TRACKWORKE · Every day over 90 trains pass through Bakmatch, some traveling many hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to reach their destinations. This total does not include

The journal of Uckeld Model Railway Club. Published on an occasional basis

TRACKWORKER

Model and Miniature

Winter 2001 / 2002

(incorporating the Signal)

News, Features and Artic

les from the m

embers of Uckeld MRC

This is the one that nearly got away - Now finally available via the Web!

2008 / 2009

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Winter 2008/2009Model and Miniature TrackWorker

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CONTENTS

CLUB DIARYMeetings and other events: 2

FEATUREAdventures of K.C. the Engineer: 3

EXHIBITION REPORTSClub Show 2001 - First Impressions: 7

Bentley Miniature Railway since 2000: 8

LAYOUT REPORTSLeysdown (P4): 10Buckham Hill (0): 10Test Track “Polo Mint” (N, TT, 00, EM &P4: 10Netherhall and Fletching (00): 10Oak Valley (N): 10Cranbrook (P4): 10

Chairman:

Martin Marrison

Secretary:

Alan Morris

Treasurer:

David Clifford

Management Council Members:

Barry Miller, David Kiernan, Derek Barlow, John Pollington, Geoff Billington

President:

Keith Nock

Management Council - 2008/9

Company Secretary:Alex Tombling

Company Officers and Board of Directors - 2008/9

Cover photograph

Laurie’s Wren “Bill Powell” arriving at Glyndebourne Wood station back in 2005, during BMR’s 10th Anniversary cavalcade weekend.

Editor: John Pollington. e-mail: [email protected]

Next Issue: Summer 2009

Deadline for the next issue will be determined by the amount of material submitted to the Editor.

Submission of any item which may be of interest to our readers would be welcome, including good quality colour or monochrome photos or diagrams for inclusion on the front and rear cover, or to complement written articles. Publication cannot be guaranteed and material may have to be edited, split or held over for future issues.

Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Editor, the Management Council or the Board of Directors.

Uckfield Model Railway Club Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee, incorporated on 13 August 1999.Registered Company No.3824818. Registered Office: c/o Richard Place Dobson, 5 High Street, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 5AB

Company Treasurer:David Clifford

Directors:Barry Miller, Geoff Billington, Alex Tombling, Keith Nock, Martin Marrison

Editorial

Time flies yet again, and it’s more than a few years since the last issue, so here I go burning the midnight oil again. Although I’m “retired” now, I still don’t seem to have nearly enough free time on my hands to do everything I want to; strange, isn’t it?

This issue features the last episode in the series “Adventures of K.C. the Engineer”, which had been held over from the last TrackWorker (Winter 2000). Certainly worth waiting for.

Hopefully (now, where have I said that before?) the next issue will not bee too long in gestation. From this issue onwards the TrackWorker will be available online via the club website members area. A very limited number of copies will be available at both of our club locations on a first-come-first-served basis for those who still do not have access to the World Wide Web. The next issue publication date will depend on material supplied by YOU, so please send your submissions to me at the email address above as soon as you can.

Happy modelling.

John Pollington

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Winter 2008/2009 Model and Miniature TrackWorker

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CLUB DIARY 2009

CLUB MEETINGS are held in our rented HQ building north of Uckfield, every Monday evening. Open from 7:30pm. Details of Club model railway activities and layouts are also available on Adrian Colenutt’s web site: www.uckfieldmrc.co.uk. Members also meet at weekends for the maintenance of our miniature railway in the grounds of Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum, on Thursday evenings during the summer months, and every Saturday outside the main operating season. During the operating season, from mid-March to October, members operate the Bentley Miniature Railway on Saturday afternoons, Sundays and Bank Holidays, plus daily during local school holiday times. Details of Bentley Miniature Railway, its operating days and features on the locomotives are also available on the club’s web site: www.bentleyrailway.co.uk (there are links from our web site to Adrian’s, but be aware that there may not be any to bring you back, so you may need to use the ‘back’ button)

Club Diary items are normally detailed in the Club Newsletter which is published separately. However, a short list of some of the key events are listed here for your information.

February 13-15

Brighton ModelWorld at the Brighton Centre - setting-up day is Thursday 12th. Extra hands needed on Thursday and Sunday (particularly the evening pack-up and transport back to HQ) - Contact Alex Tombling if you are able to assist.

