Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway

Although the Sandy Cove Sand Co Sand Mining Museum has yet to manifest, the rolling stock needed for a short length of track is already taking shape.

One wagon was inspired by Penrhyn Quarry Railway worker's carriages – though, as ever, the management of Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway cut costs. Why pay for new seats when some pews from a local chapel could be 'upcycled'? After the wagon with pew-like seats had been built it dawned on the management that there was a not-very-close approximation to the world's first excursion train, organised by Thomas Cook on 5th July 1841 (see illustration below).

An imaginative reconstruction of the pioneering railway excursion from Leicester to Loughborough organised by Thomas Cook (1808–1892) in 1841. This did not inspire the wagon with pew-like seats. Though the idea of a brass band behind the loco is rather tempting… But the likely repertoire of Wesleyan hymns is distinctly less tempting.

Thomas Cook's earliest excursions were to promote the temperance movement, although the company soon became synonymous with package holidays. Soon after 1998, when the company acquired the notoriously intemperate Club 18–30, Cook's mortal remains in Leicester's Welford Road cemetery entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most-frequently and fastest-rotating corpse-in-a-grave.

The management seriously considered buying all the necessary parts of a small Lister-type petrol engine locomotive. However, after much ~~prevarication~~ deliberation (see below) they ultimately resolved to make this another scratchbuilding project. This diminutive two-foot gauge locomotive and associated rolling stock will run along a short length of track at the proposed sand mining museum. This will, of course, be quite separate to the three-foot gauge track of the Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway, although there are plans for the Heritage Railway to eventually extend its track to the proposed Sandy Cove Sand Co sand mining museum.

Initially Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway's Lazybeach Special was based on four wagons adapted from Binnie Engineering kits of 32 mm gauge Gyn Valley Tramway four ton granite wagons, regauged to 45mm using different GVT axleboxes (also from Binnie Engineering). These were the first attempts at building rolling stock for Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway and no suprise that they weren't really up to the mark. So new wagons were made for the Lazybeach Special and the GVT wagons regauged to the original 32 mm, but retaining the GVT axleboxes used for the 45 mm conversion.

The pews are from lollipop sticks and kebab skewers. One of the wagons carries billboards for the Sandy Cove Sand Co museum, mounted on 'A'-frames made from coffee stirrers and cocktail sticks.

The dozen passengers were picked up as a 'job lot' at the G Scale Society show, Bilborough (Nottingham), in May 2019 from (probably) the East Coast Railway stall. There are plans to improve on the 'paint job', but maybe not for some time.

To go with these three Binnie Engineering kits of Hudson hopper wagons were acquired and assembled. They are rather nicely done and make excellent models of a vehicle found on numerous mineral lines. Apart from a subtle difference to the tipping mechanism they are identical to the wagons in the photograph below. The kits were built 'as supplied' (a first for Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway's Jackdaw Works!) and sprayed with a rust-effect paint.

proposed construction of the locomotive

The Lister locomotive now at Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester.
There seems to be no information about this loco online, apart from the suggestion it has a diesel engine. This is the deluxe model i.e. with a roof – usually the driver is unprotected from the weather.

The management originally considered purchasing I P Engineering's Lister locomotive kit– they do both the petrol and diesel engine versions. However these are supplied as battery-powered, which makes operating backwards-and-forwards along a length of track rather tricky. So the wheels and subchassis would need redoing to make them insulated for track-fed power. Furthermore, the motor supplied is only 3 volts, making the usual model railway speed controllers unsuitable.

So the management would save a useful amount of money – and all the hassle of 'kit bashing' compared to scratchbuilding – by tracking down a diecast 'tractor seat', brake stanchion, battery box, and maybe the distinctive grill. And Cambrian Model Rail seem to have most of these (if the woefully fuzzy photos on their online shop can be believed). But one of the annual garden railway shows is about three weeks away, so the management is holding fire.

So, once the management has decided which motor, wheels and gears would be best (and it could take some time) then that's another project all ready to start – when the backlog of other projects starts to clear…

Increasingly-detailed construction sketches emerged from the Jackdaw Works drawing office while the backlog of non-railway projects ebbed and flowed. Most of the components were now in the 'company stores'. A Hornby motor and gears had been acquired from Peter's Spares. The set of Slater wheels were left over from I P Engineering coach kits used for the Welsh coach and the Houmout Ostrich Polo team transport wagon. The axle boxes, as usual, were from Binnie Engineering, then drilled out to 3.5 mm to take the ⅛" Slater axles (Binnie mouldings are designed to work with 3 mm axles, which are 0.1 mm smaller than ⅛") before being bolted to the 1.5 mm polystyrene sheet sole plates with M2 nuts and bolts. The rest of the chassis, apart from the wooden buffer beams, was also from polystryene sheet and 'L'- and 'H'-section profiles. The link-and-pin bumpers are also from Binnie Engineering.

The motor, gears and and axle boxes are held in the right places with 1.5 mm polystyrene sheet. The electrical contacts are from 0.5 mm brass sheet bent to rub on the backs of one set of wheels. A 'power take off socket' was incorporated in the wiring to allow for some unplanned future addition – the nearest to anything planned is perhaps some sort of headlights or spotlight.

Underneath view of 'the workings'. The gap between the electric contacts is bigger than it appears in this shot as there's a polystyrene spacer underneath one.

The Sandy Cove Sand Co Musuem loco almost complete – still waiting for flashing hazard lights.

The fuel tank and radiator header tank are adapted from cast resin 1:24 scale depth charges (!) supplied by an eBay operator trading as Battlecrafts.

The seat, as already mentioned, was supplied by Cambrian Model Rail. The brake stanchion, gear lever, reverse lever, foot pedals and battery box were fashioned from the bits box. The driver is a composite of a standing LGB figure with legs from a figure supplied by Dorspring Models.

The biggest problem is coming up with a name for the vehicle. It's not really close enough to a Lister to 'pass off'. 'Listerine' and 'Listeria' have interesting connotations, but fail to make the management smile sufficiently. Riffing off the
V-8 engine suggests 'Octavia', although there is nothing much in common with the Skoda car of that branding. There must be a pun somewhere on 'five more than trivia', but the punchline is proving elusive. So far 'OctaVee' is as good as it's got, though the management are holding fire before inscribing this on the radiator in case a better suggestion arises.

Speaking of trivia:- After leaving art college in 1976 and getting a 'proper job' for the first time the management of Whittlecreek and Eaton St Torpid Heritage Railway found themselves performing all sorts of roles within a small company based at Newhaven originally called the Independent Polymer Research Centre, or just IPEC; shortly before the management joined it had been acquired by Yarsley Research Centre and became YPEC. One of the more mundane tasks was running an injection moulding machine for a few days at a time. And the most mundane of the moulding jobs was ABS nameplates for the bonnets of Foden lorries (see photo below). The black background between the off-white lettering was handpainted by someone working from home in Newhaven.

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Images and text copyright Bob Trubshaw 2018–2021