4mm The Strawberry Line in P4

[Nick Rogers]

Hi Andrew,

I’m really looking forward to seeing Cheddar and having a catch up. Your work is excellent!

All the best,

 

[ullypug]

Great progress, Andrew!
I am looking forward to seeing Cheddar at Wells - in only 10 days time.
Ian

Eeeeeeek….

 

[ullypug]

Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, Andrew. One small thing - Herring very, very, very, rarely had OLEOs (and never Dowty hydraulic buffers so far as I know), and they were the only buffers with silver shanks. GW self contained types? Rusty-oily gunk, even when new. I really don't suppose that you have the time right now though!

Adam

They’re all GW self contained 6 rib from LMS. I couldn’t leave them in matt black! Weathering will have to wait. Thankfully there are loads of lovely colour photos in Neil Parkhouse’s Forest of Dean book.

 

[Dave Holt]

Andrew,

Thoroughly enjoyed seeing Cheddar at Wells on Saturday. It's a lovely layout and very impressive in the flesh. The photos of boards under construction don't really do it justice. Obviously a few minor tweaks and adjustments may be required to obtain fully reliable operation but I think it went well for a virtually untried layout at its first show - and rather brave of you to put it out there.
Thanks very much for allowing my Ivatt tank to have run. Again, for a brand new loco I felt it ran quite well and safely negotiated all your point work. That's the benefit of working to a set of fully developed, consistent wheel and track standards, I suppose.
Look forward to following further progress in due course.

Dave.

 

[ullypug]

Andrew,

Thoroughly enjoyed seeing Cheddar at Wells on Saturday. It's a lovely layout and very impressive in the flesh. The photos of boards under construction don't really do it justice. Obviously a few minor tweaks and adjustments may be required to obtain fully reliable operation but I think it went well for a virtually untried layout at its first show - and rather brave of you to put it out there.
Thanks very much for allowing my Ivatt tank to have run. Again, for a brand new loco I felt it ran quite well and safely negotiated all your point work. That's the benefit of working to a set of fully developed, consistent wheel and track standards, I suppose.
Look forward to following further progress in due course.

Dave.

Lovely to see you again Dave and thanks for your kind words. I was ready to chuck the whole thing in the skip on Saturday. Your Ivatt ran faultlessly showing how it should be done. It certainly managed to deal with my point work!

 

[Bulldog3444]

Andrew,

Well done for getting Cheddar to Wells on Saturday. It was looking really good - the iconic Brunel style train shed and other structures are really impressive, and the layout feels really spacious. The flow of the scenery seemed even better than in the pictures which you have posted.

So take a deep breath, and then on with the signals, which fortunately are not too complicated.

Best wishes,
Ian

 

[Nick Rogers]

Lovely to see you again Dave and thanks for your kind words. I was ready to chuck the whole thing in the skip on Saturday. Your Ivatt ran faultlessly showing how it should be done. It certainly managed to deal with my point work!

Well done for taking Cheddar to Wells, mate. It was lovely to see it in the flesh. I wouldn't worry about some of the little issues - all fixable.

Take care,

 

[Gilbert]

Andrew
I very much enjoyed seeing Cheddar at Wells and in common with others thought it looked far more impressive in the flesh than in photos - I think I said as much. There was a significant "snagging" list being recorded but I think that's perfectly reasonable for a first show and did nothing to reduce my personal enjoyment....I actually find it encouraging that while we all strive to put on a good show the reality is that it is sometimes both difficult and hard for pretty much everyone who exhibits!
Thanks
Chris H

 

[AJC]

Hello Andrew,

I was very impressed, Cheddar is a substantial project (much bigger by, what, three or four times than anything you've ever done before?), shown at a pretty unforgiving exhibition for a new layout: the Town Hall is always warm, frequently hot, and humid with it: I've taken someone else's new layout to Wells and it was not a lot of fun. Add P4 and the inability to assemble the whole thing in advance into the mix and actually getting trains more or less reliably from one end to the other, the key test, is a fine achievement and it certainly looks like Cheddar. It will get better next time out and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

Adam

 

[Phil O]

Andrew,

I was chatting to Martin Welch in front of Cheddar on Saturday and we both thought it was excellent, bearing in mind it was "work in progress" the train shed was a masterpiece in modelling.

 

[ullypug]

I’ve been quiet on here for a while whilst domestic arrangements have taken priority.

I took Cheddar to Wells in August and got married 2 weeks later (no the two aren’t connected!). Took my son to university in September, then completed a house sale 2 days later, followed by a relocation to Cardiff to the wife’s house which has also now been sold.

So presently, all my layouts and modelling stuff is either in storage or boxes whilst we wait for our ‘forever’ home. The joys of selling 2 houses to buy one and chains that have more than 3 links!

The timeline from here is a bit of an unknown but the plan is for our house to have a dedicated railway room. It won’t be large enough for Cheddar in its current end to end configuration so a lot will depend on what state it’s in when it comes out of its storage sometime next year. If it’s feasible I hope to convert it to a roundy-roundy. We’ll just have to see what condition it’s in and decide at that point. Yes, it is in store and not a skip and I’ve got over the Wells exhibition ‘experience’!

Modelling activity is limited to what can be carried out on a temporary basis without all the usual stuff to hand, which realistically limits me to wagon kits. Thankfully I’ve a few in the stash!!

To date I’ve built a Rumney models chassis for a grain wagon, a GCR D17 etched brass van kit from R&E models and a selection of whitemetal kits, these being relatively quick to do; a D&S LNWR cattle van, D&S GWR double bolster, ABS LMS van and ABS SR gunpowder van.

Currently on the go is a Connoisseur LNER twin bolster.

Next in the queue will be a David Green GWR Y2 fruit van.

Deduce what pattern you will from that assortment!

In an alarming twist, I’ve also done a Slaters D299 5 plank in 7mm and am halfway through the 10T van, both of which are quite fun and may be destined for a 7mm WCPR layout at some point in the future.

I’m starting to put down roots in South Wales, the local EM group were very welcoming this week and I enjoyed the Newport clubs open day a couple of weeks back where it was lovely to chat to Mike G of this parish.

 

[Flaxfield]

Tidy.

 

[Joe's Garage]

Best wishes with the house hunting Andrew and the moving. Not easy when all is in storage but you seem to be able to do a "bit" of modelling. Nice selection of wagons.
Interesting that you keep returning to the old WC&P, now in 7mm. I must finish the station building (hut) sometime as this is in a box awaiting my little den!
Congratulations on your wedding.
All the best
Julian

 

[John57sharp]

Nice grain wagon. I’m beginning to develop an interest, probably because I’m building a Mill based layout!?

John

 

[AdeMoore]

Hi Andrew, for some reason I failed to plonk a message on here after meeting you in Wells in the summer! It was great to see the fruits of your labours in person and even in work in progress form it was mighty impressive. My dad (92) and I spent probably more than an hour in a few visits looking over it and reminiscing. Lovely to put a face to a name.
wishing you every success house hunting now your on the Welsh side of the border .
Hope Cheddar is recovered next year unscathed!

 

[Mike Garwood]

That's quite the collection you're building there, lovely work. Great to have met you at last, and really glad you enjoyed the open day.

kind regards

Mike

 

[AdeMoore]

A few photos of Cheddars debut.

 

[ullypug]

Best wishes with the house hunting Andrew and the moving. Not easy when all is in storage but you seem to be able to do a "bit" of modelling. Nice selection of wagons.
Interesting that you keep returning to the old WC&P, now in 7mm. I must finish the station building (hut) sometime as this is in a box awaiting my little den!
Congratulations on your wedding.
All the best
Julian

Thanks Julian
I’ve been slowly acquiring stock over the years, a couple of Terriers, a Minerva Manning Wardle, a pair of close coupled metropolitan 3rds and the single first coach no 7, plus the large railcar and a selection of private owner wagons including the Antics special editions. I wish I’d bought one of the now defunct Steam and Things small railcar when they were available as I built one for the WCPR group.
I quite fancy having a go at one of the Argentine bogie coaches one day.
I have got a model of Worle Town in mind…
But then I’ve also drawn up Portishead in EM too!

 

[ullypug]

A few photos of Cheddars debut.




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Thanks for posting the photos! Some of the facial expressions tell a story!!

 

[ullypug]

Gosh how time flies…

Ive been very quiet on here for a while, but that doesn’t mean life is quiet. Far from it.
We finally moved 5 weeks ago, having waited 3 days shy of a year for everything to go through.
But it’s great to finally be in our dream home and now the planning can begin for the railway room. The domestic authorities have given the go ahead, the architect has been round and initial plans have been drawn up. We’re going to need planning permission before we can build anything so I’m resigning myself to another 6 months before I have a permanent home for my layouts. Until then they’ll have to stay in storage.

One thing is certain, Cheddar will have to be adapted to fit the space and that almost certainly means converting to a roundy roundy. I’ve had a play with Templot and as can be seen in the plan, it’s going to mean adapting the 2 boards at the Axbridge end. Whilst I’m a bit saddened by that, the pros outnumber the cons. First is I can model more of the water works on the up side including the main pumping building. Second is I can remodel the five ways road junction to properly model Five Ways Farm. I will also be able to extend the headshunt to represent the Cheddar West GF sidings.



I was going to have to have a look at the main crossover anyway and the scenery won’t have to worry about being split apart. Plus the viewing side will be of the main station entrance. I can also widen the modelled area in the down yard to include the weighbridge and likewise increase the depth to allow full representation of Bartletts stone loading point in the up yard. And the back scene will now be much simpler, looking out over the Somerset levels in the direction of Wedmore, rather than the cliffs of Cheddar Gorge. I can also introduce moving vehicles along Station Road more easily which was always a pipe dream.

Downside is the layout will have to have an induced ruling curve of circa 3ft 6in at each end but that’s doable in P4. It’s not so much of an issue at the Wells end but the Axbridge end will be more problematic. I’ll have to amend the stone loading siding on the down side and remake the station masters house as I’d compressed that to 3.5mm to the foot as it originally was going to be at the back of the layout. Aesthetically it might look a bit odd otherwise.

The real plus is I’ll be able to watch trains go round and potentially even add another of the Cheddar Valley stations on the other side of the room. Lodge Hill is a possibility as is Draycott. East Somerset yard at Wells is also a possibility. I do like the idea of driving trains through the landscape and there was an interesting propelling move in the WTT from Cheddar to Lodge Hill and return for fruit specials.

The really interesting idea currently circulating is to add my Weston WCPR terminus at a slightly higher level above the Cheddar storage sidings. We’ll see…

Does this mean Cheddar won’t be going out as an exhibition layout again? Probably not. Maybe not. Who knows?

In the meantime, I have at least established a modelling area of sorts. Not ideal and I’ve got to keep things tidy, but at least I can keep my eye in. I’ve fished out the toplight I was working on and made a start on the bogies. Needs a good clean but I should be able to at least get a coat of primer on before much longer.