BOSCARNE JUNCTION REVISITED

[Mike_Walker]

Having been on the forum for a couple of years now and contributed to various debates, it’s more than time that I should start a thread describing my own modest effort; Boscarne Junction.  I realise it’s been done before and featured on RMweb by Pinsky in 2013 which is why I’ve titled this topic Boscarne Junction Revisited.

 

I’ve dabbled with model railways from an early age – my first trainset, featuring Triang’s clockwork N2 and a couple of shorty coaches arrived at Christmas when I was 2 or 3.  There followed several layouts progressing from the 6 x 4 “enhanced train set” to various more detailed layouts mostly fictional BLTs culminating in Modbury – what might have happened if the planned extension to the GWR’s Yealmpton branch had materialised.  Sadly other things took increasing amounts of my free time from the early 80’s onwards including a mad partnership with the late Ian Andrews of Steam Powered Video to map the entire North American railroad network so the model railway sat in the loft gathering dust.

Moving ahead to the mid-2010s and into semi-retirement I had a yearning to return to the fold.  Modbury had deteriorated to the extent that it wasn’t really salvageable so it was case of starting from scratch but in what form?  I decided this time I’d like to try and model a real place if possible.  This was around the time Hattons launched their 14xx and that inspired me to consider various options, mostly BLTs.  My local station, Marlow, was ruled out as it was long and thin so wouldn’t fit the space available. Likewise, Ashburton, Brixham, Fowey, Moretonhampstead, St. Ives and Watlington were also considered but eventually ruled out for one reason or another.  Then one day I had one of those 10W light bulb moments and landed at Boscarne Junction.

It appealed as it was “different” and saw a wide and eclectic variety of stock all of which could be acquired RTR from the trade.  I’d have to take a few liberties like introducing a 90° curve in the middle but this also enabled me to have a double-ended fiddle yard which would complete a continuous run useful for running-in or if I just want to watch the trains run by rather than work to a timetable.  Boscarne Junction it would be although my aim is to capture the flavour of the place rather than slavish attention to detail.

 

With Modbury demolished I set about planning BJ in detail and was just about to get started when disaster struck in the summer of 2018.  I had a stupid fall in the garden – not looking what I was doing – and broke my leg.  This put paid to physical modelling for several months but it did give me the opportunity to do more research and collect stock.  A mine of useful information was the former but now sadly defunct China Clay Branches website managed by Coline33 of this parish.   Within was to be found hundreds of useful photographs, timetables and stock information.  Luckily I downloaded all I thought would be of use before its demise. 

From the timetables on line – and I found others whilst trawling the web – I put together three “composite” timetables representing the late 1950s (all steam), early 1960s (the transition) and 1965 (all diesel and the final year of passenger services).   To my surprise these quickly revealed that BJ was far from being a sleepy backwater and several times a day could become a very busy and challenging place to operate.  To accommodate the short-lived exchange platforms for the 1965 service I decided on having two interchangeable scenic modules depending on which timetable I was operating, depicting either the original waste ground or the platforms (and I use the word lightly!) themselves.

 

The layout is located in the loft.  Fortunately, when my late father had our bungalow built in the late 1950s he had part of the loft fitted out as a proper room (albeit reached by a folding ladder) which gives me a useable space of just over 10’ square.  Perhaps before embarking on this project I should have got a builder in to enlarge the room to take up all the available loft space more than doubling the area available but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I set the track level at 4 feet above the ground for the simple reason that I could duck under easily and avoid lift out or hinged sections for access but it also brings it closer to eye-level  when seated on a bar stool.  The baseboards are ½” ply on a L-girder framework supported both from the walls (taking care to make use of the structural framing of the room) and conventional legs.

 

Track is Peco bullhead on the scenic section with code 75 F/B in the fiddle yards. It is laid on 1/8” cork and ballasted with Gaugemaster brown ballast applied dry and secured with diluted PVA applied with a syringe.  Control is strictly analogue.  I freely admit I’m a dinosaur but I like to stick with what I know.  I have enough trouble with computers in daily life especially when they don’t do what I want/expect to introduce them into what I regard as a relaxing hobby.  It seems that many of the threads on this forum revolve around problems with DCC which does nothing to attract me to it!  Boscarne Junction doesn’t lend itself to multiple trains in operation so I don’t see any advantage. True, there are times when two, even three, trains are present simultaneously but the nature of the operation means only one moves at any given time and careful pre-planning of the electrical sectioning allows for the required moves.  Similarly, I’ve never really been impressed by sound on model railways, particularly of steam locos.  I know this will be met by howls of derision in some quarters but each to his own!  Having used scale couplings in the past, age has turned my fingers into a good match for a pound of pork bangers and the eyes aren’t what they were so reluctantly I’ve gone back to tension locks although the current versions are slightly less offensive to the eye than those of thirty or forty years ago.

