Recycling At Petworth (2)

Petworth Station : Then

There are not too many pictures of the station in active use by trains. Above a humble coal train trundles through eastbound whilst below, a special of some sort ...

... is on its way to Midhurst with a very untypical crowd either watching or waiting or both.

The top picture hints at an extensive goods yard.

The proud station staff stand smartly to attention in the early days of trains when pride in the job was more evident than it was in the station's declining years!

At least one of 'the lads' opted for a more informal pose!

Petworth Station : Now

Travelling south along the A285, we pass the former Station Hotel, avoiding, for the moment, the driveway to the station itself.

First we traverse the murky waters of the West Sussex version of the River Rother ...

... then the track bed of the former railway.

Clearly the proprietors are expecting fine weather for their customers, hence the line of pristine parasols on the former platform, parking place for a large chunk of railwayana!

But next, we approach down the slope ...

... once again bridging the Rother; before hanging a left into the station forecourt.

Things now become interesting. 

On the left are a couple of former houses for station staff ...

... beyond which is a small industrial estate, hardly worth of such an imposing name. This is where the goods yard was.

One of the houses is now, incongruously, named "Pullman Cottage" ...

... although fbb is very certain that the South Eastern and Chatham Railway never operated a Pullman express via Petworth! 

But spin the camera through 180 degrees and we can see ...

... two deliciously presented Pullman carriages.

Unlike at Beningborough, these are genuine Pullmans, not simply Mark 1 carriages painted in pseudo pullman colours.

There are four of them ...

... one a posh restaurant ...

... the others forming comfortable bedrooms.

Sumptuous lounge facilities are provided ...

... in the former station buildings.

The only thing missing, of course, is a passing train. But you can always half close your eyes and imagine ...

... a rusty clanking tank wagon wheezing past with a rusty clanking train of coal wagons.

Pictures also reveal a fifth carriage being delivered ...

... being the vehicle espied from the road bridge, a Pullman from 1906. Of course it now rejoices in Pullman livery ...

... and looks like extra restaurant seating.

Talking of restaurant, readers may wonder about the quality of nosh available.

We will sample the menus tomorrow and visit another closed station that is now open.

  Next Recycled Station blog : Thurs 2nd July 

Recycling At Petworth (1)

But First, An fbb Favourite

"The Sidings" at Shipton by Beningborough, north of York, was first visited for posh nosh by fbb at the invitation of a certain Mr Fearnley.  Then fbb and Mrs stayed there for an anniversary weekend.

It rained! The attraction of sleeping in an old railway carriage, with a plywood uninsulated roof as the North Yorkshire monsoons hammered down, slightly put a dampener on the weekend.

Earplugs were needed but not provided!

On another occasion, a Great Britain Bus Timetable "weekend away" for staff, fbb stayed in the end room of the end carriage parked at right angles to the others.

After the founding Gemmel family retired, it became an Italian restaurant and its railway heritage faded somewhat.

The latest ownership change has returned the establishment to something like its railway-themed glory.

The area through the archway was an extension to the bar jam-packed with railwayana. It now accommodates restaurant tables ...

... to complement the dining carriage.

There is a terrace which is absolutely next to the four track East Coast main line.

Were fbb and Mrs to say in that end room today, they would have their very own end door exit ...

... to their very own decking, also right at the boundary fence!

The reason for fbb's accomodation and nostalgia-fest is to recognise that 'The Sidings' is (probably) the only such establishment right next to a busy busy main line.

In fact, "The Sidings" was never a station.

The restaurant and hotel are bottom centre; Beningborough station was top left.

So "The Sidings" cannot be called a "recycled" station.

But that at Petworth can!

Recycled Station

Sadly the above is not Petworth railway station. It is Petworth House, for centuries the home if the Percy family, the dukedom of Northumberland. It in now in the hands of the National Trust ...

... and is stuffed with art and furnishings as befits its history.

Needless to say, the station was well to the south of the small town ...

... that owes its existence to Petworth House.

So where was Petworth in the rail network of the UK?

The line running from north to south is the current Arun Valley route. The long closed branch line via Petworth continued to Midhurst.

No doubt Petworth station was designed to be a route for posh passengers to and from the "Big House". The picture that incited fbb to explore Petworth and its station did not seem in any way attractive.

It certainly looked abandoned!

Bur it did look as if it were once a little bit grand ...

