JohnBS

ASHBURTON AND TOTNES Locomotives 5 Another modified proprietary model, this time a tank engine. No 5741 0-6-0T ‘Pannier Tank’ c.1935 Maid of all work. Built 1929 Withdrawn 1957 This model started life as a Farish 94XX pannier, bought many years ago, and was an early essay in scratch building superstructure in plastic card. At the time, no 57xx model was available. The mechanism was largely unchanged but with a shortened footplate and chassis, a new copper-clad fibreglass keeper plate and phosphor-bronze wire wipers. Wheels were unchanged but the rods were fined down somewhat. The superstructure was totally new, of plastic card with metal handrails, details and fittings and as much lead in the tanks as I could get. Weight of loco 45g. More modified proprietary locos to come. John

Jerry, Got it this morning through the letterbox. Great edition (though perhaps I would say that)! John

ASHBURTON AND TOTNES Locomotives 4 Another modified loco, this time of the Great Western persuasion. No 19 Diesel railcar c.1940 The “Flying Banana” Built 1940 Withdrawn 1960 The model was basically the Farish unit with a fairly heavily modified drive mechanism. I isolated the drive to one bogie so that it now free-wheels. However, this is no problem as the railcar just has to haul itself! The drive to the powered bogie now has a small flywheel and double reduction gears. To achieve this, the drive shaft was simply cut, fitted through an otherwise unsupported U-shaped brass strip with gears driving a lay-shaft. From there, the drive continued back up to the final drive shaft and the worm and bogie, giving an overall reduction of about 50:1. Current collection is from both bogies. The superstructure has had cosmetic couplings and hoses fitted in place of the redundant Rapidos and has been weathered. Usually, it is a reserve loco but makes an excellent track tester - it will crawl along, albeit rather noisily! The loco weighs 80g More modified proprietary locos to come. John

ASHBURTON AND TOTNES Locomotives 3 No E 430 4-4-0 Southern L12 class c.1930 Built 1905 Withdrawn 1951 The model started life as a Poole Farish Midland compound – with major modifications. The mechanism was adapted with a replacement worm and worm wheel and a modified drive chain giving a two-stage 56:1 reduction instead of the original 25:1 (only possible with the early metal worm wheels). Cosmetic brass frames with springing and brakes were bonded to the chassis block and a new keeper plate was made from copper-clad fibreglass, with phosphor-bronze wire pickups. Beaver driving wheels, of scale diameter, where fitted, with scratch-built nickel-silver rods. The bogie truck was scratch built, with new near-scale wheels. The motor pole pieces were thinned down and rounded at the top to fit in a new firebox/boiler/smokebox of brass tube. (If you try this at home, remove the magnet and pole pieces first, mark the magnet so that it can be replaced in the correct orientation and don't shorten the cusps on the pole pieces as these must rest on the chassis block to avoid colliding with the armature.) This sits on a new footplate, splashers and cab assembly of sheet brass. New boiler fittings and details, of polished metal, were added. The tender chassis has current collection - a new keeper plate of copper-clad fibreglass with phosphor-bronze wire pickups - linked back to the loco, and axle boxes, brake gear and other details were added. The tender superstructure was scratch-built in brass and was pivoted on the chassis to bear on the rear of the locomotive, increasing adhesion (always a problem on 4-4-0 locos) and crushed coal was added. The crew includes a driver, a fireman and an inspector. The loco and tender weigh 97g. On a regular basis, a Southern locomotive was diagrammed to head a GWR train on the Plymouth – Totnes – Exeter route to gain route familiarisation. The converse was done on the Plymouth – Okehampton – Exeter route. More to follow, John

