Dulverton Station '62 - Let there be grass...

[Douglas G]

You may well have come across these pictures before but as I found them earlier I thought I'd share the link just in case they are helpful.

 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/taunton-to-barnstaple.html

 

 

You'll have to scroll down a bit to find Dulverton.

 

Many thanks for the link. I did find them through a Google search a few months ago, but your post was a useful opportunity to see if they have added any more pictures, as I understand there may be more to come from the photographers.

 

I think the first one with the two lorries in the coal yard may be new. One is a Bedford O lorry with a military-type cab belonging to Goodlands coal and builders merchants that appears in several pictures - I am hoping that Oxford will produce this in N as well as in OO.

 

Cheers,

 

Douglas

[Douglas G]

I am trying to decide how best to shape the background for Dulverton, as it determines where I finally cut the baseboard surfaces before landscaping.

 

I am very much inspired by Iain Rice's "An approach to Model Railway Layout design", where he promotes curved backdrops to avoid visible corners. However, he does'nt seem to say what shape of backscene is best. In the plans in the book there are two approaches. One is a straight background across the middle and relatively small radius, uniform curves (a quadrant of a circle) in each corner. The other is more of a compound curve, with a large radius and shallow curve in the centre increasing to a much tighter radius at either end.

 

Here are sketches of the two approaches:

 

 

I was wondering if anyone has ideas on which approach gives best results in terms of the curvature being less obvious and avoiding shadows and changes in levels of illumination. My gut feeling is the compound curve may make the curve less obvious when viewing from the middle in front of the layout. Having tight curves at the ends is not an issue as people tend not to be looking there and they may be hidden from view by scenic breaks or proscenium arches in any case.

 

Any thoughts would be welcome!

[westerner]

Wencombe has the latter approach, straight and two mid radius curves (approx. 15inches 380mm). It seems to work OK with a not obvious transition from straight to curve.

[Karhedron]

Carl's Vale of Oxbury has a curved-straight-curved backscene and it looks pretty good.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simage61/9702160961/

[Douglas G]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I have been working on this corner of the layout the last couple of nights, and as it happens I don't have any choice but to go for the single curve in the corner as the background has to pass behind the cattle market buildings next to the hotel.  It has involved a bit of trimming in places and adding on some more ground surface in others, but it is coming together now. I do need to extend the two roads and try to disguise the joins as much as possible.

 

On the tree front, after the failure of the ordinary PVA, I have once more had good results with Deluxe Materials Scenic Spray in sticking the foliage flock on to the tree. It is great stuff, I think. The only problem is that the spray comes out very wide and I always seem to end up with glue on my hands, arms and watch, no matter how careful I am.

[Douglas G]

Just a quick update, as I haven't posted anything recently. Over the last few weeks I have been plugging away trying to get the basic landscape done to my satisfaction. It is looking a bit of a mess as a work in progress, hence I haven't posted any pictures. There are lots of bits of foam and dust from sanding all over the place.

 

Much of the left-hand board (the west of the station) has now had the Knauf foam landscape covered with Javis Scenery Maker plaster bandage. I stuck the bandage down dry onto a coating of PVA and then brushed on water with brown acrylic paint added to set the plaster. Once dry I added a thin skim of ready mixed Polyfilla to fill the pores in the bandage, again with brown acrylic paint added. Once sanded smooth where required, the surface has been finished with green acrylic paint ready for the grass to be added.

 

The road, and side lane, made from black plasticard, are also stuck in place, along with the road bridge and embankment at the left-hand end, which makes a big difference.

 

I am trying to get the shape and heights of the landscape as accurate as possible, which has meant lots of trial and error and occasionally redoing some sections to get the shape and relative levels correct. Aerial photos have been a godsend for this - they were well worth the cost of getting prints.

 

I now need to move on to the right-hand board which represents the land as it dropped below the track to the east of the station. This should be easier to do, and the foam is already carved to shape.

