can have a play with track and see what room I've got. If it ends up being more of a diorama where trains can move but not do much that might be a better compromise than something that allows proper shunting. I'm still undecided on setting. A few books have arrived on industrial operations in Kent - the two big ones are cement works or paper mills, both as ugly as sin and in the ugliest part of Kent! Dorset and the Midlands seem to have had the almost picturesque industrial railways. Not that there's anything forcing me to model Kent. The Kent collieries weren't as ugly (I'm old enough to remember them in operation, although Chislet closed about a year before I was born), but you couldn't really model them without the Avonside or Austerities. Richard

Hmmm.... several of the quarries had narrow gauge tipping wagons and a standard gauge line....

Great thread on a railway I knew nothing about - thank you.

Thanks - Interesting, but I think it confirms my suspicions that I'm trying to cram too much in a tiny space.

Thanks - it definitely needs to appear to continue from one of the corners. Reducing to three points might be an option. I have the feeling anyrail is deceptive in how much can be squeezed in. I's a tiny space, but it's near enough the same size as two of the Scalescene boxfile kits placed side by and they visually work well...

Thanks - I've seen a few photos of the estate in Gordon Edgar's book.

Thanks Marc - 08's are those things with two too many wheels aren't they? I think expanding the initial run to allow a hauled wagon at least does make sense if the space fits. I've probably got too tied up in trying to create siding lengths that conform to the 3,2,2 shunting puzzle and not enough on overall aesthetics. I need to think about the operation though (never my strongest interest, but others like it...). Thinking of trying Kaydees with an uncoupler at the head of the three sidings. Then there's point control - hand of god or wire in tube... Then there's the setting - any of the Kent cement works is a possibility, but weathering is boring (basically spray everything while). Lots to think about, but at least a board is ordered.

I'm not sure what the regulations were - there are plenty of photos of unskirted B4's and P Class locos at Dover, the Diesel shunters seem to have been a mixed bag of skirted and unskirted but I couldn't date the photos to see if there was a change...

I'm not sure what Bachmann have based that on - it does look more Hunslet than Drewry. The other option is to look for a Hejan 05, they used to be available very cheaply, although I don't remember a skirted version.

Yes the Drewry / 04 is one of the original batch of four fitted with skirts for Wisbech and Yarmouth. I think a couple of the later batch were modified to add skirts for road use, but that one is definitely first batch. Interesting that the colour picture (03 ?) seems to lack shirts. Lovely picture of than Hunslet too.

Thanks for the confirmation on the Y's - are they insulfrog or electrofrog. I'm looking at plain DC and simple wiring.