Maurice Hopper

Sometimes a simple, experience can assist in the clarification of thoughts and ideas. While on a recent visit to the northern edge of the Forest of Dean, I came across one of those fine examples of ‘Reuse’ (and indeed ‘Reversion’). The capital ‘Rs’ are a reflection of those increasingly important ‘R’ words: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle*. I made an unexpected discovery: the remains of a B.R. plywood van. After a ridiculously short working lives, many of the B.R. fleet of short wheelbase fitted van bodies ended up being sold as agricultural buildings as the 1955 Modernisation Plan (which did little to modernise the railway, but a lot to take it back to 1945 or earlier, especially in the matter of wagons) was put out to grass with the arrival of the Beeching Report. Some of these purchases from B.R. have been well cared for, still providing useful cover for farming activities. Others have not faired so well with the plywood delaminating and rotting or, in this case due to its hill top location, blown away. The characteristic pressed steel ends and the angle iron framework for the roof and sides remain. The growth of a tree - I think it is a elderberry - just adds a nice touch. Out of the useless comes forth fruit! It is likely that at least some of these vehicles never earned the cost of building them. In the early 1970s, at the extreme end of their revenue earning service, about 70 such vehicles stood all year in the yard at Weymouth so they could to handle about eight weeks of revenue earning with the Channel Island potato and tomato traffic, although most the tomato traffic had already gone to the roads by then. The cost of building and maintaining these short vehicles was inflated by the need for a much higher ratio of the expensive bits - wheels, running gear, brakes and buffers - to the load space found in standard U.I.C.** designs found in Europe, where vans were at least twice if not three times the capacity. Why were they so short? Because that was the size of British railway vans! It always had been. And that was what the infrastructure could carry. This head-in-the-sand view of changing design and technology did much to destroy rail freight in the UK. Even the ‘Palvans’ built to take pallets had a lower capacity than the largest contemporary road vehicle competition. While the 16tons mineral wagon seldom survived like the vans, they illustrate well the point that infrastructure controlled the railway. Beeching wanted the railway to stop using its coal wagons being used as ‘bunkers’. Robens - the boss of the Nation Coal Board - did not wish to pay (c £10m @ 1965) for the improved railway operating efficiency by having to rebuild his pit-head loading areas. Beeching won with his Merry-Go-Round trains. Higher capacity, higher speeds, a hugely reduced wagon fleet and even reduced traction requirements. Excellent; but too late. The technology for MRG had been there in the 1950s but there was no will for it to be introduced. To return to the van, standing floor-less in the field. It could be seen as a metaphor for the poor planning, poor investment and lack of imagination on the post-1945 railway. That the plan is to model this as a diorama rather than as some detail on the corner of large layout is also a metaphor for my changing approach to modelling. In a world of diminishing resources, questions need to be asked about the culture of over-production and over-consumption: and railway modelling should not escape such an interrogation. Better to build or small and meaningful diorama than some all consuming sprawling ‘empire’. As one who has changed my behaviour on a number of occasions over the last 68 years, railway modelling is a residual pastime from a different age. As a non-car owning, vegetarian who lives in a house with solar panels (electricity generation) and a 33 year old heat pump (hot water production) and who has not flown since my work as an international human rights observer just nearly fifteen years ago, it seems odd that I have been tempted to return to the rather questionable and many ways unsustainable activity of ‘out-of-the-box’ railway modelling. For some years I have been increasingly concerned about the human fascination for injection moulded petroleum based plastic and the way this fascination, or perhaps I should say addiction, is passed on through contents of the average child’s brightly coloured toy box. (Although I hear that Lego are going over to bioplastic.) It is also a concerning to look at the environmental impact of modelling as with so many other products. This is not just about the materials used, but the whole pyramid that imports of finished models stand on, dodgy chemical industries, industrial pollution, international shipping (a very dirty industry), packaging, production energy, etc. It seems, that modern ‘out-of-the-box’ modelling is, a long way from the days of Hornby tinplate, when there were few worries about the future of the environment or resources. When having a ‘consuming’ (both meanings) hobby was unquestioningly a good thing. However, my comments are based on an increasing feeling of cognitive dissonance (that is inconsistent thought, beliefs or attitudes) especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change in relation my railway modelling. To make such a diorama with freedom to use whatever scale, probably 12mm to 1foot, and the most appropriate materials, also make this a metaphor. That this model of a recycled van is expressing a challenge to working within a new set of criteria for an environment that must question waste and inappropriate use of resources, at all scales. This piece also reflects my reduction in the size of modelling projects. Over the last ten years most of my exhibition layouts were reduced to what could be carried by public transport. It also reflects my move towards the arts as a means of expression. Art has a much longer tradition of using metaphor than modelling. Perhaps we need to consider these things more carefully and move beyond playing trains and building ever bigger layouts. In any modelling activity there is always an element of “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”. However, waste can be kept to a minimum and care of finished products can make for a longer life expectancy. Sadly, some recent work of mine has, like this BR fitted van, has been scrapped too early in its life, not for want of good design and careful construction but for want a proper care and storage. And that in a project to recycle a layout… Ironic, or what!! Although the resources wasted in a breaking up a model railway are small compared to the waste of a fleet of poorly conceived wagons, it’s the frame of mind that is important. So the experience of finding a van body in a field has helped me move on with my attitude to modelling. I doubt if others will follow… but that is not the point. One has to move when the time is right for you. There is a wonderful poem by Dorothy Nimmo - ‘The Pottery Lesson’ (a Google search will find it) - about a potter who breaks their pots as soon as they have been made, which ends “Why do you break your pots as soon as you have made them? I can’t answer that question. When you can answer that question you will no longer be broken.” If you have got this far well done! *The three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - all help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy. Plus, the three R's save land and money communities must use to dispose of waste in landfills. **U.I.C. Union Internationle des Chemins de fer.

Several weeks ago I attended the Exeter Garden Railway Show with a demonstration table, trying to spread the arts of scratch building and low impact modelling in 16mmNG fraternity. The purpose of my display was to produce a cardboard mock-up of a loco body that would eventually be made mostly from scrap and recycled materials, the main source being the high quality tinplate found in Golden Syrup tins. "Out of the strong came forth sweetness." Whether the resulting card body is "sweet" is rather in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps it would look better if it had rounded shoulders on sides of the bonnet.... that were made 'square' on the mock-up for speed of construction. I do have a couple of pieces of brass tube that could be used as a jig for soldering up the fore and aft bonnets, keeping everything nice and square with a good round corner, before cutting the tube out of the space for the cab. As can be seen in the picture above, the model is based on the L&B Rly 'Pilton', with a simple outline drawing produced from the picture but modified during the cardboard cutting stage. Easier to cut card board than tinplate.... and it produces a set of patterns fro cutting around. Despite no further work having been done, it did manage to get its picture taken as part of the proving trails for "does it look right?", before the frost, wind and rain did for the rather lovely red sedums. The brown card that represents the radiator panel proclaims the ethical nature of the products sold by a high street speciality tea shop. All rather appropriate.

You were lucky.... I did the 01.10 Newpapers from Waterloo to Plymouth North Road, Plymouth - Bodmin Road, Bodmin Road - Padstow (dmu), return on the same train to Boscarne Junction were I changed onto the railbus for Bodmin North. Walked across town to Bodmin General and the dmu for Bodmin Road. Returned to Paddington by 18.00 ish. This (I think) in the October half term in 1966 with the North Cornwall already gone. All for the price of a couple of Lyon fruit pies and some Kia-ora orange juice... well squash to extend the packed breakfast and lunch. How lucky those of us who could travel on passes were. Ashtead to Padstow, any permitted route.... ie. a different route each way. Try doing that on today’s tickets..... singles all the way. Great layout. Great weekend..... Maurice

Leave Cully alone..... it was good enough for Ann's father to defend as a bank manager in The Home Guard. We should be pulling together at this time of national crisis!! Sorry I did not make LarkRail.... finishing off the new workshop stud work that will carry the new roof!

