Railway of the Month

In the current June 2008 issue of Railway Modeller, the Railway of the Month is:

Wibdenshaw - 1970s West Yorkshire in 4mm scale

KIER HARDY centred on 1976 for this Spen Valley-based exhibition layout.

At last, I’ve found some time to build and detail a few items of rolling stock, after spending the past few years building layouts. There were times when working on rolling stock projects made a pleasant change from layout building, but there was always more of a desire to create something for them to run on. Recently, the rakes ofheavily modified and kitbuilt wagons have taken up most of my modelling time, so that they can finally complete the scene for the railway running through a townscape in West Yorkshire.

The catalyst for Wibdenshaw started many years before its construction, just after I had built my firstcontinuous exhibition layout. It was a circuitous scene on all sides, a large operating well in the middle, and with under-baseboard storage sidings which were served by 1:40 curved inclines. I was never happy with the outcome of the layout, even though it ran well and attracted a lot of nice comments. The yearning to do something better and base it on a fictional but probable location, resulted in its sale just prior to its sixth exhibition appearance.

Now that I had the experience to build a large layout, the next project would need to be better planned before any construction work took place. It was at this time that I had been experimenting with EM gauge, so a small selection of my locos and wagons were being tested on the Gloucester MRC EM gauge layout. I was impressed by the better looking track and wheels, and once a few more items were converted, there was no going back. Plans were drawn up for an EM gauge layout that could fit inside my garage, and have the provision to be lengthened sometime in the future. Construction was all plywood, machine cut from large sheets, and each baseboard was built in a jig for uniformity.

This second exhibition layout was set in the mid 1980s and based in WestYorkshire, where the chosen name Holmeworth, represented an amalgam of other place names nearby. It wasn’t mandatory to have a fictional location, but most prototypical layouts to a scale size result in too much space being taken up, or a need to compromise. Based on the Calder Valley route, it gave the excuse to have four main running lines and a wide variety of traffic passing through. Added interest came with the station baseboards, which slotted in the middle, and added a few more feet to the length of the layout. Obviously, in its extended format, it wasn’t possible to run it at home, although parts of it could be set up for testing and running in new stock. In its final form (after the extensions and many changes over the years), the layout ended up with a modular 24' fiddleyard, including an integrally designed method of keeping the stock in place during transit to and from exhibitions.

Looking to the back of the layout, the 16 road fiddleyard is capable of holding 32 full length trains, and serves the four tracks that circle around to the scenic section. The design of the fiddleyard utilises folding lids covered with sheets of foam sponge, which are lowered onto the stock so that it is gently cushioned. Prior to this happening, all couplings are parted at the baseboard joins, and drop-in gates are fitted to the end of each baseboard to capture any potential runaway wagon. Lower height block rakes, such as coal or open wagons are kept in dedicated sidings, and foam sponge strips are fitted to the lids accordingly, and match up snugly with the stock.

All non-consistent height stock such as mixed freights are taken off and carried in separate stock boxes. At first I was concerned that long periods oftime with the stock being compressed by the lids would cause problems, but just a light force is enough to stop the stock rolling anywhere, even when it’s sloping at 30 degrees!

Having 80% of the stock in place and in the right order saves many hours of tedious coupling up of 3-links, and reduces the amount of damage caused by handling.

After 40 exhibition appearances, the scenic section was broken up for spares, but the relatively young and invaluable fiddleyard was an ideal basis for Wibdenshaw. All I needed to do was build another set of modular baseboards totalling 24 feet, that could slot in place of the now defunct Holmeworth scenic section. The design would incorporate the four tracks at each end coming around from the fiddleyard. The end curves are set off scene, so there are no unprototypical curves in view on the scenic section. To some, this may appear a waste of potential modelling space, but a good theatre has more going on backstage, than it does on stage. Although having through tracks available to base my design upon, I didn’t just want to build a four track mainline as previously, because it wouldn’t suit the location of where the layout was going tobe based. This dilemma was overcome by the idea of having a junction, so that two double track routes could diverge. I’d often thought about the proposed, but abandoned Midland Railway main line that was to cut right through the city centre of Bradford, so my thoughts turned to an area between Dewsbury and Shipley.

Buy this month's RM for a complete track layout and approx. ten detailed photographs.

The history
Wibdenshaw is just a few miles south of Bradford and on the eastern slopes of theSpen Valley. The year is 1976 (or thereabouts) and it is estimated that the town would have a population of around 90, 000 inhabitants. It would have developed in the same way as many similar sized towns during the industrial revolution, with woollen mills dominating the landscape. Now many are closed down and the railway is a shadow of its former self. There may be a slight air of decay at some of the lineside locations at Wibdenshaw, but there is also the hustle and bustle of a busy town centre, well served by local and Inter City train services.

I had in my mind an idea of where Wibdenshaw was situated, and the sort of railway traffic that would run through it, so the townscape and a reason for its existence began to form part of a wider and more realistic picture. Maps of the area were drawn up to justify the project further, and give some air of provenance to Wibdenshaw, being one of the many towns that are situated in the conurbation of West Yorkshire. Another WYPTE layout is born, and I’ve denied myself the opportunity to create a model of a different part of the country. I already had the stock suited to the area, so it just seemed right to model the same area again, but for more believable reasons. I remember so many trips to that part of the country back in the 1970s, so this is really a nostalgia trip for me, inspired by some of the better models in public gaze.

The station was to form the south end ofthe layout, of which part would be modelled. The platform ends come out from under the large arched overall roof, which also acts as an ideal scenic break. With Pudsey Junction to the north of the layout, a short section of track forms the station approaches, and joins the two features together. The result is a fairly slow approach to a busy station, with diverging routes coming in from Bradford and Leeds. I had seen a photograph in a 1962 issue of ‘Modern Railways’ that featured a photograph of a junction near Leeds, with a Peak passing by on an express train. One of the routes was immediately crossed by a road bridge, which gave the idea for a scenic break for the Leeds tracks, whilst the Bradford route could continue along for a bit longer before going off-scene.

Detailed planning
Now that the basics for the layout were mapped out, detailed planning could begin. To give more emphasis on the route that goes off-scene mid way along the layout, all four tracks leave the station parallel to the baseboard, then curve slightly towards theLeeds direction. When Pudsey Junction is reached, the Bradford line heads off at a slightly different angle, but remains on-scene. The use of transition curves are important to break up the straight lines of the baseboard construction, and have a good reason for being there. The track plan leaves large irregular spaces at the front and rear of the scenic section, which have been used for the loco stabling point and the goods depot. The ‘busy’ end of the layout slowly gives way to the more industrial scene, and then the suburbs begin to appear before the journey continues on to the next town.

Pudsey Junction stabling point has been built to represent a former steam locomotive depot, which has been reduced in size considerably, and still retains some of the features that would have been seen at such a location. The redundant turntable well, offices, stores and other buildings are due for demolition soon, even though there are still signing on facilities for drivers and some refuelling of locos taking place. The rundown infrastructure and dereliction after the steam age is something that was frequently seen in the ‘70s, and it felt right to model the bad, the sad and the good things that my memory keeps telling me about. Many of the locations that housed blue diesels in my trainspotting days, were at old steam sheds, with disused and redundant structures giving way to nature and sometimes redevelopment. Peter Johnson had built a scale model of the semi-derelict offices and loco shed at Holyhead Breakwater, shortly before he constructed Canada Road. The building had been lying around for several years, originally planned as part of a layout based on the Breakwater, complete with a brace of scratch-built Barclay class 01 shunters. The building was donated to the Wibdenshaw project and is now located on the depot approach road, next to where the turntable used to be, and is due very shortly for demolition judging by the arrival of a low loader and its heavy plant. The stabling area is part of the old covered steam shed, now without a roof and open to the elements, and the three regularly used roads are all that’s left of a once thriving depot. A few redundant locos await their fate, whilst outside inspection pits start to fill with debris and are being covered over.

