dseagull

It's been many a moon since I did any modelling - aside from a half-finished Tamiya Ford Capri which is still awaiting painting of the bodyshell (unless cross-stitching several Christmas cards counts!) However, times they are a changing. I last updated in August 2013. Since then we have moved, I started a new job and have subsequently obtained promotion. Leah is now a cheeky little miss of 20 months and we celebrate our third wedding anniversary in July. I'm not really sure where the time has gone but gone it has. So, as you might have gathered from my lack of interaction, I have nothing to show on the railway front from that time. I now hope to change that. After pondering that I want do something for a while, and still unable and indeed unwilling to give up on a scheme that I have thoroughly enjoyed researching, dreaming up and talking about, it has to be something related to the Cuckmere Valley Railway. The current house* is bigger, true, but also comes with two ever-growing children and a garden which wasn't big enough for my old shed. So, portable is the way it must be. With that in mind I am pleased to say I will be building Litlington as a slightly smaller layout than I envisaged in those early planning posts. Pleased, because a loss of 2' in length makes the whole thing a little more 'domestically friendly' - 6' (scenic), foam board construction rather than strangeness with odd-shaped wood, and space for storage in our bedroom. Foamboard construction should also make it light enough to be carried about, more of which anon. Continuing the domestic update at risk of boring you all, my wife is now back at work after maternity leave - she has also been promoted, with the downside that she now works 4 late nights (home after midnight) a week. This has left me with little to do,once the kids are in bed, than play computer games and listen to the radio whilst drinking copious amounts of coffee (Dolce Gusto machine for Christmas, absolutely brilliant! ) for those four evenings. As nice as this has been at times, I still keep getting dragged back to looking at various fora, various blogs and various Iain Rice books. I am, it seems, still afflicted by this disease known as 'ferroequinitus' - and if you can't beat it, you may as well embrace it! There is a plan for the new version of the layout, as well as some minor tweaks to the 'history', but as I am currently typing this on Charlie's hudl, they will be revealed at another time. This though is just a quick message to anyone out there to say I am back and intend to be producing something worthy before too long! *We are pondering another move, if the right property comes up to rent - or that deposit-securing lottery win comes in! - preferably to a place without the worlds most tempremental boiler!

Absolutley - at that price I think I may indulge myself. I love the Haynes book, as well as Iain's earlier works (Still after a copy of his Light Railway designs book, and the forthcoming updated version of the Wills Kits book is very much on my wishlist too!)

Just a potential word of warning regarding the new book from Iain; http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12487.html Being published by Kalmbach, I suspect it will be US-based/US prototypes.

Thanks Mikkel - not sure about 4mm chickens, but we'll see! Yes, the Station building is based on Hailsham - I have also borrowed the Goods shed from another station on the line, likewise the Water Tower. The reasons are twofold - firstly, it fits into the local area architectually, and secondly, I have the book with the plans in - it is a simple job to blow these up to 4mm, so makes sense.

