6029 King Stephen Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 Dear All, I am building a layout in OO gauge of Plymouth Friary and would like to attempt building a model of the station buildings. I have several books showing the different sides of the main building with the exception of side facing onto the platform but no plans of the station. I visited the Devon Records Office in Plymouth in June because there were certain plans of the station available on their lists but once I got there, I could only see and take photos of the outside awning detail, some roof detail and details of the original footbridge. All the other plans including for the station buildings were said to be in such a fragile state that they cannot be retrieved from the archive. There is a way to get the plans retrieved but it costs thousands of pounds because you have to pay for them to be rescanned. Does anyone have a set of plans fo this stations showing all elevations that I could have a copy of? I am happy to pay for any out of poscket expenses such as postage etc. Failing that, can anyone suggest anywhere that I could try to get copies of the plans. I would also like plans of the buildings on the Down platform and the Tothill road bridge - fortunately the latter is still there so if the worst comes to the worst, I can estimate radii of arches etc from the photos that I have taken and those shown in books. I have built two baseboards so far to accommodate the trackwork to just beyond Tothill road bridge and have laid some thin foam from Hobby craft in some quite lurid colours for the base. Once I begin tracklaying this weekend (hopefully if the weather is kind) I might start a new thread on the layout topics pages. Grateful for any assistance. Thanks, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
R A Watson Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 In order to broaden your search further apparently the Friary and Devonport Kings Road buildings were identical. There are several pictures of that structure around.. Wally Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted September 24, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 24, 2013 R Watson of this parish may be worth contacting. He is Plymouth born and bred and has extensive knowledge of the area. If you fail in all respects for plans you may get away with studying some good photo's in Ian Lane's Plymouth Steam. There are some nice shots of the Station and area and you could then busk using SR practice in buildings as a guide. P Edit - wally got his post in seconds before me.........well done mate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSutt Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 I have to hand Plymouth Steam 1954-1963 by Ian H Lane published by Ian Allan, and it has many pictures of Plymouth Friary Station. However the platform elevation you require was never photographed, it always seems to be in the background in deep shadow or obscured by carriages. The book also gives extensive pictorial coverage of the track up to Mount Gould Junction. I shall look forward to seeing this model of Friary as I used to live a few streets away from it in the 60's and my father-in-law had worked at the signal box. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crompton 33 Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 Newhaven model club where building a layout of Plymouth Friary station. i remember working on it at the time laying track . They had some old track plans to work from but i carn't remember what else they had to work from. I do know they are still building this layout. They may help you with a copy of there plans. P/M me if you want a phone number of the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted September 24, 2013 Author Share Posted September 24, 2013 Thanks for the replies so far. I was born in Plymouth too and went to Plymouth College on Mutley Plain. Upon leaving school I lived in a bedsit in the St Jude's area. I have scanned the photos from the Plymouth Steam book and I have other, closer aspects of the main building from sources including History of Plymouth's Railways by Irwell Press, BRILL Book No.2 (which had a feature on the station and MPD) and Railways of South Devon. I managed to get the Ordnance Survey map of the area from 1938 to scan the track plan into Templot so that I could build the point work. I have some shots of Devonport and Tavistock stations so I will use a combination of modeller's licence and the similarities of the buildings to guess the dimensions that I cannot get plans or photographic evidence of. The buildings were sadly demolished in 1976. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 In order to broaden your search further apparently the Friary and Devonport Kings Road buildings were identical. There are several pictures of that structure around.. Wally Having looked at photos of Devonport, it is clear that the two stations are not identical, although they might be considered loosely similar. Friary was a single storey main building with windows in the roofing whereas Devonport has a central section that is two-storey. Also Devonport was originally a terminus that got converted into a through station and had an overall roof - the latter removed after suffering bomb damage during the Plymouth Blitz. I will be following up the lead provided by Crompton but I think I have sufficient pictures of the three outer elevations of the main building and will use those to guestimate what the platform facing elevation looked like. My layout will indulge in some modeller's licence in that it will be based on the idea that it was built as a joint LSWR/GWR station and operated as such given the closure of Millbay in 1941. Hence the points that I have built use 2-bolt chairs, the plain track has 3 bolt chairs and the footbridge is a Hornby GWR one that has been extended to bridge three tracks, with the foundations under the stairways being stone or brick to match the station as seen in early photos before the footbridge was removed. Due to width restrictions, I will probably have to omit the line to Sutton Docks as the board will already be around 4 feet wide at the point, although it would have been nice to have included that area as well. I was hoping to have a 20' x 10' shed built to accommodate the layout but this has not yet been possible so I have decide to proceed with building the layout and storing it in the existing 10' x 8' shed and assembling the layout in the garden for building and running purposes - this might be done in the house during the winter months..... Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6029 King Stephen Posted October 9, 2013 Author Share Posted October 9, 2013 Just in case anyone is interested, the previously unavailable plans of Friary Station have now been scanned by the staff at the Devon Records Office and are available through their website. The website is www.plymouth.gov.uk/archives and the scanned images can be found under image group 2811. A bonus in this collection is a full track plan for Plymouth Millbay station prior to its closure in 1941. It would make a great layout because it offers a 4-platform station, carriage sidings, an MPD with turntable, and a large goods shed with goods yard with lots of sidings. One end (Millbay Docks) could be a traverser and the other end (Cornwall Junction) could be a return loop. Regards, Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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