Norwood Road- An 0 Gauge locomotive shed project

[Scanlon]

For many years I have harboured the wish to have my own 0-gauge layout. First thoughts were the usual country terminal and I hankered over replicating Bude or Padstow etc., but very early on realised this was not going to work. My extensive collection of locos cried out for a loco depot and plans formed in my mind; the usual pipe dreams!

As a youngster I lived near Norwood Junction depot in south London. It’s allocation was lowly freight locos of ex LBSCR and SR lineage. With the closure of Bricklayers Arms shed namers including Biggin Hill and Appledore, and various Standard classes arrived.


My collection reflects this eclectic mix plus I have a number of ex LMS locos which often appear on Heyside and 82G so somehow I wanted to build a shed reflecting all my loco interests.

Norwood Junction and Hither Green sheds were “modern” depots built in the mid 1930’s on very linear lines. Hither Green was much the larger shed and its layout was too big for me to adapt. Being more familiar with Norwood it was logical I should find the layout of this depot easier to adapt and out came the pencils and rulers. Due to space constraints the 5-road shed would have to be reduced to 3 but generally the feeling of the shed could be replicated or so I thought. A track plan was drawn up and baseboards acquired from Grange and Hodder in “flat pack” style for what I intended to be an exhibition layout. Although I had built a large German style layout many years ago, I knew I’d need help for this new project. The baseboards were built up by a friend and I asked Chris Thomas to build the pointwork based upon my plan. Then a house move intervened and the project was put on hold yet again.

Let me know if you would like to see more developments.

 

[Joe's Garage]

Yes please

 

[Scanlon]

Thanks for all your likes and here are more developments.

It is now two years since my house move and the shed layout is slowly becoming a reality but inevitably my plans have had to change. Thoughts for a purely SR style loco shed had changed into using a modified LCut North Light shed. A friend who had some time on his hands offered to build the shed for me and did a fine job.

As the builder pointed out the shed was not very structurally sound, also the smoke vents were very poor and not at all prototypical for a Southern shed. For the smoke vents Ben Wright on the SVR offered to produce a 3D printed model and after three attempts a fine rendition of an ex LSWR smoke vent appeared.

David Amias undertook to superdetail the building and this is the final result.

The roof has been covered with “corrugated iron”, glazing has been installed in the roof lights and main windows, smoke troughs have been added inside and the whole structure squared up, painted and weathered. To clear the smoke troughs the building stands on a 7mm high plinth. In addition David built a water tower and a set of offices.

The layout baseboards had been living in my garage and it became clear this would be their new home. The baseboards were finally built up and at last I had a full impression of exactly what size the layout would be.

This might seem strange but only now could I visualise whether my track plan would work.

It quickly became clear I had drawn up a trackplan with HO thinking and some compromises were going to be inevitable but first cork had to be laid and glued down using neat PVA. As can be seen to ensure the cork was full glued in place boards were put on top of each other and weighted down with whatever came to hand.

When I ordered the baseboards from Grainge and Hodder I wanted a simple sector plate style storage/hidden siding area but none of their modules were suitable. They offer a bespoke baseboard build and I drew up a very basic module which they translated into an engineering drawing. After a little development this is the final result.

The “traverser” slides on 50thou plasticard, work is ongoing and as yet no track has been laid but I expect about 6 parallel roads can be accommodated holding up to 10 locos of varying lengths. The entire board will have safety walls fitted to protect the stock, this also applies to the Traversers of which there are two. This is work in progress.

 

[Scanlon]

As mentioned earlier I was aware my proposed track plan would probably not be suitable for the space available. Some time ago Mike Cole offered to Templot the proposed track plan and his work showed my worst fears were about to come true! About 3 years ago Chris Thomas had agreed to build the pointwork based upon my original plan and now those points were ready. Chris is a master track builder and was unfazed by the prospect of making on the spot changes. This is the original track plan.

Installation of the track started in February with the view to follow this plan as far as possible. As I have a number of pacific locos all pointwork has been built to 6ft radius.


Over a couple of weeks all points and track were installed and the compromises that were necessary became obvious. As it happens the new trackplan almost mirrors the plot produced by Mike Cole some years ago! The greatest changes were to the coaling arrangements. I had hoped to replicate the inclined coaling stage at Norwood Junction but this was now out of the question.

