WARDS END
0 gauge layout of the Skipton & District Railway Society
Dimensions:
L-shaped, 14ft 8in x 10ft
7in (4.47m x 3.22m) overall, plus operating space, see
Wards End Plan..
Type
of Layout:
Minor
terminal station in an urban setting, with a private branch to a small colliery
and sidings where full and empty coal wagons are exchanged between BR and the
colliery branch. BR(M), ex-LNWR, 1950s.
Scale/Gauge:
7mm:1ft,
32mm track gauge, O finescale.
Number
of Operators:
4/5.
Transport
Requirements/Expenses:
Transit van hire. Fuel for van and 1 car. B&B accommodation if more
than 50 miles (1½ hours) from Skipton. (For very distant venues B&B accommodation for
night after exhibition).
Next
Appearances:
Linlithgow 2009
Past
Appearances:
Skipton 2004, in unfinished state, Skipton 2007 (first appearance in "finished"
state), Skipton 2009.
Contact:
Trevor Shaw
24 Nursery Lane
Addingham
Ilkley
LS29 0TN
Tel: 01943 831935
Email
Note: The above email address is an image and cannot be used as a link.
Layout Description
Wards End was the
unfinished home layout of Barry Pickford, late member of Skipton & DRS, and
was kindly donated to the Society by his widow, Margaret. As a memorial to Barry
and also because we thought it was a pretty good layout, we decided it should be
finished. At first, we intended it should be used just for "playing
trains" in the clubrooms but sometime later, we decided to convert it to an
exhibition layout. This has involved completely re-wiring the layout and installing
Tortoise point motors so that it could be operated remotely from the back. There
were also many buildings to be constructed or finished. This process is still
ongoing, but should be more or less complete by the time of our exhibition in
August 2007.
Wards End is a minor
terminal station in an urban setting, hemmed in by retaining walls, tall mills
and Victorian terraced housing. Its fictional location was originally somewhere south of Manchester on a branch line from the main line near Poynton. The time was the 1950s.
There is a real place, called Wardsend, exactly where Barry imagined Wards End
would be, but he changed the spelling and we believe he never intended the
layout should represent the real Wardsend. Because we have insufficient ex-LNWR
stock to run the layout in this location and time-period, we have moved the
layout's fictional location to somewhere south-east of Leeds, where facilities were shared between
LNER (ex-NE) and LMS (ex-LNWR) in the 1930s.
Two tracks enter Wards End from off-scene. The near track is the single line branch from
Leeds and
the further track is a private line to a small colliery. Loaded coal wagons are worked along the colliery branch by the
colliery's own locos into the exchange sidings at Wards End and are taken away
by LMS or LNER locos. The branch provides a shuttle service to Leeds, worked by
push-pull trains or a steam railmotor with an occasional through train from
further afield. As well as the colliery exchange sidings, the yard at
Wards End has a goods shed, a cattle dock, side- and end-loading facilities and
a small loco shed. A kick-back siding serves a small factory making card
clothing for the textile industry. (Ask the operators what card clothing is.
Clue: it's not jackets and trousers made from cardboard.)
The layout was never
intended for exhibition when Barry designed and built it. Fortunately, it is
sectional, but the sections are very heavy, being rather large and built from
12mm marine ply. Plain track is C+L and point and crossing work from the same
source or is rail soldered
to PCB sleepers, with cosmetic chairs added after soldering. All this is Barry's
work as is all of the landscape understructure and many of the buildings. The
station building is beautifully constructed from card by Barry's son, Geoff.
Other buildings were made or finished by SDRS members.
Stock is the property of
several Society members and represents LMS/LNER as running in the 1930s. The colliery
possesses a large variety of industrial locos mostly in pristine condition
because its owner is something of a railway fanatic who does not tolerate dirty locomotives.
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