Dulverton in 00. 1960s BR(W)

[PeterH]

I’m a member of the South West Herts MRS. Towards the end of last year we were contacted by a widow who was looking to have her late husband’s model of Dulverton removed from her home. Our club obliged and help clear out his model railway items. The buildings were left for a few months in a storage area and I felt it was such a shame that these remarkably well made buildings were not being seen or used so I decided to remedy that but turning it into an exhibition layout (or so I hope!).
 

As you can see from the photos below the vast majority of the buildings have been built and are roughly in place. I made the baseboards yesterday from 9mm plywood and 20.5mm x 94mm planed softwood. The two baseboards are currently 55” x 4’. The frame so far only extends to 2’ across as I am unsure how much space the yard will take up. I’ll complete the framing and cut away any excess board once I’ve worked out where the track will go in the yard. There will be a third board required for the point work on the Taunton end. Fortunately the road bridge on the Barnstaple end makes a convenient scenic break. I plan on using a ‘cassette’ style fiddleyard and run trains into square modified plastic guttering.
 

Track will be Peco Code 75 on cork underlay and I am aiming for DCC control, most probably the MERG system as that’s what we use at the model railway club and is a system I’m familiar with and enjoy using. Points will be electrofrog powered by SEEP PM1s and the little Peco lever frame passing contact switches. I’ll probably wire on-off-on section switches to the control panel to be able to switch between DC or DCC controllers (although that’s something I’ve not given a huge amount of thought to yet). I may use Dapol motorised semaphores as well.

 

Rolling stock is a little annoying, the layout and buildings are in late 50s / early 60s condition and all of the appropriate rolling stock I have (which is quite a bit) is in GWR or Southern livery! Other than MK1s the only suitable loco I have is a Standard 3MT. Still BR(W) Hawkesworth and Collett coaches are easy to come by and Dapol have done the Mogul and Class 22. I just need to get a few BR liveried items and weather them appropriately. 
 

The next job is to fit some baseboard alignment dowels and secure the two boards together with bolts and wing nuts. I’ll continue to work on the track plan and corking. 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by PeterH

[PeterH]

There are a few bits missing, most obvious is the road bridge and the curious pumphouse with the cut-down corner. I’ll have a look up the railway club to see if they are there. I’m also missing a lot of platform ramps oddly. The Carnarvon Arms Hotel will likely be incorporated into the back scene. 
 

The Freddie Huxtable books have been a great source of information as has pictures I’ve seen online of the extensive model at the Dulverton Heritage Centre.

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by PeterH

[Siberian Snooper]

Those buildings are superb, I wish you luck with this project.

 

 

[martinT]

There's some excellent-looking & well-proportioned buildings here. Do you know whether the builder had access to drawings?

[Railpassion]

What a great project, a restoration that starts with the buildings rather than the track .  Some lovely work by a dedicated modeller. 

[PeterH]

7 hours ago, martinT said:

There's some excellent-looking & well-proportioned buildings here. Do you know whether the builder had access to drawings?

 

I don't know unfortunately, all I know is the gentleman who constructed the buildings was a Mr. Bird and was built between 1993 and 1997. I will need to find out more but considering the quality of the buildings in comparison to the photos I've seen of it I would imagine he possibly did. I will need to find out more about the history of the models.

 

7 hours ago, Railpassion said:

What a great project, a restoration that starts with the buildings rather than the track .  Some lovely work by a dedicated modeller. 

 

I do feel like I'm cheating quite a bit, even though no track is down it feels like progress has been made. Even the small buildings are wonderful. I just hope I can find the missing bits and do it justice!

Edited January 25, 2022 by PeterH

[PeterH]

A few more pictures of the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by PeterH

[martinT]

14 hours ago, PeterH said:

I don't know unfortunately, all I know is the gentleman who constructed the buildings was a Mr. Bird and was built between 1993 and 1997. I will need to find out more but considering the quality of the buildings in comparison to the photos I've seen of it I would imagine he possibly did. I will need to find out more about the history of the models.

Thanks Peter - that's sad news. I can't claim to know Martin Bird but 15 or 20 years ago we swapped info on the Barnstaple line. I provided him with a quite long list of photo references which I'd compiled, he supplied me with a few photos  generally taken post-closure. The one pre-closure is below - the young guy in a dark jacket on the left watching the Exe Valley loco take water is apparently Martin!  I hope his family won't be offended by my posting of the photo.

