Today, trams, with and without horses!
Laxey and environs.
Derby Castle
Ramsey
With acute apologies to the Allman Brothers…..
Ron has been off rambling on the Isle of Man. He’s sent me a string of excellent photographs, but locations appear slightly at random due to the varied walks – to say nothing of wild days with Storm Agnes (whoever she might be.) So I’ve grouped the photos by subject; well start with a couple of posts of transport themed pictures, then have the best of the tourist snaps.
Today is mainly trains…. Port Erin.
Douglas.
Port St Mary Station.
Ramsey Bus station
The view from Ron’s hotel room – a genuine sea view.
And to finish today, the Manxman ferry anchored in Douglas Bay.
Another year, another show over. All went well on the whole. We were a little down on the usual numbers, perhaps partly due to the train strike on the day. However, we did get a good number of local families in, and must have had 25 children through from toddlers to ‘just too short to be charged.’ This can only be good for the future of the hobby.
It was great to have Graham Bridge’s Southwark Bridge at the show. It’s a fictitious BR Southern Region London terminal station from the late 1960’s through to the late 1970’s, drawing its inspiration from the history and layouts of Cannon Street and Holborn Viaduct Stations. Stock is a mixture of ready to run along with some modified Graham Farish carriages to represent the EPB (Electric) and Thumper (Diesel) stock seen on the the region throughout the period.
Phil Lovesay’s Lyme Regis represents the line that ran from Axminster to Lyme Regis, passing over Cannington Viaduct which settled during construction, hence the jack arch at one end. Lyme’s single platform (300’ long) could accommodate five carriages. Combpyne Station was the only intermediate stop on the line which provided a passing place, together with a small cattle dock and later a camping coach.
Gordon Wiseman’s Chamossaire is an ‘alternative BLS’ axis Bern – Gstaad – Sion, with a ‘St Bernard’ tunnel also imagined to have been built. The aim is to set a layout in a geographical setting that offers the opportunity for ‘correct’ use of a wide variety of stock.
Neil Cocksedge’s Stonecombe is another Southern Region branch in a small space. The layout gives an opportunity to run some of the delightful Southern Railway liveried and more recent multiple unit stock produced by various manufacturers.
Paul Jobber’s Kotda is Nm narrow gauge and is based on the Indian metre gauge network in Western Gujarat state in the early 1980s. It is a wayside halt, next to a typical Indian railway river bridge. Steam was still dominant in the area at the time. All the rolling stock is scratch built on Märklin chassis, except the YP class locomotive which is a motorised Del Prado model. It’s worth noting that the whole layout folds up into a small suitcase, and Paul came to the show by train and went home by bus!
Paul also had some very nice Indian standard gauge locos on show.
The club modular layout at the show was a mixture of N-Mod and NCI modules (the mixture of four tracks and two tracks posed a few challenges to the operators. We had a few electrical issues at the start of the show, but things settled down later. We shall be taking a similar layout over to Stuttgart in November, so this was a good test run and debugging session – though the operators didn’t see it quite like that!
Chris filled ERIC with Class 33’s and Class 73’s, plus a few interlopers. His new VEP unit parked up in Saggers Sidings.
Lower numbers meant a quiet day for our traders, but good to have them at the show…
Brian managed to drop in for a couple of hours, and take the usual excellent video..
And at the end of the day, we packed up, put the church back together (it all worked this morning) and 19 of us went for the traditional curry. It’s the one day of the year when I drink two bottles of Cobra – the first one barely touches the sides….
Whilst we’re off playing trains for the day, here’s a little layout suggestion.
I’ve always rather liked this Model Railroader plan from 2002. The Valley City Street & Interurban Railway was a real 1.2 mile interurban based in Valley City, North Dakota. The line connected to the Soo line in the north and Northern Pacific in town. The railroad was incorporated in 1905 and ran as an independent company until purchased by the Soo Line. It connected to a few industries and provided both freight and passenger service.
Here’s the Model Railroader plan, 5’6″ x 10’9″ in HO. Some changes would be needed for N gauge, as the operating well would be far too small!
The ‘Great Train Layouts web site – describing layouts built with train simulators – changes the layout into a continuous run.
This track plan compresses the entire railway into an HO Scale layout measuring 8 ft by 10 ft. The centerpiece of this layout is a small section of the Northern Pacific’s massive “Hi-Line” bridge bypassing the town.
Passengers are transported between downtown Valley City from the VCS&I yard to the Soo Line Valley City Station. Passenger service lasted into the 1930s.
Freight is dropped off by the Soo on the interchange track and by Northern Pacific in the VCS&I yard. The interurban then takes these cars and moves them either to online industries or across to the other railroad.
Original track plan by Cyril Durrenberger. Trainz version created by Nick Ozorak.
I like the expansion into a continuous run, helping operation, testing, and just playing trains.
A little Google work found this hand-drawn sketch of the line. It was offered for sale for over $300, together with a letter and the envelope it was sent in. I’m happy with this image, thanks!! This offers some ideas for a more linear version of the line.
An interesting little line, that could be transposed anywhere in the country, to be run with your main railroad and interurbans of choice.
Just three days to go to the show! Latest lineup….
Layouts
N-Club International Modular/N-Mod Modular Layout
Lyme Regis – Southern Region Branch Line
Southwark Bridge – Southern Region London Terminus
Stonecombe – Sothern Branch Line Terminus
Chamossaire – Swiss Main Line
Kotda – Indian Nm
Traders and Secondhand
Invicta Model Rail
Kent Garden Railways
NscaleCH
MDNdesigns
Neil’s Emporium
Plus the usual quality cakes and coffee…..
And a few pictures of York at Swindon, from Simon….
Did a round trip yesterday – TINGS and the Swindon show. The former average, but I made a few very nice purchases. The latter much better layouts, but not so good for traders. The reason for the trip to Swindon was YORK, which is incredible. Almost impossible to do it justice in photos. Look closely and you will see that the track in the staging tracks behind is code 100 – apparently for robustness. Seems to work very well.
Yet another club meeting…. Although we ended up with six members there, we had little energy to set up a layout and run trains. Especially with the show coming up on Saturday. So we drank tea and put the world to rights for a couple of hours, and went home.
All seems in place for the show. You never really know until you start setting up and it goes wrong. And you never know whether it’s a success until the first punters come through the door and have their wallets surgically removed.
So, in lieu of boring model train pictures, here are a few slightly comic modelling ideas.
And some rather fine French HO models, with genuine French commentary!
We’ll start with a little bit of film of the Bembridge branch. All too brief….
An interesting prototype, and some interesting film clips….
Jago Hazzard has been thinking. Dangerous.
Model this on your layout!
Of course, it’s been done before….
An afternoon working party attracted six members, and mainly consisted of completing the droppers on the fiddle yard and the newest corners. The afternoon included plenty of conferences between Derek’s (you remember the Chuckle Brothers, don’t you?)
After the fish and chip supper, we set up the circuit, with some careful adjustment from Derek and Simon, and expert supervision from Chris…..
At which point we found that a couple of tracks on the fiddle yard were shorting out. So we turned it upside down and reversed several droppers. Normal service was soon restored, and Toby was let loose with some dodgy looking trucks..
Chris’ lovely weathered N Class 2-6-0.
Southern Pacific from Simon.
Derek’s tanker train.
And one of my J94s got another run out.
It was pouring with rain, and no other members turned up, so we packed up early and waded home….
Day 6. Ron rant #2….
Do not travel on German Railways. Following last night’s problem went to catch 0916 to Koblenz only to find it running 50-55 late so had to wait for 0954. Now in Koblenz and train to Cochem is running 10 late. Hope I can get back to Remagen for group meal at 1930.
Still hot and sunny. A 2nd free day so went to Cochem to make up for lost day earlier in the week. Following recommendations from group members who went yesterday took 1 hour round trip on the Moselle, which helped with the heat. Last blog of this holiday as returning home tomorrow. Off on walking holiday to Isle of Man on Saturday so keep an eye on your inbox.
Kolenz to Cochem
Cochem
Moselle cruise
Koblenz Hbf
Cochem Hbf
Imagine trying to use these stairs if you are inebriated.
After all that wine tasting, you should know, Ron!!
And finally, Day 8. Ron rant #3
DB strikes again! Learnt this morning that our 1342 ICE from Cologne to Brussels Midi had been cancelled. Luckily we were allowed to use late running 1142 which left Cologne almost an hour late. Due to late running this train terminated at Brussels Nord and we had to take a local train across Brussels. Still had plenty time to enjoy following meal outside Midi station.
Pasta carbonara with a large draught Trappist beer, then crepes with cream, ice cream and chocolate sauce with a coffee.
Will probably sleep all the way to London.
Day 5
Hot and sunny. Free day so I got a regional pass, but was affected by cancelled and late running trains. Went to Wuppertal via Cologne for a trip on the monorail. Back to Cologne for a walk round followed by tram to Bonn for train back to Remagen.
Wuppertal monorail
Note the Woolworth’s branch! We discovered one of the Berlin branches – Turkish run and full of good and useful odds and ends.
Cologne
Cologne Hbf
And a rant from Ron!
To expand on original email. Left Remagen 5 latr on time at Cologne Sud but got into Hbf 25 late. Missed planned connection to Wuppertal, next one cancelled and following one 10 late but 29 late in Wuppertal. Coming back caught a train running 15 late and got back to Cologne 25 late. When I got to Bonn I had to wait an hour for train to Remagen. 1857 was running 50-55 late and 1927 arrived 10 late. All trains today were overcrowded and felt like I was on the Tokyo tubes.
All they need now is ASLEF…..
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