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The Baloney

By the latter half of the 19th century 'railway mania' was in full swing. Little excuse was needed for enterprising Victorians to create plans to link anything to anywhere. Combwich was to be no exception. Situated not far from the Bristol Channel, this small Somerset town was considered to be an ideal location to develop with the help of a railway. From here it was hoped that the line would extend over the Quantocks to the busy port of Watchet on the rugged north Somerset Coast - this alas never happened due to the huge expense required. History may off course be re written, this will depend on the size of my railway room, forty wagon stone trains over the Quantocks does appeal!

The line from Combwich to Highbridge finally opened in 1874 as a standard gauge line under the ownership of the Combwich & Highbridge Railway Company. On completion, the C&HR was financially exhausted with the construction of the expensive Combwich Swing Bridge over the River Parrett. Fortunately the S&DJR was able to stretch out a helping hand, despite that it was in dire straights itself due to the construction of its 'Bath Extension' over the Mendip Hills. The acquisition of the Combwich line by the S&D would effectively block the GWR from any worthwhile access to the Bristol Channel in this part of north Somerset.

In 1892 a very worthwhile link was placed through to Bridgwater North to link up with the S&D line from Edington Junction. Back in Bristol & Exeter days there was a plan to build a line to Combwich that never came to fruition. The 'Crab Line', as it was locally nicknamed, plodded along for a several years serving Combwich Brickworks, several basket-making factories in addition to local goods and passenger traffic. A line to a nearby wharf on the Parrett served the small amount of shipping traffic generated by the Bristol Channel. The shipping traffic never really became the big profit-making feature that was hoped the larger docks at Portishead and Bristol took most of this traffic away. The highly prized and very sought after 'Combwich Crab', however, generated just enough profit the justify retaining the rails to the wharf. - hence the line's nickname.

The former Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway we knew so well finally succumbed to Dr. Beeching's axe on the 6th March 1966. Fortunately the construction of Hinckley Point Nuclear Power Station in the late 1950's a mere three miles away secured the future of the Bridgwater section of the Combwich line beyond that dreaded day in March. Passenger traffic held on by a thread until May 1976. Despite this loss, the railway still remains as a long siding for the sole purpose of removing nuclear waste every few months. The famous 'Combwich Crab' alas now goes by lorry and aircraft to exotic worldwide locations. The wicker basket factories have long gone, people preferring plastic ones from Taiwan these days.

The Model

My model of Combwich is based on the hackneyed final ten years of steam scenario, allowing a reasonable choice of trains and motive power based on what would have run on the real S&D in the period (and not in some cases!). Very occasionally the time period is moved into the early 1970s, steam power being replaced with Western Region diesel power.

Construction

This originally started back in 1980 with the baseboards, basic track and a few of the buildings. Becoming a student living away from home shortly after, meant that the layout was mothballed in the loft of my parents' house until the autumn of 2000. A chance venture into the loft and the threat that the half finished layout might suddenly be junked overnight made me decide to move it into our own home.

Combwich consists of four boards including fiddle yard, the total length measuring approximately 13'6"' x 2'3". Construction, although pretty non-radical, is tough, tried and tested using � inch blockboard screwed onto a 11/2" x 3/4" frame, with the board edges tidied up using black-painted plywood following the scenery contours. The whole layout rests on several trestles piggy back style held together with small G clamps. Until recently I used coach bolts, clamps are a lot faster and allow adjustments things change shape!

The layout has its own lighting with a rig consisting of two upside down 'L' shaped arms attached from the rear and stretching across the layout. Two 100w bulbs on each bracket are hidden behind a large nameboard, this creates ample light without generating too much heat. The name-board was created by the local sign-writer using the traditional Gill Sans font - so much better that trying to paint letters oneself.

Trackwork

The layout is in 00 gauge and much to my surprise several people at a recent exhibition commented on the fact that they thought it was EM. I suppose you can get away with 00 if nothing is viewed head on (unlike in some of the pictures here). Track colouring and general toning down really helps the illusion enormously. Despite this, if I were to start all over again, I would opt for EM over 00. P4/S4 appeals, however just making one locomotive chassis would take me as long as this whole layout to construct (22 years at current rate!).

