And he's off!

As I sit here listening to Ian Fleming’s Moonraker read by Bill Nighy, paws to keyboard, I hope this will be the last introduction to the saga that this ‘idea’ has become.

Back in 2007 I decided to rejoin the hobby after a 7 year absent, BRM magazine was really the catalyst for my return. Within the January pages of the magazine Tim Venton’s Clutton really caught my eye. The small country station, sitting within the landscape for me is what really attracted me back to the hobby.

I want really sure what I wanted for my ‘new layout’, so the following weekend went into Plymouth library and dig out the books which I found interesting. One line that stood out was the old GWR line from Plymouth to Launceston. The librarians in the reference library were very helpful and provided track plans and old OS maps showing the line and really that set me on my way.

With this new knowledge in mind I created a simple criteria for what I wanted;

With a selection of sketching pencils I started to draw my own plans for a station which would have taken the place of Plym Bridge. The idea was that a small village called Woodford (named after Woodford Wood) with a population of around 500 would have been provided with a small station with a similar layout to Bovey Station. The station’s main traffic would have been agricultural products being taken in and out. The only problem was I wasn’t ever really happy with my creation; it just didn’t feel right. So I looked again at the area and my eye was constantly drawn to Horrabridge and the rest is as they say history.

Horrabridge for me had everything I wanted, only problem was I know couldn’t create a plan that would work. I spent two years trying, but just couldn’t do it! Having been irritated with this for most of last year I decided earlier this year to engage a professional to help, in the form of Iain Rice.

Below is the draft plan.

The area available is 19ft by 11ft, the idea being that it will fit in the loft of my current house, or a purpose built shed in the future.

Baseboard construction has already begun; I’ve decided to stick with the tried and tested beam method and will start by constructing the fiddle yard boards first, as Iain is still tweaking the scenic section of the layout.

Train service and traffic demands

Last year I asked Mike (Station Master) about the working of the line. He very kindly provided some notes in a PM, but managed to located the Passenger and Freight working time tables for Plymouth district. I looked through and on a normal weekday the line had 4 freight and 10 passenger workings. Additional freight workings ran when Tavistock livestock market had one of its quarterly grading days, or large monthly sale.

The line mostly conveyed agricultural products in and out, along with the usual domestic goods and coal. Milk traffic came from the Ambrosia creamery at Lifton, where 3 milk tankers were dispatched daily on the afternoon Launceston to Plymouth passenger working. Additional canned goods from the creamery were dealt with by the daily pick-up freight service. In addition to this traffic a small quarry just outside of Tavistock station provided chippings for tarmac, although this was in decline mostly due to road haulage.

Horrabridge was served by two of the three goods services, having its own dedicated service which also brought any traffic for the Princetown branch. This service was usually in the hands of one of Laira’s 57xx Pannier locomotives; 3629 and 4658 being two veterans of the branch.

During 1955 the branch had 9 locomotive turns. These ranged from one round trip from Plymouth to Launceston, Turn No.112 and others such as Turn No.107, involved much more. Turn No.107 was usually allocated a 45xx locomotive. Its day started with the 5:50 North Road to Tavistock passenger service, returning to North Road with the 6:47. It would then shunt at Millbay for a couple of hours before working the 12:45 North Road to Tavistock passenger service. It would then run light engine to Horrabridge at 1:35 and return to Laira with the 2:00 Horrabridge to Laira Freight. The 57xx Pannier allocated to Turn No.133 which worked the 7:50 Laira to Horrabridge Freight would run to Tavistock and work-back a later passenger service. The branch was full of little workings like this. Something else that I discovered was that most of the crews would only work as far as Tavistock, so the Launceston based crews would work on three or sometimes four locomotives throughout the course of their shift.

Station layout and facilities

Horrabridge had two platforms and a loop; it had a small goods shed, cattle dock and coal yard. There was also a small granary on the site which was privately owned and in later years was used by an agricultural supplier. The station was also provided with two water columns, a legacy from when Princetown trains used to terminate at the station before Yelverton station was built.

A small level crossing with large gates (although not the longest in England as Mr Kingdom says!) was located at the Plymouth end of the station, along with a bowstring bridge. I’ve subsequently discovered that North Road had a similar bridge which was removed during WW1.

