In my last update, I outlined my other ongoing project in the Copley Hill Works Blog. That was to create a Lake Railway layout, to exhibit and hopefully have some building at the same time.

I've written a short history section, which has a fictional and real history section, which should hopefully explain what my little layout should be able to convey:

The Sidcup & Danson Lake Railway

 

Fictional History:

 

A 2ft Narrow Gauge Railway which circles the Danson Park Lake* in the Sidcup & Danson Lake area. Originally the line was built to serve the Ian, Allen and Boyd* Paper Mill in Erith, which used water from Lake Danson in its manufacturing processes. The line itself was owned by the head director of the Paper Mill, Stephen Allen, who ordered its construction in 1919, though it passed through the estate of close friend and associate, John Boyd IV*. The three directors of the Mill, James Ian, Stephen Allen and John Boyd IV*, became chief engineer, line owner and backer in that order.

 

The railway, being built to serve the Paper Mill, which had a favourable and amicable allegience with the South Eastern Railway*, used from 1921 two steam engines, no.1 Sidcup and no.2 Danson, named after the towns the line served a passenger service with. Sidcup was built by Kerr Stuart in 1921 as part of a batch which included several similar "Tattoo" locomotives (no one engine from that batch is identical to another). Danson was built by the Avonside Engine Company in the same year, to the Fairlie patent (and is a "single" Fairlie) and has undergone major modifications over the course of its life.

 

The two engines would pull loaded wagons of wood pulp, and would pass through the village on the hill, Sidcup. The pulp trains would pass underneath the mainline of the South Eastern Railway* on the trip towards the mainline sidings where the waste pulp would be transferred to the SER.

 

When the line expanded to include the nearby bottling plant in Footscray* in 1939, two further engines were added to the fleet, numbers 3 and 4, in the March of that year. These two engines had been built for the defunct Footscray and Bexleyheath Light Railway, and were extensively rebuilt in 1947 and 1949 to suit the line's needs.

 

In the case of no.4, it was named after the company which sponsored its rebuilding: Charlton* (for the football club, who had missed out on the LNER naming scheme as FA cup winners in 1947). No.3 remained unnamed until 1994 when it was rebuilt for a second time in S&DLR ownership. It carries the name Foots Cray, in honour of its original owners, the F&BLR. The two engines were originally painted in a pleasant shade of crimson similar to that used on the LMS, lined out in straw and black on their tanks.

 

The start of the second world war saw a decline in manufacturing paper, but the railway was used extensively for transporting ammunition from the local bottling facility, which had been ordered to mass produce anti-aircraft shells and several specialist types of aircraft payload.

 

The line was bombed several times, the track relayed poorly, and by the end of 1945 was in a deterioating condition. In addition, no.1 Sidcup had been heavily damaged in a bombing raid and it was left to numbers 2 and 4 to work the line for two years as both no.1 and no.3 were put aside for extensive repairs. Danson was left to work the line alone in the last six months of 1946 when no.4 was derailed and badly damaged during the Great Storm. It was during this time that for a short period horse drawn goods trains were reintroduced to cope with the locomotive shortage.

 

By 1949 all four engines were back in service, being retired at for general overhauls over two year periods for the next ten years.

 

The Paper Mill closed down in 1960 and the line was rendered redundant at its northern end. By 1961, the trackbed was all that remained of the Paper Mill route, and in 1962 the southern section of the line which joined British Railway's goods yard at Sidcup, was also severed. The railway was now just 5 miles long, and encompassed the Danson Lake and its park. It was therefore unnecessary to keep in traffic the entire locomotive fleet, and the two original engines, Sidcup and Danson were oiled, greased and sheeted and kept at the back of Danson Lake shed.

 

The line's original owner, Stephen Allen, passed away a little after the terminaton of services at the southern end, and for some time the line lay derelict but for the small workings in the yard at Danson Lake by a group of volunteers.

 

In 1975, the local Sidcup & Chiselhurst Borough Council* decided to grant the local volunteers permission to relay the track to the site of the old Mainline sidings. The trackbed was laid and worked extensively until 1989, when the line was extended to work into the National Network Railway Station at Sidcup, as part of its rebuilding.

