Playing Norfolk Trains

[Smoggy]

9 hours ago, keifsmate said:

Turnoar said "Bring back manned model level crossings!"

We cannot do that, top management salaries might have to be reduced!

Nah, get the top level managers to do the crossings, they have sod all else they can do.

[Vaughan]

So here I am, "locked down" in the garage with all the time in the world to do some railway modelling!  It doesn't seem as though I have done that much since the last photos but it has needed a lot of time and patience.

 

The track is now laid on two boards and has also been "ballasted" which takes a long time and several washes of poster paint, to get the colour right.  The station building has now been sunk into the baseboard so that it sits at the right height and this is the first time since I made it about 15 years ago, that I have seen it in its proper setting.  The original is built on ground falling away to the left, so the height is critical.

 

 

It's nice to get the wife in some of the photos, as the exact height of the wife in medium heels is a known constant, which can be used to scale other dimensions!  You can see that I have squeezed up the end window, in order to model the chimney as built on the outside of the wall. All of the buildings along the line are standard Norfolk Railway architecture and the one at Kimberley has the chimney like this. I thought it looked more interesting on the model and that is part of the fun of it. You can alter things as you wish!

 

The fencing gates are there so that a farm lorry can unload milk churns direct onto the platform ready for the morning milk train to Norwich.  On the other side is where the returning train would leave the empties, for collection by the farmer.  It is also a good way of hiding up the joint between the two base-boards, at this point!

Here for comparison, is the waiting room at Yaxham station.  Which is the one nearest the camera on the model.

 

Sorry about the raggy edges to the platform ramps but these will be "faired in" to a road, crossing the tracks at a level crossing.

Here is the real thing :

You can see at once, that Thuxton station is not on a curve but hey ho!  I think a curve looks more interesting on the model.  Yesterday I received a parcel with the parts needed for me to build a system of cranks and levers under the track, so that I can turn a little handle at the side of the layout and operate the gates.  This is probably the last bit of mail order I shall be able to get from England for several weeks - or months?

The railings and the hedge are there because it is now a private house.  It won't look like that on the model!  I met the owner of the house and showed him the model I had made.  He and his family were fascinated and gave me permission to wander around and measure up the rest of the station buildings and platforms.  One of their children said "look Daddy, there's my bedroom window!"  It's rather nice to have that personal connection.

 

So now, I have split the two baseboards and added another to the left, where I can lay the pointwork which leads into the station yard.  Although I made this pointwork a few years ago, it is going to be a long, fiddly and detailed job to get it laid in place.  It has to be lined up exactly dead right, or it simply won't work!

At the same time, brass rod "droppers" will be soldered under the rails and passed through holes in the board, so that a wiring loom can provide current to the track later.  I will also be having a lot of fun making up a system of levers, cranks, springs and wires underneath, to operate the points remotely, from the side of the layout.

I will post more photos when I have made a bit more progress but meantime, I hope this is of interest and I hope you have also found absorbing things to do, while we are all confined in our homes!

Susie is "waiting in the wings" as she has insisted that she wants to model the station-master's garden.  She also wants to see seagulls, flying around behind a tractor ploughing the field in the background.

I am not quite sure how how I'm going to do that yet . . . . 

[marshman]

Spread worms on the "field" and open the windows????

[Vaughan]

But then the seagull poop would not be at 4mm : 1ft scale!

Back to the drawing board . . . . 

Members' suggestions would be welcome!

[unclemike]

make some scale seagull poop?

[Vaughan]

9 minutes ago, chameleon said:

make some scale seagull poop?

Some things "scale down" in modelling, but others don't! The best way to model coal, in a locomotive, is with real coal, scrunched up. The very best way to model water, is with water!  Also (which I shall be doing) a train of wagons loaded with sugar beet is best modelled with millet.   Budgie food!

[MotorBoater]

Is it too early for the telephone wires ?

[marshman]

For the sake of accuracy, doesn't millet look like potatoes, rather than sugar beet?

Think we might have opened a can of worms here (for the seagulls?)

