Upton Blewbury

Upton & Blewbury

A fictional preserved line on the Didcot Newbury & Southampton Railway

It all started with Blueberries, A four year old granddaughter, and an old copy of railway Modeller.

I was reading the magazine, she was eating the blueberries.

Papa what's that your reading ?....
A magazine about model trains sweetheart...
Papa do you have any model trains ?.....
Yes I do...
Papa can I see them ?.....(later after a good rummage)....
Papa they are really nice ! can we run them ?.....
We need a layout for that sweetheart...
Papa can you build us a layout ? with tunnels and bridges and a station so we can run them ???......
Ummmm yes sweetheart, ....
Papa what will we call our station ? ".......

I took one look at her face, laughed and Googled ... blueberry station, and up came



:- Upton & Blewbury on the Didcot Newbury & Southampton Railway

A Little History

1882 -1966

The Didcot Newbury and Southampton Railway ( DN & SR ) was an independent railway opened in 1882 (The first section), to offer a shorter route from the north to Southampton which finally made it as far as Winchester in 1885 (12 miles short of Southampton) where it joined the LSWR line at Shawford Junction. Unfortunately it had to rely on its rivals for connections to and from the main lines and the GWR to supply and run rolling stock etc . Covering approx 44 miles from Didcot to Shawford Junction it had 16 stations with their own unique architecture and 2 additional halts built to serve an army camp and an RFC Station during the war.
With limited passenger numbers its main business was freight , serving the local farming community and local businesses and serving the thriving horse racing community.

It carried :-

horse boxes along with grooms and jockeys to and from race meetings , sheep and cattle, local farm produce, Potato traffic from St Malo France, and also served a cement works, Timber yard, brick works, and various other small businesses. During the war it was upgraded and saw very heavy traffic helping in the build up to D day, and in its declining years saw heavy coal and petrol/ oil traffic. It also catered for football specials and holiday traffic.
Finally closing down in 1966, the line has almost completely disappeared.

The layout Planned

OO gauge, Dc

My interest is in the first three stations , Upton Blewbury (for obvious reasons ) Churn Halt, And Compton Station, covering a six mile stretch.

The premise for the layout :-

Instead of closing down and being completely lifted, the first three stations were taken over and preserved by Didcot Railway centre to give them a short excursion line as far as Compton station, using the sidings there as an overflow storage area for rolling stock being restored / preserved. This gives me the excuse to run anything I like ( including the rough old stock I currently have ! )

I'm going to try and replicate some of the old station buildings and houses unique to this line but as it's a preserved line I also get to use any GWR and LSWR infrastructure available . I'm not going to attempt to build an exact replica but use the information I have to create the 'feel' of this sleepy backwater line . A track plan is difficult at the moment ,I have a vague plan in my head but as I'm using what code 100 track I already have and some code 75 donated by Tom, (that has been Toto'd But is reclaimable) the layout growth will be fairly organic (see what fits and adapt as I go ). As funds are short I'm using old stock and track that I have from my old layout, dismantled 12 years ago and taking inspiration from an Aussie Friend I'm using re cycled materials as much as possible.

The Baseboards have been built and I'm starting to work on introducing various levels to replicate the rising and falling nature of the line running over and through the chalk downs. Yep old track and points, two codes ( 75 and 100), rising and falling levels, and the whole thing able to be dismantled for moving this time just in case we have to move again ( had to rip out my old layout many years ago as it was built in to the loft roof ).....glutton for punishment or what ? but an interesting experiment

But enough for now, I'll try and update with some pictures and an explanation of what's been done so far in the near future to show where things stand

cheers for now

Matt

 

Toto. . . You will be

 

Nothin to see here, too much else going on ATMO but I'll post up more as soon as I get a Free moment
Cheers
Matt

 

Mate I used to have hair half way down me back, now its just all coming out of me nostrils
Gormo me old mate yup Its crimble and Grandkids and work and Mother dear coming to stay over Crimble and and and . . . .. . I need a holiday Oh and did I mention some Mad perisher who created a forum overnight ?. never mind I'm looking forward to it all settling down so we can get back to the banter and modelling ( not that I mind the forum stuff, Its Mad fun but it WAS a bit fast lol Wasn't it TOM !!! )


Cheers
Matt

 

can you get me some hair back like that Paul ? mine seams to have gone AWOL

Cheers
Matt

 

The Baseboards

OK I'll Try and bring you up to date. ( No track plan Gary just some dodgy pictures )

As mentioned, After being inspired by Gormo's efforts using recycled materials I cleared some space in the workshop and made up some baseboards using three hollow core doors that I had. These were then covered in Green Fibreboard left over from a Job , glued down with pva and then sealed with dilute pva to help against damp. These then stood for almost a year with other things taking priority. After inspection they were found to still be solid, flat and no signs of deterioration, These were then supported at the back by some old kitchen unit carcasses and the rest of the layout is supported by free standing adjustable legs ( wooden posts , flat base and kitchen carcass adjustable legs screwed to the top) The doors are held together by hinges with removable pins so they can be stripped down if we move and the whole thing is anchored by one 6" nail in the back left corner which sits loose in a hole through the first door and kitchen unit below { surprisingly strong and stable set-up )

So I had this.



I have good access on three sides with the longest side up against a wall but i can reach the back of this from the hatch. the intention was to keep any complicated stuff to the front and sides with mostly simple track and scenics on the back stretch, so I wont need to use the hatch that often. I decided I wanted a rising and falling landscape so the first step was to put in a high level platform to hold Upton & Blewbury station. Although this represents the first station on the line from Didcot , In reality on our layout it will be a terminus with the line 'disappearing' off stage.



Next Post an actual picture ! or two ( apologies for the poor shots but its very difficult to get a decent angle )

Cheers

Matt