Cider and Steam…

As a child we travelled south from home in Chester to visit grandparents in Bristol (Dad’s) and Weymouth (Mum’s). Our route would take us down the A49 they disliked motorways, especially the M6/M5 junction in Birmingham…

Anyone familiar with the road south will recognise how much of a slog this could be sometimes - twisting along at 30-40 average speed over the route we’d do Whitchurch, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Leominster, Hereford, Monmouth, Chepstow and over the M4 bridge. I’m sure I can’t have been the only child who used to gaze out the window looking for traces of railway - hoping to see a train, but equally exited by an abandoned formation, waiting to be discovered.

In Hereford we used to drive over a hump back bridge with some tired slightly over grown track - and Dad would always say ‘that goes to Bulmers’. I’ve no memory of ever visiting the Bulmers Railway Centre but a strange feeling I did at a very young age… 

“08942 stands on some of the outward traffic vans in the Bulmer's site. Depending on the amount of traffic going out (I have known up to 17 vans of outward traffic) some complicated shunting was sometimes required. This was one of those days and we made two trips in the end. 8th August 1988”  Caption and photo ‘Jamerail’ on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2jXA5Q8

 

So enough of the somewhat meandering introduction, Bulmers in Hereford. A base for mainline steam in the 70s and a revival in freight in the 80s. A change in fortunes, attitudes, the end of Speedlink (long sigh, again) and the end of Bulmers Railway Centre. 

Adrian Nichols photo (https://flic.kr/p/nknKoH)

I stumbled upon it’s memory the other week after travelling to Cwmbran to pick up a car with Janey. We travelled down by train and returned on the A49, both times through Hereford, the car even over that bridge, the track STILL in place after all this time. Memories stirred and last weekend I spent a very enjoyable Sunday with the dog, my iPad and some day dreams. 

It struck me that this idea of a heritage centre AND a Speedlink freight depot would suit many of us modellers and it wasn’t something I’d considered before… dreams of an EFE J94/Austerity alongside a BR 08 and some vans on a shelf soon followed… rough ideas here, but either a corner or linear shelf scene, envisaged as N, but would work in the larger scales too…

Illustration James Hilton 2024.

Basic premise uses a BR 08 (or larger train engine if you desire) to deliver vans by propelling them on stage. The industrial internal diesel shunter then shunts empties and loads about. BR loco pulls them off stage. Once all settle down, the steam loco can do a brake van ride tour through the site.

This rather nostalgic video sets the scene of a ‘gala’ weekend, but the industrial and brake van give a flavour of what I had in mind. The linked Flickr photos give a taste of the location, the mix of vegetation and industrial pipework and paraphernalia. In N you might use a Farish 03 as a Hunslet 05 stand in, or the N gauge Societies Hunslet. In OO and O you have all the required models ‘out of the box’.

What makes schemes like this so attractive, despite the apparent lack of operational interest (there is no circle of track and no loop - am I mad?) is the simple, gentle, almost rhythmic operation of repetitive moves, in and out of sidings, shunting, simple enough to not require complex instructions, realistic enough to get lost in the space, the character deliberately melancholic, a space for reflection and calm.

I’ve managed (so far) to avoid buying any ‘stock’ for such a project - but perhaps you already have all the ingredients. Perhaps Cider and Steam could he just the project for you? I’d love to hear what you think - but in the meantime, the coffee won’t make itself, and the sun is bathing this sofa in such lovely warmth and light that I really must move or I’ll doze off! Until next time, more soon…

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