Model Railways On-Line - Dibley
Dibley A Great Western branch in 0 Gauge Described by David Lord, photographs by Paul Plowman Above: GW 48xx Class 0-4-2T No.4816 waits to leave Dibley with a train of 4-wheel coaches. For those who knew the late Laurie Clark and Valerie his wife, they would remember them for two reasons, the wonderful welcome they gave to everybody, and Laurie’s enthusiasm for his models and the construction and playing of his Hawaiian Guitars. In respect to model railways, advancing years and prospects of moving to Perth prompted Laurie to sell his wonderful 00 gauge GWR layout called “Wennin”, and that should have been the end of Laurie’s layout building. However, after Wennin had gone, Laurie could not resist another go this time in O gauge, hence “Dibley”. On becoming friends, Laurie would sometimes call on myself and Chris my son, to visit whenever he had something new to show, such as this new project, an O gauge layout using Styrofoam as a base to reduce weight and designed to be portable because of the immanent moving to Perth. My first sighting was just of baseboards then basic track work being laid. The project was a little different to what I had expected of Laurie, but the workmanship was to his usual meticulous standard. At this time, the layout was not named and then Laurie and Valerie moved to Western Australia to be near their son. The next time we heard of “Dibley” was when Laurie, due to failing health, offered to sell the layout to the Central Coast group of the British Railway Modellers of Australia. (The Central Coast is located about one hours drive North of Sydney) We accepted the deal and then, despite his failing health, Laurie did a wonderful job of packing everything into two boxes, which duly arrived with little or no damage, complete with instructions for reassembly. It was not very long after that Laurie passed away. That his creations live on in the form of “Wennin” and “Dibley” is testament to his ability to set the railway scene and complete the projects that he set in motion. 850 Class 0-6-0PT No.2025 shunts coal wagons in the small loco depot at Dibley. Location The name “Dibley” comes from the Television show “Vicar of Dibley”. Anyone who knew Laurie would have been well aware of his sense of humour, some of which was painted onto wagons and such like. One example had a painted label, “when empty, return to the railway with little green engines”. The track plan is typically Hemyock on the Culm Valley Line in Devon, although it has been altered in respect of the siding arrangements and by the removal of the Creamery, which was such a feature of Hemyock. However, as a six-wheel milk tank comes and goes during a running session, there is still a possibility that a portion of the Creamery may be a future addition. Layout Diagram. Baseboards The baseboards are a sandwich type being a light timber frame around the outside of a full size layer of Styrofoam as a main baseboard level. Additional layers have been added to build up the track bed, the general ground level and the hillsides. The whole is therefore very light. The river at the front is the lowest level of Styrofoam. Track and Signalling Peco track and points have been used throughout. The point motors are hidden under the polystyrene and to date have not been seen. They go thump most of the time and are of Peco manufacture. Operation is by a switch that indicates where the point is to be set and then a push button to fire the capacitor discharge unit, which is a little light on the job and will be replaced with another in the near future. The single signal is operated by a relay. The level crossing gates also work quite effectively after Rob Lees operated on them. GW 850 Class 0-6-0PT No.2025 shunts cattle wagons into the cattle dock. Scenery Layers of Polystyrene have been used to form the scenery contours with Woodland Scenics for the green stuff. Trees constructed by Gary Stephan are twisted wire. There are some additional natural trees of appropriate shape with Woodland Scenics applied. Locomotives The layout is operated with two locomotives. The GW 48xx class 0-4-2T no.4816 is a Springside kit. We believe this model was built, much modified and detailed by Laurie. At present it requires an overhaul to improve the electrical pickups, which have proved to be a little unreliable. The pannier tank is an 850 Class No.2025. Tom Imeson of Brisbane built it from a Vulcan kit. It is an excellent runner and certainly looks the part. There are no plans to do anything other than maintain this model in good working order. Rolling Stock Most of the rolling stock is comprised of Slater’s kits including two GWR 4 wheel coaches and a Siphon. There is an Acorn 6-wheel milk tank plus some wagons of various manufacture plus a couple of scratch built examples. The couplings are of the Sprat and Winkle type, which when properly adjusted can be made to work well. They have their limitations, such as uncoupling when you do not want them to and therefore may well be replaced in the future. In addition, there is a set of LMS/Midland rolling stock using a couple of much modified Lima 4F’s and two scratch built Midland coaches, one in balsa wood and one in plastikard. The small loco depot at Dibley. The future The layout has been and still is under development ever since its arrival. Basically, the track layout is unaltered, but the electrics have been rewired twice and need to be further modified as we learn more about operating the layout. Two new buildings are required, a goods shed or creamery and the tunnel entrance needs attention to improve the overall general look.
