Will Hay Day 5 - The Return to Buggleskelly

Back in July 2018 we were invited to show our Cliddesden model railway at an event staged by 'The Will Hay Appreciation Society' in Clidddesden village on October 14th 2018. The connection of course is Will Hays film 'Oh Mr. Porter' that in 1937 used Cliddesden Station for its fictitious location Buggleskelly.

Cliddesden Village Hall Decorated For The Event
Since building our model of Cliddesden Station in 2011 we had a hunch that one day we would be showing the model at some event in Cliddesden itself but did not think it would be such a specialised event as this. Open to members and public by advanced ticket purchase the event was fully subscribed. About 180 people attended. Notable attendees were members of the film stars families and special guest Peter Waterman (well known personality, avid Will Hay fan and railway modeler) who kindly agreed to a photo with our model.

Pete Waterman & David Smith Next To Our N Gauge Cliddesden Model Railway 

On arrival we were surprised to see another model of Cliddesden Station already set up. Was this a competition? Apparently, this 00 gauge model set in the 1930s, was an unexpected late addition to the programme brought in by a local resident.

OO Gauge Cliddesden Layout From Local Resident

The Basingstoke Silver Band gave a performance and two Will Hay feature films were shown together with documentaries about the Film Stars. A memorial bench funded from donations was unveiled at the village hall. Further funds are being raised to restore Will Hays grave memorials.

Will Hay Memorial Bench

To some people our model provided context to the filming location of Oh Mr Porter. Several people commented on knowing about our model. Tom Marshall, founder of the Society was one. He is also a follower of our Blog and was inspired to make his own model of Cliddesden Station but as the film set Buggleskelly.

David & Ed


Links
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Will Hay Appreciation Society

Pete Waterman's Leamington Spa

Tom Mashall's Model Dioramas

Wheat Field Conundrum Solved

One thing that puzzled me about wheat field harvesting with horse and reaper in the early 1900s was how the sides of the field were worked? Was a strip left unplanted or did the horses just walk through the wheat? With no answer to hand I simply planted the wheat to the fence line. No one who has read this blog or seen the layout at exhibition queried it.

Unexpectedly and recently, the answer came to me from reading Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. In support of the story line Hardy described in great detail the landscape and working practice.

Whilst being a work of fiction I believe what he described in this respect is true. He described a wheat field that had been 'opened', meaning the wheat at the fence line was hand-cut a few feet wide for the horses to walk unhindered by the wheat (at the time the wheat variety would have been between 3 and 5 feet high).


Armed with a pair of sharp scissors, I cut the lanes and coloured the cleared ground appropriately with acrylic paints.

Conundrum solved!

David

Astolat Model Railway Circle Exhibition 21/01/2018 - Thank you

On the 21st of January we showed Cliddesden at the Astolat Model Railway Circle Exhibition, a small one day well run show, held at the Surrey Sports Park.

We would like to say thanks to the club and the exhibition organisers for inviting us back again, this time with Cliddesden. The weather was very soggy which made unloading and loading the cars a little bit of a challenge, and due to the conditions it was reported that visitor numbers were a little lower than last year.

Thanks to the visitors who managed to make it, and were completely captivated by this layout. One lady who must of stayed on our stand for over 20 minutes, and read the power point presentation at least 4 times, while admiring the cameo scenes and model workmanship. Also to a gentleman who mentioned we inspired him to get back into n gauge model railway building, that he went and retrieved his old childhood track from his parents place, after reading our article in the March 2016 Railway Modeller magazine, and spending two or three visits admiring Cliddesden. Also to a little boy, who again had read our article in the magazine, and was really excited to see the layout.

There were many, many comments through out the day, with these being some of the ones I can remember:

• "Cliddesden is my best in show"
• "Absolutely fascinating"
• "Great landscaping"
• "Completely different to other layouts on show"
• "You must have great patience"
• "If I end up making a layout half as good as yours I would be proud"
• "How did you make the wheat field?"
• "I love the way the back-scene mergers with the model"
• "Very nice"

Thanks again,

Ed & David

Cliddesden Refresher Video

To refresh your minds of our N gauge Cliddesden layout. Here is a video of the local goods train and passenger train arriving and departing from Cliddesden station.

You can see it in person at: 

The Astolat Model Railway Circle

Sunday January 21st 2018
from 10.00 a.m. 'til 5.00 p.m
at
The Surrey Sports Park, University of Surrey,
Richard Meyjes Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7AD.

Ed

Exhibition Time...

As guests of The Astolat Model Railway Circle, we will be exhibiting our Cliddesden Station N gauge model railway, at their annual show:

Sunday January 21st 2018
from 10.00 a.m. 'til 5.00 p.m
at
The Surrey Sports Park, University of Surrey,
Richard Meyjes Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7AD.

