Middlemill is a small town on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border. It is situated on a river at the bottom of the valley.

In the late 1700's a canal was built through the village; as a result of this Middlemill grew into a town suppling the canal.

In 1862 a horse drawn tramway was built from Middlemill to the surrounding coal mines as it was seen as a more efficient way of transporting the goods than the local pathway.

In 1886 it was decided that the tramway would be upgraded into a narrow gauge railway following the practice of the famous 'Ffestiniog Railway' and other narrow gauge railways in north wales.

The upgrades were completed in June 1887 with two 0-4-0 side tank locomotives built by Kerr Stuart for the new railway.

After a running as a freight only line for several years, the end of 1893 sore the use of two new four wheeled coaches. A passenger station was also built alongside the engine sheds at Middlemill.

In 1905 a standard gauge railway was built right through the valley, with a new station at Middlemill. A goods shed was also built along side the narrow gauge railway to transship goods.

Two bogie vans were built later that year in direct response to the increase in freight movement.

The beginning of 1906 saw the purchase of a Hunslet saddle tank engine from a quarry in wales. This engine was converted into a tender engine so it could run for longer without having to take on coal and water as often.

As the new standard gauge line was seen as a faster and better way to transport goods, the canal became unused and the transshipment shed ended up being a general warehouse.

The First World War saw the demand for such freight decline rapidly and the narrow gauge railway was no longer need as any traffic left was replaced by early road lorry's. So in march 1914,all the engines and stock were scrapped and the track bed left derelict.

The Middlemill Railway was a rarely known one, and left very few traces that it was there at all. Some would argue that there never was a Middlemill Railway in the first place! I will let you decide on that one.

Here are some pictures:

As you can see, the transshipment shed its in a pretty poor state with the broken window. This shows that I am modelling the later days of the railway when the canal was seeing alot less use and more traffic went by the standard gauge railway vier the goods shed.

Here is the loading platform of the shed; where general goods is now stored.

This is how the layout looks at the moment. The picture shows the location of the controller inside the transshipment shed.

Apart from adding a back drop behind the shed and some more scenics to disguise the 'corner in the sky', I can't see much more that needs doing.

Comments would be much appreciated.