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Midhurst LBSCR Station 1866


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Thanks Claude, Spitfire and Edwardian

Many thanks for the encouragement. There will be more to follow when I can take some photos.

Also running in some locos at the moment so info on those also to follow.

I notice that in the turntable photo you can see the line which is where the hinged section is, but a small price to pay for the convenience of being able to sit and work on the underneath of the layout!

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Well here we are, Sunday again and there has been a lot of progress this past week. Ian has the tunnel mouth well in hand, and also the high ground on each side of the tunnel mouth has been cut to shape. Next stage is to add a surface and start to add colour and texture before shrubbery and trees can be added. The banking on the other side of the track which is hollowed out to hide the switches has been roughed out and shaped so that the signalman has a clear sight line to the tunnel mouth.


Goods shed


Ian has built this to my instructions and made a very good building. My instructions were to use similar materials to those of the loco shed, as my interpretation of the site was that it was all originally built to a budget, bearing in mind that the LBSCR ran out of funds when building the Chichester to Midhurst line in 1865 and Midhust station was only finished in 1866.


Again, due to the restrictions of the site area, I had decided that the goods shed would have had an end-on loading dock for carts, and therefore this is at one end of the shed parallel to the track on the station side. If there is anyone who can correct me on this, I would welcome info.


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Station building


This has been sitting in a box for the past three years and has finally come into use  The building was built to my instructions by Wessex Buildings  but was very basic when received. The instructions given were based on measurements takes from the site plans supplied by the NRM and on a very poor painting done at the time by an unknown artist.


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The plans received from NRM show the platform to have been only 280 feet long and the station building taking up nearly half of that length. There were two entrances to the station from the entrance side, one possibly for first class passengers and the other for the peasantry! At least, that is my interpretation.


The canopy was constructed by Ian and is supported by correct canopy uprights supplied by 5and9 models. The building has lights in five rooms, three lights under the canopy and one light over each entrance, all of which were wired and installed by me (and work!). I can still do some things (not a lot!) Ian also added the advertisements and timetables. In fact, under a very strong magnifying glass you can actually read the times of trains to and from Selham, Petworth etc.


What I have tried to do in the following photo is to reproduce the picture from which the artist previously mentioned took his inspiration. The rolling stock is (I believe) all from 5and9 kits


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More to follow


 

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"There were two entrances to the station from the entrance side, one possibly for first class passengers and the other for the peasantry! At least, that is my interpretation."

 

Excellent layout and very inspiring.

 

For the station I am building, the land was originally acquired from the local gentry who had their own waiting room within the station building as part of the deal.  No other facilities were provided and I guess that when railways first started (mine was built in the 1860's too) that it was ever conceived the peasantry would use them.  A separate booking hall with waiting rooms was added on later.  The house is now in private use and I have this from the owner.  The occupiers of Berrington Hall's exclusive waiting room is now his sitting room.

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Brassey

Many thanks for the comment, and you could well be right. However, I had based my assumption on the Act of 1844 which required railway companies to offer facilities for the ordinary man to travel at a rate he could afford, which I know led the companies to make things as inconvenient as possible for non-first class passengers to travel. But the facilities had to be seen to exist!

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Well, I am in awe and chuffed to see this period modelled.  Judging from the locomotives stock, you are clearly intending to go beyond 1866, and this set me thinking.  The issue of period advertising came up on Kirtley Pete's 7mm layout Saltdean.  It is set in the 1880s, IIRC, and I think he had to remove all the enamel advertising signs upon discovering that manufacture of them did not get going until 1889 (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98308-saltdean-lbscr-in-0-gauge/page-6).  

 

That might explain why the sides of the station building and the fence show no such signs in the monochrome sketch you posted.

 

Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that enamel advertising signs did not became ubiquitous until 1895 or later, that still gives you a 30-year range without the signs.  Did you mean to go much further forward in time?

 

I failed to mention that I love the track-work and the ballasting, which, to my mind, gives a very good impression of the deeply-laid, over-the-sleeper ballasting that the Victorians seemed to go in for in station areas.  I am taking notes!

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Hello Edwardian

Many thanks for the comments  I appreciate the fact that enamel signs did not appear until much later, and therefore there are not many shown. I have worked on the premise that the signs shown were done by a local signwriter! It is my intention to run stock that I have which does range up to the late 1800s and to do this I have to pretend that this station lasted longer than the actual 15 years. Due to my disability and lack of space, things will probably happen at this station which did not happen in real life. 

Many thanks for the comments about the ballasting. I like it too!

