Bisley - BR Western Region 1990(ish) EM Gauge

[dj_crisp]

I've read so many great layout build threads on this website I thought I should lower the skill level demonstrated and share mine. I have to admit i do get rather distracted with rolling stock so the layout gets left alone for long periods so I've decided to set up this thread to kind of keep me going!

The layout is set somewhere on the western region roughly in the south west. I like china clay but also have a soft spot for DMUs so the idea is to try and accomodate both.... although I'm not that good at maintaining that discipline as the photos show. When Pugsley, who i think might be a user on here, decided to sell "Bisley Junction" I jumped at the chance as it was about the size i can accomodate and it also had a nice flat bottom crossover. I've kept the name and the crossover hasn't moved but some of the other track has to form a layout plan which is a bit like St Erth so today it looks a bit like below;






The layout is actual in a functioning state and my track building skills provide a good test bed for the stock I hack about with!

I quite like layouts in the dark so hopefully this one will have some atmosphere with a few LEDs. I find looking at my models in the dark also has the added benefitof hiding my modelling mistakes and my imagination can fill in the gaps.... so here's an impression of the timbertracks signal box I built will look in the night when fitted to the layout;



As you can see there's lots to do! If it's of interest I'll describe a few of the buildings and structures I've done over the last few years and hopefully show lots of future progress from the photos above!

Anyhow I hope the thread will be of interest and please do get involved as it'll inspire me to keep going and build less obvious mistakes!

Happy Modelling!
Will

 

[AJC]

Nice - set up as a through station, presumably? I can't remember now whether that was what @Pugsley had in mind now, but it looks good in that form. The Brunel type buildings weren't part of the plan though, but they're rather nice, scratchbuilt?

Adam

 

[dj_crisp]

Nice - set up as a through station, presumably? I can't remember now whether that was what @Pugsley had in mind now, but it looks good in that form. The Brunel type buildings weren't part of the plan though, but they're rather nice, scratchbuilt?

Adam

You're right - it's a through station although at home I'm operating it as a terminus due to space in the garage. Buildings are timbertracks with a few mods... I'll post a bit more about them soon,

cheers
Will

 

[dj_crisp]

As I've mentioned the signal box it might as well describe it a little and include some in progress photos.



Before this model I’ve never really had a crack at buildings so thought I’d try the rather excellent timber tracks kits to get me going. As expected the pieces went together pretty easily although a couple of sides didn’t seem to have a good impression of the bricks so I’ve scribed most of the bricks in the end. At least I had a good guide so this wasn’t a difficult task and good to pass the time during boring online meetings…. Such a shame there was no bandwidth for cameras! I've also tried to hide the edges so scribed on some corners.



It's the first time I've had a go at painting bricks so I followed some good tuition examples on the web and copied a few photos. I painted the mortar first then picked some bricks and then sploshed on a light orangeish colour followed by humbrol brick; then railmatch brick all dry brushed on with a final mix with some brown n brick. I plan on weathering this a bit when it’s settled into the layout.



As the St Erth box is the main inspiration I’ve also added the modern junk of pipes etc to the outside all made from brass bits n pieces and some wire.

The guttering pieces supplied were a bit short and rather than use plastikard I’ve used brass U section, some resistor legs and then soldered. The end is just a dab of solder filed. Probably all grossly over scale and I bet each section is too wide but there are only so many legs I fancy soldering. When painted the guttering was then attached to the side walls as I’ve built the box to allow the roof to lift off as I thought it might be a good idea to have access to the interior and LEDs.




The interior made from two Severn models kits, some scrap brass and some 3d printed stuff found on Ebay. I was trying to create an effect similar to a box in the 1990s which is my main era. I did try to paint the levers to represent what I think should fit with the trackwork but tbh I don’t know what I’m doing and in anycase the formation has sinced changed!





The interior lights are just a few LEDs and resistors.



One interesting conversation I had was with a signalman who spotted my fully illuminated box and mentioned in horror it’ll never be that bright! I shared my photo of St Erth in the dark which surprised him and so I’ve added a second light set up to just illuminate the desk without the main lights being lit. So it’s a two function illuminated box!


The lights themselves are just LEDs with a M2 washer glued on then painted to give an impression of a light.

As with everything on my layout it's not quite finished!



The box has found a new home as I've moved it from it's original position following lifting of a siding that shouldn't really be there. So at least I now see my interior efforts! Next steps for the box is working out point rodding as I plan on fixing the more detailed stuff that leaves the box before final fitting to the layout.

Hopefully these scribbings were of interest!

Will

 

[Joe's Garage]

Certainly Will these scribbings are of much interest as are there lovely atmospheric night photos of the signal box.....love the misty effect.
Keep posting
Thanks Julian

 

[dj_crisp]

Certainly Will these scribbings are of much interest as are there lovely atmospheric night photos of the signal box.....love the misty effect.
Keep posting
Thanks Julian

Thanks Julian. The misty effect is purely accidental by my phone camera. I also quite like it so hopefully will be able to replicate it when the scene becomes more complete!

Cheers
Will

 

[Pugsley]

I am indeed a member over here and will be following with interest, it's all looking really good and the signal box is awesome! I was very pleased with that FB crossover.

Adam - the layout was initially conceived as a truncated through station turned into a terminus.

 

[dj_crisp]

I am indeed a member over here and will be following with interest, it's all looking really good and the signal box is awesome! I was very pleased with that FB crossover.

Adam - the layout was initially conceived as a truncated through station turned into a terminus.

Excellent! I'm really pleased you're on here. The FB crossover is probably my favourite part of the layout! I need to build some facing point locks and then include point rodding when I've worked out roughly what goes where!

