john lewsey
Western Thunderer
It's great to see this again
Captain Kernow's layouts
- Thread starter Captain Kernow
- Start date
Ian@StEnochs
Western Thunderer
Lovely looking Barclay there. Circa 1912 design I think. Scratch built to a high standard by the looks of it. I have a copy of the GA for DICo no 17 and the wheels already sourced. Just need to get some spare time.
Ian.
Ian.
AJC
Western Thunderer
More likely the High Level kit (based on a 1913 prototype so bang on): Untitled Document
A nice job made of it, nonetheless.
Adam
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Adam is correct, it's the High Level product.
Story is that it was transferred from it's previous Scottish home by the NCB, once output from Frog Lane Colliery (near Coalpit Heath) increased.
Story is that it was transferred from it's previous Scottish home by the NCB, once output from Frog Lane Colliery (near Coalpit Heath) increased.
Ian@StEnochs
Western Thunderer
I'm most impressed, I mistook it for 7 mm scale! I did build one of these kits in P4when they first came out and was most impressed. Since moving To S7 I had been hoping that a 7 m version would be produced.
Barclays did build a number of locos to this design and some went South when new. The prototype of the kit, DICo no 17 is currently under restoration to steam. Hopefully to be finished in original Dalmellington Iron Company livery.
Ian.
Barclays did build a number of locos to this design and some went South when new. The prototype of the kit, DICo no 17 is currently under restoration to steam. Hopefully to be finished in original Dalmellington Iron Company livery.
Ian.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Two Pecketts posing together, both excellent products and both representing excellent value for money:
The 7mm Minerva one will join the Ixion Hudswell Clarke and a small number of other not-yet-acquired 7mm locos, on a new 7mm shunting plank, which I have more or less designed, but probably won't be able to start building for a while.
The 4mm Hornby Peckett will be used on one of the existing 4mm layouts, not sure yet whether to keep for one of the OO layouts, or convert to P4 as the livery, being a Peckett factory livery, matches than on my P4 'Lord Salisbury', which will be used on 'Callow Lane'.
Apart from this, work continues, albeit slowly, on some OO point work for the new goods-only shunting layout.
The 7mm Minerva one will join the Ixion Hudswell Clarke and a small number of other not-yet-acquired 7mm locos, on a new 7mm shunting plank, which I have more or less designed, but probably won't be able to start building for a while.
The 4mm Hornby Peckett will be used on one of the existing 4mm layouts, not sure yet whether to keep for one of the OO layouts, or convert to P4 as the livery, being a Peckett factory livery, matches than on my P4 'Lord Salisbury', which will be used on 'Callow Lane'.
Apart from this, work continues, albeit slowly, on some OO point work for the new goods-only shunting layout.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
I am going to enter the new goods-only shunting layout mentioned above (but still not really started) in the cameo layouts competition, but I'm not sure whether to start a new thread or post progress on here.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Hi, the scenic area is 9 feet by 18 inches, plus fiddle yards.
Work on the layout has stopped for the moment, pending some domestic room rearrangements. In the meantime I am gradually working towards getting the baseboard built for my new OO-SF shunting cameo layout 'Bethesda Sidings', which I am planning to enter in the Wild Swan cameo layout competition.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
I've now posted a thread on my new cameo layout 'Bethesda Sidings' - Bethesda Sidings
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
One of the pleasures of the 'Bethesda Sidings' cameo layout project is the fact that I can run all manner of motive power on my outrageously improbable light railway. Like the South Polden Light Railway, that links with BR at Bleakhouse Road, the Vale of Radnor Light Railway will feature both it's own resident locos, together with visiting engines, that would from time to time have been begged or borrowed from other railways, to help with a temporary motive power shortage.
'Jennifer' is one such loco, and is one of a pair of Mainline J72s that I have had for many years. Unlike her sister loco 'Charlotte', this one retains the original Mainline split chassis, which is why it doesn't work any longer.
'Charlotte' was finished in weathered 'NCB black' and was used on my first exhibition layout 'Engine Wood' to haul trains from the off-scene colliery to the BR Exchange Siding on the layout. There was an acute shortage of suitable motive power at the time, so the idea of using an ex-LNER J72 in a North Somerset colliery didn't seem too strange. After a couple of years or so, the old Mainline chassis on 'Charlotte' gave out, so I built a Perseverence chassis instead, and she runs very sweetly now.
I did obtain a built-up Perseverence chassis to go under 'Jennifer', but it didn't work properly, so one of my next projects is to partially dismantle the chassis and rebuild it. I plan for 'Jennifer' to be a resident loco on the VoRLR.
The story goes that 'Jennifer' remained on the VoRLR until it closed, although hadn't been steamed regularly during the final years of operation. After the light railway closed and it's stock dispersed or scrapped, 'Jennifer' was rescued for preservation by the Herefordshire Railway Society and was moved in the early 1980s to their embryonic base at Lower Vowchurch, on the old Longtown branch. After the eventual failure of that scheme in the late 1990s, the locos and stock were dispersed across the country, and 'Jennifer' was purchased by Mid-Wales Railway Preservation Society, who had designs on reopening a short section of the VoRLR as a heritage railway. In the meantime, 'Jennifer' was stored at their temporary base on an industrial estate outside of Newtown.
