Ardmore

It's time for a trip down the branch. Mother Nature hasn't quite completed her handiwork, but hedges and backscenes are planned in the next few months. In the meantime, it looks like an up train is expected, judging from the staff and passengers waiting at the branch platform. Here comes the branch train with 45XX class tank no. 4561 of Newton Abbot shed in charge. 4561 has come to a halt at the platform. I still need to finish painting the underside of my modified Hornby-Pola footbridge. The crew have uncoupled 4561 and it's run forward to replenish its water supply. 4561 has now run round its train and it waiting to set off down the branch. Thanks for viewing. David

I thought I would add the track plans for the two stations before doing anything else. I have imagined that Teignbridge is somewhere on the South Devon main line between Newton Abbot and Plymouth. Leaving Teignbridge the branch line loops round outside the main lines and through the storage sidings before heading to the terminus at Upcombe. The time period is 1959 to 1961. Teignbridge Upcombe Thanks for reading. David

Over the years I’ve built a number of OO gauge layouts, mostly with a BR(WR) flavor, but house moves and job changes have served to limit my efforts. However, now that I’ve retired I have sufficient time and enough space to build my long-planned ideal layout. I’m fortunate to have a large basement room that serves as my home office, and there is a 16 ft x 12 ft space available in that room for layout construction. To save time, and to guarantee that the foundations were level and square, I purchased the baseboard support system from Sievers Benchwork in Wisconsin (I should explain that I live near Atlanta, Georgia). As I’m not getting any younger, I decided at the outset that the trackwork would be 4 ft above ground level, so that I could get under the baseboards for maintenance, and to access the storage sidings. I opted to use Peco Code 75 track, but I’ve tried to improve its appearance on the visible sections of the layout by increasing the spacing between the sleepers. I used a PH Designs template to do this. I’ve used Peco electrofrog turnouts throughout the layout. Again, in an attempt to improve their appearance, I removed as much as possible of the plastic around the tie-bars and fitted Cobalt motors. I should add that the layout is DCC. I wanted to be able to run both main-line and branch-line trains, to include a small main-line junction station with a goods yard (Teignbridge) for operational interest, and to have a branch-line terminus (Upcombe). The design of the former bears more than a passing resemblance to Brent, and Upcombe might be considered a much reduced version of Kingsbridge, but any similarities should be considered coincidental. To get this started, here are a few general views of the layout. Thanks for reading. David

When I compared the kit with the Radley station footbridge drawings I realized that the roof supports for the steps and the bridge itself are too far apart. To reduce the overall height of the bridge, I removed two of the four side panels, and cut back the steps. I then removed the upper part of the middle of the three remaining roof supports from each of the side panels. Finally, I added two new roof supports to each of the shortened side panels. On the bridge section, I removed the two middle roof supports and replaced them with four new supports. David

Here are a few photographs of a Hornby footbridge I have been modifying this past week. I used the plans of Radley footbridge in Adrian Vaughan's GW Architecture book as a guide to dimensions.