Another sketchbook idea

Here’s a quick idea for a scheme I just had that I thought I’d share with you.
It’s a farmyard interchange point.
A short train of loaded potato wagons is brought “onstage” and pushed into the potato warehouse, where they can be unloaded by hand and then one at a time the wagons can be left on the road in front of the warehouse until a long enough train of empties has been assembled, these then go “offstage” to the fields to be re-loaded.
Then I wondered about adding a little extra action in the form of an empty flatbed lorry appearing on stage, disappearing into the warehouse and re-emerging fully loaded with potato sacks. There are a few layouts out there doing this with radio controlled vehicles, like this wonderful example from Giles Favell.

I’m not entirely sure if my model making skills would be up to that. Perhaps I could get by with pulling the lorry on and offstage with some fishing line.
Whatever I decide, I think this would be an excellent concept to work on further

Pages from my sketchbook

What follows are a couple of pages from sketchbook detailing a few avenues I’m exploring as possible the for the layout. You'll notice a couple of themes. The farmyard and the exchange siding. I like both. An exchange siding layout allows for the possibility of prototype activity. A loco brings in a short train of wagons loaded down with full sacks of potatoes. Weighs them on the weighbridge, then brings them up onto the loading dock, where with the clever use of trees as a view block, the operator can remove the loads and emptied wagons can leave the scene.

A Farmyard scene also presents lots of possibilities. Trains of wagons can run though the layout or shunted into the barns to be loaded and unloaded. My only concern would be the sharpness of the curves, and wether or not Kadee couplers would be able to stand the rapid switching of direction.

This version above has the feature I really like, being able to watch the train com towards the viewer, before turning sharply into the farmyard. Once again, would Kadee couplers stand a sharp 10" radius curve? I'm not sure.
Anyway, things to think on, and a better development of the idea than schemes shared here previously.

Back on track.

Well, it has been a long time since the last post to this blog, 14 months to be exact. That’s not to say I haven’t forgotten about it. I’ll never forget about the potato railways of my home county. But as John Lennon once wrote. Life is what happens when you’re making other plans, and so it was with me.
In the intervening time, I’ve built, and been operating a successful 00 scale layout exploiting my East Lincolnshire Light Railway concept, a couple of times locally here in Minnesota. An On30 layout using the Bachmann trains I have has been less successful, and currently lies in pieces.
A couple of weeks ago I was exhibiting said 00 scale layout at the Worlds Greatest Hobby show when it came to St. Paul, MN. During an idle moment at the show I was looking at the Bachmann display and immediately became enamored of the Baldwin Trench loco they were displaying. I showed it to my wife who asked if I wanted it for my birthday (which is less than a week away as I write this). I was then ordered to go away, and she later returned bearing a carrier bag with the Bachmann logo on it.
The bag may yet turn out to contain a Thomas range "Henrietta" to run behind my Toby the tram engine. It could even be a Rheneas or Skarloey. But I think it’s more than likely to be the Class 10 tank engine in black as shown above.
So how does this American narrow gauge locomotive fit into my plans for a potato farm railway model? Allow me to explain.
Much of the track, locomotives and rolling stock for the agricultural railways of Lincolnshire came from the War Department Light Railways at the cessation of hostilities of World War 1. There were several Baldwin class 10 locomotives that found their way on to three railway systems in the UK. The Snailbeach District Railways, The Ashover Light Railway and the Penrhyn Quarry Railway in North Wales. The Penrhyn locomotives were 2-6-2T's as depicted in this model. The other lines inn the UK had the 4-6-0T WDLR variant.
I have to admit that when I saw the model, my mind was filled with ideas of a Snailbeach District Railway model. But once the dust had settled, I came back to the idea of using it on the Potato Farm Railway project.
There were next to no steam locomotives working on the Lincolnshire agricultural lines. There was, of course, the delightful LIFU rail tractor mentioned in a previous post. There was also one other. A Fowler 0-6-0T built for the Nocton Estates Light Railway. But it had a short life there as at 11 tons in weight it would very easily spread the rails on the soft ground and it ended up being sold to the Burnhope Reservoir construction railway. Looking at the photos you could even make a case for there being a passing resemblance between the two.

