Bordon, LMR

[Lucan]

Not the LMR you might be thinking of. Why was Bordon Station on the Longmoor Military Railway built as terminus and not as a through station?
As a child I remember noticing the strange layout at Bordon on an old Ordance Survey map, like this :-

I learned more about it later and came to know the area. The western of those two stations on the map was in fact two north-facing terminii side-by-side (the other marked station, half a mile eastwards, was Oakhanger Halt). The western of the twin terminii was the LSWR/SR public station, reached by the track arriving from the north, a "Light Railway" branch from the Aldershot-Winchester line at Bentley. The eastern terminus was the northern end of the LMR, and there was a connection between the two railways at the station throats.
As can be seen, the LMR on leaving Bordon promptly did a tight 180 degeee turn to Oakhanger Halt and then south to Longmoor Camp (and ultimately to Liss on the LSWR Portsmouth line). Surely it would have made more sense to have built Bordon LMR as a through station with the track running straight through its south end, across a bit of heath, and picking up the actual alignment near the bottom of that map. Practically all the land in that area belonged to the War Department anyway. It would have saved a lot of exchange shunting and I cannot help wondering how those WD 2-10-0's managed on that curve.
Bordon (both LSWR/SR and LMR) had long wide platforms to handle troop trains. The conventional red dot on the map under-represents it scale-wise - the twin stations filled most of that plain white area around it. The line to Bentley was classed as a Light Railway, but the troop trains and military freight must have been very heavy even if speed restricted. My father-in-law worked in the camp, was often involved in unloading goods at the station, and described dozens of hospital trains being stored in sidings in Woolmer Forest on the LMR after WW2.

 

[30907]

I suspect the WD followed the easiest route on the ground, to avoid a cutting (see the contour line on the map extract). In any case, I doubt the LSW would have allowed WD locos - or indeed stock - on its running line
Any through traffic would have been freight, as the troops could march, the horses be walked, and vehicles driven.

 

[Bevan Price]

I suspect the WD followed the easiest route on the ground, to avoid a cutting (see the contour line on the map extract). In any case, I doubt the LSW would have allowed WD locos - or indeed stock - on its running line
Any through traffic would have been freight, as the troops could march, the horses be walked, and vehicles driven.

In addition to local traffic, the LMR had been used to train soldiers who operated military trains overseas in wartime. I did a trip round part of the LMR on the final Open Day (5 July 1969), but it did not cover the section to Bordon. From what I remember, at least some of the passenger stock was ex-Southern Railway.

 

[Lucan]

In addition to local traffic, the LMR had been used to train soldiers who operated military trains overseas in wartime.

In fact that was its original purpose and main function. The continuous loop, like a tabletop model railway but full size, was to give drivers and firemen in training a good run. The area was also used to train engineers in track-laying and repair. With rail access and closeness to the south coast ports, Longmoor Camp was naturally host to military stores and had extensive sidings with equipment stored on wagons (I mentioned the hospital trains kept there). Bordon Camp, a couple of miles north (but virtually contiguous in extent) and through which the LMR also ran, was in later years at least a Royal Engineers' depot and training school (I was taught to drive tracked vehicles there).

Although the LMR was established following the Boer War, in the approach to WW1 the British Army had put its faith mainly in road vehicles for transport. OTOH, the other Great Powers relied mainly on railways. For example, even in WW2 Germany never used road tank transporters, their tanks went either by rail or by themselves. As far as WW1 was concerned, this was a mistake for the British as the road vehicles trying to get ammo and supplies to the Western Front got bogged down in mud and shell holes, and roads took longer to repair than rails. The British Army therefore belatedly but quickly expanded its military railway capability during WW1, with the LMR becoming an important base and training facility through to the end of WW2.

The speed at which those military railway engineers could lay down railways, mostly manually, and while being shelled too, puts the glacial pace of modern railway building to shame.

 

[Cowley]

A very interesting subject Lucan.
I always thought that the LMR was laid out in such a way as not to be ‘convenient’, but more for providing the maximum amount of variety to provide learning for the people that needed training up?
I knew a couple of people who drove on the Mid Hants that had worked on the LMR in the sixties. Never went on it myself but it’s always fascinated me too.

 

[341o2]

In fact that was its original purpose and main function. The continuous loop, like a tabletop model railway but full size, was to give drivers and firemen in training a good run. The area was also used to train engineers in track-laying and repair. With rail access and closeness to the south coast ports, Longmoor Camp was naturally host to military stores and had extensive sidings with equipment stored on wagons (I mentioned the hospital trains kept there). Bordon Camp, a couple of miles north (but virtually contiguous in extent) and through which the LMR also ran, was in later years at least a Royal Engineers' depot and training school (I was taught to drive tracked vehicles there).

Although the LMR was established following the Boer War, in the approach to WW1 the British Army had put its faith mainly in road vehicles for transport. OTOH, the other Great Powers relied mainly on railways. For example, even in WW2 Germany never used road tank transporters, their tanks went either by rail or by themselves. As far as WW1 was concerned, this was a mistake for the British as the road vehicles trying to get ammo and supplies to the Western Front got bogged down in mud and shell holes, and roads took longer to repair than rails. The British Army therefore belatedly but quickly expanded its military railway capability during WW1, with the LMR becoming an important base and training facility through to the end of WW2.

The speed at which those military railway engineers could lay down railways, mostly manually, and while being shelled too, puts the glacial pace of modern railway building to shame.

The background to WW1 was that the British Army decided that this was going to be a tactical war, so railways were not needed, and due to the unreliability of motorised road transport, shipped large numbers of horses and mules to haul equipment. It took around two years for the realisation that this was inadequate as per the attatched image and indeed this was a static war.

Track was delivered prefabricated so after levelling the formation, there would be one team tamping one length, while a second team would be attatching the next length. Standards were lower, for example, the LNWR modified several Model T Fords for rail use, their specifications based on well laid tracks at Crewe were not matched on tracks at the frount, although they had to put up with being something reasonably flat and solid, would see other use than by trains, gun carriages and tanks were known to use the formation. The most numerous class of steam engines manufactured by Baldwin had this problem of a high C of G, one answer was to remove the water tanks and place them on a truck behind the loco