A while ago I dropped the above photo into a post here which generated a few questions to where it was on the branch. The photo below nails the position. The spot in question is toward the upper left.
At this point is the junction for the stone works. Most of the buildings have now gone although there is some debris. The church is still extant and will position against any modern view such as google earth. The photo was taken in 1949 and previous snuffling about threw up the information that BR(S) anxious to rid themselves of all the old pre-group wagons that had hung on during the war, now used the redundant lower end of the branch as pre-disposal storage. The seemingly endless line of wagons (possibly reaching right down to the river wharf to the right) consists of older styles.
The stone works, including what looks like a ropeway, has a line which splits South from the branch and opens up into two curving sidings, one into the buildings and one toward the barges. There may also be a kick-back headshunt track below the junction point.
While not exactly micro layout fare, the general shape would be easy to compress and re-shape for an inglenook style layout.
The Rye Harbour branch certainly seems to have been used as a handy hidey-hole for many years when Ashford Works ran out of space...mind you, quite a number of little-used lines all over the place were used similarly; there are photos of pre-grouping stock stored on the Lauder Light Railway for example. It certainly makes vehicles like your cattle truck even more plausible. There are photos of an ex-LNER fish van looking rather out of pla(i)ce in the very last days of Drewry Shunter haulage on the K&ESR so all sorts of things are possible. I suppose if you wanted to expand the traffic a little to include passengers, a sort of amalgam of Rye Harbour and the original Dungeness terminus with its curved roofed station building and short wooden platform could convey the atmosphere of a really out of the way ex-SER branch terminus...
ReplyDeleteNo sign of a ropeway on the 1928 map that's in the Middleton Press book but that structure behind the Derrick certainly looks like it could be at the end of one. Also on the old map was a narrow gauge line that crossed the road then the railway on its way to a small pier out of view middle right of the photo....you can see the course of the line going diagonally away from the church. Fascinating stuff!
Those gates are definitely Dapol/Airfix!
ReplyDeleteAndrew Knights
Thanks for that, Chris. I knew there was a long siding used for storage but didn't know about gate. Incidentally, at Rye harbour, there's still a vestige of the embankment where the buffer stops sat. When you next come over this we we can have a look.
ReplyDelete