Waddon Marsh Revived!

[gridwatcher]

Just a wee reminder that Waddon Marsh will be at the rather marvellous Perth Model Railway Show this coming weekend 23rd 24th June with our group The Scottish Diesel and Electric Group. Here is a prototype shot and two of the layout. 

[gridwatcher]

'Waddon Marsh' will appear at Bonnybridge and SDEG joint show at Bonnybridge Community Hall on 28th 29th April 2019. This is part of our own show and we will also be bringing Chris Nevard's 'Brewhouse Quay' (for a Scottish debut) and the justifably famous 'Blair Atholl Towards Drumochter' along with us too. See you there?!

[gridwatcher]

Waddon Marsh is in the process of getting longer fiddle yards to accommodate 'longer trains'  The cassette idea didn't really work and I have decided to go conventional. This allows trains up to 5 feet long (on the longest roads) so longer coal trains could be run along with possibility of 4 car units on trains destined not to stop at the halt. Should make operation much easier and get rid of the risk of dropping anything too! All set for being ready for Bonnybridge show and then on to Wigan.

 

[gridwatcher]

Waddon Marsh is ready to go. We are at Scottish Diesel and Electric Group /Bonnybridge MRC Show at Bonnybridge Community centre this coming weeeknd 27th 28th April 2019, 10am. FK41AA along with a load of other great layouts. Hope to see you there. 

[gridwatcher]

Waddon Marsh has its next trip out to Wigan Show. 5th and 6th October. We will be showing a couple of mods that add to the operational scope too. The old Gas Works coal drops which were at the top of the incline sited at the front edge of the layout will actually become what they always should have been, a shed is in build which acts as a scenic break and means loaded wagons will be backed up the incline and disappear into said shed with empties emerging a while later. You can see the shed in centre rear of this photo from early 70s with circular hole above door? Shed will need to be smaller but essentially same style, brick etc. 

[ianmianmianm]

Was reminded of this layout when YT hit me with this (1970s not 50s - prior to the Abbey branch being lifted)

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Brilliant film!

 

All the eccentricities captured, and a clear illustration of the staff to passenger ratio.

 

Many thanks!

[dasatcopthorne]

Posted before elsewhere but worth another look. Box interior is Beddington Lane. My photos.

 

Dave.

 

Edited February 24, 2022 by dasatcopthorne

[Multigauge]

I never used the railway when it was there, but use the tram often; the John Huntley film was a real eye opener to see how much the area has changed. 

[Nearholmer]

It was a wonderful time-warp bit of line. What the film doesn’t, I think, show, is the milk depot at Morden, which added a bit of interest to things in the form of trains of 6W tank-wagons.

 

Addiscombe Road was a similarly forgotten backwater for most of the day, and BR(S) had several others too. The Eridge-Tunbridge Wells section was a good, and the Maidstone West line, for instance.

[Oldddudders]

Umm. Morden milk depot was on the Wall of Death, not the Sprat & Winkle. 

[Nearholmer]

Of course; I know that.

 

What is truly worrying is that my brain conflated the two, presumably because I used to go to Wimbledon one way, and back the other for variety.

 

I shall henceforth doubt everything I say!

[Oldddudders]

The Sprat was part of my daily bread as area controller 1968-73. The staff ran the service among themselves if things weren't good, typically telling Control afterwards. Mitcham was always referred to by them as Old Mitcham. I recall talking to the signalman there and referring to it as Prehistoric Mitcham, whereupon he admitted to being the Chief Dinosaur! Old railway of the best sort. The station supervisors at West Croydon - Bob, Les and Harry - effectively managed traincrew on the Sprat and the Wall of Death, many of the latter services changing crews at WC on their lugubrious journey from London Bridge to Holborn Viaduct via Sutton. The railway didn't know how lucky it was, and I learnt so much.

[dasatcopthorne]

Not wishing to hijack this thread too much, here are a few shots from Mitcham box May 1972

 

Hope you don't mind.

 

Dave.

[ianmianmianm]

In the late 1980s (still EPBs but they were toothpaste by then) used to bunk off school in Wimbledon, get on the Wimbledon to West Croydon, and go have a snuffle round the Loco Shed shop just next to the station.

 

[Nearholmer]

It was a useful link between model shops, because Platform 2 was at the other end.

