BWsTrains

Station Approach I've noted the significant influence which the Earl of Southampton exerted on development of the branch line. He anticipated having many guests, whether arriving via the LSWR (Sidmouth Jct) or the GWR mainline and wanted them to arrive at a station of note. Hence when it came to the approach road (for his visitors would be take on by Carriage to Dunkswell Grange #) he had no desire to present them with a horse poo polluted rough macadam road. Instead a fine granite sett ramp was installed, it reached from Church Street up to the main station entrance. This is my effort to produce this route of access. As before I've used @Mikkel 's method, imprinting into EVA sheet. I'll follow with the details, but the source is on the Farthing Blog here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/blogs/entry/23431-when-in-danger-or-in-doubt-progress-on-the-fourth-bite This site offers helpful guidance ragarding late Victorian road suracing. http://www.glias.org.uk/journals/8-a.html To quote "Towards the end of the (19th) century, when wood and asphalt surfaces prevailed, granite setts continued to be used in preference to such surfaces where a good foothold for horses was essential, as when the gradient exceeded 1 on 60. They were also used where wear was likely to be high, as at road junctions And this useful essential resource on horse poo (again with thanks to @Mikkel https://www.rmweb.co.uk/blogs/entry/24929-a-pictorial-record-of-horse-manure/ # The Earl had his own private stop at Dunkeswell Grange but it was ill-suited for his guests. There were many reasons of which I shall relate more in due course!

Is Veronica following this gastronomic and beeronomic travelogue escapade of yours? If so, I can imagine that your coming days of planned, enforced dietary "austerity" back home will be ratcheting up at an alarming rate now 😈 . C

They look interesting. What are they? Colin

Hornby Class 48xx Update While a quality RTR 48xx remains somewhat of a "Holy Grail", I suffered my fair share of pain finding a model which to so central to my branch line memories. Much of what I reported some 5-6 years ago is now lost so excuse me if I revisit this topic. The Airfix/ Hornby series of 48xx releases over some 38+ years saw some improvements (better motor etc.) but many of the legacy issues continued to haunt newer re-releases, most importantly rubber traction tyres on the rear driving wheel axle, sprung rear axle, generally poor wheel wipers, even in the latest "generation" Centre of Gravity problems. None of these are conducive to giving a model anything near track ready, especially after a few years use when wipers often failed completely. My solution, after a few misadventures went as follows: Identify the best of the bunch and fine one. Easier said than done but with some excellent help from @adb968008 I settled on Hornby R2778 (4869 - GWR Shirtbutton) and by good chance one came up on pre-owned. Next find an Airfix 48xx as donor for a wheelset, (which have been out of stock as spares for ever) Swap out the dreaded traction tyres, quartering etc. and then remove all inside wipers. With further useful help from @Barry Ten I set about installing a full set of wheel rim wipers, as shown here. Add a hefty stay alive and 4869 would cross my worst insulfrog gap on Westown-Heathfield at as slow as speed step 6 on the NCE DCC control. Only tweak which was needed in my recent service was to open out the BTB spacings to default and the loco runs very sweetly indeed, shown here at speed step 3 through my British Finescale OO turnouts

Operations testing went far better than I could have hoped after a quick wheel and track clean. Just a couple of the small tank engines had minor repairs done to my DYI phosphor bronze wheel wiper pickups. I'll come back to these later as the results are interesting but I need to record a video. Next I went back to the storage area where I'd made a start on the supports for the fascia panels but then parked it for last Christmas, doesn't time fly. I dug out the support structures and reinstated them, followed by some quick cuts to sheets of MDF. It's been a superb day here so nice to work outside for added convenience / safety. Panels have been attached for easy removal with neo magnets in the supports and thin metal sheet glued to the MDF

The lower cattle pen has had its gates installed and suitable dirt treatment, more detailing still required but this'll have to do for now as I've got to move on to getting trains running for the festive season visitors. .

Brilliant! Straight from my childhood memories of our daytrips down to Taunton and on to Minehead. Probably the most formative events triggering my love of these branch lines, their settings and rolling stock. Thanks Colin

John, For some reason I'd had the understanding that SC Was Brent + with Kingsbridge on the branch. Where did I get that idea, perhaps something you said while referring me to ANTB? Elsewhere, I was going to ask about your excellent ballast then a quick search turned up your p5 labours! No need for further enquiries there 😎 Pity many of those early photos were lost. Colin

Painting and installation of the lower pen fencing and the ramp has brought me a little nearer to the goal. Some gates and further fencing still are required to finish this section, oh, and as @john dew has reminded me, lots of weathering for the fencing and pens.

