E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - Part 3: Wagons Roll!

My decision to undertake this bold venture all those weeks ago - alright, those 2 weeks ago - was in some ways arrived at by one of those freaky combinations of entirely unconnected incidents that gradually but inexorably draw one into the 'great idea'...

ENTIRELY UNCONNECTED INCIDENT NUMBER 1: A couple of years ago I bought some of those garden lights - the solar-powered type - and scattered them all around in some vaguely strategic locations. They all came with additional short lengths of plastic tube thereby to adjust the height of the lamp according to one's preference. I was left with a significant number of these going begging, and not much of a clue about what to do with them. Answer: dump them in the 'odds-n-sods-might-come-in-useful-one-day' box to mature a bit and see what develops. Well, I am happy to report that they matured nicely - into pipe loads for a couple of my '2-plank open' wagons.

ENTIRELY UNCONNECTED INCIDENT NUMBER 2: Whilst having my usual panic attack over being unable to find an item of equipment in a cupboard recently - which of course I remembered seeing somewhere not 2 weeks previously when I didn't actually need it - I was dismayed to drop a box containing a 'Mainline' OO-scale Mk1 coach (maroon). I then found another 5 sitting in on the same shelf - silently mocking me for being found but not actually wanted whilst the thing I desperately wanted.... you get the idea. Eventually I pulled myself together and resolved the issue logically, as only a man can... I muttered loudly, sulked and generally stomped around turning the place upside down until the MD intervened. And found it. In truth I cannot remember now what it was I was looking for. But fortunately that is not relevant.

So how did these 2 events connect? During an idle inspection of one of the plastic pipes, it occurred to me by some inexplicable leap of imagination that the length of the pipe was almost the length of a Mainline OO-scale Mk1 coach (maroon). Now if only I could remember where I had found them.... cue the muttering, sulking, stomping etc. Result!

So the idea for a 15-inch gauge exchange siding was born. I dismantled the coach to see what I could do by way of making my own wagon. It turned out I was able to construct a basic box shape out of ice-lolly sticks on a thick card base. If you are of the American persuasion, then the term 'popsicle sticks' might mean more to you.

No matter, here's a picture sequence of what I've been trying. First, the bare coach chassis with its new wagon body:

...next, the body in situ with its pipe cargo:



...and finally outshopped in its 'photographic grey' livery (that's car body undercoat to you):

The intention is to make several of these wagons from the remaining coaches. I shall be naming them after the children of E.W. Badman:

Lilly, Ralph, Ellis, Elsie, Phyllis, Claude and Avis.

E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - Part 2

Before going any further, I thought it might be appropriate to show a simple plan of what I'm trying to achieve. Of course, it would have been even more appropriate to have it in at the begining of 'Part 1', but such is life.

Now don't hold me to this OK? I am on a bit of a learning curve with it, so stuff might well change as I go along. Particularly with the 15-inch gauge track-plan.

... And the building layout.

... And the platform.

The wall pillars I'm OK with.

So last weekend we went on a bit of a spending spree. I came back from our local model railway emporium with a length of OO-gauge flexi-track, and a PIKO G-Scale brewery extension kit - and some additional PIKO wall panels. The MD (short for 'Managing Director', my 'significant other' or in Old English 'the wife') came back with an LGB Schoema Diesel - I can offer no rational explanation as to why.

If you look at the S&CGR's web site - go on, you know you want to - you will understand that I like to develop by means of prototyping. The purchases I made were to allow me to do more mock-ups in respect of the building arrangements in relation to the track plan. A bit like this:

Already it's starting to take on a hint of the end product I'm aiming for. I am however a more than a little concerned about the amount of available area for a second parallel track. Everything is measured back from the position of the main line, visible in the picture above as the track in the bottom left corner. If I want more space for the siding platform, I will have to shift the main line over as far as I can.

E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - part 1

I'm not a psychologist - for all I know, I haven't even spelt 'psychologist' correctly (if you must know, I'm an IT contractor - we don't do spelling). But many people, when talking, writing or presenting on the subject of garden railways, will not fail to offer an opinion about the psychology of layout design. by which they actually mean 'how believable is it?'

