West Bay on the end of the Bridport Branch

[maico]

By 1982 boats had taken over...

[DLT]

On 04/05/2020 at 12:29, dougidle said:

You can really see how open the landscape was - I don't have nearly enough space to do it just and will have to cut it off just after the points. As there's no obvious scenic break I'll try and mask it with some trees.

 

And it really shows how sprawling even simple branch terminus could be.

[dougidle]

By way of a small update, I've relaid the sector plate to have 4 roads rather than the previous 3. It was also a good excuse to use up some of the C&L track I had lying around.

 

 

I've also ordered some bits and pieces to convert the Bachmann 57xx I have from OO to EM so I might even have a loco that runs by this time next week!

 

Cheers,

Doug

 

[DLT]

The Ralls & Sons coal wagon is very good, what did you use for the lettering on it?

Many thanks, Dave.

[dougidle]

31 minutes ago, DLT said:

The Ralls & Sons coal wagon is very good, what did you use for the lettering on it?

Many thanks, Dave.

 Hi Dave,

That's a Bachmann RTR wagon that was made for Buffers which I got from eBay :-)

 

POW Sides do a version of it too.

 

Cheers,

Doug

 

 

[DLT]

41 minutes ago, dougidle said:

 Hi Dave,

That's a Bachmann RTR wagon that was made for Buffers which I got from eBay :-)

POW Sides do a version of it too.

Cheers,

Doug

 

Thanks very much Doug, just had a look and they do it in 7mm too.

Cheers, Dave.

[dougidle]

10 hours ago, DLT said:

 

Thanks very much Doug, just had a look and they do it in 7mm too.

Cheers, Dave.

 They do indeed - I built one and run it in the garden :-)

[dougidle]

Big news in West Bay! The parts to convert the Bachmann 57xx to EM arrived during the week and I spent a pleasant 90 minutes converting the loco last night and this morning. Here she is posing on the sector plate.

 

I have to admit that the GW Models wheel jig was absolutely terrific and I highly recommend it. It made fitting the wheels to the axles and quartering them a total breeze.

 

Just to prove that she works, here's a short video of he actually pulling a train.

 

Now that she's running I need to decide what to renumber her as. I had originally planned to use 7719, the same as my O Gauge loco. When I chose that number it was because I'd not been able to find any record of a 57xx at Bridport. Since reading Beales book about the branch I discovered that 8744 was there in 1947 - so I need to find out a bit about the loco and see if she'll match my model. If she does I'll renumber both the EM and O gauge locos.

 

As well as all that, I also got the first point wired up and working using a Tortoise point motor. While it was expensive I was really impressed with the device and plan to get the others over the next few month so I can have the whole layout working.

 

[dougidle]

October saw a lot of progress on the layout with track laid and train actually running. In the second half of the month things slowed down a little - although I did build a couple more wagons and also find a Weymouth based PO wagon that I'd been looking for for ages.

The two Minks are from Coopercraft kits while the PO wagon is a limited edition from Bachmann

 

In November my goals for the layout are

   - Wire up two more points (the tortoise motors arrived today)

   - Build a control panel to switch the points

   - Rebuild the gearbox for 4803 so that the loco moves.

 

4803 is a loco that that I built a chassis from the High Level kit - the kit was really good but I made a bit of pigs ear of it. After several months of fiddling a friend in the EM gauge group on Facebook rescued it for me - the main problem being the gearbox. He built a gearbox himself but I now want to rebuild the gearbox myself before the loco sees service. I want to be confident that I can build one before I go any further with loco construction.

 

For the control panel I've made a diagram and printed it off. I plan to mount the switches on the diagram and mount the whole thing on some 2mm plasticard.

 

Thanks for reading,

Doug

[Compound2632]

36 minutes ago, dougidle said:

the PO wagon is a limited edition from Bachmann

 

My not-very-inner Wagon Pedant cannot forbear to observe that that's a pretty decent model of an RCH 1923 standard 12 ton wagon* wearing the livery of an RCH 1907 or earlier 10 ton wagon...

 

*Late condition too - not the clips holding the steel capping strip in place.

[TrevorP1]

Looking forward to seeing West Bay develop.

 

My Dad's cousin married Bill Hoskings - Hoskings the Butcher in Bridport - and in my early teens,  (a long time ago!)  we often stayed with them. A few yards down the road was East Street station and we often used to walk to West Bay and back along the trackbed.

[Bulwell Hall]

With all the interest in West Bay station I thought it worthwhile posting these images.   Built to 7mm scale the model of West Bay station building was made by my late father for his version of West Bay which sadly was never completed.  It has been on display for some of the summer at an exhibition on the railway at West Bay which was held in the West Bay Discovery Centre.  The exhibition was due to run for much of 2020 but no sooner had I delivered the model to West Bay than the lockdown started.  The exhibition was ready to go and in fact eventually opened in August and ran until a couple of weeks ago - and now we are going into lockdown again!

 

The model represents the building as it was before the Great War and shows the canopy in its original form before the overhang was reduced.  It is constructed of Plasticard with scribed Das modelling clay to represent the stonework.  I hope this is of interest.

