PETERBOROUGH NORTH

We re-visit this outstanding model made possible with a clear vision and a decade's perseverance to closely mirror a now much-altered location.

My layout, a representation of Peterborough North as it was in the late 1950s, has appeared in BRM twice before, in 2014 and 2015. This year has seen a significant milestone, as it is now 10 years old. There have been quite a few developments in the last five years, so it is time for an update.

For me to keep the same layout for 10 years is very unusual, and for it still to be giving me the same pleasure and motivation as it did at the beginning, is even more so. 2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenge for all, particularly during lockdown. I live alone, by choice these days, and during seemingly endless days, I have realised more and more how my hobby, and specifically this layout, has helped me enormously in getting through those challenges.

What did I do this time that broke the previous long cycle of aborted or abandoned projects? Well, I decided exactly what I wanted and why, drew up a rough scale plan to prove that I wasn't kidding myself as I have in the past, and concentrated hard on identifying precisely what must be included, and what I must avoid. I also banned the weasel words 'should' and 'ought'. This was for me, so all that mattered was what fitted in with my own parameters. This layout is 25ft long, space most people would love to have, and perhaps never will, but it isn't long enough to accommodate ‘Peterborough North’ accurately.

The distance between the two bridges at each end of the station is 30ft to scale, and I've still got to get approach curves in too. So, there is quite a lot of compression and some glaring anomalies. To the North, the main line runs dead straight, but I have a 3ft radius curve. At the other end, the real thing was on a gentle curve, but mine is far more severe. Mind you, how many of us have curves that are prototypical?

Within that 25ft, I could get in all the main running lines, and the station platforms would be nearly as long as the prototype. I would be able to perform most of the movements that happened. Also, the location had sharp curves at each end after the bridges on the station side, and those would help me in fitting things in.

Now, I have quite a lot of plus points, and for me, they far outweigh the compression and the curves. You can't get any major ECML station to scale into a 25ft length, but this one isn't that far out, and I can comfortably put up with the minus points. End of story. Others may disagree, but the purpose of all this is to satisfy and entertain me. Realising that and accepting it is the reason for this layout's longevity.

Operating challenges

For those who haven't seen the previous articles, and who may not be familiar with the pre-1970s railway at Peterborough, a few recaps are in order, if only to show that it

was the real thing that was – to say the least – eccentric, rather than me.

The GNR wasn't the first railway to Peterborough. George Hudson, as in other places, got there first, and the

Midland Railway's route from Leicester to Peterborough East station was in place to the West. The GN, therefore, had to squeeze into the space between the Midland running lines and the City on the other side. The result was a mess, which was not sorted out for well over a century. Thus, you will see only one platform face for Up trains on the ECML, and no access from the Up to either the bays on the Down side or to the far platform. There was an Up slow, but to access it, trains had to cross the main lines at the north end thread through between the far island platform road and the Down slow, then cross both main lines again to get back to the Up, and eventually to an Up slow road.

The huge New England yards were almost all on the Up side, so although there was a Down slow road, it re-joined the main just before Spital Bridge, and then once again, all traffic for the yards had to cross the main lines, and block both. Add to that the 'dog's leg' curves at each end between the bridges, which had a 20mph permanent speed restriction, and the result was an operating nightmare.

My expresses, if running non-stop, all have to run through very slowly, which at least gives plenty of time to observe them in detail. The original intention was that the two bridges, Crescent to the south and Spital to the north, would form the scenic breaks, and that everything else would be off scene. That is still what happens at the north end, but there's a bit more room to the south, and I couldn't resist adding some more detail there. It is incorrect, of course, because of the sharp curve, which shouldn't be, but it

allows the lovely Crescent Junction signal box to be included, and one or two other features as well.

What is there still to be seen of this rather ramshackle and unfit for purpose stretch of railway? The two bridges are there, and the Great Northern Hotel, together with three buildings along the boundary on the Up side and to the north of the new station buildings. Everything else has gone. More efficient, but to me at least, pretty sterile.

