Tuxford North - LNER 1938

[JamieR4489]

I've always been interested in the East Coast Main Line, particularly in the late 1930s but I've never really had a proper layout. I've had two roundy-roundies in the past but these used setrack curves and points and had no proper electrics. They were both fictional and were started before I knew enough about the real railway to make them look realistic. With the lockdown and having left school this year, I decided that this would be the best time to start a proper layout; Peco streamline points, gentler curves and a fiddle yard.

Originally I'd been designing layouts based on real locations but with fictional stations. My first design was based on the Brunswick Park area in North London as there was a tunnel at the north end and a road bridge at the south. As this section of track was (and still is) quadrupled I decided that I didn't have the space to model it. The room where the layout will be kept is 2.7 x 2m with a chimney breast restricting it to more like 2.3 x 2m.

The next location I considered was Welwyn North. It had a tunnel at the north end but no obvious scenic break at the south end. I managed to make a passable track plan but I decided that, in the end, it was too cramped with 2 loops either side of the main lines. I'd also had to compromise the length of the platforms severly.

With Welwyn North discarded, I looked further north. Tuxford North was a location that had always taken my fancy. A double track mainline with a smallish station (the platforms were only about 100m long, according to OS maps from the National Library of Scotland website) and two goods yards. There was a road bridge at the south end but nothing at the north end. The section of the ECML between Peterborough and York has always been my favourite part of the line, probably from travelling along it so many times going to York and back. The locos and rolling stock were quite varied in this area as NER locos occasionally worked as far south as Grantham and GCR engines would have come from Retford and possibly off the ex- LDECR line which crossed the ECML almost immediately south of Tuxford North at Dukeries Junction. GNR locos would of course be abundant. Coaches were more interesting than in the London suburbs with coaches from several different companies and of varying age, whereas it would appear from looking through carriage working books that most of the London suburban services were twin- or quad-art sets.

So I drew up Tuxford North on Anyrail and I manged to satisfactorily fit the southern half of the site into the space I had available. I also manged to fit an 8-road fiddle yard with two kickbacks on the Up side. This is fine for me as I don't have many fixed rakes and passenger trains will be made up from loose stock to allow coaches to be reused. This does mean that some train formations will be inaccurate but it will be better than what I had before. The maximum length of passenger trains will be 8 bogies.

 

This is my track plan and a map from the NLS website as well as some pictures of the real site, albeit in BR days.

Copyright for the prototype pictures goes to oldtuxford.com

 

As you might have seen from the track plan, the diamond crossing doesn't quite line up properly. I knew you can bend Peco crossings and points so that is what I've done. I'm glad it was the only bending I needed to do as it wasn't easy!

 

With regard to the actual layout, I've got as far as laying down cork for the two mainlines on the scenic section.

 

From left to right here we have: Goods yard loop 1, Goods yard loop 2, Down main, Up main. The siding coming off the Up main is the Up lay-by; used once, as far as I can see, in the 1938 WTT to allow the West Riding Ltd and Scarborough Flier, amongst other expresses, to pass an Up Parly service.

 

The layout will be DC and the points are all code 100 electrofrog (other than the crossing and double slip). I chose code 100 because it's slightly cheaper and I already have lots of code 100 track. I will be re-spacing the sleepers, however, and adding super-elevation where there appeared to be some at the real station.

 

Thanks for reading this. I realise it's a very long post but I thought that some people might find my ramblings at least semi-interesting.

 

Jamie

[great northern]

Hi Jamie,

 

Great to see another young modeller, and an ECML one at that. This looks an interesting project, and I wish you all the best with it.If I can help at any time, please let me know, it would be a pleasure to assist in any way I can.

[JamieR4489]

Thank you Great Northern. It’s an honour to have someone with such a fantastic layout as PN looking at my efforts.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[Flying Fox 34F]

Jamie,

 

I’ll be following this with interest.  Tuxford is one of my haunts in my day job.  I know the bridge very well as I’ve had to search for Trespasser’s on the line numerous times over the years.

 

All the best

 

Paul 34F

[Theakerr]

I am curious as to why you used Code 75 (I presume) for the crossing and slips.  I completely agree with decision because my system uses Code 100 but I found for the diamond crossings and slips I had to use code 75 to prevent rolling stock with modern wheels from derailing.

[JamieR4489]

All the track is code 100, including the slip and crossing. Code 75 would be nice as it would mean that there wouldn’t be any insulfrogs but I don’t see how I could make the transition from the code 100 point onto the crossing without widening the gap between the Up and Down mains. On the crossing I had to modify the check rails so it now looks the same as the code 75 version (other than it being insulfrog). I found that it was impossible to bend it with one continuous check rail.

 

Speaking of track, today I managed to lay almost all of the Down main on the scenic section. 

