Dulverton Station '62 - Let there be grass...

[Douglas G]

Progress is being made, although it might not be that clear from these images!

 

The main new piece of the jigsaw is the field in the background at the right hand (east) end of the station. I have decided on a back scene that curves at each end and is straight along the back, so I have cut the plywood base to this shape. Google earth and a 1940s aerial photos show stream beds in this area leading to a drainage ditch that flowed into the river Barle some distance beyond the station, so I have routed these out. Then a layer of plaster bandage on top of the plywood stuck down with PVA and then wetted later with diluted brown acrylic paint so it soaks in and also sets the plaster in the bandage. Then on top a skim of Polyfilla coloured with brown acrylic.  This time I am not going to make the mistake of applying a thick layer of shiny green acrylic paint. Instead, having sanded the Polyfilla smooth today, I will simply touch up the white areas of plaster where they have appeared with brown emulsion paint from a Wilco test pot. This will then be the base for the grass. I hope the surface will be porous and keyed enough to give a good bond with the landscaping glue.

 

This section of field is still a separate piece so I can lift it out to work on it. It has the slopes of the embankments made of stryrene foam that butts closely to the plywood track base on the top of the embankment.

 

 

This is it on place on the layout, showing the curve where the background will be:

 

 

Finally a view of the whole thank. I have also been sanding the green acrylic of the completed sections of landscape. It is slow work, even with coarse grade abrasive paper and an orbital sander (attached to a vacuum cleaner to keep dust to a minimum).

 

 

My arm and elbow are aching now, and there is still quite a lot of sanding to do. I don't think I will get all the paint off, but I think the patchy effect may be quite effective at giving a variation in colour in the grass once applied. Where I have sanded through to the white of the plaster, I will touch up with brown emulsion. Hopefully this will give a surface to which the landscape glue will adhere well, but I will probably do some manual sanding with coarse grade paper as well to key the surface.

 

After that, I need to add the sunken water tank, which I photographed a couple of years back and paint the road surface.

 

I am quite enjoying this work - it is not too exacting and I can see it coming together.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Douglas G

[Southernboy]

I'm glad to see Dulverton re-awakening - a very promising undertaking in my mind

 

I particularly like your 'jigsaw' approach to scenic sections, and your buildngs that accompany (some of) them are really quite exquisite.

 

Curved corners to backscenes make such a difference: Although they may reduce by a small % the total amount of space for landscaping, that is more than made-up-for by the overall illusionary effect.

 

Anyway, well done and good luck that man Your modelling is quite inspirational to me

Edited October 23, 2016 by Southernboy

[grahame]

It's nice to see an awaking and re-start of progress on this layout. With the quality of the buildings previoysly made and the interlocking relationships of the scenic sections, I've always thought it had great potential.

 

G.

[Douglas G]

Many thanks for the feedback - it's very encouraging, especially coming form two such outstanding N gauge modellers on the forum.

 

I have decided to paint the whole landscape with Wilco "java bean" brown emulsion point bought for a quid - a bargain. One pot has already done about half the area-the fields behind the station-and I'll need to get another pot to paint the rest, once I have finished sanding it. I wish I'd done this to begin with, instead of using the cheap, shiny acrylic paint I used first time round...The emulsion is drying nice and matt and should be porous to aid the sticking of the scenic adhesive.

 

Last week I bought a bottle of Woodland Scenics earth undercoat paint. I have been trying it today and have to say it doesn't seem to have much covering power - it is more like a dye or ink, and has not really covered the surfaces on my model. I think the Wilco emulsion is far better and at a fraction of the price.

[Douglas G]

Phew. Landscape sanded and repainted with brown emulsion, right arm aching from all that sanding...

[Douglas G]

Here are some pics of latest progress - in some ways back to where I was but I am more confident that I now have a sound surface for the scenic glue to stick to. 

 

Before - in the progress of sanding back the shiny green acrylic paint:

 

 

After - sanding finished, brown emulsion painted on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard in with this lighting to see that at the right hand end the track is actually on an embankment, with the fields behind and in front at a lower level.

