The Dovecote Light Railway Project
By Mark Thatcher
"The End of The Line is Nigh!"
Having spent a considerable time away abroad this month on business, it is gratifying to have a couple of days to continue now – and the weather is holding up too. Sadly though, our challenges are not over yet!
Day Twenty Three
Before leaving for Spain, I received an e-mail from SP Models refunding my payment for the last point I needed. Apparently, due to an “administrative error” they did not have any stock – so back to the great point hunt – really, what (or where) is that elusive last point? One bit of good news though, the tourists have started to arrive. In fact only today a bunch of them came up from Guilford, on a Green Line Routemaster bus. Evidently, the bus has broken down though, and nobody seems in a hurry to return to Guildford in any case. I really can’t imagine why? But seriously folks, by chance at East Midlands Airport, I spotted, rather incongruously, a 1/24th Sunstar Routemaster bus for sale. Now 1/24th scale is a tad small for the railway, but the impressive nature of the model, was just a “have-to-have-it” moment. The model was duly purchased, but I was not going to lug it all the way to Spain and back. Thankfully the shopkeeper arranged for it to be collected at the information desk upon my return to EMA.
Day Twenty Four
Good old Glendale Junction to the rescue yet again – as they have indeed located the last point I need and it is reserved for us, as and when we can nip over to get it. These guys are really brilliant. Not just another shop but true enthusiasts who really care about their hobby, and most importantly, their customers. So with this in mind, we pressed on with the final station on the East of the line – Eastway. Not really wanting to faff around with concrete or cement at this stage, I bought some suitable sandstone slabs from our local Buildbase. Flo kindly “grouted” them together with a weak cement mix.
"it's our railway and we quite like it!"
So within the space of 4 hours, the station platform was laid! This allowed me to add some lovely stonewalling. This comes in 24cm sections from Lineside Delights, as does the water tower, coal staithe and the three platform buildings now residing on Eastway Station. These work really well together. To paint them, after a thorough de-greasing and a coat of Halford’s red primer, I just blew the them over with Halford’s matt black spray paint, before sponging on Dulux Ebony Mist 2 exterior emulsion (bought as a tester from B&Q) followed by a lighter grey just to pick out the detail and give the wall some depth. I guess you could argue the contrast between the sandstone flagstones and the wall is too extreme – but it’s our railway and we quite like it! So a bit like British Rail & Christmas – we’re getting there. But there is still some stuff to be done.
"Finally, I need two more buffer stops"
I have just ordered the remaining station signs from CooperCraft, who do some lovely 16mm sign kits for only £4.60 each. The part number is 3020 if you need any. Also I’d like to do some more on the Tri-ang wagons, which I acquired from Ebay as I would like another coal truck and some sort of engineering support vehicle. Finally, I need to build two more buffer stops, also from the aforementioned Lineside Delights, so plenty more still to do.
Day Twenty Five
It’s Saturday – it’s raining – it was raining last Saturday – it must be Groundhog Day! Well, it’s not and if I can’t crack on with stuff outside, then I will crack on with stuff inside with 14 days to go to the big day. Stuff like building the four CooperCraft station signs that arrived very promptly this morning, despite me only ordering them yesterday. The kits themselves are very easy to build, and you don’t need to paint them, but I prefer to just to take the plasticky look away from them. I generally build the posts, then spray them, plus the signboards, and letters, which I blu-tack on to my spraying table. It is a bit fiddly, but the end result is worth it. So now all the stations have names and having a few letters spare, I have also named Dovecote Junction, where the loop from Eastway joins the main line. I also had time to build the Lineside Delights buffer stops that I needed. I just lightly tack-glued the components in place with Superglue before squirting in (from underneath) a plentiful quantity of Evo-stick exterior grade glue, which really does stick s**t to a shovel. A quick blast with red primer, then satin black, before I lightly dry brushed the wood effect on with Humbrol paints.
"It's been quite a couple of months!"
