Building a Southern Region layout

[Guest Jack Benson]

Ryall Military Railway - a short history

 

The hamlet of Ryall is situated roughly 1km to the south of what was Beaminster Road station on the Dorchester & Exeter Railway. It was here that a small military training camp was established in 1914 for local regiments. 

 

King George the Fifth on a visit to Ryall Camp to inspect the Royal Loamshire Regiment

Initially there was no connecting railway involved in the construction of the accomodation huts at Ryall, the civil engineering company of Stuart & Co. were specialists in the building military camps. Due to the extreme rural nature of the lanes, construction of a light railway from Beaminster Road station was deemed essential and approved by A.W. Szlumper, the LSWR chief engineer at Waterloo in early 1915, the railway was soon finished and opened for inspection on 15th October 1915 after Lt.Col. Drewitt had approved the line on behalf of the War Department. 

 

Due to the topography, the line was not easily worked and required the services of an Adams 0415, hired from the LSWR and a Peckett B2 'Westminster'.

 

0415 in 1915

Peckett B2 Westminster

Post-1918, the line survived to serve the strategic store established on the site but the line was placed on 'care and maintenance' with but one locomotive - Westminster. In early '39 the onset of hostilities brought new life to the line with the addition of a Fowler 0-4-0DM until it was transferred to West Moors Defence Fuels. 

 

After nationalisation of the railways, the remaining Peckett was sold into industrial use and all traffic to the line was by BR locos, normally one of Dorchester's 700 or 0395 on light goods

 

Cheers and StaySafe

[30368]

Hi Jack,

 

Lovely piece on "Ryall" Military Railway. The map and pictures look very like Fovant in Wiltshire which also had a WW1 Military Camp and railway connected to the LSWR main line, perhaps the bulders of Ryall used Fovant as a model?

 

Did the troops at Ryall also build their regiments insignia in chalk on the hillsides as they did in Fovant?

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[Guest Jack Benson]

Richard,

It is, of course, another example of ‘plausible’ fiction. The FMR is an old friend and Hornby’s choice of Westminster is perfect.
 

In West Dorset, we are surrounded by military history, much of it recent and the layout has more than its fair share of related bric a brac, a spur to an army training camp seemed more appropriate than a dairy.
 

Regimental badges? Not sure if the Dorset Downs are as chalk laden as Wiltshire but if Cerne Abbas and the departing George are indicators of potential, then some form of visible legacy would be  appropriate. Our local reminder is the Bailey Bridge* at Bagber.
 

Cheers and Stay Safe

 

*The indirect cause of the tragedy at Henstridge 18.3.44 when a road crane fell onto a passenger train.  

 

ch
 

[Guest Jack Benson]

Almost 83 years ago to the day, Hugh Casserly captured SR 382 K10 class on a goods pickup at Verwood on the SDJR on 19th July 1937. It shows the versatility of the small hoppers, not as well known as Drummond's T9s but useful work horses that managed (just) to be renumbered by BR(S)

 

Hugh Casserly -

 

This image provides a problem, my K10 30382 has a six wheel tender, moreover the above is the only image of 382 that I can find in Dad's collection.

 

 

What to do?

 

Cheers and Stay Safe

 

[bbishop]

The photograph of 0424 is later than 1915.  The monstrosities were attached to the boiler in 1920, in a certain Wiltshire town of all places.  Bill

[Guest Jack Benson]

Oh dear, this looks ominous.

A slightly battered Hornby watercart has been acquired. Repair, modification and re-livery are needed after which 30382 will be reunited with the correct appendage.

 

Btw, 382 at Verwood has different lamp irons than 380, some lovely irons can be had from RT Models.

 

Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 Geograph - author unknown

Stay Safe

 

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Jack Benson
image attribution

[Guest Jack Benson]

Hello peeps,

 

Just a thought, the Small Hopper K10 used a C8 boiler and 9’ coupled wheelbase but the Large Hopper L11 used a T9 boiler and 10’ coupled wheelbase.........a possible candidate for treatment by bodging the spare GBL with a Hornby chassis. Moreover forty L11s were taken into stock by BR and some were renumbered in plain black. There will be someone dying to mention Finney kits but life is too short and pockets too shallow for that sort of self indulgence. 
 

Anyhew, an Wiki image of a renumbered L11 30166 with sunshine lettering.
 

 

Btw the L11and T9 wheels are very different sizes, just to make matter worse neither do Hornby’s M7 wheels fit in the T9 chassis, some deep thought is sorely needed. Thoughts of silver steel stock and Loctite with 2mm top hat bushes are possible but watch this space.

 

Stay Safe and Keep Away from each other.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Jack Benson

[Graham_Muz]

Or Tim, if you can find one the old Lodden kit as per my example below. 

[Guest Jack Benson]

A confession, I am not a serial collector, my loco cupboard contains just enough to run Beaminster Road and ‘MicroPlank’  which is less than double figures. Moreover, I have a hankering for small prototypes with tall chimneys, big domes and not much else hence Beaminster Road has a preponderance of Adams and Drummond locos with two notable exceptions, a poorly N 31860 and a wondrous H2 32424 both at the opposite end of Bachmann’s quality spectrum. I am unapologetic about the presence of the H2, it is utterly nonsensical but my father took me to see one at Bournemouth and it hauls a RCTS Special to commemorate both the demise of the loco and the line.

 

All the passenger stock is pre-BR, my thanks to Hornby for their far-sighted approach but I remain loyal to the Bachmann blood and custard Bulleids that are contemporaries of the limping N.   
 

The same sentiments apply to the goods stock, all short and mostly vans except the contentious Lima 40t ballast hoppers that are the sole task of the N. 
 

Why all this nostalgia, well it is a simple philosophy that may or not be correct, despite the fixation of modellers with ‘bigguns’  they didn’t tend to end up on branchlines, instead after being displaced by larger modern locos they tended to remain on the mainlines and be used on secondary services before withdrawl. The secondary lines such as the D&E tended to be worked by lighter economical types until they were replaced by more of the same or the line was simply closed by BR(w)  The locos on the D&E were chosen from actual allocation of appropriate types to Exmouth Junction or Dorchester. 
 

Cheers and Stay Safe

 

 

[Northroader]

You’re making perfect sense.

[barrymx5]

I like your choice in locos. But I have trouble accepting the Bachmann Bulleid coaches. The Hornby Maunsells and now the Hornby Short Bulleids are in a different class and make up into some excellent prototypical sets which really complement the locos.  Blood and Custard Maunsells have been available for some years and I await Hornby B&C  Bulleids. 
But each to their own. 

[Guest Jack Benson]

Hi Barry,

 

I neither seek your approval of my choices nor do I justify them, neither would I dare to comment upon another modeller’s efforts.
 

Cheers and Stay Safe
 

 

 

[Guest Jack Benson]

At last, the 1948 Bristol L is back. Fox Decals with correct route blinds for Beaminster, just needs mirrors to complete, pleased as punch.

 

 

Cheers and Stay Safe

[Guest Jack Benson]

I have just received a massive telling-off, apparently she has discovered eBay on her tablet and my account.......oh err. Her humour was not helped by the discovery of the N15 being sold after I had 'wasted' a fair amount of both cash and time trying to find an example of Sir Meliagrance. To make matters worse, she overheard a comment that the newly acquired H2 was utterly wrong......she has Vulcan like hearing.

 

The outcome, the N15 is staying put and my eBay password has changed. 

 

However. this lovely colour image of 71C Dorchester in the early 50s goes some way to vindicate the retention of an N15 despite a 'small loco' policy, the Hornby model is really good and a worthy substitute for Brighton's finest. The N15 is Lyonesse 30743 duly noted in my ABC.

 

Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 Geograph-2979734-by unknown

[Guest Jack Benson]

Help needed, if I am to suceed as a steely eyed bodger, some difficult jobs need to be addressed - how to create 90degree unions in external boiler pipework like this nightmare:- 

Soon, maybe, an 0395 will need some rather delicate plumbing and I haven't a clue except I do know that butt joints, even in copper wire, are not sensible.

 

Any ideas?

 

Stay Safe

Edited August 23, 2020 by Jack Benson
Updated image

[Guest Jack Benson]

When Beaminster Road began, I never expected to buy a pregrouping wagon of any type but this little beauty popped up on the KMRC radar and an example is on its way to Dorset to compliment the Cambrian van. Naturally, wear and weather will remove most of the paint and lettering leaving just enough to set the usual tongues wagging. 
 

But ain’t it a beauty, just as it is.  Pleased as punch.
 

Stay Safe, Wear a mask, Tuck your socks in.

 

[Guest Jack Benson]

When planning a facticious railway line, it is worthwhile checking on the facts in order to create the fiction (hence facticious) and the Dorchester and Exeter (coastal) Extension is a fiction based on the 1854 proposal (fact) to extend the Southampton and Dorchester line direct across West Dorset and East Devon via Bridport and Axminster. The line had been upgraded immediately prior to 1939 to cope with the exigencies of Wartime traffic - larger loops, more block, strengthened bridges - the line could accept the largest SR locos.

 

OK, so a layout has been build that purports to be a small station on the line, what stock would be servicing the line? Presumably the depots at each end would provide motive power to this purely secondary route, a look at the Shed Bash website provides a snapshot of allocations for the 1950s timeframe but the allocations were sufficient for the real railway, what other locos would be needed to service an additional route?
 

As the Southern Region was as thrifty as its predecessor and local loyalties were strong, it may have led to the retention of older 0-6-0s and 4-4-0s for local traffic whilst the ballast and other goods trains utilising the route to provide paths on the WoE mainline would be in charge of those locos normally rostered to these trains. Whether Brighton’s cast offs found employment is uncertain, displaced E4s were allocated to Dorchester (and Salisbury) and their help would be useful over the D&E’s quite challenging climbs. 
 

Quite how many extra locos were allocated to the D&E is uncertain but comparing with similar secondary lines it would have required possibly an extra 15+ locos of a small variety of types. Most of the heavier work would merely have been provided by locos that were allocated to whatever depot for that task whatever the actual route.

