CONSTRUCTION

      Welcome to the 'Engine Wood' layout page. 
This is all about the layout that gave its name to the whole website.

4F 44422 shunts the yard at Engine Wood 
(Photo - Chris Nevard, courtesy Hornby Magazine)

3F 43218 awaits departure from Engine Wood
 with a local service to Templecombe 
(Photo - Chris Nevard, courtesy Hornby Magazine)

My layout 'Engine Wood' is significant for me because it represented the first major model railway project after several years of modelling inactivity. The main part of the layout was initially completed to a deadline, which was the Bath model railway show in December 1994. The impetus to do the project came in no small part from the friendly cajoling of a friend - Simon Castens - who runs the Titfield Thunderbolt book business. He needed a new layout to exhibit alongside his bookstall at the show, due to the fact that his own layout 'Camerton' had suffered a major electrical fault the year before. Simon being Simon (yes, we've known each other a very long time) decided that I was the man for the job!

A pannier hauls an up van train into the station, whilst a down coal train from Camerton Colliery awaits departure

click here for
Engine Wood gallery

Engine Wood - the history of the line

Before going into the detail about how I built the layout, I thought it might be interesting to dwell on the historical background to the prototype. 'Engine Wood' is not a made up name - far from it. The name has it's origins in the building and operation of the Somersetshire Coal Canal, which ran from Paulton Basin, south of Bristol to the Dundas Aqueduct on the Kennet & Avon Canal near Bath. The prime reason for the construction of the canal was to transport coal from the pits of the Cam valley south of Bath to the markets of Bath, Bristol and further afield.

Those of you who are familiar with the Bath area will know that this part of north Somerset is quite hilly and actually very scenic. It is an area where the southern fringes of the Cotswold Hills meets the northern fringes of the Mendips. Building a canal in this environment proved to be very challenging, particularly in the area near the village of Combe Hay, where the canal company initially built a rather novel boat lift known as the caisson lock. This ingenious bit of engineering was evidently ahead of it's time, as it proved unreliable and costly, so was replaced in fairly short order by an inclined plane. This also didn't last long so in the end the canal company built a flight of conventional locks, climbing steeply round sinuous curves in the hillside above the Cam Valley. Situated at the upper end of these locks near the village of Southstoke was a pumping house, which was installed in 1804. The area around this edifice became known as 'Engine Wood'. The canal eventually closed and the pumping station became derelict and was demolished. The name of 'Engine Wood' persisted, however.

Following the opening of the GWR's branch from Hallatrow to Camerton in 1882, the S&DJR also looked at the burgeoning mining activity in the Cam Valley and the possibility of lucrative coal traffic. There had been various proposals to build railways to serve the collieries of this valley, but the scheme which eventually gained sufficient momentum to turn it's proposals into reality was the independent 'North Somerset Light Railway' of 1902. This specified a south facing junction with the S&D at Midford and a single line of railway running along a course similar to the old coal canal, until it reached an end-on junction with the GWR at Camerton.

Copy of signal box diagram (below) as redrawn by British Railways following nationalisation

The construction of the NSLR began in 1903, but the scheme quickly ran into financial difficulties. The contractor A. Cuthbertson & Sons ordered a cessation of construction work in the June of that year due to non-payment of accounts. The NSLR had no choice but to look for other backers and opened negotiations with the S&DJR, who with the backing of it's own joint owners agreed to take over the ailing company.

With the S&DJR in control, the new railway was quickly completed and opened for freight traffic in October 1904. Passenger services commenced the following January when the station at Dunkerton and halts at Engine Wood, Combe Hay and Dunkerton Colliery were completed. A passing loop was provided at Dunkerton only. A daily service of seven passenger trains each way was introduced between Camerton and Radstock, of which two ran through to Hallatrow on the GWR. The S&DJR did not build it's own station at Camerton, but used the GWR's facilities. Coal traffic from the Cam Valley collieries quickly grew and in 1908 the Somerset Collieries Co. sank a new pit at Engine Wood. The coal from this colliery was initially taken by road to nearby Dunkerton for transshipment onto rail.

Pencil drawing of Engine Wood by the railway artist Peter Barnfield

By 1908 traffic was such that the S&DJR's Camerton branch was already working to capacity. A joint agreement was reached with the GWR in November that year which resulted in a north-facing junction being constructed at Hallatrow with the Bristol & North Somerset line. Additional capacity was provided on the S&D section in the form of a new passenger loop at Engine Wood. The new works included a new down platform and brick built station building. Two down sidings were also provided, together with a lock-up goods shed. The new layout was controlled from a new 19 lever signal box on the up side of the line and was commissioned on 17th May 1909. At the same time running powers for S&D trains were extended through to Bristol Temple Meads, the whole arrangement effectively constituting an alternative through route for traffic off the Somerset & Dorset to the North.

Finally, in 1910 a narrow gauge tramway was built to connect Engine Wood colliery with the S&DJR goods yard at Engine Wood. The railway infrastructure of North Somerset was now complete.

The line enjoyed an uneventful existence through the turbulent years of the two world wars, although it is said that during the Second World War a number of residents of Bath had to be removed from Engine Wood Tunnel one night shortly after the Baedecker raids, having taken shelter in the mistaken belief that the railway was closed at night. Nationalisation followed in 1948 and with it came a proposal to double the line between North Somerset Junction, Hallatrow and Midford South Junction, with a view to re-routing all through traffic away from the inconvenient bottleneck of Bath Green Park. The scheme came to nothing and the operating authorities were never able to make use of the full potential of the route due to the short passing loops, which restricted the maximum permitted length of trains.

Dunkerton Colliery had closed in 1927, although the sidings were left in situ for many years. Engine Wood colliery, which had never enjoyed the high production levels of Dunkerton and other pits, finally closed in 1949 and it's tramway was was removed soon after. The old south-facing spur at Hallatrow had been removed by the GWR as early as 1935, the passing loop at Dunkerton having been removed at the same time.

Camerton Colliery alone maintained healthy coal reserves and was extensively modernised by the NCB in 1955. Production looked to be guaranteed for many years to come, the coal going mainly to Portishead Power Station and to the various municipal gas works on the south coast.