Creating a light railway backstory?

[Nick C]

I've got a plan forming for another micro-layout, revisiting my earlier attempt at a light railway terminus, but this time going earlier - probably just post-great-war. I want it to have a realistic backstory though, rather than just plucking a placename off a map, so I thought I'd ask the collective imaginations of the pre-grouping section...

 

It's unlikey that the layout itself will be started for a while yet, as I want to get Auckland Wharf a bit more complete over this winter, but I'll probably make a start on buildings and stock - especially as I've got some suitable kits already so can do so without spending much!

 

My thoughts so far are:

 

• A small independant line built under a light railway order, just about hanging on on the verge of bankruptcy, having never achieved it's aim as the money to build it ran out, leaving it terminating somewher in the middle of nowhere several miles short of it's intended destination. Likely to either close completely, or be swallowed up by it's neighbour before too long...
• Track layout to be a basic loop-and-two-sidings on an SMS layout-in-a-box board (same footprint as Auckland Wharf to go in the same place above my desk when in use)
• Stock to be an assortment of second-hand cast-offs - a Terrier, a Rapido Manning Wardle when that comes out, a couple of Hattons 4 or 6 wheelers and an ex-LSWR bogie brake third (the now-defunct GRA models kit, bought several years ago on a whim), with a couple of ancient wagons of their own and a few big company wagons bringing stuff in.

 

What I'm not sure of is location - It'll be somewhere in the south as that's where I'm familiar with, but there's not really any sensible locations here in Hampshire that didn't actually have a line, and would be suitable - so I'm wondering whether a fictional location might be better? 

 

Any suggestions?

[AY Mod]

Thorney Island? A mix of Hayling Island and Selsey Tramway.

[woodenhead]

Thorney Island and it's little terminus of Spikes Bottom

[Nearholmer]

If you search the “London Gazette” using the name of anywhere in Hampshire that didn’t get a railway and ‘light railway’, changes are you’ll find that some optimustidys clubbed together at some point with a view to building one, but gave up on the idea.

 

A lot of Hampshire LRs had either or both of WD and LSWR involvement, it being practically one entire garrison at the relevant dates.

[Nearholmer]

Frinstance: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highclere,_Kingsclere_and_Basingstoke_Light_Railway

[Nick C]

Thanks, two excellent ideas - I'd ignored Thorney as being soley military, forgetting that was only the case since '38, and somehow missed the HKBLR in my various trawls for proposed railways in Hampshire...

[Nearholmer]

 

This is a truly obscure one, and I can’t imagine what traffic it was meant to carry.

[Nick C]

9 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

This is a truly obscure one, and I can’t imagine what traffic it was meant to carry.

That's exceptionally obscure! Even today Vernhams Dean has only 500-odd people, and the only thing of interest is an Iron-age hillfort... The name does have a good ring to it though...

[davknigh]

Pick a name from a map of a small place in the middle of nowhere, add “Nether, Upper, or Middle” to that name and hey, presto you have a location. Add a generic factory producing some arcane product such as candle wick or buggy whips on its last legs, cottages for the workers and away you go!

Come to think of it, Midsomer Murders is a good source for variations on obscure place names too.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[Edwardian]

Do it in t'North, then it can be a Sebastian Meyer scheme rather than yet another of the Colonel's might-have-beens.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Col. Stephens's lines, being particularly addicted to the Rother Valley/K&ESR, but he really is only half of the story. Alas, there is no Sebastian Meyer Society (that I know of).

 

Instead of the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, up North, in Danegeld, it would be the Wapentake of .... !

 

Perhaps I should build The Honour of Richmond Light Railway to connect the villages of the wapentakes of Hang, Gilling and Hallikeld to the town of Richmond for onward travel, on the NER, via Darlington?

 

Instead of a Terrier, I wonder if Rapido's forthcoiming Manning Wardle L Class can be induced to accept larger wheels, making it a L Class special, the perfect motive power for a Meyer Light Railway and the nearest to an archetypal engine for such a line. 

