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Cromford Wharf Shunting layout - structures and scenery


Alister_G
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Morning Al, sorry I missed your Post last week, this is really tuning out to be a nice little model, some superb workmanship on the Buildings etc. Well done.

 

Thanks Andy. Enjoy your day at Ruddington, I'm going all up market - to the opera instead :)

 

Al.

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Hi Joe,

 

That's a great video! Not just the C&HPR bits - although there's some great detail visible in there - but the whole thing is fascinating. All the information about the shunting yards, and how freight moved from common-carrier to the MGR way of working, too.

 

Thanks very much for pointing it out.

 

Al.

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Hi Paul,

 

Thanks very much mate. I sort of snuck this one in when no-one was looking :)

 

Sadly I've had a complete loss of mojo over the summer, and have done no modelling at all on any of my layouts.

 

I really should get this one done so I can get on with Grindleford, but I'm just not interested at the moment.

 

That said, I've been looking at the Cakebox Challenge, and I'm finding myself strangely drawn by it - and no it's not just the though of cake! :)

 

Maybe I can actually build and finish an 8" x 8" layout in a year? Who knows?

 

All the best mate,

 

Al.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Hi Al

 

Apart from answer DMs, it's the first time I've been on here for a long time, so the layout is all new to me. It looks great mister. :)

 

I've a quick tip if it helps about tiles. Obviously you'd an issue with the styrene, which didn't help, but you might also find laying out the tiles like the ones below could help. Black for cut, red for score. Also, would 5 thou be easier, or would that be too thin?

 

post-14192-0-67379100-1510444307.jpg

 

I know for me at least it made things less fiddly.

 

I'll make sure it's not quite such a long time before I pop in again!

 

cheers

 

Jason

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  • 2 months later...
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Hi folks - great to see a C&HPR layout here. I've been following the progress of this across last year and a little sad to see Al's lost his mojo as it has inspired me to get off my arse and start mine! I've started a thread here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/130603-cromford-wharf-brchpr/

 

Al - I have masses of photos of Cromford Wharf if there's anything you need!

Cheers

J

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  • 10 months later...
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It's been a long, long time since I did any modelling!

 

Unfortunately, due to changes in domestic arrangements, I currently don't have the space to set this layout up and work on it, so it will have to wait a while.

 

In the meantime, I have a new much smaller slice of the C&HPR taking shape over on this thread:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140152-ladmanlow-sidings/

 

I hope you will join me there.

 

Many thanks,

 

Al.

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  • 3 months later...
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On 07/04/2017 at 22:01, Alister_G said:

Hello!

 

Well this is an idea that's been bubbling in the back of my mind for some time, but recently became much closer to reality.

 

This little beasty came up on ebay, and I was unable to resist, so I bought it!

 

post-17302-0-61021100-1491597450_thumb.jpg

 

The relevance of this will soon be apparent!

 

A bit of background:

 

I've currently got two layouts on the go, Bakewell, which is substantially complete, but needs lots of details adding, and Grindleford, which is in the process of being built at the moment.

 

However, I'm not able to actually run trains on either at the moment - Bakewell because it's buried under Grindleford, and Grindleford because it's not complete enough yet. Past followers will know I have run trains on the two boards of Grindleford which are so far built, but I've had to dismantle those to work on the next section. I don't have enough room in the house to put up Grindleford on its own.

 

All this is a long winded way of saying, I wanted to build a small shunting plank, which is small enough to leave up and play on when I want to, without stopping me building anything else. I'm aiming for something about 6 to 8 feet by 2 feet in total size.

 

But, as you know, I like building real railways, not just made up ones, so the shunting plank would have to be based on a real railway somewhere, and I like scenery and buildings, so it would have to have some of that as well. As you also know, I like to model railways in the Peak District, as that is where I live.

 

So to cut a long story short, I've been thinking about modelling some part of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, but finding a bit of that to work as a shunting plank is a challenge as it's mostly single track and a few sidings, which is a bit boring.

 

So looking for likely places, I came across the area at the Cromford end of the line where the Sheep's Pasture incline drops down to meet the Cromford Canal. There are a number of sidings here, and an engine shed, and some workshops, and this is the location where wagons from the main line were sorted and stored before being sent up the incline and onward to the rest of the CHPR, and where wagons coming down the incline were sorted into trains to go out onto the main Derby to Manchester line.

