Beatty 139

There are other bits and bobs around the black country I did not mention. Perry Park Road in Old Hill is possibly one of the largest Tramway earth works in the UK its a massive reverse curve climbing many feet, to avoid Waterfall Lane. A massive but short lived section of the route to Blackheath. On the corner of Reddal Hill Road and Halesowen Road is the former bank building the last two window bays of the building is the Tramway Waiting Room. While on the Dudley System, at the junction of Hungary Hill and Birmingham street is another odd little brick building with a bus shelter on the foot path, the brick building is another former tram waiting room for the Lye route. Not quite tramway but I wonder if the Guided Buses Only sign is still up at the end of Streetly Road, Erdington, I haven't been past for a year or two, but was always amazed it was still there and not in someones collection, having been liberated one night! Andy

Hi I have been recently been discussing this matter of 6w coaches on the Gauge 1 yahoo group and two clear simple options have been discussed. Option 1 To form a truck from the two axles with a pivot in the center and leave the other axle fixed, it works well but is noted as having some extra 'drag' Option 2 A simplified system to allow all axles to move. Again one pair of axles are pivoted like a lwb bogie but the other axle is also pivoted and links into the first as seen in the image. stock runs well and freely even on tight radius curves. Hope the suggestions are of interest, note both systems use inner bearing with the W irons axle boxes being dummies. Andy

A few more I am aware of in the West Midlands (or is it Greater Birmingham now?) Bilston, opposite the Library and Craft Gallery on Mount Pleasant Bilston The Fish depot at Amblecoat Stourbridge, now Laser Quest Washward Heath Depot, where Birmingham's last Fleetline was roped in. Now clad over as an ethnic supermarket but still there underneath. Kings Heath Car sheds, from steam tram days, the steam depot has gone but International Stock in Silver St is the Car Shed, you will need to go inside to see its history that its not a new structure. Just as a quick note the Aston Manor car Sheds that used to be the museum until Birmingham city councils money grabbing F*** up still has the steam tram loco sheds and yards next door that are used as a car garage. Hockley, now the new Bingley Hall, While it was still a bus garage you could still make out where the return wheel was for the Birmingham cable car, building has now been clad over so again history has been hidden. Hope that helps the list

Well as ever I am way behind on where I want to be with my model making, so the Midland Railway D924 Cattle wagon (100 built 1893) has been half built since Christmas but as ever I have been short of time to design the brass etch fret. Well after reading various posts on the Silhouette Cameos I made this my birthday request from my better half, eBay came up with the goods and this weekend I have had time to play. Well all is good and I can export almost the same line work that I would develop the etch work from to the cutter to test everything. So after a few hours adding 1/32 rivets I now have a completed wagon body waiting for the rest the running gear adding, One challenge left I have never liked painting and yet a cattle van will need painting and weathering to make it look right... so its time to go search the pages of RMweb.

Hi Simon 1/32 wagons and stock with 10mm locos tends to look fine as do a mix of 1/32 10mm non coaching stock running in a train together, but to my eyes the issue comes from 1/32 locos on 10mm stock as you soon find that the stock dominates the loco not the loco dominating the train, I am not sure what the full set of parts would come out at but sound like it's on par with a brass kit. A quick further question would be about structural strength would the body structure be sufficiently strong to carry the on board batteries etc. Many Thanks Andy

A quick question, I have had quite a few of these since my birthday present arrived, I note that the Cameo is being driven straight from Inkscape can you drive it directly from AutoCad LT? Regards Andy

Many Thanks It was the fit to page that was causing me an issue, all i need to do now is work out why it appears to be seeing multiple lines when I know the original cad art work is clean. One other question, the plotter is cutting the straight lines then curves as opposed to treating the whole shape as a pollyline is this normal or another setting I am yet to find on the learning curve? Regards Andy

I have just had an issue that I cannot find noted elsewhere. I have produced a file to test my recently purchased machine cutting out strapping for wagons. I have produced a DXF file in autocad as I normally would for my laser, but when I open it in the Silhouette software the file is not to scale and as far as i can work out it may be treating a unit as imperial not metric. Any Suggestions? I should say that I have also tried saving the file from Corel with the same effect. Regards Andy