 

If you look at the Acknowledgements page of one of your Freddie Huxtable books you'll find his name!

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by martinT
photo omitted!

[Douglas G]

I was sad to hear about Martin Bird passing away. Some 25 years ago I visited his house to see his layout, which was up in the loft, and in subsequent years we shared information and sources about Dulverton. As far as I know martin didn't have plans except for a 1930s water supply plan, plus photos and the dimensions from the extant main station building and goods shed.

The quality of his buildings really is outstanding and it will be a fitting memorial to see a new layout with them in place.

[PeterH]

Thank you both for your replies, it is nice to know a bit more and to learn there's a sort of 'Dulverton/D&SR community'. I've made arrangements to get the DCC system and will continue with corking and hunting for further bits of the layout.

[KeithMacdonald]

Would a track plan be of any help?

 

[Siberian Snooper]

I'm sure that there's a later version, that has the lower platform as an island, but the NLS site doesn't have it. The Exe valley trains used the extra loop.

 

[martinT]

9 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

I'm sure that there's a later version, that has the lower platform as an island, but the NLS site doesn't have it. The Exe valley trains used the extra loop.

 

Yes, there were quite a few changes to the track arrangement & platform lengths over the years. Huxtable's books & 'The Exe Valley Rly' by John Owen give details. The version given above is that pre-1904 when a bay platform line was added for Exe Valley trains. In 1911 this bay line was converted into a loop which required the corner to be taken off the pumphouse to provide clearance.

[lincolnshiremodeller]

Some excellent modelling and a great outcome for Martin's work. Makes a nice change to see somebody's passion and hard work not ending up in a skip.

[PeterH]

Below is the track plan I’ll be following. I did consider having a reduced goods yard as per its condition after goods traffic ceased however I think for operational interest it makes sense to keep it. The DCC system has been ordered so I should get hold of that in the next week or two. Club night tonight so I should be able to get my hands on a few bits to sort out the alignment dowels and I need to speak to a member about his legs - or more accurately the legs he made for one of the other layouts up there!

[PeterH]

That’s the DCC controller sorted for the layout. A second hand set on its way so I’ll have one for the up and down lines. I’m hoping to sort out the dowels this weekend and look at the legs the following week. I’ve also purchased a bank of the Peco lever frames for the points, it’ll be a while before I get around to that though.

[martinT]

On 01/02/2022 at 13:05, PeterH said:

Below is the track plan I’ll be following. I did consider having a reduced goods yard as per its condition after goods traffic ceased however I think for operational interest it makes sense to keep it.

 

I'm sure that's the best decision! Removing sidings immediately dates the layout to the last couple of years of the station's life,  after the closure of the Exe Valley branch. With the sidings it will be the brick-base on the signal box that dates the model. The all-wooden SB was rebuilt with a brick base some time in the early/mid-1950s. No exact date has been found but there is a photo by R M Casserley dated 25th September 1956 in the Middleton Press book which shews a brick base. That's the earliest I've come across - if anyone has an earlier photo shewing a brick base  I'd be interested to see it.

Freddie Huxtable tells me that he has written an article on Dulverton for a forthcoming edition of 'Western Times' - the new journal by Transport Treasury Publishing, see:  https://ttpublishing.co.uk/product/western-times-issue-3/  .  There will be some new photos but the text will essentially consolidate the information spread across his 3 volumes.

 

 

[martinT]

50 minutes ago, Pteremy said:

New photos are always welcome, but I am not sure we need another potted history.

Well, as I understand it Kevin Robertson asked Freddie Huxtable to write such an article - so he obviously thought it to be useful! Not everyone will have Freddie's books in any case.

 

50 minutes ago, Pteremy said:

The thing about the signal box is that what clearly happens in the mid 1950's is that the wooden cladding is removed from the lower part of the signal box. If you look at the lower window frames before and after removal you can see that the cladding overlapped the frames -after removal the frames are wider than they appeared before, with stepped sections of timber that (presumably) the cladding was attached to. Does this mean that a brick base was added at this time, or simply that an existing brick base was exposed? If it wasn't original could a brick base have been added in the late 1930's, when significant improvements were made all along the line? It is odd that there is no official record of the rebuilding.

