Baxham Fishing Lakes and Smokery.

[Jon Randall]

As promised here is a few photos of my second GNine layout.



And a close-up of the scenic part.



It started off as a OO9 layout, which turned (briefly) into O9 and now has changed into GNine. The track is Peco N gauge glued onto a piece of hardboard supported with blue insulation foam with a couple of layers of foamboard to make it up to the correct depth. The points are powered by Peco point-motors and magnets have been positioned at the start of every siding. The two sidings on the dark brown un-scenic area have dead sections on them. The rolling stock will be 'Tiny' and the short flat wagons from Steve as soon as I build them The couplings are Greenwich.
The only trouble is, as it started off as a OO9 layout there isn't much room for buildings. I mocked up this....

....but I'm not too keen.
It was going to be a sandstone quarry but gnow I'm just
Any suggestions

[Steve Bennett]

Hmmm, first thing that pops into my head when seeing it is a fish/shellfish farm or something along those lines. The sunken area a pond with lots of reeds along the edge, a boat tied to a jetty with the packing and sorting shed partly over the water, maybe a lean to on the side of it for storing nets, floats, packing boxes and the like. Possibly another open fronted structure to the left to store all the junk in. The railway would be used to take the packed goods cross country to a road interchange some distance away, maybe across swamps or similar which would justify a small railway, rather than having road access. How about the Suffolk Crayfish Company , just an idea based on first impressions.

[Oztrainz]

Hi Jon, If you take Steve's Suffork Shallows Shellfish Farm idea a bit further, you could have different coloured flatcars carrying printy boxes of different marine products. For example: Suffolk Gourmet.....or White Bros.....
Oysters - red flatcar
Crayfish - yellow flatcar
Scallops - light blue flatcar
Pippies - black flatcar
Octopus - light blue with dark blue rings fltcar
Prawns - cooked on site - pink flat car
Prawns - fresh uncooked - green flatcar

That ought to give almost enough combinations. If you need more flatcars, run a second flatcar of one of more of the above.

Your job with the inglenook is to make up today's orders for pick up at Steve's suggested road delivery point at the front right of your case.
Take a photo of each wagon, mount it on light cardboard and let the public shuffle them. Take the top ?? cards and lay them out on a small stand that could be supported by the case handle. These cards represent today's orders. Build your train to match the cards.

I have seen this concept work well in Australia with Adrian Hoad's Ladysmith Sidings in O scale. He used a simplified controller and with buttons for forward and reverse and another button to fire all the elctromagnet uncouplers at once. The controller was so simple to use that he could hand it over to the public and let them do the shunting.

[Simon Andrews]

Don't know what they are called but have seen one appear on a French layout in CM; a small fishermam's hut next to a platform with a net that is lowered into the sea suspended by 4 corners from a jib / crane

PS. Nice shed BTW

Simon.

[Steve Bennett]

John's suggestion of cooked fish threw up another idea . The triangle at the front could house a smoker, for smoking the fish. Would act as quite a nice view block, it is good to have something the trains can pass behind. Could also give a reason for the sidings on the right.

Damn, getting to quite like this concept, tempted to have a go myself .

[Simon Andrews]

DCR's whitebait fishing thread may also be of interest to you Jon
http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?t=443&highlight=fishing
http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?t=2282&highlight=fishing

Simon.

[Steve Bennett]

Sometimes I wish pouring resin was a bit more challenging for the mind, it gives me far too much time to think . So just to illustrate what is going through my head at the moment



To give an idea of size, the jetty (well, piece of old fencing ), is 6" (150mm) long and from the rear of the boat to the front of the track, is also 6".

[Simon Andrews]

Stop it

This is the sort of thing that sprang to my mind
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.amanita-photolibrary.co.uk/photo_library/Europe/France/fr02_fishing_platform_La_Rochelle2_thm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amanita-photolibrary.co.uk/photo_library/Europe/France/index.htm&h=79&w=120&sz=5&hl=en&start=15&tbnid=QKBrEJArpEYe3M:&tbnh=58&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfrench%2Bfishing%2Bplatform%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

[Steve Bennett]

Stop it

Sorry
Got a bit carried away

By coincidence, I have been to La Rochelle and remember that fishing platform. Not sure Jon would have space on this layout, but it is a neat idea, for something a bit bigger, certainly unusual. Somewhere on the forum there are some more pics of fishermans railways a bit further north in France, but I have drawn a blank so far in finding them .

[Mike Lee]

Going to La Rochelle on saturday will have to have a look for the fishing platforms I gnew they existed further down the coast but didnt gnow they were near La Rochelle

Mike Lee

Life is to short for counting rivets

You should always go to the last one first

[Jon Randall]

Thanks for all of your answers.
Yep I liked the idea of a fishing theme from the start and it's an idea I would never have thought of.
Ever.
The fishing platforms found at La Rochelle are impressive and it would be easy to motorise the operation with a winch. The problem would be it sinking through the water Non-starter for gnow
I do like the idea of placing the location on the coast and I can easily base it in Suffolk as we have plenty of beaches where the fishing boats are winched up the beach (the one at Dunwich has a fish and chip shop mere metres form the winches ) More thought required.
Smoker gnice scenic idea, with a smoke unit
Plenty of fishy goodies out there too with George Turner models and others.
Time to put on the thinking hat.

