LSWR Main Line

Built By: Dan

Description: I wanted to make a module of a scene on the former Southern Region of British Railways, using the Ratio kit of the Southern's distinctive concrete lineside huts. So, here it is: squeezing four tracks of the South West Main Line onto a 210mm-deep single module, with a circa-2020 modern scene based on some derelict huts I saw beside the line between Basingstoke and Fleet. The real location has a WW2 pillbox on the opposite side of the line, so I planted a pillbox of the hexagonal type a little further along the lineside from the concrete huts.

lswr-4-1.jpg

Lineside huts like these were provided in the days of labour-intensive track maintenance at intervals along the railway, to be used as temporary bases for the track maintenance gangs. The gang would work for a period based at one hut until that area's maintenance was up to date, then move their tools to the next hut in their area and work from there for a while. These characteristic Southern Railway buildings are long out of use, but there are still plenty to be seen alongside the railway.

My model track has a representation of the electrified third rails fixed to the sleeper ends, which on the prototype provides 750V DC to power the line's intensive service of Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains. The tracks are paired by direction, so from front to back the lines are named the Up Slow - Up Fast - Down Fast - Down Slow. When connected to other T-Trak modules, the trains will run on the Fast lines in the middle of the module.

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