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dave k

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  1. dave k
    When Hallatrow was exhibited at the final of the 18.83 Challenge I did not have a station building, however Tim Venton of Clutton fame had previously made a model and has loaned to me ever since. So I thought it was about time I made a start on a model of my own.
     
    The engineer for the Bristol & North Somerset Railway was William Clarke, who was the engineer to a number of local independent companies whose lines were to connect their local community to a main line. In a number of instances these companies were initially worked by the Great Western and were later taken over by them.
     
    As a result his distinctive architectural style can be found around the Great Western system. The station building all followed the same basic design, only increasing in size with the importance of the station. An article in 'British Railway Journal' No. 8 on William Clarke's 'Standard' Buildings gives further details. This article and the Wild Swan book on the Abbotsbury Railway have copies of the original plan of Portesham station. A re-scaling of these plans and that of the GW official survey, plus photos confirmed that the station building at Hallatrow and Portesham were to the same basic design and size. Thus the Portesham plan was used as the basis for Hallatrow's station building.
     
    A site visit in 2003 confirmed that the building still existed, although it has been altered when it was converted into a private dwelling.
     

     
    After looking at the various types of plastic stone, Wills' Course Stone was a good match and Evergreen strip for the cornices etc. And so finally we have.
     



     
    Now that the basic structure is finished all that is left are the windows, doors, canopy, roof and chimney.
  2. dave k
    I thought add another photo of the station building, this time with the canopy in place. The valance was an Exactoscale etch purchased many years ago. This photo is taken from the side of the non-viewing/operating side of the layout.
     

  3. dave k
    Although it has been quite some time since I have not posted anything, things have progressed. This winter I decided to build the signal box.
     
    As my model of Hallatrow depicts the station before the footbridge was built and after the re-modelling, i.e. late 1909 - 1910, the type 7 box is required. As I don't have a plan of the box I did not fancy counting bricks but the is a plan of the Bishops Lydeard in the book on the West Somerset Line - "The Minehead Branch".
     
    The plan was re-scaled to 4mm and and a mock up made to see how it would look on the layout. This proved to be not imposing enough, Bishops Lydeard box only had/has 33 leavers whereas Hallatrow's had 62.But by cutting and pasting the plan an additional 2 windows are added, making a better looking mock up.
    The photo shows the box placed on the layout to check for size and to see if it looks imposing enough. The brick work is South Eastern Finecast flemish bond. Fortunately the distinctive windows and doors are available from Modelex, being those from the Chuchward kit, and held in place with blu-tack.
     
     
     
     
     




  4. dave k

    Point work on Hallatrow

    By dave k,

    Craig,
     
    Attached are some photos of the point work on Hallatrow plus my friends Roger original curved switch filing jig.
     

     
    The idea of this jig was to file both switches at once - but it did not work. The revised version files one blade at a time.
     

     
    A 9ft curved switch
     

     
    This is the outside slip and half the crossing into the down lay by.
  5. dave k
    My model of Hallatrow was built as an entry in the Scalefour Society's 18.83 Layout Challenge.
    Hallatrow was a station on the Great Western's Bristol & North Somerset (B&NS) branch which ran from Bristol North Somerset Junction to Frome through the North Somerset Coalfield. The line was originally built by the independent Bristol & North Somerset Railway Company (B&NS) which promoted the line to provide a better outlet for the collieries of the Somerset Coalfield. Its act, of July 1863, authorised the company to build a standard gauge line from Bristol to Radstock to join the Great Western's (GWR) then broad gauge mineral branch from Radstock to Frome.
     
    The first turf was cut at Clutton on the 7th October 1863 but following this auspicious occasion the company was beset with financial difficulties which caused no less than six contractors to be employed and the line took ten years to complete. By the time the line opened, on the 3rd September 1873, the B&NS had entered into an agreement with the GWR to work the line. In July 1873 the B&NS received powers to build a branch into the Cam Valley, from Hallatrow to Camerton, which was opened on the 1st March 1882. The B&NS became part of the Great Western's empire when it was absorbed on the 1st July 1884. The Camerton branch was extended by the GWR to Limpley Stoke, on the Great Western's Bradford-upon-Avon branch, in 1910. At the same time Hallatrow also under went a major re-build with the provision of a platform and additional sidings. The station became a passing point and a new signal box was built for the re-signalling.
     
     
     





    The Challenge, set at Scaleforum 2002, was to design and built a layout to P4 standards with a total layout foot print of no more than 18.83 sq. ft. The designs were to in by the following Scaleforum, in September 2003. A progress report was required the following September and the "finished" layouts to be exhibited at Scaleforum 2005.
     
    Of the 50 designs submitted, 25 were finally exhibited at Scaleforum 2005. If you want to see more of the designs plus photos of those exhibited at Scaleforum follow the link to the Challenge page on the Scalefour Society's web site.
     
    The layout modelled for the 18.83 Layout Challenge shows the station after the new 'up' platform was built around 1910-1. The track plan was developed using the TEMPLOT computer design program using a copy of a GWR track plan as a guide. Construction techniques are fairly standard, 4mm ply for the base boards, nickel silver rail in P4 Track Co. chairs stuck to 'full' depth sleepers stained with Colron wood dye. The point work was built was built by my good friend Roger Sanders using his innovative jigs to construct GW curved switch blades.
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