 

Food for thought 

 

 

Stay safe and tuck in your vest.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by Jack Benson
Spelling

[pushpull33]

Hi Jack. 

Out of interest, would it be possible to contact the person who owns the copyrite of the photos in your blog posts.   

 

 

[Bulwell Hall]

2 hours ago, Jack Benson said:

An order has been placed for a three car set of these from Dave, a far better use of financial resources than building another layout that might never be exhibited.

 

An image by RC Riley - many thanks for its shared use.

 

I have long been obsessed with these images of  N15 30739 King Leodegrance at Dorchester 27th August 1954 on a Weymouth-Andover cross-country service, those westward tracks were destined to reach Exeter. 

 

Stay Safe and Wear a Mask

 

One of my all-time favourite photographs and one which very nearly converted me to modelling the 'Southern' in Dorset ever since it appeared in one of Dick Riley's books back in the early 1970s.  In the end I stuck with the GWR - only because I was already heavily committed - I could easily have modelled the Southampton and Dorchester though especially with trains like this.

 

Gerry

Edited September 13, 2020 by Bulwell Hall

[Bulwell Hall]

34 minutes ago, Jack Benson said:

What if the Dorchester and Exeter had existed........the smaller locos

 

 In order to understand what may have been used on the D&E during its final years in BR ownership, it is worth looking at what locos were allocated to sheds of Dorset and South Devon in the 50s. If, as has been previously ascertained, some 15+ extra locomotives were needed to service the D&E, then some may not have been existing types allocated to either Dorchester or Exmouth Junction. 

 

 A trawl of the internet reveals some interesting allocations at Dorset, for example exLBSC E4 32558 nominally allocated to Eastleigh 71A spent time at Dorchester. It can only be speculated that it was employed on banking duties from Weymouth but it was not the only E4 to find itself allocated west of Eastleigh.

 

 

Here is exLBSC E4 32506 employed as the station pilot at Salisbury in the mid 50s

 

The hills of West Dorset.

 

 

 

West Dorset Downs and Colmer's Hill- these views show relatively benign topograhy but the route would have been challenging especially at the eastern end of the line as it traverses the Dorset Downs immediately west of Dorchester. Even if it attempted to follow the few valleys, the line was orientated East-West and would have had to cross a number of obstacles on the route. Double-heading was not unknown in East Devon but the use of a banker may have been a preferred solution unfortunately there was a paucity of suitable locos, all the Z-class were employed elsewhere but the central division did have a surplus of locos - the E4.

 

Bachmann's E4 34-079

 

Cheers and Stay Safe

 

Lovely views of Golden Cap and Colmers Hill.  A route through this terrain would have been quite something - perhaps with gradients similar to the Ilfracombe line but what a railway it would have been.  I imagine the Drummond 4-4-0s would have required piloting - or banking - perhaps using M7s as at Ilfracombe.  As elsewhere the arrival of the Bullieds would have made a significant change.  Interesting to speculate on what could have been.  I didn't know about the E4 at Dorchester - when was this?

 

Gerry

[Blandford1969]

10 hours ago, Jack Benson said:

In the 50s a few were transferred to work around Salisbury, Bournemouth, Eastleigh and down to Dorchester. Below 31777 at Broadstone with a SDJR headcode for Salisbury, another image from the Quality Street tin.
 

Quality Street tin? - Not sure what that means. We are lucky the Broadstone Station manager took this and a number of other negatives which are in my collection of negs.

 

This is the only known working by an L over the Salisbury and Dorset, although they could be seen in Bournemouth, He was not the best photographer and some are not pin sharp.  

 

I am happy for the image to be used as you know my view is its pointless them being hidden away.  Please could you make sure it is referenced as D Chandler collection.

[Guest Jack Benson]

This image of 31777 may or may not work.

 

31777 at Bournemouth on a Portsmouth train 1952

 

stay safe and wear a mask

[Guest Jack Benson]

One of the guilty pleasures of researching is finding photos to share with the wider ommunity.

Its is hosted here 'The SR Goods blog' is one of those sites which continue exist  without much interest but it does have merit as it  highlights the goods traffic on the Southern.

 

Here's a taster, this image is hosted elsewhere:-

exLBSC K on a breakdown train somewhere near Lewes

 

Cheers and Stay Safe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Jack Benson

[Joseph_Pestell]

Is that a chalk face behind the GW loco? That would seem to rule out Basingstoke.

 

Also, the GW loco seems to be steaming hard. It would just be coasting if running into Basingstoke.

 

I think it might be somewhere between Salisbury and Wilton.

Edited October 17, 2020 by Joseph_Pestell

[petethemole]

I'd

24 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Is that a chalk face behind the GW loco? That would seem to rule out Basingstoke.

 

I think it might be somewhere between Salisbury and Wilton.

 

I agree; I'd place it near where The Avenue (Wilton) crosses both lines by one overbridge.  The land rises to the north but nothing like the hill in the painting.  The D15's headcode is for Waterloo to Salisbury and Exeter.  The whitish area to the left of the GWR loco's exhaust is the exhaust from the Up train behind it, part of a clerestory in lake is at the left of the picture.