Researching light railways that were never built, and Light Railway Orders

[justin1985]

The semi-fictional line that was never built always seems popular for layouts. I've just happened across one scheme, and it seems very fun to try and research!

 

I've just been flicking through the recent Oakwood "Hadleigh Branch" by Peter Paye, and noticed for the first time a mention of a Light Railway Order having been successfully obtained in 1901 for a line from Hadleigh to Long Melford (junction with the Cambridge\Marks Tey and Bury St Edmunds lines). Of course, this line was never built as it would have served an area of relatively sparse population, and which was at no point more than a few miles from any other existing railhead on the Bury St Edmunds line or Hadleigh itself.

 

This reminded me of a pair of designs in Ian Rice's "Finescale in Small Spaces" for a fictionalised Cockfield on the Bury St Edmunds-Long Melford line as Bradfield St Clare, which he had as a junction with an extension to the Hadleigh branch, running through Bildeston, which was his other plan. I've mocked up the rough course of both this line and the Melford-Hadleigh light railway based on the intermediate villages mentioned. 

 

© OpenStreetMap contributors - edited with QGIS

 

Presumably the promoters would have had to submit relatively detailed maps and plans when applying for their Light Railway Order? The National Archives hold the original light railway order itself http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2213986. Has anyone looked at one of these before? Would it be likely to include maps and plans, or just the text of the order? Might these exist elsewhere (York?)? I'm used to visiting TNA for medieval documents, but don't know my way around the modern collections at all. 

 

Rice drew his layout plans in GER standard "1865" style (as per the Bury St Edmunds-Melford and Sudbury-Cambridge lines, and preserved at Clare and on the Epping and Ongar Railway). However, I can't imagine the light railway would have been built in this style. Mid-Suffolk or Kent & East Sussex style buildings anyone?

 

I'm not sure if this topic is really a prototype discussion, question, or a layout planning topic ... Happy for the mods to move if they think appropriate. 

 

Justin

 

(edited to correct KESR)

[BG John]

The East Kent Railway was started in 1911, and wasn't intended as a passenger railway, so I don't think it's a good example for the buildings you'd need. It would be better to look at earlier light railways like the Kent & East Sussex, or the Selsey Tramway, for Colonel Stephens style buildings, as they are contemporary with the Light Railway Order you've found.
 
The Colonel Stephens Society sell drawings of a variety of buildings on the K&ESR, and there's a drawing of Golf Links station building on the narrow gauge Rye & Camber Tramway here on RMweb. It might be narrow gauge, but it's big enough for a standard gauge line, as I've just discovered when trying to find something small enough for a layout I'm planning, but found that it's too big for what I want! I'm currently looking at the Selsey Tramway buildings that were smaller.

[justin1985]

Thanks John, I'll take a look at the Colonel Stephens Society. I was actually thinking of the KESR rather than the EKR  - thanks for pointing that out. Certainly something with plenty of corrugated iron rather than the intricate bi-colour brickwork of GER 1865 architecture would be in order I'm sure! 

[queensquare]

Be careful Justin, once you get bit by the light railway bug...........

 

My own North. Somerset Light Railway is a colonel Stephens might have been.

 

Jerry

[BG John]

There's also a danger that you get sucked into O gauge by buying Dapol Terriers!

[Joseph_Pestell]

I have only seen a couple of Parliamentary Acts relating to new railways. One was posted on RMWeb recently relating to alternative proposals for lines around Lyme Regis.

 

From those, I would say that the route drawings are "semi-detailed" with some leeway for change in the final plan - a bit like outline planning permission for a house.

[IWCR]

The  drawings  would  include  large  scale  detailed  maps  of  the  route.

The  relevant  local  council   would  also  have  had  copies.  (and  may  still  have  them,  try  their  records  office)

 

The  drawings  would  show  a  nominal  centreline  of  the  railway  as  planned,  they  would  also  show  "Limits  of  Deviation"  either  side  of  this,  as  stated  above  a  bit  like  outline  planning  permission,  the  actual  railway  built  could  be  anywhere  within  these  limits,

 

Stations,  bridges,  embankments,  cuttings  etc  are  not  likely  to  be  shown  but  may  be  identified  in  other  paperwork  if  specifically  requied.

