'Ballamoddey' - 1937 on the Mid Sodor Railway

[Tom F]

Evening all on this Christmas night!

Thought it was about time I showed the latest project I'm working on.

Banner design courtesy of MRFS

Is it Manx? Irish?.....Sudrian of course!! Once again the brainchild of Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry.

 

After acquiring a part built Corris No. 4 kit, and second Corris No. 3 kit, the time felt right to tackle the Mid Sodor Railway. Now for the history:

 

The Mid Sodor Railway (MSR) opened in 1880 running from the coastal port of Arlesburgh, up the Arlesdale Valley and into the Central Sudrian Fells via Cas-ny-Hawin and the brutal climb know as the ‘Mountain Road’. The summit is reached at Ulfstead Road before beginning the descent into the terminus station of 'King Orry's Bridge' on the outskirts of the fortified town of Peel Godred. The railways fortune's took a downward turn when the North Western Railway built its electric standard gauge line to Peel Godred from Killdane. The MSR struggled on until 1936 when passenger traffic ceased and the line became goods only. Mixed reports suggest the entire route continued for goods traffic until 1937 when the 'Mountain Road' section closed from Cas-ny-Hawin to Peel Godred. The entire route closed 10 years later in 1947 when the lead mine at Cas-ny-Hawin flooded due to the failure of the pumping engine (former MSR No. 2, Baldwin tank 'Stanley').

 

Ballamoddey was the penultimate station on the route before the terminus at Peel Goddred. I initially plan to depict the station in it's final months of 1937 operating a goods only service. Over time I plan to move operation to 1936, and depict the railways passenger services (The Boat Trains known as the 'The Sudrian & 'Manxman' along with 'Parliamentary' and 'Picnic')

 

 

I've been heavily influenced by the Welsh Highland Railway and Ffestiniog in the design and understanding of the layout. This hopes to be something rather special and a little more interesting to operate than Scaca Fell Forestry Crossing.

 

 

Due to the RMweb server issue, all photos were lost from the thread. Photos resume here:
https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/169184-ballamoddey-1937-on-the-mid-sodor-railway/?do=findComment&comment=4795534

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Tom F

[NHY 581]

Morning Tom. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this lovely idea come together. 

 

 

Rob. 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by NHY 581

[Sweet pea]

Hi Tom looks very interesting.

[Tom F]

4 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Morning Tom. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this lovely idea come together. 

 

 

Rob. 

 

 

 

Morning Rob, and Merry Christmas! Hope you received some nice Railway related gifts yesterday!

 

I made a start on the boards (using foam board again) and the plan is to head to the shed and do some more work….however it looks like I’ve a few inches of snow to walk through this morning! 
 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by Tom F

[Captain Kernow]

A combination of Corris and Ffestiniog and WHR practice? How delightful. Also looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Following with interest, looks like another exciting project.

Forgive my lack of detailed Sudrian history, but will we see 'Duke' on this layout?

Mol

[Tom F]

3 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Following with interest, looks like another exciting project.

Forgive my lack of detailed Sudrian history, but will we see 'Duke' on this layout?

Mol

Morning Mol

 

We will indeed. We will initially see what locos were left after the sale of the passenger stock and ‘other’ locomotives.

 

This will include:

 

No. 1 ‘DUKE’ a small George England 0-4-0 Tender Saddle Tank.
 

No. 3 ‘FALCON’ an 0-4-2 Saddle Tank built at Loughborough’s Falcon Works

 

No. 4 ‘STUART’ an 0-4-2 Saddle Tank from Kerr Stuart’s.

[Tom F]

46 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

A combination of Corris and Ffestiniog and WHR practice? How delightful. Also looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

 

Pretty much Tim. The track plan was heavily influenced by Waunfawr on the WHR. A friend has kindly done me a signalling diagram, which will possibly take some influence from the Corris.

[IvoryGreen456]

This project sounds very interesting, Tom, looking forward to seeing more.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but will 'DUKE' be depicted with the flat running board as seen below,

or with the stepped running board as seen here?

Kind regards, Jacob.

Edited December 26, 2021 by IvoryGreen456
images hadn't uploaded properly

[Edge]

Looks great - I had hit upon a similar idea myself - Peel Godred and Arlesdale are two of my planned layouts, so i shall be reading with great interest

[NHY 581]

Merry Christmas Tom. 

 

Yes, one or two including a rather nice book on my favourite line, the dear old S&DJR. 

 

Always a favourite. 

 

 

Rob. 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

Great idea Tom, it will be nice to see this realised in model form. 

[Tom F]

A productive day has been had.

 

The boards are about there. The top layer isn’t glued yet until I work out how I’m going to operate the points (manuel wire operation looks to be the favoured option).

