BCN-Pete
Western Thunderer
Hello again - I would like to introduce the layout I am currently working on.
I first visited the Looe branch 30 years ago with my parents on a family holiday and thought one day it would make for an interesting layout. At that time I was modelling in N gauge, BR (WR) but various small layouts and 5 years or so later I started to become frustrated at the overscale track and rapido couplings so I became interested in 2mm Finescale. Fast forward the clock 2o years as I then lost interest in trains, went to University, got married, kids etc....sound familiar?
5 years ago, I returned to the hobby just as we moved to Barcelona and I decided it was the right time to start building an extract of the Looe branch, principally from Coombe Junction to Moorswater. For me there is something fascinating with this branch, how it managed to avoid closure and the scale of the 150ft Moorswater viaduct towering over the freight only branch beneath.
Various sketches followed until I decided that with a little compromise I could include Coombe Junction station, a slice of the viaduct and Moorswater dries. The idea being to use my favourite Ikea Lack shelves as baseboards as they can be slid off the wall, worked on and then slid back again after for discrete storage (Infact all my layouts are on Ikea Lack shelves )
Initial sketch showing 3 boards (shelves) and the ideas to include...
Board 1 Coombe Junction and Fiddleyard...
Board 2 Coombe Junction Halt and Lamelion bridge...(the viaduct has now moved to Board 3)
Board 3 Moorswater dries...
The layout was started and I hoped to be able to fly it back to the UK in 2010 as a 'work in progress' at the 2mmFS Golden Jubilee expo, but the costs and the logistics were too difficult so I flew over with a few photos and a series of the small mock up models...
1:10 scale mock up and smaller 1:50 models to test ideas for exhibiting...
The period modelled is circa 1981 so its BR blue diesels when class 25's were just about to give way to class 37's on the clay. The main inspiration for the layout came from a picture by John Vaughan in Modern Railways pictorial (1981) showing 25155 on clay hoods at Coombe Junction with the Moorswater viaduct in the background. I have since made contact with John Vaughan and sent him pictures of the layout and he has given his approval!
Prototype photo of Moorswater clay dries...now reopened and operated as a cement terminal...
Prototype photo showing one of the buildings coated in white china clay dust...
Prototype photo of the impressive 150ft high Moorswater viaduct...
The layout has been progressing on and off in the last 5 years particularly as I drifted off to undertake the Kyle of Lochalsh model but as it stands, the 3 boards look like this...
Fiddleyard will have Photoframe/iPad built into the display fascia...
The sparse Coombe Junction Halt with Dapol Bubble car - many trees to be planted this year...
Moorswater dries buildings built from card and plasticard...infill to track is in progress...
During the next upload I will describe how I built the viaduct last year...
I first visited the Looe branch 30 years ago with my parents on a family holiday and thought one day it would make for an interesting layout. At that time I was modelling in N gauge, BR (WR) but various small layouts and 5 years or so later I started to become frustrated at the overscale track and rapido couplings so I became interested in 2mm Finescale. Fast forward the clock 2o years as I then lost interest in trains, went to University, got married, kids etc....sound familiar?
5 years ago, I returned to the hobby just as we moved to Barcelona and I decided it was the right time to start building an extract of the Looe branch, principally from Coombe Junction to Moorswater. For me there is something fascinating with this branch, how it managed to avoid closure and the scale of the 150ft Moorswater viaduct towering over the freight only branch beneath.
Various sketches followed until I decided that with a little compromise I could include Coombe Junction station, a slice of the viaduct and Moorswater dries. The idea being to use my favourite Ikea Lack shelves as baseboards as they can be slid off the wall, worked on and then slid back again after for discrete storage (Infact all my layouts are on Ikea Lack shelves )
Initial sketch showing 3 boards (shelves) and the ideas to include...
Board 1 Coombe Junction and Fiddleyard...
Board 2 Coombe Junction Halt and Lamelion bridge...(the viaduct has now moved to Board 3)
Board 3 Moorswater dries...
The layout was started and I hoped to be able to fly it back to the UK in 2010 as a 'work in progress' at the 2mmFS Golden Jubilee expo, but the costs and the logistics were too difficult so I flew over with a few photos and a series of the small mock up models...
1:10 scale mock up and smaller 1:50 models to test ideas for exhibiting...
The period modelled is circa 1981 so its BR blue diesels when class 25's were just about to give way to class 37's on the clay. The main inspiration for the layout came from a picture by John Vaughan in Modern Railways pictorial (1981) showing 25155 on clay hoods at Coombe Junction with the Moorswater viaduct in the background. I have since made contact with John Vaughan and sent him pictures of the layout and he has given his approval!
Prototype photo of Moorswater clay dries...now reopened and operated as a cement terminal...
Prototype photo showing one of the buildings coated in white china clay dust...
Prototype photo of the impressive 150ft high Moorswater viaduct...
The layout has been progressing on and off in the last 5 years particularly as I drifted off to undertake the Kyle of Lochalsh model but as it stands, the 3 boards look like this...
Fiddleyard will have Photoframe/iPad built into the display fascia...
The sparse Coombe Junction Halt with Dapol Bubble car - many trees to be planted this year...
Moorswater dries buildings built from card and plasticard...infill to track is in progress...
During the next upload I will describe how I built the viaduct last year...