LMS29

Thanks, Tom

Sir Douglas, I am sure that I and some of the other regulars on this thread would love to see copies of the last 4 items. Is it possible to arrange something, please? As you can see from the thread we have had discussions about the materials used to build the water tower and I have modelled the goods shed and footbridge from photographs and memory only. Tom

Thanks for that. I also have some of these old coaches in store and will have a go at a conversion over the winter. Tom

Gr. I have had a look at the links you provided. Is it possible for you to post a picture of the finished article on this thread, please? It would make following the picture less thread a bit easier. Thanks.

Red Leader, Just seen all the posts from the weekend. Another very enjoyable show. I think that all the team members make different contributions and the end result is greater than the sum of the individual parts. This is well illustrated in Tony's photograph of a "modern classic layout". Roll on the next show!

Andrew/Pete, The great thing about this hobby is that you are never quite finished. As you can see from the attached photographs I still have the station roof to complete as well as the signalling and one or two key items like the kiosk where the taxi men waited (which is now at Embsay). As you can see I still have to tackle the roof but I have contacts who will advise when the time comes and there are plenty of photographs to give the detail. As you can see I have tried to "finish" the buildings behind the station first that are least accessible which included the Station and Midland pubs and the Town Hall and Winter Gardens. If anyone is at either the Hartlepool or Warley shows, let me know and make contact if you need any more details. Tom

Hi Pete, Glad to see that you are still making progress with the Engine shed. A recent visit this area showed that it was a building site and the old Brewery build has gone completely. Since my last contribution, I have been working on developing the operational timetable and that in turn revealed that my one omission from the point work was preventing smooth operation. Various references quote that trains starting from Ilkley to Leeds or Bradford could depart from Platform 3 and I had omitted the cross over at the end of 3 onto the up main. To rectify this I decided to insert a double slip rather than a pair of points to save space but achieve the same objective. It all sounds simple but I also needed to change a couple of points in the same area, so I bought the necessary but it would seem that the points of the 1980's are of slightly different dimensions to those sold now. So what started off a simple job got quite complicated, but as the photo shows I have completed the work, just need to re-ballast. I also realised that the 1955 timetable I had needed British Railways liveried rolling stock, so I am now in the process of building or repainting stock to suit my choice of timeframe. Tom

Visible progress is slow at the moment, the latest build was a Cambrian kit of a Shark Plough Van which I need to complete a small Engineers train for the layout. I am looking for a suitable figure to ride in the van and will need to weather to complete. Tom

Pete, Much earlier in this blog, someone pointed out that the small hut to the east of the foot bridge was infact a fogman's hut position close to the so called junction at Ilkley. I came across a model of one recently and could not resist adding to the layout. Tom

Pete, Pete, glad to see that you are making progress. Like Andrew, I have been on holiday but that did not stop me doing some planning! Currently I am working with my timetable for summer 1955 and trying to ensure that I have enough stock and locos to deliver a full days running. It has proved quite challenging and has thrown up a lot of work modifying stock and couplings to ensure that the whole flows. Not many photographs to show but will produce a couple shortly. Tom

Hi Pete, I think that the windows look fine, looking forward to seeing the completed shed. I have had a quiet Christmas but have made some progress since. I have been working on a short Engineers train, which I understand visited the station on a regular but infrequent basis. The photo attached shows the running trial of the two of the four wagons I am working on. 3 x Sole wagons and a sleeper wagon both of LMS origin. The trial went well so now need to finish them. Just need to find a shark plough van to complete the rake. Tom

Hi, I was down in Ilkley a couple of days ago and could not resist taking a photo of the current station from the 'new' footbridge, just to focus my efforts for 2017. sadly the weather was not great! The major change to the area in 2016 was the demolition of the old Ilkley Brewery building and the area has been cleared for the building accommodation for old folks? At home, I have been working on pulling together an operating timetable for my chosen date of summer 1955 and have a pretty good idea now of the basic outline of the trains that ran and how operations worked but am still refining. If this is of interest, I am willing to share the spreadsheet. I am also starting to build a rake of Engineering wagons which were regular but infrequent visitors to the line. All the best to you all for 2017 and to Pete looking forward to seeing the completed windows. Tom

Hi Ron/Pete, Just for the record, but not quite perhaps to your point Ron. I have managed to find black WD wagons from Mainline and I supplemented these with other 20 ton wagons which I sprayed black and added white WD decals from CCT to make a reasonable length rake. I have purchased an odd Mainline blue ICI 20t Ammonia tanker and again supplemented with other re-sprayed wagons with white decals from CCT. I have not found a proprietary white 20t ammonia tanker nor were there CCT transfers, so I made my own by re-spraying other 20t wagons white and adding black decals which I made myself. Dapol did make an unsprayed 20t tanker which I used as the base for many of my tank wagons. In the 1950s there are photographs of black WD tankers and white ICI tankers in Wharfedale carrying ammonia between Heysham and Haverton Hill. From my memory, the blue ICI tankers came along in the late 1960s/early 1970s, when the company did a major rebranding. I have also come across a photograph of a white MOS tanker crossing Brook Street bridge pulled by WD 2-8-0 loco. I am not sure what this was carrying and this is one of my current projects to track down and make. Just completing my rake of black WD tankers. Cheers, Tom

