Cadiford Water
'00' Gauge , 4mm
Cadiford is a small town on Cadiford Water, a small creek in the north east corner of Portsmouth Harbour. In the 19th century the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) built a railway through the town to gain access to Portsmouth and the various docks in the harbour but importantly avoiding the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) lines.
The line through Cadiford was single track with two single track freight only branch lines giving access to various small quays around the north and east sides of the harbour.
The line through Cadiford proved very popular but due to financial restraint the line was only ever single track with no space available to allow doubling. Following discussions between the LSWR and the LBSCR the alternative option of building a joint LSWR/LBSCR double track main line slightly to the north with and running to Portsmouth itself was taken up.
This gave much better access to the quays and docks and so traffic through Cadiford diminished rapidly and many of the quays and jetties served by the line fell in to disrepair. However the line was kept open as it proved to be a useful diversionary route when repairs were undertaken on the new mainline.
We have set the time period to be a few years either side of Nationalisation; this allows the various club members greater opportunities to run their stock on the layout.