Middleton-in-Teesdale
An 00 gauge layout depicting
a rural branch line in Yorkshire in the years before WW2.
Built by the De Havilland MRS
based in Welwyn Garden City.
The
Middleton-in-Teesdale branch line from Barnard Castle was opened on the 12 May
1868.The line left the Barnard Castle to Kirkby Stephen
main line approximately 1.5 miles from
Barnard Castle winding its way 7.5 miles through the villages of Cotherstone,
Romaldkirk &
Mickleton then Middleton .The
line kept to the North Yorkshire side of the river Tees throughout which
meant that the station was in North Yorkshire,
however the village it served was on the opposite bank
of the River Tees in County Durham. Nearby were the Ord & Maddison stone
quarries which had their own private exchange sidings to the left of the
approaching main line. Loaded wagons would arrive from the quarries worked by
one of its own class Y7 0-4-0T engines for onward transporting by the LNER.
There was one other private siding on this side of the main line which leads
into the wood yard and sawmill. The station had a single platform with a run
round loop. The station was also provided with a single road shed a couple of
water tanks and a 45ft Turntable. The shed and turntable were built a year after
the opening of the branch. On the opposite side of the main line was the goods
platform, cattle dock, coal drops & goods shed. The goods yard was served by a
daily pick up goods train from Barnard Castle.
The Layout History
Way back
in the 1970s when the club had much larger premises a layout called Havil
Junction was constructed, this layout being 40ft x 18ft 6ins. As there was
plenty of room for an extension it was decided to construct a branch line
justifying the Junction status to Havil. As Havil was based on the LMS practice
the North Eastern contingent of the club put in a suggestion that the extension
be of NER prototype. A sketch plan proposal was submitted which incorporated
Middleton-in-Teesdale and Prospect Hill on the Whitby line. The project was to
be detachable as an independent and portable exhibition layout. This took many
years to build and when complete the layout was deemed too heavy to transport.
After a couple of enforced moves the club eventually settled into its present
location. Unfortunately our new club room was somewhat smaller which meant Havil
needed reducing in size and there was no room for Middleton. After many
discussions between club members it was decided to scrap the old layout and
build a much lighter and portable version of Middleton-in-Teesdale station.
The Layout
Baseboards were constructed using 9mm marine ply laid on top of a 2”x1”
framework, four boards measuring 48”x39” plus two extra for the fiddle yard were
built. One other add on board was built 12” long to be attached to the station
end to accommodate the station approach road. The baseboards are supported on
collapsible trestles and trolleys were built to accommodate two baseboards each,
they were designed to navigate the narrow doors and corridors when put into
storage when not in use, all built by a couple of very handy members Steve
Hughes & Colin Bloom. We now have a fairly lightweight easily transportable
unit. Before we removed the track from the original layout plain wallpaper was
laid onto the track to make indentations of the track plan, this was then
transferred onto the new boards. As the new baseboards were narrower than the
originals the track layout had to be slightly simplified to suit. Peco code 75
track was used, however we decided to have the points made by Marcway to our
specifications. The track was then laid directly onto the boards in the normal
way, and holes were drilled to accommodate the point motors. The ballast on the
branch mainly consisted of ash so care was taken to replicate this on the
layout. Seep point motors are used throughout, controlled by a separate CDU. The
turntable was salvaged from the original layout and positioned accordingly. This
turntable was made many years ago by one of our late members, the mechanism
coming from an old record player. Micro switches are used for track positioning.
Electro magnets were placed strategically around the layout for shunting
purposes. The original signals were mostly used and modified where necessary
using MERG electronics to operate the servo control.
All of the buildings on Middleton are from the original layout, built
using drawings from Ken Hoole’s book on North Eastern Branch line Termini and
others sourced by one of our veteran members. They
are near perfect examples of the originals; the station building is still
standing today albeit now part of a caravan site. Details such as the boiler
room at the saw mill, plus the sound of the saw being used, and the rotating
water wheel can be seen. You can also hear the whistle from the daily goods
train informing the signalman of his presence to enter the goods yard. Operation
is DC controlled because except for one member of the team DCC control seemed
alien to us more senior folk. Three control panels and hand held controllers
were constructed, these being used for (1) Main line (2) Goods sidings (3) Ord &
Maddison exchange sidings and Quarry branch, a separate Gaugemaster panel
mounted single track controller is used in the fiddle yard.