 

Pete

[justin1985]

There's also a danger that you get sucked into O gauge by buying Dapol Terriers!

 

Not much chance of that! However the Dapol N gauge terrier body (and 2mm Scale Assoc. chassis), the Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 etch from David Eveleigh, and his set of etches for Wisbeech and Upwell tram coaches (which I already have in my gloat box) - all make it very viable. It does start to sound a lot like Jerry's North Somerset Light though! 

 

Thanks for the notes on Light Railway orders Pete, sounds like it would definitely be worth ordering up the document next time I'm at Kew.

 

At the moment I'm still working on a 2mm shunting plank based on Snape maltings. I really should get around to posting a thread on that ...

 

Justin

[BG John]

My planned layout is set on the Robertsbridge and Pevensey Railway, an authorised but not built extension of the K&ESR. It was never likely to be a great success if it had been built, so my plan is to play around with the local history and geography a bit, to create an environment where it would have been more viable. I've seen a map of the proposed route, but won't be making much use of it. This means I can set it in a landscape that fits the baseboard, and I have moved some watercourses around so I can have a large mill to add extra traffic. The mill it will be inspired by had the only private sidings on the K&ESR and was quite busy. They were coal merchants as well as millers, so more excuse for lots of traffic! I've got other reasons dreamed up to justify it being very busy too! It's set in about 1905, and the line hasn't been completed yet, so it will be the temporary terminus until the next stage is finished. A small station, in a small space, working to full capacity! No doubt the rot would have set in after WW1, but at my date it should be quite clean, tidy and colourful.

 

You won't be seeing the layout for a while, but I have the main baseboard material and the track. I'm planning something smaller first, so I have somewhere to run the stock as I build it.

[joppyuk1]

As someone else said earlier, the Suffolk County Council should have details in their archives. I know Lincolnshire have copies files that include detailed maps of proposed routes, lists of landowners, letters, etc. Sometimes even architects building plans. It's a case of digging in hope of finding what you want.

[justin1985]

Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich seem to have the original submission under enrolments to the Suffolk Quarter Sessions in 1896. Given the time elapsed between then and the grant of the order in 1901, it might be worthwhile looking at that as well as the order and associated plans (which it turns out are filed separately) at Kew. 

 

I imagine it will be interesting seeing how the line was intended to interact with the local topography, river valleys etc, to try and come up with layout plans that evoke the character of the intended line through the landscape. 

[justin1985]

Fascinating set of plans for the Isle of Skye light railway at Kew National Archives in this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/68142-isle-ornsay-hebridean-light-railway/ 

[Adam]

Hi Justin,

There are quite a few schemes outlined in detail in local newspapers - many available online (behind a pay wall or otherwise). The National Library of Wales has Welsh newspapers available for free:

http://newspapers.library.wales/

Not only Welsh schemes but some from the west of England. Some editions of the Victoria County History mention proposed railway schemes - British History Online has those www.british-history.ac.uk under secondary sources.

You could also try the London Gazette. The entire archive can be found online for free. Quite a number of schemes had details there, some in minute detail. One such example is the Somerton, Keinton Mandeville, Castle Cary and Evercreech Tramways:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26226/page/6293

Every inch of the route is itemised, with locations of loops, a branch and enough info to stick on the appropriate OS map. I imagine this (wholly duplicate) route as something akin to a Somerset based Wisbech and Upwell/Wantage tramway. But probably less successful. I'm tempted to have a go at it in EM some day.

Adam

[Nearholmer]

Two thoughts:

 

- You might want to look into the station designs by Arthur Cadlick Pain, as well as Stevens, because they make a nice halfway between pure functionality and ornamentation, and the Southwold Railway is a nice East Anglian precedent; [two long articles about light railways in here, one by Pain http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/d/d3/Er18950222.pdf ]

 

- you can pick up cheap copies of a little, old book,which lists all granted LROs, edited, I think, by Clinker. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the zillions of proposals that got as far as draft LRO, with plans and sections, then sunk as the promoters realised that they were about to embark on a serious waste of money!

 

- the latter kind can be found through County Records Offices, because the County Councils were consultees. My father and I unearthed some "crackers" proposed for Est Sussex this way.

 

That's actually three thoughts.

 

Kevin