wiggoforgold

The basic woodwork is now complete, the boards are complete and the old Middle Fen joining section which originally connected Diddington to Juniper Hill and will now connect Upwell Drove to Diddington has begun it's refurbishment, and has acquired a new set of legs and been successfully connected to Upwell Drove. Here's a couple of pics of progress to date: Next is the intital electrical installation, followed by tracklaying.

Thanks Mike. Order placed. For some reason I,d missed that when I was looking. Alex.

I'd like a 1.76 Bedford TK flatbed or coal lorry. I know theyv've been done in the past, but can I find one now?

Sounds like the Dapol kit is the way to go. Not a bad option. I just happen to have a couple of sets of 04 frames in hand

Could be? If we look at the skirts, which are definitely black, and in the same plane as the cab sides, there is a cleaner black bit about halfway along the skirts which looks a different shade to the cab sides. The cab front looks black though. Alex

David - I'd rather like you to be right as I like the green! Have you any idea when they would have been painted green? I re - read the part of Tim Shackleton's book which I referred to this morning, and that states the trams ended up in black with the later emblem and wasp stripes. I've found a colour picture on the net of D2201 shunting at Elm Bridge in 1964. The loco appears to be in black livery, with wasp stripes and the later crest. It could have been painted green by 1966 though! Alex

Hi Nick. Thank you for your kind comment. You've made me realise that D2201 is now over 21 years old! The model is made from a Dapol kit, with the skirts, cab and cowcatchers from an etched conversion kit from Impetus. The chassis was a Bachmann 03. The Impetus kit is no longer available, and the Bachmann 03 became an 04 - I'm not sure how easy that is to get hold of these days. I used a very good article by Monty Wells in MRJ no 3 on the 04s, which included extensive prototype notes, and drawings of the tram version. Worth getting hold of if you haven't seen it. There was also an article by Tim Shackleton in MRJ 87 on using the Impetus conversion, and a chapter by him on the same subject in his book "Modelling Diesels". I'm planning to have another at the tram, hopefully this year, to address the shortcomings of my model of D2201. If I can get hold of one, my stating point will be the Bachmann 04, with a new cab, skirts and cowcatchers from styrene sheet. When I built D2201, I wasn't sure whether the livery should be black or green, even with wasp stripes and the late type crest. I went for green, but I'm now pretty certain it should be black. If you follow the link to my gallery, there's some more pictures of the model there. Alex

Over the Christmas period, I built the back drop supports for Upwell Drove and generally finished the wood work. Because the layout is intended to be operated from the front or end, the back drop can be full height, rather than needing to be low enough to permit access from the rear. The top edge of the back drop is set at a height so that it is hidden from view by the proscenium arch at normal viewing distance. This makes the view of the layout entirely self contained, and free from distracting non layout views behind the layout. The back drop itself will be of fabric, such as dress stiffener or roller blind fabric, which can be rolled up when not in use. The back drop supports are made from 30mm x 10mm planed timber strip from B&Q. There are four uprights at the rear of the layout, supporting a longitudinal beam which will hold the back drop. The support beam is jointed so it can be dismantled for transportation, as it would be too long as a single piece. The beam also holds the support for an LED strip, which will be positioned to throw light on the back drop and the rear half of the layout. This lighting strip is in the form of an “L” of 6mm ply, which is glued and pinned to the support beam to form a “U” section. The beam is made into an “L” shape by the addition of strips from the beam forward to the wings. These sections provide additional rigidity to the back drop support assembly. The ends of the backdrop curve forward to the front of the layout. The curves are made from strips of 2mm MDF, glued in place to the back drop support. They were curved round a paint can supported over the sink while boiling water was poured over the MDF. This allowed the wood to be curved without cracking. The supports for the beam are made from more 30X10 strip, bolted to the rear of the layout, and kept square by dowels which pass through the uprights and into the back of the baseboard. I’ve standardised on M6 bolts for this layout, as I want to keep assembly straight forward, and easy for helpers who are unfamiliar with the layout. Where ever possible, the bolts screw into “T” nuts fitted to one half of the part being assembled, so there are no separate nuts to get lost. The wood work is now complete. The next stage is painting, following which I would like to get the lights installed, following which track laying can start.

