North Midland Railway

The **North Midland Railway** is a standard gauge railway that is located within the Northern Midlands in England. It is the main setting of Engines of Lara's Point.

## History

The railway was suggested in the early 1920s by Captain David Bailey, the head of the LMS railway executives who happened to own a portion of acreage on which later the railway would run on. The reason behind this suggestion was that residents of towns in the Northern Midlands were sick of slower traffic rates and decreasing export.

Captain Bailey proposed a starting rail link between Derby & Oxford, and between the years of 1921 to 1923, a rail link was built and eventually finished in the spring of 1923.

In 1923, all 120 companies were merge to 4 companies, the LMS, the LNER, the SR & the GWR - Despite being built on LMS soil, Captain Bailey ensured that the North Midland was excluded from this merging and remained separate from the main companies.

After becoming a separate company, Captain Bailey became the general manager of the railway and claimed full ownership and control.

In 1924, Captain Bailey discovered stone ore east of Oxford and proposed a stone quarry be built up into the hills. Between the years of 1924 to 1925, a tramway line was built from the bottom of Oxford station to the high hills of the Oxford Quarry.

A further 2 years were given to build the quarry to its fullest potential and later ordered a tank engine named Valerie, whose arrival made the quarry project swifter.

By the end of 1927, the quarry had finished and services started. Captain Bailey hired a man named Captain Theodore Andrews to manage and operate the quarry.

From March to September 1928, the rest of the main line from Oxford to Fort Selby was constructed. In October of the same year, a military fort was built north of Selby - named after a station located near the fort. It was completed a year later for the military effort, and Derby Works built a shunter; which was named Eliza, she was later purchased privately by the M.O.D who owned the fort.

In 1929, Captain Bailey bought 3 permanent Midland & Scottish engines, their names and identities were unknown to Captain Bailey. He also bought a station pilot/shunter named Raelyn.

Soon, Captain Bailey discovered that was hard for ships to access the railway, if ships needed to be accessed, they went to England and dropped off their goods at respective stations and exported the goods to the railway. So, a harbour was proposed and in October of 1929, the harbour started construction west of Fort Selby.

The harbour company 'Fort Selby Shipping' was eventually established by Mr. Timothy Weiss, he later purchased an LBSCR A1 Terrier named Shawn who helped proceed the construction much easier & in December of 1929, the harbour was finished and services started.

In March of 1930, the station at Tasford Halt was established and a small branch line to a much bigger station at 'Southall' was built. To accommodate for the small line, an oil refinery was built east of the newly established station. Chase Bailey ordered Rina, a small saddle tank, to operate the refinery.

In 1935, the Selby Repair Works built its own private engine, who they named Whitney. She helps out with getting repairs done and rescuing engines that need repairs done

In 1939, the Second World War was announced which increased the need for the military fort. The railway helped the Midlands operate the Western Front. The busiest areas were the harbour, military fort and the main station at Lara's Point.

However, tragedy struck on August 1940, Captain Bailey would be shot and killed. And after that, his son Richard Bailey took over as controller and manager. Later that month, he acquired a Great Western 5400 pannier tank named, Jade who later took over Rina's duties as the refinery's shunter.

After the war, the railway recovered quite quickly, this was all due to Richard's preparedness for the post-wartime effort and around 1948, all 4 of the main railway companies formed together to create 'British Railways', the new board visited Richard Bailey to possibly ask for a merge. But he refused and eventually visited the government and persuaded them for the North Midland Railway to be a separate railway from British Railways but still run under the British jurisdiction. The government later agreed.

Around 1948-1950, he sent the 3 Midland & Scottish engines away and bought 3 tender engines to replace them, their names were Archer, Demi & Nathalie.

Between July 1952 and October of 1952, a branch line was built between Hythedale to Birchby Head and operated goods services, but it was rarely operated due to the shotty state the branch was in.

In November of 1953, a diesel shunter, named Julian, was bought for regular duties and shunting duties.

In April of 1963, Mr. Richard Bailey bought a freelance tank engine, named Elliot from a quarry in East Grinstead, which recently closed. Eli later became the designated shunter at Lara's Point and often pulled small passenger services, when others were unavailable to do so.

A month later, Julian's contract had expired and Mr. Bailey sold him to a heritage line and left the railway on good terms.

In September of 1963, Dr Beeching visited the railway to oversee its operations. He closed the Birchby branchline, which didn't come as a surprise to Demi or Nathalie.

He closed the fort, due to how inefficient and how uneconomical it was, Eliza was originally saddened by this news, she was transferred to the refinery, in which she did well. But she was ultimately shifted over to the quarry to help out Valerie & was later purchased by the mining company.

## Steam Engines

Demietra *(formerly)*NathalieElliotArcherCorina
## Diesel Engines

Julian.pngJulian *(formerly)*Lexie.pngLexie
## Privately Owned Engines

Engines that located on the railway, but aren't owned by the NMR itself

Rina † *(Southall Refinery)*Jade †  *(Southall Refinery)*Whitney.jpgWhitney *(Selby Repair Works)*Valerie  *(Oxford Quarry)* Shawn *(Selby Harbour)* Elizabeth  *(Formerly; Status Unknown)*