Captain Nick

Wormdale at sunset in late September (1957) Sorry about the appalling Photoshopping.

Notwithstanding the pros and cons of HS2, it seems a shame to me that the Midland Scheme won't (ever)be extended from Derby to Manchester via the old Midland Main Line. This route incidentally, was not a Beeching Report closure as I understand, but seen as superfluous capacity following the WCML electrification. If this were to be re-built, then not only would the 'powerhouse of the Northwest' be conjoined to the Capital by extra line capacity but so too would be an aspiring East Midlands be linked to both centres. Why is it we only ever seem to do things by halves in this country I wonder? Seventeen miles of line lifted through the Peak in the late sixties, how naff is that when it comes to strategic planning!

Hi Al. It's really looking great. I particularly like the way the track disappears around the curve in the distance. I can almost hear the signal clatter and the expectant excitement as we await to see what comes around the bend, notebook at the ready. I just wish I could work as fast as you, or, put another way, be as productive as you (and just about everybody else on here!). Regards Nick

Not much achieved since I last posted. The small area between the crusher and the kilns, although not much more than 300 ml wide, has proved problematical. This has been mainly due to indecision as to the way forward on my part. I have also been to work on my large collection of pristine waggons. Half of them now look beautifully manky! This has caused a certain amount of adverse comment from 'Management' as I have been stabling them around the various surfaces of our breakfast room. I actually think they look great and the displayed items invite conversation and admiration from male ( and sometimes female) visitors, however she opines otherwise and so they are now parked in the sidings in front of the kilns. I have removed all the propriety couplings and will in due course, be fitting a combination of Smiths and Spratt and Winkle's, the latter at the ends of small rakes of Smiths coupled waggons. I will post some pics later today together with one of the planted problematic piece referred to above.

Hi Jonathan I have just come upon your thread whilst Google-ing for pictures of Midland SBs and came upon your York/Ratio comparison pics. These have given me food for thought as I'm about to attempt some kit bashing to attempt a 30' box. I have now read through this thread with interest, particularly so as we have similar tastes. I really enjoyed it, thanks. Nick

Following a little more research about how Buxton Central Lime works was fuelled, it rather looks as if the gantry was part of a pneumatic elevator which drew up coal slack from trucks deposited in the second siding from the kilns. The machinery for this was situated at the end of the gantry that is at 90 degrees to the main deck/runway of the kilns. The slack was deposited into a bunker between kilns 2 and 3. I don't know how the slack was fired though but I would suggest there would have to have been some forced mechanical draught. It rather looks as if this modification from the hitherto coal ramp was effected sometime between 1930 and 1935. J.M. Bentley's excellent new books 'Over The Peak Parts 1 & 2', contain some previously un-published photos of the quarries, that were and still are, situated alongside the old Midland main line. Incidentally Louis, my elder brother used to be the manager at Hindlow that you are modelling in such a spectacular way. Cheers Nick

Hi Al I'll get a photo on shortly when I've tidied up a little. The stairway wasn't on the original building. I put it on for a little more detail and interest (and expertise practice). I'm just finishing off the building today and hope to get it 'planted' tomorrow but it is Management's day off tomorrow so I may have other job lists presented to me. In the meantime I have actually been running some trains today now that I've cleaned the track and taken the plunge in tweaking the back-to-backs of my engines myself. Unfortunately, some will probably need re-wheeling but definitely not by me. That seems to be dark arts indeed. Cheers Nick

The 4F just looks as if it had an easy time drifting down from Peak Forest Al,

I have just about finished my latest building and in doing so am getting the back of the layout finished. I just now need to fill in the space between the kilns and the crusher but at the moment I am not sure how to proceed. Obviously it will have to be some sort of quarry building etc. I had thought of a covered conveyor coming in from behind the kilns and feeding the crusher. The crusher is based on the Smalldale crusher building that stood by the Peakdale road bridge. It was built in 1919 and was knocked down round about 1990 although it ceased work in the sixties.

I guess it's quite a long time since I last posted anything. I have been working to finish the lime kilns and associated ramps etc as well as finishing off the gap in my backscene. I have also made a few changes to 'The Hill'. It has taken me a lot longer than I had originally thought. Other things I am committed to have taken me away from the railway room but now I'm back. Unfortunately I have found that the neglected track is filthy, the points are stiff to say the least and so nothing much moves. Also some connections no longer seem to connect. I now have a break from 'other things' until November so I hope that I can improve matters in Wormdale. A friend and fellow modeller visited yesterday and rebuked me for not actually running locos during the past year. Apparently they need exercising on a regular basis! I have to say that I have found that I quite like scratchbuilding but I own up to being in denial where track and electric feed problems are concerned. Well, on a more positive note, here are some photos of the completed kilns and hint of the crusher building that is 75% complete. This latter building is based on the one that stood at Peakdale until demolished in about 1990(ish). Incidentally, I couldn't get a suitable quarry face picture so I filled the backscene space by a photo I had taken of the skyline above the Chee Tor No1 Tunnel and photoshopped it a little with rock outcrops, It is now implied that the kiln feeder ramp leads to the quarry face off scene. Best regards Nick

Hi all. I see that I have not posted anything here since May. This is due to my other commitments which tend to take me away from the railway room. However that said, I have been working on my very first building, Buxton Central Lime Works, which has proved to be not only a steep learning curve but also a lot more detailed than I had initially thought. Having decided I needed to get the rear of the layout done before attempting other parts I put together the bare bones of the BCLW structure last winter but then went on to various other parts of the rear of Wormdale. I have only photographs of the kilns to work from so the dimensions are estimated at best and guesswork at worst, however I am relatively pleased with the result thus far even though there is still much to do before it is finished and can be 'planted'. Here are some photos and a photo of the original is on this page I think. I have been planning this building for so long now that when I recently was at Topley Pike and looked down at Peak Forest junction, it was almost a shock not to see the kilns in situ as they were until about 1970 when they were demolished.

I was just looking for some photos on the computer this morning and I came across this which may be of interest. Its the summer version of Tidzaboy's picture above. I took it last June on a wet day and I have used it for half my back scene.

Many thanks for your encouragement, it certainly spurs me on to get things done and to try for the standard I enjoy seeing on others layouts here. Whilst on passage down the M5 from Buxton last Tuesday, Management at the helm, a copy of the latest BRM 'accidentally' fell into my hands whilst filling up at service station and once again I marvelled at Captain Kernow's Engine Wood. It is the sort of modelling which gives me inspiration. I reckon it's time the Captain was promoted to commodore at the very least. Moving on a few pages and there is Andrew P's Trebudoc which is absolutely wonderful so thanks Andy for your continuing support. And of course I must mention Alistair (acg_mr) whose modelling of Bakewell station will be, I'm sure, an article in the modelling press in the near future. Have a good bank holiday everyone! Regards Nick

I have not posted anything for the last two weeks as I have been trying to make the three arched bridge that will mark the right hand side of the scenic area. It is supposed to be a mainly limestone structure with some millstone grit around the arches and capping stones etc. The facings are 3mm ply sandwiching the ubiquitous insulation foam. The lower stone work is a Slater's 7mm stone to match the retaining wall next to the bridge and the rest is random stone hand etched onto filler which has been applied to the ply. Underneath the arch I have used a Scalescene weather red brick printed onto some yellow textured greeting card A4 paper I found sculling around. This was then fitted to show the skew of the arches. I have had two attempts at painting the structure but I'm not yet happy with it. The brick work will have to be 'sooted' up somewhat with weathering powders.

By gum Joe! That's the very spot from which I took my photos for half the back scene last June. And the very walls I was referring to as being in better knick fifty years ago. I see that the butty wagon is in residence at Topley Pike pull-in. The kilns are on the back burner for a while until I get a version of the Small Dale crusher going.

