Herstmonceux

1st to 100

~ andyj82 ~ 3 Comments

Last weekend Littledene made it’s first outing at the Manchester Model Railway Societies 100th show.

Littledene was well received and we had many great conversations with lots of people. It was nice that people made connections with my other two layouts, such as the tradition of an interesting sign.

Mr Sweet and his team had put together another really well organised show with a great mix of layouts. As part of their centenary celebrations they gave all exhibitors a special limited edition plaque and certificate to mark the occasion which was a really nice gesture.

It was great to get the chance to see Bron Hebog and the Rev Awdry’s Ffarquhar Branch.

Personal highlight for me was getting to see the Manchester “Big Trams” for the first time.

A sign of the times

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Following the tradition for my layouts to have a sign with a twist (sounds like a good cocktail!) Littledene was in need of one. This tradition started when my good friend Martin made the Herstmonceux sign and then I made the yard office sign for Tarring Neville.

Luckily I found this in the local antiques centre.

Of course that would be too easy and I made Littledene’s sign. I had several idea but settled on this based on a church hall notice board seen in an auction. I have made the sign out of some scraps of wood, stained and varnished. This was lettered by hand, suitably weathered including using vintage paper, stuck on and ripped off, to give the impression of old notices and I was supplied with drawing pins from the correct era.

I like the challenge of coming up with different ways to have signs for the layout, especially as a traditional running in board for Littledene would have been longer than the layout!

As is tradition a miniature appears on the layout.

Littledene’s first outing will be at Manchester show in 15 days!
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Horsing around

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 I have a bit of a thing for Horseboxes and came up with any excuse to run them on Herstmonceux so one (or more) finding its way onto Littledene is no surprise.

This is a Chatham Kits LBSCR Stroudley 14ft Horsebox available from Roxey Mouldings. Over 200 of these were built by the LBSCR with the last of them ending up on the Isle of Wight. The OVLR acquired this one some time in the early 20s so that railways’ local estate owners could move their thoroughbred horses. 
This will get weathered when I do my next batch of stock. In the meantime I’d best put my blinkers back on to stop me looking for more horsebox kits.

The stage is lit

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The boards for Littledene have been built and the track is down. Here they are out of their bunk beds and assembled. The front lighting fascias are recycled from Herstmonceux and only took a small amount of adjustment to fit. The left-hand Fiddleyard board is roughly 4ft x 20 inches and the right-hand Station board is 4ft x 2ft. They narrow to 18 inches in the middle where they meet. Both have a slight curve to them but on opposite sides.
I had hoped to reuse the mini tube lighting units from Herstmonceux too but they didn’t give enough light in the right places. I added some LED light strips with them but the colour didn’t seem quite right and trying to fit them to the lighting rig wasn’t easy and looked a mess. I’ve ended up with some new warm white LED tube lights which illuminate the layout fully.

And an End..

~ andyj82 ~ 7 Comments

The End

I started Herstmonceux back in 2012 wanting to recreate a sleepy Sussex station and two years later took it to Tonbridge show for its debut.. Since then it has done 10 shows and picked up a few awards but its outing to Epsom & Ewell MRC exhibition in April will be its last for the foreseeable future. I have been lucky to have a good team of friends to help me take it out on the road the last six years and we’ve had some great times at the shows we have done. It has also been good to meet readers of my blog that have followed its progress and make new friends along the way.
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On the road

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A busy few weeks coming up with a couple of shows to end the year. First up is Brighton MRC 40th show  next weekend 17th-18th November with Herstmonceux. The show looks like it will have a nice local feel to it with Herstmonceux, Plumpton Green and Sub Wealden all being Sussex based.

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Then two weeks later its the Manchester Model Railway Society Show  1st-2nd December with Tarring Neville. It will of been just over a year since Tarring Neville had last been out so will look forward to running some new stock and there is also a few new items that have been added to the layout which there will be more about after the show.

Going Home..

~ andyj82 ~ 6 Comments

This weekend sees Herstmonceux making its way to Railex which is regarded as one of the best shows in the country. As I said in my post back in April, Herstmonceux hasn’t been out since last July so much of last weekend was spent cleaning the layout and tidying up bits that needed attention. Rolling stock was checked, fixed where needed and packed away ready.
Yesterday it was the turn of the locos to get a good clean and repair any damage. I usually give them a good run and oil as most of them haven’t been used for a while. Wheels are cleaned with a cotton bud and IPA, surprisingly most of the wheels were fairly clean.
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Why “Going home”? Well I was born in Aylesbury and grew up going to Railex with Dads trade stand, back when it was in the Civic Centre. One highlight was being lucky enough as 10 yr old to operate Jas Millham’s Yaxbury for the whole weekend, must be why I have an urge to build something in S gauge! So this weekend is rather special now that i’m getting to take one of my layouts to my home town show. All thats left is to make sure I’ve got everything and pack the van tomorrow.