Coalorsdale - A shropshire Branchline - 1965 to 71

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

Having built many layouts throughout my childhood i had all but given up the hobby roughly 2 years ago. Now i am at university i have some more time on my hands again, aswell as a more stable income which helps. I recently decided to build a layout in my parents garage that i can work on in my long holidays from university. i will also be able to work on smaller projects such as building kits and detailing and weathering stock whilst i am at university. 

 

previous layouts had been poorley planned and built on scrap sheets of mdf from various sources over the years, however this time i wanted something better constructed and planned out. 

 

I designed a 7ft by 12ft loop of baseboards made of 2ft by 4ft and 2ft by 3.5ft sections which are bolted together so the layout is easily dismantled in a few years time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I began mocking up a track plan consisiting of a double mainline with an offscene storage yard, engine shed sidings and a raised goods yard up a 2%incline. this has recently changed to become more prototypical but i will talk about this later.

 

 

with detailed plans in place, i came home from university and set about clearing space for the layout and construction began.

 

 

i began by cleaning and sealing the floors and painting the walls (the walls need a second coat of descent paint. i only had wickes emulsion to hand)

 

 

i then started constructing modules from 9mm ply and 63mmx38mm timber.

 

 

To be continued ...

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

some irregular modules where created allowing for the inline to have a more relaxed curve behind the station and then the baseboards were layed out before being raised on 80cm 89mmx38mm timbers. they were screwed together for allingment and then bolted with m8 bolts for final fit.

 

 

 

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

with the main baseboards constructed i then set about building a lower section alowing for a river under the tracks. this ended up being extremely strong and over engineered, however it does slant downwards away from both baseboards. i may rectify this in the future, however for now it adds realism as mainlines are not flat and level in the real world.

 

the final job before the baseboards were complete was to cut along the line of the incline with a circular saw (depth set to 9mm). i then raised the incline with wooden blocks. it is not perfect, however i have now been running trains up and down it with no issue.

 

above you can see the completed baseboards with the bus wires layed out to test lengths.

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

finally track laying began. roughly 37 yards of peco code 100 flexible track was used. all the points are peco short electrofrog except a medium crossing pair between the mainlines at the station and a long curved point before the incline.   

I began laying the fiddle yard. its not much, just 2 siding per mainline, however there is plenty of rrom for expandability

all points are wired for live frogs and switch blades.

i then worked my way around laying the simple double mainlines with 2 sidings for an engine shed by the station.

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

sorry for the spam. i am trying to get the thread up to date. not far to go now!

 

the next step was to lay the inline track, however i cant seem to find any photograps .

i also motorised all of the points with seep pm1s and built a basic controll panel with a cdu and toggle switches. i am thinking of revissiting this again soon as the points are currently opperated from one corner, which doesnt feel too natural so i would like to move a panel front and centre.

 

the layoout itself is DCC however i prefer analogue point control. i managed to pick up a second han Lenz LH100 for a very good price on gumtree, this works very well and i hope to add extra throttles in the future. to allow for this and to also allow control from multiple locations around the layout i have added express net 5 pin din sockets all around the layout. These , along with custom 3d printed brackets allow me to change location and then plug the throttle in.

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

Almost there now!

 

The next stage was installing ID backscenes. I recently installed a partition seperating the garage (layout room) from the lower workshop. to do this i used 4mm corrugated transluscent plastic. this allows light from the window in the layout area to pass into the workshop area. 

 

having finished this task i had several strips plus a full 4' by 8' sheet left over. This formed the perfect material for the backscenes as it is rigid and flexible. whilst being waterproof so it will never warp.

 

The backscenes are about 17 inches tall above the serface of the baseboard. this means that a 15 inch backscene floats above trhe lower section, however most of the incline covers the gap and the raised section still has about 12 inches of backscene showing.

 

i began by cutting the material so it curved gently around the layout and screwed it in place with wood screws. 

 

I then set about peeling the backing off and carefully applying the photographic paper. i made a few mistakes here. i applied the first photograph with the plastic flat and then tried to bend it back into shape. this caused major creasing. whilst it is harder to apply the backscene whilst upright it goes on with much fewer creases as there is no need to bend the backscene afterwards.

 

I think the finished product looks great, theres a few creases and screws to strategically hide with scenery but that shouldnt be too much of an issue.

 

having put up the backscene some final items arrived to finish laying track in the goods yard.

