DVLR Chronicles

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

I thought to compliment the videos I will be releasing I might fill you in a bit on my railway, there surprisingly is very little about it on here!
The DVLR in my garden currently represents an experiment set up by the Great Eastern Railway into Narrow Gauge. It was built to 2ft 9 3/4. The trackbed was owned by the GER but a separate company was set up to run the railway so if it all went wrong the GER wasn't to loose out on money. The railway ran from Aldeburgh (a popular sea side town) to Lower Butley (The middle of nowhere). The railway ran happily for several years but never made any sort of profit. The flying sprat was run everyday as a fast (ish) train with carriages and a fish van delivering fresh fish to Lower Butley and the rest of East Suffolk.

[kes]

Excellent, how difficult has it been to research? has there been much on record of what happened where?

[SLRmidge]

In Mr Bond's words (taken from his website)...The DVLR  is 'the railway which people forgot to build'  ;)

[kes]

o.k. thanks - very convincingly written more sensible question - where did the inspiration come from for ideas?

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Haha, well the whole idea came about when I wanted to replicate a railway which COULD have been but no-one remembers and there are no files. I have thus resorted to thousands of excuses for having the railway and stock there! The railway also had to geographically fit and historically fit into Suffolk so there are no coal trains, trains full of stone etc. Instead local industries such as fish from Aldeburgh shape the railway and the stock (remember the fish van) as was on the real railways. Any stock that is prototype would have been bought cheap from other railways or from the supplier as the test model which was never recorded on company files...I'll have to pull my thoughts together for the next few lumps of history - ang on...

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

The GER owned the track bed for this short run, it was well engineered and perfectly level. DVLR then built all the structures on the line which were very restricted with a little help from the GER and bought one locomotive. The railway was built to the gauge of 2ft 9 and 3/4 inch gauge. An odd gauge certainly. Many people believe that this gauge was built to be not too narrow to cause problems with heavy traffic yet not too wide so as to be expensive to build. It was all down to a mistake really. The railway was originally intended to be 3ft gauge and so a 3ft gauge gauging stick was sent to the General Manager of the DVLR, a Mr. Arthur Curtain. This cleverly doubled up as a walking stick, however Mr. Curtain was a shortish chap and so cut this walking stick down a few inches. When it came to the start of the track laying this stick was used to get the correct gauge between the rails and thus the rather odd gauge was born. I only know of one other railway which was built to this gauge, The Westwood & Loscoe Light Railway

The mistake was discovered by a GER official once the track had been constructed compleetly. The original carriages which had already been ordered had to be reguaged. The locomotive was ordered specially built to the unique gauge.

The railway had only 3 short, 4 wheel carriages in olive and green livery and an 0-4-0 steam locomotive built by Beyer-Garrett. (Garrett of Leiston not Garratt...) and in the loco (No. 1, River Deben) one can see similarities with other Beyer locomotives such as the Beyer Peacocks on the Welshpool and Llanfair (those block like cylinders). This locomotive had no cab originally as it was considered that it did not need one, Suffolk being the mildest place in the country. The loco was painted maroon with the letters "DVLR" proudly spelt out on the side tanks.

[90733]

Very good, like how you got the odd gauge
Need to add more to my stories

[Narrow Minded]

I only know of one other railway which was built to this gauge, The Westwood & Loscoe Light Railway

No strange coincidence when one takes into consideration that the contracted Civil Engineers for the Loscoe Grange Brickworks tramway (which was later taken over and extended to become the Westwood & Loscoe Light Railway Co.) were none other than Messrs. A. Curtain & Sons, who were contracted to build a 3ft gauge system!!!!

Archive photo's show the venerable A.Curtain, with son Rod, and the "walking stick" cum track gauge posing by the newly completed interchange sidings with the Midland Railway.

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Ahh well that explains it then! I did wonder what effect not telling Mr. A Curtain that he had got it wrong (he had a very quick temper and could have at any point stopped the construction of the DVLR at any point) would have... Luckily Rod finally realised the mistake and burnt the stick so that his father could not make any more mess ups. This is also why the Walking Stick (Knick named the curtain pole) has never been found....