February 16-20

Half-Term: Daily operations at Bentley Miniature Railway

April 10-13

Easter weekend at Bentley Miniature Railway

May

June

July 20 - September 4

School Holidays: Daily operations at Bentley Miniature Railway

September 18-20

Woodfair at Bentley - 3-days of intensive operations at BMR

October 17-18

Club Annual Exhibition at Uckfield Civic Centre

October 26-30

Half-Term: Daily operations at Bentley Miniature Railway

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The Adventures of K.C. the Engineer .........(continued from Dec. 2000 issue)

Ukraine part 3Prikliochenie roman sochineniya K.C. mashinistii - chasti tre.

Thiss iss mi sekonnd eneleesh leson, I thingk I r getinng qwite god. - Allo it is Kyril Clavootich, K.C. the Ingineer, from Kiev. Privetstvie, Welcome.

As the plane taxied towards the terminal, past rows of Tupolov tri motors, (like a 727 only no motors, they had all been removed for repair), the level of excitement was rising. I know you can get pills for that but I have been interested in the railways of the Soviet Union for many years. Now my first visit was beginning.

Not much sign of the railway on the drive to Kiev, which is 20km from Borispol airport. The roadside direction signs measured the distance to any where in hundreds of kilometers! The bus pulled up outside Kiev Passenger Voxsal, the main town railway station. (Yes, you’ve guessed it, the name for a station in Russian is taken from the south London terminus of the old London and Southampton. Apparently the Russians were on a fact finding visit and were taken there. Seeing the station name on big boards everywhere they thought it was the English word for station. We know it isn’t, but it’s a good story and all true!) The station, like a huge Scandinavian barn rose up in front of us. The square in front of the station was packed with people, but very few cars. Our train was at platform one, next to the main building. At Kiev there are twenty six platforms, 19 through roads, 5 stub end tracks at the west end for suburban terminating trains as well as platforms on a double track avoiding line that runs below the station square. It’s very big and very busy. Behind a ChS4 25,000 volt AC electric our train trundeled along to Bakmatch, our first overnight stop on this trip. The distance from Kiev to Bakmatch is about 195km and three hours later we arrived and were trying to sleep. The train was stabled next to the Kiev to Moscow main line. This was big time railroading right outside the window and it gives me the opportunity to tell you about the train services found in the Ukraine, (and the ex Soviet Union).

Bakmatch is a junction between the Kiev to Moscow main line and a secondary single track line running between Riga, Minsk, Kaliningrad, Vilnius and Gomel in the north west and Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and the Caucasus to the south east. The main line to the north passes through Briansk on the way to Moscow. Trains to the south from Moscow go to Odessa, Kishiniv, and most areas of South East Europe such as Budapest, Sofia and Prague. Trains to Odessa can travel through Kiev or via a secondary route through Yevtushenko. Bakmatch is really just a simple country junction typical of any number of places on a main line in the Ukraine or Russia. The train service, however, almost defies belief.

As we lifted the blinds during the night yet another train rolled through and freights clumped by on both sides of the sleeper. At day break we found that we had been parked all night next to the Moscow up line on a house track probably used to stable officer’s inspection saloons. The station was a long way away in the distance and we didn’t go anywhere near it all the time we were there. The station access road crossed the line just by our sleeper and there seemed to be a public path across the Moscow line as well. Those crossing the line just hitched up their skirts (if they were women!), put their bikes on their shoulders and crossed the four main tracks only waiting when the trains were in the way!. We had about an hour to wait whist the light improved and breakfast was made before our steam loco arrived. Today a class TE 2-10-0 ex DR Kriegslok. Whilst waiting three freight trains headed for Kiev arrived and pulled up for inspection, and two passed through the station headed for Moscow, with at least one light engine on the branch line.

The freight trains, hauled by class VL80 electrics, contained loads of all descriptions, mixed general freight, bulk freight, Red Army tanks converted for use as fire fighters, forklift trucks, tank cars including that Soviet specialty, the eight axle tank car, as well as obvious empties and covered vans. One of the trains was the Ukrainian equivalent of a merry go round train, called a “carousel” train, all bogie hoppers. As for passenger trains Bakmatch is a twenty four hour a day place. The train service shown in the table is taken from the 1985 All Soviet Union passenger timetable. It is probably the peak service ever offered in the USSR. By 1994 it may have diminished slightly, but you get an idea of the service.



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Every day over 90 trains pass through Bakmatch, some traveling many hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to reach their destinations. This total does not include any suburban trains to or from Kiev. Trains include those such as 81 and 82 traveling deep into Siberia to Novosibirsk, or trains 557/558 and 369/370 heading beyond the Arctic circle to Murmansk and Archangel.

The general pattern of services in the Soviet Union was for each city of any importance to have its own train to and from Moscow each day. As these trains join the main lines, at junctions like Bakmatch, the frequency of trains serving any particular town or city increases. As you would expect the length of journey is, in some cases considerable, ranging over thousands of kilometers. Kiev is 872 km from Moscow and Odessa is 650km beyond Kiev via Vinnitsa on the direct line. In Ukraine in the 1997 national working timetable the longest train journey shown is that of train 939/940 from Kharkov. This train is a post and baggage service that runs to Khabravosk, a distance of 9,115km. The trip takes 214 hours 17 minutes eastbound and 223 hours 50 minutes

westbound. Khabravosk is not the end of the line, it is a further 766km and about 24 hours to Vladivostok and one or two of the cars from the train go on to here! This train travels over the lines of 10 of the 32 railways in the CIS. The car allocations and routings for trains 939/940 are such that the train grow and shrinks in size as it stops at the various stations. Eastbound there are 27 car numbers allocated and westbound 36, although not all cars travel every day.

Named trains are shown in the timetable and also in the table with this report. Generally train numbers indicate the quality of the service, the lower the number the better and faster the train. A train will cover between 800 and 1400km per 24 hours of the journey. Trains can have both odd and even number depending upon their direction on each Railway used. The times in the Russian timetable are all Moscow time, so you have to know your time zone ahead or behind Moscow before you set off for the station and have your wits about you!. In Ukraine the timetable today recognizes Ukraine time within the national borders but Moscow or any one else’s time outside.

Departures from Bakmatch Voxal, Southern Railway, UkraineTables 7, 22, 31 and 266 in 1986 USSR National Passenger Timetable

From Time Train No To and “Train Name”Kovel 0:50 78 Moscow “Volin”Moscow 1:15 375 OdessaKhemlinitsky 1:20 191 MoscowZhmerinka 1:32 634 MoscowMinsk 1:38 512/511 SimferopolVolgograd 1:50 1981 KievAdler 1:50 37/38 MinskMoscow 2:14 77 Kovel “Volin”Kiev 2:31 81 NovosibirskKharkov 2:50 613 KievKiev 2:55 614 KharkovMoscow 3:15 191/192 KhemlinitskyKiev 3:20 608 SumiZhnamenka 4:44 150 MoscowSimferopol 4:45 93/94 MinskMoscow 4:51 23 Odessa “Odessa”Truskavets 5:37 34 Moscow “Truskavets”Kaliningrad 6:22 112/111 Kharkov “Arzhni”Odessa 6:30 194 MoscowMoscow 6:47 3 Kiev “Kiev”Moscow 6:54 1 Kiev “Ukraina”, (does not stop)Kishiniv 7:19 48 Moscow “Moldova”Moscow 7:21 73 Lvov “Verkhovina”Kremenchug 7:46 669/670 BakmatchMinsk 8:17 200/199 KharkovMoscow 8:20 149 ZhnamenkaKishiniv 8:35 142 MoscowMoscow 8:40 41 Kiev “Yiobilini”Kishiniv 8:43 372/371 MurmanskKiev 8:50 924 Moscow (postal and baggage)Moscow 8:54 47 Kishiniv “Moldova”Odessa 9:00 330/329 MoscowMinsk 9:04 605/606 KievKharkov 9:15 111/112 Kaliningrad “Arzhni”Odessa 9:16 370/369 MurmanskOdessa 9:24 330/329 MoscowSverdlovsk 9:28 357 KievMinsk 9:41 38/37 Adler