 

Douglas

Edited April 25, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

After a few weeks of very messy work, with dust from sanding foam and plaster, here are some pictures of progress.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

One of my dislikes is prominent baseboard joins and I wanted to disguise these as much as possible in my model of Dulverton, which is on two baseboards with the split in the middle of the station. I couldn't avoid having to split several sets of track in the process.

 

To disguise the join I chose a line that passed down the edge of the goods yard access road and then followed the line of the point rodding coming across from the signal box and through tunnels under the two platforms. I hope the point rodding next to the break will mean it is not very apparent.

 

For the line of the baseboard join towards the front I have used the curved edge of the access road leading down to the weighbridge. The join passes through the base of the weighbridge hut, which sits in a recess in the surface between the access road and the cattle dock loading platform:

 

 

 

The edge of the embankment that forms the left-hand edge of the access road projects out of the left-hand baseboard to disguise the join:

 

 

 

 

The other area I have been working on is the back left corner of the layout, behind the hotel and cattle market out buildings.  I have gone for a curved background that is a quadrant of a circle, with the backs of the cattle market buildings being cut off at the back by the backscene (not yet in place). You can see where I have had to extend the land surface out after I changed the curvature - there have been quite a lot of bits I have had to do two or three times to get it right:

 

 

I am not sure where to go next - there are so many things to do. Stick on a thin layer of Woodlands Scenics scenic scatter as a base for static grass and surgical lint grass? Put in the hedges? Put in the fences?

 

Douglas

Edited May 17, 2014 by Douglas G

[westerner]

It'll be interesting to see photos with the track laid and your excellent buildings on the layout. I hope it all fits. I can't wait to see the finished result.

[Douglas G]

Many thanks, Alan.

 

At the rate I'm going, it is going to be a long time before the layout is finished!

[Richard Hall]

This layout has the potential to be something quite special.  It's great to see someone using N gauge to model a railway in a landscape, rather than trying to cram every available inch of board with track and other railway stuff. Keep at it.

[Douglas G]

This layout has the potential to be something quite special.  It's great to see someone using N gauge to model a railway in a landscape, rather than trying to cram every available inch of board with track and other railway stuff. Keep at it.

 

Thanks for your kind words, Richard. I like what I have seen so far of your layout too, especially the colours and the way you have got the Peco track to look so good.

 

The spaciousness and lack of cramming things in my model comes from modelling a real location. However, I do wonder if some parts of the final thing will look a bit too sparse, especially at the right-hand end, and if some of the buildings will look lost in the landscape. But at least I can argue that is how it actually was. I can see why people often go for selective compression of station and track layouts, not just to save space but for a more interesting arrangement and appearance.

 

The down side of modelling a prototype is the time it takes to get things right, particularly ensuring that the proportions and relative positioning are correct and that colours and textures match the real thing. This has involved me in redoing several parts in order to get things right, adding to the time taken and disillusioning me at times.

 

For a fictitious location whatever you do is right, I suppose, as long as it is line with prototype practice and the overall effect is convincing.

 

It doesn't help that in N structures are easily damaged, especially when building them into the landscape. In working on the cattle dock and access road, which involved putting the cattle dock in place, I have managed to squeeze and break some of the railings of the cattle dock, and it is taking a while to repair them as they are thin plastic strip and quite fragile until all joined up. Earlier I managed to break off the canopy of the main station building when adjusting the ground level around it, and still have to reattach this. I suppose it's all part of the process. 

 

Douglas

Edited May 29, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I have just come back from a very productive couple of days down in Dulverton, taking photos and doing some local research.

 

The Dulverton Heritage Centre has a 4mm model of Dulverton Station produced by local volunteers that is nearing completion and is now open to the public:

 

http://www.dulvertonheritagecentre.org.uk/model-railway-exhibition.html

 

On Thursday Chris Nelder of Dulverton and District Civic Society gave a very interesting illustrated talk about the history of the station at the Heritage Centre and there is also a temporary exhibition of railway artefacts on at present. So this gave me a good reason to pay a visit.

