A quart into a pint pot: The Looe branch…

I’ve recently enjoyed a few days away in Scotland with the company of family and a good book, the Gerry Beale ‘Liskeard and Looe branch’ by Wild Swan…

Looe station 1981, Mike Flutty photo, Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/q9aCWm)

The branch is another I’ve always been aware of from borrowed library books as a child but it’s idiosyncratic reverse at Coombe Junction and lack of freight variety meant that somehow it just slipped under my radar. It was the energy and excitement for the line from Chris in recent months that led to the book purchase and it was all that which fuelled what follows. 

Things started innocently enough but by the end of the holiday I was searching for Bachmann or Dapol 121s in either N or OO. You see, a layout needs a home, and Pont-y-dulais feels like it has run it’s course and needs replacing. The realisation that I would soon have another ‘shelf’ available put pencil to paper, literally as I was trying to remain non digital, and I ‘unwrapped’ the branch to think about how it might fit in a home environment (unwrapping is a process where you place yourself in the drivers seat and just sketch what’s in front of you, ignoring curves, rather seeing it all as lines in the moment). The thinking was if you focused on the key elements the scheme could then be re-wrapped to whatever space you had available, if that was a double garage, superb, but if not then how could successive selective compression still capture the character of this unique railway?

Illustration and design James Hilton 2022.

A very brief note on prototype history, as it explains what we have here… built in several sections starting in the 19th century initially from just Coombe Junction north to various quarries to join a canal that had been built from Looe. Later the canal was turned into a railway, later still a branch to the GWR was opened gaining over 200ft of height in just 2 miles via a circuitous route meaning freight trains could run straight through to the quarries and dries at Moorswater but passenger trains all reversed at Coombe for Looe. 

St Keyne, Looe Branch 2018. John Whitehouse photo, Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/Nb7MDJ)

What you see in this scheme above then shows that by choosing to overlap Moorswater and Coombe Junction there is potential to squeeze ‘a quart into a pint pot’ and have a micro layout that still feels like the character of this Cornish back water. In OO very much a caricature with reduced footprints for buildings yet retaining scale heights (the idea of ‘stretching the vertical’ is an approach Egger Bahn took in the 1960s, the result is cute, a caricature and still recognisable). In N the plan can breathe a little, and feels less cramped yet still has the same key elements that feel important in this setting.

Moorswater dries post clay, with cement distribution now the name of the game, circa 2002. Photo Nathan, Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/dB24hG)

The lesson I’d like to emphasise here is that model railway design is a balance between many challenges, space, time and money. When I sketched ideas to begin with I had no space in mind and unwrapping the prototype was a great tool to understand how it might work in model form. Once a ‘home’ was identified  I could work through iterations of compression to create a workable scheme. This isn’t always possible, it is the prototype with it’s short one coach passenger trains and short wheel base freight stock that allows this where others would not. It is the marriage of space and prototype which forms an important link in the design process, and then follows a choice of scale and presentation to fit the style and nature of what you’re trying to represent. 

If you’ve enjoyed this rambling, and are interested in learning more, my book ‘Small Layout Design Handbook’ will shortly be published by Wild Swan and available from me, Titfield, Light Railway Stores and other good railway bookshops. I also offer a layout design service starting from just £160. Do get in touch if you’re interested, and keep your eyes peeled for the book. Until next time, more soon…

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