[Narrow Minded]

I'm a little confused now, since as I understood it, "The Curtain Pole" was the East European foreman in charge of the gangers - one I. Zadroznie, a militant union man notorious for holding things up!
(I beleive my footplatemen spent far too much time in his company in the snug in the Flag and Whistle!)

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Haha, well the burning of "The Curtain Pole" (the walking stick, not the person) explains why you don't see any other 2ft 9 and 2/4 inch railways around.... What ever happened to A. Curtain and sons? (The reason for them setting up their own company will soon become apparent)

[Narrow Minded]

What ever happened to A. Curtain and sons?

I beleive the civil engineering company's activities were drawn to a close when old Arthur went blind.

[TommyDodd]

In reading your little history articles I thought some of the place names sounded familiar , and a quick check of my modelling bookshelf shows I was right. You're not the first to be inspired by the landscape and buildings of that part of the world, in fact you're following in some illustrious footsteps. There have been two P4 exhibition layouts built by Iain Rice & Bob Barlow and based on a ficticious standard gauge "East Suffolk Light Railway", Orford Haven and Butley Mills. Their attempt to serve the Deben, Butley and Ore valleys left Melton GER station heading towards Ipswich, turning off GE metals and heading south through Sutton to Shottisham, turning East for Hollesley and Orford Haven where the line split, one branch going through Boyton to Butley Mills and the other over the Butley through Gedgrave to Orford, with a Quay on the bank of the Ore.
I know it's not directly relevant you your creation, but I thought you'd be amused. There is a bit about it in the book "Light Railway Layout Designs" by Iain Rice (pub. Wild Swan)

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Goodness! Thats nice to know...
There were actually plans for an East Suffolk Light Railway which went from Melton to Holesley bay. It was planned by an MP who wanted a railway to his house. (And you thought expense scandals today were extreme...)
The country side here really is lovely and could have been improved by a little light railway. There never was one built however which is why I am trying to fill the gaps in!

Anyway,
The railway was opened and the No. 1 River Deben began work pushing the three carriages back and forth (no run round facilities) With the occasional fish van and local goods services run mainly for the farmers. All was not well, however, as soon passenger numbers fell as they realised that there really wasn't much to be seen at Butley. The DVLR fell into huge debt and trains always ran late, waiting for passengers. The railway was seen by the GER as an embarrassment and so the GER withdrew the lease and a last train date was set up. The railway was soon to be dismantled and forgotten forever.

The last official passenger train on the DVLR will be run on the 26th of June. All are welcome to come along.

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

You hit the nail on the head! I will be doing this in the style of the DVLR Christmas 2009 video! I just need to make a few more characters from Fimo, create a theme tune and do the filming!

Looking for voice actors...

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

So here is Mr. A. Curtain in his unpainted form. Short, Fat and grumpy as ever. He will be holding the gauging stick when finished.


And yes, I have already dropped him and chipped his hand...

[bessytractor]

I like this background to the railway, my Grandfather Peter grew up in Aldeburgh during the war years, and acquired his love of railway signalling there.  Aged 14, he would do the afternoon shunt while the signalman had his lunch!

Sadly he can't signal anymore, as he's colour blind  :(

He has always threatened to build an O gauge model of Aldeburgh, and I still remind him to get on with it whenever I go see him and grandma in Bristol!

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Should the DVLR chronicles videos be short (3 mins) and have lots of them or be longer (5 mins) and have fewer of them?

[laalratty]

Should the DVLR chronicles videos be short (3 mins) and have lots of them or be longer (5 mins) and have fewer of them?

I'd go for short, you know what I've said about people's attention span!

[Narrow Minded]

Should the DVLR chronicles videos be short (3 mins) and have lots of them or be longer (5 mins) and have fewer of them?

I'd go for short, you know what I've said about people's attention span!

I've forgotten!