Tavistock (GWR)

[John Brenchley]

10 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

I agree with the others, John.  Despite having no knowledge of the area, my first impression was how natural it looked.  The dead and fallen trees are a nice touch which just adds to that.

 

Jim

 

2 hours ago, brianusa said:

Lovely work all round.  Many years ago, I was lucky enough to wander around the station area in its last years.  Sadly, didn't really appreciate it all then, so thanks to the quality modelling I can visualise it once more.

    Brian

 

Thank you both for your comments

 

Its good to hear from those who knew the station Brian.

 

I did spend some time in Tavistock when I visited the UK in 2009 but of course, nothing was left of the site by then.  I did take pictures of the river, St John's Lane plus the cottages and cemetary on Dolvin Rd with the railway embankment behind it which have been useful.

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Mikkel]

That looks just right and completely believable, John. Apart from the trees at the front, the group at the back on the left hand side also looks very good I think.

 

The lettering on the horse-drawn coal wagon works well too. I hope Mr Bailey won't run into trouble with the unions, they are probably a bit baffled by his sudden conversion 

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by Mikkel
Grammar

[John Brenchley]

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

That looks just right and completely believable, John. Apart from the trees at the front, the group at the back on the left hand side also looks very good I think.

 

The lettering on the horse-drawn coal wagon works well too. I hope Mr Bailey won't run into trouble with the unions, they are probably a bit baffled by his sudden conversion 

 

 

Thanks Mikkel

The vegetation on the embankment behind the left hand curve on the corner baseboard can be seen closer up in some of the pictures I posted of the layout taken from that end earlier on this saga (middle of page 1)

Best wishes

John

Edited February 14, 2022 by John Brenchley

[John Brenchley]

A Progress Report

 

Having realised from looking at the pictures posted in the previous update that I hadn't added buffer stops to the two goods yard sidings, one of my recent tasks has been to make up a couple of the excellent etched GWR buffer stops sold by the 2mm Scale Association. These come with the option of either modelling the original style rail-built buffer beam or substituting it with a wooden one often used when replacements were necessary.  I chose the latter (but without any photographic evidence to support the decision) mainly because I liked the look of this style and also because it is easier to isolate the two sides.  I used a couple of pieces of 1mm ply laminated together to form the buffer beam.  A couple of pictures are below

 

 

 

The other project I have been working on is completion of some of the etched wagon kits I bought a few months ago, one of which was the large version of the Midland Cattle wagon.

 

This was the first etched cattle wagon I had attempted, all my other cattle wagons having being made using the plastic body kits, also sold by the 2mm Scale Association.  Since none of the plastic bodies came with bars across the upper opening, I had added these from wire so was used to the appearance with this addition.  What I found with the etched Midland Van was that an etched representation of the bars was include on the middle etch layer but probably due to the limitations of the etching process, these looked over scale so I elected to replace them with 9 thou steel guitar string, soldered into grooves I filed into two of the etch layers.

 

The difference can be seen in the picture below, the top one showing the original three main layers just laid over one another while the lower one is of a finished wagon side with the bars replaced by wire and the fourth layer with the rivet detail also added..

 

 

The rest of the wagon was built exactly as intended with no other alterations.  I finished all the soldering  and cleaning up this afternoon so below is a picture posed on the layout before it goes to the paint shop.

 

 

Best wishes

 

John

Edited April 7, 2022 by John Brenchley

[John Brenchley]

D1661 LMS Cattle Wagon

 

Along with the Midland Railway cattle wagon shown in the previous post, I had also purchased an etched kit for the LMS cattle wagon built to D1661.

 

Although the method of building the kits is similar, the different style of top rails in the LMS wagon make this a kit for the masochists among us.  On the Midland wagon the rails pass through the uprights so can be represented by just two continuous wires each side.  However in the final style of Midland van which was perpetuated by the LMS in D 1661, the rails are fitted individually outside of the uprights as can be seen in the picture below, taken from the 2010 edition of Essery's book "An Illustrated History of LMS Wagons Volume One"

 

 

As with the Midland kit, each side is made up of 4 layers.  The bottom layer includes the horizontal and diagonal planking, the next two layers provide the outside wooden framing and the final layer has the various ironwork supports and brackets. 

 

 

The middle two layers have etched holes for the ends of the rails which I bent up from 9 thou steel guitar strings, each rail ending up looking rather like a staple.  Many attempts were rejected as not quite the right length but eventually I got 8 that fitted correctly for the first side.

 

The four layers are numbered 1 to 4 on the etch so it would seem logical to solder them together in that order which is what I did with the Midland wagon.  However I found that the quantity of metal tended to form a heat sink and it was tricky to get the tiny delicate pieces on the 4th layer to solder properly.  So for the LMS wagon I tried working in reverse order.  Having thoroughly tinned the back of the ironwork, I first soldered layer 4 to layer 3 and then added layer 2 to the back of these.  At this stage the "legs" of the 8 rails were pushed though the etched holes and then soldered in place from the back of layer 2 .  The surplus bits of wire were then filed back flush with the back of layer 2 and finally layer 1 was soldered in place.

 

One other slight change in construction I make is to remove most of the top and bottom of the etch surrounds and just keep the sides that have the locating holes.  This allows the soldering iron to be run along the top and bottom edges of the wagon making it easier to transfer heat to all the layers rather than waiting for it to pass through them all just from the top or bottom surface.

 

The finished cleaned up first side is pictured below.

 

 

That took about a week so it will be a while before I can post a picture of the finished wagon.

 

At least I'm only intending to add one of these to my wagon fleet - I certainly don't envy anyone wanting to make a rake of these wagons to replicate the picture below.

 

 

Though since the etch now seems to be currently out of stock, perhaps you'll be saved from such torture.

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by John Brenchley

[John Brenchley]

Re-posting the photographs

 

I've just finished adding back all the photos that I had previously included in the past 7 pages of this thread.

 

To return the continuity of the thread to the way it was, I wonder if it would be possible for other modellers who had included pictures in their replies to upload them again. My thanks to Ian Morgan who has already done this.

 

I realise this is a bit of a nuisance to do but it would make re-reading some of the comments much more logical.

 

I've had a read through and I think the following people have added pictures - if its not too much trouble and you still have them available, I'd really appreciate it if you could "edit" your comment and re-attach your pictures.

 

Winchat - page 1

becasse - page 3

JohnBS - page 3

queensquare - page 4

JohnBS - page 4

Caley Jim - page 5

 

Thanks very much

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

 

[Ian Morgan]

I used the 'My Attachments' page to see all my uploaded photos, 'latest first'. There is the date uploaded and a link to the topic where it was uploaded.

 

I then edit the topic entry, and it shows me the file names of the missing images, so I could search for them on my PC, upload them again, and remove the empty ones.

 

I have gone back to 1st August 2021 so far, and will await completion of re-indexing to see exactly what is still missing.

 

I am not sure what happens where I uploaded an image and then re-used it in other posts.

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Ian Morgan

[Caley Jim]

7 hours ago, John Brenchley said:

To return the continuity of the thread to the way it was, I wonder if it would be possible for other modellers who had included pictures in their replies to upload them again. My thanks to Ian Morgan who has already done this.

........

Caley Jim - page 5

Thanks for the heads up, John.  Just replaced them.

 

Jim

[John Brenchley]

Thanks Jim and  bécasse for adding your pictures again - much appreciated

 

John

[John Brenchley]

Abbey Bridge and the River Tavy

 

Since last posting nearly 2 months ago, nothing much has changed on the layout as I have been focusing on remaking a replacement chassis for the Dapol 14xx - still not running as smoothly as I would like but I haven't given up yet.

 

With some fine weather this weekend allowing good lighting in the layout room, I have taken the opportunity to take some more photographs and thought I would post a feature of the Abbey Bridge that spans the River Tavy in Tavistock.

 

This bridge and the weir downstream of it are one of the most frequently photographed places in Tavistock.  An example is below.

 

 

Modern picture like this show the main weir plus two smaller ones downstream but in earlier black and white pictures, I thought that only the main one was visible, the river then tumbling over rocks rather then more small weirs and this was roughly how I built the model.

 

 

Abbey Bridge has two arches, one a bit larger than the other due to the slight gradient of Abbey Pl as it crosses the river.  It is constructed of large stone blocks (granite?) with those above road level appearing to be slightly darker in colour.

