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Andover


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Afternoon all

 

Well after years of planning/dreaming, I feel that I am ready to start building my dream layout Andover. With stock coming along slowly and plenty of research and design drawings I at least know in my head what I am doing and how to go about most things. Baseboards are all planned out and I will be sending some plans of to a local wood yard for cutting into various sizes of wood, enabling construction to be as straight forward as possible. My Templot plan of the track work is around 50% complete but I'm now much happier in the use of Templot so the last 50% won't take too long to complete. Operating system is in use on my plank and I'm happy enough with that, just waiting for the upgrade to enable wireless control, but this can be done at any time. A long way to go I know but I'm excited and having given up smoking recently I feel that I can justify the extra expense in starting this massive project.

 

So I wonder if anyone has got any information, plans, photo's or anything else that might be of interest to me. Anyone know stuff that we mere mortals just wouldn't know unless we were in the industry? My plan is to model it in P4 as a roundy roundy layout during May 1990, with lots of Class 50 passenger services up and down the mule, but also utilising the ludgershall branch for military workings and other freight. Class 33's, 47's and maybe even some heavy freights in the hands of 56's or 59's are also planned.

 

As I get started I will post updates on here. Any advice or help greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

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  • 1 month later...

I lived in Andover Hants between 1984 and 1989 and one thing I do remember about Andover Station is the huge gap between the up line (towards London) and down line (towards Exeter). I'm not sure the distance between the running tracks, but I'm pretty certain that this huge gap was due to a much earlier removal of at least one through track. Another feature of the station that I recall is the long slopes form platform to the underground passage between the platforms.

 

Whilst I wasn't that interested in railway modelling at the time (shock, horror), I seem to recall that as even as late as 1989 the station was pretty much "all original" in terms of building structures.

 

In terms of rolling stock/trains, don't forget the newspapers and "milk trains" that left from Waterloo in the early hours of the morning, many old GUVs and Mk1 rolling stock on those. Incidentally, Andover station nwas also where I saw my first Class 66 - but I can't recall when (probably at a much later visit to friends in Andover)

 

F

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Well I'm building Ludgershall, I know Grafton and Malborough have been built, We'll have the old MSWJR rebuilt Yet!!

 

Andover is going to be a very wide station if you build all of it, I travelled from there many times, My grandfather finished his railway carreer there once Ludgershall was closed (He was a ganger)

see http://www.swindonsotherrailway.co.uk/there are several pictures there ( particularly those by Mike Barnes) and lots of references to relevant books. oldmaps.co.uk would show the track plan through time...

 

The Q

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Very interesting. Sounds like a great idea, including your choice of traction :rolleyes:

 

How much space do you have. Like my bonkers idea of doing Reading station, Andover is a big old site.

 

Also, (one of my problems too) is how do you intend to do the scenic break at the east end of the station?

 

Looking forward to see this develop.

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Evening All

 

Thanks everyone for your input so far, especially Jon for those notes. Also for the class 37 shot as there are very few photo's I can find of the shed at the back. I really regret now not keeping all my old notes and photo's. Living in Kempshott for 5 years I was no more than a stones throw away from worting junction/Battle down flyover and can remember going to sleep to the sound of an occasional hoover throbbing through. Regards the templot plan I have managed to lose the original plan and so have had to start from scratch. As and when, I will post some plans up, but it may be some time. Time scale for this layout is 5 years initially. Year one Templot plan and baseboards, year 2 trackwork and then to be seen. Probably take 2 years for track work and electrics to be sorted. Space wise it will be a exibition layout and stored in a storage facility in the meantime. I envisage a 15 meter by 4 meters total area.

