RITES OF PASSAGE FOR A MODEL RAILWAY - 1: Research your area (On track for the North Eastern in Yorkshire)

We're entering the realms of imagination, observation, periodic consternation... and a bit of swearing when things turn awkward. There are all sorts of reasons why problems arise, usually they begin with your truly in this house. Lack of time for one thing, and a desire to produce scale replicas. Still, it all ends in smiles.

Let's take a look at what we've got. What about this selection I've made,of models entered into competitions in different categories from modified ready-to-run to completely scratch-built scenic items (see right) I'll explain each in turn:

[Competition can be fierce at the annual general meeting of the Double-O Gauge Association (DOGA) at Keen House - the HQ of The Model Railway Club off the Pentonville Road in London N1. We have a number of people who regularly contribute to periodicals such as Hornby Magazine, others who exhibit at shows. Some of my own models have been shown in local shows on the DOGA stand, and I've contributed articles for the association's magazine].

Each of these locomotives is 'fitted' with wire-wound vacuum pipes, 'Jackson' screw couplings, and furnished with a hand-painted white metal crew. Real coal was added to the tenders using white PVA glue that dries clear. The nameplates for 'The Garth' are blackened etched brass from the Eames range (shows how long ago this conversion was made).

Great care is needed for handling 'The Garth', as the nameplates are attached with superglue and that tends to get brittle over the years. If not touched they stay in position, but I wouldn't fancy having to look for one small nameplate on that cellar floor!

I have a fair number of locomotives in the fleet, representing several sheds in the varousTeesside, Darlington and York sheds and some from outside the area, such as 62721 'Warwickshire' as well as a small number of ex-LMS and War Department engines that were out-shedded or allocated to this area.

The layout itself features one small town station, THORALDBY, and a halt, AYTON ROW. THORALDBY has a coal depot, level crossing, cattle dock/tank dock* as well as a goods depot. Behind the station is an army camp with Nissen huts behind a mesh wire fence. There are military and civil defence Land Rovers, and a milk float parked outside one of the huts. (Anybody who saw the film 'Carry on Spying' may remember the 'Milchmann' secret agent the spy team led by Kenneth Williams followed to Vienna and then Marrakesh , I have no Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Cribbins or Charles Hawtrey figures on the layout yet, but I might be working on it... watch this space). Further along the line is a defunct mineral line junction. A tunnel mouth to the left of the junction shows the reason for the line closure: a tunnel cave-in. Next, to the right a stone loader siding 'still in use', with working stone loaders (one of which has been abandoned due to the length of trains needed for traffic and a new one installed). The period modelled is post-Nationalisation up to Coronation Year (1953) when there were still locomotives and passenger and revenue-earning freight vehicles running in pre-Nationalisation livery.

