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Sidmouth
This model is an N Scale representation of Sidmouth station, in South Devon, as it might have appeared around the late 1950s to early 1960s. The branch from the Exmouth line at Tipton St Johns terminated at Sidmouth, some 200ft above sea level, and over a mile from the town centre on the coast. The branch was closed in 1967.
The model has two 4ft boards. The first board has the station, engine shed, goods shed and other features, with the track layout and signals as they would have appeared at that time.
The second board has the Sidmouth signal box, a small factory and a farm. The ‘Alexandria’ factory was the home of Devon motor homes, importing VW chassis and converting large numbers into the Devon range of the iconic VW Caravelle. The model does not attempt to re-create the factory which covered a much larger area than the board size allows. Likewise, there was a farm, but on the other side of the tracks. The laid track broadly follows the actual track layout.
Rolling stock in that period consisted of steam hauled local passenger trains, headed by 2-6-2 and 2-6-4 tanks with occasional mainline excursion trains hauled by larger ‘West Country ‘ locos. Some early DMU diesels could be seen, with an occasional GWR loco, as the line was shared with the SR towards the end of its life. Apart from the Campervan factory, goods traffic was very light.
The modeller owes much to Mitchell & Smith’s excellent "Branch lines to Seaton and Sidmouth" and to Nick Catford’s Sidmouth contribution to the "Disused Stations" web site.
Peter Dunsterville
September 2015
The model has two 4ft boards. The first board has the station, engine shed, goods shed and other features, with the track layout and signals as they would have appeared at that time.
The second board has the Sidmouth signal box, a small factory and a farm. The ‘Alexandria’ factory was the home of Devon motor homes, importing VW chassis and converting large numbers into the Devon range of the iconic VW Caravelle. The model does not attempt to re-create the factory which covered a much larger area than the board size allows. Likewise, there was a farm, but on the other side of the tracks. The laid track broadly follows the actual track layout.
Rolling stock in that period consisted of steam hauled local passenger trains, headed by 2-6-2 and 2-6-4 tanks with occasional mainline excursion trains hauled by larger ‘West Country ‘ locos. Some early DMU diesels could be seen, with an occasional GWR loco, as the line was shared with the SR towards the end of its life. Apart from the Campervan factory, goods traffic was very light.
The modeller owes much to Mitchell & Smith’s excellent "Branch lines to Seaton and Sidmouth" and to Nick Catford’s Sidmouth contribution to the "Disused Stations" web site.
Peter Dunsterville
September 2015
