How Common Were/Are The Small TMDs?

[rob D2]

37 minutes ago, Foden said:

Quite.

 

But for some, modelling the mundane is a pleasure in itself. The same rule could apply to plenty of the lifeless concrete slabs born out of the 1960s, yet they have quite a following now among some circles...

 

Just you wait, in 2080 when the latest Higgs bosun powered maglev HS7 trains are stored in their supereco all recycled solar efficient self cleaning glass houses, ‘we’ will be sharing memories and photos of these old oversized garden sheds, reminiscing of how back then things were built right, and trains were ‘proper trains’... etc...

I model the mundane - BR blue !

but you don’t see much mundane do you at exhibitions ?

 

TMD will have the Bachmann Peterborough shed , preferably be lit by a million 4000 candle power LEDS... it’s deffo the GWR branch line now... and each to their own as long as we are all having fun 

[Clive Mortimore]

3 hours ago, Ian J. said:

Thanks all.

 

By small, I mean along the lines of the various model TMDs I've seen at shows which have a one loco maintenance shed, and just enough siding space for four or five locos. I suspected, as others have alluded to, that the addition of such a small shed is mostly invention, and that such a small amount of loco space is more likely at a fuelling point that has no maintenance facilities. As such I just wanted to confirm if there were any such small TMDs in the real world.

Hi Ian

 

Small stabling points with loads of locos and a small shed, two come readily to mind Kings Cross passenger loco (or Bottom Shed) and Cambridge Street the other side of Regent's Canal as you come out of St Pancras.

 

Kings Lynn has already been mentioned. Another ER one is Peterborough, quite surprised it hasn't been modelled as the shed building turns up every where else in the country.

[TravisM]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Another ER one is Peterborough, quite surprised it hasn't been modelled as the shed building turns up every where else in the country.

 

Im building a small portable layout based on Peterborough LIP, with a couple of EMT Class 153’s or a 156 shuttling past and various Class 66’s trundling by either to or from Whitemoor.  The depot will be basically be empty save a Windhoff MPV or a leaf busting train, top and tailed with Class 66’s.

[JeffP]

 

Here'smy favourite small depot, Kings Lynn, summer of 1979 0r 1980.

Vacuum brake only 03017 in residence.

 

 

Not so small: Cambridge DMU depot, but, look what was round the back....

 

 

 

And you don't get smaller than this: no building, stabled out in the open, only EVER one loco...Sandown, IOW.

 

 

[Oldddudders]

11 hours ago, APOLLO said:

 

I think most of us will be pushing up daisies !

 

Brit15

I would be 132 in 2080. I think they'll have taken me out and shot me long before then, if nature hasn't got me.

 

I think the 1993 Railways Act identified something called a Light Maintenance Depot, where I think the idea was you would rock up, fill up, fettle up and pay up. This was when I think the railway was expected to be a bit more democratic than it may actually have turned out. Certainly the BRIS On-Track Plant Depots were obvious candidates for some of this, but how many of those survived I have no idea. 

[APOLLO]

Buxton, Peak Forest and Warrington Arpley were places where collections of locos could be found in the 80's & 90';s.

 

Arpley Sidings on the old low level line

 

 

The above was replaced with Arpley "new" shed.  This photo taken on 5 Nov 2014, in Arpley yard side of Bank Quay station. Sheds in a shed !!

 

The small shed in the foreground was for light wagon repairs.

 

 

Brit15

Edited November 27, 2019 by APOLLO
typo

[Allegheny1600]

I enjoyed seeing that large SW based depot layout (Diesels in the Duchy?) - that looks like a diesel depot! I've helped out on my old clubs large steam shed - that was fascinating to operate, it really was.

I was so taken with depots, I bought an 0 scale layout representing one, oops!

 

It was an end to end type and honestly, shuffling locos back and forth all day long was desperately boring and uninspiring, no wonder I've seen other such operators looking miserable!

[Alcanman]

3 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

 

It was an end to end type and honestly, shuffling locos back and forth all day long was desperately boring and uninspiring, no wonder I've seen other such operators looking miserable!

Agree.. and to make matters worse they usually have 3 or 4 locos with sound on at the same time resulting in a cacophony of sound!

 

A couple of years ago I was at an exhibition with 2 TMD layouts next to each other, one in 00 and the other 0 gauge. Instead of being able to hear the excellent individual sounds of one loco there was just a noise.

 

The main focus for most modellers, is of course, locos, and TMDs provide a means of showing off a collection in a small space. However, with a bit of imagination a small shunting layout can provide much more interesting operation. 

 

 

[andyman7]

Is the small TMD layout the modern incarnation of the GWR branch line layout? Far more numerous in model form than in real life....

[Rivercider]

This is Swindon diesel depot, it opened in 1970, and closed about 1999.

It had an allocation of shunters, which mostly shunted Swindon Works. There 12 allocated in 1971, but only about five when the photo was taken in 1984.

At Swindon Depot 08523 stands outside the shed with Co-Bo 5705 inside. I think the vacant middle road curves round into the Brickyard Stores, 37280 and 37255 are stabled on the right hand siding. 4/9/84.

 

cheers

[caradoc]

Oxford Diesel Depot, although on the site of the steam shed, was definitely small, with just a partial cover on the fuelling point.

 

Fort William (Tom-na-Faire) springs to mind as a small depot too.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

42 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

Is the small TMD layout the modern incarnation of the GWR branch line layout? Far more numerous in model form than in real life....

