RailWest

Extracted from a discussion elsewhere some months ago (and with due acknowledgement to the relevant contributors):- " If Meldon was well-developed by 1900, the chances are the SDJR ballast would have come from there? If not, it would have been from local sources, including the Mendip mountain limestone, the Dorset stone and crushed gravels from coastal areas." "Ballast northwards out of Bailey Gate.....seemed to be from a Carboniferous Limetsone assemblage (brachiopods, corals). The colour of the ballast was mainly a blue/grey which was the limestone with the fossils, but there was also a brown ballast littered amongst this which looked volcanic." "The brown (basalt) ballast did and still does come from Moons Hill Quarry just above Stoke St Michael in the Mendips. John Wainwright is the quarry owner. If you want samples to replicate the basalt colours a polite request in the post to John Wainwrights would be a good bet. Their website is very interesting [http://www.wainwright.co.uk/]"

"It breaks my heart to add this - so it will vanish from this thread in no more than 24 hours from now - by which time you will have identified the location (in the land of the Withered Arm of course) I'm sure..." It looks remarkably like Boscarne Junction:-) Actually, one of those places which I have studied quite a lot recently, with a view to a possible model....... In which context, what - if anything - might you know please about the date whenever the Western Region changed the Wadebridge - Bodmin direction from being 'down' to 'up'?

Well, I went via the Withered Arm and there was so much else to see on the way........

Thanks. Yes, a bit before my time down that way :-)

" this 1964 (rather poor quality) picture ....shows a splitting Goods Line signal with, to the left, the very old pattern of 'Goods Line to Siding' miniature arm..." Where was that taken please?

I managed to access both boxes on an 'organised visit' during the 1970s - a wonderful place to visit. Somewhere I have a very few slides - if only we had digital cameras then, as film was relatively expensive for penniless <g> students and so used sparingly...... Many years later, in the course of scavenging for S&T 'spares' for a heritage railway, I acquired one of the brass 'lever leads' from Newton Abbot East amongst a 'job lot' of miscellaneous items :-)

If it works, then good, but.....why not use a 3-position rotary switch? Then you will know for certain that you have the right setting for each route and you can throw away the chart :-)

I thought that, before yellow, the more common colour for distant levers was green? Certainly the case on the LBSC as fas as I know....

"Could they not do something like they have at Perranwell,......" I think you mean Penryn? :-)

In railway terms Chard Junction seems to have had a bit of an identity crisis in the years since the 1967 singling. After that it was called simply 'Chard' and that name appeared on the box diagram, both there and at the adjacent boxes. From what I can see from photos the replacement panel had no name on it, but other items in the box and paperwork at the time still talked about 'Chard'. However the nameplate said 'Chard Junction' and that name seems to have had a resurgence recently. I don't know what, if any, name is on the new panel. The loops are Gillingham, Chard Jcn and Honiton were fairly conventional, insofar as being signalled essentially for LH running, but with a bi-directional capability on one line (Up line for the frist two, Down line for Honiton). Tisbury Loop is different, being regarded as a Main line with a Loop (on the Down side) - first train to arrive always goes into the Loop, then the second train passes thru' on the Main - there are NO 'starting' signals on the Main. I have compiled some notes about the line since 1967 at www.railwest.org.uk - it needs updating now to reflect the Axminster changes, and more in the coming months as the signalling is altered for transfer to Basingstoke. The former Sherborne box was demolished in Sep and Honiton will go in due course, as probably now will Yeovil Jcn unless someone manages to preserve it. Apparently some UP direction signals are being installed at Crewkerne, as well as replacements for the Down ones which protect Crewkerne Gates AHB. I wonder if the former reflects an intention to sub-divide the single-line section for improved headway?

Sadly when I walked past there today I saw neither Mrs Miggins nor any wagons

The Up siding and ground-frame were reported in June 1959 as "taken out of use" and subsequently removed in Feb/Mar 1960. [Edit] PS. In "The Somerset & Dorset at Midford" by Mike Arlett (Millstream Books 1986), at the bottom of page 52 there is a photo dated simply "summer 1936" which shows a solitary open wagon standing in the Up Siding.

Sometime about 1967/68 a layout called "Bossington" appeared at the MRC's Easter show at Central Hall, Westminster. It was built by Leslie Eden of the Oxford MRC, and was an 'OO' RTR 'quickie' GWR branch-line terminus. (Although the name comes from a real place, I believe the layout's imagined location was un-related.) I have a copy of the relevant page from the show brochure with the track-plan, but no info about its size etc.Does anyone know of its fate or have any other information about it please?

That's the one - or not, as the case may be

I know of a 7mm model of Edington Junction being done by a club, tho' I've not seen it myself. The quality of S&D layouts (as with any hobby) does vary a bit and I'm afraid that even the good ones have their 'howlers', despite whatever they may say about how much research they have done. Whilst some owners/operators respond well to polite comments and/or further info about the prototype, there are still those who ignore anything that you tell them and continue regardless. I recall one layout at an exhibition where the signals - made removable for transportation - had been put in place the wrong way round!!! Even when it was pointed out to them (but how could they have missed it????) they just left them as they were. I have wondered about Wells in the past, tho' how to achieve the 'scenic breaks' on the 3 lines would be something of a challenge! Corfe Mullen in the days when trains still ran to/from Wimborne would make a nice "watch the trains go by" layout, as would Wimborne Junction (not the station) with the added interest of the engine shed and the opportunity to run some LSWR trains too.