turtlebah

Enjoyed seeing Melangoose at Warley end of last year. Hope to catch you out and about on the exhibition circuit again some time soon.

This is a lovely little layout - great modelling.

Sorry for the lack of updates! It’s been a busy year or so. Sadly West Park was dismantled due to a house move, but rest assured the track, buildings and other bits and pieces were preserved. I’ve got some new baseboards on delivery from Tim horn and hope to get cracking on Wolverhampton West Park Pt 2 in the next few weeks. Can’t wait to get started.

Sadly work and family life is still limiting West Park modelling time, but i did manage to get a few snaps today whilst having a bit of a tidy up of the modelling room. I’m at that stage where i can’t decide where to go next as there’s so many elements to finish. I suppose it makes most sense to finish off the platforms and station building and getting those fixed in place. In the meantime i hope you enjoy these few photos… Llanfair Grange waits to depart with a mail train to Snow Hill whilst a Britannia class has just backed on to a short formation stopping service to Chester.

You jest, but minus the magnifying glass that might actually be super useful for my factory warehouse roof! Thanks again!

That's gonna cost a few quid as well...

Thanks, Adam. Hopefully i'll actually get around to doing some more modelling soon

I might have to once I've totted up the total amount.

That’s just the ticket! Although having the full station name of Wolverhampton West Park is going to get pretty expensive

A few additional shots from a couple of other angles... Jubilee class 45464 "Hood" is a long way from her home heading up the 5.12pm all stations stopper to Shrewsbury. A pannier tank is on station pilot duty today and patiently waits for it's next instruction after shunting some empty parcel vans into the centre road. The class 24 prepares to depart for New Street with an evening parcels. The Evesham local service rolls into platform 2. I've started messing around with some grassy platform areas here. It looks a bit silly on it's own, but to capture the run down appearance of the station much of the top ends of the platforms will be grassed over - a sign that the longer trains of yesteryear are now a thing of the past. Obviously the mock up of the signal box looks terrible at present. The signal box is a long term project. I've got fairly comfortable with scratch building retaining walls, warehouses, the station building etc, but with the pitched roofs and much more detail, the signal box is going to be a real step up in quality. I've also got round to ordering the baseboard fronts to complete the exhibition frames. It should hopefully make the whole thing look a lot more professional looking front-on. I need to find somewhere now to produce some laser cut wooden lettering for the front. Any ideas on this would be very welcome.

Thanks, Melangoose. I thought when I started this thread back in March 2019 that West Park would have made its exhibition debut by now… So much still to do to get anywhere close to the finish line.

Hello everyone!!! My goodness it's been nearly 6 months since I last posted on here. It's been a crazy summer where family commitments plus a change in jobs has meant that modelling time has been virtually non-existent. I hope everyone is all well and good!? I also tend to spend a good few evenings in the summer sat on the banks of the River Lea in search of barbel, which causes further neglect of West Park. That said, I've been catching up reading my outstanding additions of BRM over the last couple of weeks and have felt the modelling itch returning once again. To begin to satisfy the itch I started with a thoroughly good sort out of the modelling workbench. There's little to update on Wolverhampton West Park since April, but I have added a few new bits of rolling stock over the summer...see pics below. I've also been working on fitting more stock with Sprat and Winkle couplings...a real pain, but it makes for super operation. I've not dared tackle fitting it to any of the coaching stock yet - I feel this will take a little more courage to start hacking away at their bogies. A class 24 shunts parcels stock ready for the evening parcels to Chester. A class 108 rolls into platform 3 with the stopping service from Evesham. AEC railcar waits before departing with the 2.32pm service for Bridgnorth via the Wombourn. A train spotters view from Waterloo Road bridge. The class 24 waiting to head out with the evening parcels to New Street, whilst the class 108 rolls in from Evesham. In platform 1a Jubilee class waits for a clear road with an all stations stopper for Shrewsbury.

That’s just the ticket! Thanks.

Dawlish looks just the ticket! Struggling to find a photo from yesteryear, but I might have something in one of my western region books.

Thanks Paul, to be honest the signs I got printed from Sankey just come with No1 and No2 as default, but I’m planning on getting some bespoke signs done. ‘West Park Station Box’, as you mentioned, is a front runner at the moment. Need to have a look at a few prototypes - any advice is more than welcome.

You certainly would. I’ve looked at Hayle, but not Dawlish so a very good shout.

The view from the warehouse bridge, a usual haunt of the local teenage spotters. A grange class brings in a mixed rake on a stopper from Hereford (Collett, Hawksworth and porthole coaches). The black 5 in platform 1 waits to depart with a semi-fast to Shrewsbury.

Thanks for the link. Looks very odd seeing a Western with three suburban coaches! Quite a funny picture to be honest.

Started work on a quick mock up of West Park No2 box controlling the station area. West Park No1 box controls the station throat and West Park junction (off scene and the other side of the warehouse bridge). Whilst this mock-up isn’t great the real thing will resemble something similar to Exeter Middle! Given the tight space it’ll overhang the platform 1 road a little. Below a black 5 splutters past West Park No2 box shunting the evening parcels unloaded stock into the centre road ready for the morning fast parcels to Snow Hill and then Paddington.

Pete - what a lovely surprise to see your layout in my latest version of Hornby Magazine when I flicked open the iPad this morning. Terrific work and thoroughly well deserved. Your modelling has been a real inspiration since I started up on the hobby again and joined RMWeb a few years back (i’m also a fan or an urban terminus). Shame the layout is now in bits, but hopefully there’s another exciting project around the corner. Nick x

Thanks SignalEngineer, a super help set of resources there. For those that saw it I bet it must have been a strange site seeing D1000 trundling along on stoppers to Stourbridge.

If anything pops up in your book I’d love to know!

Managed to get a few hours off today and so finished the basic station building and Great Western Hotel building shells. First coat of primer on too. It’s getting there...need to add some roof trim, but not sure where to go with that yet. It’s going to require some more research I suspect.

Steve, any unusual sightings or interlopers that could work as an interesting operation at West Park? Or any other insights for that matter?

A young lad jots down large prairie 4160 in his notebook. The prairie is on station pilot duty today and has just shunted a set of mk1s into platform 2 to form a semi fast service to Chester, probably hauled by a grange class.