 

You can also see the start of my cunning plan to disguise the exit and entry of the tacks at either end, and in particular to hide the sharp curves at the far ends (which I dislike on a model as it immediately shouts out this is not the real thing). I am working on a theatre style proscenium arch today.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

Off down today to Dulverton (actually Brushford) to take a few photos of certain features at the old station. In particular I want to work out exactly what was happening in the fields behind the station to the right in my model, where satellite photos suggest there were ditches/streams. I've already carved these out but I am not clear how deep and wide they were. I am not sure if it will be accessible to the public or not. The land behind was the polo club in recent years, but was sold last year. We'll see...

 

The last couple of weeks I have ben finishing off the baseboard, including the front facia and the rear parts of the board behind the planned backscene. A lot of fiddly cutting with jigsaw and hacksaw and sanding smooth to get the curves right to support and shape the backscene (which will be 3mm MDF). There is also provision for a return track behind the backscen to us eif I ever decide to exhibit.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I have been considering what I found out on my field trip down to the site of Dulverton Station the other week. Some questions are now answered, but others aren’t because things have grown up and hidden some details, and some areas are now inaccessible private property.

 

The area I am interested in currently is at the centre of this satellite view—the fields behind the embankment to the south-east of the station:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.0183915,-3.5296403,367m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

I also have a copy of an RAF WWII aerial photo, and on Google Earth there are several views from different years that help distinguish features, but it is still hard to judge exactly what is happening using such overhead plan views. I can see what appear to be stream beds and a stream in a ditch leading off to the east to the River Barle (behind the layout in my model), but it is difficult to determine the degree of relief and to distinguish where the embankments start and finish.

 

All that is shown on OS maps is the field boundaries and the ditch leading to the weir and the river, as in this example—there is a strange curved area between where the map says “cattle pens” (subsequently moved) and the “S.P” for signal post:

http://www.exevalleyrailway.com/images/dulverton1905.jpg

 

Otherwise there are tantalising glimpses of this area and the hedges at the boundaries in photos of the station taken from the road over bridge:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/8578750110

 

On visiting the site, I discovered that the fields concerned, which were for a while a polo club grounds and were once a golf course, are accessible to the public and many locals were walking their dogs there. As I suspected, the darker green circles visible in the aerial photos are rushes growing amongst the grasses.

 

First off I determined that the stream running parallel to the embankment is a dry bed that must only fill with water in wet weather. It was shallower than I thought, and I realise I had modelled it too far from the embankment, so I have filled it in and repositioned it on my model.

 

View northwards towards station, railway embankment on left

 

View southwards, railway embankment on right

 

Next to this stream bed is a distinctive tree (an oak I think) with some dead branches. This tree was present when the station was open, so will feature in my model; it appears in several photos such as this one:

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChtMWK7WUAA9spc.jpg

 

The other trees on the embankment, though large, have grown up since the railway was closed.

 

I also confirmed that there was indeed a stream flowing eastwards from this area towards the river, but I couldn’t see its source near the embankment as it is private land and is surrounded by dense hedges and trees. Either the source is a spring or there is a culvert for a stream that runs under the embankment. The line of this stream once emerged seems to form the distinctive curve of the boundary at this point. The hedge has an earth or stone embankment at the base, and I wonder if this was built to channel water into the stream and stop it flooding the fields. But I couldn’t see what was going on in the area behind – it has been planted up with coppice by the current land owner.

 

View westwards towards stream source and embankment

 

View northwards towards station and stream source

 

View of stream ditch eastwards away from embankment towards River barle

 

Stream emerging from boundary hedge eastwards towards river

 

The other thing I have learned is that westwards from the dry stream bed the land sloped up towards the railway embankment, and the land went up particularly high to the north towards the station (see first lot of photos above). So as well as moving the dry stream bed in my model, I am raising the land between the embankment and the dry stream, with styrene foam carved to shape.

