4mm Lynn Quay

[Heacham]

At last have got something to post. While my ultimate aim was to build a model of Heacham Station in 3mm I have decided to build a small 4mm layout using South Quay at Kings Lynn as inspiration. this was originally going to also be a 3mm project but I was seduced by a Model Rail J70 Tram engine at a very reasonable price. Doing it in 4mm 00 may mean it has a chance of getting finished which none of my 3mm or 7mm have managed in the last 40 or so years.

So far I have be doing a lot of research using the Kings Lynn Planning portal which fortunately has several architects drawings of buildings around the harbour area. As many are listed when any work has to be done on these buildings it needs planning consent. The other resource is the many pictures on the internet. The layout will be based in the late 50s early 60s as that is the era that my dad took many pictures around the harbour when we holidayed in Norfolk.

I started by printing out some building drawings and juggling which ones would fit then glued them to card to make a flat backscene then putting some models in front to see how it looks. The next step was making some mock ups of the buildings and constructing the baseboard to try out the buildings with track and models.

I will try to update as I go but it may be a bit intermittent so here are some pictures of the progress and a few that my dad took back in the early 60s that's me in the blue jumper watching the potash being unloaded on boal quay. If anyone knows of any pictures of Byfords Grain silos at the Purfleet end of South Quay looking from the South Quay direction I would be very grateful as I have yet to find one.

Simon L

 

[Flaxfield]

Yum. More Great Eastern malarkey.

In light of this, perhaps we need to consider renaming Western Thunder..........just saying.....

Rob

 

[James Spooner]

Simon,

Some lovely stuff there and I look forward to seeing it develop and progress (And as Rob says, a bit more East Anglian stuff!). Before Dave @daifly comments, we do like to see the full photos, rather than just thumbnails. Easy to do, when you are uploading just press the full button on the photo.

Nigel

 

[Heacham]

Simon,

Some lovely stuff there and I look forward to seeing it develop and progress (And as Rob says, a bit more East Anglian stuff!). Before Dave @daifly comments, we do like to see the full photos, rather than just thumbnails. Easy to do, when you are uploading just press the full button on the photo.

Nigel

Thanks Nigel for the advice I'm still new to posting. Do they come up as full pics if you click on them.

Simon

 

[Suffolk Dave]

In light of this, perhaps we need to consider renaming Western Thunder..........just saying.....

Eastern Promise?

 

[daifly]

Thanks James for the advice I'm still new to posting. Do they come up as full pics if you click on them.

Yes they do but it's an unnecessary PITA. If you edit your original post, you will see that there's an option to post 'Full' on each thumbnail. Put the cursor where you want the photo to go then click 'full'. Reposition cursor, then click 'Full' on the next photo and repeat.

Cheers (and thanks!)

Dave

 

[Suffolk Dave]

Perhaps not surprisingly, I too lean to the East so, I'll be following Simon's work with interest.

 

[John57sharp]

Perhaps not surprisingly, I too lean to the East so, I'll be following Simon's work with interest.

I find myself constantly blown this way and that, even overseas at times. In fact I’m currently leaning seaward with sailing barges and 3 masted (ancestral) vessels taking interest…. Don’t expect anything meaningful model wise before the end of the decade, though I DO have a rather nice rowing boat in 3DP. (I’m very cautious about using any marine terminology on here, I don’t know a sloop from a schooner so I’m sticking to generic phrases… )

I’m looking forward to following your work though.
Cheers

 

[jonte]

I find myself constantly blown this way and that, even overseas at times. In fact I’m currently leaning seaward with sailing barges and 3 masted (ancestral) vessels taking interest…. Don’t expect anything meaningful model wise before the end of the decade, though I DO have a rather nice rowing boat in 3DP. (I’m very cautious about using any marine terminology on here, I don’t know a sloop from a schooner so I’m sticking to generic phrases… )

I’m looking forward to following your work though.
Cheers

I wouldn’t worry, John; most of us who ventured out there in a blow never did. We were just happy in the knowledge that we knew our limits and those of our ‘vessel’, whichever type it was we were enjoying at the time.

In my experience, it was merely the pretentious lot that hung round the clubhouse bar and waxed lyrical about it all that harped on about the different types. They never seemed to venture further than the boat club car park.

