Blackmoor, Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in 009 (c 1930) -East Grinstead done , next show is Taunton

[roundhouse]

 

Today I  unboxed the main station board and set it up on the temporary trestles. The gents light was fixed by drilling a hole into the top of the wall. I am not sure where the gas pipe ran  from the light. It may have been in the toilet area but until I find photos, it will remain inconspicuous.

 

The two platform lamp posts were fitted into holes drilled into the gravel surface after cutting the posts down so that the too of the lamps were a scale 10 feet 5 inches above the platform surface.

 

So another task finally completed.

 

Next I may well be starting work on the hotel and petrol station.

Edited March 4, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

About a year ago I fixed the water in place after checking the dimensions in Drawn and Measured book. However when I went to box up the boards,  the water tower was just slightly in the way. So it had to be resisted slightly closer to the track. Luckily all the stock still clears the water pipe.

 

So a few days ago I finally infilled the gaps left by the original position with fine Chinchilla dust.

 

Next stage will be to add more vegetation to this area once I construct the tiny raised platform under the water pipe.

[roundhouse]

I have finally managed to recommence assembly of the station benched. I had previously assembled the first seat up to the point of adding the end hand rests so this seat has now been completed and primed ready for the top coats of green paint.  These etched kits by Southwark Models and sold by Roxey Moulding are fiddly to build but well worth it once together.

 

They should have the station name on the top rest but I doubt that I will be able to print them that small.  That's for another day though.

[roundhouse]

The painted seat now on the layout.

[roundhouse]

After looking through more old photos of the station I found a photo showing another platform lamp, this one being by the Nameboard on the Barnstaple bound platform. The book Measured and Drawn doesn't show this on the plan,  so whether this was a later addition I am not sure. The photo is dated 1927 when the sleepers were  replaced with concrete ones. I think that he lamp was gone by 1935 hence why the plans don't show it. Maybe it went in 1931 when the wooden posts lamps were replaced with ex LSWR metal ones. It certainly wasnt there by 1935 looking at other photos.

 

I also found a photo showing the lamp above the gents toilets. It's not as ornate as the one that I had built based on the one at Woody Bay so another one has been constructed. Luckily the ornate one was held in with canopy glue so it came off the layout in one piece.

 

Another task that I have now started is fitting the destination boards to the coaches. One side will have Lynton and the other side Barnstaple.  Thesr are printed card ones obtained from Sankey Scenics. Once cut out the white edges have been blackened using a marker pen then they are glued on with canopy glue.

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by roundhouse

[Jon Baker]

On 31/01/2022 at 15:31, roundhouse said:

I have finally managed to recommence assembly of the station benched. I had previously assembled the first seat up to the point of adding the end hand rests so this seat has now been completed and primed ready for the top coats of green paint.  These etched kits by Southwark Models and sold by Roxey Moulding are fiddly to build but well worth it once together.

 

They should have the station name on the top rest but I doubt that I will be able to print them that small.  That's for another day though.

How did you assemble these kits? Usually etched brass kits are soldered, but these are so fiddly that I wondered if it is possible to glue rather than solder. My soldering skills are pretty much non-existent.

[roundhouse]

4 hours ago, Jon Baker said:

How did you assemble these kits? Usually etched brass kits are soldered, but these are so fiddly that I wondered if it is possible to glue rather than solder. My soldering skills are pretty much non-existent.

I used self gripping tweezers then soldered the main legs to the base and back of the seat to give them strength and superglued the rest. The hardest part is forming the legs and seat end rests as they are flat sections that have to be bent to shape usinf the etched jigs.

