EASTWELL IRONSTONE COMPANY

by Paul James

The EM gauge layout Eastwell Ironstone Company, owes its existence to a particularly interesting history, and the persistance of its owner, Paul James. It was developed from the original Sherdington and Eastwell layouts which were constructed between 1974 and 1977. The Eastwell Ironstone Co is situated in the South Midlands iron ore field and is connected to the BR network by exchange sidings alongside an ex GWR secondary line.

The era portrayed is the early 1970's, and a eclectic mix of industrial steam and diesel locomotives can be seen plying their way between the works area and the BR exchange sidings. Prototypical operation is followed from where the ironstone hoppers are loaded at the crushing plant, and taken away for exchange with empty returned hoppers.

A mixture of BR locomotives and stock can be seen passing by on the main line, representing those which would have been seen in the area and timescale. At present the layout is in storage, and part of it (including the BR exchange sidings), will hopefully be used as part of a new layout which is being designed by Paul James.

There is a lot of history behind the concept and evolution of Eastwell, much of it published in the model railway press over a number of years. The Eastwell layout photographs are courtesy of Tim Rogers, Paul Bason and Paul James. For further images of Eastwell Ironstone and and its associated rolling stock, please click here

The following list of magazines feature photographs and articles on the layout - Model Railway Constructor (May 1980), Model Railways (Aug 1987), Model Railways (Sep 1987), British Railway Modelling (Aug 1994), British Railway Modelling (May 1997), Rail Express (July 1997).

Rolling stock developments.  Since the retirement of Eastwell, Paul James has been working on a variety of different rolling stock projects for eventual use on a succesor layout, but in the meantime, these items can be seen running on Wibdenshaw and Shenston Road. The pictures below show some of Pauls rolling stock.

With the introduction of an air braked wagon load train on Wibdenshaw, prototype AB wagon conversions were looked at on Paul Bartletts wagons website, and further research in David Larkin's 'Working Wagons' books. The Western Region of BR had converted a number of wagons to air brake, these being the 12 ton box vans of the BR planked and plywood variety, BR Palvans, all steel highfits (LNER & BR), tube and plate wagons. A quick study of photo's confirmed that some of the wagon types are readily available in the Parkside Dundas range, and that the VEA vanwide chassis (from kit PC76) comes in handy for a lot of uses.

The VEA floors were used for both the palvan and the vanfit, but the floor for the highfit was kept on that wagon as it had the planking detail on it. All three wagons had oil axleboxes so the roller bearing boxes from the VEA chassis were removed for re-use on other projects.

The brake cylinder, distributor and air cylinder from the VEA were used on all three wagons but the clasp brake shoes were only used on the vans. The rest of the VEA brake rigging from the kits was not used because it is not accurate. The complicated air brake rigging that appears on the brake cylinder side of the chassis was scratchbuilt, and the handbrake levers were left-overs from some unfitted tippler chassis kits.

The LNER style highfits required a little more thought, because it is so light, and the chassis too crowded to be able to fit extra weight. This problems was overcome by using as much whitemetal detailing parts as possible, mainly ABS products such as clasp brakes and rigging which hopefully be enough to weight the wagon. This has been interesting to produce something different that lasted for a good few years in revenue service, and latterly in departmental use, and as they were vacuum piped. Watch this space for more wagon conversions, as a quick look at various photos has revealed that some palvans received the VEA type of suspension modifications but retained vacuum brake - another variation to consider.

I have been undertaking a vast project involving vans of various types and origins. Here are some photos of the progress so far on the van modelling front, which include some part started wagons, some of unknown origins. It's amazing what can be found at the bottom of a box!!!!!

These ex Wibdenshaw vanfits have had their brakegear brought up to scratch, and now require lettering / weathering. The bit of yellow visible on the roofs is masking tape, onto which was written what needed to be done to the wagons (as a reminder to me).

