Castle Ashby 1930 (ex-Midland)

[jschybalski]

I've submitted my Jubilee Challenge Entry and here is a brief synopsis of my new layout. It was originally conceived during last year's Scaleforum when Mark Tatlow announced the challenge and I realised at the time that I was never going to complete a mega-sixed mainline layout, especially while I am still working. At least with the challenge layout restrictions, I have a fighting chance of building a layout and getting it operational within a reasonable timescale.

Castle Ashby is an imagined LMS ex-Midland branch line in Northamptonshire as it would have been in the summer of 1930. In the imagined scenario, the owners of Castle Ashby House could see the benefit of having a railway branch line into their estate and quite a thriving little town developed around the station. In reality this did not happen and the village that exists today comprises some red brick built workers' cottages and a few farm buildings which have been repurposed. There's also a pub which is a popular wedding venue. My layout does not try to 'build up' this pretty village but just borrows the name and location.

On the layout, the station is served by a single track line from Irchester Junction on the Midland Main Line. The line is worked as a single line using absolute block with key token and semaphore signalling. Within the constraints of the challenge, it will not be possible to model much of the signalling other than a few shunt signals and the station platform starter. I will be expanding the layout later on to include another section of the line with a private siding and this expansion will include the inner home signal and the section signal for the line to Irchester Junction. There is now way I would model out as far as the outer home signal, which would be a quarter of a mile from the bridge at the right hand end of the challenge layout. The bridge is the clearing point for the section so the signalman can 'knock out' following an arriving train once he has been able to see the tail lamp to show that the train is complete.

The station buildings and surrounding area will reflect typical Northamptonshire architecture, with a mixture of local ironstone buildings and red brick buildings. The brick buildings will be representative of buildings that would have existed in 1930 and will all be suitably bonded solid brick walls. The station buildings will be borrowed from other local sites so the station building will be a copy of the one that used to be at the Midland Railway station in Higham Ferrers, the goods shed will be a cut down version of the shed at Wellingborough although stone rather than red brick, the weighbridge office will also be modelled on the one that (just about) stands at Wellingborough, and so on. The road bridge will be red brick - as was the one at Highham Ferrers. This intermixing of stone and old brick buildings can be seen in many places in Northamptonshire to this day.

The track plan has been developed using Templot. The scenic portion will be 9ft x 2ft 1in which just fits within the 18.83 sq ft limit. The fiddle yard off scene will be a traverser, which is 4ft 6ins long. I will be adding photos and other details as and when the build gets under way.

[Mark Tatlow]

Look forward to seeing this unfold as you can't have too many LMS layouts!!

[Noel]

Castle Ashby is an imagined LMS ex-Midland branch line

There is no signal box shown on the drawing; I would have expected it to be on the station side of the bridge, if only for reasons of visibility. I don't know the area, but I assume from the way you describe the line that it's quite short, with no stations apart from the junction and terminus, plus an intermediate siding? If so, I would have expected it to be worked one engine in steam, so no signalling necessary at all, just a single staff issued from the junction box, with a key attached to operate the intermediate siding. The daily goods train would just operate in a gap in the passenger service. Much cheaper for the MR not to spend money on provision and maintenance of a token system, block system and lots of signals unless absolutely necessary...

In general, single lines operated by electric staff, token or tablet were longer cross-country examples, with a service involving multiple trains. For this situation, if tablet operated, any second loco at the station would most likely be locked in the loop or a siding before an arriving train was ever accepted from the junction. You only need an outer home if the loco in the station is or may be moving, but, if so, it can't go beyond the inner home or it fouls the clearing point of the outer home. Even if you put the outer home further out, you still face the possibility of two locos moving towards each other on a single line, with the risk of a driver making a disastrous mistake.

The bridge is the clearing point for the section so the signalman can 'knock out' following an arriving train once he has been able to see the tail lamp to show that the train is complete.

The 2-1 can only be given, on the token machine, when the token is placed in it after surrender by the driver.

[PeteT]

Sounds a bit like the Barnoldswick branch operationally. That was nominally 1 engine in steam, but often a passenger train was double headed and the goods engine locked in at Barnoldswick to shunt while the passenger returned to the junction.

https://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=14566

http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/barnol ... ndex.shtml

[jschybalski]

I realised after posting that I had not put the signal box onto the drawing. It would be at the right hand of the layout just before the bridge. That way the signalman would be able to see when the train had passed the clearing point and was therefore clear of section. I had envisaged working it as we do for the section between Rothley and Leicester North on the Great Central, which is something that I am well acquainted with.

The private siding is part of the overall station layout but I don't have sufficient room to model it within the constraints of the competition. Access to the siding would be worked by a release given by the signal box. Eventually the layout will be controlled by a lever frame with interlocking but I doubt very much if I will have time to do this within the timescale given the large number of buildings and items of rolling stock that will need to be constructed.