Tuxford North - LNER 1938

[2750Papyrus]

I have only just found this thread.  Good to see another ECML layout taking shape.

 

There is a 1914 plan of Tuxford in Peter Coster's  "Book of the Great Northern volume 2", if that helps.

[JamieR4489]

Thanks for the tip-off about the plans. I need to try and get some of Coster’s books at some point.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

Over the past few weeks I’ve ballasted the main lines and Up lay-by. I used Woodland scenics’ medium grey blend. It’s a bit courser than I’d like but it’s recycled from the old layout and in my usual penny pinching ways, I didn’t want to throw away the old ballast. I washed it and then let it all dry for a few days before laying it. Today I glued it all and most of it seems to have stuck but there are a few bits that need topping up with ballast or a bit more glue.

 

Before laying the ballast, I painted the track dark brown.

 

 

The goods yard will be ballasted using a mixture of sand (to represent ash/soil) and black and grey ballast.

 

Jamie

[Jesse Sim]

Hey mate, just found your thread, everything seems to coming along rather well, if you need any help just shoot me a message. 

[JamieR4489]

Thanks Jesse, I’ll bare that in mind.

[mintmansam]

Hi Jamie, I restarted my project again, hopefully we can help each other out and motivate each other. How are you getting on? I decided to make mine even more complex by adding a below fiddle yards...... gradients .... slightly regretting it haha 

[Chamby]

Hi Jamie, I just discovered your thread.  You've done really well to fit your mainline layout into such a small space, and its starting to look like a proper layout too!

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Phil

[JamieR4489]

4 hours ago, mintmansam said:

Hi Jamie, I restarted my project again, hopefully we can help each other out and motivate each other. How are you getting on? I decided to make mine even more complex by adding a below fiddle yards...... gradients .... slightly regretting it haha 

Hello Sam,

 

Yes I saw you've restarted your layout. It's looking good and still retains that Tuxford flavour. Good luck with your gradients. They're something I wouldn't touch with a bargepole but I know others have used them successfully. I'm ashamed to say Tuxford North hasn't progressed at all since my last update; I've been concentrating on building and collecting stock recently:

 

These are the latest projects, a Mousa/Bachmann O4/5 and an Isinglass D5 SFO. I've also managed to get 2 more A1s, Gladiateur and Pretty Polly (I'll change them to Harvester {this needs extra work to make it into an A3} and Persimmon, respectively)

2 hours ago, Chamby said:

Hi Jamie, I just discovered your thread.  You've done really well to fit your mainline layout into such a small space, and its starting to look like a proper layout too!

 

Keep up the good work,

 

Phil

Thanks Phil,

 

I wouldn't like to try building a mainline in anything smaller!

 

I've enjoyed reading your layout thread and have previously admired the RTR A3 conversions you've shown on Wright Writes.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

Today I was able to finally run a train that was at what I would call a satisfactory level.

 

My criteria for this are:

 

All vehicles must be of the correct type but not necessarily of the correct diagram (e.g. there's a BTK where there should be but it might have 4 compartments rather than 5).

There must be no Hornby railroad 'shortie' coaches (I have 3 of these that will be replaced eventually).

 

My system for organising carriage rakes are sets (numbers) and subsets (letters), e.g., set '1a'. The sets encompass rakes that are all formed of the same few carriages and the subsets are the individual formations. This means that all of my trains are made from loose stock.

 

The rake featured today is what I refer to as set 1c. The one means that its a GN express (in my system, 1 is GN, 2 is EC and 3-5 are common portions that appear in various secondary trains).

 

Set 1c runs both ways, Up as the 9.00 Ripon, Leeds (dep 10.10) and Halifax (dep 9.42). and Down as the 5.56 King's Cross to Halifax, Leeds and Harrogate. The formation is the same both ways.

 

This is the Up formation:

BTK, TK (should be a D115 not a 52'6" D25) from Bradford. The BTK appears very red but it's not that colour in real life.

