4mm Polthorpe & Pallingham

Simon

Simon

Flying Squad
Jon Gwinnett said:
Thanks to Amazon I have acquired the recent Middleton Press book Branch Lines Around Wroxham. (Apologies to Simon as instantaneous gratification got in the way of finding out if it was in stock in Da Shop.)

Now Osgood mentioned the North Walsham tanks. It turns out that these started much earlier than I thought, and that whilst the North Walsham complex was being built, were loaded at a wayside siding in Coltishall, no less. If that doesn't sound like an open invitation to bend reality and load them at a previously disused siding at Pallingham I don't know what does.

So traffic now sounds like Grain outwards and fertiliser inwards at Polthorpe, with possibly the odd wagon of coal, and gas by-products outwards from Pallingham, whilst Happing receives odd wagons of coal and maybe stone? I'll keep my mitts off the sand dunes, so my solitary sand wagon will have to be repurposed into the departmental fleet. Have also spotted an early plate wagon in the background of a shot of North Walsham, so that might inspire a bit of Happing inwards traffic.
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No worries on the book - you need inspiration right now to get this off the ground:thumbs:

I only hope you are a lot quicker at building layouts than I am:))

Simon
 
Jon Gwinnett

Jon Gwinnett

Western Thunderer
Simon said:
No worries on the book - you need inspiration right now to get this off the ground:thumbs:

I only hope you are a lot quicker at building layouts than I am:))

Simon
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Thanks Simon, and I doubt it! But I feel I've made progress the last couple of days, and the input here has helped enormously.
 
Pennine MC

Pennine MC

Western Thunderer
Jon Gwinnett said:
Hendry's BR Goods Wagons in Colour (think that's the title?) shows 12t vans with the remains of old animal feed labels and 16t minerals at Fakenham in 1971. Close enough in date and time to justify my plans? If not, then perhaps the diesels remain blue but the numbers become pre-TOPS.

PS the 31 was photographed in 1969, so I think turn of the decade at least is feasible, even if 1974 is pushing it.
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Interesting project and rationale, Jon. Unless you particularly want to be 'all-blue', I'd suggest 1970-71 would give you the best combinations of options. Traffic wise, it's probably early enough to justify a bit of beet (although I tend to think sheeting would be the norm by then), and your 12T vans dont all have to be BR standards. Livery-wise, blue with pre-TOPS numbers is an overlooked interlude - a good few 31s would still be green, many with arrows and assymetric (blue-style) number transfers, and many locos would have lost the 'D' prefix. Green DMUs would be getting rarer by then though, you'd probably have to go back to '68/69 for any appreciable amount.
 
Jon Gwinnett

Jon Gwinnett

Western Thunderer
Thanks Ian,

I think all blue may have been a bit of a self-imposed dead end and I'm giving it some serious thought. Going earlier certainly looks better for stock reasons. It was probably a knee jerk reaction as my own memories, having been born in Nov 69, are pretty exclusively blue.

The original target date of 1974 (August if we're being specific) was tied in to one of the books that inspired the project, its the earliest fixed date that appears, however obliquely.

Certainly green 31s with full yellow ends are looking increasingly attractive. Also, slipping back towards 1970 makes a class 15 a possibility.
 
Alan

Alan

Western Thunderer
Pleased to see you are keeping your mitts off the sand dunes as the North Sea is doing that very well without your help.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
On a cycle trip to Polthorpe station in my distant youth I'm sure I remember a brick based water tank identical to that at Aylsham.........Smiley Whistle.gif

BTW as a youngster I cycled to Aylsham and spent an age measuring drawing and photographing that tank. All these years later I have lost all trace of my efforts, so if anyone out there can help, I (and maybe John?) would be most grateful :)
 
Jon Gwinnett

Jon Gwinnett

Western Thunderer
Yes, all those who took the time to measure Polthorpe, Aylsham, and others, thank you all those years ago, and thank you to anyone who can share now.

(Wooden station buildings would be an excellent start ;)
 
iploffy

iploffy

OC Blue Brigade
We are watching taking notes.:) Very interested in the time period you seem to prefer, this is also my chosen period all BLUE with TOPS numbers or Green with large yellow warning panels and TOPS numbers.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Gleaned from Dr.Ian Allen's book Diesels in East Anglia:

* A siding was installed 1965(?) at Coltishall for Pointer's sand traffic between Ipswich and Colishall, following exhaustion of the sand pits at Ditchingham. Presumably the sand was being dug locally?​
​
* This siding was subsequently used for North Sea oil trains before the new depot at N.Walsham was ready.​
 
AJC

AJC

Western Thunderer
Osgood said:
Gleaned from Dr.Ian Allen's book Diesels in East Anglia:

* A siding was installed 1965(?) at Coltishall for Pointer's sand traffic between Ipswich and Colishall, following exhaustion of the sand pits at Ditchingham. Presumably the sand was being dug locally?​
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There's certainly a large sandpit on Buxton Road according the the Google Satellite picture :

http://goo.gl/maps/vAYOg

Pointer's had a fleet of third fourth hand SNCF type (that's ex-Ministry of Supply, ex-SNCF, ex-BR...) 16 tonners which daft so and sos like me find interesting.

Adam
 
Jon Gwinnett

Jon Gwinnett

Western Thunderer
There's a photo in the Middleton book of the siding at Coltishall with the tanks and a wonderfully geriatric road tanker loading the (quite modern looking) TTAs.

And I hadn't expected my sand imaginings to be so close to reality.
 
Jon Gwinnett

Jon Gwinnett

Western Thunderer
A question for the East Anglian cognoscenti, if I may. Would 1865 style GE station buildings be totally out of place in North Norfolk? I ask as drawings are available - MRJ6. I'm not sure where else to look. Also, another question - Dr Ian C Allen is mentioned a lot. Are there any particular books that I should look for? I think my local pre-loved bookstore has a copy of Glenaeagles to Glastonbury for sale, but I wonder if there is something more likely I should get?

Many thanks in advance.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Jon Gwinnett said:
.... Are there any particular books that I should look for?......
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The 'Great Eastern In Town And Country Vol 1/2/3' are wonderful books for understanding the character of the Great Eastern way. Some nice period views of infrastructure in its clean uncluttered state as built. I can dig them out tomorrow and check to see which volume best suits Polthorpe unless anyone else can answer this.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Mmm - I would implore you to get hold of all three volumes, as all have a blend of city country and capital but it is all wonderful stuff! If you have half an interest in the GER I'm ceratin you'll like these books and will find them all useful for modelling detail.

I could help with a vol 1 due to a recent blitz on secondhand books without first checking my bookshelves (only recently returned to railway matters after a long absence).

Norwich to Wroxham is around 1874, to Cromer a year so so later. But only you know the detailed history of the line through Polthorpe.....
 
Wagonman

Wagonman

Western Thunderer
Jon Gwinnett said:
A question for the East Anglian cognoscenti, if I may. Would 1865 style GE station buildings be totally out of place in North Norfolk? I ask as drawings are available - MRJ6. I'm not sure where else to look. Also, another question - Dr Ian C Allen is mentioned a lot. Are there any particular books that I should look for? I think my local pre-loved bookstore has a copy of Glenaeagles to Glastonbury for sale, but I wonder if there is something more likely I should get?

Many thanks in advance.
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Wells is in a similar style AFAIR.
 
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