Ivatt46403 Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 (edited) I started building Buckden a little over two years ago, and, through house moves, time away and general lethargy I've now got it in reasonable shape. I've been documenting in on my blog, starting here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/11876-%7B?%7D/ So I don't want to repeat too much here, but as I'm now mainly doing small things and want to take and just post photos, I thought a layout topic might be appropriate. Briefly, Buckden was a small station on the Kettering & Huntingdon branch line, originally built by the Midland Railway in 1866 (as Brampton) it transferred to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway upon grouping, and survived until 1959. It was also where I grew up, and and I drove past the derelict station building every day on my way to school. Maddeningly I never actually went there before it was eventually demolished to make way for the expansion of a landfill site. I had a railway in my room as a kid, but an image of two BR Class 2 Mogul's sitting on the track that became that road that I went to school every day in the Middleton Press Branch Lines Around Huntingdon had called to me for a while. Eventually my situation meant that I had the space and opportunity to start something. Marcus. Edited March 9, 2016 by Ivatt46403 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 A couple of quick photos from today, I'll add more over the next few days to show what stage the layout is at. First is my J15 passing the goods loop: Second is a completely unprototypical formation sitting in the fiddle yard: Marcus. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Marcus, I have found your blog most interesting. By the time I moved to Huntingdon in 1962 there was precious little railway to see. If I recall correctly the trackbed under the bridge had already been commandeered for highway purposes. I remember the signal box in faded Eastern Region colours: not sure where the regional boundary was but it was academic by then. This being a small world, I wonder if you attended what was Huntingdon Grammar School, now Hinchingbrooke School, whose most famous alumnus was Oliver Cromwell? I was there from '62 to '66. It was by a quirk of fate that Grandadbob of this parish and I were not schoolfellows. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 Yes the signal box! I was just getting to that.... Buckden did indeed have the sweetest little box, I believe the smallest form a MR box could take. It is a well travelled little box, having gone to Fleggburgh before making it to where it is currently on the Spa Valley railway. I visited it a couple of years ago: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/11907-buckden-box-site-visit/ And wiggoforgold was kind enough to post some of his pictures from when it was a greenhouse on it's original site: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1362/entry-11926-buckden-station-1978/ My own little version looks like this: I was indeed at Hinchingbrooke, 1994-2001. Marcus 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 I'm always intrigued (nosy) about how railways fit into peoples homes, so here are three overview shots of the whole shebang. As you can see the scenic board sits in front of the window (which has annoyingly precluded a back scene but it had to go there really) with a four road fiddle yard at one end, and a two road at the other. The layout lives in my study/spare room, so one yard is behind my desk, the other sits behind the futon. I have a work bench in the other corner. Marcus. 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Yes the signal box! I was just getting to that.... Buckden did indeed have the sweetest little box, I believe the smallest form a MR box could take. It is a well travelled little box, having gone to Fleggburgh before making it to where it is currently on the Spa Valley railway. I visited it a couple of years ago: And wiggoforgold was kind enough to post some of his pictures from when it was a greenhouse on it's original site: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1362/entry-11926-buckden-station-1978/ My own little version looks like this: small_IMG_0789.JPG I was indeed at Hinchingbrooke, 1994-2001. Marcus And I was just across the road at Police HQ, from 1983-2001! Stewart 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 My 3F pulled a long van freight throught the station today: 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxwill Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 A blast from the past..... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 A blast from the past..... That's the one! That's taken from the bridge, as a lot of the pictures are. The annoying thing is the way it is in the room it's really hard to get into a position to take a picture of the layout from that spot. Marcus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edcayton Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Hole in the wall? Ed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Hole in the wall? Ed Should be possible with a small tripod or, if you have a very steady hand, a selfie-stick. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 46444 Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Great photos Marcus. Good to see this thread up and running. What no 46403! Cheers, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 (edited) Great photos Marcus. Good to see this thread up and running. What no 46403! Cheers, Mark Oh Yeah! Well here it (I?) is (am?) Edited September 17, 2015 by Ivatt46403 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 A blast from the past..... Concrete sleepers laid shortly before closure. Hmmmm ... Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 46444 Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Oh Yeah! Well here it (I?) is (am?) small_IMG_0800.JPG small_IMG_0801.JPG That's more like it! 15B's finest! The signal box looks great. I've a feeling Raunds was of the same design and also painted green and cream. The book below by Coleman & Rajczonek (1993) contains a number of colour photos of the line: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steam-Railways-Colour-Around-Northamptonshire/dp/0951855727 Other books in the series show black and white photos. Out of interest do you have an horsebox? Horse traffic to Newmarket was quite common. Infact in the above mentioned book there's a lovely shot of an Ivatt with an LNER horsebox like Parkside do with some LNER surburban coaches like the Hornby ones. Once the loft gets sorted out I'm going to to get cracking on building Raunds station......May be a few years to come but other than a BR 78xxx 2MT and a Midland 2F things are almost covered stock wise. Cheers, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 46444 Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Concrete sleepers laid shortly before closure. Hmmmm ... Chris Yes that must have added to the annual cost of running the line! In fairness the line was closed before the Beeching Report. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 That's more like it! 15B's finest! Yeah I should really fix that shed plate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 46444 Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Yeah I should really fix that shed plate! Fox do a set of Midland Region shedcode plates as transfers to cut out. There's a bout 3-4 15B ones if I remember correctly. http://fox-transfers.co.uk/transfers/br-shedcodes-1a-29a They do look good, Cheers, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 17, 2015 Author Share Posted September 17, 2015 That's more like it! 15B's finest! The signal box looks great. I've a feeling Raunds was of the same design and also painted green and cream. The book below by Coleman & Rajczonek (1993) contains a number of colour photos of the line: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steam-Railways-Colour-Around-Northamptonshire/dp/0951855727 Other books in the series show black and white photos. Out of interest do you have an horsebox? Horse traffic to Newmarket was quite common. Infact in the above mentioned book there's a lovely shot of an Ivatt with an LNER horsebox like Parkside do with some LNER surburban coaches like the Hornby ones. Once the loft gets sorted out I'm going to to get cracking on building Raunds station......May be a few years to come but other than a BR 78xxx 2MT and a Midland 2F things are almost covered stock wise. Cheers, Mark Raunds looks like a nice spot to model - very handsome station building and a few extra bits compared to Buckden. I'm fantasising about a bigger railway room after our next move and am thinking about Huntingdon East and Cranford. Huntingdon could fit on a curve and Cranford would give some scope to model the iron ore sidings - and have some saddletanks. I do have a horse box - this one from Bachman with TMC weathering: Marcus. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Concrete sleepers laid shortly before closure. Hmmmm ... Chris Yes, it looks very PECO. A bit of concrete sleepered track here, slip in a point, then another yard of concrete sleepers. Cracking little layout though. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 46444 Posted September 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2015 Raunds looks like a nice spot to model - very handsome station building and a few extra bits compared to Buckden. I'm fantasising about a bigger railway room after our next move and am thinking about Huntingdon East and Cranford. Huntingdon could fit on a curve and Cranford would give some scope to model the iron ore sidings - and have some saddletanks. I do have a horse box - this one from Bachman with TMC weathering: small_IMG_0812.JPG Marcus. Hi Marcus, Thankfully the station and goods shed still stand at Raunds as a private dwelling and also as a car breakers. I did gain access to the yard under permission to photograph the goods shed. Raunds is a lovely station (Thrapston Midland would be nice to model as well) but as with a majority of the stations on the line the track plan is quite elongated requiring room. At least Buckden doesn't suffer that problem. I like the sound of your future plans. Some nice ideas and Cranford was a very picturesque station (Still standing). As for Huntingdon East that's a good choice with the turntable as per Alex's Diddington. I do like those Bachmann/TMC horseboxes and need to get one along with Hornby's LMS version. Cheers, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted September 21, 2015 Author Share Posted September 21, 2015 I'm having a quandry about signals at the moment. Buckden was a Block post but not a staff station, and had few signals. with just 4 (of 8) levers in the box running distant and home signals in each direction. The distants are out of my scenic area, but the homes could be added, one just before the bridge (from the Kettering direction) and the other advanced of the points in the Huntingdon end. There would also have been, I think, point indicators for the goods loop. John Hinson very kindly found and published his numbered diagram here for me: http://www.signalbox.org/diagrams.php?id=865 I'd like to have working signals for both, as eventually I'd like to interlock everything into a lever frame. I did buy an MSE LMS (ex-MR) Upper Quadrant Wooden Post (S4/KM4) but I've not built it as I don't think my soldering skills are up to it, and I think it would be a challenge to motorise. I'm thinking therefore that a couple of Dapol motorised ones would do the trick, as although pricey they'd be straigtforward to install and wire up, and I think they look rather good from what I've seen on here (ie here on Edge Lane Junction: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88437-edge-lane-junction/?p=1738891) What do people think? Anyone got any experience with the Dapol ones? Marcus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 I went ahead and got a Dapol LMS home signal for the Huntingdon end of the station. Installation was straightforward with a sprung centre-off toggle switch mounted on my panel, and a 13 mm spade bit (a 14 mm doesn't exist, but a 13 mm and a bit of persuasion did the trick). So here is my 3F waiting at the signal to enter the station area - need to bury the huge mounting plate and grass up this area of the board - it'll all be trees in this corner once I get around to buying a copy of Gravett. And yes, it's a bit droopy so may need a bit of adjusting somehow. It's not so obvious in the flesh. So I'm happy with it! Works nicely (little noisy) and I will add a bit of weathering and a support wire as seen on Edge Lane Junction. Marcus. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivatt46403 Posted October 7, 2015 Author Share Posted October 7, 2015 So this means I have an MSE LMS/ex-MR upper quadrant wooden post signal going spare: If anyone wants it let me know. Marcus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold fishytrains Posted October 8, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 8, 2015 A fascinating layout, I will be following you with interest from now on. Mike 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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