1

Filey Holiday Camp Construction of Butlin’s Holiday camp at

Filey began in 1939. However, World war

II interrupted construction as a holiday

camp. The War Ministry completed the

camp and it was used for training service

personnel. It was known as RAF

Humnanby Moor. After the war it didn’t

take long for the camp to revert to its

original intention. The first visitors

arrived in July 1945.

The LNER had agreed to provide a siding to serve the camp. A few trains did travel along the branch

in the Summer of 1946 but it did not formally open until May 1947. The branch was three quarters

of a mile long and consisted of a pair of double track curves which left the mainline at Royal Oak

North and South Junctions with the branch running on to a terminus. The triangular junction formed

by the branch leaving the main line was used for turning engines. The station itself had four tracks

serving two island platforms each about 900 feet long. There were three engine release roads which

enabled arriving loco’s to pull forward and then reverse past their train and then turn on the triangle

and return and wait on one of servicing sidings until needed for departure.

Brid Lines Spring 2020 No 4

44434433

From Scarborough

From Bridlington

Signal box

Platform 1 Platform 2

Platform 3 Platform 4

Filey Holiday Camp Station 1946

Sketched from a diagram which appeared in A History of the Hull and

Scarborough Railway

2

The station was constructed on the opposite side of the main road to the camp. A tunnel was built

under the road for passengers and a trolley train was used to convey them and their luggage to the

camp.

The camp trains ran on Saturdays during the Summer season with some occasional excursions

arriving and departing on Wednesdays. The pickup goods would sometimes call with supplies for the

camp.

A timetable for 1947 reveals that trains arrived and departed to places like Newcastle, Birmingham,

York, Kings Cross, Sheffield, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham. Other destinations were

added later including a service to and from Glasgow in 1957.

Steam loco’s were gradually replaced by diesels and the camp trains were usually formed of diesel

multiple units. Usually eight car sets. Diesel Loco’s were sometimes seen. This meant the station was

easier to operate and along with declining passenger numbers was a factor in cutting back the

number of platforms used and in 1972 platforms 3 and 4 were abandoned. As passenger numbers

continued to decline throughout the 1970’s BR formally proposed the closure of the branch. The

branch was formally closed in November 1977. There had been objections but to no avail and there

was even a proposal to build a new station on the main line near Primrose Valley.

The camp itself closed at the end of the 1983 season.

Location of the Holiday camp and the branch from

the main line to the camp station

Site of the Camp station as it looks now

3

61846 Hits the Buffers

The Holiday Camp station was the scene of a

crash on 25th August 1956. A train of empty

stock being worked from Bridlington failed to

slow down at Humanby. The crew realised the

train was out of control and began sounding

the whistle. Both signalmen at Royal Oak and

the Camp box reacted and cleared the path so

the runaway had a clear run in to empty

platform 3 at the camp. The engine (K3 No 61846) hit the buffers at about 25 mph riding up the

platform. The loco was back on the rails later the same day. It transpired that the vacuum hose

between the engine and the carriages had not been connected leaving the carriages without any

brakes.

The Teesside Nomad by Allen Ferguson

On Tuesday 31st July 1962, I visited Bridlington station concourse to view the days excursions which were neatly handwritten on a board next to that for the scheduled departures. Four return excursions: - 6.05 pm Platform 7 'Teesside Nomad' 1Z07 to Eaglescliffe and Saltburn 7.40pm Platform 4 1F89 Mexborough, Rotherham, Sheffield Victoria, Wadsley Bridge, Deepcar and Penistone 8.18pm Platform 5 1F87 Thorne North, Stainforth and Hatfield, Doncaster, Conisborough and Mexborough 9.05pm Platform 5 1Z05 Ferrybridge, Pontefract, Moorthorpe, Bolton on Dearne In addition there was one steam hauled scheduled train 6.15pm to Doncaster The Hull goods was hauled that day by 4MT 43069 of Hull Dairycoates I was intrigued there was a named train on the board and popped round to the loco shed in the hope there would be something special! The shed is seen in the first photo--61421 from York and 61365 from Doncaster. So no headboard and a rather unkempt B16! 61421 would haul the Teesside Nomad via the Driffield - Market Weighton -York line to York where there would be a loco change to head north to Teesside. The B1 was to haul the Doncaster local and the remaining 3 excursions were possibly running in from either Filey or Scarborough hauled by D6744, D5841 and D5805 respectively.

