Sneyd Sidings
OO Gauge by
John M Hill
This is an imaginary
location to the south of the Cannock Chase coal field in the vicinity of
Bloxwich. It portrays a working railway / canal interchange basin
typical of many found on the Birmingham Canal Navigation during the
1950s and early 60s.
In this imaginary
setting the sidings are served by the Cannock Branch of the former L &
N.W.R. with an interchange facility for canal carriers using the Wyrley
Bank branch of the Wyrley & Essington canal. The growth of other local
industries has resulted in an expansion of the original facilities. Now,
general goods, local passenger and parcels trains all converge at ‘the
Sidings’ along with the basin’s long established coal traffic.
The roads from the
fiddle yard pass under the ‘abandoned’ track bed of the Cheslyn Hay
Tramroad here depicted as narrow gauge.
The atmosphere of the
locality and the general air of busy-ness have been created using a mix
of local business names, a stopping Walsall Corporation bus and a host
of still-liveried Private Owner wagons representing some of the
collieries of the Cannock area.
Building the layout
commenced some three years ago and reached completion in time for the
2008 Wolverhampton Model Railway Club’s show. All of the locomotives
and stock are r-t-r, however a Dapol/Branchlines AEC railbus kit has
just been constructed and joins the stable. It is proving to be a fine
runner. The railbus had its first outing at the 2009 West Bromwich Rail
Model Club’s exhibition where it alternated with a 101 ‘Bubble’ on the
Walsall to Cannock, stopping at Sneyd Sidings, shuttle service.
All of the buildings are
Ratio/Wills kits some incorporating a bit of kit bashing. The canal
bridge and approach are from the Hornby ‘Skaledale’ range and have
benefited from a little extra detailing.
The two boats that grace
the short canal basin owe their origin to Langley kits with new detail
added by way of computer drawn and printed cabin sides. The tug is a
shortened motor that is decked over typical of actual working practice.
The trackwork is Peco
Code 100 with solenoid operated points. The exit into the two road
fiddle yard is via a double slip which, for simplicity, is manually
operated. The ‘big hand from the sky’ has been eliminated by the use
of Gaugemaster solenoid un-couplers. The base board measures 5’9” by
19”wide and the fiddle yard 4’6” by 5” wide.
When erected at home it
is simply an ‘out and back’ with the impression of being a through
line. For future exhibition outings a metre long, two road sector plate
extension beyond the level crossing will be added passing through the
present end scene via a pop-out opening. This will add more variety to
the running by allowing through, stopping and terminating traffic in
either direction. With this facility has come the opportunity to route
a recently acquired heavy transformer load through Sneyd en-route for
the Rugeley ‘A’ power station. (Construction of Rugeley ‘A’ started in
1956 and was completed in 1963.)
Sneyd Sidings is a
‘first’ for me, the simple objective being to create a believable canal
/ railway environment set within a ‘flexible time frame’ and using
ready-to-run items where possible.
John M Hill
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