Midland Railway Company

[Northroader]

Mention of Edale, and thoughts of happy days walking from there, but best done in dry weather, so best wishes for your sons ventures. It would make a lovely setting for a BLT, rather than a double track main line?

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Northroader said:

Mention of Edale, and thoughts of happy days walking from there, but best done in dry weather, so best wishes for your sons ventures. It would make a lovely setting for a BLT, rather than a double track main line?

 

Well, if you haven't got the room or the passion for glorious Midland expresses (to say nothing of Great Northern goods trains) how about the Derwent Valley Water Board Railway?

[Northroader]

No, not that. Something small and neat, with passenger trains. This sort of thing:

 

https://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/exhibbition-2023/kettlewell/

 

 

[Compound2632]

Just now, Northroader said:

No, not that. Something small and neat, with passenger trains. This sort of thing:

 

https://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/exhibbition-2023/kettlewell/

 

Or indeed @Mrkirtley800's wonderful Kirkby Malham, on here. 

 

But one has to face the fact that the Midland really wasn't a BLT railway in the way that the GE, GW, and even NE were.

[Northroader]

Agreed, Kirkby Malham is a lovely piece of modelling, but for a simple peasant moving to a small hovel, I’m considering a microlayout where a splash of crimson may appear. The Midland can be a coat hung on a peg where rule 1 applies, lack of branch lines notwithstanding.

[MR Chuffer]

36 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Midland really wasn't a BLT

A little harsh - Morecambe, Heysham, Grassington, Hawes and Ingleton (sort of), Barnoldswick, Haworth, Dewsbury, Leicester West Bridge, Southwell, Buxton, Wirksworth, the original Ripley, Ilkeston Town, and probably several more further south, at which point my geography starts to fail....

Edited September 18, 2023 by MR Chuffer

[Compound2632]

15 minutes ago, MR Chuffer said:

Too harsh - Morecambe, Heysham, Grassington, Hawes (sort of), Barnoldswick,  Leicester West Bridge, Southwell, Buxton, Wirksworth, the original Ripley, Ilkeston Town, and probably several more further south, at which point my geography starts to fail....

 

I would discount Morecambe, Heysham, Buxton, and Ilkeston Town as not really matching the BLT vibe. If those are BLTs, then so is St Pancras! Hawes I would rule out, being a through station at which Midland services terminated, like Otley or Bristol Temple Mead.

 

But I will add the Gloucestershire BLTs of Stroud, Nailsworth, Dursley, and Thornbury, and off the main line, Higham Ferrers and Hemel Hempstead. In the north, you've overlooked Oxenhope. Then there's the original Tewkesbury terminus, and I'd like to give a special mention to Brownhills. 

 

Barnsley Court House and Northampton St Johns Street are another couple of ones that are too grand to be "proper" BLTs, even if they don't approach Bath Queens Square in importance.

 

(I enjoyed putting Bristol Temple Mead in the same category as Otley and Hawes.)

Edited September 18, 2023 by Compound2632

[Compound2632]

39 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Agreed, Kirkby Malham is a lovely piece of modelling, but for a simple peasant moving to a small hovel, I’m considering a microlayout where a splash of crimson may appear. The Midland can be a coat hung on a peg where rule 1 applies, lack of branch lines notwithstanding.

 

@Tricky's Midland in... cameos might provide some inspiration there?

[lezz01]

The early version of Dursley would be very manageable although the tiny loco used at the start might be a bit of a problem, there's a photo of it in Summerson Vol 2 the Kirtley classes. The problem with all of the Gloucestershire BLTs is the length of them. Strood also has the problem of two tandems and a scissors! Nailsworth is quite long and has two levels. Thornbury is also very long. I believe that the North Midland terminus at York was quite compact although I've not seen it on a map only photos in a mag. Tewkesbury isn't going to be very short, I'm doing the shed in EM and that's 2m long without the old terminus and it's all covered over from the Oldbury Rd to the High St so it's going to be at least 3m plus another two for the fiddle yards. Other Midland BLTs are available.  

Regards Lez.     

[Buhar]

There is (or was) the remains of an LNW carriage (complete with original etched glass) on one of the Edale campsites (just behind its caff). 

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, Buhar said:

There is (or was) the remains of an LNW carriage (complete with original etched glass) on one of the Edale campsites (just behind its caff). 

 

The remains of one of the rather charming double-ended 6-wheel inspection saloons:

http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=17555.

Like the one now on the K&ESR.

I hope the etched class has been removed to a safe place!

Edited September 18, 2023 by Compound2632

[Dave Hunt]

Even though it's not really a BLT, I think that Hawes would make a lovely layout with a Midland fiddle yard at one end and an NER one at t'other. The traffic would be fairly interesting too and it would be quite colourful. I was in Hawes last week and visited the Dales Countryside Museum on the old station site but apart from a train formed of an industrial 0-6-0T and some BR Mk. 1s, which contain various non-railway items, the only other mention of a railway is a brief reference to the 1910 smash north of Moorcock tunnel.

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Even though it's not really a BLT, I think that Hawes would make a lovely layout with a Midland fiddle yard at one end and an NER one at t'other. The traffic would be fairly interesting too and it would be quite colourful. 

 

There is a P4 work-in-progress - it was at Scaleforum last year. From about 9:10 here:

 

 

I wasn't really overcome by any sense of place - no doubt it will be better with a backscene.

 

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I was in Hawes last week and visited the Dales Countryside Museum on the old station site but apart from a train formed of an industrial 0-6-0T and some BR Mk. 1s, which contain various non-railway items, the only other mention of a railway is a brief reference to the 1910 smash north of Moorcock tunnel.

