SE&CR stations

[jaym481]

Being in the colonies and having only the internet to rely on, I'm having trouble answering a question: are there any OO station buildings suitable for the SE&CR area (SER/LC&DR) circa 1905-1913? Ready to plant, kits or kits that are suitable for kit bashing. The only one I could find was the Hornby "Terminus Station" set which is based on Rye, but as Rye is unique, I would prefer something a bit more typical. 

[Tom Burnham]

I'm not an active modeller, but I suspect the short answer is no. There were differences between Chatham and South Eastern stations. The Chatham (at least outside the inner London area) tended to have rather standardized two storey buildings including the station master's house. Smaller SE stations typically had a single storey weatherboard station building with a separate house that might be some way away. Some later lines (Elham Valley, Hawkhurst) went in for corrugated iron for the station building though again with a substantial brick house in some cases. But the SE had more variation especially in early and late buildings.  What sort of place would your model serve, and how busy might it be?

Edited October 12, 2021 by Tom Burnham
Missing parenthesis inserted.

[jaym481]

I was intending for it to be a small-mid sized station on a double track main line, with express through traffic and local stopping services and goods. I was thinking one of the kits for a wooden station might do the trick as the basis, but I'd probably need to scratch build the rounded roof platform canopy typical of SER.

[MartinM]

I  think Roxey do the round  platform canopy? 

 

[Tom Burnham]

South Eastern Rly tended to have staggered platforms at that kind of station, even where there was no level crossing.  Less obvious nowadays due to progressive lengthening of the platforms over the years.

[Steamport Southport]

I think it's based on an LBSC prototype, but the Wills kit Ck16 is pretty close.

 

https://peco-uk.com/collections/4mm-oo/products/country-station-with-platform

 

There is also the Bachmann Suburban station. Based on Catford Bridge.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105289-Bachmann-branchline-44-0045-suburban-station-prototype/

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/107466/bachmann_branchline_44_0045_brick_built_surburban_station_building_with_canopy/stockdetail.aspx

 

 

 

Jason

[jaym481]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'll check them out. @Tom Burnham thank you. From what I've seen the staggered platforms still featured in many stations, but a number had also evened them up, along with raising platform height, by the middle of the 1910s. Mine being fictional, I was going to do the latter as my space is limited.

[pete_mcfarlane]

ABM Railcraft did card kits for SER buildings but their website seems to be dead: http://www.abmrailcraft.com/

[Edwardian]

13 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

ABM Railcraft did card kits for SER buildings but their website seems to be dead: http://www.abmrailcraft.com/

 

I fear the proprietor is dead, and no response did I ever receive regarding what might happen to the range.

[Regularity]

Drawings, plus raw materials, and you can build whatever you wish - if no drawing exists, take a photo and work from that, using anything for which you have a reasonable estimate as a guide to sizes.

[Gareth Collier]

Southern Country Stations: 2 SE&CR by John Minnis published by Ian Allen would be a good starting point showing just how varied their station designs were and would give you a starting point to see if an existing kit could be modified to suit. It also includes drawings of some fairly simple structures to scratch build.

[Edwardian]

55 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Drawings, plus raw materials, and you can build whatever you wish - if no drawing exists, take a photo and work from that, using anything for which you have a reasonable estimate as a guide to sizes.

 

35 minutes ago, Gareth Collier said:

Southern Country Stations: 2 SE&CR by John Minnis published by Ian Allen would be a good starting point showing just how varied their station designs were and would give you a starting point to see if an existing kit could be modified to suit. It also includes drawings of some fairly simple structures to scratch build.

 

Best advice you could have right there, I think.

 

I've always found that scratchbuilding a building is at least as easy as adapting a kit. For others, perhaps not, but it is worth considering this approach, because then the choice is not (i) what is available that might make a tolerable representation of a SE&CR station?, but (ii) what suitable prototype have I found that I'd really like to model?!?  Saves your station from looking like a dozen other people's, too.

 

Which leads to the book suggestion. Worth the modest cost. It will reveal how the stations appeared on certain sections of line built at certain times by each of the constituents. Choose your general location and period your line was constructed, and the book gives you what you need to make effective choices regarding the structures. 

 

 

[The Lurker]

an additional resource would be the Kentrail site https://www.kentrail.org.uk/ which has histories and trackplans as well as photos. 

[Oldddudders]

And don't forget that the SER had a long route that didn't touch Kent - Redhill to Reading had some very SER station designs and had a good mix of traffic. 

[Nearholmer]

Despite the ‘modellers’ view’ that they had highly standardised station building designs, all of the pre-SR companies had a very wide variety of buildings, reflecting a heritage of buildings procured by pre-pre-grouping railways, and/or using different architects on different routes or at different dates. Even the SR itself built a wide variety, and it’s use of Bauhaus and streamline moderne styles (both often erroneously labelled ‘art deco’) for station buildings was actually very limited. It’s a very interesting topic and a surprising variety still survive, if you ferret about.

Itrespective of building-type, the use of staggered platforms was, as OD says, a strong SER signature though.

 

Where they could afford more than a pop-up wooden building, the southern railways followed architectural fashion, and it’s often possible to date a railway building by its style: Italianate; gothic revival; cottage orne; jacobethan etc etc.  Anyone wanting a scratch building challenge could try Battle or Wateringbury.

 

Another good starter book is an older one: “Railway Stations: Southern Region” by Wikeley and Middleton, who both worked for the BR(S) architects department. Cheap to buy from secondhand bookshops!

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Nearholmer

[phil_sutters]

33 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 Anyone wanting a scratch building challenge could try Battle or Wateringbury.

 

 

 

 

 

The Kentrail photos highlight the lovely lattice footbridge, at the expense of the main station building. It is a very useful site nevertheless. Perhaps kit-bashing a church would work with this building.

Edited October 14, 2021 by phil_sutters

[jaym481]

Thank you @phil_sutters for the lovely photos of Battle, which led me down a pleasant internet rabbit-hole of photos of that station.

 

All, thank you for the advice so far. I have the Minnis work, and it has helped immensely, but I fear my knowledge gaps are more in what's available as models, than what the SER (and SE&CR) actually built. That said, my overall knowledge is still pretty rudimentary. Also rudimentary are my modelling skills, which thus far are limited to a few wagons and structures available as kits. I'll undertake scratch building at some point, I'm sure, but not yet (maybe never, if my shakey hands only get worse). 

 

James( @Edwardian) asked a few helpful questions about my plans, and i thought the answers would be useful here. But first I have to reiterate that I'm and ocean and part of a continent away fro the UK, so please keep that in mind. Books are very expensive to ship from the UK to Canada, so I have limited choice in that department. 

 

I haven't localized my station in the SE&CR area, so at this point it could be anywhere on the system, though I'm favouring areas of SER origin. My baseboards are modular, in 2'x4' and 2'x2' blocks at the moment. The intent is to build the first modules (two of the former, one of the latter) as a terminus on a twin track line, or a single line that splits into two but off-scene. The modular construction leaves room to expand to a continuous run with fiddle yard when space permits (in the interim the file yard will be cassettes, then a transfer table module). Thus the ultimate goal will be a two track through country station. I've attached the track plan for phase 1 below. The turntable is inspired by the photo of Bromley West in the Minnis book. The platforms are sort of staggered (apologies for the artwork - a limitation of Railmodeller Pro). The goods sidings include a goods shed and loading platform with crane, as well as coal merchant's yard and coal bins. Engine shed for the station pilot, and servicing area with coaling and watering facilities located near the turntable.

 

I've built the two main modules and begun laying track-bed for the two main tracks. Everything else is subject to possible changes or suggestions.

 

Thanks again for the help so far .

[Nearholmer]

Here is Bromley in reality, and you will see that, being a terminus, it doesn’t have staggered platforms. 
 

It has an arrival platform, and a departure platform, plus a trailing crossover at the London end, all to minimise moves over facing points, although it does look as if the arrival road was signalled to allow departures too. Trying to decipher the drawing, I think the siding on the arrival side is accessed by a point trailing off the departure road and crossing the arrival road.

 

 

 

We went into this station in some detail in another thread, possibly one of Edwardian’s, and it certainly deserves to be modelled. Or, maybe it was Addiscombe Road*, pre-rebuilding, that we went into.

 

Whether you’d want to model it exactly, or even topologically correctly, is another matter, because it does have one heck of an operationally restrictive track arrangement!

 

*Nice photo of Addiscombe Road old station here - the architecture is almost completely hidden under signboards! http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/a/addiscombe/index5.shtml

Edited October 14, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Another place to look at might be Westerham, where the wooden station building might almost be something you could adapt from a US depot kit. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/westerham/

[Steamport Southport]

I started on a layout based on Addiscombe Road, but gave up as it was too basic even though it would have been quite big.

 

I'm afraid I only really wanted it as somewhere to run EMUs and with the bonus of occasional steam.

 

Maps and track plans here.

 

http://park.addiscombe.net/heritage2.asp

 

 

 

Jason

[Nearholmer]

The version I’m thinking of is the pre-1900 one, when it was a cute little BLT.

Edited October 14, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Andy Hayter]

6 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Another place to look at might be Westerham, where the wooden station building might almost be something you could adapt from a US depot kit. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/westerham/

That could almost be the Triang station building with a Slater's or similar clapperboard facing

[Andy Hayter]

duplicate

16 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Andy Hayter

[Nearholmer]

I’m fairly sure that it was a SER standard design too, giving the lie to my earlier caution about lack of standardisation!

[Tom Burnham]

I don't think Wye had staggered platforms (though I haven't researched its history and I'm open to correction) even though it was at a level crossing. Especially for the SER, it's probably the smaller buildings - signal cabin, waiting shelters, "roader" sheds on the platform - often repurposed in later years - that locate the station as belonging to a particular company as much as the main building, if it isn't one of the single-storey timber ones.