Modelling the Midland Region from 1948 E-Book

Colin Boocock

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

The London Midland Region covered a huge part of England from London to the north and north west, from the Scottish borders into the south west. It served huge metropolitan cities and towns, supported heavy industry, and ran through areas of outstanding natural beauty such as the Peak District and Lake District. Modelling the Midland Region from 1948 is an essential guide to creating your own model based on the London Midland Region of the British Railways era. It covers the history of the London Midland Region; British Rail and LMS locomotives; passenger and goods rolling stock; structures and scenery unique to the region, and signalling and electrification. The authors of this book are trustees of the charity Famous Trains model railway and directors of its operating company Famous Trains Ltd. An essential guide to creating your own model based on the London Midland region, for all scales and levels of interest, and fully illustrated with 232 colour photographs and 15 diagrams.

Leseprobe

MODELLING THE

MIDLAND REGION

FROM 1948

MODELLING THE

MIDLAND REGION

FROM 1948

COLIN BOOCOCK, TONY CLARKE AND PETER SWIFT

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2019 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

© Colin Boocock, Anthony Clarke and Peter Swift 2019

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 520 6

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their grateful thanks to Famous Trains member Peter R. Stanton, a retired railway electrical engineer, for his input into the sections on electrification and lighting.

All uncredited photographs and diagrams are by the authors. Photographs by others are credited in the caption.

The authors have also downloaded a number of items from the internet. Where a licence does not explicitly cover reproduction, they have made every effort, not always with success, to trace the copyright holder. Any inadvertent breach of copyright is entirely unintentional, and copyright holders are asked to contact the publisher with regard to any fee that may be due.

Frontispiece: On this model of Chinley station, the left bracket signal is set for straight ahead; this arm is higher than the one that would indicate diversion to the line heading off right. This bracket signal’s base will eventually be buried under the platform surface and the operating wires made less visible. The other pair of bracket signals that control the exit from the bay platform are of the same height, indicating routes of equal status.

CONTENTS

   PREFACE

1 THE FORMATION OF THE LONDON MIDLAND REGION

2 LONDON MIDLAND AND SCOTTISH LOCOMOTIVES

3 BRITISH RAILWAYS LOCOMOTIVES

4 PASSENGER ROLLING STOCK

5 GOODS ROLLING STOCK

6 STRUCTURE MODELLING

7 SCENIC MODELLING

8 SIGNALLING

9 ELECTRIFICATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

   APPENDIX: THE FAMOUS TRAINS MODEL RAILWAY

   LIST OF SUPPLIERS

   INDEX

PREFACE

When we were first asked to create a book about modelling the London Midland Region of British Railways from 1948, the term ‘Midlandness’ was coined. It was used to refer to those features of the whole railway that identified the London Midland Region as a distinct entity, and could be reasonably modelled.

My colleagues and I from the Famous Trains Charity Model Railway in Derby will endeavour to outline the historical aspects up to the nationalization and after, with a view to modelling those features still apparent in locomotives, rolling stock, infrastructure and buildings. We will then show how they may be represented accurately in model form.

Whatever stage you are at in creating a model railway – beginning with a train set and building up, creating a larger and more realistic model using flexible track and more sophisticated control equipment, or recreating a real place in model form – the more accurate your model, the more convincing it will be. And the more convincing your model, the greater your satisfaction and your enjoyment of the hobby will be.

Print of the London & Birmingham Railway’s Euston terminus in 1837 showing a train of open carriages, ready to be rope-hauled to Camden, where a locomotive will be attached. Over the next 100 years, Euston grew in a piecemeal fashion, causing confusion to passengers and difficulties for the operating staff.

We will not spend time describing how to design your plan, lay track and ballast, wire up the electrics or choose whether to operate by DCC or analogue control. However, if you wish to create a model based on part of the London Midland Region of British Railways, this book should help you to produce something that is readily identifiable as part of that Region, whether it is freelance or an accurate representation of a real place.