Cliddesden at BNHMRS (2015)

Come and see this rarely seen, award winning layout...

We look forward to seeing you!

Ed

Expo. Prep. of Cliddesden Pt. 3

Scenic repairs were undertaken. New rows of turnips are growing well, Cabbages growing in Station Master's garden and fallen wheat stooks up righted.

Electrics

Power controller and turnout motor control survived storage without fault and the layout is operational.

Running Lines

The weak link is the connections between the scenic section and the two outer boards that hold the return track curves. The power between boards is conveyed by copper strips soldered to the rails. These strips touch each other when the boards are locked together. At the join broken solder joints and track out of alignment are recurring problems. These were corrected but may well manifest again. Our method of track connection across board is not ideal and a more reliable method might be devised in future.

Our LSWR M7 tank engine runs satisfactorily. All we need to do now is run train sequences and resolve any other operational problems that might arise before the show.

We'll announce the show venue after Christmas.

David

Expo. Prep. of Cliddesden Pt. 2

Damage Assessment - non electrics

The first obvious sign of damage was our famous Lunchbox Controller. The plastic box seems to have gone brittle; has been dropped at some point causing the plastic to fracture and break away in a few places. Don't know yet if the electrics still work. We will probably live with the box damage as it is not too severe and its a big job to change the base unit as the style has changed at Sainsbury, where it was bought, so the entire box would need changing and control panel in the lid rebuilt.

The best way to check for scenic damage is to vacuum the layout to remove dust as this forces the eye to look at every square millimetre. I used the home vacuum cleaner on a low vacuum setting and brushed the scenery with a soft artist brush. It was not too dusty as the layout was covered in storage

There seems to have had an infestation of rabbits as the turnip field has been decimated of its crop and the Station Master's cauliflower patch also gone. We will need to grow new crops.

Some of the wheat field stooks have blown over and need replacing.

The buildings are in very good shape with only a couple of minor repairs required.

David

Expo. Prep. of Cliddesden Pt. 1

Cliddesden has been in storage since 2015. On Sunday we retrieved it from store to prepare it for an exhibition in January 2018 (details to follow).

At this point we don't know what, if any, repairs are needed.

This will either be a short series of postings or longer depending on what we find.

David

Triumph Model H Motorcycle

Anyone who read our Cliddesden layout article in March 2016 Railway Modeller magazine may recall I alluded to a cameo scene recorded in Edward Griffith's book of the line that I had yet to model for the layout. With Cliddesden scheduled for exhibition again in January 2018 (details to follow near the date) I decided to take time out to create the scene.

It concerns a motor-cycle, delivered to the station for its new owner to collect. It was 'borrowed' by the Station Porter who took great pleasure riding it around the countryside for a week without the owners permission. The Porter arranged for a green flag to be placed in a tree giving the all clear and a red flag if strangers were in the vicinity.

I do not know what type of motorcycle or which period this story relates to. I chose a Triumph Model H, which was in manufacture from 1915 to 1923. The 'N' gauge model was 3D printed in plastic but being so small with few details you would not recognise it as a model H but it does have the style of early motorcycles. The Porter is modelled using a wire armature and Milliput epoxy putty. He is shown leaving the Goods Yard for one of his jaunts.

Can you spot the green flag?

David

Cliddesden in Print

Our Cliddesden model railway is featured in Railway Modeller magazine March issue. On sale from February 11th to March 10th 2016.

If you visited this Blog having read our article in Railway Modeller and want to know more then the best way to navigate this Blog is to select a topic of interest from the word cloud (titled Labels) shown in the left hand column.

This Blog covers the modelling of Cliddesden Station and Thornycroft Sidings in N gauge. Either layout is available for exhibition within about 30 miles of Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK.

Thornycroft Sidings has its public debut at the The Basingstoke & North Hampshire Model Railway Show, Aldworth Science College, Basingstoke, RG22 6HA on Saturday 12th March, and Sunday 13th March 2016.

David

Exposure

Back in the Autumn of 2013 an article I wrote about our Cliddesden layout for the 'Your Model Railway Village' part work series was published in issue 8.

A guy on YouTube has reviewed every issue of the partwork and he has just (March 8th 2015)  got around to reviewing issue 8.

If you would like to hear what he had to say about my article then play his video from time mark 3.10 minutes. By the way, it is pronounced Clid-des-den.




It seems to be all happening this week as the layout is being exhibited on Saturday and Sunday.

Aldworth Science College, 

Basingstoke, RG22 6HA 

Saturday 14th March 10-5 and 

Sunday 15th March 10-4 

David

Cliddesden at BNHMRS Show March 2015

See Cliddesden in person at Basingstoke North Hampshire Model Railway Show:

Aldworth Science College, 

Basingstoke, RG22 6HA 

Saturday 14th March 10-5 and 

Sunday 15th March 10-4 

Stand 6L in the Gymnasium. Hope to see you there!

