Help wanted for new Merseyside layout idea

[Roger Sunderland]

If you fancy moving to N gauge I've got a 502 slowly in development I've been collecting pics and info about the northern line for a while, so when you figure out what it is you're doing I might have some reference that'll help.

Thank you Christina but due to eyesight plus years of accumulated 4mm stock I'll have to give N gauge a miss. The refs might be useful though.

[Roger Sunderland]

I've exhibited next to the 502 society stand on a couple of occasions. I was looking at the drawings at the Rainhill Christmas show, and it was suggested there might be interest in a model. I am currently working on a 3D printed GEC unit, but have drawings in DJ's book of the 502 units. Not the best drawing, but I think it is the same one as the one the 502 society have. Suspect both originated from NRM. I have already done the London Oelikon units, and am currently building those into a working model.

Anyway  I am hoping to look at doing the 502 soon. It is more complex, but at least it has same(or very similar) end profile, which is a start. Can't promise anything fast, especially with all those curves at ends. It would just be a body, no underframe or interior. My own interest is actually HO, but I am also scaling the designs up to OO scale. I have found that with coach sides, the roughness of the printed plastic can be smoothed down fairly easily as long as extra detail is excluded. I am sure if anyone wants all that they can add it themselves. Far easier than a kit. Roof and sides in one piece.

I told the 502 society people that I could not do it to raise money for them, as there is not much commission added to manufacture price andit is already not that cheap, It could still get interest for the group.

 

Were all the 502 units built by LMS. BR built some extra 503 units which have some differences to the LMS built 503 units?

 

My idea is to work through as many of these EMU designs as possible, although I originally only wanted an Oelikon for a London project. That's the trouble with 3D printing , it is very addictive.

Please let me know if you do a 502, I would probably be interested.

[Roger Sunderland]

Sticking with the Merseyside theme, and assuming the 502 was not available, what other junction locations might produce an interesting layout. Ideally I'm looking to model a double track junction but with some added interest eg. A loco shed or freight yard along the front of the layout. Mainly freight trains but with some passenger services.

[_Christina_]

Hunts cross west junction in the 50s could be good, I'm not sure what kind of space you've got to work with but it's got a concrete works just behind the track. It's where the Allerton TMD is now.

Edited January 15, 2017 by _Christina_

[Tom D]

Aintree Sefton Arms in the 50's would be a terrific layout, I have always been tempted to model this location, just did not have the space to do it justice. Of course the added attraction would be the Grand National, where rail traffic came from all over the country, I had a picture of a Blue Pullman crossing the junction.

[Roger Sunderland]

Many thanks for all the suggestions, as I said earlier this is a long burn project so I'll give each suggestion the once over before making any decisions.

[ptrabant]

Just for info - a 502 was wider than a 503 (interior 3 plus 2 seating against 2 plus 2) ... if you seen then side by side (apart from front ends they did look quite a bit different - hope that helps .

[Kelly]

An interesting area to look at.

 

Growing up I'd spend most holidays (or a portion of them) up in Southport as my grandmother and aunts and uncles all lived there. My maternal grandfather was the vicar there up until his death in the late 70s/early 80s and my grandmother had the old vicarage as her home until she had to go into a care home.

 

I have vague childhood memories of traveling by train with her to visit her brother who was in a blind people's home back then. Probably would have been a 507/508 I'd imagine (i didn't pay much attention back then to trains!).

 

I've always toyed with the idea of doing a southport related layout, but it is something that won't happen for a long while I suspect as my attention is very much more focused on where I lived growing up (SE London), so more interest in things like EPBs etc than the merseyside stock. Will keep an eye on this thread as the history might prove of interest to me for the family connections to the area.

[Roger Sunderland]

An interesting area to look at.

 

Growing up I'd spend most holidays (or a portion of them) up in Southport as my grandmother and aunts and uncles all lived there. My maternal grandfather was the vicar there up until his death in the late 70s/early 80s and my grandmother had the old vicarage as her home until she had to go into a care home.