The London Midland Region of British Railways was the largest in area of the Regions created after nationalization. It covered a huge part of England, from London to the north and north-west, to the Scottish borders and the coast of North Wales, through central Wales to the south and into the south-west, overlapping the territory of the Western Region and the Southern. It served huge metropolitan cities and towns, with heavy industry and mass movement of people as well as freight. It ran through scenically outstanding areas such as the Peak District, and into the Lake District. It also followed the North Wales coast to Anglesey and, jointly with the SDJR, ran across Somerset and Dorset, down to the south coast at Bournemouth. The Region as a whole enjoyed a wide variety of scenery, from mountainous areas to the seaside, rolling farmland to giant limestone quarries, and small rural villages to busy industrial towns. Choosing an appropriate setting for a model is vital to creating the feeling of ‘Midlandness’.

Unless you have a very large room in which to model, you will almost certainly be limited to modelling one type of area, town or countryside, seaside or small branch line. Wherever you choose, there will be distinct features that will enable you to model your chosen subject in a convincing manner.

With the coming electrification of the West Coast Main Line, old Euston had to go and demolition started. By 26 April 1964, all the later additions had gone, and a new Euston was taking shape behind.

To achieve this aim, we shall begin by providing a detailed and complete account of the locomotives and rolling stock that would have been present on the London Midland Region from its creation in 1948 until 1988. This will include all the items that are available to allow you to model accurately in the most popular scales. Realistic models of other prototypes may be created by modifying ready-to-run models or kits. We will show how this may be done using examples that feature on the Famous Trains Model Railway in Derby.

We will then take a look at the necessary parts of the infrastructure directly associated with the railways – stations, and so on – before looking at some scenic ideas that are most relevant to the London Midland Region.

We will also cover signalling, an area often omitted from layouts, partly due to a lack of understanding as to where to place which signals. We will look at headcodes, too, and the positioning of head and tail lamps on trains.

Finally, we have a chapter that is especially for modellers who wish to focus on an area of the London Midland Region where electrification was used as a means of locomotion.

CHAPTER ONE

THE FORMATION OF THE LONDON MIDLAND REGION

The London Midland Region of British Railways was formed in 1948, with the nationalization of the four privately owned companies that had run most of Britain’s railways since 1923. The LM Region comprised the English and Welsh lines of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). The LMS also operated in Scotland and Northern Ireland but these lines passed to the Scottish Region and Ulster Transport Authority. The LMS, together with the LNER, Southern and an enlarged GWR, had been formed in 1923 following a Government-decreed amalgamation of the companies that had owned and run the railways up to that date.

There were a number of adjustments to regional boundaries over the years. By 1950, LMS lines in south Wales had been transferred to the Western Region while the London Tilbury & Southend line had passed to the Eastern Region. The Eastern Region’s Great Central main line south of Chesterfield was later transferred to the LM Region, and LM Region lines in West Yorkshire passed to the Eastern Region. By the early 1960s, Western Region lines north of Banbury had passed to the LM Region and LM lines west of Barnt Green (Birmingham) had gone to the Western Region.

Initially, the main change was seen in the responsibility for the day-to day operation of these areas; changes to the pattern of train operation came later.

THE INHERITANCE OF THE LM REGION

The general appearance of most British railway lines in 1960 was that of the pre-grouping company that had owned the line until 1923. The railway infrastructure had matured by 1890 and then remained almost unaltered until the 1960s. The locomotives and carriages got bigger but the lines continued to be signalled by semaphore signals worked from signal boxes at each station, and at intermediate points. After 1923, upper quadrant signals began to replace lower quadrant ones, but the pre-grouping image was still dominant, except for a small number of stations and signal boxes that had been reconstructed by the LMS or by the LM Region.

The LMS was formed by the following pre-grouping companies:

LONDON & NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY

The LNWR had been formed in 1846 by the amalgamation of the London & Birmingham, Manchester and Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways. The GJR had previously absorbed the pioneer Liverpool & Manchester Railway, opened in 1830. The LNWR ran the West Coast Main Line from London (Euston) to Carlisle and served the West Midlands, Lancashire and North Wales. The LNWR operated a number of lines on the Welsh border jointly with the Great Western and had numerous branches, extending its influence widely from Peterborough to South Wales.

