The Burnbake and Woodyhyde Railway

[MickT]

Excellent David! Great to see you are managing to be productive, unlike myself at the moment!

Mick

[Julian Evison]

David,

Your photo "'Corfe' runs down towards the mine to collect another rake of loaded skips" is a delightful composition and has a great feeling of space. Super modelling.

Julian

[MickT]

David,

Your photo "'Corfe' runs down towards the mine to collect another rake of loaded skips" is a delightful composition and has a great feeling of space. Super modelling.

Julian

Very much agreed, except I think the loco in the photo is Creech rather than Corfe. (Corfe is the 0-6-0 Barclay isn't it/he/she?)

Mick

[clayliner]

Agreed - 'Creech' it is. Error duly corrected. (Fortunately no-one seems to have noticed the guy lying beside the track in the distance... I am sure he was upright when I started!)

I don't know about productive, Mick, but you've no idea how much effort has to be mustered even to take a few photos! I'm pleased that people approve of the results.

David.

[clayliner]

Looking for something back in the early days of this thread I noticed that none of the photo links appear to be working - up to page 8. As I also noted on the last day of 2019 some of the text in my posts has also disappeared (marked by the fact that my name has disappeared at the end of the affected posts)... and it looks as though the post numbers have also gone, presumably also due to the recent forum re-vamp. Has anyone else had similar problems with their threads?

I will try and work through the early pages and re-insert the photo links from Flickr. Minor Grrrr!

David.

[Hugh Norwood]

I have noticed something similar but not to do with images; I thought it may have been that during the transfer, something parsed the posts and terminated any that had some character in them that was taken as an end-of-post marker.

[clayliner]

Back on pages 12 and 13 the mine stage appeared, with some brief comments and explanation. My attention has recently been drawn back to it and I thought I'd share a few additional thoughts which may be of interest to some.

As I said then, the construction was very simple, basically a card mock-up which was then added to to create the finished product. It stands over one end of the line in a corner between the backscene and a bookcase but to make it slightly less predictable I designed it offset from the corner at a slight angle:

mine


Once the carcass was passed as okay it was then a simple matter to apply corrugated iron to the visible sides, and paint. (I'm afraid I'm not one of those people who tell you "I finished it off with a final coat of Farrow and Ball No. 42 'Elephant's Breath' to the roof – I have a selection of basic paint colours and just mix up the sort of colour I'm after, which is probably what I would still end up doing anyway even if I had a range of a hundred 'authentic' colours to choose from.)

This view shows a bit more detail of the ramp on the model. On this side (the visible side) the cover is slatted. There are slats across the ramp itself to make it easier to walk up – it would have been very slippery when wet with all that clay around. The gauge of the track for the mine tubs is the Purbeck standard 22" and there is a haulage rope down the ramp with rollers.

ramp


The inspiration for all this was the old Aldermoor Mine at Creech. This is a photo of a photo I took of it in November 2001:

Aldermoor


and while the model is not a copy hopefully there is a resemblance. Aldermoor Mine was sunk in 1960 and had been closed a couple of years before I took the photo – another year or two later everything was demolished. The extended cover over the ramp appears to be a later addition as originally it was a much shorter structure, as in the model (you can see the join in the photo above).

This is a close-up view of the ramp at Aldermoor:

mine ramp 


The yellow structure on the ramp of the model is a Manchester gate. This device was to prevent wagons up on the stage inadvertently running away back down the ramp, with potentially disastrous consequences underground. It was hinged so that it opened automatically as loaded tubs were hauled up the ramp and passed through it. Here is the Manchester gate at Aldermoor:

Manchester gate


Another safety device with the same purpose was the Warwick, a pivoted bar between the rails and parallel to them which the tubs would pass over on the way up, but which would snag a tub trying to run back into the mine. It was released by a cable from the operator on the stage when tubs were being lowered back down the mine. (A photo of one appears on p99 of Chris Legg's book on Fayle's Tramway.) I've also read of a system called 'jazz lines' which were zig-zags in the track in a mine which tubs under control would happily negotiate, but out of control ones would be thrown off... understandably, such a system has been described as 'less reliable'.

Finally, the light bulb was created from a dried blob of clear adhesive. Sounds easy, but...

Looking again more closely at the model I can see that there is plenty of scope for more detailing, so maybe something else for a rainy day.

David.

[Julian Evison]

David,

The photos of the real thing are very interesting and neatly transfered in to the model to give the right impression of something rarely shown.

Julian

[clayliner]

After lengthy discussions in the smoke-filled Company office the management have decided that some additional motive power is required on the line to help cope with the recent upturn in traffic. More surprisingly it has been decided to experiment with an internal combustion loco – not just because it's now well into the 20th century or because the management are particularly forward-looking but because neighbouring lines in Purbeck have had some small diesels for a while now and the economics are becoming increasingly persuasive.

Rather than buy outright it was decided to try and acquire a small diesel on loan, and eventually one was found available to try on hire from the Mogden Lane Sewage Works in Twickenham. It's a bit larger than was originally envisaged – an 0-4-0 would probably have done the job well enough – but it will help answer some of the management's questions and maybe point the way for the future. The alternative, of course, is to switch entirely to road transport, but that is not something to contemplate for the immediate future...

Here some of the locals inspect the newcomer with a mixture of interest and suspicion -


                    P1040155a


Although the loco had a good clean (!) before leaving her previous home she has quickly got quite grubby, and in particular has acquired a good coating of china clay which does get everywhere:


                    P1040157a


Back in the real world, a few comments about the inspiration for the new arrival. No doubt many will recognise the loco's true original identity, so the main task was to try and make her as unrecognisable as possible.

