BROADWELL

A finescale 'OO' layout featuring BR (Western) & BR (Southern) operation from the period around 1960

Broadwell is the latest club layout built by the Cardiff Model Engineering Society, based in Heath Park, Cardiff. It continues the club's 50-year history of producing quality finescale OO gauge exhibition layouts. 

Our depiction of this fictitious Devon/Dorset route covers a broad ten-year span of British Railways ownership between 1955 to 1965.  The predominant traffic is steam hauled local passenger trains although early diesels were beginning to appear.  These timeframes allow us to run Western Region B-sets as local trains from Exeter, Bridport & Maiden Newton alongside Southern Region loco hauled trains on Exmouth, Lyme Regis and Sidmouth locals.  Through express trains from Devon, Cornwall and the Withered Arm of North Devon head to and from London Paddington and Waterloo respectively.  The occasional inter-regional expresses from the North are seen sometimes with out of region engines.  There is little freight traffic on this coastal route although long distance through freights do appear from time to time.  The Creamery supplies milk tanks daily to London.

What makes this exhibition layout stand out?  Probably the use of full computer controlled operation of the points and route-setting and the presence of hand-made GWR-style searchlight signals. 

The operation is based around a 60-movement sequence from which train information which is displayed to the front of the layout on a 40" TV monitor.  Train detection is in use and headcodes are allocated to trains which can be tracked on the TV screen similar to modern day train tracking websites such as Traksy https://traksy.uk/

At the start of the day the operators switch on the Automatic Route Selection software, set the sequence to 1 and manually control the movement of the trains, but with all route setting and signalling done by the computer. When each sequence move is finished the operators increment the sequence number and so on...

All track and points are hand-made.  Most buildings are scratch built as are the platform canopies.  The magnificent model of the Carmarthen Bascule bridge is motorised and can be raised and lowered.  Note that this operation takes 3 minutes to complete so we don't tend to do it frequently throughout the operating session.

The Background Story of Broadwell

At the start of the 19th Century the rapidly expanding (but fictitious) seaside town of Broadwell had developed into the regional hub with a population of 50,000 making it easily the largest of the Devon & Dorset coast resorts and on a par with other South Coast destinations such as Bournemouth.  Broadwell is located on the west side of Lyme Regis Bay yet up to this point it had remained without a rail link due to the difficult terrain to the north and west.  Other coastal resorts such as Sidmouth, Seaton, Lyme Regis and West Bay had developed rail links prior to the end of the previous century being served by LSWR or GWR branch lines.

The Great Western Railway wanted a greater part of this expanding holiday market, so in 1930 and in partnership with the LSWR they invested in a double track main line to serve the developing resort of Broadwell whilst providing links into the other well established South Coast resort branch lines between Exeter and Bridport.  Broadwell’s station building was a prominent and elegant structure indicating the stature and importance of the new resort town. The building was designed in the art deco style by the GWR’s chief architect Percy Emerson Culverhouse and was constructed using locally sourced Portland stone.  The design was echoed shortly afterwards in 1935 for the replacement station at Leamington Spa.

The new route departs Exeter St Davids following the LSWR line up the bank through Exeter Central before branching off in a south easterly direction towards the Devon coast.  The line skirts the Devon coast until it reaches the newly built through station at Broadwell.  Before and after Broadwell there are junctions at each intersection with the pre-existing LSWR coastal branch lines (Sidmouth, Lyme Regis, Seaton etc).  This allows resorts like Lyme Regis (SR) and Bridport (GWR) to be linked directly to Broadwell, Exmouth and further afield via the new joint line.  

After Broadwell the line continues eastwards along the coast re-joining the GWR at Bridport then inland via the upgraded Bridport branch. Western region expresses head northwards on GWR metals eventually re-joining the GWR main line at Castle Cary (via Yeovil). Southern Region expresses are routed via the Southern to Dorchester then to Bournemouth, Southampton and ultimately Waterloo.

Evidence of local narrow gauge mineral lines can be seen through the remains of a route running alongside the road to the beach at the centre front of the layout.  A working ‘OO9’ scale line serves the wharf on the right side of the layout.  This line would have been a mineral line when constructed but now processes wood for export.

Exhibition Managers

The layout is 20ft x 10ft but requires 2ft access all around, meaning that a space of 24ft x 14ft is required.

It requires 5 operators (3 on, 2 off)

Transport would be via a 1.5T Luton van with a tail lift (weekend hire currently approx £350 + fuel)

Contact : Paul Jenkins (paulejenkins@yahoo.com) for more information.