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About this blog

EM layout of Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway 1936-40

 

 

 

Entries in this blog

Weston WCPR

In 4 weeks time, Weston and Clevedon will again have a service provided by the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway, albeit in 4mm scale (EM Gauge) at the Portishead WCPR group show. With the looming deadline, I've spent the day clearing a space in the garage so I could retrieve Weston from the dark recesses where it's been residing for the last 6 years since it was last out. After much effort ( I can see why I switched to lightweight foam baseboards ), I managed to remove the spiders, wo

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Weston

Pleased to report that layout and operators generally behaved themselves. A couple of minor gremlins but nothing I'm worried about. Thanks to all who came and said hi. We had some very nice comments. Next outing will be Expo EM in May.

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to a new blog which I've created specifically to document the construction of my new EM layout, Clevedon WC&PR. Previously, bits and pieces for this layout have been lurking in my other blog, 'Tales from the Tinking Table' which has now amassed various other projects and layouts.   Previous blog articles on Clevedon WC&PR are linked into the index over the right.   If you're interested in Colonel Stephens' Railways and the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway

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WCPR Wagon No 19 and Taff Vale Coach part 1

I was reminded at Railwells that I'm taking Clevedon out to an exhibition in October. As Adrian cheerfully asked 'are you ready for Uckfield yet?' I realised that I haven't done anything on Clevedon since the end of the Tolworth show last November, blog update included. Well there's nothing like a looming deadline to get the creative juices flowing so I've embarked on a little distraction from the Cheddar scenery. First up was wagon No 19. This was a 7ft wheelbase 3 plank dropside of suppose

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WCPR Taff Vale Coach and wagon No 19 - part 2

The coach is finished, painted and ready for service. Or will be once I've put some AJ's on. The body was sprayed with plastic primer then dark green (Railmatch DMU). The chassis is bits of Bill Bedford W irons and other odds and ends. Handrails etc are folded up from 0.3mm brass. The steps are 1mm angle for the supports with the treads from waste etch. I got the ducket lamp tops from Branchlines and that's about it. The wagon had also been finished and once I've given them a light waft of weath

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WCPR No 5 Part 5 - undercoat & WCPR show

First of all, thanks to all who came and said hello at last week's WCPR anniversary show in Portishead. Numbers were in excess of 750 through the door for the day and it was busy from opening all the way through until closure. So busy in fact that I didn't get to take many photos at all! Highlight for me was meeting Howard Carey, whose father was a guard on the line. Howard has been an amazing source of information over the years and his memory (given the line closed 76 years ago) is astonishing

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WCPR No 5 Part 4 - bodywork bits and pieces

Didn't manage to get too much done this weekend, but the odd evening here and there has seen some progress. I'm now adding bits of pipework and body fittings to the loco. The smokebox has been made from tube and the saddle added, the old Finney T9 lost wax smokebox door casting ground down to fit and the chimney soldered on. I think I may need to replace that with something finer as it's not completely accurate. Depends if I think I can get away without telling anyone. Oops... Handrails have

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WCPR No 5 Part 3 - cab and tank

As the car was in for a service today, I worked at home. This means I didn't have my usual 'joy' of commuting into Bristol. By the look of the state of the M5 again, I'm glad I stayed at home. What this really meant was a couple of hours that I would normally have spent gazing at the back of the car in front was put to better use. Much better use. I'd finished fretting out the cab sides and had soldered up the basic pieces last night after I updated the blog. Today was all about cutting and

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WCPR No 5 Part 2

Managing to make a little progress with No 5 in-between getting Weston ready for the Portishead show in 3 weeks' time. Good news is the layout is now fully working, has a new temporary power supply rigged up (it shares the power box I use for all my layouts) and has had one or two running repairs. In the meantime, I've assembled the chassis using my Avonside jig and High Level horn blocks. As you can see it's simply compensated with a fixed rear axle. The footplate has been cut from 15 thou ni

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WCPR No 5 - part 6

Had an enjoyable show at Tolworth last weekend with Clevedon. Thanks to those who came and said hello. Alas I didn't get No 5 finished in time. Almost but not quite! Since the last blog I've finished off all the bodyworks and spent a lot of time painting various bits and pieces. The engine when originally purchased was a 'pea green' with black, yellow, red, yellow and black lining. The overall colour darkened to almost black as a result of years of cleaning (aka smearing the dirt about). M

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WCPR No 5 - part 1

Having redrawn the engine to what I think is a more accurate outline, I've set about making the chassis. I'm using 10 thou nickel silver for the rods laminated with three layers and 15 thou for the chassis mainframes. All were marked out with the vernier and cut with a scrawker into rough shapers before tidying up with files. The chassis frames were sweated together before I fretted out the outline and drilled holes for the brake gear hangers and compensation beam. The rods are hinged on

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WCPR Ex GER Full Brake

In-between working on the Ivatt 2MT for Cheddar, I've been looking at the ex GER 4 wheel brake, which ran as coach no 14 on the WCPR. The prototype was originally used to convey milk churns but was involved in a fatal accident in Worle in the 1920's, after which it was towed to Clevedon and never used again. There are a couple of photos of it in the dump road in the mid 1930's. This blog is really a co-ordinated effort because it uses a number of resources of this fair forum (that's RMWeb t

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WCPR Ex GER 4 wheel Brake part 2

Pleased to report that the brake coach is finished, bar one or two touch ups when the paint has dried. I'm quite pleased with the way this has turned out. The texture of the roof is as it comes from Shapeways. Handy for representing painted canvas but not smooth wood. The soot wash has darkened things nicely and all the other ancillary bits and pieces have been added. The coach will be making its debut at Preston in 2 weeks time, so come along and say hello if you're passing.

