Elmton & Creswell c1936

Creating this blog really got my thoughts going again.

It's been a while since I did any modelling (I was a regular OO, 1/35th modeller right into my 20's but women, cars and work got in the way somehow!) but a recent trip with my father to a toyfair had me buying a few OO diecast and whitemetal vehicles.

In modelling an early period vehicle choice is a little limited. There are lots of post war vehicles to be had in this scale but quality prewar stuff isn't as accessible. For

Hi -

Best of luck with the project - yuo ceetainly seem to be 'on track' with the background research!

 

With regard to road vehicles (particularly 'private' ones) I wouldn't worry too much.  The majority of vehicular traffic would have been goods vehicles - but still sparse.  Even in the 1930's it was not unusual to see un-tarmac'd roads - basicallytwo wheel-ruts between the hedges with the wheel ruts separated by a central grass stip dotted with horse droppings.

 

Private cars were few and far between - mostly owned by 'landed gentry' or village worthies like the doctor.  Most people travelled by public transport or took the gig to the station. 

 

If you set the layout period during 'works week' - plenty of scope for running big engine hauling 8+ coaches takig the miners for theiur weeks outing to Scarborough!

 

Good photo references for 'village life' can be found by googling the 'Francis Frith' collection.  Even if your chosen village isn't covered, there will be similar groups.

 

All the very best & welcome back to the fold!

 

REgards

 

Ian

With some help from other RMWeb members in the UK Prototype Questions forum I was pointed to the NLS Maps website (http://maps.nls.uk/) and got busy looking at my area of interest.

Some screen grabs, cropping and stitching later and I had a decent view of the branchlines I was interested in.


This map shows the MR and LD&ECR railways and their links with Creswell and Clowne

Then I zoomed into the area I propose to work on in this first part of the build. I wanted to follow the track from the colliery past the station and goods yard through to the junction where the lines split for Clowne and Whitwell. Thankfully this section of track is fairly straight offering me a chance to build the scenery around it giving a sense of the surrounding area.

It was important to me to keep certain elements within the boundaries of the layout. To the far right on the Whitwell line are some beautiful houses before the road bridge. These houses still exist and I used to walk by them on my way to and from school not much further towards Clowne near Markland Grips. Incorporating them adds a little sentiment.

At the far left the line will end at a stone footbridge that crosses the colliery lines. As a child I would cross this, then a steel (wooden in the 30's) bridge that would scare many a child. These are both obvious places to end the line as they offer opportunities to add sections either end.

The fork towards Clowne is also an opportunity but it makes more sense to tie the LD&ECR in at the colliery end with another layout.

Certain details like gardens backing onto the line at Welbeck Street, the Station Hotel on the main road and maybe one of the churches may be added to give some 'off-rail' interest.


Layout scope proposal

My next task is to measure the build area ad come up with a layout plan to work with it.
 

Hi -

Best of luck with the project - yuo ceetainly seem to be 'on track' with the background research!

 

With regard to road vehicles (particularly 'private' ones) I wouldn't worry too much.  The majority of vehicular traffic would have been goods vehicles - but still sparse.  Even in the 1930's it was not unusual to see un-tarmac'd roads - basicallytwo wheel-ruts between the hedges with the wheel ruts separated by a central grass stip dotted with horse droppings.

 

Private cars were few and far between - mostly owned by 'landed gentry' or village worthies like the doctor.  Most people travelled by public transport or took the gig to the station. 

 

If you set the layout period during 'works week' - plenty of scope for running big engine hauling 8+ coaches takig the miners for theiur weeks outing to Scarborough!

 

Good photo references for 'village life' can be found by googling the 'Francis Frith' collection.  Even if your chosen village isn't covered, there will be similar groups.

 

All the very best & welcome back to the fold!

 

REgards

 

Ian

Thanks for the comment Ian.

 

I have gathered a selection of OO vehicles over the last few years. Some were 'hand me downs' from my fathers huge collection and others 'off the cuff purchases'. I have managed to obtain some photographs of life in the village which offer a snapshot of the condition of buildings and the vehicles that travelled through the village.

 

I intend to mimic those snapshots where possible, with the correct vehicles and capture the essence of Creswell.

 

Here are a few examples:

 

Shelvoke Drewery Freighter refuse truck passing Midland Garage on Sheffield Road.

 

Fowler steam traction engine with threshing machine on Mansfield Road.

 

A Leyland Tiger TS8 omnibus passing through flooding. Possibly East Midlands Motor Services.

 

The bus above has thankfully been the subject of a recreation by EFE so I will be ordering one soon.

 

 

Some progress....

I cleared the area in the room where the layout will go. As you can see it's a loft bedroom I converted in 2010 and the eaves storage wall was cleverly made at a height ideal for operating a railway. The wife doesn't believe a word of it and says I had planned this all along. Would I?



The layout will be a traditional oval with the station and goods area across the wall beneath the window, end to end with curves returning towards the camera and looping across a traverser board in line with the door opening. The board will be removable and stored away when no in use.

Leaving Creswell to the North (left) you pass the signal box and can choose between heading behind houses, over a bridge and into the tunnel cutting for Whitwell or taking the route towards Clowne, winding through the scenery at Markland Grips until you enter the cutting at Hollin Hill. Both these lead into the traverser board.

 

Leaving Creswell to the right you cross over a road bridge and the Station Hotel to pass houses on the left and the sidings at Creswell Colliery on the right. You can choose to enter the colliery or continue through towards Norwood Sidings, Langwith and Shirebrook - again into the traverser. The idea is trains can leave for 3 destinations - all served by the traverser board. The trick will be making the transitions believable and scaleworthy. 

I'll make a board drawing and rough plan later so you can laugh at the idea :-)

In other news I called in on a model shop (Sherwood Models in Nottingham) on my way back from dropping a kid in town. It's a long time since I went into a model shop so a few things like track and buildings had improved but the banter and advice was still the same. A chat with the owner left me with some Peco turnout plans.

I picked up a few pots of Humbrol paint and spotted a bargain OO vehicle model - a KeilKraft GWR Thornycroft van (as below) which had been assembled but needed the front axle gluing back on.



I'll need to change the colour and pretty it up a little but it's a nice period addition to my layout. Here is an original:



I also picked up a John Day models Humber which is now part constructed and getting ready for paint.