Scattergun wooden fronted wharves in the western region

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
I guess most wharves or quays in the GWR/WR region would be built of stone, but were there any built of wood?
You can see in the G3 forum, my layout 'Aldebrough Wharf' has a wharf with a wooden frontage as it's Suffolk based, like for example East Lynn by Trevor Nunn. The layout is designed to be generic, with removable buildings and platforms, to accommodate my dabblings in different epochs etc. However part of the wharf is fixed as wood and cannot be changed.
A while back I impulse bought a GRS class 121 bubblecar, which never went anywhere near east Anglia, and a pannier tank and WR buildings are avaliable from GRS.
There is very little in the way of kits for Great Eastern pre 1910, so it's all scratch built, which can be hard work, it would be nice to have a parallel layout using the existing infrastructure, where I could just buy stuff and assemble it, as a break from the scratchbuilding.
And I keep daydreaming about building an AC railbus...
So, does anyone out there know of suitable locations?
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
I certainly am no expert on such things but I say "go for it"!
You only have one life and you must do what you enjoy. If others criticise you for it, that's their problem and they can go hang.
I usually use this rule in the smaller scales, where easy availability of models can give rise to all sorts of temptations but in your scale, I think it really is up to you to please yourself.
I certainly wouldn't judge you.
John.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
As a suggestion for wooden quays I would search for early photographs of towns upstream from the coast which started out as ports in medieval times and gradually silted up over time e.g Gloucester.
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
There was a little-known, temporary wooden wharf at East Bullo, Glos, in the late 19th C., served by the same tramway that served Bullo Pill Dock, that connected to the GWR Bullo to Cinderford line at Bullo Cross.
It was only temporary partly due to fall in demand for shipping from Bullo due to expansion at Lydney, & partly due to the particularly high Severn Bore tidal wave of 1884, which washed half of the wharf away.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
I'd have to go and find the references to check, but I believe Weymouth in early times was wooden fronted, and the jetties at Par also.

Best
Simon
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
There was a little-known, temporary wooden wharf at East Bullo, Glos, in the late 19th C., served by the same tramway that served Bullo Pill Dock, that connected to the GWR Bullo to Cinderford line at Bullo Cross.
It was only temporary partly due to fall in demand for shipping from Bullo due to expansion at Lydney, & partly due to the particularly high Severn Bore tidal wave of 1884, which washed half of the wharf away.
PS: Just ignore my post; the 'East Bullo' wharf is little-known because I made it up :) the only thing East of Bullo is the River Severn :oops:
But if it sounded plausible, well so will any other "might have been" scenario; for a micro-layout of any scale I wouldn't sweat the details too much, myself - just enjoy Rule #1. ;)
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Geoff,

I think I am correct in saying that Brentford Wharf on the Thames might have been 'timber faced' certainly GWR and the branch would have been served by a Pannier and 121s traversed the line in later days.

regards

Mike
 

Lyndhurstman

Western Thunderer
Hi Geoff,

I think I am correct in saying that Brentford Wharf on the Thames might have been 'timber faced' certainly GWR and the branch would have been served by a Pannier and 121s traversed the line in later days.

regards

Mike

There's a nice article on the Brentford Branch & Dock in BRILL Annual 3. From what I can see, it all looks brick-faced, but I'm sure I have seen a picture of a lighter tide up alongside a wooden wharf around there..

I'd take a wild punt in the Rule #1 direction, too :)

Cheers

Jan
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
thank you all for the quick and encouraging responses. The Brentford branch does look suitable as the basis for a layout, using my existing board. There is plenty of wood facing on the various wharves. I looked it up in Alan Jackson's book, there was a plan to extend the passenger line to the Brentford Ferry, which served one of the entrances to Kew Gardens, but this never materialised. Both the ferry, and the passenger services ceased in 1942. I would find it easy to justify modelling a Brentford Ferry terminous, with both passenger services and the ferry still running in the era of class 121s. and Jackson says freight trains were handled by 57xx panniers.
Brentford is easy for me to get to from Leyton, with my bus pass, if I wanted to soak up the atmosphere.
So, if/when I need a rest from scratchbuilding a J65, two J15s a Derby Lightweight, etc etc I know there is an alternative.
thanks again,
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Brentford branch was most certainly operated by 57XX Panniers when they left the main line at Southall. In fact I never saw any other class of loco take the branch although I suppose there'd be the outside chance of a Large Prairie or 84/94XX Pannier from Southall.

Brian
 
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