The Pett & Winchelsea Sands Light Railway

[D3489gibson]

Back in 2017, having finished my apprenticeship with Southern Rail, and having a holiday home in Winchelsea, I bit the bug for 009, and started working on a layout idea, utilising the local area. Fast forward to 2019, and through a change in circumstances, myself and my mum purchased a holiday home on the neighbouring holiday site at Rye Harbour, and thus with that, I decided to relocate the layouts basis, in model form at least. Unfortunately through many things, including the pandemic, and moving home from my flat to my mums house, I was unable to start working on building the layout. 

 

However, after a long 4 and a half years, I can finally say that the layout is in the post planning stages of being built.

 

After joining the Beckenham and West Wickham Model Railway Club in November 2021, I've gotten involved with the clubs layouts, including operating the chairman's OO Gauge layout Gordons Lane, which featured in the July issue of Hornby Magazine. A few weekends ago, we attended the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway's model railway weekend operating a members layout, Stonycroft Junction. The event was hosted by Invicta Model Rail, and myself and the chairman started discussing how the club didn't have a 009 presence. I quickly mentioned this layout in particular, and since then we've been discussing how to make it, and what size it shall be. This Thursday at our club evening, we're going to be trial assembling the layout, granted on a table with no flexi track, just yet, with an aim to have the layout ready to show at our April show next year. 

 

The layout is going to be DC, as much as the rest of the clubs layouts are DCC, with the exception of one OO layout, and the N gauge layout. 

 

 

 

Above are rough plans of both the track design, and of the baseboard setup, with the four larger boards forming the scenic sections, and the two 3ft x 1.5ft boards being for the fiddle yard. 

 

Exciting times lay ahead for the P&WSLR!

 

Nathan... 

[Nearholmer]

Are you aware that the area did indeed have 2ft gauge railways? The lines were connected with shingle extraction, concrete making, and sea defence work, and straggled all the way from Rye Harbour to Cliff End. Many years ago I wrote-up what I was able to find about the history, which was published first in the journal of NGRS then in Tenterden Terrier. Nowadays, the map evidence is far easier to access, using the 25” maps on the NLS site.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Nearholmer

[D3489gibson]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Are you aware that the area did indeed have 2ft gauge railways? The lines were connected with shingle extraction, concrete making, and sea defence work, and straggled all the way from Rye Harbour to Cliff End. Many years ago I wrote-up what I was able to find about the history, which was published first in the journal of NGRS then in Tenterden Terrier. Nowadays, the map evidence is far easier to access, using the 25” maps on the NLS site.

 

Thanks for commenting! Yes I'm aware of the narrow gauge lines that were in the area, that's sort of what spurred me on originally back in 2017, when writing up a brief (fake history?) for the line. 

 

Updates to follow on Friday after the trial setup on thursday night. 

 

Nathan... 

[D3489gibson]

 

 

Unfortunately due to the Chairman having to work on Gordons Lane last Thursday, we were unable to get a basic setup sorted, however during the day I'd managed to find all of my track and a great deal of stock for the layout. 

 

Our plan is to use Flexi track for the majority of the scenic section, and utilise the Setrack for the fiddle yard, and sidings. 

 

Once I have an update, i shall in due course, post here. 

 

Nathan... 

[D3489gibson]

Well, after a few months of not being able to do anything, there's finally an update! 

 

Prior to heading up to GETS with Beckwick, the chairman of the BWWMRC, who's assisting with the layout build managed to acquire some Tim Horn baseboards second-hand from a chap in Wales. We've utilised the two long 2ftx5ft boards for the layout, as the other ones would have caused the layout to be unable to fit in his car for transport to shows/ the club, etc. On wednesday 14th Dec, we managed to finally start laying track. This has unfortunately deviated slightly from the initial track plan which would have seen two stations on the layout. As a result, we've decided to depict just the section toward the mouth of the River Rother, and have left the Frenchmans Bay station area for the time being, with a potential to extend the layout in the future should it be popular with club members. 

 

(Once my emails sync and they're on my laptop) Attached are some photos of the first day of track laying. The station, Rother Point, will have a setup, loosely inspired by Dungeness, with a middle platform, and an outer one. The Shingle Siding is setup using solely set-track pieces to make maximum use of the flexi track elsewhere. as can be see, it can hold Nine wagons, and an engine. There is a loco release siding further back behind the station entry points to allow the full Shingle train to be reversed out and shunted into the station to pass other trains. The end of the layout that was going to depict Frenchmans Bay station, will now feature an elevated spiral section to give the layout some depth, as opposed to just being flat and rounded. This section will be built up once the Woodland Scenics elevations have been set in place and then covered with papier mache. 

 

Till next time, 

 

Nathan... 

[phil_sutters]

On 22/08/2022 at 08:02, Nearholmer said:

Are you aware that the area did indeed have 2ft gauge railways?

There is one photo of narrow gauge trackwork right on the seawall at Winchelsea Beach in Paul O'Callaghan's East Sussex Coastal Railways Volume2: Branch Lines and Other Railways.

[D3489gibson]

To save editing, here are the progress photos so far. 

 

 

[D3489gibson]

Evening all! 

 

The whole layout is now completely laid and wired up, however after the last update, Greg had set all of the riser formers in place, and we began to lay the final bits of track last Thursday 5th Jan, and no matter how much alteration we made to the track geometry, the largest loco I own, a Bachmann Double Fairlie, would not make it round the "up round over and down loop" without derailing. We also tried to run a small wheelbase loco to no avail either, so we resorted to ripping up the entirety of that section. 

 

What we have now done instead, is a flattish loop, with a few reverse curves to break the monotony of it being a roundy roundy layout. The fiddle yard is the only section of the layout that has Set-track pieces, excluding the pointwork, with the rest of the track being flexi on the scenic section. With all of the track laid out and dropper wires installed, we began to work on the control panel board, which allows two users to sit either side of it, and control half of the layout each effectively. To overcome moving more than one train at once from the fiddle yard or a siding, or station, we have opted to use On-Off-On toggle switches for this. attached are photos of the progress so far. With wiring all completed, the next stage will be the scenery. 

 

 

 

Till next time,

 

Nathan...

Edited January 13, 2023 by D3489gibson