This model is located in the Transport and Fire Exhibition Building.
For 200 years the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey supplied gunpowder and later cordite to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. An extensive canal system was used for transport within the factory and sailing barges took finished products via the Rivers Lea and Thames to Woolwich.
This layout features the 18 inch gauge railway system which was installed in 1917 and extended in the inter-war period. Diesel and battery powered locomotives were used. The model shows a number of production buildings including the last water powered gunpowder mill, shown as it was after being damaged by a German bomb in 1941. On the canal are covered powder barges for internal transport and a sailing barge used to take the gunpowder and cordite to Woolwich. Some rearrangement of these features has been necessary to form a portable linear layout, which has been shown at model railway exhibitions.
Extensive research has added to my first hand knowledge of the site. I worked in three of the buildings modelled, but by that time the rail system had been removed.
Also on the layout there is a model of the ‘Lady of the Lea’, the last wooden sailing barge built on the Thames. This type of barge had been used to transport gunpowder and cordite to Woolwich Arsenal since 1856.
The Model was constructed by Tony Barratt, who worked on the site 1959 -1979.
Tony also constructed a model of the Sandhurst Women’s Hospital – based on the original 1916 plans.
Learn more about the Industrial Railway System at the Royal Gunpowder Mills. THE RAILWAY SYSTEM
