Brettell Road, 1960s black country (ish)

[daifly]

I did - it was the Zero Zephyrs kit sold by ABS. Colin D. has already prepped the wheels for S7 for me but the prospect of fitting all that valve gear is a bit intimidating!
Mine will become 41535 like this. I love the boards tucked behind the handrails to give extra coal capacity on the footplate. Look at the height of the stack outside too right up against the bars over the cab window. This is at Burrows Lodge yard near Swansea South Dock. There was usually a loco coal wagon placed on a siding to the left of the water tower for the replenishing of locos shunting this part of the docks. They were a fair distance from their East Dock or Danygraig sheds.

Photo by the late Brian Owen June 1964.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

Hi all

Time for a spot of catching up



Earlier this year I started adding the signal wires to the layout. The wheels are from Brassmasters with the majority of the actual wires being from easyline. The posts are made from 1mm strip with 0.7mm brass rod for the pullies.



As with the point rodding I wanted to include some leftovers from the branch line, No wires but some pullies and posts along with a rudimentary walkway over the now long gone wires.



The abandoned building is now fixed in place too, a bit more work needed to bed it in but here's a pic of the Deeley tank simmering away in front of it.

Cheers

Jim

 

[Jim smith-wright]

What if? We all do it at some point usually with regards to layouts. What if such and such place had a railway or this branchline stayed open to the diesel era? What if Clapham junction was a bit smaller so that it could fit on an 8x4 sheet of plywood? Where we don't seem to do 'what if' as often is with regards to the stock itself and this is where I am heading with this post.

One of the few steam locos that appealed to me before I started Brettell Road was the Midland Flatiron or 'hole in the wall tanks'. Although not a great success the designed by ruler and no other drawing aids look of the things appealed to my interest in things that look less than pretty. While they made it to the LMS and were reboilered by them (you can tell by the square firebox and the protruding smoke box) the last of the breed went for scrap in 1938. But what if they didn't? What if at least one managed another dozen years? I could have one on Brettell Road then!

Of course the armchair experts will delight in pointing out that its wrong but we seem happy to basically make up history for locations, why not locos? Id be interested in people's thoughts on this.

Wanting to see how one would look in BR livery I got my digital crayons out and drew it. I think it looks quite smart myself.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

I want to depict some sort of activity within the current building or at least evidence of it either about to occur or that it's just occurred (luckily the vans will block the view when the place is the most active) . So I need some way for my mini workers to move stuff around.



These barrows and sack trucks are from Scalelink and depict items of Midland origin. I thickened up the wheels on some using old handwheels from various etches as a single etch didn't seem thick enough. On the larger sack trucks I couldn't figure out how the mount for the wheels was supposed to fit, you can see my best guess on the one lying down. On the others I just mounted the axles on plasticard blocks as mounting them on blocks seemed to be more in keeping with a picture of something similar in LMS miscellany bu H. N. Twells. the wheels on the last barrow were supplied as a flat etch so I used some of Colin Craigs handwheels instead as they had a better look. I think the rear wheels are actually too far forward now its built mind you.

Incidentally the brown used for these is from Halfords range of camouflage spray paints and would make quite a good basis for general track colour if you are looking for something for this.



A spot of research showed fork lift trucks to be a lot older than I thought they were so I figured that the owners of the building had got hold of one to move stuff around. My idea is that the building was originally a factory of some sort but now being used as a warehouse so a make do approach seems more sensible than everything being designed for a purpose. Anyway this is a JPG Models kit backdated to look like a generic earlier forklift. I ditched the safety cage and added a grill on the side and some vents on the back as it seemed that the earlier fork lifts tended to be more like this.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

Generally I'm not really a fan of layouts with lights as many of them tend to look like Christmas trees. Its the reason why most of the lights on New Street don't work and besides as New Street is set in the day the lights wouldn't be on in the real world either so why have them on on the model? However for Brettell Road it will be set at night so I needed some. I found some decent looking ones on Ebay and today I have got round to fitting some. The results of these efforts can be seen below.

 

[Heather Kay]

I know you've been updating elsewhere and on your own site, but it's good to see some progress updates again.

 

[JimG]

Of course the armchair experts will delight in pointing out that its wrong but we seem happy to basically make up history for locations, why not locos? Id be interested in people's thoughts on this.

Jim,

In Scotland, some locomotives were retrieved from the scrap line to serve during WW2. I remember reading - probably something from one of David Smith's books on south west Scotland's railways - that a couple of old Caledonian locomotives pottered around Ayr shed for the duration of the war but I doubt if they would have been kept in use to achieve a British Railways number and livery. I believe these locos were nicknamed the "Scharnhorst" and the "Gneisenau".