 

The model railway is very impressive and much larger in scale than most layouts at exhibitions. It is run on DCC with a computerised programme of trains running automaticallly. It is well worth a look - opening times are at the link above.

 

I managed to get some pictures of the sunken water tank, which has now been uncovered having being covered with vegetation, detailed photographs of the Carnarvon Arms Hotel garden and a set of images looking over the station site for a printed panoramic background.

 

Some changes to my model in progress of the hotel garden are now required in the light of my new photographs. I can also go ahead and make the sunken water tank - I know its dimensions from a plan but did not know how high it was and what the covering looked like (a curved corrugated roof). That will keep me busy!

 

Douglas

Edited June 8, 2014 by Douglas G

[Donw]

Hello Douglas the layout is coming on fine. I missed our local club's visit to the heritage layout. May I suggest sorting the grass out before doing the fences too much risk of covering the fences with scatter or fibres I would think.

Do you have the book on the Exe Valley line  (out of print now) some interesting info in there. I was most amused with the fact that during the war bomb damage of the main line to Exeter meant the Cornish Riviera Express had to be diverted through Dulverton and down the exe valley line, with special dispensation for a Mogul and a large Prairie to go down the Exe Valley and of course needing to reverse in Dulverton Station.

Don

[Douglas G]

Thanks, Don.

 

I am sitting here at the PC with a dusting of plastic scrapings and filings where I have been working on the hotel garden, getting it right to match my new photos. Also getting a headache from Plastic Weld and Squadron Green putty, despite the window being open...

 

I take your point about doing the grass before the fences. As an alternative, the wire post fences made with brass section could be covered with masking tape while adding the grass, as they are very strong, unlike the etched and plastic fences elsewhere on the layout.

 

I do indeed have the Exe Valley Book, assuming you mean the one published by Kingfisher with a blue cover. I paid a lot for one of these second hand just before a reprint came out with an extra colour photo section - I think it is still available new. There were other diversions, I believe, through Dulverton due to flooding in the late 1950s.

 

If you get a chance, do go and see the Heritage Centre layout - it is very impressive!

 

cheers,

 

Douglas

[Douglas G]

I have been working away redoing the base for the Carnarvon Arms Hotel using the photos and information I got from my recent visit to Dulverton.

 

This has involved redoing the path down to the garden at a sharper angle so it reaches the lawn further down the garden, increasing the drop of the side embankment down to the garden from the area station, and adding the rough stone retaining wall on the side embankment. This stone wall was not visible in the photographs I took previously and I had wrongly positioned it at the top of the embankment. The change in the angle of the path was particularly important for the bend in the path to be positioned correctly in relation to the path that runs across to the hotel, and to allow me to get the trees in the correct positions.

 

The ground surface has now been sanded and given a spray of Halfords grey primer ready for further painting and addition of scattering.

 

This is how it looks at present:

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the pictures I took of the real thing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am satisfied that I have now got things pretty close to the real thing and I can carry on with the landscaping around the hotel.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

Here are some pictures of the other part of the layout I have been working on recently, the outbuildings behind the Carnarvon Arms Hotel, which will be in the back left of the layout with the backscene curving around just behind them:

 

 

 

 

 

The walls are Ratio random stone and the roofs Ratio slate, apart from the far left roof which is Kibri Z gauge pantile roof sheet.  As it is at the back of the layout, the rear walls are left plain. I only have very limited photos of these buildings, as shown in the link to the Frith site earlier in the thread, plus some photos I took a few years back. Unfortunately the wing going to the right towards the hotel was demolished by the time of later aerial photos in the mid-1960s that would have helped with some of the details, and I have had to guess some of the layout inside the right-hand courtyard area. I have been told that the chimney was for the hotel laundry and assume it came through a sloping roof, although it is not visible behind the front wall in any of the photos I have, that were taken from  the road in front at a relatively low angle.