 

Here's the location as it appears now on Google Maps, rotated to show how I would present the layout:

 

post-17302-0-60865300-1491597934_thumb.jpg

 

As you can see, it's heavily overgrown now, but originally it would have been more open.

 

Bearing that in mind, here's a suggested track plan:

 

post-17302-0-41448800-1491597935_thumb.jpg

 

And here's a few photos of what it looked like at various times:

 

post-17302-0-49270600-1491597926_thumb.jpg

The bottom of the incline

 

You see now why buying the J94 prompted me to get on with this!

 

post-17302-0-49469300-1491597933_thumb.jpg

The workshops

 

 

post-17302-0-37372000-1491597929_thumb.jpg

The engine shed

 

 

This whole area is now a tourist attraction, now called High Peak Junction, although actually the real High Peak Junction, where the CHPR and the main line joined, is a couple of miles away, and originally this area was known as Cromford Bottom or Cromford Wharf - hence the thread title.

 

The layout (shunting plank!) will be built to 00 and in Code75 rail, probably using Peco Streamline small points for compactness. I will build it so that it may, in the future be possible to exhibit it without too much fuss.

 

This is not something I will be starting straight away, as I want to get on with Grindleford's next board, so don't expect regular updates for a while, it's more just testing the water to see what people think.

 

I would welcome any thoughts, and any alternatives or amendments to the track plan above would be gratefully received, at the moment it takes up about 8 feet of length, so if it could be shortened that would be good.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

A pity that construction has stopped it would have been great to see it. A nice prototype I was at the Wharf early in April it's been nicely restored.

 

One point though, the C&HPR made its junction with the canal not the railway which came along c25yrs later.

Edit I've looked up the dates and the branch from Ambergate to Rowsley was opened in 1849 with C&HP being opened in 1830/31, so 'c25yrs later' should read 19yrs later, sorry

 

Edited by PenrithBeacon
Added a few more words and corrections
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On 06/05/2019 at 19:01, PenrithBeacon said:

A pity that construction has stopped it would have been great to see it. A nice prototype I was at the Wharf early in April it's been nicely restored.

 

One point though, the C&HPR made its junction with the canal not the railway which came along c25yrs later.

Edit I've looked up the dates and the branch from Ambergate to Rowsley was opened in 1849 with C&HP being opened in 1830/31, so 'c25yrs later' should read 19yrs later, sorry

 

 

 

Thanks very much David, you are right of course, the C&HPR was built to link the Peak Forest canal and the Cromford canal, and the link through to the Midland railway at Cromford was a later addition.

 

Unfortunately circumstances have dictated that I don't have the room to set this up to continue work on it at the moment, but it's still there, in the garage, and maybe if we get some decent weather this year I can resurrect it and carry on.

 

In the meantime, there is another bit of the C&HPR taking shape called Ladmanlow Sidings, see link below.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

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I've been looking at the Ladmanlow thread and very good it's too.

I passed by there a few weeks ago, I must stop off and take a look next time which will be late July.

The NLS site shows an excellent layout with potential for any fictitious model as well as a prototypical one you're developing.

I look forward to seeing Ladmanlow in the flesh so to speak, hopefully at a future RailEX.

Cheers

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Just caught up with the thread after seeing the link on The Sheep Chronicles. This looks a fantastic layout, I love the buildings and you've got the atmosphere I've seen in the photo's of the prototype.

Have you done any more to the layout? 

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Hi Steve,

 

No, sadly this has been stuck in the garage for nearly 2 1/2 years. It's too big for me to currently set up and work on, which is why I ended up starting Ladmanlow.

 

Having seen Rob's Sheep Dip I'm tempted to start again and not be so ambitious, and just model the sidings, buildings and immediate surroundings, it should work out to be a smaller more manageable layout, which could then be expanded in the future.

 

Tempting, very tempting...

 

Al.

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  • 10 months later...
  • 9 months later...

I had read through this thread previously, and when I was struggling a couple of days ago trying to envisage a way to add scenery to my micro layout Castlebrook Sidings I experienced an epithany and came hunting for your layout again. I will borrow different elements and see how it comes together, but in the meantime I do hope you are able to finish this layout off, as it is superb.

 

Steve S

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