PaulR
Western Thunderer
My journey towards a layout to follow Old Parrock has been interesting to say the least. There have been an embarrassing number of ideas, concepts and plans in an embarrassing number of scales and gauges. However, I have now settled on a new project - and ironically I’ve returned to my first idea. It’s in EM Gauge and like Old Parrock, it replaces a real historical railway with a fictitious one in an imagined setting, in this case The Southwold Railway. Wolsey’s Creek is a harbour branch set on the River Blyth, just upriver from Southwold and Walberswick on the Suffolk coast.
Since drawing this I've had second thoughts about the engine shed. I may move the water tower and windpump to the end of the platform and have a goods shed instead.
At the moment the baseboards are in a basic state. The trackbed will be raised above a flat lower bed for the water level and the scenery built up around it.
I'm currently making the four points using Timbertracks wooden sleepers and Exactoscale chairs. All the trackwork will be handbuilt on wooden sleepers. I'm quite proud of my handmade crossing vees.
This layout will take a while, not least because I have at least three locos and two boats to build, one of which will be scratchbuilt (and I've never built a boat before). However, I'm ready for the challenge. When I built Old Parrock it was the encouragement of the good folk of Western Thunder, to my eternal gratitude, that kept me going on those occasions where it got difficult or I lost my 'mojo'. Added to that, the thought that I was going to display my efforts on a public forum helped me to do my best. Hopefully that will happen again with Wolsey's Creek.
On my next posting I'll try to explain some of the thinking behind this project. Finishing off for now, here's a taster of the atmosphere I'm hoping to create!
Since drawing this I've had second thoughts about the engine shed. I may move the water tower and windpump to the end of the platform and have a goods shed instead.
At the moment the baseboards are in a basic state. The trackbed will be raised above a flat lower bed for the water level and the scenery built up around it.
I'm currently making the four points using Timbertracks wooden sleepers and Exactoscale chairs. All the trackwork will be handbuilt on wooden sleepers. I'm quite proud of my handmade crossing vees.
This layout will take a while, not least because I have at least three locos and two boats to build, one of which will be scratchbuilt (and I've never built a boat before). However, I'm ready for the challenge. When I built Old Parrock it was the encouragement of the good folk of Western Thunder, to my eternal gratitude, that kept me going on those occasions where it got difficult or I lost my 'mojo'. Added to that, the thought that I was going to display my efforts on a public forum helped me to do my best. Hopefully that will happen again with Wolsey's Creek.
On my next posting I'll try to explain some of the thinking behind this project. Finishing off for now, here's a taster of the atmosphere I'm hoping to create!
