Milldale- A circular N gauge model railway based on the London Midland Region in the Derbyshire area in the 1960's. Heavy mineral or local passenger, whether diesel or steam hauled are the usual motive power on this layout. The line is an imaginary link located between the Tissington Trail and the Caldon Lowe branch, Milldale being a small hamlet just south of Hartington.

This layout arrived back at Cheddleton in mid June 1999 and in great need of urgent repair. It had toured the exhibition circuit for about 5 years and then been stored. It was hoped it would make another appearance at our own exhibition at Cheddleton in July 1999 and fortunately we managed to make a presentable demonstration, which featured 8F's with long coal trains, 4F's on passenger trains and Jinty's on local freight. After that, it was decided to re-lay all the fiddle yard to make it more user friendly. Milldale was built by Peter Lowe and the late Colin Plant, in the mid 1980's, who were at the time members of the Macclesfield Model Railway Club. It was donated to the NSR by Colin's sister after he passed away, along with a now lost 009 layout, Lowehill and Foxt based on the Leek & Manifold.

Since it arrived back at Cheddleton in June 1999, Milldale has undergone a major restoration to bring it up to a "New Millennium" standard layout. A new lighting rig has been fitted, incorporating novel lights from IKEA, which use two wires to suspend halogen bulbs, making it light weight. The whole layout package has been modified to make it more portable for travelling to exhibitions, such as packing into a small family sized car like a Vauxhall Corsa. Scenery has been revamped to give a fresh appearance. This has included to date new signals and lampposts for the platform as the originals were either broken or missing. The back scene has been repainted and track work re-ballast. With the aid of computers, signs for the platform lamps (Yes, in 2mm scale) and for the front of the layout have been produced as per BR (M) Totems. The next stage is to gather some new rolling stock, as this has been the biggest problem at exhibitions. Early 2004 saw the rear fiddle yard revamped. This included a new wood base and relaying all the sidings, een managing to fit in an extra road.

All stock on the layout at this time is either Peco or Farish. Trackwork is by Peco with signals by Ratio.  

With the 2004 season underway, we attended Tonbridge, in East Sussex in February, and will be attending Warwick for the fourth year in succession next year. We even held our own first exhibition in September 2004, of which more details can be found on the CVMRD Exhibition button on the left. 

To see where and when Milldale will be out and about next, Click the Exhibitions button on the left.

All photos this page. Andy Sollis.