by Steven Bateman

Minories Midland is heavily influenced by the classic Cyril Fraser layout design, “Minories” which first appeared in the Railway Modeller in 1955.

The track plan of the original can be seen below together with a picture of the original Minories station (closed in 1854 when Fenchurch Street was opened). The original track plan was intended to be built in OO gauge and measured 10” x 72” (1’x7’).

Original Minories (source: Wikipedia)

Original Minories Track plan (http://carendt.us/)

For Minories Midland the track plan has been modified to allow for more interesting running and to make use of the extra space resulting from moving to N Gauge whilst keeping the original baseboard size relatively unchanged.

The modified track plan can be seen below. The layout is to be reasonably flexible in terms of operating era representing anything from the BR blue era, through sectorisation and into the early years of privatisation. As can be seen additional tracks (or disused track-beds) have been added to the track plan to show how the layout of a station changes over the years – particularly following track rationalisation following the 1960s BR modernisation plan.

The terminus roads will end at a suitable location in order to allow the layout to be extended at a future date so allowing for through trains to be run. It is hoped that the layout will be large enough to take a full length HST together with a few through freight trains.

Track Plan
The track plan will be heavily based on the original Freezer track plan. The two cross-overs at the station entrance will be retained. The stub line at the top of the original plan will be extended to create an additional full length platform. The front track will be moved forward and the platform widened to allow space for a disused bay platform. This will represent a former one or two track bay platform that was lifted several years ago and now collects litter.

Construction
The layout will be built using a traditional flat-top base board. The higher level part of the layout will be built up using a combination of Balsa or expanded polystyrene.

Scenery
The scenery is intended to dominate the trains i.e. the railway is part of the landscape not the landscape being part of the railway. This is the main reason why the size of the original Freezer layout has not been changed significantly. The original concept of a compact urban terminus will be retained. After passing under a bridge (or possibly out of a tunnel) which acts as the scenic break trains pass a tall retaining wall which runs the length of the layout. This is intended to replicate the feel of the retaining wall at Sheffield or entering the daylight from the tunnels approaching Birmingham New Street. Cables run along the wall past the foundations of the old signal box. The platforms have a run down feeling to them. Platform furniture is minimal. Pedestrian access to the two island platforms is down flights of stairs from another over bridge, possibly via a station building. On the embankment overlooking the railway is a row of buildings. There are likely to be terraced houses or a row of shops. As with the station the area has seen better days and several buildings are boarded up and vandalised. Initially buildings on the layout are likely to be kit built (Metcalf or Kestrel). These are likely to be replaced by scratch built buildings at a later time. Behind the first row of buildings may be either a further row of low-relief houses or pictures glued to the back scene (decoupage style) to provide some additional depth to the layout.

Operation
As with the original Cyril Freezer version the layout will be dominated by DMU services. Loco hauled trains will be very limited due to there not being any run round loops. Trains will enter the layout onto the down line from the fiddle yard and make there way across the station throat point work to an available platform. Platform 1 (top) will only be accessible from one track and so will result in some in-scene shunting of the DMUs. After pausing in the platform for a suitable length of time, perhaps waiting for another train to arrive and depart, the train will return to the fiddle yard via the up line.

A traverser style fiddle yard moving on kitchen draw runners has been chosen for simplicity. No run round facilities will be needed (95% DMU fleet). A cassette based fiddle yard is another option for the fiddle yard. A point work based fiddle yard has been discounted due to the size it would occupy.

The simple track plan with potentially conflicting moves across the station throat means that the layout should be easy to operate by one person whilst keeping up the number of train movements. Switching DC blocks to allow operation by two people is likely to be reasonably complex. DCC operation would make this much easier.

Trains will be from three eras: blue/grey, sector and privatised. As per the national network as time moves on earlier trains will initially be run alongside the new units until their “withdrawal” from service.

BR Blue:

Class 108 BR Blue/Grey

Class 101 BR Blue/Grey

BR Type 3 on 3 Mk1s (class 31, 35 or 37, additional suitable loco held to shunt stock)

BR Type 2 or 3 on parcels train (selection of CCT, BG, GUV)

Sector Era:

Class 101 Regional Railways or BR Blue/Grey

Class 142 GMPTE Orange/Brown (should one ever get produced)

Class 150 Regional Railways

Class 156 Regional Railways

Class 158 Regional Railways

Privatisation era:

Class 150 Central Trains

Class 156 Central Trains

Class 158 Central Trains

Class 170 Midland Mainline

Class 170 Central Trains

The trains are generally typical of north west England (Greater Manchester in particular). For the privatisation era the layout moves south to the midlands to allow for my favoured privatisation liveries (Central Trains and Midland Mainline).

There may however be some interlopers showing the development of the DMU – a 14xx and autocoach or GWR railcar perhaps. Similarly the occasional fictional livery or train may make an appearance (Intercity Voyager?).

Electrics

The layout is being wired such that it can run on either DCC or DC. Power to the fiddle yard sidings will be supplied by the method used to lock the traverser in place (door bolt?). Operating under DC a single controller will be used using simple on-off switches to isolate on scene tracks. With a DCC controller fitted instead of the DC all isolating switches will be turned on allowing multiple trains to be run at the same time.

Point control is likely to be by point motors and controlled by diode matrix, as there are very few valid paths through the layout’s point-work.

Page last updated: 05/04/08