Pipe Dream

The end is in sight of completing the scenic landscape of Cliddesden, albeit at least another couple of months spare time modelling. Thoughts turn to what next? In particular how to increase the operating potential and keep our creative minds busy with more modelling. There is scope for this sleepy backwater branch line.

Between Basingstoke and Cliddesden is the famous Thornycroft Motor Works. Railway traffic here gives us the opportunity to run freight trains of gleaming J class lorries destined for use on the battle front of WW1. A G6 locomotive worked between Basingstoke and the works giving us a second locomotive class to run on the line.

Then there are two other stations plus Alton Park for the Lord Mayor Treloar's Hospital at the Alton end of the line.

This plan (right) sets out how it might be done. It shows Thornycroft and two other stations built as modules the same as Cliddesden and arranged into a square with central operating well - and it is only 8' x 8'!

Alton Park could be accommodated by swapping out the Thornycroft module.

Each module can be set up and operated as a standalone model railway, as Cliddesden is today.

Thornycroft Works

The rear siding is hidden by low relief modelling of the Thornycroft workshops that exist beyond. At the Cliddesden end trains exit the model via the Worting Road bridge. At the Basingstoke end is Deep Lane underpass followed by King Georges playing field and the river Loddon. There can be no doubt that this model is a must have because the works give us a completely different landscape and operational variety.

The hidden siding represents Basingstoke.

Replacing this module with Alton Park gives another quite different scene and operation.

Herriard

Unlike Cliddesden Herriard has a passing loop and semaphore signals for extra interest. Buildings and landscape pretty much mirror Cliddesden.

Bentworth & Lasham

A much longer track plan. The passing loop/head shunt has has had to be significantly shortened to fit. The A339 main road makes it onto the edge of the model.

The hidden siding represents Alton Park & Alton, when the Thornycroft module is used. When Alton Park is used then its hidden siding becomes Alton while Cliddesden's is Thornycroft and Basingstoke.

For us, all this represents about 4 or 5 years spare time modelling. For now it's just a pipe dream.

David

Mr. Bushnell's Whirligig

Mr. Bushnell, Cliddesden Station Master, had a hobby making whirligigs.

This picture is not as clear as the one in our reference books but look closely (no not the wind pump!) and you will see in front of the tower ladder a tall post with a blob of something on top. In the book we can just make out a four blade propeller attached to the 'blob' but, the animated scene atop the post cannot be identified for sure. The post, by the way, is the trunk from a small tree with the branches cut off.

I spent ages trying to find a whirligig design that bore some resemblance but to no avail. A search for 'antique whirligig' on Google did throw up some interesting designs and I choose one from the period that was a fairly simple arrangement of objects to scale down to 2mm scale - and here it is on our model railway.

Can you see what it is? Well, it's a woodman sawing a log with a bow saw. Simply printed on two sides of paper. No attempt to cut out the blanks around the detail as the bow saw in particular has very fine lines that would be nigh on impossible to preserve. The white blanks are visible but not here photographed against a white sky.

David

Laying The Turf

Here is an update on the progress of laying down the grass around Cliddesden Station and surrounding area. As mentioned previously the turf is being applied using static grass, this produces a more authentic look. As our model has a lot of turf to lay, it's taking a little longer than other methods. In the end though it's going to look amazing - I'm sure you'll agree...

On the back fill behind the station building we used a mixture of spring and meadow grass from Noch, however we soon realised it was not going to be the right colour for the rest of the layout. As we are trying to model the prototype in the summer, we had to find some "summer grass" and different shades of burnt grass, in 3 different sizes, 2mm, 4mm and 6mm. So a search online revealed war-world.co.uk we found them via ebay, and quickly ordered up 20grams of each size. We first of all laid the bank in front of the platform, starting with 4mm and gradually working upto 6mm by the time we past the end of the platform. This took 5 hours in all just to do that bit, although it looked impressive the block of grass was a little unnatural, we had to find away to break it up  bit. As we are modelling a summer scene we felt it was missing some long straw coloured 'dried' grass. War-Worlds unfortunately, don't do long straw like grass. Luckily a visit to a local model railway exhibition sorted that problem. We sprayed some diluted PVA on top of the summer grass and added it in, not sure whether it would work, but were surprised by the great end result. On the bank behind the station we added it in with the summer grass as we went a long, this provided more densely packed 'dried' grass areas. The pictures below give you an overview as to how far we have got, and the different shadings involved. If you look closely you can make out some grass paths and a cricket pitch.

There's still a lot more to grass, but it's beginning to pull the model together. 

Ed

Blackthorn, Parsley and Chickens

Mr. Bushnell's vegetable plot has been placed to the side of his house. Whether or not this existed for real is unknown but in 1916 food was becoming scarce (there is a war on you know!) and it seems likely that most households were growing vegetables.