In the above photo, 'Jennifer' is posed on a point that I was testing a couple of months ago for 'Bethesda Sidings'.
'Jennifer' is one such loco, and is one of a pair of Mainline J72s that I have had for many years. Unlike her sister loco 'Charlotte', this one retains the original Mainline split chassis, which is why it doesn't work any longer.
'Charlotte' was finished in weathered 'NCB black' and was used on my first exhibition layout 'Engine Wood' to haul trains from the off-scene colliery to the BR Exchange Siding on the layout. There was an acute shortage of suitable motive power at the time, so the idea of using an ex-LNER J72 in a North Somerset colliery didn't seem too strange. After a couple of years or so, the old Mainline chassis on 'Charlotte' gave out, so I built a Perseverence chassis instead, and she runs very sweetly now.
I did obtain a built-up Perseverence chassis to go under 'Jennifer', but it didn't work properly, so one of my next projects is to partially dismantle the chassis and rebuild it. I plan for 'Jennifer' to be a resident loco on the VoRLR.
The story goes that 'Jennifer' remained on the VoRLR until it closed, although hadn't been steamed regularly during the final years of operation. After the light railway closed and it's stock dispersed or scrapped, 'Jennifer' was rescued for preservation by the Herefordshire Railway Society and was moved in the early 1980s to their embryonic base at Lower Vowchurch, on the old Longtown branch. After the eventual failure of that scheme in the late 1990s, the locos and stock were dispersed across the country, and 'Jennifer' was purchased by Mid-Wales Railway Preservation Society, who had designs on reopening a short section of the VoRLR as a heritage railway. In the meantime, 'Jennifer' was stored at their temporary base on an industrial estate outside of Newtown.
In the above photo, 'Jennifer' is posed on a point that I was testing a couple of months ago for 'Bethesda Sidings'.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Progress of the layout or any of its component parts has been hampered by my fracturing a finger and bruising lots of other bits just over four weeks ago, and whilst the fracture itself is apparently knitting back together, the finger is still swollen and difficult to use, but I do want to get on with things as soon as possible.
Anyway, I did manage to produce a track plan, of sorts, on the laptop last night, whilst at DRAG. Forgive the crudeness of it, I could have done a hand-drawn plan, but I can't scan anything in at home at the moment, so I had to resort to using 'Paint' instead.
Some of the criteria behind this project, which was conceived some time before the Cameo Layout competition was announced, were:
- a desire to have a small layout that I could put up easily at home, even just for a couple of hours, and put away again quickly
- a desire to have something small and easy to use, that I could run my existing OO locos and stock on (ie. those which would normally be used on 'Engine Wood' and 'Bleakhouse Road')
- the wish to be able to justify more Western locos that wouldn't otherwise appear on the S&D, such as a 'Dukedog', an Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0, some of the smaller panniers and, of course, a 14XX or two
- the wish to be able to display the lovely structures scratchbuilt by Paul Iliff a few years ago for a different GWR project, and which I bought from him when he decided to sell a load of 4mm stuff a while back, when changing up to 7mm scale (I understand that he's since returned to 4mm). These buildings include a goods shed, weighbridge hut and stone road-over-rail bridge, with a single arch.
I already have a preference for shunting goods wagons, so making the layout 'goods only' wasn't a difficult decision. It would be fairly easy to fit a stone goods shed and weighbridge hut in the setting of an ex-GWR country goods yard. The stone overbridge will act as the scenic break. What I didn't really want to do, however, was to feature the 'main line', which this goods yard is connected to, as that could imply a need to show movements and possibly a fiddle yard at the other end as well.
Given the geographical setting of Bethesda Sidings and it's supposed historical context, I could have made the connection westwards to Gunstone Junction and Rhayader completely disused, or even used the former running line as a siding, but I decided to keep the connection with the Central Wales line 'in situ', to enable me to justify the occasional Midland loco visiting Bethesda Sidings.
As such, I decided to locate the goods yard on a short spur off the 'main line', which just happened to be crossed by a local road on a stone overbridge.
I decided in the end to feature a short run-round loop on the layout. One might expect such a feature to be a bit longer, implying perhaps two tracks going out into the fiddle yard under the scenic break, but that would have precluded using Paul's lovely stone bridge, and I did like the idea of keeping most of the shunting action to the scenic area on display. The single line under the bridge can, of course, be used as a 'shunting spur' if necessary.
I will say that I was very positively influenced by the track plan on 'Sheep Lane', having met the layout and it's owner Rob (nhy581 on RMWeb) at the Cardiff show in January this year. Rob's small run round works very well in the context of his overall scene, and as Bethesda Sidings is slightly longer (but not by much, at 4' or 4' 6" - yet to make my mind up but probably 4' 6"), I think it will be OK.