Funny too, that no two boats of the same type and manufacture handled the same. In a particular case I can recall, there was one we wished we’d never parted with; the other we couldn’t wait to sell on.

The only guy I knew who did know the different types of sailing boat, was my brother in law who has been scratchbuilding everything from a Viking long boat to The Victory (from plans in books) since I can remember.

Jon

 

[Willl]

Looking forward to this. I have previously considered making a layout around a few of the warehouses you've got here. Good thinking using planning drawings - I would probably just have eyeballed it, such is my chaotic approach!

Will

 

[Heacham]

After realising there was no chance of making the track plan work with Peco BH I bought some code 75 from my local model shop (KS Models Stevenage) but I then made the mistake of buying medium radius points so it was back to the shop the next week and they kindly agreed to change them for small radius ones. I have now found time to lay out the track, points and the mock up buildings on the baseboard. I'm still having trouble finding photographs of the grain silos and loading facilities at each end of South Quay.

 

[Flaxfield]

After realising there was no chance of making the track plan work with Peco BH I bought some code 75 from my local model shop (KS Models Stevenage) but I then made the mistake of buying medium radius points so it was back to the shop the next week and they kindly agreed to change them for small radius ones. I have now found time to layoutv the track and posee the mock up building on the baseboard. I'm still heving trouble finding photographs of the gain silos and loading facilities at each end.

Just out of interest, why wouldn't this track plan work with the Peco BH points ?

Rob

 

[Heacham]

Rob

The problem I had was there wasn't quite enough room to fit in a loop and decent run round the board is only 4ft long. I also decided that it was a bit of waste to bury the nice bullhead track under the quayside surface.


Simon

 

[Flaxfield]

Rob

The problem I had was there wasn't quite enough room to fit in a loop and decent run round the board is only 4ft long. I also decided that it was a bit of waste to bury the nice bullhead track under the quayside surface.


Simon

That's interesting, Simon.

Understand regarding burying the bullhead but surprised by the lack of space.

All my layouts are max 4ft long, in fact my latest is 43 inches and all incorporate a loop..

Did you try the small radius BH points ? I have just picked up some to experiment with.

Rob

 

[Flaxfield]

Further to my last, just to confirm what I thought was the case, that the small radius Bullhead points are the same length and radius as the Code 75 streamline equivalents.

That said, I do appreciate that this is pretty much irrelevant once the trackwork is inlaid.

Rob

 

[Heacham]

Rob

Once I thought about the sleepers and chairs being buried I decided to keep the Bullhead track for a later project that would show them off more. I had thought the mediums would be OK but when laid out there was only about 6 inches between the points which would still be fine for a run round but it didn't look right against the buildings so that's when I decided to go for small radius.

Simon

 

[Heacham]

I've been distracted of late from the layout then I did my back in which has taken longer than i thought to heal. However time was not wasted I've been looking for stock for the layout. at first I was looking for some old 3H coke wagons to modify but then a triple pack of Hornby ones came up on special offer of about £50 which was too good to pass up. So now I have to pluck up courage to take a saw to three of these lovely things.

 

[Heacham]

I managed to get some time over christmas to do a bit more towards the layout. I've cut down 2 of the coke hoppers to match the photos and removed the Stanton lettering. A bit more tiding required and I also managed to knock off one of the buffers which is somewhere on the workshop floor. Now I need to practice on creating a weathered rusty look to match the photos before I start painting them.

I have also been trying to work out the ends of the layout and get the view blockers right but a lack of photos of the Grain silos at the Purfleet end of the Quay is hampering me a bit. I have found a couple at the other end which i have started to mock up with cereal packets to get the size right..

Simon.

 

[Heacham]

The weather has been better today so I took the opportunity to move the layout from the shed to my garage and get a bit more of the baseboard built. I now need to find some suitable mouldings or prints for the piling for the Quay wall and do some experiments on doing the water. I also need to work out how I am going to model the grain silos at the far end.

Simon/

 

[MarkR]

Hi Simon,
It looks like this is going to be a very interesting project.
Could you tell me, please, the length, width and height of the layout, thank you.
Mark