Hamworthy - Dorset Coast c1988

[jonhall]

I finally managed to get some laser time on the new laser

 

Jon

[Old Tearaway]

Good choice for a model. Nice to see the reverse curves through the station modelled so well.

 

08E07.029.jpg

The signal box was demolished this autumn and the last remaining semaphore signal was removed during the summer.

 

The sidings were lifted during the summer as the sleepers had rotted away. They last had rolling stock sat on them in 1979 and those were bogie bolster E types when they lifted the old LSWR track on the Hamworthy side of the Ashmore Avenue level crossing when the J R Smiths steel yard closed and became a housing development in the late 1980's. The pointwork was also removed for the J R Smiths factory siding. This ended the bulk of the steel girder and sheet steel traffic on the Hamworthy branch.

 

The point to the sidings remains but has a short 20 to 30 feet of track terminated in a buffer stop as a catch point just short of the bridge. This occured during the recent track and points relaying in 2015.

 

The old points for the clay sidings on the branch line after the station were also lifted so now the track is uncluttered as it curves round the corner out of sight.

 

Currently the station now has just 4 points, the 2 for the crossover, 1 for the branch line and 1 for the branch line catch point. 

 

That's one benefit of modern image modelling, it saves a fortune in points (at the expense of intresting running and shunting operations).

 

The station building still opens occasionally as tickets can be bought there. Ironically it is still cheaper to travel by train into Poole and Bournemouth than by bus.

 

Hamworthy is my local station and only 15 minutes walk away.

 

In the 1970's the station and branch line were more interesting and branch line traffic was 2 trains per day.

 

Locomotives were:

 

03 083 and 03 179 sometimes double heading cab to cab with a 50p on the govenor hauling a mixture of coal filled minieral wagons and bogie bolster B, C, D and E types with steel girders and coils. Brake vans were either BR standard ones or th ex-LSWR bogie brake on double shunter headed trains.

 

Other visitors were a class 47 hauling usually 20 x carflats with 3 x Ford transit vans on each. These would head down to Poole Quay and a few days later be seen heading back up the line away again on the same car flats. No idea why.

 

In 1976 the 03's were replaced by 09 026 and in the 1980's 37's had replaced the 47's as the Ford van traffic had ceased and the 09 was not used to haul freight trains, being slower than the ungoverned 03's.

 

In the 2000's an 02 was parked at Poole Quay for shunting but now no freight travels the branch line currently and this last engine has vanished.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Old Tearaway

[Old Tearaway]

Hamworthy station was originally Poole Junction and the Hamworthy Junction before becoming Hamworthy station in the 2000's.

 

The track plan of the Hamworthy branch can be deduced from countless photographs taken by the RAF (and German "tourists") from the air dating from the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. These can be found in countless books on the history of Poole and one I have includes the old Poole station on the Hamworthy side of Poole Quay, including the opening ceremony. This had an unplanned incident when one of the 6 wheeled carriages derailed during shunting on the newly laid track and had to be jacked back onto the rails again as the ceremony progressed. 

 

The line has quite an interesting and complicated trackplan with plenty of pointwork before the 1990's, most of it old LSWR.

 

It was originally a double track mainline and the end of the line for that part of the "Corkscrew" line, with a mainline junction at Poole (Hamworthy) Junction to Weymouth and Dorchester. In the 1860's a causeway was built across Holes Bay into Poole to link with a new Poole goods yard (still no station at that time) and a tramway built to the Poole side of the Quay. The tramway was serviced by LSWR B4 0-4-0T tank locomotives "Normandy" and "Le Harve" which also performed the local pick up goods routes on the Hamworthy branch line and surrounding station sidings around the "triangle", collecting and returning wagons to Poole goods yard. They continued in this role until the last days of steam when they were replaced by Drewrey 0-6-0 diesel machanical shunting engines.    

 

In 1872 a line was built to the new town and resort of Bournemouth which ended in a Terminus at what was Bournemouth West station. The first Poole Town station in the actual town appeared at this time and the double track branch into Poole for the goods yard became a passenger mainline. Poole Terminus on the quay closed for passenger traffic shortly afterwards, being retained only for parcels and freight. In the late 1950's one of the double track road bridges over Lake Road was removed as was the double track line from there to Hamworthy Junction. The other side of the road bridge was still serving J R Smiths steel suppliers so the double track was narrowed into a single line with a point to create a mile long passing loop. 