 

North of this area, east of the station buildings and running parallel to the railway line is the hedge forming the boundary between the grounds of the former Carnarvon Arms Hotel and the fields behind. In my model this hedge will be moved in towards the station slightly and will disguise the join with the planned photographic back scene.

 

 

Once I have got this area of fields behind the station are right, the basic landscape will be finished ready for adding the grass and vegetation.

Edited November 24, 2016 by Douglas G

[Edwardian]

One of the great things about RMWeb is that, however long you're here, there is yet more wonderful stuff to discover.  Very much enjoyed discovering this topic.  Great modelling.

[Douglas G]

Thanks very much for the comment, Edwardian - much appreciated.

 

I took the "n gauge" out of the title of the thread last night as I wondered if some people might not be looking as a result.

 

I myself do tend to look more at N gauge and 2mm topics and tend not to look at 7mm in particular, but I am definitely interested in GWR/WR and models of prototypical models, regardless of scale.

[Edwardian]

Thanks very much for the comment, Edwardian - much appreciated.

 

I took the "n gauge" out of the title of the thread last night as I wondered if some people might not be looking as a result.

 

I myself do tend to look more at N gauge and 2mm topics and tend not to look at 7mm in particular, but I am definitely interested in GWR/WR and models of prototypical models, regardless of scale.

 

FYI, 'Dulverton' should have done it for me, but I still didn't spot it! 

 

I will say, though, that if it were not for the references early on to Peco Code 55, I would have been happy to believe those buildings were to 4mm.

 

The biggest draws for me are the quality of the concept and of the modelling, rather than gauge or scale, though I will tend more towards certain subjects than others, including the GWR!

[beast66606]

Nice project.

 

Have you seen these ? - not sure how useful they are but best to let you know just in case.

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/asearch?search=dulverton

 

If you register (free) you can zoom in.

[Douglas G]

Nice project.

 

Have you seen these ? - not sure how useful they are but best to let you know just in case.

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/asearch?search=dulverton

 

If you register (free) you can zoom in.

 

Hi,

 

Many thanks that. Yes, I have seen them and unfortunately they don't show the station. Dulverton station was actually in Brushford, a village some 2 miles from Dulverton.

 

However, Aerofilms did take some aerial photos in 1963 and 1965 (I think ) of Brushford village and the Carnarvon Arms Hotel, and I have obtained (at considerable expense!) copies of these images from English Heritage, who now have the negatives. Frustratingly the pictures seem to be cut off just where there is a feature I want to see, including the fields behind the station I was investigating when I visited the other week. The Aerofilms pictures are also quite taken from quite high up, so some of the details are hard to make out. But they have helped me with the main station layout and the garden at the rear of the hotel.

 

Cheers,

 

Douglas

[Douglas G]

I think I've now worked out the lie of the land in the fields behind the embankment and have trimmed and stuck down some roughly carved pink styrene foam with No More Nails adhesive. I find this takes two or three days to set with the non-porous foam, so will have to be patient while it dries thoroughly, before I can begin to carve and sand it to the final shape.  I've put bricks on top to hold it firmly in place.

Edited November 27, 2016 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

Just got my copy of part 1 of Freddie Huxtable's book on the Taunton to Barnstaple Line/Devon & Somerset Railway ( see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/114437-the-devon-and-somerset-railway )

 

Fantastic - lots of previously unpublished photos of Dulverton, and two Aerofilms aerial photos from the 1960s that otherwise cost over £30 for a scan.

 

I can't wait for part 2, with details of the stock and the stations on the line.

[Douglas G]

Over the last few weeks I have been working on getting the final bits of the landscape shaped ready for the grass and other landscaping materials. A lot of shaping, sanding, and redoing until I have got things to my satisfaction and as close to the real thing as possible. I think there is more work and trial and error in modelling a prototype location, so progress is slow.

 

The main area I have been working on is the fields behind the station. Based on my trip to Dulverton a few weeks ago and the photos I took, I think I have now got this as close as I am going to get it. The main issue was I had the stream beds too far back and had to bring them forward towards the embankment so that everything else was in proportion. At present this is a separate piece that will be glued in place on the framework later but is easier to work on detached.

