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The Berrow Branch


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This legendary model has been mentioned on here before but does anyone have any links to good photographs or original articles?  This was one of the most inspiration layouts of my childhood but I seem to have lost all the magazines related to it.  If anyone has references to the RM editions in which appeared that would be great too!

 

I'm assuming that Mac Pykres is no longer with us and that the actual layout has been long broken up?  I'm asking as I'm think of building an N gauge tribute layout to Berrow,  I'm guessing no one would be offended by this after all these years?

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This legendary model has been mentioned on here before but does anyone have any links to good photographs or original articles?  This was one of the most inspiration layouts of my childhood but I seem to have lost all the magazines related to it.  If anyone has references to the RM editions in which appeared that would be great too!

 

I'm assuming that Mac Pykres is no longer with us and that the actual layout has been long broken up?  I'm asking as I'm think of building an N gauge tribute layout to Berrow,  I'm guessing no one would be offended by this after all these years?

 

Coincidentally I was looking through old Modellers last night for something else and stumbled on an article called "Operating Berrow", complete with layout diagram and photos, will try and scan it for you.

 

Jim

 

Jim

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Articles listed in my (as it turns out, incomplete) home-brewed index. Everything that I have listed by Mr Pyrke, all in Railway Modeller. 

 

Berrow: September 1958, April 1967

 

Berrow and Penholme: December 1978

 

East Brent: April 1993.

 

Locos for Berrow: November 1963

 

Penholme and St. Davids: January 1980

 

Thanks for the operating article, I seem to have missed that one. 

 

John

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Fascinating stuff. Can remember the first article I saw, where the scenic part stopped at the road over-bridge and the turntable hadn't been built; a pic from that appeared on the front of one the 60 Plans for Small Railways booklets. At least some of the locomotives were built from Jamieson kits. I thought he had a Black Five but he doesn't mention it.

 

There's a lot to learn from these old layouts, including the timetabling.

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  • 11 months later...

I built an N-gauge layout about 1990 using a mirror image of Berrow and called it West Brent. I exhibited all over and finally sold it to the late Graham Smith, who in turn sold it on. Don't know what finally became of it. I had DG couplings for hands-free shunting  and the approach was over an estuary. It did 33 shows with me and quite a few with Graham. Haven't got the mag  Berrow was in, West Brent was in BRM in the early 2000s.  Alastair 

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  • 2 months later...
On 21/02/2018 at 01:38, fezza said:

Many thanks! Berrow looks as great as I remember it.

Updated with three more articles - indicated in bold.

 

The articles I have about Berrow and its successors in Railway Modeller and Model Railways are:

 

Sept 1958 Railway of the Month, The Berrow Branch

This was Mac Pyrke's original L shaped version with a small locoshed kicking back off the bay platform.

 

June 1960 Railway of the Month, Berrow Revisited (the first U shaped version with a couple of halts and a river viaduct. Slight changes to the goods yard with two sidings taken over for a slightly larger loco depot. The former loco shed siding now extended to pass by a small halt. 

 

September 1961 Assembling Sheet Metal Loco Kits (photos of L shaped Berrow to be described in June 1962 including new turntable)

 

June 1962 Railway of the month, Berrow Rebuilt (the second L shaped version with a turntable and small loco shed on the corner board accessed from , the two sidings on the loop side had reverted to goods and now included a cattle dock. E. Brent had been completey revised)

 

October 1963 Operating Berrow (timetable and operation for the L shaped version as described in June 1962. See Jim's  post above for full article.

 

November 1963. Locos for Berrow (loco construction, no pictures of the layout

 

April 1967 Railway of the Month Berrow Returns

U for shed, L for exhibition with extra 7ft 6in scenic section and extended fiddle yard stations largely the same apart from an extra siding at Berrow on a front extension to the station baseboard)

 

December 1978 Berrow and Penholme

After several years of disuse as Pyrke had become interested in other railways, Berrow was refurbished for exhibition- good photos some in colour for the first time but no plan. Penholme mk 1 was an LMS BLT set in the Lake District with a sub branch to hide the fiddle yard (21ft by 20 ins)

 

January 1980 Railway of the Month: Penholme and St.Davids

Descriptions with plans of Mac Pyrke's two layouts that came after Berrow. Penholme wasn't as satisfying as he'd hoped and operating Berrow in its garden shed in mid winter convinced him that a smaller more portable layout would be good for both exhibitions and for setting up in the house. St. Davids was a fairly traditional GW branchline terminus.

 

June 1982 Model Railways: St. Davids : Great Western in Miniature. 9ft x 14 to 18 inches (tapered) further description of St. Davids seemingly unaltered since the 1980 article.

 

November 1982 Model Railways: Penholme 

Penholme mk 2 was an adaptation of Mk 1 but was now a double track terminus still 21 ft x 20 ins.  but with a separate traverser fiddle yard and no sub-terminus.

 

August 1993 East Brent revisited

The Berrow Branch had been sold off some time before but the S&D locos had been kept. With age, both his own and assistants, Pyrke was finding his other layouts too large to exhibit so had now built a new smaller and lighter  exhibtion layout based on the Berrow branch's original East Brent but much larger with an eight foot long scenic section and a little over three foot sector plate with five roads. 

 

If I find any more I'll add them to this list.

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  • 7 months later...
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Fantastic photos - thanks .  As an aside I spotted dexion angles as barriers- weldone to the team bolting and unbolting it !

 

I have most of the articles mentioned and always enjoy the look and feel of the line, the operating article was for me a first in the modeller and inspired my interest in timetables and perhaps my career on the railway.

