John R Smith

It's looking really good, Chris. I made a little pilgrimage to Wadebridge and Bodmin on Saturday 28th January, just to mark the 50th anniversary of closure. Bought a Barnecutt's pasty and walked the line of the railway at both places, trying to conjure up an O2 or a Beattie tank. Quite a few cyclists on the Camel Trail, most of them too young to ever have ridden the line by train. I wonder what people will make of all this stuff in a hundred years time? John

Odd in that photo how the check rail flangeways look a lot tighter than the wing rail ones.

How about Winsor & Newton Professional Matt Varnish 400ml aerosol from your local art shop, at £13.50 per can? I use this a lot, and it seems fine to me . . . John

Sadly, Rod, I think an industrial loco like the delightful Victory would be kept safely enclosed in its own gated private sidings, never to venture forth onto BR metals. Such was the case on all the industrial lines that I know of here in the far West, at any rate. Equally, the BR engines were not usually allowed into the industrial domain, at least not beyond the gates where Victory might be lurking. There used to be a wonderful painted sign in the sidings here at Drinnick Mill in the clay country, which just said "Beware of the Engine". This conjured up visions of a ferocious engine hiding somewhere behind the dry, waiting to leap out at the unwary workman. John

Chris I measured the same type of railings at Bere Ferrers on 13th July 1973 and the dimensions were as follows - Panel length 9' 5" Height 4' 3" Diameter of railing (round in section) 3/4" Space between railings 5" Railings are plain, pointed (not spear points) and round in section I hope this helps . . . If I get back to Bodmin in the near future I'll check that they are the same. John

Hello Chris Well, as promised I made my trip to Bodmin yesterday and after my other business there I stopped off at the site of Bodmin North (there is total traffic chaos in Bodmin at the moment, avoid it if you can). Sadly and as expected there is really very little left of the old LSWR terminus, but there is something. First up, the wall that I mentioned - As you turn into the station site, on the access road which now leads to Sainsbury's, there is a small car park on your right. This wall is at the rear of the car park and survives intact to a height of 22 to 24 inches above the present tarmac surface. Behind it is a grass verge about six feet wide and then a taller stone wall bordering the public road. All of this seems to be part of the 1895 station and checking against the OS map must be the wall defining the rear edge of the station forecourt, the red line that I have marked on the RH side of the map extract - This is the ca 1907 OS 1:2500 survey and you will see that some of the surrounding cottages and houses have not yet been built. The wall of course is just off the front edge of your baseboard, Chris, so of not much use to you but here is a close-up for details of the engineering brick coping and the rubble masonry construction - The second red line on the map shows the location of some surviving railings as already noted by Peter (N15 Class). These were along the rear of the single platform at Bodmin, and part of the railings which formed the boundary of the cottage gardens have survived - What seems to have happened is that the owners of the cottages have removed sections of the railings to make a new rear entrance to their gardens from the access road, and have erected fences and gates along the original boundary line. But sections of the typical SR railings survive in good shape - Even so, I still wasn't quite sure whether the railings were in fact in-situ or not, until I spotted this - A piece of bullhead rail set vertically into the tarmac and which has been flame-cut off at ground level. This is one of those moments when I get goose-bumps (sad, I know) because I knew exactly what it was - one of the rails which supported the single running-in board at Bodmin, which was not the usual Exmouth Junction concrete type but one with rail-built uprights. So this means that the railings are still in-situ and one tiny fragment of the platform does in fact survive. I think that this support is the W one, the other I think is hidden beneath a modern planter. Here is the scene in 1966 (sorry I can't find a copyright owner) - And here is the same scene today, as near as I can from the same angle. The Name board was just beyond the red gate - So there you go. Despite looking quite hard, I could find no other fragments of railway on the site. I felt rather sad, knowing that in just over three week's time it will be the 50th anniversary of the last service train from Bodmin North. And there is nothing, not even a little plaque or a sign to tell anyone that this is the site of the Bodmin terminus of one of the very first steam public railways in Britain, the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway of 1834. Cornwall should have a bit more pride in its past than this. John

It's looking good, Chris. I'm making a trip to Bodmin this coming week. so I will have a look for the wall I mentioned. I have printed out my OS map extract (circa 1907) so I will check the present site against that. John

Hmm, looks like I'm wrong then (and not for the first time). As at Wadebridge, the whole site seems to have been infilled to platform level or thereabouts. I will have to check more carefully with an extract from the OS 2nd edition 1:2500 map. When you look back now, you can see that the 1960s was a time of appalling destruction for our 19th century built heritage. John

