Exeter St Davids
Submitted by Richard Bleksley. Exeter St. Davids is an excellent subject for a railway model. I thought of it because I own Southern and Great Western stock, and it's the place where the two most famously met. It was only when I started researching that I discovered what an interesting place it is.
Junctions are always fun, but St Davids has the added interest of trains for London leaving in opposite directions, those for Paddington going northwards and those for Waterloo southwards. Then there's a bay platform on the east side for trains terminating from the 'Withered Arm', and a loop platform on the west in which trains can terminate from either direction - not to mention the TMD acessed from a line branching off this loop platform road. The junction where the Great Western line to Paddington and the LSWR line to North Devon and Cornwall diverge is about a mile north of the station.
As for scope for modelling, the line to Waterloo curves sharply eastwards at the south end of the station and promptly disappears into a tunnel (which is always handy), the station is beside the river, and there is a level crossing across all six platform roads right at the north end. The plan is shown in Hornby set track, with a little flexitrack to fit some of the platform roads between the junctions. It would need rather a lot of space, though, as it stands: it's nearly fifteen feet long!
Junctions are always fun, but St Davids has the added interest of trains for London leaving in opposite directions, those for Paddington going northwards and those for Waterloo southwards. Then there's a bay platform on the east side for trains terminating from the 'Withered Arm', and a loop platform on the west in which trains can terminate from either direction - not to mention the TMD acessed from a line branching off this loop platform road. The junction where the Great Western line to Paddington and the LSWR line to North Devon and Cornwall diverge is about a mile north of the station.
As for scope for modelling, the line to Waterloo curves sharply eastwards at the south end of the station and promptly disappears into a tunnel (which is always handy), the station is beside the river, and there is a level crossing across all six platform roads right at the north end. The plan is shown in Hornby set track, with a little flexitrack to fit some of the platform roads between the junctions. It would need rather a lot of space, though, as it stands: it's nearly fifteen feet long!