This layout was kindly donated to the Club by the family of the late Brian Reading and we are extremely grateful to them for entrusting us with its care. We plan to maintain it as a tribute to Brian and will be exhibiting it at our upcoming shows.
Brief History of the Clearpoint Haven Railway
Clearpoint was established on the South Shore of the river Blackwater in Essex. The settlement started as a group of cottages occupied by fishing families. It is situated opposite Tollesbury on the Southern Shore of the river and subsequent growth into a small town almost joined it to the village of Bradwell.
For many years fishing was the main occupation with the nearby oyster beds providing a plentiful harvest. Over the years local vessels have fished the coastal waters and nearby parts of the North Sea.
During the Dutch Wars the estuary provided a safe anchorage which resulted in a growth of shipbuilding. In recognition of this development the name was changed by Royal Warrant to Clearpoint Haven. Shipbuilding continued to prosper with the construction of East Coast and Thames Barges becoming the main source of orders. This developed from the turn of the century with the construction of a number of small vessels such as Thames Lighters, river and canal tugs. A particular contribution was made during the 1939-45 war by the construction of many of the landing craft that were used for the invasion.
The shipbuilding was consolidated in 1920 by the creation of the well known Essex small boat builder that traded under the name of Abel Tarbottom and Sons. A family firm which lasted until 1980 and all that now remains is a small business building luxury yachts to special order.
The general seaport activities developed from about 1850 with small vessels calling to off load general cargo in particular for agriculture. Considerable activity was provided by Thames Barges loading hay and straw for London. The large number of horses at work in the capital before the advent of motor transport meant that large quantities of animal feed and bedding had to be shipped to destinations such as Saint Katharines dock near to Tower Bridge.
The Branch Railway from the main line at Witham to Maldon was opened in 1848. Soon afterwards there were various schemes put forward for this to be extended to Clearpoint Haven. This was eventually achieved in 1856. The line to Maldon had been laid as a double track railway having regard to the anticipated traffic that would be developed from this larger port. However this never occurred and the line was subsequently singled. The extension to Clearpoint Haven was always envisaged as a single line but a passing loop was installed at the only intermediate station serving the small village of Latchingdon. Construction of the line was straightforward with no significant earthworks or bridges required. There had to be a number of small bridges over drainage dykes with the only significant structure being over the stream to Lawling Creek. The contractors for the line were the same as those for the work as far as Maldon – namely Thomas Jackson of Pimlico. The length of the complete branch from Witham amounted to 18.5 miles.
From the onset the line was worked on the Sykes Token system.
Originally the Station at Clearpoint was a simple building with a small yard. With the growth of traffic, particularly in the early thirties, considerable improvements were made including a two road engine shed.
A feature of the line from the outset was the opportunity to tranship goods from narrow boats using the spur from the Chelmsford, Maldon and Heybridge Basin Canal.
The small town grew to a reasonable size in the years before the Second World War but the growth in commuter traffic to London never materialised. With improvements to the line to Southminster this route was favoured as going via Shenfield into Liverpool Street was much shorter than a route requiring a change at Witham.
From the onset the line was worked as a single branch from Witham through Maldon to Clearpoint Haven. Most trains started and terminated at Witham but some were extended to Colchester. The service provided a reasonable frequency of passenger trains with a daily freight in the morning returning during the afternoon. The crew and locomotive were expected to undertake any shunting as part of this turn often helped at other times of the day by one of the locomotives waiting on shed for the next turn of duty.
The passenger trains mostly consisted of the standard LNER Gresley and Thompson branch line coaches (corridor to allow access to toilets but not gangwayed between coaches). The freight traffic consisted of agricultural produce and supplies for farming, occasional fish vans for the local catch, materials for the small ship building activity, household goods including coal etc. Wagons of Locomotive coal were also worked down the branch by this service and on occasions additional staff from Colchester spent time at Clearpoint to unload these wagons on to the loco. coaling stage – usually a day out for junior cleaners from Colchester! The local jam making activity also provided traffic which went away in covered vans.
In 1930 United Diaries constructed a milk processing plant on the outskirts of the station goods yard which was served by its own siding. This provided a profitable traffic source for the branch. A special milk train departed early evening on a daily basis which amalgamated with an up main line express milk service onwards from Witham thus providing for early morning deliveries in the capital. The empties returned to Witham early morning which were then worked down the branch by the morning pick up goods. This allowed time for the tanks to be washed out and used for the up service later in the day.
The small shed at Clearpoint Haven was a sub shed of Colchester MPD. Normally two or three locomotives were allocated with a tradition of these being tender locomotives to allow for forward running to Colchester. This also meant that there was a fair amount of tender first running as a turntable was never provided at Clearpoint. Usually Class D16 and B12 locomotives were used with the daily freight being hauled by a J15. Other main line locomotives from Colchester were used from time to time on the branch on fill in work between Clacton /Liverpool Street express turns and this often brought Class B17 locomotives to the branch.
The small shed was supervised by a Mechanical Foreman who shared duties with a Chargehand fitter to provide cover for most of the day. Another fitter worked at the shed together with another member of staff from the general duties grades. Four drivers and four firemen were normally based at the shed usually on relief duties from Colchester. This level of staffing enabled the shed to undertake small repairs and all normal servicing – anything that needed heavy lifting would require the locomotive being returned to Colchester.
This pattern of operation continued very largely untouched until closure in 1964. Very little of railway remains today. The Station Building and goods yard is now a supermarket, the canal has long been out of operation and is largely filled in, the milk processing plant rebuilt to a large extent remains and is part of a small timber and joinery business which grew from the small timber yard which was in operation when the railway was in its heyday.
