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Blowers Green-7mm 1970's blue diesel layout [The rat pack has arrived]


Oldworseandworse
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Hello again.

 

Thanks again for the positive comments. it is always nice to know that what you are doing is appreciated.

 

One or two of you, specifically two tone green and leopardml2341, asked for more pics like the last lot, so here are a few more.

 

12t shock van 'Ban the Bomb' and vanwide sit at the back of the yard waiting to be unloaded.

 

post-28848-0-57811500-1461421497_thumb.jpg

 

View from behind the layout - New Rd end.

 

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Class 116 on the down.

 

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Tysley Unit enters Dudley Tunnel South Portal.

 

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20019 stands out well in poor light.

 

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47499 enters yard with a train of 'cripples'.

 

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37029 draws train into the yard.

 

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47575 in early RES livery exits Dudley Tunnel.

 

post-28848-0-33785400-1461422159_thumb.jpg

 

This selection consists mainly of locos with a couple of shots of the 116 and a couple showing some of the stock. I am planning to take more shots of the stock in the near future so that I can feature individual items of rolling stock in future posts. I hope you like this little lot.

 

Cheers for now,

 

Bill. 

 

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Hi Bill...

I remember searching high and low for more photos on the internet when you appeared as Guest Layout on EMgauge70’s a while back....thanks for posting it up for us RMwebbers to enjoy...ticks all the right boxes for me.

I hope you get many invites.

Love the shots of the multiple unit... Do you run Mk1 passenger or any parcels stock?

What length of train can you accomodate in the fiddle yards?

Randall

Edited by RandyWales
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Hi Bill...

I remember searching high and low for more photos on the internet when you appeared as Guest Layout on EMgauge70’s a while back....thanks for posting it up for us RMwebbers to enjoy...ticks all the right boxes for me.

I hope you get many invites.

Love the shots of the multiple unit... Do you run Mk1 passenger or any parcels stock?

What length of train can you accomodate in the fiddle yards?

Randall

 

Hi Randall,

 

Thanks for the thumbs up.

 

The answer to your last question probably answers the Mk1/parcels stock one. The layout is operated using a cassette system on 1.4m long fiddleyard boards; there are two lengths of cassette, one long enough to take a loco and the other long enough to take 6 standard wagon lengths, each cassette doubles as a stock carrier. When I built the DMU I had to make a pair of cassettes specifically for the Tysley set. This is also designed to act as the unit's carry case.

 

It would in theory be possible to run a loco hauled suburban or short parcels but at present I am sticking with the wagon repair theme and mostly running short wheel base wagons. Longer wheel base wagons just look wrong on what is, for 7mm, a relatively small space, as do longer trains on the mainline. I do plan to build a class 122 to go with the 116 but I am making no promises about a date for it's debut!!

 

Hope this answers your questions.

 

Cheers'

 

Bill.  

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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

The Gods have been kind at the start of 2017 as Bill and myself have finally managed to find time to get together so I could take some photos of Blowers Green. Bill has spent his somewhat limited spare time recently putting the finishing touches to a rake of 16T mineral wagons. The appearance of the Dapol 08 diverted his attention long enough for him to detail and renumber one example for running on Blowers Green. The timing is also good as it allows me to shamelessly plug Blowers Green's appearance at the Monmouth Exhibition on the 12th February. More details can be found at this link. https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/page.php?PgID=327038&ClubID=635  .

 

Plug over, now on to the photos. Bill renumbered his Dapol 08 to 08111, that loco having been allocated to Worcester for two spells in the 1970's, and the best one for the variant of 08 Dapol produced that would have got near the Blowers Green area. (Lots of modellers licence with that one). I also had a couple of photos of the loco in my collection that Bill could work off. The Dapol model was appropriately modified, loosing its bonnet ladders and the small vertical handrails on the bonnet doors. A couple of photos of the finished and weathered model below.

post-7146-0-50297200-1484769512_thumb.jpg

 

post-7146-0-74926100-1484769519_thumb.jpg

 

The other subject of bills attention over the past months has been a fleet of 16t mineral wagons. I am not sure of their origins, but I'm sure bill will be able to answer and questions about them you might have. They have all been weathered and detailed based on photos from my own collection, or from the web, the 16t Mineral Wagon Thread in the Modelling and Musings section of RM-web here. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/36891-16t-minerals/

A selection of photos below show off the result Bills work with both the 08 and the 16T minerals. If you like what you see, come and see us at work at Monmouth on Feb 12th.

