Check out my gravel pit

O&K 'P.C. Allen' visiting from Leighton Buzzard, at Cragside

I know it's actually in an old chalk quarry, but the song that sticks in my head whenever I visit Amberley Working Museum is always Gravel Pit by the Wu Tang Clan. I think it kind of suits the location, and the back, back and forth and forth of the industrial diesels shunting around. But anyway...

This weekend was the annual rail gala at the museum, and I took my 2-year old daughter along to continue her narrow gauge enthusiasm training. Fortunately she loved it (having a main line railway at the back of the garden that she can wave "bye bye choo choo" to helps), unfortunately the weather wasn't quite up to letting her run about and enjoy herself.

As you might expect I didn't get a chance to take many pictures, and none at all of the excellent model railway exhibition indoors, but who needs photos when you can take away memories of a nice family day out instead?

The Hudson-Hunslet at Brockham, my daughter's favourite!

A piece of Purbeck

On a family holiday in Dorset last week, there was still scope for a little bit of narrow gauge. The preserved Swanage Railway, an ex-Southern branch line, runs from the seaside at Swanage to Corfe Castle and Norden where there is a park and ride facility, and the beginnings of a narrow gauge mining museum.

Ball clay mining used to be a major industry on the Isle of Purbeck and there are still many traces of it left. Some are being gathered at Norden, previously known as Eldon's Siding, where there was a transhipment point between the Swanage branch and the 3' 9" gauge (later 2') Fayle's Tramway.

The main feature, still under construction, is a processing works which has been carefully moved to the site, the intention is to have a working demonstration of a clay mine here.

There is also a good selection of wagons of various types and gauges, including an original Fayles vehicle with sledge brake of that unusual 3' 9" gauge.

The majority of stock is the more modern 2' gauge which replaced it, including some originally used at Norden which have spent time at the Seaton Tramway in Devon and some with interesting additions (gained from spending 30 years in an orchard).

Although it looks like early days as yet, I hope there will be more to see next time I visit Purbeck.

In no particular order

After my post on Cranbrook's fiddle yard I cleared my diary and made the "big list of things to do" on the layout. It's quite a stream of consciousness, so doesn't reflect an order of priority or even things that are likely to be done. Converting the estate line to 10.5mm track, for example, would make it truly 18" gauge, and a good home for Carnegie, but require a lot of upheaval and a whole new set of stock. So that's probably one to leave for a while. Many others are more practical and some are even in progress.

So as a (hopeful) motivator I'll set up a link to this list in the sidebar and update it as items are completed (or as I think of more stuff to add). Feel free to nag if it doesn't change very often...

1. Sort out fiddle yard
2. New front fascia
3. New solution for securing legs when stored
4. Leg extenders and/or height adjustment
5. Decide what to do with trees
6. Make/fit trees
7. Convert estate line to 10.5mm gauge
8. Bury coupling magnets
9. Fix rear truck on #2
10. Get #8 chassis repaired
11. Rebuild #8
12. Alter detailing on #9
13. Look at axle slop on railbus
14. New chassis for #1
15. New chassis and frames for #5
16. Add livery to Windle loco
17. Build Wrightlines Skylark kit (in progress 17/06/2009)
18. Build Vulcan SLR #85 kit
19. Build Drewry railcar on Underground Ernie chassis
20. Get/build Nigel Lawton Simplex kit
21. New bogies and add weight on passenger coaches and bogie van
22. Shortlist wagons to repair
23. Repair wagons
24. Define car cards for shunting
25. Review operating sequence
26. Brace backscene
27. Consider lighting
28. Clean scenery
29. Restore ground cover
30. Build cattle dock
31. Fix hoist on brewery
32. Tidy up shed so layout can be out permanently!
33. Clean/paint Anchor Wharf loco
34. Loco for spare 08 mech
35. Loco for 2-6-2T mech
36. Replace HWLR lettering where needed
37. 6" extension