I have several goods, mineral, passenger and mixed traffic locomotives that I take out of their boxes from time to time to give them a run. Passenger tender locomotives are ex-LNER early British Railways liveried 6700 'Yorkshire' and 62721 'Watrwickshire' of D49/1 'Shire' class and 62764 'The Garth' of D49/2 'Hunt' class. 'The Garth' was a Scarborough-(50E) allocated engine during the early 50's, whilst 'Yorkshire' was allocated to Hull Botanic Gardens (53B) and neither saw re-allocation by the late 50's, possibly left on the scrap sidings either at Drapers of Hull or near North Road, Darlington . 'Warwickshire' was out of area, so I can't tell what happened to her. Then there is a solitary Class J21 0-6-0 65033 of Darlington, a veteran of NER vintage that also didn't see out the 50's There are several passenger tank locos, going through the alphabet in the classes: Class A8 4-6-2T 69885 of Scarborough still bears LNER on its tanks in pre-war yellow-shaded lettering (there were a number of engines running with dual identities that seemed to escape the paint shed in order to fill a busy summer timetable). Class V3 2-6-2T 67686 of 51D Middlesbrough in BR livery and can be seen at odd times subbing for a shed-mate, but the usual destination is around Teesside (Darlington-Saltburn) or via Stockton-on-Tees and Sunderland to Newcastle on Tyne. Thompson L1 2-6-4T 67742 of Darlington (51A) is a relative newcomer and is pressed into service when 69885, 67261, 65033, 62700 or 62764 are either elsewhere or at Darlington for servicing. Mixed traffic locomotives can be either pressed into service for freight or passenger duties. B1 4-6-0 Class 61069 and 61339 of Leeds Neville Hill (50B) can be seen plodding through with fully fitted or mixed goods, or even the odd passenger working from Leeds for the North East. A trio of J39 0-6-0's in early BR livery hail from different sheds, 64710 of Darlington and 64857 of Starbeck (50D) are still in late LNER livery. 64821 of Middlesbrough has been in for overhaul and has been outshopped in BR livery, but looks a bit careworn already.There are several loco's ear-marked for heavy duties such as Q6 0-8-0 3409 of Middlesbrough, another still in her late-LNE guise, somehow dodging overhaul and paintshop at Darlington, as is WD 2-8-0 still numbered 3029 as she would have been bought from the Ministry of Supply by the LNER in 1946/47. Bought with 3029 are the two J94 0-6-0 Saddle tank engines 68010 of Blaydon (52C) and 68052. 68010 is sent alternatively with 68052 to bring the stone wagons from the Derwent stone loader at Thoraldby. There are a couple of shed wallflowers that hang around at the local sub-shed, Ayton Banks, J72 0-6-0T 68689, also oddly with part of its pre-war identity, the 'NE' in yellow-shaded letters, and the seemingly forgotten Sentinel 'coffee pot', Y3 0-4-0 with pre-war lettering but post-war number 8159. Northallerton's 8159 should be hard at work in a yard somehere but that seems to have dried up for the moment. Then there are the 'foreigners': 43054 is Leeds Neville Hill's ex-LMS Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0, on loan from one of the West Riding MR sheds; Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0, a 'Mickey Mouse' of the LNER Kirkby Stephen shed (there was also an MR shed). York's V2 2-6-2 864 has still not been in the paint shop, constantly in service. Her forte is also heavy freight, and fully fitted parcels workings between Teesside goods depots and the growing mail order hubs of Bradford and Liverpool. K3 2-6-0 61867 of Mexborough Shed (ex-GC) was recently outshopped from the paint depot at Gorton, although you wouldn't know it. She's in demand bringing industrial or household coal from the South Yorkshire districts in fast wearing-out wood-built former private owner wagons and the new BR 16-tonners. Midland Region Horwich Mogul 2-6-0 'Crab' 42942 is earmarked for whatever her shedmaster can dream up for her, not least of which is the transport of Teesside steel products for the West Riding to replace its bombed-out civil engineering infrastructure.

Before deciding on a name for my layout I began fishing around for a name. I didn't want a made-up name firstly because it had to really fit in the area 'organically' (some made-up names don't make sense). Secondly each location's name is 'tailor-made', probably goes back a thousand years. There is a lot of choice. Whichever region your model is meant to represent, you can button-hole a location, make it come alive in a new dimension like a parallel world.

There is a place called Thoraldby in Yorkshire, but it's not in a location that would qualify it to come under the auspices of the North Eastern Railway.

There were five rivals across the three ridings. The Great Central ran from Manchester into Yorkshire around Sheffield, across to Lincolnshire by way of Retford in Nottinghamshire and south from Sheffield to Nottingham. They took a large slice of passenger traffic, including the Hook Continental, the boat train from Manchester Victoria via Sheffield Victoria to Doncaster and down to Harwich in Essex. There was also coal traffic from around the coalfields over Woodhead to Manchester. The Great Northern ran south from Doncaster to London, and north-west from Doncaster to Leeds with a big slice of the coal, passenger and goods market. In the east we had the Hull, Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway which later became just the Hull & Barnsley Railway, which didn't even reach Barnsley. It stopped at Cudworth, some miles north-east of Barnsley. From Cudworth the line ran to the north bank of the Humber around Goole and east outwards to Kingston upon Hull, widely known simply as Hull. Their claim to fame was the shipment of coal from the southernmost West Riding pits to the docks at Hull. Additionally, goods and passenger traffic augmented their earnings around the Yorkshire Wolds. The H&B was built to break the monopoly of the North Eastern, but was absorbed by the North Eastern before 'Grouping' in 1922. There was also the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, which as the name suggests came across the Pennines, into Leeds. Their function was mainly in the commuter market between the big cities of the West Riding to the big cities of East Lancashire, skirting Liverpool to the seaside town of Blackpool. Last but not least the Midland Railway ran from Derby to Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Skipton and on to Settle and beyond Yorkshire to Carlisle. So in Yorkshire the Northeastern's biggest rival was effectively the Midland. After 1923 the Midland and Lancashire & Yorkshire became part of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. The Great Central and Great Northern joined the North Eastern as part of the London & North Eastern Railway.

There are several duplicated place names in Yorkshire. Even within the North Riding area there are two Melmerbys, four Aytons, two Aislabys (and another just across the Tees between Yarm and Darlington), three Normanbys, two Martons and two Marskes. There is a Burton Constable and a Constable Burton. There are several pointers, such as the additions of 'Great', 'Little', 'West', East' and 'High' before some of the duplications, so why not another Thoraldby? (A subtle difference here, there is a Thoralby, but the origins would have been the same).

