Olddudders Comes Home - Beaworthy?

[Oldddudders]

Kenton posted his original idea for the 2010 Challenge on my 61st birthday. For the past 25 years my modelling efforts have all been concentrated on US HO, for which I have a 17' x 20' stone barn with quite a large layout - very unfinished. Moving off in a different direction in parallel with the HO stuff seemed to me to be an attractive idea, but in fact I'd already been seduced by some of the very high quality RTR models now being made for the UK market, and my plastic has been having a hard time of it for a few weeks. Thus making a new layout that enables me to enjoy my new UK contraband seems just so sensible!

 

To some extent that excellent Treneglos layout, part-owned by 2manyspams of this parish, had set me thinking a while ago - living abroad, I don't see many UK magazines, and my most recent Really Toddler is the Feb 2008 issue, which featured Treneglos. Having used the line a few times in my yoof, the station and environs as modelled struck a very positive note - Port Isaac Road was my destination in those days - and, as noted, the availability of decent models really helps someone like me who is diffident about his modelling skills, not to mention impressively lazy! So I dug out my copy of Branch Lines to Padstow (bought in Padstow, and leafed through in the London Inn over a pint in the '90s) and wondered. When there was a chance that Challenge Constraints might include 5 points, Port Isaac Road seemed to meet the bill, but if I'm honest, that simplicity is fine for viewers and visitors, but lacks long-term operating satisfaction for me. No doubt the Treneglos Team could tell me I'm so wrong! In theory, I should be able to design track layouts - after all, I did spend two years in charge of infrastructure scheme development for a chunk of BR!

 

But actually I looked a little further up the line - and found Halwill Junction. Effectively the confluence of three single lines, with trains from two of them regularly joining and splitting, this seemed a much more lively prospect. Later named Halwill for Beaworthy, I have adopted the latter name for my Challenge entry, enabling a certain amount of compression and modeller's licence to be exercised. For the Challenge, I calculate - that may be a rather strong word for my thought process, actually - that I can build the quite complicated station throat, sufficient to be able to run locos around to prove routes work etc. It will probably be two boards, precise dimensions to be decided. I think I have a ruler somewhere.

 

Other givens and druthers (wotever they are?)

 

OO Scale - Peco Code 75

Era - Southern Railway - pre-and post-WW2 (My parents would head for Port Isaac when Dad was on leave from the Navy).

Control - Digitrax DCC (a spare DCS100 is sitting in the barn, and I can nick throttles from the HO layout).

Points to be motorised - a dozen Tortoises are sitting begging to be used.

Signals - the real challenge is soldering up some of those lovely kits. Worth a try.

Buildings - may not be many in the 2010 square inches, but we'll see!

 

That's it then. Colours nailed to mast. And, as our ship sinks slowly in the West......

[2ManySpams]

Hi Ian

 

Thanks for the kind words about Treneglos. The layout started off just as somewhere to run trains and eventually ended up as a 28' long end to end layout. The track plan is very simple and in our period the goods yard would have seen little use. The main activity would have been the passing loop in the station. It's really a track plan for watching trains go by and not one I'd use for home use. Ideally it should be matched with large fiddle yards so that a steady stream of trains could be seen (a whole days worth of timetable for instance) and almost needs the holiday haunts type roundy-roundy treatment.

 

The downside with Halwill is that the station is very long. Sidings at the southern end, level crossing, station with bay and goods yard, separate platform for Torrington services, and then the three diverging lines. Bot sure all this would fit in the 2010 sq inches in 00 but you could stand a chance in N. It would however make a very interesting prototype. I think you are right therefore to just model part of the station and i will be following progress with interest! Good luck.

[Oldddudders]

Hi Ian

 

Thanks for the kind words about Treneglos. The layout started off just as somewhere to run trains and eventually ended up as a 28' long end to end layout. The track plan is very simple and in our period the goods yard would have seen little use. The main activity would have been the passing loop in the station. It's really a track plan for watching trains go by and not one I'd use for home use. Ideally it should be matched with large fiddle yards so that a steady stream of trains could be seen (a whole days worth of timetable for instance) and almost needs the holiday haunts type roundy-roundy treatment.

