Hampton Malstead

[Harlequin]

Hello Phil - that's looking nice

 

- you obviously have a bit more room to play with than me for your 'edifice' - mine is the Peco 'Manyways' station and stationmasters house.

I like the idea of a 'tearoom'  did that come from Helston by any chance?

I have spent a fair bit of time recently studying 1950/60 photos of the terminus, especially its signalling, such a shame it was all closed. 

 

In case you were wondering, my username on here is a contraction of "Signalling Technician" my previous employment before retiring...

Regards,

(SIGTECH)

Steve..

Thanks!

 

I haven't found Helston station building yet but I'll certainly go and have a look now.

 

The idea for the tearoom (or "refreshments room" as I'm now calling it) came from the back-story of Hampton Malstead. After the original broad gauge train shed burned down, severely damaging part of the original station building, the company decided to build a new improved facility. They wanted to provide better accommodation for staff members on site and improve the service for the many visitors who passed through the station.

 

It's really interesting trying to put together a building in a Victorian style compared to a contemporary building. Thick walls, fireplaces and chimneys everywhere, little or no internal sanitation... :-)

Edited January 30, 2018 by Harlequin

[sigtech]

Hi Phil, I think the building at Helston station which was attached to its end, was called a 'Refreshments Room, so you will be correct.!

Take it you have found all the photos of the line by now...

 

regards

(SIGTECH)

Steve.

[sigtech]

Hello Phil

In case you hadn't found it, here is the url for info on the Helston branch.

 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/helston-branch.html

 

I hope it is useful - the pictures are wonderful...

 

Regards,

Steve.

[Harlequin]

I have done some research into GWR station buildings and bought the wonderful book, "A Pictorial Record of Great Western Architecture" by A Vaughan.

 

I realised that my previous ideas for the station building at Hampton Malstead were not typical of GWR station buildings - they were a bit overblown and 1860s in style so wouldn't fit my imaginary timeline.

 

I imagine that the broad gauge train shed at Hampton Malstead burned down in 1883. The station building itself was repaired and continued to be used for a while but it was quickly realised that the building would have to be replaced and that the opportunity could be taken to make improvements to cater for the increasing numbers of tourists.

 

The result was the following, completed in 1886 somewhat in the style of the main station building at Weston-Super-Mare, possibly designed under the supervision of Francis Fox, ex Chief Engineer of the Bristol and Exeter:

 

The next job is to produce some elevations.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Harlequin

[DCB]

Do you think the traffic would warrant a refreshment room?   WSM was always a busy station and would do a good trade in refreshments but unless there was no pub anywhere near I wonder where the trade would come from?

[Harlequin]

Do you think the traffic would warrant a refreshment room?   WSM was always a busy station and would do a good trade in refreshments but unless there was no pub anywhere near I wonder where the trade would come from?

 

Yes, the fiction is that HM was slightly larger than MH and famed for it's location in beautiful moorland scenery. The station is slightly removed from the town and the GWR ran motor bus tours for day-trippers coming up from Torbay.

 

The refreshment room may not have been part of the original 1886 building but I will be modelling it in the mid-1930s and it was certainly present by then.

[The Stationmaster]

I have done some research into GWR station buildings and bought the wonderful book, "A Pictorial Record of Great Western Architecture" by A Vaughan.

 

I realised that my previous ideas for the station building at Hampton Malstead were not typical of GWR station buildings - they were a bit overblown and 1860s in style so wouldn't fit my imaginary timeline.

 

I imagine that the broad gauge train shed at Hampton Malstead burned down in 1883. The station building itself was repaired and continued to be used for a while but it was quickly realised that the building would have to be replaced and that the opportunity could be taken to make improvements to cater for the increasing numbers of tourists.

 

The result was the following, completed in 1886 somewhat in the style of the main station building at Weston-Super-Mare, possibly designed under the supervision of Francis Fox, ex Chief Engineer of the Bristol and Exeter:

HM Station Building 12.png

 

The next job is to produce some elevations.

 

One or two practical points -

 

What is the purpose of the peculiar L shaped counter in the Booking Office?  I can't remember quite how many small/medium station Booking Offices I've been in or worked in over the years but I've never come across one with an arrangement like that.

 

Why is there what appears to be a window (?) between the Station Master's Office and the Booking Office?

 

The Parcels Office seems to be rather oddly laid out as there is no public counter where a customer can stand inside the office and I doubt they'd be happy fishing out their wallet or whatever, let alone signing for something, while standing on the station platform or out on the approach road.  And I must admit to never having come across a parcels office with a strongroom - a security cage maybe but that's about it.

[Harlequin]

One or two practical points -

 

What is the purpose of the peculiar L shaped counter in the Booking Office?  I can't remember quite how many small/medium station Booking Offices I've been in or worked in over the years but I've never come across one with an arrangement like that.

 

Why is there what appears to be a window (?) between the Station Master's Office and the Booking Office?

 

The Parcels Office seems to be rather oddly laid out as there is no public counter where a customer can stand inside the office and I doubt they'd be happy fishing out their wallet or whatever, let alone signing for something, while standing on the station platform or out on the approach road.  And I must admit to never having come across a parcels office with a strongroom - a security cage maybe but that's about it.

 

L shaped counter: I'm not sure about the purpose of that arrangement but I lifted it from plans for Minehead. I'll try to find out more.

 

Internal window between ticket office and Stationmaster's office: Yes, this is a mistake - again from looking at Minehead. The original building had a fireplace here and the drawings for the extension were not clear if this fireplace was retained. But looking again, I'm 99% certain it was.

 

Parcels Office counter: You know what I'm going to say - Minehead! The double doors to the platform are halved, so I assume that with the top halves open and the counter flaps down, staff inside would serve customers on the platform, under the protection of the platform canopy.