ASHBURTON AND TOTNES Locomotives 2 Peckett 0-4-0ST 14in, Works No. 1465 c. 1930 Ex Hafodyrynys Colliery Built 1917 Withdrawn 1956 This locomotive was made from a long-discontinued Peco white metal kit fitted on an Arnold 0-4-0 chassis, both of which had been skulking around in my 'to do one day' box. I decided that I needed a freelance privately owned loco to work the Totnes Quay branch, which at the moment, is not operational. In reality, the section on The Plains was horse operated but, in 2mm scale, you have to draw the line somewhere! The intention is to have it working, either on an automatic shuttle basis or by a separate control panel that can be plugged into the front of the layout, so that I can have something not too demanding to do while I chat with the public. The original kit was nicely mastered and cast but there are a couple of problems. Firstly as others have mentioned, is somewhat over-scale to accommodate the Arnold mechanism. There is not a lot that can be done about that, short of using a different kit and chassis, but it doesn't look too bad if you can keep it at some distance from other locomotives. Secondly, it is an 0-4-0 so precious little pick-up is available, particularly as I wanted it to be capable of shunting and slow speed running. This I decided could be mitigated by maximising the adhesion weight and by having a permanently-coupled, and electrically-connected, shunters truck. Out of the box, the loco and mechanism weighed 45g but I managed to pack-in an extra 15g of lead, giving a reasonable total weight of 60g. The shunters' truck was made out of a short wheelbase Peco brake van under-frame which provided me with a chassis with robust running boards. I packed some sheet lead between the frames, then, below, a layer of double-sided copper-clad fibreglass to anchor phosphor-bronze wipers contacting the backs of some spare solid disc wheels - near the centre to minimise friction. Then, on top, went a scribed plastic card floor and tool box filled with lead. Connection to the loco is by nickel-silver shims soldered to the top and bottom layers of the copper-clad fibreglass (left wheels to bottom surface, right to top), rubbing on a copper-clad draw-bar, hard wired to the loco. The truck weighed a respectable 15g and, in terms of electrical pick-up, I now have an 0-4-4 and a total combined weight of 75g. Slow running is quite acceptable. Nothing much more to say. Wire handrails were fitted and turned brass safety valves and whistle. All was primed with a grey rattle can, the loco was then air brush painted and lined with Fox decals, to a freelance scheme. The truck was merely left in primer grey, with timber areas and handrails brush painted and finally, everything was weathered. Best wishes, John

ASHBURTON AND TOTNES Locomotives 1 In total, I have a stable of 36 locomotives shared between the layouts. Of these, 9 are scratch-built in total or in part, 15 are significantly modified proprietary models and 12 are essentially "Out of the Box". The "Out of the Box" locos have all had some work done to them - typically including new name and/or number plates, removal of plastic coal and substitution with the real thing, change to insignia, fitting of Kadee (Microtrain) couplings, addition of crew, fitting of lamps, weathering, etc. However, I won’t bore you with photos of all the locos, just a few to whet your appetite. Here is the list - no great detail as they will be familiar to most readers: Schools class 4-4-0 (Southern) 910 Merchant Taylors. Dapol (On a regular basis, a Southern locomotive was diagrammed to head a GWR train on the Plymouth – Totnes – Exeter route to gain route familiarisation. The converse was done on the Plymouth – Okehampton – Exeter route.) 14xx class 0-4-2T (GWR) 1425. Dapol Pannier class 0-6-0T (GWR) 9659. Dapol Small Prairie class 2-6-2T (GWR) 4560. Dapol (The model looks the part but its performance was somewhat limited. Therefore it has been 'filleted' by removing the motor, current collection and most of the weights so it could be used as an unpowered “banker” at the rear of goods trains.) Collett Goods class 0-6-0 (GWR) 2252. Peco 2884 class 2-8-0 (GWR) 2892. Dapol 2884 class 2-8-0 (GWR) 2884. Dapol Manor class 4-6-0 (GWR) 7808 Cookham Manor. Ixion/Dapol Grange class 4-6-0 (GWR) 6820 Kingstone Grange. Dapol Hall class 4-6-0 (GWR) 4924 Eydon Hall. Dapol Hall class 4-6-0 (GWR) 4915 Condover Hall. Dapol Castle class 4-6-0 (GWR) 5031 Totnes Castle. Bachmann Farish Next time, I’ll begin with some photos of the significantly modified proprietary models and details of how I changed them. Best wishes, John