 

I'm trying to remember when we went there - it seems quite recently but may have been pre-covid. As a museum of rural life, the exhibition in the former goods shed is excellent.

[DenysW]

10 hours ago, MR Chuffer said:

Leicester West Bridge,

As far as I can tell, Leicester West Bridge changed to virtually coal-only when the Midland brought the main Leicester and Swannington traffic into its system at Knighton Junction. Bradshaw has 3 trains/day stopping at Ratby in 1910.

 

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, DenysW said:

As far as I can tell, Leicester West Bridge changed to virtually coal-only when the Midland brought the main Leicester and Swannington traffic into its system at Knighton Junction. Bradshaw has 3 trains/day stopping at Ratby in 1910.

 

There's also the challenge of skimming a scale 4" off the width of your Slaters 6-wheelers to make the special narrow carriages for Glenfield tunnel.

[MR Chuffer]

11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Ilkeston Town as not really matching the BLT vibe

Not quite sure your definition of "vide" is quantifiable, as Ilkeston Town is surely on spec. Single line terminus at the end of an approx 1 mile branch connected north and south to the Midland Erewash valley main line through a triangular junction.

 

But, we are talking modelling potential here and are there many more railways "more" BLT than the Midland, there are certainly far fewer; imagination is the key as there are very few true to scale BLTs in 4mm from what I see because of space constraints.

11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

you've overlooked Oxenhope

I quoted Haworth instead, re-edited in original post

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

scale 4" off the width of your Slaters 6-wheelers

1mm in 4mm scale? Still a delightful bucolic branch with lots and lots of PO wagons.

[Compound2632]

12 minutes ago, MR Chuffer said:

1mm in 4mm scale? 

 

1.33 mm! Just as significantly, they were lower - compare the eves panels:

 

 

[Embedded link to catalogue thumbnail of MRSC 64265.]

 

with those of the standard 8 ft width carriages:

 

 

[Embedded link to catalogue thumbnail of MRSC 64264.]

Edited September 19, 2023 by Compound2632

[jamie92208]

45 minutes ago, MR Chuffer said:

Not quite sure your definition of "vide" is quantifiable, as Ilkeston Town is surely on spec. Single line terminus at the end of an approx 1 mile branch connected north and south to the Midland Erewash valley main line through a triangular junction.

 

But, we are talking modelling potential here and are there many more railways "more" BLT than the Midland, there are certainly far fewer; imagination is the key as there are very few true to scale BLTs in 4mm from what I see because of space constraints.

I quoted Haworth instead, re-edited in original post

1mm in 4mm scale? Still a delightful bucolic branch with lots and lots of PO wagons.

You've forgotten Barlick aka Barnoldswick. A lovely little BLT with IIRC a single platform the a level crossing that led into the goods yard with quite heavy industrial coal traffic for the mills. I can't remember if there was a run round loop on the passenger bit. 

 

Jamie

[Northroader]

There we are then, a very useful discussion proving the Midland did have interesting branch lines to form inspiration for a small layout. Quod Erat Demo Demuns Dymn — wot we said.

[MR Chuffer]

28 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Barlick

No, it's in the list, it's what I'm modelling - loosely - 5m length including a 1.5m traverser/fiddle yard. And yes, there was a run round loop, for the 1F 0-6-0Ts to run round their passenger trains.

 

Modeller's licence, I have introduced a set of sidings and small goods shed for separate L&Y operations: they did run 2 passenger trains a day from there to places west in Lancashire in 1903.

[DenysW]

2 hours ago, MR Chuffer said:

Still a delightful bucolic branch with lots and lots of PO wagons.

Have you visited Leicester West Bridge? Delightful and Bucolic are non-starters as adjectives. I'd more go for chaotic, smoky and grim myself. It's still a bit grimy and run-down after 75 years (or near offer) of Clean Air. Lots of PO wagons: no argument. Also lots of  coal merchants - West Bridge was chosen as the L&S terminus as next to the Soar Navigation docks it made (substantially) obsolete.

[kevinlms]

I reckon Ilkeston Town branch would make an excellent layout. Away from the idea of an idyllic branch with 3 or 4 trains a day, so commonly featured in the magazines forever.

[MR Chuffer]

1 minute ago, DenysW said:

2 hours ago, MR Chuffer said:

Still a delightful bucolic branch with lots and lots of PO wagons.

Have you visited Leicester West Bridge

Yes, I have as a matter of fact, I lived within 10 miles of there in my early days, and later in the City of Leicester. I can always remember travelling on the 602 Midland Red bus along Groby Road keeping pace with the standard 2MT 2-6-0 struggling up the incline with a train of empties.  The road ran parallel to the line as it ran thorough what seemed a mile of allotments  before entering Glenfield Tunnel. And then on the other side, the delightful to model Glenfield Station and nothing but open countryside between there and Desford Junction. And I visited West Bridge shortly after it closed, nothing ominous about it as most industry had moved away, it was just extensive empty sidings that only ever had 1 engine in steam so wasn't particularly grim by the standards of more intense trafficked yards.

[Compound2632]

8 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

I reckon Ilkeston Town branch would make an excellent layout. Away from the idea of an idyllic branch with 3 or 4 trains a day, so commonly featured in the magazines forever.

 

Was it not the basis for Bob Essery's S7 layout Ellerton Road?

[MR Chuffer]

7 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Ilkeston Town

Yes, with North and South facing junctions off the mainline, there were at least 20 passenger trains each way in 1903, some direct to Nottingham but mostly to Ilkeston junction. And I was researching online that it suggested there were up to 10 good trains in a day.

 

Now that's a proper branch line!