Middlepeak

Jay, The theory was that both locos could be employed to get the daily 9a.m. freight to the top of Hopton, where one would be detached to work back to Middleton via the quarries at Hopton Wood and Prestwich Intake, whilst the other did the round trip to Friden or Parsley Hay. That said, I've never seen a photo of the 9a.m. freight being double headed. Maybe the trains operated separately, one on the staff and the other on a ticket, with the wagons being combined into one train at Hopton Top. By the mid-60s the traffic had shrunk to the extent that only one loco was needed. Regards, G

Was looking out for you today, but we obviously weren't in the same place at the same time! It was good to catch up with Gordon and Maggie again, plus a few others. 7mm is quite tempting, but I can't contemplate a new scale at my time of life - too much left in the "cupboard of shame"! Must arrange the High Peak get together, now that the weather's improving. I like the engine shed by the way - very impressive! G

While the Frichs diesel is going through the various stages of painting, a little experiment in the field of laser cut wagonry. The RGVJ has needed a couple of rejsergodsvogne (guards vans to you and me) for some time, and I had developed a soft spot for this design from the Aarhus-Hadsund Jernbane. The material is 1mm MDF, which I had left over from another project. Each side and end is formed of two layers, with the planking marked on the inner layer. The sliding door is cut separately. A nice little jigsaw to be going on with! Geraint

Jay, Now that's tested my memory, because the layout with withdrawn from exhibitions 19 years ago! I think the flywheel was very helpful. These larger Mashimas had quite a bit of torque, but then again we were running wagons with a wide variety of weights, so smoothness of run was very important - hence the roller bearings on the final axle. From memory the gearbox ratio was about 80:1. The incline was run from the same controller as the locos at the incline top. A switch cut off the power to the track and diverted it to the winding motor and one of the small hand held controllers gave a range of speeds and smooth take-up. I think I did check the voltage once and we never used much more that 6vDC, but obviously had the full range from 0-12vDC to play with if needed. Hope this helps. G

If it helps, here's a rare photo of 68013 at Middleton in 1956 with a full height bunker. Photo courtesy The Transport Treasury The catch is the date. This was the year that the J94s first appeared on the High Peak and the photo was probably taken in that early period when they hadn't yet got their heads around the coaling problem that Al referred to. Later pictures of the same loco show that it received the "chop" fairly early in its career on the line. Still, if you're prepared to restrict your modelling period a bit, or even keep it flexible, the world's your oyster! The other loco at Middleton at that time was the last North London Tank 58850 and they were even known to double head the morning goods as far as Hopton! G

Hello Chaps, Allow me to present some pics of the incline motor that powered things on Middlepeak. The first incarnation of the incline, effectively the bottom half, used manual winding, but I felt this was far too erratic, so when I extended the layout to include the top, I felt I had to improve things. Basically it's a large Mashima motor with a scratch built gearbox (pre-High Level era!) with the output axle running in roller bearings to reduce friction. On the top side of the mounting plate we have a plastic washing line pulley, conveniently of the same diameter as the incline track centres. The plasticard wall around the outside was to stop the incline chain tangling in the mechanism as it went round the pulley. The incline rope was made from two sections of fishing line with a short section of chain attached at each join to form a continuous loop. One compromise that I had to accept was that the chain was attached to the top coupling hook of a pair of wagons, whereas on the real thing the chain was fed under the wagon and attached to the bottom hook, with each wagon attached to a separate chain. A bit difficult under the exhibition spotlight! One other point of detail - the bottom pulley had to be mounted on a screw-adjusted sliding trolley, which allowed us to maintain the essential tension on the rope through the different temperatures of the average exhibition weekend. Happy to expand on this if you want! Geraint

Rod, As Regularity says, sprags were shaped wooden pegs which could be inserted between the spokes of a wagon wheel as an extra brake, as seen on this photo from my Cromford & High Peak Railway collection. Geraint

Time for another quick update on the small Frichs diesel. I decided that it would be more productive to proceed with the four basic elements of the model - roof, bodywork, underframe and chassis - in turn, progressing each one to completion before moving on to the next one. That way J can at least feel that I'm getting somewhere! The previous post showed all the roof-mounted gubbins in place. This was followed by a whiff of grey primer before an outbreak of Archers rivet transfers. What on earth did we do before these came along? A second coat of the primer followed and that element is now finished, bar the weathering, which will be an interesting exercise in itself. So, on to the body, with lots of detail on the ends, such as the headlamps, horns and platform rails, all fashioned out of various bits from the scrapbox and the louvres made from multiple layers of microstrip. This time I used Humbrol No 1 primer and this afternoon was spent in pleasant company with Mr Archer again, adding the multitude of rivets that define the body panels. The next stage will be a couple of coats of RGVJ wine red, followed by glazing and transfers, and then it's on to the underframe.

