The back story
If you look at the map of Borsetshire you will see that in the bottom left corner there is a town called Waterley Cross. Few know, however, about the Waterley Bank. This steep escarpment rises to the west of the town (just off the edge of the map) and leads up into hill country.
For many years most of the land on the Bank has been owned by the Tredegar family, who have long lived in the Hall upon the Bank. In 1890, the tenth Lord Tredegar, inspired by reading Sir Arthur Heywood's 'Minimum Gauge Railways' decided to build a 15in gauge railway to serve the Estate. The surveying and planning was undertaken by Heywood and his agent Mr G D Scott, and some equipment was supplied by Heywood.
However, due to the scale of the project (the Waterley Bank system is considerably larger than that at Eaton Hall) it was necessary to employ
contractors to construct the line, while the locomotives and much of the rolling stock were special orders from large industrial concerns where Lord Tredegar was able to exert influence as a shareholder. Thus the appearance and character of the line proved quite different to Heywood's other lines. Indeed, if one is asked to find a lookalike railway, the Waterley Bank line more resembles Sand Hutton than Eaton or Duffield.
Over a century and more of work, many changes have occurred. Much new stock has been built in-house to replace the aging originals, internal combustion machines have taken over from the steam locomotives, and VHF radios have replaced block tokens.
The model depicts the railway as it is today. The exchange sidings with the Big Railway at Waterley Cross were removed many years ago but the core of the network is still in use for internal Estate transport on the 'it works so why change' principle.
To see some pictures of prototype estate railway equipment, go to the 'Prototype Pictures' page.
For many years most of the land on the Bank has been owned by the Tredegar family, who have long lived in the Hall upon the Bank. In 1890, the tenth Lord Tredegar, inspired by reading Sir Arthur Heywood's 'Minimum Gauge Railways' decided to build a 15in gauge railway to serve the Estate. The surveying and planning was undertaken by Heywood and his agent Mr G D Scott, and some equipment was supplied by Heywood.
However, due to the scale of the project (the Waterley Bank system is considerably larger than that at Eaton Hall) it was necessary to employ
contractors to construct the line, while the locomotives and much of the rolling stock were special orders from large industrial concerns where Lord Tredegar was able to exert influence as a shareholder. Thus the appearance and character of the line proved quite different to Heywood's other lines. Indeed, if one is asked to find a lookalike railway, the Waterley Bank line more resembles Sand Hutton than Eaton or Duffield.
Over a century and more of work, many changes have occurred. Much new stock has been built in-house to replace the aging originals, internal combustion machines have taken over from the steam locomotives, and VHF radios have replaced block tokens.
The model depicts the railway as it is today. The exchange sidings with the Big Railway at Waterley Cross were removed many years ago but the core of the network is still in use for internal Estate transport on the 'it works so why change' principle.
To see some pictures of prototype estate railway equipment, go to the 'Prototype Pictures' page.
The layout settings
The scene depicted on Waterley Bank Estate Farm is a set of sidings serving a small mixed tenant farm just outside the Hall grounds. To the left, the line runs into the estate woodland towards the wood yard and pheasant pens, while to the right the line runs on through the farm's fields (beware of cows on line) towards the estate works and the other estate farms.
The scene depicted on Gruff Patch is a little-used, unkempt siding behind the estate works where a lot of marginally useful junk is dumped pending repurposing.
The scene depicted on Gruff Patch is a little-used, unkempt siding behind the estate works where a lot of marginally useful junk is dumped pending repurposing.