How a picturesque railway scene can transport you to the Great War and WD Light Railways

The last time that our blog left the workshop, I mused about how how a narrow gauge railway, the Talyllyn, inspired many happy years of garden railways. We looked at small locomotives and quaint trains winding among Welsh mountains. The keen gardener can set up his or her own miniature happy valley on a rockery!

Here is another picturesque and hidden scene. When a friend showed us his photo, we gasped and had to find out more. It shows a rake of abandoned wagons in a woodland siding. Though they were small, they were also extremely long. Looking at their age, they were tough. What were they and where did they come from?

WD wagon underframe.  Photo J. Hawkesworth

The short answer is that these were wagons abandoned when the Ashover Light Railway closed many years ago. Our friend was proud to capture the scene for posterity. You already know the story of the Ashover. Basically, its main traffic was mineral but it served some small rural English communities between the Wars. Its locomotives and rolling stock included War Surplus purchases - veterans of  the punishing conditions of the Western Front - which ended their working lives in deepest Derbyshire.

The track is very narrow gauge, only 60 cm, as you can se from the small length in the foreground. The centre wagon in the photo (others only just seen) is surprisingly long, but adapted to narrow twisting track because it is bogie mounted. Though its life has been eventful, the characteristic wide Vee-shape of the truss  rod (angle iron)  of the classic WD  Class D wagon can still be seen. It has survived all the repairs and modifications of a long life. It is still a willing little beast, able to carry heavy loads.

'Oh aye' said our friend, 'there's not much left now, but there were plenty in the past' There were indeed! Nearly three thousand bogie wagons for use on the Western Front were ordered in 1916 alone. A lifetime later, this ghost hovered in an English wood.