Hello from Devon

[Bulldog3444]

Hello all - I have been on Western Thunder for a while, finding inspiration from some great modelling, so it is about time that I introduced myself.

My name is Ian Harrison, and I am a Scalefour modeller from Exton, in Devon (half way between Exeter and Exmouth). My sign on the Scalefour Society forum is Ian@Exton.

My main interest is Great Western, and I am slowly building a model of the station at Dulverton, which was a junction station between the Taunton to Barnstaple line and the Exe Valley branch. Strictly speaking the actual junction was at Morebath, a couple of miles to the east of Dulverton station, but the Exe Valley trains ran to Dulverton. My main period is the 1920s/30s but I also have some BR period stock. Below is a rather grainy picture of Dulverton station in the period I am modelling.



During the 1920s and 30s Bulldog class 4-4-0s were the mainstay of passenger services on the Taunton to Barnstaple line, so my Forum name Bulldog3444 reflects the first loco of the class that I have completed - 3444 Cormorant - which was a regular performer on the line. I have a couple more Finney/ Brassmasters Bulldog kits on the shelf waiting for me when I get the time to start them. I'll finish with a picture of Cormorant.



Ian

 

[Herb Garden]

Welcome Ian,

That sounds like a great project and a very very fine loco you have there.

I know nothing about the great Western or it's fine Locomotives but I look forward to seeing more. Any progress shots of the layout?

Herbie (George)

 

[Joe's Garage]

Welcome and the prototype looks interesting. Are you the same Ian Harrison who built Lambor e many years ago?
All the best
Julian

 

[ullypug]

Lovely to see you on here Ian. Welcome to WT! Love the Bulldog.
Now I know you've got a lot more photos of your Dulverton layout you should be sharing with us all!!!

 

[NHY 581]

Afternoon Ian,

Lovely to see you at Railwells. Your stock looked lovely on Parkend.

Rob.

 

[Nick Rogers]

Greetings Ian,

Very good to see you here.

All the best,

 

[Captain Kernow]

What a pleasant surprise to find you on WT, Ian, a very hearty welcome!

 

[Charon]

Good to see you on here Ian.

John F

 

[Bulldog3444]

Thanks, all, for the welcome.

And yes, Julian, I am the Ian Harrison who built Lambourn a very long time ago. Dulverton is my next layout after Lambourn, so you can see that my rate of productivity is pretty low!

However, in the intervening period I have managed to build enough stock to run a reasonable sequence on Dulverton.

Progress to date has been on getting the trackwork down and operational, together with a through fiddle yard. I have built most of the signals, but they are not yet controlled - hopefully I might manage that over the winter. I haven't started the scenics yet - what you see in the couple of pictures below are card mock-ups of the buildings.

Ian

 

[Herb Garden]

Snazzy trackwork though!

 

[AJC]

Welcome, Ian (and just to say that I very much enjoyed what I assume is your book on the Chard branchlines). Looking forward to seeing more of Dulverton, a very interesting station well-rendered, even at this point.

Adam

 

[James Spooner]

Thanks, all, for the welcome.

And yes, Julian, I am the Ian Harrison who built Lambourn a very long time ago. Dulverton is my next layout after Lambourn, so you can see that my rate of productivity is pretty low!

However, in the intervening period I have managed to build enough stock to run a reasonable sequence on Dulverton.

Progress to date has been on getting the trackwork down and operational, together with a through fiddle yard. I have built most of the signals, but they are not yet controlled - hopefully I might manage that over the winter. I haven't started the scenics yet - what you see in the couple of pictures below are card mock-ups of the buildings.

Ian

View attachment 194265

View attachment 194266

Hi Ian,

Welcome to WT and thank you for posting some photos of your current project on here. I absolutely love your flowing track work, beautiful stuff, (and also your Bulldog!). I look forward to seeing updates as it progresses.

Nigel

 

[Joe's Garage]

As others have said Ian, that is lovely flowing trackwork.
Did you exhibit Lambourn at Imrex in the mid 80s? Also did you team up with Paul Illiffe on another GW P4 model?
Sorry to bombard you with questions but Dulverton certainly looks like it is built on much experience....
Keep posting please....
Cheers
Julian

 

[Bulldog3444]

Hi again - some answers to the questions above.

