Fun and games at Burnham

[John Palmer]

After enjoying a splendid day out at Railwells on Saturday, most of the membership of our small group engaged in the construction of Burnham-on-Sea SDJR (1948-53 approx) foregathered chez moi for a day's fun and games playing trains. Fortunately the weather proved sufficiently clement for us to fling wide the doors of my workshop and erect alfresco the two baseboards that cannot be accommodated within the workshop's interior. Occasional spatterings of drizzle were warded off by the awning provided for just this purpose. This was the second trial of the new arrangement that permits the two station control panels to be mounted either on the 'front' or 'rear' face of the basebards, and all agreed that the 'frontal' mounting made for easier operation and reduced risk of damage to the chimney pots with which the buildings at the layout's rear are replete. The S&T Lineman (yours truly) got called out to deal with a block bell failure caused by a permanently 'made' commercial bellpush contact and we had to put up with a recalcitrant drive unit that repeatedly refused to restore the ground frame to its normally locked position, but in all other respects it was 'all systems go'; not bad for a layout that has been 45 years in the making. So, in the hope of sharing some of the entertainment we enjoyed, here are a selection of some of the better shots I captured during the course of the day:

0650 am Passenger to Evercreech Jc.png

Arrival of Up excursion ex Bournemouth West .png

Excursion arrival.png

Excursion crew.png

Burnham Goods shunt.png

PLA.png

0405 pm to Evercreech.png

0605 pm ex Evercreech arrival.png

58051 on Burnham headshunt.png

[Tim V]

Looks like I missed a good day.

[John Palmer]

Looks like I missed a good day.

Yes, Tim, look forward to getting you down here for a session if we can seduce you away from the Talli... Tally... Talith... that unspellable place in Wales with a rather nice little railway. Perhaps midweek in October?

[essdee]

Wonderful pics, John - all looking good!

What's your ballast source, please; that looks particularly appropriate? I have just today laid the first pair of turnouts at Braysdown screens; the remainder of the screens trackwork will now follow on, and then I commence the mainline turnouts (six LSWR 'B7-equivalent') - so ballast is rising up the agenda. The colliery sidings will be mostly free of such high quality stuff!

All best,

Steve D.

[John Palmer]

Steve, the running line ballast is Woodland Scenics Light Grey Medium (Code B81, I think). This was about the smallest grain size of ballast available at the time we laid it ( I see from the bag that we purchased it from Model Railways Kings Cross for £1.50), and the chip size is a trifle large for 4mm : 1'. Much careful spreading into heavily diluted PVA was therefore necessary to ensure a layer only 1 chip deep, and even so there was a tendency of the ballast to stand proud of the sleepers, as will be apparent from the head-on shot of the excursion drawing into the loop. The end result was acceptable at the time, but you may well do better by sampling the wider range of alternatives now available.

The yard received a layer of finer, brown particles, the remnants of which I have just located in an anonymous plastic bag, so no idea as to its source - possibly W&T? Once past the west end of the trainshed ballast gives way to Polyfilla very lightly tinted with powder paint to represent the lone and level sands stretching far away to the west end stop blocks - an effect I'd previously seen on the Lee-on-Solent layout that greatly impressed me.

Looking forward to further news of Braysdown developments - of course with pictures, please!

[Rdunning]

I remember seeing Burnham at City University sometime last century (!) and admiring its fidelity to prototype. It's come on a treat since then as the photos show.

At the risk of diverting this thread on to other subjects what was the source of the tablet catcher on 44417's tender please John?

I regret that the majority of my fleet sadly lack this SDJR essential apart from a few which have catchers in the form of castings produced by Riceworks a long time ago. I'd dearly love to get hold of quite a few similar fittings to upgrade the rest. I have a fret produced by Ambis for these but haven't attempted assembly as yet. I'm not sure the result would be sufficiently three-dimensional. Any pointers to a source would be welcome.

Richard.

[John Palmer]

Richard, thanks for the kind words - yes, that City University outing is so distant a memory as to accentuate how long has been the gestation period of the Burnham layout, But, like Rome, an eighteen foot long townscape to back the layout isn't built in a day: you have first to establish what form it took and then model it in that form, whatever the constructional difficulties may be. That exercise plods relentlessly on, and I am currently engaged in making the last of the three big buildings/terraces that face the station forecourt, after which there's a terrace of Edwardian shops and what will likely be my magnum opus: a combination of the Pier Hotel, the Reeds Arms Hotel and the mews that link them, occupying a 700mm X 400mm footprint and requiring an even larger carriage box, as illustrated here

Reeds Arms Complex Carriage Box.png

Regarding the Whitaker engine exchanger, the one on 44417 was fashioned from bits of nickel and brass, and is not a straightforward modelling exercise. I have been refining a design for the etched version illustrated here:

Exchanger close-up.png

but am conscious that it is still not quite right, as there is a noticeable gap between the exchanger body and the buffer pad that folds up beneath it. In addition, the 'dogs ears' for the outgoing pouch are a little wider than they should be; I am hoping that one further revision to the design should yield an acceptable result. The mounting for the exchanger illustrated is easy enough to make, as all that is needed is a representation of the height adjuster to which the exchanger body is attached. Another common mounting found on S&D locomotives was a cam and casting arrangement that rotated the exchanger through 90 degrees at the same time as extending the mounting arm to the exchange position, and this too is undergoing trials as a custom etch. If I can surmount the design and assembly problems I may in due course commission a sheet of etched exchangers from which components could be made available to those desiring them - but don't hold your breath!

[Tim V]

The town buildings of Burnham have been an exercise, I threw together some cardboard mock-ups which we tried at Railwells. Once they'd been knocked off a few times, and then thrown under the layout, it was realised that although it was a scale model, no real provision had been made for the town!

Moving the operators to the front of the layout means no damaged buildings from elbows!

[essdee]

Thanks for the ballast ID John - I am fairly certain that is what I had played around with a while back; when sieved, the slightly finer product was still 'hefty' - 2mm material looks to be next to try.

A single pic here, given there is not yet a lot to look at, but Tim's post above gives me a neat opportunity to address cardboard mock-ups at the same time? In the distance, 'one I made earlier', last year when I was trying out the Braysdown concept. Chris Handley in the SDRT 'Pines' Journal had published an invaluable article based on engineering drawings for a revision of Braysdown screens, which enabled a classic cereal box and selotape mock-up. As I say, long ways to go yet............................ but this basic lump has greatly informed how I make selective compression of the siding lengths. The track plan is otherwise as prototype.

Keep up the inspirational work, that sand-drifted buffer stop trackage is such a lovely signature feature for Burnham. A location far from my S&D focus, but it's where Dad finished his teaching career...

All best,

Steve

[John Palmer]

Steve, that one picture well and truly whets the appetite. I am keenly anticipating further developments of the Braysdown and Writhlington model, and yes, the track layout on the Braysdown side as revised by Beauchamp is readily apparent. The topography is going to be very interesting indeed with its gradients and variations in level in all the various tracks. Now that the gravity working arrangements for Braysdown have revealed themselves, hope you won't have to elevate its west end headshunt any more, as I guess the height level of the nearest track must already be approaching that of your hinge's centre line. Incidentally, that hinge appears to be located under Writhlington batch, which presumably will have to be represented as a lift-off scenic feature for when you want to pivot the hinged section!