Pattingham a new Micro 31/03/2009

Pattingham an 0 gauge micro layout.

Having built, operated and now sold my previous layouts; Lenches Bridge and Ashwood Basin I have started another challenge the missing link  a GWR and Earl of Dudley railway  "The Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth Railway of the GWR”.

History and Rationale

                                                                                                      As authorised by the 1905 Act  and amended by the 1909 Act

Once the Kingswinford branch had settled down to a quite life it was being featured in a more ambitious railway project, a proposal to link Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth even though it was not on a direct geographical line between those two towns.

By 1862 onwards, Bridgnorth was well served by the Severn Valley Railway but plans were in place to link it to the outside via Wolverhampton. In1860 the Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth Railway Company produced plans for a line leaving the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway near what is now Oxley junction which would have kept north west of the Smestow Valley, passing through the Wergs, rather than Tettenhall, out through Pattingham and Worfield to join the SVR about a mile north of Bridgnorth. However, the 1860’s saw another proposal in the form of the Bridgnorth, Wolverhampton ad Staffordshire Railway which included a branch to the Kingswinford joining the GWR near Shut End and included a branch to Swindon. Followed closely in 1905 and modified in 1907 by the GWR (they were already operating a bus service between Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth); unfortunately the project was never built

The Model – Track plan by kind permission of Neil Ripley

A                                                                                                         B

Size of scenic section 4’6” x 2’ (A) x 2’6” (B     Fiddle yards 3’6” x2’ and 3’6” x 2’6”

Construction starts:-