Thanks, Adam, and yes I am the author of Branchlines to Chard. During the years after Lambourn I had a go at planning layouts of most of the stations on the Chard branch, and most of my stock building at that time was planned with that in mind. Of course, the Chard branch was operated out of Taunton, as was the line to Barnstaple, so most of the stock is fine for Dulverton.

Yes, Julian, Lambourn was on the exhibition circuit in the 1980s. At that time we lived in Kent, so I took it to a number of shows in the south east, and also to Expo EM) rather than Imrex) at the Paddington station hotel in, I think, 1986. I post below a couple of pictures of Lambourn from that time.






Although it was a fairly small layout it wouldn't fit conveniently into a new house we moved to in 1988, so I sold the layout to Alan Ketley, who at that time was a prominent P4 loco builder. Alan had brought locos along to one or two exhibitions and ran them on Lambourn - his Duke looked fine , but the 9F looked a bit out of place (though it was a good test of my pointwork!)

Alan exhibited Lambourn a few times, including Scaleforum in 1989, but then the layout "disappeared" for 25 years or so. I gather it had been in storage, so I was surprised when I got an email from Jeff Day of Dartford who explained that he now had the layout, and that it still worked. Jeff has done quite a lot of refurbishment and updating, and Lambourn was seen again in public at the Uckfield exhibition in 2019.

During the 1990s we moved to Devon and lived in a number of rental properties which ruled out layout building, so I concentrated on building stock. Fortunately, Paul Iliff - one of our Mid Devon group - was building his P4 layout Evenstow, so there was somewhere other than my 1 metre plank that was available for me to run my stock. Paul had Evenstow on the exhibition circuit for a decade or so, and we travelled quite widely including Wigan, Warley, Scaleforum and Epsom as well as venues in the south west. There are a couple of views of Evenstow below.






A few years ago Evenstow passed to Chris Mansell, from Exmouth, who has renamed the station Abbeymouth. Chris did a couple of exhibitions with it pre-lockdown, but I understand he is now looking for a new home for the layout as he is currently concentrating on 7mm.

That's enough nostalgia for now!
Ian

 

[Jeff Day]

Hi Ian,

Great to see you on here, haven't posted on here myself, but you've made me put fingers to keyboard.
I am the Jeff who emailed you when I took over your old layout Lambourn from Alan.

The layout is actually coming down your way in October to the Taunton show, so if you want to see how it looks after 40ish years....
It will only be it's second show out in 25 years!

I don't remember whether you saw the layout after Alan modified it but it's been refreshed again, and proves layouts can have a long and interesting lifespan. The main issue was with old glue joints failing.

Added a couple of piccies

Regards from Kent

Jeff

 

[Joe's Garage]

Nice to see these two layouts, yes Evenstow appeared in the Toddler...nice photos here and in the RM.
Thanks for the nostalgia, puts a story behind both layout and modeller.
Cheers
Julian

 

[DavidB]

There are more photos of Evenstow here on the Scalefour Retrospective.

 

[ullypug]

Hi Ian,

Great to see you on here, haven't posted on here myself, but you've made me put fingers to keyboard.
I am the Jeff who emailed you when I took over your old layout Lambourn from Alan.

The layout is actually coming down your way in October to the Taunton show, so if you want to see how it looks after 40ish years....
It will only be it's second show out in 25 years!

I don't remember whether you saw the layout after Alan modified it but it's been refreshed again, and proves layouts can have a long and interesting lifespan. The main issue was with old glue joints failing.View attachment 194451View attachment 194452

Added a couple of piccies View attachment 194450

Regards from Kent

Jeff

Good to see you on here Jeff

 

[Bulldog3444]

Thanks Jeff - yes I will be going to the Taunton show so it will be good to see Lambourn again.

 

[Jeff Day]

Good to see you on here Jeff

Hi Andrew,

Been lurking for a while, don't have much to add a loy of the time.
Been following Cheddar, it's coming along nicely, be nice to see it in the flesh at some point.

Jeff