BFK also from Bradford, deliberately marshalled this way round so the first class passengers didn't have to  walk through the van to get to the RF. Then a rare beast in the form of an SFO (D5, should be a D218 but there isn't a kit available and the D5 was used until 1938) signalling the start of the Leeds portion. Apologies for the carriages being out of focus.

RF, RTP. The RF is a 52'6" GN rebuild that I built for my Scarborough Flier and it's being used here in the absence of a D10C

TK bringing up the rear of the Leeds portion and then a BCK from Halifax.

 

This was a Doncaster duty and my only pacific based there at the moment is Mallard so that is what took the train today. This was the W1's regular turn by 1938 so once Hornby have released theirs I'll be able to use that on this train.

 

In the week I'll try to feature a few other sets (probably 1a and 1d).

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

Tonight the featured train is the 7.25 King's Cross to Leeds and Bradford running as the Saturdays only formation. (MSX, there were portions to Newcastle and Edinburgh)

 

This was a King's Cross turn, I think, so my flagship and namesake engine had the duty.

 

BTK, TK. This photo gives a better idea of the colour of the BTK.

RTP, RF

BFK, BG. The BFK should be a GNR BFK-FK twin but there aren't any kits available at the moment. Isinglass have it in their drawings catalogue so hopefully I can request them to make it.

BCK. The BG and BCK make up the Bradford portion, the rest going only as far as Leeds. Ironically, the BCK should actually be the diagram that Hornby make as the ex-Margate shortie (D143), however, I thought it would be better to have a more accurate model, so substituted in this D175.

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

Over the past 3 weeks I've made a huge push to try and get some scenery down. The layout was becoming increasingly embarrassing and I was having to be quite selective with camera positions and crop photos very tightly.

 

The main scenery on Tuxford is, of course, the 2 embankments either side of the railway. Before I started anything, I realised that I could pull my 2 kickback sidings closer to the inside edge of the board and have them go underneath the embankment, tripling their length, meaning I can now store 25 wagon goods trains plus their locos in each siding; that's far more than I'll need. I've also added a third line that comes in front. It won't go under the embankment but will allow me to store another ~15 wagons.

 

The embankments are both formed from 12mm x 12mm uprights screwed into the boards with 3mm ply in curved strips following the shape of where the backscene will go nailed on top to give something to attach the rear of the embankments to. For the first bank I used chicken wire as I had done on previous layouts and then glued 2 layers of kitchen paper over the top before painting on 2 coats of plaster mixed with a hint of brown paint to provide a limestone colour for any areas where the grass was very thin. On the second bank I used a method I've only seen on Little Bytham, although I'm sure others must have used it as well. The method in question is to glue vertical strips of cardboard about an inch wide and then weave horizontal strips in and out of the vertical ones. Then repeat with the kitchen roll and plaster as per the first bank. I think the chicken wire still wins for sturdiness but I found the cardboard weaving easier to form to the shape I wanted and fix down.

 

For the grass itself, I again copied Little Bytham (I know lots of other people use this but LB was the first I saw) and used hanging basket liner. It's much cheaper than static grass and looks just as good, IMHO. I got some cheap stuff from the local pet/gardening shop and tore it up into randomly shaped/sized pieces and then glued it down with PVA, deliberately thinning it out towards the bottom and leaving a few bare patches, as per photographs. After the glue had dried I used hair clippers to trim the grass and neaten it up a bit. I didn't want it to look manicured but equally, I didn't want it to look too wild.

 

It looks a bit brown in some photos, but to the naked eye it looks much greener.

Here you can see the hidden sidings, which clearly need hoovering!

 

As I'm sure you'll agree, a huge transformation from what it looked like before. To celebrate I ran some trains and took their pictures.

 

I didn't run to a sequence but picked some trains at random

 

First up, the 8:45 King's Cross to Doncaster, hauled by Grantham's 4446.

