Bleakhouse Road by Tim Maddocks
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Somerset Levels
Turning to the subject of our article, we must first consider the Somerset Levels, a low-lying and very rural part of the West Country, stretching from the Mendip Hills to the Quantocks in the west and the Blackdown Hills in the south. They are bisected by the Polden Hills, a lower prominence running almost from the Bristol Channel coast in an easterly direction towards Glastonbury.
The Levels have been subjected to man's attempts to drain them for centuries, and indeed were once under a shallow sea. Even now, most parts of the Somerset Levels are no more than about ten feet above sea level. The whole district is prone to flooding, especially in winter, when a chill wind frequently blows in from the Bristol Channel, there being no topographical obstacles to hinder its remorseless passage across the flat fields and rhynes.
The dawn of the Railway Age barely touched the Levels in the 1840s as the Bristol & Exeter Railway probed its way towards the west, skirting along the western edge of the district through Highbridge and Bridgwater. In 1852 an Act of Parliament authorised the Somerset Central Railway and this broad gauge railway opened between Highbridge and Glastonbury on 17th August 1854. Extensions of the Somerset Central had opened to Burnham and Wells by 1859 and by 1863 this minor local railway had been transformed into a significant through route linking the Bristol Channel and English Channel by virtue of it linking up with the Dorset Central Railway. The railway map of the Somerset and Dorset was largely finished by the completion of the Bath Extension in 1874, which ironically rendered the former main line of the Somerset Central into the 'branch'.
With the exception of the opening of the Bridgwater Railway from Edington Junction in 1890, little further happened until 1897, when a public meeting was called by local businessmen who believed there was a demand for a direct railway service between the cathedral city of Wells and the growing market town of Taunton.
The independent Glastonbury & South Somerset Railway Company was formed with the intention of building a standard gauge branch line, linking Glastonbury with Taunton, the county town of Somerset. The Wells branch of the S&DJR would provide the link at the northern end.
The new company quickly ran into financial difficulties, and with only a part-completed railway to show for their troubles, a deal was eventually struck with the S&DJR and GWR, who would each complete half of the remaining civil engineering works and operate the new railway as a 'joint line'.
The line was eventually completed in June 1901 and opened to passenger and goods traffic on 4th August. Traffic never really developed significantly and the line maintained a financially precarious but otherwise uneventful existence until the early years of nationalisation, when it became part of the Western Region as far as Glastonbury Junction.
The chill winds of economic reality first blew in a scant three years later, when the section of line between Athelney and Bleakhouse Road closed to all traffic. The remaining section to Glastonbury was then worked as a branch off the Somerset & Dorset system, where the green and cream colours of the Southern Region still held sway for a few more years until 1958. Final closure came on the 7th March 1966, and it is in this latter era that the model is set.
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Childhood memories
Having been brought up in the City of Bath, the Somerset & Dorset line, even after closure was an ever-brooding presence for me. My father was a teacher in the local grammar school at the time, one of his subjects being woodwork. This involved frequent trips to Windebanks timber merchants, located immediately next to Bath Green Park station, on the site now occupied by a Sainsbury's supermarket. The timber yard was frustratingly low down, so as a small child, I could only just make out the tops of the steam locos and their trains. I didn't even understand the railway geography properly, and would always look out - in vain, of course - for the 'Blue Pullman' as we passed under Midford Viaduct on the way to visit my parents' friends in the nearby villages.
It was only after the S&D had closed that the full impact of what we had just lost became apparent to me. A Christmas gift of the Robin Atthill history led to a developing awareness and a life-long interest in the Somerset & Dorset. This was reinforced by occasional visits to the derelict, but still intact, station at Midford with my late mother. One cold December day in 1967, however, we found the buildings in the process of being demolished and a brake van parked on the viaduct, and an empty track bed stretching away towards Wellow beyond it.
Modelling inspiration
Despite the proximity of the S&D, Bath is deep inside GWR territory, and at first the allure of Brunswick Green and polished brass and copper seduced my modelling sensibilities. One or two projects were started, but never brought to conclusion, perhaps because of the dawning realisation that the B.R. era with black locomotives and maroon coaches held more appeal. It did not take much further persuasion to take another look at the Somerset & Dorset and these days, I prefer my GW locos in black, with a seasoning of grime and weathering.
My first S&D layout was 'Engine Wood', another might-have-been set in the Cam Valley near Bath, and very much with the flavour of the Northern Extension in mind. This is a through station on a single line with a small goods yard, and had given like-minded friends and me much fun at exhibitions since it was first built in 1994. The layout is still operational and is fortunate enough to still receive invitations to exhibitions.
