For the past year or so I have been busy turning my garage into a comfortable room 5.3m by 3m with modelling desk, work bench, heating, lighting, power and of course, space for a layout. I have also been planning and constructing said layout. I have been very motivated and so haven’t had time to post anything but now feel I have something to show.
Fact
South Shields, at the mouth of the River Tyne, has a very interesting, and rarely modelled, railway history.
The North Eastern Railway line from Newcastle was electrified in the 1930’s using a third rail system and these trains lasted until the mid 60’s. Running on the same tracks were steam and diesel trains to Sunderland and beyond and summer trains to the likes of Blackpool and even Kings Cross. The Harton Coal Company introduced overhead electrification in 1908 and during the 1960’s NCB steam and diesels worked alongside the electrics on the Harton system moving coal and stone waste between the various pits and the riverside staithes.
It is a fact that the Harton system was so efficient in dealing with local requirements that there was spare capacity and, for some time, coal was brought from other pits outside the system to be teemed at the staithes. This gives me an excuse to operate BR steam and diesels alongside NCB electrics, steam and diesels via a proposed exchange yard.
Fiction
My idea is to try and represent various elements of these railways by re-writing history and representing certain features in an imagined setting.
In my version of history, decisions were made by South Shields Corporation, the North Eastern Railway and the great and the good toward the end of the 19th century to capitalise on the magnificent beaches of South Shields and to develop the area for the emerging holiday industry. Land was purchased and other land transferred between the Harton Coal Company and the North Eastern Railway to enable a double track line to reach the Bents Park area of the town and a new terminus station was built, with convenient access to the beaches, parks and promenades, and to the new hotels, guesthouses and infrastructure which were also planned. Being opened around the time of the Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, the new station was named in her honour. The HCC line to Whitburn Colliery, home of the Marsden Rattler, was also transferred to the NER along with HCC running rights, and this gave holiday makers access to more of the beautiful coastline and charming promenades. Just after the Second World War a new Butlin’s holiday camp was built on a former quarry site and this proved very popular during the 50’s and early 60’s. The new prosperity brought more industry to the area which was served by new goods facilities and this, along with the passenger and coal requirements required a small engine shed to be built.
The Plan
South Shields Victoria.pdf
The plan takes much inspiration from my favourite layout, Chris Pendleton’s North Shields. I was lucky enough to have seen this layout “in the flesh” on two occasions and was totally engrossed both times. Even with no rolling stock visible the typical north eastern setting was evident, and very reminiscent of my childhood memories around Tyne Dock in the mid to late 60’s. I would also mention Ian Blenkinsop’s Marine Park and Tyne Bank layouts, featured on this site, as being very atmospheric and influential.
Much thought went into the final plan and in order to make it comfortable to access a fiddle yard to terminus arrangement was adopted. The layout is not to be portable so is constructed using ‘L’ girders, cross beams, 9mm plywood tops and 2mm cork trackbase. A rotating sector table type fiddle yard feeds a double track mainline which rises up to the station while a single track goods line and a single track NCB line drop down to the exchange sidings alongside, but below, the station. It is supposed that the goods line joins the main line off the layout. A goods depot similar to the one at Monkwearmouth and an engine shed, based on Hartlepool, are at high level and a small NCB coal depot for landsales is located off the low level exchange yard.
Peco code 75 points are used along with the new bullhead plain track. I have found SEEP solenoids to be reliable but the in-built switch often fails so I have hot glued a Peco changeover switch onto the Seep unit and use this to switch the point frogs. Points are to be operated using Peco levers built into control panels located adjacent to the various action areas. The layout will be wired for DCC using NCE controllers via three districts using under board bus-wires. Couplings on all stock are DG type and strategically placed electro-magnets will be used for uncoupling.
Operation will focus on three areas:
The three platform station will handle local electric trains to Newcastle, non-electric local trains to Sunderland and Middlesbrough and steam/diesel hauled services to points further afield. Parcels traffic will also be worked in between these passenger services.
General goods traffic will be processed in the goods depot and trip workings will be run from here to an off-scene branch serving a quayside, a small oil depot and a ship repair yard.
The low level exchange yard will handle coal from the Harton system and from other collieries to the staithes, along with empties the other way. The yard will be wired for Harton electrics and there will be a mix of BR steam and diesel with NCB electrics from Harton and Westoe collieries and steam from Whitburn and Boldon Collieries (these were never electrified).
Progress
Baseboards are built, all track is laid and bus-wires are run below the baseboards. I have commenced attaching point motors and dropper wires to the bus-wires. Next will be to build the control panels and connect to points, signals and uncoupling magnets. The signals are yet to be made. Some buildings, from previous layouts, will be re-used where suitable but there are a lot of new buildings to construct including a typical NER train shed with semi-circular roof (as per North Shields). I did consider copying the peaked roof of the actual South Shields station but reasoned that a replacement station would use turn of the century architecture.
I hope you find this interesting and I welcome any comments.
Regards,
Tom