[Jon Baker]

Thanks for the tip. Have been following your Blackmoor project closely; I'm also modelling Blackmoor, but from the opposite perspective, which in itself is a bit of a challenge as there seem to be (almost) no photographs of the front of the station (non-platform side) and even Measured & Drawn relies on conjecture for much of the detail. I've also built Lynton (mostly "finished"), will be adding Pilton Yard once Blackmoor is a little more complete and I can add some more shelving/baseboard around my garage.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Jon Baker
To clarify which aspect of station is being referenced

[roundhouse]

4 hours ago, Jon Baker said:

Thanks for the tip. Have been following your Blackmoor project closely; I'm also modelling Blackmoor, but from the opposite perspective, which in itself is a bit of a challenge as there seem to be (almost) no photographs of the front of the station and even Measured & Drawn relies on guesswork for much of the detail. I've also built Lynton (mostly "finished"), will be adding Pilton Yard once Blackmoor is a little more complete and I can add some more shelving/baseboard around my garage.

I have used the Measured and Drawn for the roadside but luckily for me few will see that elevation. Its the goods yard that I have seen next to nothing to be able to add any detail at present. Its been interesting trying to find such information for a station thats been closed for over 85 years.

Look forward to seeing photos of yours.

[roundhouse]

This afternoon I have added the destination boards to the rest of the coaches that I currently have.

 

Also the small step to the water tower has been painted and now glued in place.

[roundhouse]

Good morning and good to see the forum back up and running again but looks like I might have to spend some time repopulating the photos in the last years worth of posts.

Meanwhile the layout has been set up again during recent warm weather and the first person to see the layout operate since construction started back in 2019, arrived only for LEW which had been running for an hour beforehand to then keep derailing. After he departed LEW ran fine again for the rest of the afternoon. Its almost as if he hads a conealed video camera on him as thats what normally happens at shows😐. I am sure it was nothing to do with him but just sods law working .

 

Anyway, fencing has now commened using the Ration concrete posts and Slaters 10 thou micro rod. I think that the posts are a bit on the large side but they are the best that I can find. I bleieve someone has done 3D printed posts but my experience so far with such fine prints is that they will be prone to breaking. After weathering the Ratio ones they dont look so large.

 

Also the first trees have been form,ed and planted at the Barnstaple end to hide the hole in the backscene. The signals are still just tm,eporarily polaced but soon they will be properly installed and linked up to a decoder.

 

The layout now has a Summer show. More on that in due course.

[roundhouse]

In the last few days much of the concrete post fencing has been added. I have used a different technic to the first sections by gluing the posts to a strip of styrene painting this brown,  adding the micro rod for the wire,  weathering it thrn gluing each assembly to the layout. The styrene e base will then be covered in foliage.

There is just a small section to add to the last board to complete the fence line. There is no fencing at the front of the layout as the fence line was quite a way back from the track.

 

Note - there hasnt been an earthqauke, I just hadn't tightened up the two boards.

 

Next up are the fir trees. I bought a pack of Woodland Scenics armatures last weekend from the model shop in Salisbury. Also had their last two packs of medium green foliage that I was running low on.

These fir tree armatures are a bit spindly for the fir trees in old photos at Blackmoor so I am adding wire to them to plump them out.

Edited April 6, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

The undergrowth around the recently installed fencing has now been added along with the first fir tree. The last bit of fencing is also going in. More trees are currently under construction.

[roundhouse]

In the last few days I have added more trees along with a telegraph pole. There is at least one more to add by the newly formed wall next ot the bridge. I had been debating as to whether it was a wall or a hedge but after colourizing a photo and showing it to my other half, along with waht the Measured & Drawn book plans show, we decided that it must be an Ivy clad wall. The wall had just been added this evning so the Ivt and otehr undergrowth has yet to be added laong with the station signboard and the road signpost. The blank space on the backscene is where the photo of the hotel will go once I have built a model of it so that I can photograph it. There are still more trees to add.

 

I have also painted the wooden lamp posts green.

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Today I completed the station entrance sign that sits at the entrance of the approach road next to the road over bridge. The front of this sign will not really be visible form the viewing side but at least its there. I have also added the ivy to the wall by the sign and the telegraph pole. The only thing missing is the road sign post. After that I hope to complete the palns for the hotel so I can start construction on it.