Chris I think that wall you have spotted may in fact survive, at the rear of a small car park more or less on the site of that end of the station. Next time I go to Bodmin I'll try to get a photo of it. It's puzzled me for some time . . . John

That backscene looks absolutely stunning, Rod - and the 08 is looking good too! John

I'm afraid that I agree - either everything is 2D (and that is working perfectly well in all the photos of the layout which we have seen so far) or the whole backscene should be modelled in full 3D low-relief. Mixing the two up just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. John

Something that I have never understood - after the railbuses were introduced in mid 1964, the WR lifted various little bits of track at this end of the station. Nothing of any consequence, just little bits and pieces which were presumably regarded as redundant, but surely of no scrap value whatsoever. The station was demoted to an unstaffed halt and left to become increasingly derelict and neglected. I could only ever see this as a deliberate attempt to drive away any remaining passengers so that there would be no objections to closure. When what should have been done was to have a direct and frequent railbus service to Wadebridge (with no exchange platform nonsense) and promote it accordingly - either that, or close North completely and concentrate all traffic at General. John

Try pushing or pulling a loaded platform barrow up one and you'll see why . . . John

Thanks very much for the splendid set of photos, John. Mr Fitness' signals are looking great, that's for sure. John

I like the margin glazing in the windows . . .

There is some Bodmin North footage on Branch Line Videos BLV09-09-00021 "Memories of the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway", but only a short section. John

Chris, your Ivatt Class 2 tank - is that R-T-R or kit, or scratchbuilt? I think I will have to have one of those for the layout one day, the only BR steam engine that I ever actually drove, rather than just blagged a ride on. They were a really excellent branch line engine, all the crews that I spoke to loved them. They were on the Wadebridge-Bodmin North shuttle, the Callington branch from Bere Alston, the Torrington to Halwill Junction line, Highbridge to Evercreech Junction, etc etc. Very modern design, with a big roomy cab, excellent visibility, light controls and screw reverse, and all the valve gear and oiling points easily accessible. John

I'm pleased to see that you have marked the position for the tree, which is an essential feature. The other thing that you have to have (eventually) is the two platform barrows, always parked against the awning supports. It's quite a shock to see how big it all comes out in 7mm scale, isn't it - I always used to think of Bodmin North as a very small station. John

This doesn't seem to have been a much photographed part of Bodmin town. The Shell garage is now, it seems, a Texaco service station, but I am sure the café has gone. We used to know (and frequent) all the tea and bun establishments which were nearest to any given station (very few country stations having a refreshment room - only Helston and Bude come to mind). There was a brilliant café at Halwill Junction which had a juke box with some pretty good music on it, I seem to remember. A good place to wait for the North Cornwall line connection on a wet day. John

I like the railbus! But I must correct myself - the car is actually a Ford Consul Classic 315 (the Capri was the two-door coupe version). John

Chris I used to have a chunk of the valence from Kingsbridge (GW) and it was 6 inches wide. You would expect them to use a standard plank width, really. I love that photo of Bodmin North - can we see the rest of it, please? The railbus is W79977, which seems to have been the most photographed of the pair. Looking past that wonderful Ford Capri 109E (which was quite rare, even at the time) we can see the Shell garage on the main road and even the café where I had lunch in 1963. Brilliant! John

Very good indeed, Jinty, as everyone else has said. It looks just like the ones we had down here at St Blazey. Which all begs the question, why were most BR locos so appallingly neglected? As far as the 08s go, the ones allocated to station pilot duty (as at Penzance) showed that they could actually be kept quite smart, but they were certainly the exception. When the diesels first came along in the late 1950s we all thought they at least would be kept clean, as the old excuses of coal, soot and ash had now gone. But no. They came out of the works looking smart for the first day or two, and it was all downhill from there on. Whereas no road haulier with any pride whatsoever would allow his fleet of lorries to get into such a state, or any bus company either. I often thought the same about the six-wheel milk tankers. Who would want to drink milk after seeing the vehicles which transported it? John

Simon As I understand it, your evidence for the rivets is a photograph of a model, not the real thing? If so, I would not trust that as evidence - work from the full-size subject, every time. John

The illuminated instrument panel is the killing blow, David. Top marks. When I was aboard the full-size thing (years ago) I seem to remember that the biggest instrument was an ammeter - is that correct, or is memory playing me false? John

That's the sort of problem which would not trouble me in the slightest, so option 'c' would suit me just fine. But this is a matter of personal taste, interests, obsessions and priorities, of course. So for example, if it was me then the wrong shape of a radiator grille on a Morris 1000 would drive me nuts. John