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Radstock - Midford Tramway at Wellow


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Thanks Phil, a carving of a waggon is on a grave in Cameley Churchyard, third picture down on this blog http://deborahharvey.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/to-cameley-with-pameli.html Guess where I may be going this weekend to get a better picture!

 

The plan is to put the tow path along the front of the layout, The disused canal will be behind with the rising land behind. The tramway was laid along the towpath, but was laid down the centre of the tunnel.

 

Now here is a fact not usually known, the towpath is invariably on the lower side of the hill. Have a look next time you are on a canal. Hence why the towpath on the Kennet and Avon crosses over at Dundas Aqueduct (for example).

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So here is the current plan, as can be seen it is the back of an envelope!

post-7177-0-65572300-1498580483_thumb.jpg

Notice that the siding is the wrong way round. Now think about a horse and train arriving from the left (Radstock), and returning back the same way. If it was engine hauled, it could push it in, but horses can't push waggons, they can only pull. I have added a siding against the canal wharf, the plan shown in the first post isn't clear, but a wharf would seem likely, and it adds to the visual interest.

 

The bridge on the left is on the site of the later level crossing on the S&D, the lane in the middle is Mill Lane, effectively built by the S&D. Tunnel is on the right.

 

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I wonder if the towpath location was to avoid runoff from the hill making the path slippery or water logged. On the down side any rain could drain away. We had a bit of the Dorset and Somerset Canal, including the 'acky-ducky', at Coleford, but it was abandoned before it was completed.

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Serious planning in full size has started. Straight away it looks like I will have to go for a two foot deep layout to get the effect I'm after. A Metcalf church may come in useful. So far I have been drawing out the canal, the canal structures. Then the tramway will be superimposed on top - just like the original.

post-7177-0-12967800-1502896172_thumb.jpg

Spotted this waggon in the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, wheels OK, need to think about the top.

post-7177-0-25553600-1502896212_thumb.jpg

 

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Spotted this waggon in the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, wheels OK, need to think about the top.

attachicon.gifIMG_8942.JPG

 

Have you seen this picture from SCC Weigh House No.51?

 

post-4916-0-98073700-1503061155_thumb.jpg

http://www.coalcanal.org/wh/backissues/51imposed.pdf

 

Possibly a later coal dram with flanged wheels but definitely local!

 

Edit: Although comparing the two pictures, they may actually be a matching pair....

Edited by sparks
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One thing I've been asked about is creating the landscape. How am I going to model Somerset in the Georgian period?

 

The cottages are most likely to be thatched. Would there be more trees than nowadays? I've seen the reproduction Georgian landscape at Beamish, didn't look too different to anywhere else. I know the agricultural revolution didn't impact on this area of Somerset, but will I be able to create a landscape that says "Somerset", when there are no signature symbols?

 

When we create our models, we are able to put things in like buildings, signals, that say what region the railway is representing. It is those that make our models say where they are without any trains. This model will have none of that.

 

Ah well it is the Cameo Challenge :scratchhead:

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was there anything unique about the Somerset canal boats? The Fenland lighters and Chelmer barges were quite distinctive, in my area. Features like these, or farm wagons, or even clothes, may not be noticed by the majority, but I remember the pride of one exhibitor when I recognised a building he'd included on his layout, as model of Oldknow's canal warehouse from Marple. It's worth the effort.

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How about having the Reverend John Skinner (1772-1839) cogitating as he walks along your towpath? If you are modellling operations on a Sunday then he could be seen berating your drivers for not observing the Sabbath.

 

He wasn't a happy man, suffering the loss of a young wife and his children to consumption and taking his own life with a pistol to the head in 1839. He was also a very learned man who had to contend with the harsh realities of life and death in the mining parish of Camerton. His "Journal of a Somerset Rector" is no easy read but full of fascinating aspects of life in the period.

 

In 1820 after losing his his favourite daughter Laura he wrote:

 

"I could not help thinking how differently this morning was to be spent by myself, an obscure individual, on the desolate heights of Mendip, and the Queen of these realms in the midst of her judges in the most splendid metropolis in the world. Yet when half the number of years have rolled away which these tumuli have witnessed how will every memorial, every trace, be forgotten of the agitation which now fills every breast; all the busy heads and aching hearts will be as quiet as those of the savage chieftains which have so long occupied these hillocks"

 

Something to bear in mind perhaps, as we each wrestle with our own cameo daemons?

