The Saltport Harbour Authority

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Just to kick things off and test my posting abilities I thought I’d add a couple of pics of my industrial layout ‘Saltport’. It is based on a real place that existed quite briefly on the banks of the Rivers Weaver and Mersey in Cheshire. There was little development and it faded away in the early years of the 20th Century. However great things could have happened…

Here we see Saltport Estates no.5 (Hawthorn Leslie, from a modified Stewart Reidpath lead casting), running past the engine shed, and Saltport Harbour Authority crane tank no.40 (Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, from a Backwoods kit) approaching the East yard.

 

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[pcarrick59Participant]

Some lovely shots, Stuart. It certainly is superb layout you’ve built there.

Envious of Colchester….

[Adam Beckett-HesterParticipant]

Excellent work

[Peter RigbyParticipant]

Very nice work Stuart. Is it a ‘layout that never leaves home’?

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Thank you – Yes, very much so – it moved house 21 years ago but that was quite an undertaking and it was nowhere near as complete back then.

[Douglas FirthParticipant]

Dear Stuart,

Great modelling and good to see where your excellent models run.

Thanks for posting,

Douglas Firth  17006

Western Australia

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Thanks Doug. I include a picture of one of the line’s more recent loco’s, a Hudswell Clarke & Rodgers  0-4-0 ST made from an old K’s kit, using a chassis kit by Ambis Engineering.

 

 

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[Peter RigbyParticipant]

Very nice work Stuart. May I ask whether there is an Area Group extant in Western Australia. I am aware that there are a small number of EMGS members in the state.

Thanks,

Peter

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Thanks Peter. I’m in Essex by the way, it’s Douglas in Australia – no relation, as far as I know !

[Douglas FirthParticipant]

Gentlemen,

To answer your question Peter, We have a small group of members that loosely keep in touch but no official group which may include some non members, not sure, I am a relatively new member of the society(4 yrs) also one is a long time p4 modeller.

Stuart, I don’t know but my great grandfather came to Sydney to work on building the mortuary station and clocktower at Central railway station. Late 1800’s. We came from Huddersfield and wrote to members of the family in  the UK until the second world war and then nothing. We always thought that the writer must have been killed in WW2. I replied to your post because I liked the authentic look of your model railway. My model is of a GWR Edwardian branch line terminus. Thanks, Doug.

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Some of the line’s ‘heavy metal’ parked outside one of the layout’s larger structures.

The Garratt is from a Backwoods Miniatures kit and the Nasmyth Wilson Scratchbuilt. The building is made from an American DPM modular kit. I can only justify such large loco’s by assuming there is an element of banking of trains up to the exchange sidings – I make it up as I go along!

 

 

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[Douglas FirthParticipant]

Great looking loco’s Stuart,

There is something about industrial layouts it must be the gritty authenticity that adds to the realism of a model.

Douglas Firth.

[Nick RidgwayParticipant]

I love the way you’ve turned down the colour in some of those images, Stuart. It adds realism, because we are used to seeing steam subjects that way. It’s certainly something I intend to follow – all the way to monochrome, even!

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

A couple of recent additions to the line’s wagon fleet, both courtesy of Messrs Tri-ang !

The Hull & Barnsley van is the old Tri-ang fish van, with a new chassis that uses MJT bits, and the L&Y diagram 3 van, now sold off by the LMS and in use as an internal user, is the ‘insulfish’ van that was once pale blue and ‘graced’ my childhood train set! It too has MJT underpinnings, and has had the roof line lowered slightly.

I think it’s fascinating to know that someone at Tri-ang all those years ago cared enough about what were basically toys to ensure they were pretty fair representations of pre-grouping wagons. I wonder if they did anything else that we could use?

[Nick RidgwayParticipant]

Nice work, Stuart!

Ray Hodson and I were considering doing the L&Y diagram 3 van in some numbers for the Eastwood L&Y layout, which I believe is booked for ExpoEM 2023. He hasn’t made a commitment, so I have disposed of several via a popular internet auction site.

I still have a few left, though.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by Nick Ridgway.

[Stuart FirthParticipant]

Following some chat about the Forum and a certain lack of user comments, plus the desire to avoid too much duplication, I am adding this link to my layout thread on RMWeb, where the full story is told, and using this as a test of my ability to post such links.

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/index.php?/topic/153520-the-saltport-saga/

 

 

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