Easton, Isle of Portland

[mullie]

Shades of John Flann's Hintock?

 

I've often had an idea to try and model the station if it had survived longer. There was talk that the stone/naval traffic could have kept the line open for longer. What would the line look like if it was dieselised though I think the line would have been closed beyond the port as it never made money.

 

Martyn

[Mick Bonwick]

There's a story on the way . . . . . . .

 

How might things have changed if the island was developed for something-or-other?

 

Classes 24, 33 and 201 might appear. Differing types of traffic might be transported.

[pushpull33]

Hi Mick.

I am watching the progress of this layout with interest, having just found it and reading through your posts.

 

I was looking around for a new project some years ago and after collecting up a fair bit of information, books and photographs of the line, i got to thinking, Easton seemed a possible future project. I already had a lot of the stock suitable for a 1930s representation of the station site from a previous layout, Pine Road.

  

Having built Parkstone goods and Exton Quay, both being well received on the exhibition circuit, it was time to look at something else but still staying inline with my steam era stock. I pulled out the folder marked Easton and over the past couple of weeks i have been immersed in everything Easton. Thinking previously that perhaps a good representation could be built in 9 feet + fiddle yard ( not so sure now) Over the last couple of days i made a start on the station building, more of an experiment really to see how i could represent the stone (Portland Stone) as there is a lot of it, present on every building. You may be interested in my findings in the link below and also the previous post on my blog.

https://cpineroad.blogspot.com/2020/04/stone-buildings-experiment.html

 

I have since come across your forum page. May i wish you success in your project, a station that is well worth modelling, lots of character and lots of detail, all in a relatively achievable space. A place i visit regularly as its less than an hour from my hometown. I may turn my attention to Charmouth, a station that was very nearly built from a spur off the Lyme Regis branch. An act was even passed through Parliament for the line to be built but was never conceived.

 

Keep modelling this interesting line. I know when i built Parkstone Goods, it took me way beyond any modelling boundaries, the people i met and the stories that were told apart from the local history that was learned. Still a continuing process at exhibitions.

 

Colin.

[john new]

57 minutes ago, pushpull33 said:

Hi Mick.

I am watching the progress of this layout with interest, having just found it and reading through your posts.

 

I was looking around for a new project some years ago and after collecting up a fair bit of information, books and photographs of the line, i got to thinking, Easton seemed a possible future project. I already had a lot of the stock suitable for a 1930s representation of the station site from a previous layout, Pine Road.

  

Having built Parkstone goods and Exton Quay, both being well received on the exhibition circuit, it was time to look at something else but still staying inline with my steam era stock. I pulled out the folder marked Easton and over the past couple of weeks i have been immersed in everything Easton. Thinking previously that perhaps a good representation could be built in 9 feet + fiddle yard ( not so sure now) Over the last couple of days i made a start on the station building, more of an experiment really to see how i could represent the stone (Portland Stone) as there is a lot of it, present on every building. You may be interested in my findings in the link below and also the previous post on my blog.

https://cpineroad.blogspot.com/2020/04/stone-buildings-experiment.html

 

I have since come across your forum page. May i wish you success in your project, a station that is well worth modelling, lots of character and lots of detail, all in a relatively achievable space. A place i visit regularly as its less than an hour from my hometown. I may turn my attention to Charmouth, a station that was very nearly built from a spur off the Lyme Regis branch. An act was even passed through Parliament for the line to be built but was never conceived.

 

Keep modelling this interesting line. I know when i built Parkstone Goods, it took me way beyond any modelling boundaries, the people i met and the stories that were told apart from the local history that was learned. Still a continuing process at exhibitions.

 

Colin.

It can be done in the sort of area you suggest. When I was a member of WMRA about 20 years back now we had a layout of Easton for a while although I have no photos or dimensions. We didn't build it, IIRC it came to us from an elderly local (possibly former member), and we then took it on for a year or two. From memory about 8ft across the viewing front, possibly 10ft. If there are other WMRA members on here they may well remember more about it than I do.

[pushpull33]

I had heard that there was possibly a layout that had been built of Easton some years ago. I do have a contact at WMRA so will delve a little deeper.

Colin

[john new]

At recent talk I went to at the St George’s Centre on the island there was one photo of the layout in a large display of snaps of past events at the Centre. (It was one of several shots of past events held in the centre) Unfortunately I don’t know who’s photos they were although I have an idea who’s they might be so will ask him.

[john new]

On 19/03/2020 at 17:05, mullie said:

Shades of John Flann's Hintock?