My method of dry stone walling is to first roll up some air dried clay and then make a rough profile of the wall out of that. I then offer it up to the proposed site on the layout where it is bedded in by hand and then allowed to dry. The clay profile is positioned as to whether it is a new wall, all very upright etc., or it has settled down over years and leans this way and that. The next day I get busy with my old set of compasses and begin scribing out the stonework using a stiff paint brush to clear the debris.. When finished I fix it to the layout using grab adhesive and then when that has taken, weather the completed wall. The wall can crack during the drying process but this can be used to advantage especially so if its a long standing structure. In the pictures here, I am using a bit of practice scenery that I made before attempting The Hill. I will eventually use it under the left hand side road bridge off scene so that it will be visible through the arch of the bridge.

I could almost be back in the late fifties about to walk off down the road on Market day with my Mum. Excellent work Al.

Hi Andy. I have just come upon your thread which is really excellent . Its funny, I'm a Derbyshire lad in Plymouth modelling LMS and you are Plymouth lad living in Derbyshire modelling GWR!

I really love you detailing. Excellent, it is giving me food for thought. Thanks. Nicki

Actually Bodge The Management makes a damn good pasty though coming from Buxton as I do, I prefer a Holland's pie! (and mushy peas) (oh and thick gravy) Many thanks for the comment about the dry stone walls etc. They are not as hard to make as you would think. In reality in the Peak District and also in the Yorkshire Dales, the look of them can vary depending on the quality and shape of stone provided to the waller and indeed the time they have been standing together with the lie of the land. Walls most often follow the contours of the land, often precariously, and it is vary rare that the ground and foundations were prepared beforehand. I have also noticed particular walls in and around Chee Dale that were in almost pristine condition fifty years ago (from photos) but which now require a good deal of attention. My dad was a pretty good dry stone waller and my elder brother still dabbles at it from time to time. I have a short section to do today so I will try and to a step by step short series of photos. In the meantime, Management says I have to accompany her into town this morning so it will have to be later.

I have been messing about on the computer when I should have been doing other things but I couldn't resist it. This is the 6;30pm stopper from Sheffield to Stafford leaving the short tunnel under 'The Hill' on a balmy summers evening.

Thanks Lez. making the limestone scenery is something I enjoy however Management hates the mess involved as the foam sticks to everything including the cats. Nick

Another picture of the eastern end of the layout. You can just see the join in the cliff face but I have now blended it in this morning.

This is a picture of the eastern end of the layout which shows a retaining wall of limestone and millstone grit. It is from the RHS of this that the three arched bridge will spring from. Above the wall will be a pub (the Devonshire Arms). The tree is the first one I made which uses a bit of heather stem from the garden. This has been beefed up by air dried clay which is what the dry stone wall has been made from.

Bodge you aren't thick its just that in the UK we can't decide whether to be imperial or metric. I had to go metric in the seventies. It certainly made ship stability calculations a great deal easier! :scratchhead:The layout goes across the gable of my loft conversion which gives me a six metre width for the scenic area of the layout. I have about another 750mm either side under the eaves where the track is able to turn back to make a roundy-roundy with the fiddle yard behind the operator/viewer. At the moment I have 2m long cassettes but these are much to big to be of any use so I will be converting the space into a small fiddle yard. If any one wants 2m large cassettes, four wired and four not yet wired, then let me know. I'm just about to nip off up to B&Q (other fine emporia are available) to get me some more 3mm ply so that I can make a start on the three arched stone road bridge which will mark the eastern end (up direction) As for having a go at track building Rowsley? I think I'll leave that for the future as I'm still getting to grips with everything else in 'The Hobby'. I think that is why I'm so slow at getting things done. Its a case of gaining some confidence with each task. I particularly enjoy the abstract part of the hoppy like making scenery and weathering etc. but the intricate stuff I really have to concentrate hard on. :senile: