PortLineParker Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Hi all, Can anyone recommend a good source for the various colliery (Writhlington, Braysdown, Norton Hill etc.) trackplans around 1957/1958 please? I have A Historical Survey of the S&D by Judge and Potts but all of the track plans for the aforementioned are for 1921 so tend to be more extensive than in the latter years. Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poor Old Bruce Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 (edited) You need the relevant County Record Office or Local Studies Library. One or both of them should have 25 inch Ordnance Survey maps of the areas at different dates. You do have to take the OS track plans with a pinch of salt at times as the do sometimes miss out some track details like crossover points. Edited February 6 by Poor Old Bruce 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Jeremy Cumberland Posted February 6 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 6 There are some post war (1947-1965 are the dates given) OS 1:2500 maps on Know Your Place. It's not as easy a website to use for old maps as the usual National Library of Scotland site, but NLS has very few post-war maps of this scale, and none in your area. From https://www.kypwest.org.uk/, select the modern county (North Somerset?) and use the right hand map to get to the place you want. Set the left hand map to the scale and period you want (Click Basemaps, then Comparison map, then 1947-1965 OS National Grid. The Radstock area seems to be covered pretty well. Unfortunately, unlike the NLS site, you can't pull up individual maps, so you can't see the survey date. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortLineParker Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 Thanks both; the Know Your Place website is a good site with some useful maps but, as you say, no dates so it's of limited use unfortunately. It does however give a general view of each area which will no doubt come in use at times. It looks as if I'll have to track down a physical map - I can probably then marry this up with images from the likes of Ivo Peters and come up with something reasonably close. Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Are you looking just for the internal colliery sidings plans, or including the main S&DJR running lines as well? What about the new "Pictorical Atlas....." from Strathwood ? https://strathwood.co.uk/products/a-pictorial-atlas-of-the-somerset-dorset-joint-railway 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortLineParker Posted February 7 Author Share Posted February 7 The Atlas does have the trackplans in, but dating from the 1930s so I wondered if there were many changes made. That might be a good starting point though as I can add or remove sections easily so I may give that a go. Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmrspaul Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 This HMRS book has plans of Midsomer Norton. Published in 1982 so not so easy to find but well illustrated. Paul 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Many years ago, Model Railway Constructor published a long illustrated, article about Kilmersdon, including the pit itself, and the incline. Chris Nevard or Chris Leigh might have a copy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Kilmersdon Colliery of course was not S&DJR connected - would that matter for the OP ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortLineParker Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 I don't think so, but thank you anyway. As the line passes a little way North and then West of the colliery, although I will include it you won't really be able to see it from the railway so it may just be a rough representation of the colliery buildings. That being said, once I look at the map I will be building it on I'll be able to see how much or little I will need to include so it may end up being included in full! Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 You must be building a very big layout if you can include both the S&DJR and Kilmersdon colliery! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 @PortLineParker You might want to try the NLS maps as these can often show up track plans at various scales and ages https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17.1&lat=51.29544&lon=-2.41695&layers=168&right=ESRIWorld 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Jeremy Cumberland Posted February 8 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8 I've just realised that you can get survey dates for some of the Know Your Place 1:2500 maps by looking at the post-war NLS 6" maps (available for the entire UK). 6" and 1:10000 maps are based on 1:1250 and 1:2500 surveys, and give survey dates for each grid square. Start here, with the NLS individual sheets page: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=6.0&lat=55.25350&lon=-2.69900&layers=61&b=1&z=0&point=0,0 Find an area of interest and open the map. This one covers Writhlington colliery, for example: https://maps.nls.uk/view/189242358 The colliery is in the bottom left square, which has a survey date of 1957. Now when you find the same square on Know Your Place using 1947-1965 OS National Grid as the comparison map, you'll know the survey date. This method for finding the survey date only works where the 1:2500 National Grid survey was done before the 6" map was printed, unless NLS has a 1:10000 map as well, but it only has 1:10000 maps printed before 1974. Here, the survey appears to be exactly the date you are after, but this is unusual. Surveys at this scale were very infrequent. The entire country was surveyed in the 19th century (the County series), with sporadic revisions up to the Second World War (the previous map of Writhlington colliery on NLS, for example, has a publication date of 1931, but a survey date of 1883, revised in 1929). The entire country was then surveyed after the war (the National Grid series), which took until 1965 to complete. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortLineParker Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 3 hours ago, RailWest said: You must be building a very big layout if you can include both the S&DJR and Kilmersdon colliery! Somewhat yes, it's a virtual model for a simulator so I'll be doing the whole route from Bath down to Bournemouth West. Cheaper than physical modelling and it doesn't take up nearly as much room! Thanks for the suggestions since everyone, I use NLS but sometimes their track plans are quite high level so you don't see individual sidings/points etc. @Jeremy Cumberland yours sounds like a good approach so I'll give that a go. Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 12 minutes ago, PortLineParker said: Somewhat yes, it's a virtual model for a simulator so I'll be doing the whole route from Bath down to Bournemouth West..... Ah, that wasn't clear at the beginning. I trust you will include Wimborne :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortLineParker Posted February 9 Author Share Posted February 9 I imagine it will be on the route that is generated, though whether it makes the final cut or not I don't know as it doesn't have any relevance in the time period I'm modelling! Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold phil_sutters Posted February 13 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13 The teacher who taught me geography when I was about twelve was an unpleasant Scot, originally from somewhere in the central lowlands, I think. He was well aware of the coalfields in that belt and was very keen on the Yorks, Derby & Notts coalfield and understood the importance of the south Wales coal fields. As the school was in Kent, he was even aware there was a coalfield at the far end of that county. What he wouldn't concede was that there was a Somerset coalfield. As my home at that time was four miles from Radstock, that somewhat annoyed me. So in my school holidays I wrote to the NCB office there and got a load of leaflets and other information, with which I duly returned to school and he had to admit that he had not had the full facts for his lesson. I doubt that track plans were among the information I got, but even if there had been, they would have disappeared like the rest of the bumf in the 60+ years since. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc2085 Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Has Radsto On 06/02/2024 at 12:58, PortLineParker said: Hi all, Can anyone recommend a good source for the various colliery (Writhlington, Braysdown, Norton Hill etc.) trackplans around 1957/1958 please? Have you tried Radstock Museum, it has quite a bit of information about the local coal mines and may have something useful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PortLineParker Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 That's a good suggestion, thank you. I didn't even think of local museums so I'll contact them and see what they say. Incidentally, on a completely unrelated topic - not even S&D technically but I think it can probably fall under the scope - does anyone know of any plans of the Midland goods shed opposite the engine sheds? From maps it looks to be a rather big structure and from models and the (few) photos I have it looks as if half was stone and the other was corrugated metal, but the images are from 1946 and taken from the air at distance so it's difficult to tell! Bath Archives did come back to me with a single plan from BR(W) but it only includes half the structure and I have a feeling modifications were made after the plan date. It doesn't include the metal half nor any measurements and isn't dated either so it's not a massive help unfortunately. I've seen some modelling groups have managed to recreate it and I have reached out, but does anyone know of any information online about it? For such a large structure that would presumably be associated with the S&D, it's very rarely discussed. Cheers, PLP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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