 

post-7146-0-06278800-1484769532_thumb.jpg

 

post-7146-0-46750300-1484769537_thumb.jpg

 

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post-7146-0-54316900-1484769605_thumb.jpg

 

Paul J.

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Haven't noticed this layout before. It about half a mile from my old house and looketh incredible :). The old blowers green is still there (bits of it) but new houses have now sprung up above it.

I'm about half a mile from it ! Edited by sp1
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I used to up until Christmas bike over the thin (narrowed) bridge by the disused station building, there is still some track down there and Duncan Edwards road bridge goes over it all

As I live right by the cemetery I'm about 200 yards from Duncan Edwards' grave. When I was at school we used to see the Manchester United coaches pull up on Stourbridge Road - they visited the grave whenever they played locally - don't know if they still do it: but I have seen Bobby Charlon, and probably other famous players, more than once.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Preparations for the Monmouth Show appearance a week Sunday have given me the opportunity to take a few photos of Blowers Green and some of Bill extensive stock to put on here. If you like what you see, come and see it for real at Monmouth. (Or invite it to a your own show).

 

08111 shuffling wagons in the yard.

post-7146-0-33878100-1485965583_thumb.jpg

 

37029 makes its way into the yard with some fresh stock.

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47575 hides out of the way of the yard activity.

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Waiting for attention, Trestrol EA B920059.

post-7146-0-70212600-1485965604_thumb.jpg

 

Paul J.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Blowers Green has now returned to its nest after a very successful exhibition at Monmouth last weekend. The layout ran well, an electrical gremlin that had plagued the layout last time it was out, had flown the nest, and all the locos ran superbly, especially the Dapol 08, which was a joy to shunt with.

 

I realised that I have never posted any photos of the layout set up in it's full format. It is just not possible at its normal resting place. So here are a couple taken after the initial set up during electrical testing.

 

Blowers Green looking towards the Dudley tunnel end of the layout.

post-7146-0-24709700-1487091479_thumb.jpg

 

Now looking the other way.

post-7146-0-01974700-1487091489_thumb.jpg

 

The exhibition set up also allowed me to take some shots from the back of the layout, especially the Dudley Tunnel end, which is not possible normally. Here are a selection of them.

 

Blowers Green from the back, looking towards the (relatively new) Dudley Tunnel end.

post-7146-0-47035800-1487092043_thumb.jpg

 

Now some of the buildings, that are based on those at Duddeston C&W Depot, from the normally unseen back of the layout.

post-7146-0-07711600-1487092059_thumb.jpg

 

Looking towards the road bridge at Blowers Green.

post-7146-0-71150500-1487092066_thumb.jpg

 

Looking down from said road bridge. Normally an impossible shot to get.

post-7146-0-80166200-1487092900_thumb.jpg

 

 

The layout is now due to appear at the Swansea show later on in the year, and has had a couple of other possible invites. So it may well appear at a venue near you, sometime in the future.

 

Paul J.

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Blowers Green has now returned to its nest after a very successful exhibition at Monmouth last weekend. The layout ran well, an electrical gremlin that had plagued the layout last time it was out, had flown the nest, and all the locos ran superbly, especially the Dapol 08, which was a joy to shunt with.

 

I realised that I have never posted any photos of the layout set up in it's full format. It is just not possible at its normal resting place. So here are a couple taken after the initial set up during electrical testing.

 

Blowers Green looking towards the Dudley tunnel end of the layout.

Monmouth set up 2017.jpg

 

Now looking the other way.

Monmouth set up 2017b.jpg

 

The exhibition set up also allowed me to take some shots from the back of the layout, especially the Dudley Tunnel end, which is not possible normally. Here are a selection of them.

 

Blowers Green from the back, looking towards the (relatively new) Dudley Tunnel end.

Blowers green (Dudley tunnel end)..jpg

 

Now some of the buildings, that are based on those at Duddeston C&W Depot, from the normally unseen back of the layout.

Blowers Green buildings.jpg

 

Looking towards the road bridge at Blowers Green.

Blowers Green sidings..jpg

 

Looking down from said road bridge. Normally an impossible shot to get.

