Stowey Green is born… 2009

22/11/2009
The extension has been built and normal life is resuming in our household.


Whilst I was packing up Burton Crumpnold I had an idea for another project to run alongside Burton Phoenix with no space for a large ‘OO’ layout for a year or two.

It is a small( 4ft 6ins x 2ft 6ins) GWR ‘N’ Gauge layout ‘Stowey Green’, this is a fictitious location in Somerset, close to the Somerset & Dorset line which would allow the occasional LMS ‘ visitor’…

Here is the initial ‘sketch design’ of the layout.
stoweygreen_plan

It is a twin loop design with a low level oval and a second oval that climbs to a small upper station and then descends back to the lower one. In order to keep the gradients reasonable the baseboard has been built so it is 30mm higher at the front than at the back.

The baseboard was been build from the usual 2x1inch timber with a plywood top. The top has been covered with cork to help deaden the sound.

barestowey

The ‘N’ Gauge Layout Get a Name..

I have a basic design in place for the ‘N’ Gauge layout – Stowey Green.
.. As an LMS man married to a GWR Wife, I was drawn to the area of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (SDJR)
(Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway – Wiki Page)  .. This railway was run by the GWR and LMS so gives a great opportunity/excuse of seeing GWR and LMS traffic together.

I chose as the village of Neither Stowey, an attractive Somerset Village near Bridgewater as a ‘location’, on a potential route that could have beeen used to connect Bridgewater to Minehead.
So I gave the new station the name ‘Stowey Green’, and I also decided to include a small ‘halt’ station – using the simple if attractive GWR ‘Pagoda’ Halt building, which will be ‘Upper Stowey’.

This will be a 4ft 6ins x 2 ft 6ins two layer layout. To keep the gradients low I have built to board so that the front is 30mm higher than the back to keep all the gradients gentle.

Unlike the ‘OO’ layouts(s) which have a wide variety of stock. I am planning the ‘N’ gauge layout to be purely GWR steam eta.