New Member

Hi Guys,

I'm a new member, based in Headcorn, Kent, where we have small model railway society covering everything from N gauge to 0, but of course mostly 00 and N.

Most seem to model Southern or Great Western, but my interest is ex GE, circa 1955 +/- 5 years, with a U-shaped layout about 20' x 12'. Nowhere near finished, of course, but one side is largely scenicked. I'm waiting to get my hands on a redundant baseboard from my grandson, to add a sugar beet plant, to justify the purchase of a Hornby Peckett, and a Barclay on order from Hattons.

For a branch line it is heavily overstocked with locos - 3 x 7MT, 3 x B1, 3 x B17, 2 x B12/3, 3 x D16/3, 1 x J19, 1 x J17, 1 x E4, 3 x J15, 1 x N7, 1 x F4, 1 x J67, 1 x J69, but I like locos so there! Most are r-t-r Hornby or Bachmann, the odds kit built mostly by me.

Rolling stock almost al r-t-r, a few Kirk coaches. The non-station end is just sidings on bare shelves, plus a siding for storage cassettes so that trains can be turned and sent back. Another cassette loading bay will somehow fit alongside the sugar plant.  Cassettes are aluminium angle on a wood base, some long enough for a Pacific and 6, some shorter.

There is also a collection of early green diesels if I want to move on a few years.

Apart from the purely GE locos - I did my spotting in early 50's at Elsenham - 'Tanias, Sandies and Dub-D's we called the usual ones, not to mention the Thaxted Flyer used for flattening old pennies into ovals - we have another 40 odd steam from the GN side we can call on for variety, and the little station - Leamholt (Dorothy Sayers - The Nine Tailors) - has a preservation society, proud owners of a Terrier - my concession to the area I live in, and a J70 - K's bodyline on a Tenshodo bogie, to be replaced by the Rapido one, and for some obscure reason a Brazilian 2-8-0, a retirement present from a good friend out there.

Just for a change, there is also an H0 layout, Rock Island, all diesel - a topic for another day.

Pictures - I will try, but I'm a lousy photographer

Hi Ray and welcome to the forum.

Sounds as if you have plenty to practise your photography on and plenty to keep you occupied.

Have fun and come and chat soon.

Best,

Bill

Hi Ray
 Welcome to the club , from down under.
 Regards Ted

Welcome to the club Ray.You certainly have a lot to keep you occupied. :Welcome

Hi Ray, from chilly Essex.

:Welcome


Ed

Welcome Ray.  Good to have another BR(E) bod on board.

Looking forward to some pictures too - its always a great inspiration to see what others do.  Please include the E4 as they are super little machines.

Barry

Hi Ray and  :Welcome  board. That's a good sized fleet you have there,  Did you bite the bullet and convert to DCC? A mix of both ? Or stay with DC ?  Looking forward to seeing some photos of the layouts and stock   :thumbs
Cheers

Matt

Hi Ray,

Welcome to the club.

Nigel

Thanks for kind words of welcome.

Put up some more pics of layout.

Leamholt shed is the end of the layout; it houses amicably BR branch loco - SE Finecast J67 here, Preservation Society locos - Terrier on loan from KESR, and the sugar refinery's Peckett, pending construction of said refinery, 3dk's factory kit looks ideal.

Leamholt station for the moment is a 20-yr-old leftover from an earlier layout; shifty character on platform is jewel thief Nobby Cranton from Dorothy Sayers' Nine Tailors. F4 another Nucast, with Ian Kirk twin suburban - the limits of my modelling ability.

Nucast J15 - built when the idea of Hornby giving us rtr ones was a pipe-dream, rounding Cow Corner and allotment area with a short freight

Engine shed - track laid, but mostly not wired yet, and not ballasted. Ash pit to be dug (jig saw), points mostly hand controlled in first instance using Caboose Industries switch throws - nice and neat compared to the old GEM ones. E4 in background with Kirk quintart.

Layout really designed for single operator - me, but a second could take control of the shed, and eventually a third could handle the fiddle yard at the other end, together with the cassette system for storing/turning trains. Bell codes are a temptation!

Photos in the gallery?

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

Photos in the gallery?

yes, click in LHS under   "view photos in  gallery"

  Hi Ray I don't know what your saying about your photography, the Images you've  put in your gallery look fine to me !
If you want a bit of a guide to inserting the Images into your posts, one of our members emmess did a great 'how to ' which I'll link here     :-    Inserting images into your posts
    
    You don't have to read through all the replies to his first post but his guide should get you (and any other new members) up and running in no time 

  Look forward to seeing some more ! 

Cheers

 Matt

Hello Ray.I've just joined this Club and this is my first post. I was drawn to your message as I, too, am a fan of ex-GER because of childhood memories of north and east London trains*, but in later life became drawn to Southern Region as well. This probably owing to holidays, especially a journey in 1957 from Deal to London behind Schools Class "Epsom". I remember my amazement on this journey at the sight of Q1's and many elderly SECR locos as we passed depots and sidings galore. This (then) 9 year old became hooked on anything SR after that!

You certainly have a wonderful stud of Eastern locos, it would be good to see some photos one day. My own collection is a bit less focused, as I am a sucker for the Locomotion Collection in Miniature models, so a Black 5,  a Midland Compound and various others are part of my roster. I hope to build a terminus to fiddle yard layout as a stage on which to run my growing collection. For a decent sized layout I would like to join a Club come the autumn.

Railway modelling is such a wonderful hobby, especially if it has a strong social element to it. When I go to exhibitions I end up having conversations on all sorts of subjects with people I meet. And the quality of modelling nowadays is breathtaking compared to the 60's when I last was active in the hobby.

Regards to you and all who read this rambling.

Dave L

*My local line was the "Jazz" service from Liverpool St to Enfield. The last few weeks of steam (1963?) the crews of the N7s would invite us schoolboys onto the footplate and even let us take control for the run to Bush Hill Park! Bless those guys, gave me wonderful memories!

Hello Ray, and Dave!

Welcome to the club, both of you.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff. Looking forward to learning lots and getting to know folk. 

Hi Ray,

Welcome to the forum/club.

Nigel