Rosedale mines railway

Rosedale Mines Railway had a relatively short but busy life in the second half of the 19th century.  From 1861 until 1926 the railway was used to transport ironstone from the hilltop mines on the North Yorkshire moors to the steel works on Teesside and in County Durham.  The railway extended for about 20 miles from Battersby and included an incline of nearly 1 mile in length with a maximum gradient of 1:5.  The Railway operated year-round in some very harsh winter weather and the workers lived in exposed cottages some 1200 feet above sea level.  It is the incline and its approaches which are the subject of this club layout.
The incline was too steep for locomotives so the prototype was operated by gravity, with loaded wagons descending and drawing up supplies and empty wagons by means of ropes wound around a drum at the incline top.  Our model will use a motor in the drum house to control the rate of descent but will otherwise still rely upon gravity for operation.
This new layout will depict the period in latter days and is being constructed in OO gauge using codee100 rail with Electrofrog points and DCC control.  It will comprise eight baseboards of 4ft x 21” each, assembled in an ‘L’ configuration extending to 17’9” x 16’.  It will require three operators.  Our team of seven members is getting on with the build – most of the baseboards are already made.  A mock-up of the incline top has demonstrated viability of the plan and we look forward to bringing it to fruition.