High Torre Junction |
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History. Around 1740 a Waggon Way was constructed to transport Sheep Stone from the now exhausted quarry at Torre to the River Derwent, using horses for the motive power. Eventually, under the auspices of the North Eastern Railway, a branch line was laid from Torre, which was also used for the shipment of agricultural produce. In the 1920’s the North Eastern Railway became part of the London North Eastern Railway and, in order to improve cross-country links, bearing in mind the increase in the population of the immediate area, it was decided to convert the single line terminus into a double tracked through station. To achieve this a tunnel had to bored beneath High Tor once agreement had been reached with the Midland Railway, which already had a by-pass line under High Tor, but with no station facilities. This agreement allowed for the removal of spoil etc. prior to the NER laying its own tracks. Whilst work was in progress the MR also negotiated to relay part of its route to provide a junction at the station the NER was about to build. As a steeply graded and poorly finished road was the only passable route for carts to travel over the Tor, and remains so, the owners of the few vehicles that traversed the route did not have enough impact upon the ‘powers that be’ to improve the surface. The advent of the joint junction station meant that the transport of goods, livestock and passengers would be transformed. The new station was named High Torre Junction. In the late 1800’s a shrewd businessman, Harry Goldman, had seized an opportunity to purchase the disused quarry and proceeded to build a mill there. Initially his products were sold in the reasonably local trading areas but, having access to both a local workforce and, eventually, good transport links, his business has now achieved country wide recognition. The factory now has private sidings to cope with the incoming raw materials of clay, coal etc. and for the delivery of finished pottery items to a widespread network of wholesalers. Layout Operation. Torre is a fictitious location close to the Yorkshire/Derbyshire border with the River Derwent nearby. The station was built by the North Eastern Railway, now LNER, with visiting rights for the London Midland and Scottish Railway. Trains run in the period mid 40’s to mid 50’s which allows for a variety of liveries given thatthe formation of British Railways in 1948 did not mean that there was an overnight change of livery for all vehicles. The Potteries Pullman passes through each weekday, other express trains may contain teak bodied coaches. Coal trains are usually headed by a 2-8-0 tender loco whilst van trains, the through goods, the pick-up goods and the occasional mixed train (to reduce line occupancy in peak periods) have relevant motive power at their head. LMS trains are less frequent than a few years ago but both passenger and goods still use the station. Sometimes the LMS uses this route as a relief road to the more western routes of its system. As Goldman’s have their own sidings a shunting loco is available to work the goods yard, sorting and delivering the inbound clay wagons and empty vans before assembling the outgoing empty clays and loaded vans ready for collection. The observant watcher will notice an infrequent military train as the MoD transfers men and equipment from base to base. Baseboards. The 13’ 6” x 3’ baseboard comprises three sections each measuring 4’ 6” x 3’, have alignment dowels inset to the joining edges so that when bolted together the risk of derailment at these points is greatly reduced. A 3” x 1” planed softwood framework supports a top of 6mm ply covered with 1/8th sheet cork onto which a 6” grid was drawn to ease the transfer of the track positions from the scale plan. The layout stands at 3’ high supported by 2” x 1” planed softwood braced leg frames that are permanently attached to the baseboard. These frames swing up inside the baseboard for transportation and storage. Butt joints were used to construct the boards and leg frames, each joint being reinforced with screws and glue. This method of construction has enabled the weight to be kept down so that each section is manageable by one person and all three sections can be fitted into a mid-sized estate car. Trackwork and Electrics. The track is Code80 Peco with the exception of the double slip which is Code55, this to give correct alignment of the double track junction where the two lines from the south diverge into the LNER and LMSR routes. Curves are as generous as possible apart from the sharper radii needed at both ends of the board, these latter have been disguised as much as was seen fit. Track was laid according to the scaled plan using the previously mentioned grid markings and adjusted where necessary to give a smooth alignment. It was then pinned to the baseboard and, when the electrics had been installed and checked, ballast was sprinkled on and secured with dilute PVA glue. Points on the scenic side of the layout are operated by SEEP electric motors, and those in the 8-track fiddleyard are hand operated. Electromagnetic uncouplers, supplied by DG Couplings, have been installed where required. The wiring has been kept as simple as possible and, as installation took place, electrical routes have been both colour and number coded with connections being recorded in the ‘layout bible’. Hopefully fault finding – and curing – will be made easier because of this. There are three independent circuits for the up and down mainlines and the goods yard/mill sidings. We have used Kent Panel controllers, in addition to their plugs for connecting the boards to each other and the control panel. Point motors are operated by passing contact switches and the uncouplers by ‘push for on’ switches, again supplied by KPC. Scenery. The most dominant building on the layout is the mill, which has been assembled from an old Metcalfe kit, with some additions; the remainder of the buildings are from the excellent castings range of SD Mouldings. Trees are from Heki and for the scenic cover we used Woodland Scenics Scatter Materials. The Tor was constructed on a base of wooden formers overlaid with a woven mat of cardboard strips (cut up cereal packets) tacked and glued into place before being covered with pieces of kitchen roll that were then soaked through with diluted PVA. When dry, Polyfilla was applied with a spatula with little attempt to achieve a smooth surface. A variety of paints were then brushed onto the rough surface, after it had dried, prior to the application of the scatter materials. Hedges, shrubs etc. have been made from cut up green scouring pad which was then dipped into a dilute PVA solution before being dusted with scatter material. Rolling Stock. Motive power for the layout was a potential headache as, of the locos required for the LNER routes, only the Bachman/Farish J94 was available off the shelf in model shops. However, to our relief we saw an advert for a company on the Isle of Man called Union Mills who, when contacted, were able to provide us with most of our requirements. To date we have a B12, Q2, J25, J26, 4P (LMS) and 2 J39’s. Other locos are a combination of parts, namely B1 (Langley body, Farish chassis, Union Mills drive unit), 2 Claude Hamiltons (BH Enterprise body, Farish chassis, Union Mills tender/drive unit) and a Drewry diesel (Langley body, Minitrix motor chassis). The coaches have been purchased second-hand and goods vehicles are made from Peco kits. New bogies have been fitted to the coaches and all stock is fitted with DG couplings. All the stock is privately owned. |