Looking down from the road bridge..jpg

 

 

The layout is now due to appear at the Swansea show later on in the year, and has had a couple of other possible invites. So it may well appear at a venue near you, sometime in the future.

 

Paul J.

Some nice pictures - any chance of this appearing anywhere near Dudley?
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello All,

 

Here are some more images taken at Monmouth Show.

 

The colour ones were taken by Zac Payne and the Black and white ones by my eldest son, Stephen.

 

post-28848-0-38967900-1488903338.jpg

 

An atmospheric view of the yard

 

post-28848-0-35566300-1488903424.jpg

 

Class 116 cab view of Dudley Tunnel

 

post-28848-0-65929400-1488903472.jpg

 

Fuel oil by rail, lubricating oil by road

 

post-28848-0-15861000-1488903529.jpg

 

vehicles pass on New Road Bridge

 

post-28848-0-79585900-1488903598.jpg

 

03382 shunting the general yard

 

post-28848-0-13003800-1488903675.jpg

 

08111 shunts more cripples

 

post-28848-0-42377600-1488903712.jpg

 

Class 33 6518 on a down goods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sp1 asked if there was any chance of seeing the layout at an exhibition near to Dudley; sadly there have been no invitations to any shows in the Black Country. Perhaps some of you good folks can persuade an exhibition manager near you to check out this thread and my entry in Exhibition Layouts and get in touch. in the meantime you may be interested to know that Blowers Green is invited to the following exhibitions in 2017:-

 

Ross on Wye                     19th & 20th August 2017

 

Swansea                            7th & 8th October 2017

 

Burnham and District       25th & 26th November 2017

 

perhaps with some help from those of you that like Blowers Green we will get some Black Country invitations for 2018.

 

Cheers for now,

 

Bill.

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What a superb layout, dripping in atmosphere. Glad to see it on here after I saw it at Monmouth show last year. Missed this year's show so glad it's coming to Ross - 5 minutes from my house!

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  • 6 months later...
  • RMweb Gold

What a superb layout, dripping in atmosphere. Glad to see it on here after I saw it at Monmouth show last year. Missed this year's show so glad it's coming to Ross - 5 minutes from my house!

I too live in Ross and went to see it and photographed it and would urge anybody who lives within striking distance of Swansea to go and see the layout.

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Hello,

 

I'd just like to thank the Blowers Green guys for putting on a good show in Swansea today, I have to say it was my favourite layout and is tempting me to have a small dabble in O gauge.

 

I hope you won't mind me posting up some photo's I took?

 

Cheers

Wayne

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Hello,

 

I'd just like to thank the Blowers Green guys for putting on a good show in Swansea today, I have to say it was my favourite layout and is tempting me to have a small dabble in O gauge.

 

I hope you won't mind me posting up some photo's I took?

 

Cheers

Wayne

Feel free to post some Wayne. It's always nice to see other peoples take on a layout.

 

Meanwhile here are some I managed to take during the odd 5 mins away from operating whilst at the Swansea Exhibition.

First up a couple of shots taken perched up on the hill, through which Dudley Tunnel was driven.

 

post-7146-0-82160600-1507918436_thumb.jpg

View of the Blackcountry Industrial Lubricants Limited compound, with Blowers Green sidings below, in the background.

 

 

 

post-7146-0-37498700-1507918445_thumb.jpg

Moving around to the other side of the Warehouse, another view of the sidings from "the grassy knoll".

 

 

post-7146-0-45167700-1507918468_thumb.jpg

Taken off the overbridge at the opposite end to the tunnel, 31193 waits for its train to be formed up.

 

 

post-7146-0-61393400-1508013414_thumb.jpg

Silly hour at the end of Sunday, saw Heljans latest offering tested out. The hill the "grassy knoll" photo was taken from, can be seen top right.

 

post-7146-0-44533100-1507918488_thumb.jpg

Finally 08083 takes a breather from shunting. (I have tried to loose the background Leisure Center wall in this shot. With mixed success).

 

Hope the above photos do justice to Bills layout. It ran extremely well, and went up and came down easily as well. Practice makes perfect.

 

Paul J.

 

Edited to put a photo in its right place, after background Leisure Center wall had been photo shopped out by Mr Wibble during my lesson on how to do it.

Edited by Swindon 123
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