Tavistock (GWR)

[John Brenchley]

In the past, I have written one or two blog entries about various aspects of my partly built model of the GWR Station in Tavistock, Devon.  However, now that I have got to the stage where two of the eventual four scenic boards are almost complete, I thought that rather than write more blog entries, I might start a Forum topic to record progress to date and add more information as the layout progresses.

I started the model in about 1993 so progress has not been particularly quick – it will almost certainly be my one and only lifetime model. Now that I am working part time (transition to retirement), progress has become a bit quicker, and many areas are now looking more scenically complete.

First, I little bit of prototype information.

The GWR station of Tavistock (named Tavistock (South) in BR days to distinguish it from the ex-Southern station of the same name), was situated on the single-track branch line from Plymouth to Launceston in Devon in the southwest of the UK.  Tavistock is a market town on the edge of Dartmoor and its GWR station was the largest on the branch line.

As can be seen from the map below, it was situated on higher land just to the southeast of the River Dart Tavy and in 2mm scale there is sufficient space to model the station near enough scale length and to include part of the river and adjacent buildings as can be seen by the approximate outlines of the base boards drawn on the map.  The main diversion from the prototype is the need to curve the line at each end as it leaves the station.

 

 

 

The track layout remained unchanged for most of the station’s life and is as shown below. 

 

 

 

Some of the aspects that most appealed to me as a potential model were: -

·         It was a through station but had some terminating services.

·         The track plan was relatively complex, giving interesting operating potential.

·         The station layout was quite compact.

·         There would be good vertical interest for the model – the river below, the road rising to the station and higher ground behind it.

·         The buildings were quite large, i.e., the goods shed, station building and train shed which can make for a more imposing model particularly in a small scale like 2mm.

 

I’ll finish this first entry with a few pictures of the real-life station.

 

Aerial View in 1928

 

View from footbridge looking towards Launceston.

 

View from cattle market towards Launceston.

 

View from a similar position looking towards Plymouth.

 

And lastly, a closer view of the station area

 

Best wishes

 

John

(Perth, Western Australia)

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi John,

 

I'd just like to point out that the river is the Tavy and not the Dart which runs higher on the moor and is in two parts until it joins at Dartmeet.

 

 

[TomE]

Hi John. Great to see you start a thread for Tavistock. Very much looking forward to seeing more of the layout!

 

Tom.  

 

[drduncan]

Hi John,

I can’t wait to see photos of your progress.

Duncan

[Kris]

I shall look forward to seeing more of this. I have enjoyed reading the updates that made it to the 2mm magazine. 

[John Brenchley]

1 hour ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Hi John,

 

I'd just like to point out that the river is the Tavy and not the Dart which runs higher on the moor and is in two parts until it joins at Dartmeet.

 

 

 

Quite right - stupid mistake on my part - no idea why I mixed up the Tavy and the Dart.

 

I'll make a correction to the original post.

[Trewisin]

Hi John, If I am  not mistaken I believe that the local model railway clubs held their shows in the New market building  just up the road from the station. Looks like you have a nice project on your hands good modelling.

Regards Ray.

[brianusa]

A most interesting track plan.  Tavvy was well endowed with facilities especially a T/T which must have been used very rarely in later days after the 4-4-0s left it to the tank engines.  Could make a great model!

   Brian

[John Brenchley]

5 hours ago, brianusa said:

A most interesting track plan.  Tavvy was well endowed with facilities especially a T/T which must have been used very rarely in later days after the 4-4-0s left it to the tank engines.  Could make a great model!

   Brian

I read somewhere that the turntable was still used to turn the tank engines on some of the services that terminated at Tavistock - presumably drivers preferred to return to Plymouth facing forward.

John

[Sithlord75]

Looking forward to seeing the updates John.   Amity tells me she'd like to get over to WA to see her sister and her family and her brother and his girlfriend when the craziness all ends.  Maybe 2022!

[Ian Smith]

John,

Great to see that you’ve started a thread for Tavistock. When I started back 2mm modelling it was a station that I considered before I decided to go the freelance route - as having seen photos of what you’d already done at the time I decided that two 2mm Tavistock’s (even if they were half a world apart would be a no-no) and more importantly I seriously doubted that I could come anywhere near your rendition!

 

I look forward to seeing up to date photos of your progress, and reading about your techniques.

Ian

[gwr517]

It is great to see you starting this blog entry. As one who has seen your work in the flesh I will be following with interest. I am now an EM modeller with Pre WW1 GWR as my main interest . Looking forward to your next entry.