 

I've often had an idea to try and model the station if it had survived longer. There was talk that the stone/naval traffic could have kept the line open for longer. What would the line look like if it was dieselised though I think the line would have been closed beyond the port as it never made money.

 

Martyn

Unfortunately I think in the real world it  would probably have fallen down the cliff, again, on the east side even if it hadn’t already closed and been uneconomic to repair south of Castletown and, unless for some reason the Admiralty needed it to service the naval dockyard pointless to retain open to the north of there.

Edited April 13, 2020 by john new

[Mick Bonwick]

17 hours ago, pushpull33 said:

I have since come across your forum page. May i wish you success in your project, a station that is well worth modelling, lots of character and lots of detail, all in a relatively achievable space. A place i visit regularly as its less than an hour from my hometown.

 

Thank you, Colin. Work continues on the layout, especially now that there are few other distractions.

 

I have been tracklaying, point motor installing and wiring up things to the extent that yesterday saw a Class 24 testing everything from the fiddle yard through to Park Quarry sidings. But that's getting ahead of the story. We need to go back to the photographs on the previous page . . . . . . .

[Mick Bonwick]

I had decided some time ago, during the early planning stages, that electrical continuity and reliability would be an absolute necessity on this layout. I had, on too many occasions, been through many iterations of install, test, fail, re-install, test, alter, curse and was determined to put a stop to that. All pointwork would be live frog and every piece of rail would have a dropper that connected to a screw connector (choc-block) under the baseboard. The idea was that when it came to wiring up there would be the ability to connect any piece of rail to any power supply that might eventually be present. Although I had a DCC system to use, I was still considering the ability to switch between analogue and digital control to avoid having to convert every locomotive before being able to use it on the layout.

 

I also had it in mind that it would be nice to be able to change points from a DCC handset, a mimic panel and a computer screen, whichever I fancied at any particular time. The plan involved 50 or so points. That's not beyond the bounds of possibility, is it?

 

All points, Peco electrofrog code 75, would be modified to remove the dependence on blade-to-stockrail contact to conduct electricity, and would have power to the common crossing switched by the point motor. I set about the task of modifying all the fiddle yard points with a certain degree of gusto.

 

 

At this point in time (no pun intended, honest) I hadn't quite mastered the art of close-up photography. I'm not claiming to have done that even now, 7 years later, but I think I'm getting better.

 

The laying of the trackwork in the fiddle yard was quite straightforward, if not quick. Once I had worked out how to join and fix two points next to each other without upsetting the geometry of the rest of the yard, everything went quite smoothly. I was pinning track straight onto the Sundeala and that allowed a little bit of adjustment as things progressed, without the hassle of ungluing things and breaking them in the process. Things would be different on the scenic area.

[Mick Bonwick]

Because of the number of points planned for the fiddle yard, I had to find the cheapest possible combination of decoder and point motor that would allow me to achieve my aim of controlling points from three different places. Lots of advertisement checking and price list examinations led me to a combination of SEEP solenoids and DCC Concepts ADS8 decoders. An additional requirement was for the point blade position to be reported by the point motor rather than the decoder, so the SEEP PM-1 was chosen. The combination worked out at a little over £10 per point. At the other end of the scale was the Circuitron Tortoise with a DCC Specialities Hare decoder, which would have cost more than £45 per point. There was an element of concern about the reliability of the contacts on the PM-1 for accurately reporting blade position, but I decided to arrange for the point motors to be easily replaced in case of failure, and bought 5 more than I needed.

 

Each SEEP PM-1 had a short wiring loom to a choc-block connector:

 

 

A test rig was created to ensure that all three operating possibilities were viable. The control system is Digitrax, chosen when it was the only system that would do what I thought I wanted it to, in 2007 or thereabouts. Fast forward to 2013 and JMRI was recruited to join Digitrax to Dell (laptop) in generating more cables and electronic devices to take up the diminishing space underneath the baseboards.

 

 

A scheme was devised that would keep colour coding of cabling in check, with the idea of being able to see what any cable, anywhere under the layout, was doing.

[Oldddudders]

We don't hear many on RMweb mentioning Digitrax. As a user for more than 20 years I'm never quite sure why. Perhaps it lacks sexiness, compared to those systems with lavish displays etc., in the era of the smartphone.

[Mick Bonwick]

47 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

We don't hear many on RMweb mentioning Digitrax. As a user for more than 20 years I'm never quite sure why.

 

I can't say that I've never had a problem with Digitrax equipment, but I will say that it's always done what I asked of it. I have used it for controlling several layouts, from an 8' long TMD running 6 locomotives with sound to a 30' long loft layout with 4 scale length trains running at a time. I particularly like the handset that allows you to manage two trains at a time with their own control knob.