4

The Teesside Nomad ran on weekdays from Teesside visiting a different resort every day. This was the only time I saw it in Bridlington. I did return in the early evening to see it depart--see photo 2 61365 worked the Doncaster train every day that week.

What now!

No this isn’t a review about railways on the Indian sub-continent. (That would have been entitled

Lucknow)! It’s about what I should build next, if anything at all. I have assembled enough of Annerley

in the shed so that I can run trains. The seaside scenery has been left in its packing cases because I

cannot move around the shed if this is assembled as well. I have still got Invercalley, packed up but

taking up space. As I was feeling restless and want to move on and at the same time recognising my

new limitations and the fact, I am reaching an age when hiring a van is just about impossible, I

reluctantly decided to, to sell Invercalley. I am no longer capable of lifting it into a van anyway and

its show days were probably limited. I listed Invercalley on eBay at a reasonable price so that it

would sell quickly. Sure enough it did sell quickly and by the time you read this Invercalley will have

left Bridlington for a new home in Bedfordshire.

So, indeed, what now. Firstly, I will add the seaside scenery to Annerley and make sure it still fits.

Run it a few times, take a few photos and see if I can attract the interest of the model railway press.

Annerley has two confirmed bookings for 2021. Pontefract in January and Scarborough in April.

(Assuming these shows can go ahead.) The baseboards of Annerley are a lot lighter than Invercalley

so I can lift most of it with some help and it will fit into two cars.

I need to build it keeps me going. I have already decided that I am not going to build anything else in

N Gauge, so 00 it is but what. Basically, I have two ideas floating about inside my head and I am

having great difficulty choosing.

My first idea was to build a small branch line based in the Lake District following a Heritage Railway

theme with preserved engines and run-down stock. The other idea was to build the now desolate

Killin Junction in Scotland but build it as if it had never been closed so there would be the

opportunity to run modern stock i.e. class 66’s class 37’s plus the multiple units. Part of the appeal is

having the loco’s fitted with sound and a continuous run of trains. Plus, there are aren’t any

buildings just lots of trees. I am envisaging the Killin branch itself falling into the hands of a

Preservation Society with steam loco’s running up and down the branch.

The appeal of the Heritage Railway is the variety of stock that can be run along with short trains

(although to be authentic it is somewhat limited). The scenery is another plus factor but It means

Photo 1 Photo 2

5

forsaking all this new modern image stuff that keeps appearing. I did say I wouldn’t build another

Scottish layout because of the distances involved in doing first hand research, but I find the

surroundings of Killin Junction appealing

I cannot at this moment make up my mind but I sure it will be a permanent fixture in the shed. Once

Annerley’s show days are over, I think my days of lifting and shifting layouts around the country will

be over too.

Do you ever use the low power switch on your controller?

by George Bailey

On older style power supplies like the one I repaired in a previous edition there is a high/low power

switch.

So what does it do?

The switch changes the feed between full and half wave rectification.

Full Wave Rectification.

The input feed will be alternating current with half of the wave being

positive voltage and the other half being negative voltage following a

sinusoidal wave form (see diagram). This is similar to taking a battery and

swapping the battery around in the holder 50 times a second (times per

second is the frequency of the wave). In physics 1 “time per second” is

notated as 1 Hertz. 50 Hertz (50 times per second) is the normal frequency

of the mains supply.

In a full wave rectifier the electronics is used to turn the negative part of the wave upside down. The

diagram above shows the AC wave and the fully rectified wave below it. It shows that the negative

part has been turned upside down so the voltage is always positive.

Half Wave Rectification

In a half wave rectifier only the positive part of the AC signal is

used. The negative part of the wave is discarded.

The diagram shows the result.

The low power switch changes the power feed from full wave to

half wave rectification.

Why is this useful?

To understand this we need to know a little more about how the electric motor works.

Take a look at the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor for extra detail but

in simplistic terms the train motor requires a voltage to be applied to it to make it work. The higher

the voltage the faster it runs. If the voltage is too low it will not have enough power to move the

train. If the voltage is raised slowly from zero then typically the train will not move until sufficient

6

voltage is being delivered to the motor to overcome the friction in the wheels and bearings. Once

has overcome the starting resistances the train will move and it will speed up a little. It then keeps

going at the minimum running speed.

