Kineton S&MJR

[OldNick]

The subject pretty much says it all. 

 

Our next project at the LWMRS N Gauge group is to be a modular layout based on the S&MJR route, starting with Kineton Station. Kinetom MOD will be off scene, as we'll be starting with the village station itself. We'll be building it as it was in the British Railways post war period before passenger closure in 1952, but may sometimes go back to the LMS period for variety of stock. 

 

Research has been going on for a year ot so, the baseboards are due to arrive soon, and some prototype fine scale N gauge track has been built to check our standards. 

 

The model will be DCC controlled, and we are following the FREMO modular standards to allow us to build by section - starting with a station and a couple of small fiddle yards, with alternative stations and scenic sections later.

 

If you have any information on the S&MJR route of this station in particular, which we may not have seen, please get in touch.

[Focalplane]

I saw the article in the February BRM and I really like the approach your team is taking.  What little is left of the S&MJR hardly does justice to a line which turned out to be very useful as British Railways ramped up traffic on adjacent lines - the banana trains being a good example.  Then along came Dr. Beeching.  The line could have been useful for diversions during the recent Harbury landslide.

 

I also like the depth of research and the commitment to the social history of the station and the area.  Do please keep posting results of your work.

 

Will there be any displays at the LWMRS annual show on March 6th?

 

Edit:  I should also add that my currently stored 1930s Shipston-on-Stour 4mm model has a fictitious connection to the S&MJR at Ettington.  This pre-supposes joint rights on the Ettington to Old Town stretch to run GWR passenger trains from Shipston to Birmingham as well as a daily Midland 3F freight.

[bike2steam]

I must have missed the original post on this subject, but there is a good book on this line by Riley & Simpson, published by Lamplight Publications. My maternal grandfather was the live-in manager of the Co-op that once was in Kineton in the mid 1950's to the mid 1960's, it was opposite the Swan Hotel in the village centre. I spent many happy weekends there, and was lucky to see the lines hay-day in the early 60's when the freight traffic was very busy for a short while. But I'll just add one thing, Beeching wasn't responsible for it's demise but it was the rapid run down of the iron ore trade, to satisfy the south wales steel mills, that was it's main reason for existence, especially the Wroxton, and Byfield quarries which were stretched to their limit for the demand for steel export to help pay off the national debt.

[Focalplane]

I must have missed the original post on this subject, but there is a good book on this line by Riley & Simpson, published by Lamplight Publications. My maternal grandfather was the live-in manager of the Co-op that once was in Kineton in the mid 1950's to the mid 1960's, it was opposite the Swan Hotel in the village centre. I spent many happy weekends there, and was lucky to see the lines hay-day in the early 60's when the freight traffic was very busy for a short while. But I'll just add one thing, Beeching wasn't responsible for it's demise but it was the rapid run down of the iron ore trade, to satisfy the south wales steel mills, that was it's main reason for existence, especially the Wroxton, and Byfield quarries which were stretched to their limit for the demand for steel export to help pay off the national debt.

Yes, you are right about the lack of the iron ore trade killing off the line, but IMO Dr. Beeching still takes the blame for a complete lack of rail services in South Warwickshire (south of Stratford and Leamington).  And it isn't going to change given the decision not to go ahead with renewing the Stratford-Honeybourne link.  Given the amount of housing development this will be seen to be in error.

 

Kineton is one of numerous small towns and villages in the area cut off from rail services.

[bike2steam]

Kineton is one of numerous small towns and villages in the area cut off from rail services.

That very sparsely patronised service finished April 1952, train service was usually one coach hauled by a 3F 0-6-0, occasionally a 4F.