Coalbridge Street: The Wantage Terminal Company...

"It’s fall and carloads change like the leaves", thanks Chris, this epitomises the atmosphere I'm so keen to create with Coalbridge Street. His words on 'Google on the trees' sing to me like the words of a favourite but forgotten song, you already know the words...

Coalbridge Street isn't just the third part on the 'Pont-y-dulais' series, it has a character of it's own - a connection to the Claremont and Concord and the obsession that fuelled Chris and my own friendship back during the first winter of Covid. It matters to me.

The same two point plan, but that's not the point.

Yes, we're dealing with two facing turnouts - an evolution of the 'double tuning fork' but we're beyond games and layout design now. This project is channelling a deeper feeling, one that has been nurtured by a great friendship - and more, by the warmth and passion of fellow followers of the best of all Pinsly short-lines, the Claremont and Concord, with it's plucky red GE 44t and street running, hustling and bustling serving customers in an almost personal manner. All happening late enough to be captured again and again in Kodachrome so we can see it all in glorious colour. Red engines and the fall in New England. Perfect...

I'm waffling, but this energy has fuelled both the physical and mental progress with Coalbridge Street. Mental? I suppose I mean conceptual, I love the idea of the parallels between the Wantage Tramway and the New England short line Chris and I invented, the Ballard and Wantage.

As I enjoyed 1970s photos of the Claremont and Concord, I was concurrently enjoying photos of the 1930s Wantage Tramway. The lower yard in Wantage shared the same ground textures and track work as the C&C in Claremont - now the site of Lavalley building supplies. The parallels between these two disparate lines, times, coming to me again and again - sparking the creativity to divide a route map, to even think about how the Ballard and Wantage came to be - and if it was, how did Pinsly end up running it. I have no answers, and as Chris pointed out, they're not important. The ideas warm the soul, they don't need killing off with faux history.

So in outline:

• Coalbridge Street depicts the end of the Ballard and Wantage line.
• The yard serves Langton's building supplies (Langton's were a coal merchant at Wantage) and Clark's flour mill (Clark's had a flour mill in Wantage until very recently and this too was served by the Wantage Tramway).
• Whilst the line sees service using Claremont and Concord 44t there is also an old GE45t which is a little weedy for the larger box cars now finding their way onto the line - this belonged to the Wantage Terminal Company (the model will be lettered WTCo. and be numbered 8). 

A perusal of the map will find some fun with the road and street names - regular readers I'm sure will notice a few familiar ideas. The route map itself is traced from the real Ordnance Survey map - and as with the real Wantage Tramway, the Ballard and Wantage is largely laid along the side of the road.

As the project develops, so does my love for this idea - and the strength of feeling is only increased when I share the story with my good friend Chris. He and I have long dreamt of a joint project, we call 'Rome'. Whilst that remains a lovely place to enjoy in conversation, it is our friendship that is building Coalbridge Street. Model Railways are the best hobby in the world, I love them. Until next time, more soon...

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