tingleytim

More thanks for the useful replies to my OP and offer of help. I’ve now programmed the Powercab’s 16 macros to enable most of my routes to function, though usually needing to change individual points as well to get variations on those 16. Slow but good enough for the loft for now while I look more closely at alternative systems including those in the replies. I’ll certainly look at Rocrail and have another go at Big Bear, though I’m getting “Please (big) bear with us while we construct our new website”; fortunately no great urgency at the moment so there's time to do comparisons. Again, many thanks.

Very pleased that a picture I took 56 years ago should have inspired somebody! A good few years ago I thought Blandford would make a very good subject for a model, as the local club later confirmed, and in fine style. I got as far as working out how much space would be needed but then decided to look further up the line. Good luck with your project.

Plenty to think about there. I reckon I need 49 macros, the layout and operation being complex - far beyond the Powercab’s capabilities (and maybe mine too!). I had a look at JMRI and Big Bear (because both are compatible with NCE) a while back though struggled with both of them. I do wonder now whether to change system. I currently can have 3 operators simultaneously but the time getting the next train out is far too long for exhibitions, many operations needing 15 or more points set correctly. Route setting involves 45 points and there will be 15 signals. Any recommendations for systems that can cope with all that and 4 00scale locos moving at once would be very welcome; or best of the very many info sources to help evaluate the choices. I am aware of iTrain and RR&Co but perhaps there are others. In the meantime I will see how much can be done as a temporary measure with the 16 Powercab macros, perhaps linked with mini-panel buttons. Thanks very much indeed Nigel for taking the trouble to answer my query.

Needing many more macros than the 16 available on my NCE Powercab, I bought their mini-panel which supposedly provides 30 macros each controlling more accessories. (Does this mean 30 in addition to the 16?) Programming the Powercab was a doddle and its macros work fine but how do you program the mini-panel's macros? I've looked at NCE’s guides and Mark Gurries’ information. These show what to do to program accessories, and the mini-panel is ok for this, but they stop short for setting up macros. I’m ok until the Powercab screens get to inputs and steps which I don’t want yet as I just want to put in the macro number and then the accessories to be controlled by that macro, like on the Powercab. I must have got the wrong idea somewhere so any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks. Tim.

Try again, I've been looking at my Flickr settings.

Loads of pictures must have been taken from the end of the up platform but I don't have any more like the one of the 4F. That was the only day I spent during the afternoon at Blandford so I don't know if the shunting operation photographed was typical or not; I'd guess it would be fairly common though for vans to be collected from the main station at the Dorset end of the S&D. I wonder if this gets replicated in the Blandford model club's layout?

Thanks for the kind comments about the picture. I used to have some of my S&D pictures on Flickr until finding that they were being posted without credit on social media. When they turn up I claim them, as with this one, and supply whatever information I have relating to them. This one has appeared in print - in Blandford Museum's booklet "Blandford Railway in close-up".

My photo! I took it about 5pm on 6th April 1964. The 4F is 44560 on the mid-afternoon freight from Poole. It arrived with 3 vans and the usual guards vans at front and rear, and collected one more van at Blandford. Earlier I had watched it shunt 3 milk tankers onto the up mail at Bailey Gate. An enjoyable afternoon’s bike ride from Poole! The 4F was on the return working from the 6.35 down freight from Evercreech. That week 4Fs were used on at least 4 days - 44560 once more and 44422 on the other two days. The previous week 75007 and 75071 had been used, then 44102 on the Saturday. I also noted 4Fs on these trains in August 1964. 44422 was also used three times on the 12.23 passenger off Templecombe and the 17.30 back from Bournemouth in that previous week. So, if my small sample is typical, the 4Fs saw plenty of action at the Dorset end of the S&D until at least 1964.

Have you tried this? http://newblandfordrailwayclub.co.uk/bailey gate.html

Thanks for your feedback Ian, glad you enjoyed Templecombe Lower and the rest of the show and hope you recovered your lost sleep. Just noticed on the second photo we had the goods shed the wrong way round but if I didn’t spot it at the time then I’d be surprised if anyone else did!

