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Through Limestone Hills - Monsal and Millers Dale


LNER4479
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On 17/01/2021 at 19:06, apbolton said:

16109101897418291344798757164434.jpg.045d54955abdb806619bad8535e1df33.jpgAs I  said in my post last Wednesday, I have  started to build the platform buildings for the Buxton  shuttle to run into.

You are looking at  this side platform 5, with the gents on the left, platform 4 the other side, obviously just the shell at the moment but I have  spent time this  afternoon drawing up the doors and windows on my silhouette cutter, so they are ready to insert next along with the internal walls.

Since this is at the front of the layout and despite having a canopy covering most of it, I  intend to detail the interior.

 

Just started reading your thread on Millers Dale with admiration on taking up such an ambitious project. I have plans of Millers Dale station building if they are of any use to you.

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After some consideration I got my 4mm axe out and cut down the row of trees nearest the viaduct.20210206_165011.jpg.111040643d1db1f5a59fe047ba74c263.jpg

 

So as you can see, we have a full  vista of the track towards the tunnel which once completed will  allow a 6 coach train to be photographed in all its glory.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 02/01/2021 at 09:12, drduncan said:

Fantastic project.  I look forward to seeing it progress.  Shame there won’t be any Spinners and Kirtley 2-4-0s in use....

 

Incidentally, what happened to the 7mm version at Slaters?

 

Duncan

I think the Midland Spinners did run through Millers Dale. There is a picture of one with a rake of coaches behind it taken at Chee Dale from the road.

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On 04/02/2021 at 09:37, animotion said:

Just started reading your thread on Millers Dale with admiration on taking up such an ambitious project. I have plans of Millers Dale station building if they are of any use to you.

Please could you post the plans on here or allow me to have copies.  I'm intending to build Millers Dale station (or parts of it) and would love to have some plans- every little bit helps.

 

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On 22/02/2021 at 19:56, animotion said:

I think the Midland Spinners did run through Millers Dale. There is a picture of one with a rake of coaches behind it taken at Chee Dale from the road.

 

The photo you are thinking of is one of a set of posed photographs taken by the Midland's official photographer in 1899 to show off the new clerestory carriages. Whilst the photo of 2-4-0 No. 102 does feature the new M&GSW Joint Stock corridor carriages in the formation in which they first went into service (but not via Chee Dale of course), the photo of 115 Class 4-2-2 No. 127 shows a mixed bag of stock that does not represent an actual service train. So this photo is not, I'm afraid, evidence for 4-2-2s normally working over the Peak Forest route.

Edited by Compound2632
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Stephen thank you for your post regarding the Spinners operating on the Peak line. I posed this question to David Hunt who did not completly rule out the chance of these locos operating on this line. There is other photographic evidence to support my theory that is held at the Midland Railway Study Centre. It seems odd that the Midland Railway chose Chee Dale of all places to take that photo when they could have chosen the Bristol to Birmingham main line on which those locos operated or other lines they operated on. If I do run a Spinner through Matlock Bath and you are right at least it will save me having to put passengers in the carraiges.

 

Tom

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16 minutes ago, animotion said:

Stephen thank you for your post regarding the Spinners operating on the Peak line. I posed this question to David Hunt who did not completly rule out the chance of these locos operating on this line. There is other photographic evidence to support my theory that is held at the Midland Railway Study Centre. It seems odd that the Midland Railway chose Chee Dale of all places to take that photo when they could have chosen the Bristol to Birmingham main line on which those locos operated or other lines they operated on. If I do run a Spinner through Matlock Bath and you are right at least it will save me having to put passengers in the carraiges.

 

Tom

It was due to the photogenic backgrounds available..

 

While there are no photographs to say they were not used.. it also means they could have been used but were never photographed. 

 

You can, however, run one of the Badwin Moguls on the line, 2-4-0, 2P, Compounds etc...along with a G2 (in LMS days) and of course a whole host of LMS and BR built types.. including the Fell, the "Hawk" and Clayton Type 17s on the Derby " test train".

 

Baz

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I thought it might have been for the photogenic background. My time frame for Matlock Bath is around 1906 and I have a scratch built Baldwin which would look nice pulling freight through Matlock Bath but the other locos you mentioned are too late for the period.

 

Tom

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3 minutes ago, Barry O said:

It was due to the photogenic backgrounds available..

And also no doubt that it was a handy location for the Derby-centric Midland engineering department. Carriages were built in Derby so a comfortable half day jolly with cameraman to pose the stock for photos, the triangle at Blackwell Mill being ideal for turning the whole train.

 

Same reason that the route was such a popular test track - ideal day out for 9-5 office-based boffins who would accompany such test trains, avoiding expense of overnight stay etc compared to venturing further afield.

 

When I started work in Derby in 1986, I worked with a Derby works old boy who'd been part of the Fell commissioning / trials team in the 1950s. He enjoyed telling me his tales of his trips to Manchester and back with the loco - all part of a Derby-based day out. I think the only thing he was entitled to claim was a midday meal allowance.