If we think of a motor in terms of levers the voltage is the length of the lever arm.

The weight represents the moving resistance. As the voltage is increased the length of the lever gets

longer. When the length of the lever is sufficiently long the scales are tipped and the weight is lifted.

This is the equivalent of overcoming the moving resistance

With half wave the power is only on for half of a cycle and is off for half a cycle. The voltage is the

key thing to get it moving but after it starts moving the power gets turned off for the second half of

the cycle so the average power delivery is halved even though the peak voltage may be the same. It

is the voltage which provides the torque to turn the motor. At the peak of the wave the voltage

reaches its highest value. If the peak voltage is sufficient to provide the torque to overcome the

starting resistance the train will start moving. But now the average power delivered is half of what it

would be in in the equivalent full wave mode. This results in the minimum running speed in half

wave mode being lower than in full wave mode.

If you are running slowly as for shunting exercises then low power mode will provide better slow

speed control. The down side is that in low power mode the top speed is much reduced.

You might notice that when you switch between full and half wave you will hear a change in the hum

of the motor. In half wave mode the tone will sound lower than in full wave mode.

The Spurn Point Railway by Dave Bannister

There had been a military presence on Spurn Point since 1805. In 1915, the War Department decided a Railway would be beneficial in order to serve the gun batteries situated on the peninsular and ‘Bull’, the nearest of the 2 Sand Forts that were also built in 1915. The line ran for nearly 4 miles and terminated in a Jetty. Materials and stock were obtained second hand from the Great Central and Manchester, Lincoln and Sheffield railway companies. Stock consisted of 5 small steam locos and a collection of rail cars including a rail bus. A sailing bogey was constructed by local fishermen and used to transport materials (and personnel) from nearby Kilnsea. A sports car was also adapted for railway use by one of the officers based at Spurn. Following WW2, it was decided that there was no further use for the gun batteries and along with the railway, they were dismantled.

Weight Counterweight

7

The Spurn sailing bogey

There are few traces of the railway left to be seen apart from the remains of the old jetty. Much of the old route and the road have been subject to erosion and have disappeared. At high tide, Spurn Point is effectively an island.

Model Railway Electronics - Use of Light Emitting Diodes

By Steve Emson

Diodes

There are many potential uses for Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs as they are more colloquially known.

However, having done a number of internet searches, I’m not sure that the basic electrical principles

behind the use of LEDs are covered. So I thought that it may be useful just to go through some of the

basics to aid people’s understanding in how to use an LED and how to test an LED in whatever

application they have chosen whether it be for layout illumination, indication of point / power status

or for on train illumination.

The LED can be viewed simply as a diode that produces light. A diode is a simple two-legged

component that allows current to flow in one direction (anode to cathode; as an aide memoire in

the direction of the arrow shape on the circuit symbol) but blocks current flowing in the reverse

The Spurn rail bus

Remains of the

railway

8

direction (cathode to anode; as an aide memoire the horizontal line on the circuit symbol can be

seen as blocking). The circuit symbol of a diode (left) and a typical outline of a diode device (right)

are shown below. Note that the bar shown on the diode body in the diagram on the right always

represents the diode’s cathode, although the line colour may vary depending on the diode type.

When conducting current in the forward direction a voltage is dropped across the diode. The

forward voltage is due to the resistance of the silicon and electrical contacts which form the diode.

This forward voltage drop can vary for many reasons, such as temperature, value of current being

conducted and variability of device characteristics, however a typical rule of thumb is to assume a

forward voltage drop of 0.7V.

Operating in the reverse direction the diode will block the flow of current and block any reverse

voltage applied (actually nothing in electronics is perfect and there will be a small leakage current

that flows) however, this will be so small that it will have no effect on the circuit.

LEDs

LEDs operate in the same way as standard diodes however they are designed to emit light at various

frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum depending on how the silicon is set up in the

manufacturing process. Therefore, there are a number of visible light colours available in the visible

spectrum (red, green, yellow being the popular ones). They have a forward voltage drop that is

higher than that of standard diodes, typically 2V at nominal current as a rule of thumb. However, the

forward drop does vary depending on the LED colour. Therefore, it is best to look at the LED

datasheet to determine the forward volt drop before calculating the series current limiting resistor

that is required for operation.

The circuit symbol for an LED is shown in the diagram below (left) and the physical outline is shown

in the diagram on the right.