[Not Jeremy]

As Kevin says, it was a bit of a time warp sort of line and the model of Waddon Marsh is terrific, right up my street!

 

I love the prototype photographs too. I used the line once; in 1980 I took the train from Hampton Court to Mitcham in order to buy some Hitachi "Bean Can" carburettors for a kit car I was building. As I recall Mitcham station building was in a house that pre dated the railway.

 

I used to frequent Platform Two in Wimbledon too, often with my uncle who had started work as a cleaner at Gillingham and was a great modeller and fan of the "Suvvern".

 

The layout to my eyes perfectly captures the atmosphere of the Southern at the time, pure magic!

 

Simon

[dasatcopthorne]

A  late friend of mine owned Platform 2 and another friend was the assistant. The latter an ex-Club Member of Carshalton & Sutton MRC.

 

I remember being able to rummage through their 'scrap' box for parts to make EMUs

 

 

Dave.

Edited February 24, 2022 by dasatcopthorne

[Multigauge]

Lovely pictures of the token machine; they look like something off of Dr Who!

[Multigauge]

By the way, both gas holders at Waddon have now been dismantled. This picture was taken in December when the last was being brought down.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Multigauge
Missing letter in word

[gridwatcher]

We are off on our travels with the new and extended Waddon Marsh. Appearing at ModelRail Scotland 2023 24-26th Feb at Scottish Exhibition Centre,

The scenic section has doubled in length, we have new lights, new panel and far more operational interest with coal and coke sidings, 

Hope to see some of you over the weekend. Please say hello.

[brightspark]

It's great to see an update. 

I am now working in the area and have to cross Beddington Lane Level crossing on my commute. I keep thinking that that would make a great layout. However my interest has been recently perked up by some digging in the yard of the factory where I work. Here we found some sleepers and ballast buried under a couple of feet of top soil. 

It is the remains of the "New Siding" at Waddon Marsh. 

I have suggested to the boss that we should reinstate the track....but he just gave me a funny look.

 

Anyway here is a very poor picture of a test trench. You can just make out  the ends of a couple of sleepers.

 

And ballast that came out the trench. This surprised me as I would have thought that this would be more ash than granite.

 

If anyone comes across any pictures of the New Siding I would be very interested. 

 

 

Andy

 

[Nearholmer]

What I can see in there is flint pebbles, which might suggest material from the LBSCR ballast pits at The Crumbles at Eastbourne, but a lot of old gubbins might have been used for an industrial siding, so “suggest” is abut as far as it goes.

[Multigauge]

Living round the corner I do find this fascinating. @brightsparkWhat site are you? When I used to do a lot of walking with the dog, we often walked from Beddington lane towards Mitcham Jn via the woodland path. Along it, close to the tram boundary, I found some intact insulator pots that I use as ...... Pot stands in my garden. One is dated 1959. 

[brightspark]

20 hours ago, Multigauge said:

Living round the corner I do find this fascinating. @brightsparkWhat site are you? When I used to do a lot of walking with the dog, we often walked from Beddington lane towards Mitcham Jn via the woodland path. Along it, close to the tram boundary, I found some intact insulator pots that I use as ...... Pot stands in my garden. One is dated 1959. 

I am at Voith. Amongst the things we do is to refurbish train parts. The line of the old track runs behind the building alongside Lathams way, that used to be Beddington Farm road. Google maps currently shows the north of the site before the current buildings were erected. You can see in the soil the line of the track bed coming from the north of the A23 bridge, then curving to run parallel with the A23 and main line. Follow the line of trees to mill lane.

Under Beddington Farm Lane is a large sewer that seem to be carrying a lot of the river Wandle. 

 

23 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

What I can see in there is flint pebbles, which might suggest material from the LBSCR ballast pits at The Crumbles at Eastbourne, but a lot of old gubbins might have been used for an industrial siding, so “suggest” is abut as far as it goes.

Not being a geologist I wonder what I would look for in a sample. In the pile there is some rubble, but I suspect that that was from site clearance in the 1980's.

 

Under the track is a layer of crushed chalk. I assume that this is for drainage.

 

Apologies to Gridwatcher for stealing the thread.

 

I do hope that you consider adding the junction for the new siding to the layout. I think that the junction is quite interesting in the way that it swings across from the goods lines, right across the main running line. 

 

Andy