David's 0 Gauge stuff

[David Holman]

Going through my 0 gauge stock to get it ready for the Club layout's appearance at the the Chatham Show next month, thought it might be of interest to share what I got up to in the years prior to 2012, when I started modelling the Irish scene.

 After initially dabbling in EM gauge and then 7mm NG I eventually moved to 0 gauge with a Light Railway layout called Loose End - a Colonel Stephens essay of which there are no digital photos available, but which appeared several times in the Modeller from the late 90's.

 The next project was somewhat grandiose - a 10m x 4m oval, with a high level secondary line, modelled on the Marks Tey - Cambridge line which also included a low level goods yard. It was all way too big for a solo project, so eventually it got scrapped, but not before I salvaged the buildings to create a more sensible terminus-fiddle yard layout. It was called Eatonswell - an adaption of Eastanswill, which was the name Charles Dickens allegedly gave to Sudbury in Suffolk in the Pickwick Papers. 

 Very much BR 1950s Eastern Region, I built a far bit of stock, which has been confined to either boxes or my display cabinet for far too long, so it will be nice to run some of it again. Below are some pictures covering a selection of views of the layout.

 

 

 The station was a fairly accurate copy of Chappel & Wakes Colne - chosen because of its two level design. I used Howard Scenics embossed brick papers, painted with water colours

.

 The goods shed was a standard Great Eastern design, while a row of matings were inspired by those at Hadleigh and Snape. The loco shed was Saffron Walden.

 Pride of the line was my B17/6 "Nottingham Forest". My home town club, the loco itself did work in East Anglia. The Gresley Brake 3rd is a Kirk kit.

 Proof that I'm not entirely averse to ready to run models are the two shunters. Both are Bachmann Brassworks, which came unpainted in those days. The 08 needed a fair bit of detailing, but is a nice runner, while the 03, which also runs well, simply got a paint and weathering job.

 At the other end of the scale is this Waggon & Maschinbau railbus - because it was scratch built. A real challenge with all those complex curves to say nowt about the curved front windows.

 

 Finally, for now, one of my favourite models, the George England Wantage Well Tank. I'd started building it for Loose End when, very fortuitously Model Railway Journal ran a series of articles by Laurie Griffin as a scratchbuilding project. Even better was the fact they produced a range of castings to go with it. Building this little loco taught me a lot and gave me the confidence to later tackle a D16 4-4-0, leading eventually to all my Irish stuff.

 One day, I really must build a small shunting layout so this pretty little engine can run regularly again.

 Hopefully more stuff will appear later.

 

[Galteemore]

Wow what a treat! Love Shannon - live about half an hour from her old stamping ground.

[leslie10646]

Lovely work, David, especially the buildings.

While I agree with @Galteemore that the Wantage Tank is delightful, it's the "Footballer" pic which caught my eye, almost a 12 inches to the foot photograph. Congratulations!

[Tullygrainey]

A real pleasure to see these pictures David and a lovely selection of locos, all up to your usual high standard. That pic of Nottingham Forest is particularly effective and hats off to you for that scratch built railbus - some very skilful panel beating there! I can understand your affection for the little well tank. A real charmer. More please.

[Mol_PMB]

Wonderful stuff! Having been brought up in Essex and familiar with Chappel and the Sudbury branch as well as other local branch lines like Braintree and (former) Maldon, I think you have captured the atmosphere very well. 
And Shannon looks superb!

[David Holman]

Thanks folks. Have occasionally thought about moving the wheels out on Shannon, but the loco is so tiny, there just isn't room.

[derek]

Fantastic stuff David. Great to see. Agree with Leslie, the buildings are phenomenal. Thanks for sharing 

[David Holman]

Eatonswell

 This layout was built in the early 2000s, in a pre-digital age - for me anyway. Hence most of the pictures here are photos taken of my article in the April 2009 edition of RM. Eatonswell was my first attempt at 'mainline' modelling, trying to depict a secondary line in East Anglia in the 1950s, as shown in the map below.

 The scenic part of the layout was about 16ft x 2'6, divided into four split level boards as shown below.

 As in many of my schemes, even in this relatively large area, it relied on off scene sidings to develop the scene, though as I wrote at the time a 16ft scenic section out of a total run of about 70ft wasn't exactly good value for exhibition managers. The eventual intention was to grow the scenic areas over time, but it soon all became too much to organise. Might have worked as a club project, but not a solo one!

 Indeed, the only thing that made it work in the first place was the innovative idea of making each 180 degree curve in two sections of different radii, so they could 'nest' with each other for storage and transport.

 RM staff did a nice job on all these drawings and likewise the actual track plan.

 As can be seen, the goods yard was at a lower level and fed by two separate fiddle yards, which used cassettes. Overall then, this supposed solo enterprise actually needed at least five operators, though with that level of help, we could get it set up in about ninety minutes and back in the van  in about 30.

 Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos. I'll do some up to date ones as stuff is being got ready for the Chatham Show this year.

 The photo was taken after the layout became end to end, in which form it managed several shows because it took up much less space.

 All things being equal, nearly 20 years on, it is nice to reflect on what, while ultimately a bit of a blind alley, still looks pretty good and actually ran well too [it was DCC by the way]; shame it was all a bit too big for me to manage...

 

 

[Galteemore]

Fabulous work David - really high standard of work and lots of scope for operation. Don’t take this the wrong way - I’m glad it didn’t prove an enduring project or we’d never have had Arigna/Belmullet/Northport/Fintonagh/Swillybegs. The Eastern Region’s loss is our gain!! 

 

[David Holman]

 Back from a week in near 40c Umbria, Italy. Lovely area, but no sun tan as spent all our time in the shade. Anyway, now for Eatonswell Mark 3.

 After the initial oval and then the end to end with cassette fiddle yards, it was obvious that the format was impractical, not least because baseboards 4' long and 2'6 wide were desperately unwieldy. So, buildings were removed, track lifted and baseboards scrapped. The new layout was terminus-fiddle yard: four 3' 9 x 2' scenic boards and a 5' fiddle yard. There was a small additional scenic board which took the station building, at right angles across the end of the track. 

 The fiddle yard still used cassettes, but this time I employed separate loco and train cassettes. The former could easily be picked up and moved to the other end of the train, while the latter only needed sliding back and forth. The 5' overall length meant there was enough room for a tender loco and three 52' bogies coaches.

 So, here we see the original station, at right angles to the tracks, creating a nice terminus.

 

Looking the other way, you can see there was a single main platform, with a bay just beyond, while in the foreground is a double loading dock.

 Moving further along, we see the goods shed siding and the rest of the bay platform. This was mainly used for my Derby Lightweight DMU and W&M Railbus. Further pictures of these below.

 The final section of the layout had a run of maltings, severed by their own siding, while at the front edge was the loco shed, based on the one at Saffron Walden.

 After the trials of the Mark 1 & 2 layouts, this version proved eminently more manageable - five and a bit baseboards [all with integral legs] against sixteen, while also being capable of solo operation, though two or three people were better. With point and signal operation all being wire in tube, wiring was fairly simple. It only did five shows, but was certainly one of my better efforts until the Irish bug bit in 2012 and Eatonswell was sold - though I did keep the stock. More on the latter next time.

 

[David Holman]

 Pride of the line was undoubtedly B17/6 4-6-0 Nottingham Forest. Was born there, so have always followed the club, while 61666 was a regular visitor to East Anglia. The model is an etched brass kit and by some margin the largest loco I've built. Quite a complex job, with its outside valve gear and fully lined BR Brunswick Green, it is been a showcase model for the last ten years, but am tempted to run it at Chatham later this month

 The other mainline passenger loco was this D16/3 4-4-0. After the Wantage Tank, this was my first big scratch build and for some reason I chose one with the decorative splasher valences, just to make it even more difficult..

 The big goods engine is a J17 0-6-0. Another etched brass kit, its long coupled wheelbase has meant it grunts a bit going through 6' radius points, but I've always liked the design.

The Waggon & Maschinbau four wheel railbuses were used a lot in East Anglia, so decided I'd try and scratch build one. All those complex curves made it quite a challenge and then [Sodd's Law of course], a rtr one came out soon after. Still - its mine and no one else's!

 Forgot to mention that the layout used DCC control. No sound [way too expensive], indeed got away with one amp chips designed for 00, but as none of my locos drew more than 0.25 amps things were [mostly] fine. However, blew several of them because didn't insulate them properly in etched brass bodies - still better £15 quid than over a hundred...

 It was the Bachman Prodigy system, which I still have...

[Horsetan]

The J17 wheelbase was something like 9' x 9', which almost gives the GNRI "V" and VS's 10'6" wheelbase a run for their money.

That said, the J17 ultimately wasn't the biggest as the J19 and J20 were even more substantial.

[Galteemore]

5 hours ago, Horsetan said:

The J17 wheelbase was something like 9' x 9', which almost gives the GNRI "V" and VS's 10'6" wheelbase a run for their money.

That said, the J17 ultimately wasn't the biggest as the J19 and J20 were even more substantial.

Wheelbases are interesting things. The GNRI A class goods engine has the same wheelbase as an LMS Duchess, which was most useful in sourcing coupling rods! Great photos David, we are most grateful to have your talents employed modelling more arcane stuff now….but that Nottingham Forest does deserve a run out.

Edited Tuesday at 05:15 by Galteemore

[David Holman]

Ready to Run?

 Well, sort of: several items were bought when I was made redundant from Kent Education in 2011, though it must be said I was back at work the next day, but this time as a consultant. Such are the ways things still work around here, years later!

 First up were a couple of diesel shunters from Bachmann Brassworks. Nice models, but they came unpainted and the 08 in particular only had basic detail.

 It certainly ran well straight out of the box, but [I think] Modern Traction Kits did a detailing pack. Opening the latter, you were met with the words 'commiserations on buying the 08'. Well it didn't look that bad to me! Turns out the shape of the body is wrong - it should taper towards the top, but instead is very square. 

 Nevertheless, the details were very comprehensive, with many tiny parts, often etched in stainless steel, so I set about adding as many as possible, though a couple got vaporised when I had my resistance soldering unit on too high a setting... A full paint job was required too, plus transfers from Fox.

 The 03 was pretty good straight out of the box, including some nice cab detailing, but like the 08 was in unfinished brass. Nowadays you can get both shunters for much less, ready to run. The 08 starts at under £200, I believe, but hey, these are both mine and I had a pleasant time working on them.

 The next purchase was much more of a problem child. Another Bachmann Brassworks, this time a Derby Lightweight two car DMU. On the face of it, another nice model, but the more you looked, the more you realised was missing, or even just wrong. Not good for £400 - and remember this was 14 years ago.

 First of all, there was no interior at all, while the more I looked at the windows, the more I really didn't like the very plain toplights. The under frames were very curious, The original units had two power cars, as they were intended for West Yorkshire, but those that worked in East Anglia had only one power car, due to the easier gradients. However, it was what was put underneath on the model which was really just odd.

 Lots of battery boxes [mostly in the wrong place] and what look like two electric motor casings, as opposed to diesel engine blocks. So, everything was stripped off and after a visit to the North Norfolk Railway to check out their preserved example, I set about trying to improve things. The picture below shows what was achieved by re-arranging the etched boxes and adding one or two castings, including a couple of large engine blocks.

 

 The non motor coach under frame was a much simpler affair, just needing some sturdy trussing made from plastic sheet, plus a brake cylinder and a couple of battery boxes.

