Oh Dairy Me! - By Ben Yates

Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 43049 removing a milk tanker from the factory at Appleby 15th April 1965
(Image Courtesy of GTR on Flickr)

  ONE of the big changes the railways brought to society was the ability to transport perishable goods the length of the country – aside from the general development of cities and the industrial revolution, railway mania is credited with the boon of Fish & Chips! Fish, Meat and Milk were often treated as class 1 traffic – such legends as the “Flying Kipper” from Aberdeen to London behind a V2, and the late afternoon Carlisle to London Maiden Goods – mainly scotch meat - was a Duchess turn to their end, and indeed was so heavy was regularly piloted southwards over Shap – a rare operation.

  No self-respecting preserved line is complete without a line of milk churns on the platform, but tank wagons for milk arrived in 1927/28, and 6 wheeled versions became standard within a decade, with around 600 built. These held 3000 gallons on just a 12ft chassis with an all in weight of around 25 tons – comparable to a bogie coach, and hence the third axle. This would carry the equivalent of 175 churns, so it is obvious to see the efficiencies they generated.

  The Eden Valley was a significant area of dairy production, and Express Dairies established a creamery at Appleby, which was used to supply Hendon in London. Operational details are sketchy – we assume this traffic ran via the S&C and then the Midland to London, but there seems little to support this by way of photographs, though this may be explained by running in the small hours! It was normal practice to run tank wagons at the head of passenger trains, the wagons being vacuum braked for that purpose. 

 There is little in the way of record of milk traffic over Stainmore, other than comments from a driver of a train from Barnard Castle explaining the significant additional load of adding a tank to his train, and how it winded his engine on the climb. It is certainly plausible that milk tanks ran over the line either to the sizable yard at Penrith or via Tebay, certainly when diversions were in place. I’m sure we can come up with some scenarios to fit, and doubtless with some bovine puns creeping in…!

  One of the great frustrations and joys of route building is trying to work out how something looked with just a map and no photograph. Appleby Dairy is one such place, but Phil managed to unearth a wonderful shot from 1965 of an Ivatt 4 marshalling tanks(see opening image). I assume this was a short working from Appleby yard given the absence of a brake van. Another curiosity is the absence of a cross-over, which suggests the dairy may have been within Station Limits of Appleby West box – answers on a postcard as I can’t locate a signalling diagram! 

  Anyway,  here are some screenshots of my attempt to replicate the above photo:

  And for those who are wondering where on the route this actually is, it is actually on the Settle and Carlisle line, south of Appleby. Before you ask, no we're not including the S&C in our route. We're not quite that mad! However, on the approach to Appleby East, on the Eden Valley line, there is a formation where a proposed south-facing link between the Eden Valley and the Midland route was to be laid. The plan was dropped. This empty piece of land is where the dairy is located. It is clearly visible from the EVR, as the below image illustrates:

The proposed junction off the Eden Valley line to the left. In the background can be seen the dairy. (Scanned from The Eden Valley Railway by Robert Western. Image courtesy of John Mallon)

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

Little Details

  A reliable source tells us that these were see on many platforms on the Stainmore line:

  

  It is a dog bowl. Apparently dogs are suckers for adverts too! Was the choice of advert trying to tell them something??!! I think the bowl next to it, slightly out of shot, is sponsored by Trebor Extra Strong Mints!!

  Anyway, as you are coming to notice with this in-development route, we are keen on those little details. So, we present, for the first time EVER in Train Simulator(??), a dogs bowl!!

  Sticking to the theme, humans needed reminding of the need for cleanliness too:

  A gentleman who used to travel the route 50+ years ago, informs us that the above enamel signs were seen throughout. Expect to see lots of these on our interpretation of this fantastic railway!

  Changing tack slightly, we come to an issue with route building, that can seriously slow down scenery placement work. That of placing foliage on undulating land. Often, each individual asset placed will need lots of adjustment, in order to sit correctly on the land. Well, Ben has created a simple means(the creation of which was far from simple!) of placing lines of foliage on rolling land. As some of you may be aware, recent DTG route have contained flexi-blocks - lines of houses, where each house sits automatically on the ground. As a development from this concept, Ben has created flexi-bushes! Basically, that means that lines of bushes can be placed quickly, even on rolling hills where the contours of the land would usually bring route building down to snails pace! Here are some images showing hedges and bushes laid out using this new method:

As you can see in the top right image, the line of bushes goes over the hill, and remain planted(sorry!) to the ground.

  The above post may have been a little light-hearted, but just to prove the seriousness of the project, here's a picture of Belah Viaduct. I'm sure like me, you can't wait to cross this iconic structure, at the regulator of an Ivatt 4MT!

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

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.............................................