Hamworthy

Last updated: 10 March 2025

I have started work on Hamworthy. The straight part will fit behind the door against the wall in my front room. The curved part passes through the door so needs to be removable. The three sidings will be attached to cassettes so that wagons can be assembled before an operating session.

I have chosen to ease the radius of the curved siding to 30" since the prototype radius would be too much for 14.2mm gauge.

I couldn't find a railway plan so the Templot is superimposed on an Ordnance Survey map from the 1950s which I found in the museum just off Poole Quay.

I have built the baseboard for the first 64" behind the door. It will provide a useful test track at 3mm meetings and fits behind my driver's seat with 1/3 of the back seat folded down.

Here are some prototype references:

British Railways Past and Present Dorset p50-51

Glory Days Steam in Dorset p70-72

Rails to Poole Harbour Back cover

Rails to Poole Harbour Cover

Rails to Poole Harbour p130,132-134,136,140

Rails to Poole Harbour p48-54,56,58,60,62,64,66,68,70,72,74-76

Rails to Poole Harbour Title page

Rails to Poole Harbour  

South Coast Railways - Bournemouth to Weymouth Hamworthy Map

South Coast Railways - Bournemouth to Weymouth pl51-55

Southern Steam Album pl182-184

The Last Days of Steam in Dorset and Bournemouth

I started laying track using 0.8mm sleepers from the 3mm Society and Woodland Scenics medium ballast. The ballast tended to bounce about a lot and looked a bit too coarse so I have started again with the new 1.5mm sleepers  from the 3mm Society and fine ballast from Woodland Scenics. Hopefully I will make more progress with this now that the weather is turning and I can't get into the garden so much.

Here is an overall view of progress to date.

I am experimenting with Ronseal Outdoor Matt Varnish diluted 50/50 with water and a drop of Fairy Liquid as my "glue" for the ballast.

I have filed the heads of Brass Gimp pins to the width of the rail and soldered them underneath the rail for drop wires. My first attempt involved building up the sleepers after soldering the pin. More recently I have just drilled through the sleepers in situ. There is just enough clearance between rail and sleeper for the pin head and solder.

9 March 20025 - Experimental brickwork

Here is some experimental brickwork which will form part of my 3mm Society Diamond Anniversary Diorama. It will include the offices and part of the  platform at Hamworthy Goods. The wall and window are part of the offices. The rest form the platform face. The piece at the back is from the same model but in 7mm scale.

The 3mm versions are printed on my Phrozen mini 8K printer using Siraya Fast Navy Grey resin and a layer height of 0.01mm. The cement courses are drawn 0.125mm wide (scale 1/2")  and 0.25mm deep. I found the depth is required to hold the paint. Everything is brush painted with Humbrol no.70 brick. Once dry the two pieces at the front were painted with Humbrol matt white which was then wiped off with a cloth. This had a tendency to lift the brick colour so for the other two 3mm pieces I used acrylic and that seems to work much better.

I need more practice at pointing my models. They are a good representation of my amateur real brickwork rather than the cleaner look of the prototype!

The 7mm wall at the back is laser cut in 1.5mm ply. I used the 3mm 3D artwork as a starting point, scaled it to 7mm and exported a 2D DXF file of the appropriate plane. I found paint difficult to control in the cement courses. What you see here is Grout Revive wiped in with a cloth.

I am planning to build a model of Hamworthy in scale 7 as well as 3mm. I think the 3mm layout version will look better as a mirror image in its planned location. Once I have the 3mm version drawn to prototype the mirror image and scale 7 versions will be relatively easy to produce.

10 March 2025

Some years ago I visited Hamworthy to see what was still there but it is not easy to navigate around the ferry terminal. I didn't find this which is on Google Maps dated June 2019. It shows the offices and the platform.

Click Hamworthy Offices 

I will try to visit on my annual holiday this year to see if it is still there!