Garden Railway Forum

On behalf of one of our local model group members I am searching for information on the Volks Electric Railway. There is a website which has recently updated information, but the contact messaging system doesn't work! Does anyone have an alternative contact or know of printed material suitable to work from please?

Its probably not much help, but I have the faintest memory of a model railway magazine article way back in the mists of time - probably 60's/70's. Would have been the Toddler/Destructor/MR at a guess.

philipy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 8:38 pm Its probably not much help, but I have the faintest memory of a model railway magazine article way back in the mists of time - probably 60's/70's. Would have been the Toddler/Destructor/MR at a guess.

Aint it always the case that your Flux Capacitor goes down just when you need it?

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 8:11 pm On behalf of one of our local model group members I am searching for information on the Volks Electric Railway. There is a website which has recently updated information, but the contact messaging system doesn't work! Does anyone have an alternative contact or know of printed material suitable to work from please?

Which Volk's Electric Railway? There were two.

The first was narrow gauge and still runs along the beach in summer, the second (long gone) was built with the track underwater and ran with a single car on stilts that looked like a perambulating pier wading along when the tide was in.

A google search for 'volks electric railway' turns up several hundred photos and getting on for a hundred websites, most of which repeat each other (typical for the internet). The Wikipedia page is probably as detailed as any other site out there in the sea of bits.

There's also a supporters group called VERA who have a website and a face ache page. http://volkselectricrailway.co.uk/

Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 11:00 pm

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 8:11 pm On behalf of one of our local model group members I am searching for information on the Volks Electric Railway. There is a website which has recently updated information, but the contact messaging system doesn't work! Does anyone have an alternative contact or know of printed material suitable to work from please?

Which Volk's Electric Railway? There were two.
Graeme

Yes indeed Graeme, there were two, the 'Daddy-long-legs' which traversed through the sea at high tide (and always had a qualified Sea Captain on board, and the less interesting (to me) land-bound, narrow gauge line, which is the one my friend is researching.
The websites only appear to show photographic images (with multiple repeats) but no dimensional drawings or other useful information for making in model form. I have discovered an exhibition model by a member of the VERA from some years ago, but their own website is closed!!!

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 11:28 pm Yes indeed Graeme, there were two, the 'Daddy-long-legs' which traversed through the sea at high tide (and always had a qualified Sea Captain on board, and the less interesting (to me) land-bound, narrow gauge line, which is the one my friend is researching.

I thought the 'Daddy-long-legs' would be the one that would 'float your boat' as it were.......

I didn't see any reference to drawings of the ng tram. Doesn't surprise me, the internet is wide ranging, but has little depth. I did see reference to a drawing of the 'daddy long legs' on the national archives blog site.

https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/br ... -tramroad/

Since the beach line is still in operation, the likeliest source of surviving drawings is probably the engineering dept. of the local council who own the line. Good luck there. If they are anything like my local council, they will be about as much use as a chocolate teapot......

Your friend may have to wait until summer and make a trip to Brighton with a camera and a tape measure.

Since I much prefer my information printed on paper, I did a quick search on the ABE Books site for 'volks electric railway' and found a couple of out of print books, as well as VERA newsletters.

Volk's Railway Brighton 1883-1968, Alex Jackson, Light Railway Transport League, 1968.
Volk's Railways Brighton - an Illustrated History, A. A. Jackson, Plateway Press, 1993.

Graeme

Well, this is bad timing.

Last Saturday I was at the Brighton Model Railway Club exhibition (helping out - I'm still a member - I was born and brought up in Brighton). VERA was there. As was the model of the Daddy long-legs. And these incredible models. I got chatting to Ian Gledhill and asked what scale they were, as I thought they looked a little larger than 16mm, but not by much. He didn't know, so we went a borrowed a steel rule and a calculator from a nearby trade stand and figured out they are 3/4" scale.

Thank you to Graeme for your extremely helpful reply. I have checked out the ABE books site and passed on the information to my friend, that seems to be a great start.
Also, thanks to Simon for the wonderful photographs; I had no idea the carriages were so attractive, and the skill of the model maker shows them off to perfection.

Those models are stunning. Attractive designs

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 3:49 pm I have checked out the ABE books site and passed on the information to my friend, that seems to be a great start.

ABE Books site is always worth checking to see what books are available when researching a new project, as there are thousands of booksellers listing their stock on there. There are a couple of other bookshop search engines, but ABE have a wider ranging search in my experience.

ABE was bought out by Amazon some time ago. My reaction to that was to keep using the search engine, but I now check to see if the bookseller has their own online shop, before ordering through ABE.......... If nothing else, if a bookshop is here in Aust. the postage will be a lot cheaper.

Graeme

SimonWood wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:43 am I got chatting to Ian Gledhill and asked what scale they were, as I thought they looked a little larger than 16mm, but not by much. He didn't know, so we went a borrowed a steel rule and a calculator from a nearby trade stand and figured out they are 3/4" scale.

I was wondering why anyone would use 3/4" to the foot scale (1:16 scale) which is a dollhouse scale. The only other 1:16 models I've seen are die cast tractors.

The penny finally dropped, 1:16 scale on 45mm track works out near enough to the weird 2' 8 1/2" gauge used by the VER that commercial wheels and track can be used for the models.........

Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 11:59 pm The penny finally dropped, 1:16 scale on 45mm track works out near enough to the weird 2' 8 1/2" gauge used by the VER that commercial wheels and track can be used for the models.........

We measured the gauge on the models (they are not motorised and there is no track). The gauge of the wheels on the models was 54mm. Why 54mm? I don't know - this does not ring any bells with me.

By my calculations, it's actually 1:19 scale on 45mm track that is pretty close to the 2’8½” of the Volks? I think it makes it one of the few railways where that scale/gauge combination is actually close to being accurate!

Those really are beautiful models...

I have a soft spot for the VER - I think I rode on it (or at least watched it running) back in the 80s, when the cars were in that yellow and brown livery...

Andrew.

I got to sit beside the driver when I visited in 2013

https://ngruk.blogspot.com/2013/09/volk ... ilway.html

Just noticed I've still not got around to editing and uploading the video. Something else for the Todo list ....

Rik

Peter - and everyone else following this thread - it is the Brighton Model Railway Exhibition this weekend and VERA are slated to be there. If there is anything you would like me to ask them, let me know!

Thank you Simon, I will see Malcolm tomorrow (Friday) and let him know of your kind offer. I will PM you during the day.