S&D in a very small space - Timsbury Bottom...

[Gilbert]

I've been quietly contemplating a small Somerset and Dorset layout for some time.

I've always been inspired by the charming Berrow layouts by Mac Pyrke

.......and the John Betjeman "Branchline" film.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03495yn/lets-imagine-a-branch-line-railway-with-john-betjeman

 

I'm also familiar with quite a few of the locations on the northern section of the former line including Midford.

I plan to use 2 SMS RUB boards and the existing single track"fiddle yards" from Cropper Street (reversed so accessed from the other end).

I have a small stash of suitable steam locos and will stick to traditional PECO Code 75 small turnouts. So far I've been doing a bit of planning and pleasant armchair research as I have a significant library on the subject. It woud be a small passing station with a single track yard and (probably) an off-stage industry accessed through a gated siding - bottom left of track plan.

The new boards are 1100mm long shown by the two arrows on this plan. Track exits will be through either two bridges or one bridge and some trees. It will be a tiny layout but should have a bit of operating interest

I quite like the Bachmann Midsomer Norton signal cabin and I've started fiddling with a PECO wooden station.

Chris

Edited May 17, 2022 by Gilbert

[Gilbert]

A tiny bit of Boxing Day modelling. A  bit more work on the station - based on a combination of Henstridge and Radstock...(Stack and canopy respectively)

 

 

[Bulwell Hall]

Good to see it happening at last Chris.  Please do consider calling it Berrow - or perhaps East Brent - in tribute to Mac Pyrke who was a very local modeller.  He had a very good friend who lived in Unity Rd, Keynsham - this was Reg Evans who built a lovely model of the GWR terminus at Ashburton in his garage and the layout was described in MRC in the 1960s.  Another of his group was John Harrison, who lived in Horfield, and had several GWR layouts on a Cornish theme - these were the Torpoint layouts which appeared in RM at various times over the years.

 

Gerry

[Gilbert]

Does this work?

 

 

WEST BRENT.docx

[phil_sutters]

13 hours ago, Bulwell Hall said:

Good to see it happening at last Chris.  Please do consider calling it Berrow - or perhaps East Brent - in tribute to Mac Pyrke who was a very local modeller.  He had a very good friend who lived in Unity Rd, Keynsham - this was Reg Evans who built a lovely model of the GWR terminus at Ashburton in his garage and the layout was described in MRC in the 1960s.  Another of his group was John Harrison, who lived in Horfield, and had several GWR layouts on a Cornish theme - these were the Torpoint layouts which appeared in RM at various times over the years.

 

Gerry

As a teenager living a couple of hundred yards from the line between Highbridge and Burnham, I could never understand the logic of extending the line to Berrow. Even less believable was the tiny branch to East Brent, which would have had to be built through yet more soggy Somerset Levels countryside, cross the Bristol and Exeter, on the level presumably, close to its existing Brent Knoll station and then skirt around the only substantial hill between the Mendips and the Quantocks. To justify Bulleid light pacifics and even 2P 4-4-0s, Berrow would have had to be a town much bigger than Burnham. When describing the locos for the line in November 1963's RM, Mac was even talking about having a 7F 2-8-0, which I don't believe was even allowed on the western arm of the S&D.

His modelling was certainly a major inspiration for my own efforts in those days. So I am not knocking the layout, it's just that I think locations and operation should have some basis in reality.

If you want to see a station name board from the Southern Railway into BR era, you can seen one of Highbridge S&D's here 

 

Good luck with the layout  I shall be interested to see it develop. I hope 2022 works out well for you and your modelling

Edited December 27, 2021 by phil_sutters

[Bulwell Hall]

Queen Charlton has a nice Somerset ring to it.......

 

Gerry

[Gilbert]

17 minutes ago, Bulwell Hall said:

Queen Charlton has a nice Somerset ring to it.......

 

Gerry

and you can get there via Engine House Lane....

[Oldddudders]

4 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

 So I am not knocking the layout, it's just that I think locations and operation should have some basis in reality.

I believe the more we know about a specific prototype or location, the more critical we are of others' what-ifs. People are generally better at researching locos, stock and structures than topographical feasibility. 

 

But I certainly found Berrow etc to be enthralling modelling at a level I could nearly envisage emulating. And it was responsible for my having a more-than-passing interest in the S&D - a railway that surely exceeds all others in fans-per-mile.  40 years ago my then boss had been SM at Bailey Gate....

[fezza]

4 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

As a teenager living a couple of hundred yards from the line between Highbridge and Burnham, I could never understand the logic of extending the line to Berrow. Even less believable was the tiny branch to East Brent, which would have had to be built through yet more soggy Somerset Levels countryside, cross the Bristol and Exeter, on the level presumably, close to its existing Brent Knoll station and then skirt around the only substantial hill between the Mendips and the Quantocks. To justify Bulleid light pacifics and even 2P 4-4-0s, Berrow would have had to be a town much bigger than Burnham. When describing the locos for the line in November 1963's RM, Mac was even talking about having a 7F 2-8-0, which I don't believe was even allowed on the western arm of the S&D.

