Hilton and Mears in North Devon…

The crooked finger of the withered arm, the LSWR Torrington branch and thence the North Devon and Cornwall Junction light railway route south to Meeth saw service until the autumn of 1982 when a series of ASLEF strikes saw ECC make the final switch to road haulage and the last traffic on the branch vanished...

A North British Type 2 waiting at the home signal at Torrington station, heading 'north' with loaded clay from Marland and Meeth having just passed over Torrington viaduct in 1968. Photo from 'Runtheredline' on Flickr, photographer unknown (https://flic.kr/p/7Rp3CU).

Of course the story of the twilight years of the line are more complicated than that... a fragment of a lightly built branchline that saw just milk, fertiliser and clay after passenger service was withdrawn beyond Barnstaple in the 1965. British Rail's understandable reticence for investment saw first the quay at Fremington fall into disuse around 1969 (previously a busy destination for clay exports from both Meeth and Marland as well as coal imports) due to the steam cranes being worn out. Milk lasted until the end of milk by rail on the Southern Region in 1978. The short-lived fertiliser trains to the ICI distribution depot built in 1975 at Torrington station on the site of the former goods shed saw 12t vanfits* from 1976 to ICI's departure from rail distribution in 1980. The infrastructure of the branch needed investment, it's light weight nature meant only Type 2s were permitted and as Speedlink marched forwards in the early 1980s Devon and Cornwall's fleets of vacuum fitted wooden bodied clay wagons felt like an anachronism... despite showing HAA and HEA wagons to the clay companies, and ECC even building a new transhipment shed at Meeth, the section 8** grant which would have allowed the purchase of PBA or similar modern wagons for the traffic never came, the strike being the final blow and the line closed.

*apparently due to fertiliser being shipped in bags. If any toppled in transit they would rest against the van sides making it difficult or impossible to open the sliding doors on a van wide.

**section 8 grants were available to part fund improvements to rail infrastructure and to provide suitable modern rolling stock as part of the Railways Act of 1974.

I sure like this "crooked finger" because of the imagery. The sum of our experiences lives in the way they shape our bodies. Our hands, worn from work, exhibit the evidence of what they've done. A finger tracing a line through the land along a path worn by our journey. The railway follows alongside us and it changes as we change. Companionship in a way that relates us by what comes next.

I've found my recent N gauge adventure has led me to explore the clay lines of Devon and Cornwall and it was a photo (reproduced above) along with similar later period images with even shorter trains hauled by 25s and finally 31s that encouraged me to dig out my Michael Messenger book on North Devon Clay and begin to scour the internet for as much information as I could find on this fascinating remnant, surviving so late and then lost. From inspirational photographs to contemplation about how the character of the line could be modelled leading to conversation with my good friend Chris. 

Marland scheme, illustration James Hilton

I’m drawn to Marland, and Michael's book provides a track plan from 1960 and a good feel for the prototype, considering this initially as a OO shelf cameo in my usual footprint. Torrington viaduct, the subject of so many of those inspiring photos is such a modellable structure yet the cameo provides no space for including this in an operational shelf. I remember one of Chris's previous 'concepts', the overlap. Now here is the potential to re-cast Marland as front and centre, with the bulk of the layouts depth allowing a spacious recreation of loading facilities and a thin 'extension',  scenic along its full length provides a length of run for the train, and a second focal point, the viaduct itself, all with N scale in mind. 

In my sketching around the Overlap lately I’ve been exploring the use of dense scenic elements instead of the original backdrop. I spent some time playing around with this scene and this is what I think I’d be tempted to do (“the full overlap”).

Full overlap, illustration Chris Mears

End elevation of full overlap, illustration Chris Mears

The bridge scene is the entire back length of the layout. It’s not really visible from the front because of a dense central divider of thick trees and woods that acts as a back scene and scenic divider. Train enters from staging at left and runs across the back of the scene. If sound equipped we can “hear it in the valleys as it approaches” but we really can’t see it.

The sector plate connects back to front and our train is swung from back scene into front scene where it shoves backward into the clay works just like it does in the Cornish Shelf layout from your book. At an exhibition you could set it up to encourage people to walk around the layout and see both sides. At home you could alternate which side is out to appreciate the rich visual presentation each distinct side offers.

As mentioned the bridge scene is quite a long bridge. Its backdrop is just that central divide of thick woods. Some of the clay works on the other side is vaguely visible so detail on the slightly visible backs of those buildings should be very muted so they render a soft silhouette but nothing more. In this way the 'Overlap' ethos is observed because the scenes interact with each other but you have to face each to really appreciate them.

I feel that I’m beginning to understand this latest 'overlap' thinking and in it I recognise the same concept as my original box layouts (Kisten Torfwerk (009), Creech Grange (006.5) and latest Canal Street Wharf (006.5)). In these small scale narrow gauges it is possible to produce a continuous run 'overlap' by wrapping the track into a loop you can have many scenes with a scenic central divide rather than a backscene, you decide what to look at by how you unpack the layout from the box. However, until now it hasn’t occurred to me that this might be possible with a more traditional shelf layout. How do these overlaps work in a home? Are they on a centre counter in the room or against the wall? what height are they displayed? It’s all fascinating!

