Trent Vale

[D9016]

Back in 1914 the North Staffordshire Railway (Trentham, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Silverdale Light Railway) Order was made for a line connecting the Trentham branch south of Stoke to the Pool Dam branch in Newcastle-under-Lyme thereby avoiding Stoke station with freight traffic for the many collieries in the area.  The line was never built although some infrastructure was put in place, notably a girder bridge over the A34 near Trentham Gardens which was eventually dismantled for the war effort during WW2.  

 

Trent Vale is a "might have been" layout set sometime pre-War which assumes the line was constructed but didn't prove successful, luckily Colonel Stephens stepped in to run the branch while still providing running powers for freight from the NSR/LMS network plus the odd excursion to Trentham Gardens by the GW via Market Drayton.  Recognising the local day trip market, the Colonel has also invested in some old MR 6-wheel coaches to run his own services to the Gardens and is on the lookout for an ex-NSR loco to haul them.  At least that's the excuse for what will be an eclectic mix of stock under Rule 1. 

 

The layout is housed in a 16x8 garage, allowing a circuit to watch the trains but can be run end to end. All locos and stock have to be able to traverse PECO Setrack curves.  Trent Vale station is set midpoint between Trentham and Newcastle, just north of the current A500 and crossing the old Newcastle branch of the Trent & Mersey Canal.  The assumption is that the local town centre evolved around the railway and the main traffic here is from the local Brewery.  So far 3/4 of the baseboards are in place, most track is down and a start has been made on some buildings which are based on real structures in North Staffs.   The backscene has been created from photos taken at Blists Hill in Ironbridge, most of it will only be glimpsed between foreground buildings and trees once they are in place but it gives a reasonably industrial look to the layout.  Progress isn't going to be fast, it's taken a couple of years to get this far.  

 

A few pictures of progress so far;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by D9016

[sulzer27jd]

Nice use of photos to  create the back scene.

 

John

[feanor]

Really clever use of the photos and how they blend in with the buildings and canal bridge area.

 

[D9016]

A rough AnyRail trackplan, the area inside the blue line is non-scenic.

[SirBud]

That is looking really good.  I like the way you have managed to integrate a backscene of the Etruria Bone Mill and canal arm with what looks like some overlays as well - it gives the backscene a good flavour of the Etruria area of Stoke on Trent.  I suspect many hours / months of work has gone into the buildings and backscenes.  Could you share with us how you constructed  the buildings and how the backscene was printed?

Best regards,

Trevor

(A Stokie lad until I left in my late teens and now living in Oz)

[D9016]

54 minutes ago, SirBud said:

That is looking really good.  I like the way you have managed to integrate a backscene of the Etruria Bone Mill and canal arm with what looks like some overlays as well - it gives the backscene a good flavour of the Etruria area of Stoke on Trent.  I suspect many hours / months of work has gone into the buildings and backscenes.  Could you share with us how you constructed  the buildings and how the backscene was printed?

Best regards,

Trevor

(A Stokie lad until I left in my late teens and now living in Oz)

Hi Trevor,

 

Backscenes were mostly my own photos with a few from online sites.  I used a downloaded app called Image Composite Editor which lets you stitch photos together, then just found a company online which prints marketing posters etc - I chose card for the backgrounds - and e-mailed them the images.   It's not perfect, I didn't get the same perspective for all views and some building sizes aren't consistent but as most of it is going behind other features it is just to provide the general impression of the area.  

 

The brewery is from LCut Creative parts - you can select laser cut card building components on their website - and is a rough impression of the Joule's Brewery in Stone.  With the various components it is a bit like a homemade kit and the card is easy to trim to any shape, I just mix and match until it looks right.  I don't go for super detail, it has plastic rod downpipes, the lettering is from a stencil etc.   The attached goods shed is balsa framed with a couple of "bits box" valances to tart it up a bit and plasticard corrugated sheets cut up for the roof - all painted and weathered to hide the joints.  The Railway Inn is based on a pub in Eccleshall, similar construction except I used the arches from a retaining wall from Laser Cut Railway Models and built up from there, with windows/lintels and roofing from York Modelmaking.  All in all it's a bodge-it approach which seems to end up useable!

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by D9016

[D9016]

A little more progress, loco shed now in place, another L-Cut product suitably modified. Next target is to finish the High St buildings and move onto the station area. Hopefully in 2022...

[PMP99]

Very nice, I might look at the Lcut components to improve my back scene in the future.

[D9016]

A little more progress, NSR Signalbox courtesy of Northern Bridge 3D Models via Shapeways.