The Baseboards have been on the back burner since the last update, because the weather has not tended to be at the best when I have had the time (and it isn't late enough to annoy the neighbours) . It's not a problem - I'm in no mood to rush things for the sake of it, and anyway, I have been reconsidering my reasons for going with the jigsaw method. Originally, I wanted to do this because I felt it would be an easy way of making the layout portable - which still applies. However, three 4' long boards of variable width take up the same space as one 4' long board of a fixed width. Obviously. Am I just making trouble for myself? Was I told this when I originally mooted the idea? Yes (to the latter, the former is something I've been pondering). To avoid falling into the spiral of 'problem, wonder how to resolve it, get bored and do something else', I've instead been concentrating on some of the other aspects of the layout. Firstly rolling stock - Kevin Walsh of this parish and the Uckfield Club kindly offered me four Ratio Van kits, which he had started to convert into Poultry Vans. These used to be used on the Cuckoo Line, with Heathfield in particular being a centre for Chicken Fattening. To quote from www.heathfield.net; 'PC' it ain't, but a useful rural industry for the layout it is, especially as I'm told it is unlikely that a small rural brewery would send goods out by train, instead focusing on a tightly defined local area - so whilst the brewery will still receive coal and anthracite for the brewing process, I needed another 'export' industry, and have now found one. LBSCR/SR Insulated Van suppliers, anyone?. I've so far built two of the Ratio vans that Kev supplied, and am in the (slow, it's been years since I last used transfers) process of lettering them. I have another two more to do, couplings to install, and then they will be ready for the photo plank. I also mentioned earlier that I have started work on the Station Building. This is based on and inspired by Hailsham station on the Cuckoo Line, but is not an exact copy as it has been flipped (the toilet block moved from one side to the other) to better fit in with the plan. Loads still to do, but a couple of photos are below; Platform Side Road Side This is made from Wills parts and the roof (and windows, for that matter) are just held in place temporarily with Blu Tac - but it is getting there, with nearly all of the major constituent parts cut (apart from the roof). How does it look compared with the original? - well, not too bad if you ignore the (thankfully part built!) roof. Nick Catford has supplied a photo from 1965 to the excellent 'Disused Stations' site which shows the front elevation well - http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/hailsham/index7.shtml (And also shows that I have the angle of the roof all wrong. I wondered why it was a pain in the arse to fit... - that'll be a trip out for some more Wills roof tiles then!) This is the first time I've scratchbuilt to a plan (The A.C Elliott book 'The Cuckoo Line' published by Wild Swan has the relevant scale drawings, which I've enlarged from 2mm to 4mm on a photocopier), and I have found it a most enjoyable process. Hopefully this will continue! http://cuckmerevalleyrailway.wordpress.com/

Thanks Mikkel. Typically, I'm not sure now... It does look good as is, and the picture shows the boards just butted close to each other, not held together at all - but I can't help but wonder (partially inspired by a conversation on another forum) if it is just complicating things for the sake of it, which is why I haven't done the second board yet. Instead I've been working on a couple of Vans and the Station Building. I'm hoping to find time for a blog update tomorrow

Over the last week I've been mostly working on some rolling stock, but today have been able to put together the first of the baseboards. As has been explained previously, I intend to use the 'Jigsaw' method of construction. This has been giving me headaches over the past few days, but today I bit the bullet and got on with it. The first board is below; Click image to enlarge The result? - Not half bad, especially the slabs underneath (photo taken in the garden for natural light) aren't the most level. Framing is blocks of 2" x 1", pinned to the ply 'top'. Another thing to consider is that this was just placed together for the photo - there will be catches holding the boards together. You can see the lines of each 'piece' a little more than I would like, because the jigsaw (power tool, not baseboard design - confusing stuff) made the edges a little rough. I intend to cover the boards in cork to make it a little neater (and hide the pins). I am though pleased with it so far - I am by no means a master craftsman - but the three sections 'mesh' nicely together already, before adding the catches. For this photo, in order to expose the joints to scrutiny, I took the full-scale plan off, but a quick glimpse of the layout plan below shows that these three boards are numbers 1, 2 and 5. Comments and questions are, as always, welcome and appreciated.

The usual Sunday morning trip round one of the local Car Boot Sales revealed some interesting bits. Firstly – an old Hornby Sheep Wagon. I believe this is nothing like the prototype, but at a solitary pound, with no broken bits (I have a spare wheelset!) , it will do as a placeholder and something in the right livery to shunt around whilst I am building kits. The books both caught my eye on the same stall (£2 the pair). The H.P White ‘Regional History of the Railways’ book has already thrown up some interesting snippets on a very quick first glance through earlier, and this edition was published in 1964. As well as plenty of text, there are a few interesting pictures, and a lovely pullout Map (in perfect condition, despite the somewhat tatty dust jacket) of the area. Finally, and with a nod to the always thought-provoking Neil Rushby, I picked up ‘Sussex’ by John Burke (1974). This is immaculate, and will hopefully prove enlightening reading whether or not it throws up anything which can be incorporated into the layout. Neil mentioned on his Rushby’s Railways blog a few weeks ago that modellers sometimes struggle to get what is outside the railway boundary as correct as they do inside, and suggested the Country Life volumes from the 50?s as a useful resource. A quick squint on Amazon shows up some interesting potential books for a matter of pence (one on Alfriston and one on Alfriston and the Cuckmere Valley), which may well follow these two onto the shelves. Moving to the layout, it has been a quiet weekend with the wonderful weather allowing plenty of time to get the garden looking good – although I have waved the jigsaw at some plywood. The first of the boards is now cut into three sections, awaiting the cutting of side panels – then we’ll see if the jigsaw idea works… Admin note; I am now also blogging externally at http://cuckmerevalleyrailway.wordpress.com/ . Posts are likely to continue to be identical on here and Wordpress for some time, but as things progress I am likely to add additional images (and possibly off-topic thoughts) to the external blog. Anyone interested is more than welcome to follow, comment or ask questions on either.