TOTNES Chapter 4 Now, a short video of Totnes (I hope that it works). https://youtu.be/Oq4W6BNIJ74 And a couple of vignettes Totnes Town Weir at the tidal limit of the Dart estuary and the penstock of the leat which feeds the mill. The Dart railway bridge is beyond. Dean Goods No. 2568 approaches Dainton Tunnel. Perhaps I will post something about the locomotives that appear on Ashburton and Totnes. There are 36 in total so I will have to be a bit selective. Best wishes, John

Jim, Thanks. All of course, entirely mythical; I don’t think that they got further south than north Wales. John

TOTNES Chapter 3 Castle House and gardens; beyond an up livestock train emerges from beneath the main road bridge, hauled by saddle tank No. 1506. This photograph © Tony Wright 2008 The river steamer Berry Castle moored at Steamer Quay, awaiting for high tide before setting off to Dartmouth. The Town Bridge is beyond. This photograph © Tony Wright 2008 "Starlight" at Totnes quayside is at the southern extremity of her range. Times were hard then so she was loaded with a cargo of timber baulks from Forestry Commission plantations in Scotland for J & R Reeves & Co Ltd, timber importers. When unloading is complete, she is due to call at Par to pick up a return cargo of china clay. Totnes Plains, St Peter's Quay Pool and the Dart estuary beyond. Reeves timber yards occupied much of this bank of the river. Totnes made its exhibition debut at Railwells in August 2008 and was featured in the January 2009 issue of British Railway Modelling magazine and issue No 205 of the Model Railway Journal. Outings included Doncaster in February 2010, when it received the British Railway Modelling "Layout of the Year" award, Aylesbury in May 2010, St Albans in January 2011, were it was awarded the Denis Moore cup for the best scenic layout and Uckfield in October 2012. After several quiet years, its most recent appearance was on 8-9 April 2017 at Trainwest, Corsham. Perhaps a bit more soon, Best wishes, John

TOTNES Chapter 2 A Plymouth to Paddington express hauled by an immaculate No 111 "The Great Bear" rattles through the station on the up through line. Footplate crews disliked having to stop at Totnes as the station was at the bottom of Dainton Bank to the north-east (maximum 1 in 36) and Rattery Bank to the south-west (maximum 1 in 45). Hard work. The operating programme for Totnes is hypothetical. For normal operations, stock includes up and down express passenger trains, local passenger trains, fitted stock trains, coal rakes (full down, empties up), a mineral rake, a breakdown train, pick-up goods and the branch 14xx and autocoach. A wide range of locomotives are used, from The Great Bear to a humble 517 class. A view of the station and town from Totnes Castle. The Cornish Riviera thunders through Totnes, double-headed by a Hall and Castle (Dartington Hall and Caerphilly Castle). Meanwhile, a down coal train, hauled by 28xx class No. 2857 makes slower progress. No. 3824 County of Cornwall with a down stopping passenger train passing over the River Dart bridge and approaching Totnes station. This photograph © Tony Wright 2008 More photographs still to come, John

TOTNES change for the Ashburton Branch Plan of the layout The original Totnes layout, despite its massive size, survived our move to Somerset. However, after desultory progress towards completing the layout, I came to the conclusion that I was unlikely to generate enough enthusiasm to finish the work. So, about ten years ago, I decided to remake it, concentrating on the station, town and river, on new baseboards. At least the result would be transportable and the pressure of getting things into a suitable state for exhibition would perhaps generate sufficient incentive to complete the tasks. A general view of the layout. The River Dart weir in the right foreground represents the tidal limit of the river. In the right middle distance is the chimney of Daws Dairy and Totnes station beyond. To the left, the Ashburton branch diverges from the main line, which enters Dainton Tunnel. The result was a layout about 3m by 1.7m. This is basically a simple double-track oval plan, with platform loops, up and down sidings, the Quay branch and the entry to the Ashburton branch. There are six new track boards, a Quay Branch board and two scenic boards to fill-in the centre. Although I had to take some substantial liberties with geography, I hope that the result retains the character of the locality. The main lines from Newton Abbot appear from the souther portal of a much relocated Dainton Tunnel to cross the River Dart and enter Totnes station. The route then continues towards Plymouth through (an entirely mythical) Totnes Castle Tunnel. The Quay branch runs from a facing junction on the down line, between the River Dart bridge and the station and terminates at The Plains (Totnes quayside). The Ashburton branch has a double junction on the other side of the River Dart bridge (modified in the 1930s) with cross-overs in the station to allow the branch trains to transfer from down to up platforms. Daws Dairy with its prominent chimney and Totnes station and the town beyond. The dairy buildings were originally constructed as a pumping house for Brunel's ill-fated atmospheric railway project Everything is controlled from a plug-in 'probe and stud' panel for point operation, with separate Gaugemaster controllers for the up and down lines. As yet, signals remain largely absent – there are over a dozen within the Totnes station limits and I need to make most of them operating. So far, only two are in place. The River Plym on the River Dart. Bulldog No. 3373 crosses the Dart bridge with an up milk train. This photograph © Barry Norman 2009 In the foreground, the River Dart was formed from tinted casting resin, 5-10mm deep, on a base textured with sand and boulders (in reality, small pebbles) and painted. In the middle distance, beyond the rail bridge, the river estuary was simply painted and varnished MDF board. Streams were multiple layers of varnish on a textured and painted base. The weir was made with multiple layers of varnish on painted embossed plastic card with foam made from strings of polystyrene cement, painted off-white. More of Totnes to follow, John

