Fettling on Sea to Tethers End Light Railway
Several people have sent e-mails asking for more information on the FTLR layout, apparently people think this must have been some large and complex layout. It was never large, or complex, the project was started for a rather young lad and evolved via several re-locations. It was never really finished as things had to be repeatedly changed to suit new locations. I came across a track plan made when experimenting with track planning software, it is not exactly accurate but it shows the broad outline of what was (I feel) the best incarnation. This was housed in a small brick outhouse, some eight feet by five feet three inches with the door hinged outwards.
The baseboards were 'contiboard' supported on metal spur shelving, on the top I used 'insertion' material used for placing between concrete slabs (some kind of compressed wood pulp). This stuff comes in eight foot lengths and various widths, it is about half an inch thick and provides very quiet running. This material can be cut into with a Stanley knife, which allowed me to run wire-in-tube point controls using bowden cable with a brass wire attached to the point end and a coloured bead glued on the operating end. The wiring was also inset into the surface, much of it recovered from redundant and/or broken computer equipment. The Tethers End terminus was raised slightly, the docks and fiddle yard board on the left was at a lower level but the fiddle yard tracks were raised to the same height as the main board by adding a second layer of insertion material.
The track was mainly Peco, much of it from stocks purchased in the 1970s and 1980s, most points were medium radius with a long radius and a Peco curved point used for the engine shed line and the gas works respectively. The minimum radius was originally 9 inches however a chance purchase of a second hand set of curved points, a double slip and three way point from Fleichmann allowed some modifications for this version, incorporating some rather tight curves. The ballast was Chinchilla sand, wet with a water spray and secured with a 40/60 mix of book-binding flexible PVA glue and water with a drop of washing up liquid. Much of the track was already painted using Humbrol 'track colour' but the whole lot was then sprayed with Games Workshop 'bestial brown' spray paint, the points were done separately using a brush (squirting the paint onto a scrap of tin foil).
Fig ___ Provisional layout for the FTLR Mk 2
It was never great art but it allowed a lot of learning and the development of skills and it worked as a layout, the oval on the main board providing a continuous run when the youngsters tired of end-to-end working.
The original stock comprised two Hornby Minitrix tanks (converted to GWR pannier dock tanks using white metal kits), four 4-wheeler passenger coaches, a 4-wheeler full-brake and a milk van (all based on Peco 15' wheelbase chassis). A six wheeler coach and a clerestory roofed coach (both from cut-down Farish coaches) were later donated. Goods stock was a selection of mainly home-made pre-grouping types (most based on cut down Pecos kits) with some white metal kits and a few RTR wagons and vans.
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The original Hornby Minitirix engines and Peco and Farish British outline four wheel stock managed okay the curves but occasionally the couplings would come undone. Passenger services were originally four wheelers and two of these were later retained for a workers service to the docks. Fleichmann stock can all handle curves down to 7.5 inches (including their close-coupled modern passenger coaches). The period later changed to 1950s with a DMU passenger service and BR period goods stock and locomotives.
The original layout had a coal mine to the left of the main board and a rake of very small coal wagons were provided to run to the quay. As I only supplied two locomotives the single Peco engine shed provided the required facilities. As additional locomotives were purchased the coal mine was removed to be replaced by a larger MPD.
The Peco set track points from the coal mine (with a few more new and second hand and a couple of medium radius points) with some Hornby Minitrix set track curves were then reused to make a real micro layout (four feet by about 21 inches) in the 1990s. Again representing a light railway this fitted into an alcove beside a fireplace and ended up being called 'Snugley'. The point at the entrance to the sidings and the two points for the hidden loop were again operated by wire in tube, the rest being manual. The controller (an original GF Gaugemaster unit) was screwed to the baseboard in the right corner as shown. The two Minitrix 0-6-0 tank locos, four wheeler passenger rated stock and some of the wagons from the original Tickling layout were donated. The 'hill' in the front right had open sides to allow track cleaning and recovery of derailed stock, the top being held up by a couple of supports of 1" PAR wood, the interior of this hill was all painted black. The sketch does not show all the buildings and detailing that was eventually added to the layout.
Fig ___ Track plan for 'Snugley'
Several children have had fun with the above over a period of many years, the total cost (including locos) was minimal as a lot of the stock was bought second hand and the buildings are mainly home made or kit-bashed discontinued items that were being sold off cheaply (I still have several SD Mouldings items unmade). The scenery was mainly corrugated cardboard formers, overlaid with strips of corflake packet card and a layer or two of newspaper strips. Most of the paint was domestic emulsions (matt sap green mostly) and the general scenery glue was a big bottle of PVA. The 'flock' was dried tea leaves from cheap tea bags (dyes were not very effective on this material but thinned paint worked well enough), trees were twisted up wire with teased out pan scrub material, hedges and bushes were strips and clumps of pan scrub material slightly teased, long grass, flowers and a cottage vegetable garden were teased out string and scraps of dyed paper, a couple of 'lawns' were green felt, rough grass was pressed down teased pan scrub and fencing was all Peco or cut-down Honrby Minitirx. The green pan scrub available was all rather too blue so it was tinted with whatever paints were to hand, see also 'Appendix X - Simple, and cheap, wargame scenery and terrain' for more on pan-scrub tree making and scenery in general. The corrugated iron roofing shown below was card with a wrapping of PVA soaked thread.
Fig ___ Hume made garage and cottage gardens from 'Snugley'
Both layouts are now 'retired' but may get re-vamped should a suitable candidate show an interest. The four wheeler passenger coaches have been repainted several times and the detail has worn off, these would need some work to get them up to a useable standard for an older child, the white metal pannier tank bodies on the two original engines are in a bad way, these locos would probably revert to their original bodies. Although made of postcard and many years old some of the original home-made and 20+ year old Bilt-eezi buildings can be re-used, I always reinforce these with thicker card formers, lolly sticks and the like. Sadly the more delicate home made elements from the Tethers End gas works did not fare well and a lot of that would need re-building. The old Graham Farish card on plastic box buildings are fine and the plastic kits are all fine. The more modern Metcalf buildings are all in use and seem to have stood up well over the years.
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