Copyright © 2002-2009, Crawley Model Railway Society [June 09]
‘Rowfant Grange’
4mm:1ft Scale
OO Gauge
The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway opened the Three Bridges to
East Grinstead Branch in 1855; the intermediate stations were Rowfant
(1855) and Grange Road (1860). Rowfant station was built to serve Rowfant
House; a brick works was opened in the 1880s, and it became a passing
station in 1901. Rowfant Grange is based on the 1901 track-plan but with
pre-1900 features, notably slotted post signals and early ground signals, all
of which work. The buildings are models of the originals and the backscene
is a montage of photographs taken along the route of the branch line, which
is now a cycle way. The intensive running sequence moves through time,
starting with green locos and four-wheeled carriages from the 1840s,
followed by William Stroudley’s yellow ochre locomotive livery, and finally a
brown and cream auto coach, as used from 1906. Many of the models used
to represent these colourful eras are scratch built and they include locos
actually used on the branch, e.g. the 1855 saddle tank that was the “one
engine in steam” when the branch opened. The scale is 4mm to one foot
and the use of code 75 bullhead rail and hand-built points gives a fine-scale
appearance, although the gauge is 16.5mm (00).
Click image to view track plan
)
