Sunday, January 26, 2014

Jack-In-The-Box

In my previous post I gave you some idea of the theme of my next layout; a 4mm to the foot model (OO9 gauge) of a narrow gauge industrial railway. I also showed you two kits I'd like to build to provide locomotives for the layout and given that one of these was for a Quarry Hunslet you could be forgiven for assuming I was going to go for the classic Welsh slate industry layout. You would, however, have been wrong.

The Quarry Hunslet classes of locomotives got their name because they were built by the Hunslet Engine Company and could usually be found working in a quarry, often a Welsh slate quarry. While there is nothing wrong with modelling a Welsh slate quarry I decided I'd go for something closer to home and look for some form of Yorkshire industrial setting given that the engines were all built in Leeds.

I'm not sure if there is a sensible prototype from the late 19th century, but there is a modern prototype I'm going to use for inspiration. The Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, which is only 2.5 miles from where the Hunslet Engine Company used to be, includes a narrow gauge railway on which a Quarry Hunslet called Jack runs. It's been a long time since I've been to the museum but fortunately Reinhold Behringer has been more recently and posted this excellent photo on Flickr.


Unfortunately the narrow gauge line was only ever built to exhibit the museums locomotives and wasn't present when the mill was a working woollen mill. As such the track plan isn't particularly interesting, as you can see from this plan I've put together from some 1990 Ordinance Survey maps and a satellite image from Google Maps.


I've had a look at other works where I know there used to be old railway tracks but so far the lines don't seem to show up on the old OS maps so I'm struggling to find a nice example track plan. Mind you given the space constraints (remember the complete layout can be no larger than 1135mm by 232mm) a single line through some mill buildings may be enough. Given the problems I had deciding on the track plan for Jerusalem I know it's worth taking my time to get it right, and that sometimes less is more, so I'll keep thinking about the track plan while I start building the rolling stock.

I mentioned in the previous post that the layout could support different time periods based on the locomotives and other detailing items; I'm currently thinking that there are at least three obvious periods I can model; two with the mill in use (one steam and one diesel) and then a modern day museum setting (just like Armley Mills) where I can run anything I want. I think this should give me lots of flexibility and allow me to build almost anything I want to.

One other thing I need though is a name for the layout, and here I'm hoping for some help. My current thoughts are around doing something related to the fact that it is being built to fit a specific box. So my ideas so far revolve around things like like "77 Box Lane" or "Box Street Mill". Any ideas are more than welcome.

11 comments:

  1. I'm afraid I'm not really an ideas man but I rather prefer Lane to Street: Box Lane Mill or your 77 Box Lane sound good to me.

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    1. It's weird, I think I prefer Lane as well, although I can't get Box Lane Mill to roll off my tongue in quite the same way as Box Street Mill.

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  2. Oh I forgot to say that I'm really looking forward to a new 'adventure'.

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  3. I can see why you were captivated by that setting...lovely. Very "Railway Bylines" ! I am of course very upset that you haven't gone for a slate quarry ;-)....no, this is something different and I am looking forward to what you come up with...great!

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    1. I have to admit I was really tempted by a slate quarry, but 1) it's a bit of a trek for me to do any location research and b) I'm not sure I could manage to model slate as well as you can.

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    2. Yes, it's difficult modelling something from a long way away, I agree - although I am sure you could do a superb job of a slate quarry :-) Thank you for the compliment, though! I think your industrial complex sounds a great idea, especially with all the cramped spaces and junk lying about.

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  4. I'm tending to think in terms of a rural industry. Foyers dock to the smelter and back to Foyers dock. I can find little about it but it is set in impressive scenery.
    A brick works is also very compact. There are several old examples in the North East.

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    1. I did wonder about something along the lines of an estate railway which would have given an interesting mix of rural and industrial, but the very limited depth of the model lends itself, I think, to a claustrophobic factory setting. Mind you I still haven't finalized a track plan yet so things might evolve.

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  5. There is always the Guinness option. Brian Clarke used to do some little pamphlets on lines like the Brede Waterworks as well. Around here we had the cement railways with their geologically named Pecketts, which I think give the quarry Hunslets a run for their money. I think a quarry type Hunslet did find its way to this area. We live on a brownfield site that was originally the Bluemels Celluloid factory. It never had a railway but looked like it should have done http://mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk/bluemels.htm http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw021000?search=wolston&ref=1 Incidentally the Britain from above website is a gem.

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    1. The Brede Waterworks looks like a good track plan given the limited space I have, so it's going on the pile of possibilities, thanks!

      I must admit I wish the brownfield site I live on had had a narrow gauge line as I would definitely have based my layout on it. Mind you as you can see from this photo it had plenty of track running through it! Unfortunately there is hardly any remains of the industrial lines left, just the single track main line and the remains of a turntable.

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    2. I'm wondering if you carried on with the idea of basing a new layout on Armley Mill. I'm the (fairly recently appointed)Curator of Industrial History here, and would love to see a model based on the museum being built. If there is anything I can help with at all, please let me know.

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