SMP Scaleway glued to 1/8th inch cork provided the track apart from pointwork, which was hand-built using bullhead rail and copper paxolin strip. The track was then ballasted using fine sand from the beach, laying it dry and then applying diluted PVA to bond it in the usual manner. Most proprietary ballast is far too coarse - hence the use of sand (of the beach variety) washed and then filtered with an old tea strainer. Ballasting with beach sand is easier than with granite chippings mainly because the sand grains are slightly rounded and tend to bed in level around the sleepers with a lot more ease. The sand was obtained from the shores of the Solent, it having a pleasing pale warm grey colour, not yellow, as we might tend to think. The set ballast was dulled down using diluted matt enamel paints to represent oil and grime, depending on the area. Sidings were treated in a similar fashion but using very finely ground real ash and clinker from various preserved railways including the ashes from the barbeque!

Pointwork was recently converted from wire-in-tube operation. The omega loops (of course hidden under the ballast and needed to take up excess play) had started to expire and something had to be done. Operation is now done electrically with Peco motors and little toggle switches - nothing new here, but simple enough for even me to work out the wiring. The removable control panel, used to operate the points, can be moved from the front to the rear of the layout depending on whether at home or on exhibition. With it being operated at home 99% of the time, it was quite important for it to be operated from the viewing side - another good reason for converting the point operation to electric. The track diagram on the panel was made up with Microsoft Powerpoint.

Electrics

I positively (no pun intended) hate railway electrics, so much so that I really don't know how I managed to achieve a working layout. Oddly enough what I have bodged has proven to be reasonably reliable if only by accident on my behalf. Just one controller and one engine in steam at any one time simplifies things dramatically, though if ever I build something more complex, I will hire somebody to do this terrible chore. Control is achieved using a walkabout feedback Gaugemaster, allowing me to move around the layout in addition to occasionally wiping out the scenery with the lead.

Scenery (my favourite bit)

What little of the original scenery remained from pre-storage days was looking a little tired after sixteen years in the loft and most of what you are about to read has taken place in the last 12 months or so.

Raised sections were created using polystyrene ceiling tiles covered in a PVA plaster mix. Some more recent sections have been created using aerosol foam; wonderful stuff that dries to four times its original size and which can then be shaped with a bread knife. Long rough grass areas are mainly represented using a German product called 'Silfor', an excellent new product (I am told it is fade resistant and a recent exhibition has proven it to be child-proof as well). Other areas of grass are represented with dyed carpet underlay. Garden centres produce a green dyed version for lining hanging baskets! Colour adjustment is then achieved with diluted acrylic and a little washing up liquid.

Trees are from twisted wire coated in tile grout, then painted and foliated with teased-out wire wool that was itself painted and coated using PVA (applied with one of those paint diffusers - remember 'splatter painting' at school?) to which fine coloured foam from the likes of Greenscene and Woodland Scenics was finally added. A few trees were created with 'Sea Foam' and treated in the same manner. The finished trees and bushes are then further coloured with acrylic mixed with PVA applied by diffuser to provide additional variations of colour, which also helps to fix the foliage in place. Barley (or is it wheat?) crops are represented with sisal - most effective albeit rather time consuming!

The backdrop is plywood or battened hardboard and is semi permanently fixed to the rear of the layout. Acrylic has been used to paint the Somerset landscape from photographs of the area. Great pains were taken to ensure the painted landscape recedes properly so as not to dominate the layout - at last my formal art background (not much use otherwise) has been of some use. In addition to paint, images from the real Combwich have also been included from photographs that have been computer scanned and tweaked in Photoshop to remove unwanted items. These were then stuck to the backdrop and blended in again with acrylic. In the station area some low relief warehousing has been added. The name 'Riddick' displayed on one of the warehouses was a well-known name with industrial connection in the Bridgwater area during the 1800's.