I have altered this slightly from my origional plan. it consists of two main sidings that hold roughly 8 wagons each and a shorter siding for shunters and brake vans to be stored. i have also added a headshunt. This makes it more prototypical as it allows shunting with out fouling the mainline and also protects wagons from the incline. the sidings have been curved as this allows them to flow more easily around from the incline and gives a better appearence

[Gopher]

Starting to come together nicely.  Good job, look forward to future progress updates.      

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

Finally my most recent progree has been better geographically and prototypically grounding the layout.

 

I recently rediscovered an old book on my local branch line. formerly the wellington and severn junction line also known as the wenlock branch , it joined the local works in horsehay with the works in coalbrookdale and ironbridge as well as buildwas power station. it also saw passenger use between wellington and craven arms. 

 

people may be famlilliar with this route as it is now the telford steam railway. a local heritage railway that owns and runs horsehay goods yard (what remains) and roughly a mille of the single track mainline. Flew my drone over from my back garden as i cant  get out myself to take some descent photographs.

 

 

i soon realised the line was exactly what i wanted to model. a sleepy branchline, soon to be closed by british rail. it had a lot of goods traffic but also some passenger traffic and much potential for through trains towards craven arms or shrewsbury. 

 

the line was closed in 1964 as it was bypassed roughly a mile to the east, however if i ignore this line i can run full length passenger trains through a small country station and have a reasonable excuse. 

 

i have decided not to model any particullar part of the line, but rather my own amalgamation of stations and a vague scenery that relates back to real locations. this will allow me to model what i want whilst being able to have a real prototype to reasearch and follow making my railway more realistic than pure imagination allows. 

 

when looking through the book i found a track plan for gwr coalbrookdale. A station a few miles down the line from where i live which is long since abandoned. however i was amazed at how close my track plan was to this prototype. it has a u curved double mainline with a crossover and a siding that comes off and splits into two below the station.

 

in reality this is a line that connects to the factories in coalbrookdale and a holding siding. however it is similar enough for me to base my engine shed sidings on.

 

there are also two wagon sidings at the top left of the station. these fit in an empty area of baseboard i was struggling with ideas to fill. it was too cramped for anything non railway related. but a little large to simply be scenic right next to the station. i therefore descided to add two much smaller versions of these sidings on to my layout. I also ended up curving my engine shed sidings below the station.

 

overall i am alot happier with this track plan as it is slightly busier, so it looks less like a giant track mat, whilst also not being too cramped. moreover it now bares enough resemblance to coalbrookdale that i can give the impression of the branch line whilst still keeping it my own.

 

thank you for excusing my long ramble of progress so far. now im up to date i  hope to upload phots as i go.

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

10 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Starting to come together nicely.  Good job, look forward to future progress updates.      

Thank you very much.  now im all up to date i hope to upload progress as and when i make it.

[Ian Smeeton]

I wish that I had blown my student income on Streamline Points & Flexi rrack reather than beer & Women.

 

Looking good so far.

 

Please keep us all updated.

 

Regards

 

Ian

Edited April 28, 2020 by Ian Smeeton
Spilling

[The Johnster]

Clearly a lot of potential here, Horsehay.  I was on the point of asking what period and location you had in mind, and you have answered before I could ask, such is the breakneck speed of your very neat and workmanlike progress on this scheme.  I am familiar with Coalbrookdale and the Ironbridge area, a fascinating place and some very nice pubs when it's not underwater (!).  There were a series of articles on Buildwas Jc in some MRCs in the mid 60s that might be worth your while investigating for info on stock, locos, and general 'look' of things in the BR steam era.  

 

Have to comment that if it was me I'd abandon the loco shed for a goods yard; plenty of loco facilities just up the road at Wellington, and have the gradient to some sort of industry; ironworks or heavy engineering has to be favourite in this area, but there were other industries suitable as well.  I'd find it hard to avoid a few pink cooling towers in the backscene as well, or the Wrekin if we are looking in the other direction!

 

My only criticism is the crossover between the up and down mains to the immediate left of the station. This would in practice have almost certainly been trailing not facing, as shown on the Coalbrookdale plan; the GW did not have the same dread of facing turnouts as the Midland but this configuration is unlikely.  You might want to consider a further trailing crossover to the right of the station, which will enable traffic to terminate here if necessary without a pilot and enable the goods yard which replaced the loco shed to be shunted by pickups in both directions.

