Through the Dog Flap..

Well its been a while, ashamedly due to one thing or another. Again, I blame the economy, I am back on with Mablethorpe 00.

First job is fencing and I cannot find any 00 wooden fencing anywhere, Ive bitten the bullet and ordered some from Ebay that is real wood, so lets see how that goes.

A signal box and station building are also on the way. I will post up updates when I get them and when a willing volunteer puts them together. (She doesnt know yet)

Grass is always greener on the other side

Well the first layer of grass went down well, all stuck and looks ok. Without fencing or anything it looked a bit isolated so I bought some finer grass of slightly different shade.

Had no clue how to get another layer down on top, who'd have thought the answer was 'worth it'. Thanks to the kind people on RMweb forum the answer was hairspray.

The tip was to spray the area I wanted to put the second layer of grass down with hairspray (cheaper the better - which is my motto!) Lay the second layer and then spray again.

So gave that a go!

J72 sits on the headshunt, next to blossoming fields

Green Green Grass of Mabo

Never done ballasting before, never done wiring before.. but got through those barriers virtually unscathed. now it was time for laying grass. There were talks of guns and sprays and static but Ive stuck to PVA and Hornby Grass.

The results are below.

Now just need some fine different colours to blend in and should be somewhere close to having greenery in Mablethorpe.

And then there was mud..

It was time to get back on with progressing Mablethorpe and so the paint pots came out to paint the fields a nice healthy brown and finish off the station car park and goods shed hardstanding.

I must admit when the paint was wet it didnt look all that good..

'Level Crossing' - High St, Mablethorpe and fields above.

North of the Yard

After not being very impressed with how the paint went down, I stepped away for a few hours to come back and it looking ok, almost field like.

 

 

There is one area that will need looking at, the turntable that should be sat on the end of the spur siding above. This was replaced in 1952 for a new structure brought from Doncaster so the original at the time of my era will have been a smaller turntable (and not much use for large engines) so will have to be on the lookout for one of those.

For research and a good walk, I had a look at the remains of Mablethorpe turntable

Remains of turntable wall, only back wall remains

Rail holders for accessing turntable. Once had Black 5s and B1s rolling on and off

 

Space - The Needed Frontier..

By the looks of the blog it looks as though progress has slowed down.. which it has..

As it got to the point where I could start playing trains, everything wired in together and working I did just that. Only issue I had was how on earth to manage this strange station with anything over five coaches long. This left me wondering something may have gone wrong with the plans. Back to the drawings, photos and books and it seems that the LNER may have had the same issues I had.

The layout of Mablethorpe is very restrained with no real storage for carriages of any description. It now seems from help on the LNER Forum that long extra trains will have been confined to Sundays, when the northern line to Louth didn't run. This meant carriages could be stored on the line to Louth. Ive read this could sometimes mean six sets of coaches would all be queued up from Mablethorpe which must have been some sight. With crossings accounted for, it must have got close to Theddlethorpe with lines of coaches.  

The turntable at Mablethorpe upto 1952 also is a strange story in that it wasnt much use for large engines (those coming with the long trains) so upto six engines could be coupled together after arriving facing North, pulled down to the Firsby loop, turned and brought back to Mablethorpe for the return journey facing South. A 15 mile round trip to turn the engine round! 

Seemed sensible to put in a new turntable which they then did in 1952.


Love this video..

Mablethorpe was strange but very interesting, must have been great for trainspotters on Sunday with all of these manoeuvres to watch.

My only issue now is I don't have a northern line to store coaches so space will be at a constant premium so thinking of my Stage 2 extension to provide a northern line to a fitties yard might be pushed on.

Next stage for my layout is to lay some grass. Looking through the forums for good ideas as Mablethorpe seemed to have long grazing grass either side of the station which should be fun to model. 

Then the Station Building, Platform Shelter, Water Tank and windmill to install!

The train on Platform 1...

Well after my partner spent a good few hours with cardboard and glue, we now have Platforms 1,2,3 and 4 with a Goods Shed alongside.

Im pleased the layout is now starting to look like Mablethorpe Station 

First I wanted to get the bit I was dreading first, wiring up the layout. I will be using one DC controller that will power all the system to start with, so its over to Maplin to get a solder iron, solder, wire and go for it!

Before: Holes drilled, droplet wires pulled through

After: Wires soldered in. Pleased!

Platform 1 & 2 installed

Temporary Platform Shelter on Platform 3/4

Activity at Mablethorpe

 Thanks to those at RMweb.co.uk for there help with soldering and wiring tips.

 

Train now standing at Platform 3 & 4

Im now pleased to get some buildings onto the board in the shape of Platforms 3 & 4 and the Goods Shed. Next up will be Platform 1.

