Sherton Abbas
David Curtis, 4mm Scale EM Gauge, LSWR 1900-1910.
Deep in Thomas Hardy's Wessex, the general history of the foundation of the line by a group of Sherton Abbas business men as previously for my Casterbridge North layout and is the originating end of the branch.
Sherton Abbas is 10ft 6inches x 2ft nominal on two boards and follows a popular model branch line format to the display side with my favourite back-stage arrangement of a twin track sector-plate serving two fiddle yard sidings plus a loco spur behind the backscene. On this layout the sector-plate folds out a further 18 inches from the main board. In this instance, I tried using C&L track components for the first time, which I found more demanding than previous methods, solvent welded plastic chairs (LSWR type) on plastic sleepers cannot be re-soldered when an error is made while the fine clearances on frogs and check rails do not accept the coarser wheels fitted to the locomotives built back in the 1960s!
The station building is modelled on Bodmin North (from a drawing loaned to me by John Greenwood, plus photographs) in embossed Plasticard®. The signal box is a typical LSWR design, while the goods shed is yet another copy of one I made up back in the 1950s, built up around a proprietary section of platform.
Control panels for both the station area and the fiddle yard are Gaugemaster hand held units. I have provided two way switching on the sector-plate, so it can be operated by either controller.
Stock is principally of London & South Western Railway prototypesfrom a collection commenced in the early 1950s with conversion from 16.5mm gauge to EM gauge a few years later and mostly built from kits, but with some modified proprietary items and a few scratch built models.
Sherton Abbas is 10ft 6inches x 2ft nominal on two boards and follows a popular model branch line format to the display side with my favourite back-stage arrangement of a twin track sector-plate serving two fiddle yard sidings plus a loco spur behind the backscene. On this layout the sector-plate folds out a further 18 inches from the main board. In this instance, I tried using C&L track components for the first time, which I found more demanding than previous methods, solvent welded plastic chairs (LSWR type) on plastic sleepers cannot be re-soldered when an error is made while the fine clearances on frogs and check rails do not accept the coarser wheels fitted to the locomotives built back in the 1960s!
The station building is modelled on Bodmin North (from a drawing loaned to me by John Greenwood, plus photographs) in embossed Plasticard®. The signal box is a typical LSWR design, while the goods shed is yet another copy of one I made up back in the 1950s, built up around a proprietary section of platform.
Control panels for both the station area and the fiddle yard are Gaugemaster hand held units. I have provided two way switching on the sector-plate, so it can be operated by either controller.
Stock is principally of London & South Western Railway prototypesfrom a collection commenced in the early 1950s with conversion from 16.5mm gauge to EM gauge a few years later and mostly built from kits, but with some modified proprietary items and a few scratch built models.
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