Steve Smith

To some extent because I can, and because I have a soft spot for the neglected signal box at Downton, I have started the process of creating a full height version of a Type 1 signal box. Based around Verwood it uses details from the box at Fordingbridge (locking room access and light), but will use Downton as inspiration for the steps and porch. It has also gained the finials that could be seen at Downton almost to the end, that will look great on any Victorian version of the box, as I suspect they all had them originally. They are a strange shape, but at Downton at least they really did look like that! A full set of test prints for the Verwood specific box are winging their way to me, including a very nice looking roof that was printed in one shot, something I really didn't think would be possible.

This was my interpretation of the interior of this shed for a friend. In this case laser etched in MDF and card in 7mm scale, and only room for seven bays. The framing of the shed varied along its length because it was built in stages and had been subject to ad-hoc repairs. Truly a cathedral of steam!

One of the mysteries at Verwood was the light grey cabinet behind the signal box. This was probably installed in the 1930s to hold batteries used in conjunction with the electric locks of the new switching out mechanism. This cabinet is visible in an Eyers picture of the station frontage, but it on its own this was insufficient for modelling purposes. Luckily, the photo that proved I had the signal box chimney wrong, showed the top of the cabinet and enough of the front, to produce the renders above. Over the gaps between the pairs of doors there appears to have been some very heavy cover strip, and the Eyers photo has some strange diagonal artefacts across it that are impossible to interpret. There should probably be a padlock, or other means of securing the doors, and suggestions would be welcome. It's not won me over yet, and is still a work in progress.

A cupboard door has been added, this was partly informed by hints in the murkiness of a Verwood photo, and what could be seen in the Midford box on that other S&D. The framing widths have been refined to be more in line with Midford, which can be seen much more clearly than the Verwood unit. The brass handles on the side panels has been traced from a photo of the real thing also kindly provided by Chris. That handle is about 1mm long in 4mm scale, so just an impression required! That photo also showed that the chamfer stops were curved, and due to the way I had implemented them originally this was very easy to replicate in the model. The lever has been added to the left-hand side, together with what looked like a knurled fastener on the side of the tombstone. With that, I think it's ready for a test print. For completeness, I would very much like to do the floor mounted METS unit for the long section, but have a low resolution photo and no other information to go on.

After much chipping away at virtual resin, the ground frame has re-emerged as a Stevens & Son product and has sprouted levers, descriptor and pull plates and a front cover. I doubt if the rear was boxed in, especially since it was in a hut, so I'm contemplating whether some slightly thickened 'rails' should be allowed to poke out the back. I've left the RSL style 'teeth' where the interlocking 'racks' must have mounted for now. An RSL version is still an option, as are Southern oval descriptor plates. Verwood needs a couple of Tyer's No.6 Tablet instruments, and West Moors needs one too, so with Chris' measurements from Midsomer Norton, the last couple of days have been spent on this rather garish monster. Looking more like something from a fairground, the base unit is probably unique to Verwood with the hint in my reference photo that the front had a door, and that this was another cupboard. Not having any clear photos of the brass pull handles on the sides - something similar was traced off the interweb. Some sort of transfer will be needed for the front of the tombstone. Most satisfyingly of all, a mock-up of the signal box interior with instrument panel and tablet instruments. It seems likely to me that the West Moors instrument would have been in the corner to enable access to the long section token device (not shown), and to behind the frame to the adjustors for the signal wires. In this position, it would not have appeared in any of my photos of the interior. The toe of the lever frame is now correctly in line with the cupboard and the frame slightly enlarged in line with Chris' measurements at MSN.

Verwood also had a Ground Frame. It was housed in a corrugated tin shed that was almost certainly unique to Verwood. Colour photos show it to have had a greenish hue, which would be an option if it was considered to be in the station environs and hadn't already been given a coat of bitumen. It was off the end of the down platform, and every down train would have required a visit to the hut to work the points at the West Moors end. I actually suspect two visits, as the bobby would need to reset everything after tablets had been exchanged, and the train had been signalled out of the loop from the box. This was built the old-fashioned way a couple of years ago. Slaters styrene sheet was used, and the corrugations are a tad over scale in 4mm scale, a deficiency shared with the lamp hut, weighbridge hut and canopy roof. The door of the hut was open in all the photos that I have, so I modelled the framing on the inside, and what it's crying out for is a Ground Frame. We don't know exactly which type it had, but Midsomer Norton had some RSC frames that the friendly and helpful S&T people let me measure and photograph last year. This is the result - the start of another tiny sciatica project!

