West Cliffe and Kirrin Castle

Setting

The concept was to have a twin-track mainline set in the BR(S) Region with branch based on a typical terminus (e.g. Swanage or one of the Withered Arm stations), all typical LSWR design and able to be set in a time period from the early ‘60s to mid ’80s that would incorporate my interests of late BR steam/diesel transition and the corporate blue (“Banger Blue”) period that I remember from my trips in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Much time was spent sketching ideas and looking at books in my collection and on line. I had a double bedroom-sized space that would allow for a full roundy-roundy and branch. There were several key choices to make but I decided that I would keep the track all to one level, thus avoiding inclines and more complex woodwork; and that I would have a branchline to a terminus at one short end and the fiddle yard at the other. One long side would be junction and running into the countryside and the other long side would be purely countryside in feel.

Wherever possible there would be trailing points and the ability to run 2 mainline trains with the branch operating separately for shunting etc.

I wanted at least 4 roads in the fiddle yard and the longest should hold a loco and 6 carriages or the equivalent freight. Two of the roads would be kept clear for through running and the main part of the fiddle yard would be off-scene with a representation of a 4 road station frontage as scenic break on one side and road bridge the other.

The branch would have a single platform accommodating up to 5 coaches with run-round for 3, freight facilities, loco servicing and stabling, and a turn table.

Other features would include a brewery/milk depot- along the lines of Bason Bridge, and a long siding in the scenic area for stock storage and a camping coach.

Trains exit the mainline station (West Cliffe) which is modelled on Bournemouth Central (the scenic break is the station’s Eastern glazed trainshed as it appeared in the ‘60s. There is a double-track mainline with X junction immediately after the station throat (rather like the one at Bournemouth West) and the branch is accessed via this junction (along the lines of Worgret Junction but crossing the Down line in this case).

The mainline then runs out of the urban area and into the countryside, passing a level crossing and under a road bridge before entering a cutting and the other scenic break (effectively what would be Beechy Road Bridge) and into the fiddle yard.

Construction Methodology

I already had a layout in the garage that had used previous elements of boards, etc from other attempts. However, upon dismantling, I decided that the whole superstructure was unsuitable, mouldy and that I would be better off starting afresh in the new indoor room. All of the track, scenics etc were recovered for re-use and the old boards were sawn up and used as firewood in my wood burner. Even the granite chips were recovered, sieved and placed to one side for re-use.

The most important lesson I had learned on my previous layouts was that the track had to be level and the boards strong enough so a skeleton of 2x1 timber and 9mm MDF was constructed around the room, screwed to the walls at 200mm centres with height-adjustable legs fitted. I anticipated that the carpet might crush and that the cheap adjustable feet would give me millimetric adjustment if needed. This layout was not designed to travel so the timber and board sizes/thicknesses seemed fine for static use with little wear and tear expected. A lift out section was planned near to the room’s door but at 45 degrees to it and now offers a great “spectator pen” for visitors who can be in the room but not in the way!

All baseboard areas were painted an earthy brown as background and the superstructure was varnished using some spare varnish left over from another project. So far so posh! Compared with the garage things were definitely looking up.

Next was the trackbed. I wanted reasonably quiet running but with “clickety-clack” and super-elevation. I saw a great product made from adhesive cork sheet at a show and made my own version. The Peco Code 100 track now rides on a 1.5mm cork underlay to which it is pinned. Representative super-elevation was achieved by simply packing the outer rail under the sleepers slightly by about 0.5mm. Nowhere on the layout is there tighter than a 2^nd radius turn and most are much shallower than that. Track centres are wider than scale to allow for “trainset” curves and over-hanging stock.

Control is Dynamis DCC with all track live and Insulfrog points made live by bridging the frogs. I did not create a separate powerbus and have not suffered from many issues as a result of relying on the fishplates and bridged frogs- however my soldering skills have been improved over time as I have grappled with nickel steel rail and plastic chairs/sleepers that melt.

Test running commenced in 2010 as I laid the mainline, junction and finally branch over a couple of months work. The acid test was to run a 7 bolster wagon train and reverse it through the junction and onto the branch being propelled by a 4MT tank. No de-railments! Hurrah!!

The track was level, joins smooth and pointwork aligned so that all the available routes ran into and from the various components as smoothly as possible. I had learned this lesson the hard way in the garage which was not level or particularly well aligned. It may have been fine back in Triang “Super 4” days but not nowadays with finer scale models, lightweight bogies and extremely free-running wheels. Any sections on un-levelled track would immediately show up when uncoupling as the stock would run away!

So far so good. Next, the ballasting.

There is about 30m of track all told and numerous points, a double-slip, diamond crossing etc. So, how to ballast that lot neatly (I wanted a proper cess, hence the cork underlay to give track elevation above grade). I watched some Youtube “how to” vids from various sources and trailed a homemade fast ballaster without too much success. Then I went back to basics and dry ballasted the track and used a syringe filled with the traditional mix of watered down PVA and a dab of washing up liquid to break the surface tension. Result- nice, neat ballasted track (I used granite chips, mostly N scale/fine) and it looks nice. Points etc were all hand ballasted in the same way in a time-consuming and fiddly task. I broke out the ‘80s mix tapes and played them to relieve boredom….

Now I had a working model and it was time to apply my chosen scenery….

Inspiration

I had read loads of books on the S&D, Swanage branch and had lived in Bournemouth during my senior schooling in the ‘80s. You can now see where this has led me….

So, the mainline would represent both the Waterloo-Bournemouth stretch west of Bournemouth to Worgret Junction and any part of the doubled S&D that I wanted to emulate. Advantages of that fictional arrangement are that I can have the choice of mainline Southern stock, Ex-LSWR and MR stock as used on the S&D, inter-regional holiday trains from the Midlands and the North, and the opportunity to run a “what if the S&D hadn’t been closed” ‘70s/80’s scenario using BR(S) and BR(M) loco types and DMUs.

I should add at this stage that prior to Bournemouth we lived in Nottinghamshire so I remember blue Class 20s, Class 25s, Class 44-46s, Class 56s, Class 31s, MGR trains and DMUs from my spotting trips around Chesterfield (Clay Cross) and in the freight only (at that time) Mansfield area. We had a pit headshunt at the end of my school playing fields and I clearly remember seeing my first Class 56 in large logo livery- ace!

The S&D had become of interest due to the legends that had been built up in the enthusiast community and I liked the opportunity to realistically run prototypically valid models from a wide regional choice, and the Swanage Branch (scene of a previous, stalled attempt to model Corfe Castle) was added to that as I had scratch-built many of the key buildings in card using Railway Modeller drawings as templates.

I wanted to run a typical mainline and branch from 1962-67 that would include features from these areas of inspiration and be able to switch to a later “what might have been” on the S&D, and finally a 70s- to end of Corporate Blue period BR(S) Western Section period with blue locos and stock to include large logo Class 50s etc.

Hopefully, I am on my way to achieving that dream.

Inspiration as applied to the model

The ideas were all there and I had a selection of pre-built buildings to use on the new layout that would greatly speed up the process. For example I had already built Corfe Castle Station building, signal box and attached shelter and goods shed. I had also built Swanage station (main building) in low relief and Worgret Junction signal box. I was able to use all of these buildings on the new layout and also the selection of Superquick and Metcalf “standards” that I also had.

I get away from flat board wherever possible I adopted the “Pendon” method of making contours i.e. a card latticework shaped into the form you need overlaid with papier-mache and grass mat/flock or road surface etc. This lightweight and cheap method has worked well.

The first loco to run: Winston Churchill