Shardlow

[Peter Kazmierczak]

In the garage are various bits of layouts from years gone by; unfinished, of course. Yesterday I thought, instead of leaving them to moulder for another 40 years, I'd try to make something out of them.

Hence Shardlow.

 

Why Shardlow? Well, when I was a lad I lived off Shardlow Road in Alvaston. Shardlow was (and still is) an important inland canal centre, situated where the Trent & Mersey Canal enters the Derwent and the Trent. It was never served by rail, the nearest station being Castle Donington. What if the Midland had built a branch to it?

And so to begin. This morning I was out in the garden doing a bit of sawing-up of the old boards to see what could be retrieved...

[Paul H Vigor]

'Behold! The Saw of God!' 😎

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Unfortunately, my clumsy carpentry skills resulted in the "Saw of God" also managing to cut into my "Workmate" top. Undeterred, I'm left with two pieces of board with (hopefully) usable track on.

 

But why not just lift the track? Well, the way I'd laid the track by first pinning, then ballasting with a paint/sawdust mix, resulted in a pretty impregnable finish.

[pH]

You will have to include the Malt Shovel! We have happy memories of walks to and from there over the fields from Breaston.

[malc60015]

Or the “New Inn”👌👌

[Enterprisingwestern]

14 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

also managing to cut into my "Workmate" top.

 

It's not a proper workmate until it has cuts, scars and chunks missing out of it!

I was once working at a customers house and had need use his workmate, he asked me to put some damage on it to make it look as though he'd ever used it anger!

 

Mike.

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Peter,

An Aunt & Uncle of mine used to live in a large house by the canal in Shardlow so I’m intrigued by this!

Good luck,

 John 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

The track is 40+ year-old PECO Streamline code 100 with insulfrog points. I managed to lift one turnout, though it was rather bent and one of the rails was coming off the sleeper fixings. However, with some judicious bending and cleaning away the old ballast, it appears to be OK - the over-centre spring still works, which is the main thing. Note how dirty the rails are though...

Now normally I'd recommend using new track for a new layout; after all if the track is iffy then so will the layout. However, the idea behind Shardlow is to use what I already have, especially in these financially-challenging times.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I recall that I had built a couple of baseboards about 15 - 20 years ago, and I hadn't used one of them. I dug it out from the back of the summerhouse (as you do...); just normal construction - plywood top on a timber frame. The size being 60" x 16"; can't remember why that size but it fitted easily into the estate car we then had. But if I want to transport the layout, would it fit into the cars we now have? One has a back seat that splits, so I could have a passenger in the rear with the front seat folded, though the board is at an angle. The other car doesn't have a split back seat, so the board can lie flat (by folding down the front seat), but I couldn't accommodate a passenger.  Anyway, I'm rambling...

[Oldddudders]

"The Lady In Grey"? I'm sure I dined there in 1968, prior to a week on the canals. I'm not sure whether your present endeavour counts as recycling or upcycling, but it looks well worthwhile!

[Andrew P]

Shardlow Marina was a favorite visiting spot for the Wife and I and our Greyhounds before we moved back down Souf.

 

Good luck with a good sounding project, I'm sure Al @Alister_Gwill have a look, as its sounds his sort of thing. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Andrew P

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Judging by some of the comments above, this is starting to sound more like a pub crawl than a layout blog...

 

Anyway, after sawing  the old board, this is what I'm left with. Six points; a good number. So what's the  plan? In a way this small layout is designing itself. More on that tomorrow...

[Enterprisingwestern]

19 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Judging by some of the comments above, this is starting to sound more like a pub crawl than a layout blog...

 

Anyway, after sawing  the old board, this is what I'm left with. Six points; a good number. So what's the  plan? In a way this small layout is designing itself. More on that tomorrow...

 

I reckon its got the makings of something C&HPR ish?

There must be a bit somebody on here hasn't modelled?!!

 

Mike.

 

Mike.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Now for some boring bits...

For me, I feel it's important to establish a sense of "place" for a layout. The accompanying sketch map outlines the location of Shardlow.

 

I'm in two minds whether the Midland Railway would've built a branch from the line at Draycott (opened in 1839) across the Derwent, or from Castle Donington (opened thirty years later) across the Trent.

What do you reckon?

[pH]

What would be the presumed purpose of a line to Shardlow? Before the arrival of the existing railways it was, as you know, an ‘inland port’. Large boats travelled up the River Trent to Shardlow, where their cargoes were transshipped to canal barges or distributed locally by horse transport. Outgoing traffic went in the opposite direction by the same means.

 

I don’t think a railway would substitute for any of these forms of transport in that existing arrangement. Instead, as happened, the railway would replace all those forms of transport and do away with the whole existing transportation network.

 

If a branch line had been built to Shardlow, it would almost certainly have come from the north - the Sawley Junction-Derby route. By the time the line through Castle Donnington was built, the Shardlow port was in serious decline. 
 

How about the Castle Donnington line being built on a slightly more northerly route, so that it passed through Shardlow? (Castle Donnington station was named “Castle Donnington and Shardlow” for a while.). Shardlow wouldn’t be on the end of a branchline in that case, so the traffic would be different, but it would still allow you to include the canal and associated buildings.

 

Having lived in Breaston for a few years, as I said, the walk to Shardlow was a regular favourite. We visited Shardlow once on a visit to the UK years later, and had lunch at the Malt Shovel. It was all as pleasant as we remembered. 
 