 

Gerry

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Bulwell Hall

[dougidle]

That's a beautiful model Gerry, thanks for sharing it. I love your book too - it becoming available was a big factor in deciding to model West Bay. Although in hindsight there are so many other models of it maybe I should have chosen Abbotsbury!

 

It's a shame to have missed the exhibition. I've only been to West Bay twice - last Christmas and on a cub camp in the eighties! I have an old copy of Railway Modeller which has a plan of the station and descibes the DAS method which I was planning to try out on my own model. I doubt it will turn out as nicely as yours but I'll give it a shot.

 

Thanks for reading,

Doug

[dougidle]

It's the start of a new month and that means time for an update on the layout. Very early in November I completed work on the control panel and fitted it under the layout. It was relatively straight forward and everything is in place to add the wiring and final two motors so that everything works. It's the first time I've built a control panel and I'm pretty happy with it.

 

To prove it all works, here's a short video of it in action:

 

I didn't get a chance to rebuild the gearbox for 4803 as I'd intended but I did get a new chimney for her after a fellow RMWeber kindly turned one for me on his lathe. I hope to redo the gearbox this month and do a bit of work to tidy the chassis generally.

 

I found a good priced 45xx in GWR livery on ebay and got that too... so now I have 3 locos. I have plans to convert her to EM in the new year. Bridport had a number of 45xx locos at various times and I'll renumber her to a time when there would have 4660 would also have been there.

 

With all the work I've done on the points I'm now thinking that it would be nice to have some delayed action couplings so that I can actually shunt. the 3 links look great but they're a bit of a pain to operate.

 

Plans for December:

- Fit the final 2 point motors

- Rebuild the gearbox for 4803

- Have a play with delayed action couplings.

 

Thanks for reading,

Doug

[RogerBfastlane]

Well, catching up after a while I see what a lot of great models are coming together and seeing decent pics of the model of West Bay station really helps as the old magazine article hardly shows the complete model - fantastic.

 

In an earlier post, I said that I did not think a lot of netting or ropes went via West Bay, but in a recent (local) Marshwood magazine it said that some ropes and netting WERE shipped for a while via West Bay - though guess this was at most to N.Europe and perhaps other (mainly) SW coastal towns? A bit of industrial history to research on that issue. The raw materials were also often shipped in to West Bay and brought up to the Bridport factories - so maybe an opportunity to find some suitable wagons for sisal and hemp etc coming in from abroad and finished goods like nets and ropes shipped out?

 

Not a lot of progress on the n-gauge layout, but further tinkering with some (not necessarily local) 9' wheelbase Toads that I 3D printed at home a year or so ago and a bit more detailing on the CAD for the AA1 Bridport 6-wheel toad (attached) - A work-in-progress and may fit separate handrails if I can make these OK from fine wire - a bit fiddly in "n"? Down at this scale the features often need beefing up to print OK then can look a bit gross so will play with my 9' Toads first and see what is possible. 

 

A happy and safe New Year to all.

[dougidle]

That's a great looking Toad Roger and thanks for the update on nets traffic. I also didn't make much progress in December... My plan had been to fit the final 2 point motors, rebuild the gearbox for 4803 and have a play with delayed action couplings. Sadly, none of these things happened. I couldn't find any tortoise motors in the UK at all - there was a restock just before Christmas at Coastal DCC and I bought 2 so hopefully they will arrive in early January. I did play with 7th gearbox for 4803 but it wasn't going to be a quick job so I decided to put it on hold for a while. I didn't get around to experimenting with couplings either.

 

Over the same period, the 14xx detailing kit came back into stock at Wizard so I picked up one for use in 2021. I also ordered a trial pack of Sprat and Winkle couplings to experiment with.

 

Santa brought a couple of items for the layout too - a Coopercraft cattle wagon and a Parkside Bloater. the Bloater is outside my time period unfortunately but it's a nice looking wagon so I can live with it. I was also given a couple of nice Dorset based wagons - a Dorchester based grain hopper and a Hall & Woodhouse brewery wagon.

 

 

For January, I plan to

- Fit the final 2 points

- Experiment with delay action couplings and made a decision about whether to use them or not

- Complete the Cattle and Bloater wagons

 

[RogerBfastlane]

Thanks Doug, yes that 6-wheel Toad is a WIP that I need to break down again into larger 3D printable parts. My own 3D Printer is rather old and low res - it struggles to get a 0.05mm layer height reliably and seems to be rather variable at printing these days, so fixing this rather than printing new models at the moment - maybe time to invest in a newer, better piece of kit? Else will maybe add to a sprue and make a few sets of the AA1 Toad via the usual suspects as an FDM or SLA - or may try a Euro print house that I have been using for my day job  - rather a large MOQ though so may have to make quite a few or build more CAD models to pop in with that order to make worthwhile.

 

Actually, I have been modelling West Bay Station in 3D CAD, really just to get the elevation detail/overlays for a card and plastic fabricated model, but could 3D print in a few components -  I need to add some more doors and windows, tidy up the valencing and chimney stacks, see if can add some  stone and slate textures, but getting there I think so maybe the way to go  with that Euro print house? 

