LONGNOR (O-16.5)

Evolving to better suit operational requirements, this narrow-gauge slice also proves that location accuracy isn't mandatory to enjoy the hobby at its best.

Evolving to better suit operational requirements, this narrow-gauge slice also proves that location accuracy isn’t mandatory to enjoy the hobby.

Longnor is a village in North Staffordshire and not too far away from Hulme End, which was the terminus of the Leek & Manifold Railway. In reality, Longnor never had any form of railway connection and the model is a simple 'might have been'.

The Leek & Buxton Railway never existed in real life. The story behind the layout is that the line’s backers intended to have a general purpose line linking Leek to Buxton and, as it would have to be narrow gauge to tackle the topography of the route it would need to take, it would be an obvious attraction for tourists as it travelled through the Staffordshire and Derbyshire Dales. The railway was opened from Leek to Longnor in the early twentieth century. The story goes on to say that the general traffic and tourists didn’t materialise at the levels expected and that the line never got beyond Longnor – about halfway from Leek to Buxton and, although small, the largest inhabited area along the chosen route.

The model is set in 1935 and the entire railway is assumed to have closed five or so years later as a result of World War II and never re-opened.

Measuring up

The model is end-to-end in design and is intended mainly for exhibition work – although much used at home. It has three scenic boards and one fiddle yard board.

The fiddle yard has no permanent track and trains are assembled, despatched, and received using cassettes. The baseboards were constructed by Black Cat (a firm sadly no longer trading) and have integral folding legs. On assembly, the baseboards are aligned using pattern makers’ dowels and held together by clamps.

Deciding on what loading gauge to adopt for the layout, I had to bear in mind that narrow gauge railways’ loading gauges don't always bear any firm relationship with the track gauge they use. For example, the Ffestiniog Railway’s loading gauge is more generous than that of the Talyllyn Railway, even though the Ffestiniog has a narrower track gauge. I spent a great deal of time deciding on what locomotive kits I would like to purchase and build, bearing in mind that this type of job was not something I was much good at! In the end, I decided that the railway would adopt a loading gauge, which was similar to that used by the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, and I have no regrets.

Kit-building

I built two Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardle 2-6-2T locomotives, using Slimrails kits, each built on a modified American Bachmann chassis. Slimrails also provided the other two locomotives, a Campbeltown & Machrihanish Barclay 0-6-2T and a Tralee & Dingle Hunslet 2-6-0T, both of these were built on modified American Bachmann chassis. As I had imagined that the railway was built and opened in the early years of the twentieth century, I further imagined that each of these locomotives was acquired by the Leek & Buxton’s owners from the builders who supplied the real-life engines to their real-life railways (but don’t ask me how!). A pair of freelance tram vehicles, which were assembled from Branchlines kits years ago and had been used on an

earlier layout, were slightly modified and repainted and put to use again. These are deemed to operate from battery power. Given the terrain, this is highly unlikely, but I really enjoy running them! The rolling stock includes Lynton & Barnstaple-style coaches built from Worsley Works kits, and the goods stock is from a wide variety of sources who make kits of models in the right dimensions for the loading gauge I operate.

‘Longnor’ was not the first narrow gauge layout I had built, so I didn’t find much of the construction of the layout to be beyond my limited skills, especially since I didn’t have to build the baseboards. However, the locomotives were an entirely different matter. Never before had I attempted to build so many locomotives and it isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that the time it took to build them and get them running satisfactorily was easily as much as it took to build the layout itself. One of the biggest problems was to modify the chassis of each of the American Bachmann locomotives for which the bodywork had been designed. In each case, it was necessary to fettle the interior of the white metal kit to make everything install correctly and, importantly, actually work. I am sure this was due to me and my inexperience rather than to the products themselves. I am pleased with the results, but now have a slight problem in that Bachmann no longer makes that particular chassis so, if anything goes wrong and a replacement chassis is needed, it will become interesting!

Trackwork

Originally, the track nearest to the viewer of the layout didn't provide a secondary route to the fiddle yard. It was a head shunt. However, after the first exhibition of the layout, it was extended into a secondary route because the head shunt was not very successful when operating. So, now it is assumed that two routes were leaving 'Longnor', but which converged about halfway to Leek, and this makes for a more entertaining operation. The fact that 'Longnor' is a confined station area means that the face of the platform nearest to the viewer has to double as a loading/unloading area for parcels and the like, and the track at the front edge of the layout is the siding, which deals with everything else. Matters are further complicated by the fact that there is only one run-round loop and that is on the other side of the platform to the siding. People who help operate the layout

at exhibitions have been known to resort to un-parliamentary language in addressing their remarks to me about this aspect of the layout’s design.

The permanent way is all Peco O-16.5 narrow gauge track, except for the points, which are by Marcway as I wanted a slightly more generous radius than the

Peco points provided. The points are powered by analogue Cobalt point motors activated using that firm’s large point levers. These are fixed to a control panel, which also looks after powering the layout’s electrical sections. Power is supplied by a Gaugemaster DC unit to which a hand-held controller is attached that actually drives the trains. The two signals are controlled by wire-in-tube from behind the backscene. I quite like the signal technology as there is almost nothing to go wrong – famous last words! And, of course, they are hand-made.

