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Midland Railway prototype Turnout design - loose heel turnouts


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Hi,

 

I model LMS 1930 and the permanent way would have been pure pre-grouping MR in my backwater! One feature I would like to add is the characteristic ‘kick’ in a turnout that ‘loose heel’ switch blades give – just look at all those fantastic long distance official pictures of MR marshalling yards where you look along the rails and you will see what I mean.

 

I have been trying to find out information on late MR prototype practice for their turnouts and crossings. I am particularly interested in these 'loose heel' turnouts and the length of the straight switch rails associated with each crossing angle (1 in 8 etc).

 

I vaguely remember an article in a magazine on MR permanent way practice and have just ploughed through Midland Record from issue 0 to no avail. Perhaps it was in MRJ or even BRJ? Does anyone have a searchable index for these mags and even better does anyone recall seeing the article?

 

Tony

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Thanks John,

 

Yes as you say the article in MRJ makes interesting reading but is pretty old and out of date now. Just think how much info is available on GW trackwork compared to then! I remember the article but I don't think it was the one I was thinking of - that was more detailed IIRC.

 

Tony

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Try Modellers' Back Track vol 1 Nos. 2 & 5.

Brilliant! An 'occasional' series I would say, part 3 appears in Vol2 No3 - still looking for the next part.

 

To start with it is really early practice but the majical ref to 12ft straight switch rails is there!

 

Cheers Tony

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A few posts earlier I mentioned joining the Yahoo "Trackwork Group". By chance, someone else, was asking for similar information, see below for various references. I sugest, all you will need to know. Mick.

 

 

 

Back in March Bob Ellis asked where he could find drawings of Midland Railway permanent way, including switches and crossings.

I now know that there are Midland S&C drawings at 3 places, which are:

1) The National Archives at Kew (RAIL 491/643).

2) The HMRS Study Centre at Butterley (who now have Bob Essery's collection of MR permanent way information).

3) The Midland Railway Study Centre at the Silk Mill Museuam at Derby.

 

The MRSC holds 161 drawings of MR permanent way. Their catalogue is online at http://www.midlandrailwaystudycentre.org.uk/catalogue.php where search of "permanent way" with category "drawing" finds 483 entries. The 483 entries are actually 161 drawings each reported 3 times by the search! The 161 drawings include an 1896 book of 75 p.way drawings using 100lbs rail (ref 20335-00 to 20335-75) and an 1885 book of 68 p.way drawings using 85lbs rail (ref 20337-00 to 20337-68). Both books include drawings of points and of crossings in many different sizes.

 

The search detailed above gives full descriptions of every drawing and the website at www.midlandrailwaystudycentre.org.uk explains how to use the MRSC and how to see the drawings.

 

Happy researching to all!

Ernest Bate

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  • 4 weeks later...

I can add some detail to the above with regard to the Midland Railway Study Centre. They have a set of standard track details from the Southern Area Engineer's Office (I think southern is south of Leicester) for 85lb and 100 lb switches and crossings (points to most people). There are some interesting differences between the two types. Also the timbering is worth some study. I have for instance modelled the 85lb trackwork and this involves some 14 inch wide timbers to on which are placed 2 chairs. I think the 100 lb trackwork just uses 12 inch timbers but with compound chairs. If you want copies of the diagrams, you will need to make a visit to Derby (see web site for details). The Centre is only open on certain days and you need to book. Also you will need to take a camera and the documents are too fragile to be photocopied.

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  • RMweb Gold

Unless you are using P4 or S7 standards there is a small problem in that the standard offset at the heel is 4.5ins which as it includes the width of the rail head is less than the flangeway for most standards. Therefore to provide clearance the switch needs to flex further from the blades tips. You can either use a longer switch blade say a 15ft but maintaining the planning angle for a 12ft blade or make the heel a dummy and create a spring switch with the dummy heel joint able to move.

Don

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