 

I have vague childhood memories of traveling by train with her to visit her brother who was in a blind people's home back then. Probably would have been a 507/508 I'd imagine (i didn't pay much attention back then to trains!).

 

I've always toyed with the idea of doing a southport related layout, but it is something that won't happen for a long while I suspect as my attention is very much more focused on where I lived growing up (SE London), so more interest in things like EPBs etc than the merseyside stock. Will keep an eye on this thread as the history might prove of interest to me for the family connections to the area.

Yep it's my draw too. Up to the age of 18 I lived in Ainsdale, left in 1970. Went to school in Southport on the train, Liverpool when I started work, on the train. Went with my Dad to his Factory in Manchester, on the train. My grandparents used to visit from Carlisle, via Preston, on the train. Railway modelling is very often about re-creating memories.

Whatever area I look at though, be it Southport or Liverpool those 502s, for my period anyway, are always there.

[MarkC]

Aintree Sefton Arms in the 50's would be a terrific layout, I have always been tempted to model this location, just did not have the space to do it justice. Of course the added attraction would be the Grand National, where rail traffic came from all over the country, I had a picture of a Blue Pullman crossing the junction.

Following on from that, up until its closure in 1956, you could, I understand, see LOR trains running into Aintree via a connection at Seaforth onto the North Mersey branch on Grand National day too

[Kelly]

Yep it's my draw too. Up to the age of 18 I lived in Ainsdale, left in 1970. Went to school in Southport on the train, Liverpool when I started work, on the train. Went with my Dad to his Factory in Manchester, on the train. My grandparents used to visit from Carlisle, via Preston, on the train. Railway modelling is very often about re-creating memories.

Whatever area I look at though, be it Southport or Liverpool those 502s, for my period anyway, are always there.

Spent a lot of time in the birkdale and ainsdale areas, my grandfather was vicar of the main church for a number of years.

 

Sadly back then I had little real interest in trains as aircraft caught my eye more, though I did visit the railway museum there on a number of occasions to avoid having to go to church! (My father always went there whilst the rest of the family all went to church, I was only too happy to get out of that). Most journeys were by car usually, though we would visit the station and watch from the bridge that iirc led to the museum.

[George91]

A thought for Bootle: you could model the junction on a day where, for whatever reason, the line via Ormskirk is closed, so expresses and semi-fasts are diverting via Southport and Burscough North Junction, as definitely happened a few times in the late 1960s. 

 

In the 1967-68 period, this would give you a combination of...

 

- Classes 104/105/108/110/112/113 DMU. 

- Diesel classes 24/25/40/47/50

- LMS black fives, BR standard fives, Britannias. 

 

And that's just passenger services! Up until 1968 there was still a little bit of freight coming in from the lines around the Docks to Preston and Blackburn, which on a diversion day would also have run via Bootle/Southport/Burscough, so that allows for a few more BR steam classes. 

 

Liveries-wise, you have BR green and full BR blue with full yellow ends: plus various intermediates: blue with small panels for the DMUs and 502s, green with full yellow ends for the diesel locos, and various levels of grime for steam! Coaching stock would be a complete mix of maroon and blue/grey, predominantly mk.1, but with a few early mk.2s and some LMS and LNER survivors. Believe a few SR green coaches were also drafted up to the NW in about 1967 and survived a couple of years before repainting, for additional variety. 

[billy_anorak59]

Yep it's my draw too. Up to the age of 18 I lived in Ainsdale, left in 1970. Went to school in Southport on the train, Liverpool when I started work, on the train. Went with my Dad to his Factory in Manchester, on the train. My grandparents used to visit from Carlisle, via Preston, on the train. Railway modelling is very often about re-creating memories.

Whatever area I look at though, be it Southport or Liverpool those 502s, for my period anyway, are always there.

 

Have your prayers been answered Roger? It looks like Rue-d has come up with the goods!

 

https://www.shapeways.com/product/ZPHEHLK2Y/0-76-cl-502-driver-trailer-coach-1?optionId=63751836

 

Hope this helps!