HillsideDepot

I was in Barnstaple yesterday, doing some location research for my next layout so recorded this stop block at what is now the end of the line. I wonder where it came from? Its not the usual GWR / BR(WR) design which one might expect if it was "new" when the line was cut short here, so I assume its SR (or even LSWR?) in origin. Might it have once served in the adjacent goods yard, now a B&Q?

This is an early 1970's Bristol Omnibus Company blind from my small collection, rather than an Eastern National Omnibus Company one, but it shows how much the typeface, and the spacing, varies depending on the length of the destination. I doubt that helps answer the original question though!

It must be my age, but seeing standard Peco stop blocks on layouts when so many company specific examples are now available is a pet hate. OK, perhaps I'm being unreasonable, but anything which raises the profile of stop blocks can only be a good thing, so here are a few of my photos, from May 2016. North end bay platforms at Oxford. Banbury, on the same date, albeit more for the sign than the block itself. All three are GWR / BR (WR), and probably all now long since gone.

Returning to the ferries, classing them as a "loco" makes sense as they are moving wagons from one TOPS location to another, just like a loco. Presumably wagons moving via the ferry were allocated to a "train" to allow TOPS to correctly locate and relocate them.

Penzance is a location which is heavily influencing my big layout project, still at the planning stage, so I am following along here with great interest. One of the websites which has yielded much information is the Cornwall Railway Society and the galleries therein (I'm also drawing on elements of Newquay and Barnstaple, both of which they cover) and they have a photo of the real signal in question from July 1974, just after the layout was resignalled. http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/uploads/7/6/8/3/7683812/_1767584_orig.jpg Another useful site is The Eric Curnow Collection, and he has the signalling notice posted. Arguably 1974 is mid-70's rather than early-70s, but these sources may be of interest.

I've had a professional input to two of the many RYRF schemes, namely Lydeway (Devizes Gateway) and Corsham. My role has been to advise on connecting bus services, especially important for Lydeway as it is several miles away from Devizes which it purports to serve. Incidentally "Gateway" is used because the previous used "Parkway" term is now longer considered sustainable as it encourages car use, whereas a Gateway includes cycling and buses. Except in the case of Lydeway it very much seemed to be "we [the railway] will build the station, you [the local authority] will provided the cycle route and bus service", they couldn't even say who owned the old railway they suggested could be used as the cycle route. While in the case of Corsham it was more a case of calling the present bus service rubbish to justify the station, yet wanting that same bus service to bring lots of people, via a 8 minute detour, to the new station having removed all the revenue from the longer distance passengers from what is currently a commercially viable route. Lydeway was also dependent on a lot of track redesign work at Westbury to accommodate the reversal of the trains which would serve Lydeway (an extension of the then Paddington, now Newbury to Bedwyn services). The cost of this design work, even without the physical work seemed to be a stumbling block (I did think about offering to fire up my copy of AnyRail and design a layout, but I doubt they'd use Peco geometry!). There were numerous other issues, none of which were show stoppers, but a combination of several, let alone all, meant the scheme quietly faded away. Corsham seems to still be progressing, but I am very much on the periphery of the project, so not kept informed of progress. Suffice to say, while the trains still whiz through non-stop the 'awful' bus service has just seen an increase of frequency with new express journeys, and the family owned company which runs it is just taking delivery of four band new buses. It was certainly very interesting to be involved in both schemes, but a little surprising that Network Rail don't have a "How to design a station" book from which to work as everything seemed new to the team involved. Besides me working on the bus side of things there were council colleagues working in Rights of Way (a foot crossing, used by horse riders, within station limits), Highways, Sustainable Transport, North Wessex Downs AONB all contributing time, but without the council receiving any of the Restoring Your Railway Fund money; that all seemed to be swallowed up by Network Rail paying itself to do things. So, a less than positive experience from where I am. I hope I'm very much in a minority and the rest of the schemes are doing much better.

My thoughts turned to the Waverley West, Princes St Gardens and Haymarket TMD thread on here as a possible solution, in particular using the Darlington station canopy as the fiddle yard entrance, as Chimer has suggested above. The avoiding lines then run between the station wall and the backscene. This is the Waverley West plan, but looking at the photos in the layout thread, you'd never guess what the trains do just beyond the visible section.

