Elton Crossing - A small bit of the NSRly Wheelock branch in 7mm

Go for it Andy... spotlights on you dude.

 

Nicely put Andy... gosh that takes me back a bit to the days of hand building points. The sad thing is unfortunately this layout isn't portable... that was a king size mistake but ever the optimist me I'm confident the next one will be. I did it once so I can do it again and the Leek Arm doesn't have to be an exact copy of the original, it can have the Cone Tunnel at one end and the Shunting bridge at the other with say a level crossing in the middle. The real location had a scrap yard, a golf course, a football pitch, a pub and a sewage works so what more could any connoisseurs of variation want? Oh and I nearly forgot a derelict canal basin.

 

You're always welcome Clive... I think Andy did us all proud fetching them from the archives.

 

Hi Jowen,

Not sure what happened with your texts ... I have a pm from yourself which I've not had chance to reply to due to be spending time putting the finishing touches to the 4mm "Name the Bridge" competition prize which I'm sponsoring. I have read your pm and find it very informative indeed so thank you for all your helpful advice and knowledge share.

Now as a matter of interest when originally building Elton Crossing all I had apart from some memory of the site in derelict condition was a few pictures of the crossing house taken by Ian Bowland, a few old OS maps and some photos taken by Alan Baker, to try and get some sense of scale and size I had to resort to counting bricks and roof tiles to get proportions and also employ the artists trick of sight size measurement. I don't with this method I was far out, only recently I managed to get hold of an LMS drawing plan of the Elton sight complete with measurements which stated the Co op Siding was 78 yards in length to the clearance point of number 11 crossover road, my model was only a scale 16 yards short. One thing that did surprise me was the actual length of the coal porters loading stage, I didn't realise it extended all the way up to the yard gate... so I'll have to modify the model to suit.

It may be best to chat about this here as we have a few folk who follow and model the Knotty and may well find what we find to talk about quite interesting. Anyway great to have you on board and yes I'd love to bring the Elton Crossing layout back on stream again and update it with your helpful input which is much appreciated.

regards York Paul

 

I didn't know the coal wharf was covered... was that a type of canopy then ? One of Alan Baker's photos taken at the time of the main line electrification show a wooden platform and shed with side wall sleepers but not covering the coal landing, presumably this would have been when the box was fitted with some electric lever locks on 9 FPL and 10 points in conjunction with track circuits and the No 6 Call On signal was motor worked. I presume this was all done so that Elton became the fringe box to Sandbach when the siding which fed Prings and Fodens sidings was ceased being used under single line arrangements. One question do you remember if the Co-op coal siding had a set of traps on it against the No 11 crossover road points ? The 1934 plans shows it did and I wondered if these were worked by a manual hold up lever as it certainly wasn't worked or controlled from the lever frame in the box as some sort of Tyer's lock.

Yes I remember meeting your Mum at Cheddleton all those years ago when we had just finished restoration, I seem to recall her comments of how unaltered it looked I've also seen a photo of here working the box, the picture was taken in the doorway and the Tyers No6 token machine is clearly visible in front of the telephone board and table at the front wndows. My sad regret in restoring the box was all the dark brown paint on the walls which I removed was actually the original NSR paint / varnish... Elton box had never had an internal repaint in all those years apart from probably the ceiling and sash sliding windows.

 

No I hadn't forgotten to mention the box Mr S... I was just saving the details hoping you'd come in as part of this convo. You can mention the printed gates, nameboards and mileposts too not to mention the WC which goes in the crossing keepers outside closet

 

That's because I haven't built the closet yet... hopefully this renewed interest in Elton Crossing will see development progress again.