S&DJR Special interest group

[Zumo2567]

When for a good old bike ride today and wasn't sure where to goso just cycled around the local area. Before i knew it i had ended up by one of the old railway bridges so decided to take some photos.

 

You'll have to excuse the quailty of them as they were taken on my phone but I thought they might be of interest.

 

The first set of photoes are taken around the Bridge just before the North portal of the tunnel in Downton. Here the railway ran over a small road.

 

The east side of the bridge a short distance from North Portal of Downton tunnel

 

The same east side looking up the enbankment. If you carried on following the line left you would reach the tunnel.

 

Same east side looking to the right of the bridge

 

Bridge marker

 

Looking up you can see some work has been done to the bridge and it looks quite recent.

 

Underneath the bridge. The brickwork seems to be in fairly good condition.

 

Now on the west side of the bridge.

 

 

I will continue adding photos tonight but in the meantime they can all be found here on my flickr page. They're all geotagged so you can see where they were taken.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Handscombmp

[MinZaPint]

Blandford 1969, presumably a local lad you really should learn to spell WIMBORNE.

[Blandford1969]

^{While doing some research I came accross this page of information on West Moors which has alot of information relevant to just that station http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/musings/West_Moors_historical_general.htm does anyone know of any pages like this looking at other stations on the line.}

[RailWest]

To be more precise, he is exchanging tablets, as he can be seen to be handing down also the one from the section which he has just left

[RailWest]

Well, then.....the section from West Moors to Verwood was Tyer's No 6 Electric Train Tablet configuration 'A', whilst the Verwood Fordingbridge section was ETT6 configuration 'B', so if you were able to enlarge the picture accurately enough you might see the round identification hole in the centre of the tablet being handed down off the engine :-)

 

The signal on the left was the Up Starting (No 7). In the background above the engine can be seen the bracket of the Down Homes, the RH (higher) arm being the Down Home (no 2) and the LH (Lower) arm being the Down to Up Line Home (no 10). The latter was added (and the lever-frame extended) in 1931 when the Up loop became bi-directional as a result of Verwood being adapted by the SR to 'switch out' as a block post. When shut, the West Moors - Fordingbridge 'long section' was worked by Miniature Electric Train Staff ('M' type) 'C' configuration.

 

Sorry, but I don't know the colour of the signalman's socks

[andrewframpton]

Living and growing up in west moors from 72-90 was really nice to find this topic, will assist me with my research as I am planning on creating west moors station over the next year or so in 4mm scale!

[SouthernRegionSteam]

I swear there was a photo on here, or at least a link to a photo, of the pile bridge that used to be South of Downton but I can't find it for the life of me.

If anyone knows where the photo is I'd really appreciate it. I have a feeling the comment has been removed as potentially the OP has left the forum.

I am curretly getting back into modelling my portion of the S&DJR between Breamore and Downton, and I think it would be nice to try and model the bridge if possible.

 

Find "The Old Road" link in my signature if you are interested in following my progress.

[Graham_Muz]

Hi Jam

 

I think it this blog here that you are thinking of as resource for the S&DJR which I understand has also recently been updated.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Graham_Muz

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Ah, thank you Graham so much! I should have bookmarked that link but didn't think to do it.

I did contribute a few photos to the blog so how I couldn't find it I have no idea.

 

Many thanks,

Jam

 

Edit: Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll be going for a photo exploration of the line (If the weather holds up of course!). Will post photos when I get round to it.

Edited March 18, 2013 by SouthernRegionSteam

[creweboy]

Does anyone know the exact location, and details of the US Military sidings south of Downton in WW2?

Mike

Edited March 28, 2013 by creweboy

[tonyE1951]

Hello

I'm new to this site and unsure of what protcols are in place so please excuse me if I'm a little out of order.

After many years I now find I have time to return to railway modelling - thanks to public sector cuts.

She Who Must Be Obeyed bought me a Hornby OO set last Christmas so I decided to construct a layout.

In a blinding flash of inspiration I decided to model what what would have been my local (5 minutes walk up the road) station - nobody would have modelled Fordingbridge, or so I thought!

I'm not a purist (I model what I like the look of) and I don't want to copy the fantastic models pictured in this thread (because I don't have that level of skill).

 

I've done some research (before I stumbled on this site) and amoungst other things I have obtained a copy of Southern Stations Vol 1 and an A4 copy of the track plan from those nice people at the National Railway Museum.

 

The checky request is can anyone give me some pointers about the actual dimensions of the main station building and platform lengths please?

I've tried using the plan in the book (scale is 1":160') and the track plan from the NRM (scale 1":40' - not sure if the scale along he edge is imperial or metric) but I keep comming out with different figures.

Many of the pictures I've found online are a little grainy so counting brick courses has proved a tad difficult.

Once I've got these answers I should be able to work everything else out.

Space will be limited at least initially to 6' 6" by 2' 6" (i.e.  the old living room door) so I don't think I'll have room to model much more than the actual station itself and the cattle pen/dock.

 

I'm also assuming I'll have to scratch build everything - even the attractive lamp posts which appear to be in many locations but ignored by model manufacturers.

 

Would be very gratful for any pointers.

 

TonyE1951

 

 

 

 

[soundcutter]

Hi. I've found this site by putting 'Downton Tunnel' into google.

I have a special interest in the Salisbury - Downton section of this line.

I was born in 1966 (20th December Ironically) and raised in what we called a 'wooden shack' on Junction Rd in Alderbury and used to cycle up and down the old track bed from the point where it crossed the mysterious 'canal' to the back of the council estate known as 'spiders Island' which was built on a Whaddon section of the route.

I remember..  well...  let's say 'gaining access' with some older lads to the LSWR signal box c1970 after it had been boarded up. The last signalman there had the surname 'Bell' as far as I remember.

I also remember the old railway cottages which according to my mother at the time 'went down like a pack of cards' at the first touch of the wrecking ball in 1976 when construction on the Alderbury By Pass started.   

The family had friends who lived in one of them . We were at the top end of the road and could feel the vibrations when the Yeoman trains thundered through, so God knows what it must have been like to actually live in one of those houses, which were at the base of the slight embankment there.

 

On the Tunnel at Downton...   It was used as a landfill sight in the late 70s (I remember seeing the signs for it when we used to go up and down Standlynch Rd to Downton, plus seeing the eventual levelling off of the chalk in what would have been the approach cuttings.

 

I've just picked a book up off ebay called 'memories of dad and downton station' ..  seems to be the story of the last station master there.

 

Another memory of the area.. unrelated... I used to play around in the remains of the twisted aluminium and wiring looms of a german WW2 plane that crashed into the woods that are on the north side of Alderbury Junction.

 

Hope this has been of interest..  or have I missed the boat ?

Chris. Lapsed Railway buff but can still talk the talk.  

[Steve Smith]

Dear All,
 

I am in the process of trying to build an accurate replica of Verwood station, and an important part of that process for me is to accurately recreate the types of trains seen on the line.  So, with the help of David Vidler, who with great patience has shared his extensive knowledge of the line, I have collated WTT, CWN and EWNs (not usually from the same years) to produce lists of the scheduled trains (locos and stock) seen on a high summer weekday in 1953, 1957 and 1960.  I have created a web page to cover services on the line on the YeovilMRG website and the very latest information will be found there.
http://yeovilmrg.org/trains-on-the-salisbury-and-dorset/

As an aid to understanding how the service was scheduled, I have prepared a pathing diagram for 1957 (via link above).  To give a flavour of the undertaking it combines timings from a hand copied 1957 WTT (from the SWC Portfolio) with pages copied from a 1956 Goods WTT courtesy of David Vidler.

The mismatch of time tables and notices is far from ideal and although the train service followed a similar pattern from year to year, the engine duties were substantially recast at least once between 1954 (Nigel Bray book on the line) and 1958 (SeMG Martin White Collection).    I also recognise that the engines used (if not the duties performed) are likely to be quite different in 1958 and 1960 due to the ongoing withdrawal of older loco types. 

If more appropriate source data is available I will happily update what I have already done and add the peak Summer Saturday services.  If the data for 1963 could be made available I could document the final year of peak Summer service when a few ex-Somerset & Dorset trains were added to the mix.  With the limitations above plus the effects of human frailty I fully recognise that this data is not complete or accurate.  Corrections and additions will be most welcome!

 

What is surprising is that in 00 gauge (ignoring oddballs like the Sheppey unit) a representative service could now be run for the years featured using almost entirely ready-to-run models!

Steve

[bécasse]

For 1957, you have the 6.43 am Bournemouth West to Salisbury as P&P (Sheppey unit?).

 

The Sheppey units - articulated sets 513 and 514 formed of ex-SECR rail motors - were NEVER P&P fitted, so can't have been used on this train.

 

The other sets - non-articulated sets 481 and 482 - which were formed of ex-SECR rail motors WERE P&P fitted subsequent to brief initial use in the Isle of Wight, but then always worked on the SED, most commonly on the Hundred of Hoo and Westerham branches.

Edited January 21, 2018 by bécasse

[Steve Smith]

Hi Becasse,

 

Many thanks for bringing that to my attention.  I absolutely agree that it won't have been the Sheppey unit because that was equivalent to a 2-lav set not a P+P set, and it was even photographed at Fordingbridge on a train in place of the 2-lav set that should have used.   Though a P+P unit it was specified on some services it must have been hauled in both directions.  In 1957 it was probably one of the Bournemouth LSWR panelled sets then in use (Set 36 was photographed at Wimborne in 1957).  By 1960 it could well have been one of Ironclad P+P sets that David Vidler spotted on the line.  I'd come to the same conclusion about the Sheppey unit when looking at 1960, but it slipped through in 1957.  I'll amend my table to remove that particular bit of speculation.

 

Cheers,

Steve

[DLT]

On 16/05/2020 at 09:02, Jack Benson said:

On 27/03/2013 at 11:22, creweboy said:

Does anyone know the exact location, and details of the US Military sidings south of Downton in WW2?

Mike

Click here

 

 

Hi Jack, 

The mysterious route that you mention in your blog as a possible extra siding is actually two ditches, as shown by this map extract:  Side By Side Geo referenced  (if it copies correctly) and well before the date of the military sidings.  Looking at the surroundings as a whole, I suggest that it is the original route of the road, that was diverted when the railway was built.

Hope this helps,

Dave.