[The Totnes to Dartmouth Extension]

This an interesting idea.

 

In a parallel universe a Brixham solicitor was able to commence the Brixham Railway a little earlier.

The promotors also had the foresight to ensure a facing connection onto the branch at Churston,

rather than a trailing connection. Thus the time wasting connection at Churston was done away with

and a regular service operated to and from a west facing bay platform at Torquay. This provided

a useful commuter service connecting Torquay, Paignton, Goodrington, and Brixham.

To this day Brixham is served hourly, one of the two hourly services from Exmouth terminates there,

 

cheers 

[Book Format for Locomotive Development]

Though I do have a large and growing book collection I am probably not in the main target audience for this type of book as I don't normally like books that are overly technical. My interest is more to the operating side of the railway, how the requirements for more powerful or faster locomotives are balanced against other considerations such as cost or axle loading, and arguments with the civil engineer. Also information on where the classes were commonly found during their life, and sort of traffic they worked.

I prefer books that read well, perhaps because the author has included anecdotes relating to the subject, and then realise that I have also picked up some technical information along the way. Some cross-referencing is a good idea, and I always appreciate a chart or two,

 

cheers

[The Dawlish Avoiding Line]

Did I read it in the Peter Kay book Exeter - Newton Abbot that a major reason for the proposed avoiding line was to avoid delays at Dawlish and Teignmouth? Large numbers of passengers detraining with their luggage were causing delays at both stations, where there was also often a requirement for the train to draw up in order to platform all the coaches. This suggests that the avoiding line would be used by fast expresses not calling at the coastal towns, and there was never any intention to close the coastal route.

 

cheers 

[Tweedale - The Ebb and Flow of Coal]

I rather like that.

 

As I have mentioned before on various threads about freight traffic I think the secret is not to be completely random, but getting the correct balance between an identifiable regular pattern of traffic, with enough variation to keep it interesting.

Remembering my time in the Bristol Area Freight Centre in the late 1970s there were a number of freight customers who received regular traffic in varying tonnages.

Wapping Wharf coal concentration depot might receive 20-25 wagons daily, but during a cold spell 25-35 wagons, and an additional train was sometimes run. Nearby Filton CCD was smaller but similar variations applied, say 15-20 wagons, or more in winter.

 

cheers 

 

 

[26. 'Little Brown Jobs' ; or, homage to an inspiring photo with my new VVVs.]

I have always pondered why I like certain pictures more than others, and have gradually come to understand a little about composition.

Back in the 1980s I bought a book 'The Art of Railway Photography' by Les Nixon. I could then understand why certain pictures worked better.  I now realise that I should have tried to include more human interest in some shots, rather than trying to exclude it. In recent years I have had the pleasure of meeting Les when he comes to our local Railway Society to show slide shows, he is a lovely gent.

 

I think part of the secret of a good railway photo is that even though it might be posed it ought to look natural. Some of my favourite yard photos seem to have been taken in mid shunt as it were.

 

I agree, you can never have too many vanfits.

 

cheers

[23. Illustrated musings on 'realistic' goods yard operation.]

I would suspect that once the rail network had fully developed a typical goods yard might settle down to a pattern of traffic unchanged by a decade or more, subject to seasonal variations, and war.

From the 1960s onwards when rail freight was in decline/transition the train service pattern and traffic levels would fluctuate/decline on a yearly basis.

As I mentioned elsewhere your yards at Atherington will have seen traffic levels in steady decline , but have been fortunate to gain traffic from other smaller less convenient yards as freight was concentrated at Atherington.

Siding length is always likely to be compromised for those of us with less space than we might like. On my shunting plank which features a modest goods yard I assume that traffic is brought  by local trip engine to the yard, maximum length 5 or 6 wagons.

Regarding wagon turn round time I agree it will vary between different wagons and traffic types. Bridgwater was a yard where Messrs M Thomas handled the unloading of the UKF fertiliser traffic, and also acted as agents for any other Speedlink traffic that arrived. Generally palvans of fertiliser and VGAs of bagged adipic acid that arrived on the morning trip were unloaded same day and sent back empty early the same afternoon. Empty VEAs for loading at the nearby ROF (Royal Ordnance Factory) needed a carriage and wagon check before loading, so sometimes hung around for a day before going to load.

