The Elsenham Thaxted Light Railway

I know that I already have an O scale layout on the go, Wheeldon Mill, but the dreaded loss of mojo has struck. It is a structure heavy build and the amount of work still to do is a little daunting. Sooooooooo, its often said a change is as good as a rest, and I have had an eye on this branch line for a while now, I have decided to have a crack at building it in O gauge.

A little history.
First opened on 1st April 1913, by the Great Eastern railway, it was described as the farmers line as it was for transporting agricultural produce but during its life time of just 39 years, it closed in 1953, it also ran between 3 and 7 passenger trains a day, so lots of potential operation.

Ran as a one engine in steam, and using the J69 0-6-0 loco and 6 wheel coaches though latterly GER bogie coaches. Running strictly to prototype would be pretty dull to watch and operate so I plan to introduce the J15 0-6-0 tender loco and two locos which will mean signaling, which the real thing didn't need.

Anyway enough blathering, a few photos of the station at Thaxted, the branch terminal and the subject of the layout.
The station in 1916.



The original station and yard plan.



Loco shed.



J69 68579, the branch loco.



The shed and water tank.



I have already made a start on the loco shed and as soon as I upload them to the forum I will share them.

Cheer's for now.

Pete

 

I made a start on the engine shed first, well you have to start some where, by cutting out the sides, two layers for each side, and ends from 3mm MDF, and cutting out all the openings at the same time. After that I clad it, inside with Scalescenes white washed brick blown up by 175% to O scale, and outside with some textured old brick I bought off fleabay and imported from Cyprus, the guy do's loads of dolls house stuff but also brick, stone and ground work stuff, setts, block paving etc, in N, OO, O, gauge1 etc.







I used the forstner bits above to create the cutouts for the windows.











I used Intentio laser cut industrial windows, not a perfect match to the real ones on the shed but I'm happy with them.



I painted them with Tamiya acrylic, (Hot Iron) on the outside glued them in place, then painted them inside.



I glued the clear acetate to the inner layer, then glued the two layers together.







I have made up and fixed to the walls the outside buttress's but not photographed them yet, thats tomorrows job.

Cheer's, Pete.

 

Thanks Ron.
Right, the buttress's have been glued in place and the sides glued to the ends. At the moment all is clamped and held square until the glue, pva, dries.







I am going to leave it at that for tonight, and hopefully it should be rock solid in the morning, I just hope its not glued to the bench

Cheer's for now, Pete.

 

Thank you chaps, yes Rob, I am going to have to have a word with Big Jim and bung an order in .

Right, tonight I have mostly been making roof trusses, 3 off, just need to let the glue dry and I can fit them. A couple of pics.





Thats all folks.

Pete.

 

They sure are Ron, I bought a job lot of 1000 for around a fiver off flea bay.

I have now assembled the trusses and rafters, a bit of a faff but I got there eventually, they don't stand up to close scrutiny but I'm happy, plus with the roof on they won't be so obvious.





Just got to wait for the glue to dry and I can crack on.

Cheer's, Pete.

 

Hi Gary, I have built two base boards, 4ft x 2ft (1200 x 600), I need two more, I've built them from 4mm ply with 3" x 5/8"ths spacers. Tops of 9mm ply on risers to lift the trackbed above the base boards to give different ground levels. All will become clear once I've worked out what size and shape the track base needs to be and I've photographed them.Things are a bit busy at the moment with Christmas so come the new year I will be able to set up the boards in the spare bedroom. I can't make up my mind how to go with track work. If I go with the prototype plan I need around 7 points, but it will take up a lot of space, plus I will need 6 more points. If I use what I already have, one LH point one threeway, and a double slip. Now I have a plan drawn up using the stuff I already have, and it works, but it aint like the prototype.
Still got plenty of time to change my mind about the final plan though

Time will tell .

Pete.

 

Its been a while since an update on here, to be honest I've done very little actual modelling beyond the armchair kind.
Any way I have done some more over the last couple or three days and I am quite pleased with the results.
I've painted the roof rafters first a dark grey to represent old timber, then, assuming the timbers would have been white washed but not for a long time I dry brushed some matt white on. I ordered some warm white led lamps and they arrived yesterday so I have installed them, they still need to be wired up though. Any way, see what you think.





I have decided to put an inspection pit inside, I have no idea if the real shed had one but I suppose they must have done day to day maintenance, and a pit would have been usefull.





I've made a card box for the pit, and lined it with Scalescenes white washed brick, with their concrete for the base, still to be weathered.





I am raising the internal floor to the rail top height and in filling at the front and back.



Thats it for now, I need the glue to dry, then I can crack on with the floor.

Just as an aside, I have had a photo editor app since I have had this laptop. Windows did an update the other day, now I can't open the app and I have had to download a free editor thingy, to say I'm annoyed is an understatement. It took me ages to work out how to edit my pics for upload now I am having to start over grrrr. Rant over...

Cheer's, Pete.

 

Thanks Keith, good tip .

Pete.

 

The old enthusiasm is starting to come back.
I have wired in the lights now using Keiths tip on running the wires through plastic tubing.



A bit more untidy than I would like but it won't be seen with the roof on. I still painted every wire and tube matt black to be double sure.



The best thing of all!! it works when I coupled it to two AA batteries

Cheer's, Pete.

 

I have raised the shed floor level to rail top and infilled between the rails with card. To get a faux concrete finish to the floor I have brushed pva on and sieved plaster on top.







Very messy, the plaster goe's everywhere. To try and get a level surface I have used a small foam roller. It worked fairly well until it started to pick up the sticky plaster and dragged.



Just got to wait until it dries then I can brush the excess off and see if it has worked, fingers crossed .

Cheer's, Pete.