A PAGE FOR MODELLERS SEEKING A SOLUTION TO THE
PROTYPICAL APPEARANCE OF MODELS AND LAYOUTS
If a space-traveller from a far-distant galaxy was to land in one of Britain's major cities, he or she - or it - would have great difficulty working out which part of the country they were in. Nowadays, modern architecture no longer reflects the region's origins because many once-proud Victorian buildings have been mindlessly razed to the ground. As a result, British cities have lost their individual features and become identikit replicas of each other. For example, our High Streets are bereft of independent retailers which leaves shoppers with the same chain stores selling the same brands as they do everywhere else.
The same can be said of our railways. The BRB's drive towards uniformity in the Sixties took place on a massive scale and scarcely anything remains of the old days, especially pre-grouping days (pre-1923). We cannot stop progress from happening, of course, but all too often our railway infrastructure, much of it built by the former 'Big Four' railways companies, has been replaced by soulless concrete and glass structures, which, in all fairness, are light, airy and clean - but that's not the point. Quite simply, today's property developers seem to live in a world with little or no sense of history. I'm mindful of Euston's historic Doric Arch and Wembley's twin towers...
So what has this to do with railway modelling? Well, it is not easy to research a project which no longer exists therefore railway modellers must rely on a good quality photograph from the old days in order to achieve accurate prototypical appearances of layouts. The same goes for the railway artist seeking to paint accurate detail of wheels and motion beneath a locomotive's running plate.
So why not produce a webpage showing close-up detail of both steam and diesel locomotives along with shots of the railway infrastructure from yesteryear? John Black from Cambridge was interested in the Pilot Scheme Diesel page; in particular the fitting of brackets to the lamp irons of ER's allocation of diesels to allow a named train headboard to be carried. A close-up of the nose-end ladder on an early EE Co Type 4 (featured on the 'Train Spotters' page 4) is included below..if you have any requests or wish to add something of your own then I'll gladly paste something on this page. Just drop me a line...
CONTACT ADDRESS: dheycollection@ntlworld.com
Polite notice...all photographs are protected by copyright.Reproduction prohibited.
(Below) Four shots of Holbeck shed Leeds... the view from Nineveh Road overlooking the shed yard was a popular venue for weekend spotters in steam days. The shed (20A) came under the auspices of the North Eastern Region in 1957 and was subsequently re-coded 55A, along with its sub-depots bearing suffixes B-G in the regional reshuffle. Here, Class 8F No 48083 trundles empty flat wagons through Engine Shed Junction towards Stourton. In the shed yard, Stanier 'Black Fives' are accompanied by a pair of Class 25 diesels and a solitary Class 03 diesel shunter with its distinctive striped cab. The shed closed its doors to steam on September 30th 1967 and the buildings and No 1 type concrete coaling tower was demolished in 1970 - the structure had two bunkers that could hold 300 tons of coal and was able to service two engines at a time. Click on photos to enlarge.
(Above) Barry Simpson of Stroud asked for front-end detail of the 'Hymek' class diesel-hydraulics. Note the position of the shed plate. (Below) Rear-end detail of Stanier 3MT 2-6-2T, especially for rivet counters!
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(Above-Below) Mr Shaw of Wakefield asked if I had an elevated view of the ash plant at Holbeck shed. I haven't - but I've got this one of the shed entrance at Peterborough...note the discarded shovels! I mention shovels because I'm mindful of a story I heard about a dedicated '0'-gauge modeller, who had a perfect scale model of a double-track main line running around the entire garden which he operated from a control centre in his garden shed. Every weekend, he ran a train service using a condensed 24-hour timetable - starting off the day with a morning postal, milk train etc and finishing the session with an overnight sleeper. One winter morning, however, he awoke to find an overnight layer of snow covering the track, so he attached a snow plough to his trusty Class 8F and sent it out through the tunnel from his garden shed to carry out snow clearing duties on the 'down' main circuit of track, then he waited...and waited, but after five minutes there was no sign of the loco returning. He was about to investigate when he heard a rustling sound from inside the tunnel...the 8F had ground to a halt, its wheels spinning furiously, as it tried to push its accumulation of snow (by now a sizeable lump) through the entrance to the shed. Undeterred, he grabbed a shovel...but this was no ordinary shovel, it was a '0'-gauge scale shovel which he picked up gingerly between finger and thumb and started digging...now there is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'...
Talking of snow, I've received an email from John Danson asking if I have information on British Railways snow ploughs. I haven't, but I do have a couple of Barry Tate photos in the collection (reproduced below) showing a Class 4F No 43893 with a sizeable snow plough attached. I do recommend visiting the 'BR/Sulzer Type 2 Class 24/25' website compiled by David Hills. You'll find a cracking page about the wintry conditions BR faced during the Sixties (includes photos from the Steve Morris Collection). Another site I highly recommend is Paul Bartlett's 'BR Wagon Photos'...both are amazing sites, crammed with information! For Windows users, click on 'X' top right-hand corner to return to this site.
HELP! Bryan Blundell recently contacted the site requesting photos of any ex-NER Timber Snowploughs that operated around the NE region. Out of 20 timber ploughs, 3 survive - 1 at the NRM, 1 at Beamish and a 
3rd at the NYMR that Bryan is currently in the process of restoring. Bryan's plough was featured in the BTF film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill'. This photo at Waskerley is of plough No 18 (Bryan's) and No 20 (now at Beamish) possibly mid-1930s, photographer unknown. Both ploughs spent most of their working life around the Darlington area prior to withdrawal circa 1974. Bryan is also seeking photos of the 4 steel-bodied ploughs, which ended their days at Holbeck and Mirfield. If anyone can help, Bryan can be contacted at bryanandchristine-at-tiscali.co.uk - please note this is not a 'clickable' email address via Outlook Express. You will have to replace the '-at-' with '@' and email manually'. Any help with photo material is much appreciated.
HELP! Steve Tildesley recently contacted the site to find out if there was a specific incident that led to the cabside stripes appearing on certain locos on the LMR, and wondered if it had anything to do with what his father witnessed when he was working on Crewe station - according to his dad, he observed the fireman of 
'City of Nottingham' climbing up in the tender while working under the power lines, and an arc set the coal that he was standing on alight! Steve's dad says there was a great flash, but reckons the fireman's rubber-soled boots saved him. Steve adds that it's unusual for his father to remember certain engines, since he was a trackman and more interested in keeping out of their way! Also Steve is building a model railway based in the London Midland Region around his home town of Stoke on Trent, and is trying to research what locos would have brought up the clay wagons from Cornwall to the Potteries in the early 60s. If anyone knows the answer, Steve can be contacted via email at s.tildesley-at-ntlworld.com - please note this is not a mail-to link via Outlook Express. You will have to replace the -at- with @ and email manually. Many thanks in anticipation
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To be continued....
Polite notice: All text and photographs are protected by copyright and reproduction is prohibited without the prior consent of the © owners. If you wish to discuss the contents of this page the email address is below. Please note - this is not a 'clickable mail-to link via Outlook Express:
dheycollection@ntlworld.com
