Some inspiring shots of Waterloo station from this site.
In 1912. Wonderful locomotives, and short trains.
In 1964. Green electrics and looks like a rebuilt West Country 4-6-2 departing.
In 1971. Blue-grey coaches and Warship diesels. But note hoe the bomb-sites on the right are still not developed, with some seedy Lambeth terraced housing still standing in the otherwise empty areas.
Just three months to the N Gauge SouthEast exhibition. Hopefully it’s all coming together, though there may be a few sleepless nights on the way. I’m hoping that the Railway Modeller will include the following in an edition before April (it won’t be much use after…)
An anniversary and a new show
East Surrey N Gauge celebrates 21 years of modular railway modelling and its 21st exhibition in 2019. This year’s show, titled N Gauge SouthEast will be our largest to date and is to be a joint show with the N Gauge Forum. There will be over 25 ‘N’ gauge layouts on display, including Ambleton Vale, Banbury, Forrestone, Lightermans Yard, Millfield Yard and Wenlock. There will be modular layouts from East Surrey N Gauge and the West Sussex ‘N’ Gauge MRC. 12 specialist traders and 3 society stands will complete the show.
The show will be held on Saturday 6th April 2019 at Riddlesdown Collegiate, Honister Heights, Purley, Surrey, CR8 1EX. The school offers level access and plenty of parking, and there will be a shuttle minibus from Purley Station.
For further details, see the exhibition website, and the Societies and Clubs entry.East Surrey N Gauge meets twice monthly in Redhill, where the club modular layout is set up and is available for running trains from all corners of the world. For details, see the club website.
Actually, this will be ESNG’s 22nd anniversary in September, but 21 sounds better!
A new year – just. The three members who were there at 7:30pm wondered whether it might be best to just go home. The Cha(I)rman was on an early milk round again, and the Treasurer was still away seeing family. But then five others arrived, with trains, so we (slightly reluctantly but very quickly) got a circuit up and running.
Some members still didn’t look very happy… 🙂
Some lovely decoration on this coach…
But these locomotives seem a little over the top?
Plenty going on in the fiddle yard.
Super-power from Simon. And predictably, this train overloaded the controller and ground to a halt!
Deliveries to a Ford works somewhere in the UK….
Equally predictably, I was too busy talking to test my new-ish 4-CEP. Maybe I’ll give it a go at the PlayDay in 10 days time.
Now I’m (more or less) retired and living on a pension, I told myself that I will have to cut back my railway spending (except for a few new models when they are finally issued.) But it’s so very difficult to resist a bargain.
A(nother) 4-CEP acquired through N-Gauge Forum, to add to my collection….
I realised that I had made a bit of a mess of my O4 diesel shunter tram engine, so this body only model on Ebay could not be ignored. I am sure that I can do better next time…
Hattons had two unopened NGS GWR Mica kits….
And this etched brass GWR milk van. Not sure who made it, but it looks an interesting model….
Better get back to the workbench!
A Happy New Year to you all! I hope that it’s a good one and plenty of modelling gets done. I try not to make resolutions, as they invariably fail, but I do intend to complete a few of the many projects that I have started or planned….
For my last post of 2018, a few final comments on layout design.
As a member of ESNG, a modular club, where do parts 1-3 of the series leave me? It sounds very much as if I have abandoned the modular concepts!
But that’s not entirely fair. Despite my realisation that I do rather like small layouts, our club nights do offer a chance to:
And I have very much enjoyed making my N-Club scenic modules – perhaps just because they have been simple and without points or electrics to go seriously wrong.
So I remain committed to modular layouts. I don’t see that I will be making any 4′ x 2′ complete layouts as a module – this doesn’t thrill me – but that’s not a criticism of the concept if you are building one at the moment. But I hope to continue to make simple modules for exhibition use.
Always assuming that I find the time along with all the other projects that are ‘in hand’ at home! I spend a happy few hours this week repainting a coach Lehigh Valley red. But then found out that the carefully selected Halfords rattle can is just too deep a red. So back to square one, and possibly a written off coach. But it’s been FUN.
[PS, a little later. Please to say that Halfords’ red and plastic primer totally removed in 15 minutes by Superstrip liquid. Coach rescued!]
And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?
In my earlier ramblings about continuous layouts, I missed out one excellent example, and a concept for such designs. Chris Morris’ Little Aller is based on Aller Junction in Devon in the early sixties. The area of the layout is 84″ by 40″. (Photos from N Gauge Forum.)
The interesting feature of this lovely layout is that there are no stations, yards, engine sheds or other complexity modelled. Just a fairly complex junction and signal box, and its surrounding scenery. Ideal for just watching the trains go by.
I realise that I really do just like watching trains, and wondered whether a similar idea could capture my own interests.
Looking again at the Isle of Wight, how about Smallbrook Junction in Southern Railway/British Railway Days?
The double track on the left comes from Ryde, and the line divides for Newport and Cowes and the west, and Ventnor and the south. Originally, there were two single track parallel lines, but the Southern Railway added the scissors crossover, to make operation more flexible. In the winter, they reverted to two single tracks, and removed some signal arms.
The photos below show the simplicity, yet interest of the prototype. There is one complex bit of pointwork, that would need building, or a simplified track layout. The signal cabin, a hut or two, and the road bridge to the north are the only structures, plus a few Southern rail built signals. The plan scales at 8′ long, but it could be compressed down to 5′ without losing its character. The lines would loop round to a fiddle yard behind in the time-honoured manner.
Of course, the trouble with an ‘N’ gauge IOW layout is the lack of locos. Dapol made an island Terrier, but the O2 0-4-4T, mainstay of SR and BR services, is wishful thinking. However, the strength of a layout such as Smallbrook is that it could be (almost) anywhere. It would be quite convincing to run Southern Region stock from the mainland, transposing the layout somewhere out west. And if you turned a blind eye to the Southern signals and box, really any train would look OK.
Though perhaps Lehigh Valley would stretch things a bit…..
What Santa brought me – via Ebay and handed directly to Maxine for wrapping!
And is this the cutest tank engine ever (can’t think of a better adjective.) ‘Borrowed’ from RMweb, it comes from Belgium.
Bit tricky for ‘N’, though….
And did you spot him last night – travelling by train this year? Or by tram?
I really do hope, Paul, that you don’t buy this set of Japanese prototype trains….
Motorised Sushi! Whatever next. I have seen a model restaurant with a moving sushi conveyor belt, but this is taking things too far. The description on the website is most helpful, if a little fishy in places….
For Sushiden series list, check here!
– It did not run to the neta. Sushi is running !!
– Do not think of difficult things, please enjoy the surreal world where sushi runs on N gauge (9 mm) rail.
– Sushi reproduces real sushi by cooperation of food sample manufacturer.
– All types of power installed, released 20 grades sequentially.※ The image is a product image. Concrete beds are not included.
※ Sushi can not be eaten. Please keep out of reach of small children.
* When running with a fixed layout or a rental layout please pay attention to traffic lights and structures at the track.
* Please be aware that the layout may be damaged depending on the type of sushi.
※ Please purchase rails and power pack separately.– Sushi material: PVC
( This is a machine translation. Please allow for possible misinterpretations in the text.)
I’ve told Santa not to bother….
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