4mm Blodwell Junction (Shropshire) - Cambrian Railways/GWR/BR

[Barry37]

This is my first 4mm scale layout since I was about 14, which is the best part of a long time ago.
Blodwell Junction, despite its name, wasn't actually a junction for most of its life. It was on the Tanat Valley Light Railway, a branch off the Oswestry to Welshpool line. However it started life as a station on the Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway ("The Potts"), which curved in from the southwest, then northeast to Nantmawr Quarry. This opened in 1866. The TVLR itself, opened in 1904, running west from Llynclys to Nantmawr Jct., then through Blodwell and up the Tanat Valley to Llangynog (about 13 miles from Blodwell).
The other line at Blodwell, the old "Potts" route came from the branch to Llanfyllin. In reality, this line turned back to the east (towards Shrewsbury, eventually), but to run more trains on the layout, trains to Llanfyllin on the layout will pass through Blodwell.
The length of our loft did not permit including the junction for Nantmawr Quarry, from which stone & lime trains ran to Blodwell to run round (they'll come from the fiddle yard. I think the scale length of the loop in the station is about 200mm short, which will limit how long the stone trains can be.
Anyway, for starters, here's the track plan. The line to Llanfyllin/Llynclys curves round to the back, but from most viewing angles this can't be seen.

 

[PhilH]

A couple of photos I took at Blodwell Junction in 1960 might be of interest.

Cambrian signal on Llangynog line. Note the bracket signal in right distance with Llanymynech arm missing, signal box just beyond.



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A more recent view of the overbridge - taken after the Llangynog line was lifted and a couple of supporting pillars provided. The end of the station platform is in the foreground.

 

[NHY 581]

This is a good build by a friend of mine. Sadly some photos have been lost but jump to last page and work backwards.


Llanyblod - the end of steam in Wales



Rob.

 

[Barry37]

A couple of photos I took at Blodwell Junction in 1960 might be of interest.

View attachment 206515


View attachment 206516

Cambrian signal on Llangynog line. Note the bracket signal in right distance with Llanymynech arm missing, signal box just beyond.


View attachment 206517
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A more recent view of the overbridge - taken after the Llangynog line was lifted and a couple of supporting pillars provided. The end of the station platform is in the foreground.

Thanks.
I have seen those before, though I didn't know when the earlier ones were taken.

 

[Barry37]

This is a good build by a friend of mine. Sadly some photos have been lost but jump to last page and work backwards.


Llanyblod - the end of steam in Wales



Rob.

Thanks for the link. Some nice photos there.
It would have probably been better to have built my station building from thin corrugated sheeting rather than Wills moulded plastic.

 

[Dog Star]

Anyway, for starters, here's the track plan. The line to Llanfyllin/Llynclys curves round to the back, but from most viewing angles this can't be seen.

Thank you.

 

[Barry37]

Blodwell signal box. It's awaiting its nameboard and point rodding.
Wills Brickwork sheet base. The "outer" window frames, door, steps/handrail and ridge tiles are 3D printed. "Inner" window frames, fascia boards and slates were done on a Klic'n'cut Zing Orbit cutting machine.
Slates were cut as strips in thin plasticard, which was a mistake, as the removable roof structure distorted when the solvent dried. This also happened on the station house. The other two buildings with slates have thin card instead.

Plain track on the layout is a mixture of SMP Scaleway (which I'd in stock for years) and Peco Bullhead. Points on the middle (station) and left(junction)baseboards have 3D printed sleepers, and S4 Society chairs, except for the two single blade catch points. These have 3D printed sleepers and chairs.
The curved point leading to the tiny goods yard and its catch point also have 3D printed chairs and sleepers. Points are operated by brass rod from levers (kind of)/slide switches. The switches change the frog polarity, and current to one point blade via the pins that move the blades.

The two, as yet unbuilt, fiddle yards will have sidings with flat-bottom rail on 3D printed sleepers (wider apart than scale spacing). The rails are "conductor rail" inherited from my brother, Colin.
Making the fiddle yards is waiting until I've repositioned the access to the loft, as the current ladder/door is at one end where a fiddle yard should be.

 

[Spanielman]

Very interesting as this was a project I was keen on building, but space was the problem. With a squeeze could have modelled from the bridge to just after the lines diverged. Instead am modelling Easthope halt on the long gone Wellington, Much Wenlock to Craven Arms branch.

 

[Barry37]

Very interesting as this was a project I was keen on building, but space was the problem. With a squeeze could have modelled from the bridge to just after the lines diverged. Instead am modelling Easthope halt on the long gone Wellington, Much Wenlock to Craven Arms branch.

If you'd modelled that part, it could have kept the character of the station location. The goods yard, such as it is, doesn't add a great deal operationally, but including that allows for a few more buildings. Even if some of them are only sheds.
I had hoped to include the Nantmawr junction on my layout, but that would have meant having a baseboard that could only be used if the layout went out to an exhibition. It would also have made the photo backscene difficult to arrange.
I've just had a read of the Roger Farnsworth articles about the Much Wenlock line. His most recent one has got as far as Presthope, so nearly to Easthope. There seems to have quite a lot of stone traffic from the numerous quarries.
Here's a view of my layout looking from above the bridge. One of the baseboard joints follows the line of the hedge. Point rodding is still to be done along the platform edge - and signal wires on the opposite side.