Anode

Cathode

Anode

Cathode

9

The LED package also has a flat on the side where the cathode lead is positioned as shown below.

LEDs also have a reverse voltage blocking capability; however, this is much lower than standard

diodes.

A typical extract from a 5mm red LED datasheet is shown below.

From the datasheet, it can be seen that the forward voltage drop (VF) is typically 1.85V when the

forward current through the LED (IF) is 20mA.

So how does all this affect use of LEDs. Well the first thing I’d say is to use LEDs from a DC (Direct

Current) supply only, which only ever supplies current in one direction of flow. An AC (Alternating

Current) supply provides voltage and current in both directions and therefore can supply a negative

voltage across the LED which could blow the LED if it is greater than the LED’s reverse blocking

voltage capability.

10

Therefore, in general I would use LEDs in one of the two following ways;

a) Add a general purpose diode such as a 1N4148 small signal diode in series with the LED. The

IN4148 diode would protect the LED from reverse voltages (even with DC supply it’s possible

to connect the supply the wrong way round) since the IN4148 has a reverse voltage

capability of 75V compared with that of an LED which is very low. A series resistor would

also be required to be connected in series with the diode and LED to limit the LED current.

However, this would not be my preferred option as the 1N4148 provides an additional 0.7V

drop in the circuit and therefore wastes power.

Preferably, I would use the following method;

b) Add a 1N4148 diode in anti-parallel with the LED. If a reverse voltage is connected by

mistake, the 1N4148 diode conducts current in the forward direction and clamps the

maximum reverse voltage across the LED to 0.7V i.e. the normal forward volt drop of the

diode. The series resistor limits the current through the LED in the forward direction and

limits the 1N4148 diode current if the voltage is mistakenly reversed. A 1N4148 diode is

rated at 75mA in the forward direction and therefore the series resistor used to limit LED

current will also be suitable for limiting the diode’s current.

The DC supply voltage (VAB) connects between points A and B. The current, I, that flows out of the

power supply and through the LED is calculated by;

R = (1000 x (VAB - VF))) / IF

Resistor power (Watts) is then calculated as PRES = (IF x IF x R) / 1000000

R

1N4148

LED

A

B

IF

11

I have calculated some typical values in the following table as examples. Note that the LED current

can be input in mA as a 1000 conversion factor has been used.

Supply Voltage VAB (V)

LED Voltage Drop VF (V)

LED Current IF

(mA) Resistor R (Ohms)

Choose Preferred Resistor Value (Ohms)

Resistor Power PRES

(W)

12 1.85 20 507.5 510 0.204

12 1.85 15 676 680 0.152

12 1.85 10 1015 1100 0.101

9 1.85 20 357.5 390 0.143

9 1.85 15 476.6 510 0.107

9 1.85 10 715 750 0.071

Generally, you would choose the next highest available resistor value, in the resistor E24 range, as

shown in the table above. Normally I use resistors with 2% tolerance (although resistors with up to

10% tolerance could be used without detriment to the LED).

As can be seen in the table above, the resistor can be 0.25W rating for all cases. However, just for

better reliability I would never choose a resistor that is dissipating more than 60% of its power

rating. So in the case of the resistor dissipating 0.204W I would choose to use a resistor of 0.5W

rating.

Choosing a resistor value that is slightly higher than the calculated value would reduce the current

slightly but have a negligible effect on the LED brightness.

LEDs in parallel

LEDs can be operated in parallel via a common resistor. This is not a good idea as the LEDs will

invariably be different in brightness and the series resistor will become much larger due to the

additional current required, and therefore higher power rating requirement.

How to test an LED and diode

The simplest way to test a whether a diode or LED has failed is to use a Digital Voltmeter (DVM) set

to the diode range setting. With the positive (red lead) connected to the anode of the device and the

negative lead (black lead) connected to the cathode of the device, a reading in the range of 0.3V to

0.7V should be obtained. Then, reversing the leads with the black lead on the anode and the red

lead on the cathode, the DVM should read OL which shows that the diode/LED is blocking the flow of

current.

Anode

Cathode

DVM

Red lead

Black lead

12

BARMATES thinking about the future.

Just a thought but I think we need to give a little thought to how we are going to continue in the

future.