Doug. 

Perth W.Australia.

[John Brenchley]

1 hour ago, Ian Smith said:

John,

Great to see that you’ve started a thread for Tavistock. When I started back 2mm modelling it was a station that I considered before I decided to go the freelance route - as having seen photos of what you’d already done at the time I decided that two 2mm Tavistock’s (even if they were half a world apart would be a no-no) and more importantly I seriously doubted that I could come anywhere near your rendition!

 

I look forward to seeing up to date photos of your progress, and reading about your techniques.

Ian

Thanks for those kind comments Ian

I think if you had started on Tavistock as well, it might have been my efforts that would have suffered in comparison - I very much admire what you have achieved with Modbury and it was your posts that inspired me to start this thread.

 

Best wishes

 

John

[John Brenchley]

35 minutes ago, gwr517 said:

It is great to see you starting this blog entry. As one who has seen your work in the flesh I will be following with interest. I am now an EM modeller with Pre WW1 GWR as my main interest . Looking forward to your next entry.

Doug. 

Perth W.Australia.

Good to hear from you again Doug - at first I didn't recognize the gwr517 name.

Your interests have changed a bit - have you dropped the Sn3.5?

I think with your level of attention to detail, you've made the right move to go to EM instead of OO.

Best wishes

John

[John Brenchley]

Track, Turnouts and Point Rodding

When I started construction of Tavistock, many of the current products sold by the 2mm Scale Association did not exist.

Easitrac in its current form for both plain track and turnouts had not been invented nor had many of the etched chair components.

For plain track, I used the original version of plastic track.  This came as a 6cm long sprue of sleepers with integral moulded chairs – 2 sprues would make up a standard 60-foot length of track.  The main difference from the current Easitrac was that the chairs did not grip the rail in any way other than friction – the inside faces of the chairs being straight sided. 

The rail therefore had to be glued in place and for this I chose to run a thin coat of quick setting Araldite along the base of both bullhead rails and then push them into the sleepers, using roller track gauges at each end to hold the rail upright and adding weights to hold it level till the glue had set.

With Easitrac, the rail can by threaded through the chairs and pieces of complete track fixed to the baseboard.  With the older style of plastic sleepering, I found it easier to glue the sleepers down first, add ballast and weathering before inserting the rail as the final step in the process.

For straight track, the sleepers could be kept in line by using the edge a steel rule pushed gently against the side of the chairs as the glue set.  For curved track, I used Tracksetta curves to line up the chairs.  This does mean that most of my original curves were limited to 24”, 36” and 48” radius.

The picture below shows the appearance of the old-style plastic sleepers on the 24” curve at the Launceston end of the station, transitioning to straight using short lengths of 36” and 48” radius curve as it crosses the bridge over the Old Plymouth (now Whitchurch) Rd.

 

 

For turnouts, I elected to use the white metal chair pins that were sold by the Association - if I remember correctly, originally available in packs of a 1000.  My reason for choosing these was that I didn’t have much confidence in my ability to make neat solder blobs to represent chairs and the chair pins were the best thing then being sold that had a reasonable resemblance to a chair.

Sleepers were cut from a sheet of black plasticard, glued to the baseboard and ballasted as for the plain track.  The white metal post (pin) below the chair was about 0.7mm in diameter so in order to give some scope for adjustment, I drilled larger 1mm holes into the sleepers and through to the baseboard below.  The chair pins were glued in the holes with pva glue and then adjusted into the correct alignment and held in place by using a piece of rail positioned temporarily in the chairs.  As with the plain track, the rails were subsequently glued in place with Araldite.

In the picture below, it can be seen that the chair pins give a smaller chair then the plain plastic track but at normal viewing distances, this is not too obvious.

 

 

Also visible in this picture is my representation of point rodding.  Back in the late 1990s when this track was built, Laurie Adams had not developed the latest system of etched components.  Instead, I followed the method described by Peter Wright in the Feb 1990 magazine.  This involved using pieces of N scale flat bottom rail to represent the stools, with narrow slots cut across the rail into which the appropriate number of rods would be slotted.  For rods, I used nylon fishing line which was held stretched taught while a layer of epoxy glue had time to set across the top of the stools.  Nowadays, I would probably use lengths of wire (steel guitar string) soldered to the stools but at the time, I had plenty of spare fishing line and it seems to have survived OK.  The various cranks were filed up from bits of scrap etch – nowhere near as accurate, nor prototypical as the currently available components but they give a reasonable illusion of what should be there.

 

Finally in this post, a picture of the signal box, mainly to show the adjacent point rodding.  Some of the rodding has suffered over time and is not as straight as I would like but at reasonable viewing distances, it's not too bad.

 

 

Best wishes

John

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[gwr517]

John,

I have no room for a realstic S scale layout due to a house move and therefore decided to follow my other interest, the GWR. You and others from the old Special Interest Group we once belonged to encouraged this along with threads on rmweb . Therefore I will follow Tavistock with great interst indeed. Retirement is helping my layout building and I'm pleased that you can work part time as you have always strived for perfction and while you have plenty of talent you need time also. We all do.

Keep Well,

Doug.

[Ian Morgan]

Wonderful stuff.

 

The trackwork on Alresford was laid using to old plastic sleeper bases. It was laid during a cold winter, and we had our coats on in the clubrooms. Araldite was like toffee at those temperatures, but we did manage to get the track down. However, when the weather warmed up and the rail expanded, we had not not left enough expansion gaps. The rail was held in by the chair mouldings, so the only way was up, and we ended up with a roller coaster.

 

Happy days :-)

 

[John Brenchley]

Point Operation
Although I did not start construction of Tavistock till the early 1990’s, I had been a member of the Association for many years and consequently had copies of the magazine going back to the late 1970’s.  When it came to finding a method for turnout operation, I recalled an idea put forward by Brian Tilbury for the use of film strip for the tie bar which he wrote about in the June and August 1981 issues of the magazine. The more recent Association publication, “Track, How it works and how to model it”, also describes the method, republishing some of Brian’s drawings.

 

For those who have not come across this method, it relies on the fact that, on edge, a piece of film strip is surprisingly strong and being very narrow, is ideally suited to represent the steel tie bar that linked the switch rails on the prototype.  “Ears” at each side of the tie bar press against the switch rails which have to be installed so that they naturally spring away from the adjacent stock rail when not pressed against it by the tie bar.  This method does mean that there is nothing holding the ends of the switch rails in the vertical plane, so care is needed to ensure that they are installed exactly level with the stock rails (or fractionally below at the very tip) so that damage cannot occur when track cleaning.

 

I constructed and installed the tie bars much as described by Brian.  A slot was cut in the baseboard between two sleepers at the toe end of the point.  This was lined with plasticard leaving a gap just wide enough for the film strip to slide freely, the smooth face of the plastic being there to reduce friction to a minimum.  My method of point operation is by way of wire in tube, installed beneath the baseboard so to create a way of moving the film strip from side to side, I attached it to a piece of N scale rail, the flat bottom of which would slide against the underside of the baseboard.  I filed away about a centimetre of the webbing on one side of the rail and glued the film strip to this part of the rail with super glue.  As an extra precaution against the glue giving way, I also inserted two old dress making pins through the film strip and rail and soldered these to the rail on the opposite side from the film strip, lastly cutting off the surplus pointed ends of the pins.  The finished tie bar is shown below.

 

 

Below can be seen the below baseboard set up.  The piece of rail runs in a channel created by a couple more pieces of plastic to make sure the tie bar stays operating at right angles to the track.  It is stopped from falling out of the slot by a couple of staples holding each end of piece of N scale rail. The wire from the tube is attached to this rail with the inclusion of an omega loop to reduce excess pressure and an angle crank where necessary to change direction to the baseboard edge.  By choosing appropriate holes in the arms of the angle crank, the amount of movement in the tie bar can be increased or decreased, allowing for fine adjustment.

 

 

The wire in tube is taken to the baseboard edge where there is a small operating panel of electrical switches to change the V-crossing polarity.  The wires from each point are wound into a loop that fits over the appropriate switch lever, thus using the mechanical movement of the electrical switch to throw the point.   The up or down position of the lever also gives a visual indication on the diagram below it as to which direction the point has been set.

 

 

Finally, a picture of one of the goods yard points to show the tie bar in place.  I should probably get round to painting it a rusty brown colour as at the moment it is still the rather shiny black of the film strip.  Also, on this point, the “ears” could probably be reduced in size but there is always a bit of a compromise to be made between strength and appearance. Also, the bar between the “ears” is maybe a bit lower than the prototype steel bar would be, but I’ll just pretend the adjacent ballast is a bit high.

 

 

Best wishes

 

John

Edited April 5, 2022 by John Brenchley

[John Brenchley]

The layout so far

Before  describing some of the main buildings, I thought I would include a couple of pictures of the whole layout as it currently stands.

