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a "00" gauge model by ELY & DISTRICT MODEL RAILWAY CLUB Video clips of Thurston layout can now be seen on "You Tube" - click on links below. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=llWAjyTVG2s&feature=user http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=46QPTdWhPZY&feature=user
AWARD WINNING LAYOUT "Thurston" voted by best layout at the show by visitors to Ely & District MRC Exhibition Saturday 19th May 2007. Thurston layout was judged "best layout" (judged by modellers) at the two day Kendal Model Railway Club Exhibition 3rd/4th March 2007 at the Kendal Leisure Centre and was runner up (one vote behind winning layout) in the visitors voted poll. http://www.kendalmodelrail.co.uk/ Thurston layout was judged "best layout" at the Ipswich Railway Modellers Association Exhibition on 18 November 2006 at The Coppleston Centre Ipswich Thurston layout was judged "best layout" at the two day Stafford Railway Circle Exhibition 4/5 February 2006 at the Stafford County Showground . http://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/index.php Thurston was awarded the "Saggy Barrier" award by the MMRS barrier crew for having consistently having the most members of the public viewing the layout at the Manchester Model Railway Society exhibition at the New Century Hall 1/2 October 2005. Thurston layout was judged "best layout" at the two day Derby Model Railway Exhibition 23/24 April 2005 at the Assembly Rooms organized by the St. John's (Mickleover) Model Railway Group. http://www.mmrg.org.uk/ Thurston layout voted "Best in Show" at the Southend Festival of Model Railways and Hobbies 23/24 November 2003 organized by the Shoeburyness Model Railway Club. http://www.shoeburynessmrc.co.uk/
Thurston the "00" layout appeared in April's 2007 Model Rail magazine.
Click thumbnail to view modified front page
THE PROTOTYPE Thurston lies some four and half miles east of Bury St Edmunds and is a small Suffolk village. Today it still has a railway station, albeit an unstaffed halt and is served by trains of the Anglia Railways train operating unit and has nine trains a day in each direction. On Sunday there are five in each direction. The line was built by the Ipswich and Bury Railway Company and opened for goods traffic on 30th November 1846. The first public passenger train left Ipswich for Bury St. Edmunds at 0910 on Christmas Eve 1846. Frederick Barnes of Ipswich was the architect, who won the design contract for the majority of intermediate stations, between Bury and Ipswich; (Bramford) Clayden, Needham, Stowmarket, (Haughley Road), Elmswell and Thurston . Thurston station buildings are set on a high embankment and consists of two and a half storey buildings constructed with local red bricks with white stock bricks used decoratively on the corners and around door and window openings.
An Ipswich bound parcels train. - Click thumbnail to view The down (to Ipswich) platform building also had a diagonal cross pattern of white brickwork on some elevations, which matched a diagonal cross pattern in the roof tiles. When originally built the building had Dutch gables. It is believed the buildings were re-roofed during the LNER period of ownership and the gables reconstructed as pointed types. The tile pattern was not reinstated and the main body of the building was re-roofed with plain tiles and the two wings with slate. The up (to Bury) platform building was demolished around 1965 and was thought to have been a contemporary structure with the down building, although much smaller in size The goods shed was a timber framed building with vertical feather edged boarding and a felt covered roof. The rails ran right through the shed and were curved up at the ends to act as (buffer) stops.
Thurston signal box & curved buffer stops - Click thumbnail to view The granary at Thurston is believed to
have been built during the late 1850’s /early 1860’s and been added to
probably by every owner since that time, especially during the 1940’s and
50’s in Harold Clarke’s ownership. As with most areas, owing to competition
from the roads the level of goods traffic handled had decreased by the 1950’s
but the station still had traffic in coal, barley, general merchandise and
occasionally agricultural implements. The
barley traffic could be quite intense during September to March with a train in
the morning and one in the evening collecting or delivering 8-10 grain wagons at
a time for the shipment of barley to the brewery of Messers Bass, Ratcliffe and
Gretton at Wolverhampton.
Thurston Granary - Click thumbnails to view In 1952 the working timetable shows how
railway traffic had developed over the years, with the following trains passing
through Thurston. Down (to Haughley)
Up (to Bury) 17 freight trains 15 freight trains 2 mail/parcels trains 2 mail/parcels trains 10 stopping passenger trains 12 stopping passenger trains 6 express trains 4 express trains 1 pick up goods train 1 pick up goods train 1 fish train 1 empty coaching stock train. The express trains included The North
Country Continental, which ran between Liverpool Central, and Harwich, for
passengers using the sea ferry route between Harwich and the Hook of Holland.