Khris; True, hadn't thought of that! - Even better.

Sorry Job, I hadn't seen your post before I replied. Thanks for the plan, it certainly looks very interesting - I'll have a proper look when I get home.

It's an Astra - 4' sections will fit very nicely. The joins themselves will hopefully be disguised well enough not to be an issue, and there is only the one on the track, so everything else will just be scenic. I'll see how it goes - if the worst comes to the worst, I'll have lost two pieces of ply for a tenner each, and I'm sure I can recycle those.

Tonight has seen the first real tangible progress on the layout - although there isn't a lot to show for it. What I have done is to print out the XtrkCad plan in 1.1 scale, and tape it on the board. Now that I've worked out that the gap in the middle was down to the printer rather than any fault of mine, I'm pretty pleased with it - the layout flows nicely, with something that I had previously only seen on screen now taking physical shape. This though is the easy part - what comes next is something I'm a little apprehensive about. For the Baseboards, I'm planning something completely new to me. I mentioned way back at the start that I am a big fan of Iain Rice's writings, and in his 1990 book 'An Approach to Model Railway Layout Design - Finescale in Small Spaces' he introduced the concept of Jigsaw Baseboards. Iain Rice, Model Railway Layout Design Finescale in Small Spaces, Pg 20 Iain then goes on to discuss the first two - but it was the third that caught my eye - that of splitting the whole baseboard into 'chunks', which connect, jigsaw-like, to form the whole layout. Putting that in the concept of Litlington... Apologies for the ugly red lines, but it is the best way of demonstrating. The layout will be physically divided (and I mean completely divided, the individual parts will be held together with dowels (as in flat pack furniture) and over-centre catches when in use, but otherwise totally separate) into 6 sections as shown above. Looking at each one in turn, you can see that Sections 1, 3, 5 and 6 are purely scenic. Sections 2 and 4 carry the track - with the wiring run along the front of the battens (I'm planning on using the glued ply method of ply-softwood block-ply. Dowels will locate into the softwood block, with the catches on the ends of each section to join it to its neighbour). The main reason for going with this method is to try to avoid obvious joins, but also to enable the layout to be split easily for transport (Sections 2 and 4 joined together electronically by plugs and sockets) - as I'll be using DCC, there will be a main bus, with droppers to each individual piece of track. Sections 2 and 4 will be wide enough to accomodate the track, wiring and Tortoise Point Motors, but little else - so I should be able to hide the join to the scenic pieces fairly easily (expanded below) You'll also see that those big red lines run straight through two of the buildings - they will be demountable, for safety's sake (I'm going to be scratchbuilding both, so this would have been a sensible option anyway). As for the other joints, the lineside fence should take care of the one along the back, whilst the one running through the goods yard should be taken care of with the usual gunk and ash that forms the 'ballast' in this area. The only one that is a slight concern is the (unavoidable, whatever method of baseboard) join in the track in the middle (sections 2-4) - hopefully I'll be able to hide this from normal viewing angles with some careful placement of greenery - as the layout is intended to be viewed at close to eye level, hopefully it won't be too obvious in any case. Thoughts on this are more than welcome!

No comment on the price, I've no idea what these are worth, but why is a Terrier paired with what appears to be an O1 Tender?! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Westminster-Collection-Silver-Plated-Pewter-Model-of-LB-SCR-No-72-Fenchurch-/130916287517?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item1e7b38041d

Excellent news. Good luck with it Gordon!

Me too, Job! First thing will be to photocopy the relevant building plans at 200%, to make them 4mm/foot. I was planning to do that today at work, but left the book at home so it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I do have a wide selection of various Wills materials packs 'in stock', so once I have the plan, I may well be able to get started - On this latest plan, the various buildings are drawn (pretty much, and on the larger size if anything) to scale, so they can be constructed 'off site' (before I've built the baseboards!)