The LNWR Jacobean-style station building at Bletchley, with overall roof, looking north on 27 July 1963.

Later, stations on the LNWR were cheaply built in timber. This is Dudley Port, looking west on 22 June 1963. Even the platforms are timber and the platform lamps appear still to be gas-lit.

Marshbrook, on the GWR/LNWR Shrewsbury & Hereford Joint line, looking north from a passing test train on 13 May 1987. The station closed in 1957, but the building is still standing on the right, together with the small brick-built LNWR signal box.

Severn Bridge junction signal box at Shrewsbury, photographed on 19 February 2018. Probably the largest mechanical box still in use today, it is an LNWR box, although the adjacent boxes to the south and west are both to GWR designs.

Melton Mowbray station, looking west on 10 August 2017. A feature of many Midland stations was the elegant platform canopy, with hipped ended roofs at right-angles to the track, supported on cast-iron pillars and a brick wall along the rear.

Melton Mowbray station on 10 August 2017, showing the brick wall of the canopy attached to Sancton Wood’s original Syston & Peterborough Railway station building of 1848.

MIDLAND RAILWAY

The Midland was formed in 1844 by the amalgamation of three railways centred on Derby. By 1875, the Midland connected London (St Pancras) with the East Midlands, Manchester, Leeds and Carlisle, together with a line from Birmingham to Bristol. The Midland operated joint lines, with other companies, which brought its trains into Liverpool, Bournemouth, Great Yarmouth and South Wales.

Appleby station on 22 September 1994, a typical 1875 Settle & Carlisle three-gable single-storey building. The decorative pierced bargeboards appeared elsewhere on the Midland.

Harlington station downside building, on 31 May 2005. This is typical of the stations on the Midland’s Bedford–St Pancras line of 1867.

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s Hebden Bridge station, looking west on 21 July 2008. It had recently been restored, much to its LYR appearance.

Wellingborough goods shed on 11 August 1990. It is no longer rail-connected and the later extension is gone, enabling the building to be seen. It is on the Midland’s 1858 Leicester–Hitchin line.

LANCASHIRE & YORKSHIRE RAILWAY

The Lancashire & Yorkshire did just what its name implied, operated mainly east–west services in those counties, while the LNWR and Midland generally ran north–south. The LYR had shipping interests on both west and east coasts, at Fleetwood and Goole. The LYR and LNWR amalgamated prior to the grouping, in 1921.

Hebden Bridge signal box on 21 July 2008. It is a typical LYR box with a timber superstructure on a brick base. The window in the gable end was also used on the Great Central and Wirrall boxes.

Blackpool Central station on 8 September 1962. The main station is on the right, with excursion platforms on the left. It all went shortly after when the line was cut back to Blackpool South.

LMS-built 3F 0-6-0T No. 47635 shunting the goods depot at Bradford Exchange on 18 August 1960. The LYR’s Bradford goods depot is a typical large city goods depot, with paving between the tracks. Visible wagons are all either vans or open merchandise wagons; coal must have been handled elsewhere. It would have looked this way for the previous sixty years.

NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE RAILWAY

The North Staffordshire Railway, based in Stoke on Trent, had a North–South line from Macclesfield to Stafford, which was used by some LNWR Manchester–London trains, together with an east– west line from Derby to Crewe, and numerous branches.

A Class 120 DMU on the 14.30 Derby–Crewe passing the North Staffordshire Railway crossing cottage at Eggington on 18 August 1974.

Tutbury Crossing signal box on 11 August 2017. This was built by signalling contractor McKenzie & Holland in the 1870s for the North Staffordshire Railway, although with the windows much altered. Other NSR boxes on the Derby–Stoke line had timber superstructures with gable ends.

FURNESS AND MARYPORT & CARLISLE RAILWAYS

The Furness railway connected the LNWR and the Midland at Carnforth to Barrow in Furness and then ran north around the Cumbrian coast to Whitehaven. The oldest constituent company of the LMS was the tiny Maryport & Carlisle Railway, formed in 1838 to serve the West Cumberland coalfield. An outlying LNWR line from Whitehaven to Maryport completed the coastal route from Carnforth to Carlisle.

