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Waterloo Street is inspired by the Waterloo Goods branch in Aberdeen. This little known branchline snakes its way down from Kittybrewster yard to the quayside.

 

Opened in 1856 as the main Great North of Scotland railway station in Aberdeen, it closed to passenger traffic when the joint station was constructed. However, the branch remained busy serving the quayside, the local gasworks, shipyards and a fertilizer factory, amongst others.

 

In the 70s, the yard was rationalised and used for storing steel pipes for the offshore industry. Later still, it became the railhead for deliveries of calcium carbonate slurry to Croxton and Garry, and today it sees regular flows of this traffic as well as drilling mud.

 

The model Waterloo Street is 4mm 18.83mm gauge. It fits into an 18.83 square feet footprint and was entered in the 2008 DEMU/Scalefour Society challenge.

 

The area can be found between the bridges on Castle Street (the Tarry Brig) and Beach Boulevard in Aberdeen. Of course, the trackplan is compressed to get it into the required size. However, several people have recognised the location, so I must have got it looking reasonably close to reality.

 

You can see what I am trying to achieve in this photo from the Great North of Scotland Association gallery

 

Bannermill Sidings on the Waterloo Branch

 

At the moment, my preferred operating period is the late 70s and early 80s, in the transition from vac braked to air braked working. Many more types of freight are seen onthe layout than every graced the branch in real life. As it is the first layout that I have attempted, it's more of a test track for ideas and techniques than anything else.

 

The following pictures give some idea of what goes on in this neglected backwater of Scotland's railway system.

 

Waterloo_Street_Yard_pilot.jpg

 

The yard pilot is busy shuffling wagons about. The local loons have unplugged the electrical conduit again.

 

Shunting_Tarry_Brig.JPG

 

All the sidings lead under the Tarry Brig. The loons are getting bolder. This time they've nicked the paint off the bridge!

 

Its_Like_a_WR_PW_Yard_splutter.JPG

 

It looks like a Western Region permanent way yard today. Someone mis-spelled a requisition form at Awrhyllgwami Quarry. Wonder how that happened...?

 

20192_nosing_down_the_loop.JPG

 

A class 20 cautiously noses down the loop looking for a rake of wagons.There is a major renovation of the warehouse planned. Hope the new occupants give it a lick of paint smile.gif

 

20192_p_p_picks_up_a_Walrus.JPG

 

She pics out a Walrus to add to the rake...

 

20192_departs_to_Kittybrewster.jpg

 

...and departs back towards Kittybrester Yard

 

No_rest_for_the_pilot.jpg

 

As one train leaves, the pilot gets on with preparing the next one. Apparently it's heading for the East Midlands this time...

 

Why not come along to the Nottingham Show and see it in action. If you are able to make it then do say Hello. I'll be the one behind a little ex-GNoSR layout, wearing glasses and a checked shirt.

 

Many thanks to Penrhos1920 for lending his wagons :good_mini:

Edited by Wizard of the Moor
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That looks like some very impressive modelling.

 

Ta very much!

 

Have you got any pictures that capture the whole of the model? It would be nice to be able to compare it to the link you posted.

 

Here's one that is pretty close.

 

IMG_0532.JPG

 

In this shot we've jumped back 10 years to the early 60s. A Caley Beetlecrusher (an emergency transfer from Dalry Road, where it usually employed humphing porrage oats to the mill at Colinton!) is tripping a freight down from Kittybrewster to the docks.

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If you are able to make it then do say Hello. I'll be the one behind a little ex-GNoSR layout, wearing glasses and a checked shirt.

 

And I'll be the one behind the large ex GNoSR layout wearing glasses and a checked shirt!

 

However I may be on my hour off..........

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Hi I will pop over and say Hello on Sunday at Nottingham. I have been planning a Scottish shunting layout for some time to use the same stock as on my OO Gauge Glen Roy which will be at the Elizabethan Model Railway Show 8th and 9th October. I will only have a total length of 9 ft so it will be a very small yard just using 24, 25 and 26's etc in the Blue period so mainly 4 wheel vans. Good luck at the weekend. Andy.

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Thanks for the comparison picture. I think you have really managed to capture the feel of the place.

The more humble aspects of a town's railway history appear to be becoming a popular modelling subject and I find it very interesting. Could the forgotten yard be the new depot/ blt? It certainly wouldnt bother me if they all incorporated the feelings of past glory you get from this and similar layouts

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Here are a few pictures of Waterloo Street at the Nottingham show.

 

20010319_NottShow_1.jpg

 

Some empty bogie bolsters are removed from the tube storage yard. A boundary wall has appeared around the old warehouses. The skip lorry driver has taken another wrong turning trying to retrieve his missing skip. Better not keep Driver Stanley waiting or he'll get angry!

 

20010319_NottShow_5.jpg

 

The yard pilot gets ready to sort out another mixed rake of wagons sent down by the ill-trained marshalling staff at Kittybrewster. Shunting Inspector Furmage will not be happy with this situation...

 

20110320_NottShow_12.jpg

 

A delivery of carbon dioxide heads down to the fertilizer factory.

 

20110320_NottShow_13.jpg

 

Meanwhile, a few vans full of bagged fertilizer are ready to head out to garden centers from Forres to Findhorn.

