My first attempt at 009 is in the planning stage.
The story goes:
The Beccles & Bungay Railway was formed in the late 18 hundreds. Financed by W.M.Clowes & Sons LTD and a few other local businessmen.
To keep costs down narrow gauge was opted for. 2'gauge was chosen.
Clowes are printers, they owned an Ink factory. The ink produced was transported by rail into Beccles and also sold to Clays at Bungay.
The seven mile line had a number of stations starting at Beccles then Barsham Hll, Barsham, Shipmeadow, Mettingham and Bungay.
Other than ink and some raw materials for the factory, traffic consisted of agricultural products, livestock and coal. Passenger trains also ran but were never particularly well used. People in Beccles and Bungay preferred the standard gauge Waveney Valley Line.
Traffic picked up considerably during the two world wars but at the end of WW2 the large amount of surplus army lorries spelled the end for the B&B Railway which managed to survive until 1950.
My layout is going to be set in late Spring 1944. There is a small station consisting of a loop and one siding which serves a small goods shed and a cattle dock. Also on site is the Clowes ink factory. Coal is brought in with some other raw materials and finished ink taken away. Woad and linseed is grown locally to produce the ink and this is brought to the factory from the local area by horse and cart.
Also nearby is a rifle range. The local volunteer rifle corp originates from 1859 and the rifle range is used by the local home guard who use the train to get to the range.
(The exact location of the rifle range is unknown)
The railway is pure fiction but the Ink Factory and rifle range are factual.
I haven't started construction but have the backscene which my wife had done for my first wedding anniversary gift!
It will be a point to point layout with hidden sidings each end. The main board 48" long by approx 20".
I shall be using Peco track and DC electrics.
I have one loco which I am close to finishing and some rolling stock kits to build!
Its early days and progress won't be fast but hopefully it will be an interesting venture into 009.
Thank you for looking and I will post some photos of the site, backscene and loco under construction.
Cheers
Richard
I'm looking forward to it! Can we see the backscene now?
I'll try and post a photo of the backscene, its not the best photo but gives and idea of what its like.
not much has happened of late but I have drawn a sketch of the track plan
Timber has been purchased for baseboard and most of the track.
Baseboard will be 48" x 18" although width could be adjusted if need be.
I am going to use Peco mainline and the rustic for the front section serving the engine shed and ink factory
The arrival of some Peco setrack curves in late April has lead to the tempory postponement of the Ink Factory Layout above and I am currently modelling another station on the Beccles & Bungay Railway, Shipmeadow.
Set in 1944, Shipmeadow is a small Hamlet but has a large Victorian workhouse. The workhouse has been turned over to a local farmer to house chickens.
The workhouse still exist today and it is now converted into houses.
The layout is 48 inches x 20 inches and is really a starter for me in 009.
The station is a simple loop with one siding which was put in to serve the workhouse.
so far I have laid the track, installed motors, wired everything up, painted track and put supports for backscene.
Work will now commence on the scenery.
Hi Richard.
Did you fit any frog polarity switching to the point motors?
Now some modellers say this is not necessary at all but others, myself included, have had lots of problems with the electrical switching in 009 points failing that uses a surface to surface contact between the blades and the fixed rails.
I have seen many 009 layouts where this electrical switching fails and this often will happen at the most inopportune moment at an exhibition or when demonstrating the layout!
You do not have to fit frog polarity switches but you may well regret not fitting them at a later date if you do not.
Many 00 points have small contacts on the blades or fixed rail that slide under the fixed rail or the blades to make electrical contact so the sliding motion tends to keep these clean However the 009 points have a fixed point of contact without any sliding movement to keep it clean so any dirt tends to just stay in the gap unless it is cleaned out.
Brian Meldon
Hello Brian,
yes, I fitted switches to the peco motors and running has been pretty good.
I had to file some of the rails at the end of the frogs because they were quite square and my Arnold chassis lumped on them a bit.
I put bit of an angle on them and that sorted the problem.
The track needs a good clean now after painting. I did wipe as much off the rail as possible but I was using acylic paint and it was drying quickly on the warm evening when I done it a few weeks ago.
Well what a hectic few months its been.
Work, kitchen renovation, organising our open day and trying to finish my layout for the open day meant I didn't get as much done as I had hope.
The following pics shows how far I got and the last one shows the B&BR's new loco (purchased form the sales stand at the open day!)
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