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A 4mm Scale Model of Bristol Barrow Road Engine Shed in P4

 

 

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Entries in this blog

Bristol Barrow Road - Lawrence Hill Junction

I completed the trackwork for the junction at Lawrence Hill a couple of months ago and now that I have the legs for the curved board I decided itwas time to lay the track. The junction is constructed off the layout using a templot track plan and has been constructed from ply sleepers using a combination of exactoscale functional chairs and rivets. I like using the latter on pointwork as it enables adjustment to the track before adding the cosmetic chairs.   Some re-alignment of the track on th

barrowroad

barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - More Progress

Over the past couple of months I have had to make some modifications to the Dunster House shed building in order to make room to fit the fiddle yard boards down the back wall. This has entailed making cut outs in the two short walls that protrude into the building. After much thought and deliberation I made a decision to add a 6" x 3" wood beam across the two inner roof 'trusses' in order to add strength to the roof. These two beams were supported using 'permanent' acrow props which have now bee

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Days Road Bridge - New baseboard

I have recently received delivery of the first of a new set of baseboards which will extend the layout into a continuous circuit with a long fiddle yard down the opposite side of the shed. This first board is at the rear of the shed and workshop and will allow trackwork extensions to the roads off the 20ft loco turntables outside the workshop; the sidings alongside the shed and workshop and an extension to the main line under Days Road Bridge towards Bristol Temple Meads. All the new boards are

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - 20th November - 50th anniversary of closure

I attended an interesting talk in Bristol last night given by the Barton Hill History Group on the 50th anniversary of the closure of Barrow Road Shed. It was surprisingly well attended - around 200 - with a lot of former railway employees in attendance. As my own commemoration to that day here are my own colour photos taken at the shed around that time. Those showing 1420, 6435 and 7029 are from the 17th October 1965 as I believe are the others.                    

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - The Viaduct

Those who know Barrow Road Shed will be aware of the stand out feature namely the 13 arch viaduct that bisected the shed site. This allowed excellent views of the coaling and ash plants on the north side and the yard and roundhouse on the south. There was a gate in the viaduct that led down into the yard via a flight of concrete steps.   Photo from top of coaling tower 1966.   On Saturday I went to the Wigan Show and collected a model of part of the Barrow Road viaduct - the main line brid

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - DCC Wiring - More progress

Having completed fitting all the droppers on the current scenic boards - roundhouse excluded - I have made a start on adding the BUS bars to the layout. I have decided to split the scenic section of the layout into a number of power districts or Zones as follows; Zone 1 - Up Main Zone 2 - Down Main Zone 3 - Turnouts Group 1 Zone 4 - Turnouts Group 2 Zone 5 - Loco Shed Sidings Zone 6 - Loco Shed coal/ash area Zone 7 - Loco Shed rear sidings Zone 8 - Loco Shed Turntable & Roundhouse si

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Bristol Barrow Road - DCC Wiring

It is a while ago since I did any wiring on the layout when the UP and DOWN main lines were partially completed and wired with their own BUS bars and droppers. I decided it was time to get on with some more wiring and started making more droppers out of 1/0.6 wire, these being soldered onto double ended tags which can the be fixed to the underside of the boards. Over 200 of these were made up in preparation for the task. The single core wire is easier to push through the 1.3mm holes drilled th

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Days Road Bridge

Having settled into the new large shed I have given some thought to extending the layout into a continuous run with a long fiddle yard down one side of the building with the layout along the other. With this in mind I need scenic breaks at each end of the layout. At the north end the break will be the road bridge at Lawrence Hill north of the Junction signal box, whilst at the south - Temple Meads - end it will be Days Road Bridge. For those of a certain age this will evoke memories of climbing

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barrowroad

BRISTOL BARROW ROAD - The Engine Shed

It has been a while since my last post this being due to a move of house last year and the consequent storage of the layout and stock. Earlier this year I took delivery of a kit of parts to build a new home for the layout.   Over the past few months with the help of friends the shed is now finished and yesterday I moved Barrow Road into it's new home appropriately christened 'The Engine Shed'. The intention is to make the layout a continuous run for the main line complete with a fiddle yea

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - 20ft WorkshopTurntable Update

Since my last entry I have made the majority of the track situated at the rear of the roundhouse. This trackwork is quite interesting as it not only links the two 20ft turntables but gives access to the workshop at 90deg to the turntables. Two spurs off turntable 4 run alongside the boiler house and were used for storage of withdrawn engines [Pugs 51218 & 51217 together with Johnson 3F 43444 are known to have been on these tracks]. Turntable 2 gives access to the water softening plant [ wago

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Bristol Barrow Road - The 20ft Workshop Turntables

The Workshop at the rear of the roundhouse was accessed through the shed - across the turntable - and via four 20ft turntables one for each of the workshop repair bays. By the 1950/60s - the period I am modelling - only two remained in situ the other two having been removed. Repair bay 2 remained in use for minor repairs whilst bay 4 contained a wheel lathe. Wheels were dropped on the hydraulic wheel drop and rolled to a small turntable at the end of the wheel drop road [ Number 14 ] and then i

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Roundhouse Ventilation

Roundhouses used a variety of smokehoods for smoke ventilation and Barrow Road was no different. In Midland/LMS days these were made from timber and at number survived late into the BR period. However these were replaced by asbestos/concrete units which lasted until the end of the steam period.   Timber Smokehoods inside Barrow Road   Smokehoods - Roads 11 to 16. Note that roads 12 and 14 retain the timber version.   My friend Morgan kindly produced a CAD drawing for the later version