Hi Simon As ever your work is just stunning but would you consider/take much work to scale this up to 10mm scale and producing a set of parts I have just the ballast train to run with this already...... I wouldn't dare ask on the Western Thunder group as their a bit 1/32 biased, but some of us are still working in 'British' gauge 1 Thanks Andy

Hi Clive That's how I would expect it to be but I have only seen that one surviving box as per the photograph with that kind of arrangement, but until a photo or other evidence comes to light I doubt anyone could question it. All type 1.2 & 3 boxes use the corner posts buried in a post hole to form the foundation of the building with the flakes filling in between. The tapering corner posts are a pain to get looking right as the only taper on the outside faces unlike a signal post that taper on all four. Regards Andy Mould

Hi Clive I have built quite a few MR boxes now of types 1,2,3 & 4 and have been doing quite a lot of research. The image below may be the answer to your question, the Midland didn't use foundations as far as I understand it until the type 4 signal boxes, although quite a few were underpinned with foundations as the corner posts went rotten. That has happened to the Box in the photo and Network Rail added the foundations a few years ago. the Box in question is a 10' square ground level type 3 box and as you will see the locking room floor is suspended above the bank. if its of any use please see the photo below as the rear of a Type 2 box. If you need any information please feel free to ask. Kind Regards Andy

This is just work in progress I normally laser engrave brickwork on my model buildings but for some time have been wondering if there was a better way of producing stonework other than scribing clay or plaster. A Warley show there was tucked up the top end of the hall a sales stand for Bromley Craft Products (usual disclaimers about no connection etc) and by the second day I actually noticed it and had a nose. Well I have just had a chance to use there stuff and had a go and this is the initial results of which I am most pleased, unfortunately it was quite cad intensive for me as they don't produce their stencils in 10mm scale so I have had to draw and cut my own custom ones for the building (NER Romaldkirk Station). I am hoping once detailed finish painted and varnished it could be a route forwards. I will update once I have made some more progress.

Just found this thread and very impressed by the content, hope I don't disgrace myself with a couple of my offerings. Midland Railway type 4 box in 10mm scale, built for Stanley Midland layout of the Midlands Group G1MRA, including lamp room and WC. And a almost finished NBR West Highland extension railway box, still need to do some work on this adding guttering, down spouts etc. Both models built in laser cut ply/mdf

Well when I did a factory visit in the 1980's they had a Gun barrel lathe they had acquired as war reparations from WW1 at the time it was working on a secret project, odd as the drawings were laid out on the bench next to it as US Navy USS Iowa, we were told (under the counter) that they were one of the few places in the world who could still forge and machine a 16" navel gun barrel, so you can see it was no surprise a few years later when it came out they built the Super Gun. If they were still doing them in the late 1980's I am sure they would have been doing the same during the wars, the other big job they used to do at the time we visited were submarine propeller shafts that apparently had to have almost perfect balance to prevent noise when running silent. The Rose Gun Barrel works on the other side of the road is a mystery to me other than having found it so described on old maps I know it was a large works in later years before being converted to a trading estate. All that remains now is one building facing Somers I would guess that the Admiralty must have had a source of local gun barrels to justify a proof testing site just outside the Birmingham area. It could be a case of putting 2 + 2 and coming up with 12 but I thought it was worth asking the question.

Hi Just a question that has been at the back of my mind for a while, on the Lickey Hills just south of Birmingham used to be a Navy Gun proof testing ground, the Butts were a well know landmark next to the visitors center and were only 'tided' up a few years ago, but I am told you can find test shot in the ground. The road to the test ground was via Rose Hill is steep and today the main A38 through Rubery that avoids it was a diversion built by Napoleonic prisons of war. it must have been some sight to see the big gun barrels being hauled up rose hill, I presume by traction engine. The Railway element of this comes from the Halesowen Branch from and its notoriously light weight viaduct long restricted to MR class 2 goods tender engines and no bigger, Walter Somere in Halesowen and the Rose Gun Barrel works on the opposite side of Mucklows hill produced (and still did until the 1980's) some of the largest naval gun barrels in the world, both had private siding on the Halesowen Branch so does any one know if these traveled to Longbridge via the branch to then be road hauled to the proof testings site or would they travel via the main line either via Droitwich or Birmingham or even been road hauled all the way (over very difficult and hilly roads) if locos couldn't double head over Dowery Dell viaduct would they allow a loco and gun barrel? I have read most published work on the Halesowen Railway and never read a reference to gun barrels being moved, but only found out recently what was going on up the Lickeys so I have kind of put one and one together with the manufacture and proof testing at either end of the branch. Any ideas?

Hi I suggest you look up the Fossmotor as sold by: Peter Spoerer Model Engineers 'Innovators in Model Garden Railways' White Horse Works, Fakenham Road, Morton NR9 5SP 01603 260562 peterspoerer@fast-mail.net they can also supply sensibly priced RC and battery packs. Hope that helps, the fossmotor are a nose hung traction motor like full size and will fit in most bogies although I would suggest that 2 only would pull anything that a class 20 would ever come across in G1 Andy

As far as I am aware the cabinets do contain a diesel hydrovane compressor for the train air brakes required when the Hunslets were at Longbridge, it's quite a standard modification as a quick fit to industrial loco where they compressors are only sized to do loco brakes and control systems and not capable or charging train air brake systems within a reasonable amount of time. I know Wilmott brothers did the same to an 0-6-0 Yorkshire that they had on hire at the Austin. The new Sainsbury's opened today on what was the old power hose and north works at the Austin, it was not so long ago that traffic was coming in and out of the factory.

For the last couple of weeks I have been working on my latest project a model of a typical West Highland extension railway (NBR) signal box in Gauge 1. Today has seen the first outing in public of the virtually completed structure, at the Bromsgrove Society of Model Engineers open day. The day had quite a Scottish theme with a Highland Railway Clan, 3 Caledonian Railway locos and a North British Railway B class in steam across the day. I still have a few jobs to do on the building with the guttering and rainwater goods to be added as well as various fixtures and fittings. The Signal box itself is built mainly in laser cut MDF and Ply from my own CAD drawings, I was lucky that the members of RMweb were able to assist in providing some information and drawings with some basic dimensions, the rest has been scaled from various images, over all I am quite pleased that when considered against various photos its looking close to the real thing.

To further continue the S&T them of my latest projects I though I would complete the signal box set with a typical Midland signal box toilet.

Some time ago I built myself a Midland Fog mans hut from a works drawing dated 1918, but I had a few issues with making it hinge, the Midlands huts didn't have doors but were designed to fold down when not in use. Well today I revisited my original work and applied the little gray cells, by changing the materials I have been able to make a robust pivot based on a 1/32" rivet. So now not only can they be up in use but folded down. Coal bunker as a little project next.

After the sugery to my right arm I was itching to get back to some making after being in plaster for 3 weeks. The 30' Midland box has been finished and passed over for painting, the windows and walkway has not been fitted yet to allow the painting to be done. While I was recovering I also did some very slow single handed CAD and did a design for the Midland 2b type box this one is 15'x10' and a 8' operating floor. Same basics as the Type 4 box but this is fully panelled internally as the prototype, weather boardind is all laid up as individual strips.

Well the main structure is now finished, ready for the external details, windows etc I am going to trial Rowmark ADA for the windows to see how it works if its good I think I will add it to my everyday materials the other option will be 1.5mm MDF as I am finding 1.6mm ply lacks consistancy for the very thin sections.

Well it looks like the lads from S&T have been in on overtime today, I have finished the roof structure ready to slate it later, the roof is lift off loacted on pegs so the interior can be painted and worked on and includes the correct ties and internal structure, I havent planked the inside that will be a job to do with the lining pen once painted. I hope that the exterior panelling will be on later ready for the stairs windows etc later in the week.

Well I have an operation coming up so I am working through outstanding jobs. I have agreed to supply the Midlands group of the G1MRA with some buildings for their Stanley Midland layout, normally the back face is not on public view and just used for stock storage but for the G1MRA Expo the whole layout will be viewed in the round. This is a bespoke Midland Railway type 4 signal box I am producing, its double sided because of its proposed position to give the signalman a view of the sidings as well as the main line. The box is based on standard 10' sections. The framework is built from 2mm MDF The next job will be to clad the box in 0.8mm ply and add the detail such as steps windows etc.

if your in the midlands Chasewater has a MS&L 6W its not been messed about too much below the solebars and could be closer than the K&WVR.