Also I was able to complete loads for two more Tri-ang trucks, another coal wagon, complete with signage this time, and a farm lorry, that will take produce from the local farm, at Tramways, to the market. Meanwhile Flo kindly painted some line side warning signs. These come in brass, with a base colour either in red or black. She painstakingly painted all the raised letters white – which look just great. Something neither my eyesight nor patience is up to. And, when photographing our latest effort on the line early this evening, we spotted an interloper – a small toad, reminding us, we are building a living steam railway in living surroundings! Don’t worry, as after his photo call, he was duly returned to the pond. Would you believe Flo has shot nearly 700 photos of the line so far? It’s been quite a couple of months! Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better and we can lay the last metre or so of track at Eastway.
Day Twenty Six
Well, the weather certainly improved today, but a pressing failed pond pump was more needy to attend to on our other pond, lest we lose some lovely Koi, so that took precedence. However, in the afternoon and early evening we were able to also start to sort out the filtration system for the other pond, which our garden railway now circumnavigates. It’s not totally sorted just yet, but we have power and aeration at least – the fountain and water chute will just have to wait! So it was quite late on when I tackled the last bit of track laying by Eastway station. One final half barrow of soil, a bit of ballast and it was done in a few hours. I should have felt elated as I laid the last section of track – but I felt strangely numb… sort of “ok, that was that, so what next?” Of course I have plans – that is what separates Homo sapiens from pond life (although living close to Wisbech the two may be easily confused)! But my wife hit the nail on the head. What an effort she said – and now is time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labours – and of course we now we also have a railway to maintain, so this is where the work really starts. All in all, would I do it again? Oh yes, but tomorrow, oh no! There is still some tweaking to be done, but broadly, with 13 days to launch, we have got ourselves a railway.
Epilogue
The difference between an epilogue and to epilate, is the latter is all about the removal of hair, whilst the former reminds us of our hairier moments. OK, so I could have done without losing my wedding ring, the continual adjustments to the Tramways loop and the shortage of points. But apart from that it has gone OK really. As for the cost, well I had a notional idea I might get away with a couple of grand. Well sadly not. So here are the final stats:
Length of line (end to end) - 70 ft (excluding the loop)
Total track laid - 160 ft
Points (radius 3 and 5) - 15
Stations – 4
Engine sheds – 3
People – 128
Approx Cost of implementation
8 x radius 5 points £800
7 x radius 3 points £420
2 boxes radius 5 curves £200
2 boxes radius 3 curves £120
Various assorted track £300
Wooden shuttering £280
Digger hire (mates rates) £ 60
Assorted people and signage £120
Planting out £220
Gravel £ 60
TOTAL £2580
"So to conclude: just do it"
This of course does not include the 30 or buildings, which now inhabit the line, these were built or commissioned over a period of many years. So cheap this hobby may not be, but rewarding it is, and not many people are mad enough to knock something together so quickly. In order to mitigate this expenditure, I have already sold some track off to a club member and will also be moving on some rolling stock and buildings, which, now I know where I am, are surplus to requirements, these should put around half the cost back into our garden railway slush fund.
So to conclude: just do it – you can take your time and build things up over a period of time. I get bored easily which is why I had to press on. You don’t have to. Just get a train running quickly – it can be a modest layout, thrown down on a patio to get you started. That’s how we got started. That, together, with the encouragement of friends, family and the membership of the Wisbech Model Railway Club provided us with the enthusiasm to continue. We have done it – it’s not difficult – take it steady and you can too!
And finally.....
On Monday 30th June 2008 the members of The Wisbech Model Railway club presented Mark with a birthday gift! A railway totem depicting the name of his creation, The Dovecote Light Railway.
As you can see Mark was very pleased and called it "the Cherry on The Top"!
The Dovecote Light Railway is now finally complete and ready to be officially opened at a special ceremony on Saturday 5th July 2008.
I must thank Mark & Flo for producing this fantastic blog over the last few months. The articles have been fantastic to read, the photography fantastic, I really have struggled to choose which pictures to use. It has been an apsolute pleasure to publish this wonderful story on our website.
I am now in the process of uploading all 700 photographs taken by Flo, so check out the slide show by clicking here. Its not to be missed!
Thank You.
Martin Wickham Webmaster