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LNWR Infrastructure & Equipment at Kensington Addison Road Station


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In 1844 the London & Birmingham Railway (LNWR from 1846), jointly with the GWR, financed the West London Railway between Willesden/Old Oak Common and the basin of the Kensington Canal, which provided a link to the London Docks via the River Thames.  The canal was a failure so in 1863 the LB&SCR and LSWR joined the LNWR and GWR to build the West London Extension Railway to Clapham Junction, with a link to Victoria station.

 

Limited space in our clubroom means that we have only modelled the southern part of the station.  We have chosen the mid-1920s to allow LMS and SR liveried locos and rolling stock to be seen.

 

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The first post-war Sunny South Special at Kensington in 1922 (E A G Smith in LNWR Soc Journal Vol 5 No 11)

 

A great deal of research was required, on site, on line and from published sources. The Atkinson Collection in the NRM Library at York was particularly useful, as were the aerial photographs in the Aerofilms Archive, then being digitised by English Heritage at Swindon. Several visits were also made to the National Archive at Kew. The quality of this photo looking South from the footbridge was inspirational in guiding the T&DMRC team in the completion of many detailed aspects of the model.

 

In the accompanying commentary, in LNWR Soc Journal (Vol 5 No 11), Richard Foster points out that:

The basic station plan of long platforms and centre crossovers might be regarded as the LNWR's preferred layout for large stations, often, but not always, with centre through lines, and a significant number of stations laid out in this way could be found on the Company's system. A surprising number were at jointly owned or operated stations and it says something for the LNWR's status and powers of persuasion that the 'LNWR Plan' was adopted at so many of them when they were built or rebuilt.

 

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Tony Wright

 

Our 7mm scale model portrays the half of the station to the South of the central footbridge as far as the Hammersmith Road overbridge. Although the actual platforms were the longest in London we have not had to compress their overall length.

 

The pointwork is hand built using C&L components on a Templot track plan and we have added third and fourth (conductor) rails for the L&NWR suburban electric services between Willesden Junction and Earl’s Court. The signals, point rodding and facing point locks are also hand built following a close study of period photographs.

 

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Tony Wright, courtesy of BRM

 

 We could not find any drawings of the long-demolished station buildings, so we made our own using Ordnance Survey plans and rectified photographs as the basis. The design is a tall version of the standard L&NWR prefabricated timber station buildings illustrated in LNWR Portrayed by Jack Nelson.

 

The buildings have an MDF carcass clad in limewood strips to replicate the tongued and grooved boarding and the repetitive window and door modules are resin castings by Ken Degroome from our own master.

 

 

 

 

 

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Peter Warren

 

The down side booking hall includes ticket windows, gas lamps and a clock. We couldn’t find any information about the interior arrangements at Addison Road so the model was inspired by details at Nuneaton station. The newspaper vendor was obtained, ready painted, from www.detailedminiatures.co.uk

 

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Tony Wright

 

The platform canopy roofs were a distinctive feature. We modelled them in 3D CAD to check the proportions looked correct before designing a modular kit of parts which were then laser cut in plywood by Timber Tracks. Each group member assembled a few modules, enabling us to complete what would have been a formidable task quite rapidly.

 

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Tony Wright, courtesy BRM

 

The platform canopies are fixed to a robust horizontal grid of brass sections, supported by ‘cast iron’ columns which are CNC-machined in brass following drawings which we deduced from photographs. The gas lamps below the canopies are hand made around large LEDs.

 

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Tony Wright

 

Drawings of the ornamental ‘cast iron’ canopy support brackets were also copied from photographs, taken after the station was damaged in a WW2 bombing raid, and were laser cut by Timber Tracks in thin MDF. We drew up the standard Crewe ‘unclimbable’ iron fencing for etching in brass, using the details given by Jack Nelson in his book LNWR Portrayed.

 

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Peter Warren

 

This construction photo shows the footbridge steps threading around the platform canopies. We designed the footbridge in etched brass as it has to be removable because it spans a baseboard joint. This was one of the few areas of the station where there were some original drawings to refer to; these were found in the National Archive at Kew.

