A quick update

As you know, this project has to sit on the back burner whilst I prepare Purespring Watercress for the National Narrow Gauge Railway convention here in Minnesota in September. That's not to say that things are idle on this project.

Far from it. I received some track recently and felt like messing around with it this morning to get some ideas for the models development. What follows are a few thoughts on what might well happen.

Co-incidence?

After posting about the 6.5 minimum gauge Ruston Proctor, this old Pathé film was drawn to my attention. The whole film, as with all Pathé newsreels is an education in itself. A slice of times gone by, replaced by advancing technologies. Then pay extra attention from about 8 minutes and 50 seconds for a little narrow gauge industrial railway treat. Perhaps you may even find inspiration for a microlayout here.

A late Birthday present

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and much to my surprise, a late present just turned up from my wife. This book. The third edition of Ken Hartley and Paul Ingham's book on the Sand Hutton Light Railway.

Happy Birthday to me.

The first edition of the Ken Hartley book, published in 1962 by the NGRS still resides in my collection, a small thin paperback.
I also had a copy of the 2nd edition from 1982. A somewhat bigger book than the first. It got lost when I emigrated to the USA some 20 years ago. Both books are a far cry from this magnificent tome. Hard backed, and in full colour with superbly reproduced photographs, drawings, and maps. A treat to look at.
Though I call myself a fan of the work of Sir Arthur Heywood. It's very probably more the work of Sir Robert Walker and the Sand Hutton that has inspired my layouts.
There was one particular image in previous editions of the book of the freight terminus at Claxton that had a huge influence on a previous Gn15 layout of mine. I built a model of the goods shed based on the end view in this picture. The barn I used for my working crane feature appears in the background of this image.
Finally, the caption of the photograph says it all. "Claxton terminus, abutting on Whinny Lane". Just seeing that name in print makes me nostalgic for that old layout of mine. Much of that model was inspired by just that one picture.

That image is in this book, and reprinted with such clarity I feel like I'm looking at it for the first time. There are many inspirational images in this book. Pictures that are familiar to me from the first books and others that I have never seen before. There's one of a short train leaving the yard at Warthill station and crossing a road that just screams out. "Model me!"
It's going to be very difficult to resist some of these cries from the pictures, I can tell you.

Inspiration Album No.1. Vitacress/Sylvaspring, Bere Regis, Dorset.

An infrequent series of posts of inspirational images of scenes that may, or may not, find themselves incorporated onto the layout.

Once upon a time, I built a pretty well known Gn15 layout called Purespring Watercress based on the Vitacress line in Bere Regis. It featured in NGIRM Review about 10 years ago and was seen at major train shows in the Midwest up until a few years ago.
About 4 years ago Michael Crofts (of Perrygrove) and I corresponded about the line, and as a result when I was in the UK visiting we, and our tolerant wives, walked the entire length of the line, on a beautiful summers day.
We had found a member of staff and asked if it was OK. The line wasn't working and there was no-one else about so it was fine. I have many, many pictures of this trip. The line is very dear to me.

A bridge like this would be fun to model.

A second view of the bridge. It must be pretty scary to ride the train over that the first few times you do it.

Some very overgrown track.

I can easily visualize this building being a centrepoint of a layout. I'm not sure if the Bedford and Jesty loco could be re-created in OO6.5

What a gorgeous scene

Show and tell

A particular fascination of mine is the Minimum Gauge Railway as developed by Sir Arthur Heywood and his 15" gauge lines at Duffield Bank and Eaton Hall. The Sand Hutton Light Railway at 18" gauge also falls into this class as does the Vitacress or Sylvaspring railway in Bere Regis, Dorset.

In the past, I've modelled these lines in Gn15 (1/2" scale an 16.5mm track) with a fair amount of success, and when I recently found some of my books on the works of Sir Arthur, the desire to model his works again was still there. But our recent house move left me with less space for a layout than before. It was then I discovered 6.5 minimum gauge or 006.5. This uses 4mm scale and Z scale track (6.5mm gauge) to model 18" gauge railways. 

A special range of locomotives, stock and track work is made by Busch under the HOf designation, f standing for Feldbahn, the German field railway system of approximately two foot gauge. 

6.5 Minimum Gauge is the name of a range of kits designed by James Hilton using these Busch mechanisms for locomotives as well as a range of kits for a varied range of rolling stock.

I have some of these kits and I'm really impressed with the way they look and I can't wait to assemble them. 

I've just placed an order for this type of Busch Feldbahn set. I look forward to receiving it, getting a feel for the size, and more importantly seeing how well it fits into the drawer!