 That  just left the body work. After making up a full interior [lots of seats and a few passengers] for each coach, I then decided to cut out the toplights and make new ones from plastic strip. No small task given all those windows, while I also had to add glazing bars to the cab front windows. The original Derby units didn't have them, but it was soon found they were needed as the large expanses of glass developed a tendency to crack due to vibrations. A complete paint job was required too of course, plus the transfers, with the 'speed whiskers' in particular really bringing the model to life.

 Despite the faults, overall, it was a nice model, with some neat details, not least the corridor connections. You might just see I enhanced these with jumper cables which can be easily connected once the model is on the track. I calculated that the model needed over 400 separate pieces added [many of these for the windows], but I think it has been worth it, not least because, like many, I have fond memories of grabbing one of the seats behind the driver's cab to see the road ahead. Indeed, I once had a cab ride to Bleanau Ffestiniog in one. 

 Like all the models pictured the DMU is sitting on Northport Quay and it is interesting to see how two 63' coach units dwarf the station.

 The final two models in this post were bought ready made from a fellow club member, Both are Connoisseur kits [always very good], but were painted in LNER livery, so I redid them in BR black, followed by some weathering, especially the F5 2-4-2T. The 0-6-0T is one of the J69 'Buckjumpers'

 So ready to run maybe, but definitely not straight out of the box.

[Mol_PMB]

Really impressive what you did to upgrade the old Brassworks models.

I've got one of those 08's stashed somewhere, which I repainted in blue with wasp stripes, but I wasn't aware of the detailing kit at the time.

I seem to remember trying to get a load of marker light options working on DCC but getting it wrong and blowing the decoder. Electronics not my strong point!

[David Holman]

Parcels Stock

 I've always had a thing for parcels stock - it is probably down to the variety that could be seen in a single train, so I built up a decent sized rake, along with the option of adding a parcels van to a short passenger train, which I also like.

 First up is a Southern Railway GUV. These seemed to turn up all over the country for parcels and newspaper traffic. Mine is the Slater's kit & very nice it was too to build.

 Next we have an LMS bogie GUV. Another nice vehicle with its short bogie wheel base. Unlike the Slater's kit [mostly plastic], this one, from Wagon & Carriage Works is mostly etched brass and white metal castings, so it rather heavy.

 The LNER full brake is much lighter, being an Ian Kirk plastic kit. Fairly basic [and therefore requiring a bit more work to be presentable], these kits were nevertheless very cheap and good value. Getting the roofs to sit properly could be a pain though.

 The LNER pigeon van was either D&S or W&C again, hence mainly etched brass and white metal. Back in the day, racing pigeon traffic could be quite substantial. Below that is an LNER horse box, from one or the other of those stables [pun intended]. 

 

 So, a nice mix of shapes, sizes and roof lines, which when added to vehicles like fitted vans, milk tanks and the like, makes a classic Eastern Region 'Stock Train', which I'm hoping to run next weekend at the Chatham Show, behind either my B17 or D16.

Coaches

 Quite an eclectic mix, mainly because passengers trains on Eatonswell only ran to three coaches, or two and a parcels van. First up is a pair of ex Great Eastern corridors. They were D&S kits bought not just because I liked them, but also because MRJ ran a couple of articles on how to build and detail them. On Eatonswell, they usually ran with the SR GUV behind my E4 2-4-0.

 A trio of Gresley 'short' bogies next. The composite was scratch built in plastic card and strip on Wayoh bogies, while the pair in 'blood & custard' are Kirk kits. The B17 used to work these - a bit of a down turn from previous express duties, but it was often the case of them being relegated to local trains once the B1s and Britannias arrived on the scene

 Finally, a couple of Thompson suburbans. The brake 3rd is scratch built [Wayoh bogies again], while the composite is another W&C kit. They often ran with a horse box, hauled by the F5 2-4-2T.