Blakey Rigg, NER

[Rosedale]

This is the openning blog to start explaining and illustrating progress on my new project, a 7mm model of Blakey Junction high up on top of the North Yorkshire Moors. The real railway ran from Battersby Junction to the foot of the North Yorskshire Moors escarpment then up an incline onto the moor top. It then ran across the moors to Blakey where a Junction saw it run to ironstone mines on both the East and West sides of Rosedale. A further line ran from near Blakey down into Farndale to service smaller ironstones. Blakey Junction was, and is, an isolated and beautiful spot high up on the Blakey Ridge (or Rigg) that seperates Rosedale from Farndale. It was a hard life for the miners and railwaymen and their familes who toiled in harsh conditions to extract and transport iron ore down to the furnaces in Teesside and beyond. In later blogs I will set out more of the history and give some links to interesting material.

 

I first came across the region while a student at York University in the early 1980s. I had been driven up to area with some other friends for a bit of a lunchtime stroll and a few pints in Rosedale Abbey, the village in the heart of the valley. We were driving out of the valley up the incredibly steep Bank Top Road when I spotted some ruined kilns in the valley side. And that started a lifetime's obsession with the area and a determination to one day build a model.

 

Most of my modelling to date has been of the Irish Broad Gauge in S Scale, a tad obsure I admit! I fancied a new project and wanted to build an NER model being a great admirer of that fine railway. And I always knew it was going to be of Blakey Junction. The problem was, what scale? I have therefore spent a few years now pondering about S and 7mm, boring my various friends in both scales. I will write again to explain why, after much soul searching, I finally plumped for 7mm scale.

 

But for now, I can say that the scenic part of the layout is 12' by 2'6" and features Blakey Junction set high up on the valley side. The boards and trestles have been maden and basic scenery has now been sculpted in chicken wire and modroc. I have kept the weight down by using extruded polystyrene and 4mm ply, following many of the ideas set out by Gordon Gravett in MRJ.

 

So, that's it for now. Future posts will show progress, trackplans and the history of the line.

[Mrkirtley800]

This is a fascinating subject, and I will be following your progress with a great deal of interest.

Derek

[Guest G567281]

I look forward to following your progress with much interest. I have always had a fascination for the place which goes back to the late 60's, early 70's. An almost self - contained railway. Happy memories of being snowed in The Lion at Blakey for a couple of nights whilst returning home from watching the RAC Rally through the forest stages around Pickering.

Operationally the junction should be very satisfying. I was considering modelling Blakey Junction a few years back together with Rosedale Shed. Must go and dig out my booklets, NERA diagrams and purchased photographs.

 

Regards

 

Alan

[wilsoh]

Hi, you might find some useful information from this web-site. Its mostly about the incline but there are bits re Blakey Junction and traffic workings etc.

 

http://www.rosedalerailway.org/index.html

 

Regards 

 

Howard Wilson

[wilsoh]

Sorry the link doesn`t work - try searching for rosedale railway.

 

Howard

[waggy]

Looking forward to this, i can remember walking most of this railway on a school hike back in the late 60's 

 

Regards.

 

Graham

[Rosedale]

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments, information and encouragement, it is much appreciated! The Lion Inn is a great feature of the area and I have spent a few nights and many a lunchtime in there enjoying the huge meals, great ales and of course the photos of the railway. It must have been great fun G567281 watching the RC Rally up there and getting snowed in at the Lion! The walking up and around Rosedale and Farndale is great and I have always enjoyed the peace and quiet whilst imagining the hive of industrial activity in the area 100 years ago with all the mining and the railway.

Fortunately, I have a few days off work next week and hope to do some more work on the layout boards and I will then post a few pictures of progress to date. Thanks again.

[55016]

I'm another that has a great interest in this railway/area which I'm lucky enough to visit at least once a month on average. Assume you have the Scarborough (I think) Historical booklet on the mines & railway? There was also a section of the Beck Isle Musuem in Pickering that had (& may still have) a display of photos and archive information that brought up a few items I'd not seen before.

 

There's also a local historical group that meet in the communal building out on the lane towards Hill Cottages (Rosedale East terminus) that may well be of interest if you need any more background.

 

Look forward to seeing this progress!

[russ p]

There are a few books about the rosedale railway and mines in the Cleveland ironstone series available from Guisborough book shop amongst others. One of the pictorial books has the picture of the junction which hangs in the pub at Blakey.

Incident I actually knew a chap who traveled on the line as a child, he is sadly no longer with us but his dad was a driver at rosedale and he got to ride the line.