Dnepropetrovsk 10:03 135/136 LeningradVoronesh 10:08 131 KievLvov 10:37 558 ArchangelMinsk 10:48 94/93 SimferopolRiga 12:40 58/57 SochiKiev 12:57 174 VolgogradOdessa 13:28 36 MoscowSumi 13:44 607 KievMoscow 14:35 193 OdessaNovosibirsk 14:40 82 KievOdessa 14:55 310/309 SverdlovskBakmatch 15:05 670/669 KremenchugMoscow 15:05 595 GrebenkaArchangel 16:40 557/558 LvovKiev 17:30 552 MoscowOdessa 17:53 574/573 GorkiOdessa 18:03 572/571 ArchangelIvanovo Frankovsk 18:05 102 MoscowMoscow 18:15 377 KishinevMurmansk 18:25 369/370 OdessaOdessa 18:30 376 MoscowSverdlovsk 19:35 358 KievMoscow 20:05 35 OdessaMoscow 20:15 13 Sofia “Dunai Express”Kiev 20:15 132 VoroneshLeningrad 20:46 136/135 DnepropetrovskKiev 20:48 42 Moscow “Yiobileini”Moscow 21:15 923 Kiev (post and baggage train)Minsk 21:28 352/351 NovorossiskMoscow 21:57 101 Ivanovo FrankovskMoscow 22:00 551 KievGomel 22:12 634 KharkovSverdlovsk 22:27 309 OdessaArchangel 22:33 571 OdessaKiev 22:36 4 Moscow “Kiev”Moscow 22:43 33 Truskavets “Truskavets”Sumi 22:45 185 MoscowLvov 23:06 74 Moscow “Verkhovina”Kiev 23:35 2 Moscow “Ukraina”, (does not stop)In addition 15 International trains in each direction pass Bakmatch without stopping.



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Another example of the level of passenger service comes from the Rostov on Don line now almost entirely within Russia. This line runs from Kursk Station in Moscow. There are at least 51 trains each day each way over the 929km of the line to Lozovaya. Overall the journey time is about 20 hrs for the 1346km to Rostov. The trains are not small, between 16 and 24 cars weighing in at 1300t including two restaurant cars as well as post and baggage cars. These trains could be following each other at 5 or 10 minute intervals over the entire distance to Lozovaya. As you can readily appreciate the facilities needed to support this kind of service level are huge. Coach yards are enormous, as are most town stations. Medium sized or larger stations are generally very wide island platforms containing all the buildings and other facilities as well as a road access. Goods bypass lines run outside the passenger roads.

Once you get away from the main lines things calm down a bit. The special tour trains use all kind’s of lines during the week but run pasts and steam haulage tend to be only on lighter used secondary lines. After Bakmatch our special train headed for Krivoi Rog, a major steel center at one end of what was said, in Soviet propaganda in the 1930’s, to be the busiest railway in the world. As the line leads to the Donetsk coalfields and thus links iron, steel and coal there may be some small justification for the claim. These three traffics were always a fertile combination in Soviet days for massive traffic flows over very long distances. Having observed the line I think there must be some doubt over the claim. It is very scenic, mostly single track and passes through the village of Toc (or Tic if you are Russian), it’s only a small place so you have to “watch” out for it. It’s certainly not the busiest line now otherwise we couldn’t have done the photo run past with a triple headed diesel combination of 2TE3 and TE10L in the middle of the afternoon.

A typical day on the tour might begin with breakfast at 07:30 whilst a 2-10-0 class SO couples up to the train. Off we’d go. For the next 6 or 8 hours the engine was ours. There might be 6 or 10 photo stops and run pasts scheduled for the day. The train crew know from other trips the best places and will watch out for them and the sun so that we can get the light just right. If we don’t like the chosen place we say so and we move the train. If you want to stop tell Misha or Valenten and they’ll pull up for you. Three long whistles - grab the camera and bundle out. The provodniks (car attedants) will open the door on the safe side of the train, you swing down onto the ballast (3 or 4 feet below the step!) and make a line for photos. One crow on the whisle and the train backs up. If it’s not far enough away, (and this is a video problem, you want empty line as the sequence starts) just tell Misha or Valenten to radio the driver - and the train goes back further!. With about 20 people on the trip getting a good place is not a problem. The crew, after a

few minutes getting the fire right, open the regulator and hey presto you have your very own smoke and sound effects as the train blasts past, pulls up and sets back. Do you want to do it again and just watch? - no problem - and back goes the train. Again please, Valenten - “OK! but no more after this we’re starting to hold up the service trains!”.