This layout would still just live on a shelf like any other wall-mounted shelf layout would. This is kind of a blessing if the viaduct scene is hard to figure out because it needn’t be finished. The idea is that the “more operating value” face is left out for “instant on” operations. 

Once both scenes are further along the layout could be rotated to alternate which side is out. It might also be worth thinking of this as a layout in a public space in the home where the viaduct side was more visually appealing than the cement works might be. Such that between operating sessions the viaduct side is left outward and a shuttle could be run (DMU?) to run autonomously through the day. 

I don’t think it needs to be wider but would benefit from being displayed taller/higher from the floor. I envision the layout set so your eyeline is about at the roofline of the model buildings.

Touching on the subject of fitting such a layout into the home, it strikes me that it would need to be situated in such a way that there was space to 'plug in' the sector plates / traverser, however it's only shallow so we're perhaps thinking of a corridor, or the space behind the dining table along a wall? The added advantage here is we've almost got two layouts in one...

Kinross, displayed at eye level with 'operational' extensions in place. Photo James Hilton

The way you describe the presentation reminds me of my own Kinross (H0), displayed at eye level with a set of fiddlesticks that can be added for operation. Unlike Kinross, the extra depth required to fit the works, and the bridge behind would mean we're saying that in this space this is only feasible in N.

PiCement overlap, illustration Chris Mears

A second scheme, here again the mainline engine shoves its train into a cement works and this engine is then moved out of the way. Meanwhile PiCement’s ex-BR cl.08 trundles out of their shed and hooks onto the train to start working wagons through the plant. When done they clear the exchange siding (main) and BR’s cl.47 rolls down to the end of track. PiCement pushes the train onto the 47 and retreats back into the shed for a rest and, once clear, BR pushes back out of the scene for a return trip back home. In N, 32” for the scenic section flanked by two 12-15” staging areas (one traverser or cassette at one end and the sector plate at the other).  

I love this Chris! Let me share a scheme for another part of the Torrington branch, Fremington Quay, in its hey day a bustling location with coastal shipping calling at the small quayside to unload coal and load clay. After the cessation of passenger services in 1965 the station closed, but remained in situ. The steam cranes were condemned in 1969 at which point boats ceased to call, but the weighbridge was still used by the clay trains. They ran into the quayside yard and backed each truck over the scales before continuing to Barnstaple. 

Fremington Quay scheme, illustration James Hilton

If I consider the location we again have the operational interest (the quay) combined with a bridge! To contrast the two approaches we’re discussing I've sketched up a traditional cameo (although larger than my usual footprint, even in N) where the bridge is compressed and not the focal point it could be... and a second option, enter the 'full overlap' and here, perhaps bravely, there is no scene separation - rather the bridge forms one side, the quay the other, sharing the same body of water.

While I’m still contemplating the practical ideas of this it addresses the composition issues the traditional Overlap option forces us into. The bridge is this beautiful meandering thing. It’s front stage, centre. Over on the other side is the quay. Again, length here is perhaps more than our five wagons and an engine need as a practical dimension but this extra siding length is itself a detail. Longer flowing sidings as the memory of longer trains so underscoring the changing nature of this station. The short trains a stark reminder of the reduced need for the station at all.

Fremington inside out, illustration by James Hilton

Chris, I love that! 'Short trains in longer sidings as that additional visual reminder of glory days long past'. In this form though it's perhaps too conceptual, turning it inside out puts Fremington in the same box as your ideas on PiCement and the clay works, where the 'full overlap' is visually separated by a central spine of scenery, tall enough to hide the trains but low enough to suggest there is more beyond. Whereas you were sketching shelf layouts, I think I have inadvertently created something more centred to a space, be that a dedicated hobby room, part of a modern open plan living area or a fascinating take on the exhibition layout. For me personally though, as a convex layout, it’s a lovely concept but has no home… it would not fit in my space, or at a traditional exhibition. 

Unpacking these previous plans into this one-sided “full frontal” option would rely on wrapping a dense growth of trees and foliage around the works to frame that scene and distinguish it from the viaduct. I like this approach because I feel it entices a viewer to at least want to lean into the scene to follow the train’s quasi-departure from the back scene. Trains still move from staging on the left through a sector plate on the right to move between back scene and front scene.

Clay works scheme, illustration Chris Mears

You know Chris, we’ve come full circle - the full overlap as a shelf layout you passionately describe connects right back to my first thought on how to frame Marland. 

What I think all these ideas have in common is our desire to re-cast the model railway in a more contemporary form that blends the requirements of a layout in our home space with the artistic interpretation of representing the prototype in miniature. Whilst the prototypes we’ve shared are largely specific examples in north Devon, the thinking and concepts are valid and perhaps you can take them and apply them for yourself. Chris and I would love to hear what you come up with next. Although a traditional Hilton and Mears, if you’d like to read more of our blog-casts then take a look using the ‘label’ or the list below. Until next time more soon…

Hilton and Mears ‘blog casts’ are a series of discussions on various more emotional elements of our hobby:

1 - Feels like Driven not Pushed

2 - Complete or Finished

3 - Function instead of Form

4 - Capturing a moment

5 - The art of model railways

Chris has helped author a number of posts here, labelled 'hiltonandmears'

He has also contributed to a number of my rambles, labelled 'chris Mears'