His modelling was certainly a major inspiration for my own efforts in those days. So I am not knocking the layout, it's just that I think locations and operation should have some basis in reality.

If you want to see a station name board from the Southern Railway into BR era, you can seen one of Highbridge S&D's here 

 

Good luck with the layout  I shall be interested to see it develop. I hope 2022 works out well for you and your modelling

 

Wasn't he assuming that Berrow had become another Victorian  resort town allowing passenger excursions with larger locomotives?

[Gilbert]

13 minutes ago, fezza said:

 

Wasn't he assuming that Berrow had become another Victorian  resort town allowing passenger excursions with larger locomotives?

Indeed he did. In the 1958 RM article he describes Berrow as an imaginary town having industries, a large milk products factory and as a tourist centre for north Somerset. In that version the largest locos were 2-6-2Ts and 4-4-0s

Edited December 27, 2021 by Gilbert

[Bulwell Hall]

If it is of any interest the fourth in the set of photos of the Berrow branch taken in 1978 elsewhere in this thread shows Mac Pyrke himself.  He is the chap with the spectacles and the checked jacket.  The Berrow branch appeared at a number of exhibitions in the late 70s and I saw it at Oxford Town Hall - cant remember which year though.  I also recall that the large mill building with the private siding at East Brent was built to an American prototype by John Harrison and was repurposed for use in Somerset.  John had a great interest in American railroads and when I used to visit him in the early 1970s it was not unusual to see reefers and box cars appear on his 7mm scale Torpoint layout.

 

Gerry

[Gilbert]

Cheers Gerry - I've just delved into the RM archive to catch up with all the Berrow articles...and printed a few off....inspirational stuff...

[Gilbert]

and here's some progress on the station...looking a bit clean at the moment...it will only be seen from this angle but I've finished off all round anyway....

 

I just need to find out if my 7F will cope with Peco small radius turnouts.....I know.....but Rule 1 may apply....

[Compound2632]

I like the idea of minimum-space S&DJR. The various branches were worked by one-coach trains - VCR-fitted 0-4-4T plus driving trailer - for many years from the late 20s. That's about as short a passenger train as you can get and no need for a run-round loop! Goods might take a bit more ingenuity.

[Gilbert]

This is very much an experiment - my previous projects with the SMS boards have been simple shunting puzzles....this should be a little different...having a single track Fiddle Yard at each end should allow some flexibility and one siding will also go "off stage". I know they are not to everyone's taste but I will be using Kadees for hands off operation (aka "play value") so magnet positioning will be challenging....

 

Chris

[Simon Moore]

Gilbert this is a superb little project. I've toyed with the idea of using the timber station myself as the one I'm using is still a bit small in my eyes. Yours is turning out very nicely indeed, it might sway me.

 

Will keep following

[Gilbert]

31 minutes ago, Simon Moore said:

Gilbert this is a superb little project. I've toyed with the idea of using the timber station myself as the one I'm using is still a bit small in my eyes. Yours is turning out very nicely indeed, it might sway me.

 

Will keep following

Don't worry- I've already dropped few.......if you know what I mean.....station building is almost done but I  need to build the platform so  I can sort out the canopy supports etc....

Work on the SMS baseboards goes on..I need to make them "Cobalt friendly"..hence the increased depth ...I do have the right-angle convertors in the "stash"but prefer the direct connection..

Chris

 

[Gilbert]

Baseboard prep...

[Simon Moore]

I've just found this what might be of interest. Some nice footage & recordings which capture more than just the trains.

 

 

 

[Gilbert]

I've only managed 15mins due to "other stuff" but looks excellent...

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I wrote a couple of articles for the "Modeller" sometime in the 1990s (can't recall the date) about a fictitious S&D branch from Evercreech Jn, detailing the reasoning behind it, plus timetables and operation.

[Gilbert]

6 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I wrote a couple of articles for the "Modeller" sometime in the 1990s (can't recall the date) about a fictitious S&D branch from Evercreech Jn, detailing the reasoning behind it, plus timetables and operation.

Thank you Peter - I've dug into the RM archive - it's longer ago than you think....June/July/August 1987....that was my "Dark Ages" in modelling terms so this is all new material for me .....my daughter was 6 months old so not a lot of modelling was taking place!

Chris

[Tim Chambers]

7 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I wrote a couple of articles for the "Modeller" sometime in the 1990s (can't recall the date) about a fictitious S&D branch from Evercreech Jn, detailing the reasoning behind it, plus timetables and operation.

Many thanks also, Peter-for some reason I must have stopped taking "The Modeller" in 1987 so I missed your articles-not any more thanks to the RM Archive-brilliant and completely inspirational!

Best wishes, Tim Chambers (also Dorzet!)

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Thanks both.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I'll be following your two threads with much interest.

There's still lots to see along the route of the old line. I often travel up to Bristol and when driving down the hill into Midford from Hinton Charterhouse, I half expect to see "The Pines" steaming along the valley near Twinhoe, behind a 9F.