Elmham Market in EM

[David Hall]

James,

How wonderful! What a stunning interpretation of a GER rural station Elham Market is. Apologies if I've missed the reference, but shades/inspiration from Wickham Market? A leading question, as I spent two enjoyable years living in Campsea Ashe about a decade ago, and was a regular user of the East Suffolk line, being within five minutes of the station.

Keep sharing your work. It's amazing!
David

 

[James Spooner]

James,

How wonderful! What a stunning interpretation of a GER rural station Elham Market is. Apologies if I've missed the reference, but shades/inspiration from Wickham Market? A leading question, as I spent two enjoyable years living in Campsea Ashe about a decade ago, and was a regular user of the East Suffolk line, being within five minutes of the station.

Keep sharing your work. It's amazing!
David

Hi David

Many thanks for your kind comments, much appreciated. The inspiration is actually Lavenham. The track plan is very closely based on Lavenham, but the goods yard at that station seemed to be designed for chain or horse working (strategically placed bollards around the yard and white painted protective rails over the ground signals give the game away). I created headshunts sufficient for a J15 and three wagons, so changed the name to Elmham Market.

My modelling output has diminished recently as I spend more time in the summer in Wales, driving on the Ffestiniog. I do want to finish the G5 and get cracking on the push pull coaches, though, so that’ll be my next rainy day task.

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

Hi Nigel
I recon you could get away with two crew one could always be a trainee fireman along with the actual fireman when the driver was at the other end or someone being transferred riding along in the cab with the fireman, food for thought.
David.

Thanks David and I concluded you were right; on balance there was always the possibility of having two crew members so modelled them both before soldering the roof on. I’m almost at the point of priming and painting the loco but we currently have builders extending the kitchen and I might wait until dust levels drop a bit!

Nigel

 

[David Hall]

Hi David

Many thanks for your kind comments, much appreciated. The inspiration is actually Lavenham. The track plan is very closely based on Lavenham, but the goods yard at that station seemed to be designed for chain or horse working (strategically placed bollards around the yard and white painted protective rails over the ground signals give the game away). I created headshunts sufficient for a J15 and three wagons, so changed the name to Elmham Market.

My modelling output has diminished recently as I spend more time in the summer in Wales, driving on the Ffestiniog. I do want to finish the G5 and get cracking on the push pull coaches, though, so that’ll be my next rainy day task.

Nigel

Hi Nigel.

That makes more sense. Lavenham has always struck me as a nice prototype. You've certainly captured the essence of that GER rural branch line as I said before. The whole scene seems so spacious, a key element of that. The railway doesn't dominate, moreso it sits nicely in the landscape. That's such a hard thing to achieve, but you've don't it really well. It's so inspirational.

Although my family roots are in Norfolk and Suffolk, I was born and grew up in the North East, so it's nice to see the G5 taking shape. Look forward to seeing the finished loco strutting it's stuff on the layout. As and when you find time between playing with the real trains in Wales of course!!

Many thanks,
David

 

[James Spooner]

I finally added the remaining details to the body this evening and gave it a coat of primer before disappearing to Wales to drive some bigger engines tomorrow. I’ll take a critical look at it on my return and see what needs tidying up before giving it any more coats. A couple of photos of the current state of play are attached.

Nigel

 

[AJC]

That looks very nice indeed, Nigel. Hope you have a good time at the Ffestiniog and the bigger little engines behave!

Adam

 

[James Spooner]

That looks very nice indeed, Nigel. Hope you have a good time at the Ffestiniog and the bigger little engines behave!

Adam

Thanks Adam! It’s also the centenary of the Welsh Highland Railway this year and the celebrations are taking place this weekend, jointly with all narrow gauge railways in the locality so should be good!

Nigel

 

[David Waite]

Hi Nigel
Wonderful job it’s coming along very nicely, in the real world with the foot steps so close to that air compressor I wonder how many used the pipe coming off the compressor as a grab rail, I assume that’s the exhaust from the steam cylinder.
David

 

[Mick LNER]

The area around the base of the Chimney looks "unusual" ?
All the photos I have seen have the pipe from the Westinghouse Pump, going into the side of the Smokebox not the Sand Filler area ?.

Nice model.

 

[James Spooner]

The area around the base of the Chimney looks "unusual" ?
All the photos I have seen have the pipe from the Westinghouse Pump, going into the side of the Smokebox not the Sand Filler area ?.