OK, so first things first (at risk of boring my regular readers and contributors to tears!) - another plan. Combining the best bits from previous ones - reintroducing the river which guides the eye, a bridge over said river - and keeping the shed and station building as a view block. I've also 'flipped' the layout - whilst I liked the idea of passenger trains traversing the length of the layout before pulling into the station, it would have produced an issue with operation, in that the loco would have to 'propel blind' the stock into the loop. This variant allows bunker-first operation in, before pulling the stock into the loop, running round, then coupling up to return forwards to Alfriston. On a more practical level, the 'narrowness', which benefits the jigsaw is kept too. Buildings One thing I want to do is have a definite 'LBSCR Flavour' - so instead of using kit built buildings, I plan to build four of the five structures shown in the plan above from scratch (The odd one out being the coaling stage). I may live to regret this! One of my biggest sources of inspiration for the project has been the Wild Swan book 'The Cuckoo Line' by A.C Elliott. At the back are drawings (to 2mm/foot scale) of various buildings along the line. Starting with the Station Building, I think that of Hailsham (pg 142) suits it well. A quick Google reveals this photo from John Law on Flickr; http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/5631935654/ The Engine Shed will also be that from Hailsham (Page 144)- the real thing was demolished in the 1880's, but as I've moved it to another location, I felt it only fair to give the old thing an extended lease of life! The Water Tower will be that of Heathfield ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/16913586@N03/6466195117/ from 'heffle-senior' on Flickr), but without the hoist (described as unusual on the excellent www.lbscr.org website - http://www.lbscr.org/models/IW/structures.htm#Water_Tower ) . (Page 152) Finally, the Goods Shed - this is the Goods Warehouse from Rotherfield (First picture on http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/r/rotherfield_and_mark_cross/index.shtml) .

Thanks Mikkel. I was planning on having a road cross the river (where it goes 'off scene' and vanish off-scene behind the trees, so I think you would see it - perhaps move the two bigger trees, next to the track, to the other side of the line to hopefully hide the fiddle yard exit? As for eye level viewing - it will be, to a point - I am 6' 4", so if I set it for 'my' eye level, then a lot of people would just be able to see some interesting layout legs..! - so it would have to be less than eye-level for me I think!

I think this ones going for the 'most mistakes in a single listing' trophy.... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1445-Terrier-Loco-0-6-0-Horny-Train-/181142317707?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2a2cec6a8b

Thanks Gents. Mikkel The issue with '3' (Both 3a and 3b) is that a point crosses the 4' mark, where there would have to be a baseboard join to enable the layout to be transportable. Rejigging it using a double slip and a small radius point does avoid this, however. 4 ticks nearly all the boxes, but loses the natural curve as you've mentioned. So what does '4B' on a curve look like. Best of both worlds, or an edit too far?

The Inlaws bought us some Astonish oven cleaner from Aldi. - Not sure if they sell the floor polish, but might well be worth a look. I will be looking out for some to try myself, so if I do see any, I'll let you know!

As mentioned in the last post, I'm still fiddling with the trackplan. '3' was definatley my favourite - until I considered changing the orientation of the bottom set of points; That resulted in this - 'Version 3B' Whilst fiddling with that one, however, and having a re-read of the A.C Elliott 'Cuckoo Line' book, I noticed from the plan of Hailsham that the Cattle Dock was behind the platform. I still liked the idea of the Engine Shed as a view block though, so after much moving around, I came up with something a little more radical. This one also swaps the 'direction' of the layout - giving passenger services a longer run; Version 4 This one has also been designed a little more with the 'Jigsaw' in mind - requiring just one joint, on plain track, in the 'track section' (at around the 4' mark), with the sloping downland moved from the rear to the front of the layout. As I've just noticed that I haven't captioned it on the picture, the black box at the top represents livestock pens. Or, finally, there's this... Version 4b Which gives a longer stretch of river again. And having come full circle, I suppose I should pick one, take some photos of items I plan to sell in order to fund the beginnings of the project, then move on from pure planning and think about making a start?