Stoke Courtenay

[checkrail]

IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST VISIT TO THIS LAYOUT THREAD, WELCOME, AND THANKS FOR LOOKING.  MY ADVICE WOULD BE TO FAST FORWARD TO THE LAST PAGE AND THEN BROWSE BACKWARDS, AS THE LAYOUT HAS SEEN A NUMBER OF IMPROVEMENTS SINCE THIS FIRST POST, ESPECIALLY IN REGARD TO THE APPEARANCE OF THE TRAINS THEMSELVES, BESIDES WHICH MANY OF THE EARLIER PHOTOGRAPHS DISAPPEARED IN THE GREAT RMWEB CRASH OF  2021.  STOKE COURTENAY FEATURED IN THE APRIL 2019 ISSUE OF BRM. 

 

After 4 years I've just (almost) finished my layout, a loft-based affair in 4mm scale using 00-SF standards.  So time to take a breather and post a few pics.

 

. 

 

Stoke Courtenay represents a small GW junction station in the 1930s, the track layout being based on Brent, south Devon, with a few variations.  If there's any interest, once I return from holiday in a couple of weeks I'll post a bit more info and some more pics.

 

Unlike many retired returnee modellers I have no lifetime's collection of stock, just a rag bag of new and second-hand items, and unbuilt kits, gathered together over the last four years.  I've been exercising a self-denying ordinance on these pending completion of a layout to run them on, so at present they're all more or less as I bought them.  So I look forward to spending the next four years detailing, weathering, kit-building, repainting and general tarting up.

 

I can see I'll also have to investigate some better lighting for layout photography.  A lot to learn there, and indeed in all other areas, having been out of this game for 40+ years until 2012.

 

John C.

 

PS.  Track plan inserted below on 22 August 2023.  It seems the original was lost in the Great RMweb Crash of 2021.

Edited August 22, 2023 by checkrail
update

[Bogie]

I know some members prefer a staged approach to showing off layouts, but me I love an "almost there" project - especially one as good as this.

 

So keep the photos coming.

[Revolution Mike B]

I'm not really in to steam layouts or steam engines but I can't help but like this John. If I close my eyes slightly, I can imagine (I'm 49 so I can only go by pictures in books etc) actually being there!

 

If the station on my layout ends up anywhere near as good as yours I'll be over the moon and as for the second picture with the train emerging from the bridge....well that's made my day.

 

Well done that man     

Edited July 13, 2016 by scoobyra

[pointstaken]

I like the clerestory coaches. May I ask their origins - are they kits or modified originals ?

 

Dennis

[81C]

Excellent layout you can clearly see you have taken time and care to produce this, I will look forward to more of your efforts.

[AireValley1962]

Very nice!  

 

You might be interested in another layout on here(if you haven't found it already) also based somewhat on Brent: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69664-a-nod-to-brent/

 

Cheers,

William

[checkrail]

Nice to get back from holiday to kind and supportive comments – enough to encourage me to further posts. 

 

In answer to specific queries:

 

William – yes, I’m familiar with ‘A nod to Brent’.  In fact when I first found it last year I did no modelling for several days while I avidly read through the lot!  Great stuff.  And I’m also following Fatadder’s Brent project with interest.  Both of these of course are much more closely based on the real Brent, whereas my semi-freelance effort merely borrows the concept of a small S. Devon junction station and the main outlines of the track plan.

 

Dennis – the clerestories are simply the old Hornby items.  Nothing has been done to them yet, save to paint the droplights (I used Railmatch SR venetian red as a proxy for the GWR shade).  This can be seen on the first pic below, and makes a bit of a difference.  The next stage is to add decent gangways and sooty black roofs.  The lack of relief panelling is pretty obvious, but I rejoined this game just too late to acquire the etched replacement sides that 247 Developments used to do. (Not that I’m certain I wouldn’t have made a pig’s ear of fettling them!) They’ll be fine as ‘layout coaches’, in Tony Wright’s useful phrase.

 

More on the layout in due course; in the meantime here are a few more pics.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(My apologies that I haven't yet worked out how to stop rotated portrait format pics from reverting to landscape when I attach them!)

 

 

John C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[duff man]

John.

What a lovely layout, Only 4 years and a returnee, puts my lifetime efforts into the shade. Just excellent, keep the posts coming.

Craig.

[checkrail]

And a few more.  Am currently working on a track plan to upload with some further details of the layout.  Couldn't really scan the original - it was drawn out actual size on lining paper on the loft floor four years or so ago!

 

 

 

 

A 4575 tank slows into Stoke Courtenay off the Earlsbridge branch while a Star waits for the right of way on the main line.

 

 

 

A King emerges from Stoke Courtenay tunnel (i.e. from the fiddleyard) .

 

 

 

A 28xx passes through the station with coal empties.

 

John C.

 

[Andy R]

John: just noticed this new topic...wow this is great modelling indeed sir. Look forward to more pictures and a track plan.

Regards Andy R

[The Fatadder]

Very nice, look forward to seeing more photos

[checkrail]

Here's a track plan of Stoke Courtenay, built in my loft in a space 13 x 12 feet approx.  Off stage there is a fiddleyard with four loops in each direction plus two long sidings joined by a crossover representing the branch terminus at Earlsbridge.

