The Rise of the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway Down Under

The etches of the rolling stock which was characteristic of the W&U arrived from Darkest Essex (see the blogs I am following) on Thursday and the first of 5 tram locos was built the same evening. As there aren't instructions for this kit, I wrote down what I did - anyone interested in what I did is welcome to get in touch. The loco is actually going to be Isle of Sodor Railway No 7 - better known as Toby the Tram Engine. As such, I wasn't too worried if it didn't end up exactly like the pictures in the books. The buffers currently fitted are standard 2mm FS turned brass ones - Great Eastern Loco buffers are going to be ordered when I get around to sending the order to Shop 3.

I am very pleased with how it looks - and it is going to run (which I haven't tested yet as the Darling Daughters railway is still in the process of its expansion/relocation and hasn't be repowered yet) on a Pro-Hobbies chassis - they have been written up in the NGS journal and I suspect a few 2mm FSA Members have got hold of them.

Next on the list was making Henrietta to go with Toby. This was tonight's project while watching round 1 of the new AFL season (Essendon has done pretty well against 19 of the 22 who won the premiership last year for Geelong, fading in the last term but holding on for quite a while).



The results of the efforts of 3 quarters of football are shown. Still a few bits to go - buffers, coupling hooks, brakes and wheels and I suspect there should be some vents on the roof but I haven't really looked into it. It captures what I want at the present time and again, gave me some insights into the build. There are instructions but I will be adding to them from my experience and sending the notes back to Essex. Given that this etches were the reasons why I joined the Dark Side (and the 2mm FSA) I am very glad I did - and David can take a bow too as they are very nice etches, go together well and even with no instructions, a newbie like me was able to do Toby in under 3 hours (and this included fettling the motor to fit) using the etch and a couple of pictures.

Return of the Sith - with apologies to LucasArts

The story so far - 2009 began with me feeling a bit down as my model railway room was 1200 kms away and my layout - St Alban's Priory - in storage following our move to Longreach in March of 2008. My darling wife, Amity (aka Sithlady, SWMBO etc) suggested I should "do something" and following a raid of the scrap wood pile in the wood work room at Longreach SHS (where I am presently the Year 11 YLC and SOSE SAC) my first independent modular layout "Swallow Street" was born. The trails and tribulations of this layout were blogged about on RMWeb during 2009. When RM Web changed to new format late in 2009 I didn't like the change and didn't roll over.

Somewhere in the journey of modelling BR(S) 3rd Rail in N gauge I ended up joining the 2mm Fine Scale Association (2FSA) with a view to creating, with Amity, a layout based initially on a Col. Stephens type light railway (we have Dapol Terriers needing somewhere to play). Further research and some books later, resulted in this being canned and a Wisbech and Upwell layout based on the vista along Elm Road was decided on - initially to be called Tuck's Bridge, and using the bridge of that name at Outwell as a rail bridge, rather than road. We had also toyed with the idea of modeling various Fenland buildings and using these to create the atmosphere desired.

Much discussion and viewing of photos later and Tuck's Bridge was canned in favour of modelling a stretch of Elm Road initially (those who are fans of the W&U and have the Reeve and Hawkins tome can have a look at pp27-29 for the inspiration behind this) with Outwell Basin Depot to follow when our confidence in all things 2mm FS increase.

Well, I am a little impatient and it is pretty obvious that Longreach doesn't really have the gear readily available to make 2mm FS Exhibition layouts - but I would like to do something. So I spent the weekend creating a Inglenook with Station layout which will fit on 1' x 4' and provide us with practice opportunities - 5 points, about 2.5 meters of track to build, the need to DG (or similar) at least 8 wagons, two locos and a brake van, as well as build the various items of stock (or convert some of my N gauge stuff - a Dapol 14xx and Autocoach are marked for conversion) buildings and scenery required.

So, not being a fan of the RM Web blog style I am doing this one here, on my own. Google is probably on the only way to find it but the address is in my email signature so it might get around. If you find it, and have read to this point, please leave a message so I know someone is reading!