 

20110320_NottShow_14.jpg

 

Readers of a nervous disposition will be happy to note that, following extensive overtime by Grampian's Finest, the missing point levers have been recovered and the Tarry Brig reunited with its paint. To prevent further loon-related losses, the paint has been securely gaffa-taped to the roadway - hopefully only a temporary measure.

 

Any readers with information regarding the whereabouts of a four track span of gas main and its associated support brackets, normally attached to the side of the bridge, should contact the staff bothy, as the kettle is getting cold.

 

Many thanks to Waveydavey for providing most of the stock seen here.

 

(2011-10-22: Edited to fix broken image links.)

Edited by Wizard of the Moor
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Very nice just caught up with this from the PMs -you made short work of converting 7671 and 20192!

 

-lovely layout look forward to seeing more, going for the GNoSR with the 2mm stuff now, with 'a version' of Banff the points are interesting I know this is a freight yard but how long did the 'interlaced style' timbering go on for the pics I have seen of Banff show the more conventional BR style timbering but of course that was a passenger line, its likely that the points would have been replaced there? Its something I need to resolve before starting the point construction for mine.

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Many thanks to Waveydavey for providing most of the stock seen here.

 

No problem James, pleased I could help out even if I did spend most of my time grumbling about running air braked trains with vac brake only locos. Maybe we can arrange a brake compatability teach in at Scaleforum.

 

Although I only briefly operated the layout I found it to be interesting to play with and very well thought out and built, far better than the slap dash approach to planning and construction I took with Longcarse West. Very impressed with the operation of the servo point motors and I've come away with a fair few ideas for the soon to be planned LW2. Don't be too surprised if LW2 looks like an expanded version of Waterloo Street in the same way that LW1 looks quite like an expanded version of Jeff Taylors Alloa Goods ;) .

 

Cheers

 

David

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It looks like a Western Region permanent way yard today. Someone mis-spelled a requisition form at Awrhyllgwami Quarry. Wonder how that happend...?

 

 

Well I'm not sure about that as I think I spotted Frome WR, Hartlepool NE & Stratford GE brandings on those wagons.

 

Many thanks to Penrhos1920 for lending his wagons :good_mini:

 

You're welcome. It's really great to see my wagons out and about. I didn't build them to get stored in a box. I hope they all behaved themselves.

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Very attractive James. I hope to cross paths with it sometime - as with Longcarse it really captures the feel of its time and place.

Particularly like the kink in the loop line, presumably denoting some now-removed facility or feature.

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Very nice just caught up with this from the PMs -you made short work of converting 7671 and 20192!

I already had the Ultrascale wheels in stock, so they were clipped'n'chipped in about 30 mins each.

 

-lovely layout look forward to seeing more, going for the GNoSR with the 2mm stuff now, with 'a version' of Banff the points are interesting I know this is a freight yard but how long did the 'interlaced style' timbering go on for the pics I have seen of Banff show the more conventional BR style timbering but of course that was a passenger line, its likely that the points would have been replaced there? Its something I need to resolve before starting the point construction for mine.

 

The Waterloo Goods points were in place up until a couple of years ago when the yard was remodelled. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the loco release crossover underneath the Tarry Brig is still there in semi-interlaced condition. I suspect that they were relaid in this condition in the late 50s from fully interlaced originals.

 

As I had lots of photos of the pointwork, I made a special effort to get it right, including the places where two standard timbers have been used in place of a long timber, held together with a fishplate bolted through them. This is another little feature that you see in a lot of ex-Highland and GNoS yards. One turnout in Helmsdale yard had four such flitched timbers.

 

Good luck with Banff. I'll look forward to seeing that develop.

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Very attractive James. I hope to cross paths with it sometime - as with Longcarse it really captures the feel of its time and place.

Particularly like the kink in the loop line, presumably denoting some now-removed facility or feature.

 

Thanks, Jamie! Did you recognise 20192 in some of the shots? :)

 

The kink in the loop was there to accommodate the signal box. Originally (pre-1920), the end of the loop was roughly where the kink begins. A couple of sidings then kicked back to serve an oil depot. By 1960 the oil depot had gone and the loop was extended around the signal box. I'm not certain when the signal box was then removed, however, the appearance of the loop was one of the major reasons why I decided to model this place.

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Thanks, Jamie! Did you recognise 20192 in some of the shots? :)

All I can say is... it looks better than it did when it left here a while ago. :)

Thanks for the history - it's the sort of feature that one would struggle to "imagineer" convincingly.

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  • 5 months later...

You would be forgiven for thinking that it's been very quiet down the Waterloo Street branch of late. Unfortunately real life keeps getting in the way with work and family commitments taking priority.

 

However, inspired by the excellent RailEx North East last weekend, especially the magnificence of Blackgill and Glenuig, and with the approach of Scaleforum in a few weeks, I decided to try and move a few projects off the workbench and onto the layout.

 

A crippled BDA gets shunted out of the way by D5366.

 

20110831_Shunting.jpg

 

20110830_D6253.jpg

 

20110830_Class27_BDA.jpg

 

Anachronistic rolling stock on a P4 layout? Surely shome mishtake :)

 

The loco is a fairly recent transfer from Carlisle (thanks, Dave!) and will hopefully be see on Colinton at the Blackburn & East Lancashire Show this coming weekend. I would have preferred the drop-in wheel sets to need a little less lathe work before they would fit. Maybe Heljan have altered their bogie frames recently...

 

The Loon Patrol has obviously been caught napping again. Either that or the point levers have been put under lock and key for safety.

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