 

These views are similar to the views I took at the real location a few weeks ago, looking north along the line of the embankment to the station itself:

 

 

 

This is a closer view of the streams and drainage ditches - am not sure exactly what is going on in this area as it is not accessible and is hidden by trees, but it is my best stab and a lot will be hidden by hedges in any case:

 

 

Finally an overview from the front of the layout with this section in place behind the embankment. Not that much will be visible. Ditch and line of hedge at the back has been brought forward to the line of the backscene and will disguise it, but the distances will be foreshortened in any case when viewing from the front.

 

 

 

[Douglas G]

Another area I have been working on is my waterworks, so to speak...

 

I know quite a lot about the water supply at Dulverton because the main plan is a 1930s GWR plan of the water supply. There was a well next to the road bridge and another in the turntable. A pump in the distinctive building with its edge cut off, to allow clearance for the sidings used for Exe Valley trains, pumped the water up to two tanks on the embankment above next to the road. The original tank was a brick lined sunken tank that was later supplemented by a typical GWR rectangular tank supported on brick pillars (rather than the more usual girders).

 

Here is the plan of the tanks:

 

 

When I first visited the site and when I visited in the autumn this year, there was no sign of the sunken tank because of the trees and shrubs:

 

 

But fortunately I visits two years ago just after the land owner had cut back the bushes, allowing me to find out what the tank looked like:

 

 

 

 

I have now got the water tank finished (apart from weathering) and have made the low embankment that surrounded it with a socket for the tank to fit into:

 

 

 

 

Actually even when the station was open, this area was surrounded by trees, so it won't be very visible. It was hard to judge how high the embankment show in the plan around the tank was - it is hardly apparent in the pictures of the real thing above, but I am guessing there has been in fill and changes due to the tree roots.

 

I have one good picture of the raised water tank and am working on this at the moment:

 

 

The real thing It must have been removed for scrap after the station shut.

Edited December 23, 2016 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I've been pottering about on little thing recently.

 

I have finished the two water cranes. After a lot of experimenting, I made the funnels by filing and grinding a Phillips head screw.

 

 

 

The real thing (in later days when it wasn't so well kept)

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30937/15947776978/in/photolist-qifwu3-fbU2D8-rdB5SM-aKAvTT-Hpt1DP-bVygpp-dBd2xT-devafZ-BxCfqR-FTqebe-dxKof5-orEdSN-cHUAjJ-RSTXjW-fARriZ-mWtoAr-E8L86K-mWziUb-mWthk2-S7rWER-mWxac6-deYFEV-ouSukq-S3Ra1S-mWtvhc-mWtxJ6-QSsmxF-QSs3pr-mWzggA-S3QQjy-aaUjgb-RVuUMD-EF2yWp-GC41qU-RwRymo-R9QRg2-c8hYZd-FeRu5S-RVvb7g-QQ165w-QQ1c9f-RVuRbk-RP9M97-QSsk1c-RSU1a5-S3RjUj-RVv6hM-h5Adep-RSTSAh-RVv3UF

 

I have also finished the second, raised water tank. This seems to have been a pretty much standard GWR tank but was on brick pillars rather than metal pillars as it was raised up on a bank:

 

 

 

 

Finally, a feature of Dulverton in the 60s was the circular flower beds with white stones around and bright yellow and red flowers:

 

 

 

[Douglas G]

As I have had a few mishaps with landscaping products not working very well, I have been doing a lot of experimenting on test pieces before I take the risk of doing the grass for Dulverton.

 

One of the issues I showed earlier was the grass on the Carnarvon Arms Hotel lawn not sticking using Woodlands Scenics Scenic cement. To be extra sure, this time I stuck down some thin light green card down on to the lawn with impact adhesive, to provide a porous surface. The ground in this area was made from black styrene sheet painted with enamels, and I think this was part of the reason the grass didn't stick the first time as it was not porous. Once the card was stuck, I used a darker green marker pen to darken the card and to give some variation in colour that I hope will show through the grass.

