colin.divall

According to Mike King's book on SR pull-push stock (p.42), in Sep 1960 the interior livery was "pale cream and reddish brown, with reddish brown floral pattern upholstery." He speculates the curtains were "probably similar" but it's clear from photos they were in fact a mid-blue. Adding them does make a difference. Colin

And for those thinking modelling Hayfield (or anywhere else on the branch for that matter) in 1880, evidence from the Board of Trade's report on the railway companies progress (or lack thereof) on interlocking!.... Colin

Thanks, very interesting to see this diagram etc. (although there seems to be some confusion of the spare levers!). Any idea of the date? There are clearly changes from that below (also undated, but I'd assume from the C20th heyday of the line, after the box was moved to the west of the level crossing in the 1920s): The diagram is by R.D. Foster, and was published in the MRC (Feb. 1979), p.82. Colin

Yup, agreed: those old Humbrols can still deliver. I was recently using an oldish (ten years?), previously unopened tin of Cherry BR bauxite on some long-'paused' wagon projects - fine, although two (brushed) coats needed for a decent finish. Thought things were looking a little uniform though, so dug around and found a partly used, 1/2 fluid ounce tin of Humbrol 110, 'BR Freight Stock Red Bauxite' I'd been given some years ago. I reckoned it must be at least 50 years old. Wasn't optimistic... how wrong can you be? Twenty second shake, if that; quick test swab; and then, to my eye at least, really quite a decent finish after just one coat.... Colin

Argue they might, but they'd be wrong! The line was GC & Midland Joint, later LNER & LMS; no sniff of the CLC. It is (still) a spectacular location though. Colin

To be strictly accurate, this bridge wasn’t the original - probably a timber structure like many underbridges on the cheaply built Southampton & Dorchester - but a replacement from ca 1853, 1854. It was designed by Charles Barry and paid for by Lady Charlotte Guest after the death of her husband Sir J. John Guest, the iron-master.

Be interested to hear how you get on - I live in the village and have wondered over the years about modelling all or part of the station, or that at Birch. Perhaps in another life...! Colin

In fact the Poole Quay tramway staggered on to early 1960, the loss of the bunker coal for the Cosens pleasure steamers being the final nail, if my memory of the Kew closure file serves me correctly. Rather like in Weymouth at the moment, the local authority had long been keen to be rid of the tracks in the highway. Colin

It’s a ballast brake van, correctly painted predominantly in red oxide - see mclong’s post on p8 above. C.

Err, they did. The Salisbury & Dorset Junction Railway - not the other S&DJR.... Colin

Anyone interested in the branch might like to buy a copy of Hayfield: From Rail to Trail, a 25 min DVD some friends and I finished recently about the last years. It uses most of Ken’s lovely colour film from 1969 (with his full permission I might add), plus recollections from locals about travelling on the line etc. A snip at a fiver (with all ‘profits’ to charity, so we’d rather not see it posted on You Tube....); available only from the newsagent in Hayfield. It’s also showing in the heritage centre in New Mills. Colin

The original suggestion came from the (then) Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), which offered Ringwood-Brockenhurst as one of several closed lines where there was potentially a business case for re-opening - in this instance largely to relieve road traffic to/from Soton Parkway/Eastleigh and then onto Basingstoke etc. The report recognised that there was traffic from farther west (Wimborne, Ferndown, Verwood etc), but that the loss of infrastructure meant there was no realistic prospect of re-building. When closure of the Old Road was (briefly) discussed in secret within the Whitehall in 1963-64, the future expansion of housing north of Poole/Bournemouth/Christchurch was acknowledged, but the bod from the Ministry of Housing & Local Government knocked on the head any prospect of reprieving the route by arguing that this wouldn’t be a commuting area (I.e. London overspill).... Easy to criticise with 50 years’ hindsight, but I wonder how wise much of today’s transport policy will look in 2069! Colin

To be pedantic (or merely accurate, take your pick), 14 Oct 1974 was when the Wimborne-West Moors (MoD) section was taken out of use. The trains to the depot had petered out earlier that year, in the summer. At the time (I lived in the area), I firmly believed the last trains had been around June/July, but there's some photographic evidence that there might have been some movments in August. Beyond that - zilch! Colin

Ah, Wimborne's provender stores... many traps for the unwary, including me, and I've only been researching the site since ca 1970..... The Bibby's corrugated-'iron' store is a sort-of standard Southern Railway structure, about half of which, as far as I can discover, just possibly dates from before WW2, but which in any case was certainly extended twice - the first time at some point in the (early?) 1950s, by means of the Exmouth Junction concrete product (including the 'bridge' you mention - but in corrugated iron as far as I can make out, not concrete or asbetos sheet), and then again in the early 1960s by extending the original corrugated iron building to about twice its initial length using similar materials. This extension post-dates the official BR diagram from which your extract comes. So the 'proper' size of the store will very much depend on the year you're modelling... Much though I love the WRS's rendition of Wimborne station, this is not, shall we say, the most accurate element since, apart from anything else, the two parts of the store are modelled as off-set from one another - which they never were. If you'd like to PM me, I might be able to dig out some photos and WHY. Colin

Well, mine was a tongue-in-cheek remark! A nice shot ( in Michael Welch’s Decline of Southern Steam) in colour of the same engine heading north through Broadstone with the Pines, complete with the BR standard headcode - although in this case, probably explained by the fact that the top bracket was in use for the headboard. Aubrey Punter is great to talk to as well. Thanks to him I know it’s OK to run a rebuilt Merchant Navy as far as Wimborne without having to invoke Rule 1.... C