 

 

 

 

I've taken the basic concept from Brent but with some simplification and adjustment to fit the space available.  For instance, I had reluctantly to jettison the idea of having the goods shed on a separate loop parallel to the branch platform run-round loop (an arrangement common in the area); loops off loops are subject to the law of diminishing returns in terms of point radii and train length.  In my set up the run-round doubles as the goods reception road, from which the yard is shunted.

 

I've also had to leave out the up and down refuge sidings (later loops) though they would obviously have added some operational interest.  This means that the later connection from one of these loops to the branch platform is also not present, leaving me with a rather 19th century track plan with strictly no facing connections off the main lines.

 

But the biggest change I made was to assume that, in relation to the real Brent, up is down and down is up!  (I guess this means we'll have to suppose that Earlsbridge is somewhere on Dartmoor or in its southern foothills, rather than on the coast.)  I made this notional change at a late stage, realising that the interesting business of dropping and attaching through coaches would be more pleasing both aesthetically and operationally that way round.

 

I've also added a small bay platform on the (my) down side for tail traffic, e.g. milk and perishables, horse boxes etc., creating a couple more operating possibilities.

 

I've been rather vague about where Stoke Courtenay is actually supposed to be but the sign in the pic below might provide a clue!  The name itself is from the Courtenay family, who were earls of Devon in the middle ages (and, I believe, still are), hence 'Earlsbridge').

 

 

 

Finally, here's Llanfair Grange on an up parcels working.

 

 

 

 

John C.

Edited August 18, 2016 by checkrail

[checkrail]

Well, that didn't work very well did it?

 

Let's try again with the track plan and Grange picture.  Now below (if I'm lucky).  I find this site fiendishly difficult to use at times, though some of it may be down to my pc settings.

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

 

 

 

 

 

[gwrrob]

Well John what can I say.Superb and we need to see more please from all angles and all stock.Glad you found my thread interesting.

[County of Yorkshire]

Fantastic!

 

CoY

[gwrrob]

I couldn't resist having a play with one.

 

[Andrew P]

Fantastic John, a really well thought out Model Railway, stunning scenic and Ballasting.

[checkrail]

I couldn't resist having a play with one.

 

post-15399-0-06811700-1467193272.jpg

 

Yup, much better.  Nice one Rob. Can almost believe in it myself!

[checkrail]

All this started in late 2011 when, after 18 months in our 1930-built semi, my wife persuaded me that we needed a new roof. From there came the idea to put some boarding across the loft joists for storage, covering 80 years of black dust and dead spiders.  (There was already a loft ladder in place.) It was only a small leap then to a proper load-bearing floor, a Velux window, electric lighting and ...... a model railway!  Why not?  I was retired and subconsciously looking for a project-based challenge to replace the disciplines and learning opportunities of work.

 

I'll say a bit in due course about the planning and infrastructure considerations involved in building a loft layout (I'd never had a loft before!).  In the meantime here are more pics of Stoke Courtenay. 

 

 

4036 Kinlet Hall passes sister loco 4965 Rood Ashton Hall, still with 3500 gallon tender, at the west end of Stoke Courtenay, with the distant tors of Dartmoor in the background.  (All locos will be renumbered, renamed and detailed in due course.)

 

 

4555 heads towards Stoke C. with a pick-up goods train.

 

 

Tintagel Castle coasts through Stoke C. with an eastbound express. (Thought I'd cropped that bit at the top that shows the fluorescent light tube, but never mind!)

 

John C. 

 

 

 

 

 

[TerrySVR]

What a cracking layout well done

[George Hudson]

This is a joy, thanks for sharing.  Really well executed.

Andrew

[georgeT]

Has got the GWR feel, very nice...

[Mallard60022]

That's really spooky having followed ANTB for years. Great railway mate. I have also seen how you have curved your backscene and I will pinch that idea if I may?

Excellent track-work and I also think that Rob of ANTB will be very inspired by your footbridge.

Phil

[rjh]

Hello John,

 

I have taken the liberty of snipping one of your photos in post # 9 and placing it here to emphasise your excellent trackwork...

You mentioned at the start of the topic that the layout is constructed to 00-SF track standards.

The narrow 1mm crossing flangeways are good on the eye, as is your single slip.

 

May  I ask you some questions?:

Q1.

What sort of radius are those curves? minimum? typical?

Q2.

00-SF minimum Track Gauge is 16.2mm. You will likely be using this through the point & crossing work,

but do you gauge widen elsewhere, eg:

a. on curved tracks, if so by how much?

b. in order to use ready-made plain track of 16.5mm TG?

Q3.

Are you using 26mm (8'6" scale) long sleepers or are you reducing them to complement the 2.38 to 2.68 under-scale-gauge, if so to what length?

Q4. 

I imagine that the bullhead rails, chairs etc are from the C&L emporium, but are they

a. the older C&L toolings OR

b. the neater ex-Exactoscale components?

Q5. (relates to Q2 above)

Is the visible trackwork ALL individually chaired, or have you used ready made track bases away from P & C work?  

Q6. is this layout your first essay in 00-SF?

 

 

Thank you very much.

 

Best regards,

 

Rodney Hills

 

[Darwinian]

This is a smashing layout. Congratulations on achieving such a convincing and consistently high standard. Only four years to thuis stage too, it's taken me 8 to get less far with my much smaller loft layout.

 

Adrian