'Monty' - a Familiar Exmoor

The active visiting locomotive at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway's 75th Anniversary gala was Exmoor Steam Railway built 0-4-2T 'Monty' from the Evesham Vale Light Railway. Smartly turned out in maroon you could easily be fooled into thinking that this well maintained machine had left the Exmoor works looking like this when first built.

But 'Monty' is in fact a very much rebuilt 'Markeaton Lady', built in 1996 for the much-missed Markeaton Park Light Railway in Derby. Under the ownership of John Bull the loco looked very different, especially as over the years she gained a lovely patina of a working locomotive, a huge contrast to the polished, if sometimes a little wet, appearance she presented at Cleethorpes on Sunday.

The photo above was taken in 2008, and I think was possibly the last time I saw 'Markeaton Lady' in use at Derby. The railway was a handy stop-off when visiting 7mm Narrow Gauge Association events in Mickleover and Burton-upon-Trent, usually a quick visit for a return trip on the way home. The blue Exmoor locomotive clearly had an effect on me, as my own O9 Exmoor model took on the front-end appearance and the colour influence, despite being an 0-6-2T.

Before I built my Exmoor ('St. Edwin') I had originally contemplated an 0-4-2T version on a Minitrains outside-framed chassis. The picture above neatly illustrates why this would not necessarily have worked, as the vertical Minitrains motor would actually be too far forward to fit in the cab. The dimensions could have been juggled a little but as I didn't actually have the chassis at that time it was all rather academic and the 0-6-2T version on an inside framed Bachmann chassis was the result.

The new run-around loop at the CCLR's Lakeside station offers a few new photographic opportunities, I was actually sat on the train taking this photo of the loco approaching the train to take out the next working to Kingsway. Having a loop here makes all the difference to day-to-day operations for the railway by removing the need to top-and-tail workings and just making things much more railway-like for observers such as myself...

The track re-laid last year through the floodgate and up to the first foot crossing is still looking in excellent condition as we see 'Monty' heading out through the gate and onto the coastal stretch of the line. It was remarked during the day that you cannot see as much of the coast as you once could along here, growth in the protected area of the old dunes has restricted this somewhat but there are a few breaks in the vegetation where the water can be seen. From the elevated point on the flood defences you can see a lot more and watching passing ships in the estuary passes time between trains.

The photographs in this entry have not been presented in the order they were taken, in fact the first picture was later in the day when the rain had started. The contrast in weather to this shot is marked, this was before lunch and was one of those moments where due to the lighting conditions the camera on my phone actually produced a better balanced image than my camera. But the weather did not affect my day at the CCLR, even if it did try to interrupt the official proceedings with a storm the day before!

Update: I have now uploaded a larger selection of images at higher resolution to Flickr: Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway Gala 2023

Colin

Farewell Markeaton Park

The news came through this week that the Markeaton Park Light Railway in Derby had closed, with one of the reasons cited as non-renewal of the lease when it expires at the end of the year. It was also rumoured that track lifting would commence immediately and that a the rolling stock had been sold to a new home.

Happier times, 'Markeaton Lady' and matching Exmoor stock on 8th June 2008

I first became aware of this line in the early 1990s as it was listed as a location of a 15” gauge railway with a Maxitrax petrol locomotive. However, it was not until a news item appeared in the ‘Railway Magazine’ in 1996 covering the change in ownership to the Bull family and purchase of an Exmoor Steam Railway 0-4-2T locomotive and coaching stock that the urge to visit appeared. This duly occurred in April 1997 and whilst ‘Markeaton Lady’ was not in steam, we were able to view it in the cavernous shed and ride behind the Alan Keef diesel ‘Cromwell’. On subsequent visits we were able to travel behind steam until the locomotive was withdrawn for overhaul and subsequently sold to the Evesham Vale Light Railway where it now runs as 'Monty'.

Our last ride, 'City of Derby' with the ex-Fairbourne stock on 30th January 2016

The railway soldiered on with the diesel locomotive ‘City of Derby’ as sole motive power, although from some of the reports of cancelled services on their Facebook page, not always the most reliable of machines! Our last visit to the railway came by chance in January this year on the day of the 7mm NGA Derby Members day, when a sunny afternoon saw us call in at the park on the return home, simply on the basis that it had been a few years since we had visited. We had a ride in the rake of ex-Fairbourne coaching stock that had always been in the shed on previous visits but we did not get to see or ride in the refurbished Exmoor stock that will no doubt give good service to their new owner. 

The station area, taken on our first visit on 3rd April 1997

From a modelling point of view the main station area has (had) a very modelegenic air to it, a simple loop and two lines heading into the shed, itself a remnant of the armed forces occupation of the park in the 1940s where it served as the NAAFI (and inside still had the counter and shutters to prove it). Inside the shed another point provided a third line, almost as if it were a real-life fiddle yard, enabling the railway to store all of its stock under cover with space to spare. I’ve often thought that with some subtle adjustment at the Markeaton Park setting, especially with the curve heading out of the station, could lend itself to the ‘Shifting Sands’ format rather well…

Colin

The Great Barnes, Clayton and Lowke Connundrum

It may sound like a firm of solicitors caught up in a Sherlock Holmes tale, but the purpose of these scribblings is to give an idea of the dilemma I'm currently having as to what outline my embryonic 'Atlantic' will take in the future.  Given that I will probably only have one shot at building an Atlantic (donor chassis are not easy to come by at my near-Yorkshire kind of price), I want to ensure that the final choice is one that I'm happy with.

So what are the options?  Ruling out the earlier Bassett-Lowke class 10 and 20 'Little Giants' on size (I've already blown the class 30 drawings up to 7.5mm scale), there are three key options to consider in outline:

1) Bassett-Lowke Class 30 outline, - 'Synolda' or 'Count Louis'...

'Synolda' on a visit to the Kirklees Light Railway

'Count Louis' at the Evesham Vale Light Railway

The classic Greenly design of these locos is a big plus point for me, however there are many differences between the survivors (and indeed the lost machine 'Sans Pariel' had a flatter cab roof), note the different drop in the rear footplate for example, whilst 'Count Louis' retains it's later cab, possibly built by Trevor Guest.  The greatest temptation is perhaps 'Count Louis' with the larger Fairbourne tender, not one for the purist but at least a Kato bogie chassis can be secreted away in there.

2) Clayton/Cannon Iron Foundries/Hunt outline - 'Sutton Belle' or 'Sutton Flyer'...

'Belle' and 'Flyer' with authentic stock at Cleethorpes

The two Atlantics that I am most familiar with, 'Belle' is very much an "improved class 30", constructed by Douglas Clayton (and indeed originally named after him) from Bassett-Lowke castings, whilst 'Flyer' is a later, further refined design completed by Hunt's for the Sutton Miniature Railway.  They may superficially look the same, but as with the surviving class 30s, there are many differences.  Tender drive would be a Kato 4w unit disguised as a 6w tender.  My biggest problem here is which one to choose - and how to explain to people that I won't necessarily be building the other one!

3) Barnes 'Albion' outline - 'Joan', 'John' etc

'John' at the Evesham Vale Light Railway

I'll be honest, in the past I've always looked on the Greenly designed, Albert Barnes built Atlantics as inferior to the class 30s.  I am of course wrong, perhaps my view was tainted by the pictures of the Rhyl line in the 80s in a rather run down state.  However, as the picture above shows, they can scrub up rather well, also evidenced by the recent restoration of 'Michael' at Rhyl.  I'd need to drop the ex-V2 Cartazzi truck at the rear and find a suitable wheelset, but these rugged machines have an advantage over the others in that the driving wheels are spaced slight further apart.  Tender drive would be as above, the disadvantage here is a slightly more open tender frame, less easy to hide that Kato unit!

4) The outsider - the 'freelance' approach...

It isn't inconceivable that a miniature railway operator could have built a loco themselves, perhaps like Douglas Clayton they bought the castings and drawings from Bassett-Lowke and slowly built it over a period of time?  We have no idea how many other sets of 15" Atlantic castings Bassett-Lowke sold that were never built, there may have been many, or simply none.  Or perhaps a complete new build?

Austin Moss' Atlantic project at Windmill Farm

 In the world of miniature railways, almost anything is possible!