Grantham - the Streamliner years

[LNER4479]

Well, I've finally decided to 'take the plunge' and give my project an airing - RM Web seems to be the place to be!

The model is intended as a reasonably accurate portrayal of Grantham as it was in the 1930's, with 1935-1939 as the target period (so as to allow the original LNER streamliner trains to be run). It is fully transportable and designed to be exhibitable, footprint 33ft x 17ft.

I make no apologies for deciding to recreate Grantham in miniature form, even though several others are already tackling the subject and I'm hoping the pre-war LNER era makes it a bit different. Certainly, the more I research the period, the more fascinating it becomes. Yes, the streamliner trains were the highlight, closely followed by the rest of the Gresley pacific fleet and their gorgeous rakes of teak coaches, but that was only half the story. Elsewhere, much of the old GN order remained and the local services in particular were in the hands of the venerable 4-4-0s and Atlantics hauling equally outdated stock. The 1930's were of course greatly depressed economic times (interesting parallels to our present day perhaps?) and it seemed to be a case of 'make do and mend' for the less prestigious services.
 

The project has been in existence since 2007 and it is largely all my own work. As I am still in full time employment, significant compromises have to be made if the thing is go be 'completed' within a reasonable timescale. Foremost amongst this is the use of Peco streamline Code 100 track throughout. I admire those who commit to building their own track, complete with fishplates et al, but for me it is about creating the overall impression and I hope to demonstrate that use of the Peco system is no obstacle to producing prototype looking track formations. I've spent many happy hours studying the prototype, along with two archive trackplans and, where possible, the model replicates the track layout as it was, thus allowing prototypical operations to be recreated (including the various propelling moves that would give 'elf and safety a fit nowadays!).

Allied to operation is a commitment to install working signals as I go along. Grantham in the 1930's was a glorious mix of GN somersaults and standard LNER upper quadrants (with not a colour light in sight). Again, careful study of photographs of the era has been necessary to establish the correct style for each signal (some were clearly renewed during my timeframe); once selected, then I've assembled them from MSE components. Each unplugs from the baseboard for transportation. They are also wired into the control system (traditional DC, for which again I make no apologies) which contains relay logic to replicate the interlocking such that conflicting routes cannot be set. It also provides power to the track so that trains cannot be driven against a signal at danger (although there is a manual override).

Buildings are being largely constructed using Metcalfe brick sheets on a cardboard or wood shell. Most of the buildings on the London-bound side and the station approach road still exist so I've visited and photographed; the rest are a careful approximation based on photos and house style. Each has sufficient detail to set the scene but no more, in keeping with the mantra of overall compromise.

So far as stock goes, here is the one big area where I am getting considerable assistance; in fact I would go so far as to say that if I didn't have access to other people's stock then the project would have been still-born. One friend in particular loves collecting LNER 00 gauge stock for fun so the informal deal was that he provides the stock and I provide the layout(!) So, where anything Gresley is concerned, we're pretty well covered. He already has a 'Coronation' set; the 'Silver Jubilee' is in the paint shop and the 'West Riding' is next!

My relatively modest rolling stock contribution therefore is to try and provide the balance with the older GN types. It's not that I don't like building stock, it's just back to the time involved! So far, I've made a start on a London Road models D2 and I have a J3 kit waiting next (Bachmann or Hornby please do a J6 - and a C1 large-boilered Atlantic wouldn't go amiss either). I've also completed two ex-GNR six-wheelers, with two further GNR Howlden bogie coaches under construction.

 

Well I think that'll do for an introduction. Thank you for reading this far. I'll leave you with a further few general pictures and if you want to know any more in response to the above then just let me know.
'Robert'



 

Edited January 7 by LNER4479

[Les1952]

VERY nice and very ambitious. What part of the country are you located in?

 

Les

(Bingham MRC)

[simon hudson]

Oh!! another lovely ECML layout what with Peterborough North and 50A Leaman Rd more to follow and spot.No wonder I never get any jobs done looking forward to more,Come on you've tempted us now!!.The right period for the original W1 or maybe a bit late?

[JCL]

That's really great. Living near Skegness as a kid, then moving to London later in life, Grantham was the station we almost always changed at (in fact I'll be flying over from Canada and passing through the station in a few weeks), so it will be really interesting to see this develop. I hope all goes well with it, and I concur about the C1! One quick question, were the 6-wheelers kit built or scratch-built?

