Southwold Railway

Something a little different - this quirky, jazzy number was always rumoured to be about the Southwold railway, and recorded in London in October 1928 by a sharp little band calling themselves The Rhythmic Eight. The enigmatic Arthur Lally relates how the railway "runs from hand to mouth":

 

We did make it to Blythborough!
Thanks to the chap who took the pic of us in front of the wagon. Lovely to see the track down.
I can also vouch for the quality of the pub lunch in the pub opposite...

 

Thanks very much BMike - I will pass that on to the team, who will be gratified. The White Hart is under new management, and they are very supportive of our railway restoration efforts - so if anyone reading this wants to drop in and see the station, which is open to all at any time, please do call in there as well, and mention our (and BMike's) recommendation.
More main line down soon - will then be three chains. Sidings to come.
We are holding three events there next year - April 23rd, June 21st (Suffolk Day), and September 10th (Heritage Open Days, Model Show). All will again be free, although donations and sponsorship are positively encouraged!

 

Any chance getting the record re-issued as a fund raiser ?

 

Only as a 78, please

 

Further on that - I did pass on your comment yesterday over our regular Friday coffee at the Black Dog in Halesworth (also recommended). And they were indeed gratified. Never does any harm to praise volunteers, without whom we'd not have by far the best heritage railways in the world....

 

Can I ask about the ballast you're employing please? It looks far finer than anything I've seen in recent years. Does it hark back to the original line's practice?

 

Hello - yes it does. The line never employed granite as ballast, but dug its own gravel out of - mainly - the Bird's Folly lineside quarry at Halesworth. Our remit from the landowner (and our wish) is to reproduce the line as near as possible to how it was from 1879 - hence the fine ballast, the very light sleepers (150mm x 75mm x 1.8m), and the light rail (although we have upped the weight of that from the original 30lb per yard to 40lb - a compromise to preserve the "look" while allowing reasonable loco weights in the future (our RFS is 7.5 tonnes axle weight) - and the pointwork is on considerably-heavier timbers. To affix the track we are using GB Rail's nibless clips which are not too different from the original base plates, but have a much more positive bearing onto the rail foot.
You will see the same kind of effort in reproducing the unique, and somewhat bizarre, timber fencing that ran for 16 miles, and the very low timber-edged platforms as well.

What we can't reproduce is the 19th century habit (on the SG as well) of covering all the sleepers with ballast - not at all good practice,, as you don't know when they need replacing. Luckily for us, the SR had become a little more conventional in that regard by the 1920s. Where our track is "metalled-in" (as with the 170 feet of pointwork and sidings which will go in this winter) we use heavy ex-Channel Tunnel steel sleepers - as I know only too well, spending yesterday's workday drilling M16 holes through them for the high-tensile bolts.
James

 

News update - two and a half chains-worth of track will be re-instated at Blythburgh Station in late March. This will re-connect the two stub-sidings that have been in for a while - inside and beside the Goods Shed - to the relaid main line, using a second ex-Rowsley point, re-gauged. The informal car park that occupies the station yard is very heavily used, so the track will be metalled-in over the ex-Channel Tunnel steel sleepers, allowing continuing use of that part of the car park except when we are operating, as well as re-producing the "no-sleepers-look" of the railway in the nineteenth century. We apologise in advance that visitors will see an active building site for a week or so! The mainline will also be continued to the current limit of permission, and is now discretely fenced-off, to allow safe running.
Meanwhile, our RFS 4WDH loco ran on the test track on Tuesday, and the newly-re-installed "dead man's" system works fine. The Greenbat 4WBE will be back, with air brakes fitted, at mid-summer. The open coach No 3 is having its seats installed, and the private-owner Cleminson MOY coal wagon 'E' replica (at 20 feet long the largest project so far) now has all its six wheels in the sub-frames, and awaits the complex linkage to make them all follow the curves.
There will be three Open Days (as always, completely free) at Blythburgh Station - April 23rd, June 21st (Suffolk Day), and - with a model show as well as celebrating the national Heritage Open Days - September 10th: Halesworth sees its own event too, on May 13th - local community groups will also attend.
We are still seeking Blythburgh Station sleeper sponsorship, and of course new Members - both applications are available on our website www.halesworthtosouthwoldrailway.co.uk.
James

 

Great to see the progress!

