End of the Line-Padstow

[autocoach]

I finally decided I would start my own electronic niche and describe my attempt to recreate Padstow pre-1948 in somewhat compressed version.

 

Let me first comment that contrary to the conceptions of most UK modelers, many of we Californians are forced by the high prices of real estate to live in more modest townhouses. I currently have available only a 12 foot by 2 foot area in my office/third bedroom. No room even for a fiddle yard. This layout is the successor to my aborted attempt to model Brixham pre-1948. Note that I am staying pre-grouping even though I have no memories of anything in 1947 when I was only three and lived much of the time at my grandparents house in Penge. In late 1949 my father and I relocated to Pasadena California and though I have been an avid model railroader (note spelling) all my life, it was not until 1985 that I re-discovered an interest in UK railways to go along with my extensive efforts on the Southern Pacific (1950's last of Steam and Black Widow diesels). I have nothing personal against British Railways/nationalization and once had a layout based on a fictional through joint MR/WR station in the heart of Cheltenham set in the late 1950's. It's just not my cuppa tea.

 

Anyway, Padstow on the Pacific started about 18 months ago after after a visit to the Bodmin area created an interest in what lay down the track beyond Boscarne Junction. The availability of RTR and easily modified steam locomotives and coaches has spurred me on. I have open orders for BWT's and O2's with Kernow and am interested in their cryptic comment that hints at suitable coaching stock for the earlier pre-Maunsell Padstow-Bodmin services.

 

On with the fun..more topics to follow.

[Coombe Barton]

Ken

 

Don't know if you know (or how familiar you are with Cornwall), the Camel Trail is the old trackbed of the railway to Padstow. Google for Camel Trail and there's loads of pix. Very few of them railway related - but occasionally you find a gem - such as http://www.westcount...mel/camel21.jpg and a Countryfile (BBC TV programme) video clip http://www.visitcorn...eos/camel-trail

 

[Moved here from St Merryn thread as here is more relevant]

[autocoach]

I am not attaching too many pictures as my old camera has disappeared and I am using my phone camera which does not have the greatest resolution for closeups.

[autocoach]

Upcoming projects for 2011 include

• Rebuilding a Hornby Torrington into 12C108 Padstow.
• The station master's garden (the Busch tomato plants are on order.)
• Building the rock wall cutting at the back of the station now represented by crumpled aluminum foil.
• Re-ballasting the sidings (What the picture shows but the eye overlooks.)
• A compressed version of the fish sheds
• A possible extension in the front to include the wharf trackage
• Finishing the Goods shed, but not to the detail of St. Merryn.
• An eventual move to another bedroom where I can add the fiddle yard so trains can "get out of town" along with the bridge over Little Petherick Creek.
• Getting a new camera so I can bore you all with this detail

Long range I hope to replace the Wadebridge version of the LSWR signal box with a scratch built version and the mockup of the Padstow station with a carved plaster version.

 

That plus playing with trains and the usual maintenance of the growing fleet of engines. (2 T-9's, an N, and M7 and interlopers I like such as an S15 and Schools Class that may make magical appearances. Oh and GWR visitors in addition to my fleet of 45xx, 57xx, 87xx, 14xx (48xx) and Tintagel Castle if it ever arrives.)

 

It's a lot and I have a day job too.

 

Will update as the mood arises.

[Oldddudders]

A great start Ken! Don't hurry to replace the station building, as it shouts North Cornwall and Padstow quite loudly enough already. Low priority, surely? Ditto the signalbox, which is close enough to be convincing for now, if not long-term.

 

As for the camera, if faced with budget choices between it and more modelling items, which gives more pleasure?

[scanman]

Another pre-nationalisation layout (with GW to boot)! Excellent news! By the way it is of course known as 'Padstein' now... In fact I believe Rick Stein uses some of the old railway buildings for his chefs college (others will correct me if I'm wrong!)

 

Regs

 

Ian

[blokeonarope]

Hi Ken

 

After our drink and a pint the other night, I thought I should check out your pics. I think I need to lend you one of my digital cameras to get some pics on here that do your modelling work justice.

 

Richard

[autocoach]

Chris(2manyspams) has started with his tales of the origins of Treneglos. In imitation, I thought I might add a few words on my own journey from being a sporadic but devoted GWR addict with my Little Brixham in the works to a spam canning Southern convert.

