Wordless Wednesday
Littledene Locos In Profile: “Caburn”
“Caburn” was built for the OVLR by Hawthorn, Leslie & Co Ltd in 1899. They also built two for the Rother Valley Railway, “Tenterden” and “Northiam”. For its modest size it had a good reputation for excellent haulage and became a favourite with OVLR crews. “Caburn” was modified in a similar way to “Northiam” with a new ‘Jones Patent Blast Pipe’ in 1909 and kept its smaller 3ft 2in driving wheels. It also had coal rails added around the bunker.
“Caburn” was named after Mount Caburn which is a prominent 150-meter hill on the outskirts of Lewes. It overlooks Glynde and Littledene.
The model is a Roxey Mouldings kit which is unfortunately not available at the moment. It was an interesting kit to build as the chassis is fully compensated with a separate sub assembly for the driving wheels that pivots on a central beam. One change I made was to fit a Highlevel gearbox and motor instead of the open frame motor and single stage gearbox.
Littledene Locos In Profile: “Littledene”
“Littledene” is a Manning Wardle I class of 1862 and was acquired by the Ouse Valley Light Railway from the cement works at South Heighton in around 1910, when British Portland Cement Manufacturers bought the cement works and sourced new locos. Col. Stephens had a liking for Manning Wardles and had various others on his other lines. The OVLR gave the loco a light overhaul, new coat of paint and named it after the hamlet where there was a station on the OVLR.
The model is an RT Models kit. It was originally built for Tarring Neville but I felt it was better suited to Littledene and was so named and added to the roster. There is another in the stash to build at some point which I will do with a different cab.
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
1st to 100
Last weekend Littledene made it’s first outing at the Manchester Model Railway Societies 100th show.
Littledene was well received and we had many great conversations with lots of people. It was nice that people made connections with my other two layouts, such as the tradition of an interesting sign.
Mr Sweet and his team had put together another really well organised show with a great mix of layouts. As part of their centenary celebrations they gave all exhibitors a special limited edition plaque and certificate to mark the occasion which was a really nice gesture.
It was great to get the chance to see Bron Hebog and the Rev Awdry’s Ffarquhar Branch.
Personal highlight for me was getting to see the Manchester “Big Trams” for the first time.
Wordless Wednesday
A sign of the times
Following the tradition for my layouts to have a sign with a twist (sounds like a good cocktail!) Littledene was in need of one. This tradition started when my good friend Martin made the Herstmonceux sign and then I made the yard office sign for Tarring Neville.
Luckily I found this in the local antiques centre.
Of course that would be too easy and I made Littledene’s sign. I had several idea but settled on this based on a church hall notice board seen in an auction. I have made the sign out of some scraps of wood, stained and varnished. This was lettered by hand, suitably weathered including using vintage paper, stuck on and ripped off, to give the impression of old notices and I was supplied with drawing pins from the correct era.
I like the challenge of coming up with different ways to have signs for the layout, especially as a traditional running in board for Littledene would have been longer than the layout!
As is tradition a miniature appears on the layout.
Littledene’s first outing will be at Manchester show in 15 days!
https://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition/
9 months later!
The very enjoyable Workington show came and went. It was nice to venture that far North to a well organised, welcoming and friendly show.
My focus since then has been on Littledene, to get it ready for it’s first outing at the Manchester MRS show in December https://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition/. The main reason for Littledene being built in the first place was because I was invited to be at the Manchester MRS Centenary show which is a real honour.
This is how it looked back in April. Most of the landscaping had been completed and the first signs of greenery have appeared.
Fast forward to last week and I’ve managed to get the last of the greenery in place. I can now start adding the smaller details and get the stock finished.
Ouse Valley Modeller 