 

Jason

[ROY@34F]

That's absolutely amazing Robert.I was a cleaner/fireman at Grantham in '57/63.You have done your research and captured the scene and track spot on I think.Certainly takes me back a bit. I love the photo of Harlaxton Road bridge;you've even got the sweeping curve on it,and the associated old warfe road under the other arch;brilliant.You're working some years before my time,indeed,all of us, I suppose of course,but it's really something.Thanks for sharing it.

Regards , Roy.

[LNER4479]

VERY nice and very ambitious. What part of the country are you located in?

 

Les

(Bingham MRC)

 

Hi Les,

 

On the move shortly but currently in the Stoke-on-Trent area so not a million miles from Nottingham...

[LNER4479]

Oh!! another lovely ECML layout what with Peterborough North and 50A Leaman Rd more to follow and spot.No wonder I never get any jobs done looking forward to more,Come on you've tempted us now!!.The right period for the original W1 or maybe a bit late?

 

Thanks for kind comments. The W1 in original form is arguably a little late for the period but it doesn't do to be too pedantic! Bit of a long way down the wish list for now though... But a model of 10000 in rebuilt A4-like form exists and is available to run on the layout.

[LNER4479]

That's really great. Living near Skegness as a kid, then moving to London later in life, Grantham was the station we almost always changed at (in fact I'll be flying over from Canada and passing through the station in a few weeks), so it will be really interesting to see this develop. I hope all goes well with it, and I concur about the C1! One quick question, were the 6-wheelers kit built or scratch-built?

 

Jason

 

Thanks for kind comments.

 

I actually used to travel through Grantham as a child in the opposite direction, as my mother's side of the family was from Wainfleet/Skegness. So we used to change trains at Grantham, alighting from the Manchester-Harwich service to join the DMU where we'd try and sit behind the driver for the journey onwards. So a bit of inspiration there I guess. The 6-wheelers are Bill Bedford kits which I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of putting together. Fitted with RTR wheelsets, with the middle set floating, they can quite happily be propelled through the the curve of Peco double slips so I'm really pleased about that, as some of the shunting moves require that to happen.

[Coombe Barton]

I can see lots of good things coming as we follow this through. You must have a big front room

[LNER4479]

That's absolutely amazing Robert.I was a cleaner/fireman at Grantham in '57/63.You have done your research and captured the scene and track spot on I think.Certainly takes me back a bit. I love the photo of Harlaxton Road bridge;you've even got the sweeping curve on it,and the associated old warfe road under the other arch;brilliant.You're working some years before my time,indeed,all of us, I suppose of course,but it's really something.Thanks for sharing it.

Regards , Roy.

 

Many thanks Roy for enouraging comments. Glad you were able to recognise the scenes from your local knowledge. I think I would have to say that the Harlaxton Road Bridge is my favourite part of the layout and it should make for an ideal viewpoint at exhibitions. The curve on the layout here is 6 foot radius which suits the geometry of the peco trackwork perfectly. By continuing this curve round through 90 degrees, the layout is already halfway round to the fiddle yard so it 'fits' well. What I haven't said so far is that the roads have a steel guide wire installed beneath them so I can run road vehicles using the Faller system. Trouble is that it would have been mostly horse and carts in pre-war days so that's a bit of a modelling challenge!

[Mike Bellamy]

Excellent to see my old home town (from the age of 6 in 1960 to 1976) - looking forward to seeing how this develops.

 

There is another Grantham layout on here but with a less ambitious track plan http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/43173-ecml1960-essence-of-grantham/page__fromsearch__1

 

Mention of the Harlaxton Road bridge reminds me that there are plans to redevelop the town side and station approach as explained here

http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/local/grantham-firms-issued-with-compulsory-purchase-orders-as-station-approach-work-is-set-to-begin-1-3885610

 

Have you seen all the information in this topic on the LNER Encyclopedia - I know I have seen Roy posting there http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3429

[pete_mcfarlane]

That looks very good. Are you going to have a back scene with all the Grantham landmarks on it, such as St Wulfram's church, the old Cattle Market and the Guildhall?

[JCL]

I actually used to travel through Grantham as a child in the opposite direction, as my mother's side of the family was from Wainfleet/Skegness.

 

Well I'm from Wainfleet as well , I left when I was 18 in 1986, so a little after the period you're modelling! Do you think it would be possible to see a picture of the station buildings the next time you put some up?

 

cheers

 

Jason

[Markeg]

Excellent work. Great to see another LNER/ECML layout, and such a large one.

Will follow your progress. Love the tall lattice post signal and the Coronation set. My summer project.

 

Now I must get back to mine as I am expanding mine from 15' to 20' in my shed.

