The LNER Encyclopedia

I am in the planning stages of building my OO gauge model layout based during the heyday of the LNER and was thinking of incorporating a branchline. I have been trawling the Internet trying to find what passenger stock might have run on an LNER branchline during the late 1920's, 1930's. The layout will be set on a fictional junction somewhere between Doncaster and Peterborough on the ECML and it would not be a major branchline, if that helps. I was also wondering a bit about the locos that would pull the passenger train too. I would assume it would be a small mixed goods engine.

G'Day Gents
Welcome to the forum.

Well you have the Hornby Gresley Suburban coaches, but there were a lot of GN 6 wheelers still in service.

Loco wise, you could have a C12, D2, D3, C2, J3, J2, J6, N1, K2, even a B17 if was a through/secondary line, D11, J11 and O4 might make the odd visit, so, plenty of scope.

manna

You could run a steam railmotor, see:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigkris/57 ... otostream/

Or maybe your own fictitional version of the Annesley dido, for employees:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigkris/57 ... otostream/


Edited, because I have managed to find an example of the Horncastle branch train

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/ho ... dex2.shtml

I doubt that it had changed that much over the previous 30 years.

Hi all,
Thank you manna for answering my question, I didn't realise how many locomotives I could run and that some pre grouping stock could still be seen. And thanks to strang steel I had not thought of running a sentinel railcar, that would create a very interesting site.

The twinset at Horncastle is interesting in that it is made up of two of the 1908 contractor built GNR steam railmotor coaches. It continued in use up until the late 50s.

It is not completely apparent in that Horncastle photo, but the twin set is articulated.

There is a much wider photo of it on 10 June 1947 behind J11 4284, in the book GNR Engine Sheds Vol2 by Roger Griffiths and John Hooper, although the photo is credited to W A Camwell so may possibly be available as a print somewhere on the internet.

2512silverfox wrote:The twinset at Horncastle is interesting in that it is made up of two of the 1908 contractor built GNR steam railmotor coaches. It continued in use up until the late 50s.

Didn't I read somewhere that although contractor built, SNG had designed the railmotor trailers?

Regards,

Vernon

I had a chat with a modeller at the York show who claimed that a fictional layout is more work than a real location, from a research viewpoint.

With this type of question, one realises that this is correct.

With the latter one has to do exhaustive digging out of facts, but with the former, on top of the facts, one has to set the parameters too.

What size are the communities the branch serves, what potential traffic is on offer?

To what standard is the branch line built? That is, what locos and stock can run along it?

There are many more besides.

The stated area and time also produce more restrictions than one might imagine (Barring the all import, it's your railway).

Forget Hornby suburban carriages. Howlden GNR stock is the most likely, articulated, bogie or 6-wheel depending on your parameters above.
A Sentinel is certainly a possibility, if the traffic is light. Mixed trains are possible if correctly marshalled for the continuous brake requirements.

The branch line most in tune with your requirements might be Essendine to Stamford.

John

Jas is right, it is certainly more work to design a suitable branch line from scratch. Whilst adapting an existing or previous one is easier, not least because you get the track layout more accurate, no matter how much you shorten it to fit the space.

Vernon, yes most of the railmotor carriages were designed by HNG, they certainly have his roof.

Designing a branch for early 1950's also gives you the chance to run specific earlier time periods too, since until about the mid 50's most Lincs GNR branches had very "dated" equipment, that could often be traced back to Edwardian times.

You might also find that some of the early 4 wheeled carriages were also around at this time, specifically the brake 3rds.

Paul

Well thank you all for your great help. It would seem I have a lot to think about and so many different things to choose from!

Of course, an LNER branch joining the old GN main line between Donny and Peterborough would not have to be an ex-GN line itself. It could have been GC, GC&GN joint, GN&GE joint, exLDEC with GE running powers, or even have some extreme southerly penetrating services from the NE area via one of the S.Yorks joint lines or something such as the Axholme Joint. You can even sneak the odd service in from the Midland, or L&Y in your stated area, if you can envisage the right sort of "might have been" lines, towns or industries. Attempts were even made to find uses for ex H&B locos in the North Lincs / North Notts / South Yorks areas during the Great Depression, but most of them met a frosty reception and didn't stay long.
You don't therefore have to confine your thoughts to Doncaster style LNER and ex-GNR locos / rolling stock.
I run a couple of GN 6-wheeled coaches and a matching low-roof GN bogie brake composite on my 1930s mid-Lincs LNER layout, but I may be stretching time limits a little. I have been advised that by the 1930s most surviving ex GN 6 wheelers had either been "modernised" to improve the ride by converting them into artic sets on bogies, or had been cascaded down into workmen-only trains or departmental uses, e.g, stores vans, breakdown crew vehicles etc etc.

notascoobie wrote:

2512silverfox wrote:The twinset at Horncastle is interesting in that it is made up of two of the 1908 contractor built GNR steam railmotor coaches. It continued in use up until the late 50s.

Didn't I read somewhere that although contractor built, SNG had designed the railmotor trailers?

SNG designed the loco and trailers for No1 & 2. The trailers for these were articulated and was withdrawn in 1937 after an accident at Hatfield. The other four trailers were certainly built by outside contractors and while they have the same general layout as the the other two, have enough differences to make them unique in GN coaching stock.

Some one has asked me for a kit of one of these twin sets, and also one of the GN twins made from rigid 8 wheelers, so if anyone else is interested in having one please let me know.

Atlantic 3279 wrote:Of course, an LNER branch joining the old GN main line between Donny and Peterborough would not have to be an ex-GN line itself. It could have been GC, GC&GN joint, GN&GE joint, exLDEC with GE running powers, or even have some extreme southerly penetrating services from the NE area via one of the S.Yorks joint lines or something such as the Axholme Joint. You can even sneak the odd service in from the Midland, or L&Y in your stated area, if you can envisage the right sort of "might have been" lines, towns or industries. Attempts were even made to find uses for ex H&B locos in the North Lincs / North Notts / South Yorks areas during the Great Depression, but most of them met a frosty reception and didn't stay long.
You don't therefore have to confine your thoughts to Doncaster style LNER and ex-GNR locos / rolling stock.
I run a couple of GN 6-wheeled coaches and a matching low-roof GN bogie brake composite on my 1930s mid-Lincs LNER layout, but I may be stretching time limits a little. I have been advised that by the 1930s most surviving ex GN 6 wheelers had either been "modernised" to improve the ride by converting them into artic sets on bogies, or had been cascaded down into workmen-only trains or departmental uses, e.g, stores vans, breakdown crew vehicles etc etc.

More importantly, there were many NER bogie coaches cascaded to the Southern area in the 1930's. these generally replaced six wheeled GC, GN and GE stock, and some of the GN articulated sets.

Details of those cascaded coaches are in a British Railway Journal from the earlier 1990s. I can't find which one it is on here and I'll have to go and get my copy out later on to let you know.

Good morning all
Langley models produce an ex-NER push pull coach. I don't know the quality, but it could be useful.
Earlswood Nob