Cattle Dock, the lower Pen and Goods / Animals Unloading Bay (continued) Progress on various fronts interrupted by lots of other goings on would be the best way to describe my last two weeks. The latter has put a significant dent in the time available for the build but some light is appearing. Firstly the Cattle Dock; the Ratio kit is a very nice bit of modelling and goes together well by applying careful attention to the details. In my case it was to be integrated into a larger elevated Dock are and so the under-support structure was omitted. The general cattle management area bears more than a passing resemblance to that found at Kingsbridge, as this 1928 extract from a Britain from Above photo shows. As Upper Hembury preceded its more famous cousin, perhaps we can see echoes of it here. The Dock Pens (4 it appears; 3+1) are boarded by a flat approach section leading to a long down ramp. On the far side of this there is a further very long further stock holding pen. This latter pen has a siding beyond it for general open wagon unloading at ground level. The fencing of the lower pen area and ramp appears to have been constructed of Bridge Rail which allows for wider post spacing than the Post and Rails method found in the Ratio kit. Both types of fencing were common in GWR Cattle Dock Pens. To complete my entire holding area I needed a considerable length of pen fencing and I set about making some Bridge Rail for said purpose. The broad Gauge Society has useful info on all the types of this rail from earliest Broad Gauge days up to 1891 and with one exception (the newest) the track had a thin flanges overall, 6" wide with a centre ridge 2" wide and high with a hollow channel (inside). The cross section hence looks like a hump back bridge even if this isn't the reason for the name! I made my rail by repurposing Slater's 1mm planking sheet. This 0.55mm thick sheet is quite deeply scored to define the 1mm planks and this can be exploited to double advantage. a single 1mm strip is cut through, following the plank line. This gives a horizontal rough "D" cross section shape around 0.8mm wide (or a good enough proxy for 2" wide). Any flash from the cut edge on the sheet is carefully trimmed back and then inverted to the reverse side. The 0.8mm strip is glued (CA) at one end, positioning it centred over the clearly visible score line (i.e. the edge of next plank). Once fully set, a very thin coat of limonene is brushed along the underside of the "D" section and the entire length laid down along the sheet. The adhesive has enough give for me bring up a steel rule against the D Section and align it perfectly straight along the sheet. The sheet is inverted again to the front and a careful cut made along the next 1mm boundary to give me my 2mm wide (i.e. 6") rail profile. This method gives a credible proxy for what I need but with an overly thick a flange section. Installed into a fencing section of 4 rails and three 0.8mm steel bars between it comes up fairly well as long as you don't get out the microscope! Also getting some attention has been the ramp. As I had no more paved area from the kit to use, it was over to DIY, using @Mikkel's trusty method of indenting EVA sheet, previously seen on UH for platform paving. The elevated loading area also is nearing completion and all this progress can be seen in situ held together in parts by blu-tak.

Brilliant! Managed to score two * Parkside LMS cattle Wagon kits, a Rapido SR 8 plank and some HH scenics all 35-40% off, that's the sort of tip which earns you one "Non-erodable Brownie Point" # Thx, Colin # validity - only in Oz, I'm afraid

Hi John, Come Home! We're missing some real railway stuff on here, you've gone and unleashed a maelstrom of pent up beer-talk and much else on your travels. 😈 PS glad to see all going well despite best efforts of ASLEF / weather etc. in Blighty.

as someone said, the acid will be no problem. I'm less sure about any solvents as they go for PS like a rat up a drainpipe. Do a test bit to see.

Here, SK appeared to be recognizing a harsh reality of what is a hugely diverse market. Hornby are essentially a company selling mostly Train sets and their components while trying half-heartedly from time to time to offer something more to those with greater expectations. The latest Castle release is a recent example, Hornby have been selling them almost since when people lived in them (castles) yet still manage to turn out a little changed rehash of an old model but missing a key minor item. (well at least it wasn't an ash pan!) With others like Accurascale and Rapido moving into the higher end market space and gaining accolades from "We folk" that should further erode any interest the mass producers have there. Sadly, there is a price to pay for wanting higher specs in a narrower market.

Please help those (like me) who don't know where aforesaid cover should be, i.e. I don't know where the pipe in question is either! Thanks, Colin

Anything GWR/WR is popular in these parts.

In that regard, to quote from the usually reliable http://igg.org.uk/rail/7-fops/fo-cattle.htm "Cattle were sometimes moved as a block load up to the end of the railway's involvement in this traffic in 1975 but most cattle wagons travelled in small numbers attached to goods trains (occasionally to passenger trains on branch lines, these had to be XP rated vehicles of course). They would generally be found together at the locomotive end as this meant the loco could take them directly to the cattle dock on arrival where the animals could be fed and watered. Also, as cattle wagons were often fitted with vacuum brakes, marshalling them at the head of the train, whether full or empty, meant their brakes could be used. A small terminus such as CR inbound cattle would presumably be either coming to a Local Market or for fattening up before taking to slaughter (same reference) At Kingsbridge (1928) the aerial photo shows fairly large cattle docks and 5 cattle wagons in the siding (plus perhaps a Beetle or two). More on this shortly over on UH.

I think you're going to need more extensive cattle handling facilities at CR, definitely on CR II with all those wagons to unload!

The Cattle Pens will be built from the core of the Ratio Kit (502) but with an adjacent unloading dock also required, I built all the elevated sections in one main unit. My biggest challenge was to manage the drop from the dock level to the exit level (originally at layout datum) so 15mm. To soften the impact of the slope I mapped out some contours on the Templot printout and decided that Church St., its buildings, the weighbridge and exit could comfortably sit at 5mm above datum so giving me a required drop of 10mm. The early phase of this plan is shown with rough levels put down in 5mm and 3mm foam board. Intermediate numbers are as intended at this stage. The unloading exit route is shown in yellow. Once I was happy this would work, all was fixed down and intermediate levels graded in using 1.3mm and 0.33mm card. The photo was at an intermediate point. Next the main bulk of the remaining fill was with strengthened Plaster of Paris and the fine work with some acrylic filler. Again this photo after the first round, a second smoothing layer has now been added From platform observation level the slope is now pleasingly smooth and unobtrusive falling away towards the buildings.

The Cattle Dock and more on General Freight Handling A detour back into the history of Upper Hembury is appropriate here to understand the development of the site between its opening and my 1930s setting. The GWR acquired lands for UH as per the common practice of those days, by Act of Parliament in 1881. Times were very hard and a collaborative environment was in order, The Earl of Southampton was the richest / largest land holder in East Devon and he sought considerable concessions, seeing the railway as a positive for the area. So it was that an initial proposal included both access into the Tale Valley (across the Earl's own Estate) as well as on land he owned in the village, bounded by the Tale River to the West, Church St (to the North East ) and the Honiton Road to the East. In the first instance agreement was restricted to lands immediately needed to open the Branch Line to the original design, here: Shown is the proposed original track plan and layout with a simple runaround loop and tracks to a Cattle Dock and General Goods Siding. In the original design the Bay siding was a concession to the Earl for his own personal train / carriage. The overall setting has similarities to the early design at Wallingford, but limited goods handling was managed via a small dock on the Spur, located off the runaround loop. Later additions and expansion allowed for further sidings nearer to the Honiton Road and a dedicated Goods shed was added, adjacent to the Cattle Dock on the former Mileage siding (I'm unclear when this practice / naming came into use). After this, the original unloading Spur was used mostly for parking the likes of Goods vans but came back into use with the general growth in business activity. Easy end offloading of vehicles was a particular advantage. The next stage of my project is the build of the infrastructure between the Cattle Dock siding and the Goods loop.

I think that reference I quoted earlier has the details. Something about the stock (not that many after all) being removed from service during WWII and then returned later (1948?) when the new airstream vents were installed. I was assuming you had fitted the earlier less streamlined sliding types which came in during the late 30s to your stock. (I'm going on memory here).

Not sure if my Mum had even met my Dad then. My spotting days were in an ill-defined period during the very late steam Era. I remember being aghast when I saw my first diesel pulling a down train under the Devonshire Road bridge towards Taunton (my front bedroom being a great vantage spot). Hence my spotting started there and later advanced courtesy of the 1d Platform Ticket at W-s-M General.

I remember reading somewhere that they were far more commonplace as found on modellers' layouts (space saving) than in real life. (totally unverifiable as no source). Maybe vaguely Freudian notes expressing themselves? I had one on my old layout for that very same reason (space saving; to be clear) and found it to be the most unfriendly hardware.

Ginster was the nickname for our school headmaster - combination of his favourite tipple and surname. Funny to see it emblazoned over a DMU 60 years later. That would have brought the house down in 1960s Weston-super-Mare amongst all us teenage boys.

Good question Mike! However, I don't think I said that, but I shall amend my words for greater clarity.. Re 1926, I thought that particular Insignia came in around 1928 (my Source: Railway Modeller - special supplement "Modelling the GWR"). It hadn't escaped me that the insignia might have been applied as late as 1934 or even had the Coat of Arms added to the earlier plain Great Western it would have been born with in May 1925. Many alternatives are possible. What seems unlikely is that this early insignia from pre-1934 could last through all the shirtbutton and G W R periods unchanged on a prestige Class loco. There is a long list of tenders with which it was paired but that feels like a rabbit burrow and above my pay grade for said burrowing.