Two Sister's Farm 1/32 scale layout

[Mogul]

A few more detail shots of the wooden bodied Simplex shunter.

Peter M

[Mogul]

On one of the real farms, Dennis estates at Deeping St Nicholas had a small rail truck powered by a flash steam boiler. It was made by a firm called Lifu steam lorry. The device gave me the idea to make something that could carry a small load and be used by the foreman to carry spares or extra fuel out to the fields.
So the next rail truck I built really is a bit of a critter. It is an ex- American army jeep. It is an Italeri kit and cost about six Pounds. I didn’t realise until I got it home and looked in the box that it came complete with a trailer as well. Excellent value I thought.
It sits on an On30 Bachmann Street Car chassis, which is rather high, but the Bachmann chassis was brand new and only £20, another cancellation in a shop that sadly no longer exists. It runs very well so I am prepared to put up with the extra height.

 

Peter M

[Mogul]

The jeep trailer ended up in the junk pile next to the tractor workshop. The photos show the scene early on before more junk was added. Farmers I have noted locally seem reluctant to throw anything away.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

The ground cover was still being added a bit at a time when these pictures were taken.
The horse drawn device hidden under the tarpaulin is actually part of a German army field kitchen. The tarpaulin is kitchen towel soaked in PVA, then painted with acrylics when dry. This is then washed over in a thin coat of watery dark grey, this runs into the creases and gives it more definition. When this is dry a light flick over with a little cream on a dry brush. Like this the implement could be anything. Wonderful thing the imagination, probably the modellers most useful tool.

The jerry cans and large oil drum are from a Tamiya military kit as are the sacks. The sight gauge and valve on the tank next to the greenhouse are from the spares box. The fine light coloured ground cover is a material we used to use at work for dealing with oil spills.

I find 1/32 -1/35 is a nice size to work in for someone like me who is not in the first flush of youth. These days my eyesight is not what it was and my hands don’t seem so dexterous as they once were because I have PMR. The main thing is it is fun.

We get a glimpse into the engine shed with its work bench and a tool box plus some parts being worked on. A vice and more tools have been added since this was picture was taken. The floor of the engine house is scribed Milliput painted a dirty black as are the sides of the rails in the shed. A set of fire irons lean against the front of the shed next to an oil drum of rubbish complete with brush and shovel. A group of oil drums containing lubricating oil sit on a balsa wood stand.

Next to the engine house is a low relief barn made of balsa painted with watered down Indian ink. It has a rusty corrugated iron roof and a brick base from yet another Tamiya war damaged building!

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

The next shunting locomotive is not to be taken too seriously really. I built it from a selection of unused body parts and a switcher chassis from my spares box.
It’s a device I really don’t think there is a prototype for as it’s all in my imagination. The fiction is that it has a Gardner four cylinder diesel engine at one end (the side with the vertical exhaust and radiator). This drives a generator at the other end by a long shaft that passes through the middle of the loco behind the driver’s seat. It can be used as a portable generator out in the fields as well as being a conventional diesel electric to power the traction motors in both bogies.
It has a KD coupler at the front and a link and pin at the rear.
The first two photos were taken on my test track, with the loco pulling a weed killing tank car.

In this last picture the device is seen in the yard next to the man sitting down with a puppy under his shirt.

Photo by Mick Thornton

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

Due to the small size of the layout four wheel shunters are a bit more flexible and more like the shunters used in reality on the Nocton Estate on which the model was inspired by. So I added another to the growing fleet of locos and rail trucks.
Because the original bauxite coloured Simplex type ran well using the Model Power Chassis I bought another. Roaring inflation had increased its price by some 50%, but I thought it still reasonable in today’s inflationary times.
This time I managed to find a drawing of an armoured Simplex as used in the First World war and used the basic dimensions to build mine, with the exception of the curved sides. Again the Two Sister’s engineers shied away from curving metal and squared up the sides of the second hand ex WD chassis they had acquired. Because it was wider I was able to put more weights into each side of its plasticard footplate. The cab, engine cover, radiator are all plasticard with some Cambrian 16mm scale rivets and nuts strategically placed. Odds and ends from the spares box serve to represent parts of the engine and transmission seen below the bonnet cover. The wire grill is made from the reinforcing from some industrial tape soaked in ACC to make it rigid. The vertical motor means there is no room for a driver so I made a canvas door from masking tape suitably coloured.
This time I sprayed the body with grey primer then painted it a light green colour purely to make a change. It is very lightly weathered because I assumed its regular driver looks after it. 
The extra weight means it tracks and runs a bit better than the original one, which is good considering its humble origin.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

