MURSTON GROUND FRAME, Sittingbourne, Kent.

[fulton]

 I am looking to do a diorama based on the Smeed Dean siding at Murston, Sittingbourne, Kent, I have the photo from the KENT RAIL site, showing the ground frame hut in a disused condition, information or photos of it in use would be useful, also the wording of the name board, the surrounding buildings and bridge are much the same as they were in the early 1920s, which is when I believe the siding opened. Below is the photo that stared my interest plus the OS map from 1938.

[bécasse]

The wooden construction of the hut suggests to me that it predates the Southern Railway. There was a huge upsurge in the demand for high-quality cement from North Kent during the Great War (from both sides in the conflict!) and the siding may well date from then.

 

The wording on an enamelled SE&CR name board would have been MURSTON SIDING SIGNALS in dark blue condensed lettering on an off-white background, several similar examples lasted around the network until BR days.

Edited July 7, 2023 by bécasse

[fulton]

1 hour ago, bécasse said:

The wooden construction of the hut suggests to me that it predates the Southern Railway. There was a huge upsurge in the demand for high-quality cement from North Kent during the Great War (from both sides in the conflict!) and the siding may well date from then.

 

The wording on an enamelled SE&CR name board would have been MURSTON SIDING SIGNALS in dark blue condensed lettering on an off-white background, several similar examples lasted around the network until BR days.

Thank you, just the info I was looking for, my first EM layout, built 40 years ago, was Beluncle Halt on the Hoo Peninsular, the ground frame there was labelled MISKING SIDING SIGNALS, so that would fit in. 

[eastwestdivide]

There's a couple of paragraphs about Smeed Dean at Sittingbourne in "The Cement Railways of Kent", Stoyel & Kidner, Oakwood Press no.70. But no mention of a ground frame. A few pics of locos, but not much else in shot.

Edit: one more snippet in Appendix 5 of that book:

Name of siding - Murston PCM

Position - Sittingbourne

Method of working - Ground frame: Sykes' key from Sittingbourne Box

Edited July 7, 2023 by eastwestdivide
more info, typo

[bécasse]

Eastwestdivide's post prompted me to look further because if the siding was worked using a Syke's Key from Sittingbourne box I couldn't see any reason to provide a substantial GF box and yet there is both photographic and map evidence that one was provided.

 

I don't have a copy of the SR Eastern Section SA which would have provided at least some substantive evidence but I presume, anyway, that that is where the reference to the use of a Syke's Key came from. The Signalling Record Society don't record any box, even a non-block post, at the siding (whereas they do record the comparable NBP boxes at Miskin's Siding and Wyborne Siding on the Hundred of Hoo line) and yet the Kent Rail photo shows that the box structure lasted well beyond the introduction of c/l signalling on that line in 1959 so it could hardly have been unknown.

 

That photo seems to show a wooden structure with features that one might associate with late-design Saxby & Farmer products, especially the barge boards. The LCDR certainly had quite a number of such boxes but they all dated from the final decade of the 19th century and S&F wouldn't have supplied one after that period. That means that (hardly surprisingly) the GF box was provided using redundant material from elsewhere on that railway but certainly doesn't answer the question why (or even when).

 

Smeed Dean had been fairly minor producers of portland cement but were a very significant maker of bricks. Given that we know that didn't have a rail outlet up to the Edwardian era, that strongly suggests that their output was, quite literally, shipped out either in Thames barges or in larger vessels.

 

The outbreak of the Great War would have consequently created transport problems for Smeed Dean, one of the very first actions of the German navy was to sow mines to disrupt England's east coast sea traffic. At much the same time, as the Western Front stabilised in late 1914, the demand for portland cement (then shipped in barrels, by the way) soared. As I suggested previously, this would have created a problem to which the urgent provision of the standard gauge siding would have provided the obvious answer. Such a siding, served by "goods trains requiring to stop in section" and protected ("belts and braces") by a home and distant signal rather than the use of a Syke's key, would have justified the initial provision of the GF box, the Syke's key coming later as use of the siding fell post-war.