On closure of rosedale his dad moved to Pickering which was where did started on the railway sadly dying in service as a driver at Thornaby about 1986. It was fascinating talking to him about the branch, I can't remember to well but he may have lived in one of the Blakey cottages

[Worsdell forever]

Ken Hoole's 'Railways of Cleveland' is indispensable.

My next plan is the goods terminus at Low Baring, Rosedale East in EM, I have the stock built, see my workbench, for 1928 operating and I'm planning a 1001 no 1093 for operating around 1900.

[Rosedale]

Thanks again for the interest shown so far. I said that I was having some time off work and hoped to do some modelling and would post some pictures of progress. And now that I have battled through the accumulated DIY etc I have made some progress.

 

As I said before, the layout is in 7mm scale and the scenic part is 12' by 2'6" on 3 boards. It will be continuous run with a fiddle yard at the back and another one the front for the East Mines branch. In a future post I'll include the trackplan.

 

I wanted to have a reasonable width so that I could set the layout in the landscape where Blakey Junction was perched on the side of Rosedale with the valley below. I am looking forward to the scenic work to recreate the heather and moorland scene - it's part of the attraction of the subject as well as the railway itself. My current layout Kilbrandon (going to its final show at Gateshead in November) has boards 2'6" wide and it has been a struggle moving them to exhibitions or upstairs to the loft railway room because of the weight as much as the size. So, with Blakey I am using this new fangled extruded polystyrene stuff to cut the weight down allied to 9mm ply ends and 6mm ply sides. They are undoubtedly lighter and with proper bracing pretty strong. The scenery is chicken wire and modroc, bonded to the ply and polystyrene with staples and No More Nails, plus a light skim of plaster on top and underneath to give it strength. This has added to the weight but they are still lighter than the Kilbrandon boards.

 

They are then mounted on lightweight trestles 45" off the deck. I am also going to make a fit a roll-up backscene made out of rubber backed blackout blind material as I always thought that the gaps in the sky of Kilbrandon's ply section backscene was not great. It also gets a right battering and dirt when transporting it. By having a roll-up backscene I can hopefully protect it.

 

To the photos! These are taken in the garage with all the usual stuff - paint, bikes. But I am doing doing all the heavy dirty stuff there before hopeful transfer to the warmth of the loft for track and scenics across the Winter.

 

Hopefully you can get an idea of the layouts size and layout. I have modelled one of the Rosedale brakevans from the very nice Jim McGowan kit, although it was a bit of a ###### fitting compensation - rocking solebar as used a lot in S Scale.

 

The S1 hopper wagons have been made with a lot of help from Doug Hey before he emigrated and when I get time I will write more about them but for now, thanks Doug!

 

The loco, well that's quite a story! It is in fact a 7mm Irish broad gauge GSWR J15, itself McDonnel's prototype for the NER Class 59. Its well known that the 59 was a failure on the NER, but the J15 was a great success in Ireland - and still is with one, 150 years old, still going strong on railtours in the Emerald Isle. McDonnels big mistake was to build a new loco for the NER that was less powerful than the preceding 398 class. Oh, and the wee matter of foisting left hand drive on the NER locomen. But I think the 59ers were atractive engines and one did find its way up to Rosedale, so I am going to build one for the layout as well as a Long Boiler Goods. I hope I don't fall out with Wordell Forever as I am a great admirer of Greyscroft Mine which I have seen at Redcar (you were exibiting there at the same time as Kilbrandon a few years back) and York. A great layout, but I'd better also build a P class!

 

The figures include the Dad and 2 kids from the great picture of Blakey Junction - this might not be to everyone's taste but I want to capture the life of the railwaymen and their families at this bleak, but beautiful, spot.

 

I am currently making the fiddle yards and have started to paint the plaster hills - with brown paint from Hobbycraft at £1 for a 300ml pot. But the main job is to build the track but this won't be until the Autumn.

 

Thanks again for all the information and comments - it is much appreciated. Cheers!

[Doug Hey]

Pauls S1 ironstone hoppers were made from my masters originally intended to be made out of white metal for the Runswick Bay layout of Keighley 7mm group

They were very difficult to produce as the entire hopper was a one piece casting as was the underframe with additional small parts. A few were made for Runswick,

about 20 or so in total but were too difficult to manufacture to market with my other Roundfield Engineering wagon kits. Many years later Paul approached me to try to manufacture some out of resin, I lent him my masters for the two main parts and supplied him with the necessary small white metal parts. Paul managed to get the main parts made in resin and has built half a dozen so far as seen in the photos. The drawing for the wagon was made by using as many S1 photos as I could get in combination with the NER wagon diagram by Peter Scarborough and myself, during development of the drawing it became apparent that the wheelbase shown on the diagram was incorrect at 6' 3" and by trial and error we discovered the correct wheelbase was 6' 0" at which dimension everything fit in place nicely. 