That's an interesting suggestion. I'm no SB expert but is there any evidence that the GWR built brick-based SBs & then clad them in wood? Why would they have done so?

[PeterH]

I love shunting on a layout so it makes sense to keep the sidings, also as you say it doesn’t restrict the time period as much as it would by removing them. Interesting the mystery on the signal box rebuilding, you would have thought that would have been fairly well recorded.

I’ve made a little bit of progress on the layout, namely fitting the legs and alignment dowels to the king board. I did want to get the legs on the second board but it is too cold, wet and miserable outside. I’d rather be watching the snooker in front of the fire with a glass of wine! There’s still a bit more work to do on the legs to make them more stable but it’s great to get a piece freestanding.

[PeterH]

4 hours ago, martinT said:

Freddie Huxtable tells me that he has written an article on Dulverton for a forthcoming edition of 'Western Times' - the new journal by Transport Treasury Publishing, see:  https://ttpublishing.co.uk/product/western-times-issue-3/  .  There will be some new photos but the text will essentially consolidate the information spread across his 3 volumes.

 

A very nice colour photo of Dulverton on the front cover! Useful reference as I think I’ll need to make the bridge and pump house as after extensive searching on Saturday I confirmed they weren’t up the club.

[Pteremy]

43 minutes ago, martinT said:

Well, as I understand it Kevin Robertson asked Freddie Huxtable to write such an article - so he obviously thought it to be useful! Not everyone will have Freddie's books in any case.

 

That's an interesting suggestion. I'm no SB expert but is there any evidence that the GWR built brick-based SBs & then clad them in wood? Why would they have done so?

Personally I think that the jury is still out on 'Western Times' - I was disappointed that the milk train article in the 2nd edition was just a reprint of a 50 year old magazine article - it cried out for something by way of an update with new historical understanding, some of which can be found in threads here on RMweb. 

 

I agree that it is more likely to have been a timber box originally. I am just wondering whether the removal of the cladding is necessarily contemporaneous with the replacement brick base, given that it appears from the photographic evidence that the new base sat inside the cladding (as you might expect if it merely replaced an original timber frame). Why might you retain the cladding? Aesthetics, that is continuity with the upper box? Weather protection, in the same way that the main station buildings are slate hung? There must be a record somewhere that records the actual date of rebuilding.

[PeterH]

Well the leg hinges I used turned out to be no blooming good and they’ve already buckled. I’m going to fix the legs in a simpler fashion which we use on a club layout called Tedburn St. Mary. I’ll box off the corners to create receptacles for the legs to slot into and secure them with loose nails. They’ll be removable and will be separate when in transportation/storage. Not the most attractive solution but simple and reliable.

 

One step forward and two steps back!

[martinT]

On 13/02/2022 at 13:02, martinT said:

Freddie Huxtable tells me that he has written an article on Dulverton for a forthcoming edition of 'Western Times' - the new journal by Transport Treasury Publishing, see:  https://ttpublishing.co.uk/product/western-times-issue-3/  .  There will be some new photos but the text will essentially consolidate the information spread across his 3 volumes.

Just a correction/clarification. In spite of the cover illustration of WT 3 the Dulverton article will be in WT4 due out in August.  See: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/165383-western-times/page/4/

 

[Pteremy]

Reverting to the rebuilding of the signal box another Casserley photo from 25th September 1956 has just appeared on eBay. A narrow section of the front of the signal box is visible between the engine and coach of an Exe Valley train. As the coach is a toplight I assume that it is the same train as in the photo 49 of the Middleton Book. 

[martinT]

5 hours ago, Pteremy said:

Reverting to the rebuilding of the signal box another Casserley photo from 25th September 1956 has just appeared on eBay. A narrow section of the front of the signal box is visible between the engine and coach of an Exe Valley train. As the coach is a toplight I assume that it is the same train as in the photo 49 of the Middleton Book. 

Well spotted! And a signal man is leaning out of the same window in both photos! Actually it's not a photo for sale but a 35mm negative which perhaps explains the £4.99 starting price.