 

As can be seen from the maps and plans that I included with my first post, I planned that the main station area would fit onto two boards, 1400mm x 600mm, with the split between them coinciding approximately with the ends of the platform.  This would mean that all the main station features i.e., platforms, station building, goods shed and signal box would all be on the one board.  I elected to start with this board and decided that I would aim to complete each board scenically before moving on to the next.  My reasoning was that I suspected that if I built all the trackwork at the start, I might be tempted to “play trains” and never finish the scenery.  I have pretty much stuck to this plan, although I also built one corner board as well which allowed me to test the running a bit as it gave somewhere for the trains to go in the Launceston direction.  It also meant I could model the river in one go and get consistency in its scenic treatment across both boards.  The corner board is a slightly odd shape, being 1000mm x 600mm but narrowing to 500mm at the end of the track curve.

 

Below is an overall view of the two boards showing the current state of play.

 

 

A closer view of the main board is below.  My next project is to complete the scenic treatment of the bank on the right-hand side.  In real life, this was completely covered with large trees but since this is the main viewing side, I’ll have to thin them out a bit or else nearly all of the station will be obscured when viewed from eye level.

 

Most of the scenic treatment on this board was completed over 20 years ago so in comparison with the corner board that I have been working on more recently, a lot of the shrubs and ground cover look a bit tattered and faded so they will be getting a bit of a top up with fresh scatter material (Woodland Scenics).

 

 

Finally, a view at right angles to show the corner board.

 

I’m not totally happy with the road surface on this board – my air brushing is a bit patchy, and the colour doesn’t quite match the main board so another attempt at it is needed.  For the photo, the pavements are just loosely placed in position and won’t be glued down till I’m happy with the road surface.

 

 

The small triangular area missing a building is where I believe there was a garage or car showroom.  As yet, I haven’t been able to work out what it looked like in the 1930’s.  I’m pretty certain the pictures I have found from the 1960’s are of a more modern rebuild.  I know the shape from some long distance pictures, but the detail is unclear – modeller's licence may be needed for this building.

 

Those of you that know Dolvin Road in Tavistock will realise that I have moved the cemetery closer to the cottages.  I know there was another building in between but it has long since been replaced by a more modern structure and I have no idea what the original one looked like.  I’m not too concerned that it had to be left out as it gave me the excuse I needed to model a bit of the cemetery.

 

Best wishes

 

John

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[Winchat]

John

 

Looks wonderful.  For the road have you thought of using a textured paint like https://ak-interactive.com/product/terrains-asphalt-250ml/

 

I think others like Vallejo and Ammo make something similar.

 

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

 

Kind regards

 

Geoff

 

[John Brenchley]

Thanks Geoff

 

That looks an interesting link .

 

Its hard to tell from the pictures but it looks as if the texture might be a little excessive for 2mm scale - also quite dark in colour - have you tried it?

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Winchat]

19 hours ago, John Brenchley said:

Thanks Geoff

 

That looks an interesting link .

 

Its hard to tell from the pictures but it looks as if the texture might be a little excessive for 2mm scale - also quite dark in colour - have you tried it?

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

John

 

I haven't tried the Asphalt as such but I have used other ground textures and they seem to be alright for 2mm.  I have attached a couple of images of a building I made for a friend N gauge US layout.  As I was going to take it to a NMRA meeting I did a quick scenery job as a display. 

 

As you can see from the indoor shoot taken from what would call a viewing distance the texture seems to be fine but the other photograph I took outside is taken a bit closer seems to be a bit coarse for 2mm.  The texture was a pale colour as I recall and I used pigments to colour it.  I tried to add various tones so it wasn't too uniform.

 

Again, as I recall I was able to thin it using water. 

 

Are you coming to the shindig in September providing it goes ahead?  If so, I can bring a pot with me and you can play with it (the paint that is, not the pot).

 

The railway line in the outdoor shot is the main line between Adelaide and Melbourne.

 

Kind regards

 

Geoff

[John Brenchley]

A nice looking scene there Geoff - I like the ground cover treatment.

 

I'll keep experimenting with my tarmac but might take you up on your offer in September.

 

In theory, I'm booked to come to the 2mm gathering in NSW but I'm not too sure about getting there now.  The way WA treats its borders, I might not be allowed back from NSW unless the Covid outbreak gets controlled fairly soon.

 

Best wishes

 

John

Edited July 22, 2021 by John Brenchley

[Winchat]

On 22/07/2021 at 12:52, John Brenchley said:

A nice looking scene there Geoff - I like the ground cover treatment.

 

I'll keep experimenting with my tarmac but might take you up on your offer in September.

