Jim15B

Thanks very much Rangers. The aerial photo of the works is excellent, and one that I haven't seen before. I need to get signed up to the site to zoom in (on the list for today), but it puts the Pen Green Workshops nicely n context with the rest of the works. I need to get this enlarged and have a good study of it in close up. Also a lovely picture of the 14 with ore train. Both picutres help visualise the movement of ore from quarry to furnace via the mind-boggling complex of sidings. It must have taken some management to keep the process flowing. Thanks again for posting, and apologies for not having acknowledged you sooner.

I've just realised thet it was May that I last posted. Unfortunately I've had a busy few weeks working and house rennovating so everything else has had to take a bit of a back seat. The baseboard has been sneaked in with building materials but other than that there has been no progress whatsoever. This is the first chance I've had to get onto RM Web for quite some time, but hopefully I'll have something to report soon. I haven't even had the chance to consider couplings, which is an issue I'd hoped to have made a decision on before now.

Looking at the asymmetric end wall I wondered if the siding immediately behind was a later addition, the rear of the weigh house having been removed to allow space for it. It's certainly an unusual building and it would be interesting (to those of us who are interested in such things) to see the other side.

Yes, my typing error - north it is. I remember occasionally travelling through Corby as a child, always trying to catch a glimpse of it from the Oakley Road. Occasionally we'd be lucky enough to see a 37 or two on the bridge as well.

To return to my plans themselves, this is going to be a shunting puzzle layout. With the impending purchase of timber I have set my mind to how I'm going to lay the track and site the point motors. This has also raised the question of couplings. I don't want tension lock and suspect that 3-links may be a bit fiddly in 4mm in a shunting format. I have narrowed the field to Spratt & Winkle and Kaydee but have used neither before and am unsure as to where the uncoupling magnets should be placed, how many there should be and what type are best. If I use electromagnets I presume I'll have to drill the board for them to be sited, but that the flat S&W ones will be able to sit in the cork underlay. Any advice would be gratefully received. I will try to add a track plan shortly once I've finished working.

Thanks Rangers; I'll have to try to persuade SWMBO and the Minions that Scunthorpe would be a good holiday destination this year. I've just had a look on Google Earth to see if the Weldon Road weighbridge is still there but the quality isn't good enough. I went into the site a few times 15 - 20 years ago but never in circumstances in which I could properly examine anything. Does the site still see steel arrive and depart by rail? I have yet another plan in mind for a Minories-type layout set in the steelworks rather than the usual terminus station. That'll be next if I find space and time (considering I'm struggling to develop one small layout, don't hold your breath). When I found the above photo I also found these that I took of Corby South signal box, probably as a teenager in the early '90s (I don't remember taking them but I must have cycled over to Corby especially to do it). The box burnt down in the mid-90s. I wish now that I had made more use of my wanton traspassing and had taken a few more pictures of the remaining sidings and infrastructure. I suspect I wasn't brave enough to be there too long.

Over the weekend I have managed to sort through some boxes and locate all volumes of Tonks, along with the attached image which shows the sidings behind the workshops site. On the original the roof of the large building (Vayland) is visible in the background. This murky atmosphere is what I want to recreate on the layout. The track is interesting here - the points under the first wagon give access to tracks to bypass the weighbridge. Presumable the line is a running line as well as a weigh line. I might have to incorpoate this feature if I ever finish and then extend the current plan. Buying materials for working on the house this week so hopefully I'll be able to sneak in the timber for the baseboard. Having cut the previous piece to 18" wide I now have a spare board. Just right for the next project.....

Paul, thanks for the extra photos. I'll definitely need one for the layout - I'll pm you once I've worked out how. Guy, there was a wagon works at Kettering ("Barnett's for Wagons") which was going to be my original Inglenook scheme, but will be number 3 now!

Osgood - Thank you for the info regarding the Bedford O cab, I may be able to make something from one of those; Rangers - I'll keep an eye out for the BW Models kit; Paul A - Just been looking at your 16" MW thread - looking good. I think I need a trip to Cottesmore as I haven't been over for a few years - I will be including the engineers vans on the model (and the hospital ven from Glendon too). Apologies if I've breached your Copyright! That underframe looks old. Thanks to all for your interest and comments. Jim

The layout will have to be portable as even at 4' wide I don't have a permanent site for it, so it will have to sit in the workshop. I'm hoping that this thread will help me find that 30 minutes a week as I will feel obliged to show some progress if anyone is watching. I'm working seven days a week at the moment so I could probably do with setting some time aside for this. I have been working on a few bits and bobs over the last couple of years, including an RT Models slag ladle, which so far is a lovely little model. I'll add its details soon. Yes, I have Janet Russell's book; I'd love to do something similar for the LMS, but that will probably be for another lifetime.