I mentioned yesterday that I’m recycling track from the old layout and as most of this was setrack I’m having to cut away all the webbing to make it flexible and it’s really slowing down progress. Cutting away the webbing also means that I can respace the sleepers. I know that this means the points won’t match but quite often the sleepers were spaced closer together on points, crossings, etc and at joins between pieces of track/rail. 

 

Paul,

 

I’m glad this is of interest to someone who knows the site well.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Looks like it's going to be a Good one, I'll follow. Good Luck.

 

manna

[Arun Sharma]

In Aug 15 I was cycling around the Edwinstowe - Tuxford area. The att pics of Tuxford Stn and buildings might be of some interest.

[JamieR4489]

Thank you Arun, those are brilliant.

I hadn’t realised the station building was still standing. Those photos will be very useful for when I have to build the station.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[31A]

9 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

In Aug 15 I was cycling around the Edwinstowe - Tuxford area. The att pics of Tuxford Stn and buildings might be of some interest.

 

4 minutes ago, JamieR4489 said:

Thank you Arun, those are brilliant.

I hadn’t realised the station building was still standing. Those photos will be very useful for when I have to build the station.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

 

I think these pictures might be of the other Tuxford station, on the LDEC line .... 

 

[JamieR4489]

I thought it looked a bit different to the photos I’d seen but assumed it was due to their being black and white

[PMP]

21 minutes ago, 31A said:

 

 

I think these pictures might be of the other Tuxford station, on the LDEC line .... 

 

That’s correct it’s the LDECR station, there’s very little evidence at all now that there was a GN station at Tuxford. 

[t-b-g]

Never mind two stations, there were three!

 

If ever a place the size of Tuxford needed three railway stations, I would be most surprised. There was Tuxford North, on the ECML, Tuxford Town, later renamed Tuxford Central, which is, where the buildings above are, then there was Dukeries Junction, situated where the two lines crossed. This had platforms at the lower (GNR) and upper (LD&ECR) levels and was supposed to be a busy interchange between the two lines. I don't think the GNR ever had enough trains stopping there to make that happen and the LD&ECR passenger service never took off the way the promoters hoped, as a tourist route to "The Dukeries". 

[Arun Sharma]

Yes, thank you - It is the LD&ECR station - the bridge over the road from Edwinstowe is the giveaway. Slightly further along to the left of the bridge, i.e., westwards, the track peters out and there is a cycleway on the old trackbed that takes you to within a mile of Lincoln - including a rather interesting ride over the enormous viaduct spanning the River Trent at Fledborough.

[JamieR4489]

The Up main is laid on the scenic section and the Down only needs one more piece of track. I’ve also laid the cork for the Up lay-by.

 

 

Yesterday it was my 16th and I got the rest of the track, point motors, switches and a pair of Parkside kits (D94 van to be converted to an unfitted example and a private owner grain wagon for Tuxford’s brewery and malthouses).

 

Jamie

[Flying Fox 34F]

On 28/05/2020 at 00:48, Arun Sharma said:

In Aug 15 I was cycling around the Edwinstowe - Tuxford area. The att pics of Tuxford Stn and buildings might be of some interest.

Bad news I’m afraid. That’s the wrong station. Tuxford once had three stations. These pictures are of Tuxford LDECR. This is the remains of the direct line from Chesterfield Market Place to Lincoln Central.  Tuxford North, (GNR), on the ECML has been raised apart from partial remains of the Down, (northbound platform). The third station was called Dukeries and was the interchange between the ECML and the LDECR.

I hope this clarifies the situation.

 

Paul

[JamieR4489]

Progress is still slow but I’ve started laying the goods yard. I’ll have to wait now until my fishplates arrive as I’m out of insulated ones.

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

I haven’t updated this thread in a while but I’ve finished all the track laying (unless I relay any bits)

 

 

I’m now on the rather dreary task of wiring. So far I’ve wired the down line and temporarily wired up one line in the fiddle yard. Of course I needed to play trains err I mean give the track a good testing...

 

4489 (what else would I pick?) and my pullmans had the honour of being the first train.

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

I'm on the home straight with regard to wiring now; just four more point motors to install and wire up.

As you can see I'm using Peco point motors but not the Peco switches designed to change frog polarity. Instead I'm using cheap microswitches mounted to a block of wood. In retrospect, PL-12X mounting plates would have been a wiser choice to fit to the motors than the PL-9s I've used.

 

I've also made and installed a control panel (sorry I haven't got any piccies of this).

 

Over the last few days, I've been starting to work through the sequence I've devised from the 1937 WTT. Here is a selection of the trains I've run:

This is the first train of the sequence. It's a Doncaster to Peterborough North parcels train, due through Tuxford North at around 1:30am. The WTT lists a K2 as the booked motive power so that is what you see hauling the train.

The J11 has just reversed into the goods yard after detaching a cut of wagons for Mansfield and Chesterfield as well as a coal wagon for Tuxford shed. Before she can get a path down the ECML, one of Colwick's Q1s heads a coal train.

