Nick Holliday

To be pedantic, the line serving Waddon Marsh was not really a freight line. It was a link between West Croydon and Wimbledon, following, for part of its route, the line of the Surrey Iron Railway, one of the earliest public railways in England, in 1855, and would have been primarily passenger orientated. The industry that built up around Waddon Marsh was a turn-of-the-century development, and Waddon Marsh station itself only opened in 1930 following electrification of the line. Admittedly, the passenger traffic was fairly minimal, and, until the sixties, there was plenty of freight traffic serving the large gas works and electricity power station as well as the numerous factories and foundries set up either side of the tracks, requiring three running tracks for some distance from north of the station platform.

Seeing that impressive range of production skills, and their potential markets, it is easy to understand why the Railway Modelling side has been hived off. I wouldn't be surprised if the weekly turnover of just one of the subsidiary companies exceeded the annual figure for the models locos.

For the record, I'm afraid you have mixed up two different factors. In 1880 a sudden upturn in suburban passenger traffic left the Brighton with a shortage of suitable tank locos. Although a further batch of D1 tanks, the 0-4-2 type, was ordered, Brighton works was busy with building E1 tanks and the G Singles, so the order was placed with Nelson & Co, and wouldn't be available for a year or so, so the works upgraded 9 existing E1 tanks for passenger service, fitting the Westinghouse brake and screw coupling, improving the brakes (iron shoes) and the balancing, and painting in IEG. A further 24 E1's under construction were similarly prepared. These locos were still rather rough riding, and unpopular with passengers, but they just had to put up with the surging until further D1 tanks arrived in 1881/2, and the E1's could revert to primarily goods duties, and those at New Cross were quickly repainted in green, although the rest waited until their next visit to works. Fitting Westinghouse brakes to other E1's was a slow process, 25 more receiving the brake in 1890/3, which also included fitting screw couplings instead of three links, and the addition of red lining either side of the black lining, although Westinghouse fitted ones were still used on some passenger duties, such as the Dyke Branch, and apparently all had received the air brake gear by grouping, just in time for the Southern to start fitting vacuum brakes! The story of the Cuckoo Line involved the E1 Special Barcelona, No. 157. After the line opened in 1880, goods services were handled by miscellaneous Craven locos and some E1's, but the gradients were proving rather too taxing, so in 1884 Stroudley designed an improved E1 with Gladstone cylinders and the G Single boiler, resulting in a more powerful E1 on steroids. For some reason, although intended for goods duties, Barcelona appeared in IEG, and it was under Billinton's regime, in June 1890, when it was changed to green.

Although this is better than some of the earlier iterations, I still don’t think you will be getting the best out of your investment, and the space you have available. One thing that is missing is somewhere to park stock, particularly carriages, when they are not orbiting the oval. There’s plenty of sidings for locomotives, but with perhaps only two passenger sets, and one goods, they won’t have much to do. Another thing that rather grates is the clumsy looking, and slightly impractical, junction leading to the bidirectional line. I would streamline this area by allocating the centre line as the bidirectional one, saving the diamond crossing, which is a potential conflict point, although I’m not too sure what this extra line is going to be used for.

Stone rather than brick, but this kit from Gaugemaster is quite impressive. Search for gaugemaster-gm480-teignmouth-station-oo-gauge-plastic-kit

The N-Gauge layout of the Epsom & Ewell MRC might be of interest, to put things into perspective, being 20 feet long, although only 2' 9" wide. https://sites.google.com/site/epsomewellmrc/club-layouts/hinksey-yard-n

Although the electric stock was green from the start, only a few suburban coaches followed suit, until in March 1921 the board agreed that all future painting was to be in green. Given that the LSWR apparently anticipated repainting stock every five years or so, and with the uncertainties of the pending grouping, I would have thought that only about 20% of their carriages would be in green by 1923.

Going off-topic, and it probably has been noted before, but I was intrigued to see that the track in the foreground retains inside chairs, which I thought had been out of fashion for many years before the 1908 date pf the photo.

