Historical trains

There’s no point building a layout like ‘Lime Street’, which is set in a very specific time period, and skimping on the operational detail, especially as John has a passion for building coaches. ‘Lime Street’ has traditionally used a fairly realistic timetable but a new timetable is currently under development. It’s the brainchild of Noel Coates, who has tracked down a 1947 Working Timetable and, together with Steve Hewitt, is putting together a new, fully authentic timetable for a day between 6am and midnight.

“Believe it or not, they have only got as far as 9.45am so far!” jokes Rob.

The new timetable has revealed a number of new trains that need modelling, one of which is the sleeper service (see ‘Pushing technology’, page 36). It’s also required another five suburban trains, which, Rob says, have been sourced.

The layout’s train service also recalls some interesting snippets into what life was like in 1947. For example, you could think that the four-wheeled vans stabled in one of the platforms serves a parcels service. But, as Rob points out, they are actually loaded with linen from the station hotel.

There’s also a coal train on the layout, which raises a few eyebrows arriving at a large passenger terminus. However, the large number of chimneys on the station hotel all needed feeding with coal and there was a dedicated coal siding, from which coal was barrowed from wagons to the various buildings.

269 January 2020