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Leeds Victoria, Dewsbury Midland and Bradford London Rd a never finished oo layout


Barry O
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Probably. Not sure about the gradients.

 

It would be nice to have another version back in OO...

 

Baz

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4 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Probably. Not sure about the gradients.

 

It would be nice to have other back in OO...

 

Baz

 

2mm scale trains seem to be capable of steeper gradients than 4mm trains. That said, baseboards remain much the same thickness which could cause problems.

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Good stuff Barry, it is period of history when I didn't get to the club besides exhibitions, being exiled south of the M40, in the days before the M25.  My earlier days were with the previous club layout in Atkinson Street, but I was back north for the later days of this layout.

 

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Moving on to ...

Buildings

 

The Station Building was based on Wakefield Kirkgate. Built by Nick Easton using plasticard.

 

I have found a copy of the Club Newsletter from November 1977 asking if anyone fancied building an overall canopy. It never happened ..but it meant you could see to undertake station shunting. 

 

There were very few other buildings.  I know there was a Goods shed, a large signal box (was it one off Wigan Wallgate Mike?)

 

All in Plasticard as where the steps and walkways in the carriage sidings.

 

There was also a large overbridge which caused fun one night ta the Club as our now Chairman Andy Ross was running a Pilcher Tram under test on the layout. It wouldn't fit under the bridge ..the famous words then heard were "Can someone please remove the Tram blocking the Station Throat"

 

 

Not sure who built any of these? 

 

 

Baz

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The signal box at Victoria was the one from Wakefield Kirkgate, a very large box, not the first one I had built from scratch but certainly the biggest. I've got the photos I used somewhere, I'll get them out and post on here.

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A couple of pics with a very young MDE. The office building is a Midland building recovered from one of my layouts.layouts001.jpg.4f6af5d8585b34c65ec686337d906578.jpg1076620901_layoutsdinner015.jpg.88866000ab14c55334063c7b64d30e61.jpg

Also the large signal box.  The station building was built in plastic and. I'm not sure where the drawings came from. The arches for to support the overall roof were cut in 12mm ply and covered with plastic and. It was VERY solidly fixed to the baseboard, a good thing as someone once thought it was a handle to lift the layout with.

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Steve Noble and ..the 3mm Man (Lydney, Hatfield Moor, Everingham, Thorpe.....).. Alan Smith.

 

Note the signals more about these soon...

 

Baz

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On 30/04/2020 at 04:19, Barry O said:

Many years ago, when I first joined the Leeds Model Railway Society the OO group were busy building a new layout.

 

Thanks to Mike Edge here is the trackplan

1691910600_LeedsVictoriatrackplan.jpg.bd67fe0c7e9967051210b1da98564998.jpg

 

When I joined Leeds Victoria was "built" ..but a bit more background...

 

I am sure my colleagues on RMWeb will help ... @Nicktoix       and @Michael Edge

 

Well, I'm not sure whether I can "help" but I'll certainly chip in a few thoughts.

 

"Never finished" - sure, but in the end it was complete operationally, although Dewsbury MPD always seemed to be a work in progress.

 

I'll comment as I go along so apologies in advance if I mention something that's already been said somewhere in the first 30-odd posts.

 

Incidentally, I always thought that we should have referred to the complete layout as "The West Riding Lines". It would have conveyed very nicely what were were up to.

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On 30/04/2020 at 17:07, Joseph_Pestell said:

I would have voted for the alternative version. It seems to have more operating potential. 4'x2' boards (which gives an overall dimension of 24'x12')?

Too much hidden track in the alternative I think and not being able to walk around the whole of the inside of the layout woudl have become very annoying very quickly.

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On 30/04/2020 at 22:00, Nicktoix said:

The original design was 30x15 with 5ft x 2ft 6in baseboards.

All made in plywood with separate trestle legs.

On a trip to Barrow in Furness exhibition the legs did the splits on a polished ballroom floor.

The layout was stabilised by a nail into the stage and string passed round the layout.

layouts002.jpg.6594951387655cb4318918c3b0c0c115.jpg

Baseboards built , no track and a young St Enodoc

Nick

I don't think I'm in that photo Nick. When Baz and I joined, in 1976 I think, the track at Victoria was just about complete and the layout was more-or-less operational as far as the first fiddle yard. I'm not sure that I recognise many in the photo, except perhaps Geoff Appleyard bending over at the far end?

 

Edit: Yes, of course it's Rossi in the right foreground.

 

Nice shot of the Headingley clubroom though.

Edited by St Enodoc
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On 30/04/2020 at 22:35, Barry O said:

So the proposal is to do this Thread in Sections..so stay calm everyone.

 

 Part 1 Leeds Victoria Baseboards

Baseboards

Track

Buildings

Temporary storage yards

Control Panels and electrical systems

Operation

Banking

Signals

Exhibitions

 

Part 2 Dewsbury Midland to Bradford London Road

Baseboards

Track

Buildings

Control Panels

Operation

Banking

Signals

Exhibitions

 

Part 3 Lessons learned and what happened to it.

 

Biggest problem is a lack of photographs.

 

I've got a few but they're all a bit dark (very fitting for the West Riding I suppose). I'll post them as we go along. I think Ken Nelson's got quite a few as well.

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4 hours ago, Barry O said:

Steve Noble and ..the 3mm Man (Lydney, Hatfield Moor, Everingham, Thorpe.....).. Alan Smith.

 

Note the signals more about these soon...

 

Baz

Something wrong with that photo. Steve isn't on the goods yard...

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13 hours ago, Nicktoix said:

layouts001.jpg.4f6af5d8585b34c65ec686337d906578.jpg

 

Who is that bending down in the first photo?

 

And whose is the disembodied hand under the baseboard?

Edited by St Enodoc
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Wakefield East signal box was still in use then so all I had to do was go there and take some photos. Class 37 in the background shunting the Cobra coal boxes.

1536248071_WakefieldEastsignalboxsmall.jpg.0711c738178af69588659e6d8a516ade.jpg

The end was photographed with a long lens from the station platform.

528025459_WakefieldEastsignalboxend.jpg.e72cf0a7895c4dce488415068f821ec0.jpg

These two photos were then used to make a drawing to build the box from plastikard. The model probably still exists, I sold it to a customer of mine when we dismantled the layout.

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16 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Something wrong with that photo. Steve isn't on the goods yard...

In that case either Nick or myself are on the Goods Yard.

 

Baz

 

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Some more photos of the layout.. The Corn Exchange at Exhibition time was always a dark and cold (especially at the 9 pm closing time) place.

1374443472_CharlieandVictoria.jpg.206086aec86473915d849e9b305d30fb.jpg

 

Looking from the platform ends.  To the left the retaining wall for the never built overall roof

Far end the overbridge. and (badly out of focus) the main station building ..more on the signals and stock later.

 

I believe the operator on the left is a young @charliepetty

649578581_SteveRobertsonVictoria.jpg.f22206b84332bf496a12cd4b9f6ff3f5.jpg

 

and the layout "leader" Steve Roberts. Note the model plan as mentioned by Mike earlier.

 

Baz

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Leader? We don't have those in LMRS (we're all anarchists), remember when the Nottingham club demanded to know who it was? We nominated Smithy and then referred to him as the Ayatollah (and still do sometimes...).

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7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Probably because nobody else volunteered so the Leader told him he had to...

Nope, he organised operators and various other layout bits and bats.

Baz

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