kevblokey Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 So yeah... After having fun with St Jude, which I obtained from Stu Davis a couple of years back, the time has come for me to knock something up myself. To this end, I present you with my plans for 'Biggin Hill & Tatsfield'. BH&T was one of the stations planned for the never constructed Southern Heights Railway that would have linked Orpington in Kent and Sanderstead in Surrey, one of many such plans put forward by Col. Stephens. My layout, when built, imagines that the line was constructed through it's entire length but due to poor traffic receipts, the line was eventually abandoned between BH&T and Sanderstead sometime pre-war. However, thanks mainly to traffic generated by the nearby RAF station at Biggin Hill the section linking with the main line at Orpington remained open and was electrified in the post-war years. I will be trying to cram onto a 6' board, a single platform terminus, built in Southern style along with a head shunt and CE siding that are fed off scene and suggest a link with the airport (now in civil use). The passenger traffic consists of 2 EPBs operating a shuttle service to Orpington, Fuel traffic to/from the airport, CE workings, some excuse to run a MLV and anything else that grabs my fancy. Anyway, the board has been made, just need to plan whats what and then I'll crack on with it. In the meantime, here's the station sign... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 An interesting , " could have been ",,,, I'm sure there was a model based near biggin on here before, can't remember the name Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevblokey Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 There's Peter Clark's 'Leavesden' in 7mm, mine won't anything half as grand as that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
emt_911 Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Have to agree with rob D2. It looks as if it's going to be an interesting layout of an area I know reasonably well. Duncan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevblokey Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Have to agree with rob D2. It looks as if it's going to be an interesting layout of an area I know reasonably well. Duncan Thanks guys as a born & bred SE Londoner myself, I have no excuse. It won't be built in the quickest time, but built it shall be. Pics as & when I have something to pic. Kev Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Biggin hill was an RAF station too, can you squeeze in some military stores with a 33 or 73 ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevethomas6444 Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Sounds like it is going to be an interesting model railway I am from SE London as well and always found the area to be interesting especially in the NSE era. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevblokey Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 IMHO, I think the NSE period was the best train service as a whole that the South East has ever had. Back to the layout, prior to the Southern/Stephens plan, a proposal was made in the late 1800s for the Tatsfield Light Railway, a plan dropped after fund raising problems. This line, running from Orpington, terminated at Tatsfield with a seperate station for both Biggin Hill and Tatsfield, this I think, may be a better history, but it does mean the station would then become a through station and would be known as just plain (plane!) Biggin Hill, means more baseboards though... Also researching bus routes and operators for the period in question, something in Metrobus blue & yellow on the 356 may be the answer. infomation is thin on the ground though, I must say. Kev Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevblokey Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Sorry this went quiet for a bit, anyway, track plan of what I'm going to go for, simple I know, but welcome to my world. The red line indicates the presence of a third rail. Why nothing for ages?? I reckon its my recent purchase of the Bachmann MLV in Jaffa Cake that done it :-) Kev EDIT, the platform road will be a through road, told you I'm simple! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david51 Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Just picked up on this thread. I know the area well as for many years i lived in Orpington and my brother-in-law and his family lived in Biggin Hill itself. Although promoted by Col. Stephens it was backed by the southern and the proposed route was surveyed. The junction would have been immediately south of Orpington station and the line would have run up the valley towards GreenStreetGreen and then out towards Cudham and Downe.the line would have been heavily graded and with very tight curves,graients of up to 1 in40 and curves as tight as 10 chains being contemplated. the section from tatsfield to Sanderstead would have required very heavy earthworks despite the light railway designation. Station design would have been similar to wimbledon -sutton,also heavily graded and itseems likley that the Southern would have built the section from Orpington to biggin hill first as it would have been easier and cheaper. It would have been electrified from the start the southern lost interest after the Colonels death and although the plans were dusted off after the war the green belt put an end to it.. It would make avery interesting model and apart from the 2 EPBs shuttling back and forth the odd special train to Biggin might be seen plus fuel oil and military supplies assuming the airfield remained with the MOD in this parallel universe. I have contemplated modelling this line myself several times but my cuurent layout is based on another Col. Stephens might-have-been,name ley his proposed line from Headcorn to Maidstone(Tovil) via Loose.My line has been cut between Loose and Tovil by the collapse of the tunnel needed under the North Downs. the section from headcorn to Loose remains open and (improbably)electrified. For Biggin Hill I considered a station based on Allhallows before the line was doubled might be appropriate as Allhallows was built slightly after the SHLR was first mooted. I hope this is of some help and interest David 51 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevblokey Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Probably more help than you realise, especially about the major earthworks required. Thanks David. Regarding the station building, I rather fancy a drab CLASP type affair, I reckon that would only add to the 'brushing over the cracks' effect that NSE had. Kev Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david51 Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Just a couple of other things ,theSHLR would have been single tracked throughout.the only passing place was to be at Biggin Hill and Tatsfield. it isnt clear whether there was to be any provision for freight ,the line was designed rather like an american inter urban . however I cant imagine there would be no provision for goods traffic especially at Biggin Hill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted February 19, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 19, 2015 I grew up on the rural outskirts of West Wickham, so quite close to this proposed route. It's a good choice as one of very few that justifies exclusive running of 2-EPBs and nothing longer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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