Its great to see Pauls wagons and layout and I will watch these pages with interest from New Zealand.

Doug Hey

[Guest G567281]

Thanks again for the interest shown so far. I said that I was having some time off work and hoped to do some modelling and would post some pictures of progress. And now that I have battled through the accumulated DIY etc I have made some progress.As I said before, the layout is in 7mm scale and the scenic part is 12' by 2'6" on 3 boards. It will be continuous run with a fiddle yard at the back and another one the front for the East Mines branch. In a future post I'll include the trackplan.I wanted to have a reasonable width so that I could set the layout in the landscape where Blakey Junction was perched on the side of Rosedale with the valley below. I am looking forward to the scenic work to recreate the heather and moorland scene - it's part of the attraction of the subject as well as the railway itself. My current layout Kilbrandon (going to its final show at Gateshead in November) has boards 2'6" wide and it has been a struggle moving them to exhibitions or upstairs to the loft railway room because of the weight as much as the size. So, with Blakey I am using this new fangled extruded polystyrene stuff to cut the weight down allied to 9mm ply ends and 6mm ply sides. They are undoubtedly lighter and with proper bracing pretty strong. The scenery is chicken wire and modroc, bonded to the ply and polystyrene with staples and No More Nails, plus a light skim of plaster on top and underneath to give it strength. This has added to the weight but they are still lighter than the Kilbrandon boards.They are then mounted on lightweight trestles 45" off the deck. I am also going to make a fit a roll-up backscene made out of rubber backed blackout blind material as I always thought that the gaps in the sky of Kilbrandon's ply section backscene was not great. It also gets a right battering and dirt when transporting it. By having a roll-up backscene I can hopefully protect it.To the photos! These are taken in the garage with all the usual stuff - paint, bikes. But I am doing doing all the heavy dirty stuff there before hopeful transfer to the warmth of the loft for track and scenics across the Winter.Hopefully you can get an idea of the layouts size and layout. I have modelled one of the Rosedale brakevans from the very nice Jim McGowan kit, although it was a bit of a ###### fitting compensation - rocking solebar as used a lot in S Scale.The S1 hopper wagons have been made with a lot of help from Doug Hey before he emigrated and when I get time I will write more about them but for now, thanks Doug!The loco, well that's quite a story! It is in fact a 7mm Irish broad gauge GSWR J15, itself McDonnel's prototype for the NER Class 59. Its well known that the 59 was a failure on the NER, but the J15 was a great success in Ireland - and still is with one, 150 years old, still going strong on railtours in the Emerald Isle. McDonnels big mistake was to build a new loco for the NER that was less powerful than the preceding 398 class. Oh, and the wee matter of foisting left hand drive on the NER locomen. But I think the 59ers were atractive engines and one did find its way up to Rosedale, so I am going to build one for the layout as well as a Long Boiler Goods. I hope I don't fall out with Wordell Forever as I am a great admirer of Greyscroft Mine which I have seen at Redcar (you were exibiting there at the same time as Kilbrandon a few years back) and York. A great layout, but I'd better also build a P class!The figures include the Dad and 2 kids from the great picture of Blakey Junction - this might not be to everyone's taste but I want to capture the life of the railwaymen and their families at this bleak, but beautiful, spot.I am currently making the fiddle yards and have started to paint the plaster hills - with brown paint from Hobbycraft at £1 for a 300ml pot. But the main job is to build the track but this won't be until the Autumn.Thanks again for all the information and comments - it is much appreciated. Cheers!

 

Hi Rosedale,

 

This is coming on very well. Many thanks for posting the photographs. West Rosedale is to the left, Incline Top to the right rear on the continuous run and E. Rosedale to the right front into the fiddle yard. Do you have enough room for the cottages and interchange sidings ?. Early days I know, but have you establish an operating sequence yet ?. I am very interested in this project.