 

Mark in OZ

[coronach]

It's looking really good - I look forward to following this. It just goes to show that realistic track layouts can be achieved using proprietary points.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I love this - was hoping somebody might be modelling Grantham as it always seemed a very interesting place, with the shed and everything. I'm especially impressed at how well you've used the Peco track to build prototypical track layouts - it's good to see, and shows that if you don't focus too much on the individual turnouts being a little inaccurate, the overall effect of accurate complex trackwork is excellent.

 

I recognised the distinctive junction with the Nottingham line straight away !

[S.A.C Martin]

Looks absolutely fantastic to me. Do I spy an Ivatt C12 behind the apple green Osprey?

[RhBBob]

Ah, my childhood days have returned ! My family lived on Houghton Road about two hundred yards from what was the A1 climbing Spittlegate Hill. The overnight sound of a 'streak' was balanced by the lorries changing gear as they faced a very steep climb heading south. I spent many happy school holidays hanging over the bridge and trespassing along the line.

 

This was the early 1950s of course before the A1 bypass was built and, as I think you have modelled, before the Lincoln line from Platform 1 was torn up.

 

A superb project Robert - as I now live some 40 miles west east* of Grantham, I look forward to seeing the layout at a future exhibition. *oops, old age again !

 

Incidentally, the station in 1939 boasted 1,000 staff including my relatives, Thomas Booth, and two of his sons, Joe and Walter.

Edited July 11, 2012 by RhBBob

[Guest Tom F]

Another lovely ECML layout to enjoy viewing! Looking very good so far. Nothing better than just sitting back and watching the trains go by!

I'll be following this thread closely!

 

Cheers

[great northern]

Thanks for sharing this Robert. I too will be looking forward to watching it progress. I would love to have modelled Grantham, but alas I don't have the length to do the Nottingham branch and junction properly, so Peterborough evolved instead. You have captured it though, and as you say the '30's setting does give the layout it's own distinctive niche, even though other Grantham models are on the way. I shall be able to recreate some very happy days in the mid 50's to early 60's watching locos simmering on shed, and the contrast between the expresses and the local services, particularly as you will be showing the latter in the days before DMU's.

 

I can't resist pointing out that there does not seem to be at the moment any other stretch of line in the UK which has attracted so many modellers. A testament surely to the lasting achievements of far sighted men from Dennison to the great Sir Nigel and beyond.

Edited July 11, 2012 by great northern

[Mallard60022]

Very nice indeed. Lovely to see the pre '48 stock as this is something I never saw.

A thought has just popped into my remaining brain cell in that soon we could have an exhibition (in Grantham?) just using the Grantham layouts

Look forward to seeing shots of the shed area.

P @ 36E

[LNERGE]

No shortage of box diagrams for Grantham if they are of use.

[LNER4479]

Thanks all for further comments and encouragement. I'll try and answer each specific point in turn.

 

Yes, Mike, I've seen other Grantham posting and also chanced on the thread on LNER forum some while ago. Some of the pictures posted on there have been quite useful to my research so I'm grateful for all who have contributed to that particular item.

 

Yes, Pete, St Wulfram's church on the backscene is a must and I'm hoping to fit in a small suggestion of the old Cattle Market on the layout itself, as it shows up on the old 1903 map close up to the railway beyond the Harlaxton Road bridge.

 

Thats spooky JCL! Do you remember the 'A C Whittington' general store by the 90deg bend in the A52 at the Skegness end of Wainfleet? That was run by my grandmother and thus where we used to stay in the 1970's. And do you remember the minah bird in the hardware store in the market square?!

I'll put some buildings information up on a future posting.

 

Yes, that's a C12 alright, S.A.C Martin. Lovely put together kit (Craftsman I think) but not the smoothest of runners. I have a Hornby J52 for station pilot duties at the moment, although the layout needs about 4-5 shunting engines if truth be told - not to mention a couple of horses(!). A reliable C12 is a must.

 

Thanks for offer of diagrams LNERGE. North box and Yard box are pretty much 'fixed' now but I'm still a bit short of information on South box signals so if you able to assist there then that would be great.

 

 

I hope to keep putting up regular postings but obviously need to work on the model in the meantime in order to have something new to post. So if you'll excuse me for now I have some glazing bars to fit to the goods shed sky lights!

 

'Robert'

Edited August 13, 2012 by LNER4479

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Super layout - really captures the "feel" of Grantham.

 

You appear to be using foam underlay for the mainlines. Any particular reason for that? Presumably you'll be using normal ballast for the other tracks and weather the foam to match.

[devondynosoar118]

Beautiful setting and stock, in a classic period, replicated with care and using methods that the average modeller can reproduce, but at a size that is inspiring. What a combination!