Vale of White Horse Railway

[JonPotter]

We've had 16mm live steam (45mm track gauge) in the garden at my parent house since 2002, called the Woodrow Light Railway (website here). The line, which is fairly sizeable with big sweeping curves and some reasonably steep banks, has always been more my interest than my dad's, who's always preferred the 7.25" to the smaller stuff.

However, a house move prior to Christmas has left me with a load of locos and stock and nowhere to run them! Hence, the construction of the new line, to be called the Vale of White Horse Railway. This line will also be a 45mm line, but rather than a continuous loop it is a figure of 6 as presented in the below track plan. The fictitious history has the line in the present day, being the reopening of a defunt line between Wantage and Uffington.

The plan below is a poor quality picture of one of the original plans but it is the best I have at the minute. The triangle will be pushed further into the garden (to the left) to give a bit of room in the circle for some planting etc.





As we have now more or less finished the work inside the house the focus has turned to the garden & the railway. The last couple of weeks have focused on the ground which has been dug out 2' or so, turned over and then had a couple of runs over with a cultivator.

Alongside the work outside, I've also been working through a suite of buildings for the main railway. Uffington station will be within the shed and therefore is not an immediate priority, but core buildings are well advanced for Wantage, Kingston Lisle (main intermediate station with passing loop) and Woolstone. I'll share some pics over coming posts.

Next step is to dig out trenches and lay a concrete base prior to building block walls that the track will sit on. We'll then worry about cladding & landscaping the garden prior to turfing it.

We're due to have an opening steam up on 13th May but may well need to push that out a bit...! However I did have to put a couple of lengths of flexitrack together and steam up the latest addition (a Pearse Auric) yesterday...

[tom_tom_go]

Looks like an interesting plan, please keep us updated.

If you want to mess about with track plans check out www.anyrail.com

[daan]

Nice plan and lots of space. May be a little addition would be to make a loop on the leftside station, between the most left and most right rail witch is not attatched to the turnout. That way you can choose if you use this station as an end of line station or run via the loop back onto the line without having to shunt the locomotive.
Cheers Daan.

[JonPotter]

Thanks guys. Interesting idea re the station and a definite future possibility (when I get bored shunting!). However an end to end line has always appealed so we'll see how long it is until I get sick of it! The construction at that end should make it nice and easy to add anyway.

We made a good chunk of progress over the past two days. Unfortunately our wall was just too far from the road for Travis Perkins to lift over the wall, so we had 3 bulk bags of ballast, 12 of sand, 20 of cement, 23 patio slabs and 106 concrete blocks to move on Friday morning..... Anyway, that was done by 11am or so & we then starting digging out the trackbed and shed base.

The shed base (9' x 7') was then filled with concrete as was the triangle area and Kingston Lisle station - about 9" deep for the shed base and 6" for the trackbed. I was pretty pleased with the progress which was only possible thanks to my dad and girlfriend spending the whole day working too. Yesterday I carried on and dug out & concreted the remaining section of trackbed which will be on blocks - from Kingston Lisle down to the pond area. This chunk has a bit more of a weave in it.

The concrete is drying today prior to block laying tomorrow (weather dependent) - one course of bricks on the shed base and then two courses of concrete blocks for the trackbed is the plan. The remaining trackbed will be wooden & on posts as it is not visually critical (hidden in behind the garage).

Anyway, some pictures...



A pile of stuff which doesn't look that heavy...



A general overview. The pond area will be in the corner to the left, while the right of the view is Kingston Lilse station & the start of the triangle. The shed & steaming bay is hidden behind the garage to the right.



Kingston Lilse station trench dug out, with the trench for the back wall of the triangle also visible.



The triangle area filled in. The track closest will be a 5' radii curve (the trench was redug a bit which is why it appears straighter - the blocks on top will take the curve) while the main running line will be more of a transition curve.



Shed base shortly after pouring. The track will run through the back, most likely going in on the nearest side as a single track but out the other as a double - one line to the steaming bay (to be near the mixer) in addition to the main line.