These vans have had some chassis improvements, and in the case of the ply van it has been converted to a fruit van, which is more correct for the style of ends. Nearly all the vans featured in this section will need to have proper rainstrips fitted to the roof, but this can wait until all the vans are at the painting stage, due the variations in style.

The shockvans pictured here, have had very little done. I have just added metal buffer heads to them and improved the chassis detail as required.

This planked vanfit in undercoat (and the gunpowder van pictured below), were both found at the bottom of a box of bits, and are from an unknown source. They look like Wren bodies, but have scratchbuilt compensated chassis.

Both this gunpowder van and the planked vanfit shown above have just been fitted with new brakegear, but other than that they are 'as built' so to speak. Detailing, painting and weathering are required to finish.

These ex-LNER & ex-LMS vanfits are ex Wibdenshaw allocated stock, and have had their brake gear brought up to scratch. In the case of the wooden chassis LNER vanfit, some steps have been added as per the Paul Bartlett photo on his wagon website. Both will be in departmental use.

This ex-LMS vanfit has had attention to the brakegear, and is awaiting painting, lettering and weathering, and will be another departmental vehicle.

There's still a bit of work to be done on the batch of recently built Parkside vans before they are ready to photograph (hopefully later this week), and then it is on to a batch of vanwides. Watch this space for further details and updates.

Shockvan: This is a Parkside kit but has been altered to represent one of the small batch of vacuum braked examples that were fitted with long link suspension and roller bearings. This has achieved by grafting the suspension and roller bearings from the Parkside VEA chassis into the original one.

Vanfits-a: are a couple of bog standard Parkside kits but with Red Panda chassis to change them from 4 shoe brakes to 8 shoe clasp brakes as found on the later built vanfits.

Vanfits-b: Are the same as Vanfits-a but with all ply bodies.

Vanwides-a: are another couple of bog standard Parkside kits but with different axleboxes. One has been fitted with roller bearings and the other with odd axleboxes on the 2 axles. Another has had all 4 boxes changed for a different oil type to the ones that come in the kit.

Vanwides-b: are a couple of bog standard Parkside kits with a couple more also built but not photographed. On all the above wagons, buffers have been changed to the type shown on the photo of the prototype. Where the original buffers have been kept they have been drilled out to accept metal buffer heads.

Finally, a pair of 16 ton mineral wagons based on the original release by Mainline, but with modified 10ft wheelbase chassis. The top flap door on the bodyside has been modified, to correct the discrepancy of the original model. The wagon on the left has a Parkside vanwide chassis with added roller bearings, whilst the wagon on the right has a Red Panda chassis. A cheap and easy conversion for those old Mainline 16 ton minerals that make something different for the coal train.

The wagon on the left is a reworked Ian Kirk kit, more of which later. The one on the right started out as a Dapol riveted 21T mineral as seen below.

The dapol wagon, as taken out of the box.

All the rivet and rib detail was removed from the body and new welded ribs added using plastic strip section. The 2 door stops per door on the original model were removed and one substituted instead, the spares being retained for later use.

The end doors on the Dapol wagon look like this and are wrong.

They need to be like this, the same as on the riveted wagon. The light coloured lower part of the end door comes from an Ian Kirk 21T mineral wagon, but the end door from a 16 tonner is just as good (with the top ribs cut off). These have been replaced with the end door top ribs from an Ian Kirk 24T mineral wagon, trimmed down to the correct height. It should also be noted that the sides of the riveted wagon have been increased in height above the bodyside doors by adding an extra bit from another 21T kit. This means you need 2 kits to make one good wagon unfortunately. The door stops are the spare ones from the welded conversion mentioned earlier. The opposite end to the end door of course also needs to be increased in height as can be seen in the next photo.

A bit wasteful in the use of kits but as they were lying around in the 'not sure what to do with them' box, I haven't really lost out. Variations on a theme for these wagons include riveted side doors and pressed end doors, and some wagons with later welded bodies were put onto ex LNER 21T hopper chassis and BR 24T hopper chassis, giving scope for something different.

Here are some 21 ton mineral wagons which are at their initial weathering stage.

