Newport

Being Built by Chris Gardner

January 2004

The much-heralded construction of Newport is one of those familiar railway modeller's stories. When you're the father of four you get distracted by home extensions, decorating, being a father.... Newport has been on the back-burner now since late 2000, when Cowes was last exhibited. The main reason for this was the need to have a major extension on our house, and the need to replace two garden sheds. This meant the garage, which had been the home to Cowes and Newport became a general store. The extension meant that the whole house needed to be decorated, and so it went on. Modelling activity has been sporadic, to say the least in the last 3 years. Unfortunately it is not quite ready to return to the fore, but there is some progress to report.

Signals

1) "Selective compression" being the name of the game, a simplified track plan was designed, and the signalling worked out. Given that Newport had no home in which to start the major part of the construction, I resolved to start on the signals and buildings. The picture at right is the up home signal (i.e. the signal which controls entry to Newport from Cowes). The prototype had 4 arms which had been reduced to 2 in the 1960's. Because some of the track never existed in the first place in my version of Newport's history, my compressed version of the signal was one that had 3 arms which had been reduced to 2. I am sorry for the poor quality of the image - I clearly have a lot to learn about image compression!		 Up Home Signals.JPG - 8138 Bytes

Newport Station Building.JPG - 318215 Bytes

Buildings

A better result with the picture this time! This is Newport Station Building from the road side. I only had a couple of black and white photos to work from, and Sodde's Law meant that shortly after I had completed construction I obtained a colour photo, and a black and white photo of part of the building I didn't previously have. This was my first venture into building a significant structure from scratch. Of course it was a learning experience - you can probably see the wall is not straight. It was laminated from two sheets of styrene, and I have since learned that to avoid warping you need three. Oh well - it is fitted around a wooden base which keeps it relatively in shape. And given that my modelling is impressionistic rather than finescale, I am happy with it.

Locos and Stock

"Recently" completed stock includes an IWR 9 ton brake van (modified from a Parkside MR model). A few items are under construction, including an SECR brake coach, adapted from an old Graham Farish suburban, another SECR composite (again from a Farish suburban) and an LBSCR brake (motorised for the Cowes gravity shunt). There was exciting news in the shape of the Isle of Wight Model Railways 10 ton Road Van kit. I've ordered a couple and am interested to see how they turn out.

February 2004

Track Design

Breakthrough! After months (years) of half-heartedly attempting to learn how to use "Templot", I discover "Trax 2" and make an impulse purchase at the Southampton Exhibition (February 1st 2004). This is the answer to my prayers - a reasonably simple and pragmatic tool for designing track layouts. A few hours and I have the bones of Newport on paper. It looks as though I can squeeze the layout into something like 13' by 7', and in my 16' by 8' garage there would be room for a cut down Medina Wharf and Cowes as well. The software allows you to keep fiddling and fettling to your heart's content. The first attempt probably uses radii that are too tight...so a version 2 will have to follow. It is fun it is to lay out the templates on the kitchen table, place the rolling stock and start to visualise the layout.

Obviously to get the layout into this sort of space needs a fair amount of compression, but that doesn't offend me. In fact I believe it will make the layout look busier. I realised today that if I don't include a couple of sidings at the front of the layout it won't have a goods yard, as the sidings on the loco shed side of the Station were, I presume, used for marshalling.

Newport Trackplan

More Rolling Stock

Isle of Wight Model Railways in Cowes have recently supplied me with two of their new road van kits. These have cast resin bodies kits to be mounted on Dapol chassis. I've now built one, but the model is disappointing, and I very much regret that the fine Chivers kit is not still on the market.

April 2005 - Newport Signalbox takes shape

Here is a photo of  Newport North Signalbox almost ready for painting. This building is the fruit of some experimentation with building techniques.

The drawing was created in Microsoft Powerpoint - printed onto A4 adhesive Avery labels which were then stuck onto the plasticard to form a cutting template. The result was a model which was several months in the planning stage and just a few days in the building.

Next on the list - some of the buildings which fronted onto the River Medina in the vicinity of the drawbridge...

November 2005 - Progress on the track work

Attention diverted from the buildings to the track work and signalling. Picture at right shows the Ryde-end station throat pointwork. I had been dreading this - a scissor crossover with a three way point, on a curve. The first attempt was a failure, so I redesigned the layout using Trax to make it somewhat simpler. The crossing is now on the straight, and has taken approximately 4 elapsed weekends to build. I have not yet got to grips with how it will need to be wired. This was the most complex piece of pointwork, and the rest will be quite a lot easier. I have to say the Trax system for designing and building track is absolutely superb - it's easy to use, and has the huge advantage that you can build the track modules individually and know that they will fit together when you come to put them on the layout.

Good news recently in the advertisement pages of the Railway Modeller, with the release of LBSCR van kits from Smallbrook Works. Must put a few on my Christmas list!

 
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