The problem with 'Engine Wood', however, was (and still is) in the transportation and general logistics associated with exhibiting. The layout is time-consuming to set up and dismantle and needs a minimum of three operators to do it justice. I wasn't in any kind of model railway club at the time, and I started to think about a smaller layout that - at a pinch - could be operated by just one person. 'Bleakhouse Road' can be transported more easily and takes a lot less time to set up and dismantle for exhibitions.
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Building Bleakhouse
Keeping with the overall S&DJR theme, I thought that the Somerset Levels and the Highbridge branch of the S&D in particular offered some scope for the new project. I have always preferred to model fictitious locations, albeit in the style of the prototype, so as not to have to slavishly adhere to the traffic patterns, rolling stock and operating restrictions of a real location. I know this doesn't suit everyone, but for me part of the attraction was the invention of a whole new fictitious history to match the realities of the new model. The assumed background of an independent, local company allowed me to use certain non-S&D structures for this project that I had already constructed, such as the McKenzie & Holland signal box and the Eassie station building.
The concoction of an invented history called for a study of the real railways in the surrounding area, plus a reasonable knowledge of the geography and topography of the district. This meant that a number of visits to the area were required, and these yielded amongst other things, a series of photos, some of which were used as a basis for the hand-painted back scene. I also took some views of empty fields next to rhynes and little-used farm tracks, many of which were used to reinforce the impression of a long-disused rural railway line. These photos were used for the exhibition display material that I still use and some also feature in the 'Bleakhouse Road' section of my website www.enginewood.co.uk
Staying with the single operator premise for a moment, it followed that I would need to keep something moving as much as possible, if I were exhibiting on my own. This meant that the scenic section would need more than one focus of operational interest, hence the peat works and the South Polden Light Railway (SPLR) elements were created, together with the short section of operational narrow gauge peat tramway.
The SPLR part of the layout allows me to indulge my interest in light railway and industrial locos, and gives an added element of operational interest when traffic between the BR and light railway is exchanged.
For the last 10 years, I have been a member of the Devon Riviera Area Group ('DRAG') of the Scalefour Society. This has made a refreshing change from 'solo' modelling and has resulted in the availability of a number of kind and experienced friends, who now make up the operating teams for 'Engine Wood' and 'Bleakhouse Road'. Suggestions for the improvement and extension of both layouts are frequently offered. I am grateful to everyone who regularly helps out, but I would like to mention John Farmer in particular for his kind and totally unexpected contributions towards these eventual 'new works'.
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[color=rgb(102,102,102)][font=Tahoma][size=3][size=4][font=arial]Layout size: Scenic area 8' x 22
Somerset Levels
Turning to the subject of our article, we must first consider the Somerset Levels, a low-lying and very rural part of the West Country, stretching from the Mendip Hills to the Quantocks in the west and the Blackdown Hills in the south. They are bisected by the Polden Hills, a lower prominence running almost from the Bristol Channel coast in an easterly direction towards Glastonbury.
The Levels have been subjected to man's attempts to drain them for centuries, and indeed were once under a shallow sea. Even now, most parts of the Somerset Levels are no more than about ten feet above sea level. The whole district is prone to flooding, especially in winter, when a chill wind frequently blows in from the Bristol Channel, there being no topographical obstacles to hinder its remorseless passage across the flat fields and rhynes.
The dawn of the Railway Age barely touched the Levels in the 1840s as the Bristol & Exeter Railway probed its way towards the west, skirting along the western edge of the district through Highbridge and Bridgwater. In 1852 an Act of Parliament authorised the Somerset Central Railway and this broad gauge railway opened between Highbridge and Glastonbury on 17th August 1854. Extensions of the Somerset Central had opened to Burnham and Wells by 1859 and by 1863 this minor local railway had been transformed into a significant through route linking the Bristol Channel and English Channel by virtue of it linking up with the Dorset Central Railway. The railway map of the Somerset and Dorset was largely finished by the completion of the Bath Extension in 1874, which ironically rendered the former main line of the Somerset Central into the 'branch'.
With the exception of the opening of the Bridgwater Railway from Edington Junction in 1890, little further happened until 1897, when a public meeting was called by local businessmen who believed there was a demand for a direct railway service between the cathedral city of Wells and the growing market town of Taunton.
The independent Glastonbury & South Somerset Railway Company was formed with the intention of building a standard gauge branch line, linking Glastonbury with Taunton, the county town of Somerset. The Wells branch of the S&DJR would provide the link at the northern end.
The new company quickly ran into financial difficulties, and with only a part-completed railway to show for their troubles, a deal was eventually struck with the S&DJR and GWR, who would each complete half of the remaining civil engineering works and operate the new railway as a 'joint line'.
The line was eventually completed in June 1901 and opened to passenger and goods traffic on 4th August. Traffic never really developed significantly and the line maintained a financially precarious but otherwise uneventful existence until the early years of nationalisation, when it became part of the Western Region as far as Glastonbury Junction.
