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Dunkerton Colliery Halt


kev69
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

More progress - the platform is now complete as is the cottage, a fair bit of guesswork seeing as it's been demolished but it's a close match to what photos I have seen. Work has started on the overbridge but there is more to do. I have used 4mm scale brick plasticard as I find the 2mm one easily gets clogged with paint and the detail becomes lost. Very tricky to build due to all the curves but it looks about right.

 

Sections of the Limpley Stoke & Hallatrow line particularly around Dunkerton were reinforced with dry stone walling which I have replicated here.

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Edited by kev69
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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest nzflyer

I think I saw some pics from the old Monkton Combe branch around on the net somewhere  :pardon: I can't seem to find them now though! They were definitely some of the last photos of the lines working life.....there was a GWR Pannier Tank and a Dean Goods. It's a shame no-one has released a new model of the 'Dean Goods'! Such an attractive little engine!  :sungum:

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Well that's the bridge completed, just needs painting now. Very tricky to form all those curves but it looks about right, I have used 4mm scale brick plastic sheet though as I find 2mm ones just too small to show up properly.

 

Has anyone had any success with hanging basket liner as a scenic base? I am trying it for the first time but first impressions are it should look ok when treated with suitable flock fibres or Woodland Scenics etc.

 

cheers

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  • 4 weeks later...

Another burst of activity lately. The bridge is painted and stuck in place so time to start on the scenery. I decided to try hanging basket liner from the £1 shop for the undergrowth. This looks pretty awful when first stuck down, but heavy trimming after the glue has dried produced a decent looking scenic base. This was then covered with PVA and given a good dose of static grass fibre. I suspect it will need a second dose to build up the texture and cover the bare patches though.

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  • 1 month later...

A start has now been made with static grass, I prefer pale muted colours hinting at a long hot summer. Further grass will be added to give more texture. The whole lot photographed outside in the sunshine.

 

Does anyone know where I can 2mm wicket gates?

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Edited by kev69
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Thanks for pointing that one out, Mike. It's quite well known, being published in Maggs & Beale's The Cameron Branch and Ian Pope's PO Wagons of Bristol & District. The photo dates from the early thirties (give or take a year or two) and shows the station after closure to passenger traffic and removal of the awning. The Mullis wagon dates back to 1910, but is in the livery adopted by the mid-twenties.

 

Nick

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Tim - the posts made of old rail supporting the wicket gate are still there, now leading to a footpath, but as you say there is now a modern metal gate. On the opposite side of the lane the remains of the wicket gate leading to the colliery footpath are still there.

Did I say that there was a similar gate on the other side of the road, the path led through that to the platform. I thought I took a picture of it, but it hasn't survived.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm making the halt's station nameboard which I assumed would have been GWR black with white lettering, but the Camerton Branch book mentions that nearby Camerton station had a blue enamel running in board. Does anyone have any ideas what shade of blue this would have been please?

 

cheers

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The white cottage next to the bridge is something of a mystery as it was knocked down in the late 1950's. Last week I was up at the site of the halt taking a few more photos and measurements and I got chatting to an elderly lady who lives nearby, and as luck would have it she said she used to live in the very same cottage and was able to provide some details. So this now means a minor rebuild of the model. It was originally built for the Somerset Coal Canal on which the line was built at Dunkerton colliery. Her family kept pigs in the station pagoda shelter after the line had closed, they also kept the goats which are seen on the lineside in The Titfield Thunderbolt. Chuffed to bits I was!

Edited by kev69
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Well that was a stroke of luck!

 

Blue enamel boards were very common on the GWR, it was a Prussian Blue (I think you'd call it), I noticed a board at Didcot t'other day, plus there are a couple at Winchcombe museum. Used to be one at Bewdley, but I haven't see it there for a while.

 

Unlikely to be a blue board at Dunkerton, don't forget that Camerton station pre-dated Dunkerton by a long time. More likely to be a black and white board.

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If you are on facebook, and I know many shun it, there as a group called Titfield Thunderbolt Branch-line: Then and now that may be of use to you.

Edited by JZ
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If you are on facebook, and I know many shun it, there as a group called Titfield Thunderbolt Branch-line: Then and now that may be of use to you.

Thanks JZ, I am already a member, and some interesting stuff has come to light.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Today the station name board was glued into place, and just needs bedding in with some static grass. According to The Camerton Branch book, Camerton station had the early GWR pattern blue enamel sign with white lettering although it is likely Dunkerton CH had a later black & white board. But I thought the blue looks good, so blue it is! The sign was printed on a colour laserjet printer (when the boss wasn't looking...) using 3 and 4 point lettering, then weathered.

 

And here's another example of the pitfalls of closely modelling an actual location - the official plan shows a gas lamp between the name board and the pagoda shelter although it isn't seen in a photo of the halt when open.

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As you say, it's very unlikely the halt had a blue sign, but they do look nice. Given that these were enamel, I wonder if a thin coat of satin or gloss varnish might improve it?

 

On the lighting, the halt probably had the three lights shown on the plan on p66 of Maggs & Beale when built. Compare the photo on p45 of Radford and Timsbury that opened only a year earlier. Despite the clean appearance in the photo on p63, the date given was more than six months before the line re-opened to passengers so the halt was not in use. Perhaps the lights had been taken away during the war after the end of passenger services in 1915?

 

Nick

Edited by buffalo
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As you say, it's very unlikely the halt had a blue sign, but they do look nice. Given that these were enamel, I wonder if a thin coat of satin or gloss varnish might improve it?

 

On the lighting, the halt probably had the three lights shown on the plan on p66 of Maggs & Beale when built. Compare the photo on p45 of Radford and Timsbury that opened only a year earlier. Despite the clean appearance in the photo on p63, the date given was more than six months before the line re-opened to passengers so the halt was not in use. Perhaps the lights had been taken away during the war after the end of passenger services in 1915?

 

Nick

Cheers for the tip Nick, will give it a go.

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  • 5 months later...

The scenic work is almost done so here are a few more photos although the trees need foliage and the backscene needs painting. The wooden platelayers hut is scratchbuilt mainly from card.

 

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Wicket gate at the entrance to the halt, I have used brass fencing for the curved railings. There probably was a noticeboard here (and oil lamp) so this is based on the one at Midford Halt, printed on a laserjet printer. Taken before foliage is added to the tress.

 

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This view over the fence is taken from the back of the layout with a temporary unpainted backscene in place. A local source who used the shelter as a pigsty after the line had closed told me it was painted black in later years (probably a bitumen paint to prevent corrosion).

Edited by kev69
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The rear of the halt, with work in progress on the backscene. The sky is finished but more to do on the landscape. Looks like a nice summer's day in the Cam Valley.

Edited by kev69
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  • 2 months later...

A couple of photos taken outdoors of a nearly complete model, just some foliage to add to some rather bare looking trees. The 4F is a new weathered Farish model which looks absolutely superb.

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