 

Here it is with the borders, paths and hotel base masked off ready to apply the glue:

 

 

 

After a lot of experimenting with different brands, I have settled on Polak 1mm and 2mm static grass as my choice for most of the grass. I like the fact that the fibres are very matt, and also the fact that they are one colour, not a mixture. Looking at real grass, unless it is in the autumn or winter or in a drought, the colour is pretty uniform on mown grass, especially in the West Country. I don't like the mix of colours in brand such as Noch and WW Scenics fibres - I don't think it looks right, at least not in 2mm scale. By varying the colour of the material underneath, I hope I can get a realistic variation in the final appearance.

 

So for the lawn I decided to use 1mm Polak fibres in the lightest colour they do in this length, Meadow Green:

 

 

 

This is quite a light green that matches the colour of the real lawn in photographs, and I also want to use lighter colours in areas towards the back of the layout such as this, to give the impression of distance.

 

While I have a tea strainer type applicator for small areas, I have gone for a WW Scenics Pro Grass Micro for large areas. One issue with this applicator is that the mesh is quite large - too large for 2mm or shorter fibres, and they all fall out too quick.  The manufacturers told me they could produce a finer mesh head before I decided to buy it, but this has not been forthcoming. So what I have done is to use soft iron florists wire to double the number of strands in one direction to reduce the size of the aperture, with one strand across the middle in the other direction weaved in and out to keep the extra strands in place.. This seems to work well so far:

 

 

 

It will be interesting to see how the lawn looks once the glue has dried and the loose fibres have been vacuumed off. Fingers crossed...

[Douglas G]

For the rest of the layout my plan for the grass is to be a first layer of Woodlands Scenics fine turf, with a layer on top of 2mm Polak static grass.

 

This is the first bit I have started on, the field to the left-hand side beyond the road bridge.

 

 

 

When this first layer is dried, I will try varying the colour with green marker pens.

[DLT]

Terrific project, Dulverton is such a "model-able" location.

All the best,

Dave.

[Douglas G]

Work continues on the foundation for the grass, which is mostly Woodlands Scenics fine green scatter.

 

I am finding that the scatter doesn't always stick, especially at the edges, so some touching up with glue and extra scatter has been required in places.  To try to get subtle variations in the final colour that will show through the top layer of static fibres, I have been adding yellow and green drawing ink in patches to the scatter material by dripping it on stippling with a small brush. Also to get some variation in height, to reproduce grass clumps, I have spattered on small drops of diluted adhesive and then added extra scatter on top.

 

 

Below is the road bridge and water tank area - this area was bushes and trees so has Woodland Scenics fine earth scatter with Woodlands Scenics fine soil and other scatters from Javis added in in small amounts as the final layer, with small amounts of static grass to be added around the edges..

 

 

 

Finally the opposite (south east) end of the station:

 

 

While the variation in colour from using the inks is quite strong at present, I hope it will just give a slight variation once the static fibres are added on top.

[grahame]

Meticulous extensive research and fine modelling make this project worth following.

 

I'm pleased that you now seem back in the modelling groove and look forward to seeing the layout develop.

 

G.

[Douglas G]

Thanks Graham.

 

I realise that things go very slowly modelling a real location as there is a lot of trial and error to get the positioning and landscape right. But when it comes to adding the scenics, it is the same as any other layout. I certainly feel encouraged now things are moving faster.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I applied the first two areas of static fibres last night, and am now waiting for the glue to dry. Having tested the Polak 1mm and 2mm fibres, I found the fibres seemed thicker than other makes. I preferred the finer effect of Green Scene short fibres, so have used these, with some of the Polak mixed in in patches. Next job will be to hoover up the loose fibres with a piece of tights over the vacuum nozzle to recycle the fibres - I was surprised how much I used last night on just a quarter or so of the area to be done, so have sent off an order to Green Scene.