Anyway, I did manage to produce a track plan, of sorts, on the laptop last night, whilst at DRAG. Forgive the crudeness of it, I could have done a hand-drawn plan, but I can't scan anything in at home at the moment, so I had to resort to using 'Paint' instead.
Some of the criteria behind this project, which was conceived some time before the Cameo Layout competition was announced, were:
- a desire to have a small layout that I could put up easily at home, even just for a couple of hours, and put away again quickly
- a desire to have something small and easy to use, that I could run my existing OO locos and stock on (ie. those which would normally be used on 'Engine Wood' and 'Bleakhouse Road')
- the wish to be able to justify more Western locos that wouldn't otherwise appear on the S&D, such as a 'Dukedog', an Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0, some of the smaller panniers and, of course, a 14XX or two
- the wish to be able to display the lovely structures scratchbuilt by Paul Iliff a few years ago for a different GWR project, and which I bought from him when he decided to sell a load of 4mm stuff a while back, when changing up to 7mm scale (I understand that he's since returned to 4mm). These buildings include a goods shed, weighbridge hut and stone road-over-rail bridge, with a single arch.
I already have a preference for shunting goods wagons, so making the layout 'goods only' wasn't a difficult decision. It would be fairly easy to fit a stone goods shed and weighbridge hut in the setting of an ex-GWR country goods yard. The stone overbridge will act as the scenic break. What I didn't really want to do, however, was to feature the 'main line', which this goods yard is connected to, as that could imply a need to show movements and possibly a fiddle yard at the other end as well.
Given the geographical setting of Bethesda Sidings and it's supposed historical context, I could have made the connection westwards to Gunstone Junction and Rhayader completely disused, or even used the former running line as a siding, but I decided to keep the connection with the Central Wales line 'in situ', to enable me to justify the occasional Midland loco visiting Bethesda Sidings.
As such, I decided to locate the goods yard on a short spur off the 'main line', which just happened to be crossed by a local road on a stone overbridge.
I decided in the end to feature a short run-round loop on the layout. One might expect such a feature to be a bit longer, implying perhaps two tracks going out into the fiddle yard under the scenic break, but that would have precluded using Paul's lovely stone bridge, and I did like the idea of keeping most of the shunting action to the scenic area on display. The single line under the bridge can, of course, be used as a 'shunting spur' if necessary.
I will say that I was very positively influenced by the track plan on 'Sheep Lane', having met the layout and it's owner Rob (nhy581 on RMWeb) at the Cardiff show in January this year. Rob's small run round works very well in the context of his overall scene, and as Bethesda Sidings is slightly longer (but not by much, at 4' or 4' 6" - yet to make my mind up but probably 4' 6"), I think it will be OK.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
So far, I have built the crossover at the end of the goods yard and the point for the short spur near the road over bridge. These are all 'A5' configuration. I also have the tandem turnout completed now, this was built 'speculatively' for me by my good friend John Farmer a few years ago, and was intended for a rebuilt of 'Engine Wood' that never happened. I have done a little fettling now and added cosmetic chairs:
This leaves one turnout to be constructed.
This leaves one turnout to be constructed.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
This was a mock-up done a few months ago on a bit of wallpaper. This one is 4' long and I am now probably going to make the layout 4' 6" in length:
The 'deliberate mistake' in this view is the lack of tandem turnout, as I hadn't 'rediscovered' it at that time!
The 'deliberate mistake' in this view is the lack of tandem turnout, as I hadn't 'rediscovered' it at that time!
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Here are a some photos of the goods shed, weighbridge office and road overbridge, which were scratchbuilt in card by Paul Iliff some 10 years or so ago, and purchased by me when Paul decided not to proceed with that particular project. I consider myself very fortunate and privileged to have had the opportunity to acquire these lovely structures:
There are some more photos of the goods shed in my thread in the Cameo Layouts competition section.
The road overbridge is at a bit of a skewed angle. It may be just a bit too much of a skew for the space I have available, so I've been considering carefully dismantling the bridge and re-configuring it at less of an angle to the track. Having said that, I am loathe to do this and will try to fit it in 'as is':
There are some more photos of the goods shed in my thread in the Cameo Layouts competition section.
The road overbridge is at a bit of a skewed angle. It may be just a bit too much of a skew for the space I have available, so I've been considering carefully dismantling the bridge and re-configuring it at less of an angle to the track. Having said that, I am loathe to do this and will try to fit it in 'as is':
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
Work continues on my first new loco for 3 years - a Roxey 'Planet' 0-4-0, which has a bespoke High Level 'special' gearbox. Lots of gear wheels and a ratio of at least 80:1, possibly 108:1:
This loco will be the 'modern image' motive power for the Vale of Radnor Light Railway, with running powers into Bethesda Sidings.
This loco will be the 'modern image' motive power for the Vale of Radnor Light Railway, with running powers into Bethesda Sidings.
Captain Kernow
Western Thunderer
The 'Planet' is just about finished now, with a little dry-brush weathering having been done today:
