beginner 1950s West Bay Bridport in OO, back after an absence.

[Arcteryx]

After a break of railway modelling of about 12-13 years  I’ve ended up drifting back into the hobby.
 

The break was caused by long periods working overseas, a house move, marriage and kids and another couple of house moves.

 

Previous modelling attempts were overly ambitious, over complicated and ended up about 75% finished and then stopped there. All were OO and most were based in the NE/BR Eastern region. I did attempt to model an actual location, Halton Holgate on the former Spilsby Branch, baseboards were built, track laid and scenery half completed but no stock ever ran.

 

Interest was rekindled after buying my son a wooden train set for Christmas.

So one quiet evening in that lull between christmas and new year I quietly downloaded a railway modelling magazine app and began to read...I got engrossed....I took out a subscription....things have changed... quite a bit it seems... 

 

Strangely there seems to be less choice, okay there are more models of slightly obscure prototype locos, but I am slightly amazed to be struggling to find what was  once readily available namely a RTR model of 57xx pannier. Prices of locos have also seemingly doubled. Many names and shops I used to remember, suppliers of kits etc have seemingly dissappeared. RTR locos and rolling stock I remember as new are now retired and commanding more on eBay than I remember them costing new.....Anyway I digress...

 

The necessary act of parliament was obtained from the household governing authority for a small layout that could be packed away so the kids wouldn’t try and eat it or the neighbours see it. My wife encouraged me to take up the hobby again (time, wife and kids permitting) as she said I needed a hobby again after a very rough few years.
 

so after a further period of working overseas I have been able to read up, plot and plan a bit.

 

I have decided to try and model an actual location again. After reading the “branch lines of Dorset” by Colin Maggs, amongst other books about branch lines, inspiration came in the form of west Bay on the Bridport branch.
 

West Bay to my mind seemed a perfect compromise. A simple track plan, limited stock required, small short trains, relatively flat, open site, few buildings, quite well documented, most of the rolling stock is (or was) available RTR,  easy modelling for someone with sausage fingers and ham fists.

 I can, I hope, fit it into a relatively small space without it seeming too compressed.

 

 There is a also a tenuous family connection in that my paternal grandmother was evacuated to relatives in Bridport in WW2, her uncle worked on the line.

 

I hear older modellers yawn, not another bucolic GWR branch!

 I remember such things were seemingly ubiquitous at exhibitions when I was younger but seem to have gone out of fashion since...

 

my memories of railways of a childhood as a train nerd were of pristinely preserved railways, but mainly exploring the rusting remains of disused, overgrown, neglected and semi abandoned former colliery branches of the north notts coalfield (the joys of growing up in the 90s in a pit village.....atmospheric I think modellers would call it). So attempting to model a run down, partially closed station on a somewhat run down rural branch in the 1950s it is. 
 

I may though indulge in a bit of “what might have been” and run a passenger service or two, had passenger services to West Bay not been withdrawn by the GWR in the mid 1930s

 

so for now I’m trying to track down and purchase suitable stock. I have a couple more books on order which should help with this. 
 

 

 

[5BarVT]

6 hours ago, Arcteryx said:

So one quiet evening in that lull between christmas and new year I quietly downloaded a railway modelling magazine app and began to read...I got engrossed....I took out a subscription....things have changed... quite a bit it seems... 

Welcome back, my experience too, albeit 5 plus years ago.

 

6 hours ago, Arcteryx said:

the rusting remains of disused, overgrown, neglected and semi abandoned former colliery branches of the north notts coalfield (the joys of growing up in the 90s in a pit village..

Further south (Leen Valley) in the ‘70s and the trains were still running!

Paul.

[Arcteryx]

Still away at work, so I’m still at the plotting stage. 
 

Although a compact terminus the real location was surprisingly sprawling. The Bridport branch was originally built from Maiden Newton to Bridport. The branch was operated by GWR who extended it from Bridport to the harbour outside the town on the coast. The GWR named their new station West Bay. Apparently they were hopeful of it taking off as a resort. 

 

Sadly my allocated space gives me a maximum scenic board size of 5ft by 18inches. Not much....maybe I'm being a bit too ambitious trying to model an actual location?

 

When we moved house last year I discovered an IKEA kallax shelving unit with 4x2 square alcoves had been left by the previous owners. We had no immediate use of it and the last owners had taken the fittings away with them, so I popped it in the garage. It was too good to throw and we thought we might use it.... until I gouged a chunk out of it manhandling the lawnmower.

It was therefore relegated for me to use in the garage as I saw fit....

 

It would yield two flat 5cm thick boards of roughly 42cm by 137 cm and two of 77cm by 40cm. All similar to LACK shelves/coffee tables as used successfully by others on the forum.

 

Hmmm baseboards and a fiddle yard for my layout? The size of the main scenic board fit within my maximum, but it would mean a very compressed track plan coming in at less than my already small allowed maximum.

 

As I’m currently working away I have only limited internet access and only an IPad so no access to Anyrail or anything like that.

A quick internet search revealed the existence of TrainDesign an iPad app for layout design.

 

My first attempt using PECO set track has yielded this track plan. I have limited by what the app has. 

 

 

It’s not perfect and it uses set track (I’d rather use code 75 small radius points and flexi track) but it fits (just) and it looks sort of similar to the track plan on old OS maps and photos I have seen. I have angled the track plan so it all fits in, it also looks a bit better that way I think, less like a siding on a board.

 

Trains from Bridport (my fiddle yard)  would approach from the right. The loop would only have to be long enough to run around a few wagons or a B-set, but in reality was surprisingly long (passenger trains in my chosen early 1950s period are a “what if” scenario since in reality they were withdrawn in the 1930s).

 

the headshunt would have to accommodate a small prairie at largest, or more likely a 57xx/8750 pannier. 

 

Between the headshunt and short curved siding sat a cattle dock, and the longer slightly curved siding was the main goods siding. No loading docks/cranes/good sheds here!
 

The very short siding at the entrance to the station.....I have no idea what it was used for as none of the photos I have seen show it, it’s only shown on old maps... was it used as a headshunt for working the yard? Was it actually lifted at some stage and the points retained to act as catch points? I’d love to know, more research needed!

 

the stone built platform would have sat at the top of the plan with a simple stone built booking office and signal box. (The platform and station still exist) 
 

The signal box was taken out of use in the 1930s I believe (at withdrawal of passenger services?)  The area behind the station building and platform seem to have been a field/grassland, as does the area at the bottom of the plan adjacent to the goods siding.
 

The left hand edge was a lane proving access to the yard and cattle dock and ran at the top of my plan behind the platform to the station building.

 

 The whole site appeared very ‘open’ at least that’s the feeling I get from the photos I have studied. 

 

I’m not sure of linking or posting copyrighted images so I won’t but the disused stations website has images and info. 

 

 

 

[stivesnick]

Hi 

 

Welcome back to railway modelling!

 

If you haven't found it, there is another layout of West Bay on this forum. 

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/151280-west-bay-on-the-end-of-the-bridport-branch/

 

It includes lots of photos and some video of the line that might be useful to you.

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

[Arcteryx]

Thankyou!

 

Thanks also for the link, I hadn’t come across the layout, I’ll go and have a read of the thread and have a watch too. 
 

both will be excellent inspiration.

[Arcteryx]

After another long absence (again) I have at last made some progress on the layout. 
 

for anyone not familiar with the prototype, here’s the link to disused stations:  http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/bridport_west_bay/

 

the past two years have seen me acquire the motive power I’ll require, namely a Bachmann 45xx, 57xx and 8750 all in BR EE livery and an elderly Dapol 14xx and a lovely Dapol 121 ‘bubble car’. I’ve ordered a Silverfox Gloucester 119 DMU and already have a Bachmann Ivatt 2MT tank so that’s all sorted. None of it is weathered…that’s a job that can wait. The Dapol 14xx needs some TLC too. 

 

Passenger stock I’ve acquired consists of a Hornby ex air fix B set, and an a38 autocoach. I have preordered the Rapido B set. 
 

i don’t have much of the required freight rolling stock, save for ubiquitous BR 16T mineral wagons, other than the Oxford Rail 24T Bridport brakevan that in some ways was what kicked the whole thing off. 
 

The baseboard has finally been constructed, to give a rather tiny 5’ x 18” scenic area. Nothing exotic here, 18mm x 44mm PSE pine and a 9mm ply top all screwed and glued together. The old Kallax unit I had planned to use ended up in the skip, a thanks to rain and a non weather tight garage door. 

 

I’m not sure on a fiddleyard yet.

 

For the station building I intend to scratchbuild it by altering the wills craftsman kit, I will take one of the kits away with me the next time I’m away at sea, as well as the drawings of west bay station from railway modeller from back in 1996.

 

the only other structures will be the platform, semi derelict cattle dock and the small disused signal box. 

 

I haven’t yet decided on what track to use, I’m a bit stuck on that front, I’m very tempted by the PECO bullhead stuff but it’s rather pricey, (although admittedly I won’t need a lot of it). I will probably go PECO code 75, however I do have young children so it may end up in code 100 yet. 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Arcteryx

[Arcteryx]

So I’ve finally made some progress…

 

a Baseboard has been built and the track plan finalised…

 

it’s horribly compressed, west bay was a surprisingly sprawling station, largely I suspect due to the hope that the facilities may have expanded as the hoped for resort grew. 
 

the vaguely half moon shape is an area of ground slightly lower than the track bed and goods yard, achieved by the baseboard top being two layers of ply. It’s all screwed and glued together.
 

there is just enough length in the loop to run around  a 45xx around an ex GWR  B-set.  

 

the headshunt will have a disused cattle dock between it and the short siding.

 

I’ve commissioned a scratchbuilt model of the station building and signal box. My attempts at creating my own by altering a wills craftsman kit aided by the plans in feb 1996 railway modeller ended in a sticky bloody plasticy mess and a headache!
 

Apologies for the awful photo, the layout is in a horribly cluttered garage, at least it’s an intergrated garage so reasonably warm and dry.

 

Sadly the household authorities have declared the layout persona non grata for the spare room. 
 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Arcteryx

[Arcteryx]

A quick snap of the passenger stock and motive power I’ve accumulated.

 

A Bachmann 45xx and Bset for the daily passenger service to Maiden Newton, a Bachmann 57xx and 8750 to handle the branch goods and Hornby 14xx, and autocoach for the branches Sunday service. 
 

oh and the obligatory 6wheel Bridport RU Toad which kicked the whole thing off.

[Arcteryx]

Some modelling has taken place, I’ve adapted (ruined?) a 502 ratio cattle dock kit to construct a cattle dock.
 

It needs a bit of milliput and tidying up. The fencing won’t and further detail wont be added as the cattle dock was looking little used by the 1930s, and the photos of it in the 1950s show it as weed strewn with fencing removed. 

 

Just as well as my kit had a lot of flashing and the moulding wasn’t great, particularly to the fence posts and sprues with finer parts. The degree of relief of the stone walls was also lacking (not to mention thin material) so I used wills dressed stone instead.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Arcteryx