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Modelling Branch Lines: A Guide for Railway Modellers
De David Wright
Ações de livro
Comece a lerDuração: 446 páginas5 horas
- Editora:
- Crowood
- Lançado em:
- Aug 31, 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781785000201
- Formato:
- Livro
Descrição
This comprehensive book is aimed at all those railway modellers who wish to create a realistic model of a branch line. First of all it examines the origins, developments and future of branch lines in Britain and then provides useful insights into how to select a suitable branch line to model. It discusses in detail how to create scenic realism and an appropriate setting for the model, with reference to the landscape, the infrastructure, the lineside and the use of authentic colour. Detailed information about a selection of several real, and some fictitious, branch lines are presented in order to inspire the modeller and help him to select a suitable subject to faithfully recreate. Finally, track plans and superb drawings of the whole scene are shown which provides the modeller with a visual intepretation of what the completed model should look like. Superbly illustrated with 71 drawings and diagrams and 307 digital colour and black & white photographs.
Ações de livro
Comece a lerDados do livro
Modelling Branch Lines: A Guide for Railway Modellers
De David Wright
Duração: 446 páginas5 horas
Descrição
This comprehensive book is aimed at all those railway modellers who wish to create a realistic model of a branch line. First of all it examines the origins, developments and future of branch lines in Britain and then provides useful insights into how to select a suitable branch line to model. It discusses in detail how to create scenic realism and an appropriate setting for the model, with reference to the landscape, the infrastructure, the lineside and the use of authentic colour. Detailed information about a selection of several real, and some fictitious, branch lines are presented in order to inspire the modeller and help him to select a suitable subject to faithfully recreate. Finally, track plans and superb drawings of the whole scene are shown which provides the modeller with a visual intepretation of what the completed model should look like. Superbly illustrated with 71 drawings and diagrams and 307 digital colour and black & white photographs.
- Editora:
- Crowood
- Lançado em:
- Aug 31, 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781785000201
- Formato:
- Livro
Sobre o autor
Relacionado a Modelling Branch Lines
Amostra do livro
Modelling Branch Lines - David Wright
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
When I was first approached by the publishers about producing a book on modelling railway branch lines, the idea certainly attracted my attention, although the prospect of covering such diverse subject matter did appear rather daunting. My intention from the start was to produce a book that would present modellers with as much information as possible and provide them with the inspiration to create a realistic representation of a British branch line. I also wanted to produce a book that would offer railway modellers something a little different from all the other publications that have been written on modelling our branch lines. In the first chapter I describe the background history of branch lines and consider their role in the future. I will then look at examples of branch lines from all parts of the mainland of Britain, as well as one of the islands, and proceed to consider how branch line modelling can be incorporated into smaller spaces around the house, garage or even the garden shed. The book is illustrated with photographs, track diagrams, maps, architectural drawings and three-dimensional interpretations of branch line layouts. This is most evident in the chapter that deals with a special branch line layout project. In a separate chapter I examine colour, landscaping and creating the settings in which to place the branch line models. I hope that both the text and the illustrations will give you, the modeller, a good reference point for starting a model of a branch line.
THE BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS OF THE BRANCH LINE
Branch lines usually summon up the image of a sleepy single-tracked railway winding its way through our green and pleasant rural countryside to reach a terminus in another sleepy market town or village. This idea would be accurate in most cases, although a good number were built to serve industry and did not have the rural ambience that generally comes to mind when the term branch line is mentioned.
The Haytor Tramway was built to transport granite from the quarries on Dartmoor down to the Stover Canal at Teigngrace for trans-shipment on to barges. The tramway used lengths of granite to form the flange way on which simple loaded and unloaded wagons were pulled along by horse.
The Ticknall Tramway in South Derbyshire was built to transport limestone from quarries to the lime kilns. The burnt lime was transported in wagons pulled by horses along primitive iron rails to be loaded on to barges at the nearby Ashby Canal.
Stone sleeper used on the Ticknall Tramway. A spike would be driven through the drilled hole, anchoring the rail down onto the sleeper. This type of track was used on many of the early tramways and railways.
A good number of our branch lines did not terminate in a country station either. These lines were smaller link routes, linking one major main route to another. Most of these were also laid to double track. Another variation was the loop line, again usually laid to double track. These routes would branch off a main line to serve a community before rejoining the same major route.
The history of our branch lines goes back to the very first railways, originating with the horse-drawn tram and gangways. These primitive forms were laid down to provide transportation of stone, coal or slate, together with other materials and commodities, to a transhipment point, usually a river or a canal. Some would be laid to move them from one stage of processing to another. The early tramways consisted of rails made of materials such as stones forming a flange way. The first metal rails would make an appearance following the industrialized smelting of iron. The individual sections of fish-bellied rail were dovetailed together and sat on individual stone block sleepers. Another feature of some of these early railways was the use of inclined planes. This was a means of moving the goods over the steep contours of the land using cables to pull the wagons up and down the incline. Early forms worked by gravity with a loaded set of wagons running down, pulling the empty wagons up. The introduction of a stationary engine would improve the operation of this system. The Swannington Railway in Leicestershire was the first to use this method. One famous railway to use inclined planes, not so far away in Derbyshire, was the Cromford & High Peak Railway. Here a number of inclines were included to traverse right across the hills of the Peak District linking the Cromford Canal in the Derwent Valley with the Peak Forest Canal in the Goyt Valley. I will cover the Cromford & High Peak Railway in more detail later in the book, looking at how this unusual railway would make a good model branch line project.
