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Saltmarshe Road


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The original topic is here: http://www.rmweb.co....67-ser-station/

 

Saltmarshe Road came about from my reading many books on the more obscure railways of Kent, as well as memories of Romney Marsh as a child - my grandparents living beside the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch on the outskirts of Hythe..

 

With Sir Edward Watkin as chairman, the South Eastern Railway was locked in a bitter feud with the rival London, Chatham and Dover Railway which resulted in numerous obscure parts of Kent acquiring SER branch lines they didn‘t really need. These were often built in conjunction with stillborn schemes for new cross channel ports, the SER and LCDR being locked in to an agreement to pool revenues from Dover and Folkestone which both railways looked for ways to circumvent.

 

Saltmarshe Road is an imaginary station on such a line, across a bleak expanse of marshland somewhere on the south coast of Kent. The Wild Swan book on the Hundred of Hoo line was a major source of inspiration for the diorama, Saltmarshe Road being inspired by Sharnal Street.

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There were several other such lines, including the one to Dungeness which terminates in the middle of some shingle miles from anywhere. I visited this recently on a trip across Romney Marsh on the RH&DR.

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The station building was started about 10 years ago, and had been hiding in a box of half finished models ever since. It is based on Westerham, which I now realise has some detail differences from the typical SER station. These wooden stations are a distinctive feature of the old South Eastern lines, and a few still stand in railway use.

 

It is constructed from Evergreen plastic sheet, including some very nice embossed planking. The roof is from the Wills moulded sheets, which were a bit of a pig to use due to their small size and the need to avoid visible joins between the pieces.

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The building is painted in the standard Southern Railway colour scheme, using Phoenix paints and a SR painting guide on the SeMG website. It also has much interior detail.

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The baseboard is constructed from foam board, with ply around the edge to avoid any damage. It is intended to form the core of a larger layout at some point in the future, and the height of the baseboard is to allow it to match other boards with Tortoise point motors mounted underneath them.

 

Scenery (such as it is) is from polyfilla over form aboard formers. There are some subtle changes in ground level to have level access to the platform form toe forecourt. It is covered in various Woodland Scenics scatter and Noch glass clumps and nettles. Track is C&L OO gauge, using their flexible track for the platform line and individual components for the sidings. I used a mix of 32mm and 34mm sleepers for the siding to give the impression of a mix of 9’ and newer 8’6”sleepers.

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The grounded body is scratch built from a diagram in Southern Wagons volume 3. A pet hate of mine is the use of completely out of period grounded vans - 1930s built vehicles on 1930s layouts for example. This body is typical of ex SER vans grounded in the early 1920s and still retains SECR livery including the white X to show it isn’t to be used for Gunpowder during WW1.

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A big challenge was to find suitable platform furniture, rather than using the usual generic components. In some cases, such as the oil lamps, I used commercial items that were close matches. In others, such as the seats and hoop railings, I was lucky to find commercially available parts. The state name board is scratch built, with a bespoke name board from Station Signs.

 

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One thing I’ve tried to capture is the lack of traffic at such stations. There are a couple of members of staff, one of whom is asleep on a platform seat. There are no vast crowds of passengers, dozens of porters unloading wagons or a car park full of vintage sports cars as you‘ll often see on models of country stations. Not much is happening here because there are 6 trains a day in each direction and a single goods train.

 

The model can represent the early 1930s trough to about 1970, by which time the BR corporate image swept away the last of the SR signs and paintwork and rationalisation of good facilities started to happen. Whether such a station would have still been open 1970 is debateable though.

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The rest of the photos are the results of some experiments with my camera, and Helicon Focus to give increased depth of field. A few of them are cropped. The background has been done via a high-tech process (printed sky paper blutacked to the wall behind the diorama) and in a few cases a foreground has been added using grey paper. The first issue of Modelling Inspiration came out at just the right time, with it's useful article on photography :sungum:

 

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It's 1949 and our intrepid photographer captures a pick up goods, headed by a ex Brighton E5, still in Southern livery but with a BR number. This is a Finecast kit and was my first kit built loco.

 

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Whilst it shunts the yard, the photographer spots an ancient SER van grounded as a store, and still in it's pre-grouping livery.

 

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After dropping off a couple of wagons in the yard and retrieving the ex LSWR van from the loading dock, the E5 heads off along the coast towards Hastings, leaving the seagulls in peace.

 

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It's now 1960 and even less is happening at Saltmarshe Road, as a member of staff takes his afternoon nap between trains.

 

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Not much has changed at the station in a decade, and the booking clerk still leaves his bike against the ancient grounded van in the yard.

 

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However major changes are in progress on the railway, and even this obscure corner of the Southern is starting to see diesels. In this case a Bachmann class 24 modified to one of the pilot scheme batch allocated to the Southern for use in Kent - although I've since realised that the exhaust needs modifying as well.

 

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That done our porter goes back to sleep, no doubt happy to be transferred out to this backwater after 40 years at London Bridge.

 

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A few last glimpses of the station as the 1970s start. In a few years it will be downgraded to an unstaffed halt with a DEMU service every couple of hours, but for now it clings on to it's Southern corporate image and a small amount of goods traffic. The 73/0 is a much modified Hornby model, and it looks like the number transfers were applied on a Friday afternoon in the days before the BR Drugs and Alcohol policy.

 

I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed building this little imaginary corner of the Southern.

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Guest oldlugger

Superb modelling Pete and an excellent choice of subject/location (well I would say that wouldn't I, as we are both Hoo men!). This part of Kent is just so full of wild atmosphere and charm which your layout has captured perfectly. I see it is one of the 2011 challenge layouts... it will certainly get my vote!

 

All the best

Simon

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  • 2 weeks later...

A great model Pete and one that I shall keep referring to for details. I am building a 9' long model of Westerham in the 1930s and I've just started on the station building. I'm not sure this is the right place to ask but where did you obtain the railings from and is the canopy fascia a moulding or did you cut it from Evergreen sheet?

Well done, it certainly looks like the way I recall Southern wooden built stations in the 60s and early 70s.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...

 

Lovely model,  where did you get the railings from I couldn't find any for my model of Westerham

 

I got mine years ago from Blacksmith models - they've recently been re-released under the new owners. Take a look at http://shop.cooper-craft.co.uk/index.php?cPath=83_87&osCsid=4n94i5tn9fc397bngppm322v63

 

The hooped railing are one of those distinctive SER features - just like the clapboard station buildings.

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  • RMweb Gold

   

I got mine years ago from Blacksmith models - they've recently been re-released under the new owners. Take a look at http://shop.cooper-craft.co.uk/index.php?cPath=83_87&osCsid=4n94i5tn9fc397bngppm322v63

 

The hooped railing are one of those distinctive SER features - just like the clapboard station buildings.

 

   

I got mine years ago from Blacksmith models - they've recently been re-released under the new owners. Take a look at http://shop.cooper-craft.co.uk/index.php?cPath=83_87&osCsid=4n94i5tn9fc397bngppm322v63

 

The hooped railing are one of those distinctive SER features - just like the clapboard station buildings.

Thanks Pete for reply I will check them out today.

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That is lovely - would be interested to find out how you did the surface in the yard, looks just what I need for the yard on my latest project .

It's plaster or polyfilla - I forget exactly which. After it was dry I sanded the surface down to remove any bumps but still leave a surface that isn't completely flat and level. I then painted glued down a small amount of very fine ballast and covered it all with a couple of coats of very light grey paint. The grass round the edges is from woodlnd scenics plus some Noch grass tufts.The aim was for a light faded look as the yard would be more mud than gravel.

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  • 2 months later...
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Wow this is a lovely model, I am looking to potentially model a similar sort of area (New Romney Station) and this is inspirational to me.   Is there any further update and any colour piccies of the e5 and other stock as would be interested in seeing as my preferred period would be late southern into BR which would suit some of the stock I have.

 

Brilliant work

 

All the best

Chris

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Chris,

There's no further update on Saltmarshe Road itself. It's packed away in a box waiting for the day that I have enough space to turn it in a permanent layout.

The E5 was featured in an old version of this site along with various other Southern locos, including my still not finished Finecast I3. I'm not entirely sure what the E5 is doing in Kent, but I rather like them. E4s certainly featured on the New Romney branch, so it's not completely out of place.

 

Pete

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Thanks Pete

 

I have had a look and they look great, some real inspiration.  I am building my first kit built loco (an N Gauge BHE Thumper).  I thought I would try something like this before getting into the more complicated oo gauge steam loco kits.  I have an H class to build with Push/Pull set and then I would like to start getting some more kit built stock eventually.

I may look at the Bachmann E4 when it comes out.

Did any I3s get down across to the Ashford area at all ?  Lovely looking engine, please post some more piccies as you go.

Thanks for your response

 

All the best
Chris
 

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