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Wolverhampton West Park - A run down city terminus


turtlebah
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Looking good as always @turtlebah — the fiddle yard looks robust, far more so than efforts I usually end up with! I can share your excitement in the new researches; there’s a fantastic satisfaction in turning the page and finding new photos of exactly the thing you’re looking for. I sometimes wonder if I enjoy the research more than the modelling, in fact — it fits into short bits of spare time, it’s cheap, and the wiring doesn’t have to work!

 

Adam

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1 hour ago, Calidore said:

Looking good as always @turtlebah — the fiddle yard looks robust, far more so than efforts I usually end up with! I can share your excitement in the new researches; there’s a fantastic satisfaction in turning the page and finding new photos of exactly the thing you’re looking for. I sometimes wonder if I enjoy the research more than the modelling, in fact — it fits into short bits of spare time, it’s cheap, and the wiring doesn’t have to work!

 

Adam

 

Hi @Calidore.  Thanks for the kind comments.

 

Equally i also find the research element one of, if not the, most exciting parts.  I've acquired quite a collection of western region books over the years and normally pick up one of two more at every show i attend.  A nice evening wind-down activity, although i'm pretty sure my partner thinks i'm a little crazy reading books on western region signalling before bed.

 

And yes, anything with less wiring is always welcome.  I dread looking under the baseboards sometimes.  I'm going to have to tidy up all the wiring before West Park is ready for an exhibition (hopefully sometime early next year), which obviously i am not looking forwards to.  Electrics is definitely not my forte.

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It was way to hot to be using a soldering iron in a stuffy attic room yesterday, but i pushed ahead anyway.

 

I finally finished off the repair work on the crossover and two other points that had been causing minor derailment issues.  Running is now pretty much seamless.  I had to replace the sleeper tie bar on one point, re-solder a few other point blades to tie bars and move a couple of check rails.  Even the dreaded Hornby Black 5 can navigate all the point work now.  It's all a learning curve i guess.

 

I've still got to touch up the track work where the soldering has taken place, but that can wait.  Building shells should be arriving from York Model Making today!  Exciting stuff!

 

IMG_4397.JPEG.aa51fd9f7412d468dcfd77cf91ba7dd8.JPEG

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Happy bank holiday everyone!

 

I know that you should probably start a model railway with an exact image of how you’d like it to look, but that has definitely not been the case with the West Park station canopy.  Whilst I’m very pleased with the base structure (no thanks to Dapol), the detailing needs some serious work.

 

I’ve started toying with ideas for completing the roof and thought I reach out to see if anyone has any friendly advice...particularly regarding the materials actually used on the Western Region in canopy construction.

 

The first photo (from www.disused-stations.org.uk) shows Snow Hill, in a rather sorry looking state.  The canopy top construction is glass panels at the ridge with some sort of corrugated materials below.  What is the corrugated material though?  Iron?  Asbestos?

 

1E4556D7-1D9E-43C0-86E1-61F3EE480B34.jpeg.4261bd4351212253c9123c2bf2b409fa.jpeg

 

The next photo, although only a model, shows the West Mids Scale 4 Group’s brilliant representation of Moor St.  This is one of my all time favourite layouts and I’d always try and make the effort to see it whenever it was on show.  The canopy here is very similar to that of Snow Hill.

 

219D0879-DDD9-4D1B-BE49-7BDFA62F8638.jpeg.45f0fc11314642ccf12cf6e36ebc77bd.jpeg

 

The photography below, again taken from www.disused-stations.org.uk, shows a very run down Snow Hill, but you can make out the glass panelling on the overall roof front and what looks like some more of that corrugated material. 

 

E60CFA15-C854-445E-9B07-9E5F8B679E6A.jpeg.7a69ef2a8b92d9394c162de76734be69.jpeg

 

The final two photos are of Wolverhampton Low Level.  It’s very difficult in the first photo (also from disused-stations.org.uk) to see what the canopy roof material is.

 

In the second photo, it’s definitely some corrugated material, but the photo is post closure and it looks fairly new in places, so could have been a temporary fix added at a later date.