For those who knew the late Laurie Clark and Valerie his wife, they would remember them for two reasons, the wonderful welcome they gave to everybody, and Laurie’s enthusiasm for his models and the construction and playing of his Hawaiian Guitars.
In respect to model railways, advancing years and prospects of moving to Perth prompted Laurie to sell his wonderful 00 gauge GWR layout called “Wennin”, and that should have been the end of Laurie’s layout building. However, after Wennin had gone, Laurie could not resist another go this time in O gauge, hence “Dibley”.
On becoming friends, Laurie would sometimes call on myself and Chris my son, to visit whenever he had something new to show, such as this new project, an O gauge layout using Styrofoam as a base to reduce weight and designed to be portable because of the immanent moving to Perth. My first sighting was just of baseboards then basic track work being laid. The project was a little different to what I had expected of Laurie, but the workmanship was to his usual meticulous standard. At this time, the layout was not named and then Laurie and Valerie moved to Western Australia to be near their son. The next time we heard of “Dibley” was when Laurie, due to failing health, offered to sell the layout to the Central Coast group of the British Railway Modellers of Australia. (The Central Coast is located about one hours drive North of Sydney) We accepted the deal and then, despite his failing health, Laurie did a wonderful job of packing everything into two boxes, which duly arrived with little or no damage, complete with instructions for reassembly.
It was not very long after that Laurie passed away. That his creations live on in the form of “Wennin” and “Dibley” is testament to his ability to set the railway scene and complete the projects that he set in motion.
The name “Dibley” comes from the Television show “Vicar of Dibley”. Anyone who knew Laurie would have been well aware of his sense of humour, some of which was painted onto wagons and such like. One example had a painted label, “when empty, return to the railway with little green engines”.
The track plan is typically Hemyock on the Culm Valley Line in Devon, although it has been altered in respect of the siding arrangements and by the removal of the Creamery, which was such a feature of Hemyock. However, as a six-wheel milk tank comes and goes during a running session, there is still a possibility that a portion of the Creamery may be a future addition.
The baseboards are a sandwich type being a light timber frame around the outside of a full size layer of Styrofoam as a main baseboard level. Additional layers have been added to build up the track bed, the general ground level and the hillsides. The whole is therefore very light. The river at the front is the lowest level of Styrofoam.
Peco track and points have been used throughout. The point motors are hidden under the polystyrene and to date have not been seen. They go thump most of the time and are of Peco manufacture.
Operation is by a switch that indicates where the point is to be set and then a push button to fire the capacitor discharge unit, which is a little light on the job and will be replaced with another in the near future.
The single signal is operated by a relay. The level crossing gates also work quite effectively after Rob Lees operated on them.
Layers of Polystyrene have been used to form the scenery contours with Woodland Scenics for the green stuff.
Trees constructed by Gary Stephan are twisted wire. There are some additional natural trees of appropriate shape with Woodland Scenics applied.
The layout is operated with two locomotives. The GW 48xx class 0-4-2T no.4816 is a Springside kit. We believe this model was built, much modified and detailed by Laurie. At present it requires an overhaul to improve the electrical pickups, which have proved to be a little unreliable.
The pannier tank is an 850 Class No.2025. Tom Imeson of Brisbane built it from a Vulcan kit. It is an excellent runner and certainly looks the part. There are no plans to do anything other than maintain this model in good working order.
Most of the rolling stock is comprised of Slater’s kits including two GWR 4 wheel coaches and a Siphon.
There is an Acorn 6-wheel milk tank plus some wagons of various manufacture plus a couple of scratch built examples. The couplings are of the Sprat and Winkle type, which when properly adjusted can be made to work well. They have their limitations, such as uncoupling when you do not want them to and therefore may well be replaced in the future.
In addition, there is a set of LMS/Midland rolling stock using a couple of much modified Lima 4F’s and two scratch built Midland coaches, one in balsa wood and one in plastikard.
The layout has been and still is under development ever since its arrival. Basically, the track layout is unaltered, but the electrics have been rewired twice and need to be further modified as we learn more about operating the layout.
Two new buildings are required, a goods shed or creamery and the tunnel entrance needs attention to improve the overall general look.