Nice model.

Hi Mick,

Yes, the pipe does actually plumb into the smokebox but that possibly isn’t very clear in the photo. The chimney needs sanding and refilling. First time I glued it down once the glue had set I realised it wasn’t vertical, so I had to remove it (not easy with superglue!) then reset. Sadly, in doing that I gouged out some of the base of the chimney and filled, but there are some gaps and areas that need another go, so, now I am back home I will attend to that before continuing with the painting.

Nigel

 

[Mick LNER]

Re the Westinghouse pipe "normally" the pipe is level with the top cylinder on the pump and straight across from there to the Smokebox. Have you a photo of your Loco ? . Glad you have noticed the chimney issue a real pain to clean up once painted.

One of my G5's re the Westinghouse pipe position photo attached .

cheers

Mick

 

[LarryG]

It's strange how some threads pass under the radar. I only came across this one this morning, but have only had time to read half of it. A really neat layout and I like the modelling. The station was instantly recognisable to me seeing as I built three of those laser cut kits for my Cambrian layouts. .

My own modelling stalled some time ago and with limited time at my disposal plus a very slow running computer, the rest of this thread will be read later.

 

[LarryG]

The 0-4-4T ran through the pointwork like a knife cutting through butter..... a delight to watch. I am up-to-date with this thread now. The 3D GER bogies looked very nice indeed. I agree a spread out goods yard looks far more convincing than space cluttered up with sidings and structures.

 

[James Spooner]

It's strange how some threads pass under the radar. I only came across this one this morning, but have only had time to read half of it. A really neat layout and I like the modelling. The station was instantly recognisable to me seeing as I built three of those laser cut kits for my Cambrian layouts. .

My own modelling stalled some time ago and with limited time at my disposal plus a very slow running computer, the rest of this thread will be read later.

Many thanks Larry! Coming from a modeller of your calibre, I’m honoured.

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

The 0-4-4T ran through the pointwork like a knife cutting through butter..... a delight to watch. I am up-to-date with this thread now. The 3D GER bogies looked very nice indeed. I agree a spread out goods yard looks far more convincing than space cluttered up with sidings and structures.

Thanks. I have to say a lot of the 0- 4-4‘s running is down to the slightly unusual chassis design from 52F models, but it does seem to work well. On the goods yard, it helps essentially modelling something close to a prototype and not being tempted to put things in that didn’t exist in real life.

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

Re the Westinghouse pipe "normally" the pipe is level with the top cylinder on the pump and straight across from there to the Smokebox. Have you a photo of your Loco ? . Glad you have noticed the chimney issue a real pain to clean up once painted.

One of my G5's re the Westinghouse pipe position photo attached .

cheers

Mick

I do have a photo of 67322‘s left hand side and its pipe seems to go down diagonally until it runs parallel with the boiler, when it goes horizontal. The entry point into the smoke box on my model is admittedly too low but, looking again at the Westy pump, I think that might be mounted too low on the front of the tank. It was such a fiddle getting all the pipes bent and soldered in place, together with the extra valves for the push pull, I’m inclined to leave it in case I wind up with something worse second time around.

Nigel

 

[Mick LNER]

I hadnt notice the pump postion . I agree best left alone.

 

[James Spooner]

I’ve been a bit quiet recently, partly because of a couple of trips to Wales, partly because of work (including overseas trips) and partly because of the building work in the garden, but this weekend I have managed to progress the G5 to the extent it only needs couplings and weathering to enter service. Attached is a video of it running on the rolling road just now.

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

I have just given the G5 a test run around Elmham Market. It romped away with five Bachmann Mk1/Thompsons so I got out my D&S GER bogie coaches. It pulled those four quite happily as well so that augurs well for the next stage of my project, the two D&S push pull coaches. One issue I am going to have to deal with is buffer locking. As an experiment, I reversed the train through the crossover under the road bridge and the swing under the G5 did cause locking with screw couplings so I will need to look at some form of coupling that holds the loco and coach a fixed distance apart. Attached is a video of the train sending its way along as well as a photo of it in the platform.

Nigel

 

[David Waite]

Hi Nigel
I like Your G5 it ran so quiet and smoothly great work,
Do you have a solution to the buffer locking in your mind?
David.