Coombe Barton

Occasionally you find a resource on the web that is complete. This is one - http://www.buildinghistory.org/ - detailed, comprehensive, updated frequently. If you want to find anything this is really the place to start.

Just dug out some seaweed stuiff from when we used to run field trips - http://www.carolscornwall.com/On%20the%20Beach/seaweed.html and http://www.pznow.co.uk/marine/seaweed.html - the kids on the trips loved the identification while the geologists could get on with the geology.

Conservation Area Character Appraisals and Management Plans In the links below many more areas are designated as conservation areas - but those listed are the only ones with character appraisals. Appraisals look at: The history of the buildings Topography and landscape setting Settlement form Important views and vistas Locally distinctive features and vernacular building styles Past and present activities and uses Streetscape and the public realm Green spaces and trees Penwith Penzance, Marazion, Bojewyan, Botallack and Truthwall, Boscaswell, Carnyorth, Nancherrow and Tregeseal, Pendeen and Trewellard. Kerrier Breage, Camborne Town Centre, Helston, Plain-an-Gwarry, Redruth, Porthleven, Redruth, St Day, Tuckingmill and Roskear Carrick Chacewater, Devoran, Penryn, St Agnes, Truro, Falmouth Restormel St Columb Major, Tywardreath, Polkerris, Crantock, Fowey, Grampound, Pentewan North Cornwall Launceston, Altarnun, Blisland, Boscastle, Camelford, Port Isaac, St Kew, St Teath, Bude, Poughill, Stratton Caradon Looe

These documents are recent and give plenty of detail about the coonservation area. More importantly they usually give plenty of high quality photographs. I've linked to the man websites where I can, but some of the detail is proving elusive. I will update as and when I can. Each is arranged by the authority carrying out the appraisal. After each authority is the list of areas covered. Dartmoor National Park Authority Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Chagford, Crockernwell, Drewsteignton, Dunsford, Horrabridge, Lustleigh, Lydford, Manaton, Mary Tavy, Meavy, Moretonhampstead, Murchington, North Bovey, North Brentor, Princetown, South Brent, South Tawton, South Zeal, Sticklepath, Throwleigh, Widecombe-in-the-Moor East Devon Beer, Brampford Speke, Broadclyst, Broadhembury, Budleigh Salterton, Chardstock, Dunkeswell, East Budleigh, Kilmington, Otterton, Seaton, Sidmouth Exeter Alphin Brook, Alphington, Belmont, Central Exeter, Cowick Street, Exwick, Heavitree, Longbrook, Midway Terrace and Ide Lane, Mont Le Grande, Pennsylvania, Princes Square, Riverside, Southernhay and The Friars, St. David's, St. Leonard's, St. Sidwells, Taddyforde, Topsham Mid Devon Bampton, Bradninch, Crediton, Cullompton, Cullompton, Halberton , Tiverton, Upton Hellions, Willand , Yeoford, Sampford Peverell North Devon Barnstaple - Ebberly Lawn, Barnstaple Town Centre, Bickington, Croyde, Fremington, Fremington Quay, Georgeham, Ilfracombe, Lake, Mortehoe, Newport, Pilton, Rumsam, Putsborough, South Molton, Woolacombe Plymouth Adelaide Street/Clarence Place, Barbican, Devonport, Ebrington Street, The Hoe, Mannamead, North Stonehouse, Plympton St Maurice, Royal Naval Hospital/Millfields, Stoke, Stonehouse Peninsula, Tamerton Foliot, Turnchapel, Union Street South Hams Ashprington, Berry Pomeroy, Cornworthy, Ermington, Modbury, Newton Ferrers, Noss Mayo, Salcombe, Stoke Fleming, Stoke Gabriel, Strete, Totnes, Tuckenhay, Yealmpton Teignbridge Bovey Tracey, Chudleigh, Dawlish, Forde Park, Newton Abbot, Ringmore, Teignmouth, Wolborough Torbay Abbey Road, Babbacombe Downs, Barton, Belgravia, Cary Park, Cockington, Chelston, Maidencombe, Old Paignton, Polsham, Roundham and Paignton harbour, Shorton, St Marychurch, Torre, Tormohun, Torquay Harbour, Upton, Warberries, Watcombe Park Torridge This is a list of the conservatiuon areas - I have yet to find much on the sources of the appraisals. Appledore, Ashreigney, Beaford, Bideford, Bideford Clovelly Road, Bideford East, Bradworthy, Buckland Brewer, Bucks Mills, Clovelly, Dolton, Great Torrington, Hartland, High Bickington, Holsworthy, Kingscott, Merton, Northam, Sheepwash, Winkleigh West Devon (from this source) The reports are part of council minutes and do not appear to be collected. Bere Alston, Bere Ferrers, Bratton Clovelly, Bridestowe, Broadwoodkelly, Buckland Monachorum, Exbourne, Eworthy and Germansweek, Hatherleigh, Lamerton, Lifton, Milton Abbot, Milton Combe, Northlew, North Tawton, Okehampton, Sampford Courtenay, South Tawton, Stowford, Tavistock x3, Tavistock/Bere Alston Railway, Whitchurch and Weir Quay These are the ones I can find Tavistock

