High Dudgeon – A British branch line terminus in 4 mm scale

[andrechapelon]

 

Sometimes layout ideas drop unexpectedly out of the sky from the weirdest sources. Thus it is that the idea for High Dudgeon was born from from the phrase “Pontificating in High Dudgeon” which was so thoughtfully provided by Byron Henderson (cuyama).

 

High Dudgeon, fictional though it may be, is a village in the scenic Cotswolds in western England. Grown prosperous from the wool trade in medieval times, the village fell on hard times during the decline of the English wool trade during the Renaissance. High Dudgeon eventually settled into a somewhat sleepy existence by the end of the 18^th Century. Sleepy most of the time, perhaps, but the denizens of the village were characterized by a hair-trigger willingness to be offended by almost everything, a characteristic they maintain to the present day. It is widely rumored that the idea for the Monty Python “Argument Clinic” sketch arose when John Cleese had the misfortune to have a flat tire in the village during a drive through the Cotswolds. Naturally, the citizens of High Dudgeon were quite generous with their advice on how to change a tire even though the majority of them didn’t own cars. The resulting “discussion” about various tire changing methods soon led to an outbreak of fisticuffs among the villagers, allowing Cleese to rapidly change his defective tire and get out of town before he was drawn into the brawl.

 

The coming of the railway age in England had little effect on High Dudgeon until the Great Western Railway built its mainline through the market town of Knickers-In-A-Twist, located about 15 miles to the north northeast of High Dudgeon. The outraged villagers, incensed that their village would be bypassed, immediately descended on the directors of the GWR, demanding that “something be done and quickly”. The annoyance caused to the directors was so great that they immediately agreed to build a branch line from Knickers-In-A-Twist to High Dudgeon despite the fact that a study commissioned by the railway came to the conclusion that the branch would never be profitable. In fact, it was so unprofitable that it was later a source of utter amazement that the branch was not even mentioned in the reports submitted by Dr. Richard Beeching with respect to what needed to be done to make British Railways more viable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts  .  Beeching was an astute student of history and wanted little truck with any of the irate citizens of High Dudgeon.

 

I envision High Dudgeon as being similar in overall character to a layout I came across in an issue of  Hornby Magazine and later on YouTube. Much Murkle  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7fCpwDSzqI   represents a lightly trafficked Great Western branch terminus in the 30’s. In my mind, High Dudgeon would be modeled as it might appear around 1960 or so. At least one of the GWR locos have been replaced by BR standard types (maybe a 3MT 2-6-2T for passenger services - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDF5Z47GtsY ), while the M-F pickup goods (i.e. local freight) is handled by an ex-GWR 57xx 0-6-0PT (Pannier Tank) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htNG_mA960U

 

The signature scene for High Dudgeon would consist of one of the village’s denizens on the station platform pontificating on some obscure topic to passengers waiting to escape the town on the train back to Knickers-In-A-Twist where they can board an express train to (as on of the poor schlubs on the platform might put it), “anywhere but here”.

 

Andre

 

 

[ACY Tom]

If it's Great Western, I would think perhaps an 0-4-2t with a single coach for passenger service. They had a very unusual push-pull arrangement. Then a Pannier tank 0-6-0t for the goods traffic. Of course my experience with British practice is limited to what I've seen in pictures, so I'm no authority.

Tom 

[G Paine]

Sounds like you have a good plan!!

[doctorwayne]

andrechapelon

 A British branch line terminus in 4 mm scale

 

Sounds workable to me, Andre, and I really enjoyed reading your back-story for the plan.

Rather than restrict it to Dublo, though, the modeller could choose whatever scale he wanted simply by using the trains from Thomas, which are widely available in several scales.  That'd have folks everywhere pontificating, let alone those in High Dudgeon.

Wayne 

[MidlandPacific]

Reminds me of "The Titfield Thunderbolt," that great Ealing Studios comedy about branch line closure in the UK in the 1950s.  

4mm is a beautiful scale- are you going to use the widely available OO-gauged equipment, or build to Protofour or EM standards?

If you are modeling the GWR/ Western Region, you should check outthe beautiful kits once made by Martin Finney and now by Brassmasters:

http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/gwr_kits.htm

These are etched brass, and I have long wanted to get. His LSWR T9 and LNER A3.  You have to buy the wheels and motors separately, but what an impressive product!

[MidlandPacific]

Also, you might consider having a look at Adrian Vaughn's "Signalman's Morning," an account of learning to work as a signalman (what we would call a block operator) in Berkshire in the early 1960s, during the British transition era.  He worked in Western Region, the former GWR, and the book is thick with both atmosphere and the details of "absolute block working," the British equivalent of American manual block rules.

[andrechapelon]

Apparently, a satire is something that most people think of as an item that fits on some kind of wheeled vehicle. Granted, it's not on the same level as Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal", but really????

Andre

From Mark Twain's short story "Niagara":

...... and, to crown their disgraceful proceedings and add insult to injury, they threw me over the Niagara Falls and I got wet.

That pretty much sums it up. I think I'll try some other endeavour, albeit probably something other than satire. Like my boyhood hero, Mark Twain, maybe I'll re-invent myself as an editor of an agricultural journal - http://www.twainquotes.com/Galaxy/187007a.html

Either that, or try my hand at Tennessee journalism: https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/journalism-in-tennessee

 

 

[MidlandPacific]

There's nothing to prevent satire or storytelling in actual modeling - check this guy out:

http://www.ottgalleries.com

Guess your High Dudgeon reminded me too strongly of John Ahern's Much Madder:

https://www.pendonmuseum.com/about/madder

 

[andrechapelon]

MidlandPacific

There's nothing to prevent satire or storytelling in actual modeling - check this guy out:

http://www.ottgalleries.com

Guess your High Dudgeon reminded me too strongly of John Ahern's Much Madder:

https://www.pendonmuseum.com/about/madder

Actually, I'm familiar with both. Rail Model in the UK published an article on the Madder Valley in "Great British Model Railways, Vol. 2" (2014) and I stumbled on John Ott's website a couple of years ago.

Personally, I'd regard the Madder Valley as more whimsical than satirical. As for Ott, not my cup of tea, but he does fantastic work. Not a fan of HP Lovecraft, however.

Andre

[andrechapelon]

Rats, apparently someone beat me to it. Not with the backstory, but the name.

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=42204

I hate it when that happens.

EDIT: Even worse, apparently there's a house in the UK named High Dudgeon.

https://tinyurl.com/jjlpkkj

I hate the Internet.

Andre

[Anonymous]

andrechapelon

Rats, apparently someone beat me to it. Not with the backstory, but the name.

Ah but its only part of the name.  Im guessing Much Simmering is either a branch from High Dudgeon or on the way there from Knickers-in-a-twist.  You could model the High Dudgeon to Knickers-in-a-twist line. 

Nothing you can do about the house.

[andrechapelon]

BMMECNYC

 

andrechapelon

Rats, apparently someone beat me to it. Not with the backstory, but the name.

 

 

Ah but its only part of the name.  Im guessing Much Simmering is either a branch from High Dudgeon or on the way there from Knickers-in-a-twist.  You could model the High Dudgeon to Knickers-in-a-twist line. 

Nothing you can do about the house.

Perhaps, but I somehow feel the need to include the halt at Loaded Nappy. 

Andre