I’ve now built the proscenium and wings for the new boards, and I have found myself musing on the importance of this part of the structure. I like it, and find the prosecenium and wings define the edges of the layout, and direct the viewer to look at the layout by cutting off unwanted and distracting lines of sight. It also provides a home for discrete yet effective illumination. As a taller modeller, I find this method of presentation more comfortable, and easier on the eye, yet I am surprised how often these methods of presentation are disregarded. I was rather surprised at some of the reaction to the cameo competition, that seemed to be along the lines of “layouts are already properly displayed” and “we don’t need to know that”. I’m afraid my recent experiences of shows have left me surprised how few layouts have adopted what I consider to be self-evident methods of presentation. Anyway, that’s my view. I like the idea of the model railway as a piece of theatre, and try to present my models in such a fashion. The proscenium on the new layout is built from ply, glued and pinned together. The main proscenium is in two sections, with an “L” shaped joiner in the middle, which is held together by 6mm bolts to form a single piece. The wings are built up from more ply, and slot in to place at the ends of the layout. The proscenium arch sits on top, with the from edge being some 3” in advance of the edge of the baseboard, the intention being that this will allow the lighting to properly illuminate the front part of the layout. Here are some pictures of the proscenium under construction and finished. The next stage is to make up the supports for the back scene, and then there’s a bit of finishing to do, before moving on to painting. The new station will be called "Upwell Drove". Bits of it will be modelled on Upwell, but it isn't a model of Upwell, in particular the track plan is totally different, being conceived to suit the way I wanted to build the layout, rather than to follow a prototype.

After Sunday's Southern interlude, it's back to the Eastern region theme at Diddington. Back in the 1950's J15s would have formed a staple of the motive power, so here are a few pictures of J15s in action. First, here is 65461 on a local passenger crossing the river. Next, a close up of 65461 and finally, 65461 and 65356 in the shed road. Also photographed at Diddington is Ivatt class 2 46466, in large totem, unlined black livery. Work on the new extension progresses. I'm currently working on the proscenium and wings. Some pictures of progress will follow, hopefully by the weekend.

Mark (46444) came round today to see progress on Diddington. He brought some of his latest models with him, including his 02 and recently released gate stock. We set them up on Diddington to take some photographs of the event. At this stage I could concoct some story about how in 1948 the newly formed British Rail decided to trial an 02 on the Diddington branch, but the truth is we were playing and enjoying ourselves. No doubt Mark will carry out some improvements on the gate stock which he will report in due course, but first impressions are that the paint finish of the sides might get a little T cut treatment, to give it a slight sheen, and I think the photograph taken from overhead rather shows the thickness of the glazing, though this isn’t so apparent from a normal viewing angle. I also took some pictures of it shunting in the yard. I know the wagon is slightly out of period, but I think the scene is rather reminiscent of Callington. The model is of a Plymouth loco, so Callington would be a plausible working I think. I also took some pictures of a more eastern region nature, of which more later.

The baseboards themselves are now virtually complete. The baseboard tops from 5mm ply were fitted in place. They have been glued and pinned to the frames, effectively forming the top part of an “L” girder, and making sure the frames were square. This revealed that one of the longitudinal beams was slightly over length, pulling the end out of square. Remedial action was taken by sawing the longitudinal in half adjacent to one of the cross braces. The width of the saw cut was sufficient reduction in length, and the two halves were glued back together, the joint being reinforced by pinning the top in place. All was now square. With the tops in place, attention turned to the arrangements for folding the board in half for transportation. Those familiar with the idea of a folding baseboard, such as the Elan plan I am using, will know that the plan uses a structure such as abridge pier, or a scenic feature such as the side of a cutting or a building to hide the hinge posts when the layout is erected. All very good for layouts set in hilly parts, but I am trying to capture the open, flat fens, which doesn’t give much scope for scenic features rising a scale 30 feet above the surrounding countryside. I wanted a folding layout, so I had to come up with a way of fitting the hinges. I thought of fitting the hinge blocks to the outside of the boards, so they would be hidden by the backscene. This wouldn’t work at the front of course, and I wanted to keep the width down and avoid projecting features for transportation, so this idea was shelved. I then came up with the idea of removable hinge blocks. They sit in a hole in the baseboard top, which is filled with a removeable “jigsaw” piece when the layout is erected. The hinge blocks bolt in place, allowing the layout to be folded for transportation. On this layout there is only one hinge. I realised when planning the track layout, that the place for the hinge would be covered by pointwork. A single hinge allows the layout to be folded for transportation, and a removable board will be bolted to the end to provide rigidity when the layout is being transported. The hinge posts are made of square section soft wood, with a front and top from 11mm ply to match the thickness of the ends and to provide a mounting for the hinge to be screwed to. The are held in place by 6mm bolts’ which fit from the outside of the baseboard frames into tee nuts in the hinge blocks. The next stage in the construction will be the proscenium and wings. I find I need a bit more wood........