Jay, It's a Road Runner +. G

Not much to report on the layout itself, apart from the arrival of the last few point motors from my good friend Brian Page. These use high geared 12 volt motors and are in effect an update of the ones that he designed for Brassmasters many years ago. They are sturdy beasts and give an efficient slow motion to the point rails and will hopefully last a lifetime. All the better, because I don't like crawling under baseboards! I'll deal with fitting and wiring in a later post. In the mean time, thoughts have returned to motive power. One of Middlepeak's most dependable locos was the North London Tank, originally a Mallard etched kit (remember them?) and built in the 1970s, with Sharman's wheels and a Portescap 1219. I decided that it needed more detail to the bodywork, and a close examination of the chassis revealed some wear and tear, which was hardly surprising considering the miles it had run at exhibitions over a 25 year period. With another Mallard kit sitting in the cupboard, I decided that the best way forward was to design a new etched chassis for both locos, this time using a Mashima 1220 motor and High Level gearbox with CSB suspension. I quite enjoy this sort of design work on the CAD package and those wonderful people at PPD have now sent me the results - two gleaming etches that will hopefully provide everything I need to get the two locos (58856 and 58860) running again. More updates after a serious session with the soldering iron, although this may have to wait until the planned relocation of my workshop comes to fruition.

Preliminaries over, so it's time to consider things like materials and method of construction. My normal methods for buildings in both 4mm and 3.5mm scales follow quite closely those used by the North London Group in their creation of Bodmin station back in the 1980s. That is to say a plasticard structure with overlays of Evergreen strip for stones or brick courses. These methods are described in more detail in the threads on my Obbekaer and Friden layouts. For Bricket Wood, the main difference is the sheer size of the model, which scales out at just over 460mm long and 84mm deep, and more relevantly has walls which are over 8mm thick. All of this adds up to a huge amount of plasticard and potential difficulties in keeping the walls straight as the required layers are cemented together. Cost was also a significant factor, with the Evergreen strip required to represent the brick courses alone coming out at just over £100. Instead, inspired by RMWeb contributors such as Tricky in his Midland in Bristol and Monks Gate Models threads, I have chosen to use laser cut MDF and Oiled Manilla, which can be cut in various thicknesses from 0.45mm up to 3mm. This combination gives strength to the basic structure, but also allows the detail of doors and windows to be built up in various layers. The brickwork is all laser cut into the outer 3mm layer of MDF, which also gives sufficient depth to the door and window reveals. The first stage therefore was to complete a full CAD drawing of the building, including the final pattern of brickwork. All four sides of the building have a brick built plinth, which is cut separately from 1.5mm MDF, and a string course above the doors and windows which is cut from 1mm MDF. There are two more elaborate string courses above that, which have yet to be designed, as the profile is somewhat difficult to achieve, even with layers. As I noted above, the windows and doors are made up of various layers in 0.45mm oiled manilla and 1mm MDF, which allow the full effect of the sash windows to be replicated. This fits into a second layer of 3mm MDF, which forms the 'meat in the sandwich' of each wall. Finally, there is another layer of 2mm MDF forming the inner part of the wall. Corner joints will be mitred on the final model, and there is also a base incorporated into each wall that will slot into the platform and forecourt of the diorama. Cills will be fashioned separately out of limewood, or similar. I decided to explore this construction with a trial section, which included a window. Conclusions from this trial were that assembly was quite straightforward and accurate, and that the assembled wall was strong and true. However, there were some difficulties in reproducing the brickwork, which you may be able to see from the attached photo. To the right of the window, the courses have come out uneven for some reason, with the stretcher courses being consistently thinner than the header courses. In some places the vertical mortar lines have also overlapped the horizontals. Thanks to the diligence and persistence of the owner of the cutter (Fen End Pit of this parish), we can hopefully resolve this by reducing the speed of the cut, and some other technical adjustments. I now have around a dozen pieces of trial wall to compare, but this has been a very worthwhile exercise to determine the best settings for the production cuts. I now have more confidence in a way forward, and next time we'll look at design, cutting and assembly of the windows and doors.

A significant departure for me, with a new project on the workbench. For starters it's not for me, and secondly it's in 7mm scale. Let me explain. Around 20 years ago, my working life got me involved with the railways of Hertfordshire, firstly working for the County Council and then for the local train operator. One of the most rewarding projects I got involved with was the establishment of a Community Rail Partnership on the Abbey Line, the ex-LNWR branch from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. It progressed well, gaining the status of a national demonstration project from the then Strategic Rail Authority, and there was talk of reinstating the passing loop on the line to allow operation of a more frequent service. Sadly the passing of the franchise to another company severed my connection with the line, but that has happily been revitalised by the Bricket Wood Station Heritage Trust, a local charity that has charged itself with the task of refurbishing the only remaining station building on the line and turning it into a community cafe. With a new found enthusiasm for their project, which will restore the building as close as possible to its original condition, I have offered to build them a model of the building as it would have been just after construction in 1903. Fortunately, copies of the original LNWR drawings are available, and of course site visits are still possible for planning purposes and to check certain details. The question of scale came up very early in the thinking process. The model will go on permanent display in the cafe, probably in a case mounted on the wall. A bigger size would help viewers appreciation of the detail, but there were also considerations of height of display and which side of the building should be on view. In the end we chose the platform side as being the more interesting, although it's largely covered by a canopy. However the latter will be partly cut away so that people can see the detail underneath, and it should therefore be possible to include some interior detail in the ticket hall. I'll cover the decisions on materials and methods of construction in a later post, but in the mean time here's a few photos of Bricket Wood through the ages. If you would like to know more, you can visit the Trust's website at https://bricketwoodstationtrust.org.uk

They say that perseverance pays in the long run. In my case, it's often a matter of leaving a difficult problem to fester for a while, in the hope that a solution will creep up on me when I least expect it. So it was with my scratch built model of a Scandia 3 axle diesel, built in a small batch for the private railways of Denmark in the early 1930s. Whilst assembly of the loco body and chassis from my own etches had progressed quite well, the roof was the problem, in particular the tight curves at the edges. After a couple of years stowed away in a dark corner of the workshop, it re-emerged for one of my periodic head-scratching sessions and it occurred to me that if I built a strong frame to establish the correct profile and a good fit with the body, a sheet of 10thou brass shim would be sufficient to form the roof. The trick with the sharp curves down to the cantrail was to roll them first over a suitable diameter of brass tube clamped in a vice, the key element of the process being to keep the brass oversize and clamp it by the waste section, rolling the curve away from the cantrail towards the middle of the roof, rather than the other way round. The central arc was formed by rolling with a larger section of brass tube on my thigh. The waste bits were then trimmed off after the whole unit had been soldered up. Details followed in the form of radiators from Freja Modelle castings and exhaust, ventilator and various bits of pipework from brass wire and tube. The final touch was to add a trim round the edge made from microstrip fixed with superglue. There's a lot more detail to add, but hopefully the beast will enter service later in the year - it's about time! G

Maybe we could organise a High Peak Modellers' Convention in 2022? We'll at least three blokes in a pub chatting about our favourite railway line .... Happy New Year to all. G

Jay, I've no evidence that a Super D got to Friden, but I do have a photo of a Midland 4-4-0 on an engineer's saloon visit there. On the basis that Buxton would have turned out anything suitable and available for such a duty, and given that Super D's were regular performers on the Ashbourne line, I thought this would be a chance to justify it. Besides, I needed to prove to myself that a straight wheel change conversion to P4 would work on a Bachmann 00 loco, and I like the prototype! G

Another loco that will make the occasional appearance at Friden is Buxton's Super D 49406, which was a regular on the Buxton - Uttoxeter goods. I'm planning to use it to pull the engineer's saloon, so it's had a bit more of a spit and a polish from the cleaners at Buxton shed. It's a rewheeled Bachmann model with Bill Bedford rods and cosmetic black plasticard frames attached to the original chassis block. It's been on a running in turn on my good friend Brian Page's Oxenbridge layout and all that is required now is the addition of a Buxton shed plate. In the mean time, track construction continues ..... G

Hej Mikkel, Many thanks for that translation. That certainly explains the function of the boxes, which is very helpful. I now need to find out how they related to the boiler / firebox and ideally I need a photo taken from the front of the loco looking back towards the cab and from a suitably elevated position so I can see the top of the tanks. I did email the Danske Jernbane Klub some weeks ago to ask whether one of their members visiting Marslev could take such a photo for me, but sadly I didn't even get a reply. Do you know anyone who is a member? I do have an undertaking from my good friend Jens Bruun-Petersen that he will take me to Marslev next time I'm in Denmark, but given the present Omicron situation, I have no idea when that will be. It's so frustrating to have this one problem stall progress on this loco! Best wishes, Geraint

No, this project hasn't died. It's just slumbering a little whilst matters Cromford & High Peak are attended to. Seriously though, I have been giving some thought to the additional motive power that will be needed, should the layout get back on a rejuvenated exhibition circuit one day. One of the key requirements is for a small steam loco for the daily goods train that will pause to do some shunting at Obbekaer and fill up with water at the water crane. Some time back I was looking through Niels Jensen's wonderful tome on Danske Damplokomotiver and found this wonderful little beast, the DSB Litra N. Built by German manufacturer Esslingen and delivered initially to the Kalvehavebanen in 1897, it was transferred to the DSB in 1908 and saw out its later years as a shunter at Valby, being finally retired into preservation in 1965. Two others of the same class from the Jyske-Fynske Statsbaner were later sold on to the operator of some marl pits near Ribe, so I thought I could easily justify one for the RGVJ. It's tiny! Scaling out at a mere 6.7m long (77mm in P87), some arduous design work has managed to locate a Tramfabriek coreless motor and a High Level gearbox within the boiler and side tanks, and most of the artwork has now been drawn for a full set of etches for the chassis and body. However, there is a major conundrum to resolve!! If you look at the drawing and the two pictures above, you will see that there are two odd-shaped boxes projecting above and inboard of the side tanks. At first I thought this was a strange variant of firebox design, which is suggested by the sloped dotted line coming down from the cab front on the side elevation. However, the pictures show that there are actually two of these shapes with a gap in between where the boiler top runs right through to the cab front. However, the front elevation clearly shows that these either cut into the boiler or are shaped around it. Sadly, none of the photos I have are from a suitably elevated viewpoint to show the relationship between these boxes and the boiler, and I can't confirm whether these actually are a strange design of firebox. Does anyone with more experience or knowledge of German locos know of any similar designs, and better still have any good photos of them? The loco is still in storage at the Danske Jernbane Klub site at Marslev, but all attempts to secure better photos from a someone visiting the site have failed up to now. Any help that you can offer will be much appreciated and will allow me to complete the artwork prior to starting construction in the New Year. Thank you and Glaedelig Jul!

There are some occasions when all you need is a little bit of self-generated inspiration to get the juices flowing again. Such was the case today when, having worked on more of the track detailing I felt an urge to delve into the stock box. Out came the original brake van special from Middlepeak, with three loaded vans in the charge of J94 68030. This is a modified Airfix kit on an etched Perseverance chassis with a Portescap motor, which made its original debut on my erstwhile Rise End Quarry layout in about 1980. Now if I can lay the next bit of track on the Friden loop tomorrow, it will have at least 8 feet of track to run up and down! Inspiration achieved!! G

Simon, Just to reiterate how much I enjoyed today's visit from the darkest Fens. Congratulations on what you have achieved. A true spectacle. I must say I really enjoyed the opportunity to look at the detail you have incorporated into the model. With any sort of large model the temptation is always to gloss over the detail, but you have it there in spades. A lot of my photos were of the little things - the signals, the p-way and signalling crews, the sewage works and the vehicles, but that's not to detract from the trains themselves. I also thought the sky 'curtain' behind the layout made a huge contribution towards the autumnal feel of the whole scene - great! The other thing to reflect on was the lineside conversations we had with other visitors, including an S&T worker who had spent the early stages of his career on this route. A great opportunity for railwaymen to reminisce, away from the less convivial atmosphere of a conventional exhibition. Only one tiny regret. As a Mancunian lad who regularly travelled the route in the 70s I was looking forward to seeing a Trans-Pennine DMU, but it didn't seem to be running today. A good excuse to visit at another venue in the future! Seriously Simon, and outstanding achievement and good look with your venture. Geraint

The sleeper gang has been active in the last couple of days, starting with the point for the west end of the loop. Ballast depth on the High Peak was often variable, so I always go for a double thickness plywood sleeper to give scope for that variation. I'm beginning to curse the consequences of laser cut sleepers, as the burnt edges need a lot of cleaning up and it gets to be a messy job. That's the price of technological advances, I suppose. I've also been giving some more thought to the portrayal of the factory, which should be a maze of different rooflines and chimneys stretching back into the distance. Given that this is the corner board, which is a good two feet from front to back and will usually be viewed from a relatively fixed point on the inside of the curve, I'm wondering whether some kind of diminishing scale construction in perspective might be appropriate. What do people think? I can see further perusal of Paul Bambrick's excellent tome on such things is in prospect ....... G

I feel as though I've achieved a bit today, as board 5 has been sanded and oiled and the cork laid. You can now start to see how the factory and the curve relates to the rest of the yard. No excuses now - track building again! G

Joe, Great to hear from you. Although you may not have been around at DSF before the High Peak closed, I wonder if you're still in touch with anybody who was? I'm particularly interested to find out how the loop through the factory was worked, given that there was insufficient clearance for locos in there. I'm assuming empties in at one end and fulls out at the other, but we're there any coal deliveries into the works itself? Any anecdotes from the old DSF workforce would be helpful! Regards, G

Apologies for being very late to join this thread. I tackled the construction of a working incline over 30 years ago when the first stage of my P4 CHP layout "Middlepeak" was built. This had the bottom half of an incline with two parallel roads and the fiddle yard at the top. After having my arm twisted (it didn't take much!) I went on to model the top as well and the layout was exhibited with the complete incline from 1995 to 2003. Robin Whittle was one of my regular collaborators at that time and we shared many a conversation on inclines as we built our respective layouts. There were some differences in principle between the High Peak inclines and that at Clee Hill. Mine was operated by a continuous wire rope (fishing line) which always ran in the same direction, giving separate up and down lines. The pulleys were N Gauge wagon wheels, turned inwards to face each other as you have done. The motive power was a large 12v motor at the top, fitted with a home made gearbox, and at the bottom was a separate pulley under the tracks, running on a sliding frame that allowed the rope tension to be adjusted. The other items of interest were turn-on scotches at the top of the incline, which prevented wagons from rolling away. These were operated by mechanical attachments under the board. A couple of lessons learned, which you might find of interest. Firstly, there were a number of subtle gradients at the top and bottom of the inclines on the prototype. These were designed to make moving the wagons easier, as locos were not allowed too close. Getting these right proved vital to the efficient and reliable operation of the incline. In particular, there was the 'kip' at the top of the up road, which allowed the wagons to run in the right direction to a safe point for disconnection, once they had gone over the summit. Secondly, I had planned to use Jackson couplings to avoid the big hand coming out of the sky as the wagons were attached to the rope. However, the change of gradient on the up road at the foot of the incline, which was necessary to get the wagons started, proved very efficient in uncoupling the two wagons in the 'run', so it was back to three links! In the end, this proved worthwhile, as hooking up the couplings drew attention to the whole process of shunting and 'hanging on' at the top and bottom of the incline. All of this is described in my MRJ article in issue 110. As I said above, not all these issues will apply to Clee Hill because it's a different type of incline, but I hope the above is useful. You seem to be making an excellent job of things and I look forward to seeing how things progress. Regards, Geraint

Here's a photo of the internal loading bay, which shows just how tight the clearances were inside the building. Source - Derbyshire Records Office Interesting that the bricks are being loaded here into straw-lined BR containers, which were carried in open wagons, presumably with a tarpaulin over the top to stop water ingress. Everything stacked and packed by hand, because the works produced many varieties of bricks or different shapes and sizes. There is evidence that in the 1960s Palbrick wagons were used. Quite clearly no room for a loco on the loading bank road through the works though! G