Interesting and inspiring photos from Flickr....

[montyburns56]

Norton Colliery 1976 by David Blower

 

 

[montyburns56]

Some nice wagon weathering inspiration here...

 

Chester 1971 by David Blower

 

 

[montyburns56]

Liverpool Road 1975 by MMU Visual Resources.

 

 

 

[woodenhead]

End of an era, this line dominated my youth and then like my youth it was gone.

 

[woodenhead]

The other side of Preston station

 

[woodenhead]

L&Y plans for Manchester Victoria in 1866

 

[woodenhead]

Testing a bridge over the Ship Canal.  Error, the Irwell

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by woodenhead

[montyburns56]

22 hours ago, woodenhead said:

End of an era, this line dominated my youth and then like my youth it was gone.

 

 

I didn't really visit the Fallowfield Loop until it was gone unfortunately and I really regret not visiting Reddish depot, but I did photograph the line in the 90s when most of the track was still in place.

[Stoke West]

22 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Testing a bridge over the Ship Canal

 

Not very tall ships ? I would say the mersey

[woodenhead]

It’s the Irwell actually, don’t know why I said Ship Canal

 

[woodenhead]

32 minutes ago, montyburns56 said:

 

I didn't really visit the Fallowfield Loop until it was gone unfortunately and I really regret not visiting Reddish depot, but I did photograph the line in the 90s when most of the track was still in place.

Lived near it, by it and knew the timetable (so when it was safer to explore).

 

Just about remembering class 40s shunting the yard at Fallowfield.

[montyburns56]

3 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Lived near it, by it and knew the timetable (so when it was safer to explore).

 

Just about remembering class 40s shunting the yard at Fallowfield.

 

Didn't there used to be coal merchant there? I remember when I was photographing the line post closure that there was a coal merchant still situated on one of the station yards.

[montyburns56]

Do you want to build a micro layout with two convenient scenic breaks?

 

Holywell Town

 

 

http://disused-stations.org.uk/h/holywell_town/index.shtml

[woodenhead]

4 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

 

Didn't there used to be coal merchant there? I remember when I was photographing the line post closure that there was a coal merchant still situated on one of the station yards.

There was but also a London Brick facility and I think that wa what the 40 was shunting. 
 

I think rail delivered coal had stopped by then though the coal facility outlived the use of the area for rail borne freight

[Mol_PMB]

16 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

Holywell Town

Wonderful! A platform just long enough for one coach and a tank loco, scenic breaks all round, and despite having an auto train it's not on the GWR!

It's interesting that there's a bit of elevation on the sidings, a yard crane and the quirky loading gauges under the bridge. Meanwhile the main line goes steeply downgrade, and the curve out of the platform is sharp enough to need a checkrail (i.e. model railway radius)

Also the trap points within the loop/sidings turnout are a nice modellable feature.

Mol

[Poor Old Bruce]

On 20/12/2023 at 18:16, montyburns56 said:

Hanley 1975 by David Blower

 

From the caption " The Potteries Loop was a 7 mile 25 chains alternative route between Etruria Junction and Kidsgrove Liverpool Road on the North Staffordshire Railway's main line to Macclesfield"

 

 

I actually travelled on that line in 1963. Derby to Crewe trains were run from Derby Friargate station (about a 15 minute walk from my parents' house) on three consecutive Sunday mornings so I went for a ride as Friargate to Egginton Jct was not very often used by passenger trains. The Potteries Loop Line was a bunus as the train took a sharp right turn from Etruria. It re-joined the main line at Kidsgrove Liverpool Road and set back to Kidsgrove Junction to resume the Crewe line.

[airnimal]

 Holywell town would make a great small compact layout. I have considered building this prototype station on many occasions.  The bridges are still there as is the former goods yard. Even in 7mm it will fit into a normal size garage. I have already got the necessary stock ready to go in pre-grouping days. It would be interesting to operate as everything had to be push up hill and goods train were limited to a small number of wagons with a brake van at both ends.

