South Midland Railway

	Change of scale The Lichfield and South Midland Light Tank Railway photographs by B K Jones (Uncle Brian)
	In Colin's bedroom at 76 Bagshot House, there was just room for a 6x4 ft layout made of hardboard on thin wooden battens, laid on top of the family dining table which was moved next to his bed.
Colin's Daddy and Uncle Brian built it in about 1952 and laid Wren three-rail track. Single line, one-way, operation (in a clockwise direction) was by a Hammet and Morgan transformer/controller unit.
	The main station kit had the name Westbury
The little halt on the far side was called Lichfield and at first there was only one loco, an 0-6-2T; hence the first name The Lichfield and South Midland Light Tank Railway. (The GWR 0-6-0T in the pics was a non-working, very low quality jobbie, still in the boxes somewhere.)
	That first Hornby Dublo 0-6-2T loco (based on an LNER design) was soon reliveried from BR to LMS; it was later modified in GWR guise and remains in the SM museum. Rolling stock was mostly Hornby Dublo tinplate but soon Daddy (known as Baba to the next generation) built a wooden bodied LMS corridor coach from a kit.
Other rolling kits followed (the SM guard's van body remains in service on the Deddington line) and a Hornby BR standard 2-6-4T was saved up for, then reliveried as LMS. It was later sold to finance the Kay's white metal kit 0-4-2T. The track in the foreground of this shot was a cheat for the photo.
	But then .... we moved to 68 Swinley where there was no room for a layout of that size. Associated South Midland, as it was now known, went into mothballs. New futures strategies were called for. See the next thrilling chapter ...
Back to the top of this page	Prehistory Change of scale Lambourn Raising the game in the interim years The birth of Deddington Junction Early years at Deddn Jn Re-wiring and first refurbishment The Grand Refit Building Barford terminus Hempton shed refit Work in progress - latest news Thirty Years On – Grand Re-opening Gallery 1 Gallery 2 Gallery 3; fin de siècle The Deddington Junction mythology Loco power Rolling stock Track plan Electrics Museum Thomas and friends