Jwnewall

Report on the Dorset Echo: http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/15901540.When_the_Railway_ran_to_Portland__what_do_you_remember_/?ref=mr&lp=4 Also, Dennis Tuner is still with us! He was the guy who drove the last Portland railway service, and gre up in the area when the tramway was in operation, and when he was a cleaner in Weymouth. Having him would be great from a workers point of view. Michael Pitman is still with us but I haven't heard back from the person I contact him though, his grandson. Will try to catch up and get Pitman to share some memories as he was the last station master of Portland Station in the goods only era!

Wessex FM were very helpful when the Weymouth Tramway stuff was happening in 2015. I have always had the idea of modelling Easton station as its on a smooth curve. As an extension either the sidings beyond the railway bridge up to the stone quarry or down the line where the railway declines and turns 180, but that would be best as an exhibition layout! I can offer a lot of info for that project if you don't have the right books. But for the moment I decided with the Weymouth Tramway with the thread on this forum too. I was thinking earlier and might be good to note that Brian Jackson isn't just a writer on the history of railways and buses but he worked in Portland Port as a lorry driver (may be wrong about that) but will be great to get the social view from someone who worked in the environment where the railway was heavily utilized. A person worth finding out if they are still living today woudl be Dennis Turner, driver on the line for some of the last railtours on the line.

And now for this weeks installment of what I found on the internet! I've discovered someone's made a Weymouth Quay layout before however not exactly what the track plan was, thank god! This layout was made in 2001 and you can see it all here: http://members.bitstream.net/minetyoo/weymouthindex.html HuntleyFilmArchives released this video a while ago of the tramway in the 1940's!. Another very special piece of footage in colour from 1956 when the Wessex Wyvern travelled down the line.

Despite my comment yesterday I decided to clean my table as it was covered in scenery offcuts and mess from just plonking stuff on the table. I layed the track down to see if the baseboard would fit onto the table and i'm happy to say its the perfect fit. Not too sure on this corner though, the board that will be the point to the bridge will be separate and try to use one of the Kingbarrow baseboards for that section, but as seen on the track plan on the first page of this forum the curve doesn't stop like how i've placed it on this board. Some work will need to be done on that.

The best bet for getting a more 'I remember' side of history is, and no matter what people think it is very helpful, Facebook. There are certain groups called 'Isle of Portland Past and Present' and 'Over 30 and From Weymouth' which will get the most result. If you wouldn't mind I could carry a bit of this project over to the website, and collect up the info for you? I have been quite prominent in sharing Weymouth & Portland railway history and always get the 'I remember comments'. In Brian Jackson's talk he would often sideline the history and detail little scenarios that occurred and people from the audience who knew Brian would always mention something more social than technical. Thanks for the info on the volunteer stuff, I don't think its the best thing for me however I will give the little info and contacts wherever needed. You did mention its the stuff not found in books however having a lot of books about the railway, they do include certain names and small scenarios that arn't just 'This was built in year X'. I will still send scans of items such as tickets just incase however, or since your down the road interacting in person may be a lot easier and better. Thankfully my exams are over, its college work which fills up most of my time!

Thanks for bringing my attention to this thread! I have had this idea for years now. Ever since I met with a few well known characters of Weymouth, I have wanted to do a small series of recordings to squeeze as much information out of them that has never come to light. This isn't only great for railway fans but for the community as the railway really helped with Stone production. I've never had the resources to produce this though. I have various contacts, Brian Jackson is a very nice man I first knew through his books, he presented a talk about the tramway in Dorchester and sometimes see him trainspotting in the summer months! I also have contact with Michael Pitman, the last station master of Portland station during the 'goods only period'. Brian was absent for about a year as he had some health problems almost immediately after the tramway talk mentioned above, and know about Colin Caddy's passing but a shame that I never got to meet him as he was always at the model exhibition selling postcards, never had a clue! Looking into the pages on Portland Rocks towards this project has left me a little off being a big volunteer, it seems much more of a job application than a community project. not sure if this is the Heritage Lottery's side of rules but it does make me feel a bit weary of being heavily involved in this. I volunteer at a Heritage railway and there arn't deadlines or criminal background searches, so this is all new and a bit alien to me with the rules and 'legal' requirements if that's really the right word to use. Non the less I would love to offer all my books to use for reference, my pictures and collection of old artifacts, including tickets and advertisements of the old line. I'm surprised Martyn hasn't notified me of this as he used to be my music teacher! Keep me updated