Operation
It must
be stressed that we wanted a layout that would allow prototypical operation,
with correct rolling stock and signalling of the period under LNER ownership
from grouping until the start of the Second World War. In other words, it’s an
operator’s layout rather than an exact scale model, also requiring enough
movement to keep visitors occupied at exhibitions. An operating sequence was
devised keeping as near to the original timetable as possible but adding an
extra couple of fictional passenger workings to add interest. The layout is run
to a pre-arranged sequence and takes approximately two hours to complete. The
optimum number of operators is three as follows; one at Middleton Station,
incoming trains, and Engine shed movements, a second shunting both goods yards,
and the third outgoing trains and fiddleyard. All goods stock use B&B couplings
as the delay uncoupling occurs ‘on the run’ over the electro-magnets at the
press of a button and passenger stock uses S&W. With regard to the Ord &
Maddison full stone wagons these are propelled three at a time from the fiddle
yard to the exchange sidings using the ex-NE Y7 belonging to O&M or a Y3 on loan
from the LNER. They are then taken forward via the mainline back to the fiddle
yard by either a J21 or J25 0-6-0 Locomotive. For the empty wagons the reverse
sequence takes place. Passenger trains arrive and the Locomotive runs around via
the Turntable and Water Column. The single road shed is the home of the one
engine that was based at Middleton, more of this later.
Scenery
Insulating foam was selected
for the scenery contours because although rather messy it was very easy to work
with; roads were shaped into the foam and then when we were happy with the
contours it was all covered with Modroc. The
roads were highlighted and fields were painted brown before being covered in PVA
glue and scattered with static grass of varied colours and lengths. Trees were
made by various members of the club using their own methods and the stone walls
again using a rigid foam insulating board scribed to give a stone effect and
painted. Whilst visiting the East Anglian Model Railway Exhibition Steve the
main man in the Middleton project spotted a lovely Pennine back scene from a
company called Greenscenes which blended perfectly with the layout.
Rolling Stock & Motive Power
A wide range of goods vehicles
ranging from kits, scratch, or proprietary has been assembled to take care of
branch goods to and from Barnard Castle, the rest of the system and stone
traffic from the O&M quarries. Wagons from all the Big Four companies can be
seen, quite a distance for SR & GWR rolling stock. For the local branch
passenger traffic, the two and three car sets of D&S NE clerestory
coaches are used and two four car sets
are for the Newcastle and Sunderland trains which were donated to the club from
a past member The LNER steam push
pull Auto car came from a kit built by our tram expert Chris Cornell.
Middleton shed had an
allocation of just one passenger engine. It was double manned, the first crew
took it to Sunderland and back, whilst the second crew did a round trip to
Bishop Auckland Initially Class E5 2-4-0s were used followed by a D23 4-4-0. As
a result of the withdrawal from service of these classes the NE area had no
suitable replacements. Recourse was made to the GN section who sent a number of
Ivatt class D3 4-4-0s to the region in 1931. The D3s gave way in 1936 to another
class from the south. This time it was another 2-4-0 type in the shape of ex GE
class E4 engines. Cabs had to be modified to combat the harsher weather in the
north. In 1938 things changed again when Newcastle services were introduced, and
Middleton men no longer had a regular engine. Gateshead provided the power with
either A8 4-6-2s or V1 2-6-2s being changed daily. Other classes of engine
visited the branch included Fletcher 0-4-4Ts on push- pull units and then the
Sentinel steam railcars.
Locos of the period were
required for the layout and we were lucky enough to have master Loco builder and
collector Eric Fry our most senior member to solve this problem. He has built
practically every class of engine that has run on the branch. Eric who some of
you may know as the Editor and part
author of the RCTS ‘ Locomotives of the LNER’ books is still building model
locomotives at the grand young age of 93. They are mostly built from London Road
Models, Craftsman & Nucast kits.
The following models are used
on the layout;
A5 4-6-2T No 1760
G5 0-4-4T No 2083
A8 4-6-2T No 1330
G6 0-4-4T No 605
D3 4-4-0
No 4075
J21 0-6-0 No 1512
D23 4-4-0 No 217
J25 0-6-0 No2051
E4
2-4-0 No 7416
Sentinel Cars Hope or Eagle
E5
2-4-0 No 1464
Y3 0-4-0T No 148
V1 2-6-2T No 416
Y7 0-4-0T No 1302
D17
4-4-0 No 1902
N9 0-6-2T No1618
Conclusion
The club has a few other
layouts ranging from O to N gauge, details can be found on our website
www.dhmrs.co.uk
As
for Middleton the layout is
more or less complete except little odd jobs such as trees, a couple of slightly
damaged signals etc; as we say there is always something to do. This is the joy
of our hobby. Middleton can be seen at our next exhibition on Saturday 24th
April 2021.
Mike Worsley
May
2020