Hi all,

Although I am a GWR guy I have always liked the look of some Southern locos and I was wondering if it would be feasible to have GWR and SR trains running on the same layout??? My chosen era will be Pre-WW2 but haven't settled on an exact time yet but probably 1930s to the outbreak of war. I am not one of those that strives for 100% accuracy but I also don't want it to look silly. So any help would be much appreciated. 

Thanks in advance!

Rob

Hello Rob

There was a fair bit of this in Devonshire.  Southern trains ran through Exeter St David's, albeit in the opposite direction to GWR ones!  (Something similar can be seen nowadays at Waverley.)

There was an arrangement for each railway to work trains over the other's metals between Exeter and Plymouth to maintain crews' route knowledge in the event that either main line was blocked.

There were also interesting goings-on around Wadebridge which I'm sure our 'Alternative Cornwall' friends will be better able to describe than I am.

So, not silly at all!

I look forward to seeing you layout develop.

Best wishes.

John

Dorchester-Weymouth and the Portland branch also featured both GWR and SR.

My main layout is based loosely near Oxford in the transition era and there were frequent visits from SR locos. It would not surprise me if this was also going on in the pre WW2 age.

Thanks for the encouragement!

So I am thinking of getting a School's class SR loco....would that work for what I am aiming at???

I found this on the Schools Class wikipedia page:
"The original ten locomotives were shared between Dover for use on the South Eastern Main Line and Eastbourne for London expresses. Several of the former later transferred to Ramsgate. By mid 1931 they began to be used on the Hastings services and as more locomotives became available later that year they also appeared on Portsmouth expresses. After the electrification of the London to Eastbourne and the London to Portsmouth routes in the late 1930s the class also began to be used from Bournemouth.[17] Under British Railways they were also widely used on cross-country trains from Brighton to Cardiff and Exeter and on the Newhaven Boat Trains. Two locomotives (30902 and 30921) were briefly supplied with Lord Nelson tenders for use on the longer runs of the Western Section.[18]"

I would suggest Weymouth terminus 1938 or after; the GWR and SR junction was on the run into Dorchester to separate stations. Leaving Weymouth most  trains were banked up to Bincombe tunnel.  There was a GWR branch from Upwey to Abbotsbury so if you don't want a terminus, then Upwey junction might be an idea.

I specified 1938 as that was when the Schools 924 - 933 were transferred from Fratton to Bournemouth, otherwise remember Rule 1.

For some inspiration (albeit, Southern with some GWR), check out John Greenwood's incredible 2mm Finescale Wadebridge layout.



There is a thread over in the 2mm Finescale section on RMWeb but that forum seems to be down at the moment.

  Atso! That was encouraging. I am just torn, as I am also waiting patiently for Colin at Union Mills to re-release his GWR locos, and that will hit the hobby cash supply! At the same time, I still want to get a Dapol GWR Hall that is lined (Priory or Langley). So many wants...

This thread brings back memories of the late John Charman's classic Charford layout which featured highly in RM in the fifties and sixties.

Wasn't that Southern into GWR?

Sorry if I'm wrong, doesn't really matter really - this is a great thread.

Also the GWR ran into Southampton terminus via the Didcot Newbury and Southampton railway which shared running rails south of Winchester.
SR and GWR met at Salisbury too.
Oh and at Basingstoke too.
It's pretty easy to find locations where this would work.
All you have to do is decide on favourite types of working and match that to the location.
Bob

There was also Andover Junction, Reading, Kensington Olympia, the LC&DR City Branch towards Smithfield

Some GW classes were sanctioned to run between Reading & Redhill, but aside from specials (Dunkirk evacuation) not sure how often this happened

TheGWR  Former MSWJR Line from Cheltenham to Andover with Running rights on Southern through to south hampton.
GWR ran litterally along side Southern into Andover from Red Post junction often with a LMS carriage or two in tow as well.

Southern would often run into Ludgershall.
For military purposes carriages could come from anywhere. with a foreign locomotive LNER/ LMS / Southern piloted into Ludgershall / Tidworth by a GWR loco.

Not many of the larger GWR locos could run on SR lines due to loading gauge problems so you may have to limit your choices to GWR lines where SR had running rights like Weymouth, Reading to Oxford, Exeter St Davids,

Pre-war summer specials from Taunton to Bournemouth West via the S&DJR. I have a photo of an SR or S&D 4-4-0 piloting a GWR 4-4-0 and a train of GWR and SR carriages. You can't get much more of a mixed passenger train than that.