If you assume your yard is served by one train in and one train out a day that is fine, but you can realistically add extra moves if you like. In Bristol we had a number of as ordered local trip engines in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Most of them would have regular booked work, but could also serve other nearby locations on request. I don't know if you had similar on the Southern in your area? Thus you could imagine that some urgent Speedlink traffic missed the overnight connections, or your daily train was overload/length, and a control special has run from the nearest main yard (Hoo Jn?) to bring the leftovers.

 

cheers

[19. The motor-car appears.]

That looks good so far.

I like the low angle photos, layouts nearly always look better seen from that angle.

 

I know what you mean about making the yard less 'smooth', there is lots of 'stuff'

you can have scattered around. As your yard has remained busy until now

I would perhaps keep the grass and foliage to the less used corners of the yard.

I know grass will quickly take over given the chance, but looking through a few of my old photos

there was not much greenery in the main part of the busy yards in the early  1980s.

Bristol Lawrence Hill Yard 22/4/81,

 

cheers

 

 

 

[18. The layout's rationale : or, Where, Why, and When.]

48 minutes ago, C126 said:

 

Thanks as always for your advice, @Rivercider .  I had a mental note to make sure the Accurascale 21T coal wagons would be pukka, bauxite, MDVs, so not need a brake van (the cause of your concern?).

 

I noticed after drawing the map above, it would be more 'realistic' to have the other station's line to the west to branch off southwards, so trains could go through the electrified station straight to London (e.g., Horsham - Three Bridges).  Please consider this a 'revision'.

Yes vacuum braked MDVs are fine, they were less common than MCVs on domestic traffic to coal yards, but turned up in ones and twos from Penzance to (at least) Inverness. You could also include unfitted MCOs and MDOs until about 1974, with a brake van. The traditional vacuum braked network eventually wound down in May 1984, with coal scrap and cement being among the last regular traffic. Thereafter coal came in HEAs initially on the Speedlink network, then the specialist Speedlink Coal Network from about 1987. There were a few coal yards that had only handled coal in MCVs but then had equipment installed to handle hopper discharge, I think Hove may have been one.

 

cheers

[18. The layout's rationale : or, Where, Why, and When.]

I don't know whether it has been mentioned before, but the Southern Region was one of the first to go fully fitted, in about 1975/76? So after that date all trains would be fully fitted, air or vacuum, so brake vans would only appear on dangerous goods trains (nuclear flask, and sometimes on a Dover Speedlink if there was a tank of something nasty).

[Due to actions by the RMWeb team, who decided to support the toxicity of @woodenhead and "punish" me by deleting all the images I've uploaded, this content has been redacted.]

A very interesting post. Freight traffic, including clay, has always fascinated me.

 

I would suspect lack of familiarity with the prototype clay industry would apply to the vast majority of us.

Most modellers will have visited large mainline railway stations, and realise just how big they are. While many of us also visit preserved railways, which usually have much smaller stations or halts. So we have some idea of the station atmosphere we want to portray. 

I have used trains for over 50 years, and visited hundreds of stations. In that time I have made quite a lot of trips into Cornwall, and although I have seen various clay loading locations in passing I have never ever been in one.

 

cheers 

[Shunting a goods train - a query.]

The most common arrangement would have been for the yard to be shunted by up train but there will be plenty of locations where there are exceptions to the rule.

If traffic over the route was heavier at one end than the other for example there may have been two freight trains each way a day. One freight in each direction running over the whole route with another working terminating short and returning the way it had come. Eggesford on the North Devon line at one time had such a working up from the Exeter end, while Topsham on the Exmouth branch also had one that terminated and returned to Exeter. Christow on the Teign Valley route was another example. 

 

cheers

[More Coal]

I agree the house coal loads look really good.

Although the loco coal loads look different when stood next to one another I think they all look OK,

and I can see that under different lighting conditions the most realistic would be difficult to choose.

[Coal... or maybe 50 Shades of Black]

First thoughts, the back row middle looked a bit odd, but after looking through a few shots on Flickr there are some industrial coal loads that look a bit like that, though I prefer the 'blacker' look.

In most of my photos, rain or sun, there is a little bit of sparkle or shine to the loads.

I would also say the loads need to be a little more heaped in the middle.

I think you have it right D869, about size. If it is a block train for industry then all small. A train leaving a pit may have a combination of sizes if it is for domestic customers. Wagons arriving at a coal yard or Coal Concentration Depot will likely have a mix of sizes and grades.

 

cheers 

[Par Station in N Gauge - Playing with stock and photo shoot!]

I like that, it's looking very promising, the full length trains look the part,

 

cheers