Opening up the Weald

While sorting out a few boxes of books during one of the tidying up sessions that periodically grip our household, I chanced across my copy of Railways of Arcadia by John Scott-Morgan. This is a very well presented book on the successful* projects of Colonel H F Stephens, dynamo of light railway construction and management in the UK. Of course this is a subject very much of interest to me at the moment as two of these - the Cranbrook & Paddock Wood Railway and the Rother Valley Railway (later Kent & East Sussex) - occupy the same geographical space and function in the consensus universe as the High Weald Light Railway does in this blog's. More interesting still is the list of all Stephens' planned railways, many of which never received official consent, or did but were never constructed.

The assumption is clear from some of the names that the two lines mentioned could have been connected, but following a bit of online research I turned up a kind of "missing link" that has put a bit more flesh on the bones. The Col. Stephens museum, which is based at Tenterden Station on the K&ESR, has reprinted a contemporary newspaper report on the opening of the Rother Valley Railway which mentions some of the planned extensions, and helpfully illustrates these with a map connecting Tenterden and Cranbrook via Rolvenden.

This, plus the branch down to Peasmarsh and Rye, aligns the planned K&ESR network a lot more closely with the O16.5 alternate reality of the HWLR. It only takes the typically optimistic modeller's imagination to say, well, why not have it all built, and to narrow gauge too. Perhaps if the light railways act had been passed twenty years earlier, instead of hanging about until 1896. But anyway...

I suppose where I am heading with this is that it's reassuring to know there was once considered to be enough sources of traffic in the rural lands of the Weald to support a network of secondary lines, and that the HWLR scheme reflects it. A little bit of tweaking to the map originally drawn to accompany the layout may be in order - to make access to Cranbrook more direct and to allow for that line out towards Hurst Green and Burwash (where plenty of scenic modelling potential lies).

So if anyone out there can recommend a book on Stephens which covers in more detail those unbuilt schemes, please do let me know.

* Here I am using "successful" to mean "actually built"

Statfold

A long day-trip on Saturday took me to the privately-owned Statfold Barn Railway in rural Staffordshire. It's an area not really known for a wealth of narrow gauge, but this really is a hidden delight. Originally created as a base for a number of industrial steam locos repatriated from Indonesia and other far-flung places (and Harrogate), Statfold is opened to enthusiasts three times and year and the event was very busy even despite the dreary weather.

As well as a superbly maintained shed and station area, the railway heads out into nearby fields for over a mile before a balloon loop turns the trains around for the return journey. What's more, the whole thing is laid to dual 2' and 2'6" gauge with some complex pointwork and even a couple of standard/narrow gauge crossings thrown in.

There were a grand total of eight locos in steam, and an intensive services of goods, mixed and passenger trains running. The engines ranged from a selection of Orenstein & Koppels (including a mallet from Indonesia), via the ex-Harrogate Gas Works Peckett, a powerful Belgian La Meuse, the last industrial steam loco built by Hunslet in Leeds, to the new-build "quarry" Hunslet "Jack Lane".

As you might expect from such a site there was also a veritable treasure trove of other narrow and standard gauge items in varying states of restoration - much of it with some significance to Hunslet. Access to the railway is pretty much unrestricted, the enthusiast visitors are trusted to exercise a modicum of common sense around large mobile machinery and so there were some brilliant opportunities for lineside photography (rain notwithstanding).

Altogether a quite unique and very satisfying experience. Despite the long drive I would love to go back!

The camera was snapping away most of the day, and there is a large set of photos from my day on Flickr.

The New Solution

I haven't quite made the "big list of things to do" for Cranbrook yet, but if I had then item one would probably be "sort out fiddle yard". As a means to send and receive stock from the scenic part of the layout, the fiddle yard is an essential component of a small model railway (or even a large one, although some have the luxury of more than one station to run between) and so it's equally essential that it works well.