[Michael Bishop]

On 12/02/2022 at 15:15, Jon Baker said:

Thanks for the tip. Have been following your Blackmoor project closely; I'm also modelling Blackmoor, but from the opposite perspective, which in itself is a bit of a challenge as there seem to be (almost) no photographs of the front of the station (non-platform side) and even Measured & Drawn relies on conjecture for much of the detail. I've also built Lynton (mostly "finished"), will be adding Pilton Yard once Blackmoor is a little more complete and I can add some more shelving/baseboard around my garage.

I was the surveyor and draughtsman of the drawings that were transcribed by Stephen Phillips and used throughout the book  Measured and Drawn.   All these drawings were based on comprehensive surveys using a collapsible ladder and measuring poles,  and every available photograph.   Jon Baker cannot suggest that as he has seen (almost) no photographs I did not do so when compiling this drawing.    I had available to me two similar photographs looking down towards the stables,  therefore not full on,  and there are unlikely to be any of those as there is a bank several feet high alongside of the 30ft road which goes behind the building to the goods shed and stables.   One of these has what appears to be a man in an SR uniform feeding chickens by the concrete shed,  maybe the same chickens that fed off the crumbs dropped by passengers on coach footboards.  The fact that they are an oblique view of the back of the building was the reason for the cautionary note about the part of the ground floor being obscured by a post-railway (glass-fronted) addition and that therefore the similar Woody Bay building was consulted.  I put a similar note about the window in view of the obliqueness of the available photographs.   I take issue with the statement that 'Measured and Drawn relies on conjecture for much of the detail,'   because it relied on a hard graft over a 50-year period surveying every building on the line and a selection of bridges and viaducts,  except the odd one,  such as the footbridges in Barnstaple and the water tanks at stations, that were destroyed in 1936.    I also have scans of the slides all round the Blackmoor station building I took in 1966 which show it nearer than it does now to what it looked like in 1935.    

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Michael Bishop
Comment on what has been written about the drawings in Measured and Drawn

[Michael Bishop]

18 minutes ago, Michael Bishop said:

A cropped version of one of the photographs referred to.

 

 

[Jon Baker]

1 hour ago, Michael Bishop said:

 I take issue with the statement that 'Measured and Drawn relies on conjecture for much of the detail,'   because it relied on a hard graft over a 50-year period surveying every building on the line and a selection of bridges and viaducts,  except the odd one,  such as the footbridges in Barnstaple and the water tanks at stations, that were destroyed in 1936.    I also have scans of the slides all round the Blackmoor station building I took in 1966 which show it nearer than it does now to what it looked like in 1935.    

 

This and the other photo are very useful, thanks for posting.  

Edited April 26, 2022 by Jon Baker
They say you should never "meet" your heroes.

[roundhouse]

8 hours ago, Michael Bishop said:

 

This the first time that I have seen this photo. Thanks for posting.

[roundhouse]

At the weekend I managed to pick up a pack of sheep on a, second hand stall for a very good price. These will ve used to recreate a scene in a photo in the book Measured and Drawn where there is a flock of sheep being herded over the road bridge at Blackmoor.  The shepherd will have to be replaced though.

[Michael Bishop]

On 27/04/2022 at 07:28, roundhouse said:

This the first time that I have seen this photo. Thanks for posting.

This picture is one of a set that had been attached to the walls of the Blackmoor Gate Inn.     I acquired them from the former owner,  Mr Kempf.    They were acquired (I think by the owner before him) from a relative of the last Porter Signalman on the station,  Wilfred Hann.    He can be seen in the photograph of the last train standing beside coach 2465 reproduced in the 'Celebration' book on page 159.    Mr Hann was born in 1906 and had been at Blackmoor since being made redundant at Bridestow in 1932.   He replaced T. A. Short who transferred to Lydford.   The fact that these pictures appear to date to around 1935 suggested that this one was also taken when Blackmoor was a working railway.    The image is not a clear one as can be seen,  partially due to the material the print was made on,  but the original print appears to show the man with an SR cap and uniform.   It also shows the extended metal chimneys, one of which was fitted after Mr Household's picture of 1927,  illustrated in Magazine 74 page 49,  and seems to have gone by 1937,  and I took the risk that it could be relied upon to show what this side of the building looked like when the railway was operating.   This page of the Magazine also has a similar picture to the one I have posted, but  taken in 1952 after the station became a cafe where the terra cotta replacement chimney has almost completely disappeared.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Michael Bishop

[roundhouse]

Thanks Michael.