 

Simon

Edited by Not Jeremy
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was there anything unique about the Somerset canal boats? The Fenland lighters and Chelmer barges were quite distinctive, in my area. Features like these, or farm wagons, or even clothes, may not be noticed by the majority, but I remember the pride of one exhibitor when I recognised a building he'd included on his layout, as model of Oldknow's canal warehouse from Marple. It's worth the effort.

The canal by this point is empty of water, so I'm expecting it to be a weedy rush filled mess. The tramway is laid along the towpath, but down the centre of the tunnel. Somerset carts were distinctive, that's an idea. Did they change from Georgian times to the 50s? I have pictures of carts from that period.

 

I am inspired by the painting of Buckland in the Moor (1888) a poster of which I purchased from Torquay museum. http://www.ebay.ie/itm/LC00217-Buckland-Moor-Devon-1888-J-Salter-Watercolour-Torquay-Museum-No-/253080619608?hash=item3aecc7ca58:g:D00AAOSwXXxZXNVC OK it's Devon, but the dilapidation would be prevalent in Somerset at that period.

 

How about having the Reverend John Skinner (1772-1839) cogitating as he walks along your towpath? If you are modellling operations on a Sunday then he could be seen berating your drivers for not observing the Sabbath.

 

He wasn't a happy man, suffering the loss of a young wife and his children to consumption and taking his own life with a pistol to the head in 1839. He was also a very learned man who had to contend with the harsh realities of life and death in the mining parish of Camerton. His "Journal of a Somerset Rector" is no easy read but full of fascinating aspects of life in the period.

 

In 1820 after losing his his favourite daughter Laura he wrote:

 

"I could not help thinking how differently this morning was to be spent by myself, an obscure individual, on the desolate heights of Mendip, and the Queen of these realms in the midst of her judges in the most splendid metropolis in the world. Yet when half the number of years have rolled away which these tumuli have witnessed how will every memorial, every trace, be forgotten of the agitation which now fills every breast; all the busy heads and aching hearts will be as quiet as those of the savage chieftains which have so long occupied these hillocks"

 

Something to bear in mind perhaps, as we each wrestle with our own cameo daemons?

 

Simon

That is an interesting idea. But Revd Skinner was in the Camerton Parish, and my model is set in Wellow Parish. Would he have walked over the hill? Do his memoirs mention the engine? I suppose there's nothing stopping me having him.

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This area has mainly romans/double romans nowadays - machine made. Old pictures of cottages show a lot of thatch, but we are talking 100 years previous. Where are the clay deposits for the tiles nearby?

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Apple trees, lots of apple trees.

 

Also, having stayed overnight in Meare, prior to the RailWells show, there are lots of straight roads with ditches alongside and lots of larger 'ponds', with long grasses.

 

Edited : Wrong part of Somerset...

Edited by Stubby47
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Thanks, I'd forgotten that article. Your picture has been cropped in the magazine...

It's just copy and pasted from the magazine - quite often you can do thus in a pdf with a right click on the photo. And, if it's been cropped in the dtp software after insertion, you get the whole thing!

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Serious planning in full size has started. Straight away it looks like I will have to go for a two foot deep layout to get the effect I'm after. A Metcalf church may come in useful. So far I have been drawing out the canal, the canal structures. Then the tramway will be superimposed on top - just like the original.

attachicon.gifIMG_8976.JPG

Spotted this waggon in the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, wheels OK, need to think about the top.

attachicon.gifIMG_8942.JPG

 

Which narrow gauge museum was the plateway wagon in?

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When did they start using the distinctive pantiles in Somerset? Pantiles and stone buildings are pretty sonominous to me.

Brick and tile works in the Bridgwater and Highbridge area were well established by the start of the 19th century. Bridgwater tiles were marketed nationally and Highbridge had three brick and tile works within a few hundred yards of the wharf and others the other side of the B&E mainline.

Looking at early photographs of Mendip, there are few, if any, thatched buildings by then. There were some stone slab roofs, but most are tiled and mainly with pantiles.

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