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Dunkerton Colliery Halt


kev69
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hello, can anyone help with info or photos of Dunkerton Colliery Halt on the old GWR Limpley Stoke to Camerton branch? I am building a 2mm scale model of the halt also part of the adjacent colliery (a huge fan of The Titfield Thunderbolt which was filmed on the line - the steamroller duel was shot in the colliery sidings).

The Camerton Branch book has a plan of the station and photo, also similar views in the Frome to Bristol book. I have visited the station but the platform has been buried although the road bridge and gate posts are still there. Old photos show a house by the bridge but this must have been demolished. Any help gratefully received thanks.

 

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Edited by kev69
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Kev,

 

I'm afraid I can't help you with any pictures other than the published ones you mention but I will keep my nose to the ground and see what I can come up with. Ian Pope of Lightmore press is due to publish a book on the PO wagons of  North Somerset in the not too distant future and he has turned up some treasures so we might get something in there.

 

Like you, I'm a huge fan of the Titfield Thunderbolt. My own Highbury Colliery is based on Camerton and my fictitious North Somerset Light Railway, of which Tucking Mill is the eastern terminus,is an alternative version of the Cam Valley line -  see links in my signature.

.

 

I shall follow your progress with interest. Are you building this in N or 2FS? - the latter I hope.

 

Jerry 

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hi Jerry,

 

Cheers for the reply and info, anything you can glean on the station will be much appreciated.

Highbury Colliery is certainly an inspirational model, you might have seen my own Mallingford in Model Rail - based loosely on the Camerton branch? But now I want to model an actual location and do a bit better. Sorry though, it is N gauge....

 

I am interested in ruined industrial archaeology and will depict the halt intact although rather run-down, with a representation of derelict colliery buildings, and maybe a hint of the Titfield Thunderbolt which was partly filmed in the colliery sidings. All this in 42 x 8in....

 

thanks again,

Kev

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post-20343-0-53877400-1380743072_thumb.jpg

 

Progress so far. The halt and bridge will be modelled closely on the prototype, the area to the right of the bridge will be freelance but based on buildings at Dunkerton Colliery. Scenery construction is my usual method of polystyrene shaped with sandpaper (a messy business, keep a vacuum cleaner handy....) covered with papier mache. The topography of the site is rather tricky to model, being built into the side of a steep hill, and there is still much to do to get it looking right. The flat area on the left is for the platelayer's hut, the Somerset Coal Canal had earlier crossed the site at this point.

 

Old photos show a house or some such building adjacent to the bridge but there is no trace of it today, this SD Mouldings cottage will become The Boatman pub which once stood at the other end of the colliery site. Track is Peco code 55 already primed ready for weathering. The backscene around the fiddle yard is fixed in place but the remaining backscenes will be removeable for photographic purposes.

Edited by kev69
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From my own map collection and those on www.old-maps.co.uk, I reckon that building on the corner of the bridge must have been demolished by 1958. i.e. very soon after the second photo in the Middleton Press book (if their date is correct).

 

Nick

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Looks good Kev, the topography around the halt and bridge looks particularly convincing. Is there any way you could rearrange the backscene at the colliery end which hides the fiddle yard. Right angles in backscenes never look good, particularly convex ones -  throwing all sorts of strange shadows. Could it not have a gentle curve with some of the colliery buildings being used as view blockers to help disguise the fiddle yard. I think that it would pay huge dividends visually.

 

Jerry 

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From my own map collection and those on www.old-maps.co.uk, I reckon that building on the corner of the bridge must have been demolished by 1958. i.e. very soon after the second photo in the Middleton Press book (if their date is correct).

 

Nick

cheers Nick for the info, very useful.

 

Kev

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Looks good Kev, the topography around the halt and bridge looks particularly convincing. Is there any way you could rearrange the backscene at the colliery end which hides the fiddle yard. Right angles in backscenes never look good, particularly convex ones -  throwing all sorts of strange shadows. Could it not have a gentle curve with some of the colliery buildings being used as view blockers to help disguise the fiddle yard. I think that it would pay huge dividends visually.

 

Jerry 

Thanks Jerry. I know what you mean about right angle backscenes and have given this careful thought.... Given the small size of the layout I don't have much choice with the front corner of the fiddle yard but this will be disguised with possibly a colliery chimney or other structure. Other corners though will be rounded a little if possible.

 

Kev

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 Ian Pope of Lightmore press is due to publish a book on the PO wagons of  North Somerset in the not too distant future and he has turned up some treasures so we might get something in there.

 

 

 

I'm glad to hear it – he's had the manuscript since about January!

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I'm glad to hear it – he's had the manuscript since about January!

 

The problem was that new pictures kept coming up that 'just couldn't be left out', resulting in constant revisions. I think he has now drawn a line now so the book can be published. I'm a big fan of Lightmore books, they are up there with Wild Swan in terms of quality and this is a greatly anticipated volume.

 

Jerry

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The problem was that new pictures kept coming up that 'just couldn't be left out', resulting in constant revisions. I think he has now drawn a line now so the book can be published. I'm a big fan of Lightmore books, they are up there with Wild Swan in terms of quality and this is a greatly anticipated volume.

 

Jerry

 

Yes indeed, Lightmoor have done a lot for us all. I think the last new "must-have" photo was several months ago; it's just a question of finding a place in the queue of new books. This volume is indeed keenly anticipated – not least by me – as I started work on it 30 years ago!

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  • 4 months later...

I had already sent these pictures to Kev, but I think they have a place here. All date from the early 70s, before the cutting was filled in. Edited to add - There was a standard GWR wicket gate by the Bridge, it was there, it may still be there, though I note your current picture shows a metal gate.

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Edited by Tim V
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There was a second movie shot on the branch in the 1930's called Kate plus 10. There are scenes with a GWR mogul and stock on the branch at Dunkerton and at Limpley Stoke.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Yes, but it doesn't seem available on DVD etc although I can remember it being shown on tv many years ago.

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I had already sent these pictures to Kev, but I think they have a place here. All date from the early 70s, before the cutting was filled in. Edited to add - There was a standard GWR wicket gate by the Bridge, it was there, it may still be there, though I note your current picture shows a metal gate.

attachicon.gifDunkerton Colliery Halt 48-1.jpg

attachicon.gifdunkerton Colliery Halt pre 10-75.jpg

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Tim - the posts made of old rail supporting the wicket gate are still there, now leading to a footpath, but as you say there is now a modern metal gate. On the opposite side of the lane the remains of the wicket gate leading to the colliery footpath are still there.

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Yes, but it doesn't seem available on DVD etc although I can remember it being shown on tv many years ago.

I think I recorded it on VHS once... not quite sure where that tape went, but there were many excellent railway scenes in the film. Pity about the plot line, a rather feeble (even for it's time, IIRC) 'cops and robbers' film...!

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  • 3 weeks later...

A quick update on Dunkerton Colliery Halt. Progress has been a bit slow lately but I'm pleased with the way it mirrors the prototype from this angle. The bridge is only a mock up and a proper scratchbuilt model is the next thing on the to do list. The cottage is a SD Mouldings one which I have spare and will be modified to resemble the actual one in the photo, since demolished so some guess work needed here!

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There was a second movie shot on the branch in the 1930's called Kate plus 10. There are scenes with a GWR mogul and stock on the branch at Dunkerton and at Limpley Stoke.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

Well, 'Kate Plus Ten', filmed in 1937, was the second film made on the branch. The first was 'The Ghost Train', filmed in 1931, featuring a 43XX hauling a mock Cornish Riviera at camerton (renamed Fal Vale for the film), and a Dean Goods hauling the ghost train itself at Camerton and Dunkerton Colliery sidings.

 

Nick

 

ps latest photo captures the original well!

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The other side of that cottage appears in the Titfield Thunderbolt, unable to post a screenshot from my Blu-ray copy!

Do you mean this one, just in front of the funnel? I never made the connection until now!

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Well, 'Kate Plus Ten', filmed in 1937, was the second film made on the branch. The first was 'The Ghost Train', filmed in 1931, featuring a 43XX hauling a mock Cornish Riviera at camerton (renamed Fal Vale for the film), and a Dean Goods hauling the ghost train itself at Camerton and Dunkerton Colliery sidings.

 

Nick

 

ps latest photo captures the original well!

 

I can remember Kate Plus Ten being shown on tv years many years ago but it doesn't seem available any longer, and I've read that one of the reels of the 1931 Ghost Train has been lost.

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Yes indeed, Lightmoor have done a lot for us all. I think the last new "must-have" photo was several months ago; it's just a question of finding a place in the queue of new books. This volume is indeed keenly anticipated – not least by me – as I started work on it 30 years ago!

 

 

The book is scheduled to be published on 1 May...

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