It will now be replaced with a building similar to one provided at Three Bridges, to the right in this photo. A short siding will accommodate a coaling crane with a grab bucket; quite a change but it is growing on me.

On the shed I had hoped to have three pits outside the building but only two can be accommodated. The point for the “kick back” sidings had to be located much closer to the building than I would have liked.

Almost all the trackwork has been installed and shortly point motors will be put in place. Four will be mounted underneath the boards, the other five will be located above the board using wire in tube to link to the points. The other major area yet to be developed is the turntable. Currently one of the entry/exit lines is fixed in place. I’d like to add two spurs for a very small diesel fuelling point but this cannot be developed until the turntable is energised.

 

[Nigel Smith]

As mentioned earlier I was aware my proposed track plan would probably not be suitable for the space available. Some time ago Mike Cole offered to Templot the proposed track plan and his work showed my worst fears were about to come true! About 3 years ago Chris Thomas had agreed to build the pointwork based upon my original plan and now those points were ready. Chris is a master track builder and was unfazed by the prospect of making on the spot changes. This is the original track plan.
View attachment 164632
Installation of the track started in February with the view to follow this plan as far as possible. As I have a number of pacific locos all pointwork has been built to 6ft radius.
View attachment 164633
View attachment 164634
Over a couple of weeks all points and track were installed and the compromises that were necessary became obvious. As it happens the new trackplan almost mirrors the plot produced by Mike Cole some years ago! The greatest changes were to the coaling arrangements. I had hoped to replicate the inclined coaling stage at Norwood Junction but this was now out of the question.
View attachment 164635
It will now be replaced with a building similar to one provided at Three Bridges, to the right in this photo. A short siding will accommodate a coaling crane with a grab bucket; quite a change but it is growing on me.
View attachment 164637
On the shed I had hoped to have three pits outside the building but only two can be accommodated. The point for the “kick back” sidings had to be located much closer to the building than I would have liked.
View attachment 164642
Almost all the trackwork has been installed and shortly point motors will be put in place. Four will be mounted underneath the boards, the other five will be located above the board using wire in tube to link to the points. The other major area yet to be developed is the turntable. Currently one of the entry/exit lines is fixed in place. I’d like to add two spurs for a very small diesel fuelling point but this cannot be developed until the turntable is energised.

That's looking really good Roger, I await the invite to come and play,

N

 

[Scanlon]

They say time flies when you are having fun, but I didn’t realise it had been a year since my last post. Quite a lot has happened in the last 12 months.

With the track plan finalised wiring commenced following the practice learned on Heyside with each section of track wired up as these photos show. Each board is individually wired so any faults can/should be easy to identify. These photos show the initial chaos under the boards followed by the sanity of tiding everything up.



A task I was dreading was to wire up the Tortoise point motors. Frankly all my colleagues told me it was easy but I wouldn’t believe them. However, the wiring proved to be as simple as they said, so why did I worry? Maybe it was seeing 5/7 wires on a motor as opposed to 3 on a Peco motor that influenced my worries. Of the 9 point ends 6 have motors under the boards, the remainder are on top of the boards and will eventually be covered by a roadway.

A simple control panel for the points has been built up and is adequate for the moment. The track layout drawing is inaccurate and with use has not proved to be robust. It will be replaced and Tamiya lining tape used for the track layout.

The turntable is still work in progress although it has been tested but is still to be wired in to the main circuit.


With the wiring and point motors installed the track was cleaned up and tested using an 0-6-0t. No issues arose and since then all types of wheel arrangement have been tested satisfactorily



A start has been made on ballasting. Real smokebox char and ashpan waste from Bridgnorth has been used around the main pit and coaling areas. Moving away from this area the ballast will be not as dark and I am using Clee Hill quarry waste suitably filtered down for much of the remaining ground cover.

There is still much left to do but already the layout has been used to test my latest builds.

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Roger,

all looking good. Could you put up a shot of the above board tortoise arrangement especially the tie bar area as I will have to do a similar thing with my revised fiddle yard arrangement on Pembury and the tie bars are over baseboard support beams. Having solved one problem, I unwittingly created another. I will update my thread when I have finished the G1 DCC installation on the Duke.

regards

Mike

 

[Scanlon]

Hi Mike,
I knew I'd forgotten a photo, so here are a couple of the motors mounted above the boards. If you need more PM me.



