Model Railways – Fort Victoria Model Railways, Isle of Wight

View up the tracks

Fort Victoria Model Railways

At Fort Victoria, just outside Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, we have an indoor model railway and shop which is open to the public most of the year. The railway has been at the Fort for the past fifteen years, but under new ownership for only five years. The layouts have been completely altered although the controls of the Continental trains are still by computer programme. A new British layout is under construction, and this will be run by an infra-red system.

Detailed Scenes

The British and Continental trains weave their magic through villages, mountains, tunnels and factories, and rekindle many happy childhood memories for many of our visitors. There are working models, some operated by a push button system, whilst others are running all day. A circus and fairground, with working models, is an added attraction as it also has its own miniature railway.

Did you know that our trains running from Easter to October daily cover the equivalent distance from Portsmouth to Edinburgh? And on such small wheels!

Lots of different sections to look at

 Model Railway Shop

The shop stocks many of the major supplier’s goods, e.g. Dapol, Peco, Bachmann, Woodland Scenics, Metcalfe, Ratio, Faller etc. We stock items in the HO/OO and N gauge and are more than prepared to forward stock to customers or order items that we do not hold in stock at that time.

The shop is open daily along with the exhibition. The business is closed for two weeks at the beginning of November, but it is open from Thursday to Monday during the winter months and trains are run at weekends providing it is not too cold!

Please phone for details of winter openings. During the summer season we are open daily from Easter to the end of October.

SmallBrook Studio – makers of fine railway models www.smallbrookstudio.com

Industrial Area

 Useful Information

The exhibition is open daily from 10.15am to 4.30pm (last trains run at 4pm) throughout the summer until the end of October. The business is closed for two weeks at the beginning of November, but it is open from Thursday to Monday during the winter months and trains are run at weekends providing it is not too cold! Please phone for details of winter openings.

For more info. please call 01983 761553 or click here to email.

Fort Victoria Model Railway, Fort Victoria, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight PO41 0RR

Prices
0-3 years	FREE
3-93 years	£2.85
93 years and over	FREE
Please call for party rates Transport interconnects

Steam Locomotives of a more Leisurely Era 1872 – ‘Terriers’ 0-6-0T – London, Brighton & South Coast Railway

Steam Locomotives of a more Leisurely Era

1872 – ‘Terriers’ 0-6-0T – London, Brighton & South Coast Railway

British Railways Southern Region 0-6-0 ‘Terrier’ tank No.32670 leaves Tenterden Town station for Robertsbridge on 27^th September, 1952.  This engine, once London, Brighton & South Coast Railway No.70 Poplar, was built in December, 1872; it was later sold to Colonel Stephens, in May, 1901, who put it to work on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, giving it the number 3 and the name Bodiam.  As late as the summer of 1948 it was still resplendent in apple green with the letters ‘K & ESR’ on its side tanks.  J.G.Dewing

The first of these remarkable little engines, No.71 Wapping, came out in October, 1872, followed by No.70 Poplar and 72 Fenchurch in November.  The class eventually totalled fifty, numbered 35 – 84, the last appearing in 1880.  The design was a direct development of the type which William Stroudley had introduced on the Highland Railway during his short term of office on that line.  (See previous post – Stroudley 0-6-0T, Highland Railway).  They were designed originally for suburban work in the London area, but of later years their uses have been many and varied.There are few of Stroudley’s ‘Terriers’ left in service today, (1969) though they still work on the Hayling Island Branch and shunt the quay at Newhaven.  Two have been preserved by British Railways, one at Brighton Works and another at the Clapham Museum of the BTC.  There is also another working on the Bluebell Line.  During their lives, engines of this class have gone far afield – even the mighty Great Western had two of them from the late Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway.  They were favourites of Colonel Stephens.  Their great assets were their high axle loading and their short wheelbase, which made them ideal engines for cheaply laid branches and light railways.  No. 32661 leaves Havant for Hayling Island with the 12.35 pm train on 4^th March, 1950.  P.M.Alexander.

From 1901 onwards a number of them were disposed of, some were scrapped, but very many of them were sold out of service, details of which are to numerous to go into fully.  It may be mentioned however that two of them went to the LSWR, one to the SECR, several to various light railways, others to collieries, whilst a few went on Government service during the first world war, and were subsequently disposed of to sundry undertakings.  Of those that remained on the Brighton, a number were fitted with pull-and-push apparatus for motor train working, and most of the later survivors of the class had been rebuilt with extended smokeboxes.  About a dozen still remained on the LBSCR books at grouping in 1923, but this total was increased under the Southern Railway regime, as several which had been sold previously now came back to the fold under the combined ownership.  These included some which had gone to the Isle of Wight railways.The summer of 1949 saw the end of the Isle of Wight 0-6-0 ‘Terrier’ tanks.  This class had worked the Merstone to Ventnor West branch from its inception in the days of the Isle of Wight Central Railway.  ‘A1X’ class No.W8 Freshwater enters Ventnor West station on the early morning train on 18^th April.  P.M.Alexander

In later Brighton days the remaining engines had and their numbers increase by 600, the Southern Railway in turn put 2000 on to this, whilst those that have survived Nationalisation have again received an addition of 30000.