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For what it's worth, re the Midland Spinners, there's the very obvious fact re the gradients involved - 1-in-90 either side of the summit at Peak Forest. Even with the addition of sanding, a 'single' is always going to be at something of a disadvantage compared to a 4-coupled loco. So I would have thought that any regular use is unlikely on anything other than a very light train.

 

The Spinners appear to have been used at the Manchester end. There's a couple of turn-of-the-century pictures showing a Spinner bringing a lightweight Liverpool portion of a London train as far as Chinley, where it was attached to the Manchester portion. The second picture shows the Spinner being turned on the Chinley turntable where it (presumably?) waited to take the corresponding Up working back to Liverpool.

 

But - hey - Rule 1 and all that? Your project sounds fascinating - you run a Spinner if you want to!

Edited by LNER4479
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On 03/03/2021 at 11:52, animotion said:

Stephen thank you for your post regarding the Spinners operating on the Peak line. I posed this question to David Hunt who did not completly rule out the chance of these locos operating on this line. There is other photographic evidence to support my theory that is held at the Midland Railway Study Centre. It seems odd that the Midland Railway chose Chee Dale of all places to take that photo when they could have chosen the Bristol to Birmingham main line on which those locos operated or other lines they operated on. If I do run a Spinner through Matlock Bath and you are right at least it will save me having to put passengers in the carraiges.

 

Tom

 

The only photo I've found is a slide-valve 4-2-2 piloting a slide-valve 4-4-0 in Great Rocks Dale, c. 1904 [MRSC Items 61194 & 66783]. That looks to me like a substitution for the piston-valve 4-4-0 (60 Class) usually seen on Manchester expresses at this date - the Liverpool single, having brought its portion of the train to Chinley, was on hand. The slide-valve 4-4-0 may have brought the main train from Manchester Central, suggesting the booked engine never made it off Belle Vue shed. Unfortunately the only kits available in 4 mm scale for Midland 4-2-2s are of the piston-valve engines. The Liverpool engines were 1862-1866 (619-623 after the 1907 renumbering) of the 25/1853 Class (slide valves) from building in 1889/90 until withdrawn after the Great War apart from a short transfer to Peterborough in 1917/8.

 

The posed photo in Chee Dale with piston-valve engine 127 is on the MRSC website as a high-res scan - Item 64446 - and stunning it looks, too. 

 

On 03/03/2021 at 12:33, LNER4479 said:

For what it's worth, re the Midland Spinners, there's the very obvious fact re the gradients involved - 1-in-90 either side of the summit at Peak Forest. Even with the addition of sanding, a 'single' is always going to be at something of a disadvantage compared to a 4-coupled loco. So I would have thought that any regular use is unlikely on anything other than a very light train.

 

A valid point but the 4-2-2s were used on the London Extension, single-handedly working quite substantial trains for the period - 200 tons - over what is not an easy road, with long banks at 1:200.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Since Easter  Sunday was deemed a  non working day by my company but not my wife's I decided to  treat myself to a  day in the railway room.

First off  a quick test of my  birthday present from my wife. 20210404_130849.jpg.29a9748a6f9361f44135cedc84c6ee16.jpg

 

After a spin round by itself to run it in a bit, it was then attached to a 6 coach express, handled it with ease I'm  happy to  say.

Next up, start on platform 1, although I have still to build the last structure, which I  now have plans for thanks to Animotion.

 

I wanted to see how it all went together.

So armed with many sheets of different  plasticard, I set about construction. 

The photo  shows progress after a couple of hours this afternoon,  after work.

Still a way to go but knowing how you all like to see things develop here's  an overview. 

20210405_183841.jpg.b253b3bdec4ba2c11097e86afc110356.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

At risk of shameless self-promotion, lovers of the Peak District mainline might be interested to know that the first edition of the new Warners Smoke and Steam Magazine contains an article on the line, wot I wrote all by myself, together with a variety of illustrations, not all from the usual sources.

 

It's available digitally now,

https://pocketmags.com/smoke-and-steam-magazine

or you can order a paper copy which will be available from mid-May.

 

Go gentle on me - I did my best :read:

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  • 3 months later...

An enjoyable visit to Peak District land today.

 

20210820_201643.jpg.2cc97a9989c27d4e46dcf7cb8070dec9.jpg

Name of the game was to fill this corner. 

 

And a few hours later ...

 

20210820_201538.jpg.8e79378efa9ca041c6d53aa5f516dd59.jpg

This is intended as a limestone quarry (popular things in the Peak District) accessed via the branch line, thus adding considerable operational interest.

 

20210820_201800.jpg

The work included the approach incline, here dropping away on the left hand side.

 

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In its more general context. Part of the (interesting!) challenge will be to blend the scenic landscape so that it doesn't interfere too much with the Chee Dale scene.

 

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And a view looking back from the branch line terminus, showing the grade separation arrangement.

 

Hopefully back in a few weeks time to continue the work. 

Edited by LNER4479
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