After a run past is a good time to ride with the crew. So just climb up, settle into a corner of the cab or sit on the fireman’s seat box and enjoy the fun. You’ve no idea how rough a freight steam engine can be. Every wheel revolution crashes up through the cab floor, the engine twists from side to side with each piston thrust and the stoker engine makes the whole thing deafening. The draft from the fire can pull the coal off the shovel and god help you if the 5 chime whistle sticks open! (The driver closes it with a lump hammer by giving it a clout - but he’s got to climb up right next to it to get a good swing at it!!)

On one trip the crew were busy with a problem on our TE class. We were running on the second track of a section of double line between Bakmatch and Tschors. The tour train had been given the second track to keep out of the way and it meant we could stop as often as we liked whilst the other services went by on the line beside us. The loco was only doing about 35kmh and the three crew were busy fiddling about with the injector. Eventually someone looked up and ahead. “Krasni signal!” (Red signal!). They really jumped to it then and we pulled up safely at the end of this section of second track and waited to pull onto the single main. It was an interesting “operating” experience.

You will find that it is possible to work out most of what is going on even if you don’t speak Russian (or Ukrainian which is very similar). The crew will not speak English but may know some German, for the last tourist that came the way the tour train was going were the German Army. A packet of cigarettes works wonders. Take for instance a trip one afternoon in the cab of a 2M62 class diesel. The radio cackled into life and the second



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man began writing down a list of distances and speeds. The crew were being reminded of the list of speed restrictions on the line by Control. After the list was finished the driver grabbed the radio. Whilst not every word was understandable the sentiment of what was said was quite clear - “Don’t bother me with restrictions at kilometer 55 (the first number written down by the second man), we’re at kilometer 60 (which we were) - this is an International Express” he said as our tour train trundled along at about 40kmh.

Lunch is called any time between 1130 and 1430 depending upon the schedule for the day. Depot visits or sometimes works visits are also made. Servicing and watering of the tour train and locomotives is often done whilst waiting for service trains. These stops often give the chance to see something of village life beyond the station. The time machine cranks up a gear and takes you

to another age once you leave the railway. The villages are often very quite with pot holed roads, no cars, no obvious shops and if seen just after winter, not a trace of anything green, just an expanse of brown mud right up to the roadside. The record for the number of cars held up at a level crossing in the three trips I have done is 11!!

Dinner, perhaps with the train stabled, or sometimes on the move to the next days starting point, is followed by beer, vodka or champanski in the saloon car with a folk group on hand to sing and play through the evening. A few quick choruses of “Stenka Reisen” which is a national favorite made famous by the Seekers breaks the ice.

After a week and about 1700 kilometers the train trundles back into Kiev Passenger Voxsal usually in the middle of the rush hour and it’s off to the airport and home. Theres plenty of other stories so watch out for further adventures of K.C. the Engineer!!

KGB did not really cause problems. I have permission to tell you about class AA. (You remember I talk about it in chasti dva before I was arrested by that dreadful Knock Knock joke!)In 1930 mainline standard axle load was 20t. An exercise was undertaken to establish what was biggest freight locomotive that could be built at 20t load limit. Prototype 4-14-4 was built by Voroshilovgrad in 1934. Named after its designer, Andrei Andreyev, class AA-20 was largest non articulated locomotive ever built in Europe, as well as one with most coupled axles in one frame ever built in world, no doubt thanks to the glorious Soviet Union workers. As might be expected it was prone to derailments. Damage to switches and crossings was major problem. The Russians put it in store. It was then scrapped. Pity, but it would look good in any gauge as a model!

One last point, the Russian penchant for rebuilding locomotives resulted in the class Shch 2-8-0 becoming the Shchch class during the 1920’s.

Dosvidanyia my English chums. I hope that you have enjoyed this story of the railways in Ukraine. Tours run two or three times a year from England, I’m sure you would have a wonderful time. See you again soon.