 

Next was New England's 3458 on a coal train, evidently with an ex works PO wagon leading (!). Must get round to weathering that...

The Grantham to Doncaster pick-up trundles into view, with Hitchin J6 3591 at the head. I've no idea what a Hitchin engine is doing on this working, my excuse is it's going to Donny for overhaul and to save a light engine move, it's being worked north on timetabled trains.

 

The pick-up reverses into the goods yard...

... and the loco uncouples 2 wagons to be dropped off, reverses them into a passing loop...

... and then goes to the loading dock to collect 2 empties.

 

[JamieR4489]

Part 2:

 

Having collected the empties, the J6 runs round the wagons to be dropped off and as it does so, the Queen of Scots races north.

Unfortunately I had to stop and this point and when I got back the light had almost gone, so I apologise for the quality of these next photos.

Pretty Polly of Grantham shed coasts through with the Scarborough Flier.

3591 has pushed the wagons for Tuxford into the loading dock and is now uncoupling from the empties so that it can run round them and add them to the front of the train...

...and having done so, the pick-up carries on its sedately paced journey.

No sooner has it left, 4500 Garganey takes a Glasgow express, probably as far as its home city of Newcastle, up the 1in200. This will surely get the spotters shouting 'cop!' as I've read Garganey was a bit of a rare 'un down south.

 

Jamie

[JamieR4489]

I had another, shorter running session today. Beforehand, I painted the tracks in the goods yard ready for ballasting. This was mostly ash on the real thing so I'll use sand as I've done on my Weybourne layout with satisfactory results.

 

The first train today was a Colwick to Doncaster mineral empties behind Colwick's O4/5 5008.

It passed Doncaster's 4673 on a parcels train at the southern end of the station.

A closer look at the K2. This is a Graeme King kit on a Bachmann K3 chassis, for those who are interested. The wobbly lining is due to this being my first attempt at lining anything.

New England's 4774 hauls the Scotch Goods after taking over from another, King's Cross based, V2 at Peterborough. My phone's camera is making the green on the loco seem much lighter than it is in real life. To the eye it blends in much better with the wheels and tender.

One of Grantham's elderly D2s accelerates a Doncaster to Peterborough North stopping service after pausing at Tuxford North.

 

Jamie

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by JamieR4489

[JamieR4489]

The goods yard has now been ballasted with only a few bits needing to be topped up or more glue. The mainlines and Up layby have been weathered as well, with a slightly darker colour where locos would stand for long periods either at a signal or in the station and on the points which would obviously be greased and so would attract more dirt.

 

As you can see, I've also found a goods shed. At the moment, it's just a generic Hornby resin model that I'd forgotten I had until I was sorting through some boxes of Metcalfe buildings. The goods shed is, I think, the only building that still survives (other than the Marnham Road overbridge) and was perpendicular to the track, with a wagon turntable providing rail access to it.

 

The fiddle yard design was becoming increasingly annoying as I had no way of getting trains from one side to the other so the trains could only run in one direction. I've just about managed to squeeze 2 crossovers in allowing a train to start from the Up fiddle yard, cross to the Down and go through the scenic section before crossing back onto the innermost line in the Up yard. This does mean I can't start a train from the Down side and get it to the Up side without reversal visible on the scenic section but I can live with that. The alterations also mean that I can put Down trains onto the layout on the closest line rather than having to reach over to the Down side. I've also put in a small spur for cassettes if I choose to use them in the future (which I most likely will for goods trains).

Here you can see the crossover at the north end of the fiddle yard.

From left to right here we have: cassette spur, fish/meat, coal, empty (this needs to be empty for the previously listed trains to get access to the mainlines and is used to make up trains from loose coaching stock), what will eventually be an LDEC/GC portion of a class B goods that gets detached at Tuxford, the Coronation/West Riding, pick-up goods, empty so that I can just let a train run round and round on the Down line, mineral empties, Queen of Scots and Scotch Goods

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

Edited July 12, 2021 by JamieR4489

[Mark90]

Great to see progress on this project, Jamie!

