Edwards Farm - sometimes known as 'Operation King Edward.'

M

Mullie

Active Member
Edward's Farm is a farm yard with narrow gauge tracks in it loosely based on the Lincolnshire potato railways that used ex WWI railway equipment to move produce from the fields to various points of collection. This also included interchange with the Midland and Great Northern lines. This is a slow burn through 2025 and I will post photos occasionally as I don't expect progress to be rapid, progress so far will be in a post below. Thanks to @NHY 581 this layout has been nicknamed 'Operation King Edward' and I have developed it as Edwards Farm as Edward is a family name. My family are from Essex which is where my wife and I lived and grew up though we have moved to South Dorset in 2004.

My current layout is the Upbech saga of three connected micro layouts that have been quite well received in the 'other place' and Upbech Drove and Upbech St Mary's have had a few exhibition appearances. St Mary's will be at Southampton on the 25th and 26th January 2025. The layouts are EM gauge and trains run through Drove, across the town quay and arrive at St Mary's in the space of around 9 feet including a cassette fiddle yard. Each part can work as a self contained layout though are usually connected together. This is a home layout that goes to occasional exhibitions and is run at least once every week. Stock on the layout is a mix of rtr etched and plastic kits built over the last six years. The layout is run in two time frames either 1946-51 and around 1963.

To give you an idea of where I am up to, below are some photos of the current layout.

Upbech Drove

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The Town Quay

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Upbech St Mary's

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Following photos by Jamie Warner
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M

Mullie

Active Member
The layout is built on two SMS micro layout baseboards with a traverser I've bodged together. The 009 track is scratch built in PCB and the EM track is from the EM Society stores. The 009 is wired, not so the EM bit yet. The EM section will have a second fiddle yard also built from another SMS board so the standard gauge section can be run independently.

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The fiddle yard and a standard gauge cassette which is compatible with the Upbech layouts.

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Below are some photos of NG stock so far, mainly built from Dundas kits picked up cheap since the Bachmann models came out. The couplings are Grenwich magnetic couplings.

An ex Rye and Camber tank. 3D body on Kato chassis.

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Freelance diesel, also a 3D print on a Kato chassis.

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Some wagons.

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The loco photos are taken on an earlier iteration of the layout that was scrapped when the baseboards warped. My layouts live in our integral garage and in a salty atmosphere as we are by the sea.

More updates to follow. Hope this is of interest.
 
M

Mullie

Active Member
Nothing photogenic has happened recently as time was taken up with preparation for a very enjoyable weekend with Upbech St Mary at the Southampton show. The standard gauge section of the layout will have a broadly M&GN theme and a loco has been converted to EM.

The standard gauge section is currently being wired, some progress was made today along with weathering some more wagons.

Below is a Bachmann 4f on test at Drove after its conversion to EM back in the summer. I now have the Brassmaster detailing etches so it should look very different when next seen. Nothing goes on the layout without weathering either. It is well down the queue as my J70s and the J72 are currently being updated.

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M

Mullie

Active Member
Finally some progress on OKE. Other things have got in the way including the RM Web members day and the small matter of No 1 daughters wedding.

Nevertheless, a big day today as OKE is finally up and running in both gauges. Being DC I had to work out how to do this having only wired DCC for the last twenty years. This very basic video shows how power is switched between standard and narrow gauge.


The fiddle yard needs a bit more soldering before it can be connected and will use the same cassettes as Upbech St Mary's.

It will be useful to have a DC test track as kit built chassis always need testing in DC first. The standard gauge part can be separated and worked independently with a very small fiddle yard of its own.
 
M

Mullie

Active Member
Some progress on the narrow gauge side of OKE. A basic ground cover of Das has been applied.

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The area behind the barn is another small fiddle yard where trains can appear from.

The crossing is made from coffee stirrers. Now needs some colour. One advantage of this layout is that the standard and narrow gauges can be worked on and run separately Photos of developments on the standard gauge soon. I need to crack on with this as it has two exhibition bookings next year.
 
M

Mullie

Active Member
OKE has had some early scenic development during the summer. This is not a technical process, just loads of paint sloshing, mainly using raw and burnt umber, Yellow ochre, loads of talc applied randomly whilst wearing a mask as their can be a lot of talc fumes in the air.

The white heat of painting chaos.

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Talc applied which matts down the acrylics and gives texture. The crossings are made from coffee stirrers.

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In places, tyre tracks have been created with a palette knife.

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Progress so far, standard and narrow gauge boards are worked on together to ensure consistency.

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M

Mullie

Active Member
More progress on OKE., the layout is now working on DC, a sort of reverse learning curve after 20 years using DCC.

First photo shows a view across both standard and narrow gauge with some signature buildings in place. There will be a second short fiddle yard behind the barn so in true fenland fashion trains can go across the fields in multiple directions. Yes there is a track rubber on the pillbox. I use it to scrape paint off the track, once clean the usual method is graphite to keep track clean.

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The fiddle yard, a simple traverser for 009 and cassette from the St Mary's fiddle yard on the right. This means my idea of running trains from here onto the Upbech layouts can happen.

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A caddy has been added to hold the Gaugemaster combi.

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Next job is to spend some time running the layout to fully check everything works and sort out a lighting rig. This layout is wider than Upbech so my usual exhibition method of using angle poise lamps won't really work. I already have some leds so that will form the basis of layout lighting.

I feel some bodged carpentry coming on!!
 
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