Ferme du Pont ~ WDLR 1918 ~ 0-14

[Mike Bellamy]

I can confirm that the figures are from Phil Morris of PLM - he has a stand each year at the Convention - and every year I'm amazed at the number of new products. A few years ago my young son was interested and Phil gave him a whole load of figures from the 'seconds' box free of charge - of course it helps being one of the organisers of the show !!

 

Mike

[PaulRhB]

Looking good so far, a friend of mine had a rather nice WWI tank in 7mm scale made from an etch kit but unfortunately I've no idea where it came from. He got as far as that and a simplex before unfortunately passing on and it's nice to see a model based so closely on some photographs. Have you got the Ton Pruissen DVD on the WWI railways? (Available from Camden miniature steam services)

[Joseph_Pestell]

Only just found this thread. This will be a most interesting layout which will attract not only railway modellers. I hope that you get the opportunity to take it to some of the specialist military modelling shows.

 

I have some experience of this from my time with ScaleLink who do an extensive range of WW1 stuff in 1:32. The engineers did seem to like building their railways through buildings. It's almost as though they knew that modellers would need a scenic break to hide a fiddleyard!

 

PS: As a sometime teacher of French, surely that should be Ferme du Pont.

Edited February 5, 2013 by Joseph_Pestell

[49395]

Thanks everyone,

 

Hobby Holidays sell a WW1 tank kit, its very nice and although it is tempting, we are trying to avoid clichés where possible.

 

The only way I could see us getting away with one would be if it had been destroyed, and the kit is a bit pricey to do that too it.

 

The name might be incorrect, I'm not sure though as I don't speak more than maybe 2 words of French...

 

Its supposed to be a translation of Bridge Farm, or Farm by the Bridge (I think)

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[Joseph_Pestell]

Thanks everyone,

 

Hobby Holidays sell a WW1 tank kit, its very nice and although it is tempting, we are trying to avoid clichés where possible.

 

The only way I could see us getting away with one would be if it had been destroyed, and the kit is a bit pricey to do that too it.

 

The name might be incorrect, I'm not sure though as I don't speak more than maybe 2 words of French...

 

Its supposed to be a translation of Bridge Farm, or Farm by the Bridge (I think)

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Unless there is another, older, bridge on the layout this does not make too much sense. The farm would already have had a name before the railway engineers built the (temporary) bridge.

 

But Bridge Farm would indeed be Ferme du Pont. In Northern France, I'm not sure that they go in for naming their farms in that sort of way (unlike the South where "Mas Xxxxxx" or "Mas des Xxxxxx"  is commonplace). The Railway Engineers, I think, ignored local names and used English titles.

[PaulRhB]

Hobby Holidays sell a WW1 tank kit, its very nice and although it is tempting, we are trying to avoid clichés where possible.

 

The only way I could see us getting away with one would be if it had been destroyed, and the kit is a bit pricey to do that too it.

 

I agree to avoid cliches but that depends on the local actions at that time, if it's near a battle that had tanks and the date is correct for the use of them then it's not a cliche and having one broken down with the engineers working on it would make a nice, and accurate, cameo. Mind you a knocked out one would make a very interesting model if the terrain supports the look of what was recently front line but I suspect your barn would be a little more than a pile of matchwood if that had been the case.

I think du pont is correct too from the other places with that suffix.

Excellent work and a very interesting thread though

Edited February 5, 2013 by PaulRhB

[49395]

Unless there is another, older, bridge on the layout this does not make too much sense. The farm would already have had a name before the railway engineers built the (temporary) bridge.

 

But Bridge Farm would indeed be Ferme du Pont. In Northern France, I'm not sure that they go in for naming their farms in that sort of way (unlike the South where "Mas Xxxxxx" or "Mas des Xxxxxx"  is commonplace). The Railway Engineers, I think, ignored local names and used English titles.

Thanks,

 

There will be a road bridge over the river behind the 2 timber bridges, hence the name.

 

The control points and junctions often had letters assigned, or codenames, although since the farm is going to be a control point we are taking the farm name to be the control point name.

 

The engineers would likely have used the british name for it though as you have said.

 

The trouble with vehicles is that next to none of the photos we have seen have a tank and the WDLR in them together, in fact I can't think of one.

 

I may be pushing it a bit by building a traction engine to tow a howitzer down the road at the back of the layout, ideally we need a horse drawn general service wagon or a suitable lorry, I also have a model T to turn into a staff car.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

(Best ask Rob to alter the thread title slightly....)