 

Ace of Base (Board)

After a miserable weather day, it was a trip to the DIY shop to get some a proper base built for the board. A timber frame is now strapped to the bottom of my base board.

And the road has been painted in the North. Coming soon, first commissioned building!

Ballasting Done

Well 24 hours passed and the glue was dry and the ballast stuck so well worth the wait and patience.

Rest of the track has now been laid, some not happy with! Ballast has gone down on top and glued again so another wait and tomorrow all the track should be complete. 

Platform 1 Headshunt

Main line (Centre)

Local to Theddlethorpe?

Ballasting / Glueing / Swearing!

Well the track has gone down and my first mistake has been made. but Im keeping schtum on what I've done until someone notices it! Could have been worse I suppose, although there will be more swearing tomorrow if the glue doesnt do as it says on the tin.

Ballast went down well (with a little help from my partner) and the glue from tips on Model Rail Forum is down so I now have to wait patiently for 24 hours before hoping all has gone well and ballast has become stuck to track! If not then its back to the drawing board.

Points have been left alone until the test of the rest of track passes

Tracks lifted at Mablethorpe

Sorry to say the tracks have been lifted at Mablethorpe Station.

Luckily not BR this time making a catastrophic mistake..

 

Daves Rail Pics of Lincolnshire

Ive lifted all the track to paint down the 'ballast' undercoat for when the track and ballast goes down. Nice to see some colour on the board... even if it it grey..!

North of the Station

Then a little ballasting..

New Arrival

Taken delivery of my new shunter today.

Lists

Busy thinking of lists, which order would be best for the below:

• Ballast Track
• Pin Track
• Build Platforms
• Build Buildings
• Wire Up Track

Hmm..

Before all else is running in my new engine which should hopefully land in the post today.

Been a good couple of days getting tips from Model Rail Forum and LNER Encyclopedia from very friendly happy to help modellers. Ballasting is my main worry. Should ballast be laid with clean edged ballast on the trackside or more 'messy', still not sure. My era will have seen Mablethorpe as clean and tidy as its ever been I would of thought so most pictures of its last years in the 60s are a little misleading as the place was being deliberately run down by BR.

Only one comment on my curious liveried Jinty which was surprising. Im still hoping someone has a picture of a Jinty stabled at Mablethorpe in plain black livery.. or I might just make that up and go with it.

On the way home Sunday, stumbled across this:

Track Plan

This is my Track Plan..

Day 1 - Pointless?!

Day 1

Well Ive gone and bought some board to start the layout. A track plan has been fully planned out and a list of materials produced. Ebay was hit quite hard for some bits but the main came from the excellent Classic Loco, Cleethorpes who stayed open an extra half hour for me to reel off my list of track needs!

If only Id stuck with getting all my equipment from Classic Loco and not Ebay! The two left hand points ordered seemed to have disintegrated in the post. So I am one left hand point down now... annoying.

I am using Peco FlexiTrack which I have now self taught how to split down into sizes needed. A hacksaw from the Pound shop did the trick! Never said I was a professional at this did I?!

After laying down all the track, it all seemed to fit perfectly.. then came time to test using the 'builders Jinty' a curious loco from Classic that is in BR Black.. BR being the 1980s logo!!

Armed with a rake of three LNER clerestory's and four Teak coaches I tested my measurements...

Can you see the Missing Point??

Then came a mild worry that Id messed up measurements in a bid to fit the layout in the room Id had to shrink down to 2m length. Then came lots of comparing between Pictures from 'Disused Stations : Mablethorpe' and my strange BR Jinty / LNER Teak set.

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Disused Stations

Pictures above are a similar angle, but the Class 31 is on an eight coach set and my little Jinty only on a three coach set. The 31's third coach is sat on the crossover as is my Jintys.. so no problem there, my issue was that if the 31's train was all in Platform 3 then my measurements were way out. After checking every photo again I was happy Platform 3 was shorter than Platform 1/2 and the 31 must have been reversing out to come back into Platform 2 as was the norm with it being the northbound platform..? Thats my story and Im sticking to it! 

So Day 1 was done and the layout moved into its 'permanent' position in the house, so painting can now start.

Welcome to the Mablethorpe 00 Blog

Welcome to the Mablethorpe 00 Blog. This is my attempt at creating a 00 gauge replica layout of Mablethorpe Station. The era Im aiming for is pre 1948. The LNER era of the station.

I have 'played' with model railways as a child as my father was a keen builder and as I now have children they are keen to play train sets so a hobby has been revisited!

After building up a simple Hornby Trackmat layout I now want to build a 'proper model', trying to get it as realistic as possible to Mablethorpe station. This was made possible by the reams of information available online. Signal Box Diagrams, OS Maps etc.

Hope you enjoy the journey of me building the layout as much as I have fun building it!

From 'Disused Stations: Mablethorpe'

Ellis