site built and maintained by Monkeytree Web of PlymouthHasbury Hill |
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track plan model rail links model in progress contact me home coming soon: area map timetables the prototype history etc. |
The Prototype Hasbury Hill is a (ficticious) small town on the South Devon coast, built on a hill above long red cliffs, overlooking the English Channel. It has a ferry port, Hasbury Port, built at the foot of the cliffs not far from Chonkwell village, which is a busy passenger ferry terminal for ships sailing to both France and Spain. The town is well connected to the national rail network and due to its location, receives train services from several train operating companies. The ferry terminal and the town's main station have direct services to London, Penzance, the south coast to Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Brighton and also North to Birmingham, then cross country to Newcastle and as far as Edinburgh...more The Model and this Site The aim of this site is to provide pictures and regular updates as the model progresses. This is my first attempt at building a model railway so there'll be no advice given out, just information as to what I'm doing, how I'm doing it and where I get my advice and information. Feedback and comments are always welcome and appreciated...contact My main interest is to be able to run a number of trains to a set timetable with the actual operation of the trains, points and signals being my main concern. The control panel is going to be large and as important to me as the layout itself. I haven't made my mind up whether I'm going to use stud and probe or switches for the points, I've experimented with studs and have purchased some switches to test that way, and the panel will incorporate route lights on all points. The whole layout will be run with four controllers, two running the main loops and two running the station approaches, main station and carriage sidings / engine sheds. Using four controllers with the layout well sectioned will enable four trains to be run at once, but that depends on whether I can find any assistant controllers! The layout is point to point, each end of the point being the main station, along with a continuous run which is split with a through fiddle yard under the hill to hide the continuity. No train will run round and round as a different train to what came in will always leave the fiddle yard. The ferry port itself is not modelled as it is just round the bend from the bottom left corner of the layout. Hasbury Port station is modelled, however, and although quite a small station, the prototype actually receives hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, mainly for the ferry port but also day trippers visiting the beaches and taking strolls along the famous beach path which runs alongside the railway line. The station is connected to the ferry port by a short undergound railway, just 500 yards long and which uses redundant London underground rolling stock (mainly northern line). This again is not modelled but the passenger lifts down to the railway can be seen on the platforms. Incidentally, the underground line actually goes under the sea for a short distance as the port is built just beyond a small bay a little further along the coast from the site of the station. As I said, my main aim is operation, so I am not remotely worried about whether the right type of carriages are being pulled by the right loco or whether a certain loco would never have been seen in South Devon, or whether there's really a ten year age gap between different stock. Hasbury Hill station is used by several different train companies, and in particular, the Bamford Train Company which has the franchise for the local services to Penzance and the various local branchlines. This company, based in the South Hams, is renowned for buying its rolling stock from wherever it can get it and then not bothering to repaint in its own colours until absolutely necessary. Most people would be hard pushed to say what its own colours actually are! Its not unusual to see a train usually seen on the Settle and Carlisle twenty years ago winding its way up the hill to the main station. It's even purchased stock back from the Indian government which was sold to them by British Rail shortly before its demise! This is great for enthusiasts who can frequently be seen sitting along the sea wall near the ferry port station, photographing and filming their favourite locos and rolling stock. In addition, the region is frequented by steam specials from all over the country, pulling eager travellers along the South Devon coast. All this gives me considerable modellers' licence! ...more |
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