K.C. the Engineer



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The 2001 exhibition was the largest the Club has held with 21 layouts, including 2 provided by the trade, attending the show. Many of the major scale/gauge combinations were present including those in 0, 0n16.5, 0n14, 0n9, P4, EM, 00, 00n3, 00n9, H0, TT, N and 2mm finescale. Layouts traveled from as far away as Birmingham, Norfolk, Suffolk and Dorset to be at the show, portraying British, American and European standard and narrow gauge prototypes. 13 members of the trade, including specialist manufacturers, were there. We had a display by the model engineers within the Club as well as the popular demonstration stand.The show was very successful, with many comments being recieved as to the high quality of the exhibits, the variety of trade goods on offer and the general friendliness of those taking part.Throughout the weekend the visiting public was asked what layout they thought was the “Best in Show”. Every layout at the exhibition polled votes with Arthur Budd’s “The Brickworks” coming out as the well deserved winner.

Here are just some of the comments we received from visiting exhibitors and public alike:

Club Exhibition 2001- impressions

Here’s another bit of our history which has been held over for TrackWorker publication. For comparison, a full report of our 2008 exhibition will appear in the next TrackWorker.

Firstly, from the exhibitors:

David Medhurst from Ashford, Kent - The Beckley Tramway, Stand 23 -“... it really was a top class show and I will add it too my diary next year ... Picked up a couple of invites, including a long awaited one for Chatham, thankfully back in the dockyard for 2002 ...” Arthur Budd from Verwood, Dorset - The Brickworks, Stand 20 -“... We had a great time at the exhibition and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves so thanks to the members of the Uckfield club for inviting us in the first place and also for making us feel so welcome over the course of the weekend ...”

Donald Leeper from Esher, Surrey - Hepton Wharf, Stand 10 -“... we enjoyed the exhibition ourselves and thank you also for all the courtesy and consideration you showed to us - it is quite the best treatment we have ever received as exhibitors ...” John Cox from Birmingham - Bucks Green, Stand 6 -“... a wonderful show, a tremendous standard was achieved & it was a real pleasure to participate yet again. Thanks also for arranging the B & B. It really makes the weekend if you have some where to return to after the show. My brother & I had a great time ... my thanks to the Club & especially to the refreshment crew for their efforts ...” Brian Taylor from Shoreham - Belstowe, Stand 16“... Just a note to thank the Uckfield club for a very enjoyable exhibition. We were all very impressed by your hospitality too. The photo you sent showing us behind the layout was a nice touch ...”

.. and from the public:

“... Very good, I always look forward to the Uckfield Exhibition each year. Always a good variety and high standard of layouts ...” (Lewes)“... All excellent layouts. Very high standard ...” (East Grinstead)“... A very good show ...” (Basildon, Essex)“... After several years it is still an interesting and very worthwhile exhibition to come to. Very enjoyable and the best in the south! ...” (Newick)“... A good & varied selection of layouts and gauges. Perhaps more specialist traders might be of interest i.e. C&L etc ...”(Maidstone)“... Very interesting and enjoyable - more stands than last year? ...” (Crowborough)“... Well done, yet again! You never cease to surprise me how you are able to attract a greater variety of layouts than many other shows. ...” (Shoreham by Sea)“... First time visitor having just moved to Uckfield - exhibition excellent. I liked the demonstration stations ...” (Uckfield)“... Gets better each year ...” (Horam)“... A very enjoyable day out ...” (Slough, Berkshire)“... The scenic part of ALL layouts was of a very high standard! Variety of contents excellent ...” (Burgess Hill) “... Excellent!! ...” (Haywards Heath)“... Better & better! Delightful layouts and good trade stands ...” (Nutley)“... I can’t believe the attention to detail in all the exhibits ...” (Uckfield)“... Very good - and very good exhibition guide - especially at the price ...” (Sale, Cheshire)“... Excellent Venue, nice for accompanying families - with food etc. Very good models & layouts ...” (Hastings)“... A good well rounded exhibition, good variety of layouts and trade stands ...” (Tonbridge)“... As always - enjoyable ...” (Forest Row)“... I consider this to be the best club railway exhibition I have seen in 40 years of railway modelling ...” (Brighton)“.. Excellent - The best ever. Congratulations to all concerned ...” (Uckfield)

Looks like we had a lot to live up to. Compare these comments with those from our most recent show, held in October 2008, next issue!



