Blackmoor

About the layout

Blackmoor is a near-scale model of the station at Blackmoor, on the narrow gauge line between Barnstaple and Lynton. It is set in September 1930, just after a siding was lifted and just before the goods yard headshunt was extended.

The line closed in 1935. The station building survives, much altered, as a pub, and is now owned by the preserved railway. The stables have become cottages and the base of the water tower is a store room. Everything else, including the hotel, the petrol station and the road bridge, is long gone.

Ian has modelled the Lynton & Barnstaple in 009 for many years. When Heljan brought out its Manning Wardle locos, the time had come to model a real place on the line. He chose Blackmoor because he had visited it in the 1980s, and because drawings of nearly all its buildings have been published.

Every building is scratch-built from drawings of the real ones. The track is Peco, using the longer-radius 009 points, and the rolling stock is a mix of kits and altered ready-to-run models. The locos are fitted with sound and run on Digitrax DCC, with touch-screen PCs to watch over and control the layout.