Loose Road

[david51]

I have been a follower of rmweb for several years and although a while ago I did post some pictures of a previous layout I have posted nothing of my own apart from the odd comment for some time so I thought perhaps it was time to introduce my layout 'Loose Road'.

I am afraid my ability to build my own track is limited so L R uses good old Peco code 100 rail and most of the buildings are kits or Scalescene models.

Loose Road is set in mid Kent any time from 1959 to NSE days. Having lived in Kent for most of my life it gives me the scope to run the trains I remember from my youth. I was too late to see Hythe or the Elham Valley but I saw saw Westerham and Hawkhurst and travelled regularly on the New Romney branch so L R is an attempt to recapture those memories and the southeastern as I remember

it after the Kent Coast electrification.

Many of you may know that the Kent and East Sussex railway intended to extend to Maidstone via Sutton Valance and Loose . It would have been heavily curved and steeply graded the line was authorised in 1913 but only the branch to Tobin over the Medway was built. Although Col Stevens bought an 0-8-0 tank to work the extension World War One put paid to the line.

But not in my imagination!

I envisage the line was built and opened . In 1948 it became part of the Southern Region . The line would have tunnelled under the North Downs to reach Tovil, but being cheaply built some time in the 1950s the tunnel collapsed and was deemed to be beyond repair so that Loose Road became the terminus from Headcorn . Passenger services continued and the line was even electrified under phase 2 of the Kent Coast scheme(unlikely I know but it is my railway) .

Thus I run stock that might have been seen had the line existed including electric stock though train lengths are limited to two coaches .

Photos and a track plan to follow

[david51]

For Tobin read Tovil.

Photos to follow if I can work out how to post them

[david51]

[david51]

Just a few random photos of Loose Road

[sb67]

Nice set of pics, thanks for posting them. Look forward to seeing some more.

Steve.

[gismorail]

Very nice you have been hiding your light under a bushell what a little gem of a layout 

[david51]

Thanks for the comments.

Loose Road is very small,5'for the visible part plus a short two road fiddle yard .

It shares space in what I laughingly call my office with a desk and files and another small layout based on Plymouth and Bristol in the seventies

[david51]

The Kernow Thumper is a memory of the New Romney branch between 1962 and closure in 1967 when I used the branch regularly.

To my mind it always seemed busy and I wonder what it would be like now if like Ashford-Hastings it had avoided the axe.

Ashford - Hastings was scheduled to close on the same day but problems with the replacement buses service meant a temporary reprieve which ultimately became permanent. If only The same had applied to New Romney.

[david51]

Just a few more photos of Loose Road

[south_tyne]

Fantastic! Lovely atmosphere apparent from this tantalising glimpse.... I'd love to see more Do you have a track plan or overall shot of the layout you could share?

 

Lovely stuff,

David

[david51]

Thanks for the kind comments.

Two more photos showing layout from either end.

[david51]

Thanks for the kind comments.

Two more photos showing layout from either end.

The fiddle yard can be attached to either end and is capable of being operated as a through station but at home with limited space the fiddle yard is normally at the right hand end ,partly for convenience and partly because it makes shunting more difficult.

[Oldddudders]

I rather like this. I lived between Cranbrook and Goudhurst for 20 years so it all feels a bit familiar. And I have a feeling that my late first wife's great uncle or some such had been a headmaster at Sutton Valence. A senior colleague lived in Headcorn, and his wife christened it Deadcorn.

 

I never went to Tovil, but when I first got transferred to the South Eastern Division in 1973, I'm sure I was shown a letter written by a very senior person saying the branch was a nonsense! The Tovil branch was gone within a decade, as the freight business declined and changed in nature.

 

Finally, as I'm sure you are aware, Loose is pronounced Looz, but it is still a fine destination to see on the front of a double-decker bus - and there really is a Loose Women's Institute!

[david51]

The Tovil branch opened in early 1900s and crossed the Medway by a very substantial girder bridge( now demolished). The branch was always goods only and served a number of paper mills on the eastern side of the river. As the mills closed the branch fell into disuse and was closed officially in 1977 though I don't think it had seen much use for a year or to before that .

There was a station at Tovil on the west side of the Medway which closed in 1943 . It was just south ofthe junction with the Tovil branch.

Just recently there was a local campaign to reopen the station. In likely but given the awful traffic in Maidstone ,who knows

[david51]

A few more photos :-the old and the new.

The R1 has escaped fromFolkestone Harbour and is substututing for a failed loco and is collecting a van full of pot plants( see Hawkhurst).

The Class 73 is on trial.

The class C is the usual branch freight loco

[david51]

Finally , for any member who is interested,there is a very informative article about the proposed railway between Headcorn and Maidstone on the Col Stephens Museum websiteWhether a Q1 would have appeared on the line had it been built we shall never know ,but in my imagination......

[david51]

Those of you who read my earlier post about my layout Loose Road will recall that I mentioned that I had another layout,Derriford(Kings Road). .

Like John Flann I like my railway to have a good believable back story even if it is only in my imagination.

It gives the railway purpose in my view and I feel the trains are going and coming from somewhere even if in reality they are only traveling( in my case) a couple of feet.

I was always happy with the explanation for Loose Road but Derriford never felt right so both layouts have now been transposed. Furthermore I have for many years been fascinated by the Swanage branch. I knew it before it closed and have watched its rebuilding with admiration for what has been achieved and although I live too far away to be actively involved regular visits have kept me in touch with progress.

Over the years I have built several layouts based on the Purbeck area and I wanted to return to that theme.The result is that Loose Road has now become Lulwind Bay and Derriford has been partially rebuilt and has now become Loose Road .

In 1912 the Kent and East Sussex Railway obtained powers to extend from Headcorn to Maidstone. Only the goods branch to Tovil across the River Medway was built, a tunnel being required under the North Downs to Loose .WW1 intervened and the extention was never built except in my world it was. In 1947 the tunnel collapsed and service was cut back to Loose Road and the stub was electrified in 1962 as part of the Kent Coast phase 2 and service runs from Ashford to Loose Road via Headcorn.

as for Lulwind Bay there is a similar basis in fact in that in 1898 powers were obtained to build a light railway from near Worgret Junction to Osmington near Weymouth via East And West Lulworth. In the end problems with the military and a failure to raise the necessary finance spelt the end of the scheme and after WW1 buses linked Wool with Lulworth Cove ,except that in the mind of this modeller the railway did get built and was leased to the LSWR. Lulworth to Osmington closed in 1931 but thanks to tourism and the military presence in the area the line soldiered on until closure of the Swanage branch in 1972.

I run trains that could have appeared between 1962 and closure . There is no military traffic(dealt with further back down the branch) but ball clay coal and fertiliser provide the staples which kept the branch going.

I will provide some photos but those I originally posted of Loose Road are now Lulwind Bay. I hope that's not too confusing ,but I hear you ask if it is meant to be Lulworth why have you named the layout Lulwind Bay. Students of Thomas Hardy as I was many years ago will know that in his Wessex novels Lulworth became Lulwind and instead of Cove I decided Bay hence Lulwind Bay

[david51]

I probably should have started a separate thread but here are some photos of what is now Loose Road.

There is no run round but that was deliberate to increase shunting potential even if not very prototypical,but it is my layout and I built it to please me,no one else.

[Paul_C]

David,

 

Your layout looks superb with some great detail. Where did you get the platform signs and lamps from? I'm going to need some very similar when I get my build underway.

 

Paul C.

[saxokid]

Realy nice layout you have here..

[david51]

Once again thankyou for the kind comments.

The signs were printed for me from a source no longer available but I now use Sankey Senics( no connection).

Both layouts have undergone change,the original Loose Road has now metamorphosed into 'North Street',one siding has been removed and the platform is now in the middle of the layout.

Although inspired by the K& ESR and the Hayling Island branch it is not set in any particular area so I can run any of my Southern Region stock.

what is now Loose Road has had some track alterations  but is still based on the Maidstone Headcorn might have been . 

Iwill try to post some photos in due course

Thanks again

[calvin Streeting]

did you see the kent photo archive link i posted else where, lots of old southern stations...   

 

i live a stones throw from loose  

[david51]

Photos of North Street

[david51]

Photos of Loose Road

[david51]

More of NorthStreet