The current local feeling is that on reflection the railway should not have closed since the considerable amount of new building that has taken place in the area would have supported at least a light rail solution. There have been various schemes to try and re-open the line but this is most unlikely as the majority of the track bed has now been lost – taken in for development or absorbed into local farms.
Brian Reading
Brian Reading 1929 – 2025, railway enthusiast, prolific model engineer, much loved husband, father and grandfather.
Born in Great Yarmouth on the 10th of April 1929, Brian led a full and fulfilling life. He was a tenacious and intuitive engineer with a vivid mind’s eye, a leader and an accomplished negotiator.
Growing up beside a busy fishing and timber port, Brian was fascinated by steam ships and railways. He enjoyed dockside Sunday walks, peaking into Fellows & Co. and Crabtree, shipbuilders and marine engineers. As a child, he played with Meccano and looked wistfully at the Bassett-Lowke catalogue’s 7¼-inch gauge Great Northern Atlantic. Brian sketched plans and dreamt of one day laying out a miniature railway on waste ground behind his family’s home. On visits to aunts and grandparents in London and Dovercourt he fondly remembered steamer trips and watching trains from his pushchair above Paddington Station.
Great Yarmouth became a wartime fortress town; at 11-years-old, Brian and his school were evacuated to Fishmore Hall near Ludlow. This unintended boarding school experience shaped Brian’s character. While Brian left school as a high achiever, a wartime shortage of teachers denied him the opportunity to study science. Despite this gap in formal education, watchmaking and coachbuilding great-grandparents had given Brian a gift for engineering. Some of his happiest memories were of cycle rides through the Shropshire countryside and being left in charge of the school’s gas and water supply; a grisly private carbide plant and a sometimes-temperamental Lister pump. Leaving school in 1945, with a Cambridge School leaving certificate, Brian’s first job was with the Great Yarmouth Shipping Co. To Brian’s regret, less-than-perfect eyesight, had thwarted his ambition to work for the LNER. Called up in1947, Brian’s National Service started with basic training at Norwich Britannia Barracks and ended 2-years later as a sergeant with the pay corps at RAMC Aldershot. In 1949, Brian joined the Norfolk County Council Treasurer’s Department, beginning a successful 41-year career in local government. Brian invited Kathleen to the Christmas party, and they married in 1954.
Without limit, Kathleen was supportive and enabling for Brian. Despite a demanding full-time career, Brian was able to direct enormous energy towards his railway interest and his as-yet unfulfilled talent for engineering. Brian’s mother had worked in a photographer’s shop, so it was natural for Brian to become a railway photographer. He and Kathleen travelled widely amassing a library of thousands of black and white and colour images.
As a founding member of the Norfolk Railway Society, Brian formed lasting friendships with railway enthusiasts including Norwich shed-master Bill Harvey. Working with Bill, Brian was a member of the support crews for Alan Pegler’s Flying Scotsman, the preserved A4 Sir Nigel Gresley, and was part of the restoration team for Thundersley.
In the deep snow of February 1963, local doctors used Brian and Kathleen’s house as an evening base. While Kathleen, with the support of midwives, gave birth to Ian, the doctors were happier in the loft, fascinated by Brian’s huge and impressive model railway.
In 1966, with the help of family, friends and neighbours, Brian built a garden workshop that opened the door to model engineering. Self-taught from books, magazines and conversations with other model engineers, Brian’s first project was a 3½-inch gauge GWR County 4-6-0, closely followed by a 5-inch gauge GWR Manor. Brian served as chairman of the Norwich and District Society of Model Engineers and helped to organize the popular Wensum Lodge exhibitions that inspired generations of model and professional engineers. As Brian was completing his final 5-inch gauge project, an LNER B17 Sandringham, the 7¼-inch gauge bug took hold. After driving experiences on a large garden railway at Harleston, Brian was smitten by the feel and realism of 7¼-inch gauge. A friendship with Don Witheridge saw Brian become the first chairman of the Hemsby-based Norfolk Group of the 7¼-inch gauge Society. Brian went on to serve as the Society’s trade liaison officer from 1993 to 1998, Chairman from 1999 to 2005, Vice President from 2005 to 2009 and President from 2009 to 2025. Prompted by the risk of harmonized pressure vessel regulations, Brian successfully negotiated with insurance companies and the HSE to help define a workable miniature railway boiler testing regime.
With retirement, workshop expansion, and larger machine tools, model engineering became a second career for Brian. He re-built an LMS Black Five and went on to construct a GWR 1400 class tank, GWR Manor, LNER B2, Isle of Man 2-4-0 and a GWR Saint, all of which performed beautifully. In later years, when locomotives became too heavy, Brian remained irrepressibly creative; he built another impressive OO-gauge layout, two ship models and collaborated with Ian to publish five books of his railway photographs and recollections.
While we are hugely thankful for the inspiration and example of Brian’s life, I know that Brian was in turn thankful for the knowledge, generosity and support of his many friends. Brian’s life was made fulfilling by his local government colleagues and through his friendships with fellow railway enthusiasts and model engineers. Above all, Brian would be the first to acknowledge that his career, and the enormous energy he was able to apply to his passion for railways and model engineering, was made possible by the enduring love and support of his wife Kathleen.
When Brian became weary, conversations around model locomotive construction and operation acted like a shot of adrenalin. Brian’s eyes would sparkle as he recalled machining, steaming, smiles and sunny days shared with friends. He fulfilled his engineering gift, exceeded his childhood ambitions, and inspired countless others to pursue their engineering dreams.
Brian passed away peacefully, aged 95, on the 6th of January 2025 with his family by his side.