The motors are fitted onto Tortoise Remote Mounts which I obtained from Digitrains.

Two further photos, the control panel with switches and some more locos on shed.

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Roger,

thanks for the photos, much appreciated.

regards

Mike

 

[AdeMoore]

Just found this thread! Dunno how I missed it before.
Excellent stuff. I’m a southern fan so this is right up my alley.
The locos look wonderful examples of modelling.
Following along with much interest.

 

[Joe's Garage]

Looking very interesting, some lovely locos.
Thanks for sharing
Julian

 

[Scanlon]

A quick update; ballasting is continuing as this photo shows. The issue is making a transition from the very dirty disposal area to a less contaminated area towards the shed building. The opportunity was also taken to test 9F 92114.

92206 is a Ragstone kit, 92114 DJH and 73092 DJB.
The opportunity was also taken to "plant" the uprights for the water columns.

Again these are Ragstone products and are LBSCR ground mounted type. Each column will serve two roads and the one nearest the camera will certainly have a cranked arm to accommodate Bulleid tenders!

 

[Scanlon]

Some 6 years after the turntable was overhauled it has finally been linked electrically to the rest of the layout and tested. Thankfully apart from cleaning the running rails, it works. A variety of locos have been tested on it; well you have to! This has highlighted a small discrepancy between rail heights which hopefully can be quickly resolved.


The observant modeller will notice the turntable handrails need some tlc as will the turntable pit.

Now the turntable can be operated I can align the two short stubs shown in the lower picture which will be for a very basic diesel refueling point. One road will hold a tank wagon while the other should accommodate a Cl.33 but nothing larger.

 

[Scanlon]

At last an ambition has been achieved.


Three light pacific's on Norwood Road, 34052 Lord Dowding and 34048 Crediton are David Andrews kits. 34057 Biggin Hill is a Finney. All 3 locos were favourites of mine and often seen.

Eventually they will be joined by 3 more, 34006 Bude, 34032 Camelford and 34089 602 Squadron.

 

[Scanlon]

More loco photos, some being visitors other from my collection.

An LMS gathering, Chowbent Stanier 2-6-2t 40120, DJH Ivarr 2 46492, Gladiator 8F 48369 and a super detailed Sancheng Crab 42940.

Finney7 A3 60106 Flying Fox and DMR B17/6 61613 Woodbastwick Hall

 

[Scanlon]

It is rare to see two Finney7 West Country pacifics together, so here goes:


34057 Biggin Hill and 34091 Weymouth.

 

[Scanlon]

An update on developments, for some time I have been experiencing issues with the crossover leading from the turntable to the main part of the shed area. Earlier this week Chris Thomas came over to review the recalcitrant points and discovered a slight burr on the frog of one point. This had been derailing particularly long bogies but the issue is now resolved; thanks Chris. Of course significant running had to be undertaken to ensure the problem was solved as this photo shows.

The point giving trouble is that behind the Nelson's tender. Here is a stock shot of the same loco.

Yesterday my T9 30313 which Ian Rathbone had renumbered with the correct size numbers, was returned.

This led to an LSWR fest

Adams and Drummond classes on shed.

 

[AdeMoore]

Top drawer that Roger, wonderful models and all looking mighty fine

 

[Scanlon]

It is very rare for ex GWR locomotives to pass my way, however the passing of a very dear friend has resulted in my owning two locomotives from that company. I decided to record this unusual scene along with a new visiting loco.


The 47XX and Dukedog were two of my commission builds for my friend, both are David Andrews kits. The County is 1023 County of Oxford built from a Scorpio kit by David Amias. All three locos are now safely stored away again!

 

[Scanlon]

Developments on Norwood Road are glacially slow but there is the hope for progress for this year. David Amias has agreed to construct a coaling stage based upon the structure that existed at Three Bridges. This is the best shot he has to work from.

However, today I decided to indulge myself and reproduce scenes reminiscent of Redhill shed in the early 1960's.

A "drone" shot of assembled motive power. With the exception of 30827 which was visiting from Salisbury all the other locomotives were or had been Redhill visitors or residents in 1961/2. 30908 has been purloined by Guildford shed after working up from Basingstoke.

Another "drone" shot of the busy depot

Locos on display are 30908 Westminster, 30915 Brighton, S15 30827, N's 31406, 31866, U 31616 and Standard Tank 80011.