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Middlesborough

North East England layout in 00

Middlesborough is a large industrial town in the North East of England on the banks of the river Tees It was one of the largest centres for iron and exported coals to Europe through the port, later it imported ironstone for the hungry furnaces. There is also chemical works shipping building and many engineering firms around the centre such as Dorman Long & Co. who built the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was serviced by the NER who became later the LNER, there is predominantly freight traffic constantly rumbling through the town to the furnaces and the port. In 1880 there was a bridge proposed over the river Tees that was opposed by the Tees Navigation Company who wanted to have an easy path to Stockton. If the bridge had crossed the East Coast Main Line may well have gone from Newcastle through Hartlepool, Middlesborough and then on to Darlington. So this Middlesborough is on the main line allowing A1 to A4, s to pass through. The layout is mainly two sides, one is the station which is based on plans of the real one prior to WW2 there are some omission to allow it to fit hence the slight miss spelling of the name to allow modellers licence. The other side is Dorman Long iron works with 3 furnaces also based on track plans although compressed to fit in the area I had available.

When my son was about 3 or so we got a train set for him, Mum decided enough in the kitchen and ejected us to the garage. I then got interested in the LNER as my wife bought me the Flying Scotsman train set for Christmas and I come from the North East. This is my second attempt at building a layout the first was a 5' x 9' affair. I originally bought any loco in apple green with LNER on it but after starting my collection of books learned a lot and a cull ended with only NE based loco, s. I found out majority were black and only came in kit form so I had a go at kits with a little help. So ten years on this is where I am up to (son got interested in Nintendo and disappeared)

Track is Peco code 100 and layed straight to the base boards I didn't use cork under lay as there was no reason to raise the track bed up with shoulders inside yards and walls etc. Ballast is from samples from a quarry lab when the rock is ground down to fine particles, a friend of mine obtained a truck load all various colours so I got the dark ones and mixed them together to a base that looked like blast furnace slag I then used 50/50 of PVA glue and water with a dash of dishwashing liquid to glue into place I then use a small syringe to drop the liquid into place and allow to dry. The sides of the track are painted rust to look like real track this was a slow job with a small paint brush but I think well worth it in the end. Pointes are operated via Tortoise slow motion motors mounted directly under the boards which is 9mm 5ply marine grade. The frame is 4 " x 2" pine mounted onto steel brackets that are bolted to the walls (this layout isn't moving) The boards are 2' 6" wide on both scenic walls 4' wide at the back where the fiddle yard is and 1' wide to cross from both boards. The total size is 14'wide x 22' long. There are 4 controllers one for each line and there will be a fifth when I put the other control panel in, Controls are hand held type built by David Mortimer-Fox, The layout runs on block control with sectional switches to isolate sections. Buildings are a mixture of some propriety items such as Metcalfe, Model Scene, and Ratio & Walthers. The iron works is mostly the steel works kits from Walthers but I have modified them to make each different using plan of old furnaces I obtained at work. The Station building is a scratch built item by Warren Lake in card again using plans and a few pictures in books. As I live half way around the world from the station I couldn't get info easily. I built the train shed using gasket material and covered with clear film used on overhead transparencies. Dock Hill station is a plastic card copy of the original again copied from pictures in a book. Most of my info comes from books or some plans and drawings sent to me from England. The track plan is essentially 4 main lines 2 are the freight which go around the back of the station and through the centre of the yard for the iron works. The passenger lines enter the station they break into 3 lines the centre track was used to reverse trains back to Whitby. A bay platform line coming of the down main, on the original there was 2 bay lines. A parcels line of the up main allows trains to drop off wagons from the up and then be picked up and taken to the up main. The main line's go through the city and then split the passenger lines skirts around the yard, which is a transit area for coal and ironstone coming into the works and steel plate leaving the freight passes through the yard with reception sidings either side. The high level is the stockhouse where the raw material is dumped through bottom door hoppers into bins under the track where skip cars take it to the top of the furnaces. I have to set up the Catenary for the EF1 to come into the freight yard this will take some working out so the loco runs with its pantographs down at the moment. Signals are the ratio LNER lattice type but I am in the process of replacing with MSE NER slotted post signals.

Motive power is a mixture of RTR and kit built. They are predominantly NER origin. All loco, s where possible are actual ones that ran through or there abouts at Middlesbrough there are a few exceptions such as Robert the Devil an A1 named after my son who spotted it in a book one day. Rolling stock is essential similar with a lot of Slaters NER 20T hoppers 51L & David Geen kits amongst them and not forgetting the Parkside kits. I have running a couple of coal trains and ironstone hoppers, various plate and flat wagons with steel plate, fish train and general freight going through to the docks. There are RTR Bachmann wagons a few Hornby and Dapol, unfortunately nearly all wagons are NE as there wasn't many PO wagons in this area as the NER had a monopoly on the transport of goods in the area. Carriages are a mix of Hornby and Kirk kits with a couple of Comet kits in there, also a rake of Coronation by Mailcoach with the dynamometer car behind Mallard on its record breaking run. All couplings are via the new Bachmann small coupling on freight stock and the original Hornby on passenger. Because my passenger stock mainly stay in fixed rakes the brake end have the coupling missing with a dummy buckeye in place (only a matter of changing a bogie with coupling on to return coach to being coupled both ends). Passenger locos have no coupling on the front either with a dummy screw link there instead .The freight locos have coupling at both ends to allow running in reverse, there are also some large wagons for transporting heavy engineering equipment, which was fabricated between the Tees and Tyne I have tried to capture for me anyway the feel of industrial North East which is what as a kid I remember, I like the beautiful branch line layouts but wanted something a bit different I hope you enjoy a glimpse of a passed industrial might in North East England.

(Thanks to all who have helped and advised you know who you all are)