The remaining trackbed which was filled yesterday. In addition to being joints in the concrete the blocks represent where we ran out of ballast and had to go and get some more! The concrete continues to the post near the wall about 40% across from the left which will be the end of the pond.

[daan]

That is a real serious yob going on there..

[JonPotter]

Well, another day down! A bit more progress today, with the wall being built around the triangle area and Kingston Lisle station. There are still around 40 blocks to lay for the trackbed, plus some for the back of the pond, which hopefully will get done during the week this week (if I can persuade my dad to come and crack on!). We have not got the concrete base quite right which will most likely mean a slight change to the station layout at Kingston Lilse - nothing too drastic though!



My girlfriend enjoying (surprisingly!) block laying!



The blocks as they are currently. They essentially form the track base, the area closest to the camera is Kingston Lisle station where there will be an island platform.

I thought it was also time to show an actual railway vehicle! Most projects on the bench at the mo are building related - however there are a couple of stock projects ongoing, including building an open coach. As it's a tourist railway I wanted a couple of open coaches to add to trains a la 37/38 on the FR (core fictitious operation being a two train summer service). After a long look around I could not find anything that immediately took my fancy, and did not fancy scratch building timewise. So I have decided to take an IP VOR 7-comp semi open and cut down to 5 compartments. I have also replaced the seats with full width benches which will be slatted (out of plasticard at the minute). There will be a second one in due course - one will be painted green and one red based on the other set colours (and again a la 37/38!). State of play is below.

[Soar Valley Light]

Thanks for the pictures Jon. Great progress, you've got further in a weekend than I did in six months! I'm really looking forward to seeing the line grow and develop. Well done and please keep the updates coming.

Andrew

[JonPotter]

Thanks guys. We are certainly making a lot more progress than we did 15 years ago with the last line! Have been lucky with the weather to be fair, and seeing as it's a totally bare garden the pressure to sort it all out is a good motivator!

[Peter Butler]

Really impressive work there, this will be some railway when it's done (never finished!). I'm keen to see the buildings you are making.

[JonPotter]

Thanks Peter. A couple below!

A little more progress during the week this week, with the block wall now complete. The trench has also been dug for the pond front, and we have identified the timber required for the remaining track bed and scenic-ing of the blockwork. This weekend is filled with other activities so I don't expect any more progress over the next couple of days.





Time for another photo of one of the home fleet... This Billy was purchased from GRS in February and has had a fair amount of sprucing - new smokebox, cylinder covers, paint touched up, radio reformatted plus now plates from Narrow Planet which arrived today.



And now for some building photos. These are both from ModelTown kits and neither are yet complete. They are destined for Wantage - one will be the main station building, including ticket office, toilets etc (i.e. frosted windows), while the other will be the tea room. They have been completed with the hope of representing Cotswold stone. There will also be a separate shop kiosk plus signal box, shed, water tower etc.

[daan]

The rolling stock and buildings look good, the locomotive is a beauty! Will the rest of the layout be made of timber? When I see the type of "soil" in your garden, I guess that will be a though yob as well..

[LNR]

Your experience with the previous railway really shows in the planning and execution of this one. Going ahead in leaps and bounds.
Grant.

[Peter Butler]

Jon, it's been a while since I last looked at the Modeltown site and I must admit to being impressed by the range and design of the structures there. Resin lends itself to being ideal for our purposes and can be painted and finished well..... just as you are doing! Glad to see you have avoided timber as they stand no chance in our climate.
I look forward to seeing them in situ , although I know I will have to wait a while.

[JonPotter]

The rolling stock and buildings look good, the locomotive is a beauty! Will the rest of the layout be made of timber? When I see the type of "soil" in your garden, I guess that will be a though yob as well..

Thanks! Yes I'm quite pleased with the loco now it's had a bit of a tidy up. Was originally going to build a different body for it but am happy with it now so will probably leave it! Yes, the rest of the line will be on timber - the station area will be three 8'x4' boards (well, one will taper to the pond section) and fronted by something - perhaps a picket fence. The remainder (which isn't actually that much considering the shed and a couple of bridges) will be simple post and block construction; it cannot be seen from the house.