As to the station area, originally it was four tracks with a line diverging off to southampton just past the road bridge on the London end. This discovery has allowed me to judge the size between both platforms, as far as I can tell the island platform has not been moved. Scenic breaks will be to the west the road bridge and to the east the current pedestrian bridge with use of trees and embankments etc.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

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Evening All

 

Thanks everyone for your input so far, especially Jon for those notes. Also for the class 37 shot as there are very few photo's I can find of the shed at the back. I really regret now not keeping all my old notes and photo's. Living in Kempshott for 5 years I was no more than a stones throw away from worting junction/Battle down flyover and can remember going to sleep to the sound of an occasional hoover throbbing through. Regards the templot plan I have managed to lose the original plan and so have had to start from scratch. As and when, I will post some plans up, but it may be some time. Time scale for this layout is 5 years initially. Year one Templot plan and baseboards, year 2 trackwork and then to be seen. Probably take 2 years for track work and electrics to be sorted. Space wise it will be a exibition layout and stored in a storage facility in the meantime. I envisage a 15 meter by 4 meters total area.

As to the station area, originally it was four tracks with a line diverging off to southampton just past the road bridge on the London end. This discovery has allowed me to judge the size between both platforms, as far as I can tell the island platform has not been moved. Scenic breaks will be to the west the road bridge and to the east the current pedestrian bridge with use of trees and embankments etc.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

 

:unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure: thats big!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This sounds like my kind of railway! I didn't see a pedestrian bridge when i googled it though?

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I lived in Kempshott then too! Snowdrop Close I think it was called. Like you, I could hear the Hoovers at night - my abiding memory of them.

 

Small world !

 

The bridge is just to the left of Redon Road. It should give me plenty of room for my Hoovers to get singing in full throttle! :rolleyes:

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Guest Belgian

The track layout in steam days and on into the 1970s at least was an up and a down platform line, an up through line and a down siding where one would expect a down through line. The London end of the down platform had had a bay platform for the line branching off to the south via Andover Town through Stockbridge to Kimbridge Junction known as the "Spratt and Winkle" line, closed in the mid 1960s. At its western end there was still a goods shed and loading docks with associated sidings, which I think went around 1990.

On the up side the island platform had also once had a line around its north face which had served the line from Andoversford near Cheltenham which was known as the "Tiddley Dyke" and which had been cut back to Ludgershall in the 1960s. The connection at the London end of this loop line had been removed sometime in the 1960s/70s to make it a bay. The up goods yard still had a number of sidings serving the fertiliser depot.

The up island platform was extended around the end of the 1980s/beginning of the 1990s as the locomotive-hauled passenger services were withdrawn and replaced by the ubiquitous class 159 "Sprinters". At the same time the sidings were much reduced and the down side sidings disappeared some time in the 1980s. Semaphore signals and the west end Andover A signal box went in the 1980s and the west end track layout was later slewed to allow a faster appraoch to the up platform line. A ground frame on the island platfrom end then controlled the pointwork to allow access to the yard and the Ludgershall branch as it was by then.

Traffic in 1990 was fascinating, with class 50s on the passenger trains to/from Exeter (and a few 47s by 1990), class 33s on the Salisbury turns (some using 4TCs), a variety of freight diesels (33s, 37s, 47s, 56s and even 58s later plus 73s) on the military traffic to Ludgershall and even plenty of steam specials, including on the branch. There were also occasional Freightliner diverts after the Laverstock loop was opened at Salisbury, and at weekends class 442 electrics would be dragged by 33s through Andover. Some local trains for Reading saw the Hampshire DEMUs.

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  • 4 years later...
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Railway Modeller did a trackplan for Andover as it is now a few years ago.  If your still modelling Andover and missed it, see if you can get a back issue of it.

 

Julian Sprott

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Five year gap between the last two posts. I wonder what progress the layout has made. An interesting location.

Post 10 suggested a 5 year project, so should be finished in the next fortnight!

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  • 1 year later...
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Hello

 

   The Andover plan was part of my Plan of the Month article for Railway Modeller in 2012 or 2013.

 

                                                                                    Cheers

 

                                                                                              George

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