Hawkins Tower

HAWKINS TOWER - 2009

(Layout 16)

Hawkins Tower started off as another donated baseboard kindly given to me by a group member.  He had built the board as a starter layout in 009, it was superbly made from 6mm mdf, and painted.  The track was laid, but no scenery appeared.  I suggested it would be a good scenic project for my wife.  She wanted a lake in the centre of the continuous run, so I cut out an area, it was painted, then filled with polyester resin and varnished to form the water surface.  

Bagnall 0-4-0 "Leader" running around the lake.  

The boat house is on the left and the folly "Hawkins Tower" is on the right.

We then decided between us what the theme would be, and it became part of an old Victorian Park where the old railway would be run by volunteers who had restored the line running trains at weekends.  I built three little buildings, then handed the layout over to my wife to do what she wanted with the scenery.

"Leader" is seen running round the left hand end.  

The Currant Bun tea stall is getting good business. 

The track plan was a simple continuous run with just one siding near the tea stall.  Once the scenery was completed we automated the trains by using a Trax Controls "Station Stop" module which was originally on "Ty-Morau".  At exhibitions, we just set-up the train to ensure it stopped at the platform then let is run on it's own all day.  After a few hours we usually cleaned the track and changed the loco to ensure the train worked fine.  By switching the unit off and to a normal controller, we could control trains manually if required.

 "Leader" stops at the Hawkins Tower platform.  

Visitors can climb the tower to see the view from the top.

"Leader" is stopping to pick up passengers.

The ruined tower was made from Wills Dressed Stone sheets.

Egger Bahn tram engine and converted  "Western" coach

 in the siding.  The tea stall was made from a Wills Ground Level Signal Box kit, it is fitted out with water boiler, sink, pans, cups and a selection of cakes.

"Leader" passes the tea stall. 

At the left hand edge, "Llew" runs behind the boat house and tea stall.

The layout now belongs to a group member who lives locally.

  

Fotherham

FOTHERHAM - 2009

Layout 15

The inspiration for this little layout came from Carl Arendt's book "Creating Micro Layouts", and on page 45 is a "Starter Layout for UK and U.S. Modellers".  I already had a baseboard for it given to me by dear old Ray Fothergill, he had intended to build an "N" scale layout on it, but had never got around to it.  I said I would one day build a 009 layout on it, and I have again named it after him.

The board was 51" x 7.5" (about 1.3m x .20m), very sturdily made from Sundeala and 2 x 1 timber but had no back scene, so I added this myself.  It featured a small integral fiddle yard, goods siding, passenger station and a kick-back siding to a coal yard of which this part of the layout was in front of the fiddle yard recess and was only about 4" wide.

(Click on images to enlarge)

No. 4 in the coal yard.

This was a tiny portable coal chute I made for the coal yard which can be seen on the left of the photo above.

"Llew" is nearly ready to leave from the passenger platform with two Egger Bahn coaches.  We have again used calendar pictures for the village back scene.

Leaving the fiddle yard, Sharp Stewart "Linette" and tramway coach - a very heavily modified European Klein Modellbahn 4-wheeled HO scale coach.

The fiddle yard for Fotherham, an ideal arrangement in a small space.

"Llew" leaves the goods siding with an old Parkside-Dundas van.

The station from the front.  The station building and goods shed were from an old Heljan kit.

No.4 and coal wagon being shunted to the coal siding.  This part of the layout is in front of the fiddle yard, and the section of old viaduct gave the layout a convenient  scenic break.

Right down the left hand end of the layout is the coal yard scene modelled in a depth of about 4", the other 3" is the fiddle yard behind the back scene. 

We exhibited this layout seven times, usually along with "Hawkins Tower" (which will be the next layout I describe)  after which I decided I didn't enjoy running it any more!  

It was later re-incarnated into another layout called "Ellerbank" in 2015.

The Whitsend Tramway

THE WHITSEND TRAMWAY - 2006 

(14th layout)

"Liassic" at "Two Bridges".

After a couple of visits to the North York Moors coast, Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay and Runswick Bay area, I had become attracted to the lovely village structures, and watching "Heartbeat" on TV every week made me even more interested in the area and it's atmosphere.  So, when considering a new layout to replace "Carne", it was this region I wanted try to model.

The standard gauge along this part of the coast ran at a high level around and along cliff tops, but I just wanted to try to model and run a fictitious tramway around a village, trying to capture the 1960's atmosphere, colours and buildings (but altogether in reality it would be a very unlikely scene).

I knew the general scheme I wanted, but my plans shifted as I built the layout, and I found out how difficult it is to get enough space to model a proper "roadside tramway" on small boards.  There were three of them 1m x 575mm (39.5" x 22.5") making the layout just under 10ft long.  In the end, the "road" became a small lane through the village, and the tramway ran on a right of way all of it's own.