Mark, I very much agree with your comment about getting on with it.... but experience would suggest this is not the easiest resolution to follow! However, the quiet satisfaction to be seen when John is operating all that he has achieved is clearly an example to us all. As I was leaving on Saturday John made mention of another appearance of the layout in its home town on the 17th June. For some reason it appears I might be the only additional operator in the west that day as all the others are heading for Jerry's show at Warminster. What a wonderful dilemma - to go to Wadebridge or Warminster.... and all for wonderful modelling.

A pedant writes: It looks like 21C107 in Mr Bulleid's intriguing numbering system and before it had received its name. Maybe a small re-enactment of the naming ceremony at the platform could be called for David, I am sure you know the intriguing numbering was a copy of the system for French steam locos current at the time of construction. Bullied had some links with the French engines who used the following.... C = 0-6-0 ...... as in Q1s 1 = 2 as in 2-6-0 .... so John's green N would have become 1C37 2 = 4 as in 4-6-0 ...... so an Aurthur would be 2Cxx And 21C as in 4-6-2 And D as in the 0-8-0 Southern Z class........ perhaps there is a question here for Round Britain Quiz!

A pedant writes: It looks like 21C107 in Mr Bulleid's intriguing numbering system and before it had received its name. Maybe a small re-enactment of the naming ceremony at the platform could be called for David, I am sure you know the intriguing numbering was a copy of the system for French steam locos current at the time of construction. Bullied had some links with the French engines who used the following.... C = 0-6-0 ...... as in Q1s 1 = 2 as in 2-6-0 .... so John's green N would have become 1C37 2 = 4 as in 4-6-0 ...... so an Aurthur would be 2Cxx And 21C as in 4-6-2 And D as in the 0-8-0 Southern Z class........ perhaps there is a question here for Round Britain Quiz!

This event was clearly the 'talk of the town'. Well at least the talk of the bus from Bodmin Parkway. Not often that one hears a model railway being discussed on both the journey too and from the exhibition. The expectation of the outward journey was clear fulfilled in the comments made by my fellow travellers on the return journey. It seems I might be repeating the trip on the 17th June when the layout next appears in Wadebridge, as most of the normal crew are at Jerry's show in Warminster.... I would like to do both, but the opportunity to have another go with "Wadebridge", both 21C107 and the layout. Thanks John for a good day. Sorry my back could not take more than three and a half hours. Maurice

Brilliant pictures. Don't forget the pedestrian wickets on each side. Bars on a gate are the horizontal members.... As in a five bar gate... Rails closer at the bottom to stop small stock, with wider gaps further up. The cross sections could be called 'bays', as in a building having so many bays in a side... For example each window in a church is a separate bay.

What a wonderful set of pictures on the CRS website of the Bodmin, Wadebridge and Padstow lines. ..... And there we have it! The evidence that the gates were hung on the right. Excellent

Nick, Stick with the ply! (Sorry about that.) It will be worth the trip to town to have something that is more dimensionally stable and water resilient when you start ballasting. Try and find a long, straight and narrow offcut of something - 12 mm ply, Conti board - to put your array of weights on so you get a good flat finish. You may want to put a piece of paper between this and the thin ply when glueing, in case the glue 'catches' it all. I will be most interested in which way you do this.... Ply glued to extruded polystyrene or track glued to the ply and then lay it as a single unit. I have been planning the latter for my home layout in 1/64th Scale but have not got round to the experiments yet. The tendency might be for the ply to curve if attached to the track first. As you are using ready made track it would probably be easier to drop it straight onto a fixed, flat ply surface. I will be building the track from components that will be easier off the board for at least some locations on the layout. I also intend to work on C&L foam underlay so it will be better to build on a firm, off-board surface. On St Juliot I laid the cork straight onto the extruded polystyrene...being careful to get it flat. I think a thin ply would be better as used on Tresparret Wharf and Lambeth Walk, where two laminations of 0.8mm ply and the centre core of the blue stuff make the whole baseboard! (Nick, The timing off this post does not indicate progress... Just another rather sleepless night)

Somewhere I have a picture (slide) of the Boscarne gates slung in the hedge long after closure. They had red targets on them but I can't remember which way they were hung. I think it was normal to hang a single gate from the left as view from outside the railway. (As you know Nick, I am away from home so can't check my references. You have made a wise decision to use the foam.... Your weights are more interesting than mine. I hope the children don't buy their own presents for teacher!