 

The Bath to Bournemouth West via Poole Town station mainline is more famously remembered for being the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway mainline route.

 

Poole Junction was renamed Hamworthy Junction to prevent confusion and was a double junction at this time. Poole Town became just Poole station.

 

Doctor Beeching's axe saw the main line from Hamworthy Junction to Wimborne, Ringwood and Brockenhurst, which previously allowed passengers to travel from Hamworthy to Swanage, Blandford, etc. with ease.

 

As an exhibition layout with lots of action, perhaps modelling Hamworthy in its Hamworthy Junction or Poole Junction days, before Doctor Beeching, would make a more adventurous project with a way junction with 4 seperate fiddle yards feeding trains through the junction in various directions through the original 4 tracks (3 platform touching) that were once there. 

 

Nowadays Hamworthy station is a mere shadow of what it once was.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Old Tearaway

[jonhall]

I've started to build up the canopy for Hamworth (Photos tomorrow when its light) but I'm slightly stuck for the columns and brackets, which look like the photo attached - I can live with quite a lot of compromise because the building and canopy roof hide them from most viewpoints, but....

 

anyway, Scalelink SLF004  http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/SLF004.jpg -does anyone have a sheet of these that they could look at and compare to my prototype? Better still take a photo of the sheet, and better yet have four of the right type they can spare me? I've laser cut some rather simplified ones, but they are a bit lacking in detail really.

 

then for posts I wondered about Scalelink SLC001 http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/slc001.gif The base needs to be round not square, but I can fix that, and whilst not perfect I could live with them - again does anyone have a set of these that they could look at and compare to my prototype? Better still take a photo of the castings, and better yet have two of the right type they can spare me? or would like to buy the 4 that I won't need out of a pack of 6?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Jon

[jonhall]

Not great photos from the phone, but showing the laser cut canopy part assembled, and the latest state of play with the building, the thin detail brickwork is laser cut in cereal packet cardboard.

 

 

 

 

 

Jon

[jonhall]

I've been asked a lot about progess with Hamworthy, and have busually reported very little (I notice I haven't updated this thread with the station building progress, but thats about all) however I have made a little bit of progress on the cement terminal.

 

Evergreen 3.2mm tube bent witha hot air gun and some laser cut forms, and a laser cut pipe support.

 

 

 

Jon

[ess1uk]

That looks excellent

[jonhall]

A couple of weeks ago we put the whole layout up for the first time in a long time, so that we could remind ourselves of what we where trying to achieve, a few snaps were taken.

 

An overall of the layout

 

 

some close ups of the laser cut station building - the canopy (also laser cut) isn't glued down so can be straightened up a bit. It still needs chimneys, guttering and a replacement for a damaged window.

 

 

 

I'm not sure what we do about the front canopy - we haven't left ourselves any room - my opinion is to leave it off altogether.

 

 

 

 

I don't think I ever reported the grassing of the London end embankments - bleached, then dyed carpet underlay, still needing a bit of trimming.

 

 

and a view of the cement terminal trial installed.

 

Edited December 3, 2016 by jonhall

[jonhall]

I've also got a couple more half relief buildings that will sit between the end of the platform and the cement terminal, with the aid of Bing birds eye view

 

 

The brown industrial unit more or less center will be about half relief, using most of 2 packs of Pikestuff 'Tri-Star industries'  and there should be enough left over for the gable end of the grey unit on the left

to perhaps get one panel of depth - thanks to Steve Grantham who is supplying the second pack.

 

 

all of this will be compressed up with relatively few gaps - when did galvanised steel 'palisade' fencing come along - as early as 1989? The prototype is concrete post and wire mesh, but I'm going to need rather a lot of that overall, so I thought a bit of variety might be desirable.

 

Jon

[d winpenny]

Looking good

 

David

[jonhall]

4/5ths of the bufferstops required for Hamworthy were LSWR rail built types that have been obtained as lost wax items, but the 5th was a more modern construction, and has been waiting for some time.

 

 

 

 

 

I could of course have ordered a set of etches from PHD but where is the fun in that - I measured the buffers in the yard at Quorn on the GC and drew my own etch, that went onto the side of a recent sheet.