(Click on images to enlarge)

The Royal Hotel, and grocers shop in the village.  The Royal Hotel is from Runswick Bay and the shop building from Robin Hood's Bay.

The boards were arranged end to end, and the track plan had a continuous run with a hidden fiddle yard underneath a small cliff at the back of the centre board.   So, most of the elongated "oval" was visible to onlookers with the trains running in front of, and behind the village buildings and into the fiddle yard.  The layout featured a small station with passing loop, quayside siding, engine shed and small carriage shed, and a halt.  There were 32 buildings including a farm, various cottages, the Hotel, a shop, chapel, tea shop, harbour masters office, a garage, fish sheds and a life boatman's institute.  Some of the buildings were models of actual structures (from my own photographs of frontages only though) or generic vernacular buildings from modified kits.  Methods of construction varied from scratch built items to simply re-painted Skaledale buildings.

VIDEO

With the rock surface and ground colour, I tried to replicate the areas "tones" from photographs, and I used some Heki Rock Foil embossed rock face material and cork bark as a basis, dry-brushed with appropriate greys and browns..  Walls were re-painted Peco Model Scene Stone Walls and Buttresses.  Trees were made from Woodland Scenics Tree Armatures painted and with added Foliage material.

 The whole layout just before an exhibition opened.

Plan

Turnout control was by simple wire-in-tube.  This layout, and "Carne" before, used a Trax Controls "Chuffer Module" for steam sound.  The module and speaker were mounted in an old PC speaker unit and a separate pot was linked to the "synchronisation" adjustment so I could control the chuff speed to different locos.

The chapel was made using Wills materials.  The actual Chapel in Runswick Bay, it is said, was built by the fishermen's wives while their husbands were out to sea.

The station building started life as a Wills Corrugated Iron chapel and the tea shop next door was a Taxi Men's Hut.

"Liassic" and tramway coaches run past the quayside.

Thorndale Halt was situated behind the engine shed and coach shed, quite hidden at the right hand end.  Trains stopped here during exhibitions and onlookers often asked why the train had stopped!

The railway sheds, near the quay side.

The Harbour master's office and fish sheds at the quayside.

"Luther" and passenger train pass the inner harbour.  The two right-hand fishing boats were moulded resin ornaments from the Norfolk sea side, £2.99 each.

Tram loco "Lottie" and goods train at "Two Bridges".

"Linette" passing below the village.

"Lynton" crossing the road at Grinkle Farm.

The flags are out for the visit of Lorg Craig, here standing outside the Royal Hotel with the tramway's boss Sir Richard.

The Craig & Mertonford Railway's "Colin" and all three modified O.E.G coaches on their visit to Whitsend.

An article appeared for the Whitsend Tramway in the January 2008 Railway Modeller and in "009 News" June 2007.

Whitsend was exhibited 44 times and was sold in 2016.

Photospot 4 - The NSNGM Challenge entries.

PHOTOSPOT 4

Our current local group, the "Norfolk & Suffolk Narrow Gauge Modellers" has so far held 3 Open Day Exhibitions in Beccles in early March each year with a 4th to be held in a few weeks time (as of today's date).  At each of these we have presented a Group Challenge competing for the annual "Cup".

In 2015 the challenge was the 2 Square Foot Challenge, to build an operating scenic layout in 288 square inches in any shape the group member designed.  In 2016 we had the "Railcar Challenge", and in 2017 it was to build a Railway-served Building with the interior modelled and visible.

Here were my entries:

2015:  Raven Gill

"Raven Gill" is really just a larger version of my 2001 layout "Grunblewick Coombe", but perhaps a little better modelled.

Virtually the whole layout can be seen here.  I was able to squeeze-in an extra siding in the station somehow.  Quarry Hunslet "Lloyd" is heading for the fiddle-yard traverser behind the pub and folly tower.

"The Raven" pub with the folly behind.  On top of the tower the local eccentric is feeding the ravens before his evening "pint", just down the steps.

The small station at Raven Gill.

I will add more pictures and information about this layout in a later post.

2016: The Railcar

A fictitious Ford rail bus made using a die-cast engine compartment and radiator, and a continental horse tram body.  I scratch built the cab and steps etc.

The rail bus ran on a Kato 4w chassis.

Rear quarter view.

2017: The Dead Shed

For my "Railway Building with Modelled Interior" I think I "lost it!".  

This is "The Dead Shed".  Many years ago an old narrow gauge railway closed down, leaving some of the stock in the running shed to rust and decay, along with the shed itself.  The local "un-dead" from the nearby graveyard visit the railway shed most nights and mess around on the trains.  Here it is, pictured complete with the cobwebs added a couple of days before the exhibition to try and keep them intact.

