Stoneybridge & Ozz Scott

[Dorsetmike]

Going back a bit, probably around 12 years or so, Ozz Scott lived and modelled in Poole, his layout was Stoneybridge. He was experimenting with working point rodding, not just cosmetic, it actually connected to levers in the signal box which would move when the point was switched.

Last I heard he moved to Holland.

A couple of shots of some of my locos an his layout

A Drummond K10 arrives with a local while an S15 prepares to depart with a freight, meanwhile an Adams A12 0-4-2 shunts the yard.
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Nelson class Lord Collingwood with a passenger train and 2 S15s on a freight working, not sure if 2 S15s have a heavy freight or if one of them is just avoiding running light. A B4 tank is lurking towards top left.
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[Roy L S]

Hi Mike

Ozz Scott and Stoneybridge - that's a real blast from the past, thanks for sharing, it must indeed be 12 or more years ago he used to feature on the N Gauge "Yahoo Group"..

It would be interesting to know if Ozz is still modelling in N, if I recall correctly he was certainly very innovative - did he not use functioning 3 link couplings as well as the working point rodding?

Regards

Roy

[Paddy]

Yes he did if I recall correctly.  Definitely a blast from the past!

Paddy

[Dorsetmike]

Maybe somebody on Farcebook could have a look round.

[Ozz Scott]

  Well Hello Lads!  The 'Blast from the Past' has returned!  After many years away from the hobby I was having a hunt about online to see if I could find some pics of my old Stoneybridge Railway, Stoneybridge West and Stoneybridge Locomotive Works projects to show some of my radio friends around the World what I used to do way back.. and I stumbled across Dorsetmike's post on this forum! - I immediately signed up and Here I am! :-)

It has been a long time since I lived in Poole and yes, I did indeed move to the Netherlands for a while where I traveled around and designed and built custom bikes (like those crazy looking cruiser chopper bikes I used to ride around Poole and Bournemouth all those years ago)

My N gauge railway modelling took a back seat for many years with other things taking over my life, operating an internet server farm for a few years and getting rather involved in radio communications and electronics projects. 

I moved back to the UK and then shortly after that moved the whole family up to Scotland! - We now live in a rural area 10miles from the nearest town on the North side of the Scottish Southern Uplands (an ex-mining community in the Ayrshire coalfields) Where we have a nice old house and live a quiet life 'out in the sticks'..
Three years ago My son and I built a 4mm scale model railway layout in the attic and just last year I rediscovered a box that contained a few 2mm scale items.(It was packed up and sealed in Poole!) A few short lengths of track and a couple of points were quickly added to the loft layout as a trans-shipment point from a narrow gauge mining railway and N-Gauge again crept back into my life :-) Due to me becoming the local 'fix it man' and the loft gradually becoming a 'Radio room' the loft railway has been partially disassembled to be used for a new project (planned during the winter months to be a 3 year construction project)

The 'New Stoneybridge Railway Project' - We are in the process of doing the ground work for a large garden railway which will incorporate both OO and N-gauge lines so we can run full length mainline trains.. The mixed gauge garden railway is in the foundation building stage with a nice solid, but well drained, embankment about 35ft long constructed along one side of the back garden so far and some major landscaping taking place which will see the track bed being extended along the second side of the garden. This summer Phase Two of the railway project is underway with extension of the embankment and an eye-level mainline station. We also aim to start construction of a 14 ft long bridge to enable the railway to 'fly over' the concrete base of one of my antenna masts.. It is quite a major undertaking but we expect to start track laying around March of next year and hope to have the first 4mm and 2mm scale trains running next summer! - this will give me the winter months to finish disassembly of the loft layout and get on with building up a few decent rakes of wagons and coaches..

Great to be back in the tiny world of N-Gauge modelling after so long and even better to have rediscovered some like minded friends who remember the good old 'Stoneybridge Railway' days back in Dorset :-)

So What have You all been up to these past years? - surely someone must have developed working semaphore signalling for N-Gauge by now ;-) or will I have to add that to my 'to do' list again -grin-

The hairy Scotsman is back in the world of miniature modelling at last! 

[Newportnobby]

Hi Ozz, and welcome aboard

N gauge in the garden,eh? I am going to be fascinated

[Dorsetmike]

Welcome back Ozz, I'm still modelling SR 1930s, just moved from that big 3 bed place in Parkstone into a retirement flat in Bournemouth, near the Lansdowne. So the part built layout got ripped out and I'm now starting a new layout.  The saga is here

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=26311.msg284965#msg284965

We have an NGS area group building a 20'x6' layout meeting in Kinson.

Are you likely to hit the south coast anytime?

[Ozz Scott]

great to be back in the world of N-gauge again :-) and even better to catch up with fellow modelers after soooo long! :-)
Congratulations on the move Mike! - I wish I could come back down South for a visit but having only been beyond the village 3 times so far this year I honestly don't think It is very likely, but never say never.. It may be improbable but not impossible!! :-)

I only just discovered today that what was my local signal box at Hamworthy (about 150ft from my house for 10+ years) was reduced to a hole in the ground last year :-( I was especially sad when I found a photo of the remains of the signal box base half filled with the destroyed lever frame, Such a terrible waste!.  I spent many months measuring and modelling Hamworthy box and spent almost a year developing a working model with operational rodding, semaphore signals, levers etc on my N-Gauge layout of Hamworthy Junction.. The layout was sold when I moved out of the country along with almost all of my models.  I has made me wonder if any of my old models still exist??