The locomotive built by Fowler for the Nocton Estates Light Railway.

Still, a steam locomotive running on a potato railway is a good enough starting point for me.
Next we come to the subject of track gauge. This is a sticking point of mine. The Bachmann model is American O scale. On30. A model of a 2'6" gauge prototype. The Potato Railways were two foot gauge. Now, I'm not an exact scale purist when it comes to track, (perhaps I'd like to be), but as long as the track gauge is near to what it should be that's fine by me. The two foot six model locomotive compared to the two foot gauge prototype is not good enough for me. It's a 25% inaccuracy. So we need to go back to the drawing board.
The "drawing board" in this case being Locomotion papers number 163. The Lincolnshire Potato Railways by Stewart E Squires. The Potato Railway bible. In it there is discussion of the mysterious "Bishopthorpe wagon". This is the wagon that will save the day for me.
Bishopthorpe Farm, near Tetney had almost three miles of horse worked rail system. It was thought to be 2' gauge. But. Found at the farm among a pile of scrap, was a wagon that was two foot six inch gauge! Was the line here really two foot six inch gauge, or had the wagon been purchased cheaply to be regauged? We will never know. But if we assume there were 2' 6" gauge agricultural railways in Lincolnshire it opens up a whole new avenue for the model.
This leaves me faced with an unusual modelling situation. I have a Locomotive suitable for a Lincolnshire potato farm railway, some V skips that could easily be converted to flat wagons suitable for a potato farm railway. Yet all these items for a model of an English agricultural railway are in American O scale. Unusual I'm sure you'll agree. But it makes sense. I can go into my local hobby shop and get all manner of items in US O scale. But not English O scale.
So there you have it, It's going to be a model of an English agricultural railway in American O scale.
Now, if I can't get my employers emergency work from home coronavirus plans to work I may be faced with some free time...

Layout planning thoughts.

The track plan is something I've been giving some serious thought to over the past weeks since the last blog post. I don't rightly know what I want yet. I've been exploring ideas though. Firstly, I was really impressed with some of the pictures over at Dave Enefers website. Particularly the second page  , link shared here again so you can see what I'm on about. Those pictures of the railway running in front of the farm houses and barns are very atmospheric and appealed to me in a big way. My grandparents lived in small farmhouses not at all dissimilar to those.

concept 1

This first concept is very basic, but it would allow continuous running of trains, something I have found to be very important as I often get distracted and drawn into conversations about my modelling which if I'm working a shunting layout leads to a lack of action on the model. Simple shunting into the one siding by the barn is available but it's not much.
I think it would also be important to me and the layouts presentation to incorporate "tatey clamps" or graves. These are where the potatoes are stored in long, low piles between harvest and distribution to the rest of the world. A couple of sidings serving graves would allow more shunting. But, (and this is a pet peeve of mine on model railways). If you're going to shunt an open wagon into a siding, it should leave it loaded and vice versa. It would destroy the illusion of the model to have an out of scale hand move potato loads in and out of the wagons. To that end I extended one of the sidings off stage behind the farmhouse so they could be loaded/unloaded out of sight, an idea I've used before.

Concept 2

I'm still not happy. These schemes are immensely flat and lacking depth. Everything is layered and parallel to the baseboard edges. This doesn't appeal to me at all.

Holmes Hall an old concept for a Gn15 layout.

The sketch above illustrates something I've wanted to develop for a few years. Being able to watch trains run towards you. In this "Holmes Hall" concept the trains run towards you at the right hand side before swinging around a sharp curve into the yard. This was envisioned as a triangular layout, not unlike the Crowsnest tramway. How plausible this would be in 1/32 scale I'm unsure yet. But I would certainly seek to incorporate the idea on any layout.

Wraggmarsh Farm. (line map from Stewart Squires Potato railways book
overlaid on Google maps)

Wraggmarsh Farm (or house) on the Fens, near Spalding had an extensive railway system serving the potato fields and had its own private dock on the river Welland so produce and supplies came in and went out on boats. It has some interesting elements in it. The loading dock for example, but as basis for a layout that would be little more than the old "fox, chicken and bag of corn" shunting puzzle. It would be great for me but not so for a viewing public. Could I fit something like that into a Holmes Hall continuous run concept? We'll have to see.

