Elmham Market in EM

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I’ve now completed three bases (or the halfway point) and primed one more signal and base. I think I need a bit of a break from this for a day or so and am looking at the restaurant car with a view to completing the corridor connections and fabricating the roof whilst I await an outcome on the 3D printed tables.

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I have gone back to the restaurant car for a bit of light relief from ground signals and have now cut the roof (top and bottom layers) to the right length and nicked out the ends of the lower layer so it sits flat on the sides but protrudes beyond the ends to provide an overhang. There is still some fettling to do in order to get a good fit and I’ll work on that tomorrow. After that I’ll work out the positions of all the different bits of roof detail and start adding them.

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I’ve been working on the roof. Initially I found the instructions in the kit rather sparse and was trying to figure out positions of vents etc from the photos Paul Godwin (the GERS modelling co-ordinator) had sent me. In the end I texted Paul as I couldn’t figure them all out to my satisfaction. Miracle of miracles, Paul asked me whether I had a roof plan in my instructions, because his kit did and he still had them! He quickly emailed the plan over to me and I have been working on the roof. There are two etched brass inserts representing fan cowls, so they were made up first and holes placed, measured up and cut. Torpedo ventilators were next; again measured and scaled up from the plan, drilled and fitted. Next up are the lamp domes and mushroom vents, then conduit wire, rain strips, water feed pipes and destination board holders. Photos of progress to date attached.

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I was very proud and honoured, together with John Prideaux, to attend the National Railway Heritage Awards ceremony and on behalf of the phenomenal team at The Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways receive the award for the best overall entry in 2025. This was for the NLHF, Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways Trust and Ffestiniog Railway Society funded project to rebuild much of Boston Lodge Works. So many people have played a massive role in helping this come to fruition that it would be invidious to name any one person but what a great team and an award to cherish!

Nigel

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D

David B

Western Thunderer
Richly deserved Nigel - it’s clearly been an outstanding project with highly professional input at all levels from start to finish. A magnificent achievement by a superb railway that‘s going from strength to strength in a hugely challenging environment for the sector.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
David B said:
Richly deserved Nigel - it’s clearly been an outstanding project with highly professional input at all levels from start to finish. A magnificent achievement by a superb railway that‘s going from strength to strength in a hugely challenging environment for the sector.
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Thank you David. Much appreciated.

Nigel
 
Dave Holt

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Hearty congratulations to everyone involved in the marvellous Boston Lodge project. A very well deserved reward.
I've been on several tours of the works progress over the past few years and the final result is truly magnificent and something the Railway can be justifiably proud.
Dave.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Dave Holt said:
Hearty congratulations to everyone involved in the marvellous Boston Lodge project. A very well deserved reward.
I've been on several tours of the works progress over the past few years and the final result is truly magnificent and something the Railway can be justifiably proud.
Dave.
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Thanks Dave; very much appreciated.

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
After yesterday’s excitement I’ve managed to get some more time in on the workbench (the wet weather this morning helped with that decision!). The roof is now detailed apart from the destination board holders. I have glued it to the ceiling and given it a trial fit. I think it needs trimming a little at the dining end but apart from that seems to be a good fit. I’ll add the destination board holders and give the roof a coat of primer, then scratch my head over how to tackle the corridor connections.

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
In between going out with the memsahib to buy a Christmas tree, sorting out the tree (and other) lights (why are they always such a problem?) and so on I have managed to do some bits and bobs at the workbench.

The roof of the restaurant car has been finished and primed and I have started on the corridor connections. I have some thoughts about making these work and connecting with magnetic tape; time will tell whether these ideas come to anything.

In other news, I have finished painting the other two ground signals that I had fitted on bases. The remaining three still need bases to be made, than I can prime and paint.

A couple of photos attached.

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Not much done today (it’s been a very lazy day!) but I did manage to get a coat of paint on the restaurant car roof. It needs a bit of touching up at the ends but I’m quite pleased with the way it has come up. Apart from the gangways I am now waiting for the table prints from FK3d (also I have been in touch with Modelu who have said they are producing some diners and dining car (Pullman actually but I think I can cover that) attendants in January so may also wait for them) then can complete the interior and fit the roof.

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Managed to get some modelling in yesterday. I have been experimenting with gangways for the restaurant car and have had delivered some magnetic tape. My thinking is to glue the tape behind the gangway ends so that they attract to the next gangway and hold each other together around curves. This seems to be feasible and a photo with some bits of tape holding two gangway ends together gives me hope.
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My next bit of experimentation will be to work out how to make the sides of the gangway. Possible options at the moment are very flexible polythene type sheet (as often provided to wrap RTR items within the shells) or some form of blackened paper folded vertically. The modified British Standard gangways (modified to allow connection to Gresley/Pullman style gangways) had a pair of brackets at each end with bars dropping down to support the gangway end and I plan to repurpose those and use 0.33mm wire to loosely hold the tops of the gangway ends in place. The bottoms will sit on the ledge provided in the frame attached to the carriage ends. It might all end in tears but I hope it is worth the experiment. Both gangway ends are now primed so I will paint and then try some assembly.

Whilst waiting for the primer to dry I dug out a pair of FK3d bogies for the third class diner I am planning to match this carriage. I managed to assemble both last night apart from adding the 0.33mm wire for the brake rodding. The quality of printing in these bogies is very impressive. A couple of photos show progress to date.

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
In today’s post I received a small box and in the box were some rather exquisite 3d prints from FK3d of the tables with place settings for the GER restaurant car. They really have excelled themselves this time. My challenge is to do them justice with a sufficient quality paint job. I have started and the attached photos (cruelly enlarged) show how it looks so far…

Nigel

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