 

[dj_crisp]

Well 2025 has surprisingly seen some work completed on the layout!

I've cracked on with the backsceen and created a curve from bendy MDF as well as a bit of a frame from plain ply. With these in place it's allowed me to do some landscape forming as well as fitting my bridge. An in progress shot;


I've used Modroc plaster bandage which is now in the process of being painted



It'll need a second coat, but I think with some strategic trees and some grassland this scene will hopefully work.



The signalman's escape will be behind the box and across the branch tracks which I'll have a crack at making soon.



I think there is also space to suggest some disused sidings or something smiliar as tbh I haven't worked out what will appear along the back of the layout!

So when the paints dry I'll have a bash at a second coat and then start to think about track detailing as I really need to learn about rodding!

 

[Pencarrow]

Nice bridges, can we have some closer shots and more info?

 

[Flaxfield]

Nice bridges, can we have some closer shots and more info?

Spotter..

 

[Pencarrow]

Spotter..

Who me?

 

[Flaxfield]

Who me?

View attachment 232635

Nice Pannier.

 

[Pencarrow]

Nice Pannier.

Just for you.

 

[dj_crisp]

Hi!

Hopefully the following photos help. I just copied a few bridge ideas from "bridges for modellers" and a few photos I took of some round Bodmin.

The build is pretty crude using 2mm ply roughly cut to shape then clad with wills stone sheets and lots of filler. It's surprisingly strong.



The girder section is wills again and I used a while kit by chopping some girders in half.



The elliptical arch is a rough guess so hopefully looks ok and was scribed in plastikard.



The idea was to try to have the overbridges offset slightly and not at right angles to the track..... trying to hide the exit.





It was primed and then sprayed with Halfords Camo light brown. The rest of the colours are acrylics brush painted. I have the road surface to do next which I think I'll just use some card.

Hopefully it all looks OK!

 

[Pencarrow]

Thank you for taking the time to post photos of the bridges. Really good to see a scratch built bridge on the forum. Yes, the structure will be quite robust if you've used the Wills sheets, I've must have used 100s over the years!. Very similar situation to the one I have on Pencarrow but in my case it's a girder bridge over double track and the arch over a single track. I'll also have a retaining wall perpendicular to the outside girder bridge abutment.

If you wanted to add a bit more detail to the girder bridge you could add the girders carrying the road surface. These would be perpendicular to the main bridge girders, and sit on the bottom flange, as per the photo below. Obviously depends on the extent to which you can see the underside of the bridge deck, and if the detail is of interest.



All the best.

 

[dj_crisp]

Thank you for taking the time to post photos of the bridges. Really good to see a scratch built bridge on the forum. Yes, the structure will be quite robust if you've used the Wills sheets, I've must have used 100s over the years!. Very similar situation to the one I have on Pencarrow but in my case it's a girder bridge over double track and the arch over a single track. I'll also have a retaining wall perpendicular to the outside girder bridge abutment.

If you wanted to add a bit more detail to the girder bridge you could add the girders carrying the road surface. These would be perpendicular to the main bridge girders, and sit on the bottom flange, as per the photo below. Obviously depends on the extent to which you can see the underside of the bridge deck, and if the detail is of interest.

View attachment 232677

All the best.

Thanks! Yeah you've caught me short-cutting.

I never got round to fitting the main girder bits but did fit a corrigated sheet to suggest something was going on and would also allow me to fit the girders if i changed my mind. I'm probably never going to fit them as in most views the underside of the bridge is right at the back of the layout and hard to see underneath. Will decide on this when the rest of the layout looks more like a layout.

cheers
Will

 

[dj_crisp]

As the garage is freezing I've had a play with Anyrail to attempt to plan out some signalling and point rodding runs.


I know very little about this signalling malarkey and even less about rodding but the plan above is my best guess (hopefully it expands out ok!).

The station is basically a simple through station with a branch... much like st Erth. One maneuver that I'm planning on (which is probably incorrect) is a freight arriving on the down which uses the crossover to the up platform. Then the loco runs round the freight using the down platform, couples up and then heads off the branch. On return from the branch the loco would run round the same way then depart on the up. So I've added ground signals but again no idea if these are right and I'm wondering if I should use a full signal rather than ground signals for the switch over in front of the signal box.

I also have another freight maneuver from the fertliser depot which i think should arrive on the down and then reverse into the siding. When leaving I guess it might trip further on the down and then return on the up at a later date rather than the loco running round at the station... so i haven't got any signals for this.

Again I'm not sure on the signally of how to enter the sidings opposite the bay. I think where I've placed the double signal for allowing entry to the bay and main up should also have the entry to the sidings?

The red lines are point rodding runs with just the path mapped. I need to learn alot about the finer details! With the signal box in the centre I think it reduces the complexity somewhat and I can have a few sneaking out of the back.

I'm very open to being told about all of my mistakes in the plan!! So if anyone knows western region signalling practices 70s-90s then please do critique!!

Thanks
Will

 

[Phil O]

Will,

I'm no signaling expert, but I think that the link to the branch from the down would probably have been a trailing turnout and a diamond across the up, linking into the branch beyond the up connection. That way there's only one facing turnout, if you really want to push the boat out, make the diamond a single slip into the up main, thus giving a run round loop, without needing to go onto the branch.

 

[dj_crisp]

Will,

I'm no signaling expert, but I think that the link to the branch from the down would probably have been a trailing turnout and a diamond across the up, linking into the branch beyond the up connection. That way there's only one facing turnout, if you really want to push the boat out, make the diamond a single slip into the up main, thus giving a run round loop, without needing to go onto the branch.

Thanks Phil
An interesting thought. I'm kind of stuck with the track formation as it is

Cheers
Will