Inverkeilor station layout

[tigerburnie]

Having hi-jacked someone elses thread I thought I perhaps should start one myself. The idea, very much in the early planning stages is to build a DCC small layout of the village station as it was in the later days of steam, the station closed to passenger traffic in the 1930's, but the yard was used it would seem, much later. I intend to quiz some of the older residents on what they remember about the uses. Of course modellers licence would allow all sorts passing through on the "mainline", the period is the same as my Great Central layout, 1955 to 1965 so that I would be able to use some of the same rolling stock and I also have some DCC ready locos as well.

As of yet I have made no decisions on what control system to use, but it will be as simple as possible to reflect the fact that the track area will be modest and few locos will be running at anyone time. The track will be bought not made as will most of the rolling stock, I will be scratch building the buildings and doing all the scenics.

[sulzer27jd]

I have attached a spreadsheet which has the 1953 WTT recalculated to give approximate timings at Inverkeilor. This may be of some use to you.

 

 

John

 

Inverkeilor 1953.xls

Edited January 17, 2019 by sulzer27jd

[sulzer27jd]

There are a couple of pics here of the far side of the loading bank. These may also be of help.

 

John

 

 

[tigerburnie]

Can't seem to open or save the attachment John, might be me though

[Corrour]

Gents,

 

Some details on changes in signalling over the years at Inverkeilor as promised, which in turn helps understand changes in layout and working.

 

kind regards,

 

Robert

Inverkeilor Signalling Timeline.pdf

[tigerburnie]

Thanks Robert

[Penlan]

Another Wagon Label, this time 120 sacks of Potatoes, dated 7/2/1953 (I think) - That seems to be the date, but February, east coast of Scotland, uhmnnn.
Wagon number M230461, and 2 sheets.

[clachnaharry]

The two-level loading bank appears to be characteristic of Scottish East Coast stations. Presumably to allow tipping straight into open wagons, but what? Potatoes?

[Ian Smeeton]

With  a February shipping date could they be seed potatoes?

 

Regards

 

Ian

[dunwurken]

1 hour ago, clachnaharry said:

The two-level loading bank appears to be characteristic of Scottish East Coast stations. Presumably to allow tipping straight into open wagons, but what? Potatoes?

Sugar beet was I think a crop which was tipped directly into open wagons.

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, clachnaharry said:

The two-level loading bank appears to be characteristic of Scottish East Coast stations. Presumably to allow tipping straight into open wagons, but what? Potatoes?

Common in many Scottish goods yard.  Used for tipping any bulk materials, root crops among them.

 

Jim

[sulzer27jd]

Potatoes can be stored.

 

[Penlan]

21 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

With  a February shipping date could they be seed potatoes?

If I had stopped to think, yes seed potatoes, Scottish First's, and still the best.

[tigerburnie]

Whilst waiting for the Aberdonian today, I got talking to a great old farmer who was at the Inverkeilor school just after the war, he told me that sugar beet was one of the main goods shipped out along with barley and potatoes. There was a working coal yard too, I learnt a lot today about this area and also the rolling stock that went up and down the ECML.

[tigerburnie]

After last nights visit to the station area, I have modified the track a bit, now there may well be a case that the track has been modified again since the days of steam, but I like the new track plan as guide, it will hopefully offer some interesting movements.

[JohnR]

There were also two sidings behind platform 2.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Inverkeilor-Railway-Station-Photo-Caulcots-Lunan-Bay-Arbroath-to-Montrose-1/252076564398?hash=item3ab0ef1fae:g:O8kAAOSw~gRV5ZOw

[tigerburnie]

Thanks John, I have a copy of this image, firstly not sure of the date of this image and not yet sure how wide the track plan will be, that side of the layout will be up against a wall so access could be a problem, I am hoping to get more info on this trackwork when I next meet up with my old farmer who was at school here and steam loco mad during the post war period. I believe these sidings and most of the up platform was removed in 1930 when the full doubling of the track closer to Usan where it is now, was done. My understanding is that the doubling of the track actually ended just under that road bridge in the photo prior to the engineering work later, this period was also when passenger traffic was ended at Inverkeilor and other stations between Arbroath and Montrose. 

[JohnR]

I believe the date is in the 1950s - I've seen another image from a slightly different angle which shows a 16T steel mineral in the sidings behind the box.

 

You're right that the double track ended up in a headhunt past that bridge. The station closed to passengers in 1930, while the double track from Inverkeilor to Usan was commisioned in 1932 - its why Lunan Bay never had a southbound platform. 

[tigerburnie]

Cheers John, that image of the 16 ton wagon is in the book "Steam Memories ECML number 8", I got a copy the other week from Ebay

[tigerburnie]

A modified version of the track plan looking ay an old map, I had missed the run round at point "B", now it makes a lot more sense and I think I understand the way the yard was used.

[sulzer27jd]

I would suggest moving F so that it joins on to D as it was only accessible from that siding. The "run round" at B is a common feature of Scottish yards and is not used so much as a run round, but more to bypass wagons. Where you have marked position B is the high end of the loading bank, the bypass would allow wagons to be loaded at this position, but access is still maintained for the rest of the loading ramp (position C). As such I would make the loop a little longer. I didn't think that there were 2 sets of cross-overs on the mainline and would move the single set inside the turnout for the up siding, which itself would require a headshunt.

 

Hope that helps

 

John

[Harlequin]

Here's a quick trace of the 1923 1:2500 OS map from old-maps.co.uk:

 

Note that the goods yard access is between the two crossovers and that the siding on the opposite side of the mainline doesn't seem to have any road access - so it looks like a refuge siding to me.

 

Edit: Looking further north on that map I see that the line stops being double track out in the middle of nowhere so that's either a mistake on the map or the line was in the process of being doubled when the map was made. In either case this map doesn't quite tally with the dates of doubling given above.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Harlequin
Clarity

[tigerburnie]

This station had many changes and it seems the track was changed often, on your map Harlequin, the main line was indeed only single track and the "up" line was a dead end, when this was doubled on to Usan in the 1930's the station was closed to passenger traffic and most of the up platform seems to have been removed to accommodate a second refuge siding was installed(there's a photo taken in the 1950's clearly showing two tracks). There was a " road" onto the area(it can still be seen today) for those up line sidings, not sure if anything was loaded on there, I shall ask my local farmer who was at school there at the time.

John, looking at this map from 1923(which is clearer than the earlier one I was trying to use), track "F" does indeed need moving, thanks.

[tigerburnie]

What do we think of version 365?

 

 

Edited March 21, 2019 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

Was taking a few pictures this evening:-