A sample of the type of cast (fish-belly) rail used on the early railways, here stamped with the letters C. & H. P. R. Co. (Cromford & High Peak Railway Company).
Using railways to move passengers as well as goods did not happen until 1825 with the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The first major route built to link two cities was the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, opened in 1830. It was not long before the railway boom started in earnest, with the railway barons building lines to link all the major towns and cities, generating large profits from this new transport system. Along with the major arteries, secondary routes were also constructed. It was soon realized that linking dairy and livestock farming areas, as well as industrial quarries and coal mines, could also become very profitable.
Some of the early railways had to traverse hilly terrain. The Cromford & High Peak was one such railway, linking the Cromford Canal with the Peak Forest Canal. To move the wagons up and down the steep inclines, engine houses were positioned at the top using steam power to haul up the wagons on chains. These were linked to the underframe of each wagon and pulleys were fixed to the centre of the sleepers to guide the chains. Two large wheels were provided, one at the top and one at the bottom, through which the chains ran to complete a circuit.
The workshops for the Cromford & High Peak Railway situated at Cromford Wharf. All repair work was carried out here in the blacksmith’s forge.
This gave birth to the rural branch line we have all become familiar with. These railways could offer farming communities the chance to load their fresh produce onto trains that would transport them quickly to the major marketplaces in towns and cities. The rural stations that were built provided goods handling facilities for loading milk, livestock, fruit, vegetables and, in some cases, fish. The railway could now give farmers a way of conveying their produce to its destination in the knowledge that it would arrive fresh. In return the stations would have facilities for receiving goods such as coal and other commodities required by a rural community.
The branch line would also offer a passenger service to transport locals efficiently to other villages or to the larger towns and cities, giving them the opportunity to work, shop or indulge themselves in leisure pursuits away from their homes for the first time.
By the turn of the century the mainland and some of the islands would see the railway map of Britain covered with small branch lines reaching out like fingers to all corners of the land.
The following decades would see a growing need for branch lines providing a much needed link to the railway transport system. Passenger numbers and goods grew rapidly and the branch railway would play an important role during the First Word War, moving troops and horses as well as transporting other essential produce during this time of conflict.
THE DECLINE OF THE BRANCH LINE
The first signs of a decline in the need for the branch line, however, became apparent after the war. Over the next decade there was a rapid growth of motor transport using converted vehicles decommissioned after war service. This had already started in the towns and cities, but soon after the war local bus and lorry companies utilizing these vehicles would spread their services out to the rural areas. Road improvements made it possible for these services to start to compete with the railways for both passengers and goods. At first it was passenger numbers that started to decline as the railway could still move goods efficiently. Staff, however, were required at stations for both passenger and goods traffic and it was inevitable that some stations became uneconomic, closing to passenger services but retaining their goods facilities: in 1930, for example, no fewer than ninety-nine stations across the country shut their doors to passengers. Over the next decades more stations closed as the movement of goods was also transferred to road transport and we started to see the closure of the whole of the branch line. The Second World War would see renewed use of the branch lines, including the evacuation of children from the bomb-threatened towns and cities to a safer haven in the country villages. However, the war had taken the railways to near breaking point and from 1945 the branch lines continued their decline. With a new government in power, the worn-out railway system was nationalized in 1947. The new ‘British Railways’ inherited a mass of worn-out locomotives, rolling stock and country stations that were too large and overstaffed for the small numbers of passengers they were attracting. More branch line stations began to lose their passenger facilities. Most of the railways, however, still kept their goods facilities, although improved roads and lower costs started to make moving the goods by road more attractive. Road transport’s other great advantage over rail was the ability to move the goods directly door to door. The railways could only offer a service direct to where a rail dock was provided; the last part of its journey would involve unloading and sending it on by delivery cart or lorry from the nearest station.
The late 1950s would see even more change. In 1959, for example, the first motorway was built. This was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6. This was closely followed by the first section of the M1 and it was not long before the motorways and other road improvements were being backed as ‘the way forward’ by the transport minister Ernest Marples. At the same time British Railways took stock of what had to be done to make the railways pay their way again. Dr Richard Beeching, on secondment from ICI, was appointed Chairman of the British Railways Board in 1961 to compile two reports on the economic state of the railways. The first of these, The Reshaping of British Railways (1963), concluded that most of the country’s branch lines were running at a loss and the stations were vastly over-manned for what few passengers were travelling on the trains. With more goods now being transported by road, nearly all the remaining branch lines were closed and the stations wiped off the railway map of Britain. A good number of secondary routes and even some of the main lines also fell to this mass rationalization of the railway system. The only branch lines that survived were those offering a commercially viable way to move goods and passengers, sometimes because the alternative of moving goods by road was not an easy or practical option. By the end of the 1960s the majority of branch lines, both those serving rural communities and those serving urban areas and industry, had passed into the history books. However, this was not the total end for the branch line as there remained a determination that part of the country’s historical and social past should survive. Since the 1950s railway enthusiasts have banded together to form preservation groups, saving a good number of our beloved branch lines.
