The Farlacombe Branches of the Great Western Railway
A loft layout by Philip Worsfold.
A loft layout by Philip Worsfold.
Built around the turn of the 20th century, after the demise of the Broad Gauge, the two branches to Farlacombe gave the opportunity of an alternative diversionary route between Exeter and Plymouth; the one linking to Teigngrace on the line from Newton Abbot to Mortonhampstead, and thence via Heathfield to Exeter, was always more important than that to Ashburton and Totnes and thence to Plymouth. It was unfortunate that the topography at Farlacombe prevented the building of a through station and this, together with steep gradients restricted severely the usefulness of the through route.
The lines to Ashburton and Teigngrace were closed in 1949, shortly after the nationalisation of the railways. The routes are now barely traceable. Today only the section from Buckfastleigh to Totnes survives in preservation and the Moretonhampstead line survives as an extended siding as far as Heathfield.
Well that’s the story; now for the facts.
The idea of this model commenced in 1951, when an article by Cyril Freezer appeared in ‘Railway Modeller’ extolling the virtues of branch line termini, inspired by his visit to Hemyock. He offered a suggested layout for such a small terminus, and my station layout is, in fact, a mirror image of that original, with the long siding becoming the second branch line. Farlacombe is a real place; as is Burne, the halt on the branch heading towards Teigngrace. You will find them on the Ordnance Survey map; but they are not villages, they are farms. You won’t find any evidence of the tracks of an old railway – although I know several people who have looked for them!
The lines to Ashburton and Teigngrace were closed in 1949, shortly after the nationalisation of the railways. The routes are now barely traceable. Today only the section from Buckfastleigh to Totnes survives in preservation and the Moretonhampstead line survives as an extended siding as far as Heathfield.
Well that’s the story; now for the facts.
The idea of this model commenced in 1951, when an article by Cyril Freezer appeared in ‘Railway Modeller’ extolling the virtues of branch line termini, inspired by his visit to Hemyock. He offered a suggested layout for such a small terminus, and my station layout is, in fact, a mirror image of that original, with the long siding becoming the second branch line. Farlacombe is a real place; as is Burne, the halt on the branch heading towards Teigngrace. You will find them on the Ordnance Survey map; but they are not villages, they are farms. You won’t find any evidence of the tracks of an old railway – although I know several people who have looked for them!
Building the model.
Work started apace from the terminus end. Buildings were built from card kits – the station being re-clad with red sandstone building paper and using the coarse scale track of the time – nominally flexible on fibre sleepers. But I couldn’t fit it all in. So I decided to build my own track using Peco ‘Individualay’ – bull head track using little cast lead chairs again on fibre sleepers – fiddly indeed. This was O.K. until I shifted the layout to my new home near Leeds. It was carried on a roof rack on an old Ford Popular in the most ferocious windy and wet weather. The protection blew off early in the journey, so it was with some surprise that we found that the layout was dry on arrival – dried by the wind! The few miles up the then new A1(M) was a bit hairy! When it was all set up I found that all was not well, since the fibre sleepers had shrunk and the gauge was now 15.5mm! So the lot was re-laid again, this time using ‘Scaleway’ bull head track, with their points, built from kits (with one exception – a curved point built with copperclad sleepers to fit the site). The fiddle yard had to be re-modelled to fit the new home, but that was back in 1966. Since then the layout has hardly been altered and was exhibited extensively at shows in Lincolnshire and East Anglia.
After four house moves it has now found a home in my loft. I had to dismantle it for some building work some years ago and sadly one of the boards got dropped during the re-erection. It lay more or less abandoned for about 10 years; but I finally decided to put it back together, and apart from having to replace one of the point operating wires, it actually worked. And there it is today.
The signals are mainly Ratio kits and they are workable manually from the underside of the layout. The points are operated by wire in tube (Mercontrol), with handmade working cranks. In the sidings, the hand lever operates the points. As stated, the buildings are cardboard kits and the station platforms are made of balsa wood. The scenery – originally papier maché on wire mesh, is now formed from old egg boxes and polystyrene.