Obviously if social distancing continues to be a way of life then carrying on as we used to is out of

the question. But I’m sure there will be a way we can remain as a cohesive group. Our future is, at

the moment somewhat dependant on the survival of Men in Sheds and whether that organisation

can survive the current situation. Many of their members will fall in to the vulnerable category and

may still not be able to attend. Don’t wish to paint a gloomy picture but we do need to give the

matter some thought and be prepared for when we can return to some sort of normality.

Model Railways and You tube

Have you been keeping up with the proliferation of video presentations that have been popping up

on You Tube?

Many are well done and are really professional in the way they are presented. Some of those

produced by the magazines such as Hornby are in my opinion really good and really useful being full

of tips and ideas as well as reviews. Some are little less professional and you get the feeling some of

the presenters are trying to make out that they are television presenters just waiting to be

discovered. One video I watched last week showed a guy with his layout. He really thought he was a

model railway guru as he demonstrated that he had laid two tracks and could now run two trains.

Amazing! Some absolute beginners might have been impressed. One chap tries to look really

presentable giving advice and tips but I really think he ought to rehearse what he is going to say then

he wouldn’t err, come err, over as err, badly as he err, does and err, not appear to be err, making it

err up as he goes along. Hmmm!

Digital Question?

Any one knowledgeable enough to let me know how to get functions above 9 to work on a digital

handheld controller when the function buttons only go up to 9?

Perhaps the system I use (Prodigy) won’t go above go above 9 but I’d like to know before I venture in

to the world of sound.

After thought!

What about a layout based on Filey holiday camp. Basic scenery but great to operate. Trains arrive

then uncouple and reverse on the release road. Then run on to turn on the triangle. Proceed to wait

in the service road and then reverse on to the trains and then depart.

A year’s free subscription to BARMATES for the first member to build and exhibit such a layout at

next year’s show!!!!!!!

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The Bridlington Harbour Railway by Dr Mike Brayshaw

Shortly after the original 1846 G. K. Andrews York and North Midland Railway (the forerunner of the

North Eastern Railway) Station was built in Bridlington (see Brid lines No 3) a most unsuccessful

extension to the original scheme was built and to this day still is shrouded in stories and fake

news……

This is the story of the Bridlington Harbour Railway.

Various Harbour Interests had been big supporters of the building of the original railway (Neave and

Neave, 2000) believing that the building of a railway would increase the amount of traffic that the

Harbour would need to handle. Their basic a priori assumption was that increased traffic from the

railway would automatically mean that more goods would need to be transported by sea and the

harbour was the established way of doing this by coastal cruiser. This is quite a reasonable

contemporary idea. That once something is embarked on one mode of transport it tends to stay on

that mode for the rest of its journey had not been foreseen. Thus, the result of the coming of the

railways to Bridlington was not good news for the Harbour. Neave and Neave (ibid) report business

using the Harbour actually went down as a result of the arrival of the railway in Bridlington. The

original hope was that the Bridlington Harbour Branch would result in the growth of trade of coal

from the harbour to the station (Neave, 2000). What is clear from the early and continued

development of the coal handling facilities at the station site is that the railway rapidly became the

major delivery route for coal into the town. The location of the Gas Works reinforced this. Thus, in

summary the Bridlington Harbour Branch opened in 1851, was derelict by 1866, lifted for the war

effort in 1917, and the land sold in 1925 (Hoole, 1978).

Figure 1. Map of the Bridlington Harbour Branch showing its route starting in the now demolished original trainshed to its termination just short of the now South Cliff Gardens.

14

The above shows a map of the arrangement of the station complex including the Harbour Branch

from the 1890-1901 era. The original level crossing over Station Road has been replaced with the

bridge at the point and there was an access road from Station Road directly to the station (to be

replaced by the 1912 works) but otherwise the general sketch of things is similar to what we see

now. The crossing of Quay Road is also depicted in contemporary maps but no level crossing of the

Harbour Branch of Hilderthorpe Road is shown, with unconnected rail track shown either side. This

would imply that the level crossing has been abandoned by this time.

