Welton Down
Photographs by Tony Wright. Video, at bottom of page, by Ian Morgan.
Welton Down is assumed to be on a secondary main line from London to the South Coast in the Downs on the Kent/Sussex border, although its creator, Bill Rankin, had based it on the LC&D main line near Sole Street in Kent. A non-electrified branch leads off to the nearby large country town of Welton and the goods yard has been taken over by the Civil Engineers.
The period modelled is around 1995, at the end of the Network SouthEast era. This allows for most D&E era stock (plus the occasional visiting steam charter), with the NSE livery predominant. There is a healthy flow of freight in between the frequent EMU service whilst a variety of DMUs/DEMUs run the branch service.
All trackwork, to 9.42mm gauge, is handbuilt, using rail and PCB sleepers
and turnouts are operated by HM& solenoids. Most buildings have been
scratchbuilt. The original 2 x 8 road fiddle yard has been replaced with
a cassette system, to enable longer trains to be handled and to facilitate
a quicker setting up and breaking down at exhibitions. At present, most
of the locomotives and stock are Graham Farish and Dapol items, detailed
and converted with finescale wheels, but a large programme of kit building
is underway!
47834 "Fire Fly" on northbound InterCity Cross-Country passes a Class 158 on the Welton shuttle. The lattice post semaphores are still going strong!
33117 propelling 4TC set out of the station on a stopping service to London. The 4TC is converted from Farish Mk1 coaches using TPM replacement window strips.
Railfreight Class 37s double head petroleum tanks out of Welton Down tunnel, and pass the branch with the track maintenance gang's mess hut in a grounded coach.
Pullman liveried 73101 "The Royal Alex" passing Welton Down Signal Box with an up freight. The concrete platelayers' huts are pure Southern Railway!
43159 rushes a northbound Intercity CrossCountry HST through Welton Down.
An NSE liveried 4-VEP unit pauses at the station but there are few passengers! The EMU (loaned by fellow Association member Ian Morgan) is again converted from Farish coaches with TPM inlays and powered by an American mechanism.
Despite the NSE red paint pot, the station buildings at Welton Down still betray their Southern Railway parentage.
73114 "Stewarts Lane" passes through with an up parcels whilst 33103 runs around a short air-braked freight in the yard.
33103 leaves a van for the civil engineers.
Crompton heaven! The 4TC is propelled out of the station by 33117 whilst fellow "bagpipe" 33103 shunts the yard.
Whilst 33103 potters in the yard, a Class 442 Wessex Unit powers through the station on a test working to see if a further build should replace the ageing Mk1 EMUs that ply the route. Little do the operators know but impending privatisation will see paralysis for the next three or more years! The Wessex (loaned by Pete Thorpe) is constructed from Farish Mk3 coaches using a BHE conversion kit, a Class 158 mechanism and TPM bogies.
Dutch liveried 73119 lays over after a visit up the branch, whilst 47241 "The Silcock Express" passes with a rake of Arbel WIA car carriers.
An overall view of the station with RES liveried 47734 passing on a down
parcels train. No-one has told the lorry driver he won't be able to turn
at the bottom of the hill!
And finally, the two videos, courtesy of Ian Morgan and the Google Video site:
