A Pictorial Update of New Things

Here we present a simple pictorial update, to demonstrate that progress is being made. We begin with more of those wonderful signal boxes by Phil:

Penrith Yard North

Penrith Number 2

Penrith Number 1

Eden Valley Junction. Where the Eden Valley line from Kirkby Stephen joins the WCML

Another view of Eden Valley Junction box, looking north

Tebay Number 1

Scout Green box on the WCML between Tebay and Penrith

Thrimby Grange on the WCML

Sandy Bank on the Stainmore line between Kirkby Stephen and Tebay

 Phil has also started working on enamel and other signage for the line. Any suggestions for enamel adverts? Please post in the comments below:

And station nameboards:

Appleby East is about halfway along the Eden Valley branch, where there is a junction with the Settle and Carlisle line

Ravenstonedale - On a stretch of line many considered to be one of the finest in the country, particularly between here and Smardale!

Looking west towards Tebay at Ravenstonedale

Musgrave is the first station on the north/west bound Eden Valley

Clifton Moor - The last station on the Eden Valley before the junction for the WCML

 No steam-age route is complete without telegraph poles and wires spanning the entire network of lines. I'm pleased to report that Phil has been working  on that very thing! There are already some good examples of telegraph poles and wires on various routes, but I think these are the best yet!

The very last steam service crossed Stainmore in 1962. We can wait to return steam to this wonderful railway!!

More Soon..........................

Signal Boxes of Stainmore - by Phil Baines

  When I was asked to model the signal boxes for the Stainmore project,  I thought it would be a simple matter of producing a couple of NER standard boxes and duplicating them along the route. Consequently, I tracked down a rare and expensive edition of the North Eastern Record and prepared to start modelling.

  

  First job was to assess how many were needed. Obviously, there would be one at each station, so that was 15, plus some stations had 2 or 3 signal boxes, bringing the total to 21. Just for good measure they also had one for every quarry along the route, which was another 3 and there were additional  signal/crossing  cabins, plus junction  and siding boxes which increased the total by a further 5!

  So, 29 boxes to build, but not a problem if they were all to the same standard. How wrong could I have been?

  Firstly, the roofs. Some slope front to back, some from side to side. Some roofs  were pointed and others hipped. Also note that many of the sloping roofs had ornate gable ends,  whilst others were plain.

Still, at least this variety of roofs  should be on top of standard NER boxes...............

sorry no!

They were tall, they were short, they were big and they were small, anything but standard. 

But hopefully they would have been built from a set of standard materials which would minimize the variety of textures I would need to model them....................

Wrong again! 

Most were of brick construction, a few of stone and the more exposed moorland boxes had a render finish for added weather protection and one, at Hulands Quarry, was timber clad.

Finally, there was the issue of the steps. Some had the steps on the left, others on the right. Many had straight stairs whilst others had L-shaped flights of steps and, as for Kirkby Stephen West, I think the designers spent too long in the Croglin Castle Hotel ( a popular drinking den for Kirkby Stephen railworkers), when they planned these ones.

Still, in the end  I can only work with what is there, so I do my best to reproduce a reasonable facsimile of the Stainmore Route signal boxes in an attempt to properly represent  the look and feel of this atmospheric  stretch of railway.

The following is a glimpse at some of my efforts to date:

  So far 14 done, nearly half way. But wait a moment, did someone just say that Ben has extended the route to include Penrith to Tebay?!

 I can only hope the LNWR definition of "Standard" was a lot more consistent than the NER's.................................

More Soon.....................................

Hartley Quarry – Almost the End of the Line

Looking West: A birds-eye view of Hartley Quarry

  Much of the discussion on this blog has described the function of Stainmore and the EVR, largely in the context of moving coke, coal and iron between Cumberland, Lancashire and County Durham as a through route. Like all railways of the time, it passed near to towns and villages that happened to be nearby, but with the typical railway-mania arrogance as to when it suited the railway; bringing to mind the old quote of the weary traveller at Dent who asked "wouldn't it have been better to build the station near the village?" to which the guard replied, " Yes madam, but we thought it better to build it near the railway”. In this neck of the woods, the civil engineering perhaps has the upper hand!

 The main source of business generated within the line itself was undoubtedly Hartley Quarry, west of Kirkby Stephen and tucked behind Merrygill Viaduct. Quarrying of limestone began in the early 1920s, and developed in technology  - a limekiln was fed by rail from above, with a loader and crusher set higher up the quarry, and a gas kiln was later installed. An internal rail system worked by 2 Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0 tank engines - 3890 "Helen" and 2431 "Joe" and worked wagons up what I think were gradients of 1 in 16 or so in places to shift limestone, lime, coal around the system. I can't establish their fate - answers on a postcard!

0-4-0 Hibberd Planet DM 'Elizabeth'

A diesel mechanical 0-4-0 Hibberd Planet "Elizabeth" was purchased in 1962 and worked until the end of rail operations in 1975. Since then she has moved to Teeside until 1992 and then had hire spells on the Channel Tunnel construction, Poole Harbour, United Steels at Tysley. She returned home to Kirkby Stephen and now runs at Kirkby Stephen East as part of the operation fleet.

 The quarry was accessed by a west facing headshunt at the east end of Merrygill viaduct, and a new signal box (also a block post) was installed in 1925. The signal diagram reveals that whilst the track was doubled, it was treated as a single line for signalling, as was Aitygill. Presumably this was a weight restriction (as per Belah) though this seems curious for a masonry viaduct that was itself doubled since the line was built. The box was a similar design to the box at Smardale that was removed around the same time, which begs the question whether the box was in fact moved?

Exchange sidings were accessed by LNER / BR locomotives, reportedly the wagons were tripped to Kirkby Stephen and formed into trainloads, most of which departed to the north east for use in the steel industry. The limited length of the headshunt may have been the restriction here.

 

 Whilst Stainmore as a through route closed in 1962, a single line from Appleby East to Hartley remained in operation to serve the Army firing range and base at Warcop, the coal depot at Kirkby Stephen and Hartley Quarry. The line was cut back 200 yards or so west of Merrygill  to allow access to the headshunt. Steam reigned until the very dying days of Carlisle Kingmoor, who sent whatever was left over down the S&C to Appleby to access the line via the NER link there. Ivatt 4 “Flying Pigs” were the most photographed on these workings, including the sole survivor 43106 happily still in service on the Severn Valley.

 The quarry exchange sidings were accessed by BR until 1967, when movements were banned by BR such was the state of the track.

 The formation of these workings was particularly unusual given the minimal track layout left in situ – the Warcop and Kirkby wagons were coupled north of the loco and the Hartley wagons to the south, with the loco sandwiched in the middle of an uncoupled train that could be fairly lengthy. Whilst unglamorous, it undoubtedly assisted retention of viaducts, bridges and KSE station itself for preservation which is flourishing, albeit slowly, at both KSE and Warcop.

The last train from Hartley was in October 1974. Workings however continued from Appleby to Warcop until 1989, which we will cover next time.

More Soon.............................................

The Third Leg - By Ben Yates

  When you say “Stainmore” most folk think of the main climb over the Pennines and in particular the ridiculous and curvaceous climb from the west, the impossible behemoth Belah Viaduct, and the mishap of plucky Standard 2 mogul 78018 and the 4-20am Kirkby Stephen to Darlington goods on Thursday, 24 February 1955, immortalized in “Snow Drift at Bleath Gill” . All good stuff, but as we've explored in previous blogs, this is very much a line of contrasts, and even more so now Shap is in the mix.

 One section I've not really covered before is the “third” leg from Kirkby Stephen to Tebay.

I describe it as such incorrectly, given it was the original aim of the SD&LUR to link to the WCML at Tebay to access Barrow for reciprocal coke, coal and iron ore, and the Eden Valley Railway was a separate, if highly cooperated, undertaking. My bias is perhaps more down to my over-fondness of the CKPR and its co-existence with Stainmore via the EVR, plus the passenger operations that saw the Tebay section as the branch connection before its earlier demise.