Progress update

Let's look at what has happened since 2014. By then all the track was in place, courtesy of the late Norman Saunders of Just Tracks, and Peter Leyland had completed the extremely complex job of making the station buildings and the gradually disintegrating overall roof. There remained a void on the Up side where the District Engineer's complex should be, and which would have to be filled. I was concerned, too, about the other side of the layout, which ended alongside the Down slow line. By this time, I had become interested in photographing the layout for my thread on RMweb, and felt there should be something there to provide a backdrop.

I'll deal with the Down side first. What was there in reality? Two very long and dead straight sidings, usually pretty full of goods stock, and behind those the Midland running lines. The other side of those was occupied by Spital Bridge shed and associated buildings, including a very tall Cenotaph coaling stage. I had no room for any of that, unfortunately, and even if I had, a totally impracticable width of baseboard would have been required. I had left 15in between baseboard edge and outside wall – enough to give access, albeit with a contortion or two, and a bit of a squeeze. Then it occurred to me that, if I could just put in those two long sidings and partly fill them with vans and wagons, I would have the ability to move them up and down to provide a backdrop when required. This would be purely static, so no need for wiring, or other complications. It would also need to be 4in wide, reducing the wiggle room available in most places to just 11in. The positive element was that it would also be a powerful incentive to keep my waistline under control!

We went ahead with this, and I reckon it was a good decision, but you can decide for yourselves from the images that accompany the article. A lot of thought has been given to making a scenic background along the far wall at the end where Spital Bridge shed would have been visible, but that is on hold, as we haven't satisfactorily worked out how to make it look convincing from more than one angle.

Building work

Peter Leyland has also built new bridges for both ends of the layout. Spital Bridge is now much more like the real thing, and the replacement Crescent Bridge has been extended, and is a considerable improvement. Behind it, I couldn't resist adding more detail. The signal box is from the prototype, but a tranship shed, which on the real thing would have been on the straight, now curves quite a lot. I've also included more buildings under and beyond the bridge, guesswork to a degree, as not many photographs of that area have been found, but I feel that it adds atmosphere.

We also needed to include the complex of buildings on the east side of the running lines at the north end, which, by the 1950s, were occupied by the District Engineer's department. The building nearest the main lines was fairly straightforward because it appears in many photographs, or at least one side of it does. Behind that were several more, all long gone, and of which I had found just one close up image. I had many more taken from the platforms on the Down side, but what could be seen varied considerably depending on the photographer's position. This caused a lot

of head scratching and a realisation that I could not hope to accurately reproduce the original.

Behind railway property ran Westwood Street, and the two were separated by a high wall, above which the upper storeys of houses and a pub could be seen. I needed to use that as a backdrop, and I had a maximum of 22 inches in which to do it. That resulted in a lot of experimentation with forced perspective, mocked up 2mm low relief terraces, and one or two other ideas. In the end, with Peter's considerable help, I settled on what can be seen now. It works best when viewed from rail height, but overall, I think it gives a reasonable effect, so I'm happy with the result.

So, on the scenic side of the layout, that is what has happened since 2015, and I'm pleased to say that it has all achieved what I hoped it would. There's still plenty of small detail to work on, though, which I'm sure I'll get round to, eventually.

What we think…

The measure of success of a model of a prototype location is how well the model stacks up against the real thing when it's completed. Despite Gilbert and his team compressing distances within the model (and there has to be a limit to the world modelled), we think that this comparison shot from Crescent Bridge shows how successful it appears.

In Ben Brooksbank's picture is the view northward from Crescent Bridge towards Grantham and the North. On the left is platform six where we see the rear of the last coach, while the Up Class E freight, headed by BR 9F 2-10-0 92041 (built 12/54, withdrawn 8/65) is occupying the only Up Through platform line at the station.

Gilbert's image shows 92188, a Bachmann 9F, on a similar Up mineral working. It is only the absence of the rear portions of the Great Northern Hotel and the area around Station Road that initially betray the difference between model and reality.

