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Falmouth


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  • RMweb Gold

I have, almost by accident really, been doing a bit of research on the GWR around Truro.

 

As so often, Google throws up photos of other locations and many of the "Truro" ones were of Falmouth (now known as Falmouth Docks). Looks like the perfect GWR BLT project, reasonably compact but loads of operating potential and short main line trains.

 

Yet, I don't recall ever seeing a model of it. There must surely have been some.

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2 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

I have been sketching up a plan for 4mm (EM). Needs about 18' length so by no means small but a by curving the approach a bit it could be a good garage project.

Do it in N and it's a spare room layout.

 

Union Mills even have a City loco now.

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Falmouth would indeed make a good layout, as you say it is pretty compact and has a great traffic potential - what with the line to the docks and exchange sidings offering all sorts of goods traffic.

 

I have often wondered how best to orientate the viewer side.

Having the dock line to the rear helps it disappear, but the ground rises the wrong way then.

With it to the front means an extra storage yard (or part of the docks system!)

 

One thing Falmouth isn't though is a BLT!

Its the correct terminus of most of the Cornish Mainline as built by the Cornwall Railway.

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  • RMweb Gold

I think it has to be viewed looking towards the harbour so that the exchange sidings are hidden behind the platform windbreak. The dock network is just too big to model. One would not be standing far enough back for the rising ground westwards to be an issue.

 

I take your point about it being the original main line terminus of the Cornwall Railway. One can see this most clearly at Truro (Penwithers Junction - what a wonderfully Cornish name!) where the Falmouth lline continues straight on and the Penzance line curves away. But it was efffectively a BLT for most of its life albeit one with some mainline character, especially after the viaducts were rebuilt in the 1930s.

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32 minutes ago, clachnaharry said:

 

Single track, no engine shed, no turntable looks like a BLT to me!

 

Pre 1925 Falmouth station had both a turntable and an engine shed; much of the line was also engineered to be double track if the traffic required it.

 

The ever useful Cornwall Railway Society website has quite a lot of info on the line. 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/falmouth-branch.html

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On 06/08/2019 at 08:41, Joseph_Pestell said:

..............Yet, I don't recall ever seeing a model of it. There must surely have been some.

 

Yes, you are right, but a long time ago! The Falmouth MRC did a superb model of Falmouth in 00. it was about 20ft. The docks system wqs not modelled. This layout formed part of one side of a very large permanent layout in the clubrooms and opened to the public each year for two weeks in the summer mid to late 60's as I recall.  The rest of the layout was essentially freelance but included a small clay dry and a very nice Brunel fan viaduct. I think the Falmouth section predated the rest of the layout. It's a bit hazy as I was a teenager at the time. There must have been some pictures but I regret I don't have any and can't find any with a quick on line search. 

 

Steve W.

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Despite not going around Falmouth dock until 1988 there remained some fascinating internal user wagons - including North Eastern Railway ballast wagons https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/nerballast, some Esso tanks that had been in Manchester Docks https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/falmouthdocks/e3fed32a6 and a couple of items that appeared to be locally made - tiny wheels etc and unlike anything I've seen before or since. Sort of Narrow gauge on standard gauge!https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/falmouthdocks/e187a16a  https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/falmouthdocks/e65aeaff

 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/falmouthdocks

 

Paul

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  • 1 month later...
20 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

The station area looks fairly compact with straight-ish track in the platform and relatively easy(?) to model.

...

But modelling the docks and its railway sidings might be a bit ambitious?

 

falmouth2.png.9502aa67768b5c7b84014d436406f20f.png

 

Yes, but what a shunting puzzle it would make!

 

That is a fairly old map picture, the system was changed in latter years when the Foundry was removed and No.2 Dock greatly enlarged which changed the layout in that area.

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Old-maps is your friend. The previous map would appear to be the 1933 OS 1:2,500 series. O-M has several from around 1969 showing the revised arrangement. This screenshot of their site shows the 1963 Six inches to the mile map (the only one I could use to show the whole area), but as can be seen on the left there are slightly later maps, one at 1:1,250 which should give all the detail you might want.

image.jpeg.f3cb31725087e5cfb85ba7bcf3838093.jpeg

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That's more familiar. Modelling the sprawl of the docks probably isn't ever going to happen, although bits of it would make a basis for a nice industrial layout.

For the GWR/BR part, the docks themselves do not present much of an obstacle due to the different elevations.  These are not shown on the maps but the lines leading from BR into the shipyard are on a  downward slope with the two exchange sidings behind the station being considerably lower than the platform level,  As already noted the high ground of Bayview Cresc and Castle drive, very much high up are not likely to feature. The road under the bridge at the station throat is also dropping steeply towards the harbour and some of this probably woud need considering.

Edited by steve W
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