A Class 47 leaving Arnside on the 16.05 Crewe– Barrow on 2 September 1980. The Furness Railway included three estuary crossings in its meander from Carnforth to Whitehaven, including the River Kent at Arnside. Six Mark 1s form a typical train on the secondary Furness Railway route.

The Furness Railway station at Haverthwaite on 28 September 1984.

WIRRALL, MERSEY AND OTHER ABSORBED RAILWAYS

The Wirrall Railway operated suburban services from New Brighton and West Kirby to Seacombe, with a ferry connection to Liverpool, and to the Mersey Railway at Birkenhead. The Mersey Railway ran from Liverpool, under the Mersey, and connected with the Wirrall and with the GWR/LNWR joint line to Chester. After briefly operating with steam traction, the Mersey Railway was electrified in 1903 and retained its independence until 1948. In 1938, the Wirrall lines were electrified and train services integrated with those of the Mersey Railway.

The Wirrall Railway’s Birkenhead North station on 16 April 2003. Until 1937, this would have been the interchange point between Mersey Railway electric trains and LMS (Wirrall) steam trains.

Birkenhead North signal box on 3 August 1993.

In addition, there were a number of small companies, which did not add materially to the overall picture of the LMS or LMR.

DECLINE AND BELATED RENAISSANCE

All these railways operated numerous branch lines, some of which were built by the railway companies, while others were promoted by towns that had not been rail-served. The aim was to reap the benefits of reduced transport costs for the town, rather than for the branch line itself to be a money earner. These lines were generally worked by, and later taken over by, the larger company to which they connected. The structures on such lines were frequently not built to the standard railway company designs.

With the development of mechanized road transport in the early twentieth century, cheaper alternative transport became available. Closure of branch lines had already started before the end of the First World War and more occurred in the 1930s. Closures of branch lines and intermediate stations on through lines began to accelerate during the 1950s and became rampant in the 1960s, following the recommendations of the British Railways Board report ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’, in 1963. Up to that date, British Railways had been under a statuary requirement to operate within its income but, during the 1970s, the need for state support of ‘socially necessary’ railway services was accepted. Population movement and road congestion have recently led to the reopening of some stations and lines, but most of these have occurred since the disappearance of the Regions.

LMS signal box at Melton Mowbray on 10 August 2017. LMS timber boxes were an amalgam of LNWR and Midland styles. This one displays a feature that should be useful to modellers who are short of width. The lever floor is carried forward over the track to the end loading dock.

The old railway companies, both pre- and post-1923, were responsible not only for running the trains but also for the acquisition and maintenance of their infrastructure, locomotives and rolling stock, together with ancillary services such as road cartage, steamship services and hotels. The Regions of British Railways continued to manage all these functions. The old railway companies had also owned canals and had invested in many of the larger regional bus companies, but these were transferred to other subsidiaries of the British Transport Commission in 1948.

In 1986, the British Railways Board set up new business sectors to run its passenger and freight services, which would be responsible for their own infrastructure, traction and rolling stock. The three passenger sectors were InterCity, to run the long-distance trunk services, Network South East, to run suburban services out of London, and Regional Railways, to run the rest of the passenger services.

Freight sectors included Freightliner, Trainload Freight and Parcels. The business sectors took responsibility for train services in 1986 but it took about two years to set up the organizations needed for them to control their own infrastructure and rolling stock. It was therefore late 1988 before the LM Region finally disappeared. The ancillary services – cartage, shipping, hotels, and so on – all passed out of railway ownership and control.

Manchester Oxford Road station on 1 April 1989. When a new station was required for terminating trains from Altrincham in 1960, the location of the station on an embankment precluded anything heavy, so this laminated timber roof was put up.

Uttoxeter signal box on 11 August 2017. Uttoxeter had been a major junction on the North Staffordshire railway but, by the 1960s, had been reduced to just a double track line with two refuge loops. The existing signal boxes were replaced by a new box to the current LM Region design.

THE CORPORATE IMAGE 1: BRITISH RAILWAYS