We do have contemporary account of the line from the late 1880’s. Mr Gawthorp (n. d.) came to

Bridlington from Leeds in 1884. His parents took over a newspaper and stationer’s business but

more pertinent to our interests is that the family went to live in 4, Ferndale Terrace – so they were

ideal contemporary commentators on the state of the branch at this time. He recalls that the views

from Ferndale Terrace were good as he could see to the Harbour over what is now South Cliff

Gardens which were then owned by a butcher, Mr John Speck Hobson. Gawthorp describes a

disused railway line from Hilderthorpe Road to South Cliff Gardens. Even then he adds to the stories

about the line – saying that the line conveyed material for the building of the South Pier of the

Harbour. As this was built 1843-48 and then the fish wharf in 1930 this clearly is another urban

myth associated with the railway.

A Tour of the Route.

At this point let’s take a perambulation of the line as it was built. It is interesting to note that we can in fact make out quite a lot route from the footprint that it has still left behind.

Figure 2. The start of the Bridlington Harbour Branch. This picture was taken from the point where the line crossed the station access road on its way to the Goods Yard and Harbour Branch. [Photo: The Author]

Figure 2 shows the situation today. On the left is Station Buffet and the 1912 Concourse. The route

to the Goods Yard latterly extended from the end of platform 5 (roughly middle of this shot),

underneath where the photographer is standing over the road and into the Goods Yard. This was

done via a manned crossing using a red warning flag to control traffic not via a fixed barrier. I can

remember this still being the case as a very small boy. The route of the Bridlington Harbour Branch

originally came from a point beyond the original G.K. Andrews 1846 shed. The branch started on the

extreme right of the picture past the northern end of the old Platform Two, midway between the

end of the trainshed above and the still existent G.K. Andrews warehouse. It thus picked up the

All that remains of the original

1846 G K Andrews shed

15

route beneath the photographer. Its route took it through the Goods Yard and was preserved

exactly to the end by the most westerly siding in the yard. Indeed, over the years all that changed

was that this siding terminated at Hilderthorpe Road and subsequently was converted into the town

petroleum terminal.

On leaving the confines of the Goods Yard the Bridlington Harbour Branch goes down the left-hand

side of what is now the stub of Station Approaches as you look towards the harbour. It then crosses,

via a level crossing Hilderthorpe Road. It then proceeded in a gentle curve down to the harbour.

This contemporary shot shows a small, single story function room has been built over the track on

the Southern side of Hilderthorpe road. Subsequently to the building of the railway a line of house

was built to follow the shape of the railway with the backs of the houses being built up again the

railway formation. This was originally known as Railway Crescent but we know it today by it new,

late nineteenth century name of Windsor Crescent.

Figure 3. After crossing Hilderthorpe Road via a level crossing the line went straight ahead from this viewpoint. The building on the right was known as The Station Hotel and built in 1892. After the land was sold this single storey extension was subsequently constructed.

[Photo: The Author]

Existing maps of the 1890-1900 era do not show the level crossing as being there (indeed the railway

in one is referred to as a “Disused Tramway”). Figure 4 shows a view from after the line was sold.

On the right you can see the houses of Windsor Crescent, on the left are the houses in Nelson Street.

The washing lines indicate the route of the Permanent Way!

Figure 4. The route of the Bridlington Harbour Branch is clearly to visible and apparent between the houses. The end of the branch can be seen the white building at the end of the houses being the Windsor Hotel which is still with us today. [Photo: The Author’s Collection]

16

Figure 5. Looking the other way to Figure 4 this

shows a contemporary view of the line. The

Bridlington Harbour Branch ended at the other

side of this badly pointed wall. The photograph

is taking standing in South Cliff Gardens. This

was as close to the harbour as the branch ever

got – which probably explains a lot! [Photo:

The Author]

Figure 5 shows a contemporary view looking back with the white painted Windsor Hotel on the left. The end of the line was over the wall at the front of the picture and the curve of the route of the line is still clearly shown in layout of today’s buildings

Attempts to revive the line.

A first attempt to revive the line was made in 1879 by the Bridlington Quay North Sea Fishing

Company who finally proposed extending the line down from where is currently terminated to the

harbour quay. North Eastern Railway Engineers noted the gradients involved and estimated the cost

at £3, 800. The Directors of the NE refused the application noting that it was not unreasonable, and

was the case elsewhere, that the Company be asked to carry their fish to the existing station

(Addyman et al, 2013).