 

Regards

 

Alan

[Rosedale]

Hello Alan, I am replying on my mobile phone as I am away with work at the moment. I will give a fuller reply at the weekend. Yes, the cottages will be there, roughly behind where the loco and wagons have been photographed. By exchange sidings do you mean the loops that ran alongside the East Mines branch as it ran into Blakey? If so, then no I do not have room for them and this will impact on operation and I will be using sidings in the station area to exchange empty and loaded wagons. From what I have read the 3 lines into the Junction were in effect run as 3 seperate lines and when I eventually have 3 locos then I will be able to do this. But in the early stages I will probably just have the long boiler goods I am building at the moment. Realistically exhibitions are a couple of years off at the moment what with work etc etc! In addition I hope to run in stock from the Farndale line and, controversially, plan to use this as an excuse for an old industrial loco. We'll see. I'll try and add in the trackplan at the weekend when I have sussed out how to make our new printer/scanner work! Thanks, Paul

[Rosedale]

IMG_20150904_0001.pdfIMG_20150904_0001.pdf

[Guest G567281]

IMG_20150904_0001.pdfIMG_20150904_0001.pdf

Hi Paul,

 

Many thanks for posting your plan of Blakey Junction. I can visualize this and you have captured the essence of the original layout really well.

 

Alan

[Rosedale]

Hello G567281,progress has sadly not been great, mainly because of work and looking after ageing parents. And my dithering over the scale to build the layout in. 7mm or S. After making the progress you see in 7mm, I have changed the scale to S. I have made a master for the P5 wooden hopper wagons which have been cast by Phil Transon of Port Wynnstay models. My good friend Bill Pearce has made brilliant models of the 3 cottages. I have scratch-built a V1 brakevan. And I have cut out the frames for a 1001 long boiler goods. So, some progress has been made in S Scale and I will post some pictures soon.

 

Happily, I am likely to retire later this year and will get more time. I am determined to cracking on with it!

 

Enjoy your trip to Rosedale and a few pints in the Lion Inn, a great pub in a great area!

 

Paul

[Rosedale]

After a few years of being busy with work and losing momentum with Blakey, I am now making some real progress and have had a lot of help from friends to take a quantum leap.  To recap, after a long time trying Blakey in 7mm I decided to model it in S scale. I am a long time S Scale modeller and although I like 7mm, it is big and I don't really have the space and don't want to cart round a big layout to shows. But most importantly, I love S scale and scratch-building. I had mixed results with several 7mm kits, but the libel laws prevent me from saying much more. Except to say that in many ways, building from scratch can be easier, and is certainly very enjoyable. So S it is. To give a comparison, the 7mm version of Blakey was going to be 20' by 2'6", while in S it is 14'6" by 2'6". I had nowhere, except under the lean-to to set up the 7mm version, but can fit the S version in my loft. It makes a big difference to be able to set up a whole layout and work on it. And I will be doing some 7mm modelling helping my good friend Graeme with his DVLR project. 

 

I should stress that I am only at this stage with a lot of help from other modellers. For starters, the beautiful Long Boiler Goods has been built for me by Trevor Nunn. And the wonderful cottages were built by another S Scaler, Bill Pearce, with the grounded carriage body given to me by Jim Guthrie and where I have painted it in a heavily distressed condition. And quite a few others have supplied information and inspiration.  

 

I have built the boards from ply with 25mm extruded polystyrene for the tops. They are light but I think I'll go back to well-braced thin ply in future.

The track is laid on 3mm cork and has been built from the S Scale MRS's plastic chair and Code 87 bullhead rail system, . The chairs are 3 Bolt and I had thought the NER used 4 bolt. But I was at Richmond NER station in November walking with friends and having a few refreshing beers at the bar there when I noticed they were using 3 bolt chairs as door-stops! And it wasn't the beer confusing me. So, I'd say that 3 bolt is accurate.

I have used Cobalt point motors and there are only 2 sections - either side of the loop. 

Figures are from the S Scale Society, including the Railwayman and his son and daughter so that I can recreate the wonderful photo of Blakey Junction showing the family and rail-workers in the 1890s. My layout is a bit later, say 1900. 

The hills are made from a mixture of chicken wire, papier mache and Modroc. My next task on the layout is to go up to Rosedale in March and have a good look at the scenery, grass and heather so that I can apply the Gordon Gravatt approach to creating realistic spring scenery. I am currently experimenting with static grass and want to reproduce the tough heathery landscape up there. I went up there in early December with my fellow S Scaler James Lynn and I realise I want to model a more colourful spring landscape. Just as an aside, by cracky was it cold then and we were forced into the Lion Inn to get warm and toasty over a few pints and a pie. But I digress...…..