... with carriages awaiting the arrival of the next train.

The closed line does appear in little bits on modern maps ...

... as se9en on the above map extract, bottom left.

The river is the Rother, by the way, but is NOT the same Rother that we met at Rye a few blogs back. This Rother is a tributary of the Arun which Joins the sea at Littlehampton.

Petworth used to have a Station Hotel ...

... adjacent to the station, surprisingly.

The hostelry still stands and appears to be operational ...

... but is renamed 'Badgers'.

It has no link with the railway locomotive known affectionately as "The Badger".

Pity!

Tomorrow we explore the recycled Petworth station in more detail.

   Next Recycling at Petworth blog : Wed 1 July 

Weekend Variety (Monday)

 Here Is A Coffee Pot

It is, surprisingly, a pot made for serving coffee. It is, in essence, a can with handle, lid and spout. Its shape is, broadly, vertical.

According to "Trackside" (a magazine which specialises in railway preservation) ...

... This Is A Coffee Pot

All together now, "Oh No It Isn't!" It is a small saddle tank locomotive that looks nothing like any coffee pot fbb has met in his travels. It is very sweet.

fbb is qiite prepared to accept that some people call it a Coffee Pot, but he has never been served coffee from anything remotely like this blue beauty.

This Is A Real Coflee Pot

It worked as a shunter at Seaham Dock ...

... in County Durham.

Others exist as static museum exhibits.

Will any manufacturer be making one for OO scale? fbb reckons you could mount a small electric motor vertically in the coffee pot itself!

And Talking Of China ...

.... more rubbish from on line!

But fbb has corrected the national rail logo on his Optics Valley map!

Better!

And a high speed commuter train is launched.

160 kph is almost exactly !00 mph! Don't expect to see anything quite like this on the former Southern suburban lines in London. A few bends would need straightening first!

However, the National Rail classs 700 series ...

... also has a maximum speed of 160 kph/100 mph which makes the Chinese snippet far less newsworthy!

Something Special

This is the front cover of 'Enterprise', the members-only magazine of The Isle of Wight Bus Museum.

The FLF has just been refurbished and outshopped in National Bus Company leaf green. Cheekily your old bloke blogger decided to attack the cover screenshot with his tablet's clever software.

The result is even more magnificent.

But, have you spotted something even more special?

Most Lodekas and FLFs were delivered with bog standard black 'rubber' surrounds to seal glass into the window apertures.

For a while, body builder, Eastern Coach Works, began using cream 'rubber'. Whether the cream stuff was more expensive than black, or maybe it deteriorated in the sun. So, often, cream was replaced with black.

This United Counties VR has a mixture.

As part its refurbishment, the IoW Bus Museum sourced a stock of the cream, thus bringing their FLF back to its as-delivered standard.

Well done, the lads!

The results are magnificent.

The cream 'rubber' also looked great with poppy red!

Hundred Tons : Heavy Tanks

fbb realised that he did not have a bogie TEA class tank wagon supplied by Hornby in his extensive collection. True, he had bought the Beatles version ...

... as an example of the silliness that infuriates 'serious' modellers. fbb is a little more realistic in his attitude. If Hornby can make money selling silly liveries, it might keep the company afloat to the benefit of those seeking accuracy rather than 'toys'.

So when fbb saw a shiny silver version of the TEA tank (by Hornby), he was interested, thinking that the only other shiny tank wagon in his vast collection was the Dapol "silver bullet".

So he quickly bought the silver Hornby!

O foolish one. In his excitement (?) he did not look carefully at what he was buying.

It is another unrealistic fake livery ...

... being Hornby's "year" model for 2000, the year when the world celebrated 1999 years of calendar history. The true mathmatical millennium happened in year 2001, ignored by all!

So the collectoin is still missing an accurate livery on what is a somewhat inaccurate Hornby model.

The bogies are very basic with some blobs if yellow paint ...

... and the complexity of the gubbins under the tank is reduced to three simlplistic cylindrical "things".

These 'features' are the same for all Hornby livery varuatiins!

Ironically, the more realistic liveried tankers are more expensive, second hand, than the two silly 'toys' that himself has recently purchased.

In a future blog, he will contrast and compare Hornby with the plethora  of similar models from many other suppliers.

But, next, the old and nearly recovered codger will look at repurposing our railway infrastructure.

  Next recycling blog : Tuesday 30th June