Those in the Isle of Wight were numbered in a special series as W9, etc., but on return to the mainland were either scrapped or given their original numbers plus the 326xx addition.  A particularly interesting example of this perpetuation of identity occurs with No.70, which when sold to the Kent & East Sussex Railway in 1930 became their No.3 This line remained independent until 1948, when the engines became BR stock, and it duly received its rightful number 32670, having skipped the intervening 670 and 2670 phase during the many years it had been in independent hands.  This engine, together with No. 32636 (old 72 – in this case the original number was not perpetuated) are in 1959 the oldest engines in service on British Railways.Travellers over the one-time Stratford-on-Avon & Midland Junction Railway, had they alighted at Burton-Dassett station under Edge Hill, would have found the remains of the moribund Edge Hill Light Railway, an unsuccessful Ironstone speculation where two Brighton ‘Terriers’ slumbered on grass-grown tracks.  Both engines somehow survived the wartime scrap drives but were cut up on the site by 1946.  J.H.L.Adams

Driving wheels – 4’ 0”,  Cylinders – 12”x 20”,  Pressure – 150lb.,  Tractive effort – 7650lb.,  Weight – Unrebuilt – 27½ tons, Rebuilt – 28¼ tons,  LBSCR & SR Classification – Unrebuilt – A1, Rebuilt – A1x,  BR Classification – OP

Tractive effort  – Engine 32636 had cylinders 14.3/16”x 20” with 10695lb  tractive effort.

No.70 as running in 1933 on the Kent & East Sussex Railway.  It subsequently became BR No. 32670 and was rebuilt to Class ‘A1x’ with extended smokebox.  H.C.Casserley.

Steam Locomotive Classes of a Leisurely Era

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era –  by Casey Jones

The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway

E1 0-6-0T

In1874 there appeared from Brighton Works the first of Mr. Stroudley’s standard goods tank engines, No.97.

The class was a six coupled version of the D1 0-4-2T and the boilers, motion and cylinders of the two types were interchangeable.

Number 97 was followed by numbers 98/9 in the same year, 100-2 in 1875, 103-8 in 1876, 109-120 in 1877, 121-138 in 1878, 139-144 in 1879, 145-152 in 1880, 153-156 in 1881, 85-96 in 1883, 157 in 1884, 159-164 in 1891, making a total of 79 locos.

Dimensions were:

Cyls 17 x 24 ins. DWH 4’ 6” THS 943 sq ft Grate 15½ sq ft Pr 170 lbs/sq in

Wt 4Tons 3cwt.No.110 before restoration, at Hednesford ‘Cannock Wood’ No.9

In typical Stroudley tradition the whole class was named, rather a strange assortment of French towns and villages being chosen, together with other continental places and a few English as well.

As the standard goods shunting tank, the class was spread all over the system, doing extremely useful work.  In fact the class was so robust that Stroudley’s successors did not bother to design a replacement.  Mr. Billington did produce his E2s in 1913 to replace earlier E1s which had been withdrawn but the new development only numbered ten locos.

In 1911 Mr. Marsh the CME rebuilt No.89 with a new boiler 4’ 6” in diameter, she was the only one so treated and later when this boiler wore out she reverted to he original style.

Quite a few were taken out of traffic in LBSCR days but the majority were taken over by the Southern Railway who added 2000 to the original numbers.

In 1932-3 four of the class were transferred to the Isle of Wight and details of these are:

No.2136     Brindisi       W1   Medina

No.2152     Hungary      W2   Yarmouth

No.2154     Madrid         W3   Ryde

No.2131     Gournay     W4   WroxallWroxall

Incidentally the LBSCR renumbered certain of the class as follows before the SR added the 2000 to the numbers.

Nos. 85-91 to 685-91, No.99 to 610,      Nos. 100-5 to 692-7,

Nos. 106-9 to 606-9,   No.111 to 611

Further withdrawals took place in early Southern Railway days and in 1927-8 ten of the survivors were rebuilt at Brighton to the specifications of Mr. Mansell as

0-6-2Ts for service in the West of England on the newly opened line between Halwill Junction and Torrington.  These rebuilds were classified E1/R and those so treated were numbers 2094-6, 2124/35, 2608/10, 2695-7.  As originally built these were found to be unsteady on passenger service but this was soon eradicated by Mr. Bulleid who rebalanced numbers 2094-6, 2608/10.  These together with number 2696 spent most of their lives at Barnstaple depot, the other four being at Exeter for banking duties up the steep gradient between Exeter Central and Exeter St. David’s.

Reverting back to the E1s proper most had their names removed before passing into Southern hands, and as already remarked the survivors continued to put in useful work at various shunting yards.  Several were sold on withdrawal and these included number 2163 sold to Ashington Colliery in 1932, number 146 sold in 1908 and number 2110 ‘Burgundy’ sold to Cannock Wood Colliery, Staffs in 1927 and renamed Cannock Wood.  This latter is now the only surviving member, albeit in slightly modified form and is at present housed at Hednesford Depot  of the RPS (1968).  A fund is at present open towards the cost of purchase and restoration to full working order of this locomotive, and I can do no other than to commend this fund to our readers – after all plenty of passenger types are being saved but not the traditional British 0-6-0 shunting locomotive of which old number 110 is a worthy representative.