Twyslip Layout
 

Background

When I retired from paid employment I also moved to a new location in Lincolnshire In doing so I chose a dwelling that had enough room for my hobby of model railway building. In the wake of being the layout coordinator of the club layout, Yeovil Town I was forced to choose a new layout that would be housed in my new double garage, well new to me anyway.

I was born in Kettering and moved to Thrapston when I was 5 years old. At the bottom of my dad’s extensive garden I could see the railway line that ran from Peterborough to Northampton. The view was across a backwater of the Nene and across the small shunting yard but I did spend some time watching trains go by. The line was already in decline when I was train-spotting in the late 50’s and early 60’s but there was some good times like the Royal train coming through to visit Barnwell just up the line. I therefore researched the prospect of modelling a part of the local railways around Thrapston.

What I had not realised until this recent research was that about two miles away along the Kettering road (A604) was the site of one the biggest narrow gauge complexes in the country supplying iron ore to the iron furnace at Islip. In 1932 a report was written by Stewarts and Lloyds that stated the annual capacity of Islip was 80,000 tons a year at that time. One can then appreciate that the site production of iron was by no means “small potatoes”. The standard gauge railhead was also quite extensive.

The first iron producing furnaces were in blast in 1873 and by 1883 four furnaces were in blast, three at any one time and one being relined. The construction was of iron cased columns 60 feet high and 18 feet in diameter and there were four Cowper air heaters feeding each pair of furnaces. The air was blown from a massive steam engine with a exhaust chimney 185 feet tall. I realised it is an exciting project.

I have called the layout Twyslip Furnaces because I doubt I can make it exactly like the original plan mainly because of size so I will adjust it to suit the baseboards. Also, if I ever get to an exhibition there will always be some smart devil who will tell me its not correct because he worked there. There are a few of them left, I understand. The chimney wasn’t demolished until 1950 so my period will be 1930 ish. Incidentally the next village up the road is Twywell so I coupled the names.

The Railway Model

The map below shows the 25” to the mile second edition from the 1900 OS map. I have only just found this map and it was at the Northampton County records office.
 

The site is too large even to get into a double garage but I shall concentrate on the central furnace area and the rail network both standard gauge and 3 ft gauge that fed the iron ore, lime stone and coal in and took the pig iron and slag out.

The following photograph gives an impression of the furnaces from the air.

The two baseboards that will support the central section are each 4 ft x 4 ft square. I cheated and bought them second cheap at my new club. These two boards will be fed from another section 9ft x 9ft that has a control point in the middle and a fiddle yard.

I have already assembled the basic structure of baseboards. The assembly as it stands now is in the photograph below.

It’s a bit of mess now but if anyone is interested I’ll keep the images coming. The upper level is a three rail circuit made from a set that my dad bought for me when I was 10 years old.