Tag Archives: Risborough and District MRC

Driving the last spike… Canute Road Quay on the road in September and October

Canute Road Quay is appearing at a few exhibitions this month and next.

Adams B4s Guernsey and Caen shunt at Canute Road Quay in the early 1920s

First up, on Saturday 30th September 2023, I will be exhibiting with my friends at  Risborough and District MRC and their small Haddenham Show at  Haddenham Village Hall, Banks Park, Banks Rd, Haddenham HP17 8EE.
Opening at 10am it will featuring seven layouts and a few traders. One of the other layouts attending is excellent High Wycombe and district MRS ‘Junior modellers’ layout ‘Mothecombe’ set in Devon and is a joint Southern/Western Region Branchline and is well worth a look.

Saturday 21st October 2023 sees Canute Road Quay at the Beckenham & West Wickham MRC exhibition in their new larger venue at Forest Hill Boys School, Dacres Road, Forest Hill, London SE23 2XN  where another 18 layouts will also be present along with Demos and traders. The venue is only 15 mins walk from Forest Hill & Sydenham Stations and has local bus routes.

Canute Road Quay a B&W view

Finally for October, and not an exhibition as such, but Canute Road Quay has been kindly invited to be on display at the Southern Railways Group AGM at the Cornerstone Centre, Camphill Rd, West Byfleet KT14 6EH.
The Group was formed over 40 years ago to study and disseminate information about the Southern Railway, British Railways (Southern Region), its successors and minor railways in southern England. It is well worth being a member by anyone with an interest, both historical and or modelling in the Southern Railway.

If you are coming along to any of the shows, please drop by and say hello.

p.s. the title is once again a nod to a favourite band of mine…

A view from the line #18 Inset track on Canute Road Quay

This latest “A view from the line”  post takes for the first time a closer look at Canute Road Quay and more specifically the track work inset within concrete along the quayside.

USA Tank No. 72 shunts across the inset track. Picture copyright and courtesy Model Rail / C Nevard.

There are a number of methods of re-creating inset track and this post describes the method I have used on Canute Road Quay and hopefully its relative simplicity and the effect gained will be of use to other modellers. Although I have covered the process before in multiple posts about Canute Road Quay I thought it would be useful to details the steps I used in one post.  The trackwork on Canute Road Quay  is  a mixture of open sleepered and inset track as seen around such docks / quays to give some variety to the surfaces. For the open track I have used C & L Finescale flexitrack whilst utilising Peco small radius LH / RH  and ‘Y’ turnouts and within the inset track areas plain Peco track.

Stage one.

Stage One

To start with check rails were added inside the running rails, by gluing with lengths of code 75 rail, obtained from C & L Finescale,  to every 3rd or 4th sleeper using cyanoacrylate glue (super glue). Then the first layer of 2.5mm cork, the approximate height of the sleepers, was  glued down either side of the track, and also a strip added between the check rails.

 

Stage Two

Stage Two

Another layer of  cork, this time 1.5mm thick was then glued on top of the original base layer of cork from stage one, that also extends right up to the outside surface of the main running rails totally covering the sleepers. Any gaps were filled using air drying modelling clay. I was careful around the one inset point to ensure that the check rails and the cork were spaced to ensure that the switch blades can still operate correctly (this does leave a slightly larger gap than one might ideally want but it is a necessary compromise).

Stage Three

Stage Three

The surface was then painted with Green Scenes textures concrete paint ,I also smoothed the texture slightly once dry as to my eye it was slightly too textured for the effect I was trying to achieve, but was a good starting point. It was then slightly weathered.  A representation of the expansion joints between the concrete panels was drawn on, pushing down into the painted cork surface, using a sharp HB pencil , spaced every 60mm to represent 15 foot concrete panels. Then weeds,  creeping grass and the such like added using a mixture of grass tufts and static grass. Etched brass Drain and manhole covers, from Langley Models (F73), have been also been inset into the surface at relevant locations.

USA tank No. 68 passes the quayside office. Picture copyright and courtesy Model Rail / C Nevard.

I hope this post helps explain the process I used in simple stages and will be of use for any others looking to replicate inset concrete trackwork.

Check my exhibition diary here to see where Canute Road Quay will be exhibited next. At the time of writing it will be Railex organised by the Princes Risborough and District MRC, on the 26th / 27th May at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, Stadium Approach, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP21 9PP

 

Coals to Stoke Manderville…Railex this weekend

This coming weekend sees the annual Railex Exhibition organised by the Risborough and District Model Railway Club at the Stoke Manderville Stadium. Railex has rightly gained a reputation for being one of the top shows in the country with 16 quality layouts and an impressive range of specialist trade stands. This year is no exception and the floor plan and full line up can be found here.