The construction uses various scatter and flock materials but wherever possible I try to use real flora. There is nothing better to represent flora on the model railway than the real thing.

First up are rows of cauliflowers. These are in fact the flower buds of a blackthorn tree, dried in the airing cupboard for two days before gluing directly on the model without further treatment. The buds have outer green petals and a tightly enclosed apple green to white core. Caught early in the season just as flowers are opening the buds vary in size and are suitable for 2mm and 4mm scale.



First time I have tried this so don't know how they will stand the test of time. At the moment they are like hard little bullets. Maybe a coat of matt varnish would seal them from degradation due to moisture ingress and if the colour fades they could be painted over. I have been a bit over zealous with the planting. Two or three rows would be ideal.

Next are rows of potatoes. The earth is heaped up along each row but does not show with these plants fully grown. The core of each plant is a flower from yarrow, collected in autumn when the plant has died to brown. It is trimmed to 4mm tall and glued to the row. This approach gives bulk and height to the plant. The greenery is provided by Morrisons dried flat leaf parsley. It has a good green colour and shape to represent leaves. I also plan to use it on the tree line at the back of the model railway. The yarrow flowers are covered in neat PVA glue and the parsley laid on and sealed over with diluted PVA glue.

Once again, don't know how the parsley will age but since it was pre-dried by the supplier and still has a strong green colour it may last for ages and could be painted if it fades later.

Finally, the chicken coop and chickens. We know for sure that Mr. Bushnell kept chickens as there is a photo in our reference book. The coop is based on that in another photo from the early 1900s, scanned and enhanced on the computer for printing and forming. The chicken wire for the run is a fine plastic mesh. The chickens are made from cooked Fimo clay. A very small piece is formed into a fat U shape and thin wire pushed into the body for fixing to the model.

David

Beatties cement glue

While searching through some boxes of odds and sods, in fact trying to find the rubber stamp characters for the Chalk Cliddesden sign created in the previous post. I came across some Beatties Cement Glue, still with some left in it (but not yet tried/ used). Anyway made me chuckle, and reminded me of my early modelling days. Surely this is an Antique? like the plastic bags reported else where in the blog-o-sphere: phils workbench. Sure it's probably not as old but still a contender...

Ed

Chalk and Pens

Chalk

The station name is picked out in chalk in the flower bed opposite the station building. Mr. Bushnell looks on contemplating when to plant his favourite cornflowers for the summer display.

The letters were cut from the blocks of a rubber stamp printing set, stuck down with superglue and over painted in white.

Pens

Due to lack of photos we cannot confirm the style of cattle pens used at Cliddesden. A Bentworth & Lasham photo shows a brief glimpse of what might be the side of the pens there and it is possibly round horizontal bars passing through vertical posts - a common arrangement. If we search in Google images for L&SWR cattle pens or dock the majority are model railways with only a few real railway pens and mostly in disrepair! One of these is a nice looking pen at Guildford made from wooden boards fixed to concrete posts. The boards are fixed from the inside of the pen to provide a smooth surface so that the cattle do not hurt themselves. Searching on Ebay revealed the Slater's n gauge line side fencing that would work well, with some minor modification, for our pens based on Guildford. The Slater's kit even comes with a bar gate.

As with the style of fence, the arrangement of fences at Cliddesden is also difficult to identify. A 1911 plan in our reference book is far from clear but an ordnance survey map from the same year suggests two pens with access from the adjoining road rather than the goods yard.

Having made the model it seemed entirely logical that the large pen accessible from the road is the main holding pen whilst the smaller funnel shaped pen would be an interim holding pen used just prior to loading. These two pens would make it easier to move individual cattle through the complex thus avoiding animal distress or stampede. Well, that's my theory anyway.

Inside the large pen is a water trough that is meant for 00 gauge but sized better for n gauge and a little wind blown straw on the ground. No cow pats yet though.

David

Resources

Students of the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway can do no better than obtain a copy of the definitive book 'The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway' by Dean, Robertson and Simmonds (ISBN 0-0534197-0-3). It surveys the line and stations in some detail and covers significant events including the background to business decisions that lead to the opening and closing of the line (twice) during its short life.

Before that book was published another, smaller book of the same name existed, authored by Edward Griffith. This contains a subset of topics and photos reproduced in the later book. However, the difference is that there are more stories, some humorous, about railwaymen life and events along the line.

From a modelling aspect, if some of these real life scenarios can be reproduced in model form then this would really bring the layout to life. At least two events from the book that happened at Cliddesden I have in mind to reproduce on the layout - No, not 'Oh Mr. Porter'.

David