The Thoraldby I have 'dreamed up' is located on the outer western edge of industrial Teesside, with traffic beginning on Teesside bound for places south and west in other regions beyond the north. This traffic is in steel plate, girders, pipe- or duct-units. In the pre-fabricted market there were companies who produced welded and machined finished goods from the basic steel stock supplied by the Cargo Fleet, Dorman Long, Lackenby and Skinningrove steel plants that ranged along the Tees and down the coast between the east of Middlesbrough and East Cleveland. There are also industrial or household bricks. Inward comes ironstone and limestone (some from the loader just beyond the station) from within the area, coal from the North and West Ridings and County Durham - although the latter wouldn't come through Thoraldby. Bricks and concrete piping also come inward. Some cattle and farm supplies are imported from outside the region in wagons bearing 'foreign' indentities (London Midland/Midland region, Great Western/ Western Region and Southern Rly/Region). There was then a plethora of goods and freight that British Railways as the 'common carrier' was obligated to carry for customers who had less than half a wagon-load on a regular basis to who train-loads of specialist loads such as cement and plate steel for post-war re-construction, bridge- or ship-building.

And then there are the passengers. Close by the station is an army camp, witnessed by military personnel on the plarform. There is also the odd MP to check on men going AWOL, and an army nurse can be seen striding along the platform back towards the exit with an escort of soldiers. Troop trains (Korea was the bugbear in the early 50's) come and go in the form of 1930's built Gresley side corridor stock or non-corridor stock (imagine having to wait until reaching York or Doncaster before going to the WC on your way south for embarkation to fight in Korea!) Local passenger or semi-fast workings take the form of non-corridor stock dating back to late North Eastern or as recent as Thompson suburban stock.

Northallerton is not far off, and on market days (Wednesdays and Saturdays) produce is taken in wagons or in the brake compartment of local passenger trains. Cattle or sheep are ferried about to agricultural shows during the summer season, and there is evidence in the fields to either side of the line of the type of livestock, Swaledale sheep, Black Angus beef cattle or regional varieties of dairy stock (the influx of Friesians came after the outbreak of foot & mouth in the earlier 1960's). Other markets in the area were (still are) Thirsk Stokesley, Yarm and Guisborough in either direction and on different days.

On a regular basis a pick-up goods train headed by a Gresley J39 0-6-0 tender loco brings coal wagons for Thoraldby's depot and collects empties. There might also be wagons for the cattle dock/drive-off ramp, or for the goods depot, so a fair bit of shunting is called for. The short 'calling-on' signals are 'pulled off', crossing gates closed and opened, and this has all to be done before the next passenger or freight train rolls in. The main running line signals are then pulled off throughout the section for through traffic before the pick-up's progress to the next station sidings.

Ideas to toy with - a pedigree for your model, provenance for your branch line:

The earliest railway built in the region was the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) in 1825 by George Stephenson to link the Pease family-owned coal pits near Shildon in County Durham to coal staiths at Stockton on Tees. Because of upriver silting (see the hub 'Follow the Tees Upriver'), an extension was laid in from near Eaglescliffe via Thornaby to Port Darlington (later renamed Newport because of objections from Stockton dignitaries). Burgeoning iron works at Middlesbrough brought a new influx of railway building in the form of the Cleveland Railway (owned by the West Hartlepool Dock & Railway - WHD&R) on the south bank of the Tees east of Middlesbrough. The Cleveland Railway was to bring ironstone to the river to forward on to mills in County Durham. Due to opposition from the S&DR a small war broke out following which the Cleveland Railway Bill was passed to the chagrin of the S&DR. However, the Cleveland Railway was not long lived, its existence by-passed by transport of the ironstone in-by through Eston mines and down to the Bolckow Vaughan works at Grangetown. (See the hub "Walk the Moor"). The North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway (NY&CR) was built at the western edge of Cleveland from Picton to Ingleby to take ironstone from Ingleby to Teesside via Stockton. A new line from Nunthorpe Junction via Ayton threatened this line's existence by taking the ironstone from Rosedale Mines via Great Ayton direct into Middlesbrough. Things were hotting up around the river Tees, and Middlesbrough became a sort of Klondike district with iron works sprouting up along the Tees. The S&DR had been extended east towards Redcar, the original station was by-passed by a new line to Saltburn and converted to a goods depot. The Leeds & Thirsk Railway meanwhile upgraded, renamed the Leeds Northern they took their line to Northallerton via Melmerby from Ripon, then under the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway (YN&BR) to Eaglescliffe and on via Sunderland to Newcastle. The part we're interested in is what happens between Northallerton and Yarm. As already mentioned the NY&CR had built a line from Picton - originally to Whorlton and Swainby - to Ingleby, linked with the Leeds Northern for the downhill run into Teesside. In 1854 the Leeds Northern joined with the YN&BR and York & North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) to become the North Eastern Railway (NER). In charge of this new railway company was a gentleman after whom the road past the York North shed was named, George Leeman, a stern rival and detractor of George Hudson - the former MP for Whitby and Sunderland and Chairman of the Y&NMR, who was brought down by 'unconventional accounting methods' and fled to the continent, returning to a short prison sentence and ruin. He was buried in the church yard at Scrayingham (north-east of Stamford Bridge, between the A64 and A166) in North Yorkshire. There were few friends at his funeral.