 

The photos above show some of the techniques I have used for my buildings for Dulverton. By scraping with a strong knife and filing smooth, I chamfer the corners of the walls to get a neat join. I also scrape and file the edges of the slate roofs to give a realistic thin profile. The roofs have triangular gussets to strengthen them where necessary, but also rest on internal partitions put in to strengthen the structure of the walls and support the roof.

 

Today I have been working on the clock tower that was on the apex of the roof of the wing runs that runs from the back to the front. This has used sections of the support from a Ratio concrete foot bridge that give a structure just about the right size and shape. I haven't worked out how to do the pointed and curved four sided spire/roof yet.

 

After all the effort of redoing things, I feel encouraged that progress is now being made.

 

Douglas

Edited June 29, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I haven't posted anything for a while as I have been busy recreating the prototype by doing a bit of demolition and rebuilding.

 

In modelling the outbuildings to the left of the Carnarvon Arms Hotel (known in recent years as the Clock Tower Complex), I was aware that by 1965 the wing across the back, and the wall and small buildings at the front, as seen in my model above, had been demolished to make way for some garages for the hotel. However, I did not know when this had happened, and I assumed that it had not yet been done by the date of 1962 for my model.

 

I have now learned you should always put a date on prints of your photographs. I had one print of a photo I was given by a source in Dulverton showing the back of the hotel with the demolition clearly done in the outbuildings but no date on my print. But browsing the digital versions of my photos I have realised from the file name that this photo was taken 1962. So my model as built was wrong.

 

So once more a step backwards, as I proceeded to demolish part of what I had built and copied the real builders (I must be mad!).

 

I have now built the garages and added the distinctive clock tower on the roof of the main building, as shown here:

 

 

 

 

This has meant some alterations to the level of the road verge in front, meaning surgery to the plasticard and a lot of sanding to smooth out the joins. The ground surface still needs respraying with primer and then the tarmac adding with enamels. I have been trying to get the bargeboards right at the end of the front gables - these were a complicated type with a circular projection and central hole at the bottom end, which are taking several attempts to get right. There are similar bargeboards on the hotel, which an equal pain to make.

 

I am quite chuffed with how the clock tower has come out - bits of Ratio N gauge signal gantry cut and shunted were involved. At the time of the model this clock tower had an open aperture under the pointed roof, but it was closed in later. (More recently, when the buildings where converted to houses, the clock tower was moved over to the left over an access archway and gate - it just shows how buildings can change over time).

 

Below are links of pictures of the real thing when the complex was up for sale (EDITED TO REMOVE NON-WORKING LINKS):

 

http://media.rightmove.co.uk/22k/21695/35512514/21695_DUL100087_IMG_00_0001.JPG

 

 

 

I don't have any picture of the front of these buildings in 1962, just in the mid-1950s before demolition (on the Francis Frith website) and ones taken in the last 10 or 15 years. I have assumed that at the time of my model the window at the end of the large building had not yet been added and it was still a door to the upstairs loft. I believe the window came later when the outbuildings were converted as an annex for functions in the hotel. I do know from two distant shots that in the 1960s the barge boards were red, not black, so will reproduce this.

 

One advantage of this model of Dulverton is that I can have a lot of cars parked outside the station and the hotel, including now this part of the outbuildings.

 

Next job is painting, once the bargeboards are done, then add the doors and attach the roof. The clock faces to be attached to the tower are ones I found from a Google search and sized to fit in Word before printing.

 

Onwards and upwards....

Edited August 4, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I have just realised that three of the links don't link above - must be some restriction on the West Somerset planning website.

 

Sorry.

 

Douglas

[Douglas G]

I meant to say that in the third photograph I have put in place a print off of one of the pictures I took for the background.