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WC&PR repeats

Clevedon was out at the Nailsea show last weekend and a good time was had by all. It's probably the closest it'll ever actually get to Clevedon and as usual, the local shows bring out the locals. Some of whom know more about Clevedon than I ever will. We had the projectionist of the old Curzon cinema and someone who's house wasn't shown on the backscene despite it being built in 1935... It's always interesting to hear tales and recollections of those who actually rode on the line, though as

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WC&PR exhibition, Portishead 2 October 2022

As I've posted in the exhibition thread, the Weston Clevedon and Portishead railway Group are holding another exhibition in Portishead, some 5 years after the last one. Details here: https://www.wcprgroup.org.uk/exhibition2022.html   It's the only time I'll contemplate exhibiting my EM Weston and Clevedon layouts simultaneously and probably the last time Weston will go out ever. It hasn't been operated since the last exhibition so I've got a little over a month to get both layouts

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WC&P in the movies

Had a great weekend at the Eastleigh show last weekend so I thought I'd try to take a couple of movies. It's taken an age to upload the first, so I'll need to sort out a few things before I upload the second... The locals don't even seem to notice the 11.30 from Weston...

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Water Tower

Having decided to start on the structures for Clevedon, the question was which one? I finally decided on the water tower because it is pivotal for the engine shed complex. I'm modelling the second set of tanks. The first were an all timber affair, spanning the original engine shed road. The second was made from Braithwaite panels and was comprised of two tanks and incorporated a water softening plant.   Having consulted many, many photographs, I came up with a drawing that looks a bit like

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Various shed and water tank progress

Evening all Now I've stocked up on Evergreen I've been able to make some progress on Clevedon. The Engine Shed has gained a roof, made from a base layer of clear plasticard with car siding laminated to the insides and cartridge paper glued to the outside. The roof lights were then fitted with individually cut glazing bars from 0.5 mm square section. The roof lights were sealed in the later years with something and it's this laddered finish I'm trying to replicate (all except the front roof lig

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Sunshine in Clevedon

As it's been such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist putting a few bits of stock out on the layout and taking a few pictures. Progress since the last update has mainly comprised making the various signs and putting some (hopefully correct) 1930's film posters on the hoardings. Eventually I'd like to make up some flyposters for the Curzon cinema and Knightstone theatre but they'll do for now.   Railcar creeps over the River Yeo bridge Railcar emerges onto Lower Queens Road Hesperus and c

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Shed Complex

Have rediscovered the modelling mojo and engaged on Clevedon.   Firstly, the water tank panels have been soldered together resulting in a pretty good representation of the WC&PR tanks. Does anybody know whether Braithwaite tanks were open topped or did they have a lid? My guess is the latter. Having spent a considerable time trying to work out how the various shed buildings and water tank interact, I came to the conclusion (surprisingly) that as the engine and original carriage shed wer

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Railwells

Another short update to says that Clevedon will be at Wells next weekend. The population will have increased a little and I'll be trying out a mock up of Fitter Hill's cottage to act as a scenic break at the Portishead end of the layout. Come and say hello if you're there. We'll be the ones in shorts (probably)...   Those of you that know the story will recognise the lady with the brolly.

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Painting

I've had the luxury of a week off work and plenty of modelling time. It's been spent mainly painting the sheds.   Oh, and laying DAS air clay, Nevard style, in between sleepers to represent the ash and clinker ballast. I've given the area a coat of grey acrylic but it's dried much too dark and shiny for my liking. I think I'll need to get the airbrush out and give the whole thing a spray over. Still, you get the idea. I've also made the base for the coaling stage, which will eventually b

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More sheds

Whilst the main engine and carriage sheds are in the paint shop, I've turned my attention to some of the ancillary sheds, of which there seem to be a great number.   All use Evergreen sheet, either car siding or V groove. I've collected quite a few photos over the years and kindly been lent some others but it's amazing how long it takes to interpret the layouts from different shots taken from different angles. I think I've just about got it right. The slab and square block is actually the w

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Manning Wardle No 5

During the rather enjoyable exhibition at Expo EM Autumn this weekend, I started to think about the gap in my loco fleet, namely no 5. It was one of the engines that didn't have a name. This was one of the two engines the line purchased from new, the other 'Walton Park' being too heavy for the line was transferred to the East Kent Railway. No 5 as far as I have deduced was a Manning Wardle class L, modified with disc wheels. I'm still trying to find out whether an accurate drawing exists as

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