The History and Social influence of the Potato

This book was the subject of a meme that appeared on my Facebook feed the other day.

Not as silly a book as it may seem.

I did some research on it. Apparently it is a well researched, well written, and highly regarded book on the subject of the potato.
Does it have anything about the potato railways of Lincolnshire in it? I don't know. The book is some 700 pages long so I'm not too sure I'll be reading it all to find out. If anyone would like to read it you can find it on the Barnes and Noble website.

Lincolnshire Potato Railways. Some Inspiration

The main purpose of this page, other than to inspire you with "Taatey Railway" scenes, is to act as placeholder for the research images I find.

Dave Enefer has a couple of pages of Potato Railway images over at his excellent site covering the railways of Lincolnshire. All are from Nocton, but with such a huge estate that's no surprise.

Page 1 is here.     Some very nice shots of trains in the fields at Nocton on this page, as well as workers loading potatoes.

Page 2 is here     The best thing for me about this page of pictures is the images that contain shots of farm buildings.  Any model of mine will include some farm buildings acting as view blocks and exits to the hidden storage areas.

The Lifu rail truck  This might be the most important piece of film out there in relations to potato railways. The LIFU rail truck. manufactured by the liquid fuel company of the Isle of Wight.
Of course if you're very, very lucky, you might find one of these old cigarette cards on a well known online auction site. This is quite valuable to see as it suggests it was a chain driven four wheel driven creation. A model of this will certainly find its way onto whatever potato railway layout I build.

Lincolnshire Potato Railways, Some history

Perhaps before I get started on this journey, a word or two about Lincolnshire Potato Railways.
Whenever people ask me where I am from in England and I tell them "Lincolnshire", the vast majority have absolutely no idea where it is. Some will be honest and say they have no idea, others say yes, they know. But the blank look on their face tells me otherwise. So a quick geography lesson is in order.
Lincolnshire, historically speaking is the second largest county in England. Situated on the East side about half-way up the country. It can be said to be ignored by much of the rest of the UK, despite having some of the best beaches in Europe and a truly wonderful area of outstanding natural beauty in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Lincolnshire. The area in Red. The should clear up any confusion.

It has always been a agricultural county, having some very fertile land for growing crops, and a very varied range of produce is grown on the land. We, of course, are most interested in the humble potato.
The "Taates" as they are known locally, are grown on the low lying coastal land, known as The Fens, and on the flood plain of the River Witham towards the county seat of Lincoln.

Lincolnshire. The major Potato Farm railways were just to the South East
of Lincoln, and the area bounded by Boston, Spalding and The Wash (The Fens).

The first railway was laid in 1908 as an experiment that was clearly found to be successful. The real explosion in the development came after the end of WW1, when ex-War Department track and stock became available at very cheap prices.
It is difficult to estimate just exactly how many farms and how many miles of track there was. The accepted estimate is approximately 140 miles of railway on 50 farms. Some were short lines that would run from the middle of a field to a loading dock alongside a road barely a mile in length. While the estate at Nocton covered 8,000 acres and had about 22 miles of track.
Why is this rich source of railway inspiration for the modeller ignored? Well, most of these lines were horse worked. The farms already had horses, it was a convenient source of power.  There are only about a dozen locomotives recorded as operating on these lines. One steam loco, (that turned out to be too heavy for the ground). A unique paraffin fired rail truck, and a few internal combustion loco's Simplex,  Rustons, and one from Robert Hudson. The lines by nature, could also be temporary, with rails being laid into a field when the crop was ready to move and when that was done, moved to the next.
Inspiration does exist in the form of photographs and later on I'll share some links. But if you're really interested in learning more, the 'bible" of Potato Railways is Stewart Squires excellent book called, quite unsurprisingly, The Lincolnshire Potato Railways. Published by the Oakwood Press. It's is also known as Locomotion paper number 163.