A second attempt to re-use the railway was in conjunction with the proposed Flamborough Light

Railway of 1896-8 (Walker, 2010). This was a proposal to build essentially a tramway linking the

Bridlington harbour with Flamborough. The scheme never got built but did lead to some

remodelling to the town that is still evident today. A proposed route was for a line from near the

harbour top to run through Princes Street, Queens Street, Bridge Street, South Cliff Road, and then

on to the disused Harbour Branch. It would stay on the Branch till Hilderthorpe Road when it would

turn west, cross the existing railway over Station Road and proceed up St Johns Street. Although the

proposals lingered for a while final agreement to build the line was never forthcoming and it came to

nothing.

17

When a railway isn’t a railway…..

Figure 6. The alleged extension and only existing photo of the Bridlington Harbour Branch. [Photo: The Author’s Collection]

No photos of the railway actually exist. The above is often stated to show the railway in both

published book format and on the Internet where it claims to show an extension of the line in

connection with the building of the Spa Complex and Gardens (1890s). You can clearly see the start

of the to be extended Pembroke Terrace on the left background (by Joseph Earnshaw in the 1870s

(Pevsner, 1972)) with crane central middle distance showing the start of the sea defences of the The

Spa Promenade, with the locomotive near the future site of South Marine Drive as it extended South

Cliff Road. The muddy middle of the picture is where the Spa is now with the remnants of a wooden

sea wall also visible. The Locomotive looks to be a Manning Wardle industrial locomotive. Now the

North Eastern did have very old Manning Wardle’s from 1864 which looked very, well 1860s, they

were 0-6-0s and nothing that the North Eastern had looked anything like the industrial locomotive

above (see Nock, 1953). If you blow the image up you see more of the truth (sorry about the

quality) that this is one of the construction engineers industrial locomotives engaged in the Spa and

Gardens project.

Figure 7. The railway clearly does not gain any gradient but extends in front of the original Pembroke Terrace towards the crane on the far right of the picture. Note the NER Engineers comments earlier about the cost of gradient engineering.

This railway appears to transport material from the crane located at the end of South Cliff Road to

the Spa building project. It clearly made no attempt at the steep climb that would be needed to

make any rendezvous with the, at this late stage I would image, very rusty remains of the NE

Harbour branch. The fact that the railway is not extended is confirmed in the Ordnance Survey Data

which is backed up with records in the NRM and at Kew.

18

Conclusions.

So, in conclusion as disused railway go the Bridlington Harbour Branch Railway was just about the

ultimate disused railway, only being in any form of use for a few years – and even then, not greatly

so if at all! For most of its existence it was abandoned, misremembered, and now largely forgotten

by the town and harbour it had high hopes of making rich! In hindsight it was not one of the best

thought out projects and it didn’t really go anywhere……… To its modelling potential? Well you

would not need to build any stock for it but I can’t imagine Show Managers loving you for copying its

running timetable. Your first Show might be your last….. As a horticultural diorama it has more to

offer. Rose Bay Willow Herb modelling anyone? It could be the next cool thing!

References.

Addyman, J.F., Fawcett, B., and Hoole, K., Bridlington, in J.F. Addyman and B Fawcett (Eds.), A History of the Hull and Scarborough Railway, NERA, 2013, ISBN 978-1-905505-30-2

Gawthorp, S. I Remember: Reminiscences of Old Bridlington, n.d., available at https://www.bridlington.net/bridnet-library/i-remember/index.html [assessed 3/6/20]

Hoole, K., A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 4 The North East, David and Charles (Newton Abbot), 1978, ISBN 0 7153 7746 9.

Neave, D., Port, Resort and Market Town: A History of Bridlington, Hull Academic Press, 2000, ISBN 0 946289 42 5 Neave, D. and Neave, S., Bridlington: An introduction to its History and Buildings, Smith Settle Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1 85825 137

0. Nock, O.S., Locomotives of the North Eastern Railway, Ian Allen, 1954, ISBN 07110 04935. Pevsner, N., Yorkshire: York and the East Riding, Penguin, 1972, ISBN 0 14 071061 2. Walker, J., The Flamborough Light Railway, The Bridlington Augustinian Society, The Chartulary, 2010, available as

http://www.bridaugustinians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Scribus-journal-2010-v2-Flam-Light-Railway.pdf [assessed 3/6/20]

Any takers to construct a layout based on the harbour branch. Again a year’s free subscription to

BARMATES is offered to the builder. Build both the Filey Holiday Camp Branch and the Harbour

Branch and I can offer life membership!!!!!!!