I’ve now completed the legs for both new boards, and pictures are attached of the work to date. The legs fit in to slots under the boards, and the bottom edge of the layout rests on the top cross brace. Study of the photographs may reveal the source of the wood! There are adjustable feet on the bottom of the legs to provide fine adjustment. There are diagonal braces from the bottom of the legs to the centre of the boars, held in place by split hinges. In addition, there are more adjustable feet on the inside faces of the sides of board one, by the centre joint. This is because when in home use there will be a chest of drawers under the layout, which will not permit the diagonal braces to be fitted, so the feet will give some support to the centre joint, by resting on the top of the chest of drawers. Next up is to fit the removable hinge blocks for the centre joint, cut the base board tops to shape, and fit the mountings for the electrical equipment (Transformer, power supply for lights) underneath board 1.

Construction of the new station has started. Progress has been steady this week. The boards are being built from various thicknesses of plywood, and I found I had the bulk of what I needed in stock - left over from other DIY projects or recycled from earlier layout construction. I went to see a friend with a saw table on Monday, and cut the wood into the strips I needed. Before I cut anything I spent some time drawing plans of the construction and thinking through things I needed to incorporate in the build, such as ensuring bracing struts were no under the moving parts of point work and allowing for clearance for point motors and my hand to get in to do the wiring. The basic frames are strips of 9mm ply. They will be topped with a sheet of 5mm ply, and together these will form an "L" girder. The ends are from some 12mm ply, which was last used as part of the framework for the Diddington fiddle yard. There are two boards, each just over 3' long. They will be hinged in the middle to allow folding for transport (more about the hinges later). The boards will be aligned with DCC concepts baseboard alignment dowels, and bolted together with M6 bolts. The end pieces were made as a pair, with the holes for the dowels and bolts being drilled before they were separated. Here are some pictures of progress so far: The next steps are to build the legs, and make the hinges for the centre joint. .

Now you mention it, I think I recall the Modeller article. Anyone got a reference? There are two buildings on the planned layout, the station at Upwell, and the office from Outwell. I haven't started counting bricks on that one, so a plan would be good.

That's OK Anthony, and thanks. I will be doing the same thing! The good news is, with no drawings around, there's nobody to say we are wrong!

It is indeed Upwell, which rather indicates my thoughts as to what the finished layout will look like. It's not a straight copy of Upwell though - think Upwell meets Iain Rice and you will get an idea of what I am up to. The building is an interesting project, that I am looking forward to. I've found some useful pictures on the net, and am currently counting bricks, so I'd be interested in any dimensions you came up with when working on your mock up.

And so it begins....

It's like a millpond at the moment...

They look good Mark. I feel a photo session at Diddingtopn coming on.

Tigerburnie JC isn't my creation. You may already have seen his earlier outings at 46444's "Juniper Hill", but if you haven't, here's a link. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70516-juniper-hill/ David - the bridge is moddelled on the one between Godmanchester and Huntingdon. I've rowed under it, and fished from it, and always wanted to make a model of it. I had to make my own plans, and worked from photographs I found in the library at Cambridge many years ago. The dimensions were worked out from a 25" to the mile OS map, and I knew we used to take a coxed four through the archway and had to partially ship the oars on one side to get through. The span of the arch was therefore worked out rom the span of the oars for the four, less about 10 feet! My model is still a couple of spans short though. I used to fish in the river at Hemingford too. You weren't really supposed to fish from the boathouse though. I used to go and have tea in the upstairs cafe after fishing sometimes.

Sorry about he upside down pictures. I tried posting direct from my phone and I haven't quite got the hang of it. Not sure what I did (or didn't do) there.

D5579 awaits departure from Diddington in 1965, shortly before the experimental golden ochre livery was replaced with green. The loco carries the head code for the March-Cambridge loop line. D2201 crosses the river at Diddington in 1966. Made redundant by the closure of the Wisbech and Upwell tramway. D2201 was tried out on the agricultural tramway at Diddington. Diddington boathouse is a model of the one that stood at Hemingford Grey on the Great Ouse. After a 30 year wait, the model has finally acquired a balcony, built from styrene sheet and a length of Ratio GW station fencing. The yard workers take a break between unloading wagons. Not a lot happens at Diddington, so it's a leisurely lunch..