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Hoo Ness Railway


Locksley
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I'm getting severe layout build withdrawal symptoms since finishing Garnswllt, so what better relief than to take a proper dive into 009. I've dabbled before with a small length of track on my Handsworth Goods layout a couple of years back but have been wanting to do something more substantial ever since.

 

The Hoo Ness Railway was a 2ft6in line on Hoo Island out in the Medway Estuary. I can't find a huge amount out about it tbh, I believe it may have been built around the 1860s, and was in use until the 1980s. I've seen some suggestion that it might have been a military railway, however looking back at historical imagery on Google Earth from 1940 and 1960 there are clearly a couple of trains consisting of 6 open wagons. This, coupled with the fact that Railmap Online shows the line used to extend towards the salt marshes in the centre of the island I suspect it was either for transportation of salt or spoil perhaps? If anybody knows anymore I'd be very interested.

 

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The image above is what made me so desperately want to model the line, the idea of a NG line extending out onto a jetty is just irresistible :D

 

I plan to use 4 of the ScaleModelScenery laser cut diorama boards (BB011) arranged in a 2 x 2 fashion giving me a total area of 810mm x 588mm, just enough to allow a roundy roundy line with a loop extending onto the jetty. The very rough trackplan I've come up with is this:

 

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The grey blocks at the bottom being the jetty sections, the rest of the track will be placed on a 25mm thick slab of styrofoam which will be cut around to represent a highly condensed island, and will hopefully be eventually surrounded with resin water. The jetty itself will consist of a 3d FDM printed framework incorporating the legs which will give me a good, solid, level base that I can then plank with balsa. There's also going to be a small engine shed and a couple of other buildings very loosely based on what is visible in the 1940s aerial view.

 

Rolling stock so far consists of my 3D printed RAF Battery Electric Loco on a Kato 11-104 chassis, and a train of 5 Dundas GVT 4t Mineral Wagons yet to be built. My plan is to probably get a train of Hudson tipper wagons as well, and maybe a little engineers train too. I know as of 1962 the railway had a pair of Simplex 20hp locos which I'd like to represent at some point, possibly with a 3d printed body on a Tsugawa-Yokou micro chassis. I had toyed with the idea of going DCC but that would severely limit the minimum size of loco I can use so I'll be sticking with DC this time with a dedicated eBay PWM controller permanently incorporated into the baseboard. initial tests with the 11-104 gives very nice running quality. Both sides of the loop and both sidings will be isolated, and I'll be keeping it simple with manually operated points & SPDT switchable live frogs :) 

 

TBC!

 

Edited by Locksley
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Got the baseboards together last night. The ScaleModelScenery kit is excellent, and even comes with hardware to connect multiple boards. Unfortunately as they come they're only set up to connect at the ends of each board, so I had to do some drilling to connect them back to back but it worked well. I also mounted the controller under the board along with the 3d printed fascias for that, and for the point frog & isolating section switch banks. Next job will be to get some track laid on the foam base, then cut the island shape out. I think once that's done the foam can basically be glued down to the baseboards :) 

 

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A little more progress today, I've been waiting on some fishplates and trackpins which arrived earlier so I've been able to get some actual track down. Deviated slightly from my original trackplan and moved the siding point to the opposite side, the actual siding lines are still to be added. It was quite a squeeze to fit everything I wanted in there but I'm quite happy now after a few iterations.

 

The 11-104 will traverse the tight curves with no issue, despite it being a relatively long wheelbase vehicle. The red marker pen shows the approximate shoreline, and some basic measurements for the 3d printed jetty. As you can see, the layout will quite happily run on a 12v sealed lead acid battery. I had this 7ah one surplus to requirements from an RC boat build. I suspect 7ah would give me a few weeks running time :D

 

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Going from memory here, because my copies of the NGRS journal are deeply buried at the back of a big cupboard: I think the line was latterly used by Medway Ports Authority, at least partly to dump spoil from dredgers, but it had a long history under WD/MOD ownership before that, and I think the very first railway was 18" [EDIT: For the greater part of its life, the railway was 30" gauge, typical admiralty stuff], associated with the construction of forts during the late Victorian period, which involved consolidating an island out of shallow salt-marsh.