 

Nice to see your local Private Owner wagons - must see what is available in n-gauge for my efforts. Meanwhile, I have been tinkering with those 9 foot Toad prints that I made last year and never got round to using. Drilling the handrail stanchion holes accurately is rather difficult but a paper template sellotaped onto the sides helps (a bit) and a hand-ground spear drill of about 0.5mm dia with a sharp point kind of works......will have to try inserting the handrails and see how wonky they look. All on modified Peco chassis - pity they don't do  a 6-wheel one for the AA1- suppose I could cut and shut a couple of 4-wheel ones, but would be nice to get all this fine detail printed in one go with a better prototypical appearance, so will definitely do the whole thing as a custom print.

 

I have just profiled a set of 3 roofs for the Toads from tinplate (courtesy of a Tate & Lyle Syrup can) as this bends easier than card, so can now detail these with rain strips, end reinforcements and a guard's stove chimney. 

 

I will probably motorize the points on my n-gauge West Bay layout, but even at this small station yard there were quite a few  - also keen to link any signalling - though think the West Bay station signals were fixed as this was mainly a single line and points operated from the frame in the (now demolished) platform signal-box. As it happens, I have dozens of nom 12v epicyclic geared motors left over from a development/production project from about 10 years ago. These are quite small and super torquey so may be ideal to improvise some sub-baseboard points and signal motors with a microswitch at end of travel - another project.........!

 

Great to see  all of your and other's very professional modelling efforts - most impressed with the quality of workmanship and particularly the paint finish. reminds me, I must get my airbrush and compressor sorted.   

 

Will post some more West Bay efforts when I make further progress.

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

I'm looking forward to seeing that building in the flesh, the drawings capture it nicely.

As for Toads, I still have a partly scratch built outside framed version on the back burner, as I have never seen a printed version in 4mm.

[dougidle]

Your station is looking really good Roger. I'm hoping to get some platforms put down in early February and then do a bit of ballasting. I'll probably get around to the station after that. I'm planning on making it out of card and scribed DAS clay which will be an adventure as I've not done it before.

 

I'm lucky in 4mm as Oxford made a 6 wheel toad - although it has a few errors. I've got one which I intend to correct and repaint as the Bridport one at some point. I bought another 4 wheel one too which I'll letter up as Weymouth van.

 

Cheers,

Doug

[RogerBfastlane]

Thanks again Doug for the encouragement, the station is  a 3D CAD model so theoretically buildable  in one go (though canopy and brackets parts will be separate), but again expect to break-out the window frames and doors to get better detailing if printed on a sprue in a horizontal plane. Oh, and those extra doors to add plus the small signal box. Will be good to try and get a bit of internal detail as well. 

 

After reading that RM article I bought some DAS clay but have not got round to trying this out. BTW. this is pretty cheap at "The Works" so not much lost if it takes a few goes to get some decent models from it. Probably too fine in N gauge to detail much without a microscope so probably going the 3D print route for the station building - just got to figure out how to get the stone texture for the main wall sections, though may resort to printing some dedicated stone paper sheets with accurate profiles cut out to allow for the corner stones (quoins). I do have some Ratio textured sheets but cannot see how you create decent quoins when using it (?). 

 

Look forward to seeing Mr Wolf's outside framed Toad model even if "just" a WIP .  

 

Just looked at an old pic and the home signal at West Bay was at one time operated  (when the earlier wooden square post) so making this work would be rather nice. There seem to be  a few Signal Posts up the line on the WBMap attached, so more to model .

 

As a challenge I am looking at the old McDonnell rail section as this lasted  in some locations so would be nice to emulate this in one or two places, now that would look interesting........

 

Best,

 

Roger

[dougidle]

Well... the update for the end of January is well overdue.... so here it is.

For January, I planned to fit the final 2 points, experiment with delayed action couplings and complete a couple of wagons. One of the things that delayed this update was the points... I managed to get a couple of tortoise motors and then ran out of layout wire. Once I had the wire and had them fitted the layout developed a short circuit which I had to completely rewire it to find (it was a dodgy bit of soldering on one of the older point motors). It's now working... and here's video to prove it.

 

I also wanted to experiment with delayed action couplings. I bought a trial pack of sprat and winkle couplings but found them a pain to put together. In principle though, I liked them and decided to persevere. To make life easier I bought some straight wire and some mounting plates and want to use them later this month.

 

Lastly, I wanted to build a Bloater and Cattle wagon. Both of these got done but the paint on the Cattle wagon didn't dry well - it was thin out of the pot and dried shiny. It looks ghastly and I assume the pot is a dud. I'll wait until I have some more ready for painting and buy a fresh pot. The Bloater came out well and makes a nice change from all the grey.

 

For February I planned to:

- rewire the layout so it works (done)

- fit delayed action couplings to 4 wagons

- Make up a shopping list for the platforms which I want to have a look at building in March

 

Thanks for reading,

Doug