TO CATCH THE TRAIN, FIRST CATCH THE WIND!
The Spurn Landship was originally used on the military railway at Spurn Point, East Yorkshire, nearly a century ago. Phil Mathison has been behind a project to re-create one of these iconic sail bogies, which last ran more than 70 years ago.
When, after renovation in March 2016, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust opened the Spurn Lighthouse in Yorkshire, the idea of creating a replica ‘sail bogie’ or ‘landship’ was mooted. The Spurn military railway was constructed during the First World War in order to enable the fortification of the Green Battery on Spurn Point and the Godwin Battery at Kilnsea. After 1919, the line saw considerably less use, and that is when local residents saw their opportunity.
The first mention of this unusual means of transport on the Spurn Point military railway was reported in the Hull Daily Mail, dated October 5, 1922. It would appear that two local residents of Kilnsea – a Mr Charles Hailes and Mr Edwin Hodgson – struck upon the idea when they needed to get down the peninsula in a hurry. They found a redundant bogie and used a discarded sheet that had been used as a cinema screen in the YMCA hut at the artillery garrison for the sail. The prototype underwent a number of changes, and between the wars, there appears to have been several of these sail bogies created. They were used mostly by the lifeboatmen, lighthouse keepers and any visiting civilians, which was something of a liberty, as after all, this was a military railway under the ultimate jurisdiction of the army!
The first item on our modern-day agenda to re-create this historic vehicle was to locate suitable standard-gauge wheels and axles, and so the ‘Readers’ Platform’ in the June 2016 issue of The RM printed my request for them. Unfortunately, I received no suitable response from this, but a friend of mine on his travels had come across a suitable bogie at the former GNR station at Rippingale, South Lincolnshire, which is now a private residence.
Slight problem
I contacted the then resident and owner of the bogie, John Scholes, and asked if it was for sale. He said yes, but there was a slight problem – there was a saddle tank from an industrial named Dora perched on it! I agreed to buy the bogie on the understanding it would become available when said tank was reunited with the loco, little knowing the wait would be for two and a half years.
Having collected the bogie in November 2018, it was transported to a private residence in East Yorkshire and stored. The original landships were very basic and mostly wood, but ours would have a steel chassis, be more robust, and possess some rudimentary brake gear.
The original bogies had no brakes, and were stopped by throwing a sleeper in front of the speeding vehicle – unfortunately, not quite up to the standards of the present health and safety conscious age.
Obviously, suitable wood is readily available, especially in Hull, which imports colossal quantities of it. Most of the woodworking was undertaken by my friend Torkel Larsen, an expert with timber, and also incidentally the driving force behind the proposal to build a brand new pier at the nearby Yorkshire coastal resort of Withernsea. Rope and the fabric for the sails proved slightly trickier to obtain.
Ultimately, I sourced manila rope, (ideally, I wanted hemp, but this was unavailable)
12mm for the rigging and 6mm for brailing
THE ONLY WAY
The ordinary road from Patrington to Withernsea is, of course, impossible. Hardly anyone ventures this way nowadays unless he is asking for broken springs and other damage. The only way is to turn off to the left down Preston Long-Lane (just before entering Preston) to Lelley, and to proceed via Burton Pidsea and Roos whether one is making for Patrington or Withernsea. We have been over this road several times lately, and find it, too, is getting potholey in places, and after rain there are some swampy corners. Still it is tolerably good going, but the road is narrow, and users should be on the lookout for the large cars which are using this route.
MAKING FOR SPURN
On reaching Patrington we decided to push on to as near Spurn as possible. The road took us through Welwick, Skeffling, Easington and Kilnsea, but we are not going to assume the responsibility of advising any motorists to go over it. Anyway, there were compensations for we heard the great story of the “landship”, and enjoyed a novel experience.
GO BY “LANDSHIP”
Between Kilnsea and Spurn is a stretch of three miles of sands and grassy dunes, and it makes very rough walking indeed; the tide has also to be taken into consideration. Walking, nowadays, though, is not necessary. You go by landship, which daily conveys to and fro, officers and men at the battery, lifeboat men, coastguardmen, and few residents who are to be found in this lonely outpost.
HOW IT ORIGINATED
This is how the landship was evolved. During the war the Government laid down a light railway along the sands from Spurn to Kilnsea for the purpose of serving the Battery at Kilnsea, and particularly to convey heavy traffic. Since, the light engines had been removed and the line has fallen into disuse. One day recently, Mr Charles Hailes, of Kilnsea, wanted to get from Spurn to Kilnsea in a hurry. An idea struck him. On the line was a small bogey, or truck: the propelling force was the problem. It was blowing hard at the time, and the thought occurred, “Why not fix a sail to the truck?” He consulted Mr Edwin Hodgson, another Kilnsea resident.
CINEMA SHEET AS SAIL
At the Y.M.C.A. there was a cast-out sheet used for a cinema screen when the Garrison Artillery men were stationed there. This sheet they nailed to a mast. They stepped aboard, a gale was blowing from the south, and almost before they had realised it they were off like a shot from a gun, at a mile a minute. The next thing was how to stop the “ship,” as when they approached Kilnsea Battery they realised they were in for a smash unless they called a halt. Quick as thought Mr Hailes whipped out his knife and slashed the sail free, and even then the truck rushed along for a considerable distance under its own momentum.
IMPROVING THE “SHIP”
Since then the “land ship” has developed, a proper fishing vessel sail has been attached and suitable brakes attached. The trip from Spurn to Kilnsea has been done in three minutes, which represents a mile a minute. We were told that the “landship” can run to and fro manipulating the sails in all winds, excepting a dead north head wind, or a calm, which we have yet to experience at Spurn Head. A trip on the landship is an adventure to the stranger, but the residents are getting used to it now.
area from 47.25sq ft to 77sq ft. Using Martin’s formula for the weight of wind captured in a sail: W = 0.004 x V squared x A (where W is the weight, V is the wind speed in mph, and A is the area of sail in square feet), has increased the force delivered by the wind from 4.725lbs at 5mph, to 7.7lbs. A wind speed of 10mph now provides us with 30.8lbs of wind in our sails. The figures for stronger winds do not bear thinking about!
On June 3, the landship was transported to the Derwent Valley Light Railway (DVLR) at Murton, York. Here, we conducted braking trials, stability and drawbar pull tests, as well as having a very enjoyable day sailing the rails.
We found that the bogie with no one on it required an 18lb pull to overcome inertia, and the lower figure of 9lb when the vehicle was on the move. With two adults on board, the relevant figures became 22lb and 13lb, respectively.
Innovate
The wind that day was about 15mph from the WSW, with gusts up to 30 mph, and with the orientation of the DVLR being broadly west to east, we travelled from the western buffers towards the station. However, the line is rather sheltered and we frequently hit dead spots were the wind just died.
I would like to thank the staff at the DVLR for their warm welcome and assistance that day. Thanks are also extended to the Velocipede Society for information about the braking system we used, and Torkel Larsen, Rick Sharpe and Harvey Midwood for their input on the project.
The Humber region is now recognised as a hub of green energy, with wind turbines for the vast North Sea wind farms being produced by Siemens in Hull. Their specialist ships regularly convey the finished products past Spurn Point. Therefore, this landship embodies the need to innovate and harness renewable sources of energy, using a vehicle our predecessors would have recognised a hundred years ago. It is a case of the old informing the new.
As the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust owns and manages the Spurn site, it seems totally appropriate that a relic of the last century should now be endorsed by the trust, creating interest wherever it goes. ■
Should any heritage railway be interested in a visit by the Spurn landship, then I can be contacted by e-mail : philgoudie@hotmail.com