 

A72535DA-0208-4C09-A7C0-18EE0A7F5D2B.jpeg.5d721dfb1bbb8b7673572be6304584a2.jpeg

 

3F1A1438-3167-45B4-BFAF-5EE52A11FB07.jpeg.67277fe796da6a237e56b935d6ea40e1.jpeg

 

Does anyone know what that corrugated material was likely to be?  Any other inspiration on Western Region station roof materials that can supplement a bit of glass?  Given the run down nature and imminent closure of the fictitious West Park a complete and maintained overall glass roof doesn’t feel right :P

 

 

 

 

Edited by turtlebah
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I can speak of Filton Junction, which was not of the size of West Park. But I

did measure up before it was demolished. That was a version of what was

a fairly standard GW design, ammended for location. The roof was in effect

a tent for the platform buildings. That is the buildings were flat roofed, with

the station roof supported (admitedy off the buildings) above, providing

weather protection. The covering was overall Corrugated Iron.

 

Hope thats helpful and not confusing.

 

All the best

 

TONY

 

p.s. How come you never seem to use the run round loop, trains always seem

to require an extra loco for release, even when ecs?

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I would take a logical approach to the roof covering. When you consider the GWR used a large amount of corrugated iron for building line side structures, Pagodas and roof covering for their footbridges etc then I think you would be safe to assume it would be corrugated iron sheeting. 

 

The GWR also tended to coat the sheeting with black oil tar in an effort to combat the weather.

 

Asbestos didn't start to be used in the building industry until the early 1930's.

 

I think you would be safe in using a corrugated iron clad roof structure.

 

G

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On 24/05/2020 at 11:03, Mulgabill said:

I can speak of Filton Junction, which was not of the size of West Park. But I

did measure up before it was demolished. That was a version of what was

a fairly standard GW design, ammended for location. The roof was in effect

a tent for the platform buildings. That is the buildings were flat roofed, with

the station roof supported (admitedy off the buildings) above, providing

weather protection. The covering was overall Corrugated Iron.

 

Hope thats helpful and not confusing.

 

All the best

 

TONY

 

p.s. How come you never seem to use the run round loop, trains always seem

to require an extra loco for release, even when ecs?


Thanks Tony, it appears my initial suspicions ring true.  Corrugated iron it is and thanks for the help.

 

I haven’t used the run around for two reasons...

Firstly, the crossover at the far end has only just become operational after some serious remedial work required due to some shoddy point construction.

Secondly, the station mostly operates with a pilot engine as the majority of services are semi fast or long distance stoppers in the hands of 4-6-0s and so have to be turned anyway so would just follow the pilot and ECS out of the platform.  Also, I thought given restrictions on the length of the layout it would give an air of more realistic operation for a terminus.  I didn’t really have the space for crossovers in every platform.

 

The one run round loop that exists will mostly be used for shunting the daily goods train to the warehouse sidings, although I haven’t totally figured out what that operation looks like yet.

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23 hours ago, bgman said:

I would take a logical approach to the roof covering. When you consider the GWR used a large amount of corrugated iron for building line side structures, Pagodas and roof covering for their footbridges etc then I think you would be safe to assume it would be corrugated iron sheeting. 

 

The GWR also tended to coat the sheeting with black oil tar in an effort to combat the weather.

 

Asbestos didn't start to be used in the building industry until the early 1930's.

 

I think you would be safe in using a corrugated iron clad roof structure.

 

G


Cheers G.  A very sensible answer.  Corrugated iron cladding I think would be befitting of West Park’s run down status.  Especially with a bit of rust showing through.

Edited by turtlebah
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On 23/05/2020 at 19:56, Calidore said:

Should be good seeing those properly done up! Enjoy the extra modelling time and I shall look forward to seeing the results :good:

 

Adam


I suspect it’s going to be a while before those bits of MDF bear any fruit!

 

i did get round to doing some MDF plasticard glue tests.  The winners so far are spray mount and butanone, which both seem to work well and offer a strong bond.

