[Piermaster]

Hi Paulo,

I've just transferred this posting from your other thread within this forum:

If you want Micro layouts, then look no further than http://www.carendt.com - produced by Carl Arendt, this massive website will keep you occupied for months or even years!!! Also pay a visit to Cheshire Railway Modellers (forgotten website) and just to start you off, here's my two micro layouts:

Walmington Pier Tramway - An HO Edwardian British seaside pier 3 feet long x 6 ins wide.

Routes End 2 - An HO generic modern Light Rail terminus with stabling sidings, 3 ft 6 ins long x 7 ins wide.

Good luck in your searches!

Dave

 

[Piermaster]

Hi Paulo,

Yes, Route's End 2 can be boring as hell to operate, but I revised Route's End 2 operation to make it simpler following me breaking my arm earlier this year and for my co-operator Barbara(My laywer and 'Piermistress') who suffers weak joints (I'm in my mid 50s and she is a little older than me).

Walmington Pier Tramway (WPT) is even simpler to operate, but because of its unusual theme it does draw crowds and that makes operating much more enjoyable. It appeals to everyone. Even Cyril Freezer commended me upon seeing it because I 'broke all the rules of railway modelling and got away with it'! He added that it must be the only prototypical setting for a length of plain straight track!

Barbara and I both enjoy operating WPT and this is her with WPT at the Festival of Model Tramways at Kew Bridge in 2007:

She is usually blonde, but had a 'darker hair day' and has lost 29 pounds weight since then!

We both appear in The Railway Channel video No.3 with WPT!

Dave

 

[Piermaster]

Hi Paulo,

Blackpool North Pier Tramway opened in 1991 and I understand it closed in the last few years as the train failed to meet Disability Discrimination Act requirements and would involve extensive rebuilding. It also only ran 250 metres and was more of a novelty than an actual means of transport. The stock was built by a fairground machinery manufacturer who had no real idea of rail vehicle requirements and demands.

WPT got influenced from several sources:
Pier - based upon Totland Bay Pier, Isle of Wight.

Shore end - based upon Margate, Kent.

Pier Railway - based on Herne Bay, Kent.

Pier Tram - an anglicised Bachmann San Francisco cable car, influenced by the 2 winter cars that ran along Southend Pier between 1914 and 1949.

Luggage Truck - based upon the luggage truck still operating on Hythe Pier Railway in Hampshire.
Pier Head - a generic Edwardian seaside pier head and is politically incorrect in all ways!! For I have 'Domestic Violence' (Punch & Judy show), 'Cruelty by animals' (one big dancing bear), 'Cruelty to animals' (two monkeys on a barrel organ), 'Commercial Exploitation' (Cockney flower seller), 'More Commercial Exploitation' (two local 'ladies' working the pier head), and 'Death-Defying Devilish Daring Display' (Pier Diver and uninvited guest)

The stock on Route's End 2 are Mehano Boeing LRVs (Light Rail Vehicles) and run better than the prototype cars ever did! The prototypes ran in Boston and San Francisco although Manchester bought two cars over here to find they were useless!

Hope this helps,
Dave