Ryedown Lane

 Locos and stock – Part 1, the first white metal kits

The locomotives and rolling stock that I use on Ryedown Lane has attracted some favourable comment at exhibitions and on the NGRM Online forum. At the risk of repeating a few facts already discussed on the forum, here is the first of a series looking at the stories behind some of the regulars to be seen on the layout, starting with locos built from white metal kits

Returning to railway modelling and getting into 009 narrow gauge in the early 2000s one had limited options when it came to providing locomotives and rolling stock. The only ready to run stock available was European HOe some of which could be adapted. Otherwise, the only route was kit building and kit bashing or, given the skills, scratch building. My first attempts at kit-built locomotives were a couple of Chivers diesel outline locomotives built on Graham Farish chassis. They went together well enough so I moved onto my first steam locomotive, the ubiquitous Peco Glyn Valley Beyer peacock tram locomotive also fitted on Farish 0-6-0 chassis. These locomotives initially saw use on my Wintonchester Water Works industrial micro layout, for which they were all a bit on the large size.

My interests were turning towards building a common carrier narrow gauge railway and at first, along the lines of a layout based on one of the proposed but never built extensions to the Snailbeach District Railway. I was familiar with the area and the theme fitted in with my interest in the various Colonel Stephens railways. Fortunately, kits were available for the locomotives and rolling stock.

 

First off was the Chivers kit for the Kerr Stuart ‘Skylark’ No. 2. Here I encountered a problem familiar to most 009 modellers. The kit had been introduced in the 1980s and was designed to fit a chassis that was no longer available. Fortunately around this time Neville Kent of N Drive Productions was just starting to sell his range of replacement RTR chassis. I acquired one of his short wheelbase 0-4-0s and fitted a pony truck adapted from the parts supplied in the excellent Chivers kit. It worked although the real SDR No.2 was outside frame and my version was inside frame (KS supplied Skylarks for use on a variety of gauges and inside framed versions did exist).

 

Famous among Snailbeach locomotives was the large Bagnall 0-6-0T ‘Dennis’, dismantled for overhaul on the Colonel's orders in the early 1920s and never rebuilt. GEM produced a kit for this to fit the Farish 0-6-0 chassis (again, an inaccurate inside framed locomotive is the result). A friend in Wessex Narrow Gauge Modellers had a part-built one which he no longer wanted and was willing to sell to me. With much of the assembly done, all I had to do was add some of the details, fit the motion to the chassis and paint. The resulting locomotive is a big beast indeed and has since become the pride of the line.

In the end, I gave up on the Snailbeach idea and the layout that I’d started became Ryedown Lane, the terminus of the Wessex Light Railway, a little-known narrow gauge addition to the Stephens empire. No 2 and ‘Dennis' (which was eventually renamed ‘Wessex’) became the main motive power in the layout’s early years.

 

 

Flashback Friday: The Royal Duchy, 3 April 2010, a railtour remembered

 

2020 has seen so many of the things that we normally take for granted denied us. Every walk of life has been affected in some way by the restrictions that have, of necessity, been imposed upon us. Those of us involved in any of the many facets of the railway hobby will be all too familiar with the things that we haven’t been able to do, from club evenings and model railway exhibitions through to steam galas and railtours. Although some railtours have run in the second half of the year, and heritage railways have managed to stage a few events, all have been run under strict social distancing guidelines with greatly reduced numbers of participants.

Looking back through some old photographs, I came across a set that I took ten years ago in April 2020, when I travelled on the Royal Duchy railtour, from London Paddington to Penzance, which I joined at Reading. I’d originally booked on the tour as it was scheduled to be double-headed from Bristol Temple Meads to Penzance section by 34067 Tangmere and 30777 Sir Lamiel. As a fan of Southern steam locomotives, the prospect of experiencing these two over the South Devon banks was an enticing one. I’d been trying to get a mainline run behind the King Arthur since the early 1980s and had always been thwarted by circumstances. Alas it was not to be on this occasion either as both Sir Lamiel and Tangmere were side lined. The Southern duo were replaced by LMS Black Five 44871 and BR Class 7 Pacific 70013 Oliver Cromwell, while the steam-hauled leg of the tour would now start at Exeter St Davids. All was not lost however, even this curtailed section provided several hours of steam haulage with the added bonus that the non-steam legs of the tour, from Paddington to Exeter and from Penzance back to the capital, were to be in the hands of the Class 52 diesel hydraulic D1015 Western Champion.

I remember it as being a super day and the presence of the Western only enhanced the experience. The Black Five and Oliver Cromwell certainly didn’t disappoint on the South Devon banks and the Cornish mainline. As the train departed Penzance for the return run in the late afternoon, my feelings were not so much those of disappointment that the steam leg was over but more of anticipation to see what D1015 would deliver on the long run back to London. We were not disappointed.

Let’s hope that it won’t be too long before railtours are running fully booked and platforms are once again crowded with onlookers.