 |
|
| |
|
| GOOD'S COWBIT NURSERY This imagining predates even my first Gn15 layout "The Apple Valley Light Railway" I'd just discovered Gn15 through the Squarefoot Estate Railway and was looking for some kind of different idea for a model. How I came up with a design for a railway at a garden nursery I don't know. Like I say, these imaginings know no limits. For some reason though, I stopped this line of layout development and proceeded with the Apple Valley. Looking at this idea today I still don't know if I was right or not. The plan started life as the basic loop with a siding. Good's Cowbit (the place name is pronounced Cubbitt) Nursery is not unsurprisingly set in my home county of Lincolnshire, England. On the fenland around Spalding, where thousands upon thousands of acres of land are given over to the growing of Tulips. Spalding even has a tulip parade. Its sort of like the Rose parade in California on New Years day but not as big. But I digress. Back to the design. |
The Inspiration box - Here are some links to pictures to give you some ideas to develop the design. A Google image search for greenhouses will bring up many images of huge greenhouses. The website of the HAWE company - no longer makers of the rail trolley but automated green house systems Images of HAWE rail trolleys - Michael Staats HAWE website excellent reference Scale model flowers - If you're planning to build this model you'll need some flowers Spalding Tulip parade - not strictly anything to do with the model |
||||
| "Good's"
has recently seen a revival of my own interest in the design.
Originally the plan called for a couple of points to make the
sidings into the greenhouses. This would make the layout somewhat
longer and deeper than it could be. The recent popularity of
making small wagon turntables from CD's and jewel cases made
me re-visit the plan and change the pointwork for turntables.
The use of turntables is entirely prototypical and the Pinchbeck bulb museum near Spalding has examples of trackwork and turntables on display. The prototype lines would likely have been operated by hand as the section of rail used was very light. But it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that such a line could be powered. The HAWE rail trolley is very popular in the Netherlands and they are used on all sorts of farming lines. There are also many huge nursery concerns in the Netherlands that have all kinds of automated rail guided systems in the greenhouses. Its not too much of a stretch to imagine a rail line serving a large fenland nursery. |
Operation
would principally be under the power of motorised trolleys like
the HAWE. They are very simple vehicles and could easily be scratchbuilt.
Though Gn15 modellers might want to use the model HAWE that Sidelines
produce. As for the greenhouses themselves. I've envisioned this as perhaps an older section of the nursery where these brick based greenhouses have more character than the huge modern structures. But that's just my opinion. Also it is perfectly possible to add to the amount of greenhouses on the model I just drew 2 as a starting point. If you really believed in the idea you could go for three or even four of them, maybe even more. Intrigued by by that idea I developed a plan with 4 greenhouses but I didn't like that but undeterred I developed another design which you can see below that I am very happy with. |
||||
|
|
||||
| Click on the logo at the top to go back to the index page | |||||