The rolling stock is mostly kits or modified models, including a 14xx 0-4-2T and a Dean Goods from K’s and a Wills ‘Metro’ 2-4-0 tank engine. There is also a CCW Auto trailer with a wooden body. Screw and three link couplings have been used for most of its life, but latterly some Bachmann type couplings have crept in as other more modern stock has been tried out – but the layout doesn’t get much use these days as befits one that is more than sixty years old.
In days of old, ballasting was rather rudimentary on country branch lines – often a mixture of clinker, ash and old ballast recovered from main line track renewals. The sleepers stood well proud of the ballast. So with very thin sleepers, I have laid my track on top of the ballast.
The layout is portable. The boards are joined using hinges with separated pins and there are short joining pieces of track over the joints. These are visible in one of the pictures.
Work started apace from the terminus end. Buildings were built from card kits – the station being re-clad with red sandstone building paper and using the coarse scale track of the time – nominally flexible on fibre sleepers. But I couldn’t fit it all in. So I decided to build my own track using Peco ‘Individualay’ – bull head track using little cast lead chairs again on fibre sleepers – fiddly indeed. This was O.K. until I shifted the layout to my new home near Leeds. It was carried on a roof rack on an old Ford Popular in the most ferocious windy and wet weather. The protection blew off early in the journey, so it was with some surprise that we found that the layout was dry on arrival – dried by the wind! The few miles up the then new A1(M) was a bit hairy! When it was all set up I found that all was not well, since the fibre sleepers had shrunk and the gauge was now 15.5mm! So the lot was re-laid again, this time using ‘Scaleway’ bull head track, with their points, built from kits (with one exception – a curved point built with copperclad sleepers to fit the site). The fiddle yard had to be re-modelled to fit the new home, but that was back in 1966. Since then the layout has hardly been altered and was exhibited extensively at shows in Lincolnshire and East Anglia.
After four house moves it has now found a home in my loft. I had to dismantle it for some building work some years ago and sadly one of the boards got dropped during the re-erection. It lay more or less abandoned for about 10 years; but I finally decided to put it back together, and apart from having to replace one of the point operating wires, it actually worked. And there it is today.
The signals are mainly Ratio kits and they are workable manually from the underside of the layout. The points are operated by wire in tube (Mercontrol), with handmade working cranks. In the sidings, the hand lever operates the points. As stated, the buildings are cardboard kits and the station platforms are made of balsa wood. The scenery – originally papier maché on wire mesh, is now formed from old egg boxes and polystyrene.
The rolling stock is mostly kits or modified models, including a 14xx 0-4-2T and a Dean Goods from K’s and a Wills ‘Metro’ 2-4-0 tank engine. There is also a CCW Auto trailer with a wooden body. Screw and three link couplings have been used for most of its life, but latterly some Bachmann type couplings have crept in as other more modern stock has been tried out – but the layout doesn’t get much use these days as befits one that is more than sixty years old.
In days of old, ballasting was rather rudimentary on country branch lines – often a mixture of clinker, ash and old ballast recovered from main line track renewals. The sleepers stood well proud of the ballast. So with very thin sleepers, I have laid my track on top of the ballast.
The layout is portable. The boards are joined using hinges with separated pins and there are short joining pieces of track over the joints. These are visible in one of the pictures.
A note about the road vehicles.
The double deck bus in photo 1 is a Dinky Toys model of pre war origin. It has been cut down to Low-bridge height, as befits a Western National bus of this type. There is also an old style Western National single decker. The coal lorry in photo 3 is built from two Airfix models from their RAF Emergency set – the chassis and bonnet from the ambulance and the cab from the fire tender. The flatbed is built from Plasticard. The coal merchant is Thos Cobbley and Sons of Farlacombe – in gold lettering on the lorry doors. The lorry has a correct Devon number and also sports a ringed 20 plate on the rear. I don’t suppose many today remember that in the 1940’s commercial vehicles were limited to 20mph! The Thornycroft GWR parcels delivery van is the well known Merit kit. Coal and milk are delivered by horsepower. |