The Timetable (version 1)

So far this month I have been very disappointed with myself. Was hoping to have made progress with baseboards for Boscarne Junction, built my first P4 point, and built at least one wagon. Not only have I been unable to complete the above but I've also missed a Scalefour Area Group meeting.

Looking on the bright side there are another 14 days to the end of the month and I have made progress on a timetable for Grogley Junction and Boscarne Junction. The creation of this timetable has been going in the background for many months during short amounts of spare time and/or when I've been away from home. The main aim of this project is to build Grogley Junction, the emphasis is to create a timetable to make Grogley Junction an interesting layout to operate. But if I can build Boscarne Junction successfully there is the potential that I could operate both layouts together. So the idea behind putting the timetable together before I start building either layout is, I hope, to confirm the track plans and confirm that they will work together.

The timetable below does show that my original Grogley Junction track plan will probably need altering. This junction has developed into an important goods exchange between Wadebridge, Wenford Bridge, Bobmin General, Bodmin North, St. Blazey and Mawgan Porth. There are a number of goods movements which may prove that the two original exchange sidings are not enough. It also raises a question that I might be able to justify creating a duty for a shunting engine at Grogley Junction to shunt the exchange sidings. It is becoming a small marshaling yard.....

Below is the complete timetable so far, 9 pages in total, outlining 59 movements though Grogley Junction and 38 though Boscarne Junction. I am/will also be adding to this document all stock, loco rosters and duty numbers required for each train movement but this is it for now.

The timetable is still a work in progress but it looks like the track plan for Boscarne Junction will be OK. Any comments would be welcome.

Bodmin Parkway (Road) station

Many years ago in the mid 1980s a Model Railway Club thought about building a layout based on Bodmin Road station in Cornwall. Why a railway club based in the flat lands of Lincolnshire ending up with this as a potential model I will not go into here. Apart from the track plan in R.H. Clark's Survey of Great Western Stations we had little to go on. So one of us wrote to a local club in the Bodmin area and asked if someone might be kind enough to take photographs of the station. I have published the resultant photographs here at http://iansrailwaystuff.fotopic.net/. The date I have put on this survey is 1984 but this is approximate. If anyone would like to own up to be the gents that kindly took these photos please do as I will then gladly fully credit you on my site. This was the start of my interests in this area, Bodmin Road, to Bodmin General and eventually Wadebridge, Padstow and the North Cornwall line.

I've also posted a few other photos taken of the station in the mid 1990s, approximately 1994. These were taken as the Club had by then folded and I was hoping to build the layout myself. Though the 1984 photos are extensive, I was struggling to workout heights of structures. So, much to the amusement of the family, I packed a piece of 2" x 1" marked with 1 foot increments. This you should be able to see in a few of the photographs.

May be one day I might be able to contemplate this as a model again but in the mean time I hope they are of use to someone.

Progress over Easter

Easter has come and gone with reasonable success. I've been able to create some space in the garage which should be enough to build and put up a couple of baseboards. This was after four trips to the local tip. More trips will follow if I can get permission to throw more out. Why do we keep so much rubbish?

The camping trailer was found and is still receiving some TLC but should be up for sale soon. Once that has gone even more space will be created which should be enough for the whole Boscarne project.

One bonus is that I think I've found enough softwood for the baseboards, second bonus is I've discovered a small supply of plywood at work. Possibly a little on the thick side as it is 9mm but it will help to create strong stable baseboards which hopefully will not add too much to the overall weight. Will still need to purchase some 4mm for the side edges, as I doubt I'll be able to curve the 9mm.

So what next?

Build my P4 Track Company point kit?

Build another length of track with full height sleepers?

Build a small quarter size mock up of the layout to work out lie of the land?

Build a wagon or two with compensation?

I suppose realistically I need to concentrate on the mock up. As I will need to know rise and fall of the land before building any baseboards. Could also do with knowing approximately how high the tracks are above the river. Last time I was at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway in 2007, when looking from the train, I was surprised at how high the bridge was over the river. A guesstimate would be between 30 - 40 feet, but this is from memory. I know I could throw the modellers' licence card into the ring at this point but ..... Is this a good excuse for another visit? I'll have to work on it.

So if the mock up and progress to baseboard construction has to be postponed until more information is found, it has to be testing track/point building techniques and/or wagon building.

Ballasting (3)

"What type of ballast are you going to use?" was a question asked and to be honest, though I have several published colour photos of the branch, due to potential colour casts in reproduction I was still unsure to type and colour.

After posting a thread on RMWeb I've been informed that the likely source for the ballast during S.R. days would be Meldon Quarry on the edge of Dartmoor. If anyone else in interested the three links below offer a reasonable background information about this quarry and include photos.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/meldon_summary.pdf
http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/sheet_3c-b.pdf
http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/sheet_3b-b.pdf

If there was any ballasting completed after being transferred to WR, Stoneycombe quarry would possibly have been used.

I'm still trying to track down if any of the branch was re-ballasted during the 1950's and 1960's but I am now more confident about the colour of two photos on this website taken in 1986. To me this looks like ballast from Meldon. But I do believe ColourRail have a number of slides of this branch which I am also going to try and purchase as reference.

The thread on RMWeb is still running so more information may well surface.

Clay Wagons

Just a quick posting to record a reference site.

I'm going to need one or two clay wagons for Boscarne and Grogley and just landed on Paul Bartlett's fotopic site showing clay wagons. What an excellent reference site.

http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c163031.html

http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c163789.html

Looking at the photos I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to weathering these wagons.

Already have a dozen Ratio kits to build and 8 Ian Kirk kits. The Ian Kirks will need converting as I was build them to EM gauge specifications. Could do with some more Ian Kirks but they are very hard to come by.

Project for Easter

Well there it is....... where it's all going to happen. Underneath all that there is a camping trailer that needs some TLC. First I have to find it, then administer the TLC before selling it. With that out of the way and some general tidying up I should be able to create enough space to start building some baseboards.

Brake Vans

After posting a thread on RMWeb, I've gleaned information on types of Brake Vans that might/were seen on the Wenford Branch and in the area.

It looks like it was a N.E. Toad E Van that was regularly used on the Wenford Branch not an LMS one as I first thought. But in saying that I could justify a 20T LMS van, a SR 25 ton van and the Standard BR van. Interestingly there is a case to justify a Queen Mary van in the early 1960s. One would be added to the goods train if there was a paying passenger. The train would then have two brake vans. That I have to model so it can be included as an option.