Matloughe Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Good Afternoon, I have had a few false starts on layouts recently - this is primarily due to me trying to move away from the typical bucolic branch-line terminus based 'somewhere in Sussex' and just screaming the worlds Bluebell, Primrose or Lavender very loudly. I have sold off quite a large portion of my collection which has been deemed as not needed - you know what its like odds & sods you got for a project that never took off. This as of yet unnamed layout is a slightly Alternate Universe/Fictional station (Where the AU in the title comes from) with a plan firmly routed in the well trodden path of CJF's Minories. I have added my own slight twist to the plan: Track Plan, the layout is spread over three 4' x 2' boards with two scenic and one fiddleyard board currently. It represents a fictional extension of the city widened lines westwards at roughly the site of todays Euston Square station today - more details on the history below. I have altered the Minories plan to some extent, I have added a Locomotive spur by taking some influence from the former bay platform at Liverpool Street (MET) the idea is that a Loco Hauled service which would be limited to about three coaches + a locomotive would pull in and the spare loco on the spur would take it back out again - negating the need to run around the train. There is also a second bay platform that is only connected to the Westbound line - this is supposed to represent a former fully used bay road that nowadays only sees the odd train as part of a *Rusty Rail* movement once a day the bay is long enough to take two-cars of LT Stock. Off of this bay is a siding - the bottom one on the plan this takes some influence from Baker Street Platform 1. Alongside Platform one there used to be a siding which served the building above the station (Chiltern Court), in days past coal would be delivered for the building and rubbish would be taken away by rail - presumeably to Croxley Tip I couldn't find a picture online of this siding in situ however I did find this: this, where the platform line kinks to the left is where the former connection to the siding was you might be able to make out an arch - I am not sure but there is a photo in the Metropolitan Railway book of a Met Bo-Bo hauling one of the last rubbish trains consisting of one LT Wagon between two Brakevans. Station approaches with the Loco Siding and East & Westbound Tracks respectively Station board. History Being slightly AU you would be surprised to know how much of the line would be based in the category of a just missed opportunity. I shall try and explain here - if you get bored by loads of text then feel free to move on. In 1864; the year after the Metropolitan Railway opened there was bill deposited in Parliament for a cut & cover underground line linking Charing Cross to Euston, and with a branch onwards to St Pancras. Both the LNWR and SER endorsed the construction of this independent line but committed no funding - the line would have been built to Mainline Gauge - funding was an issue there was no uptake on the shares and the only fund raised was a £330,000 mortgage the scheme eventually fell into obscurity and in 1868 the directors attempted to repeal the original bill. Later in 1871 the scheme was revived - still as a cut & cover line the junction for the northern split between Euston & St Pancras would have been adjacent to the Metropolitan Railway's Gower Street Station (Now known as Euston Square). It is at this point my history diverges; in my history the line was built and opened with financial assistance coming from the South Eastern Railway and from the London & North Western both who were keen to promote 'through' traffic as a sort of 1870's Thameslink proposal. The Metropolitan also jumped on the bandwagon as well until a rather odd three-way arrangement began, with the Met supplying locomotives to take the trains through the tunnels beneath the city and for operating its own services onto the line serving the St Pancras Branch. Later on in history it is assumed the St Pancras branch was connected up to the City Widened Lines at Kings Cross (A tunnel was actually built from the CWL in this direction but never used). This tunnel also allowed the Great Northern Railway to have 'through traffic' to Moorgate or through Snow Hill Tunnel to Blackfriars (today's Thameslink). As time progressed and Electrification took hold on the Metropolitan in 1904 the line into this fictional Gower Street station which was used initially to turn back electrified Hammersmith & City services from Addison Road, and then later as traffic increased to take some pressure off of the Northern Half of the Circle by diverting some terminating services via this new joint tunnel onto the City Widened Lines and later onto Moorgate. I have drawn a map below: Yellow Represents the Metropolitan Railway & Northern Half of the Circle, the Blue represents the line as show in the 1871 bill (I have omitted all intermediate stations on all lines) and the Green represents the City Widened lines as built... save for the addition of a station at St Pancras which I am assuming is the terminus of the 1871 railway (Blue Line). I have laid this out as a 'through' station, so in the future I might construct a second fiddle yard board and operate it as end-to-end but for the moment I am quite happy as it is. the layout will feature a mix of LT and Southern stock - the platforms are long enough to handle 4 Mark I based coaches so a EPB or a SUB, or approximately 5-car LT stock dependant on the platform assigned to. Apologies for not showing more pictures but at the moment there is not much to see - I am trying to settle on the scenic aspects of the location I would love to model a 'late Metropolitan' inner circle station that looks something like this but I doubt my modelling skill would do something like that much justice. I'd appreciate any comments or queries - but for the moment history & research seem to be the most real 'work' I can do at the moment time to look at retaining walls I think. Thank you for looking. Cheers, ~ Gary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matloughe Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 Good Afternoon, As with my previous post - I have made some alterations to the plan. Basically I have decided that I am over-engineering the solution somewhat - I don't know what any of you guys think however what I have done with the next plan I am presenting is tried to look at this layout from a more 'mainline' rather then 'Metropolitan' perspective. As after all - this would have been a mainline built project lets not beat about the bush. This is a much simplified track plan which is effectively a copy of the Minories plan by CJF. One aspect I liked about the first plan was that the locomotive stabling siding could access all three platforms without any shunt moves, on the flip side to this however is that I am not sure that by lengthening the space between the crossovers if the station throat has lost some of the iconic and deceptively simple flowing plan. I am toying with re-instating the locomotive siding in that original position - in this plan I have introduced curves between the platform access points which looks rather effective with a four coach train meandering over the pointwork into the station at a nice slow scale speed. I have also removed the run-around crossover between the main two platforms so any Locomotive Hauled trains would need to be shunt-released or locomotive 'stepping back' employed to facilitate efficient turn around. If I instate the locomotive siding in the position of the original plan then the short stub could be extended marginally to produce a 'parcels' platform - might be an idea for mainline services for example taking off a 'Van C' or a BG for newspaper traffic. I am still intending to use the late Metropolitan station environs with the gorgeous looking brickwork - I've seen a card kit which I will eventually work on however it is a mouth watering £10 for 15" of wall... and I would need approximately 144" of wall which turns out at 9.6 kits... definitely a long-term project there. Some 'nice' aspects of the revised plan is the platforms are over 5' long, which looks rather realistic with 4 Mark I coaches in the platform with a nice amount of 'space' at the end, I have also worked out that with the constraints of my 4' fiddleyard 4-Coach Mainline trains are no problem and also prototypically correct (Formation-wise) London Transport CO/CP Trains will fit in that space. If I have a loco-hauled train then it will be limited to 3-Coaches for the fiddleyard space. However I can *just* squeeze a four-coach Metropolitan Dreadnought & Bo-Bo train into my 4' fiddleyard - so plenty of choice for rolling stock to keep me busy. As usual any comments or queries I am pleased to hear them, sorry for no photos but I didn't think it was worth it to see more bare track and me flashing off my stock. Cheers, ~ Gary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TW Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I will follow this thread with great interest. Please keep the updates coming! Thomas ps: I liked your first plan! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
37114 Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 Hi, Will follow with interest, I agree with TW I prefer your first plan, the seocnd one looks a tad arteficial with the platforms curving one way and then the track curving back the other, unless there was an insurmountable reason why this was required? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
westerner Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I always like urban treminii stations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparks Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Hey If you go the LT Museum and search the photo collection (http://www.ltmcollection.org/photos/index.html) and search for "burke or goldsmith" it will bring up most of the series of shots of the last Chiltern Court coal/rubbish working. There are a few more, which you can find by searching by year on 1961 and browsing through. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwr Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Does anyone know if the west curve tunnel at King's Cross still exists. Love to see some photos if available. Paul R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.