Thanks for the interest in this project, makes me want to start the project right now! At the start I did state I make this forum a bit early as all the ideas were in my head. I live in a very small room which has a large shelving unit, my computer/modelling desk and bed, so the table that currently houses Kingbarrow Railway Centre is all the space I have left, with my O gauge ironing board layout under my bed! So to start the tramway layout now would be a really terrible idea. One as I would have to be constantly moving the layout around my room (as I did with the Kingbarrow layout before I had the table) and also the parents wont allow it, they didn't like me starting my O gauge layout and I even have a lot of N gauge stock but I can't build a layout for that yet!. Kingbarrow Railway Centre is set to be deconstructed after the exhibition at the end of October, the layout took a lot of my spare time in a year so I want to get it to two shows before starting the next layout. I'm not sure if I will build the layout straight away, to get Kingbarrow to the Weymouth MR club is a pain as my mum's car is very small so having the tramway layout fit in the car without cutting through the middle of the baseboard, like I had to do with Kingbarrow, will not work well. It might fit into my dad's van however he lives away and comes down to get my layout to the show, not the club, meaning I wouldn't be able to ever take the tramway layout to the club. Hope you get the picture of that Anyways, I would like to use whatever is left of the baseboards of kingbarrow as fiddleyards for the tramway layout however I just don't want to think that far yet. I really, really, REALLY want to build this layout as I have a massive passion for the Weymouth Tramway, but its the small things like car transportation is a massive pain. Getting Kingbarrow out of my door, down the stairs and out the front door is much harder than you think without bashing it on any walls...which I am guilty for! I'm not calling off the project but I don't think many updates with be coming soon. I am slowely progressing on the O gauge layout with making a turntable from a CD holder and a warehouse skeleton shell, but also my College work. It isn't as bad as GCSE's but theres still deadlines and the days that I have college, I spend about 4 hours at home till I sleep and I get home shattered, hense the reason that Kingbarrow has come back from the exhibition and I literally havent touched it since. Thanks for the interest and hope that I can build this some day before anyone else does!

I knew my layout the 'Kingbarrow Railway Centre' was going to be on here but I forgot to look! thanks for all the nice comments. It has been about 2 months since the exhibition and i've still got to take the stock out of the box, thats how exhausted I was from the year of building! There's plenty more to do, with detailing the backboard and left side of the layout. For a whole range of pictures please visit my RMWeb thread called, Kingbarrow Railway Centre, link below! I've often justified my reasoning for a heritage layout to be 'People often model their childhoods, either a GWR terminus or a north London junction, however my childhood was holidays to Butlins in Minehead and you know what's also there!'. I also use 'I want it as prototypical as possible, not a Eurostar on a branchline' as it puts people off the heritage idea if people use heritage as an excuse to run anything, on the most basic Hornby trackplan layout.

Again, little progress, generally just busy. I have cut some wood up to form the fiddle yard walls where the trains will run in and out off. I did want to show a bit more of the front line but that would have made the cutting difficult but i'm not gaining much. Also cut off where the quay wall will be lowered. I will have to made the quay area detachable so It can sit under my bed whilst not set up on the ironing board. No pictures but the warehouse is progressing well, with all the window cills now attached and all to do left of the main structure is to add the curved stone work above the windows. There on I will need to create a skeleton so the building can stand up.

Again the terminus station is not part of my layout, there are two other forums to post pictures of it on. Would anyone know where I can find these tracks to buy? or a similar product?

Hi guys, I always new that it wouldn't be easy to make the double rails. I have seen the work of copper clad before, and it will probably be my best bet. I saw on another thread rails that were already made double rather than putting two singles pieces of rail together, would love to know where I can get that from as I can't find it myself yet! Polyfiller or similar products are what i'm going to use, however not the cobble effect. There are cobbles on the curve today, but they were added in the 90's and the quay corner was either very crushed up rock or paving. Will find some more photos to get the exact idea. Thanks for the pictures, that is a part of the line I am modelling though! The houses idea is good as the railway's scenery faces outwards, so modelling could only be seen from the harbour side towards the buildings. Its a good idea, but i'd rather stick to my guns with the original plan.

Ah, get what you mean now. Yeah I can get it commissioned but I will try and print out a paper version of the point first to see if it can fit in the curve.

No, i'd never commission anyone to be build me a layout in my life, it simply wont be 'my layout' then. If its slightly small than real life then so be it, but hopefully it will still be a staple layout as no one has built this before. I have used track planning programs but generally find it better to lay track out on the floor, a real sense of space and availability.