 

Thank you James for your update and well done with the progress.

 

I was intrigued to read in the post by James Hewett above that the 6 wheel Moy coal wagon needed "the complex linkage to make them (the wheels) all follow the curves" and since I had never heard of the Cleminson linkage I did some digging and found this diagram, first published in "The Engineer" in Feb 1878, which describes this system rather well.



The central axle-frame moves sideways on curves and, in doing so, rotates the end axle-frames to allow the wheels to follow curvature of the track. I presume this will be the sort of linkage which will be reproduced in the Moy wagon?

 

On the evening of the 23rd July, as part of the IMR 150 celebrations, there will be a rare opportunity to travel on the only operating Cleminson carriage in the British Isles. The Manx Northern 6 wheeler has recently returned to the railway having been immaculately restored by its private owner and will only be used on very special occasions. We believe that the last time a Manx Northern Cleminson carried fare-paying passengers was in 1950! Details can be found here https://www.iombusandrail.im/heritage/events-and-experiences/isle-of-man-year-of-the-railways-2023/ Click on the brochure.
Ray.

 

Yep - that's the plan - but in steel not timber. As can be seen from your illustration (originally in the patent application), the mechanism which joins the sub-frames together uses a double-joint, a bit like a two-way hinge - and these are not half way between one frame and the next. Not sure exactly how that will work in practice - but we shall see! Our long-term ambition is to replicate one of the SR's Cleminson coaches, so this is (apart from its intrinsic interest) a try-out for that. As I am sure is obvious, this idea does not work on an S-bend: the wagons were only about 15'6" wheelbase (there are no really accurate drawings), but the coaches - much longer - seem to have been confined to the main line (and one siding), as few if any passenger trains passed each other (this being, like the Talyllyn, a one-sided railway....)

 

If you're feeling spicy a leaf spring conversion makes a big difference to the looks of ex-RNAD stock and isn't difficult to do as long as you've got a welder. I bought the correct rating springs from a road trailer supplier and they were super helpful. They've been load and dynamically tested since and have passed everything with flying colours.

 

If you have a look at their FB Page (viewable by anyone) they have just completed linking the two sidings at Blythburgh to the "main line"......
https://en-gb.facebook.com/HalesworthtoSouthwoldNGR/

 

That's a really fantastic effort by Tim and the gang. Seriously, we'll done- those sidings already look as though they've been there for years!

 

Thanks - yes they do , don't they! Long and hard week, in rain, wind and some hail - but a second (also re-gauged) point plus almost 3 chains of track went in, and was metalled-in to allow continuing use of the very popular car park. Curves are quite tight, as the original layout can't be used (the A12 is on it), but it's acceptable for sidings. In the same week or so, our RFS 4WDH loco reached the end of the workshop test track with its safety systems working (they had been bypassed by previous owners), our 4WBE Greenbat was seen working with air brakes (just fitted in Norfolk), and the MOY Cleminson wagon had its links fabricated and connected, and successfully negotiated the curves, with the patent flexible underframe performing very well indeed. Our first "coach" (really a wagon with seats) had its passenger accommodation tested - by sitting on it.
Hard to keep up with it all, really. (Apologies to those who have already seen the pics on Facebook - repeated here for those who don't do that).
We have had to do the track project before getting all the sleepers sponsored, as the car park gets too busy after Easter - so there's still the opportunity to be part of all this: sponsor a sleeper for £35.00, and your name (if you wish) will be displayed permanently on the platform notice board - you can do it on our website - www.halesworthtosouthwoldrailway.co.uk NB eight sponsors' sleepers will be on the main line (bringing us to the limit of our current permission), and these will be a lot more visible, so get your sponsorship in fast, to help do one of those (Stop Press - two are already gone). James

 

The ones I used came from AutoW warehouse. I picked them based on the maximum gross weight of the vehicle at capacity, divided by the number of springs with a bit of padding for comfort.

https://www.autow.com/products/trailer-parts/suspension-axles/leaf-springs

The ones I used were:

Trailer Leaf Springs - Double Eye - 2250kg capacity/pair, 60mm
Ref: DES2250-60

I ordered extra shackles so both ends could be mounted in the same way - on a trailer one end is fixed. The brackets are L section steel but you can mount them however you want.