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HOLMEWORTH
by Kier Hardy
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Traffic flows freely through Holmeworth whilst a class 08 shunts wagons above, on a
glorious sunny West Yorkshire day in the 1980s.
Holmeworth was my first venture into EM gauge, and initially consisted of 4 continuous
circuits of track around the edge of a standard 16ft garage, with construction taking
place during the mid-1980s. The Gloucester Model Railway Club's EM layout aptly named
EMFORD gave me the opportunity to convert and test rolling stock to the wider gauge
with success, so plans were drawn up for a layout 16ft X 8ft with a central operating
well. The concept was very experimental (with some of the trackbed on 3ft radii with
gradients) and provided a good insight into the limitations of track and motive power.
This view shows a class 37 hauling ballast wagons down the curved gradient past the
Allbright Engineering building.
Tracks emerged from tunnels at different levels on the left and negotiated a section
of crossovers, before curving around and under a road bridge to the right. The tracks
at the midle of the layout were laid so that a further 8ft of layout could be inserted
between the sets of crossovers to feature a station. In this short format it attended
a few exhibitions before the additional baseboards were built.
A large proportion of the locomotive fleet was Lima with double motored drive units
giving excellent hauling capacity and controlability.... and they were cheap too! A
favourite loco of the late 1980s period was 37405 Strathclyde Region, having been
photographed during a visit to Glasgow Queen Street at the time when many new liveries
were starting to appear. Good experience in repainting and modifying stock was gained
during this time, but in the end I decided to stick to a mid-1980s theme instead of
trying to keep pace with the changes.
Plan showing the additional 8ft station inserted between the crossovers, and providing
the equally long yard with a facility to access the works on a slightly lower level.
The split level storage yard at the rear of the layout was designed as a 2-tier
arrangement for maximum capacity, but never reached completion due to the restricted
access, awkward curves and gradients.
A Deltic entering the station with a Bradford bound train, and a glimpse can be caught
of the sidings in the background. After the station and platforms had been constructed,
I felt a replacement off-scene storage yard was required, with better access trackwork
and to a modular design.
The new storage yard is made up of six 4-foot long baseboards, and at 30 inches wide
an accomodate 16 sidings which suits the 4 track mainline circuits. The stock remains
in place even when travelling to shows and back, with the baseboards each acting as
large flat stock boxes. All the pointwork is concentrated on the outer two boards which
hinge over for transit, and the 16-foot long sidings are laid with aluminium angle
section. The main reason was a greatly reduced cost, and secondly this arrangement
keeps the stock in place incase of a rough shunt.
56074 Kellingley Colliery with a loaded MGR train heads for Drax Power Station. With
new 180 degree curves at each end of the layout, the redundant trackbed was made into
a feature at both ends of the scenic section.
An Inter-City 125 unit slows for the station.
British Railway Modelling magazine article, showing part of the abandoned section
leading towards the tunnels. It's ironic to think that model trains once used to
emerge from those tunnel mouths.... that's progress!
Plan showing the final arrangement with just the tunnels remaining as a redundant feature.
The engineering works was demolished and a track crossed a road to serve some industrial
sidings at the opposite end.
A brace of type two power 25196 & 25313 - both Craftsman conversions on the Hornby class 25.
Now here's a selection of images taken during exhibitions. Holmeworth attended well over 40
exhibitions during its life, and the grand finale came when it appeared at Eurospoor 2000 in
Utrecht, Holland.
The layout was broken up shortly afterwards, but many of the buildings, structures and other
salvageable parts have seen further use on Greg Brookes Shenston Road layout.
A lot of visiting rolling stock was provided by Pete Johnson, this view showing some of his locos.
37009 at Holmeworth - A double motored Lima version which has since been upgraded with etched
windscreens and other extra detailing, and continues to see regular use on Hornsey Broadway.
The ballast cleaner was scratchbuilt by Steve Adcock which regularly had its wheels reguaged
back to 00 for use on his Russel Bridge layout, and then back again to EM for display on Holmeworth.