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2 minutes ago, turtlebah said:


I suspect it’s going to be a while before those bits of MDF bear any fruit!

 

i did get round to doing some MDF plasticard glue tests.  The winner so far are spray mount and butanone, which both seem to work well and offer a strong bond.

 

I recently built a laser-cut kit and attached various plasticard elements to it using Deluxe Roket Card Glue for the very first time. I was surprised at how strong the bond between the two different elements was and have now started to use it for this purpose. I don't know what the make up of it is but seems to work well, just to add, I am fussy about what I use when bonding different materials together !

 

Prior to doing this I did carry out a few test pieces which were.... well lets say....put under pressure for want of a better phrase.

 

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10 minutes ago, bgman said:

 

I recently built a laser-cut kit and attached various plasticard elements to it using Deluxe Roket Card Glue for the very first time. I was surprised at how strong the bond between the two different elements was and have now started to use it for this purpose. I don't know what the make up of it is but seems to work well, just to add, I am fussy about what I use when bonding different materials together !

 

Prior to doing this I did carry out a few test pieces which were.... well lets say....put under pressure for want of a better phrase.

 


I’be got some of that stuff knocking around.  I’ll add it to the experiment :D

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4 minutes ago, turtlebah said:


I’be got some of that stuff knocking around.  I’ll add it to the experiment :D

 

Worth a try, there was some comment/ discussion elsewhere about it seemingly looking "off colour" (brownish ? ) when one modeller used it but to be honest mine was "knocking around" for probably the best part of a year before I used it and I haven't noticed any probs so worth a try, waste not want not ! :laugh_mini:

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The bank holiday seemed to pass by so swiftly without me so much as touching a pot of glue!

 

The final choice for fixing the plasticard to the MDF was spray mount, which seems to set with such a strong and even bond.  I also used a bit of superglue around the edges just to stop them peeling off and to help with the setting process.

 

So much of this still to do.

 

IMG_xxxxxx.JPEG.414eb20a69a2ed6653b3754f72b6ada6.JPEG

Edited by turtlebah
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I must admit, I’ve always had a mental image of Wolverhampton as the epitome of post-industrial decrepitude. Monmore Green speedway Track was notorious for it, there was a report in Speedway Star about it being subject to an arson attack... “how could they tell” was the universal response....

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1 minute ago, rockershovel said:

I’ve seen that Moor Street Station model, it’s quite exceptional. One of those rare models which is immediately recognisable as its prototype. 

 

It's just a brilliant representation.  Seeing it at Derby a couple of years ago was also almost enough for me to switch to modelling the BR early blue period.  The stock used shows such a wonderful array for multiple units.

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34 minutes ago, Mark Forrest said:

Does this help?

18A414D4-2D56-43B8-AA7B-E503E33493B4.jpeg.f130e4cbcd5f5141650a713473a4ad77.jpeg

Looks like you’re after RPM sheeting No.20 gauge, aluminium finish on underside

 

 

Mark, that's amazing!  Where on earth did you find such a resource?

 

From a quick scan it looks like the glazing is compensated with a corrugated material (RPM?)?  There's also a note about an aluminium finish on the underside.  Incredibly useful.

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26 minutes ago, turtlebah said:

 

Mark, that's amazing!  Where on earth did you find such a resource?

 

 

It’s one of a series of drawings prepared by the GWR when they replaced the original overall roof at Low Level; if I remember correctly that would be around 1933.  I think the NRM hold the original drawings.

 

Not sure what RPM is; I’ll have a look later to see if I have anything else that might be useful.

 

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31 minutes ago, Mark Forrest said:

 

It’s one of a series of drawings prepared by the GWR when they replaced the original overall roof at Low Level; if I remember correctly that would be around 1933.  I think the NRM hold the original drawings.

 

Not sure what RPM is; I’ll have a look later to see if I have anything else that might be useful.

 

 

Awesome, thanks Mark. :D

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I believe it is a galvanising process for metal sheeting first developed by H. H. Robertson Co., Ellesmere Port. They closed in 1997 with a big hole in the pension fund. 

Regards Lez.

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