 

The line now works in and around the English Heritage Commission* and the Bexleyheath Borough council* which replaced the Sidcup and Chiselhurst borough council of the 1970s and 80s. The line provides transport to and from the park, allowing visitors beautiful views of the 78 hectare lake, and providing a special service to the employees of the Danson Park Watersports Centre*.

 

The northern terminus of the line is completely gone, its route obliterated by an A road, and the Paper Mill is long gone for a housing estate. The main terminus and location of the sheds is Danson Lake, a station which was originally built to serve Danson House*, the home of the wealthy merchant and one of the paper Mill Directors, John Boyd IV*. Its archeitecture matches remarkably closely to the house it was built to serve.

 

Visitors to the railway are no longer few and far between as in the late 50s and 60s. The line is a fully fledged tourist line which operates for around 290 days of the year. It provides a sterling service from Sidcup Station to Danson Park, and equally provides the Sidcup and Danson area with a real and beautiful tourist attraction, serving a delightfully untouched estate and lake which survived the housing boom in South East London in its enteriety.

 

N.B Items marked with a * are real places/people/etc.

Now, bearing that in mind, here is my summation of the truth of the matter:

Real History

 

There was never a 2ft gauge line around Danson Lake, but there was a minature steam railway in the early 1950s. It is much missed by the local community.

 

The Paper Mill is also a fabrication, but based on real practise in the Kent area - the Sittingbourne and Kelmsley light Railway being the inspiration for the S&DLR's main traffic. The Bottling plant is real, however, but was never served by a railway. The Coca Cola bottling facility in Foots Cray is the largest in Europe, and its waste disposal in tankers gave the idea for the other railway in the Sidcup area.

 

The station, Sidcup, and its sidings are/were real, but of course no other railway, narrow gauge or not, served the sidings of the SER. This is in part based on the practise of the early 1870s, before the broad gauge GWR converted to standard gauge, of mixed gauges transferring goods from one to another.

 

The locomotive fleet (as yet, unmodeled) are named after the three towns in the area and the top local football team. The choice of a Tattoo for no.1 was an easy choice as the build dates matched the decided era of the railway. While the names of 2, 3 and 4 have been chosen, no specifc classes have at the time of writing.

 

Rolling stock is entirely arbitrary and dependent on funds for modelling!

 

If the S&DLR were to exist in reality, its route would be difficult to plot without demolishing around 30 hectares of housing and general estate! Not to mention the amount of road crossings and bridges to be made between Danson Lake and Sidcup (National Rail).

 

The idea between the layout and historical theme was to give the impression of a railway that really might have been built. In the 1920s there were serious plans afoot for a vast 2ft 6in gauge railway, based on the practises of the SKLR, to serve both the bottling plant and the planned location of a new paper mill. Neither the Paper Mill nor the railway planned to serve it were built.

 

John Boyd IV is himself not a real person, but the real John Boyd of the 18th century built the real Danson House and owned the estate surrounding Danson lake.

 

The line's original owner, Stephen Allen, is of course a comglomerate of two of my own characters - Stephen and Allen. The trio of James Ian, Stephen Allen and John Boyd form Ian, Allen and Boyd - the first two a play on Ian Allan, a publishing company who I order books from extensively!

I will be making edits to this section of the blog with each and every bit of interesting historical piece of the puzzle I find in my research to the area. I may have to revise it quite a lot - having checked a few maps I'm not sure a route through Sidcup from Danson to both Sidcup station and the bottling plant in Footscray is possible without majorly modifying Sidcup...! So in that respect this article will evolve every so often to include fresh ideas.

It has occured to me that jumping straight into making a full layout may not be the best way to go. A friend has suggested making a few micro layouts in my chosen scale (0-16.5) to see if I like it first. It's a great idea, and one I'm wholeheartedly going along with. With that in mind, I've got an eye on a few kits I want towards making some stock for the first test of the S&DLR - a short shunting plank, with some tests for my scenic modelling skills in store.

Until next time!