Robert,Thanks for your comment and sorry for the length of time taken to reply to your query - just returned after a week in Greece (well, someone has to do it). Below is a sequence of drone photos of the fiddle yard access in operation. No. 1 The autotrain at the bridge at the cutting entrance. No. 2 The autotrain now reached the end of the cutting No.3 The autotrain disappearing under the farm house and buildings - the earth has moved No. 4 All is revealed - the lift-off sections removed No. 5 .The autotrain enters the fiddle yard The sector plate is of 9mm MDF, as is the rest of the track bed. It is pivoted on a small brass "ladder" hinge and slides on a scrap laminate surface, lubricated with graphite powder. To avoid problems with the sector plate lifting, it is restrained by a couple of Lego wheels which are attached to the bottom of the plate and run underneath the segment of MDF. End stops are small cupboard magnetic catches, which are finely adjustable, the magnetic contact is "softened" with a layer of 10thou plastic card on the magnets under the plate. Operation is by a simple wooden push rod from behind the backscene. The small white lamp on the backscene illuminates the fiddle yard entrance (which is normally covered by the lift-off panels) and is controlled by a microswitch which verifies that the sector plate is aligned to the fiddle yard entrance road. The fiddle yard normally contains five rakes of stock, autotrain plus second trailer, 517 with 5 four-wheel coaches, small prairie with 7 wagons and brake, saddle tank with mixed milk train and Dean goods with 6 cattle vans and brake. Hope that this information is of interest, More soon, John

Nick, I am delighted with your excellent series - great engineering and very good videos. We are all indebted to you for your work. I look forward to the sequel "Son of Jubilee", when you get on to the valve gear and the superstructure. Thank you again, John

ASHBURTON Chapter 5 More Ian Manderson photos. Pannier No. 8731 arrives with the morning milk train. Usually, it will drop the small Siphon C (next to the engine) in the platform road, where it will be loaded with churns from the local farms. Then it will be attached to the mid-morning auto-train to return to Daws Diary in Totnes. Saddle tank No. 1506 leaves with a livestock train at the end of market day with the Western National bus from Buckfastleigh in the background. Now a couple of buildings with not a train in sight. Tuckers Fertilizers and Maltings store with its octagonal chimney and the coal heap. And the Maltings building. All © Ian Manderson, 2010 More later, John

ASHBURTON Chapter 4 Hello folks, Here is a link to a short video of Ashburton https://youtu.be/1S8czzgKUms I hope that this works. More later, John

