A little about the Railway

The railway only existed from 1931-1948, rolling stock was limited to 9 freight cars, 13 passenger cars and 8 revenue motor coaches and freight vans. The line was 22 miles long, built to standard guage using primarily British constructed rolling stock, though during WW2 two rebuilt Brill motor cars were brought to the Bermudas.

When the railway was closed the ENTIRE railway down to the sleepers was sold to Guyana. For decades it was assumed every piece of rolling stock was lost. But it now appears that two of the motor freight vans may have survived and are being used as storage sheds. 

Most of the original right of way is now a recreational trail and Bermuda National Park. The area of the original shops near Hamilton has been taken over by city growth and is no longer recognizable. No models in any scale have been commercially produced of any of the rolling stock.

It is my hope and goal with this project to not only earn my MMR but to create a replica of the "Middle Road Yard" near Hamilton that had been the main shops of the railway for contribution to the National Museum in Bermuda. 

Next post I'll delve into the Motor Freight Vans and Motor Coaches, the prototype construction and my proposed scale construction.

Not a bad place to research!

Matt - Good luck with this... very unique line with an interesting history... visited there last September and walked some of the abandoned ROW... did a post with photos on my blog @ http://oldmainline.blogspot.com/2015/09/railfanning-and-my-own-bermuda-triangle.html ... might be of interest for you... please keep us posted on your progress.

This sounds

Like it would also make great fodder for articles on the research and building of the pieces.  Please consider that on your journey.

Keep up the blog . . .

but don't let it consume you.

Above all, have fun!

2 Questions

What scale and how much space do you have to work with?

It will be interesting to see how you translate the reality into model format. Should be very interesting indeed.

Jack

Jim, Great blog! I too have

Jim,

Great blog! I too have been disappointed to not find any hobby shops in Bermuda. Funny thing is I've been twice and have yet to make it to the beach. The aquarium is a lot of fun and it's very close to one of the remaining stops. The Aquarium Station and freight house still stand, you can also see the bridge piers from the Flatts Inlet trestle.

James,

My thoughts exactly. In fact I'm working on a spreadsheet laying out how each of the elements of an MMR program fit with what aspects of this project.

Bruce,

Thanks! The blog won't consume me but as mentioned by Jim above it's certainly a nice place to do research, certainly worse places to go crazy and get consumed by.

Jack,

I'll work backwards with the answers. I primarily model in HO scale. But do have an interest in 7.5" guage 1.6" scale and to that end I am interested in modeling one of the motor freight vans as a ride-on. It will give me a chance to truly rivet count as I install each rivet (of which most will be functional like the real thing). (I wonder how many pursuing their MMR have entered a scratchbuilt ride-on scale locomotive?) But back to the scale and space. I primarily work in Free-mo which allows me to work on segments of modules in the limited space I have in the house. My father has a 21 foot long module comprised of 3 segments. The only time the whole thing is together is at shows. So I would take a similar approach.

The area of the shops is described in my books that are 7000 miles from me right now so I can't even plan out the modules for another two months. So I cannot say yet how long the modules would be. I can tell you from having researched it that a proper module of Aquarium Station and Flatts Inlet trestle would be about 12 ft long and have about 7 feet of trestle upwards of 20 or 24 inches tall at it's peak. As impressive as that would be, and I would like to model it, it lacks many of the elements required to fulfill the MMR, but also it's an area that as I said above much remains so Bermudians are familiar. From the view point of museum exhibit interest the original shops area is completely gone, roads have been cut in, houses, buildings... ZERO trace remains so it may be of more significance to Bermudians to see that area recreated.

Permission to link?

Matt - Would it be OK to update my post on the Old Main Line blog about the Bermuda Railway with a link to this thread?

Matt, could you do some

Matt, could you do some research via Google earth or another mapping program? Granted it would all be more recent than what you are after but you may find some remnants of the line?

Links and satellite images

Jim,

Please do! You are more than welcome to link to this thread and/or the Facebook page I posted earlier.

Bob,

As most of the old line is now a recreational trail a great deal of it is visible from satellite imagery. The bridges were removed with e railroad but the piers remained and in fact bit by bit pedestrian/equestrian/bicycle bridges are being put back in so as to make the rather disjointed trail into a more linked together path. The challenge for me though is the area where the central shops used to be was just East of the major city of Hamilton and urban growth took over the entire area before the trail program was initiated. But I just have to be patient. In two months I'll be home and I'll look over what is in the books I have. After that I have some contacts including the Executive Director and Curator of the National Museum in Bermuda. 

Links Done!

OK, Matt... thanks... I've updated my blog entry, "Railfanning and my own Bermuda Triangle," with both links and posted to the sidebar homepage as my featured "Blast from the Past." ... also looked through your Hobo Proletariat blog... a few years back we trained it from Budapest to Vienna and then on to Prague... very neat stuff in Eastern Europe.

Help on Facebook

I just joined Facebook. One of the driving reasons was to be able to participate in the NMRA Achievement Program group there. I was the 342nd person to join the group. Lots of help there. http://www.facebook.com/groups/897515100296978

I'd like to post a link to this blog there, with your permission.

Thanks and thanks!

Jim,

Glad you enjoyed my blog. I need to update it. I did some trips in the fall including New Jersey and Romania. 

Bruce,

By all means please do. In fact I just requested to join the group. Looks like it will be very helpful. 

Update

What does a PS-4427 covered hopper for Continental Grain have to do with the Bermuda Railway? Nothing. What does it have to do with pursuing an MMR? Plenty. 

Although I want to build the MMR pursuit around the Bermuda Railway I have in my possession many incomplete projects. So I'm using this time to hone my skills. Below is one of my latest. A Lifelike hopper that many years ago I decided to "Plano-asize" with pretty much every Plano metal derail available for this model. Tackling such an advanced project a few years ago was a bit much for me. Even now it' was still tough. But it taught me many lessons and improved my skills greatly. This practice will come to bear in the future as I go into full time scratchbuilding to build the Bermuda Railway.

Rustman

Are you going to have a wye on the Bermuda Railway so you can claim you have the Bermuda Triangle? Just joking...

Den

Locomotive Turning Facilities

Den,

Good one! But you do bring up a valuable point. The Civil Engineering certificate may be difficult to achieve within the confines of the prototype. When I get home and study my books I'll confirm. But I'm right now doubting that they had a wye, turn table, ash pit, coal dump or possibly even a service pit.

The Bermuda Railway ran gasoline-mechanical motorcars. The cars had control stands at both ends, the entire drivetrain was contained within a power truck so by disconnecting a few fuel, air and control lines the entire engine, gear boxes, drive rods, works could be rolled out from under a motorcar and a replacement rolled under. The only bulk cargo handled was oil. No coal or other bulk product pier/dump.