The colliery at Polbook Gurney. Picture courtesy and copyright of Chris Nevard

This year I again have the honour and privilege to be operating one of Chris Nevard’s layouts in the shape of his latest master piece Polbrook Gurney  once a sleepy Cornish Halt but now extended to include a colliery and moved to North Somerset! So not Southern, but fear not, there might just be the odd visiting engine on loan (if I can sneak one on when no one is looking)!

Southern fans don’t worry as normal service will be resumed on the blog next week back with the proper railway week. However  to help me survive the weekend there will be a couple of high quality Southern Region layouts at the show in the shape of ‘St. Merryn’ (North Cornwall) in P4 and Phil Hutchings’ delightful 3mm layout ‘Sandown’ (as in the Isle of Wight); both these layouts are set in the early 1950’s.

Interlopers, beer and letting the chain take the strain at Railex

Last weekend I had the pleasure of assisting talented modeller and photographer Chris Nevard at the annual Railex show, organised by the Risborough and District MRS, with his small but stunning Brewhouse Quay layout. Although apparently  set somewhere to the north of Bath, for a while at the weekend it was either transported further South East or a couple of aging Southern locomotives must have been on loan to the brewery company of Marriott, Dent and Foster (can you spot the connection?).

A view of Brewhouse Quay at Railex with muggins at the controls. Picture courtesy and copyright Chris Nevard

It had to be one of the hottest Railex shows ever with the metal clad Stoke Manderville Stadium sports hall acting very much like slow cooker. However with the quality of the modelling on show, from both layouts and demonstrators alike, coupled to one of the best collection of the specialist model trade under one roof ensured that once again this was an excellent show and the heat was a mere slight inconvenience.

Ex London Chatham and Dover Railway, Kirtley T Class 0-6-0T number 1604 of 1891 vintage shunts on the Quay. Picture courtesy and copyright Chris Nevard

Apart from one switchblade needing a slight repair, Brewhouse Quay operated faultlessly all weekend and it was only the shaky hands of the operators (well mainly me in fact) when trying to couple either the 3 link couplings or the shunting chain that challenged the illusion a little.
One of the features of Brewhouse Quay is the working wagon turntable complete with capstan and wagons are shunted  using the chain which in 4mm scale is no mean feat, but yes it can be done, and was a popular operation with the onlookers.

Ex LSWR Adams 0395 class no. 3441 of 1883 vintage must have been specially cleaned and is seen on Brewhouse Quay away from its usual duties as a Salisbury Pilot engine.

Surprisingly within the first 10 minutes of the show opening a couple of visitors plied Chris with various bottles of  beer, one of the advantages of a brewery layout perhaps? I was starting to think we would be inundated if this continued at that rate but alas no.

We did of course have to open and sample the malty beverage, each day,  purely to ensure the correct atmospheric environmental ambiance around the layout was created you understand…

Organising a brewery at Railex

This coming weekend, 26th and 27th May,  sees the annual Railex Exhibition organised by the Risborough and District Model Railway Club at the Stoke Manderville Stadium.  This exhibition goes from strength to strength and has fast gained a reputation for being one of the top shows in the country with over  20 quality layouts and an impressive range of specialist trade stands.

The delight that is Brewhouse Quay. Image courtesy and copyright of Chris Nevard

I exhibited at this show with Fisherton Sarum back in 2008 but have been a regular attendee often assisting with other layouts. This year I have the privilege to be operating Chris Nevard’s little master piece Brewhouse Quay.   Built by Chris as a ‘quick little project’ based around the excellent Bachmann Scenecraft Oak Hill Brewery buildings, Brewhouse Quay protrays a brewery somewhere on the upper reaches of the river Avon in the suburbs of Georgian Bath.

Looking the other way on Brewhouse Quay. Image courtesy and copyright of Chris Nevard

In Chris’s new own world it is presumed that the railway serving the brewery is a spur off the former Midland Railway Bath to Mangotsfield line. Western Region control and the nearby proximity of the Somerset & Dorset Line ensures regular visits of small engines from the former Midland and GWR along side the breweries own engines.  Although for this weekend only a few other interlopers on loan from a proper railway might be seen.