[Mol_PMB]

16 minutes ago, airnimal said:

 Holywell town would make a great small compact layout. I have considered building this prototype station on many occasions.  The bridges are still there as is the former goods yard. Even in 7mm it will fit into a normal size garage. I have already got the necessary stock ready to go in pre-grouping days. It would be interesting to operate as everything had to be push up hill and goods train were limited to a small number of wagons with a brake van at both ends.

Knowing the superb standard of your rolling stock modelling, I'd love to see that idea come to fruition!

[Pacific231G]

19 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

Do you want to build a micro layout with two convenient scenic breaks?

 

Holywell Town

 

 

http://disused-stations.org.uk/h/holywell_town/index.shtml

There was a complete description of Holywell Town and its operation in BRJ no 40 (1992) and it would indeed make a very good micro-layout.

 

Trains were limited to  a two coach motor train for passengers (max speed 20MPH) and for goods, three loaded or five empty wagons with a 20 ton brake van at each end. The loco was always at the downhill end of every train and for descending goods trains the side brakes on every wagon had to be secured and the handbrake on the brake van next to the engine applied before heading downhill. The shunter or goods guard worked the brake in the other brake van during the descent which was limited to 10 MPH (this is in the 1916 Appendix so may have changed later) 

There were two ground frames at Holywell Town, one at each end of the loop. They were released by the train staff so shunting of the goods yard from the loop could only take place with the trap points at its lower end open. Goods trains always worked to and from the loop and on the main (platform) line there was only room for a locomotive between the end buffers and the upper loop points (which were protected with a FPL even though no passenger coach would ever have got that far).  No wagons were allowed to be left on the running line outside the loop to eliminate any chance of runaways. 

The main line gradient was 1:260 in the station area from the heel of the upper loop turnout to the overbridge  and 1:27 below that all the way (apart from a short section of 1:31 about half a mile from the junction)  down to Holywell Junction  . I can't be sure but the goods yard looks to have been flat beyond the trap points and only appears to be elevated because of the drop in the main line. There was a notice under the bridge "Goods trains to stop to pin down brakes" but they wouldn't really have started by then. 

 

If it was properly equipped with trap points and the two ground frames-  unlocked by a single key representing the staff and Annett's Key so only one could be open at any time- this could make a rather interesting development of Inglenook Sidings with quite a lot to do if it was run strictly to the rulebook.

 

Very frustratingly the NLS OS map collection only has the 25 inch map of the area for 1910 before the LNWR reopened the line (which had been a mineral tramway) This shows it as "Old Railway" but it looks more like the LNWR had done the civil enginnering work by then but hadn't yet laid the track. However, there is a detailed plan here though it doesn't show the two trap points.

https://content-eu.invisioncic.com/y320084/monthly_2023_01/HolywellTown.jpg.69e019e2d92177ed0ec25058afec3b37.jpg

This was in a post by Bécasse last January and the red box scales as 3m x 1m in 4mm scale.

(https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/177063-can-you-produce-a-signal-box-diagram-when-you-only-have-a-layout-plan-and-no-photos/?do=findComment&comment=5071080

 

Edited January 1 by Pacific231G
revision of gradients

[Nearholmer]

18 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

Do you want to build a micro layout with two convenient scenic breaks?

It has been modelled a few times before by different people in different styles. It was so compact that even a scale model of the whole thing including the sidings is very manageable in 4mm scale.

 

Frinstance: http://www.penmorfa.com/rdmrc/holywell town.html

Edited January 1 by Nearholmer

[scottystitch]

 

Site of the former Perth hump marshalling yard.  Note the site of the turntable surrounded by a "ring" of fence panels.

 

Best

Scott.

 

[scottystitch]

Cland and Warship at Paddington

 

 

[scottystitch]

 

Brush Type 4s at Loughborough.  Perhaps we should invite our forumites from the "For those interested in Classic Cars" thread to pop in for this one...

 

[scottystitch]

 

 

EE TYpe 1s top and tail a track panel train at Blackford.

[scottystitch]

 

Aplethora of interesting pieces of roling stock in this view of Craiginches.

 

Assuming the 47 (push pull in 1983?) is not running wrong line, the caption is incorrect and the train is approaching Aberdeen rather than departing.