wakeyrailfan

Just found this. Pretty please?

A bit off in terms of timescale perhaps but it would be nice to see the Class 17 in Castle livery pottering around the cement works. Any chance?

A quiet morning at the clubhouse resulted mainly in completion of the audit of the club's annual accounts. However, some modelling time was devoted to new bridge abutments for the engine shed siding. Always short of an hour or two during filming a simple occupational crossing was strung across the stream without any visible means of support. This is being rectified as the photo shows. Now, do I build the bridge decking and sides from the abutments located in place or construct the bridge off site and plant the finished article on site? The second quickie was linked to the discovery of a new stream between the wood yard and canal locks. This will meander down from the back scene and sink underground to traverse below the WRMS sidings before emerging in dock via a grilled over outflow pipe. Wakeyrailfan

Blimey. I went away for what seems like a few days and the layout topic disappeared down.. down.. down the batting order. Must be more regular about this RMWEB thingy. Thanks to Enginelane for covering so well. Anyway, two recent topics have come up. Firstly, due to the arrival of Andrew, Suzie, Jacob and Sarah we have experienced modelling reinforcements. Check them out at Batterdale in N which is around the circuit in these northern parts. A long discussion took place last Friday and the middle of the dock board is up to development as a timber yard. This makes sense as the dock could see the import of Scandinavian timber primarily for pit props taken away in open wagons via the BR connecting line. As BR engines are not allowed in this part of the WRMS. it would entail several moves - BR pick up arrives and is shunted in the quarry exchange sidings - WRMS loco works empties to the dock and return loads - BR return working made up with this and other traffic and departs. Not economic but if you want block trains try another era and location! Further thought is going into movement of timber from the dock to the yard (dirt road proposed along the scenic break), the cutting shed and loading arrangements (perhaps the original gravel loader much upgraded) and worker facilities (you can never get enough tea after all). The picture shows the area of the development with ready made siding leftover from the show layout. There will be a stream in the depression near the canal locks and the yard beyond. The building is to give scale and is a tease here. It is from a previous club layout, provenance uncertain. The second development is the replacement of the engine shed water crane (currently the GW Ratio kit) with some thing more suitable for Yorkshire. Picking up an Airfix tank wagon for £3.50 at a recent show is providing a donor tank. The tank itself is to be as is with just the Esso plate holes filled over. However a filing pipe (brass rod). outlet pipe (Hobby Holidays rubber piping) and support frame ((Plastruct) are being added. Hopefully it will stand up to the rigours of winter when the wind blows hard round here. If you look at the picture you will see I am keeping the middle of the wagon frame to utilise the supports brackets from the kit but have removed the outer ends. The side frames have been much cut down but retained. Plastruct beams will form the end frame pieces and vertical framing. Photographic evidence suggests H section steel beams would be appropriate but advice would be welcome. I'm hoping the water filling and output arrangements will provide a unique visual twist to the project as I know this is well trodden modelling ground. It will need heavy weathering to mask a 1960s wagon design appearing in 1958 as reused redundant rolling stock. All for now.

yep you guessed it

Here is an approximation of the current track plan. Please note that I do not have experience in layout planning software so this is a lash up of Anyrail and Powerpoint! The basic idea was to move gravel from a quarry to a dock on the River Calder for transhipment. A high level line brought small quantities of coal delivered to barges via a staithe (think British Oak) to add interest. Control was via dcc. Access to the loader and unloader was limited meaning that much shunting was required. The layout was set in 1958 and a history of the enterprise was established after several visits to the West Yorkshire archive service. A brief summary is given below. West Riding Marine & Stone's origins go back to 1827 when the James and Henry Arbuthnot developed interests in mining and shipping respectively. The twin sons of a lowly Wakefield clerk they typified an era when the application of invention, drive and determination could result in economic and social improvement. James was interested in the potential uses for the Millstone Grit and commenced mining to the west of Wakefield selling to builders who used it for decorative lintels and other premium uses. Henry meanwhile developed a thriving barging empire based on the northern canal network. In 1847 West Riding Marine & Stone was formed combining James’ existing mining interests with Henry’s recently built Arbuthnot Dock on the River Calder where a new line from the mine and a separate high level feeder line from a coal mine fed an interesting cast iron staithe. Profitable distant markets opened up. Soon a 3 mile link to the national network near Horbury junction on the L&Y main line was laid and this provided an alternative way of moving the all important Millstone grit to customers over the coming decades. For enthusiasts, it meant the daily arrival of a mainline train often hauled by an 0-6-0 or 2-6-0 tender loco at the quarry sidings. 1847 proved to be the high water mark for WRMS and not long after James and Henry retired to their newly constructed country residence at Cridling Stubbs. By 1958, WRMS had seemingly settled into existence as a rural industrial backwater. The famous Millstone Grit is now crushed and used for gravel infill. The line’s terminus is still at the original mine but stone is moved there by conveyor from the new working face as there was no money to re-align the railway. Old production methods and labour intensive transport are resulting in a downward spiral of low productivity and low profits. James was interested in all things underground and coal seams in the vicinity of his stone quarry were opened up in the 1830s. Production was always on a small scale never exceeding a few thousand tons per week but integration with the other Arbuthnot enterprises kept the mine just profitable. Coal was worked to Arbuthnot dock over a high level private line. On nationalisation, the mine remained in private as it was said not to employ more than 30 miners. Local opinion was that the company had played a blinder!

Hello there, As a long time browser of RMweb and newly elected project manager for West Riding Marine & Stone, I thought I'd better join the forum to keep anyone interested in the future of the layout updated. Our GMRC entry featured in the same Heat as the eventual winners but was dogged by limited preparation time and technical issues over the build. This is not a topic concerned as such with the C5/ Knickerbockerbglory TV show but the future of the layout over the next 12 months or so. The layout survived a trip back up the M1 from the shoot well (considering) but the TV team soon moved on to other projects. What to do with the layout? Well, after due consideration it has been decided to improve what needs improving and undertake a limited amount of new works to produce a more complete layout that will always be a little special and interesting to operate and capable of holding its own in public. As a TV team member I have an affection for WRM&S and landed the job of making it happen. The overall thoughts behind the project are: The keep the original concept and build where desirable To finish or replace elements recognising that what can be done in 24 hours limits longer term appeal To involve as many club members/new members as possible including "on the job" learning with guidance from our more experienced modellers As a target, exhibit a finished working model at our show over the weekend of 15th - 17th November I won't go on here but put up a couple of background posts to get the journey underway! Wakeyrailfan

Just testing. Hoping to launch a new layout topic next: West Riding Marine & Stone. Wakefield RMS has decided to improve and extend its GMRC entry as a different approach to our usual club layouts.