BR Southern Region 1970-71

[Deltic mad Dave]

My layout Bridport is set in the late 50s early sixties and I want to run it in the early 70s mode as well as I'm guessing the infrastructure, like station signage etc would still be the same. As the layout is a what might have been can anyone advise what traffic would be around the area, any pictures etc. I'm guessing class 42 warships on blue grey mk1s/2s, class 205 thumpers etc. Any one with any timetables etc, please help.

[JohnR]

Bridport was operated by DMUs, connecting with other trains at Maiden Newton. I dont think there were any instances of Warships going down there - I'm not even sure they went to Weymouth. 

 

Thumpers never got closer than Swanage. 

[Mike Storey]

Station signage would definitely have become very different in the early '70's compared to the early '60's. The replacement of the old regional coloured station name boards and directional signs by the "new" corporate black and white, standard new font was undertaken surprisingly rapidly from the mid-'60's onwards, although there were always a few exceptions of course!

 

Likewise, replacement of lighting was gaining momentum by then, as well as new uniforms, finger boards, poster displays and so on.

 

I think you will need to rely heavily on Rule 1 for your alternative decade!

[john new]

If you haven't already got it there is a very comprehensive book on the Bridport branch and its full history. (The Bridport Railway by Jackson & Tattersall)

 

As stated above anything over and above WR DMUs in the post-steam era requires considerable facts bending such as using your Modellers Licence to add the fictional reworking of the Maiden Newton junction end of the Branch to add an extra curve (Maiden Newton West station too perhaps) to facilitate direct running to/from Yeovil.

Edited July 11, 2017 by john new

[Zomboid]

If it's Southern region in Dorset that you're imagining, then any LHCS will almost always be a 33/1 and 4TC (maybe a daily/ twice daily London service which ran in and out of Weymouth). A thumper would make sense for the regular passenger service if it's a Southern operated branch line.

Freight, if any, could be anything that the southern or western were using on freights at the time, subject to your branch's weight limit, so 33s would make an appearance again...

[Ronnie MB]

Station signage would definitely have become very different in the early '70's compared to the early '60's. The replacement of the old regional coloured station name boards and directional signs by the "new" corporate black and white, standard new font was undertaken surprisingly rapidly from the mid-'60's onwards, although there were always a few exceptions of course!

 

Likewise, replacement of lighting was gaining momentum by then, as well as new uniforms, finger boards, poster displays and so on.

 

I think you will need to rely heavily on Rule 1 for your alternative decade!

There's some footage of Gravesend station in a feature on the constituency towards the start of BBC's 1970 election coverage (available on YouTube) and I'm sure it shows a Southern style bullseye totem.

 

Now, it may have been library footage, but it provides some basis for thinking that corporate signage had not reached bigger SR stations by 1970 and could justify it not having reached backwaters by then either?

Edited July 11, 2017 by Ronnie MB

[john new]

Bridport’s problem was always the MN junction pointing the wrong way, based on traditional links to the County town at Dorchester, hence my suggestion, of modellers licence.

 

That gives the OP a fictional back history under the GWR where a service pattern to Yeovil and beyond developed including the daily service to Paddington. (Whether via the original WS&W routing or via the later Berks and Hants is obviously up to the OP).

 

Under BR Bridport IIRC stayed with the WR so as diesels moved in the hydraulic types would have been seen on any pre-existing (fictional) Paddington services.

 

As already stated Weymouth did not get thumpers, most of the units running on the Bristol route were WR types and on the Bournemouth line 33/4TC combos of 4 or 8 car trains.

 

Any Bridport – Weymouth through running units would have been WR types.

 

You would have to bend reality anyway to add a Bridport – Waterloo service as an inter-regional in BR days because it didn’t happen in reality, so you have to consider is it plausible?

 

My guess is back in the day a Bridport to London ticket issued would be change at MN then over the WR to Paddington (anyone able to advise if that is wrong and under BR they were issued via Dorchester and the cross town walk?)

Edited July 11, 2017 by john new

[john new]

There's some footage of Gravesend station in a feature on the constituency towards the BBC's 1970 election coverage and I'm sure it shows a Southern style bullseye totem.

 

Now, it may have been library footage, but it provides some basis for thinking that corporate signage had not reached bigger SR stations by 1970 and could justify it not having reached backwaters by then either?

 

Shawford had changed to corporate signage prior to summer 1972. I left the area in 1972 and the change had happened some time earlier than that.

[Phil Bullock]

Warships did get to Weymouth on Bristol workings...and also to Poole on freights

 

Kind regards

 

Phil

[RFS]

Some very good pictures of the Bridport branch here - http://railphotoprints.uk/p89819962

 

And in 1989 a 33/1 with 2x4TCs on a Bristol to Weymouth service - http://railphotoprints.uk/p804939386

Edited July 11, 2017 by RFS

[Zomboid]

.

You would have to bend reality anyway to add a Bridport – Waterloo service as an inter-regional in BR days because it didn’t happen in reality, so you have to consider is it plausible?

 

My guess is back in the day a Bridport to London ticket issued would be change at MN then over the WR to Paddington (anyone able to advise if that is wrong and under BR they were issued via Dorchester and the cross town walk?)

It would be bending reality (though isn't that what we're doing anyway?), but I don't think it's that implausible an idea that a service along the Dorset coast and on to London could have happened, if by some arrangement the Bridport line had found its way to the southern region. If that had happened then the DMUs would probably have been thumpers too.

Castle Cary to Dorchester would probably have also been southern in that parallel universe - along with the LSWR route to Exeter not changing hands (maybe the southern region might have absorbed the old GWR lines past Exeter as well - doesn't strike me as a total impossibility, the western had a lot of railway to deal with in Wales and the West Midlands, and Devon & Cornwall are South as much as they're West, geographically speaking).

 

If it stayed western region then obviously it's DMMUs and hydraulics.

[caradoc]

On my first visit to Hither Green depot in September 1972, the SR totems at Hither Green station were on that day being replaced by BR corporate signage. The guys doing the job offered us the old signs for 50p each, sadly I couldn't afford that (although some of my friends could).

[Deltic mad Dave]

Thanks everyone for your replies. We are assuming that the Southern put a line through necessitating a larger station at Bridport hence using the name Bridport Central so Plymouth to Brighton services would pass through, an hourly Waterloo to Exeter would pass through diverting off the usual route and a local service to and from maybe Southampton or competing with the local bus to Swanage hence the use of a thumper or two. It would have a link to the above mentioned GW Bridport line, but its main use would be a secondary route as described above.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Deltic mad Dave

[Mike Storey]

There's some footage of Gravesend station in a feature on the constituency towards the start of BBC's 1970 election coverage (available on YouTube) and I'm sure it shows a Southern style bullseye totem.

 

Now, it may have been library footage, but it provides some basis for thinking that corporate signage had not reached bigger SR stations by 1970 and could justify it not having reached backwaters by then either?

 

We can justify anything on our own models - Rule 1 !!

[Oldddudders]

There's some footage of Gravesend station in a feature on the constituency towards the start of BBC's 1970 election coverage (available on YouTube) and I'm sure it shows a Southern style bullseye totem.

 

Now, it may have been library footage, but it provides some basis for thinking that corporate signage had not reached bigger SR stations by 1970 and could justify it not having reached backwaters by then either?

 

I think it was still being rolled out some years later. A friend was SM at Dorking in the mid-70s. He said new signs had arrived for Boxhill and Westhumble. Unfortunately they all proclaimed Boxhill and Westhamble.......