Beyond Coalbridge Street…

Coalbridge Street was always conceived as the small yard terminus of the Wantage Terminal Company, but quite where Ballard or Wantage were located was deliberately obscure. In recent months I’ve studied maps of New England and talked at length with good friend Chris as we piece together the clues to where this characterful shortline existed… 

If you study a map of Northern New Hampshire you’ll find the mill town of Berlin, and the Boston and Maine served the town via a line across northern New Hampshire via a town called Jefferson. Roughly half way between Berlin and Jefferson can be found the small village of Ballard, where the Wantage Terminal plied it’s trade, serving the small town of Wantage and connecting its people and industry to the rest of the country via those two iron ribbons.

Of course we know that even in the 1940s the Wantage Terminal was on borrowed time, and by the late 60s the original company folded. The line was bought by a local Co-operative who incorporated the Ballard and Wantage in 1973. Early days saw the aging WTCo 45t supplemented by a 44t on hire from Pinsly. Late that year, with traffic almost non-existent the Co-op sold the line to Hilton Mears. 

In 1974 a paper mill was opened in Wantage and the B&W became an important link in the supply of pulp wood and shipping of finished materials. Meanwhile, the B&M were trying to abandon little used and expensive branch lines across New Hampshire. The B&W, buoyed by the increasing traffic from the new paper mill aquired the line from Berlin to Ballard and over night went from operating a few miles of light weight road side tramway to a shortline operator with over 30 miles of track, bridges and right of way to maintain… this marked the arrival of the trio of ex-New Haven RS1s and a period of Alco ownership that was only broken by the arrival of an ex-Milwaukee Road EMD SW1 in 1985. 

This back story, open to further adjustment on my whim, explains the location, the traffic and the roster. 

What though of the line itself?

Thoughts turned to modelling other parts of the branch - perhaps the B&M interchange?

It occurred to me that I could use the same two turnout plan - and produce a similar sized module/cameo box as Coalbridge Street itself…

Then I wondered what about recreating the original part of the trilogy, Pont-y-dulais. Inspired by the Claremont and Concord a second module could represent Ballard Road, where the Wantage Terminal had its ‘car barn’ (engine shed). The same two turnout plan again, I’m imagining some old equipment rotting in the head-shunt and the 45t and 44t calling the shed home.

Beyond a series of individual cameos I wondered about how they could be displayed and operated as a series of locations… How the real railway could be enjoyed and recreated, imagining the whole run, bringing cars down from the B&M interchange to the yard at Coalbridge Street, sharing the prototype and its operation with friends.

Coalbridge Street is on the road this year, with appearances at Larkrail and Uckfield in the diary. If you’d like to co-opt part of this history, to build your own part of the branch, go ahead, enjoy what Chris and I have started and do let me know how you get on! Until next time, more soon…

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