Think of the possibilities of modelling the S&DR or one of its contemporaries:

The first committee report was presented at the King's Head, Darlington on 17th January, 1812. Oringinally a canal had been thought of for the movement of coal from central County Durham to the Tees at Stockton. George Stephenson had persuaded the coal owners, chiefly the Pease family, to invest in a railway instead. The S&DR would not be the first railway, but the first public railway. Other railways had opened centuries earlier using horsedrawn wagons or static steam engines for inclined planes, and Richard Trevithick had already put a steam locomotive on rails in Cornwall for the tin mines - having first experimented with a steam road engine - and George Stephenson had subsequently ventured into steam-hauled coal traffic in his native Northum-berland. There were other private ventures such as the Surrey Iron Railway that terminated at the riverside in Wandsworth, (now south-west London) and coal mines had introduced horse-drawn operations in the Midlands. Wagonways had even been in existence since Roman times in Britain at mining centres up and down the land.

John Wall's book, FIRST IN THE WORLD was first published by Sutton Publishing in 2001, ISBN 0-7509-2729-1 @ £19.99, and contains many first class images, including contemporary portraits of George and Robert Stephenson, Richard Trevithick and George Hudson, 'the Railway King' whose company the York & North Midland Railway later merged with the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway and Leeds Northern Railway in 1854 . There are diagrams of the S&DR's route from Shildon to Stockton as well as railway vehicles and photographs of locations no longer accessible or in existence. A diagram of the future Middlesbrough development can be seen on page 118, originally Port Darlington and then Newport, the Middlesbrough estate expanded in the second half of the 19th Century, southward from the ironmasters district...

See also the hub FOLLOW THE TEES UPRIVER

Next: Making up your mind and getting started

There are many books available on many regions, covering the different development stages of local lines since closed and lifted. You have a vast choice of branch lines, and amongst my own sources are:

ON NORTH EASTERN LINES by Derek Huntriss, publ. Ian Allen 1998, ISBN 0-7110-2543-6, detailed colour photographs featuring locomotives and locations between York and north Northumberland;

THE WENSLEYDALE RAILWAY by Christine Hallas, publ. Great Northern Books 2002, ISBN 0-9539740-7-3 - there is a sister volume by the same author, published 2004 also by Great Northern ISBN 0-9544002-8-3, black & white period and modern images with maps and facsimiles, personal accounts and architecture. Covers are different, content in these third and fourth editions is updated;

BRITISH RAILWAYS PAST AND PRESENT - 25 East Yorkshire by Roger Hill and Carey Vessey, publ. Past & Present Publishing Ltd 1995, ISBN 1 85895-079-1 - maps, images in colour and black & white comparing sites now and in different eras (other areas covered in the series: Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and West Hertfordshire, London, Paignton & Dartmouth Railway);

LOST LINES - NORTH EASTERN by Nigel Welbourn, publ. Ian Allen 1997, ISBN 0-7110-2522-3 - again maps and black & white images from different eras (the series includes Eastern, Southern and LMR areas);

RAILWAYS AROUND WHITBY Vol 1 by Martin Bairstow, publ. Martin Bairstow 1998, printed by Amadeus Press ISBN 1-871944-17-1, a general map of the Scarborough-Pickering-Whitby area on page 16 with sections covering different branches, black & white images, track diagrams of some stations, views of signalling, stations, junctions at different times. There's a grand colour view of WD 2-10-0 90775 storming the bank into Goathland Station - Heartbeat location! - past the catch points at the Grosmont end on the front cover, on the back are two further colour images (top is a long shot of Larpool Viaduct from the bend east of Ruswarp, bottom is K4 2-6-0 3442 The Great Marquess heading a train for Pickering out of Goathland just south of the water tower and over the Murk Esk.

I hope this has whetted your appetite for further literature. For a full list of books e-mail me or leave a request in the comments box