The Beckingham and South Wales Railway

Planning and design

In 1999 I decided to try to make better use of the large garden which came with the house we had moved into recently. What better way could there be than to build a garden railway? I did not want to build a large-scale railway, in the more usual garden railway scale of G or No.2 or 3, so I decided on OO, which also gave me the benefit of using the existing stock that I had amassed while railway-less.

To start with, the track layout was a basic double-track oval which has been brought together to make a four-track mainline in extended dogbone style. Situated on the left-hand side of the garden, this is the main line, which allows trains to chase their tails for long periods and is also useful for testing. To add interest, a double-track branch line diverges from the main line at the bottom of the garden; this crosses the garden and carries on up the right-hand side to a dead-end just short of the patio. There is also a single-line triangular connection from the outer track to allow trains to run “out and back” from the branch terminus.

The end of the main line nearest the house has been made into storage sidings (fiddle-yard or staging). The track starts about 6 feet from the back wall of the house, and extends for almost the whole 175-ft length of the garden, turning back about 6 feet from the bottom of the garden. Each track of the main line has something like 339 feet of continuous run. On the branch, there is a five-road fiddle-yard at the end of the track, and there is also a helix half-way down the garden, to raise the height of the track.

The garden slopes gently downwards as you move away from the house. The track base is 3 feet above ground level close to the house, but to prevent the track from being inconveniently high at the bottom of the garden, some long gradients have been incorporated. Even so, it is still 4 ft. 6 in. above ground level at the bottom of the garden. On the main line there is a 40-ft length of 1 in 78 (=1.28 percent), whereas on the branch the helix (which is rectangular rather than circular) has a total length of 90 feet at an average 1 in 82 (but with a maximum of 1 in 78 on the straights).

Because building the whole layout in one go would be a rather daunting task for one person, and because there was a lot of other work to be done in the garden, it was decided to construct the layout in several phases. These phases were/are

This took the main line just less than half-way down the garden. So that running could start when Phase 1 was finished, a junction was installed which led to a “return loop” to allow operation on this foreshortened track length. Each side of this return loop incorporated a 12-foot length at 1 in 48 (just over 2%) and 120° of 2-ft 6-in radius curve. The length of Phase 1 including the return loop was 165 feet. The return loop was removed in November 2002, because it had ceased to be used, and the track base was finally removed in 2006 to make room for Phase 4.
This is the completion of the main line to the bottom of the garden.
This is the branch line.
After a while I got a bit fed up with not having a line that’s more-or-less level, so in late 2006 I decided to install another return loop, similar to that of Phase 1, but different.
This phase is the signalling, which is currently being thought about.

In true prototype fashion the railway’s place-names have been chosen to match the local geography. Thus phases 1 and 4 of the railway go from Pant-y-fedwen (Birch Tree Hollow) Sidings to Llwyn Celyn (Holly Grove), phase 2 extends the track to Bowling Green Junction, and phase 3 is the branch from Bowling Green Junction to Fiddlers’ Yard by way of Derwen (Oak Tree).

The minimum radius of the Phase 4 return loop is 2 feet 6 inches. That of the mainline is 3 feet, on the inside track of the staging at Pant-y-fedwen Sidings. This means that the minimum radius of the outer track is 3 feet 6 inches. The radius of the return loop at the bottom of the garden is 5 feet, the radius of the curved ends of the helix is 4 feet, and that of the curve that brings the track back up the garden is 10 feet. All other curves are at least 10 feet radius, and probably more.

My Interests

My primary interests are

GWR in South Wales, 1950s and 1960s, steam to diesel transition, also known as Eras 4 and 5.
Southern Electric, 1950s and 1960s, the green era, again also known as Eras 4 and 5.
Milwaukee Road, particularly their heavy electrics, 1950s and 1960s.
Coal and Iron ore transport, in the UK, the US and Australia.
When Walthers announced their HO models of Great Northern’s Empire Builder, I suddenly became interested in that also.

This is an unlikely combination, but may explain some of the things you will find in these pages.

Where is the railway supposed to be situated?

Don’t ask me, I don’t know! You make your own mind up. All place names are fictitious, and bear no relation to any existing villages in Lincolnshire or Nottinghamshire, or towns in Minnesota (even though DMIR ore trains are sometimes seen on the railway), or anywhere else for that matter.

Traffic on the railway

The principal traffic on the railway is minerals (coal and iron ore) and passengers. Other goods/freight trains are run sometimes.

Industries served by the branch It is assumed that these industries are (conveniently) further up the valley, so that trains only need to go to Fiddler’s Yard staging.

Foxgrove Colliery (also known as Fox Grove).
Place Park Colliery.
Rusty iron mine.

Other miscellaneous items that you will want to know

Nickname: The B Line.
Slogans: Make a beeline for the B Line.
Reporting Mark: BSW
Herald: I haven’t designed one yet, although I was thinking of misappropriating the Taff Vale Railway coat-of-arms, or even the Welsh flag.
Subsidiary Companies: Superior Ore, whose stock is numbered in the same BSW number series.