 

That is speculation but it does fit the sketchy known facts and I certainly can't see the Southern Railway providing a GF box at a siding locked by a Syke's key and with the points, once unlocked, worked by the train's guard.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by bécasse

[eastwestdivide]

That book I quoted from had the feel of being well researched, but it could still be wrong. I’ve no way of checking though. 

[bécasse]

What I have written is clearly surmise, based on the little hard information that we have (including the photo). Installation during the Great War could certainly explain why no opening date is known and might explain the mystery of the apparently unrecorded GF box.

 

Of course, if you build a model and exhibit it locally, some local historian will turn up who knows chapter and verse and is more than pleased to share all his knowledge.

[Tom Burnham]

The Southern Railway 1934 Appendix lists it as:

"Murston (Portland Cement Manufacturers)  Down side between Sittingbourne and Teynham  [Gradient at point of connection] Level  {Catch points provided in sidings, at] 45 yards from main line  {Points of siding worked by or controlled from] Ground frame.  Sykes' key from Sittingbourne "B" box  [If gates provided across siding Key to be obtained from/Returned to] Ground frame [Worked by] Various goods services"

There's a special working instruction under Sittingbourne: "Murston siding. - The siding is constructed on a gradient of 1 in 56 falling away from the running line, and the utmost care must be exercised in carrying out shunting operations, loose shunting of wagons into the siding being strictly prohibited.

"Guards must, whenever practicable, shunt the rear portion of the train clear of the main line before commencing shunting operations."

 

Smeed Dean became part of the APCM combine in the 1920s.  When I worked for APCM/Blue Circle in the 1970s and 1980s they still had a brickworks at Sittingbourne making "SD Stocks".

The previous comment about restrictions on coastal trade during WW1 sounds right - when I was researching the industrial connections off the North Kent line many years ago (for Roger Kidner's Oakwood Press history) many of the sidings were created during WW1 for the benefit of industries that would have relied on sailing barges or coastal shipping.

Hope this is useful.

 

 

[Tom Burnham]

As a matter of interest, Murston Siding was still listed in the 1960 BR(S) SED Appendix.  Similar entry, but the line had been resignalled in Phase 1 of the Kent Coast electrification: "The points are operated from a ground frame controlled from Sittingbourne signal box and the working is in accordance with electrical release lever control arrangements."

[Tom Burnham]

If anyone happens to be at Kew, there's this reference from 1907 in the National Archives catalogue that may or may not be relevant:

 

South Eastern & Chatham Railway: Murston. Top File No: R13720

Reference: MT 6/1651/2

Description:

South Eastern & Chatham Railway: Murston.

Top File No: R13720

Date:1907

Held by:The National Archives, Kew

Former reference in its original department:Top File No R13720

Legal status:Public Record(s)

Closure status:Open Document, Open Description

 

(The MT6 files are mostly inspecting officers' reports on new or altered signalling and other works.)

[Nearholmer]

1935 Sectional Appendix does indeed say Sykes Key from Sittingbourne ‘box.

 

It also contains this cautionary note:

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Non signalling person question:

 

When does a GF protected from the weather by a hut become a GF ‘box?

 

I’m guessing when it controls signals.

 

I’m thinking that this set of sidings might always have been released by a key, and wondering why the holding of signals in the rear at Sittingbourne at danger wouldn’t have been plenty of protection.

 

Maybe the SECR, like me, couldn’t see the point in a GF having a set of signals too, and simply ceased (before 1907) to create GF ‘boxes, instead simply creating huts to protect GFs from the weather.

[Tom Burnham]

I'll see if there's anything relevant on the SECSoc website (later). The key of the gate across the siding was kept at the GF, so I guess a hut would have provided somewhere to hang it in the dry!

[bécasse]

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I’m thinking that this set of sidings might always have been released by a key, and wondering why the holding of signals in the rear at Sittingbourne at danger wouldn’t have been plenty of protection.