 

 

But how to build two of the things the same? a jig obviously - these are two laminations -  abase of 3mm and an overlay of 1mm laser cut MDF.

 

 

Jon

[SHughes]

Hallo Jon and other members of Hampton Court MRS. Great to see the buildings at Hamworthy coming on. I'm still at the research stage for a possible Hamworthy Junction 1954. That's when I remember it from - with Urie "Arthurs" on the Bournemouth-Weymouth slows, and  un-rebuilt "West Countries" on the Royal Wessex. I realise I will have to model it with four fiddle yards as the Broadstone link was still in, though only used by a couple of regular passenger trains, plus Weymouth summer reliefs. Next time I'm in the London area I would love to come and look at your Hamworthy - perhaps sometime in the coming Spring? When will the layout next be exhibited?

Best Wishes, Stephen Hughes

[jonhall]

Stephen,

 

You are very welcome to come and have a look, but progress has been painfully slow of late...Our  lives seem to have been getting in the way a bit, and the sheer scale of Hamworthy has ground us down - I thought the short 5ft platforms would give a short layout, but its about 40ft long with fiddle yards.

 

We meet at Tolworth Recreation Centre (where we hold Showtrain) on a Sunday Night between 8pm and 10pm, Hamworthy is NOT out most weekends, it needs a bit of notice to ensure a weekend where James is on the right shift, and we are both in the country.

 

Jon

[jonhall]

 

 

 

interesting film of the area about 5-10 years before we are modelling

 

 

Jon

[4630]

23 minutes ago, jonhall said:

 

 

 

interesting film of the area about 5-10 years before we are modelling

 

 

Jon

 

 

That's a great find.

 

It certainly captures all the traffic from along the line west of Bournemouth that I can remember from my time living in the area up to the mid-80s.

[Ian J.]

Pure pre-Sectorisation loveliness - thank you Mr. Stone

 

I have a little super 8 footage from the mid to late eighties from the area that I need to get round to editing. It was transferred to video file a while ago. Unfortunately mine is without sound. Right now I don't have the time though.

[PaulRhB]

Ah thanks for the link, I remember a bit of that around Poole itself and watching them slog up the bank past Poole Park  

 

[gismorail]

Just stumbled into this thread what an inspiring layout will follow with interest.

[ess1uk]

That’s an interesting video 

[jonhall]

On 21/12/2018 at 22:12, SHughes said:

Hallo Jon and other members of Hampton Court MRS. Great to see the buildings at Hamworthy coming on. I'm still at the research stage for a possible Hamworthy Junction 1954. That's when I remember it from - with Urie "Arthurs" on the Bournemouth-Weymouth slows, and  un-rebuilt "West Countries" on the Royal Wessex. I realise I will have to model it with four fiddle yards as the Broadstone link was still in, though only used by a couple of regular passenger trains, plus Weymouth summer reliefs. Next time I'm in the London area I would love to come and look at your Hamworthy - perhaps sometime in the coming Spring? When will the layout next be exhibited?

Best Wishes, Stephen Hughes

 

Stephen,

 

If you are still interested we think we have a reasonable run of 4 from the next 5 weeks where some progress might be made as both James and I are around, if you want to come along we can see if we can set the layout up for inspection.

 

Its likely we will be working on more goarse bushes this coming Sunday, then neither of us is available on the 28th, but it looks like both of us will be around on Sunday 4th, 11th and 18th (at least at this stage) and putting the layout up is quite likely in at least one of those weeks. If you want to come please confirm so we definately make it, and don't make a last minute change of plan.

 

We did a bit of experimentation with scotchbrite pad teased out and then covered in Woodland Scenics yellow foliage, which we think has hit the mark quite well, and will cover quite a lot of the embankment side at the western end.

 

Jon

 

[jonhall]

 

One of the signature wagons for Hamworthy is the FOA Winfrith nuclear flask wagons, there were two, both converted from BAA steel wagons, and both unique in their own ways, one was briefly  fitted for ferry traffic as a BAA, and the other had prototype BREL cross braced freight bogies.

 

This is a Cambrian BAA with a scratchbuilt cover - all a bit 'best guess'

 

Jon