Pictured before the very delicate cobwebs were added, zombie type beings play around causing havoc spilling oil and breaking levers.  The pit and night sky are lit by L.E.D's, and a lightning flash module lights up the sky for a split second. 

The un-dead appear from the pit.

Outside, nature reclaims an old carriage, and around there are a fox, a hare, an owl, cats and crows. 

Norfolk Group Modules - "Mk.2"

NORFOLK GROUP MODULES MK.2 - 1999 - 2004

In 1999 I noticed our Norfolk Group meetings were getting a little dull.  We had a stable group membership for several years now, with very few new people coming along.  I needed to try to get a little more enthusiasm, so I proposed a new modular layout.  I suggested smaller modules, 3ft x 1ft in size - easier to move, easier to store.  The drawings I took along proposed a control/fiddle yard module to be used in any position, and separate scenic modules with all-round back scenes to depict individual dioramas like our first project.

Opinions about the project were guarded at first, but then all of a sudden the idea took hold, enthusiasm was high, wood was cut and a start was made.

The track joins were 3" from the front, and basically the modules were built with a frame and track bed of 9mm ply wood and were 75mm deep, supported on trestles.  We used 6-pin din plugs and jump leads to transfer power along the layout to neighbouring modules.  Some of the modules were "terminus" station units, some run-through units and some could be used as either.

There was a problem in that a couple of our senior members could no longer model very well, and at first, I, or I should say "we" were asked to tackle one of the boards which was to become "Castleby", My wife and I built "Kirk Tor" my own unit, then dear Ray Fothergill, one of our founding members had a type of dementia and also suffered a fall and I later built "Fotherbrook" in his honour from his set of wooden parts.  He was able to see the layouts all together before he was admitted to a nursing home.

In 2001 and 2002 we had new members to the group who also made their own modules, so the project then grew.

CASTLEBY

(11th layout)

George's module was to become a terminus station, but one of the tracks proceeded through the end scene so it could have been used as a through station.  George provided some Townstreet cast low relief buildings to use on his layout and we designed the track plan and scenic features together.

It featured some castle walls in low relief made from Linka moulds, a goods shed and siding, station building with canopy, a small engine shed and a village street.

When George moved away he donated the layout to the group and I stored it, and looked after it.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Varikit/Farish "Leviathan" hauling a Joe Works and Egger coach below the castle walls.

"Leader" and four-wheeler's at the station  platform.

"Leo" running round.  The engine shed could be removed so the module could become a through station if desired.

Sharp Stewart tram loco "Luther" about to collect water.  The coach is an Egger OEG bogie coach with modified, tramway style, ends.

The station building frontage was inspired by the Wantage Tramway building in Mill Street, Wantage.

KIRK TOR

(12th layout)

Originally, this run-through module was called "Cruk Bridge" and featured a Cornish antiquity, a burial mound chamber and a ruined cottage.  Photos below:-

But it looked a little dull, so we re-modelled the left side of it using a small modified Lyddle End (2mm scale) Church with a grave yard, and added footpaths, signs and stiles.  I used the Wills Victorian Bridge to span a river (made using car repair polyester resin).  There were now footpaths, signs and stiles.

 Walkers chat on the footpath near to the church.

"Leo" crosses the bridge with a goods train.

"Luther" and passenger train pass the church.

Bagnall 0-4-0 "Leader" crosses the river.

FOTHERBROOK

(13th layout)

When we lost Ray Fothergill from the Group I was donated the parts for his module, so "Fotherbrook" was born.  It was a run-through unit with a halt by the tiny hamlet of that name.  It featured a goods siding, two cottages, a chapel, and a wooded area behind a small bridge over the brook.

Railcar "Loyalty" at the halt.

"Leo" at the goods siding.  The buildings were all constructed using Wills materials sheets.  My wife added trees to the back scene, and flowers/bushes to the gardens.

"Ludo" with passenger train at the halt.

A visiting train runs through Fotherbrook while at an exhibition.

Bagnall "Ludo" runs over the small bridge hear the woods.  Trees were made by my wife with florists wire covered with florists tape and Woodland Scenics foliage.

 General:

More modules were made by other members and exhibiting carried-on after I left the Norfolk Group about 2005.  I donated the modules I had made, and instead of a fiddle yard module, a new "Works" module was built jointly by the Group with an engine shed, electrically powered turntable and carriage shed.  The modular project was known by the name "Castleby" for exhibition purposes.

Here are four (out of five) of the modules at an exhibition.  Left to right: "Castleby Mills", "Fotherbrook", "The Works", "Kirk Tor" and out of sight to the right "Castleby".

An article appeared about the modules in "009 News" March 2006.