What did the typical GWR single track branch look like?
After re-starting the BRM 'How to build a layout' series, I'm struck by how typical the track plan 'seems'. I wonder however, how much of this is fiction and how much is reality. How much of the design tropes we accept as given are actually just echos of earlier layouts, rather than real life?
When designers plonk down a single-faced platform with a runaround loop, cattle dock and coal siding - is this ACTUALLY typical of GWR branch line practise? I think we can assume that the levels of tr
Normally - so there were exceptions of course - GWR/WR internal branch services were worked by the smaller tank 0-6-0T and 0-4-2T in later years prior to dieselisation but many, particularly in the West Country, were worked by small prairies which Churchward had specifically designed as branch line/secondary route engines to replace 0-6-0Ts.
Through working to various branches would in some cases see larger engines employed - such as large prairies and even tender engines on several