I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Edited October 10, 2022 by pH
Grammar

[Peter Kazmierczak]

In my parallel universe, the Midland Railway thought that there was enough potential traffic for a branch to Shardlow. I was minded, and "pH" agrees, that would have approached from the north. I suggest a possible route in that map below.

This will be a freight-only line. I've resisted the temptation to include a passenger station due to lack of space and a feeling it would dominate the scene. The whole idea, really, being that this is just a little shunting layout.

 

There was a cotton/lace mill at Wilne, just north of where my imaginary line crosses the Derwent. I imagine a siding or two to serve this, bringing in coke (an old map shows a gasometer on site) and taking away the finished products. 

At Shardlow itself were corn mills, a flour mill, brewery, joinery works and a timber yard. in adjoining fields were many glasshouses. So plenty of opportunity for a variety of traffic.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Peter Kazmierczak

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Continuing the backstory, for those still awake reading this...

It's interesting to see how the imaginary branch would interact with the real railway at Draycott. The layout at Draycott remained remarkably constant over the years. The only changes were in the yard, where the number of sidings varied between two and four. I've suggested two options, based on Midland Railway practice. If the branch to Shardlow had been passenger rated, then option 1. would probably have appeared. However, as the line is freight-only, and the Midland was very averse to facing points, then I think option 2. would have been chosen.

 

Option 2. would have necessitated a propelling move to gain access to the branch from the Derby direction.  However, propelling was still common well into the 1990s. Just down the line at Spondon, for example, trains from the sidings were still being propelled out onto the mainline, and at Stenson Junction, MGR trains arriving at Willington power station from the west, also involved propelling. Yet there would probably be much tutting from "experts" if they saw such moves on model layouts.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Leaving Draycott, the line would initially head SE. This is a case of reality following imagination, as in the 1970s there was a loading installation for river gravels with a siding where my branch would've followed. 

 

The line would then travel south to Wilne Cross, where it would cross the Draycott - Sawley road on the level. Turning SW then south again, the line would skirt the hamlet of Church Wilne before crossing the River Derwent. 

 

There was a cotton/lace mill here and I'd imagine a siding or two to serve it. Any idea what inwards/outwards traffic to a cotton mill would be?

The sidings would face north, so incoming traffic would work down to Shardlow, before being dropped-off at the mill on the return. Adding extra operating potential for Shardlow itself, of course..

[figworthy]

9 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Leaving Draycott, the line would initially head SE. This is a case of reality following imagination, as in the 1970s there was a loading installation for river gravels with a siding where my branch would've followed. 

 

The line would then travel south to Wilne Cross, where it would cross the Draycott - Sawley road on the level. Turning SW then south again, the line would skirt the hamlet of Church Wilne before crossing the River Derwent. 

 

There was a cotton/lace mill here and I'd imagine a siding or two to serve it. Any idea what inwards/outwards traffic to a cotton mill would be?

The sidings would face north, so incoming traffic would work down to Shardlow, before being dropped-off at the mill on the return. Adding extra operating potential for Shardlow itself, of course..

 

I'm liking the look of this, and I particularly like your maps.

 

With respect to your question about the cotton mill, the obvious answer would surely be either raw cotton, or pre-spun cotton thread.  Although it is water side, in later years, coal would probably be a good bet as they moved from water to steam power.  Odd deliveries of other stuff such as new machinery.  Outbound, the finished goods ?

 

Adrian

[pH]

12 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

There was a cotton/lace mill here and I'd imagine a siding or two to serve it. Any idea what inwards/outwards traffic to a cotton mill would be?

The sidings would face north, so incoming traffic would work down to Shardlow, before being dropped-off at the mill on the return. Adding extra operating potential for Shardlow itself, of course..

Do you know if the gasometer was connected to any network or was the gas generated onsite? If generated locally, coal would have been brought in, by rail in your scenario.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I seem to be getting a bit side tracked, but some comments about Wilne Mill might be in order. 

This appears to date from the early 18th century as a "rolling and slitting" mill. Some of the activities were lead rolling, fulling and corn grinding. The Derby Mercury newspaper of 25th Feb 1796 had an advert for the sale of waterwheels, tools and other implements from the rolling and slitting mill here.

Presumably it was resurrected as a cotton/lace mill in the early19th century. It comprised of a series of very substantial buildings, one being 5/6 storeys high. The gasometer is shown on an 1879 map, but not on the 1913 one.

The mill was severely damaged by fire in 1917, with part rebuilt as a two storey north-light structure in 1924.

 

Anyway, I digress...

[Peter Kazmierczak]

And so, ever so slowly, we eventually dawdle into Shardlow. Shardlow was/is a long linear village, alongside what was once the main A6 road. Some of the elements can be seen in the map below. Next time I'll actually mention railways...

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by Peter Kazmierczak

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Earlier I mentioned that this layout seems to be designing itself. Well with the two sections of point work off an old layout, we get something like this:

[Enterprisingwestern]

Your drawings are taking me back to the halcyon days of Model Railway Constructor Peter!

 

Mike.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Enterprisingwestern
Forgot me bloody name!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

And so a little modelling today; once the pesky cat gets out of the way...

 

We all know that good track laying is the secret to a layout without too many frustrations where running is concerned. So first, time to get rid of the old ballast and create a flat and smooth surface. The holes are where the former point rodding went. I've decided that I'll just use my fingers to operate the points as I see this as a small, rather intimate layout.