Moving onto the Waverley estate a couple of years ago gave me a perfect, and possibly unique opportunity as a railway modeller to build something representative of the history of the site – Orgreave Coking Plant. I doubt many people in the hobby can say they have built a model in the exact location that the model itself is based on.
The layout is OO Gauge, where 4mm on the model would equal 1 foot in real life, loosely set around 1970-1990. The track plan is fictional, but many hours were spent studying photos and creating detailed CAD models of the buildings which were then 3D printed.
Railway stock consists mainly of Yorkshire Engine Co. ‘Janus’ No.3 – one of a fleet of powerful locomotives built at Meadowhall in the 1960s specifically for United Coke and Chemicals Limited (the owners of the Orgreave site prior to British Steel), along with a Rolls Royce Sentinel (built in 1966). These models are available ‘off the shelf’ however required extensive repainting to represent the real locos that worked here.
Operationally, loaded coal trains were brought in from nearby Orgreave and Treeton collieries. The coal was tipped into underground hoppers then transferred to the coking ovens. The resultant coke was shipped out primarily to feed the blast furnaces at British Steel’s Scunthorpe works.
If anyone is interested in seeing the layout in the flesh, it is due to be exhibited at Harrogate Model Railway Exhibition on 26th August, as well as Nottingham Model Railway Exhibition on the 16th and 17th November.
Alex Roughsedge
Waverley Resident
