Building a Southern Region layout

[Guest Belgian]

Evidently Downton was exactly the same as Breamore, so you have two options . . . why not continue Beaminster as your group layout and indulge yourself with Downton/Breamore as a personal thing?

 

JE

[Peter Bedding]

Hello Tim,

 

I am not sure why you should not change a legend before a layout is finished, I do it regularly. My "Southwest by Southern" started as a roundy, a smaller location has changed it to an end-to-end "U". A legend to include a Minories track plan failed the area requirement test, so yet another BLT is in gestation.

 

Seeing your plan for Beaminster Jn reminded me of an earlier unfulfilled legend based on the planned extension to Castleman's Corkscrew. So with that all in mind, I bought a copy of Nigel Bray's "The Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway" from the bookstall at yesterday's SWC meeting. (Guess the subject of the talk, and the speaker).

 

I am now working on the new legend for my Cross-Country Mid Wessex Terminus. I have to justify some "Arthurs", T9s, N Class', a Q1, M7s, a T1, and an O2 pull-push. Before long I hope to be justifying a BWT, more O2s, and an L11. At the moment, I have had to retreat from the railway room whilst some glue dries, and the vapour disperses, so perhaps I can forecast this afternoon's mental activity.

 

If I had the space, I would now look again at Fullerton Junction. Almost unlimited possibilities. And wooden shacks!

 

PB

Edited July 31, 2011 by Mod5
To remove unnecesary quote and photos

[Tim Hale]

Having visited the Downton site, it is unsuitable or rather the boards are unsuitable for the prototype, moreover the thought of relaying the track and selling off stock is not something that is particularly welcome.

 

Downton, was a very unremarkable station - no passing loop, the sidings were out of use by the mid 50's and seven trains in 24hrs, hardly operational heaven.

 

So, the project remains the factional Beaminster Junction using the various S&DJR buildings and Bill is left to progress his Fordingbridge.

 

DesA

[Guest Belgian]

Hello Tim,

 

I am not sure why you should not change a legend before a layout is finished, I do it regularly. My "Southwest by Southern" started as a roundy, a smaller location has changed it to an end-to-end "U". A legend to include a Minories track plan failed the area requirement test, so yet another BLT is in gestation.

 

Seeing your plan for Beaminster Jn reminded me of an earlier unfulfilled legend based on the planned extension to Castleman's Corkscrew. So with that all in mind, I bought a copy of Nigel Bray's "The Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway" from the bookstall at yesterday's SWC meeting. (Guess the subject of the talk, and the speaker).

 

I am now working on the new legend for my Cross-Country Mid Wessex Terminus. I have to justify some "Arthurs", T9s, N Class', a Q1, M7s, a T1, and an O2 pull-push. Before long I hope to be justifying a BWT, more O2s, and an L11. At the moment, I have had to retreat from the railway room whilst some glue dries, and the vapour disperses, so perhaps I can forecast this afternoon's mental activity.

 

If I had the space, I would now look again at Fullerton Junction. Almost unlimited possibilities. And wooden shacks!

 

PB

And two stations in one!

 

JE

[bbishop]

Tim,

 

A while back, you asked about motive power on the Meldon stone trains. I've checked in Main Line to the West part 3 and extracted the following for 1951 :

 

Salisbury Duty 473 had a N15, this would be a Urie N15 or 1st Eastleigh series of King Arthurs (with Urie cab and watercart tender)

 

Exmouth Junction Duties 509 - 513 all had an N, probably Woolwich locos numbered between 31826-75

 

Exmouth Junction Duty 514 had a S15, probably Maunsell 30841-46 with flush sided bogie tender

 

Loco details from LSWR Locomotives, the Urie classes, or from Locomotive History of the SECR

 

Bill

[Tim Hale]

Many thanks,

 

I have always assumed that Exmouth Junc. supplied the locos for this duty but as goods trains on the SW Main were mostly nocturnal, I have not been able to prove this with photographic evidence.

 

However, a recent Ebay purchase does suggest that other motive power was used in the latter half on the 50's, especially the use of Light Pacifics and other motive power from Eastleigh as well as Salisbury.

 

DesA

[EMUsLEE]

What is the size of the layout

[Tim Hale]

Three months ago we were confronted with a choice to either cease the project altogether or change direction, we looked at our options and chose to stick with the original theme (after a long period of wobble).

 

This has meant a fair amount of rethinking about a plausible scenario but with Tim Maddock's help, we have a 'story' liberally peppered with fiction, the advantage being we can build a believable traffic pattern based on the SW mainline, employ the stock used on that part of the line and use iconic structures which set the scene.

 

The trackplan is an adaptation of Sutton Bingham, the main station building is a bodge of Chandlers Ford, the level crossing from Hewish whilst the long headshunt leads to a Ministry of Supply depot from Pinhoe.

 

 

The first change of many was to rebuild the entrance to the goods yard and replace the leading turnout that fed the yard from the mainline:

 

 

[Tim Hale]

 

 

After much head scratching a simple trackplan for the station which shows the optional location of an Advanced Starter (signal A), otherwise everything is very conventional and would be familiar to anyone conversant with small rural LSWR stations. The plan borrows a great deal from Sutton Bingham albeit in mirror image and the addition of a long siding to a Ministry of Supply depot, the allocation of uncouplers is learnt from long hours attempting to shunt with one uncoupler at the head of a fan of sidings, far better to add one uncoupler for each siding.

[Tim Hale]

Random building details:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are typical exLSWR buildings on the Southampton-Weymouth route.

 

Canopies are often attached to station buildings but not many model canopies reflect the prototype., when the new station building is completed, I hope that the canopy reflects prototype practice rather than modelling expediencies.

 

Tim

[Guest jonte]

Looking forward to seeing this one develop, Tim.

 

May I say how beneficial I found your thread (here and on the Southern Group forum) as a source of reference when creating my own S&DJR based layout, Harpford.

 

Many thanks,

 

Jonte

Edited July 30, 2011 by Mod4
full requote removed

[4630]

And they bring back happy memories for me.

 

The top two are Hinton Admiral - my local station when I was growing up in Highcliffe.

 

The third is Christchurch and the fourth too (?) if my eyes and age don't deceive me.

 

Regards

 

Russell

Edited July 30, 2011 by Mod4
yet again full unneeded full quote removed

[Tim Hale]

The photos were taken at Gillingham, Hinton and Wareham.

[Tim Chambers]

Thanks for the continuing posts Tim,I find this whole thread inspirational. Keep 'em coming!

[Bibby Line]

Tim, Much enjoyed this thread and look forward to the updates.

 

I am modelling "Exmouth" as it might have been had the town grown and the connection from the mainline been facing rather than trailing. Making my Exmouth have two through platforms from Tipton to Exeter and two terminal platforms.

 

I have a model of 34008 as shedded at Brighton in 1962 and works my take on the Brighton to Plymouth through train. I am assuming that the loco was changed at my Exmouth rather then Salisbury. All fantasy of course bit it enables me to run my fleet of Bulleid's.

 

Eddie

[Tim Hale]

Temporary placement

 

When creating a factional (fiction based on fact) concept, not every first move is correct and a few draft proposals need to be tried. There is no difference with a model railway, the concept is a small station on the SW Mainline located on the cusp of Dorset/Somerset- the size of available space dictates the size of the station and this is very small.

 

If a few assumptions are made, structures can be used to create a harmonious, therefore pleasing, station area.

 

1. Too insignificant to have been designed by William Tite

2. Mixture of local building style and LSWR standard small structures

3. Standard use of colours and materials

 

 

 

This is the first cut:

 

 

and from a different angle

 



 

This will be left in place for a couple of weeks to get a feel of how the structures work together and to think would the railway company have created something similar? One feature that already causes me a problem is proximity of the buildings, they are too far apart- they tend to huddle together in real life.

 

The other doubt is the size of the stationmaster's house, whilst the LSWR did provide living accommodation appropriate to the seniority of the staff (the paying passengers were provided with a wooden hut) is the current building too large for the layout?

 

A further change, removing the large station masters house by replacing it with a double depth wooden station building, the two shelters on the opposite side have been swapped -I forgot to move the goods yard office to its proper position in the yard.

 

 

Tim

 

 

[Oldddudders]

I take the point about relative sizes, but how much smaller could the SM's house really be? They didn't "do" bungalows in them thar days! Perhaps the SM's house would look better not quite adjacent to the sheds and shacks, which I agree it dwarfs. I also feel its front door should not be on the platform, but at street level, so Mrs SM and the bambini could walk out of their house as you and I do. Building a platform costs many shekels, so it is not generally a square inch larger than necessary, and I suspect therefore the house would merely butt against it, necessarily with its own footings.

[Oldddudders]

Your alternative take looks much more homogeneous. I do wonder whether the disparate building materials - wood versus brick - added to the problem with the original? Alderholt looks fine, too, perhaps for the same reason. Both get a big tick from me.

[Tim Hale]

Some progress,

 

When building any model railway, there are restrictions (available space and choice of subject) which impact upon the available options- if less than 6m is available to use and 4mm is the chosen scale, the types of stations are normally limited to those which have a platform length of no more than 1,52m or 115m in real life*, this allows the use of a loco plus four coaches - hardly mainline but suitable for a local stopping service on the South West mainline.

 

In turn, this affects the size of the station buildings and the only really small station on the chosen route was Sutton Bingham near East Coker in Somerset. Rather than the usual William Tite edifice, the station was no more than two adjoining single story wooden structures aligned at right angles to the track and unlike any other station on the line. If the new layout is intended to be a fictional 'might have been location', built by local contractors therefore should the station be another William Tite building?

 

If this train of thought is taken to its logical conclusion, then any suitable small exLSWR structure could be used, apart from Sutton Bingham, there were few other single story stations on the LSWR which might be used as inspiration, examples such as the ubiquitous Chandlers Ford or Downton- both from Hampshire whilst other small stations may include Moreton or Holton Heath both in Dorset. Whatever the choice is should have the essential quality of being a station recognisable as such by containing parts of other LSWR structures, consequently I chose Downton as the main building as fifty years ago the Salisbury and Dorset had been carefully researched by my late father and it was appropriate to my sense of continuation.

 

 

Anything larger would be inappropriate. The stationmaster's house is the Wyke crossing keeper's cottage and is located, like many employees' accommodation, immediately adjacent to the station.

 

Tim

 

**Radstock (S&DJR) is of similar length

[Tim Hale]

At long last, some more progress.......

 

The stationmaster's house and garden was planned as a mini-diorama as it crosses a major baseboard joint and it can be removed for display at events. One of the features of 50's properties was the retention of hangovers from World War Two amongst the detritus that accumulates at the bottom of the garden - in this case an Anderson shelter. Built from six curved sheets of corrugated, they were half buried in the garden with the excavated soil pushed against the sides as further protection, unfortunately they were damp and unpopular.

 

The stationmaster has retained his shelter as there was no instruction from Waterloo to remove it, so it is used to store garden tools and potatoes.

 

The model is Skaledale and the steps are Peco - as soon as possible it will receive a layer of earth and it will be the ideal spot to bring on the marrows.

Woman: "Is it all right now, Henry?"

Man: "Yes, not even scratched."

Sidney Strube, Daily Express (November, 1940

[Tim Hale]

 

 

The garden of the Stationmaster's House is starting to look a little 'greener', the soil is the contents of Clipper brand tea bags (organic, of course) and the fine crop of rhubarb is pre-cut printed paper from Noch. The remaining vegetable beds need filling and a washing line planted in the garden, unfortunately, the Anderson Shelter is almost hidden.

[westerner]

Quote "Unfortunately, the Anderson shelter is almost hidden" As it should be!

Edited September 21, 2011 by westerner

[DLT]

Brilliant!

[Donw]

That looks great especially the Rhubarb.

Don

[Tim Hale]

A bit more veg, (good for the diet) but these things are really fiddly to make.

 

By the end of today, I hope to have filled the vegetable garden and I will update this photo.