 

In late 2008 or early 2009 I received my oft delayed copy of the Great Western Railway Journal with a lovely color cover photo of ex-GWR prairie 4574 standing in Padstow station waiting to traverse Southern region rails through Wadebridge and onto GWR metals at Boscarne Junction, Bodmin General and Bodmin Road. It is a clear blue day and the Hotel Metropole stands in the background on the higher ground back of the station. In April of 2009 I was able to include the Bodmin and Wenford in a lightning run through Cornwall before returning to my cousin's place in the Cotswolds. The weather was unfortunately the reverse of the cover photo, pouring or drizzling all day. The next day on my drive up the A39 (Lands End to Minehead) I did stop for a brief lunch in Wadebridge and then on to Tintagel Castle (I am still waiting for the Hornby version, I haven't completely lost my appreciation for Swindon green.)

 

Returning home to the US, I read, re-read that GWRJ and anything I could find about the North Cornwall and the withered arm. I added a Hornby T-9, an out of place M-7 to my collection and then and equally out of place S15 (Etarre), Schools (Dulwich), an N class mogul and it kept on going with 15 Maunsell coaches, Cambrian 25 ton brake vans and hopefully racing neck to neck for arrival with Tintagel Castle, the Beattie Well Tanks and then Adams O2's, and so on. It is like living in a RTR fantasy-land.

 

I am not a great scratch builder, but I love doing it anyway so I have focused on the buildings in the Padstow station area. The St Merryn book has given me more new inspiration. I have expanded my time frame from the summers of 1938-39 to include summer 1946 so I can shortly add 12C108 Padstow to the list of engines that appear.

 

 

And it all started with that GWRJ article. GWRJ No. 65 - Winter 2008.

 

best..

[2ManySpams]

fantastic stuff. I'd also leave the station as a low priority job. Rock face: we poured plaster into a scrumpled up foil mould on Treneglos. i shouldn't be too far off that in our 'story of' thread.

[autocoach]

Little done this past two weeks. I have received the Allottment kit from Busch (1223) and am planning on planting the station master's garden. Cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. An area of lawn towards the front of the living quarters where it borders on public areas. I am going to rebuild the back fence along the road to the goods shed with a more prototypic 4 wires. I cut a new plastic base so the existing barren dirt stationmasters garden area will remain until I am satisfied with the new garden being grown "off line".

 

Royal Mail delivery to North America is, I understand, somewhat in chaos over the the new security rules. I am hoping that is the reason my Hornby Torrington has not arrived. The only other bundle from Brittain in the post is prototype Southern Railway buffers stops from Ragstone models. Will have see if they do the job.

 

more later......

[autocoach]

 

Not much happened in February. I have been working on a Smallbrook LSWR 10 Ton Brake Van. Bachmann announced their SR 25 Ton brake van after I had purchased two kits from Cambrian. Oh well. The Bachmann version is probably a long way off in the future. I have the Smallbrook 20 Ton van kit as well for a future rainy weekend.

 

I have to order the Padstow Goods Shed windows from Bill Bedford.

 

Other good news from Bachmann is the return of SR Class N's with a DCC chassis. I really can use only one more in addition to the one I bought last spring. By 2012, the real steam roster will be complete with 2 BWT's, 2 O2's, 2 N's ,2 T9's and 2 West Country light pacific's. Anything else I should add for the SR for this neck of the woods? I already have 3 GWR 45xx tanks for the Bodmin General and Bodmin Road services.

 

Maybe some GWR clay hoods from Parkside? And also a couple of Chivers 10 Ton LSWR Vans if/when they appear.

[autocoach]

Working on goods shed again...

 

Getting etched Padstow goods shed windows from Bill Bedford, although the most accurate will be a long process. In the meantime, I obtained some HO Grandt line 24 pane windows (6X4 panes) and trimmed them to fit in curved window top. Not really wide enough so I had to build them up with some strip styrene. I have not done all the brick and window corner trim as on the St Merryn version. Maybe in another life. In the meantime, I had the urge to play with trains.