[Vaughan]

This is embossed plastic sheet, in A4 size. It is sold for modelling cobblestones, in 4mm scale. You can also buy brickwork, in the same material. You can see by the price that I bought it several years ago. It is now over £5 a sheet!

A little bit of trickery, with what they call "dry brushing" in enamel paint, and you arrive at a fair representation of Norfolk knapped flint.

 

 

I think I'm quite pleased with that. It may be slightly too dark, but once I have made a farm cottage out of it, with brick surrounds to the windows and corners ; a Norfolk pantile roof and some climbing roses around the doorway, I don't think it will look too bad.

Or I may go the whole hog and build the "Railway Tavern" out of it!

 

[JennyMorgan]

No hills then?

Thanks for the memory, many was the time that I scrounged a trip home in the early hours aboard the Milk Train. 

[Vaughan]

5 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

No hills then?

There are no hills in Norfolk. Didn't you know that?

They say there is no Great Estuary either . . . .

[JennyMorgan]

7 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

They say there is no Great Estuary either . . . .

Bugger, and my model was almost complete, I shall burn it tomorrow. 

[JennyMorgan]

19 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

There are no hills in Norfolk. Didn't you know that?

Lots of mole hills looking for a purpose . . . . . . . 

[FairTmiddlin]

30 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

There are no hills in Norfolk. Didn't you know that?

Try telling that to my nine year old self. Out on my bike delivering newspapers!

[Timbo]

2 hours ago, FairTmiddlin said:

Try telling that to my nine year old self. Out on my bike delivering newspapers!

I'm not falling for that one Nigel! I can accept you delivering papers when you were nine years old as @Wussername said he was delivering papers for Caxton, but having a bike? It wouldn't be for another hundred and fifteen years until the invention of the bicycle so you must have been walking up them hills or running! 

[quo vadis]

Keep up the humour Timbo we need it in these times 

[annv]

Hi Vaughan So why is there a Mountain rescue team in Ely? think beer. John

[JennyMorgan]

44 minutes ago, annv said:

Hi Vaughan So why is there a Mountain rescue team in Ely? think beer. John

Same reason we have the Hickling Broad Cave Rescue Service. 

For many years I belonged to Dodo Rescue International , we met every Wednesday for training!

[ZimbiIV]

I really hope that they accurate to life and they don't run on time!

If you are looking for odds and sods have a look at alwayshobbies.com

Based just outside of Beccles.

paul

[stumpy]

2 hours ago, annv said:

Hi Vaughan So why is there a Mountain rescue team in Ely? think beer. John

I'm sure I remember a mountain rescue team in Beccles, they used to climb the pavement near the Bear and Bells with all the gear when they weren't dwile flonking - late 60s.

[Smoggy]

Reedham have a mountain rescue team, I have my shirt! Mind you the duck race has given up now so I doubt they do much.

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, stumpy said:

I'm sure I remember a mountain rescue team in Beccles, they used to climb the pavement near the Bear and Bells with all the gear when they weren't dwile flonking - late 60s.

There sure was, most of them worked at the local print works but when that died so did the team. Mind you, a lot of them also got married and succumbed to the demands of the Petticoat Government.

[FairTmiddlin]

There is also a Romney Marsh mountain rescue team and a pot holing club.

Membership still thrives

Callout statistics

Club founded 1965

Rescues  so far 0

Potholing club 1 hole so far found 1 and a half inch deep in the middle of the westbound lane of the A259

[Boaters]

Interesting thread,still have my layout which is going up to the Grandchildren when allowed.to travel Spent two years as a volunteer modeller at Wroxham Miniature worlds ,very large layouts but could nut be done in the detail shown here,but building  base boards ,track ,buildings ,mountains and animations was all great fun and have been running for a few years now.Well worth a visit

[JennyMorgan]

8 hours ago, FairTmiddlin said:

Potholing club 1 hole so far found 1 and a half inch deep in the middle of the westbound lane of the A259

They should take a holiday in Suffolk so that they can survey the A12 and be guaranteed of finding many potholes which will be a great deal deeper than one and a half inches deep!