 

The 1970 IRS 'existing locos' handbook gives the owner of the railway not as MOD but as Ministry of Public Building & Works, but that acted as a sort of 'civilian arm' looking after non-military things at military sites, latterly becoming The Property Services Agency.

 

It doesn't seem to "arrive" on maps until the 1930s, but that may be because map-makers were being economical with the truth for security reasons - the entire dockyard was a blank space on maps for  a very long time, and Hoo Ness isn't properly identified as an island on maps for a long time after it was made into one.

 

If I get to the back of the cupboard, I'll report further!

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Going from memory here, because my copies of the NGRS journal are deeply buried at the back of a big cupboard: I think the line was latterly used by Medway Ports Authority, at least partly to dump spoil from dredgers, but it had a long history under WD/MOD ownership before that, and I think the very first railway was 18", associated with the construction of forts during the late Victorian period, which involved consolidating an island out of shallow salt-marsh.

 

The 1970 IRS 'existing locos' handbook gives the owner of the railway not as MOD but as Ministry of Public Building & Works, but that acted as a sort of 'civilian arm' looking after non-military things at military sites, latterly becoming The Property Services Agency.

 

It doesn't seem to "arrive" on maps until the 1930s, but that may be because map-makers were being economical with the truth for security reasons - the entire dockyard was a blank space on maps for  a very long time, and Hoo Ness isn't properly identified as an island on maps for a long time after it was made into one.

 

If I get to the back of the cupboard, I'll report further!

 

Ah that's interesting! I had seen the Ministry of Public Building & Works mentioned. I can't remember where but I've also seen a suggestion that it was used to collect mud/sand for the cement works across the estuary. I mean it's not out of the question that it could have been used for all of these things at some point I suppose, if it was operational in one way or another for 100 years at least.

 

Got a good bit done this evening, including laying the sidings. The main island lines are now finalized and tacked in place, the jetty section is loose and will be removed prior to cutting the shoreline and fitting the jetty itself.

 

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Talking of which, I also got the jetty drawn up in Tinkercad and ready for printing. Nothing fancy, this it just to get a square, level framework to lay the track on. The entire thing will then be planked with balsa. Not really looking forward to that lol.

 

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I got fed up of waiting for the hot wire cutter I ordered off eBay last weekend and decided to set about the foam with a sharp knife and reckless abandon. Luckily no limbs were lost and I finally have a layout ready to permanently attach to the baseboard. Once it's glued down I'll tidy up the shoreline with Sculptamold and rocks etc. The Jetty is about half printed, once that's all ready I'll glue that down too and then lay the track over the top. I've also drawn up and printed the first of the buildings, an engine shed/workshop loosely based on the one in the second picture on Victor's excellent post above. I went for a simpler approach to the buildings this time, electing to print the rough shape of the structure in PLA+ to be clad in Scalescenes texture paper.

 

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This is the little square hut, again seen in the second reference pic in Post #2, I can only presume it's a radio transmitter judging by the mast. I printed this as a single piece on my FDM printer before cladding it in Scalescenes concrete wall texture, plus a door and vent. Still need to print the roof and get the mast erected (ooh err). I think it's quite effective.

 

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Edited by Locksley
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Jetty printed and fixed down, along with the track. Got everything wired up over the last day or so and, incredibly, everything works! I also printed a very basic barge similar to what can be seen on Google Maps that will be blended into the shoreline with scluptamold.

