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Duddon Bridge - CLOSED


NeilHB
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Duddon Bridge is a small wayside station on the Broughton & Dunnerdale Light Railway, and opened, along with the rest of the railway, in early 1905.

The Broughton & Dunnerdale was one of a series of light railways proposed by the Furness Railway in the early 1900s in order to tap into the emerging tourism market in the Lake District. The railway departed from the Furness Railways Coniston branch at Broughton, and ran South West for a short distance, before crossing the River Duddon, and turning north to run up the side of Dunnerdale (also known as the Duddon Valley), through Duddon Bridge, Ulpha, Hall Dunnerdale to the terminus at Higher Seathwaite.

From Duddon Bridge two branches diverted off from the main line - one which ran south back out of the station and up the valley of the River Lickle to terminate at Broughton Mills. This line was freight only, and served both a number of mills in Broughton Mills, and a narrow gauge line which ran up into the hills and carried traffic from various lime kilns and timber felling areas in the vicinity.

The other branch which left the station running North, crossed over the River Duddon and ran up the opposite bank to the main line, to terminate at a loading point with a narrow gauge timber tramway.

Back at Duddon Bridge, there was a papermill (which explains the large number of narrow Gauge timber tramways in the area...) which was served by a number of sidings, and a general goods siding, well mainly for coal traffic, but general goods too when required.

The main line left the station by running down the middle of the main road between the mill buildings, and followed the River Duddon northward.

Ulpha was the next station on the line, and along with the goods yard, had a creamery which sent its output by rail. The line now curved to the east, still following the valley, before reaching Hall Dunnerdale, this was a simple station with one goods siding.

The terminus of the line was reached at Higher Seathwaite, here the line connected with an aerial rope way to a Slate quarry high up on the fells.

Between the papermill, creamery and Slate quarry, the line had a fairly healthy freight traffic flow right up until it’s eventual closure in the autumn of 1972, having carried on, still as an indecent concern, long after many of its fellow light railways had succumb...
_______

The layout came about because both myself and my friend Tim have long wanted to build a light railway layout, and decided that we ought to combine our efforts and produce one layout between the two of us. We’ve been planning this now for a number of months, and have now made some significant progress on the layout, so we can now share it with everyone.

Today was a milestone, as we started construction of the second turntable fiddle yard, and last main board to be built (there are some scenic extensions boards to be built, but we are waiting for our trusty man with a laser cutter at Grainge & Hodder to work his magic...).

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It’s a bit of a strange site, but board no.5 in its all upside down clamped to the hilt glory! All that’s left to do is to end the two top end pieces, and sort out the board connectors at the far end.

Having got the last board as far as we could, we decided it was time to start sorting out trackwork for the first fiddleyard and main scenic board 1.

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This view is looking back towards the fiddleyard, from the start of the double ended siding in the station (it’s not a loop as we are not passing trains, but it will be used for trains to run round and shunt). The right hand line is the main running line, and represents the railway to the mainline junction at Broughton. There will be a platform to the right of the main line here, just in front of the camera, though the actual platform itself will be on the extra scenic boards that will run the length of the front of the layout.
That on the left is the freight only branch to Broughton Mills, though it’s officially classed as a long(!) siding. Just at the end of the loop, the line will cross a lane (ungated), and then pass between a couple of buildings to exit the scene. To the right of the main line, near the front of the layout will be a large, two storey Lakeland slate barn, between the two diverging routes there will be a blacksmiths, and then at the rear of the board here will be a couple of cottages. These should hopefully serve as suitable scenic breaks for the line going off scene.

There are five roads on the fiddleyard sector plate, three of which serve the mainline, and the other two serve as the Broughton Mills branch.

The next board will feature the point for the coal siding, and the junction for timber tramway, this will cross the mill race via a lightweight steel girder bridge just after the junction, necessitating a severe weight limit along this line (basically an excuse to run my Simplex and Ruston 48DS locos!). The main line will thenswing towards the back of board, and on to board three where the paper mill complex and siding(s) will be. We’re still working on the exact track layout for this bit, and it all depends on what will fit, and how it looks at the end of the day.