The main station building was of wood construction and housed the waiting room, booking office and station masters office. This was located on the ‘up’ platform, along with the signal box, which was of Saxby and Farmer origin. The station was also provided with two long refuse sidings, the ‘up’ was generally used as part of the goods yard, as the granary and coal yard were located on this side and usually wagons were stored here. The ‘down’ siding however was used as a refuse siding and daily freight workings where held here to allow passenger trains to cross. One working was a cattle market special which was held at Horrabridge in the ‘down’ refuse siding for well over an hour whilst waiting for room at Tavistock!

Train working and signalling

The layout will be controlled by DCC, although turnouts and signals will be controlled via a 16 lever frame. Long term I would like to have some form of block instruments as the layout could easily keep three operators busy. Two drivers and a signal man at Horrabridge. One driver would also double as the Plymouth ‘controller’ and instigate special workings such as tail traffic or market-day extras.

Long term I will also create a card operating sequence, with each item of stock being provided with a card and then allocate it to a turn for that sequence. Although this is a very long term idea!

Layout site and presentation

The current site is the loft of my current house; this gives a useable space of 19ft by 11ft. This sounds like a large space, which indeed it is, but the pitch of the roof and the beams do somewhat hinder an easy working environment. However this house was always intended as a stepping stone, and my intention in the future is to purchase a house with either a large garden and build a purpose built shed.

All of the baseboards will be constructed from 9mm ply. I’m lucky to have a friend who works for Beach Brothers in Exeter were I was able to purchase some beautiful ply and have it cut into nice straight 6 inch by 4 foot strips. No baseboard will be longer than 4ft, with a maximum width of 3ft 6. The boards will sit approximately 42 inches above the floor, which will allow room for a 3 draw filing cabinet under the boards. I also intend to put a work bench under the embankment at the Plymouth end of the layout. The ruling radius for the layout will be 48 inches, which should be fine for the locomotives which will be used on the layout. (More on that later!)

The operation will be based around the late summer and I plan to purchase some warm lights from a specialist supplier to create a nice glow, but hopefully I won’t end up with a tan!

Specification

The layout is intended to be a one man job, although I’m hoping to twist a few friends’ arms to help with construction now and again. At DRAG there are a huge number of skills which I fully intend to tap into!

Track work will be nickel silver rail and Exactoscale chairs, fitted to ply or plastic sleepers, I haven’t decided one way or the other on this yet. I really like St. Merryn’s track work and this is probably the route I will go down. I’ve decided to use nickel silver rail over steal as the layout will either be in the loft, or a shed, so conditions won’t be as favourable as a nice bedroom!

Turnouts will be operated by slow action Tortoise motors and fortunately there are only 6 points and 3 traps that require building. The signals will be constructed from MSE items and will be built so that they can be removed if needed. They will be controlled by the Full Stop system and the reason for this is to allow a slight bounce on the outer home signals.

The buildings will be constructed from card. Howes pre-bossed brick sheets will be used for the platforms and signal box base and will be hand painted al-la Pendon style using watercolours. I much prefer this method to plastic sheets, although the goods shed, granary and bridge supports will probably be constructed using plastic shell with a plaster cover to enable hand scribed brick work.

The electrics will be based around a standard 16-20V ac DCC BUS with four power districts (station, goods yard, Plymouth Fiddleyard & Tavistock Fiddleyard) and an off-layout programming facility, with a separate 12V dc supply for point and signal actuation and layout lighting.

The required locos will be mostly adapted RTR with ‘drop-in’ P4 conversions: a brace of Bachmann 45xxs, a pair of 57xx, a 14xx and a 44xx. A 43xx will also be used for cattle specials. At the moment the only locomotive that isn’t available is a 64xx, but I’m sure Hornby or Bachmann must be on the brink of bringing one out. The 44xx will be a Mitchell kit. Passenger stock will mostly be from Comet, supplemented with the odd RTR item. Freight stock will be RTR and kit built items. Having had a look through the stock that I have, I don’t think I need to purchase anything for quite a while. I now plan to build and convert what I have.

The whole budget has been roughly set at £3000, spread over 3 years, the intended basic ‘build time’. I’ll probably regret setting that!

Anyway another update will follow tomorrow, but I think this might be enough for one day!

Regards,

Nick