A few brief notes on the Trentabank Reservoir railway.

After discovering a section of narrow gauge rail in Macclesfield Forest I was eager to find out more on this little known line. Casting around on the 'net came up with nothing, however the internet is not the only source of information (believe it or not!), so I delved into my library.

The first book that I consulted was 'Industrial Locomotives of Cheshire Shropshire + Herefordshire', published by the Industrial Railway Society in 1977. I bought a secondhand copy directly from the IRS, for much less than eBay or Amazon wanted. There is little info inside to be honest, but it was a good starting point.

The gauge is stated as 1'11 1/2", not 2" as I thought. The railway was built for the construction of Trentabank Reservoir, between 1927 and 1930. During this phase two steam locos were used, both Sentinels of their Industrial type. These were 6894 and 6900, both built in 1927.

Between 1932 and 1934 some repair work (to the dam presumably) was needed and two petrol Motor Rail Simplexes were aquired. Only one of them has been identified in the book, 5240 built in 1930 and aquired from E.C. Jordan.

The next book to be opened was R.A.S. Abbott's 'Vertical Boiler Locomotives and Railmotors Built In Great Britain'. A Sentinel works list is included in this fascinating book, which confirms the gauge as 1'11 1/2". Also noted is the driving wheel diameter (1'8") and cylinder size (6 3/4" x 9"). Far more interesting however is a photo of one of the locos at work at Trentabank.

The same photo is also reproduced in Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling Review number 73, along with a description of the type and a scale drawing.

On to the petrol locos. 'A Guide to Simplex Narrow Gauge Locomotives' by D.R. Hall and J.A.S. Rowlands was consulted next. Motor Rail 5240 was a 20/35 h.p. model, powered by a 4 cylinder Dorman engine. The frames were of the straight channel type and the driving position was on the opposite side to the normal Simplex layout. The book includes a drawing of a 20/35 loco.

And thats all that I've found so far.

Paul.

Turning a Swedish spark arrester chimney in OO9 - part 2.

To finish the lower section I had to turn up a mandrel, which was a light press fit in the bore, to hold the base for further turning;

I first faced the top to length, then had to cut a groove into the top face. A form tool was ground and the job done with the lathe running at its lowest speed (155rpm, made possible by the slow speed motor mount that I've fitted);

The groove should probably be deeper, but as this will be used as a casting pattern I'm leaving it shallow. To make sure that the tool had adequate clearence and would do the job I practiced first on an offcut of scrap brass. This also meant that I could set the tool to the correct diameter before using it on the actual workpiece.

On the prototype the spark arrester is fabricated from several parts bolted together. There's a top plate which is seperate from the main body, so to represent the 8 bolts holding it down I drilled a series of .35mm diameter holes around the top rim. To do this I set the Unimat up as a drill press and used my dividing head to space out the holes. The drill proved to small to hold in my drill chuck so I held it in an Eclipse pin chuck which in turn was held in my collet chuck. With the machine running at 2600rpm each hole was drilled 2.5mm deep, here my depth gauge proved its worth;

Each hole had a length of .33mm brass wire soldered into it. The end of the wire was first rounded off with a file, then it could be inserted into a hole and cut down overlength. Whilst still in the hole it was filed until there was just .4mm sticking out, then the wire could be removed, turned around so that the rounded end was on the outside, covered in Carr's 179 degree solder paste and replaced into its hole. Any excess paste was then wiped away and the wire soldered in with my RSU, used at its maximum setting. A time consuming job, but hopefully the results are worth the effort. I now have even greater respect for pattern makers!

The upper stovepipe section was just plain turning, although my compound slide saw use again to turn the taper. It was made to be a light press fit into the spark arrester.

Once I'd parted it off the chimney could be held on the lower, smaller, diameter and a shallow hole drilled into the top. Both parts could then be pressed together.
Here's the thing finished;

I just hope that Charlie's pleased with it!

Paul.

2 foot gauge in Macclesfield Forest.

This morning was spent in Macclesfield Forest watching my wife Dani and a friend compete in an off-road duathlon during quite heavy persistant rain. Whilst they signed on and set up the bike in transition I spotted a short length of 2' gauge rail next to the forest centre, in an arboretum enclosure opposite the main car park and visitor centre (SJ961712). Immediately to the east is Trentabank Reservoir, so at a guess the track is the remains of a contractors railway laid when the reservoir was built.

Part of the track has been overlaid with concrete, which could explain why this small section has survived. A quick scout around revealed no further evidence of a railway apart from a possible cutting a few metres south of the track.

The rail measures approximately 2" high with the head approximately 1 1/4" wide (a tape measure lives in my Land Rover, for just such occasions). Sleepers seem to be a mixture of wood and pressed steel 'Jubilee'.

Looking west along the track;

And looking east, towards the dam wall;

A closer view;

And what I can only assume is the remains of a shallow cutting;

In the above photo the camera is pointed west, the rail is on the right and the visitor centre across the road on the left. The gradient falls away from the camera.

Paul.