Hello Mark, Thanks for your comment and query. I think that my ballasting technique is fairly normal. I came across something that called itself Play Sand, meant for kids' sand-pits. It is a very finely-graded pale yellow sand and came in a 25kg bag so should be more than enough for me! As to track, I have used Peco code 55, though I would use fiNetrax code 40 if it had been available then. The track base that I use is 9mm MDF, set on cross-bearers and a carefully-levelled 4mm spline bearer on the centreline. If the track bed is not smoothly graded, running will always be problematic (we have all seen layouts with little mountain peaks at baseboard joints). The track is laid directly on the base - no cork or underlay as this gives another opportunity to create undulations - PVA glue and temporary pins as required. When all has been tested, ballasting can begin. If I need to confine the width of ballast, I use masking tape, otherwise, I run a line of ballast along the tracks, spread with a temporary card profile notched for the rails. I remove excess with a brush, then mist with a plant mister and drop the usual water/PVA/washing-up liquid with a syringe body. Then it’s time to pick off ballast that has stuck to the rail or to the tops of the sleepers. When all is fully dry - two or three days - out come the paints. I now usually use emulsion paints (match pots), tinted with acrylics and well diluted. You have to be fairly quick with this or the PVA holding the ballast will start to soften. Alternatively you can use enamel. Wiping some of the paint off the tops of the sleepers will give them some definition. When all is dry, the sides of the rails are painted with enamel. Finally, the rail tops are cleaned - firstly I use a 9” file to plane out any residual high spots but don’t try this with 40thou rail! For day-to-day cleaning, I use fingernail buffing pads Superdrug do a block with four grades of abrasive, from shaping to polishing. So nothing much unusual here. The key issues are: Make sure that the track bed is correctly levelled Us a sufficiently fine grade of ballasting material (no boulders) Spend sufficient time spreading the ballast evenly Carefully get rid of bits of ballast in the wrong place Paint the track with reference to photos. Hope this is some help, especially to those venturing into making their first layout. Best wishes, John

ASHBURTON Chapter 3 Some more Ashburton photos. These were taken by Ian Manderson in August 2010 and are therefore his copyright. They cover similar ground to the previous ones but are better in quality than my pedestrian efforts, so here goes. 517 class No.1435 with a train of four-wheelers exits the bridge at the end of the rock cutting and approaches the home signal. The Red Devon cattle are fairly indifferent. No. 1435 arrives at the station. The branch pick-up goods engine, small Prairie No. 4536, sizzles quietly 'on shed'. Later, the fire has been built-up and, with a bit more steam, the injector can top-up the boiler so No. 4536 is filling up the tanks at the water crane. Meanwhile bagging coal continues in Robertson's yard. No. 1435 has run around the coaches and dropped them back to the platform to await departure. The fireman is looking out for the starter signal and listening for the guard's whistle. The seeds store in the grounded coach body is in the foreground. All © Ian Manderson, 2010 A bit more of Ashburton to come. John

Found these pictures from the Watford show 2002. There was a strong 2mm presence there. I was interested in the lighting/presentation, was this the lighting rig on the layout then? TimV, Thanks for the photos. I guess that this was an early iteration of the lighting - since then, the post has been sprayed matt black (now somewhat scratched) and the PAR38 lamps swapped with a couple of 150W tungsten halogen lamps. What I wanted to achieve was a concentrated “sunlight” affect, sited sufficiently high to avoid shining in peoples’ eyes (about 3.0m above the floor). Well, it was always sunny in South Devon in the 1930s! Best wishes, John

ASHBURTON Continued Ashburton yard with the rope-worked (or horse-worked) coal siding in the right foreground, the engine shed and coaling and watering facilities in the centre and the old quarry beyond. Pannier No. 8731 and a livestock train waiting at the home signal. Ashburton's weekly livestock market was a busy time for the branch and the annual livestock fair was exceedingly so, requiring special trains and the use of the refuge siding at Staverton to accommodate additional trucks. A quiet time in the yard. Seed sales operated from a grounded clerestory coach body, the labourer refills sacks that have split from the heap of seed on the tarpaulin. His boss is in deep negotiation with a local farmer, or are they just passing the time of day? Higher Soar farm house and barn beyond, above the steep-sided rock cutting which takes the branch line towards Buckfastleigh, Totnes and the rest of the world. Ashburton was first exhibited as a work in progress, at Bletchley way back in 1997 and appeared in Model Railway Journal issue 94 in the same year and more recently in the Railway Modeller of January 2011 and British Railway Modelling of July 2012. In 2010, Ashburton was awarded the Visitors' Cup for the best layout by the Manchester Model Railway Society. Its latest outing was at Wells on 11-12 August 2018. Even more to follow, John