I've been collecting resources for years about Devon and Cornwall for purposes other than modelling. I've been using them for modelling research so sharing them seems the natural thing to do. Many of them in Cornwall may suffer webdeath because of the new Unitary Authority - these are based on the post 1974 districts. All links are to the CISI or CSUS (Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey) sites. Main CISI map Main CSUS Map Penwith St Just Nancherrow-Tregeseal Botallack Carnyorth Trewellard Pendeen Bojewyan-Stennack Hayle 1 Hayle 2 Penzance St Ives Newlyn Scilly Hugh Town Kerrier Porthleven Praze an Beeble Portreath St Day Troon Beacon Camborne 1 Camborne 2 Tuckingmill Pool Illogan Highway Redruth 1 Redruth 2 Helston Carrick St Agnes Newlyn East Chasewater Devoran Perranaworthal Truro Falmouth Penryn Restormel Pentewen Polgooth St Austell St Blazey Luxulyan Foxhole Nanpean St Dennis Bugle Roche Stenalees Newquay Caradon Looe Liskeard St Cleer Tremar Coombe Crow’s Nest Darite Pensilva Minions Upton Cross Henwood Kelly Bray Callington Drakewalls - Albaston Calstock Gunnislake Torpoint Saltash Launceston North Cornwall St Breward Delabole Treknow and Tregatta Camelford Bodmin

Taking inspiration from Doug's Harbour Office my thoughts turned to columns and the material they're made from. Many columns were rendered - so the Stucco sheet would do, but many were turned either from granite or sandstone. The turned height of the column block rarely exceeds 6ft and the diameter 2ft 6in, so something in 'stone without joints' to cope? That would wrap round a cylinder well. And while typing this, granite slabs. In St Just there's doorsteps in a single block of granite 5ft x 3ft, so the same sheet would so, as it would for granite lintels. These are not confined to the West, as in the City of London the old Martins Bank building (now Barclays) is built using in large lumps of Cornish granite. And of course many cottages and miners houses had granite lintels that are still visible.

To do Millbay docks and station in 4mm would require 60ft x 30ft (excluding fiddle yard) minimum to keep in in scale. Wouldn't exactly be portable for exhibitions, though In N 30ft x 15ft. Anyone do a 1361 in N?

There are always the transatlantic liners that called at Plymouth Millbay? Stonehouse?

Have a look at this thread - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/14046-bulleid-coach-door-hinges-a-new-perspective/

I was really impressed with this layout today.

Oops! SWMBO has just caught me reading that site

That is the engine shed - controlled (notionally) by a trackside lever. Lever 13 is a good candidate for model mechanisation.