Thanks Paul. Unfortunately my Tonks are packed in a box somewhere awaiting the building of some book cases so I haven't been able to refer to them for a while. However, I am now feeling obliged to dig them out as they are becoming essential again. The use of the drills for shot drilling would also have prolonged their life I would presume. Somewhere (I presume in Tonks) I've seen a picture of an ore bench covered in regular holes, I presume for blasting.

Osgood, Thank you so much for the information and for the photos. Now that I've seen it I realised that I've seen the one of the drilling rig before, but didn't think of it. That'll make an interesting project! I have in mind that it will be in a derelict condition with a coupe of flat tyres somewhere infront of the building. I may have to base it on a Scammel Contrator as I can't find a Constructor at a reasonable price, though I will keep looking. I'm not sure that my skills will be up to scratchbuilding it. Looking at the link above, I like the "moon buggy" drilling rig in the slide show. Now, have I got room for a dragline......

The plan has always been that I will use a four foot board. It's the optimum size for an Inglenook-style layout in 4mm and the timber can be bought to size easily. I was thinking about keeping the width at 2' as that's the standard ply sheet size, but recently wondered whether I could go as narrow as 1'6". Having cut a spare piece of board to this size I now think it will be too narrow and not allow me to set the scene as well as I would like, so I think I'm now back to the 2' width. This will allow me to include the passing line to the east on a slight rising grade and also have the embankment at the back of the site. Hopefully I'll also have room for the Scammel drill once I've found out what it looked like. Although the recent move to our Victorian pile has given us much more space (and much more work in rennovations), the layout will have to be kept in the workshop and, as always seems to be the case, the contents of that room seem to have expanded to fill the new larger space. In the short term the board will have to be stored on end until I can configure somewhere more permanent to keep it, so portability is important. I've got the softwood for the frame and hopefully by the end of the month I'll have the ply top so I can properly start things moving.

For anyone following this for the equestrian interest (not usual fayre for steelworks), this is the link to the 1949 railway horse flu footage. This is my favourite film (I don't get out much). I can just imagine working as a saddler there, though in reality it was probably pretty grim, especially for the apprentices.

As mentioned previously, this is the office block prior to it's Smuf blue paint job. I won't include it in the current model as I won't have room, but I like it's simplicity and utilitarian lines and will probably model it in some form in the future if I can find a home for it. This is the plan of the site circa 1968. I made these rather poor map copies nearly twenty years ago for no reason that I can remember when I first started working in Corby; I wasn't doing any modelling at that time having just left university, but still had a keen interest in the ironstone and steelworks lines. I have found a much clearer version on a historic maps website but haven't obtained a copy yet. As can hopefully be seen from the plan, the single siding to the works is accessed from the line to the left curving around (and quite steeply up) away from the site. Due to the space available I don't intend to include this line, but I will hopefully have space for the line on the right that links the mineral lines with the exchange sidings and the works. As my intended scheme is as a shunting puzzle this loop line will not connect to anything, but will become useable should I build a fiddle yard or add an extension to the south (right). In order to allow for the shunting element I will be adding two sidings to the existing one to the Inglenook specifications. Edited to add the larger plan showing that the line giving access to the site is a spur leading only to the switchback siding.

Great to hear from someone who remembers the site in use. The map I have shows rail access (the rails were just still visible) and I'll add a copy shortly. The strange thing is that the doors to the building are all very low - a standard 5-plank wagon would barely fit so I suspect that there may have been some specialist wagons for moving heavy plant into the building. I presume that what became the Vayland Engineering building was used to maintain the larger plant and that the workshops I'm looking at were for smaller bits of kit. I seem to remember that Tonks shows it as an ironworks but I think that's because it's the site of the first Corby Ironworks (all my books are boxed still following my house move so I'm struggling to check my references). I'll have to find some pictures of the Scammell or something similar as I'll have to include one now! Thanks too for the reminder regarding it being the Willowbrook. I wasn't 100% certain but you've answered that one.

