Track Works 1:1 Scale #1

 As the first rails have been spiked on the small Nystrup Gravel layout, I tried to find images of track works on a real Danish narrow gauge industrial railway. Not an easy task, as it seems to have been a type of activity not considered particularly photogenic.

A team of six workers at the Funder Skovhuse brick works building and adjusting track. Notice spare track and a wagon turntable in the left background. Sleepers are a charming variety of what seems to range from cut down standard gauge sleepers to fence posts. Probably 1930-1940. Photo: Silkeborg Arkiv, B20167. 

Track laying and maintenance on most Danish narrow gauge industrial railways was a simple matter: if the train stayed on the track, the track was considered fine. Only when derailments became too frequent, track would be repaired. The track layout would usually change very little at most industries. Only in the gravel pit, stone quarry or peat harvesting area, track would be moved regularly as raw material was quarried and transported away.

Aerial image of Funder Skovby brick works. The ramp for the track to the clay mixing facility can be seen cutting through one of the drying sheds in the centre of the image. There is evidence of old clay pist to the left. Clay extraction at the time of photography seems to happen on the north side of the road crossing diagonally from top right. Photo: Royal Air Force, 1954.