Control Panels At some recent exhibitions I’ve been looking at the control panels people have been using. Some are almost as large as the layout they control. Others are a tad smaller. Most are maps of the system. So in my perverse way what better to start designing the layout than with the control panel. The design of Coombe Barton requires that the control panel is incorporated within the layout, hence why I’m starting with it. And the room taken up by said control panel will determine what track is laid where, to some extent. At least it determines how much . The point and signal control is entirely manual and will be using the Scalefour Society’s lever frames. The train control is DC – via a Morley Vector using the supplied remote. Uncoupling is via electromagnets for the Alex Jacksons. I’ve been trying to combine the signal box and control diagrams with little success, so separated them. Signal Box Diagram and Control Panel – yellow circles are where section switches, red circles where uncoupling magnet pushbuttons will be. The lever frame is about 6†wide. Putting the whole lot together will be interesting, but should look a bit like this.

Goods to and from the mill were taken by the branch goods from Totnes, passed Staverton, the wagons being left at Buckffastleigh, the train continuing to Ashburton. On the return journey the Staverton wagons were collected from Buckfastleigh enabling shunting at Staverton. This description taken from the 1950s, according the the Kingdom book. There's also something similar in Turner, C, (1994), Operations at Ashburton. In Great Western Railway Journal No 12, Autumn 1994, Didcot: Wild Swan Publications. All this should make for interesting operation. [Edit] However on the down journey there was time to stop at Staverton so that goods could be barrowed across the platform. [Further Edit]If such a delivery were to be made, the wagon would be marshalled next to the brake van so that the train cleared the level crossing.

Just looked at Clark referred to above, and a photo shows a clerestory coach and an open wagon occupying the 'headshunt', so it seems at one time to have been more than a trap point. The photo is undated. However the text says 'apart from a lengthening of the siding in 1928..." but the how, the why and the plan is open to question. As the lengthening could not really be behind the station, it could be surmised that the siding was extended at the headshunt end, moving the main line point towards Totnes and taking out the headshunt.

In Kingdom, A.R., (1977), The Ashburton Branch (and the Totnes Quay Line), Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company, the map gives a short headshunt. In the Signal Box Diagram (ibid) it is shown as a trap point protected by a dummy at each end. There is a fpl on the main. Measuring the map, from the toe of the (allegedly trap) point, the length of the headshunt is half the length of the siding (and from that you'd have to take the length of the point). However there is no scale. Date on the SBD is 1974. Dates of the maps - 1950s.

Following Mr Nevard's attempts at Railex, as spotted by the Stationmaster - this may be something we don't want to reproduce - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/7352575/Cockroaches-cluster-on-trains.html

The Bunds So the anti spill in plastic caused problems. Especially with plastic solvents. To be expected, wasn’t it? Yes, well ... So this time a visit to Pets at Home (the dogs sent me, actually, to get them some treats) to get a couple of £1.59 stainless steel dog bowls. Small ones will do – you only need to use them as a bund in the most extreme circumstances so the volume needs be over twice that of the largest bottle/tin you’re going to put in them. They’re for stability, And you only need a couple - I tried to think of a situation when I'd need more constructional fluids open at once and found it difficult to imagine. Tools and materials: Stripwood Saw (a compound mitre model helps – but you can do all this by hand with a lot less noise and less chance of covering the dog in sawdust as she lies in the deposit) Clamps Glue Constructional details: Put the bottle/tin in the middle Cut some stripwood to fit the sides and chamfer ends - I set the saw to 30 degrees mitre having looked at what was needed by eye and it seems to work. Cut some stripwood to space the longer bits Glue and clamp Label, as what can be an effective fit for one bottle can be seriously large for one only a couple of millimetres smaller. Use That’s all – dimensions will depend on the dog bowls and bottles in use. And, as before, a couple of thousand more words. And the collection showing the constructional method.

None of this is granite. It's all killas - a local name for something that isn't granite - and this is mudstone. It's older than granite, Devonian age, the granite being intruded in the Carbomiferous. Because of the hot granite intrusion some of this mudstone is partially baked and metamorphosed (that's why you get the Delabole slates, a truly metamorphic rock) The wide mortar is probably to cover the edges of the rock lumps and arrest the splitting of the edges that moist salt air causes. If you go into South East Cornwall and South Devon the local name for mudstone is shillit - something that you wouldn't dream of using for building. This killas was originally mud deposited deep in a offshore basin and was probably about 4km thick when the granite was intruded. If you want me to be even more boring on this I can be.