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.

An ‘N’ Gauge Layout?

Whilst everything is on hold (And Inaccessible) during the building work I have been having a bit of a clear out on Ebay of ‘Surplus Stock’. Mostly LNER and BR MK2 Coaches.

I’m planning to use the funds to build a small ‘N’ gauge GWR layout to join the Burton Crumpnold Family. I had been thinking of having a go at an N gauge layout for a while. It all started for real when out local Oxfam shop had some GWR wagons. More on this later.

A Pheonix Rises from The Ashes – 2009

The portable ‘OO’ layout that is being built using the recycled parts of Burton Crumpnold now has a name…

It will be called ‘Burton Phoenix‘ – as it has come out of the ashes of the original Burton Crumpnold Layout.!!!

The End of the Original Burton Crumpnold – 2008

05/10/2008
Sad News – due to the building of as new extension at our house the ‘Original’ Burton Crumpnold has been ‘Decommissioned’.

The room where it has been living currently has no roof…. I have also become very dissatisfied with the quality of the track running. The layout ‘Looks’ OK but trains do like derailing at the rear (and difficult to access) area’s of the track. The longer term plan (2009 and beyond) is to build a larger layout using larger radii more gentle (Peco Streamline?) points.

All is not lost though with the original Burton layout. I am currently in the process of planning a portable layout using what was the Upper station area and a new fiddle yard.

R.I.P Burton Crumpnold…


5th October 2008
It has been an ‘interesting’ year – with little time for Burton …As can be read in the ‘What’s New’ The Last train for the original Burton Crumpnold Layout ran in September… I needed to put the layout away as the room it has been living has no roof at the moment – whilst we have an extension built above it.. In addition to this my nagging dissatisfaction with the track issues at the rear of the layout has made me decide to ‘Decommission’ the layout. (OK Keep the Buildings etc trash the track).Coming out of the ashes of Burton Crumpnold is a portable ‘End To End’ layout built from the upper station sections and a new fiddle yard. Hopefully I will be able to run this layout at exhibition (If they will have me..)

Here is a ‘Last Running’ Photo of the Layout, with all buildings removed…BurtonsLastTrain

.. Plus a sad sight of the layout ready for the Skip…
EndofBurton
After my experiences with curved points these were not recycled……

Burton Crumpnold Complete – 2007

27/01/2007
Finished updating the original Website

11/02/2007
Added the ‘Scenery’ page of the website. This was also an opportunity to photograph and document the work I have been doing these past few weeks.

19/05/2007
Started work on upper start on area and scenery areas.

23/06/2007
Finished Basic upper station detailing and extra detailing (Fences etc) to main station.

01/07/2007
Improved existing scenery areas and add scenery items to hide baseboard joins etc.
Added some ‘work in progress’ pictures to the website.

11/11/2007
Updated the Loco and Passenger stock pages to include the new additions (and a couple I missed). See ‘Work in Progress’ for details of my first foray into DCC…

Tinkering with DCC

Lots of things have been going on – but sadly no updates. The biggest task has been to make the website work after I changed service providers – all should be OK now.

I have also dipped my toe into the land of DCC.
I bought a Pendolino DCC train set during the summer, the Pendolino was on my shopping list plans for the year and the digital train set seemed a great way to have a look at what DCC can offer.

With very minor changes to the control panel – mostly involving rewiring the ‘power feed’ plug – I managed to change the layout to DCC operation. The only issue with just using the Hornby select controller it that there is not enough ‘omph’ from the 15v supply to properly operate the points. This will just involve having a separate supply for the point CDU.

I have had a go adding DCC decoders to my DCC ready Class 121 DMU and Class 57 loco. I am also investigating upgrading my class 110 DMU to DCC – with lights. We will see if my soldering is up to the job…..

Playing with DCC – Next time use shorter wires…
Class110_dcc

Hornby Select Controller – Basic – But Fun

Other acquisitions of the past couple of months are a class 166 Turbo DMU – special offer from Rails and a surprise from Hornby in releasing the GWR liveried LBSCR ‘Terrier’. I have added all these to the stock pages with photographs etc.

The next major ‘Website’ task is to add the freight rolling stock pictures and details pages… Lets see how long these will take…

More Station Scenery

I have completed most of the scenery (for now!!) I have taken some more pictures and Updated the ‘Photographs’ pages. For a while I’m planning to enjoy ‘playing trains’ over the summer. Then it’ll be time to up date the scenery and add pictures to the freight and road vehicle stock pages.
Station Greenery

Station Scenery

I’ve been continuing with the scenery – particularly the upper station area which I have neglected until now. I have been also adding fencing the stations and improved the look of the ‘green’ areas of the layout. The work has been sporadic up till June but is going well now. All being well I will be done by the end of this month.
Scenery Green Scenery Upper station