Operations wise, we are looking to run through a number of different time periods, from pre-grouping (I need somewhere to run all my Furness stock), through late 1920s/1930s, 1950s and then up to the closure of the railway in 1972, when the line was diesel only.

Between the two of us, Tim and I have plenty of locos, all of which are suitable for the layout, and one or two more may well have been purchased with this project in mind (Dapol 08 in Blue...).

I need to redraw the map for the line, so once that’s done I’ll post it on here so hopefully the ramblings above will make more sense.

TTFN,

Neil

Edited by NeilHB
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You will need one of these then. Its the FR 2-4-2T there the prototypes will be running on Lowick  next month at Bristol. Top SLS nylon roof and chassis nickel silver. There will be two versions smoke bock with or with out snaphead rivets and and two different chimneys. Also a Machester and Milford/GWR version. Just got the brakes , sand boxes and roof to add to the model and its off to the printers.

 

Marc 

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I look forward to seeing progress with this layout and do like the biography of the line.  It's an area that I knew as I travelled up to the Ratty to work as a volunteer.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Jamie

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Great project, I know the area well also, it does rain quite a lot there! You could justify a number of Furness Railway items including the steam railcar! Look forward to seeing more progress , good to see the baseboards!

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You will need one of these then. Its the FR 2-4-2T there the prototypes will be running on Lowick next month at Bristol. Top SLS nylon roof and chassis nickel silver. There will be two versions smoke bock with or with out snaphead rivets and and two different chimneys. Also a Machester and Milford/GWR version. Just got the brakes , sand boxes and roof to add to the model and its off to the printers.

 

Marc

 

Thanks Marc - there is 1/2 a Furness J1 upstairs waiting for when I can find the time and the money to finish it off - Knuckles very kindly upscaled his 4mm 3D prints for me last year, I just need to save up some more money to buy the bodywork. Your kit looks good though. Hopefully the J1 will fit given that we are using Peco’s settrack points, shall have to wait and see.

 

I look forward to seeing progress with this layout and do like the biography of the line. It's an area that I knew as I travelled up to the Ratty to work as a volunteer.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Jamie

Thanks Jamie, much appreciated. It’s been quite fun sorting out the backstory of the line, still a few bits left to sort out, but they’re only minor thankfully.

 

Great project, I know the area well also, it does rain quite a lot there! You could justify a number of Furness Railway items including the steam railcar! Look forward to seeing more progress , good to see the baseboards!

Thanks Dave, there will hopefully be a few Furness Railway items on the layout, as I’m partway through scratch building one of their Sharp Stewart 0-4-0STs of 1864 vintage - nice and small and ideally suited to being hired out to the railway for working the branch to Broughton Mills.

 

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This is as far as I’ve got so with the Sharp Stewart saddle tank - a friend is very kindly 3D printing the saddle tank and dome for me, but the rest is scratch built from plastic sheet and strip. She’ll be finished in full Furness Railway Indian Red livery when completed.

 

Sadly I think their steam railcar at might be a bit too big for the layout, but you never know! You are right about the rain, but that’s half the fun of going to the Lake Dictrict! :-D

Edited by NeilHB
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You might struggle with the 2-4-2T on the small radius points ours will only go round a 4ft curve max but we will only running it round 6ft. its basically a 0-8-0 the problem isn't the chassis its the gauge and the width of the fire box and the fact that its o gauge not scale seven.

 

Marc

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You might struggle with the 2-4-2T on the small radius points ours will only go round a 4ft curve max but we will only running it round 6ft. its basically a 0-8-0 the problem isn't the chassis its the gauge and the width of the fire box and the fact that its o gauge not scale seven.

 

Marc

We’ve trimmed down the diverging road of the Peco points in order to remove some of their severity, and are aiming for 6ft(ish) curves for the rest of the track work, so hopefully it will be ok. If not it’ll just have to wait for a more suitable layout.

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There are five roads on the fiddleyard sector plate, three of which serve the mainline, and the other two serve as the Broughton Mills branch.

 

I'm puzzled. It appears in the photo to be a turntable, not a sector plate. In either case, the tracks normally need to be on a radial from the pivot point where they cross from baseboard to moving table. I suspect that you might struggle to get 5 useable tracks on the turntable/sector plate with the splay required - even with two entry points. Have you fully mocked it up or am I missing something?