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Bentley Miniature Railway

For those of you who don’t normally come along to assist, here is a brief summary of the developments at BMR over the last few years, and a quick look forward to 2009 and beyond.

2000 was only 5 years after the Glyndebourne Wood extension was opened, 3 years after we hosted the 71⁄4” Gauge Society’s AGM and Rally, and a few months after we held the international SEQLEC locomotive efficiency trials (two of which were reported in previous issues of Trackworker). What has happened since then? See the website archive for full details of all the works updates [http://www.bentleyrailway.co.uk/works_old.html], or read on for a brief summary.

The following selection of key events and passenger statistics may be of interest and are worth recording here, in a year-by-year listing:-

2001 - 14,326 passengers carried




The final year of Bentley Wildfowl being owned and run by East Sussex County Council. ESCC in their wisdom considered that “tourism and tourist facilities were not part of their remit”, and so amid much negative publicity it sought to close the site. Mary Askew, who owned the surrounding estate and who originally bequeathed the site “to the people of Sussex”, had to buy it back in order to safeguard it for the future.


Our 20th Anniversary at Bentley was celebrated with a locomotive cavalcade and cake-cutting (and eating) event. This year also saw the start of ‘private-sector’ ownership of Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum operations, and our railway rose to the occasion by adding school holiday and half-term daily services to our calendar. We have since become one of the key attractions on site.




Rolling stock accommodation was improved in 2008 by the creation of Horsted Yard III, with 4x40foot sidings all under cover.

Motive Power changes

Many new locomotives and items of rolling stock have arrived, some have departed and some but not all of these will return. Notable departures have been the LMS Royal Scot 4-6-0 “Sanspareil” which has gone up to the west midlands and has been seen at the new Echills Wood Railway; The Quarry Hunslet “Lady Joy” left BMR metals for pastures new and a new boiler. Those returning are the class 12 0-6-0 shunter which has been in works for major chassis rectification with a possible reappearance late in 2009; the Class 31 A1A-A1A has returned under new ownership fitted with additional detailing; Quarry Hunslet “Jasmine” now has new driving wheels and a new steel boiler and is slated (excuse the pun) for a return to service at Easter 2009; Tinkerbell “Emma” suffered superheater failure late in 2008 but should be fit to return in 2010; and the club’s own steam loco “Hercules” will return once a new boiler has been commissioned, possibly in 2010. Another Quarry Hunslet “Elaine” returned to BMR under new ownership. Arrivals since 2000 include our largest steamer on site, “Black Swan”, which is an 0-4-2 to a design known as ‘Thomas II’ with a large bogie tender; another Romulus 0-4-0 design, “Rhian”; and of course our club-owned class 35 Bo-Bo ‘Hymek’. Finally the little tram “Lady Helen”, which made an appearence at the original opening day back in 1985, is back with us now under BMR ownership and a conversion from petrol-mechanical to battery-electric propulsion. More recently, Lady Helen has been joined by another tramcar “Lord Barry”, built by BMR to make a 2-car unit. There are plans return Lady Helen to single-car mode once Lord Barry forms part of a 4-car tram unit (centre-cars of which are currently being delivered to site for motorising and commissioning trials).

S&T Engineering Summary

Notable improvements since 2000 have been the introduction of a few CCTV cameras and the use of PMR 2-way radios to assist the signallers’ communication with train crews; the addition of 4-aspect colour-light signals in a couple of locations; the replacement of incandescent lamps with high-brightness LED arrays in signal heads; new and enhanced control panels in both signal boxes; and semi-automatic signal operations for use when staff numbers are at a premium.

continued ...



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Permanent Way Summary

Over the past 3 years the main line track has been upgraded to heavier-section steel rail throughout, and a regular maintenance schedule to further upgrade the sleepers and ballast is progressing. The original chord between the Bentley Central passing loop and the returning line has been removed following little use, so that the turnouts could be re-deployed in the Horsted Yard III facilities.