 

So here’s the track plan.

By the start of 2020 all the track was down, wired and ballasted. So during the various lockdowns and the past winter months I’ve been working on the scenery with the west end up to the level crossing largely complete.

The basic contours were formed of a combination of expanded polystyrene carved to rough shape and wire mesh over which was applied plaster bandage and finally Polyfilla to get the final shape I sought.  It was then painted using Homebase “Mossy Green” in tester pots.  Fine for the base colour but would anyone want it on their walls?  Each to his/her own taste I suppose…

 

My, how scenery has changed!  Back when I first started I used sawdust to represent grass then progressed to surgical lint.  Today it’s the wonders of static grass.  Having read the appropriate threads and watched the tutorial videos I took the plunge and was soon impressed with how easy it is and simple to apply.  I even managed to avoid giving myself a belt so far which is an achievement seeing as how I tend to be a trifle accident prone!

The signal box is the Kernow-Bachmann product. However, I’ve discovered it is too tall in the ground floor. It took me a while to twig to this as I couldn’t work out why it didn’t sit on the layout quite as the real thing did.  I suppose I could cut it down but it’ll do for now and will eventually be replaced by a scratchbuilt version but only when the rest of the layout is complete – I know, they never are, but there’s complete and there’s complete!  The signalman’s cottage was built for me by Ron North of the HW&DMRS as he wanted a lockdown project and a damn fine job he did too.  I added the lean-to extension at the back even though it’s barely visible.  A prominent feature which appears in the photos is a semi-derelict barn opposite the signal box which I modelled – my first attempt in around four decades so I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

The level crossing is a butchered Bachmann example. It’s not 100% authentic to the real one but close enough for me.  Thanks to RMweb I discovered the typical SR precast concrete lamp huts  marketed as 3D printed kits by CW Railways.  Although described as for the L&B they were just what  I needed and Tim Evans kindly scaled it down to half width to provide the matching third hut.

The signalling presented a challenge.  Being “in the trade” so to speak on the big railway I felt it important to have copies of the actual signals although being LSWR lattice posts with a mix of upper and lower quadrant arms I found the prospect of making them rather daunting.  Once again RMweb came to the rescue as through it I “discovered” Stephen Freeman who accepted my commission and has provided a superb set of appropriate signals.  I can thoroughly recommend his services to anyone who wants authentic signals but feels, like me, too ham-fisted to make them themselves!

 

A view up the lane towards the crossing, the right side is still to be finished.

 

4569, a regular St. Blazey loco used on the Bodmin branch approaches Boscarne Junction with a Wadebridge to Bodmin Road train.

 

Having left the day's china clay in the exchange sidings for the WR to pick up, 30585 heads back to Wadebridge with the remaining wagons.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Mike_Walker

[MonsalDan]

Looks great, should be a lot of fun to operate!

[Mike_Walker]

As the weather seems to have forgotten it's supposed to be spring I've been gardening indoors rather than outdoors and made a start on the cottage garden.  I use the term lightly as it would seem the signalman was no Monty Don or Percy Thrower!

 

 

 

Still some details to add, more veggies and a line of washing whilst the telegraph pole needs to be more ore less buried in junk - mostly old planks of wood.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Mike_Walker

[Piskey]

Hello Mike,

 

I just found your Boscarne Junction revisited and am most impressed.   Being a roundy-roundy gives you far greater scope for longer trains than I had.  When adding a line of washing don't forget some used to hang on the fence, as may be seen in the attached photo by Chris Knowles-Thomas!

 

My version from 2013 never advanced to a finished state as I had a couple of problems, firstly the fiddle yard for the Wadebridge end was far too short and secondly, being a linear model, the sheer space that it took up.  The boards (though with just three instead of four) and stock live on in my latest endeavour, Polwithian, which is oh-so-slowly slowly progressing.