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Bristol Barrow Road - The Workshop Roof Ventilation

The Midland roundhouse roof has slatted ventilation louvres along the full length, on both sides, of each of the three roof pitches and although a number were missing during the 50/60's they still pose challenge to accurately model them.   As a trial I decided to try and model the rectangular roof ventilator situated over the machine shop in the Workshop building. I decided to use 2mm x 1.5mm 'T' section brass in which I cut 8 x 45deg slots using a piercing saw. 16 of these were made, three

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Bristol Barrow Road - The Workshop Roof Trusses

Following on from my last entry here are a few pictures of the roof trusses for the Workshop.   These are assembled in a jig to give the correct spacing for the trusses.   The Machine Shop is to the left of the building whilst the four road workshop is to the right       During the 1950's only two of the loco turntables, which gave access to the workshop, remained in use - roads 2 and 4. I have made these doors operational whilst the other two are closed. Road 4 will need to be f

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Bristol Barrow Road Roundhouse - Third Roof Pitch

Having got past the summer break and all the house and garden work I have spent the past few weeks working on the third and final roof pitch for the Roundhouse. This required a modification to the assembly jig as this roof pitch is sectioned to permit viewing of the inside of the shed. This morning this pitch was test fitted and a few photos taken.....................             Next task - to make a jig for the Workshop roof trusses.   Edit Monday 9th.   The jig and the f

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Barrow Road Blog - Lawrence Hill Junction Signal Box - Update

This afternoon, at long last, I made a start on the model of Lawrence Hill Junction Signal Box. The basis of the model is another stunning kit of parts commissioned from York Modelmaking which arrived last week.   The kit consists of a shell formed from interlocked peices of 2mm mdf onto which will be fixed the walls of the box made from laminations of Rowmark plastic. Each of the four walls consists of four layers of the plastic onto which is fixed a further layer on rustic cladding. So far

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Templot & Trackwork 2

I have now completed most of the trackwork on the existing boards with only the South Exit turnout to finish the second phase of templot. The latest build consists of 8 turnouts, a Double Slip, 3 Way turnout and a catch point. Phase 3 will be the 2 new boards - to be constructed - one at each end of the layout which will form the scenic breaks. One will be Lawrence Hill Junction itself, with the road overbridge and the other Days Road Bridge at the rear of the shed.   Lawrence Hill Junction si

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Bristol Barrow Road - Scalefour North Retrospective

For those who missed Scalefour North earlier this year the Scalefour Society have just added a selection of photos of my layout on the Society website.   http://www.scalefour.org/shows/S4North2013/BristolBarrowRoad/   Since the show I have been concentrated on the additional trackwork at the rear of Lawrence Hill Junction signal box and have surveyed Lawrence Hill road bridge that will form the scenic break at that end of the layout. I have drawn up a plan for this additional scenic board wh

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Bristol Barrow Road at SN

I have just received a disc the some photos of the layout taken during S4N a couple of weeks ago when it was populated by locos and stock belonging to myself, Morgan Gilbert, Dave Holt, John Darch and Paul Hutfield - thanks chaps, I've never seen so many locos on shed. John's freight on the main line looked particularly impressive as did the Gloucester passenger with Morgan's coaches. The following photos are credited to the Scalefour Society courtesy of David Brandreth.          

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Bristol Barrow Road - Hitting the Buffers

I have done some research on the type of buffer stops used on the shed and have identified three different types in five positions:-   The first type is found on the headshunt alongside the coaling tower and has been difficult to identify as photos of this area have usually have a 16 ton mineral wagon blocking the view. I have managed to find a couple of useful shots one of which is courtesy of Patrick O'Brien on his flickr site:- http://www.flickr.co...157625157165429 The buffer stop is to

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Bristol Barrow Road - Templot & Trackwork

A few weeks ago I received the second phase of Templot from my good friend Morgan consisting of the south exit including a single slip, Lawrence Hill Junction and some modified trackwork that goes behind the junction signal box to the shed. In the prototype the double track lines, from the Junction, that run behind the junction signal box operated as two single lines, one to St.Philips Station and the other to the Carriage Sidings, St Philips Goods Yard and the Cattle Dock, however for the mode

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Roundhouse - Second Roof Pitch

I have made good progress since my last posting and the second roof pitch is now finished and test fitted.   In order to fit the roof pitch on the sidings side of the roundhouse the side wall required some modification to position and fit the 22 roof trusses. This meant hand cutting a new set of 22 slots for the new roof, filling the original 13 laser cut slots and the scribing the brickwork. The new slots were carefully cut using a fretsaw, scalpel and drill - an interesting exercise.   I h

barrowroad

barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Test Fit of First Roof Pitch

With the layout now fully erected again following the Christmas and New Year break - the room doubles up as accommodation for guests - I have now had the opportunity to test fit the first of the roof pitches on the roundhouse girders.                 In the meantime I have managed to build another 14 trusses so hopefully the second pitch is not too far away from completion.

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barrowroad

Bristol Barrow Road - Breakdown Train - Identification of Stock

I have been looking through my collection of photos taken in and around Bristol Barrow Road shed during the 1950s and 1960s and have noticed two photos of what I believe is the shed breakdown train in the sidings alongside the shed. Is anyone able to assist in the identification of any of the three vehicles, one of which appears to be a modified clerestory of Midland Railway origin whilst I have no idea on the other two.   Ivo Peters 1957 - the three vehicles are in the road behind the Mog

barrowroad

barrowroad

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