Tagged: falconwood RSS

• hilly 9:29 pm on September 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: falconwood, railway (2), steam (2), train (2), transport (9)   

  Spitfire steam train coming through falconwood station 

  Judging by the relatively large amount of visitors this website receives via its post on the falconwood model railway¹, it seems that there is much enthusiasm for steam trains in these parts, and so it gives great pleasure to announce² that this train will most likely be passing through falconwood on it’s way to kent having left london bridge at 0955 on sunday september the 5th and due to arrive at faversham at 1145. The train is expected back at london bridge at 2000, so it might come back through falconwood too.

  I say most likely going through falconwood station as the journey is advertised as passing bexleyheath, which is on the same tfl line as our station, whether or or not the same goes for special services I’m not sure. As a provisional guestimate, and pending the actual departure times, I would reckon that the train might come through the falconwood at around 1015-1100, and potentially 1900-1945 on the return leg.
  

  

  London, Midland & Scottish Railway "Black Five" No. 44932 (this is not at falconwood by the way)

  1. Welling and district model engineering society ↩
  2. Thanks to 853, ianvisits, and event sponsors sheperd-neame, the journey itself is being run as part of a two day hop festival in faversham this weekend. ↩
   

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• hilly 12:10 am on May 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: falconwood, oxleas wood (3), sheperdleas wood (4), transport (9)   

  Ringway 2 

  

  Ringway 2 Proposed Route

  A recent discussion over on plummy mummy’s website, has reawakened my interest in the incredible story of the long (and so far successful) struggle of the residents of south east london against the urban motorway planners that just will not go away: the creators of the dreaded ringway2/elrc/tgb historical trilogy of vastly unpopular road building schemes.

  In an effort to win favour with the people, the proposal has actually been watered down each time; starting out from a bold 1960′s dream/nightmare of a three carriageway bypass running through oxleas wood, the blueprint was gradually scaled down, ending up with the most recent suggestion that through-traffic could simply drive down residential streets to access the so-called ‘local’ bridge that the tgb was supposedly going to be.

  Well, thinking back to the state of play in the 1970′s, if you are curious which parts of the area would have been concreted over if ringway2 been built, there is a website that can demonstrate! A motorway enthusiast, who runs an online road directory has painstakingly researched the history of the London Ringways, and has produced an accurate map showing what the route would have been. [click on the image to zoom].

   
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• hilly 10:56 pm on November 25, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: falconwood, maps (6), present (9), transport (9)   

  Falconwood is on the TfL Map 

  

  Falconwood on the TfL Map

  Part x in an occasional series on maps. This little beauty came via the mighty 853, who reported on the forthcoming oysterisation of overground train fares in this neck of the woods. Local stations are now included on arguably one of the all time classic maps, the present day version of the London Underground map, a.k.a the integrated TfL map. As you can see we have the blue line (charing x and canon st), and the green line (victoria) – I would have preferred primary colours myself, but they were all spoken for… I’m not mad on the parallel lines either, as they look a bit hollow, but I’m guessing the designers were trying to differentiate the overground services by tapping in to how people visualise train tracks.

  In Mr 853′s post, the title of which contains the phrase the “great train robbery”, he also notes that fares are set to rise, let’s have a look:

  • Currently: A so called anytime single to London Terminals from zone 4 stations is £3.70, with peak/off-peak returns at £6.20/£4.70 respectively, (for all the confusing details about zone 1 connections, daily cap changes, changes to peak times etc see his pricing post) or the full proposed pricing document.
  • Presently: Comparative trips using oyster fares will cost £3.10/£2.30 (peak/off-peak) single, this is already significantly cheaper than £3.70!). Return prices will vary a bit depending on the time of travel (e.g. the dreaded afternoon peak from 4-7pm), but let’s consider a pleasant scenario for the sake of optimism: a nice little day trip to trafalgar square on a sunny weekend in january, with no onward connections from charing x: this will cost someone over 16 £4.60, which is actually cheaper than current fares by 10 pence.

  There are various catches that even out the price differences, such as the premium train users pay if they connect with other TfL services in Zone 1, and apparently season ticket holders are going to pay extra, and there are further criticisms of south eastern trains in particular for not going above and beyond the call of duty by making eco-friendly travel to bluewater more accessible (as has been done for lakeside), but overall, it’s good to welcome in these long overdue changes.

   
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• hilly 6:38 pm on October 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: audio (4), days out (4), falconwood, model railway, railway (2), steam (2), train (2), transport (9), welling   

  Welling and District Model Engineering Society 

  

  Welling and District Model Engingeering Society

  Well, that’s it for another year of local steam train fun. Sunday was the last public running day on the Falconwood Toy Trains, and it was busier than I’ve ever seen it before – which is understandable considering that Electricité De France, the landowners, might need the land back. Unfortunately a suitable new home has not been arranged as yet, and I get the feeling it’s going to be hard finding somewhere as neatly secluded as the grounds of an electrical substation. The thought of moving must be quite a daunting one, as the track itself is twelve hundred feet long (that’s 386 metres to edf), and that’s before they begin to think about what to do with all the other accumulated steam travel paraphenalia and structures they’ve been adding to the circuit over the last x years, such as the glorious little humpback bridge that takes you over the railway as you enter the enclosure.

  In my continuing efforts to present a multi-sensory hill experience I have added a recording of a ride around the track to accompany the photo, and short of coming round to your house and starting a coal fire in front of your armchair and spraying you with steam, I think it goes some way towards reflecting the moment, I deliberately didn’t use video, as sound leaves a bit more to the imagination.

  Welling and District Model Engineering Society

  hilly, and Plummy Mummy are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Plummy Mummy 5:41 pm on October 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

    Oh~! I didn’t even know about this. My tot who is into all things Choo Choo would have loved it.

    BTW your header picture is lovely.

    • hilly 2:49 pm on October 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      hiya plummy! there is a toy train at swanley, you could try that?

      • Plummy Mummy 6:31 pm on October 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Don’t suppose you have any details as Google let me down this time

        • hilly 8:57 pm on October 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply

          With compliments: Swanley New Barn Railway

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