 

Or you could have the goods yard situated at the two new sidings left of the station and retain Coalbrookdale's run around sidings to it's right.  Sequence is; train arrives from left with traffic for industry branch up gradient.  Local Sectional Appendix stipulates that traffic must be propelled up gradient, so loco has to run around but you don't have facilities, i.e. a second crossover between the running lines, so the train must draw into the right to left platform, set back through the trailing crossover, draw forward into the siding run around, run around, draw train back out of sidings onto r-l running line, set back on to l-r running line in platform, and draw traffic wrong line to gradient junction under Sectional Appendix authority and block cleared back to Telford/Buildwas whichever direction is appropriate.  It can then propel the train up the bank, shunt out the sidings up there or exchange traffic, draw the train back down the bank on to l-r running, propel back to platform.  

 

Here, a decision is made as to which way it's going.  The van will be on the correct end to proceed l-r, but if it needs to return whence it came as a trip working, then a repeat of the run around procedure must be undertaken including shunting the van to the other end of the train.  This is exactly the sort of operation I love and would find impossible to resist (in fact something not too unlike this occurs on my own layout with mineral traffic) and it has the further advantage of more closely replicating the real Coalbrookdale's track plan.

 

As it's not exactly a dead replica of Coalbrookdale, and the obvious 'inspired by' name of Coalbrookvale  is taken by a village in the Tredegar Valley in South Wales, I can't suggest a name, except perhaps Darbyglen.

[The Johnster]

8 minutes ago, Ian Smeeton said:

I wish that I had blown my student income on Streamline Points & Flexi rrack reather than beer & Women.

 

Looking good so far.

 

Please keep us all updated.

 

Regards

 

Ian

Don't regret it, Ian.  Beer and women while you are still at the peak of being capable of enjoying the women, and before the beer destroys this capacity, are a very good investment; plenty of time for points and flexi track when you have outgrown all that nonsense.  She'll never let on in a million years, and for your continued safety I suggest you do not make a point of it, but your SWMBO appreciates the social and, um, other, skills you developed in your student depravity at taxpayer's expense, as well as the better paid career enabled by the scant but not totally missed attention you paid to the lecturers...

 

And if you don't have a current SWMBO, the next one will appreciate it while the last one wishes she had!  Win win, mate.

Edited April 28, 2020 by The Johnster

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

1 hour ago, Ian Smeeton said:

I wish that I had blown my student income on Streamline Points & Flexi rrack reather than beer & Women.

 

 i am lucky enough to be sponsored by the Royal Navy through university so i have some cashflow to spend on  hobbies as well as my student "expences" 

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Have to comment that if it was me I'd abandon the loco shed for a goods yard; plenty of loco facilities just up the road at Wellington, and have the gradient to some sort of industry; ironworks or heavy engineering has to be favourite in this area, but there were other industries suitable as well.  I'd find it hard to avoid a few pink cooling towers in the backscene as well, or the Wrekin if we are looking in the other direction!

 

Thank you for your ideas. As this is an amalgamation as apposed to a true depiction i was hoping to model features from around the line. as well as from my own head. I quite like the idea of having somewhere scenic to store locos out at the front of the layout. they can sit and tick over in the shed or on the lead and not get in the way of opperations. i do quite like the idea of changing the incline to an industry, there are indeed plenty of local prototypes and this does add some local "supply and demand" to opperate too.  Ill have a think on that one. 

 

I think the cooling towers are a great idea. At the moment my backscene is a generic countryside, perhaps the cooling towers in the distance could give a hint that this layout is based vagualy on the locality.

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

My only criticism is the crossover between the up and down mains to the immediate left of the station. This would in practice have almost certainly been trailing not facing, as shown on the Coalbrookdale plan; the GW did not have the same dread of facing turnouts as the Midland but this configuration is unlikely.  You might want to consider a further trailing crossover to the right of the station, which will enable traffic to terminate here if necessary without a pilot and enable the goods yard which replaced the loco shed to be shunted by pickups in both directions.

this is something i had been considering. when i designed this layout i hadn't been modelling for some years so didnt go into as much detail of operations when i was planning as perhaps i should have done. if i keep the engine shed i will have to consider moving the current crossover to the right and replacing it with a trailing crossover.

one thaught i had in mind is that local traction may take over the train either for shunting in the goods sidings to the left of the station or to take it up the incline. In this case the train pulls into the left to right platform.  Either a shunting or mainline loco pulls out of the engine shed and couples to the left end of the train, it can then move the wrong way down the mainline and then up the inlcine. a consideration here is also the possibility of moving the van. as there is no run around, either a second loco is needed to move the van or two vans are needed one at each end of the rake.