There was a long tradition of protecting mid-section siding connections with home and distant signals and, reading inspection reports, one gets the impression that the practice was encouraged by the BoT's inspecting officers (even on single lines!). As you say, with block working the practice should have been completely unnecessary, particularly if a reminder device were to be placed on the section starting signal lever, hence my "belts-and-braces" comment. I only suggested that signals might have been provided initially because I couldn't see any other reason for supplying such a substantial box for the GF - and the SECR did use the word "SIGNALS" on its description plate for such GF. I don't know when the practice of providing mid-section protection signals died out but, at the very latest, it is likely to have been as part of the "standardisation" that was agreed in the 1920s.

[fulton]

When I built the model of Beluncle Halt/Miskin Sidings, a former signalman who travelled with the train to open and work the ground frame, in the 1960s,, said there were unused levers that had previously worked the protection signals. Photo of my model built in 1975, did not know at that time lettering should have been dark blue, one of the signals and the loading gauge now have a home on my new layout.

[Nearholmer]

Yes, Miskin’s Siding and a few others definitely had the signals, I’ve even seen photos somewhere that showed them.

 

Glad you’ve made a model of the place, because I’ve always thought it would make an excellent diorama layout.

[Tom Burnham]

This is the entry for the SE&CR 1910 Appendix.  Mentions the cabin and signals -

 

It's listed (as Murston (Smeed Dean) - controlled by Sykes key from Sittingbourne "B" - in the 1922 Appendix, but don't seem to be any special instructions.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Tom Burnham
Ref to 1922 Appendix added.

[bécasse]

Thanks Tom. So it was a bit earlier than the Great War, but not much (since it wasn't in situ when the 1907 25" OS map was surveyed - probably the preceding year), so almost certainly dates to the period 1907-1910. It was also useful to have confirmation that it originally had signals in addition to the Syke's key arrangement, so for that date and with signals confirmed, the name plate almost certainly read MURSTON SIDING SIGNALS in the SE&CR style*. Given that SE&CR Appendix entry, it is surprising that the SRS missed it entirely, their listings are usually very comprehensive.

 

Incidentally I realise that I failed to mention before that the practice of protecting siding connections with non-block signals originated because, until keys became available (Annett's Key from late 1881), the connections weren't locked in any way by the block system and the signals were provided to prove that the (interlocked) points were correctly set for through running. The Keys provided this because they couldn't be removed from the lever frame (for handing in at the box in advance) unless the points were correctly reset (and the points couldn't be worked in the first place unless the Key was locked into the lever frame).

 

* This is as close as I can get, using Eurostyle Bold font:

 

[Nearholmer]

I wonder what signals though.

 

Might the signals briefly mentioned in the instruction have been shunt signals, rather than a home and distant? 
 

(I’m .struggling to believe that anyone would spend money on a home and distant to protect against the eventuality of a train passing the very firmly locked signals in the rear)

[bécasse]

3 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

(I’m .struggling to believe that anyone would spend money on a home and distant to protect against the eventuality of a train passing the very firmly locked signals in the rear)

 

That is because you are not old enough! It really was common, if not habitual, practice back then. What wouldn't have been provided were any shunt signals, the control of the points by an adjacent GF  obviated the usual legal requirement for moves from the siding on to the main line to be authorised by a ground signal (on the basis that the man in charge was literally on the spot).

[bécasse]

Condensing the name board print out to 80% of the original Eurostyles bold font produces something much closer to the original SE&CR style. It is still not perfect but probably close enough for 4mm scale.

 

[fulton]

This was my Home Signal for Beluncle Halt/Miskin Sidings, now has a home on my new layout, representing the Outer Home at Strood, on the line to Maidstone.

[Wickham Green too]

Good job it's at Danger - with that brick wall across the tracks ! 🙄

[fulton]

While this project is some time from starting, I have dipped in with the lorry, which I can also use on my Janes' Creek project.

[Fishplate]

Came across your topic via @Pugsley site where you had posted a picture of your lorry. Didn't know about this siding, but was aware of similar between Teynham and Faversham from old maps. Have clicked follow and look forward to seeing more.