THERE IS a wonder in having a simulator in which
you can import (reasonably) accurate terrain data and satellite imagery
that allows you to create the past, and get some sense of what it must
have been like to travel on a long closed line in the past. Stainmore as
a railway was documented in wonderful detail by the late Peter Walton
in his book, and along with other authors and the archive of the NER
Association we have little excuse for getting the details wrong.
Naturally, you’d thing that was the hard part of
route building – but you’d be wrong. The greatest compliment to a route
is that it “feels right” or “has the right atmosphere” – code I think
for not looking like every other route out there, and having little
details that you notice and that’s what we’ve been trying to achieve
here. Grand custom buildings are all well and good, but they are
unlikely to feature more than a few times in a route. Phil has gone for
signal boxes and stations as the main eye candy, but to me what makes
this look like a railway is how it relates to the landscape. This has
always been at best a compromise ever since Kuju Rail Sim given the
crude 6 m terrain mesh, but with some thought and scenic assets,
cuttings and bridges can be accurately put in place.
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| An example of an accommodation bridge, this one being at Stainmore Summit |
Stainmore’s engineer, Thomas Bouch, was known for
his “economical” approach to railway navigation (read “slow and
twisty”) and like his later work CKPR, Stainmore seems to have more
bridges per mile than any other railway I have found. The majority of
these are “accommodation” bridges – allowing access over or under the
line between land that the railway severs. We’ve used the NER
Engineer’s line diagrams, old OS maps, satellite images and good old
boot leather to get them all, and whilst driving you probably have at
least 1 in sight at any one time.
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| Looking towards Bowes, fencing lining the railway boundary can be seen on the cutting sides |
The other issue there is that the railway was
required to be fenced off – I’d expect this was to ensure livestock
didn’t stray onto the line, though some landowners may have viewed this
as preventing rail staff from accessing their land! The Rail Regulation
Act 1842 section required that “All railway companies shall be under
the same liability of obligation to erect, and to maintain and repair,
good and sufficient fences throughout the whole of their respective
lines… ” which survives in a close form to this day in the Railway
Safety (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1997.
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| Extensive stone walling in the Bowes area |
That’s a lot of fencing, but we now have all the
lineside fencing in place, including linking in to all the accommodation
bridges. A similar task is the miles and miles of dry stone walls and
field boundaries either side of the line. I wanted this route to be one
you could see the trains in the landscape from a distance, and not just
one that looked right from the cab. Having terrain rising from the
railway means this can be visible for quite a distance.
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| Walled boundaries and painted terrain really set the right tone for this scene with Belah in the background |
If the next route is on a coast, you’ll understand why!
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| The scene at Belah is complete thanks to those finer details having been put in place |