Ouch! That hurts. Ordered mine 27th July 2021, paid in full December 2022, and still waiting for a note from Kernow! But what’s another few days after thirty months, although hoping they’ve still got one left for me.

Not the Brighton, but the neighbouring SECR used roundels, both front and rear of the arm.

MRC was hardly a later development, having been started in March 1934 with E F Carter as editor. It was acquired by Ian Allan around 1960, so it took them eight years to realise their mistake. Cyril Freezer, when he left Railway Modeller, moved to Model Railways, one of the incarnation of Model Railway News in its declining years, where he continued editing for a further five years.

As the various items I posted three years ago have disappeared, and have been referenced lately, I thought it might be worthwhile re-posting them, as I have tracked down most of the files, but, unfortunately, I have forgotten the source of some of the information, for which I apologise. Although @burgundy has summarised Jonathan Abson's information from Sheffield Park at the end of 1899, here are the main tables. @Penlan I think it was, provided the table of wagons recorded at Bristol in 1920, which engendered considerable discussion regarding the effects of Pooling Peter Tatlow supplied the table that shows the changes in wagon numbers after grouping The following table breaks down each company's stock, mainly around 1922, into the various uses. Some of the classifications are fairly arbitrary and are not intended to be definitive. Whilst the final table, I think courtesy of David Jenkinson, shows the sizes of each company's loco, wagon and coaching stock fleets

The logical location would be in the centre of the wall to the ticket office, where the drawing shows a plain window which is patently not the original. The last page (127) of the book has a photo of the refurbished building, which has a doorway in the same place, although that is no guarantee as to its original location.

I think it would be clearer to use the terminology of "cable" rather than "cord", to differentiate it from the earlier systems in use. It should be noted that the description of the cable fittings on tool boxes only applied to the rears of Stroudley and some Craven locos. At the front, and on the rear buffer beams of all Billinton and later locos, there was a fitting below the buffer beam, to the left of the centre, from which the cable was dropped, and, when not in use, retained by a socket of clip, creating a loop which can clearly be seen on many photos, and just visible on this one. Its position did mean that the connection to the rolling stock was rather taut, particularly when compare with the rather relaxed cable from Brookhouse's toolbox to the next vehicle. The box of tricks, containing the battery cells, switch and bell, was actually fitted within the brake van, and not on the loco, which did have a bell and switch to allow communication between the two. The apparatus looks rather too big (drawing on the rear cover of LBSCR Carriages Volume 2) to fit on the loco, and would, anyway, be the responsibility of the guard to keep in order, rather than the driver. (I'm not sure what is meant by the fireman's side entrance - Brighton locos were left-hand drive!) The Stroudley/Rusbridge system was adopted by the LBSCR Board, late in 1875, before the Board of Trade actually approved it, and they installed it very quickly, by the standards of some other railways when it came it obeying BoT instructions, and by 1881 some 67% of passenger stock was so equipped, with a commensurate number of passenger locos. It should be noted that, at the time of introduction, passenger communication was not obligatory on local services, where station-to-station distances were within certain criteria, twenty miles non-stop, so the Stroudley four-wheelers and Terriers might have been a low priority. It was only in 1891 that a proper communication system was required for all services, and many other lines had clung on to the primitive cord method until then. I cannot find details of the actual connections, although there are plenty of clear sightings in various photos. Even Ian White in his quartet on Brighton coaches seems to gloss over the issue, noting that there must have been a special arrangement for slip coaches, otherwise the cables would have to be replaced each time they separated. The cable on most coaching and NPCC stock was fixed about 18 inches above the buffer beam, and often on the centre line, but occasionally off-set to the left to avoid brake pipes. Presumably carriage trucks would have had the loco loop, to allow the end doors to be dropped. On some of the later motor-coaches the cable was fixed horizontally, in a similar way to the loco toolbox fixings, perhaps to keep things clear of the multiplicity of air hoses required.

I’m a bit surprised that you had to look elsewhere for the rest of the drawings for Wateringbury as they were all part of the PM I sent you. I also don’t see why you think Adisham is too long, as the coloured up drawing I submitted above shows that the basic building is quite compact, and it would be easy to omit some of the outbuildings if you run out of space.