Work has been going on, but slowely. I received a new item of rolling stock, a TOAD breakvan which I am really pleased with. At first it seemed really out of proportion however looking at the OO scale counterpart realised its almost perfect, it was only £16 quid too! I have made a 'triangle tarpaulin' for one of the wagons just to give some variety instead of them both looking the same. The wagons will be repainted from the horrible brown they live in atm to much more attractive, but still realistic colours. It doesn't look like much work has progressed on the warehouse, but I have cut out and stuck into place a window sill for every window and will soon be making arches above the windows. I have also covered up the large gap between the plastic card landscape ways however for the portrait gap up the building, it will be covered with a drainpipe. The wagon turntable has been cut to size and don't worry, I know the rails now look out of line, I will be fixing that but its just pencil Thanks for taking your time out this evening to read about my project, I'm glad people enjoy what I build at last! Here's all of my fleet so far

A few images that I would like to bring to light for this project. I appreciate the images you've all posted but I have pretty much seen all in existence on the internet, I've been searching the web for 3 years finding everything I possibly can about this railway, obsessed if you want to put it that way! July 6th, 1980. The boat train rounds the corner in dreadful weather. The main interest of this image is the curved point. It was removed not long after and part of the curve can still be seen underneath the tarmac. This connected the previously used main line before the 1939 curve expansion, so its a heck more tighter than the curve that after widening is still excessively tight! Date unknown, but the sidings had already been layed and taken up by this point! Think they were only around for about ten years from 1960-1970 but don't take my word for it. The best part of this is the original cousins building in the background which will help with colouring them in model form. Two images a bit further up the line of class 03 shunters, the blue BR one taken in 1972 and the green BR one taken on the 6th September 1966. 03's may be able to fit into the layout even though the era might be a tad too early. Soon I will make paper cutouts of the baseboards when I manage to get the curved point to get the curve as smooth as possible. Thanks for all the posts here, its heartwarming that people are interested in what i'm going to build!

Seriously, who hasn't seen that video? I get recommended this almost everyday.

Would like to say I don't want much to do with the quay station as its from the other end of the line, try and keep it within the section that i'm modelling. The pictures were featured on the Disused Stations FB group and on their website. I'm not a car fanatic myself but I do get interested when I see a classic car about. Oxford Dicast have released 60's car's the most so I think I wont have trouble finding any! This layout would be great in O gauge, what layout isn't better if it was O gauge? Anyways, I have just enough space in my room so it was my only option. I am building a small O gauge quayside which is something similar! (linked below). I saw an N gauge version of the quay station on Ebay but other than that no one has built the quayside in miniature before, but if you want to built the whole line, which is only a mile long, it will still be pretty big in N gauge.

Came across this photo on Ebay of 1367 rounding the corner in colour. I love having my layouts feature a lot of colour and variety and hopefully this proves I can do the same on this layout!

A quick trip to see the real basis of the model railway, which is based at the end of Commercial Road and up from the Town Bridge on the 'quay corner' where the fishing boats fade out and sailing boats are kept beyond the corner in the quay side. Not sure if some are original structures but none the less a great nod to the past. The beggining of the curve taken from the town bridge. The town bridge was rebult in 1930, so its great that I will ahve the exact stucture that appeared in my railways era! Just wont include all that signage. Ahh simpler times... Exactly where the curved point was placed. Think this was removed in the late 70's. But the track still lives under the tarmac! Seen here when the road was being re-tarmacked in 2016. The original route where the Cousins sidings were placed. This was removed in the late 70's and the edge of the quay pre 1938. The long curving section, been the same since 1938, but believe the rails have been replaced in the late 70's. The old coal loading point, which was removed not long after the war. The site seen from the multi-story car park. And for a bonus, my model of 1369 seen on the harbour branchline a few months ago!

Had a small test session tonight to see how big the plan will be in real life, and i'm happy to say it wont be much bigger than Kingbarrow, as this plan on the floor spans the length of Kingbarrow's scenic section. I wont be able to have the layout up at all times, as it would need to sit on a 6ft foldup table which is the limit in my room. I can split up the section from the points to the town bridge scene and store that underneath the table. Would like to note that the point in the foreground will not be used, instead a slightly curved one will be used to keep the long sweeping curve smooth. Here's on on Ebay and hope they are easy to come by! Will be getting pictures of the real thing tomorrow. Won't help much as the area has changed a lot but still worth a look.