  Without doubt, the section of the line through Smardale is as dramatic as any, indeed it is fair to take my customary pop at the Settle & Carlisle to say the section that passes beneath Smardale Viaduct and over Smardale Gill Viaduct eclipses in beauty and drama (if not sheer bleakness!) anything the Midland came up with. If you’re ever in the area, I can wholeheartedly recommend a walk from Smardale hall along the trackbed, over the viaduct (now owned and preserved by the Northern Viaduct trust http://www.nvt.org.uk/ ) and on to the lime kilns.

  Nor is it the flat section after the main event. On departure from Kirkby Stephen, the line twists sharply to the south to use Smardale Gill as the only viable route by Ash Fell and climbs with gradients of 1 in 77, 96 and 79 for 5 miles with only half a mile’s respite through Smardale station to Sandy Bank summit at 889ft – comparable with the final assault on Shap. Likewise, freight was usually banked.

  Smardale is a tiny curiosity of a station(See Above Image) by the “feature building” that is Smardale Hall(Image Below) with its Rapunzel-like towers, a solitary platform and a siding. The station remains as a dwelling, though difficult to recognise as its original form. The station was a block post prior to around 1924 and had a much larger signal box than would seem required. The section west was over the summit to Sandy Bank, which lost its signal box at around the same time and neither survive in more than a solitary photograph of each. This left a long section of 8 miles from Kirkby Stephen West to Ravenstonedale, which perhaps demonstrates the low traffic level after the great War.

The line was double tracked from Sandy Bank to Tebay (which seems extravagant!) though was cut back to single line from Ravenstonedale when the box was removed. 

Ravenstonedale is a picture postcard of a rural station, with its extravagant architecture, quaint wooden goods shed, dumpy signal box and staggered platforms. It remains beautifully preserved today, though hangs precariously above the A685 that later stole the trackbed of this section. One thing that became apparent to me is the extent of groundworks carried out for the A685 was significant, and included a major diversion of the River Lune from one side of the old line to the other. What I had thought was a gentle stroll through the Lune Valley is in fact quite a lively run, with frequent crossing of the Lune itself, multiple tributaries as well as access roads and accommodation crossings. The gradient itself shouldn’t be dismissed – 8 miles with a ruling gradient of 111 is a “drag” and certainly a longish one at that!

  

  Gaisgill closed early and seems little photographed or remembered, though noted as a rare level crossing on this line and for its immaculate station garden. The building exists as a dwelling, though modernised and alarmingly close to the A685.

   

  

  Tebay East quickly follows, the sweeping curve into the station being a favoured spot of Ivo Peters and Derek Cross for capturing the double-headed Newcastle to Blackpool summer Saturday specials. The station itself was better known for the London Midland side of the station, but the eastern side boasted 10 or so roads of mineral sidings, a goods shed and a 4 road shed with turntable. 

  The last spin was taken by now preserved J21 65033 on the RCTS (N.E. Branch) and Stockton & Darlington Locomotive Society 'J21 Rail tour' 7^th May 1960 -  the last J21 working over the Stainmore route - this featured a run from Darlington to Tebay, over Shap to Carlisle with just load 3. Reportedly, the engine made a very assured climb of Shap, and quite possibly the first and only for the class!

More Soon. . . . . . . . . 

Tebay and Shap

  Tebay’s existence as a railway centre owes itself to 2 functions – the junction between the L&C / LNWR / LMS and BR London Midland region and the SD&LU / NER / LNER and BR North Eastern region and the need to bank trains. Tebay was pretty much razed from railway existence at the end of steam, the tail end of the Stainmore line having been retained to store miles of coal wagons during summers when they were not required.

  The change in ownership over the years appears to have done little to change operations until close to the end of steam – separate sheds, signalling, platforms, and I believe most through freight changed engines in the exchange sidings behind number 3 platform.