I have found another photograph of the 40hp Simplex type at rest on a Sunday morning outside the green house. This gives some idea of its small size.
Please note some of the photos that have been taken over a period of years were taken by my fellow operator Andy Knott.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

Working on the theory you can’t have too many locos the next shunter I made was powered by
another Athearn switcher chassis that I had been given.
Again it is a purely freelance design and was built out of plasticard on the base Athearn switcher basic footplate that had had the body removed.
I removed one of the flywheels and a drive shaft to give more room at the back end for the cab and this allowed a seated driver figure to be fitted in.
Someone suggested that it looked rather Germanic, I don't know the mechanics in the farm workshop just used whatever they could lay their hands on.
The body is the usual bodge with a couple of doors to allow access into the engine compartment. The radiator was from an Athearn Hustler body and it is open to allow air in to keep the five pole motor cool. It’s got the usual handrails and bits of rope and chain hanging from them. It had link and pin couplers at both ends originaly but now has a KD at the rear.
The body is slightly weighted, the Athearn chassis on its own is quite heavy so it tracks well and is a nice slow runner.
It is painted in my faded industrial green colour with a little wear and tear weathering.
The original driver was a Chinese figure who looked too big and was changed later for a smaller more European figure.

Peter M

 

[fordmajor]

And Tin Tin,s dog on the footplate

[Mogul]

Yes you are right Ford major it is Tin Tin’s dog but I don’t know his name

 

A few pictures showing a couple of Diesel tractors that have just been purchased. The blue one is a Fordson E1A Power Major that used a modified Ford truck engine. This is the more powerful tractor and is used for ploughing and general cultivation.
The red one a Fergie 35 which was powered by a three cylinder Perkins engine and is used for light work around the yard.
Both are Universal Hobbies models and come ready made, if not that well stuck together. I must admit I think the blue on the Fordson is a bit too dark but the model is fine apart from that.

I also have a 1/16 version of the Major and that too is an excellent model but the colour is slightly wrong I think.

Any way back to the model you will be glad to see featured tractors at last.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

The next device I made for haulage on the farm was an ex army Quad gun tractor.
I had long fancied using the Tamiya kit as a basis but they had been out of production for some time. Eventually I managed to get one and used an early Bachmann trolley as a chassis, it has an older ringfield type motor and with some added weight runs very well. The older Ringfield motor is far better than the small can motor they replaced it with in my opinion.
The motor is hidden under a box in the back of the cab and the fiction is this covers a powerful electric winch with a cable emerging from the back of the vehicle. It is now fitted with a KD coupler on the front. It has four seats so is used to take tractor drivers out to the fields.
I been surprised by the number of gentlemen who have said “I’ve driven one of those during my National Service”

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

One of the biggest problems I’ve found working in 1/32-1/35 is finding suitable figures. There seem to be two basic sources. The first are 1/32 scale figures intended for the tractor collecting community. There are serious collectors of the more detailed and delicate models, the rest of course are sold as children’s toys. Mostly these depict seated figures with one or two from the Britain’s range being standing figures. They are made of a hard flexible plastic that is not easy to modify. These are all 1/32 scale.
The other source are military figures who in the main are wearing a uniform of some sort. These can be modified with a scalpel and files but it isn’t easy. These are all 1/35 scale.
 
The photos show examples of the modified military figures. The hats they are wearing is a circle of ten thou plasticard with a hole cut in it to fit over his head and thus form the brim of his hat. I think more people wore hats in the 1950’s, the period of the model than do nowadays.

Peter M

 

[New Hollander]

have you found these from AT Collections: https://www.bevro.nl/index.php?cPath=12684_12943

[Mogul]

No I have not NH they look very useful to me if a little modern for my early 1960's period.

Many thanks for the information, I hope you are enjoying the trip back in the past.