 

 

[The Johnster]

I like cooling towers and the way these massive and graceful structures draw one's eye in any landscape they grace, and Buildwas' were favourites because of their being all the more imposing in that setting in that colour, so if you commemorate them on your layout as even slightly partly a result of my suggestion, I'd be delighted!  

 

What sort of period are you intending to depict?  Track relaying and 'rationalisation' from the 70s onwards made more use of facing and 'ladder' crossovers.  A loco being replaced for the final stage of a journey in the way you describe suggests a reason that the loco that brought the train to the location cannot work it up the bank, either for axle loading or loading gauge reasons, so the loco that actually does this needs to be significantly smaller and lighter.  But it cannot be an industrial from whatever is at the top of the bank, because this cannot work on running lines unless it is licensed to do so, which is rare and AFAIK confined to NCB locos in the North East of England.  So, depending on period, we are looking at something like a 2021, 16xx, or 03/04 diesel mechanical, and now your loco siding makes more sense if these locos are kept on site, outstationed from Wellington or even Tyseley.  You no longer need the run around movements as the small loco can act as a pilot shunting engine.

Edited April 28, 2020 by The Johnster

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

 A loco being replaced for the final stage of a journey in the way you describe suggests a reason that the loco that brought the train to the location cannot work it up the bank, either for axle loading or loading gauge reasons, so the loco that actually does this needs to be significantly smaller and lighter.

ok, so a mainline goods train comes in . the station pilot prepares it to change direction . then a small shunting style loco based at the station takes the relevant wagons up the gradient to the industry. here the rake is shunted about by a small industry shunter. then the rake is taken back down the gradient into the station where the mainline locomotive continues its journey, or they can wait in the sidings to the left of the station to be collected later.

[The Johnster]

A station pilot at a little place like this is unlikely.  You'd go straight from the main line goods to the shunting loco taking the industry traffic off it and moving it too the bottom of the gradient, then pushing it up to the exchange sidings,  It leaves the incoming traffic and picks up the outgoing traffic, which if draws down the bank and places on the rear of the main line goods, or if that's gone on it's way, the next one.  3 locos are required, the main line goods (43xx, 28xx, Class 47), the shunting loco based at this station's shed (2021, 16xx, 03) and the industrial (Peckett, Barclay, small diesel).  This is not enough work to keep the allocated shunting loco busy and it is more likely to turn up as required from Wellington, but you want locos posed on the layout.  Maybe more trip work could be arranged for it, perhaps there is a small marshalling yard not far off-scene and it can appear on local through traffic before retiring to the shed, sub-shed of Wellington, overnight.  You need at least two of them to cover boiler washouts at Wellington.

[MrWolf]

I have only just come across this topic and will be following with interest as I am also modelling a Shropshire branch line.

My proposal is that a line was built with running powers into the LNW/GW joint line station at Craven arms, southwest into the Clun valley handling mostly agricultural and timber traffic. Unlike the BCR to the northwest of Craven arms, this initially independent line was baled out by it's neighbours and continued on until the late 50s.

I have set it at just before the outbreak of WW2 so I have an excuse to run the sort of antiquated stock that appeals to me. It's my first venture into railway modelling for about 20 years.

I spent most of my money as a student on girls, beer and ancient motorcycles. But it turned out okay. I make my living from art and antiques, don't drink much anymore, have only the one girl (who loves motorcycles, trains and strange bits of junk) and several ancient motorcycles. It's kind of like winning the lottery.

Keep doing what you do, people in life will tell you to 'be yourself' then get all freaked out when you do.

So you might as well just get on with it!

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

40 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

A station pilot at a little place like this is unlikely.  You'd go straight from the main line goods to the shunting loco taking the industry traffic off it and moving it too the bottom of the gradient, then pushing it up to the exchange sidings,  It leaves the incoming traffic and picks up the outgoing traffic, which if draws down the bank and places on the rear of the main line goods, or if that's gone on it's way, the next one.  3 locos are required, the main line goods (43xx, 28xx, Class 47), the shunting loco based at this station's shed (2021, 16xx, 03) and the industrial (Peckett, Barclay, small diesel).  This is not enough work to keep the allocated shunting loco busy and it is more likely to turn up as required from Wellington, but you want locos posed on the layout.  Maybe more trip work could be arranged for it, perhaps there is a small marshalling yard not far off-scene and it can appear on local through traffic before retiring to the shed, sub-shed of Wellington, overnight.  You need at least two of them to cover boiler washouts at Wellington.