ASHBURTON Plan of the layout Yet another Ashburton layout! As noted above, this one began life in the late 1970s as the branch line section of a larger fixed layout focussed on Totnes main line station. However, when we moved to Somerset in 1987, the branch line section had to be separated from the main layout as the intended railway room - the loft - was too small. There it stayed, with the vague idea that one day it may come in useful. Perhaps it would form the basis of a small portable - even exhibit-able - independent layout. A general view of Ashburton station and its setting. The Western National bus is waiting for the arrival of the branch auto-train. Beyond is the Railway Hotel and the entrance to the livestock market. The gas works with gas holder and retort chimney is behind the station. In the distance, rain clouds are gathering over Dartmoor. And thus it was reborn. Of course, little of the original baseboard remains but at least the need to construct buildings and rolling stock was minimised and I had learnt a little in the meanwhile. The branch auto-train with No. 4820 has arrived and picked up a second trailer coach for the strengthened morning school run to Buckfastleigh and Totnes. The second trailer was stabled at Ashburton overnight. The school run was strictly segregated - boys in one coach and girls in the other! The layout is set in the late 1920s and takes the form of a simple diorama. From the familiar Ashburton track plan the single line runs across a small stream and enters a (mythical) steep rock cutting. This hides a sector plate which connects to five storage roads and a head shunt buried under the rolling hills of south Devon. I chose this approach because I didn't want a metre of dead "box" on the end of the layout. Weighing and bagging house-coal in the yard and using the sack loader to load Robertson's new Ford lorry. 517 class No. 1435 arrives with a train of four-wheelers and beyond are the water tank and crane.general view of Ashburton yard with the rope-worked coal siding in the right foreground. The layout is controlled by an ECM controller and 'probe and stud' panel for point and signal operation, set into the back of the layout. The operating programme for Ashburton is based on the working timetables of the 1920s and 1930s. For normal operations, stock includes a 517 with a rake of four-wheeled coaches, a 14xx and autocoach, a small prairie, a pannier, a Dean goods and a saddle tank with passenger, milk, cattle and goods rakes. More soon, John

PART 2 Scenic areas were shaped by carving and sanding the Sundeala, priming with dilute PVA and covering with Polyfilla mixed with brown emulsion paint and PVA. When set, areas such as roads were sanded smooth. Grassed areas were formed by gluing on surgical lint, fluffy side down, with contact adhesive, then, when set, removing the backing. Colouring was then done with dilute enamel paint (mid green, yellow and white) and the grass teased up with an old suede brush. Roads and other surfaced areas were textured with a variety of materials - talcum powder, scouring powder, fine sand, crushed stone and ash etc - stuck with dilute PVA and tinted with dilute enamel paints to avoid softening the adhesive. A typical slice through the Totnes layout. Ashburton construction is similar but narrower. Devon banks (hedges) were constructed on roughly-carved cores of Sundeala, covered with filler, painted and flocked. Reeds and specimen plants were made from various materials - plumbers' hemp, crushed tissue paper and commercial scenic products. For me, the good news is that almost all the buildings and many civil engineering structures, trees and details were salvaged from the earlier layout. Trees were produced in various ways. Specimen trees at the front of the were either carefully made with foliage material (Woodland Scenics and Heka) on wire armatures or were high quality purchases. Trees in the middle distance were simpler, a basic wire support and simple foliage clumps or teased-out air conditioner filter fabric, sprayed with adhesive and then flocked. Mass planting at the back of the layout was even simpler; a structure of rabbit wire (20mm square mesh) with clumps of flocked filter fabric. Buildings were scratch-built, made of mounting board with the late lamented BuilderPlus stone and brick papers or textured plastic card. Windows were made from acetate sheet, scribed for glazing bars with the grooves filled with paint, wiped off before fully dry. Roofs of foreground buildings were slated with paper, ruled in one direction with a biro to give a texture to the vertical joints between slates and cut into overlapping strips for the horizontal joints. I use 1mm square graph paper for this as it saves a lot of measuring! The rolling stock was also largely already available from the earlier layouts. Of the stable of over 30 locomotives, many were scratch-built, others were heavily modified proprietary models and some just weathered, crewed and renumbered. Coaching stock is a combination of proprietary models and kits and wagons are proprietary, all weathered.