 

The downside with Halwill is that the station is very long. Sidings at the southern end, level crossing, station with bay and goods yard, separate platform for Torrington services, and then the three diverging lines. Bot sure all this would fit in the 2010 sq inches in 00 but you could stand a chance in N. It would however make a very interesting prototype. I think you are right therefore to just model part of the station and i will be following progress with interest! Good luck.

Just the supportive comments I needed, thanks, Chris! Actually I've been thinking laterally for the last couple of weeks. 2010" is a GK (gnat's knacker) off 14' x 1'. Now no-one thinks a 12" wide layout is gonna be up to much in 4mm, but, as you point out, Halwill is one long station. I am pitching at 1938, so before the US Army sidings appeared, enabling me to immerse it in Hornby Maunsells in olive green. [Don't ask how many I've bought so far!] I reckon, laying out Peco Code 75 points that I have to hand, that I can replicate the complex station throat in about 4', plus another 4' to include the middle siding and see both Bude & Torrington branches off to the north, although they and the North Cornwall line will all have an abrupt end! Platforms might just make 5' long, maybe a little less. At the Okehampton end, I may have to push the level crossing onto the single line - or convert it into a scenic break as a bridge. Once the Challenge is over, then adding boards alongside - to include the yard, forecourt, village shops etc etc - will be quite easy. Obviously staging will be then provided for the three branches - and rather longer staging for the Okehampton end of things.

 

The Irwell Press book arrived a couple of weeks ago, so I've been poring over your writings and those of others. I was gobsmacked to find the appendices included a Carriage Working Notice! A document I understand - I always found them much more important in my Control days than WTTs for the suburban area workings. Need to work out where to berth the 2 x 2 Sets P overnight. Vans are also an issue, so as well as a couple of Hornby Vans C, a CCT, couple of PMVs and bogie vans will need to appear. Bachmann Ns are affordable secondhand, T9s & M7s not cheap new! The jury is still out on whether to try to build an E1/R. Probably not as I'll never be satisfied with the finish, even if it runs. Much still to contemplate!

[Guest oldlugger]

Hello Ian!

 

Long time no hear. How is Beaworthy coming along? Have you had time to make any progress or are your HO interests taking up your time?

 

All the best

Simon

[Oldddudders]

Hello Ian!

 

Long time no hear. How is Beaworthy coming along? Have you had time to make any progress or are your HO interests taking up your time?

 

All the best

Simon

Crikey! How humbling! Actually I've done a lot of planning and considering. Baseboards are the issue. I started with the idea that as I was going to use Peco Code 75 live-frog points, then the Tortoise point motor would sort the correct energising of the frog, via the built-in contacts. Problem is, this is gonna be a portable layout in several "bits", and will need to have other "bits" added on once the 2010 Challenge is over - being disqualified for being oversize would seem a very demoralising result! In order to accommodate the Tortoises, a deep support is needed, and I have actually built one 4' x 1' board accordingly, using 10mm particle-board, with about 5" clearance underneath. Then I was reminded, by an RMWebber's contribution, of the HexFrog Juicer, sold by Bromsgrove Models, which basically does the same live-frog changing trick electronically. This would avoid me having to use point motors at all, and since Halwill was mechanical throughout its existence, eliminating the whine of a Tortoise has its attractions. I'm not too proud to lean over and click the points, and the HFJ should ensure my DCC command station doesn't even notice! This then allows me to use modern closed-cell insulation board instead of wood, and this weighs slightly less than one-ninth of not a lot, thus being very attractive for a portable layout. In the meantime, the locos and coaches are turning up in gay profusion, being variously converted to DCC and fitted with Kadees, while several placeholder structures have arrived, so I can have some fun with a plausible-looking layout before getting down to scratchbuild the signalbox, pumphouse, water tanks etc. I think for 2010 the yard will be off-scene, so freight stock can wait. The HO layout is in a very cold barn but has played ignominious host to the T9s, Ns and M7 being test run. And, after all, the dozen Tortoise motors will end up on the HO layout they were originally bought for, joining the 18 already in use. Deb is now back from hospital again, so I have more time at home in the next few weeks. Progress may happen!

[Guest oldlugger]

That's all sounding very beezer Ian! It would be great to see a few progress photos at some stage - when you have the time. From the way you describe things it sounds as though your British layout will be based in your house rather than the cold barn?! This might be prudent...

 

Keep us posted. I am particularly interested in your chosen location; I used to visit the area when I was young and Port Issac (of "Doc Martin" fame of course) was one of the places where I stayed with my family. Very romantic countryside and full of rustic charm and atmosphere; it conjures up visions of Sherlock Holmes, Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie! The railways of north Cornwall were fascinating - before they were destroyed so carelessly. You've definitely got to do this one Ian!!!

 

All the best

Simon

[2ManySpams]

simon / Ian we'll be turning this in to a NCR appreciation thread at this stage!

 

Ian, glad to hear you're starting to get to grips with the boards and stock. Post some photos - it would be good to see how you're getting on. A T9 on a european layout sounds fun!

 

My own layout is on hold at the moment - i'm helping out with two friends layouts - one based on St Blazey and the other 1920s new mexico. Both are wild west in their own ways! Hopefully this time next year the house extension will be done and i'll know whatspace in the overall plan i can have. I'm probably looking at a 5x3m area and i keep getting drawn back to the idea of something based on the key elements of Wadebridge. Probably in EM and definately set around 1961.

[Oldddudders]

Ian, glad to hear you're starting to get to grips with the boards and stock. Post some photos - it would be good to see how you're getting on. A T9 on a european layout sounds fun!

I've been doing a bit of study on WTTs and so on, including those published in the back of the Irwell book, in which your own contributions are substantial, Chris! I'm having trouble identifying how the news got to Padstow in the earlier years. While the 1.15/25/30 ex Waterloo features in the 1950s, it is less obvious before that. Infuriatingly, the 1938 WTT shows a 6.45 News from Halwill to Bude, but no equivalent train to Padstow. Indeed, the first passenger departure for Padstow is 10.33, arriving at Padstow at 12.11 - far too late for newsprint, which is the most perishable of commodities. And how did the news for the 6.45 for Bude get to Halwill? The previous arrival at Halwill is the 06.02 freight from Okehampton - but no way could London news have got to Okehampton by 06.02! I do wonder whether the GWR took Padstow papers to Bodmin Road, and they then tripped across via Bodmin General, but there is also the possibility that national news got printed more locally at, say, Exeter, rather than Fleet Street.

 

So why the interest in news? Well, quite apart from having been very aware of paper trains early in my career - in 1967 I spent a few nights at Victoria counting the bundles of papers onto the 3.20 to Brighton and 3.27 to Eastbourne, after complaints of missing bundles - I do like vans and the alternative operational scenarios they offer. I've been building a Ratio Bogie Van B, which was much used for the papers to Padstow, and am fairly pleased with the overall shape - but those tiny items on the frets are going to defeat me, I'm sure! Folding up and placing grab handles may even be left off the to-do list! I have ordered a whole bunch of the Roxey detailing frets for the window security bars, to go on the Van B and a number of Vans C in the Hornby Maunsell range, as well as the elderly Hornby bogie van.

 

Baseboard development remains imminent. The board I had already built is 24" x 98", and some careful measurement is now under way to get that down to an Andy Y size, while enabling the whole of the Halwill throat to be accommodated. I have decided that I will have to live without the Torrington run-round loop, and all trains will have to shunt back out of the Torrington bay and run round via the main platforms. Given the absolute paucity of trains from Torrington - 3 a day on a busy day! - this may not be too much to cope with.

 

Pictures? Well, hmm, maybe. Must admit I'm not a great fan of those shots showing the earliest stages of a layout, because I feel they don't inspire many to follow suit! As for T9s in Colorado or Kansas, yes, maybe I can set something up there this week, now Spring is here in my 1850 barn!

