Scaleforum 2009 - Bodmin - North London Group
The prototype is unusual in that it was originally built as a branch from Bodmin Road in 1887: The following year a second
line was built from Bodmin to Boscarne on the LSWR, over which the GWR obtained running powers as far as Wadebridge. The
GWR always treated the two lines as a single continuous branch, so that trains always had to reverse at Bodmin in order
to complete their journey. As you look at the model, the line nearest to you is the original one from Bodmin Road; the one
furthest from you is the 'branch off a branch' to Boscarne and Wadebridge.
It was extraordinarily busy for a branch line, and kept three locomotives and two sets of passenger stock hard at work all
day. Over 40 trains appear in the timetable for the period between the two world wars and, as a large proportion ran through there were some 60 or so arrivals and departures each day; for this reason, in each session we show only a representative part of the day's workings. Another feature of traffic at Bodmin was the carriage of china clay from the Boscarne direction to Bodmin
Road en-route to Par or Fowey for shipment by sea, with the balancing working of empty wagons in the opposite direction.
The ruling gradient on the line was 1 in 40 up from Bodmin Road, so that only locomotives with small (4' 7½") driving
wheels were normally used, and always chimney first to Bodmin - a little modeller's licence has, however, been allowed in
choice of motive power.
The layout is modelled exactly to scale in all respects, and is as accurate as skills allow. Techniques were described at length
in the now-defunct Model Railway Constructor.