Keep up the modelling

Thank you

Michael

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Hello Edwardian

Many thanks for the comments  I appreciate the fact that enamel signs did not appear until much later, and therefore there are not many shown. I have worked on the premise that the signs shown were done by a local signwriter! It is my intention to run stock that I have which does range up to the late 1800s and to do this I have to pretend that this station lasted longer than the actual 15 years. Due to my disability and lack of space, things will probably happen at this station which did not happen in real life. 

Many thanks for the comments about the ballasting. I like it too!

Keep up the modelling

Thank you

Michael

 

Sounds sensible.  I like to know what I should, or should not, have when considering a given prototype, and then I can decide how far to bend or break the rules to suit!  

 

And the signs certainly liven up the buildings and fence, and, as a feature we have come to expect, I daresay the model will look more realistic with them than without them!

 

As my history master once said "perception is everything"!

 

Loving every aspect of the layout; stock, track and buildings. Look forward to more. 

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In order to show those people interested just what I have been able to model before my disability arrived, it is my intention to slowly post photos of my period trains, some of which pre-date Midhurst 1866 by quite a few years. What I am thinking of doing is to pose period trains on the assumption that John Chester Craven would have sent all kinds of obsolete stock to work on the Midhurst branch due to the LBSCR's parlous financial state at that time. So don't be supprised if stock as far back as the 1830s appears!

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In order to show those people interested just what I have been able to model before my disability arrived, it is my intention to slowly post photos of my period trains, some of which pre-date Midhurst 1866 by quite a few years. What I am thinking of doing is to pose period trains on the assumption that John Chester Craven would have sent all kinds of obsolete stock to work on the Midhurst branch due to the LBSCR's parlous financial state at that time. So don't be supprised if stock as far back as the 1830s appears!

 

I look forward to it!

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Saturday today and some progress has been made this week.

The main progress has been in the making, colouring and scenicing of the part of West Lavington Hill which was cut away up to the point where the tunnel mouth is located.. The banking on the opposite of the track, which is cut away underneath to hide the  layout controls , has also been shaped and part coloured but is not yet completed. The  hill on the main or north side of the track has been created by Ian from a foam compound  and he has also done the colour and texture of the face of the cutting. I must admit that I am very pleased with the end result. It is intended to finish this hill off with a line of scree at the base,to represent any fallen chalk or sand.

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The other work done this week has been the final laying of the goods yard gravelled surface, and a start has been made on defining and inserting the Bepton Road and bridge  where it was adjacent to the turntable, but this is in the early stages.

I have added a few more photos of the layout for anyone who is interested.

Another view of the goods shed

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Another aspect of the platform and canopy

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And just to whet Edwardians appetite, this is the last loco I was able to build

 

before becoming incapable. You can see that it was not up to my previous standard

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More to follow

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Simply love the scenic side, landscape and buildings, that are emerging.

 

And what a little stunner that 2-2-0 is! I don't imagine I would ever be able to create such a wonderful model.

 

A visual feast and a rare glimpse of a mid-Victorian railway.

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Well spotted Killean Kean. It is from the days when I modelled the railways of early South Eastern England, but now all my SER/SECR/LCDR is going to be disposed of.

Thanks Edwardian, your comments much appreciated

Michael

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Well spotted Killean Kean. It is from the days when I modelled the railways of early South Eastern England, but now all my SER/SECR/LCDR is going to be disposed of.

Thanks Edwardian, your comments much appreciated

Michael

 

You're welcome!

 

You know, I nearly added that, if I could model to your standard, I'd have attempted a South Eastern Folkestone Class Crampton, but feared to mention this in case you were exclusively a Brighton man!

 

Sounds like I needn't have worried.

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I have been exclusively a Brighton man for many years now, but before that I went through a South Eastern phase, and before that an LSWR phase, so I now have so much stock, that I don't know what to do with it!

But now Brighton it is.

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I have been exclusively a Brighton man for many years now, but before that I went through a South Eastern phase, and before that an LSWR phase, so I now have so much stock, that I don't know what to do with it!

But now Brighton it is.

 

It would be good to see Rule No.1 evoked so that it can all take a turn!  But, I am not suggesting that you devote precious modelling time to photographing models just for our gratification when you have a layout to work on!

 

It is so refreshing to see an earlier period.  Following this topic is filling a hole left by Mike Sharman's layout, which was often photographed for books and periodicals in my youth, and which I found captivating, but which now seems long-gone.  

 

There is not a lot of pre-1900 stuff around, and especially pre-1875 (which the Era/Epoch system does not admit as "pre-Grouping" but which is held, rather inappropriately in my view, to be "Pioneering"!  One day, I might have mastered the skills to 'go early', but, for now, I do enjoy seeing such work as yours.

 

I do hope that your SER/SECR/LCDR collection finds a good, sympathetic and appropriate home on a period layout somewhere. Some layouts and stock collections should really be "preserved for the Nation"!

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