Monsal Dale

Monsal Dale Viaduct and Station

Rather than retaining a Great Western theme, Southport Model Railway Society's third layout in N-gauge is a representation of the Midland mainline through Monsal Dale. As with Dulverton and Saltash, the trackwork conforms to N-gauge, the rest of the layout being built to 2mm to 1ft.

Monsal Dale lies in the heart of the Peak District in an area of outstanding beauty. Being situated close to Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham, it has inevitably become the weekend playground of their population. It is a deep valley cut into the limestone hills of Derbyshire, playing host to the River Wye, a small rural road, and now the Monsal Dale Trail. The railway line bursts out of the eastern hills, crossing the River Wye by an elegant five-arch brick and masonry viaduct before meandering along the valley sides for about a mile before disappearing into a tunnel again.

There was a small station with a siding and an extensive passing loop on the down side. This station served a sparsely populated countryside, with the siding serving a small quarry. Day trippers kept the line going for many years but eventually it succumbed and stopping trains ceased in 1967, with full closure the following year. However, this may not be the end of the story. It is believed that the tunnels on the line are essentially sound and would support a reopening. This has been mooted on a number of occasions, as either a diversionary route for the west coast main line trains to Manchester or even as an extension of Peak Rail. Debate and grandiose plans rumble along.

But why model Monsal Dale? One reason is that the tunnels at the eastern and western ends provide convenient scenic breaks. Also, although the distance between the tunnels is just short of a mile (which in N-gauge would require a layout over 10m long) an acceptably-sized layout can been achieved by judicious compression. This can be done mainly by shortening the passing loop and reducing the distance from the viaduct to the station, whilst leaving the former's dimensions unchanged. Indeed, there is probably some merit in selective compression since this can provide interest over the whole extent of the layout. Nevertheless, it should still be possible to accommodate a 20-25 wagon train in the passing loop.

Overall the scenery is relatively straightforward, Buildings are minimal apart from the station, tunnel mouths and two or three bridges. The height of the hills to the south provides a perfect backscene to hide the fiddleyard.

As to operation, this is primarily envisaged as an exhibition layout with a continuous stream of trains to entertain the public, but also with the potential to be set up and operated in the club rooms, albeit to a much more restricted extent. However, what could be classed as unique is that the layout has the potential to be operated in three totally different guises:

1) as a conventional historic railway scene, in its Midland period, at the grouping, or into BR days. Some serious kit-bashing and scratch-building would be required to provide sufficient authentic-looking stock,

2) modern image, as there has been much talk of reopening the line as an alternative route from the Midlands to Manchester. It could be envisaged that this actually happened, and

3) it could be imagined that Peak Rail did extend its operation, with the line becoming the Midland equivalent of the North York Moors Railway. The operating potential then becomes limitless - it may even be possible to see GWR locos.

Overall the layout is just over 4.5m long and just over 1m in depth. it consists of three boards each folding lengthwise to form a fully enclosed box (with end pieces added) for storage and transportation. This has been designed to minimise the damage that inevitably occurs during transport to and from shows. Construction is from various thicknesses of plywood and is a modified space frame, with expanded foam for the scenery, for strength and sound deadening.
The track is PECO streamline code 55 finescale laid on high density foam, with slow-acting point motors scheduled for the scenic section of the board and rescued H&M motors in the fiddle yard. It is anticipated that there will be operating semaphore signals.

As of the end of 2009 all track, with the exception of a small section of the fiddle yard, has been laid and tested. The next tasks are ballasting and building the scenic formers. Some serious consideration needs to be given to both the electrics and the trestles (which are currently workmates and are not up to the job) before we contemplate exhibitions.

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