Edited May 10, 2014 by 49395

[PaulRhB]

The trouble with vehicles is that next to none of the photos we have seen have a tank and the WDLR in them together, in fact I can't think of one.

 

Yes a photo would be the definitive proof but I suspect they did where tanks were in action as the ng lines were so prolific. The Traction engine would be safe, the WD certainly had some and steam lorries, if there are steam engines working on the line as that suggests it's far enough back from the front for the smoke not to be a problem.

[bkempins]

There is a photo on page 54 of the history of the 12th Engineers showing two Whippet Tanks in Roisel. There was both a standard and narrow gauge line in Roisel, though they are not visible in the photo. Roisel was not a very large town and there wasn't much of it standing by the time of the Battle of Cambrai when the photo was taken. The document can be found here. http://archive.org/details/cu31924027818099

 

[aberdare]

Hi Mike

 

I have just recently found this thread and thought what a fascinating subject it is, I have read a couple of books set in this period and found them very interesting so good on you for modelling something different.

 

I also recently purchased a book on William Dean which had a whole section devoted to the Dean Goods at war and there were a number of photographs in that which kept me glued to the book for quite some time.

 

I look forward to following this some more.

 

Jim

[49395]

Thanks for the book link, we'll have to have a good look through that.

 

There is a possibility we may be working on the layout this weekend so hopefully there'll be some progress to report

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[defiant1uk]

As promised, we've just done some updating to the Tracks to the Trenches - 2014 website - current layout listings now included!

www-ww1-event.org

 

Looking forward to seeing this layout there next year!

 

Cheers,

Gareth

 

 

 

Hi Mike,

 

That's looking really good!

There is an outside chance that Hunslet #303 (based at Apedale) might be ready for the major "Tracks to the Trenches - 2014" event at Apedale - if the boiler funding gets resolved.

 

We now have an event specific website - www.ww1-event.org

 

There are a good number of WW1/military/post-war WD related layouts invited, provisionally booked etc. We are always keen to hear of more.

 

Hopefully we'll release the layout listing soon.

 

Best regards,

Gareth

Edited August 7, 2013 by defiant1uk

[49395]

Excellent!

 

We are currently working on the stock for the layout since this has been on the back burner for a while.

 

I'm also constructing a traction engine and 8" howitzer for the road at the rear of the layout.

 

Hopefully I can get a few photos sorted soon.

 

Mike

[49395]

A few photos of the 8" howitzer, this now just needs the shell crane constructing although it will likely be removable as it will be delicate

 

 

 

 

 

Next up will be the traction engine to pull the gun

[49395]

I recently stumbled across this DVD at a show a little while back, it has quite a bit of WW1 narrow gauge footage in it

 

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=4063

 

combined with the Ton Pruissen DVD mentioned earlier there is a surprising amount of film out there

 

http://camden-miniature-steam-services.myshopify.com/collections/archive-films-from-ton-pruissen/products/wartime-rails-1918-1943-1950-dvd-55-mins-b-w-and-some-colour

 

(No connection etc. etc.)

[Ninemills]

Hi

 

I am a new member very interested in light railways. Can I please ask the dimensions of this layout. From what I can make out from the photos it appears to be made up of several linked modules. It appears to be about the right size for the workshop/layout room I currently have.

 

Thx

 

Wayne

[49395]

Hi Wayne,

 

There are four boards, each is 95cm long and 73cm wide

 

Mike

[Ninemills]

Thanks Mike. How's the layout progressing?

[defiant1uk]

Hi All,

 

I have recently purchased the first DVD mentioned below. The footage is very good - mainly British (& Dominion) light railways. However, the script used for the commentary is not so good - I was arguing with it when I watched it

Next time, I'll turn the volume down & listen to something else. I suspect that the ex/retired officer voicing over the commentary, was not an expert in the railways - perhaps more to do with the artillery, cavalry etc (which is more in keeping with the other DVD's this company produce.

 

The second DVD (can't remember if I have it or not!) seems to be mainly US military railways?

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

I recently stumbled across this DVD at a show a little while back, it has quite a bit of WW1 narrow gauge footage in it

 

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=4063

 

combined with the Ton Pruissen DVD mentioned earlier there is a surprising amount of film out there

 

http://camden-miniature-steam-services.myshopify.com/collections/archive-films-from-ton-pruissen/products/wartime-rails-1918-1943-1950-dvd-55-mins-b-w-and-some-colour

 

(No connection etc. etc.)

[49395]

The second DVD is mostly American light railway footage plus WW2 railways.

 

I can only agree with you on the commentary of the first one,

[defiant1uk]

Dear All,

 

Just following up on my post below - we have been updating both the www.wdlr.org.uk & www.ww1-event.org websites over the last few months.  