 

Perfect excuse for a Rails NER Petrol-Electric railcar, too.

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Do it in t'North, then it can be a Sebastian Meyer scheme rather than yet another of the Colonel's might-have-beens.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Col. Stephens's lines, being particularly addicted to the Rother Valley/K&ESR, but he really is only half of the story. Alas, there is no Sebastian Meyer Society (that I know of).

 

Instead of the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, up North, in Danegeld, it would be the Wapentake of .... !

 

Perhaps I should build The Honour of Richmond Light Railway to connect the villages of the wapentakes of Hang, Gilling and Hallikeld to the town of Richmond for onward travel, on the NER, via Darlington?

 

Instead of a Terrier, I wonder if Rapido's forthcoiming Manning Wardle L Class can be induced to accept larger wheels, making it a L Class special, the perfect motive power for a Meyer Light Railway and the nearest to an archetypal engine for such a line. 

 

Perfect excuse for a Rails NER Petrol-Electric railcar, too.

The problem with that is that I don't really know much about the North, and the area up there I'm interested in was already chock full of railways hauling coal (I've ancestors from Shildon) - whereas Hants and Sussex are very familiar and local to me.

 

An L class will be making an appearance though!

[Nearholmer]

Back to Vernhams Dean for a moment:

 

Having looked at the route, I think it would have been rather Culm Valley or Tanat Valley, because there is a string of villages along there, meaning that the total population served would have  been half reasonable. Nothing very obvious at the end though, no big dairy, no slate quarries, although there was a decent sized plantation of timber, so if that was ready for felling maybe it would have been enough to eke along on for a few years.

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, Nick C said:

The problem with that is that I don't really know much about the North, and the area up there I'm interested in was already chock full of railways hauling coal (I've ancestors from Shildon) - whereas Hants and Sussex are very familiar and local to me.

 

An L class will be making an appearance though!

 

Well then, a private mineral would be the thing

[CKPR]

The original description sounds very similar to the North Sunderland Rly. that ran from Chathill to Seahouses and which was a an 1898 light railway in all but its legal status.

Edited October 23, 2023 by CKPR

[Hando]

Oh goodness.

This is the ideal thread for me, I've planned so many (too many?) light railways and associated layouts that I can't count them! Ironically, all of which have come to nought so far..! Just this week alone I've come up with a plan for an extension of the obscure Hassocks sand pit siding to reach Hurstpeirpoint over the hill (with the company's plans to extend east to Henfield and Pulborough and west to Plumpton of course). The track plan is fairly minimal given the hillside location of the station, so maybe there's a chance I'll be able to cram an O gauge layout onto my dorm shelf- who knows?

 

For me the biggest difficulty in planning light railway layouts is trying to justify their existence in the real world.

I find it best to ask myself these questions whenever I come up with a new idea:

1. Why would the railway have been built? Is the area particularly mineral-rich or agriculturally fertile? Was there a housing development planned? Are there any towns or villages that were simply overlooked by the big companies, or sought a connection between two places? Are the locals simply a bit mad but rich enough to pay for it?
2. Could the railway have been built? Shaftesbury didn't have a railway for a very fair reason- it's right at the top of a very big hill ! (and there's also a country estate to the east of it on the most gradual slope) Light railway gradients are often known to be pretty steep, but there does come a point when you're going to have to opt for a rack railway or funicular instead of normal adhesion...
3. Was a railway planned there anyway? Sod's law determines that there's a good chance where you propose to build your railway, one would've been planned. It's always worth checking the National Archives' Discovery Page to find old light railway proposals- you might be surprised what you come across...
4. How would the railway survive* on its own? *Survive may not be the correct term, light railways were rarely ever solvent, let alone profitable. But some way of making sure the company could "go on on its own" in someway is good when justifying an independent line. This could even be a conflict with the nearby main line company- it was fairly commonplace.
5. What fate would it have had? Would the line have closed in months, years or decades? Would it still run goods-only services into the present? Would it get bought out during the grouping (and would it be shut in the '30s or by Castle or Beeching?)? Or would it even survive into the present day, and in what form?