 

Very interesting snippet of history. Looks like that I will have to model Mr T.A. Short as I am modelling the location in 1930. 

I will add the vegetation outside the building. However the bit of fence and post just in front of the building I don't recall seeing in other shots taken from the platform. I will have to have a loser look at other photos.

[Michael Bishop]

On 27/04/2022 at 17:25, roundhouse said:

Thanks Michael.

 

Very interesting snippet of history. Looks like that I will have to model Mr T.A. Short as I am modelling the location in 1930. 

I have just been updating the staff list for the two intended volumes of my history of the railway in the light of the publication of the 1921 Census which has been closed for 100 years.    Also available on the web is a census made in 1939,  presumably taken when war broke out.   This enabled me to find the address of my parent's flat which I had lost many years ago and forgotten.   They had been married by special licence on 7 September,  2 days before the declaration of war,  in Coventry Cathedral.   I will leave what happened next to the imagination,  both to the Cathedral and the flat,  but luckily they were in a shelter (often playing Monopoly which I therefore played a lot of when young) and survived. (and that is why I am here about to bore readers silly)    This census gives occupations but is unique is giving birth dates (as opposed to ages, which seems to have been beyond the mental arithmatics for quite a few)   Thomas Archibald Short  was born on 15 September 1906 and was a Porter Signalman.  He had transferred from Hatherleigh station,  reported in the staff movements in Southern Railway Magazine for October 1930. (the staff magazine for the SR)   The actual date was 14 August 1930,  which of course could be critical depending on the date of your layout in 1930.  So,  Roundhouse,  your model figure should be 24 years of age.   As I have mentioned,  he transferred to Lydford per SR Magazine September 1932.   Actual date 7 July 1932.   On 8 July 1937 he went to Okehampton, and then Meldon Jct on 7 February 1945.    If your layout is dated prior to 28 August 1930 you need to represent Short's predecessor in the role  -  Edward John Tolley,  born 1898,   because that's the date he left (two of them for a fortnight),  so about 32 when he went.   He had been Porter at Blackmoor since sometime before 11 July 1915 when 16 years of age,  when he joined the NUR (National Union of Railwaymen) as most of the staff did at that time in an attempt to force the Company to pay the full war bonus being paid to main line employees (which the L & B Company realised it would be committed to when the war finished and therefore opposed).   The sad part is we shall probably have to speculate from old photographs what these two looked like.      Roundhouse,   I bet you wish you'd never mentioned it,  and all the other readers of this forum, if they've got this far,  will have had their pants removed by now.       But if your layout is ever displayed not 100s of miles away from me,  I would like to see it please.  

Edited April 29, 2022 by Michael Bishop

[roundhouse]

Michael thanks for that info.

 

I am modelling it late Summer as the siding was removed that Summer and the headshunt extended in September for which I do not have the room, so would be right if I can find a suitable figure. The reason for not modelling the siding is that it was hardly ever used and if I did add it I know that some of my helpers would fill it with stock🙃.

 

At present, this year we should be doing a show in Sussex and another in Cumbria (both awaiting final confirmation) but hopefully it will be out in other locations in due course.

[Michael Bishop]

14 hours ago, roundhouse said:

 

At present, this year we should be doing a show in Sussex and another in Cumbria (both awaiting final confirmation) but hopefully it will be out in other locations in due course.

I live in Bristol  -  but I will speak to my chauffeurse (I don't drive any more) and hope I can persuade her that going to a model railway exhibition is really exciting.    Sussex is a possibility as the Mrs doesn't need persuading to have a visit to the Bluebell Railway.