Haddocks Hill & Worsham Light Railway
Our railway, at the moment it is a work in progress. The railway goes in a loop around the garden, we are working on getting a nice train to test out the new railway!
Check back on this page for updates!
Our railway is now working, we now have a train puffing steam perfectly well and the line has been expanded (sort of).
More pics follow soon!
........SCROLL DOWN......MORE INFO NOW ADDED!
2015. Branch line and junction in place.
2014
Haddocks Hill village developing fast now.
A brief history of the Haddocks Hill & Worsham Light railway
What track do I use?
32mm Narrow gauge.
Most of the track is Peco SM32.
This is a specialist gauge based on 0 gauge.
0 gauge has been popular in the UK for many years, although it's popularity waned with the introduction of 00 & N gauges.
0 gauge is used for modelling standard gauge prototypes. 32mm NG is used for modelling narrow gauge prototypes.
INFO
INFO
Scale.
I'm a member of the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers.
This refers to the main scale for modelling that is used.
This is 16mm to 1 foot.
Every 12 inches in the real world equals 16mm on the model.
So, the gauge of track - 0 gauge for narrow gauge - turns out to be 32mm between the rails: 2 foot in the real world.
However, 7/8ths models also use 0 gauge for narrow gauge, resulting in slightly finer models of smaller NG prototypes.
Part One: Origins
When we moved in 2007, my hope had been to start building a garden railway within 12 months.
However, it was 2009 before I began building.
The original idea had been to build at ground level and various arrangements were considered circling the back garden. The discovery of a large number of driveway bricks buried in the garden borders seemed to help with this plan.
But, work commitments and other issues got in the way.
By 2011 little progress in track laying had been made, but a route had been laid out in bricks.
Following my illness in early 2012, I made a attempt to get something done. So, before I went into hospital. I managed to build a 'L' shaped end-to-end run.
During my recovery time following my operation, later in the year, I built an outline tram on a battery chassis. Test runs with this little vehicle showed that the bricks had moved significantly since being laid and too much rubbish, soil and leaves fell across it.
Part Two: Haddocks Hill to Worsham
By the end of 2013 I decided to tear up the ground level line and start to construct an above ground level loop around the end of the garden. We had got rid of Isaac's trampoline and there was a tempting gap.
Lots of things changed as the year turned and I was able to spend time building more and more through 2014.
By the end of the year I had a loop, junction and the beginnings of the branch line.
I moved the stone miniture houses into position on a small mound and began creating the miniture village.
I found a wonderful plastic playmobile manor house in a charity shop.
In 2015 I have added two new stone houses and some more extras.
I've now moved on to getting something to run!
Haddocks Hill does exist. It's just been forgotten about!
It's one of those 'forgotten places' where the place and/or place name has slipped from common usage and knowledge.
Haddocks Hill is a hill on the northern edge of Bexhill on Sea.
The area is nowdays referred to as 'Wrestwood'; being a area along what is now known as 'Wrestwood Road', running from The Pelham pub near Sidley to the former 'Nazareth House' and Pebsham lane junction.
On close inspection it can be seen that this is a hill, rising south east of Sidley and dropping away slightly by St Mary's School and passing to the north of the copse that is the remnant of the old 'Wrest Wood'.
On OS maps, as recent as the 1960's, the road now called Wrestwood road, is marked as Haddocks Hill, from the Pelham Pub, up to the brow of the hill, only becoming Wrestwood Road as it passes the site of the old wood on the south eastern flank of the hill.
The road is ancient; the route may date back to the Norman conquest.
Development in this area of Bexhill is relatively recent. However, 'Haddocks Hill House', was a grand manor style house that dated back possibly as far as the 18th Century and stood back from the road at the top of the hill. The house was demolished by Bexhill Corporation in the 1950s when it was compulsorily purchased as it had become unoccupied, fallen into disrepair and was considered structurally unsound.