Bridgnorth, First steps in planning a Funicular Railway model.

Posting as a Blog as it does not seem to fit into any of the thread categories.

Having completed my “Challenge†model, which was my first Scratch-build of any sort, I thought I would cast around for a smallish project to follow on.

Having been to Bridgnorth a couple of times in the last 2 years, I looked at the Castle Hill Cliff Railway as a project which I could hope to complete in a sensible time.

http://www.bridgnort...frailway.co.uk/

It is a fairly short, steep, Funicular rising 110 ft. with a track length of 210 ft., a gradient of 38 degrees. (I read somewhere recently that snow needs a slope of at least 43 degrees for an avalanche to occur, so Bridgnorth Lowtown should be OK!)

Originally a water balance operation, it became electrically powered in 1944, and the original Victorian wooden carriages were replaced with the present Aluminium bodies in 1955. Maximum load is 18 passengers per carriage.

There are many short videos on u-tube and hundreds of pictures on the internet, but I have not found drawings, and a request on RMweb drew a blank! So I have contacted the new owners in the hope of getting drawings, and permission to visit with a bit more freedom than a paying passenger.

The double-track layout is un-demanding, some may think that to model this Cliff Railway really is “pointlessâ€!, but capturing the cut through the sandstone rock cliff face will test powers of observation and scenic skill.

It is of course the ultimate in simplicity of operation, no signals, no freight, no routes to set, no steam v. electric v. diesel arguments, no private ownership transition to Nationalisation etc, etc. and fits my interest in making rather than operating a layout.

My intention would be to finish the model in the same 18 months time scale that it took to build (and dig?) the prototype.

I will be using a scale of 3.5mm / foot. This is chosen since there is the established (TT) model rail-gauge of 12mm which matches the 42inch gauge of the Cliff Railway, there are figures and other model aids readily available in this scale, and the project would fit in the space I have available to build it. I also have residual stock of 12mm gauge Peco Individulay Track components dating from about 1958...(never throw anything way!!)

I need to set myself the time challenge, being 14 years into retirement, and a smallish project is all that I can (should?) sensibly start now.

I will be restricting myself to the buildings belonging to and immediately adjacent to the Railway, resulting in trimming the footprint to a sort of dog-leg shape, nominally 1 metre long x 35 cm wide x 50 cm high, triangular in profile, which will make it narrow and tall, presenting its own problems of stability!

In itself, the shape would be unusual, but who says that model railways have to have a square or oblong footprint?

CAD drawings are in process of being produced for posting. However, the arrival of the Spring gardening season is restricting available time for planning!

I hope to make it with automatic operation, so that the viewer can set it working by a push-button. I will need help with the electrical circuits, but I think I have a likely source.

I think one of my biggest problems will be capturing the curves of the modern (1955) passenger cars, and the ability to do so may determine the whether this project goes ahead, although I am considering the early wooden Victorian cars which lasted until after WW2 for which I have seen an un-dimensioned drawing and a number of photos, with the carriage chassis in their various operating modes.

Currently I am having difficulty reconciling dimensions of buildings scaled from internet pictures with Ordinance Survey and Google maps. A site visit is high on the list of priorities.