AGWI | An extract of the workings of Fawley Oil Refinery
Having missed out last year on entering and having loads of spare time in the coming months I thought I would try and enter the challenge this year.
It is certainly a challenging challenge this year but it does give you scope for ingenuity if you are that way inclined!
So, what to do?
Initially an idea from a member of RMweb was that I could build a diorama based around one of the hangars at Calshot. I did give this quite a bit of thought, but I wanted something even more challenging. And besides, I wanted to do something a bit different from my previous layout. Therefore I looked a bit further afield - quite literally! A few fields over and a mile (ish) down the road from Calshot village is Fawley - or to be more precise, Fawley Oil Refinery. The book I have on the NG lines of Calshot also includes the NG line at the AGWI refinery. They were pretty extensive and the lines stretched for miles around the site. I think I read somewhere that it was about 60 miles of NG track, although that could be wrong!
What part to model?
After reading the text and looking at photos from the book as well as a really useful collection of birds eye images I originally decided to opt for part of the aerial ropeway (for hauling tar in barrels) and the engine shed as well as a few other buildings. However, this would never fit on a board of 20" x 11" as I found out almost immediately, much to my dismay. I was about to give up when I realised that the title of the challenge was not 'layout' but 'diorama'. Bingo! after a re-flick through the book I found a photo of the aerial ropeway with barrels of tar being manhandled onto precarious flat wagons. This scene look perfectly modellable and so that is where I am up to now!
Having missed out last year on entering and having loads of spare time in the coming months I thought I would try and enter the challenge this year.
It is certainly a challenging challenge this year but it does give you scope for ingenuity if you are that way inclined!
So, what to do?
Initially an idea from a member of RMweb was that I could build a diorama based around one of the hangars at Calshot. I did give this quite a bit of thought, but I wanted something even more challenging. And besides, I wanted to do something a bit different from my previous layout. Therefore I looked a bit further afield - quite literally! A few fields over and a mile (ish) down the road from Calshot village is Fawley - or to be more precise, Fawley Oil Refinery. The book I have on the NG lines of Calshot also includes the NG line at the AGWI refinery. They were pretty extensive and the lines stretched for miles around the site. I think I read somewhere that it was about 60 miles of NG track, although that could be wrong!
What part to model?
After reading the text and looking at photos from the book as well as a really useful collection of birds eye images I originally decided to opt for part of the aerial ropeway (for hauling tar in barrels) and the engine shed as well as a few other buildings. However, this would never fit on a board of 20" x 11" as I found out almost immediately, much to my dismay. I was about to give up when I realised that the title of the challenge was not 'layout' but 'diorama'. Bingo! after a re-flick through the book I found a photo of the aerial ropeway with barrels of tar being manhandled onto precarious flat wagons. This scene look perfectly modellable and so that is where I am up to now!
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