A Great Western

D1001 is the second of the two locomotives that we recently had weathered by Alex at Mikron Models in Taunton.

This Heljan model of Western Pathfinder looks fantastic now that she is a little grubbier and she also sounds good too with Howes sound fitted.

She is one of two diesel hydraulics that we have in our fleet of locomotives, the other being the even dirtier Class 42 D812 'Royal Naval Reserve'.

The real Western Pathfinder, which was the second of the class to be built, entered service in February 1962 and was, sadly, withdrawn in October 1976. It was scrapped ten months later by BREL of Swindon.

Looking GrEight!

Here we see our Class 08 shunter, D3105, posing beneath the girder bridge on the line that leads to the diesel servicing depot.

This locomotive is primarily used for shunting wagons in the brewery but does occasionally venture further afield. 

She has recently returned from Mikron Models having been lightly weathered by Alex and, once again, he has done a terrific job.

She joined our fleet a few months ago and came with sound factory-fitted by Hornby. This sound, however, we felt was totally unsatisfactory and so she was soon on her way to be reblown at Howes.

As for the prototype, D3105 became 08 080 but was actually withdrawn quite early in November 1980.

Service Lines

We managed to get quite a bit done to the diesel depot this weekend having spent a couple of sessions working on the layout.

The top two pictures show progress after the first session wherein most of the track had been laid and some of the buildings and structures temporarily placed into position.

The bottom two pictures, meanwhile, were taken after our second spell down the shed by which time we had finished the initial landscaping of the embankment and old trackbed, painted some of the track serving the depot, put scatter under the bridge and placed said bridge into position.

Due to both the skewed angle of the track in relation to the bridge and the limited space that we have available for the depot, it did make clearing the bridge walls a bit tight. However, after much testing, we finally got it so there was enough clearance for the longest of our locos and with Hornby Digital Electric Point Clips (R8232) inserted into all of the points, we managed to do a quick test of the track within the yard. This track will of course be wired to the Bus in due course.

With the ever-growing nature of the layout, we are also fast coming to the decision that we will need to boost the power supply to the track at some stage in the near future. For this we will probably use the Bachmann E-Z Command 5A Power Booster, Catalogue Nº 36-520.

Diesel Day

D1967 and D6986 approaching Bath Road Shed, Bristol. 
22 November 1965

D6896 and D6877 depart Swindon the 19:00 Paddington to Swansea.
2 June 1966

D824 'Highflyer' between Bruton and Castle Cary with a down express.
29 August 1964

D39 leaves the main line and heads for Bath Road Shed, Bristol
22 November 1965

Because we went to Taunton last weekend, there is not much to report with regards to the layout. So I thought I would post some more of John Day's excellent photographs and, this time, I am featuring some of his diesel shots.

The four pictures that I have included here depict Classes 37, 42, 45 and 47 at various locations in the West Country during the mid 1960s.

D1967 became 47 267 and, then, 47 603 and was withdrawn in April 2000.

D6986 became 37 286 and was withdrawn in February 1999.

D6896 became 37 196 and was withdrawn in October 2000.

D6877 became 37 177 and was withdrawn in April 2002.

D39 became 45 033 and was unofficially named Sirius. It was scrapped at MC Metals of Glasgow in February 1992.

Finally D824, which was a Class 42, was withdrawn in December 1972 and, interestingly, its worksplate was sold at auction in May 2009 for £420.

Making Tracks

This last weekend saw us continue work on the Diesel Depot or, rather, the embankment that runs alongside it and which carries a disused and dismantled railway line.

There is now a wall on the depot side of the embankment and support walls have also been added to each side of the bridge. All of these were constructed using grey card faced with Metcalfe brick sheets - Engineers Blue Brick (M0053) for the wall and Dressed Gritstone (M0052) for the bridge supports.

The embankment has also been partially landscaped although there is still quite a bit more to do here, particularly where we have filled in between the wall and the embankment. 

We also laid cork to the rest of the table to form a level surface for the track and buildings and this cork was then given a coat of brown paint. We did this because, as with prototype depots, brown will be the predominant colour of the land and track ballast here.

Fortunately, the markings showing the track layout in the depot can still be seen through the paint and, hopefully, track laying can begin in earnest in a couple of weeks.

Templecombe Then and Now

The two photographs here show how the spur from the S&D main line up to the Templecombe Upper station has changed over the years.

The top photo, I think, dates from the early 1940s while the bottom picture was taken much more recently - and a little further back than the first one.

There have been many obvious changes made during the intervening years, not least the disappearance of the trees in the distance, many of them English elms, to be replaced by a housing estate.

The road in the foreground leads to the Thales Underwater Systems, Throop Road site. The company, then known as Plessey Marine, purchased the site of the old S&D shed a couple of years after the line closed in 1966.

Pondering the Future

In the top picture, an elderly couple and their two dogs sit beside the formal pond in the ornamental gardens situated in front of the Craft Centre .

While, below, a young man sits on the rocks surrounding the less formal pond to the side of the Craft Centre.

No-one knows what might be going through all of their minds as they relax by the water and ponder the future. Perhaps they are thinking about what they could buy in the shops or, maybe, what time train they need to catch at Petersfield station.

As for us, we are thinking ahead to finishing the diesel depot in the more immediate future and then, next year, beginning the make-over of the northern half of the layout.

This work will eradicate the crawl-through between the two halves of the layout and will mean the re-location of the terminus at Davemoor. It should also allow us to extend the Lake End branch line and create an area that is more akin to the Lakeland scenery that the layout is supposed to represent. 

It will clearly mean a lot of work and, also, the cessation of train operations north of Gunnmere for some time. But it will be worth it and we are really looking forward to making a start.