Jeremy Good
Western Thunderer
I recently threatened to post some details of my under-construction model of Bodmin General on here. The initial evolution of the layout has been the subject of a thread on the Scalefour Forum but I thought I'd widen the audience and try and be more disciplined about updating progress.
Having been involved as part of the team building St Merryn in P4, a move away from being part of a club due to family commitments, lead me to consider layout options. I have a particular interest in the railways of North Cornwall, probably form childhood holidays but also from numerous holidays with my family, and decided that the mix f passenger and freight traffic through Bodmin General would make it a busy and interesting subject. I was a little put off by the prospect of comparisons with the North London Group's excellent rendition but, having got hold of copies of the MRC articles, it did mean a lot of the basic research had been done for me!
My version is firmly set in BR days and although the title says 1955 I suspect that the reality is it will be a little bit fluid representing the period through until 1965 to allow one or two green diesels to appear as and when I want. The operation of the layout will probably be based on the 1955 timetable published in MRJ and that has given me a useful starting point for some of the stock I need.
The layout lives in a loft room and constraints have meant it is positioned at "desk height" but this has allowed a back scene to the boards to frame the scene. The scenic section is 13 ft 6 long and varies between 18in and 30in in width. Baseboards were custom designed and cut by Tim Horn in 9mm ply. Fiddle yard boards are now on order now that I have finalised the design and order them from Tim.
Lockdown has resulted in a significant step forward for the layout and as of last Sunday trains were finally able to run the full length of the scenic section. The trackwork is to P4 standards using ply sleepers with Exactoscale plastic chairs stuck to the sleepers, rail is steel bullhead. The turnouts are generally constructed from Exactotrack point kits but modified to suit their locations and built on ply sleepers. At the baseboard wins the sleepers are copper clad with cast brass chairs for strength.
The track plan has been taken from old OS maps and other plans and was drawn in Templet before constructions. As far as reasonably possible it has been drawn following the prototype layout with the only compromise being the curve on the line towards Boscarne Junction where this has been eased and a reverse curve introduced under the road bridge to allow this to fit the site - hopefully this change isn't too noticeable.
The current state of play is shown below in these photos taken while testing/playing last weekend - I need to improve the lighting!
I'll try and post some more progress photos over the next few weeks although much of this time will be spent fettling the trackwork to iron out a few problems identified by my test running with a very inappropriate Penbits sprung Heljan Class 47!
Jeremy
Having been involved as part of the team building St Merryn in P4, a move away from being part of a club due to family commitments, lead me to consider layout options. I have a particular interest in the railways of North Cornwall, probably form childhood holidays but also from numerous holidays with my family, and decided that the mix f passenger and freight traffic through Bodmin General would make it a busy and interesting subject. I was a little put off by the prospect of comparisons with the North London Group's excellent rendition but, having got hold of copies of the MRC articles, it did mean a lot of the basic research had been done for me!
My version is firmly set in BR days and although the title says 1955 I suspect that the reality is it will be a little bit fluid representing the period through until 1965 to allow one or two green diesels to appear as and when I want. The operation of the layout will probably be based on the 1955 timetable published in MRJ and that has given me a useful starting point for some of the stock I need.
The layout lives in a loft room and constraints have meant it is positioned at "desk height" but this has allowed a back scene to the boards to frame the scene. The scenic section is 13 ft 6 long and varies between 18in and 30in in width. Baseboards were custom designed and cut by Tim Horn in 9mm ply. Fiddle yard boards are now on order now that I have finalised the design and order them from Tim.
Lockdown has resulted in a significant step forward for the layout and as of last Sunday trains were finally able to run the full length of the scenic section. The trackwork is to P4 standards using ply sleepers with Exactoscale plastic chairs stuck to the sleepers, rail is steel bullhead. The turnouts are generally constructed from Exactotrack point kits but modified to suit their locations and built on ply sleepers. At the baseboard wins the sleepers are copper clad with cast brass chairs for strength.
The track plan has been taken from old OS maps and other plans and was drawn in Templet before constructions. As far as reasonably possible it has been drawn following the prototype layout with the only compromise being the curve on the line towards Boscarne Junction where this has been eased and a reverse curve introduced under the road bridge to allow this to fit the site - hopefully this change isn't too noticeable.
The current state of play is shown below in these photos taken while testing/playing last weekend - I need to improve the lighting!
I'll try and post some more progress photos over the next few weeks although much of this time will be spent fettling the trackwork to iron out a few problems identified by my test running with a very inappropriate Penbits sprung Heljan Class 47!
Jeremy
