Cromford and High Peak…
Last weekend I visited the Peak District. I hadn’t particularly paid much attention when choosing the accommodation, more interested in good walks from the door, price and availability than proximity to railway interest but by good fortune I’ve stumbled upon something that until now I’ve never had more than a passing interest in…
I’m talking about a railway that I’m sure many of you will have heard of, I certainly had, but for some reason had always dismissed as an oddity, a peculiar survivor, ugly as hell locomotives working on a rural yet industrial backwater… the Cromford and High Peak Railway. When you consider the route, the age and the height profile it will come as no surprise the product of the end of the canal era and beginning of the railway age…
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| Top, Geoff Plumb photo (https://plumbloco.smugmug.com/Trains/Cromford/i-Gr4tSHv/A) bottom, me at High Peak Wharf, near Cromford. |
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| Map and profile cropped from photos taken at the visitor centre inside the two ex LMS brake vans, see below. |
The idea of modelling such a distinctive and characterful line had never occurred to me, but as I stood at the foot of the incline, imagining the coming and going, the busy wharf side interchange, the rattling and rumbling of the infamous Sheep Pasture incline and the burly powerful tank engines shuffling loads and empties alongside the once busy canal wharf… the glory days of the canal are long gone but the railway is kept busy by many isolated quarries along its route. The north end of the route was abandoned in the early 1950s but trains ran until then early 1960s out of High Peak Junction. I’ve seen many models of various elements of the line, but it is this canal side scene that for some reason greatly appeals…
As I wandered around the wharf with Janey and our dachshund the feeling of wanting to recreate that lost energy, to reimagine a place of bustling energy from the quiet and tranquil remains grew and grew. The short stroll through the two brake vans and inside the former wagon works only served to cement the interest that led to a book purchase, locomotive purchase and the development of the scheme here…
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| The former wagon works, one of the earliest extant railway workshops in the world. |
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| Despite the Covid barriers the shed was still full of fantastic artefacts and that smell, the wonderful smell of old machinery and equipment. |
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| Fish belly rail, cast iron sections… how the railway was originally laid. |
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| The water tank on the left here was used to fill distinctive water tenders used to supply the steam winding engines at the other inclines, before they were converted to electricity. |
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| The cable wheel and tracks are preserved at the base of the incline, looking back towards the canal wharf. |
The layout designers art, finding a way to evoke the feeling of a place whilst taking liberties to fit available space.
I’m a massive fan of compact cameo layouts, I love taking a place, or photo and distilling the essence of the scene into a compact arrangement that still evokes some of the same emotional connection whilst acknowledging the limitations of space, scale or gauge. As a died in the wool OO modeller, I’ve got this scale and gauge in mind and so initial doodling soon realised that the arrangement of yard sidings at the bottom of the incline meant a space absorbing run around would be needed…
Thinking back to East Work’s space saving Y arrangement where the maximum length of run was the result of trains ‘reversing’ on set, I doodle a flip of the prototype, where the engine shed and yard switched sides (above) and bingo, this produces a more compact arrangement, one that could probably live on a self contained board and be worked as a Inglenook shunting puzzle, or at least offer some operation by shunting the empties and loads on and off the incline base…
Taking the idea further I considered if I could compress the incline arrangement too? The prototype used two tracks from top to bottom with a continuous haulage cable to which trucks were attached with chains. On other inclines wagons would instead pass at a spot half way up or down, and the rest of the trackwork was single… this would certainly reduce space requirements to even fit on one of my Lack shelves, at the expense of prototype fidelity… although with the flip of arrangements the similarity to prototype is already tenuous - but that is the layout designers art, finding a way to evoke the feeling of a place whilst taking liberties to fit available space.
So where next? As a serial doodler I’m keen to explore what turns one of these ‘rabbit holes’ into a physical layout! Last Christmas the Prince Edward Island one generated Kinross, but since several schemes have come and gone as my interest wanders… I muttered to Janey this weekend that I’d love a wealthy benefactor to promise to bank roll ‘my art’ and let me follow the ribbon through all these layout builds, giving me the time and energy to build and share all of these plans… what a dream… in the meantime though thoughts turn again to the possibility of turning these schemes into a book or book a zine… would you buy one?
An exploration of prototype, of inspiration, of choosing a location for the layout, matching to prototype and some ideas to take these theories through practical examples… ‘Designing, building and living with Cameo layouts’… I hope that for now you’ve enjoyed my rambling here.
Until next time, more soon…
I mentioned the book and locomotive purchases?
The book is ‘The Cromford and High Peak Railway in Colour’ by John Evans, published by Amberley. It portrays the end of the line, and it is this period in particular, the feeling of living in borrowed time, that always appeals to me, the end of steam, the end of the branch line and in this case the end of a unique railway.
The locomotive is a second hand DJ Models J94. The old Hornby model is a non starter, and the newer EFE version of the DJM tooling is both more expensive and I’m sure the wheel profile is slightly less finescale, the flanges certainly seem bigger on the examples I’ve worked on here… so the DJM version will be lightly reworked with a RT Models detailing etch and weathered to match the end of operations. You know by now that I enjoy working on locomotives, so if nothing else comes from it I shall have enjoyed the development of scheme, the research and the modelling.
Further reading:
Wikipedia page for High Peak Junction:
Wikipedia page for Cromford and High Peak Railway:
Thread of photos and discussion on the omnipresent RMWeb:
More super photos from the sad event of the closure rail tour on Geoff Plumb’s website:
A very interesting line, I really like your design for the Wharf area. Having a friend who in the past made a large scale model of the line complete with working incline I particularly like the idea of creating a design which would fit on a shelf.
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion of a book of designs sounds a great idea. As one who always struggles with inspiration i feel that it would have a ready market. Well I would buy a copy as a starter!
Thank you Philip, it’s very kind of you. I’m glad my scheme resonates with others too… model railways are as much art as engineering and getting the composition right in these smaller spaces is crucial. I’m really pleased with the potential of this scheme, it has certainly got plenty going for it. Good luck if you choose to build it, having mocked it out today you can squeeze it on to a Lack shelf, 100x24cm fits nicely.
DeleteWell that led me down the rabbit hole for the afternoon! Fascinating line, modern yet archaic at the same time. Just wondering why you chose the engine shed over the wharf building as the view block at the left? With its transhipment areas and canopies it could be a more interesting building than the loco shed? Also, another book if you havent seen it is "Modelling Ports and Inland Waterways" by David Wright, he devotes a chapter to the wharf.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, love coming back to see what your up to.
Evan (NZ)
Thanks for the conversation Evan, I’m glad this helped introduce you to the prototype from afar as well…
DeleteYou ask about composition, that’s a great question as the wharf building would have been a more obvious choice. My choice was more instinct than reason… engine sheds provide somewhere to leave our models when not in use, this layout lives in a home, so needs to be attractive and interesting at all times…
Practically thinking about it, I wonder if by choosing the transhipment shed, our eyes would wrestle with the scene as in reality, stood on that little bridge, the transhipment is way down the canal, almost out of site… the horizontal compression may be too great.