An 00 gauge souvenir from the Watercress Line.

 A limited edition wagon by Wessex Wagons , number 411 in partnership with the Mid Hants Wagon Group, was available from the shop at Alresford Station. Limited to 175 examples, mine is number 15.

Harwin & Co supplied the embryonic Mid-Hants Railway with coal until their cessation of trading in 2002.

A fitting momento for a great day out.

A trip on the Watercress Line with High Tea.

Today was the day that I enjoyed one of my 70th birthday presents. Not a Sunday Lunch as originally given but an afternoon tea.

Joining the train at Alresford we sat in first class accommodation and enjoyed a trip to Alton and return to Alresford. The train loco was Schools class- Cheltenham.

In the mood for a relaxing journey and tea please excuse the random shots- not necessarily in the right order- of an enjoyable trip and an excellent afternoon tea which was served by superb volunteers and thoroughly enjoyed by this 70+ year old!

 

00 Gauge Watershoot Bay update.

Basic ground cover- paint- applied. It already makes an improvement.

One of the re-imagined 4 wheeler from a GN Hornby model- captures the essence of IOW early coaches.

The Southern Vectis bus makes an appearance, this be repositioned when the roadway is built. Hopefully the 'Southern Vectis' lettering will be more visable.             

 

The coal wagons have had a Sprat and Winkle coupling fixed to each end of the rake of four. The couplings between them are shortened proprietry type.

 

0 gauge BR ply sided Fruit Van.

A reasonable aquisition at the recent New Forest MRC exhibition was this av- it looked forlorn in Railfreight red and brown but has been re-incarnated as an early BR example. As usual Railtec Transfers have been used. Just the buffers to refit and some Sprat and Winkles et voila!

Once other projects are complete then another 0 Gauge layout is in planning- I have the points and just need a few more lengths of bullhead track and it can be started. Still have to think of a name for operation around Bath with S&DJR, Southern and GWR locos together with a bit of BR!

 

00 Gauge Watershoot Bay- now electrified.

 

With Watershoot Bay now up and running- thanks mainly to my good friend Nigel-work can now progress on the scenic side.

This post shows the rolling stock that will be used on the layout. Motive power will mostly be 0-6-0 ex LB&SCR Terriers. Most are in Maunsell Olive livery but there are also a couple of others, one in Sunshine Malachite and one, as yet ,devoid of markings.

The Olive coaches are now 4 wheelers- the centre axle having been removed. The teak 4 wheelers are re-branded GNR stock.

The wagons are a fair mixture. One of each Hornby and a Smallbrook Studios Brake vans together with a Smallbrook van converted from a redundant brake are the correct replicas whilst the others , both vans and opens, are modified and repainted Hornby with a solitary Oxford ex-GN van.

The first picture shows the station building sat atop the platform base- this needs some work before it can be glued to rest- hopefully in the right place!

More 00 gauge goods stock including a van for Watershoot Bay.

At the recent Salisbury exhibition I was fortunate to buy a couple of Hornby 3 plank wagons extremely reasonably!

After a quick rub down they were painted into Southern Goods Stock Brown-Precision Paints version.

A search in the transfers box found some suitably sized decals and a couple of sets of spurious numbers.

A set of Gibson spoked wheels were fitted together with Sprat & Winkle couplings.

 

The Smallbrook Studio, with supplied Dapol chassis, Isle of Wight goods van has also been completed.

It has been numbered in the Southern Railway Goods van numbering range but i'm not sure if this is correct due to insufficient info to hand.

So, just the couplings to fit and another , unusual van is ready for Watershoot bay.

Just have to complete the layout!!

 

O Gauge Isle of Wight stock.

A rather fortuitous purchase has lead to goods stock for the Isle of Wight Terrier.

Whilst not being replicas of specific prototypes, they do capture the essence of pre-grouping stock.

Whether they will ever have an 0 gauge layout to run on is doubtful but once a suitable Brake Van has been found then Rule One will apply!

Meanwhile they join the expanding stock list with still several kits to start/complete.