[Tony Teague]

On 15/04/2020 at 09:14, Mick Bonwick said:

Because of the number of points planned for the fiddle yard, I had to find the cheapest possible combination of decoder and point motor that would allow me to achieve my aim of controlling points from three different places. Lots of advertisement checking and price list examinations led me to a combination of SEEP solenoids and DCC Concepts ADS8 decoders. An additional requirement was for the point blade position to be reported by the point motor rather than the decoder, so the SEEP PM-1 was chosen. The combination worked out at a little over £10 per point. At the other end of the scale was the Circuitron Tortoise with a DCC Specialities Hare decoder, which would have cost more than £45 per point. There was an element of concern about the reliability of the contacts on the PM-1 for accurately reporting blade position, but I decided to arrange for the point motors to be easily replaced in case of failure, and bought 5 more than I needed.

 

Each SEEP PM-1 had a short wiring loom to a choc-block connector:

 

 

A test rig was created to ensure that all three operating possibilities were viable. The control system is Digitrax, chosen when it was the only system that would do what I thought I wanted it to, in 2007 or thereabouts. Fast forward to 2013 and JMRI was recruited to join Digitrax to Dell (laptop) in generating more cables and electronic devices to take up the diminishing space underneath the baseboards.

 

A scheme was devised that would keep colour coding of cabling in check, with the idea of being able to see what any cable, anywhere under the layout, was doing.

 

 

And you accused me of having spaghetti in my Control panel!

 

Having just discovered your thread, I shall follow with interest.

 

Tony

[Mick Bonwick]

Once the wiring and working of one point motor had been successfully established, the task of implementation began. This was my first journey along the path of DCC as a form of total layout control, so I was prepared to make mistakes and, hopefully, learn from them.

 

Converting one working example into 38 installed examples provided for some head-scratching moments and even more space availability dilemmas.  A large stock of bootlace ferrules, cable clips, choc-block connectors and suitcase connectors was assembled, and the process began.

 

I had screwed strips of plywood to the inner sides of the baseboard framing with the intention of attaching all the electronic components to them, thus not having to lie on my back and work upside down. One of the determining factors of baseboard height was space to allow me to sit up when underneath the boards. What I didn't allow for was the failing of eyesight that led to the wearing of varifocal spectacles with the long-distance part of the lens at the top, right where my electronic installations would be when sitting under the boards. Never mind, I've coped with it so far.

 

I had given some thought to changes that might be required in the future, such as the introduction of train detection and automation, so each track dropper was connected to a choc-block, allowing for any connectivity changes that may be needed. This proved to be a good idea as soon as the idea of separate power districts surfaced.

 

Here is a rather hastily taken photograph (my excuse for poor photography) of the underparts of one end of the fiddle yard with point motor wiring in progress. Components and cables are all labelled - I knew that would come in handy later!

 

[Tony Teague]

2 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

Once the wiring and working of one point motor had been successfully established, the task of implementation began. This was my first journey along the path of DCC as a form of total layout control, so I was prepared to make mistakes and, hopefully, learn from them.

 

Converting one working example into 38 installed examples provided for some head-scratching moments and even more space availability dilemmas.  A large stock of bootlace ferrules, cable clips, choc-block connectors and suitcase connectors was assembled, and the process began.

 

I had screwed strips of plywood to the inner sides of the baseboard framing with the intention of attaching all the electronic components to them, thus not having to lie on my back and work upside down. One of the determining factors of baseboard height was space to allow me to sit up when underneath the boards. What I didn't allow for was the failing of eyesight that led to the wearing of varifocal spectacles with the long-distance part of the lens at the top, right where my electronic installations would be when sitting under the boards. Never mind, I've coped with it so far.

 

I had given some thought to changes that might be required in the future, such as the introduction of train detection and automation, so each track dropper was connected to a choc-block, allowing for any connectivity changes that may be needed. This proved to be a good idea as soon as the idea of separate power districts surfaced.

 

Here is a rather hastily taken photograph (my excuse for poor photography) of the underparts of one end of the fiddle yard with point motor wiring in progress. Components and cables are all labelled - I knew that would come in handy later!

 

 

 

I'm assuming that it must be the use of DCC that has permitted you to use so few wires in this installation....

[Mick Bonwick]

Something that puzzled me for quite a while was how to create a flap of some sort that would allow easier access from the inward-opening door into the room. Although ducking under/crawling through was not a problem im the early stages, I could quite see that it would become a problem as the years went by and mobility capability changed.

 

I eventually decided that a lifting section rather than a hinged flap would do the job, so set about creating something that used the same materials as the main baseboards.

