Ulpha Light Railway
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:06 pm
The Ulpha Light Railway is a standard gauge (P4) and narrow gauge layout set in the Duddon Valley, north of Foxfield (Cumbria). The River Duddon was once the border between Lancashire and Cumberland. The layout was constructed around 1990 by the Norwood MRC. I do not know the earliest exhibition date, but it certainly appeared at the Mitcham Show in October 1991. Judging by the plaques with the layout, it subsequently appeared at a minimum of 17 other exhibitions, including Scaleforum in 2001 and the NEC in 1999. The final plaque with the layout is for Wimbledon in 2004. It also appeared in a comprehensive article in Rail Model Digest No3. Quite an ambassador for the Scalefour Society and P4 modelling in general! It resided in Somerset for a while before coming into the custody of Paul Willis. Paul was keen to donate it to a good home. In the absence of better prospects, it arrived into my care yesterday.
I remember seeing the layout at least twice in its exhibition years - certainly at the NEC and at one other unremembered location. I was immediately struck by the spectacular scenery, including a lovely limestone quarry, a long timber gantry supporting the narrow gauge railway and some very nice buildings. It was really atmospheric. Here are a couple of photos, courtesy of Paul Willis.
I have no real plans as yet, other than a general objective to get the layout up and running again - reliably. Philosophically, a light railway concept fits in perfectly with the kind of P4 stock I wish to build and run. I also find narrow gauge attractive. Ulpha has survived very well, despite many miles in vans, 17+ exhibitions and 3 owners. There are a few very minor repairs required to the scenery, but nothing serious. The layout does require a more or less complete rewire though. Some wires are loose or missing and there is no wiring diagram. In any case, DCC may be the way to go, rather than good old DC. A quick inspection suggests that one or two of the narrow gauge turnouts are disconnected or broken. The narrow gauge is OO9, by the way. The overwhelming impression though, is just how heavily engineered everything is under the surface. The baseboards are mainly made of very thick plywood. Even the backscene is made of large sheets of 9mm ply from the very bottom of the baseboards to the top of the sky - almost literally backbreaking!
With pedantic mode on, we might justifiably argue that a limestone quarry could never exist in the Duddon Valley. Nowadays, we have detailed geological information online that would never have been available to the people who conceived and created the layout. We can easily discover that the Duddon Valley and surrounding hills consist entirely of the remains of huge lava flows and the sedimentary rocks that formed as this wore down. The quarries that did exist were high up on the Fells - largely for slate, which was used for roofing and paving.
My feeling at the moment though, is that if the architects of the layout decided to create The Ulpha Light Railway, located it in the Duddon Valley and modelled a limestone quarry, then it should stay that way. I have no timescale in mind. Let's just see how things develop...
I remember seeing the layout at least twice in its exhibition years - certainly at the NEC and at one other unremembered location. I was immediately struck by the spectacular scenery, including a lovely limestone quarry, a long timber gantry supporting the narrow gauge railway and some very nice buildings. It was really atmospheric. Here are a couple of photos, courtesy of Paul Willis.
I have no real plans as yet, other than a general objective to get the layout up and running again - reliably. Philosophically, a light railway concept fits in perfectly with the kind of P4 stock I wish to build and run. I also find narrow gauge attractive. Ulpha has survived very well, despite many miles in vans, 17+ exhibitions and 3 owners. There are a few very minor repairs required to the scenery, but nothing serious. The layout does require a more or less complete rewire though. Some wires are loose or missing and there is no wiring diagram. In any case, DCC may be the way to go, rather than good old DC. A quick inspection suggests that one or two of the narrow gauge turnouts are disconnected or broken. The narrow gauge is OO9, by the way. The overwhelming impression though, is just how heavily engineered everything is under the surface. The baseboards are mainly made of very thick plywood. Even the backscene is made of large sheets of 9mm ply from the very bottom of the baseboards to the top of the sky - almost literally backbreaking!
With pedantic mode on, we might justifiably argue that a limestone quarry could never exist in the Duddon Valley. Nowadays, we have detailed geological information online that would never have been available to the people who conceived and created the layout. We can easily discover that the Duddon Valley and surrounding hills consist entirely of the remains of huge lava flows and the sedimentary rocks that formed as this wore down. The quarries that did exist were high up on the Fells - largely for slate, which was used for roofing and paving.
My feeling at the moment though, is that if the architects of the layout decided to create The Ulpha Light Railway, located it in the Duddon Valley and modelled a limestone quarry, then it should stay that way. I have no timescale in mind. Let's just see how things develop...