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Bovey Tor


Gedward
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4 hours ago, Gedward said:

as I’ve never scratch built anything before

 

If the station you've posted above is anything to go by then you've certainly made an excellent start.

 

 You have definitely got the colours spot on for down here in Devon and will look forward to more of your posts.

 

G

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A good looking project. Just one question, are the sidings in the fiddle yard going to be long enough? 

Edited by Kris
typo
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10 minutes ago, Kris said:

A good looking project. Just open question, are the sidings in the fiddle yard going to be long enough? 

Thanks that's a good question. I plan to add a removable extension across a doorway.

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52 minutes ago, bgman said:

 

If the station you've posted above is anything to go by then you've certainly made an excellent start.

 

 You have definitely got the colours spot on for down here in Devon and will look forward to more of your posts.

 

G

Great to hear! Have seen so many great projects on this forum. You guys have set the bar very high indeed.

We used to spend our summers in Devon every year growing up in the 60s. I'm trying to capture the wildness of Dartmoor.

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Bovey Tor station was first opened on May 16th 1855 as part of the Dart Valley Railway. And became absorbed into the South Devon Railway. In 1876 it then became part of the Great Western Railway.

 

Originally just one platform, plans were drawn up to build a second, when it was a particularly busy branch line during the early 1900s. With the increase in freight traffic together with regular services to Tavistock. With decent goods facilities handling essentially, coal, milk and timber from the local traders and farmers.

 

Sitting adjacent to the Tavistock canal, there were early designs to build a series of locks in order to raise the height of the canal to allow access to the goods yard for loading limestone from the local quarry. The cobbled goods yard, which still exists today, is legacy to those early plans.

 

Services declined during and after the first world war. But there was an increase in services up and till 1939 and the start of the second world war. 

 

1949 saw the opening of the large O’ Connor creamery in nearby Buckfastleigh. Again, the freight traffic increased and the small goods yard was often over stocked. Local passenger services and special summer services to Totnes, also saw a large increase traffic. 

 

On May 16th 1955, the line celebrated its centenary. From May 14th till May 20th they ran extra services and a ‘Centenary Special’. The village of Bovey Tor celebrated with a large street party. The local mayor, George Edwardson unveiled a special plaque on the wall of Bovey Tor station.

 

Thankfully all of this helped save it from the Beeching cuts, in 1963.

 

Today the line is in the hands of the 'South Devon Railway' preservation society. And is performing well due to an increase in passenger services in the extended season. However, after falling into financial difficulties in recent times due in no small part to some questionable management decisions. The line has had to sell off some of its property to real estate developers in Totnes as that area continues to expand eastwards. 

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Extremely promising and a well painted back scene to boot. Only one comment....it's always sunny here in Devon !

 

Joking apart it's good to see you have a back history to the proposed layout which always bodes well and gives us something to look forward to. Take your time and I'm sure it will be something to be proud of.

 

G

 

p.s. and its Great Western !  

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14 hours ago, Gedward said:

Recently finished painting the backdrop using oil paints. I call it 'after the rain'. 

 

I meant to ask about your backdrop, which by the way is excellent, I note you have used oils as the medium, may I ask what you have painted it on and have the oils dried sufficiently ? 

I have enjoyed using oils over the years for other work but found they do take an age to dry and had considered using them for a backdrop, I was concerned if they weren't completely dry then there may be a tendency for landscaping materials to stick to the paint.

I would like to use oils because they remain workable and very forgiving whilst applying them, any thoughts would be most welcome.

 

G

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Well I’ve only been using oils for 50 years so I can’t really help you.

 

Joking aside, I appreciate your comments. As you know oil paint is versatile. I use a medium to help speed up the drying time. Something like Liquin by W&N, but there are others. I always work quite thinly and prefer to build up my paintings in several layers. And this doesn’t take an age to dry. I've never experienced sticky-ness this way.

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BTW, the backdrop is painted on 6mm MDF. I used bendy MDF just for the corners and then used filler to hide the joins. This was a lot of extra work but I am not a big fan of corners in skies.

 

George

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