Luckily I have a couple of photos of the instrument shelf, and with a lot of help from Chris we have been able to arrive at an educated guess as to what was there - needless to say it's him wot's educated not me, and the mistakes needless to say are all mine! This is configurable with length based on the number of levers, but only the repeaters line up with the relevant lever. The script that creates it has a line for each item and specifies the position of the item on the shelf in relation to the lever numbers including between levers as the 'position' doesn't need to be a whole number, plus if necessary the colour of the item or its size. The shunting and block bells are more randomly placed, with a block gong for Fordingbridge at one end, a block bell for West Moors at the other end, and in the middle what we have assumed to be a shunting bell, possibly to communicate with the Ground Frame. The drum rendered black is likely to be a relay of unknown purpose. The repeater for the down home bracket signal was dual aspect, so just the one binnacle needed for that. I have to remind myself that all this is just 18mm long in 4mm scale, and not to get carried away - the stalks for the bells are just 0.3mm diameter! It's a very good match for the photos, and that's all I can ask. I need to measure a couple of Tyers No.6 ETT machines (Shillingstone and MSN both have at least one), and then the signal box render will start to look quite crowded.

Not too far from the Verwood signal box and spending the winter deep under the canopy and the summer in front of the Waiting Room was this distinctive station seat. Similar to the ones found on the Salisbury & Yeovil (S&Y) but with a much more relaxed back rest. The photos I have are not terribly clear, but there is more than a hint of the curved seat as per the S&Y, but the feet were joined unlike the S&Y seats (as at Semley). Same, but definitely different!

I can now see that what I took to be two token instruments, is just the one Tyers No.6 instrument - so perhaps the other one was at the right hand end? Have sent you a PM with the photo and will now look through all my other photos again.

That would be very kind of you! The distance between the centres of the bolt heads at the end would be a useful sense check for the scale of my 3D model. Then perhaps the length of the slots and their distance from the toe for the throws. The only drawing of a Stevens frame that I could find was of the Scottish variant, and does look different to the London version. Although late in the design process, I can make changes until the STL files go off to the printer.

Excellent, I have a photo showing that little device, and now I know what it was there for! :-) To the uninitiated (that's me), it looks like there were two tablet devices at the left-hand end, but they do look different. Do you happen to know what they would have been? I was going to start by tackling the varnished hardwood cabinet they stood, and take it from there. To continue to wile away the time while my sciatica clears up, I tackled the cupboard in the corner. I have a head on photo showing the right-hand door and a bit of the left-hand door, plus a couple of supporting shots showing less of the same end, one of them showing that the register was kept on it. I had formed the idea that the left-hand end could only be a half cupboard, but when I mocked it all up and checked the proportions it seems that there was room for two identical doors, both left hand hinged. Compared with the MHR boxes, this seems a generous allocation of cupboard space. As on the prototype, the doors don't fit ever so well, and the right-hand one is ever so slightly ajar, as in one of my photos. I reckon there would have been a chair for the bobby between the fireplace and cupboard.

There was always a question mark in my mind about the angle on the pulled lever. Looking at photos of Stevens' style frames, it dawned on me that my lever slots came too close to the front. Reducing the angle from 27° to 25° moved the end of the slot back by the right sort of amount and I think improves the look. This is the Verwood Frame ready to receive a train from Salisbury. Interestingly, the locking diagram indicates that lever 2 locks lever 5 and 8, whilst lever 5 locks lever 2. I'm sure Chris will be along in a little while to put me right. This render adopts a more subtle blue that is closer to the lever colours on the MHR. This is the partially assembled set of STL files, without the sashes, and therefore ready for printing. I have a size for the Styrene floor which I have simulated, and have positioned the lever frame and stove. The lever frame will need to sit in a hole in the floor with some closing boards around it and a tread board in front - a bit like the real thing. I am fairly confident about the size of the stove, but it looked too large in the builder's opening of the wall. Referring back to Nick C's MHR photos, it was clear that my fireplace was a tad undersized, and this render has the enlarged item. There were two short section tablets, plus the long section token, so I'm thinking three machines. It looks like there were two on the left, but there is no photo showing the right side of the frame and any instrument that might be there. Of things left to do, there's no door - that I'll etch with the window sashes in multiple layers to take the glazing in a pocket, probably with the options of the half glazed four panel Verwood door, plus a half glazed four pane door that seems popular on the MHR. I shall probably also model the distinctive cupboard in the rear corner, and I'm thinking that the interesting mountain of tablet/token instruments to the left of the frame is worth doing too.

It seems that every coal fired LSWR signalbox had a stove rather than open fire. This little chap will be just the job for Verwood and is of a type very familiar to Nick C! Thanks for those photos Nick!

After an 'interesting' tussle with OpenSCAD since it doesn't allow the user to set variables in conventional 'if' statements, but does allow one to do it in a weird conditional assignment with 'C' language like syntax, the computing gods were smiling again. And to please our Christopher, this is West Moors masquerading as an Evans O'Donnell frame with black numbers on white or yellow plates - still just in boring old grey resin. As with the Verwood Crane, these could be printed much more impressively in 7mm scale.