The chill winds of economic reality first blew in a scant three years later, when the section of line between Athelney and Bleakhouse Road closed to all traffic. The remaining section to Glastonbury was then worked as a branch off the Somerset & Dorset system, where the green and cream colours of the Southern Region still held sway for a few more years until 1958. Final closure came on the 7th March 1966, and it is in this latter era that the model is set.
Childhood memories
Having been brought up in the City of Bath, the Somerset & Dorset line, even after closure was an ever-brooding presence for me. My father was a teacher in the local grammar school at the time, one of his subjects being woodwork. This involved frequent trips to Windebanks timber merchants, located immediately next to Bath Green Park station, on the site now occupied by a Sainsbury's supermarket. The timber yard was frustratingly low down, so as a small child, I could only just make out the tops of the steam locos and their trains. I didn't even understand the railway geography properly, and would always look out - in vain, of course - for the 'Blue Pullman' as we passed under Midford Viaduct on the way to visit my parents' friends in the nearby villages.
It was only after the S&D had closed that the full impact of what we had just lost became apparent to me. A Christmas gift of the Robin Atthill history led to a developing awareness and a life-long interest in the Somerset & Dorset. This was reinforced by occasional visits to the derelict, but still intact, station at Midford with my late mother. One cold December day in 1967, however, we found the buildings in the process of being demolished and a brake van parked on the viaduct, and an empty track bed stretching away towards Wellow beyond it.
Modelling inspiration
Despite the proximity of the S&D, Bath is deep inside GWR territory, and at first the allure of Brunswick Green and polished brass and copper seduced my modelling sensibilities. One or two projects were started, but never brought to conclusion, perhaps because of the dawning realisation that the B.R. era with black locomotives and maroon coaches held more appeal. It did not take much further persuasion to take another look at the Somerset & Dorset and these days, I prefer my GW locos in black, with a seasoning of grime and weathering.
My first S&D layout was 'Engine Wood', another might-have-been set in the Cam Valley near Bath, and very much with the flavour of the Northern Extension in mind. This is a through station on a single line with a small goods yard, and had given like-minded friends and me much fun at exhibitions since it was first built in 1994. The layout is still operational and is fortunate enough to still receive invitations to exhibitions.
The problem with 'Engine Wood', however, was (and still is) in the transportation and general logistics associated with exhibiting. The layout is time-consuming to set up and dismantle and needs a minimum of three operators to do it justice. I wasn't in any kind of model railway club at the time, and I started to think about a smaller layout that - at a pinch - could be operated by just one person. 'Bleakhouse Road' can be transported more easily and takes a lot less time to set up and dismantle for exhibitions.
Building Bleakhouse
Keeping with the overall S&DJR theme, I thought that the Somerset Levels and the Highbridge branch of the S&D in particular offered some scope for the new project. I have always preferred to model fictitious locations, albeit in the style of the prototype, so as not to have to slavishly adhere to the traffic patterns, rolling stock and operating restrictions of a real location. I know this doesn't suit everyone, but for me part of the attraction was the invention of a whole new fictitious history to match the realities of the new model. The assumed background of an independent, local company allowed me to use certain non-S&D structures for this project that I had already constructed, such as the McKenzie & Holland signal box and the Eassie station building.
The concoction of an invented history called for a study of the real railways in the surrounding area, plus a reasonable knowledge of the geography and topography of the district. This meant that a number of visits to the area were required, and these yielded amongst other things, a series of photos, some of which were used as a basis for the hand-painted back scene. I also took some views of empty fields next to rhynes and little-used farm tracks, many of which were used to reinforce the impression of a long-disused rural railway line. These photos were used for the exhibition display material that I still use and some also feature in the 'Bleakhouse Road' section of my website www.enginewood.co.uk
Staying with the single operator premise for a moment, it followed that I would need to keep something moving as much as possible, if I were exhibiting on my own. This meant that the scenic section would need more than one focus of operational interest, hence the peat works and the South Polden Light Railway (SPLR) elements were created, together with the short section of operational narrow gauge peat tramway.
The SPLR part of the layout allows me to indulge my interest in light railway and industrial locos, and gives an added element of operational interest when traffic between the BR and light railway is exchanged.
For the last 10 years, I have been a member of the Devon Riviera Area Group ('DRAG') of the Scalefour Society. This has made a refreshing change from 'solo' modelling and has resulted in the availability of a number of kind and experienced friends, who now make up the operating teams for 'Engine Wood' and 'Bleakhouse Road'. Suggestions for the improvement and extension of both layouts are frequently offered. I am grateful to everyone who regularly helps out, but I would like to mention John Farmer in particular for his kind and totally unexpected contributions towards these eventual 'new works'.
[color=rgb(102,102,102)][font=Tahoma][size=3][size=4][font=arial]Layout size: Scenic area 8' x 22