Scale: ‘0’. [7mm Scale on 32mm gauge track]
Puddle Bridge is based on Ormiston, a station on the former Macmerry branch in East Lothian, Scotland. The branch opened in 1868 and from 1901 Ormiston was the junction for the Gifford and Garvald Light Railway, which never reached Garvald only being built as far as Gifford. The passenger services ended in 1933, but the line remained open for goods and to serve a number of collieries. The Macmerry line closed beyond Ormiston in 1960 and in 1965 the whole line closed. For a number of years Ormiston Station Colliery stood adjacent to the station and whilst in reality this closed about 1905 we have allowed it to survive to into the British Railways era. Ordnance Survey maps show that there was a narrow gauge tramway connecting to Cockum Colliery and this is represented by a short ‘0:16.5’ line at the back of the layout. Most trains on the branch were coal traffic from the various collieries with the loaded trains heading towards Edinburgh (the left-hand end of the layout). To make for more interesting operation we have overlooked the ending of the passenger service and some pickup goods trains also run.
Because the model is not an exact representation of Ormiston the layout was named Puddle Bridge which is the name of the road bridge that crosses the railway at Ormiston Station.
The Station Building and Signal Box are based on the drawings in the Oakwood Press book on the Haddington, Gifford and Macmerry Branches. The station building is modelled on the building at Ormiston, but the signal box prototype is from the next station down the line, the ‘Bog Siding’. Owing to a lack of information the colliery buildings are freelance, but based on photographs in the books ‘Mining the Lothians’ and ‘Fife – The Mining Kingdom’ published by Stenlake Publishing.
Waiting for the next train; Puddle Bridge Station.