Mostly pleased, thanks. We operated a morning sequence starting with the 2.40 down mail (around 6am at Templecombe) then several up and down passenger pilot workings, pilots for the 6.35 Evercreech-Poole goods and Blandford goods, the joint 9.05 departures, the Pines (of course!), Highbridge line trains and finishing with the 11.40 up semi-fast. It’s a varied mix which proved challenging at times but, from feedback, interesting to watch (and operate), helped by info panels with maps and photos and a monitor screen identifying each train. Templecombe’s idiosyncracies are now slightly better understood up here! From this first attempt there was plenty to learn. Bachmann type couplings are not good for pilot workings, the pilot sometimes coming detached and uncoupling sometimes awkward. Will try Kadee but would welcome recommendations. With practice we will be able to have more trains running at the same time – it could be a bit slow sometimes to get the next train out. Trains could be more frequent if we just ran them in turn, but much less interesting. Catching up now with rest of life that was put aside ahead of the show! It’s still dismantled upstairs here but doing a few snagging tasks better done before reassembly. Having a break after an exhausting weekend then it’s back to landscaping details, weathering, signals, etc. Hope the pics come through OK. Layout was positioned N-S so the shed got sun from the east for the early morning scene!

Just found the Blandford picture whilst looking for something else. It's on page 102 of Somerset and Dorset Sunset by Michael Welsh. Pannier tank 3758 is shown on the 12.23 on 7 July 1962.

In Newsletter No. 8 of the Shillingstone Station Project (Easter 2005) there was a four page article “The Station That Never Was” by Mike Lucas with drawings and information from Templecombe Railway Museum. Believed to have been dated just before WW1, the plans show a new 4 platform station east of the S&D line using the original spur line pointing towards Salisbury and a new loop back onto the S&D for trains to and from Bournemouth. There had been 1905 plans for a loop west of the upper station connecting back near Henstridge. I must not reproduce the article for copyright reasons so suggest contacting the Shillingstone project if this could be of interest.

See you there Ian! Cheers. Tim.

Adapting this topic a little, I can report some trepidation right now as “Templecombe Lower” is going to its first weekend exhibition in under three weeks time, 14/15 September at Shipley (https://www.shipleymrs.co.uk/exhibition) – see photos. Fingers well and truly crossed that all runs well. Still working on scenery and a good few details still to be added but the basics are in place. Unless told otherwise I’ll claim a first – Templecombe’s pilot engine workings at a model exhibition. Can be challenging for the operators!

The picture on page 19 is the same one! Thought I'd seen it before somewhere. Stephen Austin says the location is Mill Down, north of Blandford. Well done 03060 for finding the published picture.

I think the train could be southbound at roughly grid ref 881078 on my 1:25,000 map (if I’ve got my eastings and northings in the right order). The line was cut into a slope with high ground to the right. But there are others with much better local knowledge than me that would surely clarify this.

Looks like Milldown, north of Blandford, on the level section at the top of the 1 in 80 gradient visible in the distance in the picture. Very much a chalk area. Rocks were sandier in the Broadstone and Corfe Mullen area.

G A Richardson's Bradford Barton book has a picture on page 65 of 2223 leaving Shillingstone tender first on the Bailey Gate to Templecombe milk train. Must have been draughty for the crew which could explain why photographs of this class on this service are rare. Perhaps the crew would have preferred to run smokebox first when going south faster to keep to the passenger timetable. The other three pictures of the returning northbound milkie in this book all show the loco running smokebox first which seems to have been nearly always the case.