On the other side of the main line, is the goods warehouse and depot yard. Again, it has seen better days, but the local mail order catalogue companies are keeping the place just barely going. More often than not, some of the sidings are occupied by engineer’s department wagons, probably in preparation for a bit of track recovery somewhere close by. An array of parcels stock occupies the platforms alongside the station, so there’s a regular flow of traffic arriving and departing, as well as a variety of through trains passing by. This aspect of the layout was most important, because it gives the opportunity to shunt, or run trains, as well as carry out light loco moves to and from the stabling point. The goods depot is in the shadow of a large viaduct, which used to carry another railway line over the streets of Wibdenshaw, and acts as a good mid-scenic break to define the different parts of the layout.

C&L trackwork is used throughout the scenic section, with all the points and crossings being built from individual components, and strengthened in certain places by copper clad sleepers. All the track was built in situ’, and wired through multi-pin connectors to the control panels. DCC was very much in its infancy at the time, so conventional variable DC is used with section switches on the control panels. Route selection is controlled by relay logic, allowing any track to be accessed from all routes, and the points are switched by solenoids for remote operation.

Buildings
Choosing the right kind of building for a particular location became important, so that the railway doesn’t look out of place in its surroundings. The Kibri and DPM building kits have been used extensively around the town centre, and are easy to anglicise. Shops, banks and pubs are situated adjacent to the station, and industrial buildings appear more frequently along the route as the junction is approached. Inspiration for the bus depot came from Ludlam Street in Bradford, which was still painted in its corporation colours long after the PTE took over. Adapted from a Peco modern diesel depot kit, it is shown with an open aspect to the front, and features buses undergoing maintenance around the usual related clutter. The goods warehouse is scratchbuilt from Wills brick sheets, whilst other anglicised kits and components make up the urban sprawl. Most of the buildings in the area portrayed would have been constructed from stone, so the weathering and blackening of the retaining walls and other structures has been copied fromphotographs. The scenic break at the north end of the layout has been achieved by placing a large office block at the front of the layout, so that the Bradford tracks go off-scene behind it. As with a lot of the buildings on the layout, the office block is constructed from plywood, and then clad with an assortment of window frames and brick card. The Leeds tracks are hidden from view by a high level road, which introduces the tracks onto the scenic section, as well as serving the woollen mills, shops and houses in the district.

Careful thought has gone into the juxtaposition of all buildings and structures on the layout, so that the continuation of the railway can be imagined, beyond the scene portrayed. There are some locations on the layout that prevent the railway from being seen at all times, and these features have been created to give the impression of the railway cutting through a scene, much like the real thing. Uniformity has also been an important factor in construction, so that each part of the layout blends in with the surroundings, and gives a justifiable reason for its existence.

The rolling stock has an important part to play in completing the scene, and has been tailored to fit in with the West Yorkshire theme. The time line for the layout is set firmly in 1976, although some licence has been used to allow stock from a couple of years either side of this date, providing it fits in well with everything else on scene. Off the shelf models have been fitted with extra detail, modified and converted to EM gauge, and all items have been weathered to varying degrees by studying photographs of the prototype. Most of the locomotives are from proprietary sources, with some being well over 20 years old, and are a good match for the more recent additions once the detail work has been completed. Additional motor bogies and extra pickups have been fitted to a large proportion of the fleet, to give better performance and reliability.

Diesel Multiple Units are important to the area, and a wide cross-section of different types has been modelled from kits and modified proprietary items. Two and three car units are run in multiple with each other, to provide greater capacity during peak periods, this being one aspect of DMU operationthat is rarely seen in model form. All coaching stock is run in fixed rakes, and coupled together with Kaydee buckeye couplings, with only the outer ends of the rakes having 3-link couplings. Folded black card is used between the coaches to represent the corridor connections. Last but not least, the wagon fleet has been built up mostly from Parkside and Cambrian kits, and this area of construction has taken many enjoyable hours. The type of wagon and the merchandise contained within, is an important factor in representing the traffic flows of the area.

Conclusion
So, the scene is set, and many enjoyable hours are spent watching the trains go by, each one serving a purpose, with a destination in mind. A time machine would be quite handy, but I’ll settle for a regular trip to Wibdenshaw instead. I have enjoyed immensely, building and operating the layout, but could not have done so without the help and encouragement of other EM gauge modellers and professional railwaymen. There are regular monthly updates on my dedicated website www.kierhardy.co.uk, which features stock and scenic projects, and showcases other similar themed layouts.