Also the overnight services between Colchester and Scotland and services to and
from Peterborough, York and Newcastle. Just over a quarter of the freight services ran to and from Parkeston (Quay) at Harwich were goods were loaded onto or from merchant shipping as either exports or imports. The majority of all freight services ran to or from the large Whitemoor marshalling yard at March. The goods were delivered to, or collected from Thurston by local pick up goods services working between Bury - Stowmarket/Ipswich. BACKGROUND TO THE MODEL In 1973 a spotty teenager (he says he
wasn’t, I thought we all were) named Chris Turnbull cycled to Thurston from
Bury St Edmunds where he lived at the time to look around the station. He took
some colour photographs with a view to possibly building a layout based on the
station. Over twenty years later the members of Ely & District Model Railway
Club were thinking about what layout to build next with some consideration being
given to Saxham on the Cambridge to Bury line. As a member Chris then brought
along his photographs and a track plan from the railway civil engineers
department and suggested that Thurston would make a good prototype for the club
to model, as at least a lot of it was still present. He managed to persuade the
other members that the idea was a good one and works commenced.
Thurston bridge - Click thumbnail to view THE MODEL The model has been made as a
transportable layout 20 feet x 9 feet with a facia and lighting to the three
viewing sides. The track layout has
been formed as a continuous run with Thurston as on the prototype a through
station. The period
modeled is 1950 -1960 and the region is BR Eastern Region. The twelve baseboards were constructed
of plywood, some with a flat top and others with a cut out raised track bed
section. A leg frame system of 50mm x 25mm (“2” x “1”) timber was made
with a mixture of bolt on and quick release braces. Wiring of the layout was made for a cab
control system for four Gaugemaster hand held controllers (up, down, yard and
fiddle yard) with identical plug and socket connectors between every board. (No
worrying anymore have I got the right lead). The main line signals are mostly kit
built from the Model Signal Engineering range and are made as a drop in module
(removable during transportation) with a weighted lever beneath baseboard level
which is then pushed by a H&M point motor suitable modified with an extended
crank lever. The ground signals GER
rotating type are also from the MSE range and are permanently mounted and
operated (when the yard operator remembers!) with a push rod mechanism.
Thurston signal box & GER signal - Click thumbnail to view Track is Peco Code 100 ballasted with a
mixture of silver sand and granite. Electro-frog points are fitted H&M point
motors, which also switch the polarity on the electo-frog points. Buildings all scratch built using a
variety of materials, eg Exactoscale, Slaters, Wills, etc with the pub having
individually scribed and painted brickwork by Derek Finney. The granary having grown like
“Topsy” proved to be somewhat of a challenge.
The prototype contains most
construction materials (except stone) known to man. – brick, weather boarding,
corrugated iron, asbestos sheeting, concrete blocks, shuttered concrete etc.
A conversation with Malcolm Cross of Exactoscale at a Warley exhibition
saw a small piece of brick being sent to Australia so that the colour match of
“Woolpit white” brick could be made prior to some special sheets being
printed for us. I believe these have now been incorporated into Exactoscale’s
range.
Thurston Granary - Click thumbnail to view Flint walls have been made using a mixture of stone and grit stuck to an underlying card former. The hunt meeting outside the Fox & Hounds is from the Langley range.
Thurston Fox & Hounds - Click thumbnail to view A lot of the fencing has been scratch built using discarded rail and wire. The cornfield is an off cut of door matting with the combine harvester being scratch built from plasticard.
Harvesting at Thurston - Click thumbnail to view An array of scenic materials have been used including those from Woodland Scenics, Heki, and Modelers Mate. Trees were mostly made by Jacqui Perrat of Ceynix Miniature Trees http://ceynix.co.uk/index.html
Garden & Orchard Click to view Thurston Lodge & Orchard click to view
Rolling stock consists mainly of members own stock, which is a mixture of kit built and rtr with some detailing and weathering added. The club has made several dedicated pick up goods trains with all stock weathered and the locos fitted with Spratt & Winckle couplings for automatic uncoupling by magnets when shunting the yard.
Shunting at Thurston - Click thumbnail to view
to visit Thurston village website click below |