SAVING THE BRANCH LINE
The preservation movement started with the narrow-gauge Talyllynn Railway in North Wales, which opened under preservation in 1951. The first standard-gauge line to be preserved was the Bluebell Railway in 1959. The following decades saw more and more preservation groups saving and rebuilding stretches or the whole length of a branch line that had been left to decay.
The 1960s also saw the demise of steam on the national system. The same railway enthusiasts started to save and preserve steam locomotives to run on these branch lines. There were plenty of locomotives available as British Rail rapidly withdrew all of its steam motive power in this decade, replacing them with diesel and electric locomotives. Rolling stock was also acquired by the preservationists, as coaching and goods stock similarly went through a process of replacement.
The preservationists faced a daunting task in raising money to purchase the railway and the infrastructure as well as the locomotives and rolling stock to run on them. Once the purchase had been made there remained the necessity to restore and in some cases completely rebuild the stations, signal boxes and other related buildings and structures. After closure the lines and stations had been left to decay. Empty buildings soon became the target for vandals and the tracks became overgrown with weeds. Much of the track may already have been lifted and cut up for scrap, but these determined enthusiasts did not shy away from any of the obstacles put before them. It is down to these dedicated people that there are still a good number of these railways today and that we can all experience this unique way of travelling in vintage coaching stock behind a steam locomotive along one of our branch lines.
The passenger train arrangement used by the Great Western for its branch line running featured an auto-train, where the train could be operated from both ends, either from the set of controls on the locomotive or from a duplicated set at the driving end of the auto-coach. This arrangement did not require the locomotive to run around the train at the terminus. All that was required was for the crew to move to the other end of the train, ready to drive it away in the opposite direction.
The age of the heritage railway has now become an established tourist industry, with the railways offering an experience from the past to entertain both young and old. There are now heritage railways in most counties of England, more than a dozen in Wales, six in Scotland and two in Northern Ireland. You can also travel on heritage railways on the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man. The future will see even more railways being opened while the enthusiasm for preserving the past remains.
Besides providing a day out for the family, some of our heritage railways have created the perfect settings for the television and film industry. This has provided the railways with a good income whenever a period TV drama or film production requires a railway backdrop. We only have to look at how the North Yorkshire Moors Railway contributed to the 1960s setting of the ITV series ‘Heartbeat’ or, further back, the recreation of 1905 by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in the EMI 1970 film production of The Railway Children.
The heritage railways can also offer us a stage for many entertaining events, such as 1940s and Wartime celebrations, Beer Festivals, as well as Thomas the Tank Engine and Santa Specials for the younger generation. All these have contributed to making the preserved railway a success, helping keep alive some of our beloved branch lines.
THE FUTURE OF THE BRANCH LINE
So where does the branch line figure in the railway system of the present and the future? The holiday lines that were left open still attract many passengers for the summer months at least. The short branch from Twyford terminating at Henley-on-Thames becomes very busy for the regatta every year. A few other branch lines have been created by truncating what were once main lines. A good example of this is the Derwent Valley Line in Derbyshire. This line from Ambergate once carried freight and passenger traffic through the Peak District as part of the Midland Railway main route to Manchester. The line finally closed as a through route in 1968. Only the first eight miles remains open today. The track was singled and rationalized, although the intermediate stations at Whatstandwell, Cromford and Matlock Bath remained open. The branch now terminates at Matlock, from where four miles of the old line to Rowsley South have been reinstated as a heritage railway.
There are plans to reopen some closed branch lines to avoid congestion on the roads, especially those that offer commuters an alternative way to travel in and out of the larger towns and cities.
A great number of closed branch lines have become greenways in the countryside. These offer recreational amenities for cyclists, ramblers and horse riders. Some have become linear nature reserves offering the perfect habitat for many varieties of flora and fauna. It is a pleasing thought that they have been put to good use even if we can’t see trains running on them anymore.
Great Longstone Station on the Monsal Trail in the Derbyshire Peak District. Many branch lines and some main lines have been used to create linear pathways for walking or other leisure pastimes. The closed railways have also become nature reserves providing corridors for wildlife to move freely from one habitat to another.
Matlock Station was once on the busy route of the Midland Railway’s main line through the Peak District to Manchester. Matlock is now the terminus of this truncated railway, making it into a branch line known locally as the Derwent Valley Line.
CHAPTER ONE
MAKING A START
The very first thing when building a model railway of any sort is to ask yourself a few questions.
What space do I have to accommodate a model railway?
Is the model to be fixed or portable to take to exhibitions?
What scale do I want to build the model in?
How much time and how much money can I afford to put towards creating a model railway?
Choosing to build a branch line rather
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