ASHBURTON AND TOTNES INTRODUCTION Many years ago, while living in London, I began construction of a large fixed layout of Totnes station, the River Dart and estuary, Dainton Tunnel, Staverton and the Ashburton branch. The whole thing was an L-shape, about 4m by 4.5m and 1m deep. It was approaching completion when we moved down to Somerset some thirty years ago. Despite its massive size, the layout survived the move, minus the Ashburton terminus, which had to be removed to fit into the new railway room (the loft). Therefore, the ultimate outcome was two separate layouts, a remodelled Ashburton and a reconstructed Totnes. The two models share common themes – each is set in South Devon in the heyday of steam on the Great Western Railway. Both, are to 2mm scale, though using N-gauge track, and share a collection of locomotives and rolling stock. Ashburton is a small working diorama of the well-known branch line terminus while Totnes is a larger continuous circuit. Ashburton on its supporting base unit, which acts as a storage box for transporting the ancillary equipment The construction of each layout differs slightly. The older, Ashburton, is in two separate boards, 1.3m and 1.1m long and 0.45m wide, with radiused corners. It has a perimeter framework of 22mm thick softwood with cross braces at about 0.4m centres. The newer, Totnes, has six main track boards, providing an oval about 3.0m by 1.7m, with two infill scenic boards and one small board for the Quay Branch. These have a structural frame of 4mm birch ply, with cross braces at about 0.4m centres, diagonal bracing and a spline beam under the centreline of the tracks. The latter was very carefully aligned vertically to avoid undulation which are difficult to detect. The track bed is 9mm MDF and the rail is Peco code 55, carefully ballasted with fine sand. Turnouts are again Peco, with Seep motors. All vulnerable edges of the framework are reinforced with 8mm square strip-wood and ply joints with 12mm triangular fillets. Totnes at an exhibition, on the extended base unit. The layouts have a common setting-out height with the tracks at 1.2m above floor level - indeed they share the same support structure. Joining faces were reinforced with an additional layer of 9mm MDF and were aligned with loose-pin butts (hinges) and connected with M10 bolts, washers and wing nuts. The exposed front edges were faced with 3mm MDF, cut to the scenery profile. A similar MDF strip was fixed to the rear, curving round the ends, as a panoramic back-scene, cut to the distant ground and tree profile. The sky boards were separate, spaced about 5mm away from the back of the ground profile. Both layouts have lift-off sections to give access to hidden tracks or where buildings cross baseboard joints. Scenic surfaces were constructed out of 10mm insulation board (Sundeala), cut, edge-glued to each other to form a three-dimensional monocoque and carved as necessary. This gave an homogenous surface, capable of taking fixings (trees, signals, etc) and of being shaped. (It also enabled me to use up loads of off-cuts from the earlier version of Totnes!) Ashburton has five storage sidings which are somewhat unconventional; they sit under the rising ground at the back of the layout and are accessed via a sector plate which forms the track in the rock cutting at the right hand end of the layout. Totnes has a conventional fiddle yard behind the back-scene, with four roads in each direction, a central exchange road and head/tail shunts at the left hand end. These fiddle yard boards are protected by a 20mm up-stand, in 3mm MDF. For transport, pairs of boards bolt together face-to-face, through end protection boards. Both layouts are supported on a base unit - a fold-out box construction which provides a firm base and storage for many of the ancillary items – power supply, tools, lighting and cables. The lighting is by a concentrated array of tungsten halogen lamps on a high single pole. For Totnes, the base unit is extended by adding a further four sections, again joined with hinges.

Nigel,Perhaps you used aluminium wire for the stanchion - you should have photographed the other side (ugh!) A lovely bit of model engineering - my compliments. John

Phil, John and Jerry, Coming soon to a harbour near you : Look forward to being in North Cornwall this weekend at Wells. Best wishes, John