 

I ran an operating scenario today set on a Saturday the summer of 1946:

 

 

1. West Country (21C108 Padstow of course) arrived on the platform track with a down ACE consisting of 6 Maunsell's in 2 sets (BCK+BTK and BCK+TK+CK+BTK) and a Van C.
2. M7 #42 (The answer to the question "what is the meaning of the universe and all that?") deputizing for the BWT or O2 that have not yet arrived from Eastleigh (Kernow) removed the Van C and switched it to the goods dock for unloading baggage as the platform is not long enough with 6 coaches.
3. After all the arriving passengers had left the coaches, 21C108 reversed and propelled the coaches back far enough that it could clear the crossover and moved forward so it could use the run-around path direct to the turntable. Once on the turntable, the crew left for tea and a bite (Rick Stein is far far in the future so it would just have to be a local sandwich of some sort. Besides an engine crew could probably not afford the current culinary delights of Padstein)
4. #42 now had to re-arrange the ACE coaches for the up train. The BCK+BTK set is in Bullied green so for aesthetic reasons it has to go next to the West Country in Sunshine green. The BCK+TK+CK+BTK has to follow. Note that these sets are not the numbers on the ends of some of the coaches. I have not gotten around to that element of fidelity. There followed several confused shunting moves as there is no fiddle yard and the length of track in the Wadebridge direction will allow only the M7 and two coaches at a time.
5. #42 now retrieved the Van C freshly loaded with the baggage of those returning home from holiday and attached it ahead of the BCK+BTK set.
6. The 21C108's crew returned from their summer afternoon repast and turned the light Pacific on the barely long enough turntable (The turntable has a long history being started 25+ years ago on a long departed representation of the Oregon California and Eastern for turning Southern Pacific 4-6-0 and 2-8-0's in the OC&E Klamath Falls yard.) Suffice to say it is 11 inch pieces of Atlas snap track on a scratch built bridge with small diameter brass tubes soldered to the rail and take a piece of bent brass wire in matching brass tubes on the soldered approach track as a locking mechanism and electrical connection.
7. 21C108 then moved smartly to exit the turntable and backed first onto the run-around and then forward onto the main, before backing onto the platform track to attach to it's train.
8. The up ACE upon receiving clearance for the line to Wadebridge from the Padstow starter signal (the only visible signal at Padstow), started on it's journey.
9. The up ACE got about 2 feet and ran out track. One of these days I will have to move the layout to a room where there is enough space to lengthen the main line over little Petherick creek and into a proper fiddle yard. (The GHOM - giant hand of man will have to remove the ACE to a storage box so the two coach train from Bodmin can arrive.)

Now back to the goods shed....

 

I know this is more of a blog than a construction article, but I refuse to blog.

 

ken

[Oldddudders]

Just brilliant, Ken! A blow-by-blow account of a man and his emerging layout! If more layout-operators were to provide this sort of real-time account of what happened in their last session, warts and all, there would be a lot of giggles all round! As has been said many times, blogs on RMWeb seldom get the number of hits that topic entries receive, and it would be a shame for this sort of thing not to be in the most visible part of the forum. Anyone planning a layout can learn from your experiences, and those with a layout already will surely empathise!

 

I'd certainly like to see an Operations Experiences topic with regular updates by many contributors. Perhaps the time has come, now the weather is a bit warmer, for me to follow your fine example out in my barn. Deb's away touring for a few days, so we'll see....

[westerner]

I agree with Ian . It is interesting to see how others operate their layout. It gives me some sort of impetus to really start doing something about my timetable and operating it.

[2ManySpams]

Hi Ken, good to see someone else thinking about operation on the NCR. I sometimes question my own sanity when surounded by copies of the Working Timetables, Carriage Working Notices and Loco Duties! Keep on posting.

 

chris

[autocoach]

One of the primary reasons I model Padstow is the operational possibilities.

 

Not a branch line terminal. Somewhat sleepy midweek in winter with no fish catch. But only one platform track that has to be cleared for local traffic between the express and other mainline traffic. You can't leave the rakes in front of the station. I have yet to identify the sets and coaches in the sets used 194x-1947. All of the reference material seems to focus on BR days.

 

The down ACE is only 3-6 coaches by the time it reaches Padstow depending on the season and day of week. But it all has to be turned and re-arranged for an up train. I haven't identified a coaling facility so a west country could only be turned at Padstow but would have to run light to Wadebridge and back for coal. Water was available from a very high mounted tank. That will be another project.

 

I can play time lord and backdate the post 1947 WR traffic to GWR days so there are Bodmin Road B sets in addition to the Bodmin SR local passenger t

 

Other goods traffic. The Fish Sheds, two different wharf tracks, a small but busy goods shed. In addition I can imagine china clay being shipped in bag to small steamers. Coal being unloaded. Boat building traffic. Inbound potatoes for the fish and chips. A couple of daily short goods trains will do.

raffic.