[paulr1949]

I've been doing a bit of study on WTTs and so on, including those published in the back of the Irwell book, in which your own contributions are substantial, Chris! I'm having trouble identifying how the news got to Padstow in the earlier years. While the 1.15/25/30 ex Waterloo features in the 1950s, it is less obvious before that. Infuriatingly, the 1938 WTT shows a 6.45 News from Halwill to Bude, but no equivalent train to Padstow. Indeed, the first passenger departure for Padstow is 10.33, arriving at Padstow at 12.11 - far too late for newsprint, which is the most perishable of commodities. And how did the news for the 6.45 for Bude get to Halwill? The previous arrival at Halwill is the 06.02 freight from Okehampton - but no way could London news have got to Okehampton by 06.02! I do wonder whether the GWR took Padstow papers to Bodmin Road, and they then tripped across via Bodmin General, but there is also the possibility that national news got printed more locally at, say, Exeter, rather than Fleet Street.

 

So why the interest in news? Well, quite apart from having been very aware of paper trains early in my career - in 1967 I spent a few nights at Victoria counting the bundles of papers onto the 3.20 to Brighton and 3.27 to Eastbourne, after complaints of missing bundles - I do like vans and the alternative operational scenarios they offer. I've been building a Ratio Bogie Van B, which was much used for the papers to Padstow, and am fairly pleased with the overall shape - but those tiny items on the frets are going to defeat me, I'm sure! Folding up and placing grab handles may even be left off the to-do list! I have ordered a whole bunch of the Roxey detailing frets for the window security bars, to go on the Van B and a number of Vans C in the Hornby Maunsell range, as well as the elderly Hornby bogie van.

 

Baseboard development remains imminent. The board I had already built is 24" x 98", and some careful measurement is now under way to get that down to an Andy Y size, while enabling the whole of the Halwill throat to be accommodated. I have decided that I will have to live without the Torrington run-round loop, and all trains will have to shunt back out of the Torrington bay and run round via the main platforms. Given the absolute paucity of trains from Torrington - 3 a day on a busy day! - this may not be too much to cope with.

 

Pictures? Well, hmm, maybe. Must admit I'm not a great fan of those shots showing the earliest stages of a layout, because I feel they don't inspire many to follow suit! As for T9s in Colorado or Kansas, yes, maybe I can set something up there this week, now Spring is here in my 1850 barn!

 

An interesting challenge Ian - you'll have to go a lot faster than I'm managing on my "O" gauge North Cornwall branch. I do have an excuse - 6 weeks away visiting New Zealand (amongst others), where I managed to miss just about every steam/modelling event that there was!

I am contemplating completion of my 3 way point this week. Good luck!

[Oldddudders]

An interesting challenge Ian - you'll have to go a lot faster than I'm managing on my "O" gauge North Cornwall branch.

Thanks Paul! I feel O Gauge modellers have little reason to apologise for slow progress - you have chosen a route that demands you do everything yourself! On the other hand, in OO a few clicks of the mouse - and another couple of delicious Hornby Maunsells turn up in the post a few days later, even here in la France profonde! In photographic circles, the adage about print sizes always was that a good big 'un beats a good little 'un, and that is true in models, too. Last time I was in the UK, a couple of years ago, an old schoolfriend was showing me his O gauge Bulleid pacific, nearly finished and looking stunning. My own limited delving in the larger world has been in quarter-inch narrow gauge, where a few buildings and a 3-foot long trestle lurk in anticipation of a home that displays their common heritage - Ophir, Colorado on the Rio Grande Southern. On the other hand, those of us with finite space and a wish to have a final result that has true operating interest may find smaller scales yield faster gratification - if we get off our butts! - so I am on my way upstairs shortly to get things going a bit faster. [upstairs here has never been inhabited, but may well be soon with the works our tame Engish builder is doing in plasterboard etc. The new roof in 2006 was designed to enable just that. Meanwhile I can keep all sorts of modelling tat up there!] Stage 1 is to lop 342 sq inches off the baseboard!