In the mean time to refresh your minds of the layout. Here is a video of the local goods train and passenger train arriving and departing from Cliddesden station.

Ed

Cliddesden at BNHMRS Show

See Cliddesden in person at: 

BNHMRS Show 

Aldworth Science College, 

Basingstoke, RG22 6HA 

Saturday 14th March 10-5 and 

Sunday 15th March 10-4 

Hope to see you there!

Picture from Farnham MRC expo

As this blog has focused recently on Thornycroft, We thought it would be good to refresh your minds on Cliddesden, so as a start take a look at the Cliddesden Photo Series and read the background/ introduction to the layout.

Ed

World War 1 Centenary

We settled on the year 1916 for our Cliddesden layout because we wanted to model the L&SWR in its later years. At the end of 1916 the track was lifted for reuse in France during World War 1 and whilst the L&SWR continued to own the branch line for many more years no trains ran until track was relaid in 1924 during the Southern Railway period. Summer 1916 was therefore the most recent L&SWR date that we could model. The fact that this was half way through the first world war escaped our interest until we began to research the area and period for the model. Only then did we began to appreciate the influence it had on life at home.

We have a few posts here that relate to World War 1 so, as it is the centenary on August 4th of the outbreak of war then you might like to take a look at these.

Women's National land Service Corps (link)

Remembrance (link)

Thornycroft J Class War Department Lorry (link)

(A 5 part series - follow the links in postings for each part)

David

In Demand

Someone contacted me asking if I could supply him a 00 version of our n gauge Cliddesden Station Building. It seems to me this building would be ideal for a beginner to the hobby and for a very small layout, let alone a light railway for which it is intended. It would also lend itself to being a goods yard office or store - quite versatile.

Not a simple case of scaling up the n gauge card kit I designed because missing detail would be more noticeable in 00 and the assembly method is not robost enough for the larger scale.

The original kit was designed from dimensions and photographs given in our reference book, cited elsewhere in this blog.

So, a 00 version is now being designed for anyone to obtain.

More info later.

David

Photograph Series - Final Part (for now)

Everything you see in the photo, apart from the sky , is all "real" and part of the model railway, mostly scratch built and scaled in n-gauge; (approx)2mm:1ft.

Here we see a view looking over the farmers wheat field towards Cliddesden Station. The local farmer is reaping the field with his Mccomick reaper, and 2 horses. Women from the Women's National Land Services Corps are following to upend the bundles to form stooks to help dry the grain.

Shot with a Canon EOS 550D.

Ed

Photograph Series - Part 3

Everything you see in the photo, apart from the sky (backscene), is all "real" and part of the model railway, mostly scratch built and scaled in n-gauge; (approx)2mm:1ft.

Here we see  a view looking over the railway servants cottages and the station masters back garden, looking onto Cliddesden station. A freight train has just departed the station, and Alfred Vince (station porter) is pushing the station barrow with the coffin and the grieving father in tow along station road . Probably on their way to the church in the village.

Shot with a Canon EOS 550D.

Ed

Photograph Series - Part 2

Everything you see in the photo, apart from the sky, is all "real" and part of the model railway, mostly scratch built and scaled in n-gauge; (approx)2mm:1ft.

Here we see the back of Cliddesden station, and the sidings. The cattle are in the cattle dock, waiting for the next wagon to arrive.

Shot with a Canon EOS 550D.

Ed

Photograph Series - Part 1

In a new series of landscape photographs showing the (nearly) finished (is it ever finished) model.

Everything you see in the photo, apart from the sky and smoke from the engine, is all "real" and part of the model railway, mostly scratch built and scaled in n-gauge; (approx)2mm:1ft.

Here we see the LSWR O2 (M7 in our case as no r.t.r), leaving Cliddesden station with LSWR 48' Brake Lav. Tri-Comp. I suspect very few people are on-board  It's 1916, war has started, and the line is about to close.

Shot with a Canon EOS 550D.

Ed

Appeal for Information

The last piece of Cliddesden landscaping to do is the rear gardens of the four terraced station cottages. However, progress is delayed because we don't know the layout of them between 1901 and 1936!

Reading large scale maps of the area suggests the rear gardens were open plan, i.e. no fences or demarcation between but, is this really true? The only fence shown is between the cottages and station master's house.

If you can help us with information about the rear garden layouts of the four cottages between 1901 and 1936 please email sales@amodelrailway.uk or comment on this post below.

Herriard and Bentworth & Lasham station cottage gardens were probably similar so if you know about those that will do for us.

David