Burnham 160

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John Palmer
Posts: 825
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:09 pm

Burnham 160

Postby John Palmer » Thu May 03, 2018 2:45 pm

Today, 3rd May 2018, marks the 160th anniversary of the opening in 1858 of the Somerset Central Railway's Burnham Extension, from Highbridge Wharf to the jetty here in Burnham.

This morning I enjoyed attending the town's celebration of the event, involving commemorative plaque unfurling by representatives of the dwindling band of Somerset & Dorset enginemen and the town crier's rendition of reports on the original opening festivities, against the backdrop of a Wallis and Steevens general purpose engine providing some additional atmosphere.

Meanwhile we are able to simulate this auspicious occasion in model form! Here's Armstrong 44417 ambling into Burnham's excursion platform at the head of an up commemorative special:
017 B&W.jpg
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Serjt-Dave
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Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:31 pm

Re: Burnham 160

Postby Serjt-Dave » Thu May 03, 2018 3:40 pm

Happy Days.

Wish I could have been there John. At least you can be assured I was doing my bit to bring down the S and D's arch emery GWR by failing a 800 Class unit.

Dave

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Tim V
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Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:40 pm

Re: Burnham 160

Postby Tim V » Thu May 03, 2018 4:54 pm

We'll have to rerun that special at Scaleforum!
Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

Terry Bendall
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Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:46 am

Re: Burnham 160

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri May 04, 2018 4:01 pm

Tim V wrote:We'll have to rerun that special at Scaleforum!


Burnham on Sea will be one of the layouts at Scaleforum this year so it should be possible if the team can assemble the stock.

Terry Bendall

John Palmer
Posts: 825
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:09 pm

Re: Burnham 160

Postby John Palmer » Sun May 06, 2018 6:06 pm

Yesterday we ran a successful operator training day, testing the revisions I have made to the operating sequences that better reflect the locomotive and carriage working diagrams applicable to the Branch to Burnham in the 1950s.

Here's the Highbridge pilot running round the 5-car Western Region excursion it has drawn in from Platform 6 at Highbridge, one of the two Great Western platforms there:
016.JPG
However, since our model of Burnham was built to scale length without any compression, we are also able to accommodate an 8-car excursion that has traversed the full length of 'The Dorset', having originated in Southern Region territory. We had some problems with this set during its first outing at Railwells 2016, but the bugs seem to have been ironed out, and we trust it will be a reliable performer at Scaleforum this September.

It's slightly alarming to discover that the first stirrings of Burnham as a layout date back 40 years to August 1978, as reported in Scalefour News Issue 13, so we have a double anniversary to celebrate!
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