Clay Cross Model Railway Society

Current Projects

Two 4mm scale exhibition layouts are currently under construction.

Midland Mainline

The first one is based on a fictional station on a secondary mainline somewhere in the Midlands. The aims of this large continuous oval layout are to inform and entertain the public by providing a succession of realistic trains in a semi urban location to demonstrate the operation of a local railway in transition between the steam and diesel eras. Construction is well advanced with the track and many of the buildings and other structures complete or nearing completion. The station buildings will be based on those at Kettering.

The goods warehouse is based on the large one that stood in Chesterfield station yard until recently. There will also be at one end a 9 arch viaduct and leading to it will be an elevated section of brick built arches occupied by warehousing and industry, whilst at the other end there will be stone lined cutting through a town similar to that at Belper.

Hindlow

The second layout has recently been started to fulfill the prime objective of our Society as an educational charity, of educating the public in railways and model railways.

Some members who had not been involved in the construction of the first layout from the beginning expressed an interest in constructing a smaller layout from scratch with a view to producing a working layout for exhibition. Unlike the first layout this will be based on a real location in Derbyshire to portray a railway built to serve both a local community and two traditional Derbyshire industries, quarrying limestone and the production of lime.

In depth research has been taking place to ensure that the layout will be a realistic representation as possible of the station at Hindlow and its surroundings. Sources of information have included local libraries, the London and North Western Railway Society, retired British Railways staff and site visits to photograph the infrastructure remaining on site.

A copy of the original LNWR Civil Engineer’s 1893 linen drawing of the line at Hindlow, updated to show alterations, has been obtained, to ensure that the track layout is faithfully reproduced. In fact it changed little between 1893 and 1960, which will enable various periods to be portrayed. We have established that Hindlow station was prefabricated by the LNWR, which pioneered this technique of modular construction: we were fortunate to find that these modules are offered in 4mm scale by Parkside Dundas in their Grand Junction Range.

The actual traffic carried by the railway needs to be faithfully portrayed. We have acquired working timetables for various years and the locomotive allocations at both the Buxton and the Stoke motive power depots that worked the line. Photographs dating back to the last years of the 19th century show the type of locomotives used and the traffic carried including limestone products, livestock, milk, munitions for the MOD depot at Harpur Hill, silica bricks from Friden, chicken grit from Longcliffe and both local and through passenger traffic.

This has been a fascinating exercise and still continues.

The layout will be about 9 metres long with fiddle yards at both ends. The area to be modeled will include the station and yard from the tunnel mouth as far as the junction with the Ladmanlow branch, which joined the line with the route of Cromford and High Peak Railway to Whaley Bridge.

LMS Class 4F No. 44508 testing in Hindlow Yard. May 1962. Photo J M Bentley

Beswicks lime works at Hindlow 25th April 1953. Photo: H Townley

Hindlow today

Club Layout 2007. Trackwork in station area with railway arches occupied by warehouses.

Updated 13 March 2008