There is a nice photo of our recently completed Class D open wagon & all the lettering. The lettering was generally applied in the same form - but different manufacturers had slightly different styles/sizes.

Many wagons also seem to have recieved larger lettering (high up on the bodyside) when in service - presumably to aid the soldiers in being able to keep track of it all.

 

During the course of my research, I have started to see photos of Class D & E wagons together & apparently in different colours/liveries. Presumably this was Green (& they seem to have the ironwork in black) and battleship grey.

All I can add to this at the moment is that we have definitely found "battleship grey" on various wagon components & the chassis/wheels etc on the wagons we've restored so far.

 

Readers may be interested in the new book that is being published by the Moseley Railway Trust (Railway Gazette - Special War Transportation Number - details can be seen on the front page of www.ww1-event.org ) - this is being formally launched at the MRT's annual gala this weekend & is a little pre-publicity opportunity for the major "Tracks to the Trenches" centenary event next year. This will be at 3pm on Saturday 14th September (this Saturday) on the platform of our main station. There will be plenty of interesting photo opportunities!!

Advance copies of the books themselves will be available to inspect, but the bulk supply of sales copies are not due to be with us until early October.
However - we are offering the only opportunity to acquire one of the Hardback books about a month early! Please look out for the special raffle at our shop!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi - I'm really interested to see this layout!

My main passion is WDLR equipment & rolling stock - based at the Moseley Railway Trust, we've now restored WW1 20 & 40hp Simplex locos, a Class H watertank & 2 Class D (currently finishing them). There are more vehicles to come. It may be of interest, that contrary to popular belief, during the restorations we have determined that the Class D - H stock (& probably others) were originally built/finished in "Battleship" grey - there was also anecdotal evidence of this in notes written at the time. More recently I have found that the lettering on the vehicles should be a yellow & not white (I'll have to re-do this on our Water Tank - as we initially gave it white lettering). The grey we have used on our wagons was matched from original surviving paintwork.
The Watertanks were the only vehicles I know of, to have received some form of camouflage - this was applied in the battlefield. Presumably the galvanised finish of the tanks when supplied made too much of a target for enemy snipers/field guns!
The Petrol tractors were all variants of "Olive Drab" - our 40hp Protected was matched to original paint found during the restoration.


You can see more of our work at www.mrt.org.uk or via my own WW1 website - www.wdlr.org.uk

We are planning a large WW1 themed event in September 2014 - I would be very interested to invite this layout to attend please!

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Gareth

[49395]

Next up, duckboards.

 

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION FIRST WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION. © IWM (Q 5000)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION FIRST WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION. © IWM (Q 8664)IWM Non Commercial Licence

 

 

We're going to need loads of these so I thought it best to get the planks laser cut in a fret so that we don't have to cut and align thousands of tiny bits of wood. (Bearing in mind that a complete duckboard is 49mm x 10.5mm.)

 

Fortunately Ben found a dimensioned drawing on the net somewhere and from that I produced a cad file to send off to be laser cut.

 

The prototype arrived from York Modelmaking this morning looking like this:

 

 

With the addition of 2 bits of stripwood of an appropriate size, they need fixing with one piece offset more than the other, I added marks to the fret to align them.

 

 

Once the glue has dried, run a knife down both sides and you have a completed duckboard

 

 

 

Next up is to order a sheet of them, and also build the pontoon for the river

 

Mike

 

Edited September 28, 2013 by 49395

[Worsdell forever]

Looks good Mike, how many thousands of these do you need... 

[49395]

Probably about as many as in the first photo....

 

I reckon I have enough strip wood for about 150 or so.

 

The a4 sheet I'll be ordering should have 84 on it.

[Chris hndrsn]

Hi,

 

I have only just bumped onto this thread, so my apologies if someone has already pointed out that 17th (Anzac) Light Railway Operating Company did actually exist. It formed at Fricourt Brigade Camp, France when 1st Anzac Light Railway Coy were withdrawn for a rest. It was formed from 1st Anzac Light Railway on the 11th June 1917. The war diary is at: http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm4/15/4/awm4-15-4-1.pdf It ended its time as 3rd (Australian) Light Railway Operating Company.

 

Don't trust W.J.K Davies book on this as he seemed to miss all of the Australian company's except the 15th. You can find the three Australian Light Railway and Three Broad Gauge company war diaries here: http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/records/awm4/class.asp?levelID=83

 

 

Otherwise superb work!

 

Cheers,

Chris