 

P.S. I'm not happy with the positions of fireplaces and chimneys in that plan so they may all get moved around.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Harlequin

[Harlequin]

Here's the current state. I moved the chimneys and fixed some of the issues Mike raised.

 

 

 

I haven't yet detailed the WC block and you have to imagine a platform canopy in front of the platform elevation.

 

Possibly too many windows crammed into the wall between the gable ends...

 

[Regularity]

Why not take a prototype example and build a model of that? That way, you won’t have to worry about getting it right?

[Harlequin]

Why not take a prototype example and build a model of that? That way, you won’t have to worry about getting it right?

 

Because I love designing buildings, I enjoy the process of getting it right, the building will be customised for my station and I'm going to spend a lot of time and effort building the model - so it will be far more satisfying and more motivating if it's "my" building rather than someone else's.

 

:-)

[Harlequin]

This morning's version: Detailed the WC block, applied a bit of colour wash, a bit of shading to give a sense of depth, fixed the arches over the double doors (but not sure about them).

[Click to enlarge]

 

BTW: This may seem a bit off-topic for a thread in "Layout & Track Design" but the station building will be a focal point and so I want to know exactly what it will look like, and it's ground plan, as part of the overall layout design.

Edited March 4, 2018 by Harlequin

[Harlequin]

End elevations showing offsets of chimney stacks.

 

 

 

[Rivercider]

This morning's version: Detailed the WC block, applied a bit of colour wash, a bit of shading to give a sense of depth, fixed the arches over the double doors (but not sure about them).

HM Station Building 20 elev.png

[Click to enlarge]

 

BTW: This may seem a bit off-topic for a thread in "Layout & Track Design" but the station building will be a focal point and so I want to know exactly what it will look like, and it's ground plan, as part of the overall layout design.

You mentioned earlier that the station building is in the style of the one at Weston.

If you need any photos of details of the Weston station I could take a few for you, it is only 15 minutes walk from home,

 

cheers

[Harlequin]

You mentioned earlier that the station building is in the style of the one at Weston.

If you need any photos of details of the Weston station I could take a few for you, it is only 15 minutes walk from home,

 

cheers

 

Hi Kevin, 

 

I might take you up on your kind offer at some point. Do you think the present owners would mind you running a tape measure over some details? (Only kidding!)

 

Thanks,

[Harlequin]

I realised that I hadn't posted an updated track plan for Hampton Malstead for a while.

 

I'm still twiddling with it, I still haven't placed the new station building and I'm being distracted by other ideas and projects but the current version is much further along than the last track plans posted in this thread so it's time for an update:

 

[Click to enlarge]

Edited May 24, 2018 by Harlequin

[Lacathedrale]

Any updates on this?

[Harlequin]

I'm still mulling it over... ;-)

 

I'm wondering if it's going to be worth the effort and if the design will work how I'd like it to. I'm asking myself; Would it look convincingly like a country station in such a compressed form even though I've planned lots of tricks and techniques to address that? And; Would it give a sense of a village/small town nearby despite the modelled scene being almost entirely populated by railway structures?

 

In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of reading and I've built my engineering test layout.

[Compound2632]

I'm still mulling it over... ;-)

 

I'm wondering if it's going to be worth the effort and if the design will work how I'd like it to. I'm asking myself; Would it look convincingly like a country station in such a compressed form even though I've planned lots of tricks and techniques to address that? And; Would it give a sense of a village/small town nearby despite the modelled scene being almost entirely populated by railway structures?

 

In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of reading and I've built my engineering test layout.

 

And will it be fun to operate?

[Balders45]

I really like your final version! If I wanted to power  that layout in dc where would the feeds be? Would I need  IRL? Would prefer medium electrofrog points. New to model railway so all help would be appreciated.  TIA

[Harlequin]

Thanks Balders and Welcome to RMWeb!

 

I'll knock up a drawing showing where the minimal power feeds would go for DC but, as you read more on RMWeb, you'll see that it's best practice to (a.) not rely on the points to perform electrical switching and (b.) not rely on fishplates alone to feed power to lengths of track.

 

P.S. If you are new to railway modelling you might like to think about using DCC from the start.

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Harlequin

[Harlequin]

@Balders45 Here's the bare minium electrical setup for DC operation with electrofrog points:

 

That's 5 power feeds and 4 pairs of insulated joiners.

 

In practice you would probably have many more power feeds and that would mean you'd need a few more insulating joiners to prevent short circuits. You might also isolate sections of track if you wanted to run more than one loco at a time and that would need furtherinsulating joiners and switches in a simple control panel.

 

If the layout was DCC then the considerations would be slightly different but not much.

 

[Harlequin]

Hi @Balders45,

I just realised that another pair of insulating joints are needed to prevent a short when the turnouts on the main line are set in various combinations.

 

It's the bright green one on this drawing:

 

Again that is the absolute minimum solution and if I were doing it for real I would have many more power feeds and some switched sections.

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Harlequin

[Balders45]

32 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Hi @Balders45,

I just realised that another pair of insulating joints are needed to prevent a short when the turnouts on the main line are set in various combinations.

 

It's the bright green one on this drawing:

 

Again that is the absolute minimum solution and if I were doing it for real I would have many more power feeds and some switched sections.

 

Hi, thanks for the added info, what additional powering and switches would you do?

I might as well  do it right eh!!

 

Thanks again

[Miss Prism]

14 hours ago, Harlequin said:

that is the absolute minimum solution

 

And I would regard it also as a maximum solution (unless double-heading is envisaged, or multiple engines are to work the yard, but I would guess these are not what is intended for this application).