Tony’s Forest is my latest project and has been many years in conception.  I have finally found time to progress (albeit slowly) this 014 layout that I thought about more than 30 years ago.

 

The description that I have put together for exhibitions is:

“Tony was the owner of this forest in the 1890’s and he built a narrow gauge railway to bring timber down to his own saw mill. This was extended during the Great War when there was an increasing need for timber. However it fell out of use afterwards. It saw a new lease of life during World War 2 when parts of it were used to get more timber and quarry stone. This section portrays the line coming up the hillside to a passing loop with the old line forward now disused and overgrown. The line reverses and continues up the hillside while a newer branch leads to a quarry which now supplies Shropshire County Council with road stone. The area is still known as Tony’s Forest but the railway remains known only to a few enthusiasts and the local population. There are some rare locomotives still in use and unknown to many enthusiasts. However, this is the late 1950’s and modernization is on the way. Who knows how long this little backwater will survive before being noticed by someone in the Council? The future is very uncertain.”

I have drawn inspiration from and unashamedly based the layout on a combination of the Kerry Tramway and the Snailbeach District Railways.  It gives me the excuse to run a variety of locomotives that didn’t last to the late 1950’s, particularly the Baldwin 4-6-0 tank locomotive from War Department Light Railways.

I had to clear my Father’s house a few year ago and found a large quantity of 2 x 1 timber (okay, I am showing my age, I guess I should call it 50mm by 25mm PSE!). Now I haven’t used 2 x 1 for some years but this just looked too good to ignore, hence the new layout is constructed along somewhat old fashioned lines as basically all it initially cost me was some bendy MDF and alignment dowels. Everything else had come from either my stash or my Father’s stash of bits. I guess it is obvious where my hoarding habit comes from!  However as things developed I would have been better off starting with deep base boards as you will find out if you get as far as the Track page.

My original plan was for some sort of forestry line but I have modified it to include a quarry loading area – partly to hide the sector-plate. In recognition of my Father’s contribution I have decided to call the layout “Tony’s Forest” as I have pretty much use all his timber.

The idea is to have a line coming up a valley within the woods from the sector-plate at the back and into a loop. The line would have carried on but will be overgrown. Another line kicks-back up the same valley but climbs upwards (just enough to make it look like it is going somewhere else) before dropping back to the sector plate behind the back-scene. At least that is my intention, quite how it will look in reality is another thing.

All that track is either old fashioned timber sleeper track or, for the more recent addition to the quarry, Hudson ‘Jubilee’ track.  I had intended to have a couple of storage tracks in front of the passing loop and envisaged empty trains coming up the valley, reversing to progress on up the valley, with loaded ones in the reverse direction while also shunting empty skips to the quarry and exchanging them for filled ones.  However, it soon became apparent that what looked good on paper would not fit in the actual space so I have had to compromise.

I have designed two over-track hoppers in the quarry that are used to load wagons although trials so far have succeeded in getting more stone onto the track that into the wagons.  I have also fitted in a line above the quarry hopper to bring the stone in.  I was originally thinking that a battery mine loco could shuttle in a couple of skips, however, I didn’t think working, unloading skips, was within my competence.  I have compromised and have two skip wagons with magnetic loads that are removed by hand using a telescopic pick-up magnet – but I have installed a hopper to receive stone should I ever achieve automatic unloading.  I also found that the battery mine loco was too long and had too much overhang for the sharp curves to reliably push the skips.  Currently this line is operated with a short Ruston LBT loco and only one skip – but at least I have it working to my satisfaction.

The layout made its debut at Cheltenham on the 6th and 7th of April 2019 and was well received.  It ran reasonably well but there were a few teething issues to resolve.  The main one was with filling the wagons through the quarry hoppers.  Initial trials using stone proved to be a bit messy, while trials the following day using ground nut shells resulted on clogging in the discharge chute.  A fellow modeller at the show suggested trying Chinchilla dust which so far appears to be successful.  It doesn’t have the size variation that I had with the stone but is an acceptable compromise, so I am happy.

I still have some details to add and more rolling stock to build so that I can ring the changes.

Progress will be reported in due course in the following pages:

Baseboards – page completed

Sector plate – page completed

Track – page completed

Landscape – page completed

Scenery – page completed

Scenic Details – page probably complete but may get updated if anything else comes to mind!

Structures – page completed

Locomotives – in progress as I build more locos!

Coaches – page completed but maybe updated as and when I build more stock!

Wagons – page completed but maybe updated as and when I build more stock!