Matlock Bath Station

[animotion]

I am in the process of doing some research on Matlock Bath Station having recently returned from the area and taken some measurements of the station itself. Bill Hudson’s book ‘Through Limestone Hills’ is an excellent book on the line that went through the station with detailed drawings of stations on that line. Matlock Bath is one of them but I am a bit perplexed by the drawing in the book which details the station as it was before a minor alteration took place in 1909. The drawing shows the station with a protruding section jutting out from the front of the station. This was moved back to be flush with the rest of the station front to allow a wider gap between the front of the station and platform edge. As passenger levels increased at the station the Midland Railway deemed the gap to be dangerously narrow and hence moved that section of the station backwards. It is obvious that when Bill went to the station to take his measurement’s this section would not have been in existence. Has he just added that section to his original measurements or was he working from the original plans ? Unfortunately Bill is no longer with us to ask him and his son is still sorting out all the archive material that his father collected for the book. I have checked all the obvious places that these that these plans could possibly be residing but so far have drawn a blank space. If anyone could throw some light on this I would be most grateful. The images I have added illustrate what I have talked about.

Edited August 5, 2021 by animotion

[cypherman]

Hi all,

The signal box looks a lot lie the Airfix/Dapol one.

Edited August 5, 2021 by cypherman

[Compound2632]

@animotion, is it possible that Bill was simply working from the dimensions of the building as he found it and photographs such as the one you post?

 

@cypherman, the signalbox at Matlock Bath is of the standard Midland design, one variant of which the Airfix kit attempts to represent (though it is wider than standard, which some were but Oakham is not):

 

 

The Ratio kit is a better representation of a more typical configuration:

 

 

[John-Miles]

Churchward models do an etched brass Midland signal box which can be used to make most variants. See Phoenix Precision website.

[JustinDean]

There’s some excellent photos, such as this one, on the Facebook group: “Rowsley-Bakewell-Monsal Dale-Millers Dale Railway” of Matlock Bath. 
 

Jay