Inset track and cobblestones Southern England

[TomJ]

A bit of a random question - but I never cease to be amazed at some of the knowledge on here!

 

Thinking of using some spare track for an Inglenook micro based round a quayside in southern England 1930s - Berkshire, Hampshire or Sussex (might be canal or sea). Now this is an area not blessed with natural hats wearing stone like the north. So what would inset track on the quayside be infilled with? Cobblestone setts, tarmac, concrete, dirt?

 

It’s a little detail but id like to get it right!

[Londontram]

One would think that having most likely been built in the 19th or early 20th century that stone sets/cobbles would be used regardless of the geographical availability of suitable materials.

 Don't forget the railways revolutionised the industrial face of the country giving the ability to bring building materials from any where.

 

 If it was to be based from the mid 20th century onwards tarmac or concrete would start making an appearance. Very often the area between the track and say about a foot either side would still be stone sets for ease of removal for track maintenance.

 Again as time moved on this may have become completely tarmaced for cost and convenience as tarmac can fairly easally remove should the need arise very often the tarmac was laid directly over the stone sets and in later life pot holes in the tarmac would often expose the stone sets underneath. Hope this gives you something to think about.

[eastglosmog]

Granite sets were popular (sourced from Dartmoor, for example and brought round by sea before railways existed).  Wood planking was also often used.

[Nearholmer]

A lot depends upon whether the quay is part of a highway (good ‘metalled’ surface, possibly setts or cobbles), part of a big harbour (concrete, even from quite an early date), or one of the many that was neither.

 

In the SE there were many small estuary and river quays and wharves that were pretty basic in railway terms, the the quay wall was often timber, and the track was simply infilled with shingle or other ‘stuff’ such a clinker and ash, trash chalk or sandstone from quarries etc. Some had timber structures and timber baulks between the rails, but these were ‘piers, rather than wharves or quays.

 

Canals are rare in the SE, most inland navigation being by sail barge up the many rivers, so the estuary quays were often for transshipment from coasters or seagoing barges (the archetypal Thames Sailing Barge, or Dutch Barges, both of which are big, but can berth on mud) to river barges of which there were many types, some very small (Rother Barges were very slim, for instance). 
 

The rivers had been used since at least Roman times, probably long before, but several were improved in C18th by replacing flash-locks with what we would now recognise as locks, straightening-out the awkward meanders etc., so towns quite far inland had “town quays”, one or two of which had sidings onto them.

 

Gordon and Maggie Gravett’s layout Arun Quays is a great model of part of an estuarine quay, so well worth a study. Also see the thread called ‘Shalfleet’ on RMWeb.

 

So, what sort of quay do you want to represent? Is it one corner of a significant port, or one of the many lesser places? Is it in the middle of a town, with Georgian warehouses, or in the middle of nowhere with a load of tumbledown shacks?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by Nearholmer

[AdamsRadial]

Making granite setts was a common activity in the workhouses, a simple product that didn't require expensive tools or machinery. The area of east Kent I'm modelling had a workhouse at Eastry then produced them. I don't as yet know where the granite came from, Kent tended to be clays in the middle and chalks on the uplands. The finished product is mentioned in at least one of the books on the East Kent Light Railway so it probably got shipped out by rail.

[Fat Controller]

7 minutes ago, AdamsRadial said:

Making granite setts was a common activity in the workhouses, a simple product that didn't require expensive tools or machinery. The area of east Kent I'm modelling had a workhouse at Eastry then produced them. I don't as yet know where the granite came from, Kent tended to be clays in the middle and chalks on the uplands. The finished product is mentioned in at least one of the books on the East Kent Light Railway so it probably got shipped out by rail.

Nearest granite to Kent would probably be Dartmoor or Cornwall, or the Newport area of Pembrokeshire.

[eastglosmog]

Channel Islands would also be a possible source