 

The model was built from thick card coated in interior grade plaster with a bit of PVA glue mixed in with the water.  The idea of the PVA was to give the plaster a bit more strength and hopefully reduce wear and tear such as chipping away from the card former.  The stone courses were scribed in after the plaster had dried.  A couple of images from the downstream side are attached below.

 

 

 

The Tavy is one of the fastest flowing rivers in the country so I had to find a way of representing this. The base of the river is 6mm MDF covered with plaster swirled into ripples with a knife blade as it begins to set. This was then painted with a mix of blue and grey gloss enamel paints. For some reason, adding some enamel thinners caused these colours to tend to separate which gave a useful effect of light playing on the ripples quite by accident. Touches of very light grey were dry brushed around the rocks and elsewhere where wavelets had been formed in the plaster. The surface finish is a couple of coats of artists acrylic gloss medium which has stayed nice and shiny without any cracking or discolouring.

 

The model bridge and river were built about 20 years ago and well before I visited Tavistock in 2009.  Initially I had no pictures of the up river side of the bridge so assumed it was identical to the downstream side.  During my visit, I discovered two main differences.  Firstly, there was a substantial triangular buttress between the two arches and secondly, the bridge was quite concave on this side whereas I had modelled both sides straight. 

 

 

Although its a bit annoying to have these errors, I'm not going to try to change the model at this late stage.

 

Below are a couple of pictures of the upstream side of the model bridge.  The old cottages on Dolvin Rd with the railway embankment behind, visible on the left hand side of the above picture, can also be seen in model form.  Note, the pavements are not yet glued down, hence they look a bit wobbly in places.

 

 

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

 

 

[brianusa]

hi John, I took another look at your work around the weir at Tavvy and noticed even the start of the canal down to Morwellham Quay.  Spent many an hour traipsing around this area, the Incline and the docks be fore they were dredged and became a popular tourist attraction.

A pleasure to see it all again!

   Brian

[John Brenchley]

4 hours ago, brianusa said:

hi John, I took another look at your work around the weir at Tavvy and noticed even the start of the canal down to Morwellham Quay.  Spent many an hour traipsing around this area, the Incline and the docks be fore they were dredged and became a popular tourist attraction.

A pleasure to see it all again!

   Brian

Hi Brian

Thanks for your comment.

Your reference to the Tavistock Canal got me looking for more information as I didn't realise it started near the weir.

What I included in the model was just the salmon leap.

Looking at picture on Google, Is the start of the canal some sort of sluice that allows water to flow out of the Tavy just above the weir and salmon leap - if so, I omitted that bit due to ignorance.

Best wishes

John

[dpgibbons]

Exquisite!

[John Brenchley]

3 hours ago, dpgibbons said:

Exquisite!

 

Thanks very much

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Miss Prism]

John has already shown a glimpse of this pic early on in the thread, but I recently had an e-bay opportunity to get a print from the original, although it wasn't as sharp as I was hoping. Anyway, it's one of my favourite Buffalo pics - 1570 at Tavistock on a Plymouth auto. The picture was taken by Dr Ian C Allen, a well-known photographer, who dated it 1931. It appeared in Great Western Album, by Dick Riley. The loco is a good example of how quickly the early tanks were changing in appearance around this time. It received panniers in November 1925 (possibly with an enclosed cab), was fitted with screw-reverse in December 1928 (with a new or another cab revision with rectangular front windows), ATC probably fitted c 1930 (on Buffalos it seems to have been fitted at the rear), and within a year of this photo, when pictured at Yelverton, had been fitted with an extended smokebox and extended tanks. It was eventually withdrawn in October 1935, being supplanted by the new 64xx locos.

 

I think I did work out what the autocoach diagrams were at one time (not too difficult from the window patterns), but I haven't got my Lewis autocoach books with me.

 

[Siberian Snooper]

I'd love to know the dimensions of those rectangular cab windows, most if not all the Buffaloes on Plymouth auto trains had them.

 

There's a similar picture in the Great Western in South Devon.

 

 

[AlfaZagato]

I think that's the first time I've seen rectangular cab windows on a GWR loco.  Neat.

[Miss Prism]

1 hour ago, AlfaZagato said:

I think that's the first time I've seen rectangular cab windows on a GWR loco.  Neat.

 

All the screw-reverse fitted Buffalos had them.