Chris, I'm going to count that as success! I have had a go at black numbers on light backgrounds, but the programming gods have deserted me for now. I don't suppose you have photos of one or more of these alternative ends? If no-one knows which one it actually was, Duncan will have to pick the one that we have a photo for that appeals most.

One new OpensCAD config file later - this should be fairly close to what was in the box at West Moors. Happy to be corrected on lever colours, remembering that striping is not practical, and 3D prints will be in plain grey resin anyway.

After realising that the lever release pivot was below the pull plate lugs at the real Verwood, I've moved them down a tad and moved the pull plate lugs up. This looks much closer to the real Verwood than before.

Over scale thickness pull plates (0.15mm) have been added to the levers that had them in the two sizes seen at Verwood. After perusing the locking chart, I've moved all the levers needed to finally pull lever 11 fully over. This should therefore be what Verwood frame looked like when the box was switched out. Only the down loop stop signals are at danger. One of those is on a bracket with the other stop signal off, and the second is now 'other line' to any train passing through. Whether something this delicate can really be 3D printed in 4mm scale with current technology remains to be seen!

Thanks again to Chris' input, a closer approximation to the lugs - the SR Oval is now only lugged on this side.

Thanks Chris - with your help getting closer! I do need to stay within the realms of what can be 3D printed in 4mm scale, and can't reasonably render things striped using OpensCAD, but... 30° for the brass LSWR plates seemed too laid back, but 22.5° appears to match the look of Alresford, and that has black background plates. And a rear view, showing the single lug and ramp on the SR oval. using the top hole of the LSWR fitting. I had noticed some dangly things at the top of the levers at Verwood, and now I know what they were! They're pretty small and seem to come in two sizes - will take that away and see what I can do.

With the help of Chris Osment and one of his excellent web pages dedicated to S&DJR Lever Description Plates (LDPs), I have been adding LDPs to the lever frame for Verwood. Mindful that West Moors would need the later Southern pattern oval, I have catered for three patterns of LDP. This render of the lever frame sports a simplified version of the scalloped LSWR LDP on levers 1 to 9. Lever 10 wrongly sports the later Southern oval to show what one would look like if specified, whilst Lever 11 sports the narrow Southern Oval mounted high up as at Verwood. The numbers are over scale in the hope that they can be dry brushed with white paint and perhaps visible. I haven't bothered with either raised borders, or the gutter that the narrow oval type had, as this stuff will be tiny in 4mm scale. The actual lever numbers are supplied in an array catering for A,B,C levers to be added to the left. The LDP pattern to be fitted is supplied in another array. The lower plates are on a double lugged fitting that mounts them at an angle, and the angle was guessed at 10 degrees, To prepare for a full test print, I've been fixing errors in the Signal Box CAD model shown up by the partial test print, and removing the 3D printed sashes to make room for the laser etched versions.

Hi Duncan, That's not a daft question at all! The answer is - how many levers and in what positions? I'm working up to a more comprehensive test print and can put whatever you ask for on that - it will take hardly any space up on the build plate - so not much to lose. There are no plates on the levers at the moment - which style of plates do I need to try to add for West Moors? Steve

Quick update after some work on the undergubbins. The brake hangers and blocks were traced from the Ian Beattie drawing in CAD and fretted out. The flat bar stretchers are similar to the one I made for the rear drivers of my T9. The hanger brackets were cut from some brass channel using a jig to place the hole consistently, set the size and that little angle. The central pull rod is the SEF 4F one doubled up for robustness. Once soldered together, I was able to cut the top wires and remove the brake gear assembly, as it just hooks into the holes in the frames. The white metal sanding gear is just sat in the locating holes, the front one being rebated as it overlapped the hanger bracket. The holes for the fillers align with the boxes, so that's a win; but the fragile sand pipes will be replaced in PB with some representation of the cocks. The sharp crease in the smokebox wrapper should be a gentle curve, and a bit of filler should achieve that, and in fitting the guard irons front and rear I must have knocked that rear step. The motor is a Mitsumi that was originally fitted in a specially adapted MultiBox with 53:1 gearing in my Black Motor. This was deemed a tad sluggish for excursions on South Junction, and I'm hoping that this motor and gearbox (driving the middle axle) will work better with 40:1 gears substituted.

Just had a phone call to confirm that the T9 chassis etch, cab roof and front step are now ready. These were ordered back in October to replace the parts I borrowed from my own kit to complete the Beaminster Road T9. Squires had the good sense to check that they were still wanted - and they are!

This is a Q Class that Hattons were offering that looks to me to be a conversion of the Airfix 4F that has followed the Crownline instructions to the letter - including retaining tender drive. A nicely finished loco that is a credit to the builder. Work on my own conversion has restarted following collection of the finished Wills T9, starting with drawing up and fretting out some suitable brake hangers and blocks for the loco plus guard irons all round.