You post something and the very next day you find you were wrong! Contrary to Hugh Ballantyne’s caption, a Facebook posting https://www.facebook.com/groups/545471755582028/ showing 35023 at Templecombe shed stated that the Southern Counties railtour arrived at Templecombe from Bournemouth behind 73022. 35023 was there for the run back to London via Salisbury. This is confirmed by http://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/ So 35023 did run on the S&D but only from Templecombe Upper to No. 3 Junction and the shed. Hornby’s model would look good on my “Templecombe Lower”. Will I rush out and buy it? Probably not.

Couple of further additions to the S&D visitors list: 35023 Worked 28/3/65 Southern Counties railtour from Bournemouth to Templecombe. See S&D Remembered Highbridge to Bournemouth by Hugh Ballantyne page 45. 73082 photographed it at Blandford on 1/4/64 on the 4.13 Evercreech to Bournemouth.

Looking back in my notebooks from 1964, the 6.35 Evercreech-Poole, the 3.05 Poole-Templecombe and the Templecombe-Blandford pick up had two guards vans, usually at either end, but twice the 6.35 had both at the rear. The two blog pictures of 75073 (same train) would have been the 6.35 - again with vans at either end. These were the freights that reversed at Templecombe. The 8pm freight from Poole had one guard’s van but this didn’t reverse there. If anyone feels the urge to research S&D freight traffic, the Washford Trust has masses of stuff in the Taunton record office. Years ago I helped to archive documents that were rescued by driver Alwyn Hannam from offices at Templecombe when the line closed. There were over 3,000 freight invoices from 1939 to 1943, especially for stone from Chilcompton and Binegar and coal from Radstock for locomotives. Other documents included air raid precautions, animal feedstuff movements from Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight, staffing pay / conditions etc, shunting returns, engine / crew / coach diagrams, and much much more!

Pannier tanks frequently worked to Blandford on the daily pick up goods and sometimes to Bailey Gate for milk traffic. I seem to recall seeing a picture of a pannier tank at Blandford on the 12.23 Templecombe to Bournemouth train but that was most unusual. I can't think why GWR locos shouldn't go to Bournemouth - they did go there from Weymouth sometimes.

Jack, I too thought that the 3.35 from Templecombe used carriages from a Highbridge train. In my passenger timetables it went to Bailey Gate in summer 1960 but by summer 1963 and afterwards it terminated at Blandford - for passengers. Looking back at the 1955 WTT, the 3.35 also went to Bailey Gate as you’d expect, arriving at 4.26, but in the up passenger train pages there’s a surprise. There are two “milk” departures from Bailey Gate – at 4.45 and 5.30, the latter labelled Q ie runs when required. I couldn’t find a corresponding working though that would get a loco in place to haul that, but maybe I’ve overlooked something. Could the two video workings (75008 and 4691) that have no passenger coaches be that Q working? On the day that I saw the 3.35 at Blandford in 1964 it didn’t need to go on to Bailey Gate for milk tankers so the loco just ran round there and waited in the down platform, eventually returning north after the up mail had cleared the single line section to Shillingstone. After the timetable changed, on other days in theory could the loco have left its coaches in the down platform and continued light engine or just with van to collect milk tankers from Bailey Gate? Sounds very unlikely to me, and I’d always presumed that everything went on to Bailey Gate, but that’s the only way that I can imagine that the 3.35 would have “morphed into the working in the video”. Tim.

Interesting sequences in the video but none of the return working of the 3.35 off Templecombe. The Standard 4-6-0 with the large tender facing south would likely have been the loco on the 06.35 Evercreech to Poole freight. I don’t think milk wagons were transported in this working but that doesn’t stop the loco being used to shunt in the creamery sidings. Working timetables support this. In 1950 this freight arrived Bailey Gate at 9.30 and stayed until 11.55! In 1955 it arrived at 9.26 and left at 10.40. There’s the picture we've seen before of 4691 with van and milk tank but no passenger coaches. Similar for the 4-6-0 with the small tender. Were there occasional untimetabled workings from Templecombe to collect milk tankers? 75071 facing north in the blog was the loco off the 3pm Poole freight prior to attaching milk tankers to the up mail.