 

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I got much more done today than I expected. I cracked out the sculptamold earlier and rendered in the shoreline, as well as adding various bits of rock, wood etc. The lampposts are actually based on a real location in the Thames estuary where a load were dumped to create a breakwater. Next job will be ballasting the track with sand, then applying the static grass. I'm going to go with a slightly different approach with the grass, putting it down and then painting it with the rest of the layout. I recently tried it on a 1/35 diorama and it gives a really nice depth to the grass that you don't get usually.

 

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Edited by Locksley
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Slightly slower progress this week due to having a family member staying, but I've been able to get the rest of the buildings printed and ready to be clad, along with the chinchilla sand ballast. I think I'll probably paint a slurry of filler over the sand to smooth it out a tad as it's come out a bit rough, although a majority of the groundwork will be covered with grass.

 

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Spent a bit of time last night getting the buildings complete. Very pleased with how they've come out, the 3d printed shell and Scalescenes texture combo works brilliantly and is just so easy. I added some 3d resin printed windows and guttering to the larger brick building which just sets it off nicely.

 

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2 hours ago, Locksley said:

 

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For me, this photo already oozes atmosphere - I saw this and thought “deserted coastline” (only the panes still in the windows tell me the whole operation is not yet abandoned!).  In other words: looking great already.

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Thanks Keith! Exactly the kind of feel I was hoping for :)

 

Spent a bit of time on and off today cleaning up the track and giving it a decent test run. All working well. Couldn't resist a quick shot of the BEL.

 

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I decided to undercoat the area underneath the jetty before actually planking it as it would be nearly impossible to reach once it was. I gave it and the surrounding area a good coat of  Mr Surfacer 1500 Mahogany which gives a much better idea of how the scenery will look once painted.

 

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I did manage to get a bit of planking in tonight but got bored rather quickly. I have these fantastical ideas but then realise I actually have to follow through with them haha.

 

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I'm still an occasional visitor to Hoo and grew up in Medway. Older maps (1960s?) do show a bit of railway on that island. I'd always been intrigued, and never found much out.

 

Here's the OS 1:25000 from 1960:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/95750345

showing the whole island with narrow-gauge lines leading to the SW tip of the island, which looks like the only point you could guarantee to moor a boat of any size.

 

There's a mention on the Sussex (really) History Forum here, my bold:

http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=6617.15

Quote

...Hoo Ness Island where a short tramway had been laid to serve the fort and then a railway system to carry materials for sea defence work, this railway also had been laid to the same gauge as the Chattenden & Upnor 2' 6" and the first known locomotive was delivered in 1904, (the Industrial railway record ) also mentions that this locomotive was new to the Admiralty in 1904 and built by the Avonside Engine company of Bristol it was an 0-4-0 tank named Ascension and had a spark arrestor chimney and interestingly the boiler was fitted with a salinometer cock, suggesting that salt water was used in the boiler the locomotive was disposed of in 1928, two more steam engines and a petrol engine were to arrive both steam engines coming from Bagnalls  "Nipper" in 1909 and "Ness"in 1947, a petrol locomotive arrived in 1926 both the steam engines being disposed of in the 1920s and by 1952 the entire railway had been converted to 2' gauge and was being worked by a variety of diesels.

 

If I dredge up (!) any more memories or info, I'll let you know.

The island is photographable from the Hoo Marina area, and from the Gillingham Strand side too, although not from a high enough perspective really. I may have some recent photos of the island if that helps.

 

Also a Historic England document, The Hoo Peninsula Landscape (large PDF with photos) at

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hoo-peninsula-landscape/hoo-peninsula-landscape/

with a couple of mentions of Hoo Ness in earlier years 

Edited by eastwestdivide
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Thanks guys, all interesting stuff!

 

Had a bit of a break to get an aircraft shaped project off the bench, but back on the layout now. I was able to get a majority of the planking done on the jetty, with just a bit left to add between the rails. Next job will be sealing the balsa with thinned PVA and then giving it a quick sand down. Once that's done, I can get some grass laid :) 

 

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