 

The hotel outbuildings will be in the back left of the layout and the backscene will curve round behind them. This photo shows the actual landscape that is behind the buildings when viewed from this angle, but it will need to be quite a bit enlarged in the final version, I think.

[Douglas G]

I have been trying stitching together my background panorama photos I took at Dulverton in June with Microsoft ICE. I used the intelligent auto on my camera one day and then did photos on manual setting the second day, as they say that the panoramic images work better with the same exposures for all the individual images. For the manual images I used a range of exposures for a series of panoramas.

 

This is one of the best versions (I have had to reduce the file size and resolution to bring it into RMWeb)

 

 

I will need to edit out some of the station buildings which appear towards the bottom to represent the fields behind the station - I will use the clone feature in GIMP for this. It is hard to judge where to crop the image at the bottom of the panorama and at the ends - I think some trial and error is required.

 

The backscene will be about 13 feet long, and I think its height will be 40 cm high.

 

[Douglas G]

I haven't posted for a while as I have been working away on the area around the hotel and the clock-tower complex. I have been rebuilding and painting them in the light of the new information I have found on the prototype in the year I am modelling, 1962, as well as my survey of the garden when I visited Dulverton in June. I am nearing the point where I can start on the grass and soil in the hotel around the garden.

 

Here are some pics of the current state - this section will be at the back left of the layout with the backscene curving round the back. The big brown area to the right of the clock tower complex is where the Carnarvon Arms Hotel goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have very few photos of the clock tower complex at the time I am building. As noticed earlier in the thread, there was a wall and outbuilding (a laundry for the hotel I believe) that was later demolished to build some garages for the hotel. I then realised that this had actually been done by 1962, from the cropped sections of two photographs below, and an Aerofilms close up photo that I can't post for copyright reasons. The colour photos shows that the bargeboards were actually read while the guttering was black, so this is what I have modelled.

 

 

 

Probably next I will start on the lawn at the back of the hotel.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Douglas G

[Douglas G]

I seem to have lost my enthusiasm - not done anything for getting on two years. I am trying to get back into the swing of things, but finding it hard to start.

 

A big set-back was that the resolution of the pictures I took on my Lumix TZ40 compact is not good enough to be blown up for a background. When i asked Jessops, they said that despite being 18MP, the sensor on a compact camera is not as big as on a digital SLR, so the graininess is to be expected.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Hi Douglas,

Was wondering why we had not heard anything for a while. We all suffer from time to time with loss of "mojo", especially on big projects. May be you need to get together with some other local modellers and get a bit of a team behind you?

Would be a pity to let a small issue like backscene get you down. Even with a plain grey background, this layout would still look good. Jessops may be overworried about the quality of the print-out. You don't need it to be that clear and any fuzziness will be mitigated if, as I think you should, the photo is paled down. If too bright, the backscene takes away from the layout scenery. Other local printers , those who do signage for vans, may be able to help you better than Jessops.

Best of luck,

Joseph

[Douglas G]

I've managed to build up my enthusiasm the last week or so and have been focusing on getting the basic landscape of the layout finished, in particular the fields behind the station and railway line and the embankments. Almost all the area has been covered in plaster bandage now. I have also been using a router to carve in the drainage ditch by the track beyond the road bridge and the stream bed in the field behind the track to the left of the layout.

 

I realise it was a big mistake to finish off the finalised sections of the landscape with dark green artists' acrylic paint. It is too smooth and shiny for the scenic glue/cement to stick well, so I am sanding it off with a sander back to the polyfilla layer beneath. This should be more porous and the sanding will key the surface, so I hope the scenic cement will stick well after this treatment. The last thing I need is for the grass to start coming off later on.

 

My plan is to do a layer of woodland scenic fine turf first and then top with very short static grass. I think this may give a better effect than static grass alone.

 

I have also now got some white-faced 3mm MDF to form the basis of the background, which will be curved at both ends but straight in between.

 

Everything is too dusty to photograph at present...

Edited October 19, 2016 by Douglas G