Your experience with the previous railway really shows in the planning and execution of this one. Going ahead in leaps and bounds.
Grant.

Thanks very much. It certainly is much easier this time round incorporating lessons from the previous line!

Jon, it's been a while since I last looked at the Modeltown site and I must admit to being impressed by the range and design of the structures there. Resin lends itself to being ideal for our purposes and can be painted and finished well..... just as you are doing! Glad to see you have avoided timber as they stand no chance in our climate.
I look forward to seeing them in situ , although I know I will have to wait a while.

Cheers Peter. I'm quite pleased with how these have come out. Over a fifteen year period at the previous line I only managed to build two small halts so it's nice starting fresh and having a bit more focus on this!

[ge_rik]

Looking really good so far. Hopefully won't be too long before your first train starts winding its way through the shrubbery.

Rik

[JonPotter]

Looking really good so far. Hopefully won't be too long before your first train starts winding its way through the shrubbery.

Rik

Thanks Rik! Me neither - looking forward to the summer already

Quick update today. Work in the garden has been progressing but has mostly been focused around expanding the patio. However, we have had a large delivery of timber which will provide the cladding to the block work and form the shed. I don't expect much progress over the next week outside but hopefully following that we will be able to crack on again.

A quick photo of the current state of play of the shortened VOR Bogie coach. This has now been mostly complete and is now just waiting some passengers and fitting of the roof and a few details.

[Peter Butler]

That is a beautifully made kit and well painted too.... very tidy work which will be enhanced by the addition of passengers.

[ge_rik]

That is a beautifully made kit and well painted too.... very tidy work which will be enhanced by the addition of passengers.

I'll echo that. You sure have a steady hand and clear eye for detail. Bodes well for the future.

Rik

[JonPotter]

Thank you very much both! My previous experience (around 10 years ago) with 16mm kit building was just to bash kits together too quickly, but a couple of forays into 009 (two layouts - Plas Halt & Dinas Jc) have taught me a bit more patience...

Well, it has been a bit quiet in this thread but we have made some progress with the railway... Not as much as I would like, and we have postponed the opening back into July. Nonetheless, we should still have some track down in early June.

A few photos by way of an update:

First, a more up to date plan (just a very quick doodle - off work ill today and bored....) just to refresh your memories! Trackplan a little subject to change, and the eagle eyed of you will notice the steaming bay has moved!



The decking to support the Wantage station area is now in. The station area will be felted, with the track ballasted on top. As can be seen towards the left of the picture there is a manhole cover which will mean that the station is in three sections, with a lift out board in the middle to allow access if ever required without ripping up the boards.



The front of the triangle is being covered with straight boarding, as can be seen here. This will give a chunk of planting in front of the track, so the line can run in between some small trees in this section.



The main item to be constructed recently is the shed which covers Uffington station. This is a custom built job, 9' x 7'. Unfortunately we didn't read the planning regs clearly enough and have had to spend a day cutting it down around 100mm - the picture below shows the original pitch... The boarding in front of the triangle can also be seen clearly in this view. This has now been damp-proofed & filled with soil.



I have also been beavering away on the buildings and stock. The two posted previously are now complete with glazing and lamps. Signs for the doors are still required.





And Betty's Tea Room for Woolstone station is getting there (the paintwork needs tidying up...)



Stock wise, the shortened VOR coach is ready for service:



I am also working on creating two 'Vintage' sets for the ficticious history. The first will be in a panelled livery, some of the IP coaches I had in use previously are being tarted up and will be joined by some vehicles of other shapes & sizes. I am also converting to Accucraft chopper couplings across the fleet, so these have been changed out. Here's the two which are done (one just requiring a roof):





And that concludes quite a lengthy update! I won't leave it so long again, uploading too many pictures is such a chore....

[Peter Butler]

Most impressive.... the garden is making good progress and the stock and buildings are superb. Wonderful detailing and finish, they will look superb together.