 

I've done a fair bit of research on light railways recently and have made a map of all the lines I can find and think of, including many proposals...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/d/edit?mid=1U_WMLPVg7csf_4H_Gr6tR7owACff0WI&usp=sharing

My definition of what a light railway is is very broad. A light railway is any railway that is either cheaply built, maintained and operated, and has characteristic quirks which mean they do not conform to the rest of Britain's railway network. For me, this is simply down to the fact there are too many exceptions to the "rules"! Some lines granted an LRO, some built to the Tramways Act of 1870 or the 1868 Regulation of the Railways Act (Light Railways provision), and a good number built to none of the three!

Edited October 23, 2023 by Hando

[KeithMacdonald]

8 hours ago, davknigh said:

Pick a name from a map of a small place in the middle of nowhere, add “Nether, Upper, or Middle” to that name and hey, presto you have a location

 

Sounds like a lot of old Wallop to me.

[KeithMacdonald]

13 hours ago, Nick C said:

A small independant line built under a light railway order, just about hanging on on the verge of bankruptcy, having never achieved it's aim as the money to build it ran out, leaving it terminating somewher in the middle of nowhere several miles short of it's intended destination.

 

How about an upgrade of some of the obscure industrial railways of Dorset? e.g. Pike's Tramway and Middlebere Plateway. Both for Purbeck Ball Clay and hoping to make a fortune which never quite arrived. Or perhaps a Kimmeridge Shale railway, for some optimistic oil explorers. Either of which could be supplementing their meagre incomes with summer tourist trade.

 

[davknigh]

15 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Sounds like a lot of old Wallop to me.

Indeed, it was inspired by the Wallop trio but is not restricted to them as there are other places that use the same nomenclature, generally in part. Besides, if you are going to build a fictional Light Railway rule one applies.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[NZRedBaron]

Sounds like a thread that I could get involved with here; I'm trying to build a backstory for my own light railway, set in East Anglia in the 1930s.

[DCB]

You could end up with a whole imaginary world if you are not careful, like Sodor or Hogwarts.    I have done a lot of thinking about a line on the Isle of Skye from Kyleakin up to the North but never worked out what traffic it would carry.    My WR layout has a terminus at Ugleigh  in the Uggle Valley,  Famous for the Ugleigh Dog Show and of course for their Carnival Queen.    The main traffic comes from the Ugleigh Generic Company  which makes all sorts of components for the Generic industry but the line was promoted as a through route and never got any further than the Rose and Crown pub half way between Ugleigh St Agnes and Ugleigh St Claire on the grounds that the finance director absconded to Albania with the company's funds.   The Station was built as a temporary structure and arranged as a through station though the line ended there and the Generics factory was subsequently built next to the station in 1915 by the Military due to the need for secrecy. and an unfortunate lapse in map reading as they believed it was on the coast.   My line was absorbed by the GWR but it could have stayed a light railway...

Edited October 24, 2023 by DCB

[Nick C]

8 hours ago, Hando said:

Oh goodness.

This is the ideal thread for me, I've planned so many (too many?) light railways and associated layouts that I can't count them! Ironically, all of which have come to nought so far..! Just this week alone I've come up with a plan for an extension of the obscure Hassocks sand pit siding to reach Hurstpeirpoint over the hill (with the company's plans to extend east to Henfield and Pulborough and west to Plumpton of course). The track plan is fairly minimal given the hillside location of the station, so maybe there's a chance I'll be able to cram an O gauge layout onto my dorm shelf- who knows?

 

For me the biggest difficulty in planning light railway layouts is trying to justify their existence in the real world.

