Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Jordan asked for more and so here is the start of the tale, of our interpretation of Scrufts Junction.... a tale of local rails across the ages with a healthy dose of alternative history (aka Basilica Fields). The history can wait for someone else to put pen to paper - for now I shall give a potted summary of where we are and then a bit on the current piece of work.
As to the title, there have been so many false starts and abandon work that the addition (to just the title of the layout) seemed rather appropriate).
At this time the visible "railway" portion of the model is 15' which is based on the Severn & Wye between Lydney and Whitecroft although the good Fairies of the Forest have twisted geography for us in that Mierystock bridge is now south of Norchard. Those who are familiar with this part of the line will be aware of the gradient between Lydney and Parkend (1:60 is not unusual) and that the Dean Forest Railway Society has built a heritage railway centre at Norchard where there was a colliery in the 19th and early 20th century. The DFRS started with a "low level" station in a yard below the level of the "main line" to Parkend and subsequently built a "high level" station to serve the railway running on the original S&W Rly alignment. This seemed too good an opportunity to ignore and this 21st Century Schizoid arrangement has been used as a basis for our model... with a twist. There is an additional 12' to be added north of the low-level station and this is to be the site of a re-opened Kidwells Colliery. What I cannot explain at the moment is that the management has an additional four baseboards (courtesy of Simon (@Caggers)) - each of 4' x 2' size - and that means that there is spare real estate.
The original colliery at the site was very active circa 1880 and traffic grew significantly so that the young S&W developed the access to the screens and started a passenger service to a platform on the edge of the yard. Minerals flowed and demands for a better passenger service were heard and by this time the local line had been incorporated into a joint company owned by the GWR and the MR. Money was found for a new stati0n which was built on the main line.... and the foundations of this station could well have been used by the DFRS for their new "high-level" station. So was our model born and born without a name. Enter a long standing friend who made one of those casual comments which has such a profound impact on modelling.
Ian Pope has been researching the industrial archeology of the Forest for longer than I have known him and that is 30 years... so the railways of the Forest have often featured in our conversations. We had a problem in trying to decide how to finish the "Parkend" end of the line which, at the time, was just a dead end siding on an embankment going nowhere (shades of the railway beyond Drybrook). Ian and I were talking about services on the Mineral Loop and how those services were worked through Tufts Junction and down to the docks. A map was produced and fingers were pointed at various bits of railway... when Ian said "those sidings face the wrong way" about the lines to the mines around Tufts, followed by "I wonder if Tufts was used as an exchange siding between services on the main line and the trips up to the colleries" and so oft we went.
In our model the high-level line leads to a couple of sidings on a hillside behind a colliery (which is connected to our low-level yard). Whilst this extension will be visible the sidings will be worked along the lines of exchange sidings.... a fiddle yard for the public! And so the model gained the name of "Scrufts Junction". Only time will tell if that is the name of the station.
And finally to the first piece of modelling to be described on WT - Mierystock Bridge - from much further north of Parkend. This bridge is now located south of Norchard and spans the high-level line to Scrufts Jcn. and the low-level line to the colliery yard, a good case of seeing double. The model is to be covered with Depron with the stones represented using the method described by Richard Lambert in his Heyside thread.
Flat sides - ok. The curve of the arch - not sure. Anyone tried to use 3mm thick Depron on anything other than a flat surface? How does the material respond to being formed into a curve?
regards, Graham
[recent events down in (our) forest have seen disruption and disturbance to the quiet and solitude of Norchard... the management (aka Peter) found that the chainage measurements between Lydney and Parkend were in error and that the error seemed to be in the area of the Norchard groundframes. What better reason to realign reality with imagination and extend the current layout. The introduction of the spare 4' board (see above) to the south of the station is described in about eight years from now].
As to the title, there have been so many false starts and abandon work that the addition (to just the title of the layout) seemed rather appropriate).
At this time the visible "railway" portion of the model is 15' which is based on the Severn & Wye between Lydney and Whitecroft although the good Fairies of the Forest have twisted geography for us in that Mierystock bridge is now south of Norchard. Those who are familiar with this part of the line will be aware of the gradient between Lydney and Parkend (1:60 is not unusual) and that the Dean Forest Railway Society has built a heritage railway centre at Norchard where there was a colliery in the 19th and early 20th century. The DFRS started with a "low level" station in a yard below the level of the "main line" to Parkend and subsequently built a "high level" station to serve the railway running on the original S&W Rly alignment. This seemed too good an opportunity to ignore and this 21st Century Schizoid arrangement has been used as a basis for our model... with a twist. There is an additional 12' to be added north of the low-level station and this is to be the site of a re-opened Kidwells Colliery. What I cannot explain at the moment is that the management has an additional four baseboards (courtesy of Simon (@Caggers)) - each of 4' x 2' size - and that means that there is spare real estate.
The original colliery at the site was very active circa 1880 and traffic grew significantly so that the young S&W developed the access to the screens and started a passenger service to a platform on the edge of the yard. Minerals flowed and demands for a better passenger service were heard and by this time the local line had been incorporated into a joint company owned by the GWR and the MR. Money was found for a new stati0n which was built on the main line.... and the foundations of this station could well have been used by the DFRS for their new "high-level" station. So was our model born and born without a name. Enter a long standing friend who made one of those casual comments which has such a profound impact on modelling.
Ian Pope has been researching the industrial archeology of the Forest for longer than I have known him and that is 30 years... so the railways of the Forest have often featured in our conversations. We had a problem in trying to decide how to finish the "Parkend" end of the line which, at the time, was just a dead end siding on an embankment going nowhere (shades of the railway beyond Drybrook). Ian and I were talking about services on the Mineral Loop and how those services were worked through Tufts Junction and down to the docks. A map was produced and fingers were pointed at various bits of railway... when Ian said "those sidings face the wrong way" about the lines to the mines around Tufts, followed by "I wonder if Tufts was used as an exchange siding between services on the main line and the trips up to the colleries" and so oft we went.
In our model the high-level line leads to a couple of sidings on a hillside behind a colliery (which is connected to our low-level yard). Whilst this extension will be visible the sidings will be worked along the lines of exchange sidings.... a fiddle yard for the public! And so the model gained the name of "Scrufts Junction". Only time will tell if that is the name of the station.
And finally to the first piece of modelling to be described on WT - Mierystock Bridge - from much further north of Parkend. This bridge is now located south of Norchard and spans the high-level line to Scrufts Jcn. and the low-level line to the colliery yard, a good case of seeing double. The model is to be covered with Depron with the stones represented using the method described by Richard Lambert in his Heyside thread.
Flat sides - ok. The curve of the arch - not sure. Anyone tried to use 3mm thick Depron on anything other than a flat surface? How does the material respond to being formed into a curve?
regards, Graham
[recent events down in (our) forest have seen disruption and disturbance to the quiet and solitude of Norchard... the management (aka Peter) found that the chainage measurements between Lydney and Parkend were in error and that the error seemed to be in the area of the Norchard groundframes. What better reason to realign reality with imagination and extend the current layout. The introduction of the spare 4' board (see above) to the south of the station is described in about eight years from now].
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...yet somehow I like it....