Carriage & Wagon Summary

More new items of passenger carriage stock arrived over the past few years. The most notable of which are 2 3-car rakes of bogie coaches, one set owned by BMR and the other by a consortium of 3 members. These are all of heavy-duty, commercial miniature railway design and manufacture, and come into their own during the extremely busy Woodfair and holiday weekends. Additional bogie carriages to a lighter weight design have also been purchased by BMR to augment the ones which Barry Miller brought along for evaluation - they have also remained here since then, and following feedback from passengers we have moved from sit-astride to sit-in passenger cars as standard. New Guards vans have been built by BMR members to match the sit-in cars, and vacuum braking has been installed with the guard as well as the driver having control. Most of these items of rolling stock are now coupled in pre-

Bentley Miniature Railway (cont’d)

formed “train sets” which can be coupled to locomotives with relative ease and minmal shunting. 2008 saw the ‘recycling’ of 3 of our old sit-astride chassis to make a track-maintenance train. The leading car is now a mobile workbench and tools/materials store, with an articulated 2-car flat-bed unit coupled behind it capable of carrying either preformed track panels or wheelbarrows full of ballast. This maintenance train has made our track ballast upgrading easier, and will prove its worth when we finally get on with the extension to the wildfowl park station.

2009 and the futureThe coming year will see our planning application to extend the railway even further, to a third BMR station which will be sited adjacent to the footpath used by every visitor to the Wildfowl reserve (more passengers!).

2010 will be the 25th or Silver Jubilee year since the permanent miniature railway was first opened. More of these and other events at BMR in future Trackworker issues.

If any of this has whetted your appetite for the outdoor railway life, and you would like to help the small but dedicated and hardworking team that has made BMR what it is today, you are welcome to come and join us. Just contact us via the web site or just turn up on a running day - our calendar for 2009 is as below:-



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Layout Reports

Leysdown (P4)This scale model of the Isle of Sheppey branch terminus has been successfully exhibited at a variety of shows, including ScaleForum and Expo-EM (the finescale expositions of national and international status). Currently not slated for forthcoming exhititions, it remains in “warm storage” ready for use when next required.

Buckham Hill (0)Re-built from the basics of a layout originally bought from Bexhill (although to see it you would have trouble finding any of the original components, including baseboard parts), this was our first model of a fictitious station on the abandoned Ouse Vally line. The layout is at present undergoing a further upgrade and rebuild of the station area pointwork, to improve reliability and added sidings, under the careful management of Colin Stephens. The next part of the process is to re-wire the amended trackwork, and revise some of the scenery signalling and buildings.

Polo Mint (N, TT, 00, EM & P4)The electrical wiring for this test track has undergone a major revamp recently, thanks to Peter Graydon, including better baseboard connectors and more connection sockets for each track. A perimeter safety board is due to be fitted soon, to minimise the risk of speeding trains falling to the floor!

Netherhall and Fletching (00)Originally an en-to-end configuration with fiddle-yards at each end, this model of a fictitious Ouse Valley line station has been fitted with new baseboards to permit continuous operation at HQ and exhibitions. Exhibited earlier in 2008 at Crawley, and featured in September’s Hornby Magazine, its next outings will be at our own show in October 2009 followed by Brighton MRC’s show in November. More detailed work is scheduled for the scenic boards, and members’ locos/stock needs to be assessed on the layout for reliability, so bring yours along for test runs please, before submitting them for use at the show.

Oak Valley (N)Under the meticulous stewardship of Peter Graydon, this layout finally saw trains running all-round the main line circuit at our recent Christmas bash at HQ. More work is still to be done to get the various sidings etc wired-up, then it’s over to the scenery, building & civil engineering stage!

Cranbrook (P4)This new model will eventually replace Leysdown, and will be based on a design published by Barry Norman in one of his recent books. Baseboard materials have been sourced, and one or two of us cajoled or volunteered to produce things for it. Construction will get under way sometime in 2009.

Well ....

That’s all for this issue. I hope you found it both entertaining and informative. It’s good to be back.

Now, if you want more issues you know what to do!

It’s all very easy - all you need to do is write up something using your favourite wordprocessor or text editor on your computer and email it to me [[email protected]]. You can include photos and drawings if you think it helps put your message across. I can cope with almost any file format, so what are you waiting for? Once I have enough articles I’ll put it all together and publish the next TrackWorker.

Over to you!

John Pollington

Tail Lamp

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TRACKWORKE · Every day over 90 trains pass through Bakmatch, some traveling many hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to reach their destinations. This total does not include