[JamieR4489]

On my way up to North Yorkshire for a week, I stopped off at Tuxford to have a look at the site in person for the first time. I knew not much was left but still thought it would be a good idea just to get a general feel for the area.

I found this stone work at the north end of where the station used to be, roughly at the platform ends so I'm guessing it was part of the platforms. It wasn't parallel to the railway otherwise I'd guess it was part of the signal box

The most obvious surviving structure is Marnham Road overbridge. The walls above road level are a different colour brick (and a lot cleaner) so they've obviously been added at a later date but the rest looks original.

Masked slightly by modern additions is the goods shed. You can just about make out the old door on the end, now bricked up.

And finally the 'classic' Tuxford shot, taken from Marnham Road bridge with an Azuma heading south.

 

While in Yorkshire I experienced some foreign motive power on the North Yorkshire Moors and Keighly and Worth Valley Railways (and had a chance meeting and brief chat with LNER4479 of this parish at the latter)

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[jwealleans]

Missed you by a day on the KWVR, then, Jamie.   I hope you went into the museum at Ingrow and drooled over the Howlden carriages.

[JamieR4489]

I certainly did. Always a good way to spend a couple of hours, although I made the mistake of looking in the Bahamas shed for too long and had to get the train before I'd finished in the VCT shed. I also had a close look at the Gresley BG at Oxenhope.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Rereading the last few posts, I noticed you mentioned the bridge parapet on Marnham bridge, many GN bridges, had a very low parapet, maybe as low as 18" it was then topped with a picket fence, not all, but some. See if you can find a 'Old' picture.

 

manna 

[LNER4479]

9 hours ago, jwealleans said:

Missed you by a day on the KWVR, then, Jamie.   I hope you went into the museum at Ingrow and drooled over the Howlden carriages.

Like this you mean?

(Howldens in the mid-distance)

 

Yes - an unexpected but pleasant surprise to encounter Jamie in the rain at Oxenhope, although I was a tad busy at the time(!) Hope to meet up again before too long when we can be 100% focussed on LNER 1930s ...

 

 

 

[JamieR4489]

10 hours ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

 

Rereading the last few posts, I noticed you mentioned the bridge parapet on Marnham bridge, many GN bridges, had a very low parapet, maybe as low as 18" it was then topped with a picket fence, not all, but some. See if you can find a 'Old' picture.

 

manna 

Thanks Manna,

 

I had wondered whether the parapet was replaced to make it higher. I've had a quick look and it would appear you are correct; in the '30s it was much lower but there's no sign of a fence.

 

Jamie

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I would say the wooden fence had rotted away, and not been replaced, but the sides had been raised with a couple of rows of bricks.

 

manna

[JamieR4489]

A little while ago I suddenly had the urge to do some scenery so I decided to fill any gaps in the ballast where I hadn't put enough glue down and add some bushes to the embankments.

 

The new bits of ballast are yet to be weathered and blended in.

 

For the embankments, I've used Woodland Scenics course and fine turfs and bushes of 3 or 4 colours. The western embankment was considerably messier than the eastern one, presumably because, being next to the goods yard, engines weren't working hard so near to the embankment as on the other side so there was less risk of line-side fires. The eastern embankment appears to have been very tidy so I've kept bushes/shrubs to a minimum.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie

[eddydde]

Good evening,

Do you still work on this project? Asking out of interest because I'm potentially going to pursue something similar, but more of a modern "what if?" to if one of the ECML stations remained open

[JamieR4489]

39 minutes ago, eddydde said:

Good evening,

Do you still work on this project? Asking out of interest because I'm potentially going to pursue something similar, but more of a modern "what if?" to if one of the ECML stations remained open

Good evening,

 

Yes, I'm still working on Tuxford, although no progress on the layout itself has been made for about a year now. I've been concentrating more on the rolling stock as I've discovered that I don't really enjoy scenic modelling.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie