One of England's leading model railway
experts, John Webster of Kempsey, is
overjoyed with the "absolutely brilliant"
response he has received from Memory Lane
readers in the wake of my feature article on him a few
weeks ago.
The fruits of his 30 years as a modeller are extensive
railway layouts in miniature in the very large shed at the
bottom of his back garden.
But what John was anxious to do on my visit earlier this
year was to enlist the help of Memory Lane readers in his
latest project - the construction of a line-up of railway
wagons which once bore the names of Worcester's coal
merchants of late Victorian times and the first 25 years or
so of the 20th Century.
He has already built 14 such wagons in miniature - a
line up which, even then, represented the nation's largest
collection in model form of privately-owned coal wagons which operated out of just one
town or city during the Age
of Steam.
The line-up John had created bore the names Underwood
& Co, the Worcester Gas Works, the South Wales &
Cannock Chase Coal and Coke Co. Ltd, Worcester
New Co-operative Society Ltd, John Allbutt & Co of
Stanley Road, William Hudson, William Barnard,
James Probert of the Arboretum, Herbert Preston of
Lowesmore, R. Dayus of Little Park Street, A.B.
Wyatt, Henry Hunting of Bowling Green Terrace,
Herbert Partridge of St Nicholas Street, and a firm
which simply put the initials "J.G" on its wagons.
John asked if readers knew of any other Worcester
coal merchants of yesteryear, who had operated their
own private railway wagons - and he confesses to
having been totally unprepared for the extent of the
response.
"To date I have had more than 30 replies, with the
remarkable effect that I can almost double what was
already my record line-up of local coal merchants'
rail wagons," says John. "The response has been
absolutely brilliant and I now have names and details
of 10 more Worcester coal merchants, who were
unknown to me as having had their own railway
wagons.
"It had taken me about a year of painstaking research
to create my original line-up of 14 coal wagons but, in
just a matter of days from the Memory Lane article
appearing, I was bale to add 10 more local coal merchants'
names to my records, I an extremely grateful to all those
who responded so magnificently."
John is already busy building the 10 new wagons in
miniature. Among the names they will bear are John
Barnett & Co of Lowesmoor,J.Jackson & Sons of College
Street,J & N. Nadin, A.P Hudson of Charles Street,
Eveson Coal of Worcester and Birmingham, Reuben Evans
& Son of Hylton Road, John Smith of Lowesmoor, and the
very appropriately named, John Coleman of Sansome
Street.
For posterity, John Webster also intends to pass all his
latest information to the Historical Model Railway Society
which, in turn, will eventually send it on to the rail
museum at York.
John's models of all 24 coal wagons will be given pride of place in his
static display at a big event being staged at
Shrub Hill Station on Sunday, October 15. It is being
organised by steam rail
enthusiasts in the Midlands
to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of the opening of
Shrub Hill Station in October
1850. There's also to be
special celebratory dinner at
the Star Hotel, Worcester on
Thursday, October 5.
On my latest visit to John
Webster's home, a fellow Age
of Steam fan, Geoff Sanders
of Pershore was busily
"filming" John's model
railways in action for a video
presentation at the October
15 event.
> County steam railway
enthusiasts Steve Widdowson
and John Boynton of
Kidderminster, have
compiled a new book
specially for the Shrub Hill
Station anniversary.
Selling at £6.50 and entitled
Worcester Shrub Hill: 150, it
covers the fascinating history of this station and has an
array of vintage photographs.
It will be on sale at Shrub Hill during the October 15
celebratory event and possibly at local bookshops and
tourist offices beforehand. |
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