Cream of Cornish: Clay based cameo…

This is the third time I've recently sat and sketched a layout plan based upon the Cornish china clay industry and it's railways, those previous schemes even made their way into the book! What is it about the cream of Cornish and the trains that have enabled its extraction that so greatly appeals to me?

50149 at Drinnick, 21st October 1988. Photo: Nathan (https://flic.kr/p/2mRy6FE)

Yes evocative photos (above) and John Vaughan books, but more than that. These trains weren't your run of the mill freight, no... for the young modeller I was drawn to photos of the bright sky blue hoods of the china clay trains of the 1970s and to the unique bright white modern Clay Tigers appearing in magazines. Today, it is to the longevity of the CDA fleet still in use and add to the mix old and interesting classes such as the Beattie well tanks and 1366 Panniers on the Wadebridge branch in the 50/60s, the NBL Type 2 diesel hydraulics on clay throughout the 60s to the unique 50149 in the late 80s when British Rail toyed with modifying the tired 2700hp WCML thoroughbreds for freight duty in the Duchy... there is just too much for the enthusiast and modeller who loves to create unique locomotives and stock that is special about clay.

It was a David Mitchell photo of the low level of Drinnick Mill (see illustration) taken from the Parkandillick branch that drove this scheme. So full of character, this photograph's view along the tracks disguises the length of the real scene and somehow my eyes saw the possibility of a cropped caricature where horizontal distance is compressed whilst verticals remain true to scale. In OO this could end up quite tight but by using just an 08 and focusing on shorter wagons (the CDA, perhaps the Ponts Mill PRAs) on clay and a 2-axle tank wagon or HEA on the fuel siding, with bagged clay exported in VDAs. All of these available ready to run and would allow you to capture the scene in a relatively short timescale. Operationally this is very much a shunting layout, switching loads and empties as required - auto coupling would be great, the self contained cameo style working best with hands off operation when possible. I'm really excited by the balance in this scheme. The visual of both 'ends' is equal, the 'view block' over bridge even has a branchline on it. In between the mix of buried track and visible bullhead would be really attractive and even better Peco have just released the medium radius bullhead turnouts which would make the whole thing even easier to squeeze onto my IKEA Lack shelf... I thought I'd share my energy with Chris...

Sketch by Chris Mears (https://princestreet.wordpress.com)

I was playing with this and wondered about shifting the aperture to the right of your focus to include the head-shunt into the coal yard and push the clay loading building off stage. I’d suggest a two wagon long traverser behind the sky with at least two tracks on it so you can shunt a pile of different wagons into “there” without modelling it or losing sight of the engine working the clay sidings.

As usual, our transatlantic conversation got me thinking - this looked an interesting build, but from a purest 'scenic' sense I couldn't see the benefit...

I think my biggest “gain” is that the engine and where it works remains in scene. I imagine the wagon positions at the clay dries are really all the same so working them is just shove in-drag out. As there’s less happening here I moved that into the wings to draw the narrative closer to the centre of the stage.

Another is how in reality I’d want to visit and see the engine that works here. I’d want to watch the engine at work. “Which is like how we’d watch the real thing” translated into our model work. Our attention concentrated onto the engine and the wagons it touches. The train is longer but it comes from and is shoved back into a place beyond the peripheral of our attention.

Chris nails something here - when we design a small layout we need to consider what is our focus - are we driven by recreating lead actors (our favourite locomotive) or perhaps specific items of rolling stock. It could equally be the location itself, or perhaps a key structure. Understanding what we're driven by will help us frame the scheme. My initial sketch assumes the character of a clay works is the stage, and I'm modelling the stage... the stock being just a supporting role. Flip things, and make the humble 08 the lead, and shifting the track all right, and adding the headshunt to the fuel spur, and as Chris says, our actor is on stage more of the time. This balance on a large layout needn't  be considered, but when space is at a premium a minor re-framing of the same layout can make a big difference to it's success. Well worth considering, as I did recently with Paxton Road. 

The conversation with Chris also had me wondering about the same scheme in N - not compressing the size (approximately 1m x 25cm), but I thought that by using N the lead could be included without loosing the essential balance of structures and overgrown spaces...

This is the best kind of paradox, this almost meditative state of layout contemplation.

This is a first for me, genuinely wondering if I should build this in N! Until recently N has been an afterthought, focusing most comfortably in 4mm scale, but this personal reflection perhaps doesn't belong here - and I stand my initial composition as offering a wonderfully characterful portrayal of a small clay works, a true model railway rather than a model of a railway, a blank canvas for your clay orientated models - be they Heljan 1366 Pannier or Kernow Beattie and some hoods, or more modern operations, or perhaps all of the above - the beauty of the cameo 'stage' is that all of this is possible. I would love to hear what you think, and how you might build it? Until next time, more soon...