 

Apart from the scenery, the most important task before the first show in October 2019 at Leeds, is to build more stock. I need at least one more engine, if not 2. I have started to build a Class 59 - a Darlington engine as it is very similar to its older Brother, a McDonnell 101 class from the GSWR in Ireland and for which I have S Scale etches. And an H class 0-4-0T is on the stocks where I also have lovely etches rescaled from the Jim McGowan 7mm kit . Now, I understand there will be howls of protest from some quarters that neither of these engines went anywhere near Rosedale. But first of all, it's my trainset, and secondly they could have done. There was a Stephenson Class 59 there, which could have been a Darlington rather than Stephenson one. And in my interpretation of Blakey, I am assuming that the Farndale Iron mines were more successful than they actually were and that, sacre' bleu, they also discovered Potash (iron stone and potash being geological bedfellows just across at Boulby). So the Farndale branch expanded and needed a wee loco to bring in the Farndale Iron Co's ironstone and potash wagons into Blakey to be marshalled into trains to be pulled by the big engines down to the incline and off to Teeside. I think an H class would have been ideal.

 

For all these bits of modellers licence, I have decided to name the layout 'Blakey Rigg' instead of Blakey Junction as I am changing the story and representation a bit. I have also introduced a cutting at one end and brought the Water Tower nearer to create view-blocks.    

 

So, there you have it. I will post further updates as I go along...……...

[Barry O]

Nice to see the progress.

Keep up the good work!

Baz

[DLT]

Looks like a great project, thanks very much for sharing it.

All the best, Dave.

[south_tyne]

Fascinating prototype and such an atmospheric location. Having seen your initial progress it is obvious that this is going there is going to be some first class modelling in display here and that you are already capturing the wild, lonely atmosphere of Rosedale. Super stuff 

 

Definitely one I will be following with interest! Keep us updated of progress. 

 

Cheers,

David

 

[GraemeR]

Having seen Paul's efforts first hand I can reiterate the previous comments. Now he is retired I will be expecting swift progress. Having initially planned for 7mm, the switch to S scale is understandable and will look so much better in the space available. Not only that but his 7mm NER brake will find a home on my planned DVLR layout!

[Rosedale]

Progress is being made. I have recently finished a rake of 6 P5 Hopper wagons. I made a pattern sometime ago and the wagons were then cast in resin by Phil Traxson of Port Wynnstay models. Phil has cast quite a few bits for me in both S and 7mm and did another great job. He is going to cast me another 6. Then I did some drawings for both P5 and S1 ironwork and Dave Provan in the S Scale MRS  turned these into artwork for etching  by PPD. I just then had to build them! Together with lovely Slater's S Scale Open Spoke wagon wheels I now have a 6 wagon mineral train to go with the V1 Brakevan I scratch-built plus the lovely Long Boiler Goods built for me by Trevor Nunn (now being painted). I am working on patterns for the S1 Hopper wagons.

 

I have made the fascia and painted it in a suitable ironstone colour  - see attached pictures taken at the recent S Scale MRS AGM.

 

Currently I am building another engine. And before the York Show, where I will be buying some suitable static grass from Greenscene, I am going to make a field trip to Rosedale to study the grass and foliage. I may be forced into the Lion Inn at some point. Then I'll work  on the scenery and finish detailing and ballasting the track.

 

But the other priority is more stock. I may have mentioned the surprise discovery of potash in Farndale? This wouldn't be unusual given the regions vast potash reserves. This is modellers licence of course and enables me to introduce some variation into the main traffic of just empty ironstone wagons in and full wagons out. Blakey then becomes a busy marshalling yard for ironstone and potash traffic. Dave Provan has done some superb laser cut card kits for salt wagons plus etched ironwork and I have 3 of these to build. Dave and myself have been experimenting with a 'rocking solebar' suspension system and I will make a separate post about this as it develops.

 

The layout's debut was the SSMRS AGM but sadly it developed an electrical fault in transit, later traced to a shorted phono plug, now resolved. Annoying. I do have a video shot on my phone of a train in motion but at 22MB is too large to post here - I'll investigate zipping etc.

 

So there you have it, progress on various fronts, but progress nonetheless. And all very enjoyable.     

[Regularity]

I must say, Paul, that the middle photo there is absolutely terrific: a great deal of “railwayness” about it. Can’t see the fascia in any of the views.

 

Did the brakedown crew turn up and get that brakevan back on the rails?

[south_tyne]

11 hours ago, Regularity said:

that the middle photo there is absolutely terrific

 

Whole-heartedly agree with that; what an absolutely stunning scene! Even though the layout is still clearly in the early stages of development, it already exudes so much atmosphere and is doing a fantastic job of capturing the unique,  wild lonely environment of Rosedale. Great stuff.