The Midland Railway Study Centre - Resources for Modellers

The Best Route for Comfortable Travel and Picturesque Scenery

Search the Study Centre Catalogue.

MR Estate Agent Plans - PDFs of the paper catalogue for this important resource.

The Midland Railway Staff Index

The Midland Railway Assemblage Trail - self-guided tours of a selection of our objects in the Museum of Making.

For King and Country - the men who Joined Up in 1914 and those listed on the MR War Memorial.

Resources for modellers of Midland Railway locations or pre-grouping locos & stock...

The Midland Railway Society Library - titles available to researchers at the Study Centre.

Midland Railway Society Members - resources available exclusively to MRS members.

Site Map

Resources of the Midland Railway Study Centre
for modellers

Do you come here often?

If you do, you are obviously interested in some aspect of the Midland Railway and are getting some benefit from what we have to offer here — or so we sincerely hope! None of this would be possible without the Midland Railway Society and the Midland Railway Society cannot survive without members ...who are people just like you. As well as supporting the Midland Railway Study Centre (and gaining access to some really useful exclusive resources for MRS Members), membership connects you with a wide ranging community of knowledgable, friendly and helpful like-minded souls. All for the incredibly reasonable annual subscription of £20. This also includes; the Journal (three per year), Newsletter (quarterly), informative and convivial meetings, visits to places of historical Midland Railway interest and access to our well stocked bookstall.

With all that, what are you waiting for? Download a membership form and send it back to us. Easy.

The Midland Railway Study Centre contains a wealth of resources which modellers can use as primary source material — in many cases without even needing to leave the comfort of your own workspace.

A view of the model railway in Derby's Silk Mill Museum

Although not all modellers are die-hard scratch-builders, even with an ever growing number of ready-to-run Midland products on the shelves and many fine quality kits, there are many who choose to go back to basics and start from the original drawings. These highly skilled artisans are well catered-for here — whether it be locos, rolling stock or infrastructure.

Locomotives: Although largely still un-scanned, we have a wide range of locomotive related documents, including several hundred die-line copies of drawings sourced directly from Derby Locomotive Works in the 1950s and the renowned Shelford Archive.
Carriage & Wagon: When it comes to rolling stock, our fully searchable Carriage & Wagon collection is an immensely useful resource. Within this sub-area you will also find links to over two dozen original General Arrangements of coaching stock and goods vehicles which can be downloaded as high resolution scans.
Infrastructure: Whether it be details drawings of signal boxes and lineside furniture, detailed trackwork drawings from multiple periods of the Company's history or any one of dozens of other potential areas of interest, our collection will have something. Some good examples can be found in this collection of Engineers' Dept. Lithographs.

Of course, like any researcher into Midland Railway history, modellers don't have to go it alone as all the resources of the Midland Railway Study Centre and that of the wider membership of the Midland Railway Society can be called-upon in support of your goals.

Our on-line catalogue is your starting point and for further help or advice all you have to do is ask!

A view of the model railway in Derby's Silk Mill Museum