Research
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Botching History
One of the challenges with prototypes and history is that a certain segment of the hobby can be a bit pedantic about how things should be during the period modelled. I’m primarily interested in the LMS Period (1932-1948), mainly as the LNWR period before it is not so well represented in ready-to-run locos. I’m also found of some of the steam from the early BR period as well (1948-1956). That’s quite a range. Problem is that when I look at plans and docs on Saddleworth, a lot changed during that period of history. Look at the image of the platform here in 1903 compared to the one in the 1950s.…
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Dimensions are somewhere
As my research so far has uncovered, there are a few nice photos of the Station building. The difficulty is how to work out the dimensions of the building. One idea I had was to use a photo with people and use them as a reference. The trouble with that is effect of perspective and that these people were children of some in-determinant age so that made things a challenge. I could also go with standards. For example, standard door height. Problem was I wasn’t sure what station building in the 1890s considered standard. So off to Oldham council I went on the off chance that I could find some…
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Platform Awaits
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Old Sag
One of the nice elements of the Saddleworth location is the overlaying of the river Tame with the Huddersfield canal. I just managed to squeeze in the aqueduct that goes over the river and then under the viaduct. It’s not obvious from the picture but what looks to be a bridge is actually an aqueduct. As you might have guessed, the nick name ‘Old Sag’ comes from the slight sag that you can see in the middle. It still seemed to last quite a while. However, even the most well constructed infrastructure will eventually need some kind of repair and this happened in April 2000 and provided a unique view…
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Skew
I decided to model Saddleworth Viaduct despite it being quite difficult. First off it’s curved which is always a challenge. Then it’s got points on it. That’ll need a seperate post. Then it is long (about 2m scale even with compression, ie removing almost 1/2 the arches) Apart from all that, there are 3 skew arches. With compression I got rid of one but the other two were key. One is over a main road and the other is over the Huddersfield canal. The last one is especially difficult given the multilevel canal that has a loch that drops UNDER the arch.
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Botching History
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Meccano Memories
So back in the day, Meccano was the LEGO equivalent. I had a handed down set which I used as a kid quite a bit. There was an accompanying magazine as well , which, in the February 1955 edition, featured the Saddleworth station and viaduct. This illustration was based on the most requested photograph of the local photographer Rev. Treacy’s portfolio. Or maybe K Field, depending on where you look. The magazine itself was interesting too. I bought all 12 months of 1955, just for the February edition.
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The Goods Shed is Hiding
Part of the challenge with Saddleworth Station is that the goods shed wasn’t very active, and it was shut down before the Beeching acts shut the station down. Basically there is scant information on it. The best photos I have don’t give full details. This one showing the most of the shed on the left with the two square openings on the end and what looks to be a chimney. The plans I’ve found are similarly lacking in detail without a view of what’s in the shed. Apart from the track. I’m not even sure if the staging deck connects to the shed via a door. From what I’m guessing,…
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Platform Awaits
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Saddleworth or what?
During my research I found it a little tricky to get what I needed from google. It turns out that the viaduct is known as Saddleworth Viaduct. Or Uppermill Viaduct. Or even Dobcross Viaduct. So I needed to search through all those terms to get a full view of what was out there on the interwebs. Trying to get a view via google maps or NLS or and geomapping site meant searching out Dobcross UK, not Saddleworth. That’s how I started my planning. I also needed to exclude Australia where there is a Saddleworth station. But there are some nice photos out there on the internet. I like the fretwork…
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Old maps
As part of my hunting and gathering, I wanted drill down into the maps that the Disused Stations site showed me here (scroll the page to find the maps). So off to the National Library of Scotland who seem to do the best job of archiving maps of England: You can even look at the maps in 3D which was useful to get an idea of how the topography might look: Since I was trying to turn the location into a continuous loop, I played around with the image. I had to curve it to see how it might be part of a loop. I also rotated the map around…
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Google to the rescue
One of the things that I found a bit difficult was getting some of the detail of surrounds. I tried google for everything from the standard station and viaduct photos that are floating around the web. These photos are great (shows the historic views) but not so good for details. For example, there was a path going down the side of the hill from the station that meets up with Brownhill Lane. I wasn’t sure how it joined up. Google maps allows you to walk around the streets so I just walked up the lane and took a look: The path is now bricked up but it shows me how…
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Starting out
Second time around? Many years ago I built a simple N-gauge layout that was about the size of a single bed and consisted of a single loop and a few sidings. It was all built starting with second hand gear. It was a bit of a hodgepodge of euro-US stock. Hey, I was a teen without any cash and based in NZ. Anyway, I enjoyed the building of it. I decided many years later to revisit this hobby and this time build in all the things I couldn’t afford/find back then. I also wanted it to be based on some kind of prototypical location. And I wanted to use OO-gauge.…