I find it best to ask myself these questions whenever I come up with a new idea:

1. Why would the railway have been built? Is the area particularly mineral-rich or agriculturally fertile? Was there a housing development planned? Are there any towns or villages that were simply overlooked by the big companies, or sought a connection between two places? Are the locals simply a bit mad but rich enough to pay for it?
2. Could the railway have been built? Shaftesbury didn't have a railway for a very fair reason- it's right at the top of a very big hill ! (and there's also a country estate to the east of it on the most gradual slope) Light railway gradients are often known to be pretty steep, but there does come a point when you're going to have to opt for a rack railway or funicular instead of normal adhesion...
3. Was a railway planned there anyway? Sod's law determines that there's a good chance where you propose to build your railway, one would've been planned. It's always worth checking the National Archives' Discovery Page to find old light railway proposals- you might be surprised what you come across...
4. How would the railway survive* on its own? *Survive may not be the correct term, light railways were rarely ever solvent, let alone profitable. But some way of making sure the company could "go on on its own" in someway is good when justifying an independent line. This could even be a conflict with the nearby main line company- it was fairly commonplace.
5. What fate would it have had? Would the line have closed in months, years or decades? Would it still run goods-only services into the present? Would it get bought out during the grouping (and would it be shut in the '30s or by Castle or Beeching?)? Or would it even survive into the present day, and in what form?

 

I've done a fair bit of research on light railways recently and have made a map of all the lines I can find and think of, including many proposals...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/d/edit?mid=1U_WMLPVg7csf_4H_Gr6tR7owACff0WI&usp=sharing

My definition of what a light railway is is very broad. A light railway is any railway that is either cheaply built, maintained and operated, and has characteristic quirks which mean they do not conform to the rest of Britain's railway network. For me, this is simply down to the fact there are too many exceptions to the "rules"! Some lines granted an LRO, some built to the Tramways Act of 1870 or the 1868 Regulation of the Railways Act (Light Railways provision), and a good number built to none of the three!

Thanks, that map is a really useful resource! 

[Nearholmer]

That is a serious work.

 

it’s buried at the moment, but somewhere I’ve got a booklet published by, IIRC, the LRTA, which lists “all”, in the sense I think of all of the confirmed LROs. Even that doesn’t include the ones that were rejected, or which withered on the vine before confirmation, or those that were “sort of at least half serious”, but didn’t get as far as making an application for an LRO. If all of those were included, the map would be entirely covered with pins!

 

Theres also a potentially confusing crossover with the 1870 street tramways act, because before 1896 that was being used as the vehicle for some things which were obviously more suited to a LR approach, and because once the 1896 act got into its stride the promoters of suburban electric tramways cottoned-in to the fact that it was a lot more flexible and sane in approach than the tramway legislation, so they used it instead.

 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Nearholmer

[AY Mod]

10 hours ago, Hando said:

I've done a fair bit of research on light railways recently and have made a map of all the lines I can find and think of, including many proposals...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/d/edit?mid=1U_WMLPVg7csf_4H_Gr6tR7owACff0WI&usp=sharing

 

Newport and Four Ashes Light Railway caught my eye; simply because there had been discussions about a Four Ashes to Brewood L&NWR branch which I mused, many years ago, that could have extended to Newport. Would you have any pointers for reference material for that Newport and Four Ashes Light Railway please?

[KeithMacdonald]

6 hours ago, DCB said:

I have done a lot of thinking about a line on the Isle of Skye from Kyleakin up to the North but never worked out what traffic it would carry. 

 

Whisky and tourists. With a halt at "Broadford Airport". Don't forget the Skye Marble branchline as well, it might still be active.

 

 

[Tom Burnham]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

That is a serious work.

 

it’s buried at the moment, but somewhere I’ve got a booklet published by, IIRC, the LRTA, which lists “all”, in the sense I think of all of the confirmed LROs. 

 

 

 

If it's the one I'm thinking of, a green covered booklet, I believe it was published by Avon Anglia.  But many of the LROs were for electric street tramways rather than steam railways, so the LRTA could have been interested.