Jim.

 

[Peter Insole]

Far from being like a Christmas tree, the lights are fantastic! They can really bring a model to life, especially when nothing is moving! Besides, how often in less energy conscious days did we see lights merrily blazing away all day?
As for the locomotive; How many goods or departmental types, among others, became so indescribably filthy that there was little or no livery, let alone identifying numbers visible? You could even imagine that the loco had been sold privately to industry. Some were licensed to operate on BR and carried cast plates to declare that privilege. Just an idea?!

Pete.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

In Scotland, some locomotives were retrieved from the scrap line to serve during WW2.

As did the Southern Railway.

And talking of Deeley flatirons here's one my grandfather's scanned negatives. Leeds during the late 1920's and it appears to have a heavy shunt at the front end as the footplate is slightly distorted.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Jim,

In Scotland, some locomotives were retrieved from the scrap line to serve during WW2. I remember reading - probably something from one of David Smith's books on south west Scotland's railways - that a couple of old Caledonian locomotives pottered around Ayr shed for the duration of the war but I doubt if they would have been kept in use to achieve a British Railways number and livery. I believe these locos were nicknamed the "Scharnhorst" and the "Gneisenau".

Jim.

Jim

They were 'River' class 4-6-0s which they Caley bought from the Highland when the civil engineer banned them for being too heavy. Reputedly the best 4-6-0s the Caley had.

Ian.

 

[JimG]

They were 'River' class 4-6-0s which they Caley bought from the Highland when the civil engineer banned them for being too heavy. Reputedly the best 4-6-0s the Caley had.

Ian,

I could remember that the locos were 4-6-0s but not the class. I thought they might have been Greybacks but Pickergill built them too well to have them on a scrap line by WW2. I think I also remember that one of them finished up running on one cylinder.

Jim.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Ian,

I could remember that the locos were 4-6-0s but not the class. I thought they might have been Greybacks but Pickergill built them too well to have them on a scrap line by WW2. I think I also remember that one of them finished up running on one cylinder.

Jim.

The Sou'West men were less than complimentary about the Greybacks too. Remember a '' 'Greyback' was local slang for a Louse!

Ian.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

Picking up where I left off last time, a few more dark pictures.




I'm sure we have all had the frustration of glancing something interesting out of a train window but it being hidden away so that a proper look is impossible? That was the idea behind this image.

I've been building more wagons too.



More of the same! Another Airfix 16 ton mineral wagon and another 12 ton LMS diagram 1832A van from the Cambrian kit. (C101)



An ancient Three Aitch Mouldings kit for a LMS 20 ton coke hopper. Built with Bill Bedford W irons. I know Hornby are going to do one of these but building a kit is much more fun! There are more wagons on my site.


My warehouse is starting to look a bit more like a building now. The canopy is another old Arifix kit adapted to suit. I've mentioned before wanting to depict some life inside this and the following pictures hopefully do that.





Most of the figures are Dart castings ones with a Bachmann gent thrown in. The last picture is the reason for the title of this entry as the cat is modelled on my own cat Moo! Anyway remembering that Brettell Road is set in the rain, Moo has obviously snuck in to somewhere nice and dry!

 

[7428 84J]

Very much like the 16T and LMS Van Jim. Do you use the Cambrian under frame? I find their design a bit of pain, having to insert the W iron section into the solebars.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

I do yes. I'm not bothered about springing something as short as 9ft or anything like that but I do use the brassmasters axle spacing jig to ensure the axles are parralel.

 

[Jim smith-wright]

A reworked Lima railcar trundles past.

 

[john lewsey]

This really is an excellent layout

 

[Jordan]

Re the Station cat, there's an old book I've referred to before, "Behind the Lines", anecdotes & humourous stories from working on the railway, & it stressed the importance of cats to the Railway as rat catchers at Goods Depots. The GWR even allowed a milk allowance to be paid out of Petty Cash to feed the Station Cat.
So a nice, important detail there, Jim! Much appreciated!

 

[Jim smith-wright]

The full size Moo would probably have been sacked Jordan. Hunting vermin doesn't seem to interest her!

 

[Jim smith-wright]

Work has progressed on my warehouse. Starting with bedding in the building and adding the now familiar neglected feel to the end of the sidings. Just need a light airbrush of general gunk colour to tie it all together.


I've installed the second floor which means the final lighting for the first floor is also in place. I used self adhesive copper tape instead of wire and found it made things so much easier. Something ill definitely be adopting for the other floors and buildings

Finally a couple of pics of the Deeley tank parked up for the night.


Cheers

Jim