The rusty effect flaked paintwork was achieved by spraying the body with Halfords 'red oxide' primer, then patches covered with Humbrol Maskol, before over spraying with the grey. The maskol was then removed to reveal the red oxide.

The introduction of dark greys and browns over the red oxide colour, will enhance the rust effect. - Watch this space!

Making their debut at the Halifax 2008 MRE, are this selection of vans by Paul James.

Further views of these vans can be seen on archive OMWB pages.

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The Eastwell rolling stock gallery is featured below - Please click on a thumbnail to view the larger image.

Following a thread on a previous RMweb forum, these salt hoppers which were built by Paul James have been dusted off and photographed. They are based on the Lima agregate hopper, but a few detail differences do make it a challenge. The first is the outside ribs that need to be added using plastic L angle section. The salt hopper is a scale 2ft 2inches longer than the Lima agregate hopper. This is most noticeable on the wheelbase which is 18ft 2in (5537mm) on the salt hopper and 16ft 0in (4880mm) on the agregate hopper. This is not easy to remedy as you have to change the wheelbase and the hopper length whilst keeping the hopper detail consistent. By careful calculation of measurements and starting with a smaller middle part it is possible to make 3 salt hoppers out of 4 agregate hoppers. Some of the fleet are still in use by EWS as HGA wagons and have been modified again by being cut down by about 18 inches, as the following photo shows.

Exhibitions attended with Eastwell.

1989
September. Bulmers Rly Centre, EOS open day. Mini.
4/5th November. Shrewsbury. Mini.

1990
4/5/6th May. Wolverhampton. Mini.
26th September. Bulmers Rly Centre, EOS open day. Mini.
13/14th October. Halifax Mini.

1991
12/13th January. St Albans. Mini.
18/19th May. Expo EM, Bletchley. 1st exhibit of exchange sidings.
24/25th August. Rochrail 91, Southend. “U” shape.
25/6/7th October. Leeds. Short “L” shape for one and only time.
December. Hereford swapmeet. Mini.

1992
Should have gone to Whitby in August but exhibition was cancelled.
November. Burnley. “U” shape.

1993
9/10/1/2th April. Harrogate. Mini.
12/ 13th June. Chatham. (The Gainsborough!!) Straight.
28/9/30th Aug. Skipton Straight.
13/14th Nov. Hull. (One of the best!!) Straight.

1994
1/2/3/4th April. Harrogate. “U” shape.
14/15th May. Expo EM, Bletchley. Straight.
5th Nov. Risborough & Disrict MRC, Aylesbury. Straight.
December. Hereford swapmeet. Straight.

1995
January. Shrewsbury. (one day only). Straight.
22/23rd April. Crawley MRC, Horsham. “U” shape.
19/20th Aug. Cleveland MRC Redcar. (That £10). “L” shape.
16/17th Sept. Chippenham Modern Image Show. Straight.

1996
16th March. Slough. “U” shape??
4/5/6th May. Wolverhampton. “U” shape.
28/29th Sept. Peterborough. Quickest dismantle 45Mins Straight.

1997
15/16th Feb. Festival of Model Railways, Doncaster. Straight.
13/14th Sept. Rail Express 97, St Albans. “U” shape.
8/9th November. Tolworth Showtrain, Hampton Court MRC. “U” shape.

1998
16/17th May. Expo EM, Bletchley. Layout + Dragline “U” shape.
28th Nov. Expo EM West, Malvern. “U” shape.

1999
I have no records for 1999 for some reason. I know we exhibited at the Rutland Railway Museum, Cottesmore but I don’t know if it was this year. I also have a note for Farnborough in 1999 but can’t remember going. If anyone can remember this or any other exhibitions in 1999 let me know??

2000
26/27th Feb. Cardiff. Straight.
14/15th October. Portishead. “U” shape.

2001
14/5/6th April. York. “L” shape.

Over the 10 years we exhibited we attended at least 35 exhibitions. I think this list covers everything but if anyone can add to it let me know.