Information on Dundee West MPD (1980s)

[Rosie Taylor]

Im considering a layout based around the old Dundee West MPD, but have reached a dead-end with my research. As far as I've gathered, the depot (once located on the north side of the Dundee approach to the Tay Bridge) was originally built as a steam shed by the Caledonian Railway, then converted for use as a diesel/dmu servicing depot in the late 60's, before being demolished in 1987 (not to make some feel old, but 2 years before I was born!).

 

After a lot of searching, I've managed to find a lot of photographs of the depot and the locos that were based there, but I'm struggling to find any drawings, plans or measurements that would help me model the building to scale. I've already visited the National Records of Scotland, where I found a 1968 plan of the area that has given me the trackplan and rough dimensions of the building. What I'm really needing is (ideally) architectural drawings of the building.

 

Does anyone know where I would be able to find anything that would help? If I dont get anywhere I can always count bricks from photos, but there's still a lot of the main building that I can't find photos of!

 

Any help appreciated

[Ian Smeeton]

Have you had a look at the Caledonian Railway Association site and forum.

 

If you are a member, then there is a full archive of the True Line, the journals on CD Rom, which has a huge amount of information available on it.

 

Their forum  is also a good place to ask (You don't have to be a member of the Association).

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Rosie Taylor]

That seems a wealth of info, can't believe I didn't find them before. Although I'm modelling the depot during the 1980s, the building itself shouldn't have changed too much from when it's Caledonian origins.

[Rosie Taylor]

From having a look at their archive catalogue, there doesnt seem to be any drawings of the engine shed I'm after. There are a lot of records and plans of the Forfar Shed though, which might be similar.

[MJC-31A]

From having a look at their archive catalogue, there doesnt seem to be any drawings of the engine shed I'm after. There are a lot of records and plans of the Forfar Shed though, which might be similar.

 

I had reason to do some research a few years ago into into the main Dundee West station & I obtained the plans for that from the National Records of Scotland. At the time I do remember there were lots of plans of buildings and track layouts held.

 

I have checked the site just now and I see that in the catalogue under the block of references RHP81500 - 09 there are several references to Caledonian Railway plans.

Specifically RHP81501-08 is titled "Architectural details of goods shed for Dundee West with details of equipment therein (Caledonian Railway) [1884] ".

 

I appreciate that this is the Goods shed but there may some design similarities to the Engine shed you are looking for. Later in the catalogue there are references to the 1968 plans for the Dundee West MPD.

 

This might be a better result for you but it may only be a plan of the track layout. RHP94193 "Plan of lines and engine shed at Dundee West and adjacent properties at Magdalene Yard Road (London Midland and Scottish Railway) [Early 20th century] " but obviuosly LMS era.

 

I hope this of some help but apologies if in your earlier search you have discounted this.

 

Good luck in your searches

[Rosie Taylor]

Thanks, I'll look into finding plans for the goods shed as I believe they were built at roughly the same time as the engine shed. Unfortunately I've already investigated the plans, and while they gave me the much needed track layout, there's not much on the engine shed except a rough footprint.

[Wolseley]

In the 1980s, Wild Swan Publications published a book on the Caledonian in their LMS Engine Sheds series. There were four pages on Dundee West.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Wolseley
Copyright material removed

[tractionman]

Hi, the National Library of Scotland online maps are available for Dundee with large scale OS plans,

 

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.2354336027635&lat=56.4556&lon=-2.9819&layers=170&b=1

 

for the BR era.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[Rosie Taylor]

The LMS Engine Sheds book seems a good lead, I'll see if I can find a copy at the Glasgow show end of this month. If not, there seems to be a few copies found online for a reasonable price.

 

I've had a lot more time to dedicate to research recently, as I'm off work for a few weeks with a hand injury. As a result of this, I've been up to Forfar to photograph the Caledonian engine shed that still remains in the middle of an industrial estate (the current inhabitants were extremely helpful). As far as I can tell, the architecture is similar enough to help fill in some missing details.