I think I am just about there with the track plan. I know there is nothing original or fresh about it, but the plan meets my requirements for operational interest and plenty of scenic space. The theory is a wooded valley and a farming market village in the depths of the countryside. Off scene, the single track branches much like Bodmin, with one branch meeting the main line and the other passing a china clay quarry, a couple of small villages and eventually at a river queside. All this opens up the Bodmin through traffic, shunting and run around's that will make operation interesting. It would have been nice to have seen the branch separate in scene, with two bridges over the river, but i couldnt find enough space to make it look right.
The presence of the turntable is still in question. There are a lot of plus points:- audiences like to see it working, it add's more operational interest and with a hefty pinch of salt, opens up light engine running in turns from the nearest sheds (and thus an excuse to run one of my beloved Hall's with a toad in tow). The TT is a Cowans and Sheldon Metalsmith brass kit. Whilst the GWR had a preference for over girder types, they wern't exclusive. The turntable at Barnstaple Jct was of the very type I have (if it can be lifted from my old and ill fated layout) and I would rather reuse what is a lovelly TT I already have than build another one.
I have been scrolling through my list of engines to see what I have for Penstemon and think I have certainly got enough to begin with. I have two of the rather questionable Hornby class 2721 pannier tanks as well as the more recent Bachmann 57xx and 8750 so that’s 4 pannier tanks. I also have 3 Bachmann 45XX’s which are ideal for a layout set in Cornwall. I have a 4575 from Bachmann too but I don’t think this modified 45XX was as common. I would like to add a 455 Metro Tank at some point to pair with an autocoach and that should just about cover it. All of these engines were sheded at either Truro or St Blazey in 1934 so are plausible on the line.
I suspect my 43XX is a bit on the big side for humble branch work although there were many sheded in Cornwall and my Hall’s, well….
South East Finecast do a brass kit of the 455 but I need to do some more research/ask the fine folk of RMweb if the kit is suitable to represent the Cornish engines. It’s all a question of cab’s – half or full?
So engines I seem to be good for. I think I will be good for wagons too, but its coaching stock that offers the most challenges. I plan to use the Hornby B set coaches (Diagram 140?) initially until I can successfully build a bow end set (Diagram E129) from Comet and have a go at the ratio 4 wheeler kits. I have thought about getting one of the old Hornby Clerestory brake 3rds and seeing if it can be tarted up too. Following the tradition of older stock working their way down from mainline to branch line and then to workmen’s trains, is it plausible to see this venerable coach on a Cornish branch line in the 30’s?
So no real RTR coaching fix, at least not to modern standards but room for some ‘skill improvement’ both in modifying RTR, plastic kit building and when I am brave enough – brass etch.
Make no mistake, if you’re reading this seeking hidden lore or the dark arts of modelling then your in the wrong place. I am a rookie to this wonderful hobby and blundering my way along. I have in the last three years, made a lot of costly mistakes and changed tack more times than a yacht in a fickle wind.
Why a blog?
Primarily it’s to serve as a diary as I build my layout. A documented history of the pitfalls, triumphs and inevitable frustrations I am about to experience. If it entertains or even helps others then that’s the icing on the cake. It will also serve to keep those friends who I see infrequently, to keep abreast of progress.
So what are you modelling?
I could spin off an extended answer to that, and I will shortly but the briefest answer is Bodmin. Penstemon is to be a fiddleyard to terminus layout, measuring 20’ by 3’ with 15’ scenic and the final 5’ being a traverser. Modelled in 4mm OO gauge, I plan to use the layout to learn my craft. I have looked though a lot of reference material for a prototype which ticked all of my boxes and whilst it has been modelled beautifully by the guys from the North London Group of the Scale Four Society, the track plan of Bodmin answers all of my ‘Givens’ and all my ‘Druthers’ too. I am going to twist it, mix it up a little and try to create something that, when viewed casually looks original but when viewed again the penny drops "ahh, it's Bodmin".
One of my bugbears in this hobby is scouring through Ebay for some obscure limited run, rare as hen's teeth white metal casting of the piece you need to be accurate to your region, line or railway and then paying three times its original cost when you eventually find it. Where possible I want to use readily available suitable RTR stock and currently available kits but I also want to try my hand at white metal, brass etch, scratch building, das scribing, static grass, making trees… the list goes on. Ebay - i want a divorce!
The jury is out on track at this time – one argument is to use peco large radius points and the large radius Y point and then switch to exactoscale sleeper sections and hi nickel bull head rail for the rest. Certainly the cheapest option. The next option is to splash that former with a little custom pointwork from Norman at ‘Just Tracks’. The final and most expensive is to have Norman build all the pointwork in bullhead with the right sleeper spacing. I am leaning toward the latter but need to sell a leg and maybe an arm to medical science first. Quality comes at a price but making track is the one thing I really don’t want to have a go at and Norman does it really really well.
So there we have it.
That’s where I am going – 45XX and pannier tanks, B sets and cattle wagons, set in idyllic rural countryside.