The fiddle yard is entered by two tracks from the main layout and these are at either side of the yard’s baseboard. Cassettes are used to despatch and receive trains, and they are aligned by sight using some fairly large bronze strips, attached to the fiddle yard, which rubs against metal strips on the sides of the cassettes. Locomotives have their own separate short cassettes, which are placed appropriately at the end of the main cassettes, and this allows them to be easily removed and switched from one end of a train to the other. Electrical connectivity between the control panel and the boards is by the use of computer cables.

Setting the scene

There aren’t many buildings on the layout – in fact, just one! This is a heavily kitbashed station building that I acquired from Invertrains. It sits isolated from the platform, but this was a feature that I very much wanted to include – but don’t ask me why as I haven’t a clue! The platform is quite narrow and the surface has been made from N gauge track ballast. The platform lights illuminate (mainly to satisfy children at exhibitions who always want to know “do your lights work, Mister?”) but are normally left unlit. The same applies to lighting within the station building. The only other structures are a water tower next to the station, together with a cramped coaling stage, and a few pedestrian bridges over the tracks where they disappear into the fiddle yard.

The tower was assembled from the remainder of a kit used on an earlier layout, and the footbridges were made using

leftovers in my 'bits box'. I believe that I may actually have purchased a sheet of plastic card as well! I have little interest in modelling buildings – or, indeed, anything the other side of the boundary fence, or stone wall. Keeping the layout essentially rural and devoid of structures is exactly how I like it and, for where the station is supposed to be, entirely prototypical.

The scenery is essentially polystyrene blocks cut to shape and then covered with plaster. This was then painted dark green before being covered with static grass. Different shades and lengths of grass were used and then a lot of tufting was done. I must have used bags of the stuff and, again, different lengths and shades were used. I have tried to keep the ground covering fairly muted in tone as I have aimed at setting the layout in late summer but before the onset of autumn colours. Bushes and scrub have been created using lichen, foam and other popular materials, and there are a dozen or so trees that I obtained from the Model Tree Shop. Ballast and ground cover was by Woodlands Scenics. The ballast and the track have been lightly sprayed with 'frame dirt' and 'sleeper grime' shades of paint – again to tone down the overall colouring.

Operation

When I was planning the layout, I paid many visits to the real Longnor (at that time only 30 minutes away from my home) and I was able to place the location of the station exactly. This meant that I can explain why it is as compact and narrow as it is. As I operate the layout, I can see the real location in my mind’s eye and I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching trains arrive, depart, shunt and reform. With the use of Kadee uncouplers and carefully chosen – and hidden – magnetic uncoupling pads, I don’t need to interfere with the running of trains by manual intervention, and that makes operating sessions very satisfying.

The layout is perfectly capable of being operated by just one person, and this is how it is operated at home. However, for exhibition use, when the object is to try to have something moving at all times to satisfy the punters(!), two operators are used. One simply tends to the fiddle yard and assembles trains ready for despatch and receives them back again. The other actually drives the trains. I’ve tried using a sequence table for exhibitions, but this doesn’t work terribly well. What happens now is that the main layout operator asks for, say, a goods train, and the fiddle yard operator assembles one ready for despatch. The vehicles are mixed in such a way that ensuring vans go to the platform siding and everything else goes to the other siding involves a lot of shunting for the main layout operator. I find that after an hour or so of operating the main layout, it is only humane to offer counselling to the individual concerned...

Parting thoughts

I know that, famously, a model railway is never finished, but I don’t think there is anything more that I want to do to change 'Longnor'. Over the recent year or so of lockdowns and general unpleasantness, I have built another O-16.5mm layout, which models another station on the same fictitious railway. It is of the same dimensions as 'Longnor' and is also a terminus, but it is of a quite different design and its operating challenges are not those of 'Longnor'. However, I can use the same locomotives and rolling stock as I use on 'Longnor', so that has saved a lot of modelling effort!

One of my other layouts is a DCC modern image end-to-end layout, which has locomotives and DMUs with sound, lights and sound effects. I enjoy running it, but when the time comes to put it back into storage along the wall of the garage and replace it with 'Longnor', somehow, I enjoy the hobby more...

A view coming out of the station building door. A goods train has just arrived to permit the engine to run round on the station loop.

Manning Wardle 2-6-2T locomotive No. 2, Thorncliffe, has arrived with a goods train and will use the loop to go to the rear to start shunting.

Three ladies and a dog await a train outside the station building. The Station Master tells one of the ladies that she simply can’t leave her car parked there.

Hunslet 2-6-0T locomotive No. 4, Reaps Moor, departs with a Leek-bound train.

A view of the station building. It looks like the lady still hasn’t moved her car…

Hunslet 2-6-0T locomotive No. 4, Reaps Moor, returns with a service from Leek having come by the original route.

The tram arrives from Leek, via the newer route. A busy interlude at Longnor!

A general view of the station. The track serving the platform face occupied by the tram doubles as a goods siding. Shunting the goods sidings involves using the loop, visible to the left of the blue locomotive.

Shunting taking place. Both lines out of Longnor have shunting limit boards at an appropriate distance from the station, and shunting takes place passing signals set at danger.

A goods train ready for departure to Leek collects its guard’s van from storage in the spur at the end of the loop.

A passenger train from Leek arrives at the main platform. The locomotive will soon move to the coaling stage and water tower. Part of the coaling stage can be seen on the left.