 

Robert    

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Many thanks for these photos of one of my all-time favourite layouts. I don't believe that I have ever seen any photographs in colour before and it is now possible to appreciate the subdued tones used in the modelling. My first acquaintance with Berrow was in 'Berrow Revisited' which appeared in a 1960 edition of RM and I always looked forward to further articles about the branch in the following years.

 

David

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1 hour ago, Robert Shrives said:

-- As an aside I spotted dexion angles as barriers- weldone to the team bolting and unbolting it! --

 

I do not recall when The Model Railway Club switched from Dexion slotted bolted frame to Dexion Speedframe. If my memory serves right the slotted bolted stuff went to Gauge One "group" who assembled their live steam layout subframe from bits and bobs at every exhibition.

 

During one exhibition I took part in one of  the "Speedframe gang" that assembled the barriers before the show was opened and knocked them down when the show ended. Each group had a special trolley with compartments for different corner pieces, tubes and spare plastic inserts. A computer drawn "ascii art" plans needed to be followed to the letter (!?!)  while assembling the Speedframe barriers. Plastic mallet was the only tool needed. Quick and efficient.

 

pekka

Edited by PSi
typos again
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2 hours ago, Robert Shrives said:

Fantastic photos - thanks .  As an aside I spotted dexion angles as barriers- weldone to the team bolting and unbolting it !

 

I have most of the articles mentioned and always enjoy the look and feel of the line, the operating article was for me a first in the modeller and inspired my interest in timetables and perhaps my career on the railway.

 

Robert    

I was one of the team that help bolt and unbolt the Dexion at the MRC shows, then carry it back to the MRC store "somewhere in north London.

30 minutes ago, PSi said:

 

I do not recall when The Model Railway Club switched from Dexion slotted bolted frame to Dexion Speedframe. If my memory serves right the slotted bolted stuff went to Gauge One "group" who assembled their live steam layout subframe from bits and bobs at every exhibition.

 

During one exhibition I took part in one of  the "Speedframe gang" that assembled the barriers before the show was opened and knocked them down when the show ended. Each group had a special trolley with compartments for different corner pieces, tubes and spare plastic inserts. A computer drawn "ascii art" plans needed to be followed to the letter (!?!)  while assembling the Speedframe barriers. Plastic mallet was the only tool needed. Quick and efficient.

 

pekka

Yes I remember working with you on the Speeedframe gang too!

 

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"Operating Berrow", and the similar one about operating Charmouth, ought to be reprinted in RM about once every five years, to introduce the basics to each new generation of recruits to the hobby. IMO, they are that good.

 

There was a tiny little book by E F Carter called something a bit like "Operating your 00 Model Railway" which was earlier (maybe late 1940s or early 1950s?) and also covered the essential ground, so I'd settle for that being republished as an alternative.

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5 hours ago, PSi said:

 

Photographs - yes - alas no links to good ones, I'm afraid.

 

These were taken on my first ever visit to National Model Railway Exhibition at Central hall Westminster. The year was 1978,

pekka

Hi Pekka

Thanks very much for posting these. Along with Charford, Berrow was one of the early layouts that have most inspired me but I'd also not seen any colour photos of it.  The layout exhibited in 1978 seems to be the L shaaped exhibition verson of the U shaped layout that was Railway of the Month "Berrow Returns" in the April 1967 RM.  Despite it being obviously very crowded  your photos add a lot to appreciating Mac Pyrke's modelling. If you do have an others I'd love to see them.

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Those photos are really lovely. They capture the atmosphere of an exhibition environment superbly.

 

I always liked Berrow very much in the articles but never got to see it in the flesh.

 

It was one of those, like Charford, Marthwaite, Buckingham and Borchester (plus a few others) that made me want to build model railways.

 

Did Berrow ever appear either at a show or in the press after it was sold?

 

Is there just the chance that it may still exist somewhere?

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I really hope it does exist but like and old friend perhaps memories are best ! I did know it was sold on so hopefully in a loft "not to far away"  waiting to be rediscovered.  

 

Off topic to say that the barrier team at the NEC put out almost 0.75 Km of barriers   - around 12 folk involved over a 6 hour period of hectic activity - barriers from the club and two others plus NEC barriers and poles and ropes around the big exhibits! So I know your pain!! 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 25/12/2019 at 18:58, PSi said:

 

Photographs - yes - alas no links to good ones, I'm afraid.

 

These were taken on my first ever visit to National Model Railway Exhibition at Central hall Westminster. The year was 1978,

 

dia_004_36.jpg.752d5643c985eab821053f47d99027cf.jpg

 

dia_004_38.jpg.5bbe6125fd71e5f88ecbf047a02e51c8.jpg

 

dia_004_39.jpg.c224214ad4d772d1448764be69a2d491.jpg

 

dia_004_37.jpg.d2f7ac3ece9066b6d7e20f46b69656ac.jpg

 

pekka

 

Wow! I was there that year.  It was my first visit and I think my first model railway exhibition, accompanied by my dad. I remember this layout well, along with a lovely big O gauge live steam oval and there Lyoncross colliery layout, also in O gauge.

 

Thanks for the memory!

 

Jon

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  • 1 year later...

OK, a really BIG question. Does the original Berrow Branch still exist? If so does anybody know who owns it and how can I get in touch? The reason is stunningly simple. I'm starting to organise an exhibition in Weston super Mare for 16 months time and I'd rather like to invite it back to its spiritual home as it was originally built at RAF Locking which is in Weston super Mare, or rather was as it's submerging under new housing like everywhere else.

 

If anybody can tell me I'd be very grateful.

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