[paulr1949]

Thanks Paul! I feel O Gauge modellers have little reason to apologise for slow progress - you have chosen a route that demands you do everything yourself! On the other hand, in OO a few clicks of the mouse - and another couple of delicious Hornby Maunsells turn up in the post a few days later, even here in la France profonde! In photographic circles, the adage about print sizes always was that a good big 'un beats a good little 'un, and that is true in models, too. Last time I was in the UK, a couple of years ago, an old schoolfriend was showing me his O gauge Bulleid pacific, nearly finished and looking stunning. My own limited delving in the larger world has been in quarter-inch narrow gauge, where a few buildings and a 3-foot long trestle lurk in anticipation of a home that displays their common heritage - Ophir, Colorado on the Rio Grande Southern. On the other hand, those of us with finite space and a wish to have a final result that has true operating interest may find smaller scales yield faster gratification - if we get off our butts! - so I am on my way upstairs shortly to get things going a bit faster. [upstairs here has never been inhabited, but may well be soon with the works our tame Engish builder is doing in plasterboard etc. The new roof in 2006 was designed to enable just that. Meanwhile I can keep all sorts of modelling tat up there!] Stage 1 is to lop 342 sq inches off the baseboard!

 

Only 342 sq ins! Not much then.

I have to say that, so far, the only stock I have built is freight, as all of my locos have been bought ready-made, plus a Bulleid coach and a CCT. I have built all the points though. I might even get onto something more interesting soon.

 

Ophir - would that have been an extension from Silverton? I am contemplating a visit to Durango/Cumbres & Toltec for next year.

 

Paul

[paulr1949]

Only 342 sq ins! Not much then.

I have to say that, so far, the only stock I have built is freight, as all of my locos have been bought ready-made, plus a Bulleid coach and a CCT. I have built all the points though. I might even get onto something more interesting soon.

 

Ophir - would that have been an extension from Silverton? I am contemplating a visit to Durango/Cumbres & Toltec for next year.

 

Paul

 

What I also meant to say was that I've just looked in my OPC reprint of the 1932 SR WTT and there certainly doesn't seem to be any way by which news would have got to Wadebridge! The 01 30 from Waterloo only stopped for 2 mins at Okehampton, and, whilst there was a freight to Bude, there doesn't seem to be anything down to padstow at all.

 

Paul

[Oldddudders]

What I also meant to say was that I've just looked in my OPC reprint of the 1932 SR WTT and there certainly doesn't seem to be any way by which news would have got to Wadebridge! The 01 30 from Waterloo only stopped for 2 mins at Okehampton, and, whilst there was a freight to Bude, there doesn't seem to be anything down to padstow at all.

The thick plottens! We must assume that the absolute priority afforded to newspaper traffic when you and I worked in Controls was more recent than we might have imagined, certainly over the North Cornwall railway, at a time when road transport was much less competitive in such a rural area! While my model will try to be Southern Railway in feel, I think I'm inclined to employ a more recent WTT, enabling the paper train, and its empty partners, to be given due prominence in the operating sessions. At this stage, I also feel I'm ploughing a lone furrow in not anticipating use of a Bulleid pacific, not because I didn't like them - and I saw most of them - but they are kind of a cliche, while the more ordinary power - T9, N, M7 - did much of the soldiering year in, year out, but without the glamour. I hope this way it will be the whole train, not just the famed loco, that occupies centre stage.

 

As for Ophir, best I can do is offer you this link to an amazingly comprehensive RGS website, given that the line closed in 1951 - http://rgsrr.home.comcast.net/~rgsrr/.

[shortliner]

The thick plottens! We must assume that the absolute priority afforded to newspaper traffic when you and I worked in Controls was more recent than we might have imagined, certainly over the North Cornwall railway, at a time when road transport was much less competitive in such a rural area! While my model will try to be Southern Railway in feel, I think I'm inclined to employ a more recent WTT, enabling the paper train, and its empty partners, to be given due prominence in the operating sessions. At this stage, I also feel I'm ploughing a lone furrow in not anticipating use of a Bulleid pacific, not because I didn't like them - and I saw most of them - but they are kind of a cliche, while the more ordinary power - T9, N, M7 - did much of the soldiering year in, year out, but without the glamour. I hope this way it will be the whole train, not just the famed loco, that occupies centre stage.

 

As for Ophir, best I can do is offer you this link to an amazingly comprehensive RGS website, given that the line closed in 1951 - http://rgsrr.home.comcast.net/~rgsrr/.

 

Re Ophir - I have a feeling that an Australian gent, Laurie Green MMR, built a model - EDIT - google finds it

 

http://lauriegreensw...ld%20Ophir.html

[Oldddudders]

Another withdrawal, I'm afraid - that's the headline today.