Thank you very much for your help. looks like i have some locos to buy now 

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

I spent most of my money as a student on girls, beer and ancient motorcycles.

I spent most of mine on beer, motorcycles, and ancient girls...

[MrWolf]

7 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

I spent most of mine on beer, motorcycles, and ancient girls...

Ancient motorcycles age better, your mates are impressed by their looks and they are just as much fun to ride as when they were young motorcycles.

Did you have some kind of Mrs Robinson / Stiffler's mom thing going on at university?

Edited April 29, 2020 by MrWolf

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, Horsehay Railway Modeller said:

Thank you very much for your help. looks like i have some locos to buy now 

What sort of period are we talking about, Horsehay?  It'll have to be post Buildwas pink towers to include them of course, so 1969 earliest; no steam unless you have a steam industrial.  The LMR had taken over responsibility by then, so we are looking at Classes 20, 24, 25, 31, 37, 40, 45/6, 47, and 03/4 maybe 08 for the shunting locos.  Passenger traffic had ceased by then but there was coal and oil block traffic in 100ton bogie TEA wagons to the power station.  If you wanted to include passenger traffic under Rule 1, dmus are most likely, and Classes 101 and 108 are suitable and available RTR; 104 is also suitable.

[The Johnster]

1 minute ago, MrWolf said:

Ancient motorcycles age better, your mates are impressed by their looks and they are just as much fun to ride as when they were young motorcycles.

Did you have some kind of Mrs Robinson / Stiffler's mom thing going on at university?

I didn't go to university, too stupid to pass A levels, so I went and worked on the big railway instead...  

 

As for Mrs Robinson/Stiffler's mom, yeah, sort of, little bit...  Then there weren't any attractive older ones any more and I started looking at ones my own age.  Gave up the motorcycles when it started to hurt when I fell off, but still like a few beers!  I'm 68, current squeeze is 25 years younger, it all seems pretty good from where I'm sitting!

[MrWolf]

Funnily enough, I often think that in some ways I was stupid going to uni, as what I really wanted to do is basically a case of practice and no employer has ever asked to see written evidence of my degree.

A friend quit being a teacher because he could make £25k more per year driving trains so you're definitely not stupid!

My daily driver motorcycle is 71 and I try not to fall off it. I'm 51 and SWMBO is 25. I consider myself very lucky that the numbers are in that order!

When we met, she had me pegged at 40 which was most flattering!

[Horsehay Railway Modeller]

8 hours ago, The Johnster said:

What sort of period are we talking about, Horsehay?  It'll have to be post Buildwas pink towers to include them of course, so 1969 earliest

i was thinking more 1961/2. i have managed to find a database with where locos were allocated throughout the time of british railways . this includes a page on the shed at wellington which had 64xx, 57xx, 2mt, 5101, standard class 3. all based at wellington in the early sixites. I am also modelling through trains opperated by deisels and some desiel hydraulics. i have seen photographs of westerns in wellington station in 1962 so they were in the area. unlickely to have gone down the  branch but i couldnt resist having a few passing trains go through the station. local traction will be mostly steam with a few small deisel shunters class 03/04 most likely. i am mostly using the branch line to give me a base and will not be wholey accurately depicting it. 

 

so far i have modelled the train below which will act as a diverted mainline passenger train. (an excuse to see a long passenger rake travel aroundf the layout)

 

i hope to model through taffic to the power station ( in this case plant A as plant B was still in the planning phase) as well as local traffic to whatever works i now deide to put at the top of the gradient. likely alot of 16 ton and 21 ton mineral wagons foir both.

 

passenger traffic from wellington to much wenlock and back seems mostly to be a few coaches hauled by various local steam.

 

there are also photographs of long rakes of mineral wagons parked in the sidings at buildwas.

[MrWolf]

That sounds like you have planned a good deal of plausible flexibility into the layout, which will keep it interesting. Setting it in the period you have allows for more complex track arrangements, long and short trains and a greater range of freight working. It has occurred to me that despite building a pre-war layout, British Railways didn't get around to repainting stations in backwaters (probably because closure was the plan from day one) but that does allow me flexibility of time period for what I am running. Equally, you have the opportunity to backdate if you wanted to.

I was interested in the backscenes that you have installed. Are they a commercially available item? So many modellers talk about stitching photos together on X computer program and printing off on some specialist printer.

The assumption being that everyone has a computer (or lately it seems their own 3d printer as well) I used to use them for engineering drawings, don't need one now. SWMBO uses one all the time at work so hates the things.

Any information you can offer would be much appreciated.