Nick, you have made excellent progress since the end of term.... But that of course is the teacher's lot! I very much appreciate the way you 'show your working' in the resolution of problems that arise in building a layout. With the guiding sense of place and reference to actual locations for operating this has the potential to became a Cornish classic. Now as to size.... This has to be a small layout for you at just over 50% of the length and 30% the width of the Horrabridge station boards (let alone the rest of the circuit). It will be a pity to loose the steam, the under bridge and with it the opportunity for below line landscape. Look at the pictures again. How often is the railway perched above the hedge or field? There is something significant about land falling away from the permanent way. Something to do with the rake of the stage that it offers to the scene. I could always run up some nicely profiled new fronts for you! Just trying to confuse the issue. The little dip in the front of Tresparrett Wharf makes all the difference compared to the flat St Juliot. See. - modellingat164scale.wordpress.com Additional comment.... Perhaps the fall away at the front of the layout is better illustrated by Stroudley Green, of which there are more pictures than TPW. .... This student shows great potential as does his chosen project. I look forward to watching developments... Even if only in holiday periods! Maurice

Wadebridge has come on a very long way since I had the privilege of operating the quay at Bodmin a while back. It really is looking very good. Congratulation to all those involved, especially John, with his ability to keep a focus on a single long-term project. Excellent... Maurice

Being an oil based product, Devon Wood Oil has the advantage of penetrating into the baseboard side material, which in my case is birch ply, so not only renders a pleasant colour but a surface this is more resilient than a hard finish. A quick pass with an oily cloth brings the finish back to new if it is needed to remove marks or just to build up the colour. If you can't get Devon Wood Oil, appropriately, Danish Oil is also more generally available from woodcraft suppliers. I think Wilsons of Exmouth will send by courier. A litre goes a long way.

Good stuff... Will watch with interest.

Excellent work. I have one on my list of things to do.... one day in S Scale

Wonderful collection of pieces and ideas. Thanks for the inspiration.

Very good to see this delightful piece of Danish countryside at Wells. Sorry I did not have more time to watch the passing of trains.

Why paint the inside of this lovoely piece of work... except with some slight 'weathering' of the platform surface. After all, it looks like the interior of a wooden building! Best wishes

I was looking for something else and came across this.... "Do I really need to watch a video of steam in Northern Ireland?" "Well why not?" "It would be interesting to see the German's mean by romantic steam!!" It is well above average photography and suddenly gets very interesting (at 3 mins 50 secs) ... that's if you are thinking about modelling inside valve gear. I did not watch any more but intend to get some stills of various points in the cycle. This chance discovery could make life a lot easier!

On the inspiration front, how much I agree with Don, Jerry and others. It is just over 9 years ago that I got back into serious railway modelling. I had thought of 4mm RTR as there was so much stuff coming out that was good and suitable for the North Devon Line, especially the Bachmann Mogul. Then I spent a day operating Trevor Nunn's goods yard at East Lynn and to put it simply, the world changed. Well, not quite, but my little part of it and my view of railway modelling did. As Dave says, "Size (or should that be scale) isn't everything." It happened to be Trevor, it could have been John, Jerry or Dave, but it triggered a need to move to something more demanding and more rewarding both for me as a modeller and hopefully for those with whom we are lucky enough to be able to share our endeavours. It is not the scale that matters but the quality that counts. It is too late now to take on another scale, but I still have plans to put some rather more fine scale track down for my German N gauge collection which will greatly improve the look of Holtzapfel. Time forces a compromise!