[Steve Bennett]

You will find some good prototype inspiration in a couple of old threads Jon, try these
http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?p=13744#13744
http://forum.gn15.info/viewtopic.php?p=27847#27847

[Jon Randall]

Thanks for all the links, inspirational.

[Simon Andrews]

Mike wrote:

Going to La Rochelle on saturday will have to have a look for the fishing platforms I gnew they existed further down the coast but didnt gnow they were near La Rochelle

Did you have any luck Mike

Simon.

[Jon Randall]

Time for a quick update.
I've mainly been under the thinking hat.

I wanted to base the layout on the Suffolk coast but I was having problems with getting in enough details to identify it as a beach. To overcome this I was hoping to incorporate another beach area in the lid but couldn't hide the two walls of the suitcase. the idea was to hide the sides with a pier or wall but this then cut off the siding side of the water and besides I couldn't think of a reason why the structure would run parallel with the sidings.

So the location has gnow moved inland.

The following is true.

Just down the road from me are various pits . These are bordered on one side by the River Gipping and on the other by the A14 which is the main route through Suffolk. The pits are called Sharmford Mere, Causeway Lake and the imaginatively named Barham A & B Pits. These were quarried over the years for sand and gravel and have been "restored" and are now fishing lakes. One of the first two was a trout lake. This venture came to a premature end when the River Gipping kept flooding, releasing trout out from and pike in to the lake Both lakes are now coarse-fishing lakes. Between the lakes is a picnic area.
Across the bridge over the A14 from the lakes there used to be a miniature railway in a garden. I'm not sure what the gauge was, perhaps someone could advise me

Now comes the fiction.

When the trout lake venture failed, one of the neighbours decided that he could afford to combine two of his greatest past-times, namely trout fishing and miniature railways. He quickly purchased the lake and decided to extend his 9.5" railway to the side of the lake.
He realised that he needed to have a small income from the lake to pay for the maintenance and the improvements to the riverbank to stop further flooding. He decided that to supplement the income from the day-tickets he sold to the anglers he would sell the surplus fish at local farmers markets. If this proved successful then he could later branch out with a fish smoker and maybe even purchase coaches to provide rides for visitors.

And gnow onto the modelling.
The sides were too steep for my liking so a "beach" has been added. This was a piece of insulation which was carved to shape and then had two layers of sand added. The water is a off-cut of thin perspex. Thjis needs to have ripples added and the edges hidden.

[Simon Moore]

Gunna add some little tiny trout Jon? Might want to put up a no swimming sign, I'm sure there'd be those who'd want to enjoy the crystal clear waters But of course scare away the fish...

[More_Cats_Than_Sense]

I think the railway was 7.25" gauge Jon.

[Steve Bennett]

Thats quite a deep pit Jon, but it does give some scope for making the scenics quite interesting. Have you given any thought to how the banks will be held up, they are a bit steep for sand/shingle to be stable. Obvious choice would be vertical timbers driven into the ground, but possibly more interesting visually, some could be corrugated iron supported by lengths of old rail, fairly common a bit further north of you in Lincolnshire.
Do you still intend to have the shed on there, it could now be selling fishing tackle and ice creams

[Jon Randall]

Simon Moore wrote:

Gunna add some little tiny trout Jon?

I'm going to give it a go. Steve Bennett showed us how in Something Fishy

Might want to put up a no swimming sign

Good idea and one I hadn't thought of, thanks.

[Jon Randall]

More_Cats_Than_Sense wrote:

I think the railway was 7.25" gauge Jon.

Thanks Barry, the new owner of the lake could only find a suitable stock of 9.5"

[Jon Randall]

Steve Bennett wrote:

they are a bit steep for sand/shingle to be stable

Sometimes sand and gravel through various influences (including finer minerals/ heat/ pressure etc) form sandstone which can vary in stiffness from soft to very strong. The sandtone in that area is quite frim in the area of the railway that's why they built it in that particular area and the 4 foot cliff is quite stable

Do you still intend to have the shed on there, it could now be selling fishing tackle and ice creams

It covers up to much of the lake edge so I think that it will be on my third Gnine layout, coming soon.

[Jon Randall]

Things have been coming along gnicely at Baxham Fishing Lake.
The banks have been added as I thought the original was far too steep and didn't allow for any scenics by the water.
Ripples have been added to the surface of the lake with 3 layers of GW Ardcoat varnish.
The anglers have been complaining about access so have been provided with a set of stairs and a fishing platform.



Just need to join the old and new banks together, add more vegetation, maybe a small structure or two, wire it, build loco and wagons, add people......

[Simon Andrews]

Nice bit of carpentry Jon Could I be cheeky and suggest you add a green / brown wash to the underside of the water before you fix it in place Just a thought

Simon

[More_Cats_Than_Sense]

Looking good Jon

Is the "Safety Elf" going to be annoyed about the lack of handrails?

[Jon Randall]

Thanks for the comments, I too am happy how the layout is (slowly) progressing.

Simon Andrews wrote:

Could I be cheeky and suggest you add a green / brown wash to the underside of the water before you fix it in place Just a thought

I've been thinking the same thing Andrew, it is a bit clear for this part of the world. I tried it on a scrap part of perspex and it didn't come out too good so more practice required.

More_Cats_Than_Sense wrote:

Is the "Safety Elf" going to be annoyed about the lack of handrails?

The Safety Elf came out last week as I nearly cut my finger down to the bone Luckily the loco hadn't been built so he couldn't visit this side of the lake
Besides anglers don't like handrails as they can snag expensive rods on them