  Northbound passenger trains would be banked at the discretion of the driver – the Tebay crews would sit on standby behind the platform, and a train requiring assistance would sound a “crow” whistle (three rounds of short-long) on approach to Tebay No.1 box at the south end of the Down Loop, and would come to a stand just where the M6 currently crosses the line. Tebay No.2 box would allow the banker out onto the down main to buffer up to the train, where whistles would exchange and the climb begin. Cine film (affirmed by conversation with a former Oxenholme platelayer) shows that engine handling was certainly “confident” to say the least – the full tanks on a class 4 could spill dramatically when checked by a freight train, and I expect all but the greenest of guards would take cover in their van!

  Tebay Shed was home to a stud of Fowler 2-6-4 tanks for banking duties, later replaced by Fairburn’s take on the same design and finally BR Standard mogul tender engines. None of the Fowler tanks survive, but 2 Fairburns enjoy a peaceful retirement in familiar surroundings at the Lakeside and Haverthwaite now in familiar BR black rather than their fictional (but rather fetching) Caledonian Blue and LNWR Blackberry of the 1970s.

  Halfway up the climb is Scout Green box - a gated minor road crossing and block post for the climb, and favoured spot for photographers. The cabin, with its crooked Chimney, was tiny, and the bobby had to move his armchair to pull off lever number 1. The Up Home signal was a colossal 60ft co-acting LNWR type for maximum visibility for descending trains. The box also controlled intermediate block signals at Shap Wells, providing a further line capacity on the climb to the Summit. There is a rumour that when the box was taken out of service that it was dismantled and stored for reuse on a preserved line, though despite extensive research I can't find anything. Answers on a postcard.

Cine and photos show the bankers were worked full-on for their climb to Shap summit, which must have been a difficult firing turn – sat around for some time on the engine and having a huge demand for steam at short notice. Engines would drop off at Shap summit, cross over at the box to the up line and clank their way back to Tebay and cross over to the siding to do it all again. 

Unlike Beattock, not all trains stopped – a Duchess in good nick could take 12 with relative ease, and from photographs it looks like a Class 7 engine (Scot or a Brit) would take 10 unaided, and a 5 would take 8. The decision to stop would be down to many things – the condition of the engine, the coal, the weather - the strong cross winds found on Shap could add significantly to the friction of a train, and there are pictures of Diesels taking steam bankers! Freights were nearly always banked. 5s and 8s were the usual motive power, with 9Fs surprisingly infrequent visitors to Shap.

  Earlier, most goods traffic would be in the hands of LNWR G1 and G2 “Super D” 0-8-0 engines. Unglamorous they certainly were, and fireman Pete “Piccolo” Johnson of Crewe North shed recalled they appeared to have been designed to be as inconvenient and painful as possible for a fireman, with every edge perfectly positioned to scrape a firemans knuckles. They were, however, free steaming, powerful and economical engines and would slog up banks all day with very heavy loads.

One duty they are remembered for were the “Jellicoe specials”, where the Admiralty took the decision that the welsh steam coal for the Navy fleet could no longer travel by sea to the base at Scapa Flow Orkney given the U-Boat attacks. A continuous series of coal trains were worked from South Wales by the GWR to Crewe, thence by LNWR to Scotland (in total 700 miles) mainly in the hands of Super D’s marked “A” for Admiralty on their cabside and not to be used for anything else! There were at least 5 trains northbound a day, loads were 40 wagons (of the greased axlebox variety, adding to the task) loaded and 60 empty, and it is estimated that over 5 million tons worked its way over Shap during the war.

I had the very great privilege of a footplate ride on the last remaining Super D, 45395, at Llangollen and even at 20 miles an hour the ride was the liveliest I’ve ever experienced on a footplate, and my respect for the crews who toiled for hours in all weathers on the toughest of roles is total.

  

By contrast, the Lakes Express from Euston was often hauled by a Duchess and after removing portions at Preston and Oxenholme was often down to load 3 and a Kingmoor crew wanting their tea would lead to unbeatable times over Shap. Whilst unofficial, one photographer at Scout Green witnessed an extraordinary performance, and the passing time at Tebay was checked to reveal an extraordinary average speed of over 80 mph for the first half of the climb. Hardly scientific, but clearly an extraordinary performance.

Some WIP Images of Clifton Moor

More Soon. . . . . . . . . .