Cregwir, Island of Sodor Branchline Exhibition Layout in 4mm

[ErlestokeManor7812]

Evening Guys, alongside my main layout, viewtopic.php?f=22&t=50911 I have recently bought, along with my partner, a small 7.5ft x 2ft layout which is destined to be an Exhibition Layout. This is destined to be a Sodor inspired layout, based on the tv series of Thomas. There aren't many layouts on the show circuit that are what I would call serious Thomas, you get the ones that have three circles of track with a have a go driving Thomas, Percy, James etc but I've opted for a more realistic approach. Cregwir is a small branchline terminus located on the northern side of the Island of Sodor, the railway served the nearby Cregwir Stone Quarry, joining the Harwick Branch (which in turn joined onto the Arlesburgh branch (aka Ducks Branchline) There was also a small spur off to Ballaswein, the most northerly station on the Island. Sadly with an increase in road traffic to the Quarry, the line fell into disrepair, it was ripped up during the Second World War. However fast forward to the 1980s, Sir Topham Hat, has seen that the traffic to Cregwir Quarry is too much for the roads to the north of the Island, so decides to reopen the branchline now that the Harwick branch has been upgraded and reopened.
The stations along the route, including Ballaswein, were reopened and the quarry line was reinstated. The line is operated by engines on the smaller side, especially engines used on Ducks Branchline, Duck, Oliver, Donald, Douglas feature a lot, but it isn't uncommon to find the likes of Thomas, Percy, Toby, Diesel, Daisy etc to put in the effort too.
Now away from the history, the actual layout is a while away from being at shows. This is how we bought it:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/

The fiddle yard is a tad on the small side for what we want so that's being chopped off and having a new one built, this will also act as a break so we can transport the layout easily in two halves.

I had a play around to make sure a small tender engine would fit nicely in the headshunt of the station, the bufferstops will need cutting back but otherwise quite happy with that. So with my only Thomas Character so far being a test dummy, I posed a few shots with the buildings that came with it in place to show what it will look like when running.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
Douglas prepares to depart with a train for Harwick and Tidmouth.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
Douglas arrives with a mixed goods into the run round loop
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
Douglas shunts his wagons away
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
And finally back on shed after a busy day, the coal stage, water tower and grounded coach body have been added from the other layout for measuring up.

First job on the list will be to add point motors and wire up the track, we plan to add a cattle dock beside the goods shed and theres a possibility of having a narrow gauge transfer siding too but thats still just a little idea for now.


Thanks for looking in


Kenny

[GeraldH]

Looks like an interesting project. Keep us posted .

[glencairn]

As GeraldH says 'an interesting project'. One to follow. I mustn't let the grandchildren see Douglas. They will want one.

Glencairn

[Dad-1]

Just a question - Is this just to have a layout for children of all ages to watch & look at, or will
you be opening up for general visitor driving ?
Having a quality children drive layout I can say it's been the best £ for £ thing I've ever built.
The one down side is that everything has to be 'Child Resistant,' that excludes things like working
signals, loading gauge, in fact any scenic items that would be too vulnerable to small hands.

Interested in your plan of operation.

Ah yes, if you have the time try and get sessions in local library, fetes and the like to 'Sell' the
hobby to people who would never go to a model railway exhibition. We've also done an old
peoples home !! ……….. Some may say that's ideal for me !!

Geoff T

[ErlestokeManor7812]

Just a question - Is this just to have a layout for children of all ages to watch & look at, or will
you be opening up for general visitor driving ?
Having a quality children drive layout I can say it's been the best £ for £ thing I've ever built.
The one down side is that everything has to be 'Child Resistant,' that excludes things like working
signals, loading gauge, in fact any scenic items that would be too vulnerable to small hands.

Interested in your plan of operation.

Ah yes, if you have the time try and get sessions in local library, fetes and the like to 'Sell' the
hobby to people who would never go to a model railway exhibition. We've also done an old
peoples home !! ……….. Some may say that's ideal for me !!

Geoff T

The plan for the layout is for it to be one to look, not one that visitors can have a go with, it will be as run just like a prototypical layout that you would find at a typical show. I've seen plenty of have a go layouts which are great for the kids to have a go with, but I have never seen a Sodor layout run as if it was a real life railway set in the year whenever.
Im glad its attracted some interest, a friend of mine has suggested calling the layout Wibbleton to reflect on the amount of wibble, uproar, controversy etc that is in the railway movement.....
Anyway, while waiting for a friend to come and give me a hand with the wiring, I have just been posing engines and stock on the layout to give a feel of what it will be like, more engines and stock have been arriving over the week or so.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
Duck arrives with a train from Harwick, Stafford awaits to depart with a small portion of the Circus Train while Mavis shunts the goods shed.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
Stafford collects some wagons from the goods shed while Max and Monty look on.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/89242397@ ... ed-public/
A diesel take over as The Bear awaits the arrival of Iron Arry with a mixed goods, Iron Bert is on shed prior to shunting Arrys train.

I have recently purchased some ground signals, point levers and a cattle dock kit all for the layout, the Cattle dock will sit in front of the goods shed. I will hopefully bring you updates for that soon.

Many thanks for popping in!

Kenny

[ErlestokeManor7812]

Well with all this lockdown malarky I may as well do something with this layout, so here are some progress photos.
Ballasting now done, the gravel areas and I've laid ciders for the engine shed. I have also started the Tunnel, I should of painted the tunnel green first before putting grass on but never mind, will just have to put a few extra layers on to cover it all!









And finally a Loco line up to finish.


Until next time

Kenny

[glencairn]

Coming along nicely, Kenny.

Well done.

Glencairn

[Bufferstop]

Nice little layout Kenny. You re on fairly safe ground as Reverend Awdry based his stories very firmly on the prototype and prototype practises. It means swap the stock and you have a conventional layout. I've even found the prototype for the fish in the side tanks incident. A walk across the fields from here gets you to a canal aquaduct, which being owned in a roundabout way by the GWR, was tapped to supply water for the Bearly to Alcester branch loco to top up. The marks of where the pipe and valve were attached to the stonework and the patch welded over the hole in the side of the trough when it was removed are quite easy to see. It wasn't fish in this case it was all the other junk that found its way down a four inch pipe that caused the branch loco to have problems.
John W
aka Bufferstop.

[ErlestokeManor7812]

Update time!



These were the last photos I took prior to doing something drastic....




All the ballast came up and was replaced with Woodland Scenic Buff colour stuff, its neater and I'm happier with it. Since then I have done some more greenery in areas that were ballast and changed it up slightly, think I'm happier with the whole layout now.



So I couldn't resist some photos of locos on the layout, featuring the new Bachmann Collectors Club J72 69023 Joem, the Dapol/Kernow Beattie Well Tank 30587 and Agenoria Models Port Talbort Railway Saddle Tank 813 that I had built for me.

Until next time....

Kenny

[sindi21]

Update time!



These were the last photos I took prior to doing something drastic....




All the ballast came up and was replaced with Woodland Scenic Buff colour stuff, its neater and I'm happier with it. Since then I have done some more greenery in areas that were ballast and changed it up slightly, think I'm happier with the whole layout now.



So I couldn't resist some photos of locos on the layout, featuring the new Bachmann Collectors Club J72 69023 Joem, the Dapol/Kernow Beattie Well Tank 30587 and Agenoria Models Port Talbort Railway Saddle Tank 813 that I had built for me.

Until next time....

Kenny

I just wanted to say my appreciation and also that your attention to details around the houses is impressive
They are really sticking out