Bizarrely, Grainge & Hodder refer to this type of baseboard as a traverser - a device which uses lateral rather than rotary motion!

http://www.graingeandhodder.co.uk/store/c3/Traversers.html

Dave

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the naming doesnt matter but yes the geometry is off for the plate, in the position in the photo you have 2 tracks lined up but once you turn it no tracks will line up, the straight alignment is only usable in a sliding plate but for a rotating plate the centres of track ends need to line up with the pivot point

 

i have a 4 track rotating plate, the tracks curve out so that the ends are aligned with the pivot bolt and with the 2 "on-scene" tracks lined up, all tracks meet up with each other

34891135694_d9a6bf9d5f_b.jpgDeffors (144) by Sam, on Flickr

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Technically it’s designed as a turntable, but we will not be using it as one as we have no wish to turn the trains round completely. We will be using it as a sector plate.

 

The track is merely loosely placed at the moment to get a feel for how the track work actually looks before we stick it down.

 

The outer tracks will be on a splay, but as I say above this has yet to be sorted. We are in the very early days of track laying so will sort that when we get to it :-)

Edited by NeilHB
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If you are using it as a sector plate, the curved radius is much smaller than needed and will force you to use bigger splays.

Dave

Thanks, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it :-)

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Productive few hours today working on the first railway building for the layout - the ground frame. This is a Rail Models laser cut kit of Callington Ground Frame - https://railmodel.co.uk/products/callington-ground-frame - it builds up into a very nice kit.

 

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Start with basic inner layers

 

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Add the outer framing - just over an hour to get this far (less time if I’d not been reading RMWeb no doubt...!)

 

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And with the clapboarding adding and the roof trusses temporarily added.

 

I’m really pleased with how this has turned out so far. Just got to sort out the interior first before I can do any more construction work, though I can at least start thinking about painting it. The railway has a pleasant green and cream colour scheme for its buildings (well it will do when the paint arrives!) so hopefully this will look rather nice when finished.

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As promised, attached are the maps showing the full route of the line: 

 

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I've also produced a cropped version, showing up Duddon Bridge and it's surrounds in better detail (hopefully)

 

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You'll note that there is a short siding just south of Duddon Bridge, this is the slurry siding for dumping the waste from the paper mill, all designed to make operation interesting and keep our operators on their toes as it has to fit in with the various other workings on the 3 routes out of the station...! 

 

There's also been a slight update to the history for the line, as new information came to light following some further research over the weekend. It turns out that the line was actually opened in late 1902/early 1903, and the line was used to assist with the construction of the dam at Seathwaite Tarn in 1904, which was built to supply water to Barrow-in-Furness with its vast quantities of water needed thanks to Vickers Shipyard and other various industries in the town. 

 

The ground frame seen in the previous post had a coat of primer in between the rain showers yesterday, so I'm hoping to be able to start painting it tonight after work. 

 

Yesterday afternoon's project was the repainting of my Dapol A1X - this had started out as 'Portishead' from the WCPR, and I'd previously repainted it, but had come to the conclusion that the shade of green used just didn't look right. So out with the paints again yesterday, and a new coat of Tamiya Flat Green was applied which looked much better: 

 

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I need to put a second coat on tonight, and then can start to reassemble tomorrow. There are now three Terriers in the loco fleet, and each one is different...

Edited by NeilHB
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So as the Seathwaite branch was for a reservoir construction project you should be able to find lots of prototype info in the relevant volume of the late Harold Bowtell's books. I wish you luck finding the right volume.

 

Jamie

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So as the Seathwaite branch was for a reservoir construction project you should be able to find lots of prototype info in the relevant volume of the late Harold Bowtell's books. I wish you luck finding the right volume.

 

Jamie

 

Jamie, 

 

Not quite - there was a branch off the end of the 'main line' at Seathwaite which served the dam construction project (we think it also served the slate quarry on Walna Scar, but further confirmation is needed of this.

 

I will have a look for those books though, so thanks for the suggestion :-) 

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I seem to remember a very old P4 layout based on more or less the same premise - narrow gauge and standard gauge combined. Ulpha Valley Light Railway or something like that?