 

[Phil O]

Nice work, I particularly like the fact that you have fitted the trap points.

 

[Marc Dobson]

Looks very nice.

 

[Barry37]

Nice work, I particularly like the fact that you have fitted the trap points.

Thanks. The one at the further end probably wasn't there when this photo was taken. That end of the loop either escaped the attention of photographers, or a train was in the way. It was only when doing point rodding, that I realised there was another trap point, because of the number of rods.
It seems that wagons to be collected were left in the loop, so stopping them running onto the mainline, may have been needed!
It may have been possible to roll a wagon out of the goods yard siding (it was higher than the running line), then down into the loop. From the photos taken when flooded, the gradient could well have assisted this.

 

[Spanielman]

If you'd modelled that part, it could have kept the character of the station location. The goods yard, such as it is, doesn't add a great deal operationally, but including that allows for a few more buildings. Even if some of them are only sheds.
I had hoped to include the Nantmawr junction on my layout, but that would have meant having a baseboard that could only be used if the layout went out to an exhibition. It would also have made the photo backscene difficult to arrange.
I've just had a read of the Roger Farnsworth articles about the Much Wenlock line. His most recent one has got as far as Presthope, so nearly to Easthope. There seems to have quite a lot of stone traffic from the numerous quarries.
Here's a view of my layout looking from above the bridge. One of the baseboard joints follows the line of the hedge. Point rodding is still to be done along the platform edge - and signal wires on the opposite side.

View attachment 206747

Captulres the scene very well. Have spent a lot of my working life on farm calls up the Tanat Valley,

 

[LarryG]

The patchwork tar platform surface is well captured. It's a lovely part of the country. I started out modelling Llanfyllin, but any resemblance today is purely coincidental...

 

[Barry37]

The patchwork tar platform surface is well captured. It's a lovely part of the country. I started out modelling Llanfyllin, but any resemblance today is purely coincidental...

Thanks. A bit more went on at Llanfyllin, but would have needed a wider baseboard than Blodwell to model it properly.
It was done some time ago, but is probably some sort of fine brown sand being sold by someone with a layout at a ScaleForum show, then over painted.
The platform base is seven 3D printed sections solvent-welded together, and stuck to a plasticard base. This then had the fences and "flowerbeds" etc. added away from the baseboard.
For those who don't know the area, this is looking west(ish) from the road bridge. The station was to the left.

 

[Barry37]

Here's a couple of older Streetview pictures, when leaves didn't get in the way. The line ran on the right of the hedge in the picture, and the platform/station building was next to the bridge
This was the junction - Llanfyllin/Llanymynech to Llynclys on the left, and Llangynog on the right. There was supposed to be a chord between the two lines, and there seems to be earthworks visible, if you're expecting them to be there. Track was probably never laid though.
On my layout the "hill" between the two lines is higher than the real one, as it has to form a cutting for the left-hand line, and hide the change of direction.

 

[Barry37]

This is looking east from the bridge. rails from Oswestry run as far as the bridge, and assorted rolling stock is visible in the loop installed in 1985. Ballast trains only ran after that until 1988.
One day, trains may run into Blodwell station again, although the bridge currently has two brick piers that strengthen it, blocking the line.
The goods yard was here - from the pile of wood to roughly where the diesel shunter is.

 

[Barry37]

Here's an overhead view of the goods yard baseboard being landscaped.
The house is the only large building on the layout, apart from the station building.
Unfortunately, the goods yard doesn't seem to have attracted the attention of photographers, apart from one photo taken after the weighbridge and cattle dock had gone.
The 25in. OS sheet covering the station isn't held by the National Library of Scotland, so the goods yard structures have been arranged to suit the space available.
The scenery base under the grass mat, is a mixture of honeycomb packaging from IKEA kitchen units, home-made honeycomb from cut up cartons, and expanded polystyrene. This was all stuck together with PVA glue.
Most of the grass mat has been covered with static grass applied with a device made from a fly-killer and a small metal sieve.

 

[Barry37]

Ventured up to the loft to take photos this afternoon. A tad cold.
Cold enough for one of the platform joints to have separated. It may have happened a while ago, as there's been a train standing in front of the platform for some time.


This is the "station house", and bridge. Someone who photographed it fairly recently (2017), claimed to have been told by the owner that it "was built after the railway closed" (and had been a coal merchant's house). As it appears in the background of photos said to be 1948, that seems unlikely. There's an ill-defined shape on older maps, but they're not good enough to confirm that it's this house. My opinion is that its style makes the building date around 1900, give or take 20 years.
These items in the photo were 3D printed: ridge tiles, windows/door, rustic fence and wheelbarrow, plus the bridge sides. The bridge deck was, too, but it's not exactly visible.
The house needs to have guttering added, and some weathering.

 

[Barry37]

This is the last of the construction photos (2019) - I should have taken more.
The bright green grass mat came from AliExpress, which has since been static-grassed. The station and junction baseboards were rescued from the loft when clearing out my parents' house. They have previously been used for my brother's OO layout, then a Hornby O gauge tinplate circuit of my father's.
They are both 12mm chipboard. The goods yard board has a 6mm plywood top, and is rather lighter.