I had no idea that the site was going to be flattened. It was about 2003 that I photographed it, and shortly afterwards the offices (I'll add a photo shortly) were let to a florists who, for reasons best known to themselves, painted the building bright blue. I was glad I'd got to it before then. It was about ten years later that I went back to find that it had all gone. I had a very frustrating experience with Pen Green loco shed. That was owned by Phoenix Tyres who moved out, leaving the site vacant. I had the opportunity to go in and look around and found the offices and shed in remarkably good condition, with the inspection pits still in situ and even a few remnants of signs from its days as the Minerals Division's shed. Unfortunately this was before camera phones. I returned a couple of weeks later armed with camera, tape, ranging poles and notebook only to find an empty piece of ground, with barely a brick left to show that there had ever been anything there. I'm still annoyed with myself for not having got in sooner. The old wagon works building is still in existance I think (or was last time I looked), but a large dog on site has always prevented me taking a closer look. Which ironworks are you modelling? Are you going to include all 17 million tons in model form?! Jim

Guy, Just spotted my typo in your name - apologies. I seem to have gone wildly off topic already, but I'll try to post the link to the horse flu video later. I do have the Holden book which is excellent as you say. We're on ponies at the moment due to the children but hope to get a ride and drive for my wife and I at some point - might see if I can get a dray, assuming of course that I come into some money from somewhere. Not a lot of horses in the steelworks at Corby but I should get some on the next project - always plan at least two layouts ahead. Jim

Short update on planning. The exit from the board will be to the right, representing the south on the model. It will be disguised by a version of the rather optimistically named "Corby Aquaduct", a structure that is unlikely to make an impact on any study of historic man made water courses. The Aquaduct is actually a pipe carrying what appears to be a cross between a drainage ditch and a brook over the BR Manton line and the former works railway. I am hoping to add a sector plate at some stage so the pipe will hide the entrance to this. I am using a board 4' x 1' 6" which emphasises the long narrow nature of the site, but might restict how I can incorporate the pipe due to the height at the front of the scene. Once I get a chance to put some track on the board I'll see how it looks - no fancy computer planning here.

Thanks Mark, hopefully I'll get some updates on here soon - a bit of pressure should get things moving!

Hi Guy. I'm a saddler and bridlemaker and have combined my hobby and work through my (small) collection of railway horse brasses and original harness which I may restore should I ever get time. Horses have very much slowed the progress of my modelling as, between looking after ours and working for other peoples, I don't have a lot of free time (or cash). Is Charlie the horse that featured in a short film on horse shunting? I have a feeling he is but haven't seen the footage for a while. Another interesting piece of footage available on Youtube is the film of the equine flu outbreak in LMS stables which is a fantastic piece of film. As an aside I have a leather token pouch in the workshop that is also awaiting restoration - another project that's been waiting for that bit of free time. Sorry it's taken me a while to respond, another busy week! Jim

"The Adventure of the Dancing Men" was set in Norfolk, and one of Holmes' first investigations took place there, helping a university friend. Just out of interest, the reference to "East of Aldgate" is not from the original canon but was a later use by Basil Rathbone I think. Still a good line, but Holmes appears happy to have travelled just with his weighted hunting crop.

Having two years worth of thought going into it, it should be done in no time!

Just over two years ago I started a blog on this site which I hoped would kick-start a small layout project. Due to my business getting busier, children, horses and a house move time and funds have been limited. For those who missed my blog (not difficult), around 2003 I photographed an interesting set of buildings at Pen Green Workshops, formerly part of the Corby steelworks and quarry system. A look at contemporary mapping shows that the prototype track layout was very similar to the well known Inglenook Sidings plan, and this set me on the path of a small project that might be finished and would provide operational interest. Importantly it won't cost a fortune and once completed will maintain operational interest. I have also considered that it will one day be added to other modules representing other parts of the system (I'm getting ahead of myself here as I've barely started the first phase. Sadly the site has now been flattened, but I will post some of my pictures shortly. I have spent the last couple of years collecting together some suitable RTR stock, and invested in a Heljan Class 14 as motive power. In the interests of getting things going I will stick with OO gauge. This is an overview of the site. The layout will be set infront on the nearest building. The site is set in a cutting, an ideal layout setting: The sidings will be located where the crane is sitting, with the building at the left side on the baseboard: I have purchased a number of items of RTR stock to get things moving. I have a selection of wagons for the shunting puzzle element, but hope also to run more prototypical short trains of matching wagons, scratchbuilding some of the more unique items: Right, here goes. I'll see what happens. Jim

Thank you so much for your quick and comprehensive response to my query rather late in the thread. Very much appreciated and I will put it to use once I get the chance. I will be happy if my structures turn out half as good as yours. In the mean time I wait to see where things are headed next.