whart57

As reported elsewhere, I went to the Parliamentary Archives to look at some of the railway related material they have there. I was particularly interested in the several lines proposed for the seaside town of Herne Bay in Kent. This is where I lived from ages 3-18 - and my parents continued living there for another six years - so I have an attachment. The railway came to Herne Bay in the form of the LCDR's Kent Coast line in 1861. However before then there had been a proposal to lay in a branch to join the Canterbury and Whitstable a couple of miles out from Whitstable. This proposal was revived after the LCDR arrived in town along with a proposal to build a short, half mile long, line from the pier to the LCDR station. The final plan I looked at was for a line to Canterbury which was proposed in 1872. There was another proposal for line to Canterbury in 1901 but this was a light railway and the LROs are at Kew apparently. One interesting thing is that all the lines looked at proposed to have their Herne Bay terminus in the same place, namely in front of Brunswick Square. From around 1840 to the 1960s, Brunswick Square had a church in the centre of it, and Herne Bay's first gas works lay in the street behind, suggesting a modeller would not need too much license to lay in a gas works siding. Quick bit on terminology. The line to link up with the C&W was called the Herne Bay and Canterbury Junction Railway and the 1872 proposal for a line to Canterbury was called the Canterbury and Herne Bay Railway. The short line to the pier laboured under the lengthy name of London Thames Haven and Kent Coast Junction Railway. The HB&CJR followed this route in the 1861 plan, the 1847 plan was much the same. The 1872 C&HBR was planned to follow this route As with the C&W there would have been a tunnel to take the sting out of St Stephen's Hill. Apart from that the gradients are quite reasonable. Back when I was 15 or 16 I cycled the minor road through Thornden Wood as the easiest way from Herne Bay to Canterbury as the gardients - St Stephen's excepted - were a lot easier than the ones along the main road. As I said, the Herne Bay terminus for both lines was in the same place. This is from the 1861 HB&CJR plan And this from the 1872 C&HBR plan Just for orientation purposes, Brunswick Street is today's Station Road and John Street is today's Pier Avenue. This later plan from an interwar guide book shows the modern street layout (though the far end of Pier Avenue is still called John Street) So there we are. I'll come back to this thread to speculate on how these lines might have been operated, and how the railway history of this part of Kent might have changed is further postings

Flash -- Queen

Let it go --- Queen Elsa

Another town another train -- Abba

To answer the questions: There are files in the archive of the objections raised to Parliamentary committees, but I haven't looked at those yet Don't know about copying services, I think they are suspended because of Covid though, but you can photograph anything for a £7,50 per day fee, which you can pay on arrival with plastic.

By the light of the silvery moon -- Morecambe and Wise (?). I have this vaguely recollection of them doing it anyway

What becomes of the broken hearted. - Jimmy Ruffin

The Railway Man is on BBC1 tonight.

Yesterday I paid my first visit to the Parliamentary Archives, which are actually inside the Palace of Westminster (you could hear a rowdy House of Commons through the walls of the lounge area). It was an interesting day. It goes without saying that the archivists were, as they are everywhere, helpful and interested in whatever research you are undertaking. I was greeted with "you must be the guy who wanted all that railway stuff" but not in a sneery way if you know what I mean. As some on other forums may know, I have an interest in both "imaginary railways" and in the railways of East Kent so I thought I'd start with looking at what the archives had on the several failed attempts to make a rail connection between Herne Bay and Canterbury. I also wanted to know more about one of the rival schemes to the South Eastern Railway being promoted in the 1830s and 1840s, namely the Central Kent Railway. As it happened I ran out of time and did little more than leaf through one of the set of plans for the Central Kent, so that will mean another visit. The first step is to order up documents and there is a search tool to find what is available on the Parliament website: https://archives.parliament.uk/our-collections/ The way to book a seat in the archive - only three researchers are allowed each day - and to order documents is described on the same website. It's little more than write an email. Then, what do you get? Well I give as an example the plans for the London Thames Haven and Kent Coast Junction Railway, a line whose title was nearly as long as the line itself, which was just over half a mile. All railways before the Light Railways Act, and major lines since, need to have a Parliamentary Act to authorise them. The Act gives them the legal status to demand land, by compulsory purchase if necessary, and to enter into contracts for building and operation. That's a lot of dry legalese and not much of interest to us there. However supporting the Act are the detailed plans of the route, the sections - for example to show how public roads are to be crossed - and the land that has to be taken. This is of interest. The numbers relate to properties and there is a reference which gives the land owners. Useful for genealogists but also useful for the description of the property on site. What is there today may not be the same as what was there in the mid nineteenth century So, for those looking to build an imaginary railway at a real location, this may be the place to start looking. Now would the London Thames Haven and Kent Coast Junction Railway have had use for a Manning Wardle ..........

I have to say congratulations to Exeter Chiefs for the way they handled a tricky cultural appropriation issue. A stroke of genius to replace the feather bonneted chief that was causing them difficulties with native Americans with an Iron Age Devonian. That Dumnonian chief promising a "warm" welcome to invaders from points East is a better fit for the Exeter pack than Sitting Bull ever was.

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching --- American Civil War song.

The Lady is a Tramp -- Frank Sinatra

That's why I went to 3mm scale some 40 years ago. And I've moved on from SE&CR modelling before any mainstream manufacture tumbled in

Eeek, I couldn't model with those fingernails!

Who Will Buy? -- Lionel Bart, Oliver

If you want to know who we are -- Opening number of The Mikado - Gilbert and Sullivan

From Me To You --- pre-Rubber Soul Beatles

I'm a little confused here. Do you want a 12mm gauge chassis? If so a little more detail might be useful, such as what is the wheelbase you are looking for and how high into the body work are you prepared to go?

Baby Love -- Diana Ross and the Supremes

Close every door -- Rice/Lloyd Webber, Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat

I have some Micro Kristal Klear which I presume is the same stuff. I've used it for the small windows down the side of diesel machine rooms and it's OK there, but I wouldn't use it for bigger windows. I've tried it in the much smaller toilet windows of the 158 and that seems OK, and my first try using it as a glue is promising as far as the thicker glazing material is concerned. Doesn't seem to want to stick the tinting acetate though.

Here is the problem. I have a three car 158 set that needs glazing. The bodies are 3D printed in 3mm scale, so the windows are consistent and the same size (unlike a scratch built version). The sides are too thick to just stick the glazing on the inside of the body so the windows need to be made to fit the openings so they can appear flush with the outside. I normally use old CD cases for glazing but for this model I have bought a sheet of similar plastic (without scratches). I also have some very thin tinted acetate of the sort photographers use to adjust the light from studio lights. Cutting the thicker glazing material to fit the openings is tedious but do-able. Cutting the tinted acetate to size is easy to do using a Silhouette cutter. The best result from my playing around is to put a clear glaze insert into the window opening nearly flush with the outside and a tinted acetate overlay on it that is flush, or nearly so. The acetate can be cut to fit very snugly but needs the backing to be perfectly flat. And the acetate also blocks out the edge reflection you always get with thicker clear plastic. Question: what glue should I use? I'm thinking a cyanoacrylate of some sort for the clear plastic but is there a clear glue that could be used to laminate the acetate to the clear plastic rather than just glue around the edges?

And how small would the drivers have to go in order to get a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement under that boiler?

Wouldn't a diesel like this be a logical development for a line with double Fairlies? So the imaginary loco is a 2' gauge version of the CIE's West Clare diesels

I was unaware of this thread when I kicked off a short thread on an imaginary railway in NE Kent. A link to it might be appropriate A might have been terminus in NE Kent