Andrew, I would appreciate that, just to see what it reveals about the top structure. Tom

Ron, I do not remember a ladder either in the late 1950's. We used to go to Thornber's (the shop opposite) for our sweets but I was struggling to think how the coal lorry drivers would get up onto the staging safely and drop the coal but perhaps that is my 'modern' H&S training clicking in. Cheers, Tom

Ron, I was looking through Martin Bairstow's book Railways through Airedale and Wharfedale and found an interesting picture on page 19. It showed what the author believed was a Heysham to Haverton Hill Ammonia tank train pulled by 8F 48652 which had been diverted down the Skipton/Steeton line through Airedale rather than Wharfedale. If you need any more, drop me a line, Tom

Ron, I have been down to Ilkley today and I have to say that your memory was spot on. The first photograph shows the back of the concrete buffer stop and there is clearly a 3' ledge on the Railway Road side of the rails, which no doubt supported the walk way. The second photo shows what I think was one of the top stones from the third or fourth pillar and it shows an angle iron sunk into the stone which could well have been the upright to a simple fence. There were similar angle irons in other top stones on the lowered plinths. The one thing I did not find was an obvious way to get from the rail level down to the ground. There was the odd hole in the end wall which may have supported a ladder. Tom

Ron, Thanks for your thoughts, your memory is much better than mine. I have one picture taken from the station side which shows coal wagons on the drops but you cannot see any detail beyond that. It certainly looks as though the wagons were very close to the fence at the back of the drops, so that fits with an access walkway on the Railway Road side. I had a good look at the remains of the coal drops last time I was in Ilkley. Looking at the photograph I took at the time, there seems to be enough room at the front for a walk way. When I am down in Ilkley I will have another look at the top stones to see if there are any obvious anchor points. My other question relates to how many drops actually existed. The drawing Andrew produced some time back suggests seven drops and that again is the best I have at the moment. I will keep looking for other photographs, Tom

Hi Folks, I have been working on the Railway Cottages and have managed to complete and install a model despite my restricted space. Ron, this is more accurate and looks better than my earlier version. My next task is to have a go at the coal drops. If anyone has any photographs I might not have seen, I would welcome your input. The one area I have no information on is the nature of the track and the walk way section at track level. Luckily there is enough of the drops remaining to get a good idea about the lower parts. Tom

Ron, Any chance of a few photographs, your project sounds really good. I have had a look through my photographs and can only find J39 and WDs on shot. They did try with B1's before replacing them with B16's. I will keep looking and see if I can find any other 'main' steam based motive power mentioned. As for the wagons they can be anything from high sided coke wagons to single plank and I have even seen cattle wagons used as barrier wagons so that should give you plenty of choice and lots of scope for some modelling. On another topic, I am planning to go to Warley in a couple of weeks time as part of the team running a layout called Grantham, if any one of the UK followers happen to be attending, please come and introduce yourselves. Tom

Ron, Thanks for all the details. I am well on my way now to modelling the Railway Cottages. I am a bit short of room lengthwise so have had to reduce to 4 instead of the eight cottages but the photos I have and the details provided by folks should make it more representative than the original Scalescenes model I had constructed. It is interesting to look on the Google maps and see the back wall along Springs Lane with the 'bricked' up coal 'oles where the coal was loaded into the bunker. I will post a few photos when I get the building in position. Tom

Andrew I have passed on the link to our thread and will follow up next time I correspond. Tom

David, Thanks for the description and your extra info. I will indeed look on Google earth and go and look again when I am next in Ilkley. Then I am ready to start the modelling again. Tom

Ron, A couple of weekends ago, I attended a lecture on the 151 years of history of Ilkley station. The talk was excellent and covered both the station buildings and the ancillary areas. One photograph that was shown was of Railway Terrace, photo attached. This highlighted to me that I needed to replace the original cottages I had placed in this location on my layout with a more accurate model. The speaker posed a question about the design of the building and a careful look at the building left me with a couple of others, so I wonder if you can help, please? How were the cottages laid out inside and which was the 'front and the back' of the building? Looking at the photo, the two end cottages seem to be of a different design, was there a real difference or is this just because they were at the end? The plan I have seen of the station area, depicts the cottages with small buildings to the south, alongside Springs Lane. Were they part of the property and did they contain the obvious? My earliest memories were of an outside toilet and a coal shed at the bottom of the yard where we lived in Ash Grove, would it be the same here? Hope you can help, Tom

I had a quick browse. There were a good number of photographs but did not really have time to take it in. I was selling raffle tickets at the time. Tom