 

Actually, it's a bit more complex than that. Halwill/Beaworthy has proved to be a really excellent prototype, and I am pursuing it - but 2010 sq ins was never going to be space enough except for the station throat. That meant that I'd have to build at least 2 other baseboards, plus fiddle yard/storage sidings. 2manyspams had gently pointed out that this is a long station! Accordingly, as I just don't have that much space available, I've had to look elsewhere for a site.

 

That site offered itself on one side of my US HO layout. My Rock Island station of Roseland, Kansas - on a basebaord 17' long, with tracks leading off both ends - seemed a bit dreary and unfulfilling, so it has now been ripped up. In its place is Beaworthy, albeit with the inevitable compression. Platforms have yet to be built, but will hold a loco and six coaches. The trackwork is all in place, in Code 75 Peco, and the live frogs are all wired. Since I do not find pics of bare track on baseboards very edifying, I do not propose any images just yet, but will do so when things have gained a few scenic clothes, perhaps.

 

Given that I had a baseboard already built for the 2010 Challenge, I then thought how I could "fill it", and the answer came in On30 form. I have a number of buildings - mainly kits, but one very large ugly structure scratchbuilt - and, er, no shortage of trains. I had hoped that this would fall together in time to meet the Challenge deadline, but it hasn't. Worse, in order to make sense of On30 in 2010sq ins, I had concluded that I needed a single fiddle siding off each end, and that meant hacking a bit more off the baseboard, which is now a very bizarre shape! [7mm/O Gauge models can have extra space for the fiddle yard, but this is US O Gauge - 1:48, not 1:43 as in the UK.] So the layout will be finished, and will appear here "in due course and season" as the Director, Financial Planning, BRB was wont to say!

 

In conclusion, I do wonder whether there should be a heading for "Not the 2010 Challenge" layouts that missed the deadline, but still have an area constrained by that opportunity?

[2ManySpams]

Nooo! The list of southern inspired entries is getting shorter each day. Glad you are still planning to complete this project at some point. Go on, post some photos....go on, go on, go on, go on....

[Ramblin Rich]

Ian I do hope you can continue with "Beaworthy" in expanded form as it sounds like a great scheme.

I'd agree with the idea of an area for "lapsed" 2010 challenge layouts as I'm similarly intending to carry on with mine.

[Stubby47]

As a recent withdrawn-from-the-challenge type person, I too would like to see a section for the also-rans poor unfortunates whose real life got in the way...

[2ManySpams]

As a recent withdrawn-from-the-challenge type person, I too would like to see a section for the also-rans poor unfortunates whose real life got in the way...

 

Well you all did better than me - I never even posted an entry or started.... Perhaps next year

[Oldddudders]

As a recent withdrawn-from-the-challenge type person, I too would like to see a section for the also-rans poor unfortunates whose real life got in the way...

Yeah, but compared to most of you I have fewer excuses - I'm retired! So maybe a darn sight less unfortunate than some! And now there's no diesel to be had round here due to strikes, I can't even say I'm out shopping!

 

Anyway, I'll lug a camera out to the barn tomorrow and see if I can show what I'm up to. In effect the US HO layout continues directly from the Southern OO - each can be fiddle yard storage for the other, if you like, as well as providing a continuous run. I do have a couple of problems to solve with the transition of the scenery, though! The track layout at the country end of the station is similar to the prototype, with the key single slip enabling Bude trains to depart from the Down Platform, while Padstow trains leave in parallel from the bay. Oddly, I can't find many WTT examples of this happening. I have had to lose the Torrington loop, too, so Torrington trains (2 a day!) will have to run round in the main platforms, although they do have their own platform. The yard cannot go behind the station building, but I have found room for a headshunt there, at least, and the yard is alongside the Padstow line, therefore. I can probably find room for a turntable just where the Padstow line disappears into the backscene. Other problems yet to be solved include coupling and uncoupling Hornby Maunsells in the platforms, and undertrack magnets may be the only answer. Part of the attraction of Halwill is the very vigorous activity every time a train arrives - splitting on the Down; running round, drawing back, propelling and attaching on the Up - so I need to bottom that one.