An ideal LNER terminus station: Wells-next-the-sea

Colombo · Post by **Colombo** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:25 pm

There have been a number of strings running recently about what would be a good terminus station to model. Having chosen one, then you have to find a track diagram and photos of all the various buildings. So it comes as a pleasant surprise to stumble upon a site that gives track diagrams, full signalling, and 30 photographs taken around the station in the period from the 1930s to the 1950s.

There are two branchlines terminating in the station, an engine shed combined with a goods shed, a corn mill siding and a branch leading off to a dockside. There is a cattle dock, a turntable and a stationary locomotive boiler as well. It really has all the ingredients for an interesting model.

Have a look at http://members.aol.com/Wellsnextthesea/ ... ilway.html

This is part of a Town Guide to Wells which also includes black and white photos of the quayside, with tracks but no rolling stock. I don't know whose work this is, but he or she really ought to get some recognition.

Happy modelling

Colombo

Bullhead · Post by **Bullhead** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:56 pm

That is nice. What flexibility the 3-way junction would offer!

I've always liked the East Anglian landscape (near the top of my "places to visit" list is the Sutton Hoo ship burial site), and despite my spiritual ties to the North-East (agonising, every time Newcastle United lose

) I have often hankered after a model based somewhere there. This would be a very nice one to try.

x568wcn · Post by **x568wcn** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:35 pm

Yes,it is a very nice layout to try, but as I'm doing Easingwold at the moment, I know how much space a small yard can take up even in N Gauge. I've had to put Easingwold on an angle, to fit it all on the board, but then I've just noticed, if the length of the board is North-South, then the Station is pretty much at the right angle anway, purely by chance!

As for Wells Next the Sea, it would need a large board to accommodate the 3 branches going off in different directions, then looping round in to a yard.

My board is only 3ft wide, and I'm strugling for a fiddle yard, if it goes on the back, it can take up too much space for the scenery!

Post by **richard** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:46 am

It does look a distinctive arrangement.

I'm surprised that there's a branch to the harbour. From what I remember of Wells, the harbour is very small?
Perhaps in circa 1900 it was worth it for fish from smaller fishing ships,etc.

There's also (or was in the mid/late 90s) a miniature railway north from where the harbour is, up towards a campsite. Must be less than 15in (7.25in?) but a reasonable length even if it is straight!

There's some good low-level coastal walking for those interested in visiting. We (bunch of ex-univ friends) had a weekend camping trip that way once. Drove up in my Landy - used the Landy as a windbreak at the campsite. Fry up each morning, and we managed (initially as an accident) to have cheesy-chips with every other meal (typically we'd walk to a village a few miles away, pub lunch, return). The main reason was good company of course, but after nearly 10 years the cheesy chips is still a running joke when we meet up!

Richard

Colombo · Post by **Colombo** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:25 pm

There was something oddly familiar about the track layout at Wells next the sea that set me thinking. I have since delved in my back numbers of The Model Railway Journal and found four articles about Trevor Nunn's 'S' Scale layout based on a fictional station called East Lynn. He says that East Lynn was in part inspired by Wells. See MRJ 86 & 135-6-7.

Trevor's layout is featured on the S-Scale Society's web site at http://www.s-scale.org.uk/gallery9.htm

I am now wondering if Trevor is the anonymous compiler of the information about Wells station that has been hidden in the Wells Town Guide. (It popped up when I googled "Railway Station" on Images and got 45 pages to explore - it's sad , I know.)

Colombo

Rlangham · Post by **Rlangham** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:25 pm

Bit of a coincedence - I go to Wells for about a week each year in summer! Great place, the station building is now a bookshop, the quay is still there, looks pretty much the same as it always has. The Wells-Walsingham light railway, the longest of that gauge railway in the world, runs along the old route starting off from a field outside wells.

Post by **richard** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:29 pm

I like the Y5 'Coffee Pot' on the first photograph!

For S I'm guessing he has to scratch build everything though...

Even here in the US, there's only limited trade support for scale S (I think there was a large 'toy' line in S in the past).

Richard

athanasios · Post by **athanasios** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:14 am

I stumbled across this thread looking for information on the Fakenham Wells branch with the intention of modelling the section Fakenham -Walsingham. I have the Oxford book on it but I was wondering if any station building plans for Walsingham exist. Hoping someone can help,
Regards,
John

rob · Post by **rob** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:24 pm

Thanks for this Colombo,fantastic atmosphere.Those platforms seem to have an unusual edge,curled back like a breakwater and constructed of what looks like a honeycomb brick underneath,not seen that before.Whereever you model,these photos are worth a good browse.

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:02 pm

athanasios

The Great Eastern Railway Society Collection of archives are housed at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford.

A large number are all ready in the index and can be searched on line at:

http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp

Regards
Paul

The LNER Encyclopedia

An ideal LNER terminus station: Wells-next-the-sea

An ideal LNER terminus station: Wells-next-the-sea

East Anglia station drawings