'A railway must have a purpose' is oft the battle cry. It needs to at least give the impression of going from point 'A' to point 'B'. It must provide a service to its customers - not only the passenger variety, but also those industries who rely on the railway for delivery of raw materials as well as distribution of finished goods. In the case of a garden railway, trains need to disappear into a tunnel, to be derailed by an errant hedgehog sheltering therein.

In designing my own garden layout, I had all these ideas and more ringing in my ears. I have made the line go from 'A' to 'B' - with a detour via 'C'. I also have a continuous loop, which ducks and weaves like a punch-drunk pugilist around the various obstacles in my garden. I have 4 stations, 2 of which have their own goods areas. Passengers are covered, believe me. If they ever complain about the prototypically unpredictable service, then I will doubtless further enhance the believability of my model by completely ignoring them.

What I don't have, though, is any kind of obvious freight custom - something which over the coming weeks/months/eons I hope to address. Even as recently as the 1950's the British railway network was liberally scattered with private sidings, owned and controlled by (usually large) businesses but with direct links onto the national metals. Dairies, breweries - even Huntley and Palmer's Biscuit Factory had its own goods vans, thus ensuring that millions of Britons up and down the country had something to dunk in their tea that hadn't clogged the roads in order to get to them.

So enough of my wandering around the subject: What I have planned to do is to create a miniature 'private siding' belonging to the fictitious 'E. W. Badman - Pipe Factors'. Actually, not wholly fictitious...

Ernest Walter Badman was born in Bristol in 1880, went to the Boer War as an officer's batman (must have been a misunderstanding involving his name, surely), returned to join the now expanding Fry's Chocolate Factory's Research and Development Department (Fry's Chocolate Cream, anyone?), met and married a young lady at the factory by the name of Leonora Bane, went to war for a second time as a member of the Royal Flying Corps, returned to take over his brother's ailing coal distribution business, transformed it into a highly successful general haulage business which to this day has now evolved into 2 businesses: JK Badman and Allan Badman Transport Ltd - and was also my maternal grandfather. Sadly for me, he died in 1962, when I was only 2 years old. Definitely my loss.

Sorry, I digress again. You'll get used to that if you ever pay regular attention to this blog or any of my ramblings for that matter. So, here's my first attempt at posting a picture to my blog...

This shows how it looked before work commenced. The wall-mounted flower pots are not integral to the design, and will be removed. As will the pale-looking girl with the tree growing out of her head. The bricks will form part of the 'platform' of the factory. On the platform will be a smaller-gauge railway - in scale terms it's nominally the same as that used for the main line (1:22.5 or thereabouts). In gauge terms, however, it represents a 15-inch gauge railway, the purpose of which will be to move goods-inward from the main rail head to the factory, and to bring finished goods out to the siding for loading onto suitable wagons.

Modelling 15-inch gauge lines to a scale of 1:22.5 is a discipline all of its own, and goes under the name of Gn15. For further information, including a lively and very friendly forum, click here.



This second picture shows a simple mock-up of the private siding in action. The narrow-gauge wagon with its single pipe load is in fact a chassis from an old OO-gauge Mk1 coach. Exactly the right length to hold the pipe. All it needs is a new body and we're in business!

Greetings!

Welcome to the Scampington & Chipside Garden Railway's Build Blog. In here I will be posting progress on the various mini-projects pertaining to the line's development.

Why have I done this? Well, as I am a member of various railway-related forums (fora?), I have been finding it increasingly difficult to keep abrest of who I have told about what. I therefore figured that if I just posted all my progess logs in one place, I could then just post a link to it where appropriate.

If you've stumbled across this Blog by accident and are wondering "what the heck is the S&CGR?", then please take a look here.

The intention is to keep this as a log of works-in-progress, which will then get published to the S&CGR site proper before clearing down here. As I have absolutely no knowledge about how blogs work, this might not actually be practical! But that's the plan anyway.

Hope you enjoy watching me make mistakes!