Ballamoddey is no longer in my imagination….all 6ft of it!

[NeilHB]

Splendid progress Tom! 
 

Not sure if this option will be suitable, but for Ffarquhar Road I’m using wire in tube with slide switches to change both the point itself and the polarity (or at least that is plan - I just need to wire them up and see if it works!):

 

 

They are mounted on the surface of the board, but will be hidden inside/under buildings with open backs so that they are easily accessible.

[Tom F]

Morning! Neil that’s exactly what I was thinking of but couldn’t remember the name of the switches. It’s what I used on Cwm Prysor.

 

I was wondering about if I could go underneath the boards with the wire before coming back up to surface level at the rear of the layout. So essentially putting a couple of 90 degree bends in the wire.

[NeilHB]

I think it’s worth experimenting with Tom to see if it’s possible to do that. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, as long as the wire is supported enough to limit the amount of flex along its length. 

[Steph' H]

Ooo looking forward to seeing this develop!

[fastforwardtt]

17 hours ago, fastforwardtt said:

Here are some ideas for the engines on the layout
Duke

Images by Old Vera, Wildnorwester, Jonateers and ttte wiki

 

 

 

 

 

Ideas For engines on the layout (cont)
Duke (cont) Images by {israeligoverment} and TB76 Returns

 

 

[brack]

On 26/12/2021 at 13:52, IvoryGreen456 said:

This project sounds very interesting, Tom, looking forward to seeing more.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but will 'DUKE' be depicted with the flat running board as seen below,

or with the stepped running board as seen here?

Kind regards, Jacob.

The straight running plate looks to be an error on the part of the artist - the relationship between the bottom of the tank, cab and sandbox is the same as in the stepped version, just the running plate has been misinterpreted, otherwise the saddle tank becomes much narrower than the cab and theres a large gap between the sandbox and tank.

 

(Of course the FR locos all have stepped running plates).

[KeithHC]

12 minutes ago, brack said:

The straight running plate looks to be an error on the part of the artist - the relationship between the bottom of the tank, cab and sandbox is the same as in the stepped version, just the running plate has been misinterpreted, otherwise the saddle tank becomes much narrower than the cab and theres a large gap between the sandbox and tank.

 

(Of course the FR locos all have stepped running plates).

Not always in the 60’s during one rebuild Prince did have straight frames. However it reverted to stepped frames on the next rebuild. All the other remaining England engines have stepped frames.

 

Keith

[BritishGypsum4]

1 hour ago, fastforwardtt said:

Ideas For engines on the layout (cont)
Duke (cont) Images by {israeligoverment} and TB76 Returns

 

Don't think this will go down well........

 

[Tom F]

2 hours ago, fastforwardtt said:

Here are some ideas for the engines on the layout
Duke

Images by Old Vera, Wildnorwester, Jonateers and ttte wiki

 

1 hour ago, fastforwardtt said:

Ideas For engines on the layout (cont)
Duke (cont) Images by {israeligoverment} and TB76 Returns

 

17 minutes ago, BritishGypsum4 said:

 

Don't think this will go down well........

 

 

Indeed Ben...

@fastforwardtt, I'd like to ask that you please do not post TV series related imagery, or others works with faces on in my thread.

 

Any research regarding the Mid Sodor refers directly to the Rev W Awdry's own works, or that of the railways that inspired the MSR, i.e Ffestiniog, Welsh Highland, Snailbeech and Corris etc.

 

@AY Mod just tagging you for reference Andy, should this issue arise again.

[AY Mod]

8 minutes ago, Tom F said:

 

@AY Mod just tagging you for reference Andy, should this issue arise again

 

A warning for breach of copyright has been issued.

[Aire Head]

On 26/12/2021 at 10:30, Tom F said:

Morning Mol

 

We will indeed. We will initially see what locos were left after the sale of the passenger stock and ‘other’ locomotives.

 

This will include:

 

No. 1 ‘DUKE’ a small George England 0-4-0 Tender Saddle Tank.
 

No. 3 ‘FALCON’ an 0-4-2 Saddle Tank built at Loughborough’s Falcon Works

 

No. 4 ‘STUART’ an 0-4-2 Saddle Tank from Kerr Stuart’s.

 

Without dragging up my copy of TIOS do we know when No. 2 Stanley was turned into a stationary boiler?

[BritishGypsum4]

21 minutes ago, Aire Head said:

 

Without dragging up my copy of TIOS do we know when No. 2 Stanley was turned into a stationary boiler?

I've just looked Stanley up in the IOS and there is no date given for when he arrived to the line nor is there a date for when they decided to turn him into a pumping engine.