As it arrived, Cranbrook had a now conventional system of cassettes made from aluminium angle screwed to strips of plywood, with a 16.5mm gap between them for the trains to run along. As a concept this is completely fine, it makes it easy to re-rail stock and move and turn complete trains without too much handling. Where it falls down is if the cassettes haven't been made accurately, as this can cause problems with both "rail" alignment and electrical connection. Furthermore aluminium is not the easiest metal to conduct electricity through and so it's unfortunate that the fiddle yard was the weak link in the chain as far as Cranbrook's operation was concerned.

One of my first priorities has been to set up the layout for a few operating sessions, to get a feel for how it all works and what the shunting possibilities are. To bring the fiddle yard up to scratch I decided to try adopting a method used by my friend Michael Campbell, who has successfully employed PVC pipe trunking with plain track laid in it to make cassettes for his attractive OO9 layout, Awngate.



To account for the wider track and loading gauge I chose a larger section of trunking than Michael uses. This has an internal width of just over 60mm, fine for all of Cranbrook's stock although the railcar is a close fit. As the cassettes would be longer and potentially more flexible than those on Awngate I also decided to mount the pieces of trunking on the ply bases of the original cassettes.



The connection between layout and cassette in the old system was formed by having two short pieces of angle screwed to the baseboard, with brass tube soldered to the screws and then pins extending out to locate in similar tubes on each cassette. Harder to explain than to show a picture of, but the result was not brilliant for electrical conductivity and a bit of a fiddle to line up. It felt a little bit weird sawing in to someone else's work to remove this bridging piece, but the replacement would be two short lengths of rail soldered to a copper-clad PCB base so it had to go to make room. In the end the only visible damage was to a little bit of ballasting at the end of the exit track, which is anyway concealed between two buildings as the railway runs off-stage.



So, with the old system stripped out it was time to install the new. Mounted on the PCB that held the new bridge rails are two brass wipers which pass current to the cassette, at each end of each one is a matching PCB strip which also holds the rails securely in position. Through the rest of the cassette the track is simply glued down, using a set of template pieces to ensure they are straight and in middle.



With any "precision" piece of engineering such as this it's always a bit of a worry that everything is going to line up and work as intended. I found that the combined height of the plywood, PVC trunking and code 100 flexible track resulted in a rail height in the cassette slightly higher than that of the layout. Fortunately the exit track is laid on two thicknesses of cork so it was possible to wedge a shim of styrene between the layers and pack the rails up a little bit. With a little tweaking and prodding a smooth connection was acheived.



Early indications are that the new cassette system works well, power connection is good and the track can be aligned by eye although in due course I will fit some small strips of wood to give the cassettes a slot to locate in. As with the fiddle yard on Awngate I will have a mixture of train and loco cassettes. When the loco unit is furthest from the layout end it will not be powered, however this does have the benefit of preventing runaways off the end. It also makes it easy to swap the loco to the other end of the train for the return journey, or replace it with a different one.

It would, of course, have been entirely possible to use a different type of fiddle yard entirely - any of a train turntable, traverser or sector plate would fit but would have cost more in time and materials. The most idiot-proof, a ladder of turnouts and sidings, would not however have been very practical as there is only a length of around 2' for the whole yard at the end of the board. Cassettes I am familiar with, though, and so for the time being I am happy with them.

The switch

In the grand scheme of things I suppose this is a fairly mundane photo. However, it has acted as a bit of a catalyst. In it, I see the advantage of switching to 7mm scale, how adding that detail around the front pony truck of ex-Sierra Leone No. 85 becomes more feasible (and more necessary!). Of course such thing are possible in any scale you can imagine, but life is only a certain length.

At least the tool box is a nice slab-sided cuboid.

Speaking of switches, also snapped at Castle Caereinion was one of the ground frames for the passing loop. The blue lever is for the facing point lock, the black one actually throws the point. This kind of detail, and the rodding that attaches it to the pointwork is another of those things that becomes easier to realise in a larger scale. And with the High Weald Light Railway station at Cranbrook being of a similar age and magnitude to those of the W&L this kind of detail is perfect inspiration for the list of work to do on the layout.

Taking stock

One of the early tasks I need to do with Cranbrook is assess what rolling stock has been included, and how much work needs doing to it. First impression is - there is a lot, the vast majority scratchbuilt.




Most numerous are four wheel open wagons of various types, those pictured above are only a sample. They tend to use OO kit underframes, Ratio and the like, and several have sustained damage either through wear or fatigue to the axleboxes. These will need to be replaced, perhaps with the Peco O16.5 kits I discovered were suitable for my 5.5mm scale vans - they have the advantage of being cheap at least. However there are enough in working order for now so this can be an "as and when" kind of operation.




The closed vans are in a better state. A couple of brake vans seem quite heavily influenced by those from the Welshpool & Llanfair, at least in their later condition, and suit the character of the line. There is also a big bogie van which looks great, but wobbles like a drunkard on it's Ratio diamond frame bogies so that will be one of the first to get some attention. But perhaps the jewel here is the rake of livestock vans, which were too long for my makeshift photography studio! They are right at home being shunted around the station and thoughts are turning to providing a cattle dock for them on one of the sidings.




Turning to coaching stock, the HWLR has chosen a chocolate and cream livery for its balcony-ended carriages. The two bogie coaches run well and take up almost an entire fiddle yard cassette on their own, leaving the two smaller ones perhaps a little superfluous. The 6-wheeler, however, has a correctly articulated underframe on the Cleminson principle.



Finally, pretty much the only kit in the collection. This is, I think, a Branchlines etched brass kit for a Clogher Valley Railway (Irish 3') coach and is a beautiful product beautifully assembled. It has clearly been designed to allow for correct, 21mm, gauge but the CVR loading gauge was small enough that it doesn't look out of place.

Sorting through Cranbrook's rolling stock it is increasingly clear that I landed a pretty good deal. There is more here than is really needed for a typical operating session, and I think I will be able to restore and supplement the working stuff at my leisure. Through operating the layout a little I'm also getting a handle on the best shunting moves and where wagons need to be placed. Perhaps another early task should be to establish a "switch list", so a randomly formed goods train can be shunted with some purpose.

Where nothing ever happens

Between trains at Castle Caereinion station on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway you could be mistaken for thinking that time has come to a standstill. Fortunately, for many of us in narrow gauge land, that's just the way we like it.

A family visit to my parents in the West Midlands provided another opportunity to pop over the border and visit one of my favourite preserved lines. As with the last outing, our train was hauled by the beautifully maintained Beyer-Peacock loco, Countess. However the extra services which run on bank holiday weekends gave the chance for some train spotting during a picnic at Castle Caereinion, halfway along the line.

Meeting Countess at Welshpool in the glorious sunshine was a great sight. Whoever thought of placing the station's water tower next to a main road out of town had their marketing brain on - what more temptation do you need to stop and look?

After a pleasant 30 minute journey through the Powys countryside we arrived at "Castle". The three coach train was well loaded, discussion around the water tower suggested that passenger numbers were holding up despite economic conditions.

The second train in service was hauled by Hunslet 2-6-2T, the W&L's no. 14, which doesn't carry a name but is known as Sierra Leone No. 85 as a reminder of its origins. Although I've come to appreciate its design since, this was the first time I'd seen the loco up close in many years and it was great to be able to take some pictures for upcoming modelling projects.

It's hard to think of a narrow gauge loco with more attractive proportions, although the Hunslet family resemblance is clear in similar engines such as the Welsh Highland's Russell. The corners on that lining are going to a nightmare to reproduce in 7mm scale though!

After a brief pause for the train crew to work the level crossing gates, No. 14 and train departed for Llanfair Caereinion and peace and quite returned to the station.

Sadly vandalised and locked out of use, the waiting shelter at Castle at least contained this lovely piece of W&L ephemera - a great line-art drawing of No. 14. on the notice board.

The two service trains were crossing at Cyfronydd, a little way down the line towards Llanfair, so there was a wait of about 20 minutes before Countess returned with our train back to Welshpool and - ultimately - a barbecue in the evening sun at my sister's house. The perfect finish to a great weekend!

The locos of Cranbrook

Cranbrook arrived with a generous selection of locos, maybe even too many for an operating session on a fairly small layout, but it's nice to be able to have a bit of variety.

Most of the steamers are going to need a varying amount of TLC, generally they use life-expired Lima or Mainline mechanisms which will need replacing so there will be a few "projects" to keep me busy. I've been able to get a fair bit of information about them from the Railway Modeller articles on both High Weald layouts, which is mentioned below as appropriate.


HWLR No. 1
One of the smallest steam locos, and missing cylinders, connecting rods and front pony truck. A quick return to service could be achieved by adding tramway-style side skirts, but that would suggest a portion of roadside running on the HWLR and I'm not quite sure where this would fit in on the map.


HWLR No. 2
A well-weathered O-6-2T, with elements of Hunslet design and a good level of detail. As you can see, the rear pony truck is no longer attached, but the mechanism seems to run well so this will be an easy one to return to full working order. This dates back to Hawkhurst, it is visible in some of the photos in the Railway Modeller article of June 1991.

HWLR No. 3
There currently is no number 3, but the RM articles on both layouts show it is once being held by a Sierra Leone Hunslet 2-6-2T, a Vulcan kit. As it happens this is one of my favourite narrow gauge locos, I managed to get hold of an unbuilt kit earlier in the year. With the arrival of Cranbrook, there is a good chance this will now be turned out as the new No. 3 if I can muster up the courage to build it.


HWLR No. 5
A simple diesel design, running on a Mainline 0-6-0 chassis although with coupling rods removed to make it a 0-4-2, presumably to help it round the tighter curves. The lump behind the cab gives the appearance of a gearbox casing, a common arrangement on early diesel locos. The current side frames are simple, but a bit more detailing around the axleboxes should really set it off.

The RM article on Cranbrook from April 2003 also shows a Wrightlines W.D. Balwin carrying the number 5, but unfortunately it is no longer with the layout.


HWLR No. 8
Obviously the least together of all the locos included with Cranbrook, but also with significant potential. The design seems derived from the Hunslet locos of the Irish Tralee & Dingle line, a good choice for a rural English line with similar common-carrier character. A replacement chassis - from a Bachmann BR Standard tank - is available so I'll have to see if it will fit.


HWLR No. 9
A chunky diesel mechanical loco converted from an OO scale Bachmann class 08 shunter. The conversion process was covered in the May 2003 issue of Railway Modeller. Although the result is well proportioned and the mechanism is a well regarded one, the 4mm scale origins seem a bit out of place and modern alongside the others in the fleet - especially as the layout is meant to be set in the late 1940s. A bit more subtle work may be required in the future.


Railcar set 7/8
The combination of a railcar and a goods carrying counterpart is very much in the spirit of the Colonel Stephens light railway empire, and first appears in the Cranbrook RM article. The railcar half is the powered unit, and built from a MTK kit. The lorry half is adapted from a Corgi diecast van. It runs slowly, without much power but a great railcar growl and was intended for the Hawkhurst-Cranbrook shuttle service.


Anchor Wharf No. 1
This attractive tramway-style loco dates back to at least Hawkhurst, if not further. Anchor Wharf was, I've been told, related to a Chatham MRC layout along with the narrow gauge Mudway (sic) Valley Tramway which also explains the existence of MVT lettered rolling stock. This loco is on a fairly well life-expired Lima chassis, and a long way from home at Cranbrook, but appealing enough to revive in due course.


Unbranded 0-4-0T
I'm not certain of the origin of this loco, as it doesn't appear in any of the RM article photos and the mechanism seems fairly new. Also mysterious, as it doesn't bear any manufacturer's imprint. However it is well detailed, especially in the cab interior and runs well.