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Launceston Branch: Rails Across the Moor


Brinkly
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Appreciate your response, Nick.  Agree with your assessment of the early days presuming the carriages were' shorties' more or less in common with the rest of the railways at the time.  I know little of this period, even before my time, hence my enquiry and I'm surprised trains, even long distance ones, were that long.  As I have mentioned before, I have a special interest in this branch and its operation and I always seem to find something new every so often.

    Brian.

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Greetings,

 

Apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend, I wasn't feeling quite right. 

 

For a small country branch line, the Launceston branch was remarkably well photographed and documented. There are a range of excellent books and magazine articles, but one piece which has been invaluable in my understanding of the branch's operation and staffing was a piece written by Chris Turner in Great Western Journal No. 17 Winter 1996. 1996 - I wasn't even 10 when it was published! :lol: 

 

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The article documents the day to day management and operations of Tavistock South station in the 1950s and it is this piece of social history which provided the inspiration for this small piece of modeling.

 

Staffing at Whitchurch

 

In the post-war years, Whitchurch Halt came under the watchful eye of Mr. N. A. Jory, the station master at Tavistock. A porter covered a day shift at Whitchurch, dealing with passengers and parcel traffic. Bill Prinn, who lived in Whitchurch, covered this shift quite frequently. Regular shunter, Bill Finnemore, was based at Tavistock, but it isn't a huge stretch to see him working the small siding at Whitchurch...

 

I don't want hundreds of figures on the layout, but I feel it adds to the atmosphere to include a couple. 

 

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On the left, Bill Prinn and on the right Mr. Jory. Bill is generally left to his own devices, but once a week, Mr. Jory pops down to ensure GWR traditions are being upheld. 

 

Both are figures from Dart Castings and have been primed using Citadel Grey Seer primer (Games Workshop) and then painted using Vallejo acrylic paints. They need a little touching up and a small amount of highlighting, but I'm quite pleased with them.

 

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Les Rodda, porter, cycles to Whitchurch for 7:00 to meet the 6:00 Laira Goods Yard to Launceston freight train, arriving at the station a little after 7:20. He doubles as a shunter and assists Bill with the incoming traffic. Les is a Modelu figure, primed and painted in the same way. Bill needs a little more work before he is complete. 

 

Lastly, two young boys watching the trains go by, one noting down the number of the train in his notebook. Who are they? I don't know, but I'd like to think that if I was born back then, I would have watched the trains go by. Both boys are wearing Mount Kelly style uniforms - a little nod to my own schooling.

 

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Both boys need a little bit of final detailing, but they aren't a million miles away.

 

I plan to drill a small hole in the foot of each figure and fit them in different places on the layout; however, I'll do that another day.

 

The station buildings are nearing completion: more tomorrow.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Nick.

 

 

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Very nice work, Nick.

 

I'm not sure how authentic that shunter's pole is, though. I don't think it was GW practice to uncouple wagons with the wife's nylons still hanging from the pole (although that may have been what they did on the LNER, who knows?).

 

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11 hours ago, Brinkly said:

Lastly, two young boys watching the trains go by, one noting down the number of the train in his notebook.

 

I hope that they've signed in with the stationmaster in the Station Visitor's Book and have received the appropriate Health & Safety briefing regarding BR (WR) Policy on juvenile trainspotters, the 'dos' and 'don'ts' of safely writing numbers down in a note book and the correct way to open your Tizer bottle when on Railway property, plus what to do in the unlikely emergency of an LNER locomotive making an unexpected appearance.

 

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As I mentioned yesterday, the buildings are nearing completion. The main station building is nearly there, just a little bit of tidying up and finishing. More on that in a future post.

 

Lamp huts. Looking at several stations along the branch, the traditional lamp hut was a common feature on the line.

 

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The first one I spotted, was at Bickleigh next to the orignal signal box. The old box became a goods shed in later years. (Mike Roach photo)

 

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Tavistock also had at least one. This one being located on the Down platform. (Mike Roach).

 

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The next photograph depicts Lifton. I like this photo: it isn't very often that a track gang were photographed. I'll have to work out who they are!

 

So, the dear old Wills kit seemed to be a good starting point. As mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to modify both kits by removing the chimney and the fire bucket shelf and roof from one. A combination of cutting and filing did the job. 

 

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The building was given a coat of Citadel Grey Seer primer (Games Workshop) and then painted in Humbrol No. 71, Oak Satin. I think this is a fairly good match to BR building cream. Initially, I gave one of the pair a coat of Humrbol 103, Cream Matt; however, my preference was the Oak Satin. I think it is a richer colour. 

 

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The door was painted in Humbrol 160, which seems to be a very convincing copy of BR Western Region brown. The roof was painted in Humbrol 67 and both require fitting.

 

Something which did make me smile was this:

 

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Carbon dating suggests that this tin was purchased at least 16 years ago! Whitfields in Ivybridge were bought out by Lawsons in 2006! We moved to Tavistock in 2003! Where does the time go? The paint was still very good. Needed a good stir mind! Price has nearly doubled in 16 years. I wondered what the price was in say 1990?

 

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One last thing: evolution of the Humbrol logo! The middle one is 'my childhood', the one on the right being the more up-to-date version. I think the one on the left was a tin my Grandpa purchased. I certainly don't remember buying it.

 

Anyway thanks for reading.

 

Regards,

Nick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Brinkly said:

One last thing: evolution of the Humbrol logo! The middle one is 'my childhood', the one on the right being the more up-to-date version. I think the one on the left was a tin my Grandpa purchased. I certainly don't remember buying it.

 

Anyway thanks for reading.

 

Regards,

Nick.

 

Well that makes me feel a lot better (not), I bought some of those on the left ...

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1 hour ago, Brinkly said:

The door was painted in Humbrol 160, which seems to be a very convincing copy of BR Western Region brown. The roof was painted in Humbrol 67 and both require fitting.

 

Something which did make me smile was this:

 

 

Carbon dating suggests that this tin was purchased at least 16 years ago! Whitfields in Ivybridge were bought out by Lawsons in 2006! We moved to Tavistock in 2003! Where does the time go? The paint was still very good. Needed a good stir mind! Price has nearly doubled in 16 years. I wondered what the price was in say 1990?

 

 

If you need to ask the price you can't afford it.:jester: I'm sure Humbrol tins cost less than 10p when I was building aircraft kits 40 years ago.:D

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1 minute ago, gwrrob said:

 

Not when you get 50p a week pocket money.:read:

 

This is true. I used to get £2 per week from mums parents and £2 from dads. That wasn't a bad rate! Half had to be saved mind, but that was good for buying bigger items once a year - large GWR 4-6-0 locos!

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2 hours ago, BlackRat said:

Nick...    I'm STILL using it let's which I bought when working in Beatties........they must be 37 years old and STILL going strong!

 

 

They would have been kept in THAT cupboard..................

 

I still have a couple of jars of Beatties liquid poly............still looks/feels/smells/tastes the same..

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1 hour ago, Tim V said:

50p, you were lucky, I had to make do with a couple of groats ...

 

 

My bad..........read that as goats......

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3 hours ago, Brinkly said:

 

 

@Captain KernowMrs. Rodda's laundry will be removed from Mr. Rodda's pole in due course. ;) :P

 

 

 

 

Ooo..er......Matron!

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