 

[Mick Bonwick]

The time is now December 2014. In my story , that is, not right now.

 

Once the lifting section was complete, the time had come to lay the rest of the lower level track, so that trains could run from and to the fiddle yard. At this point I still hadn't determined exactly how trains would leave the fiddle yard and travel twice round the room on a gradient to reach the upper scenic level.

 

I wanted to be able to add scenery to the lower level as well, so that I could sit and watch trains go by if I so wished. A curved trackplan was devised to help visually, and the trackbed was constructed from scrap pieces of plywood and Sundeala. Once this was completed, wired up and tested, productivity slowed down. All of a sudden there was a lot of stock that just had to be tested.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Mick Bonwick

[bgman]

2 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

All of a sudden there was a lot of stock that just had to be tested.

 

Rude not too !

 

Its a natural thing to do and keeps the interest going Mick. 

 

Enjoying the thread.

 

G

[Mick Bonwick]

8 minutes ago, bgman said:

 

Enjoying the thread.

 

 

Pleased about that. It's bringing back fond memories! I'm glad that I took so many photographs while doing it all, because I'm now seeing where all the mistakes and daft decisions were made. I'm not claiming to have corrected them all, though, as you'll see in due course.

 

Thanks for the interest and support, I find it particularly encouraging.

[Mick Bonwick]

I expect that quite a few people reading this will, at some time, have looked at something and said to themselves, "That will come in handy, one day. I won't throw it away just yet".

 

I had accumulated a fair amount of expanded polystyrene bits and pieces, with the idea of using them for scenery. They were extricated from their hiding places and plonked on a small area of the layout to see if a hilly bit would look acceptable. This was an area that was not part of Easton proper, so didn't have to comply with photographic evidence of any sort. A road junction amid some trees was the plan, with the roads crossing the railway that was in a cutting.

 

See if you can spot which is what:

 

[KNP]

3 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

I expect that quite a few people reading this will, at some time, have looked at something and said to themselves, "That will come in handy, one day. I won't throw it away just yet".

 

I had accumulated a fair amount of expanded polystyrene bits and pieces, with the idea of using them for scenery. They were extricated from their hiding places and plonked on a small area of the layout to see if a hilly bit would look acceptable. This was an area that was not part of Easton proper, so didn't have to comply with photographic evidence of any sort. A road junction amid some trees was the plan, with the roads crossing the railway that was in a cutting.

 

See if you can spot which is what:

 

 

Errr...

Gives us a clue.....

[Mick Bonwick]

1 hour ago, KNP said:

 

Errr...

Gives us a clue.....

 

 The white bits are expanded polystyrene.

 

Sorry, the 'enter' button was pressed too soon!

 

The roadway runs across the front of the picture, following the edge of the baseboard, and forks across the scene under the oak tree (yes, that's what it's meant to be)  and across the railway. The dual track runs around the back of the scene in the cutting, under two road bridges. The trees have subsequently been used at Pendon workshops to demonstrate how not to make trees.

 

Here's a different view that might make more sense:

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Mick Bonwick
- Posted before completed!

[mullie]

One of the few wooded areas on Portland is around Pennsylvania Castle. The line to Easton came up the cliffs and then swung round just north of that area so you can justify some trees. This is also the area where Quarry Tip siding was.

 

This is the walk down past Pennsylvania Castle towards a ruined Church and the stony beach at Church Ope Cove. Hardly a forest!

 

Once the line is across the causeway and back in England it does pass through wooded areas on its way to Weymouth.

[Mick Bonwick]

41 minutes ago, mullie said:

Once the line is across the causeway and back in England it does pass through wooded areas on its way to Weymouth.

 

 

I like the idea of Portland not being in England. 

 

Thanks for posting this, Martyn, because it would have been useful to incorporate into the original plan by compressing the run south from the station. I can still use it, I think, so it might appear later . . . . . .

 

I did once think about incorprating a facsimile of Pennsylvania Castle in my scenery somewhere, but that went the way of so many ideas.

[KNP]

2 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

 The white bits are expanded polystyrene.

 

Sorry, the 'enter' button was pressed too soon!

 

The roadway runs across the front of the picture, following the edge of the baseboard, and forks across the scene under the oak tree (yes, that's what it's meant to be)  and across the railway. The dual track runs around the back of the scene in the cutting, under two road bridges. The trees have subsequently been used at Pendon workshops to demonstrate how not to make trees.

 

Here's a different view that might make more sense:

 

That’s better.

I visualise it now, the first picture made the embankment look like a road.

I assume the area will be rough grass, shrubs etc and the road country lanes?