I think everyone's answer will differ, but if I may offer my thoughts as I am planning a layout around three and a half sides of a room (the airing cupboard stops me doing a full circuit, although I'm not sure 'd want to). I see this layout as a series of "small" layouts. Passenger trains will, mostly, run into the terminus do their run round (shunt released by an 08) and get on their way again. But there will be some where sleeping cars, parcel vans or Motorail flats needed to be shunted on or off. Parcels trains have their own couple of sidings, plus use of the passenger platforms as necessary, so parcel shunting is effectively a layout, albeit worked intermittently as the 08 has to go and deal with the passenger trains. Then there is a 3 road goods yard, with its own 08. This wouldn't justify its own loco except for the Goods Branch. The Goods Branch has two single siding customers (grain silo and petroleum) served on the way out, and a third with a couple of sidings (some form of works to be decided) and its own small shunter which is served on the way back. Although integral to the whole layout, this private siding complex could easily be a layout in itself. Similarly, at the end of the branch there will be a run round, an MoD (Admiralty) siding (maybe 2, I'm still debating that) and a sand/gravel siding. The terminus, again, could easily be a micro in itself, Indeed I might build that so that it could be exhibited separately. I find micro layouts great fun to operate (and watch at shows), and am keen to have self-contained operations within a bigger layout. But I will admit I do like the prospect of serving the whole goods branch with a trip working running out and back serving the various customers, rather than having a series of separate micro layouts. If I had the space, maybe I would build a continuous run mainline, but it would have to have micro layout type areas built in, and I think I'd operate them much more that I'd ever run the mainlines. But that's just me.

Thanks - London Road Loco Sidings is my micro 🙂 Loco stabling points are, understandably, popular subjects for layouts, but I was looking for something a little different to the norm. Liverpool Street, with its cramped layout, locos parked across points, and great scenic breaks on 3 sides got my attention and the layout grew from there - even if I moved it to the Western Region! It's not all diesels though, King George V was active on the Western in the 1970s Finally, a 1970's style 110 film shot!

Thanks Tim, I was trying to negotiate First's website to find the details - long gone are the days when I knew the Bath network off by heart as I'd scheduled all the driver duties for it! Faresaver also provide a 15 minute frequency from the Bus Station (Bays 6 & 7) to Lambridge (site of the aforementioned non-Park & Ride) by a combination of their X31 Chippenham, 271 Melksham and 272 Devizes services.

With the £2 fare cap, I'm planning to get the bus. And for anyone using the train to Bath, the £2 fare cap applies to buses from Bath Spa station to Larkhall as well. All buses in Bath accept contactless, saving your actual cash for cake. 🍰🧁

Sorry, not really an Arkwright figure, but a figure wearing an Arkwright type coat is Modelu 1660. I must admit I tend to unpack my figures and then file by likely uses ahead of painting them. So a "dairy worker" in overalls and wellies, painted different colours could be about to manually wash a coach. Or some of the "fishermen" range, in a different colour are ear-marked to be steam cleaning the underside of a bus. But we're wandering now, so two offerings from my camera. 37411 & 37675 get a wave as they come out of the mist and past Sprey Point with empty china clay wagons 08/08/1992 While earlier that summer, another 37/4 at the seaside is 37417 at Blackpool North with two members of staff in conversation 25/06/1992

I thought that this was possibly the attraction for Hornby, rather than anything in their range of models

Interesting little snippet that, as I've been looking at a couple of figures which Modelu intended to be warehousemen (or perhaps Arkwright style shop keepers) but which I see could be painted as Shunters or Secondmen. I know there were blue coats, and assume orange came later, but does anyone know when? I'd be doing a "heavily weathered" orange (or blue if that's what it should be), but would like to know if orange would be correct for early to mid '70s Western Region. On a related note, I have come across a photo on-line of a Shunter at Newton Abbot wearing a yellow bump cap which, whilst undated, does have a Blue pre-TOPS Peak behind him, so such headgear was already in use in, what '73/4? Not a definitive date, and certainly not safety equipment which was in common use then, but another aspect of the changing, evolving, BR scene I'd like to include on my layout.

I don't recall the date, but wasn't it when the INTERCITY Shuttle concept was introduced? As well as a regular timetable (half-hourly) they used the same pair of platforms, and (I think) part of the concept was if you just missed one the next was already in the platform and available to board.