 

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Tony Wright, courtesy BRM

 

Kensington South Main signal box was a standard L&NWR design, designated type 4 by the Signalling Record Society. We made our own drawings following published information about the standard L&NWR dimensions and using an excellent set of photos taken just before closure and demolition in 1992 by Ian Spalding. We developed the drawings into a kit of parts which were then laser cut for us in ply and MDF by Timber Tracks. This enabled us to accurately reproduce the distinctive L&NWR brick coursing and other details seen in the photos. Interior detail includes a lever frame with 80 levers of the standard L&NWR design with stirrup-type catch handles; these were 3D printed from our own CAD file. All the signalling on the WLR was by the L&NWR; South of Addison Road, on the West London Extension Railway, GWR signalling practice was followed.

 

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Tony Wright, courtesy BRM

 

The large running-in boards on the station platforms were modelled by tracing over a rectified photo on the computer. This enabled the distinctive typeface of the lettering to be copied exactly. The drawing was then sent away to be etched in brass sheet. The L&NWR platform barrows are from kits by Southwark Bridge Models.

 

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Tony Wright, courtesy BRM

 

The distinctive down starter signals underwent many changes over the years and required much research to enable an accurate model to be produced. The ringed arms seen in the 1922 photo, installed by the LNWR to mark ‘slow’ lines, were removed in 1926 and the small repeater arms were lowered. As with all the signals on the layout, this one is hand built, servo-operated, interlocked to the traction current and lit with grain-of-rice lamps. The ground signals do not operate (yet!). On the left is an L&NWR fireman’s plunger, used to enable the crew of a train held at the signals to remind the signalman of their presence. The L&NWR platform seats are from kits by Southwark Bridge Models with added nameplates in etched brass.

 

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Peter Warren

 

The up home signals for Kensington South Main were on a gantry squeezed in under the platform canopy; they controlled movements over the scissors crossover at the centre of the station. The L&NWR used short signal arms here in order to reduce the space between the dolls. The adjacent footbridge has been removed for the purposes of this photograph. Sadly our clubroom is not quite large enough to extend the layout to include the nearby Kensington Middle Box, an L&NWR over-track signal box which would make a super model!

 

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The up home signals for Kensington South Main were on a gantry squeezed in under t

 

Sadly our clubroom is not quite large enough to extend the layout to include the nearby Kensington Middle Box, an L&NWR over-track signal box which would make a super model!

 

Time for a bigger clubroom????

 

Joking aside, this is an amazing project.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Super layout - would love to get to see it on exhibition if it goes out anytime?  

 

Amazing modelling - like so many of the threads generated by this competition ... I'm my view, your all winners!

 

Richie

Thanks Richie - you can see the layout on 16-17th February when we will be taking it to the Milton Keynes MRS 50th Anniversary Exhibition at Stantonbury Leisure Centre. On 31st August-1st September we will be at Guildex at the International Centre in Telford.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Please excuse me for being so bold as to query the yellow spectacle glass in the distant arms? Surely a yellow light came in with yellow arms, late 1920s?

 

We were not aware of this but it seems you are correct! The photo shows the Chief Signalling Engineer has been working hard today to put this right. Many thanks for pointing it out.

 

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I would love to put in a direct link to the Addison Road layout thread on RMweb but either this new software is more complicated than the old one or I'm not as internet savvy as I thought I was - maybe a bit of both!

 

Anyway, if you use the Google search option you will find the Addison Road thread quite easily.

 

And, whilst I'm on the subject of Addison Road, let me say that, although it is a Twickenham and District MRC project, the club and the AR group have members far and wide - Staines, Woking, Watford and Boston and that's Boston, USA not Boston, Lincolnshire!

 

So don't be put off from getting involved in this project just because you don't live in a TW post code. If you have been inspired by this thread and you would like to get involved with the project do contact Peter Warren who is our group leader. Although the model is nominally set in 1925 the group have very widely spread interests (including blue diesels!) - all welcome!

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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Link to first post in the Addison Road thread here. No connection with the group, just an admirer of this amazing piece of modelling!

 

Click on the "share" icon top right in a post header, up pops the box with the url, ready to cut and paste using the link function in your post as before.

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It appears that Twickenham MRC's ADDISON ROAD infrastructure & equipment is the winner of the structures section in the L&NWR challenge. 

 

And Peter is a double winner in both the rolling stock and RMweb popular vote sections.

 

Congratulations to Peter and his team.

Edited by TEAMYAKIMA
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