 

It's mid morning now and the pickup is shunting in the yard. The J6 has just picked up the GWR van and is attaching it to the rear of the train. It'll take a wagon off the front, run round it and shunt it into the (un)loading bay.

 

As a fish train romps towards the smoke, a C1 heads the Queen of Scots (sans headboard). This engine will be renumbered into Copley Hill's 3280, which was a regular on the QoS.

 

Now for my favourite move. A Doncaster-Grantham parly has just called at the station and has now drawn forward so that it can reverse into the Up lay-by. Something important must be due...

 

I should say so! Dominion of Canada speeds through with the Up West Riding Ltd.

 

No sooner has the West Riding's tail light disappeared, than a chime whistle can be heard as Mallard passes hauling the Scarborough Flier.

 

As today is a rather special day in terms of railway history, I thought I'd celebrate it by running Mallard with my Coronation set and the only clerestory I've got standing in as the dynamometer car.

A recreation of the publicity photos taken with the train stationary.

And going full chat

 

Of course Mallard never went through Tuxford North 82 years ago today but that hasn't stopped me having a bit of fun.

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

Blimey! Nearly 2 months since I updated this. All of the wiring is finished (hurrah!) and I've just been enjoying running trains and sorting any niggles out. A few bits of track have needed packing underneath or to be lowered a little bit but I'm pretty happy with it all now.

 

Since about April, I've been researching some of the trains I'll want to run, in particular passenger trains. I wanted to run accurate formations, hauled by a loco from the correct shed, so rather than picking a train and then trying to find out which shed(s) it was allocated to, I've looked at pictures of pacifics and worked out what the formation is.

 

So far, I've picked out about 10 expresses. Completely by chance, I've managed to pick the same set of coaches going both ways about 5 times. So for example, I first picked the 0900 Ripon, Leeds and Bradford to King's Cross (a Doncaster duty) and then picked the 1756 King's Cross to Halifax, Leeds and Harrogate (there was a Bradford portion as well but I don't have space for that) and only after examining the carriage working notes did I realise that it was the same set of coaches going each way. I've tried to get an even mix of West Riding, Newcastle and Scotch expresses. Every train will be made of loose stock because I'd need getting on for 70 coaches if I were to have fixed sets and this has almost halved the number of carriages I'll need and I already have about half of that number. I've reused coaches where it's reasonable to, e.g. I'll use a D10C restaurant first instead of a D144. This also saves on carriages.

 

For some of the goods trains I'll also be cheating. The Scotch Goods and the pickup goods will get combined a few times so that I can make a class B goods and some sets will get used several times as generic class B goods or fish/meat trains.

 

Today I've been looking at signals and the good news is that there aren't that many to build. The bad news is that they will all have to be GNR somersaults . I'll need lessons from that Grantham fellow, methinks.

Most of the signals are pretty obvious as they're marked on maps or obvious on photos but there are a few that I think should be there but I can't find any evidence of. Hopefully some of the signalling experts will be able to help.

 

In this photo, I can see a ground signal just in front of the double slip, between the two goods yard roads. Would this control the exit of trains from the yard from the track next to the mainline or the the track to the left of the signal? Presumably there would have to be another ground signal to allow trains to leave from whichever track the aforementioned signal doesn't control? In the 30s there was a track coming out of the goods yard that connected to the up main, which as you can see in the photo was taken up. Would there be a ground signal to allow up trains to access the main?

 

In this photo, which tracks do the two shunt arms control? Is it that top to bottom on the signal equals left to right on the track? I.e., would the top arm mean straight ahead at the double slip, coming from the headshunt in the bottom right of the photo?

 

 

At the start of August I had a play around with my camera, finally working out how to use it properly on manual mode so here are some of my efforts. The polystyrene is just to give an idea of what the cutting will look like.

 

 

 

Jamie

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

getting the flavour of the Old GN mainline. 

 

manna

[LNER4479]

Yay - way to go, Jamie! Good to see you getting something up and running.

 

I've had a quick look at the pictures re the signalling. You're right in that stacked signal arms read top left to bottom right but I'd really need to see what lies the other side of the bridge to be able to give a fuller answer; I'm not overly familiar with the location. Do you have a prototype trackplan at all?

[JamieR4489]

Thanks 4479,

 

The only track plans I have are the ones on the national maps of Scotland website. Beyond the bridge, the two goods yard roads converge and then cross over a double junction into Dukeries Junction goods yard as shown in the first photo here.

 

Jamie

[mintmansam]

Hi I was building the same location!

 

But plans have changed to make better use of my room,

 

Take a look at my thread, also let me know if you need material, I have a lot of photos!

 

Cheers 

Sam

 

[JamieR4489]

Hi Sam,

 

It was actually your thread that introduced me to Tuxford North. I’d never heard of it before but when I started looking at photos I thought ‘yeah that’s do-able’.

 

Photos would be great, thanks. I’m struggling to find decent ones from the right era.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie