Worsdell forever

"A've just swept that out and you're gonna drop that mucky ord coal everywhere..." Chop Yat, very much a work in progress.

Bit more track down, well up to the coal depots, the last inch or so at the top isn't glued and when it's dry I'll solder the ends to the pins which should create a nice curve without lifting the rest of the track. The track for the rest of the yard is cut to length and ready to go when the weights are available, they're currently holding the headshunt down. The coal depot is just about done, it needs some coal in there but I'll make the heaps separately so there's no risk of getting glue everywhere!

Weeeell, at least he didn't run off to the sun... 😁

Three Shredded Wheat for breakfast?

Good to meet the sheep himself today, had a good natter although at one point there was a slight lack of trains running...

A few buildings, a loco, a carriage and a couple of wagons and we can start to see where we're going. Also got a couple of yard turnouts down tonight.

Never seen an excited layout before, is it constantly asking 'are we nearly there yet'...? 😁

Tonight's post sees the layout up to where we are now, the yard turnouts had been left loose until the coal depots were built and they couldn't be positioned until the basic platform width had been decided. When these were in place the ramp up could be built and then a start could be made laying the track. Installing the ramp. Suitable weights for track laying....

https://www.shiteshirts.com/products/shiteshirts

And a J73 is a much bigger loco than a J71 orJ72 😁

It will be 1918/19ish. When I was looking around at locations and this proposed line came up it was pretty much settled what I wanted to model, not done a bucolic branchline station in a pastoral landscape since I was a kid!

Yes, B7s, on the mainline are the newer fabricated rail crossing and the ones in the yard are the original cast crossings. Superb kits as long as the printed plastic lasts.

Then I got to laying track, starting with the north end crossover, this is the only board where the track is straight due to the crossover and adjacent level crossing, it will just make it so much easier. The track plan was transfered on to the board by 'pushing through' with a scriber and the dots joined up. Holes were drilled for droppers and operating rod then when satisfied all was lined up PVA was brushed onto the board and track pushed down into it one section at a time then weighted down with some offcuts of ply with whatever heavy objects were to hand on top, an axe head, mash hammer and a selection of cold chisels. This was followed by the crossover at the other end if the passing loop. And then filled in in between, the rail ends at board joints will be soldered to brass pins. The yard turnouts were aligned and holes drilled but left loose, other stuff needed aligning before these could be fixed down.

The nuts were only cheap and can easily be changed for something more substantial if necessary, perhaps a 1/8" or 1/4" steel plate tapped and with a couple of holes drilled to fix them to the board.

We'll be there on Saturday, seen a couple of sheepy layouts but never the Sheep himself!

I had thought about that, it would be possible but I don't think it would have the capacity.

The legs for the layout are the same as for The Depots, at the moment it's exactly the same footprint, 12' x 2'6" although this will of course have a fiddle yard at each end with the possibility of moving these along and adding another 3' board of countryside at each end. There was a bit of an issue with one of the legs, it popped up through the bed of the beck... This was soon sorted. The boards are held together with these spikey captive nuts and M6 bolts that can be whizzed in and out with the drill.

After the style of layout and a rough idea of a track plan had been decided the whole thing was sketched out full size then drawn full size a little more accurately using a couple of carriages and the buildings already completed (weigh office), nearly complete (station building) or a close alternative (signal cabin) to gauge size and position on the layout. Baseboards are fairly standard, 9mm plywood with a semi open construction, the land sloping from the back of the layout to the front with Bilsdale beck running the full length of the layout.

The back story for the line is all decided, it's in a similar style to the Whitby to Loftus line where a small (in this case the third fictitious) local company started to build then ran out of money and the NER finished the build then leased and later bought the line. I think the tunnel would be a bit further up the valley.

The track plan is based on various stations in the area, such as Snainton, Hovingham and Kettleness. Proposed traffic. Despite the lack of Ironstone this far west there was still plenty of traffic to keep the line reasonably busy, a cattle train ran from the Pickering line to Stokesley on market days, through passenger trains from Teesside to Scarborough and a Saturdays only York to Stockton and return, reversing at Helmsley.

Chop Yat (Chop Gate) on the York, Helmsley and Stockton Railway. There were a couple of proposed lines through Bilsdale, linking the west of the Vale of Pickering with the Cleveland district. First the Leeds, North Yorkshire and Durham Railway (LNDR) in 1864 was backed by LNWR to end the monopoly of the NER and to extract Ironstone which it turned out wasn't there, the NER fought this proposal and it never came to anything. The Ingleby, Bilsdale and Helmsley Railway. (IBHR). was proposed 1874 in partnership with NER but again nothing came of it. And then in the late 1870s, in our small scale world at least, there came a proposal from the York, Helmsley and Stokesley Railway. (YHSR), enough financial backing was found and a start was made on the line, ultimately the NER completed the line and it opened in 1882 from Helmsley on the Gilling to Pickering line to the North Yorkshire and Cleveland branch near Great Broughton east of Stokesely. The line left the Gilling and Pickering branch a little west of Helmsley station (creating a through route from Pickering and Scarborough), it wound it's way up Bilsdale following first the river Rye then the Seph and finally Bilsdale beck to the top of the dale with stations at Reivaulx, Hawnby, Chop Yat (Chop Gate) in Bilsdale and after negotiating Clay Bank the line emerged into the vale of Cleveland where the last station was at Great Broughton before it made a junction with the North Yorkshire and Cleveland line east of Stokesley where trains ran into the station and could continue on via Picton to Stockton. Rough sketch of the railways of the North York Moors.

Spot on in black and white, especially the Q6 at the start.

Well, we were coming to see you but now I'm not so sure. 😁

As others have said, no. But there is a C2 open in the next to last siding top right.

Was expecting to see it posed next to the whalebones...