Crich Mineral Railway in OOm

[2996 Victor]

So, here we are again!

 

Just to add to the rail-induced madness going on chez moi, here is the beginning of my burgeoning micro layout of the Crich Mineral Railway, which ran between Cliffe Quarry, Crich, and Ambergate in Derbyshire.

 

Why? Well, I was looking for photographs of the Ashover Light Railway for my ALR OO9 layout (link in my signature), and in amongst some postcards of the ALR were some of the Crich Mineral Railway. And as both the CMR and the ALR were owned by the Clay Cross Company, I thought, "that'd make an interesting combined exhibit" (if I ever get it/them finished and exhibitable!).

 

Curiously, the CMR was built to metre gauge, well sort of - it started out as a horse-drawn plateway of around that gauge, and sort of ended up at a metre when converted to edge rail and locomotive working. And the first steam loco was built in Chesterfield!

 

And as if the foregoing madness wasn't enough, instead of building it in HOm where track is readily available, in order to make it truly comparable to the ALR layout, its going to be 4mm/1ft scale metre gauge, hence OOm.

 

Why, oh why, oh why, do I do it......?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

"Dowie":

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by 2996 Victor

[Nile]

Does that mean 13mm gauge track and scratch built stock?

[2996 Victor]

Does that mean 13mm gauge track and scratch built stock?

 

Hi Neil,

 

yes, it does - I've got roller and 3-point track gauges being made to 13.120mm gauge. I'm intending to use EM standards for check/crossing etc, assuming the track layout actually incorporates points, as I'm toying with the idea of trying to make it pointless!

 

The aim is to keep it small, but there are a few key features of the original line that I'd like to squeeze in if I can: a length of stone-walled embankment and the Stephenson bridge, for instance.

 

Loco(s) will probably have to be scratch built, although I'll look around for something to cobble into "Dowie", and I may be able to adapt "Tommy" from an available de Winton kit. Strangely the wagons are available as a 3D print, although they're intended for OO9, so I don't yet know whether they'll adapt to the 13mm gauge. There also seem to be a few discrepancies with published drawings, but how noticeable they'd be remains to be seen.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[rue_d_etropal]

Why not just go for HO scale. There is a lot more interest in it as scale for British  models now. 3D printing can do any scale, just needing decent drawings to do the initial design. Also you can fit more into the same space, or save a bit of space. One of the arguments in its favour in early days was that you could fit 8 HO scale wagons in the same space as 7 OO scale ones.

Of course you might just like the challenge of building your own track, and everything runnng on it to the bigger gauge.

[2996 Victor]

Why not just go for HO scale. There is a lot more interest in it as scale for British  models now. 3D printing can do any scale, just needing decent drawings to do the initial design. Also you can fit more into the same space, or save a bit of space. One of the arguments in its favour in early days was that you could fit 8 HO scale wagons in the same space as 7 OO scale ones.

Of course you might just like the challenge of building your own track, and everything runnng on it to the bigger gauge.

 

Hi Simon,

 

I hear what you're saying and I certainly can't argue the logic of it, but my (illogical!) idea is that it will stand alongside my Ashover Light layout, and I feel that to that it needs to be the same scale.

 

In a couple of months' time, when its all gone pear-shaped, I'll happily admit the folly of the idea   

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[rue_d_etropal]

Mark,

If it is actually going to be part of the same layout, then a different scale might not be a problem. Having said tha 12mm is not actually correct for HO stricltly speaking, and therefore you might get away with using 12mm for 4mm scale. I am planning to use 16.5mm in 5.5mm/ft to represent metre gauge, when I could use EM gauge track. Sometimes modelling narrow gauge slidghtly under gauge looks better. 9mm and 16.5mmalways look too wide(as they are) to represent 2ft(60cm) gauge in 4mm and 7mm scales respectively. Gordon Gravitt argued that using EM gauge for his 1/50th scale Pempoul, actually made it look better, when he should have used nearer to 20mm. I still think he should have changed the scale to suit the gauge .

On a slightly different note, Cambrai, the French metre gauge loco  ran on what was technically(?) only 3ft gauge track in the UK!

[2996 Victor]

Hi Simon,

 

sorry I haven't responded sooner, but I've been playing with my Ashover Class Ds, and been away for a long weekend in the South Hams!

 

Thanks again for your thoughts - it's all worth considering. The intention isn't that the CMR and ALR elements will be part of a single layout, rather, they'll be two separate layouts that share a common theme: ownership by the Clay Cross Company.

 

I might well consider 12mm gauge from the point of view of making life a bit easier. But considering that my ALR layout is OO9 rather than 4mm/1ft on 8mm gauge track, the "error" in gauge could be overlooked. But my thoughts are that, as OO9 is a scale 3" over gauge, I don't really want to represent metre gauge track with under-width track.

 

We'll see how things pan out!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[tractionman]

Interesting prototype at Crich, and quite a lot of the formation of the line still present judging by comparing historic OS 6" maps with modern aerial imagery, eg

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=53.0880&lon=-1.4830&layers=168&b=1

 

I've dabbled in modelling 3- foot gauge in 5.5mm scale, but not quite right for a metre gauge line as you say, it's 3" approx too narrow.

 

If the two layouts (ALR and Crich) are not to be connected I wonder how 9mm track and 3mm scale might look for Crich? The smaller scale might disguise the 3" under-gauge track more effectively than 5.5mm or 4mm scales?  

 

Plus an advantage of modelling in 3mm scale is that you could use any spare 009 track and chassis etc for the Crich layout!

 

I'm not sure I have seen many use 3mm scale / 9 mm gauge track combinations for modelling narrow gauge? Yet 3mm is quite well represented as a scale for figures, landscaping, structures etc?

 

Good luck with the project.

 

all the best,m

 

Keith