'G' Scale
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Findhorn Light Railway - The Beginning (2007 - 2008)
By Martin Wickham
Just like Mark I have always dreamed of having my own garden railway, but not had the time, the place or the finances to do it.
I have previously made an 'N' Gauge layout and an 'OO' Gauge layout, both of which have now been dismantled in 2 house moves, and currently reside in a cardboard box in the loft.
With a new house on the way, with a huge garden, I knew that I would finally have enough room for a garden railway (but unfortunately no room indoors for the others). I started putting the feelers out for what could be purchased and a plan became to form.
Well this is the ongoing story of My 'G' Scale layout, which unfortunately will not be on the same scale as Mark's or built in seven weeks, but I don't care because it's mine!
MARCH 2007
It all started in 2007 When my better half, Nikki, bought me an LGB STARTER SET for my birthday, which comprised of a small loop of track, a mains transformer, a Stainz loco and a red and blue set of coaches.
It started life going round and round the living room, and even went round the bottom of the Christmas Tree for a while before being packed back in its box ready for our up and coming house move.
JULY 2007
Once the house move was completed the layout re-emerged from its box and took pride of place on a prepared area raised up from my patio.
The Dovecote Light Railway was born, if only on a very small scale. It did'nt go anywhere but My boy and I loved it anyway.
A few Months later, I managed to pick up 6 more pieces of curved tracks from e-bay which enabled me to extend the layout into a kind of kidney bean shape.
Mark Thatcher kindly donated an old station building to me for restoration, I added a rough piece of wood to form the station platform, and behold, Findhorn Halt was alive.
Not much else happened for about 6-8 months as the new house took priority, ie new kitchen, decorating, gardening etc.
MAY 2008
Then came my birthday, and again Nikki and Mum gave me money towards purchasing extra track for the layout. I started to look online for points and track but was upset at the very high cost. As LGB had gone into liquidation all the stock of track had risen in value consirable, I assumed that I would not be able to expand the layout much this year.
Once again my friend Mark Thatcher came to the rescue! Not only did Mark give me two long straights for my birthday, but he offered me first refusal on purchasing his second hand track which was no longer being used on The Dovecote Light Railway.
"a railway that was going somewhere"
I jumped at the chance of buying all his points and as much track as possible, this would mean that the Findhorn Light Railway could actually finally start to become a railway that was going somewhere.
I also got to buy Mark's old signal box and a lovely little railway building for the layout too.
"The new signal box"
Once all the new track and buildings was collected from Marks, I set about making a track plan for the new layout. I was now able to make a large loop main line that went all the way round a large tree, which then has two branch lines from it.
One line goes off to a dead end, which one day will be where the layout will grow again. The other line goes of into the station area. The new signal box takes pride of place beside the points at the start of this line.
In front of the signal box a point allows a loco to either head for the station or head into a soon to be built engine shed.
The extra track also now enables me to have a runaround at the station and extra track carries on through the station into an industrial area. I hope to either have a factory or quarry in this area.
JULY 2008
The track was laid and I was happy with how it looked, all it needed now was a train running on it.
So once again the Stainz and carraiges came out of its box and was placed on the layout. Problem! Nothing happened. The loco was dead. I tried moving the electrical contacts on the line and managed to get the loco to move about 10cm before grinding to a halt again. I think the track will need cleaning before my next run.
I set about cleaning all the track and finally managed to get the train to go round the loop but not very smoothly. Running an electric loco was not going to be the best option for me.
At the next WMRC meeting Mark discussed starter live steam loco's and showed me his EDRIG. I was instantly smitten. This would be my dream to have one of these.
A live steam fund would be set up immediately! Well once the new bathroom and decorating was finished! One day I will have one!
EDRIG 0-4-0T Live Steam Locomotive
Edrig is a freelance side tank locomotive with design inspirations from Hunslet. Its made by Accucraft UK. The loco is internally gas fired with a centre flue boiler. The model is gauge adjustable from 32mm (‘O’ gauge) to 45mm (‘1’ gauge) and has insulated wheels as standard. The axles run in bronze bearings and all the rods and valve gear are manufactured from stainless steel.
The engine is manually controlled but suitable for radio control to be fitted. The open cab gives excellent access to the gas, water and lubricator fillers. The boiler is fitted with a water level check valve and the displacement lubricator has an under floor drain valve.
The model is built from stainless steel and brass, and with the correct maintenance, will give a lifetime of pleasure.
AUGUST 2008
I am desperate to run a train on my layout. I look at the layout so have started looking for battery powered locomotives that I could easily purchase and run on a budget. With a six year who is mad about Thomas the Tank Engine I decided to try to find a second hand Lionel Thomas, Annie & Clarribel.
The only ones I could find were on ebay in USA, I now await the bidding to begin and see if I get lucky.
Picture is of Lionel Trains 'G' Scale Thomas the Tank Engine
"Shelley the Tram"
I have also come across IP Engineering's Shelley The Tram, which is a spitting image of Toby the Tram. The kit costs £150 and looks fantastic. You can also choose a happy or sad face depending on your mood. Great! I have found a second hand one on ebay so will watch that too.
I must thank Mark and the WMRC for their generosity on presenting me with a Glendale Junction voucher on Monday night. This is in recognition of the work that I have done on this website. This will go towards my EDRIG fund. Thank You.
"for just over £200 I will have an engine to run"
Well I was unlucky on the ebay items. The Thomas went for over £150 and I found out that Mark was also looking at the Tram kit on ebay, so I decided that I would look at buying a brand new kit and have the fun of building it myself.
I contacted IP Engineering and they have given me a very good price on a new tram kit, face kit and Radio controlled kit. So for just over £200 I will have an engine to run, to keep my six year old happy (and me!).
The next problem is that I do not have £200 spare, so ebay comes to the rescue again .... I will sell my LGB Stainz electric loco and carriages an put towards the tram kit. With a bit of luck that should cover it and we will be back in business.
"ebay came up trumps!"
Well good news, the customers of ebay came up trumps! I sold my LGB loco, rolling stock and mains adaptor for £160. Thanks to my better half they are now all wrapped up ready for posting tomorrow.
So I plan to put this money, along with the money given to me by the club and place my order with IP Engineering first thing tomorrow morning.
Once the kit arrives I will let you know how I get on building it. I am a little apprehensive about building this kit as I have never done anything like this before. I have e-mailed Mark and asked him to be on standby as technical advisor!
SEPTEMBER 2008
Well all the ebay parcels have been safely received at the relevant buyers homes, so I am now safe to go ahead and order my new model.
I called IP Engineering and placed my order for Shelley the tram, they unfortunately no longer do the remote control kit as advertised but informed me that the tram kit would be sent within a few days.
After some advise from Mark I called Brian at Glendale Junction who has helped me with all the parts I will need to make the tram radio controlled. So by the beginning of next week I should have all the parts I need to start building. Mark has very kindly offered to assist in the building process so hopefully I won't mess it up!
Now I have started to look for some rolling stock to go with the tram. Obviously we want it to be like Toby from Thomas the Tank engine so need some plank wagons to cart rocks from the quarry. As I am on a strict budget I stumbled across some low cost modellers board kits from Locolines. They produce 2 plank wagon kits and cattle wagon kits (see pictures below) for only £12, plus I would need to source some chassis, again from IP Engineering.
Whilst searching the website I also came across a lovely little model of a 'Wickham Tram' (see picture above). Now somewhere along my family tree are distant relatives that used to make these, so I thought what a fantastic model to compliment my layout. So with the change from my ebay proceeds I also intend to place an order for this kit to. I can even have my own crest printed on the loco! Fantastic.
As soon as the models arrive I will give an update, and hopefully will be able to blog the building process as they go along.
See below a picture of the Locolines plank wagon and cattle wagon.
"Oh my god"
Well the tram kit arrived and I excitedly opened the box to find what looked like the biggest jigsaw puzzle I had ever seen. I said out loud "oh my god"! My heart sunk and I thought that maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew with this one.
Putting that aside the kit itself looked fantastic quality with really good instructions. Every part was neatly packed in poly bags and all the woodword was neatly bagged and sealed too.
The next day all the radio controlled parts arrived from Glendale Junction so I put all the items in a bag ready to take on the next club night to show Mark.
Piko Buffer Stops
I also ordered some Piko buffer stops from Glendale Junction. I had wanted the LGB bent rail ones but they didnt have any in stock. However Brian offered me these instead at a much cheaper price, of only £4.70 each!
When they arrived they were pre assembled and just needed transfers applying for the detailing.
They have been placed on the layout and look fantastic.
IP Engineering Shelley The Tram Build:
Week 1
I arrived Marks home on club night and placed the box containing the tram kit on the table. Mark promptly started to look through the parts, the look on his face was a picture! He silently looked through the instructions and closely examined some of the parts, then placed them back in the box and said "mmm thats one hell of a kit for your first attempt".
Mark then started to suggest that he buy the kit and I look for something easier. I then started to think that I had made a major mistake in taking on this project. I started to feel dissapointed because I really wanted Toby on my layout.
Anyway, Mark went and made himself a drink and came back and said "we can bloody do this between us, lets give it a go"!
Yipee! Everything suddenly came back on track and I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Mark proceeded to give me a shopping list of what I would need to proceed and promply took the chassis parts of the Tram into his spray booth.
Work had officially started on building Toby the Tram for the Dovecote LIght Railway.
Week 2
Well another week has gone by and some more progress on the tram. Mark has done a fantastic job on spraying the plain metal parts of the chassis, so they are now a lovely shiny black.
We spend the evening assembling the parts of the chassis and working out how the gearbox went together ready for it to be incorporated.
Finally was the very fiddly job of putting all the grub screws into the wheels ready for them to be connected to the finished chassis at a later date.
Mark then asked that all the white metal parts be left so that he could start some of the painting.
I am over the moon with the progress so far, considering that I thought the project may have to be abandoned at one stage.
Week 3
Wow! What a difference a week makes! Mark had worked his socks of this week pushing along with the build. The chassis was now complete with gearbox and wheels attached.
Mark had also assembled and painted the buffer bars (complete with extra brass chains) and they looked fantastic.
Furthermore he has fully painted and assembled the roof, which was stunning (see below).
The main task tonight was to gauge the wheels and tighten all the screws. Then we would take a look at the body parts.
"it's now starting to look like a tram engine"
Earlier in the week Mark had called and asked that I give the body parts 3 coats of clear vanish, I promptly did this and brought the parts to club night.
Mark being Mark could not resist making a start on attaching all the detailing, and here is a picture of the work so far.
It's now starting to look like a tram engine.
Week 4
Well the body is now complete and has been painted using Humbrol no.62 matt brown paint.
This was areally tedious task as it was difficult to get the paint to cover, but after 4 coats of paint over 4 nights the end result I am very pleased with indeed.
The brown paint has picked out all the detailing and plank work and really works well on this model.
It is amazing the difference that a lick of paint makes.
Week 5
Mark has been a busy boy this week and has finished building the trams 'skirt'.
The four sides have been assembled and the buffer beams and cow catchers have been attached and look apsolutely fantastic. The added chains may have to be shortened at a later date but other than that, another piece is complete.
This has now also been attached to the previously built chassis.
Above is how the model looks with all the assembled parts put together.
The Station Building
Whilst the building of the tram engine is taking up most of my time at the moment, I have still managed to carry out some other building work on the layout itself.
The first job has been to re-roof and paint the station building that was kindly donated to me by Mark last year. I am very pleased with end result.
I used some roof tiles that were being sold off half price at a dolls house shop, and then varnised and painted the whole model.
The Signal Box
The signal box that Mark gave me really did not need any maintenance at all until it received some storm damage over the last few months.
The stairs were smashed and beyond repair, so I used some extra long matches to re-construct the hand rails and then painted them with Humbrol enamel paint.
Hopefully nobody will notice. I think they look better than the original handrails!
Tram Build Week Six
Well work is progressing very well with the building of the Tram engine from IP Engineering. Mark has not only managed to finish building his Railbus (see picture) but has managed to do all the fiddly line work on the body of the tram.
The model now has come home from the club for a few more coats of paint to be applied to the back of the front and rear panels and some touch up work.
Next will be the electrics and radio control. The lamps and leds have also been fitted to the panels ready to be wired.
East Anglian Garden Railway Show
I was lucky enough to get a day off work to visit the East Anglian Garden Railway show at Brandon on Saturday with my Son.
It was a really fantastic day. We arrived at about 12.30pm and did not leave until 4pm! My Son loved all the working layouts and I loved looking at all the trade stands and dreaming about the future of what I could have one day.
I purchased a model of the Wickham Tram from Locolines that I had been planning to purchase for some time. Seeing the model in the flesh made up my mind that this would compliment my layout trundling around the loop.
We were also very lucky on the raffle too, as two numbers came up! We won a Small Halt from Modeltown (see picture) and two wagons from Locolines. And they are even going to put our Railway name on the side. Watch this space for pictures of the kit when it arrives.
This is a really great show, and I cant wait until next year.
November 2008
Well the Tram kit has returned to the club. Unfortunately I have not been able to get the painting finished however work will now commence on the electrics.
No work was carried out this Monday as we were busy looking at Marks finished Railbus Model and his next project, Jessie Mae. More on that soon!
December 2008
Well not much is happening with the Tram at the moment. Due to heavy work commitments and a huge amount of DIY work at home I have been unable to make it to club these past few weeks.
Hopefully come the new year, things will slow up a bit and we can get the project back on Track!