Inspiration was two-fold: first, this little loco which just rather appealed:


                    yellow diesel


and then this interesting modification from the Purbeck Mining Museum at Norden:


                    P1010870


First job was to remove the ventilator panel from the cab roof, together with the horn (which will be remounted on the bonnet), and fill the resulting holes. Then I cut out two of the side doors from the engine compartment, one on each side – most little diesels seemed to have run with at least one or two of the inspection covers open, presumably to make life easier for everyone. At this stage the yellow paint was applied from a rattle-can of car colour (Holt's HYE02, as it happens) to give the all-over yellow look.
Then we needed 'proper' buffers – most of  the Purbeck locos had them, as we've noted before – which were made from 1½" iron nails suitably filed and cut down (my standard method).The buffer beams also needed modification, and I rounded off the corners with a small inverted curve. I gingerly cut along one side and the bottom of the cab doors and opened them just as far as the motor inside would allow, which helped to break up the flat sides a little. The 'organ pipes' were predictably tricky, as it meant drilling four holes accurately in a straight line and evenly spaced. This is about the limit of my capabilities but was successfully achieved (more or less, anyway).

At around the half-way stage things looked something like this:


                     P1040146a

- the buffers are yet to be fitted and the exhaust pipes are just loosely pushed in for now.

To help disguise the original a little more I filed the cab back flat and added a simple toolbox. Then some glazing was added in the cab, together with a few gauges (which no-one will ever see, but I know are there). Then the copper exhaust pipes needed to be fixed permanently (tricky – but they look okay, I think). After that it was just a matter of painting the cab roof, weathering and – ta-dah! – re-fitting the horn on the bonnet. I'd thought it would need a final spray of Dullcote but by then it was so grubby all the shine had gone anyway.

David.

[Hugh Norwood]

Are those exhaust pipes? Must be very loud if they are....

[MickT]

Nice one David, I immediately noticed the exhaust pipe mod which gave me a fond reminder of our Wessex NGM day out to the Purbeck museum and playing full size trains taking turns to race the Ruston loco up and down the embankment line!

On a further disguise of its origin, can I suggest that the Roco diesel can be further individualised by filing down the front end and fabricating a new radiator profile with plasticard or if you have one in "spares" a radiator from the Minitrains Gmeinder would go nicely. Also do something with the cab which is a sure giveaway that it is a Roco, such as re-profile the cab sides or add some planked wood "weather protection" to the large cutout perhaps. You should then result in a very individual little loco, as fitting for the B&B railway as your modified Barclay is recognisable but still very different from its original incarnation as "Douglas"

Stay safe and healthy.
Mick

[clayliner]

Are those exhaust pipes? Must be very loud if they are....

I've just had a look/listen at the video again - loud? - no; percussive? - yes (think Cl.37 maybe)

Thanks for the suggestions, Mick. I would have liked to have opened out the front cab windows to change their shape but an insistent voice inside my head kept saying "Know Your Limits"... A rounded cab roof would also be nice, but I think it's moulded in one piece so would need to be sawn off, which again offers too much scope for disaster. I might be able to manage some rolled-up cab side sheeting, though.

The final act which I forgot to mention was to get rid of those red wheels - a sure giveaway that it's something 'continental'!

David.

[Julian Evison]

Are those exhaust pipes? Must be very loud if they are....

Definitely exhaust pipes - and here you can see them in action:



Julian

[clayliner]

Walking home past the railway late last night in the moonlight, after a few pints in the Badgerbaiter's Arms, Old Amos saw this amazing sight:



                                 


He'd heard of the 'Welsh' engine Russell which was working hereabouts but these were something quite different – nothing like he'd ever seen before. Were his eyes playing tricks? Was he seeing double (or even double double)? Had he had a few pints too many?


Next morning they were nowhere to be seen – just the yellow diesel shunting clay skips in the transfer siding, much as normal -



                                           


When Amos told his mates the next day no-one believed him – nobody else had seen what he claimed to have seen and he was the butt of many a joke thereafter!

David.

[clayliner]

The railway has continued to serve the local community through the winter (and there have been no further sightings, real or imaginary, of double Fairlies!) but with the arrival of spring comes a new venture. This piece from The Purbeck Enquirer and Examiner tells the story:

                                     " New Railway Passenger Service

    We have been informed by the Burnbake and Woodyhyde Railway Coy.  that from this week a new Passenger service has been inaugurated between the two communities. We understand that a basic daily service (Sundays excepted) will be provided, circumstances permitting, which may be supplemented on Market days, during School Terms and the summer tourist period if there is sufficient demand.
    For many years the railway has served our locality with the conveyance of Goods &c. and we feel sure that this new service will be a valuable addition to the amentities of the area. We would encourage patronage of this service and wish this new venture every success."

    The railway has been pondering this enterprise for some time and – truth be told – does not entirely share the optimism expressed above in the viability of the service, but has decided to give it a go nonetheless. Two new coaches have been acquired second-hand to supplement the single coach previously owned by the railway, which was pressed into service only on special occasions.


In the first photo the diesel shunter has drawn the coaches out onto the 'main line' in the early morning sunshine:


            



'Arne' has been selected to haul the inaugural service and was decorated appropriately, watched by a number of onlookers (including the boss, in the green jacket):

             



In the third view 'Arne' and her coaches set off for Woodyhyde and (hopefully) her first passengers:

             



David.