 

My immediate post-war setting (1946 Summer) allows some military traffic with troop specials and military vehicles for the local army camps and airbases. No traces of US stuff. All British. I have some new Airfix Bedford QLT's and QLD's coming to become flat car loads.(that sounds too American?}

 

And did I mention the fish. A holdover from my previous fixation with the Brixham branch. The fish sheds were long and the shed track used for passenger switching when no fish loading going on.

 

Nothing else going on to report except I was notified today that the GWR liveried Tintagel Castle arrived at Hattons and has been duly shipped to me. Only 18 months on order. Another month for shipping. A visitor to be sure with absolutely no basis in reality (The North Cornwall Riviera?}. After that just a trophy in the case.

 

ken

[tender]

Hi Ken. Watching your blog with interest as i'm also modelling a variation on Padstow. Only got as far as baseboard construction as work keeps getting in the way.

Out of interest, my Hornby 'Tintagel' arrived from Hattons today. I wish Hornby wouldn't anounce a product and then keep us waiting for what seems like years for it to appear.

Still it looks like it was worth the wait, it looks supurb. As a bonus it looks like the tender has the mounting for a sound chip speaker so an easy upgrade to sound could be on the cards.

Not one for Padstow but will get a good running on my 'all commers preservation' layout (mainly preserved pre Boring Railways stock). I know 'Tintagel' isn't preserved but it's the only RTR GWR (non BR) castle available.

[autocoach]

I've not really been working on the railroad, all my livelong day......

 

Only two pics were steady enough to show. I have got to get a camera with motion stability. My phone does not attach to my tripod.

 

 

 

This is the turntable and track to Wadebridge. Unballasted unfinished and highly subject to future change. The temporary nature is also noted by the occasional use of a short length of set track. All of the flex and set track is actually Atlas code 100. In my 50 years of model railroading I have built two switches from rail. Neither worked well. I just ignore the authenticity of the track and hope that before I get to old to build layouts, an affordable line of dream 16.5 mm gauge track with DOGA like standards and integral Radio, WiFi, DCC or CANBUS controlled switches/motors will appear magically. I dream on.....

 

The loco storage tracks did not exist at Padstow and the turntable should be accessed by a double slip where the curved left in the bottom center sits. The double slip did not fit in the curve which I have given to the trackage in my version of Padstow. Operationally it works fine. The engine escape track leads directly into the track to the turntable and storage sidings.

 

 

The turntable is as described before just long enough to get all the wheels of a Hornby West Country on. The pit is a too shallow sandwich of sheet styrene (plasticard) and Woodland Scenics foam. It is at best functional.

 

I have tried to draw the layout in XtrackCad but could not get it to work well enough so pics will have to suffice.

[Oldddudders]

Looking good Ken! The first pic is truly "Padstow & Pacific" the latter being the OVS Bulleid type! Like the rendered goods shed.

 

As far as a camera is concerned, you might want to check out your nutty local namesake http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm who is currently moored somewhere off your coast taking radiation readings. His reviews of compact cameras and their versatility might give you some clues as to where to look when you buy.

[autocoach]

I now have a second West Country so it will have to become "Padstow and Pacifics"

[autocoach]

Time goes by.....

 

Not much new on the Padstow and Pacific. Still planning for the great re-location to a space where the layout will expand to 17 Feet in length with a grand curve ending in a fiddle yard, 3 feet will be added to the north end to extend the platform and storage sidings to almost scale length. It will then take a West Country Pacific and 6 Maunsell coaches. No Bullied's yet. I have not warmed up to the existing Bachmann versions.

 

The move and extension will allow creation of close to scale fish sheds and their sidings. But not enough to extend to the old Padstow quay area. I will also be able to add the new long quay trackage for use in shunting as well as storage. China clay may still be shipped here even if in the real world it had been diverted to Fowey by 1946-47. I have found that close to scale length of the trackage in sidings makes switching/shunting much more enjoyable. Padstow was such a compact terminal this is somewhat realizable.