 

Irrespective of this, yours is a nice idea!  :good:

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I seem to remember a very old P4 layout based on more or less the same premise - narrow gauge and standard gauge combined. Ulpha Valley Light Railway or something like that?

 

Irrespective of this, yours is a nice idea!  :good:

 

Orion, yes you are quite right - the 'Ulpha Light Railway' - it was featured in ModelRail Digest issue 3 of which there is a very well thumbed copy on my bookcase at home. 

 

Thanks - glad you like the idea :-) 

 

This is a very interesting project Neil which I will follow with interest. You have got off to a fine start in such a short time.

 

Rod

 

Thanks very much Rod :-) We've been planning for a number of months now, with the aim to really get cracking with it now the main boards are ready. I shall be round at Tim's again on Saturday (where the boards live) so we can make some more progress then! 

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Jamie, 

 

Not quite - there was a branch off the end of the 'main line' at Seathwaite which served the dam construction project (we think it also served the slate quarry on Walna Scar, but further confirmation is needed of this.

 

I will have a look for those books though, so thanks for the suggestion :-)

Niel, don't bother looking I was being facetious as I thought that your Seathwaite branch was entirely fictitious. The books however are very good, there are 6 of them, the first two long out of print and they show the narrow and standard gauge railways that served such projects. I based the narrow gauge section at the front of my Long Preston layout on the actual system that served the construction of Stocks reservoir in the 20's and 30's. We made up a backstory that the narrow gauge line had actually connected with the main line at Long Preston which gave us the excuse for a mixed gauge line and we provided the little gasworks with it's own siding from the narrow gauge. In reality road transport was used for the first few miles and the gas works was served by a horse drawn cart.

 

Jamie

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Niel, don't bother looking I was being facetious as I thought that your Seathwaite branch was entirely fictitious. The books however are very good, there are 6 of them, the first two long out of print and they show the narrow and standard gauge railways that served such projects. I based the narrow gauge section at the front of my Long Preston layout on the actual system that served the construction of Stocks reservoir in the 20's and 30's. We made up a backstory that the narrow gauge line had actually connected with the main line at Long Preston which gave us the excuse for a mixed gauge line and we provided the little gasworks with it's own siding from the narrow gauge. In reality road transport was used for the first few miles and the gas works was served by a horse drawn cart.

 

Jamie

Jamie, that's fine - it is entirely fictitious, though Tim and I have spent so long researching and working it all out that it certainly feels like a real railway now! 

 

I think the books will be useful, even if it's just for confirmation of the sort of traffic carried during the course of construction, so will see if any of our contacts have copies. 

 

Yes the real Seathwaite Tarn dam construction was all done by road transport i.e. horse drawn cart and man power. The navvies for the construction were a rowdy lot by all accounts, and there a bit of rioting at the local inn when they cut off their beer supply! 

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Thanks for that Neil. As to traffics, the obvious ones were pipes, cement, which would be bagged, and timber, often in long lengths for form work. The Stocks line also carried beer barrels for the construction village canteen. There was even a siding in a cutting into the cellar of the canteen. You can still make out the cutting at Stocks village. There was also usually some sort of private vehicle for the resident engineer, often a car on a rail chassis or a converted simplex tractor. Probably the best book, if you can get hold of it is the one about the Stocks contract which is called, "The lesser railways of Bowland Forest and Craven Country ISBN 9780951110881.

 

The stock for the narrow gauge was mainly scratch built by various friends but one loco and some wagons are on display in Long Preston village Hall.

 

Good luck, Unfortunately my copy is in France in a box and not ye shelved in its new home.

 

Jamie

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Just discovered your project Neil and it chines with my own interests and endeavours so I'll follow your progress if I may. As an aside, the Seathwait Navvy Riot of 1904 in which a workman died shocked the area and is still commemorated in the Newfield Hotel with the Westmorland Gazette page framed behind the bar. As late as the 20c itinerant bands of workmen 'tramped' from 'diggings' to 'diggings' to work on pipe tracks (mainly) at this time, still with a reputation for hard drinking and trouble making, the great days of railway construction having mostly passed.

 Have you had the chance to look round the remains of the Duddon Ironworks by chance? would make a great modelling subject in itself.

Best Wishes

Guy

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