Chester Wagon Works...
As a child I remember driving to the station with my Dad to buy tickets for his infrequent trips to the big smoke. The station in Chester was accessed down a dog leg alongside the Hoole road bridge and at the lights was the Royal Mail depot and a railway 'shed' that always had a lone BR Blue CCT out the back...
10 year old me never realised this was the wagon works and nothing much seemed to happen on those brief encounters. Before I was even 13 the works was closed, and the CCT disappeared - and in more recent times the sight has been raised and housing built as Chester's rail interest has continued to wane since privatisation.
But of that depot, I stumbled upon a few photos in David Ratcliffe's 'Changing face of Railfreight' bookazine that showed wagons around the rear of the shed that peaked my interest. Flickr turned up some gems including shots of 'that CCT'. Thought turned to how a working traverser could be fashioned...
In many ways a layout like this is the perfect antidote to the diesel depot. For the wagonphile an excuse to have one of many types - although to be honest the length of the traverser would limit you to nothing bigger than a 21T mineral (unless you went wider, to take a OBA/VDA sized wagon). My thoughts were the traverser was star of the show... a wagon slowly emerges from the shed onto the traverser - and this is moved to the front track where an 08 either pushes it forwards for storage, or pulls it away. If you add a second foreground track there is more space for storage and display. I think a linear stepper motor might be the best option for the traverser drive - and I've found a few options on eBay with controller for less than £30. I can't help thinking this would work best in N (! - yes I'm at last a convert) as in the larger scale a wagon collection would take up a lot of space.
Nostalgia is a funny fuel for the fire, I find it often generates enough interest for a wagon or locomotive build but not much more - however, the prototype here is interesting and the cramped nature between road and back of the shed made the traverser a necessary tool for the prototype. If you're very short on space, is this something that appeals?
At the very least, enjoy digging about the wonderful photos collected by various enthusiasts and now shared on their Flickr accounts (thank you to all of you). Until next time, more soon...
This is brilliant, James...I'd never heard of it, but then a lot of these little corners were pretty obscure. Unfortunately the "new broom" of privatisation has swept all too clean in many parts of the network, erasing an awful lot of the character that made it so appealing.
ReplyDeleteThere are odd bits though...between Bexhill and St. Leonards there's the former DEMU maintenance shed which was taken over by Hastings Diesels Ltd. to house and maintain their fleet of vehicles; they also do other work for various companies and I've seen a variety of stock outside there over the years, long may it continue!
Thank you Simon. Plenty of rail interest gone before my time, but sad when it’s off our time. Thank you also for the tip off of the St Leonard’s depot, another rabbit hole to explore!
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