Rails Round The Rectory

I mentioned this book in my last post. My second hand example is from 1973 and was originally 30p. I paid rather more than that, but it is an interesting read and well worth reading even if you already have Font to Footplate.

It has provided me with a little more information that will be useful for the model, such as the trackbed being 12ft wide and the approximate radius of the curves.

In a brief moment of madness I briefly contemplated using the Busch HOf stock with 6.5mm gauge track, with the Decauville, Deutz and "self propelled" skip for motive power.  Perhaps it isn't that stupid an idea, but it  would mean having to build an even smaller baseboard to conform to the rules of the Dave Brewer Challenge . So for now I'm sticking with OO9.

For the first time that I can ever remember this year HMRC gave me a small tax rebate, which I'm going to split equally between the Eaugate Light Railway and this model. So I've put an order in for most of what I will need to buy, apart from the Narrowplanet locos. However I've got a stop gap solution in mind until their Bagnall is available again.

Cadeby

So my thoughts around the Cadeby micro layout are progressing. It isn't the first time I've contemplated Cadeby as a prototype, though previously I've thought of it as the basis for a garden line.

As a micro layout it has a number of advantages, not the least of which is that in some ways it was a full size terminus to fiddle yard layout, with trains disappearing into the  scenic break of the woods, and then coming straight back again.It was also both short and compact.

There is a downside. Teddy's guide to the line was Rails Round the Rectory, which brings to mind an image of an old fashioned Georgian rectory and a railway running around a well tended garden, Like Adrian Shooter's Beeches line.

Teddy himself, of course, was the epitome of an English rector in the shires.

Sadly though the original rectory at Cadeby, now known as the Grange, was not the one Teddy lived in, but the more modern one

It isn't the most attractive house. So the dilemma is do I leave out the rectory altogether, or do I replace it with something more attractive.

Back Indoors

Whilst the 7 1/4" gauge has been progressing nicely I can't help worrying about the impact storage in our damp sheds is having on all the carefully accumulated bits and pieces intended for Llanrhaiadr Mochnant and TAoC. On top of which I'm obviously no longer used to working on a small scale.

In an ideal world I would now be established in a new office/library/den/layout room, but that is clearly still a far off prospect given our other priorities. However this weekend we are planning to have our first big change around since moving in, and part of the plan is for my beloved to temporarily move her office into another room. That will free up space to bring some bookcases, and indeed books, into the house, and also to provide a modicum of space for a layout.

We really are talking about it having to be another micro-layout, so my thoughts are beginning to drift towards narrow gauge.

The recently released  Oxford Diecast "Hutchinson"is currently sat on my desk as a reminder both  that I've always had a soft spot for OOn3, and also of the period of my life when I spent a lot of time on the island. It even briefly tempted me to consider an OOn3 version of TAoC. It might still end up mounted on a small diorama based on either Colby Level or Ballabeg .

The Dave Brewer Challenge this year is for a layout based on a point and three lengths of track, which sounds like my kind of layout. So I think even if I don't enter the actual competition I'm going to build something that conforms to the rules. One option is a Gn9 layout based on my own Eaugate Light Railway, but the other is a OO9 model of the early days of Cadeby.  I'm really quite tempted by the latter, if it wasn't that Narrow Planet seem to have sold out of all the locos that would suit it.

Something entirely different

I'm a big believer in model railways learning not just from other modelling disciplines but also from the world of theatre and the arts. There is, of course, a long tradition of this.

I've just come across these 3d cardboard forests by Eva Jospin

It strikes me that 4mm versions of these would work really well as a backdrop for a layout, and that they could even be moulded.

Ahead of Schedule.

It isn't often that I complete something ahead of my self imposed schedule.  However thanks to some hard work by a step daughter's construction worker boyfriend this weekend saw the often threatened great leap forward completed. Well nearly.

Dan's conservatism saw him dig a rather deeper trench for the trackbed than I'd planned for, with the result that we ran out of ballast to bed the track down into, but we did have enough to produce a roughly level trackbed capable of supporting and draining the track, though not sufficient to retain it in place, I suspect.

After he'd finished ballasting I took over track laying, which was delayed slightly both by a cat who kept sitting on the rail joints and the slipping belt clutch on Teddy slipping rather too much as the drive belt wore in. Fixing that was my first experience of removing the combined engine and dynamo unit from the frame. That is one of the clever design features that not only simplifies maintenance but also means one person can lift the loco into and out of a car boot.

Ballast is 20mm limestone laid to a depth of around 80mm on a really decent weed proof membrane - a lesson learnt from a 16mm  line that used a less robust variety, 

Teddy is hiding under the old BBQ Cover. A siding might eventually lead off to the other side of the hut as a storage siding. The "engine shed" is in the background and still doesn't have a rail connection.

The line terminates at the gate on a side road, used solely for dog/cat walking sorties.

Late on Monday evening track laying reached the other end of the line. I wouldn't run the loco with the coupling bar in place like it is here, I was just keeping it safe before turning Teddy to face the other way - a task accomplished with the aid of a culinary lazy susan. I haven't had a chance to do much running because the step daughter  hasn't learnt how to use a petrol gauge so Teddy's petrol supply ended up disappearing into her car so she could get back to civilisation.

In theory this is the way ahead, but I'm beginning to have a rethink, not least because between here and the ash trees is the greatest change of level in the garden and to go straight on is going to need earthworks whilst not  adding  much utility to the line. Instead I might curve it round to the right  and then cross the drive to the other side of the garden where the main station is eventually planned to be.

Happy New Year

I was hoping to herald the New Year with the first picture of the Eaugate Light Railway earning its keep. Unfortunately the high winds have discouraged me from spending time in the garden so the fitting of fish plates has fallen behind schedule by a couple of days. It is a case of so near but so far. Just getting  a couple more track panels down will make a big difference in getting the track to a viable length, however temporary it might be.

My joy at the New Year, when many of my friends seem to have had life changing events, is somewhat tempered by the news that both Martin and Geoff were both taken ill over the holiday period.

My very best wishes to both of you for a full recovery.

Teddy has actually been hard at work over the weekend, working both garbage trains and taking logs to be split and stacked, and along the way totally proving the minimal railway concept in my eyes . Doing the same job without the railway would have reduced the garden to a quagmire.

I've been impressed by my wife's reaction to the railway. It is fair to say that future investment has been secured  and that the reality has far exceeded her expectations. I almost had to stop her giving Teddy a saucer of milk this morning when she opened the kitchen door this to see him waiting outside.

The very first light engine working with proud new owner

Bus replacement service

The first proper working. Xmas empties to the bin store

The bunting was already up

Hauling logs, with the skip body replaced by a plastic crate 

Compost bin, leaf pile, log store, bins and coal bunker all now served by rail

Pretty much the entire line. Not a bad view to wake up to.

Eaugate Light Railway

The imminent delivery of Teddy led to a rather dark and extremely windy evening of emergency track laying on Monday night. Fortunately simplified by the short term use of Ride on Railways portable track connectors.

So when Chris Dixon of CMD Engineering  delivered the loco this morning there was at least some track to test it on.

Needless to say I'm very very pleased with it. It runs very smoothly and controllably. Although I went for the modern Loncin engine rather than the Suffolk Punch I think it still sounds rather nice. I must add the obligatory Scamp bicycle horn though to scatter any poodles on the line.

It was a bit of a challenge getting it into the engine shed at the end of the day, since the railhead is currently around 60 feet and 90 degrees away from the limit of shunt, but I managed it using the traditional approach  of  swapping track panels around.