As @rovex has suggested, the first Chris Leigh book contains the Much Wenlock drawings, accompanied by a good selection of photos. Your copy may have come from Model Railway Constructor, in which Chris described in detail his creation of a 4mm model of that station. Regarding the drawings I sent to you, @AyJay, if you try to save them to your hard drive, you should see that the filename has the author's initials and the name of the station. Wateringbury is in John Minnis's SECR book. As for scales, you are, admittedly, rather at the mercy of a number of factors - hopefully the author has prepared the drawing as accurately as he could, but there is no guarantee the publishers have actually reduced them to scale to fit the book format, which usually results in the drawings being reproduced at 2mm to the foot, but mistakes have happened, and then, in the scanning/copying process there is the potential for more distortion, compounded by the printing process, when there is no guarantee that 100% actually means that! I tend to import a scanned drawing into, dare I say it, PowerPoint (other drawing packages are available) and then, using known dimensions, enlarge or reduce the drawing to the matching size. I then export it as a PDF as my printer seems happier with scaling PDF's, and there are usually a couple of draft runs until I get the printed output to match the drawing. I am glad you propose to create simple mock-ups, as I am sure that will make it easier to decide what fits best. I quite like playing around with the image to provide a bit of colour, and a more realistic image, which can be stuck to your cardboard, which does save having to mark out the building outline. A few minutes work on a drawing from the John Minnis book produced this image. As can be seen, this drawing has a scale bar, which makes the correct scaling simple. For those that don't have such a bar, or any dimensions that can be used, it may be a matter of trusting the printed drawing, and taking a measurement from the original, or finding the footprint using NLS georeferenced maps or other sources which provide a method of measurement. For the record, the drawings for Much Wenlock measure 214mm for the overall frontage, which wold be 428mm in 4mm, or 107 feet overall. Wateringbury's drawings, unfortunately, have been printed across two pages, and it is not possible to provide an overall measurement, because of the binding margin , but the tallest chimney measures, from platform level, 87mm on the 2mm drawing, so it should be 174mm high in 4mm. (The overall length is approximately 260mm at 2mm or 130 feet, if all the smaller ancillary buildings are included)

I was thinking that it might be possible to press the wheels a bit closer to get the correct BTB for N gauge, but I don’t know whether the design allows this.

The 2mm Scale Association do 8 and 9 spoke 7mm diameter wheels, which would meet your “or finer” criteria and can probably be adjusted to suit 9mm gauge. The only downside is that you have to be a member to get hold of them! Perhaps you know a member who could do the deed for you.

@AyJay Some useful books might be Vivien Thompson's slim volume on Period Railway Modelling Buildings from Peco, and Derek Bidwell's Modelling Historic Architecture from The HMRS. Both contain plenty of drawings of railway buildings, including cottages, goods sheds and signal boxes, and both describe in detail their preferred method of constructing buildings. I have sent you a PM to show some examples of their content.

For what it’s worth, there is a Wills “kit” https://www.jacksonsmodels.co.uk/wills-ck16-brick-built-country-station-with-platform-oo-gauge-craftmans-kit.ir?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiceYw5eogwMVqpNQBh2t7AGjEAQYASABEgKiKPD_BwE (other retailers are available) that can be built into a pastiche of the LBSCR Myers building, such as Heathfield,

It was nice to see Waddon Marsh in this month’s Model Rail, with many enhancements, particularly with regard to the background scenics. In the article the question is asked about the emu stock used prior to the arrival of the 2EPB stock in the fifties. From 1930 the units used were, primarily, the 2 Wim sets converted from the first class carriages from the first LBSCR overhead sets, with the occasional appearance of the 2 SL sets, converted from the motor driving coaches, with their characteristic lowered ends where the bow collectors had been. They were withdrawn in 1954. See https://www.bloodandcustard.com/SR-2CarMotorUnits.html