 

In theory, I'm booked to come to the 2mm gathering in NSW but I'm not too sure about getting there now.  The way WA treats its borders, I might not be allowed back from NSW unless the Covid outbreak gets controlled fairly soon.

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

Thank you John, very kind of you to say so.

 

I was just thinking a bit more about your roads.  A present weathering technique seems to be putting dots of various, usually oil, colours over the object to be weathered.  You might want to try it with various shades of pigments although there wouldn't be anything stopping you using oils, and using a brush to blend the colours.  That way you can get various tones, roads are never single colour, and a good transition between the various tones.

 

I think the WA/SA border is open as it the QLD/SA border.  Maybe SA might be the go?

 

Kind regards

Geoff

[John Brenchley]

The Signal Box

One of the first of the Tavistock buildings that I constructed was the signal box.  It is now about 25 years old and is largely unchanged from when I first built it, apart from replacement of damaged finials and steps.

 

The box at Tavistock is what the Signalling Study Group refers to as a Type 5 box.  Luckily for me, the Peco publication “Ericplans” contains a 4mm scale drawing of this type of box, based on the one at Leckhampton.

 

 

 

This drawing  was used as the basis for the height and depth of the Tavistock box.  However, photographs of the actual box showed that, based on the number of window panes, it was quite a bit longer than the drawing.  There was also a slightly different number of panes at the main door end of the box.  Using several photocopies of the drawings, I was able to cut and glue together a 2mm scale version of the box from which to build the model (rather an old fashioned approach but this was well before I had come across photoshop).

The picture taken during demolition of Tavistock station was particularly useful as it was the only one I could find that showed how many windows existed on the ground floor on this side.  It also confirmed that the chimney breast extended for the whole of the wall height, unlike the drawing.  Regarding the chimney, most of the pictures taken in BR days show a metal stove pipe instead of a chimney but the undated lower right photograph certainly confirmed its existence and based on the type of loco and coach, I took this to be a much older photograph and reasonable evidence that the chimney could be included for the period I wanted to model of the late 1930’s.

 

My chosen material for this model was plastic and I used the Ratio embossed brickwork for the outer surface.  I find that the Ratio product is one of the best there is in having decent right-angled corners for the bricks rather than round blobs.  However, I find its sheet thickness of 1.3mm makes it impossible to work with.  I therefore attack the rear surface with a heavy rasp and course files to reduce the thickness to about 15 thou and use this as an overlay glued to the main shell.

 

If anyone has not come across the ratio products, the enlargement below gives an indication of the crispness of the moulding.  The only problem for historic buildings is the modern, plain nature of the bond.  However, in our scale, it would need very close examination to spot the error.

 

 

For windows, I started with a piece of 1mm thick microscope slide and added glazing bars from thin strips of sticky label.  All this time later, they are still stuck to the glass so it must be pretty impressive adhesive that was used on the labels.  The bars are a bit overscale and today it would be possible to get a much finer result from etching the windows but at the time I started, etching wasn’t so common and the sticky label approach was quite widely advocated as the way to create windows.  Although 1mm glass might seem rather thick compared with using thinner microscope cover slips, it is much more robust and the edges can be completely hidden by the corner posts to the windows.

 

 

I have not installed any internal lighting, so the interior is quite dark. Because of this, I kept inside detail to a minimum, just installing some levers from the Ratio detailing kit which are just visible at certain angles.  Also, the eagle eyed may be able to spot a signalman looking out of the window in the left had corner.

 

The roof is made from the Ratio embossed slate sheet but does not really look as crisp in appearance when compared to the bricks.   Also at the back, rather heavy-handed use of solvent when gluing it in place has rather distorted the surface at each end.  Luckily this is at the back of the layout so is not normally seen and the front face of the roof hasn’t suffered in this way. If I was remaking the model today, I would use the ClearSolutions slate strip sticky labels, but I doubt if I’ll change it any time soon – far too many other things to start on – another coat of matt paint might tone it down a bit though.

 

 

The roof finials have been remade several times. They were initially carved from square section plastic strip, but the tip was prone to being knocked off so in the end I filed up new ones from brass rod – much stronger and now more of a hazzard to an operator getting too close!

 

 

Since building this model, I’ve changed a few techniques and I would probably use a different method to create the brickwork above each window – more in line with the way I did with the station building.  Also, I hope I could now apply a slightly finer paint finish to the woodwork but for my first 2mm scale building, I’m prepared to live with it, particularly as it sits reasonably near to the rear of the baseboard.

 

Best wishes

John

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by John Brenchley