Final thoughts

Putting this in writing has really brought home to me how many benefits accrue from having a hobby. I have a passion for the steam age railway, which I can express through it, and it occupies time in a positive and creative way. It has – and still is – getting me to experience new skills. All that applied when life was normal. Over these unprecedented last nine months, it has been a lifeline.

There have also been developments on the other side of the layout, the fiddle yard and ancillaries. They are part of my project to create a sequence of trains through 'Peterborough North' which are, as near as I can make them, correct for the summer of 1958. Hopefully, there will be a further article dealing with that in the near future.

My parents were both very keen amateur photographers, members of the Royal Society in fact, so I grew up with darkrooms, chemicals and the like. Some of their knowledge must have rubbed off on me, so I bought a decent camera, a Canon G12, and started taking photographs that I could share on RMweb. Very soon I also decided that I'd like to at least be able to put a sky background behind them, and so I had to acquire a new skill, photoshopping. There's an advantage of a hobby straight away – learning a new skill at quite an advanced age.

I've made a lot of friends through RMweb. Some I have had the pleasure of meeting, and who have visited and watched things falling off, while many others I shall probably never see in person. The great advantage has been in motivation to use the layout regularly, record what goes on, and post it for others to enjoy, which a gratifying number seem to do. My parents talked a lot about the composition of scenes for photography, and that has helped me a great deal in getting the angles and assessing what and where to crop.

So, what about the challenges? Well, there's a bit of physical pain when squeezing into confined spaces to get different angles, but the main one is signals. Why did the LNER have to choose lattice posts? They can take an absolute age to deal with, and when three get superimposed one on the other, as can happen at the north end, they are beyond my level of skill. Then there are the many things, poles, signals water cranes etc, which like to grow out of the chimneys of locomotives, and which I sometimes don't notice until after the photograph has been taken. Those, of course, are also the pictures which otherwise have come out very well. With a small camera, you get a small viewing screen, and my vision isn't what it used to be, so when I've crammed myself into a corner, and sometimes even when I haven't, these things go unnoticed. Overall, photography and the processing of images is another big plus.

Seen from the far side of Crescent Bridge, a Heaton-based A3 has arrived with a Sunderland to Kings Cross train. It will now come off and be replaced by the local A2/3 waiting in the bay.

This was the view from on the bridge. The Ivatt 4 2-6-0 has brought in a local from the old Midland and Great Northern section, and terminated here. To the right the station forecourt and the Great Northern hotel can be seen.

A2 Happy Knight is at Platform 6 with a Kings Cross to Grantham stopping train. 'Pacifics' were regularly used on these services, though some loaded to no more than four carriages. The return trip would no doubt be something more demanding, however. A general view looking south. The main line pilot waits by the old locomotive shed, while the station pilot, an ancient C12 is in the Up bay. C12s were synonymous with Peterborough North for decades, but this was the last one, and has two months to live.

A high level view of the north end. The B1 in the bay is going to Grimsby, and the WD is commencing its journey to London with one of the many coal trains for the capital, which ran day and night. The District Engineer's area frames the image on the right, and wagons on the Midland siding on the left.

The view beneath the overall roof, as another WD heads for London with more coal, as it will have done probably thousands of times. This view should really be obscured by the smoke that hung around under here most of the time.

The premier ECML express runs through, the 'Elizabethan', hauled by the usual spotless A4. Like all other non-stop trains though, it has had to reduce speed to 20mph while passing through the station.

Another locomotive getting close to the end of its long working life. I have a photograph of this B12 at Peterborough in the summer of 1958, still well cared for by Cambridge shed. The finish on the locomotive has been beautifully captured by Tim Easter, who now deals with all such projects for me.

BEN BROOKSBANK

Trackplan PETERBOROUGH NORTH

The first signs of change appear in this image, as this Pullman service is headed by one of the EE Type 4 diesels that arrived on the ECML in 1958.