Provenance of Shincliffe Castle / Neville's Cross N Gauge Layout(s)

[Alastair Mair]

A modelling friend was alerted to the availability of some N gauge layout boards through a mutual friend, which we have now collected.  We have two boards, both circa 6' long and maybe 18" wide, each with a staion - one called Shincliffe Castle and the other called Neville's Cross, both of which are real locations in/near Durham.

Does any one happen to know anything about them?  It looks like they may well have been destined to be exhibited but at some point abandoned - there is a maroon LMS name plate "Shincliffe Castle" on the Neville's Cross board.

 

 

 

 

 

[cypherman]

I would say that this is quite  catch. Both look really well done.

[Alastair Mair]

It might look ok, but whilst we got the track wiring sorted to operate the Shincliffe Castle board (in the bottom picture) via the control panel (third picture) the track laying on that board is dubious -  a test train was run on the tracks but snagged on the platform ends, as the track is too close.  This further piqued my curiosity about their origin, as this board at least (we've not tested the other one yet) couldn't have run trains  :-(

[Axlebox]

Shincliffe translates as 'haunted cliff'...so Shincliffe Castle wouldn't be somewhere you'd want to linger after dark!

[MarkC]

Apropos of nothing, I'm intrigued about the "LMS" on that totem, because no LMS route came anywhere near Durham. Through coaches, yes, but not a line.

 

Having said that, the detail escapes me, but ISTR that there was a way into the area that the LNWR were investigating, but the NER (or perhaps the S & D) invested a lot of money in scuppering the idea, by, IIRC, getting there first...