Watt Estate

[ian_g_griffiths]

After many years of existance Fareham and District MRC O9 layout Watt Estate features in Railway Modeller this month. Thats the inset picture in the corner.

Its about 10 years since this was started and has continued to grow slowly. If I can manage to extract my digit there should be 2 new scenes, make that 4 foot boards, ready for the show the first weekend of October, at Lakelands Portsmouth.



The charcoal burners module was inspired by the discussion of charcoal burning here a few years ago.

Ian

[Willow Creek Traction]

... there should be 2 new scenes, make that 4 foot boards,

Hey, cool. Adds up to 8 feet total? Eight feet of length of most any depth is a lot of landscape to model.

[MickT]

Excellent news Ian, I'll be at the local newsagent tomorrow first thing to get my reserved copy of RM and am looking forward to seeing the article. Watt Estate has always been a favourite of mine and particularly so since seeing it in all its expanded glory at NG South, Sparsholt this year and the previous time all the modules were taken out for an airing (2012?). My personal favourite module is the one with the wooden bridge where the track snakes through the woods on reverse curves - extremely atmospheric!

Mick

[ian_g_griffiths]

Mick,

Thanks for the comment. Looked at your photos from from NG South. The railway snaking through the forest was an inspiration whilst riding the train at Amberly. Graham had always wanted to build a wooden bridge with bents. Thats why it's on the curve, bent bents!

We realised that the problem of a lack of trains was due to the single line and the length of the layout. Can't do much about the single line, but thats a challenge for the future. So we are going to run it as two layouts joined together, that requires another fiddle yard. So we have a built another one with an even bigger twist than the circular fiddle yard. Has that whet you appetite?

Decided not to go down the route of DCC with sound, but hope to be entering the realms of smellyvision. If i can find the right pongs, sniff this space. We have tried to be "inventive" with the new names, again.

By the way I am the tall one on the left in your photo, Graham is in the middle and on the right is our ex-Chairman Elliott Cowton.



Ian

[MickT]

Mick,

We realised that the problem of a lack of trains was due to the single line and the length of the layout. Can't do much about the single line, but thats a challenge for the future. So we are going to run it as two layouts joined together, that requires another fiddle yard. So we have a built another one with an even bigger twist than the circular fiddle yard. Has that whet you appetite?

By the way I am the tall one on the left in your photo, Graham is in the middle and on the right is our ex-Chairman Elliott Cowton.

Ian

Thanks very much for the feedback Ian. I have corrected the caption for the "team photo" hope it is OK now!

"lack of trains" was not intended as a damning criticism, so apologies if it came across as such. The photo report in my blogsite from NG South in 2012 does show a wider variety of stock for those that want a closer view of some more (but not the Wheal Clamp module as it hadn't been built then!)

I am looking forward to an opportunity to see yet another new module with or without the smellyvision! Will it be included at Shepton Mallet in February '15?

Railway Modeller article has now been seen - congratulations it is a very good coverage of the layout - with more stock to see than in my photos!
I notice that the little saddle tank loco has outside frames - any clues about what the chassis is please?

Mick

[lenelg]

MickT wrote: "The photo report in my blogsite from NG South in 2012 "
Where can we find this?

[Gerry Bullock]

MickT wrote: "The photo report in my blogsite from NG South in 2012 "
Where can we find this?

Hi Lennart,
Just Google Mick Thornton and you'll find it.

[Willow Creek Traction]

Or, click the "www" button there at bottom of his post, it seems to lead to the blog website.

[lenelg]

Thanks, I missed that!

[MickT]

Sorry you couldn't get onto my blogsight Lennert, but I see you have found it now, so I hope you have found some photos that please you!

I don't post notices on this forum any more of when I have updated as one of the members on here objected to the copyright notice that I have at the start of my blog and posted a particularly critical comment about his opinion of the whole thing "left a bad taste in his mouth" if I remember correctly, so I now leave it to those who are genuinely interested in my reports to visit my site as and when they wish to.

I have found a further few photos that are on the reports of Watt Estate in addition to the NG South 2014 and 2012 ones - there is a brief visit in the NG South 2008 report - right at the end of the list of reports as it was one of the first I uploaded when I started this blogsite. Watt Estate was much smaller in 2008 than it is now!

Mick