The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway and the Nescliffe MoD Training Camp

Apologies for the long title for this thread. I was challenged by someone who read my posts about the Bicester Military Railway and about MoD Kinston to look at the Nescliffe Camp.

I have started by looking at the feeder railway which was commandeered by the military and this has become a post in its own right. I will get round to the military areas in one of the next posts in the series.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/18/the-shropshire-and-montgomeryshire-light-railway-and-the-nesscliffe-mod-training-area-and-depot-part-1

 

The next post in this series links the place I grew up during teenage years with the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway. 'Gazelle' was made in King's Lynn and has had an interesting history!

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/07/21/gazelle

 

A good account of Gazelle, possibly the first full size loco built purely for the pleasure of a railway enthusiast.

The Wolseley-Siddeley railcar body is also of interest in its own right since it had been the first of Col. Stephens’ railmotors - seeing use on the K&ESR and the Selsey before ending up on the S&M. The grounded body was still at Kinnerley in the 1970s but probably beyond repair by then.

 

Gazelle is known to have taken charge of two different coaches in its time on the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway. The first was a cut down version of a London Horse Tram. The second used the same chassis with a body from a Wolseley-Siddeley Railcar which Colonel Stephens first used on the Selsey Tramway. That Railcar was itself a signioficantly modifies rail-lorry based on a Wolseley-Siddeley chassis........

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/07/27/gazelles-trailers

 

Colonel Stephens loved to experiment. Railmotors were a particular theme. He bought a series of Ford Railmotors for his different light railways. One set was purchased for the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway. This post provides an introduction to these small vehicles:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/08/02/ford-railmotors-on-colonel-stephens-lines-in-general-and-on-the-smlr

 

Thank you. Tom Rolt's book "Lines of Character" has a section on the Colonel Stephens railways (p33-44), and the first part of his autobiography "Landscape with Machines" has a short section on the S&M (p108-110). Both mention the railmotors ("the maximum of discomfort ever achieved in rail travel").

 

Thank you huochemi!

This is probably my last post on the S&MLR. It covers the line and the military depots that it served from 1941 until it closure in the very early 1960s.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/08/12/the-shropshire-and-montgomeryshire-light-railway-and-the-nesscliffe-mod-training-area-and-depot-part-2