Buildings

Most of these are styled on various S&D structures and all are made from plastic sheet using the various pre-moulded textures to replicate wood and stone. Tiles and slates are either applied individually or as scribed strips of paper layered up. A lot of care is taken with the distressing to represent the effects of age by using thin colour washes and dry-brushing.
The station building is similar to that at Glastonbury, with the canopy following the design of Edington Junction. The signal box is a mirror image of the one at Moorewood Sidings, and is a London & South Western Railway design, the fiction being that the original wooden one burnt down in 1899, whilst the engine shed is a modified Airfix kit (in a hurry for the layout's first exhibition). Most of the brickwork has been replaced with corrugated plastic sheeting to help disguise its roots, but at some stage this building will be replaced with something more prototypical. The crossing keeper's cottage is based upon Lamyatt Crossing near Evercreech Junction and is a typical Somerset Central Railway structure.

The 5ft long slightly curved platforms were created from wood strip and brick effect plastic sheet. Thick plastic sheet surfaces are coated in tiling grout (after scribing the plastic surface to make a good key), producing a very tough surface. Why grout? Well we simply had a tub of the stuff after tiling the bathroom! Once the surface had set it was sanded flat and painted with matt grey enamel paints. The dry paint then had dry baking soda (chalk or dry plaster would work equally well) rubbed into the surface to help recreate the effect of tarmac. To represent the inevitable tarmac patching and repairs, differing shades of grey were dry-brushed through rough paper masks. Roadways were created in a similar fashion with grout, 'repairs' being created as above. The platform crosses a baseboard join, with hindsight this is not something I would repeat for it is impossible to disguise the join.

The oil lighting is modelled on the S&D practice of lanterns mounted on old rail. I used 'Mike's Models' spiral-fluted gas lamps without their posts (I no doubt will find a use for these elsewhere). Replacements were made from Code 75 bullhead rail with two small lantern supports soldered on from copper wire, and the lanterns were mounted on top. I'm quite pleased with these, for on the real S&D these types survived right through until closure in 1966 and were a common feature over the entire system.

Signalling

The starter bracket signal was cobbled together from a Ratio LNER kit (the only signal so far and built two days before the most recent exhibition). Looking at various pictures of LSWR brackets it has been 'LSWR-ised' (the SR was responsible for all signalling on the S&D), with the distinctive LSWR finials coming from Model Signal Engineering. Other bits came from hacked about plastic, piano wire and dressmaker's pins. It is operated by solenoids and a rather 'Heath Robinson' maner.
The point rodding is again supplied by MSE and there is still a bit to do in this department. The supplied soft iron rods will be replaced with piano wire in due course to reduce the sagging effect. I'm afraid I just can't remember how the ground signals were made but they look nice even though they don't work.

Motive Power & Rolling Stock

Engines are a mixture of kit and ready-to-run items - the latter's quality is so good these days. Bachmann items in particular are very often way better that any of the older kits that duplicate them. Nevertheless, RTR items are never simply 'out of the box', for there is usually scope for a repaint and some extra detail, topped off with the all-important weathering.

Wagons are mainly kit-built, whilst a couple of the old Midland ones are scratch built. Milk traffic was a big thing in this part of Somerset, but as far as I am aware there are no kits (how odd?) so some Lima six-wheeled tankers have been tidied up, re-wheeled and repainted and I think they look the part.

At the moment passenger stock is based on heavily modified ready to run items. On the real S&D branch, in the late fifties to early sixties, trains were generally two-coach rakes using LMS suburban stock or GWR B-set coaches. Airfix produce both of these - to bring them up to scratch they have been improved enormously with a repaint and 'Flush Glazing' (this has to be the best value improvement ever) from SE Finecast. Additionally moulded handrails are removed and replaced with wire and wheels are replaced with Romfords or Gibsons. From about 1963 passengers were treated to the luxury of ex GWR Hawksworth bow ended stock, Comet supply these - a current project at the time of writing.

Conclusion

After almost quarter of a century it would be fair to say that Combwich probably has come as far as it can. I certainly have no plans to scrap it though! Any modifications will be to make the layout simpler to transport to occasional shows, because the layout was never really designed for the exhibition circuit is is rather un-wealdy to say the least.

Beyond the future - ah yes, over the hills to Watchet surely?