 

I am in a mind game now as I located the web page with the 1947 Summer WTT for the North Cornwall. I am abstracting the Padstow arrivals and departures for the weekdays as the basis for an operating scheme to my own spreadsheet. Locomotives or classes and passenger sets are not specified for each train so I am guessing to fill in the blanks. I have not been able to completely figure out the probable classes assigned to each train other than the O2's would have been used for the frequent Bodmin services. There are photos of the Beatties in the 1950's being used on local especially the daily daily mixed goods. There appears to be only one full goods working in the WTT. One of the local Bodmin services departs at the same time as a perishables(fish?) for Templecombe. I will add the china clay and other goods moves as non-timetable "extra" trains. Having a background with the Southern Pacific where almost everything except Amtrak was an extra by the 1970's ,that seems the natural thing to do.

 

The Summer Saturday schedule is a different matter. No goods traffic diagrammed. However the ACE was a full 6 coaches arriving at Padstow

 

In real life there was no shed at Padstow with Wadebridge only 8 miles away. I have added a couple of storage tracks beside the turntable just so I can see my engines. In reality nothing would lay over. There is a reference in the WTT to the arrival of a light engine in the morning and a departure of a light engine in the evening.

 

I ams still waiting more news on the Kernow BWT's and the Bachmann re-issue of the Class N. The O2's are too far in the future.

 

I have been reading the St. Meryn installments in the Model Railway Journal. This is not an exhibition layout so a lot does not apply.

 

Anyway back to the spreadsheet.

[DLT]

Terrific stuff, love it!

Dave.

[autocoach]

This is the analysis of traffic at Padstow according to the weekday Summer 2007 WTT. Please feel free to send me corrections:

 

WTT-NCR Summer 1947.xls

[Oldddudders]

Ken

 

I admire your intention of using a real year's WTT and CWN to add authenticity to the operation. I fully intend to do something similar for Beaworthy, my take on Halwill Junction. However, I will be seeking to make use of a number of different years' publications - because there are certain features that appeal. I suspect you have the Irwell Press book on the North Cornwall Railway? If not it is an absolute goldmine of info in several forms. Page 364 provides the Padstow CWN for Summer 1960, courtesy of Glen Woods, and he then provides a CWN for all the North Cornwall and related stations, e.g. Okehampton, Exeter Central and Bude, among others. All this enables you to see which sets did what - and thus when they might have been expected to return to Padstow. It also shows how the railway laid out a CWN, with outgoing trains on the left, formation in the middle, and incoming service on the right. Trust me - this is a format that works, as I learnt in 1967 when watching the trains clerks at Victoria prepare daily notices for all the staff there. They called it a "sequence".

 

Elsewhere in the book there is a shot near Port Isaac Road of the 01.30 Waterloo - Padstow in 1956, and this train didn't run throughout in 1947. To me this is the key train of the day, in operational terms much more interesting than the ACE by the time it gets to Cornwall! Formed of BCK, TO, BCK, Van B (with newspaper-stencilled roofboards!), 3 Vanfits and a Van C.

 

Edited for poor typing!

[autocoach]

Ian

 

Thanks for the comments. I am really trying to create a play book or set of stage directions for my model railway. Some improvisation will always be allowed if it fits the mood and context.

The Irwell Illustrated History of the NCR has been my bible. Particularly living 6000 miles from the prototype. Unfortunately the CWN's (Carriage Working Notice) in the book are from 1959's or the 1939 LAV's. If the 1947 NCR CWN were to magically appear on the web or in print, my coach set mysteries would be largely solved. I guess I should make an appeal on the SEMGONLINE Yahoo group.

 

I have tentatively guessed that the newspapers arrived at 10:04 AM Mixed from Launceston or at 7:58 AM from Okehampton. The 12:10 PM arrival from Okehampton is going to be my version of the weekday ACE with a WC and a 3 coach set.

 

But then, I am not going to be a slave to the actual WTT and CWN. I will be using them just as a guide to create a somewhat realistic pattern of operation. I will certainly drum up more goods traffic than appears in the WTT. But the lack of goods traffic and frequent passenger services explains why pictures show coaches on every track including the fish shed dock and the jetty tracks.

 

If you or anyone else has a clue to the vans used to ship fish from Padstow, I would appreciate the help. I have some GWR bloaters from my previous fishy business at Brixham. I think they might be a little out of place. Were the old LSWR short ventilated vans still in use by 1946-47? Even if not, I fancy building a couple if Chivers gets around to issuing them.

 

ken