I have said "Sorry"

"

[37114]

Westbury was tiny, 3 roads of which one had 2 sheds of the similar style to Kings Lynn picture earlier. 

[Oldddudders]

4 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I have said "Sorry"

Leader of men, obviously. 

[woodenhead]

On 26/11/2019 at 14:27, JeffP said:

Really depends what you mean by "small TMD"?

 

In the early 70s,  when my interest in railways was rekindled by a combination of a Merrymaker Mystery Tour from Gainsborough that fetched up in Weston Super Mare,  and our trying to understand the then only partial TOPS numbering,  small depots were numerous.

We thought of a "small" depot as one with either no allocation, or an allocation consisting of only shunters... of which, at that time, there existed classes 01 through to 09, and even class 13. Not many of class 04, and I don't think any ever carried a TOPS number.

Dalescroft published an A5 book listing allocations by depot. It became our bible.

 

Locally, Frodingham had an allocation of half a dozen class 08s, and was three roads, with up to 30 locos stabled at weekends, but we thought of it as small.

King Lynn had a one road fuelling point capable of housing one 03 with runner wagon, or two without, but no allocation. It's  03s were from March.

Ipswich, a lovely atmospheric stabling point, had no allocation, and no shelter, just a fuelling point.

 

Bit long winded, but hth

TMD is probably the wrong name to use, most of these small places were stabling points not maintenance depots.

 

As the pictures show there were lots of stabling points, several depots and a few TMDs.

 

But modelling being what it is cannot get away from the idea that there were (and are) lots of little TMDs around the country and model them - my experience is that they were mostly like Arpley - some sidings where a loco could stable at the weekend without returning to shed.  Modellers of post privatisation imagine that DRS, GBRF and EWS have small sheds scattered about with covered accomodation when it is really man in a van, return to Stoke, Toton, Gresty or Carlisle for any heavier maintenance.

 

Andrew C's Seven Mills is quite an accurate portrayal of an stabling/fueling point. 

[rogerzilla]

Aren't small TMDs for people who have a serious addiction to buying model diesels, so end up with 12 of them but nothing for them to pull?  Plus, with a DCC TMD, you get lots of twinkle lights

[Clive Mortimore]

35 minutes ago, rogerzilla said:

Aren't small TMDs for people who have a serious addiction to buying model diesels, so end up with 12 of them but nothing for them to pull?  Plus, with a DCC TMD, you get lots of twinkle lights

No.

 

If you look at Pig Lane you will see there is quite a lot of modelling and observation of the prototype, including the manhole covers for the oil interceptor.

[Allegheny1600]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I have said "Sorry"

"

You have nothing to be "sorry" for, Clive as yours is clearly a well modelled and observed layout - far better and more interesting than the usual things seen on the circuit. Your layout has charisma in abundance unlike the endless repeats!

cheers,

John

[TravisM]

I don’t think there has ever been a “small” TMD and like Woodenhead put it, a small TMD would have just been a stabling/fuelling point which could also do minor exams.  I think in the term of a TMD, look to something like Stewart’s Lane, Hither Green, Eastleigh or Bescot and usually attached to a large yard or station.

Edited November 27, 2019 by jools1959

[298]

2 hours ago, rogerzilla said:

Aren't small TMDs for people who have a serious addiction to buying model diesels, so end up with 12 of them but nothing for them to pull?  Plus, with a DCC TMD, you get lots of twinkle lights

 

It isn't a complaint as not up to me what other people build, but the number of layouts I've seen that accurately represent one of the many depots that I've visited on organised trips is still somewhere in the single figures. Think of a stereotypical depot and it'll be a tiny shed off some kind of switchback from the fuelling point, usually looking like it's hosting some kind of celebrity open day. Which is fine, but what about these modellers pooling resources and building a large one...!

[MidlandRed]

I think Colchester is one of the smallest covered diesel maintenance shed I've seen - two roads each with room for a couple of 15s/31sor a couple of diesel railbuses! 

 

Shirebrook was certainly a relatively small building but with class 56s in abundance on a Sunday, including parked in a long line on the chord to the Worksop line. Class 20s and 31s tended to be in sidings on the down side away from the main shed. I am thinking around 1979/80.

 

Another relatively small ER installation was at Wath - two roads usually with class 37s and a line of 76s also - again late 70s. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by MidlandRed

[Rivercider]

On 28/11/2019 at 00:41, MidlandRed said:

I think Colchester is one of the smallest covered diesel maintenance shed I've seen - two roads each with room for a couple of 15s/31sor a couple of diesel railbuses! 

 

Here is Colchester in 1981 with 37174 and 2 of the allocated shunting locos 08460 and 08256.

 

Colchester depot 12/2/81.

 

cheers

[Tackleberry]

Does Whatley Quarry count as a small TMD?
As far as I know no fuelling takes place there but it has a 2 road shed and a small shed for wagon repairs

[Steadfast]

Fuelling takes place at Whatley.

All 59s come off there train and go to shed for fuel, sand etc. Can also do A exams, brake block changes etc. The fuel pumps are inside the shed, so not visible to the public eye

 

Jo

[rob D2]

With the modern 66s, if it’s a man from quick fit , do they not need a pit for A checks ? Can they change brake blocks etc ?

 

my new plank is a stabling point and sidings, had to have a few sidings so I don t get bored of just locos . To make it plausible it basically nicks all of didcots freight, when it runs it BR blue it’ll be more parcels and stuff for the local station .Helps to have a reasonable story I think.