Well at least the 'Stoneybridge Railway' will soon see a new lease of life as a new 'Stoneybridge North Depot' is included in the plans for our new garden railway.. :-) The outdoor N-gauge line will be a real challenge up here in Scotland with the weather being 'not as pleasant' as Dorset ;-) (but as some of you already know I do love a challenge!

We are in a relatively exposed position 700ft above sea level so the running lines will effectively be a 120ft long 'folded dog bone' (just over 3.5 scale miles in N Gauge) above ground level with only two trailing points on the mainline 'loop' connecting the mainline to the depot to reduce the chances of derailments. This should enable us to run full length express passenger services and scale length goods trains without too much trouble.. In theory! -grin-

The continuing adventures of the 'Stoneybridge Railway Development Scheme' will take some time, with the landscaping and ground works well underway. Started last year with shifting around 5 tons of soil, stone and granite ballast creating the first raised embankment last summer and progressing reasonably well this summer between refurbishing the house and keeping my radio shack, radio antenna farm and workshop up together. Aiming to get the major ground work, embankments and foundations completed this year.

  If the wonderful Scottish weather isn't too inhospitable we hope to start track laying (OO and N-gauge) along the settled foundations early next year with the first trains scheduled to run next summer on the first half of the mainline operating as an 'out and back' :-) With all this Small engineering on a rather grand scale I expect there will be many more challenges to overcome but it hasn't stopped me yet! :-)

All the best & Happy Modeling!
- doing small scale things in a large space -

[Dorsetmike]

Surely you'll have an indoor (or in shed)  layout of some sort for use in inclement wevver. Maybe a fiddle yard connected to the outside track - disguised as terminus, could come in handy as an experimental section

[Ozz Scott]

The new gardeN rail project hit a few obstacles that has resulted in a major infrastructure redesign from the ground up. The ground being the primary source of the problems.

As anyone who has tried to run N gauge outdoors will be well aware, it is not an easy task to run a reliable line in small scales with a solid foundation. With foundations that refuse to stay still it gets even more interesting..

  My original plans for a permanent OO and N long run around the whole garden have been coalboxed by ground subsidence.
Being located in the Ayrshire coalfield area there are many miles of abandoned mine workings below the ground here and after regular surveys over the past three  years, placing several markers and taking a great many measurements each month we have discovered why the new embankment settled in places but other sections do  not want to stay still. The entire area our village sits on is slowly moving downhill!
It would not be too bad if the entire garden area was moving 'together' but as is the nature of shifting landscape there are several patches that are shifting a bit quicker than the rest. This would cause a few headaches in large scales but for N gauge with such fine tolerances it is a really big problem.

I tried constructing a new trackbed that sits on slip plates, similar to bridge plates that allow for movement so the track bed alignment could be adjusted where required. These are incorporated in vertical pillars that support the track bed. I laid a 25ft length that we kept a very close eye on over 10 months. The result was reasonably good so far but vertical undulation has lead to many issues. A  'permanent way' around the entire garden will not be feasible. We also have more animals taking up half the land so the the outdoor railway plans have been reduced to about 1/3 of their original size.

I have been constructing 10ft and 12ft x 16inch modular strips of 'landscape + track bed' that are clamped together to create a removable twin track mainline that can be placed on the vertical support pillars for use and removed for storage when not in use.

I also cleared out a whole load of radio, electronics and computer equipment to create a fairly decent space in the attic and am now in the process of building a series of 'shelves' with fixed curves and open sections that can accept the 'straight landscape modules' from the outdoor line which should allow us to operate all year round in the attic with the option to use the same 'station modules' on the outdoor line when weather permits..

Currently fiddling with working mechanical point rodding again on one modular section that incorporates two passing loops with headshunts. I got it to work reliably before on Stoneybridge West (about 12+ years ago) but am having mixed results this time around. I hope to perfect it over the winter months. :-)

The new 'Stoneybridge North' station will be permanently fixed in the attic with removable straight twin track mainline modules and one small station module (with dummy points & 'isolated' sidings) planned for outdoor use. trying to keep Ngauge pointwork working outdoors is not an easy task ;-)

Oh and full scale hens and sheep can cause pretty serious damage to small scale models when no one is looking - LOL -

I hope You are all having better luck with your N gauge projects.

All the best from 'Stoneybridge North'
Have Fun folks!

[Bealman]

All awesome stuff!

Welcome to the NGF, mate. 

[Dorsetmike]

Good to hear from you again Ozz; the Hamworthy box was a victim of the resignalling of the line which even includes provision for the Swanage railway to be reconnected to the main line and a heritage DMU running from Swanage to Wareham in the foreseeable future, some trial runs have been made by SW trains and some excursions.

Currently T9 30120, U class 31806 and M7 30053 seem to be doing most of the day to day running: the Autumn gala in October will see S&D 7F and LMS 8F visiting, and by then the T9 will be back at Bodmin.

[Newportnobby]

Thanks for the very moving update, Ozz
I hope you manage to resolve these issues.