Kind regards Peter M

[New Hollander]

I get it. You may have to repaint them. There are also some JD mechanics by Schuco. Even their models seem to break down. 😉 

Where in your age one guy could repair everything with wire, hammer and a spanner nowadays they need 3 guys to find a needle in a haystack.

Found another mechanic by AT Collections

Edited April 26, 2023 by New Hollander

[New Hollander]

1 hour ago, Mogul said:

No I have not NH they look very useful to me if a little modern for my early 1960's period.

Many thanks for the information, I hope you are enjoying the trip back in the past.

Kind regards Peter M

Glad to be able to help. I'm not really into trains and this era but I find it interesting that there were farms that had their own railways. This takes you back to the ages of County, Roadless and others where large manufacturers did not custom build for larger farms and a lot of inventions came from the farm workshop, built with minimal cost and old war supplies. Must have been fascinating times but I guess I'm a bit too young.

Edited April 26, 2023 by New Hollander

[fordmajor]

Scalextric older figures are good for conversions and come in cheaper than AT [which are very good ] Britains  Garage attendants 

Tin Tins dog Snowy [ original French / Belgian name Milou ]

[Mogul]

Many thanks NH and FM for your interest and information.

At one time there were around fifty farms that had a railway, most were very small and powered by

horses or even men. Two farms though were much bigger and used mainly small shunter type locos

they were the Fleet Light Railway built in 1909 it was about 13 miles in extent and served the family

farms north of Fleet Hargate and linked them with Fleet station between Spalding and Kings Lynn

on what was part of the Midland & great Northern Joint railway.

The other was the Nocton Estate Railway of 7800acres  which was the largest and longest lived.

They grew potatoes for Smiths Crisps and also wheat and sugar beet. This is the farm my model is

very loosely based on. They had a connection with a main line Great Norther and Great Eastern

Joint Railway at Nocton.

Kind Regards Peter M

[Mogul]

A Massey Ferguson 35 a 3 cylinder diesel tractor outside the workshop. Another new tractor on trial on the estate in 1958. It is intended for yard work and light carting, certainly not for cultivating the heavy Lincolnshire clay soil. The model is a Universal Hobbies example and is mainly die cast metal with plastic accessories.
The tractors are not glued in place but are moved around as the fancy takes me. This was bought as the colour is a contrast to the mainly blue painted Fordson fleet. I have over the years been surprised by the number of tractor enthusiasts that come to model railway exhibitions.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

A selection of pictures taken by the official photographer at Spalding exhibition showing the view seen by the visitors. The layout was well received by the visitors, I showed one the book that gave me the idea originally and he found a picture of a relative.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

I had never been very happy with the appearance of either the Porter 0-4-2 locomotive or the wooden side tippers. They are all Bachmann ON30 scale models, the locomotive has been modified slightly to make it look more 1/32 scale and a bit more English but the wagons are OK as they are.
I wanted them to have a rather neglected look about them but not too rusty or decrepit as they are all still used.
With the side tippers I basically painted the wooden sections a variegated pale greys and then applied thin washes of black to represent unpainted wood. The iron work being picked out in various rust shades.
With the locomotive it was washes of rust colours over the metalwork and the same treatment as the wagons with the woodwork.
I am now more pleased with their appearance, I think they look a little more interesting than they originally did.
The photographs were taken on my old American layout.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

In the first picture we see the Davenport diesel shunter leaving the flat wagon with a load of hay bales outside the barn.

We then see her on another occasion arriving at the yard with a broken engine on a flat wagon for eventual repair in the workshop.

Lastly we see her again leaving the yard with a high sided wagon and a person hitching a ride out to the fields. This was before the health and safety band wagon got going and we just used common sense in those days.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

A close up of the broken engine left at the engine shed for repair by the Simplex shunter.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

A picture of the wood chopper leaning against the coaling stage taking a rest with what looks like a Labrador pup in his shirt.

Peter M

 

[Mogul]

A mechanic in faded brown overalls peers at the rear tyre of a Fordson E27N while chickens hunt round for scraps behind the horse drawn implement.
Note the lack of a three point linkage on the tractor, it was trailed ploughs then I guess because the fields on the estate were long and narrow with wide headlands. That’s the bit where the tractor turns round to start the next run. ( I think the proper term is bout.)

In the last picture the mechanic checks a more modern Fordson E1 A diesel.