I think I mentioned that layout is set just after the war, so from 1945-1956 but will feature some assets from surrounding eras like a crane which was taken down after the new curve was put in place. The rolling stock I will use will have leeway as I love the GWR on the sides of locos, and after the war the loco's had no branding so that's one asset I will include on the stock. I'm not sure the types of coaches yet, however I do own the old 1900's coaches but that would be a bit too far fetched for the layout era. And its in OO. Just the easiest route really.

The exhibition is now over, so will have time to carry on with this project! Here's some pictures of the two main stars of the layout on the O gauge test track at the club.

I have lived near Weymouth for about 13 years now and have been interested in the harbour tramway only in the last 3. After recently completing my first test layout, the Kingbarrow Railway Centre, I think its the right chance to build the layout that's always been in my head. PLEASE READ: This thread is about the layout of the real place, but can I please stress that there are already Weymouth Tramway modelling threads and talks out there. I do not want this thread to be used to discuss about the tramway, arguing about a resurrection, or the usual "I remember seeing this when I was a kid'. I want to keep this thread clean to what i'm modelling, so information on the part of the line i'm recreating is fine as long as its actually about what I'm doing. With that out of the way, here's a little bit of backstory to gather an idea about the Weymouth Tramway. The tramway was opened in 1865 along with the Weymouth & Portland Railway next to it. The harbour line served the harbour which was located a mile from the main station at Weymouth. Passenger services started in 1889 and despite a short cease in services throughout the wars, freight services ceased in 1972 and regular passenger services in 1987. Special railtours carried on up until the 2nd May 1999, and the branchline remains in a 'Permanent Out of Use status', despite reports in 2016 saying they have closed it. The section I will be modelling will be Cousins corner. Here, a large warehouse and various businesses were situated on the harbour corner wedged in-between Commercial Road and the town lifting bridge. The tramway first started out on a straight section and took a really sharp turn on approach towards the town bridge, but in 1938 a large curve was built to accommodate larger rolling stock, and finished in 1939. My layout will be built how it would have looked like just after the war, so the site looks well used and doesn't look too 'bright and clean'. These pictures are featured from John Lucking's book on the tramway, and various pictures from the internet. Here's the original track plan of what I will be modelling, also a comparison with the track layout before the large curve was put in. a 1956 railtour. I will have cars and goods placed in the middle of the curve and inner track to fill up space. The section heading towards the town bridge. The curve before the new one was built, but is a great picture for modelling the buildings The small coal transfer area which will be an interesting asset. The curve right after construction. The curve after paving, this is how I will have mine modelled. I will try to include a crane even if its just out of the period! The Model Version: I will try and keep the same feel of a long sweeping curve in model form, however due to the space available it might have to be slightly lighter than it would be if it was properly scaled down. It wouldn't be to the point that its 3rd radius curves, but enough to fit in my room nicely! Here's the plan,using the illustration because i'm lazy, using the brown lines being the baseboard and blue the backscene. The rolling stock will be easy o come across and I already have one of Heljan's locomotives in the form of 1369, which is the sole survivor of Weymouth Tramway locomotives, even though it worked on the tramway the shortest at just 2 years! I will like to break some annoying news however, this layout isn't being built anytime soon. I have just finished my heritage layout so I don't want to jump to another project yet. I would like to display it at next years exhibition which is at the end of next October, so the baseboards will most likely be finished at the start of 2019! I can make some of the buildings and collect stock in the meantime so this page will be active. I just wanted to create this thread in advance so I can keep the idea strong and get people interested in it. In the mean time I will be testing the poly filler effect on my O gauge ironing board layout, linked below! If you have any questions, ideas, improvements, or anything else then please feel free to comment below, but I just want to keep the content related to my build please. I can't wait to hear what people have to say about this project.

Loving the idea. Love the models so far but Percy might need a bit more work done, but I can tell its meant to be Percy so thats good enough! I do like how Knapford Junction looks in the RWS books so that might be a good idea, but as always I do my research on the TTTEWikia.

A very successful appearance at its first show, the Weymouth Model Railway Exhibition! i was up till 11pm the night before making sure the uncoupler worked. The layout received a lot of praise and people returning to see the layout. Kids loved that I had Thomas on the layout and a few Thomas trucks, and the welding light in the shed catched a lot of eyes too. People were saying they liked how "honest" I was on the notice board about model heritage railways. Minor improvements for next time however. Overall I will be adding scenery to the layout but the uncoupler got caught on the ballast a few times and bent almost 90 degrees out, it was easy to bend back and work again but this happened 2 or 3 times throughout the show. The other problem was I didn't have a breakfast-bar chair, so my legs were shattered after each day. Me with the layout, although I hate it as the fleece makes me look fat! Oh dear