@AyJay I'm afraid your rather scattergun approach may be putting people off from providing suitable pointers. Now that you have found a few that tickle your fancy, perhaps you can decide what sort of features you want, which may help you make a decision, or at least provide a specification that others could follow. You haven't said yet whether you are trying to create an exact copy of a particular station, or whether you are after a more generic style that will not tie it to a specific area or railway company, which does make a difference. As I have said before, some of the styles that you have considered, such as Heathfield's, are redolent of a certain parentage which may not tally with your chosen modelling ideas. From another point of view, some of the above may prove too large for the space on your layout. According to the Metcalfe website, your current building is just under 300 mm long, or about 75 real feet. If you go on the NLS Maps website, and use the georeferenced maps, you can zoom in on your chosen station, and, on the 25" scale maps, you can then use the handy distance measuring tool to check the approximate dimensions. This would show that Groombridge, at 105 feet long, might be rather too long for your purposes, whereas Edenbridge, whose photo I submitted, has many of the positive features of Groombridge, but is only about 80 feet long, and Heathfield, whilst about the same size, is actually set at right angles to the track and above it, so one of the other virtually identical buildings on the Cuckoo Line might be more suited. The trouble with the majority of the books that your search has uncovered, is that they are very much picture books, using the photos to demonstrate the architectural aspects, with little in the way of actual drawings. Sadly, of those which indicate plans, only Chris Leigh's first book really fills the bill, with 6 or 7 drawings of station buildings, including Much Wenlock that you mentioned at the beginning; the second volume is purely photographic, although potentially inspirational. Looking at a couple of R H Clark volumes, they are devoted to station layout plans, equally inspirational, but in other ways. There are several other books devoted to railway architecture, including those by V Anderson covering the LMS and Midland, and Vaughan for the GWR, but for their size they are slightly disappointing in the number of actual station building plans they offer, perhaps 6 - 10 per volume, but they do include plenty of photos and, of course, drawings for other railway buildings. A volume that might be of interest is one by John Minnis on SECR architecture, which has about 7 useful drawings, including Wateringbury, which I think has caught your attention already. Another possible source is the 2 volume Southern Branchlines, in which three or four branches are examined in some detail, and several structural drawings are included for each, an approach also adopted for GWR Branch Terminal Stations. Potentially the best source are the various line books from publishers such as OPC, Wild Swan and Lightmoor, many of which contain drawings of station buildings and other structures, one of the best examples being The Cuckoo Line by A Elliott, although some may only have only one or two drawings. However, the only easy way to tap this resource is if you can be more specific so that readers can consider the contents of their libraries as to whether there is anything useful therein, and then advise you accordingly; at the moment everything is rather vague.

As you seem to have found some drawings of buildings that might fit your layout, perhaps you could adapt the plans to suit the level of ornamentation you want. You can decide whether you want bays and what sort of canopies, if any, tickle your fancy, and select sympathetic masonry. I thought this rather random selection of LBSCR stations, built in the same sort of arrangement that you're after, might help give you some idea of the range of styles you could find on just one of the smaller pre-grouping lines. Rendered brickwork at Epsom Downs 1984 Baynards 1982 - plain brickwork with "stone" lintels, but interesting roof finishes Falmer 1986 - some rather stark brickwork with rubbed brick window arches These cottages are at Falmer, probably for the station master. Presumably contemporary, the use of flint in one half is interesting. Hackbridge 1984 - a fairly restrained use of polychromatic brickwork. Rather more flamboyant polychromatic brickwork at Lingfield 1988 - similar to Groombridge et al. Rather more rococo - at Leatherhead 1984 - a listed building And finally, the Myers buildings, which proliferated in the 1880's, that were originally stucco rendered but many receiving tiling. Sheffield Park 1980 PS Earlswood 1990 - a rather more modern, but still complex, design

Wallington had a vast range of coal bins, all of them beyond the furthest siding. Part of them can be seen in the left corner.

I think @Wickham Green too was referring to the goods locos being painted black after grouping, but with green lining until 1935. There were black locos south of the Thames well before that. The LBSCR, starting from 1906, used a black livery for its goods locos, albeit with red lining, although many post-WW1 repaints were in umber, as the paint was cheaper! The original lined black livery could be seen for several years after grouping.