Late night inspiration...

Just been playing around with some bits of paper after having comprehensively re-read the narrow gauge book on Calshot. This sketch doesn't sound that feasible given the right hand hangar will scale down to 50cm wide! Alternately, the castle can be on the left hand side.

I'd ideally like to follow the prototype as close as possible, in the next few days I'll have half a dozen NG wagons to play with which will need to be modified to resemble the real things.

We'll see...

Making decisions is always the hardest part!

After numerous comments and advice on NGRM-online by members some things have been called into question (and rightly so!). The balloon loop takes up far more space than I would and there are various other suggestions made such as adding a loop at the front of the layout for the narrow gauge. I have even had a sketch drawn up for me for which I am very grateful. I have modified it slightly to show some of the additions - hope he doesn't mind, but it's much better than I could do myself:

The question is, do I go for it?

At last - a design I'm happy with!

Click on sketch to enlarge

Well, here it is! 

It's been a long time coming but I think I've finally worked out a design. I must have bored you rigid with the amount of plans I've been doing and my plethora of postings about planning indecision!

Hopefully this design will work. On the left hand end we have a 2ft fiddle yard including a 3 road sector plate for the SG line (thick grey lines) and 3 holding loops for the NG line (thinner lines above). You can see the NG does a full 180 degree turn around the perimeter of the fiddle yard. It then veers off (top of plan) behind the layout to make connection with the continuous run NG loop (for when I'm tied up operating the SG line). Moving back on to the layout the NG line (at right) meets a spur for the goods platform. It then curves around the hangar to meet to the back of the loop again. Then there is a possible line back to the FY in front of the castle. Finally for the NG we have the front section where there is a two road engine shed masking the scenic exit. This then goes into a single line in front of the slipway before ending up into two sidings on a jetty.

As for the SG you can see the single line entering to the left of the scenic section where a siding runs parallel. We can now see a run around loop for running round goods wagons. There is one headshunt and one siding, both ending rather abruptly at the quay wall (much like Lymington Pier in the old days!)

I would be appreciative of any comments as always - any questions just jot them down and I'll be happy to answer them for you!

A scenario in 4ft

Today I took an hour off my busy revision schedule to continue planning the new layout. This is the latest (!) idea. There are bits I like, and bit's I don't.

I like the left hand end of the plan, but I'm not sure about the station as by the time I've marked out 47cm, there isn't a lot of station that can fit there! The station by the way is based on Lymington Pier as it was. I particularly liked the buffer stops that ended abruptly at the quay edge!

This sketch shows the similar previous design albeit without a station and with the headquarters building.

Calshot MkII - 3D design - Eaglehurst Camp

Another Friday, another night to unwind doing my favourite hobby. This time, I've spent more time than I probably should have doing a 3D plan (which I started yesterday as you may have seen in the gallery). I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and it shows as accurate as possible (with only two photos for reference) what the loco shed and stores at Eaglehurst Camp (Calshot) looked like in the 1940s. Some of it maybe completely wrong, but that's the limitation of the lack of resources.

I'm quite likely to copy the prototype as you see it in the 3D model for part of Calshot Mk II. I've still to decide where to put the standard gauge line though!

What do you reckon?

Jam 

Calshot MkII - Version III

 

I suddenly had an idea today, pretty basic, but it's given me some ideas for half of the layout. (Stop laughing at the back!) "Why not copy from the prototype?" OK, it had occurred to me before today, but suddenly it all seemed to fall in place. 

The top screenshot shows the location of the Calshot RAF Narrow Gauge Railway and shows its route (red line) along the spit across to Eaglehurst camp. Now let's zoom in a bit:

Looking north towards the end of the spit we can see a jetty (marked C). There were at one point, I believe , two tracks here (although I'll need to double check that!). Running southwards, the line reached a triangle. Trains did not use this triangle to turn round, otherwise they would be travelling boiler first up the ascent to Eaglehurst Camp. Straight ahead you can see the letter B, this is hangar F (or F shed). The railway ran either side of this hangar, narrowly skirting the south-eastern wall. There was a junction soon after where a line went onto the Powerhouse pier (now demolished) and the main line continued along the spit. There were a series of sidings and passing loops along the spit itself. 

Anyway, back to my earlier point, following the prototype (ish) we can see letter A on the aerial view. This is hangar D (or D shed) which was in its later years used as a workshop and store. I have modelled a low relief version of this hangar and was used on Calshot MkI. Now, I have been thinking about magically relocating hangar D to where hangar F is (moving A to B, effectively!) Now, let's see what I'm proposing for half of the layout:

It is very similar to my first plan for Calshot MkII which I still rather like, but this will take up slightly less space. Decisions, decisions!

Calshot MkII - 009 Diesel Critter

I have started construction of a freelance diesel (009) for Calshot. It is based on the Knightwing kitbash that I started a while ago and never got round to finishing. The chassis is from a Dapol M7, but it looks as though i'll have to add some lead weight in both bonnets. Here's where I have got up to so far:

Hope you like it, there's still more to do on it such as the rear bonnet end and handrails as well as other little details and tidying up. I'm pleased with it so far - it certainly took many mistakes to get it looking right. If you have any suggestions let me know, it will be nice to get advice from people more knowledgeable about scratch-building than me. Then at some point I've got a fleet of at least 6 NG wagons to build from scratch.

I'm still looking for a suitable plan for Calshot MkII, I haven't yet given up!

Jam