On Shenston Road. Some recent photos.

[D1047]

There's an indistinct view here:- http://www.traintesting.com/images/torpedo%20wagon%20test5.jpg

and of part of the deck here:- http://www.traintesting.com/images/torpedo%20wagon%20test1.jpg(the cables were for instrumentation during the tests)

I believe these wagons were only for use during the tests, as the photos of the trains in service show air-braked MGR hoppers in use. I wonder if it was these wagons that later ran in pairs, with AAR couplings at one end, to move the bogie iron-ore tipplers to and from maintenance.

The wagons weren't barriers as such, but were intended to space out the locos and torpedo ladles over structures such as bridges and viaducts during their journey.

 

 

No barrier wagons but a works photo, a bit grainy, of one of the ladles in my gallery;

 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/12668-rolling-stock-10/

 

 

The ex LMS Brake Vans were stripped of their bodywork and end steps as built, they were sold to BSC and renumbered as PO wagons and I understand they were abandoned at South Bank where they were cut up!

 

The Vans that became Adaptors were BR owned, with the exception of the two conversions that were sold to Procor!

 

Mark Saunders

Thanks for the info guys, could do with a side on pic of those converted brake vans.I forgot about using MGRs but since remember I have some dvd footage somewhere showing the train with the hoppers in the consist.

 

cheers Greg  

[Arthur]

There are, or were, two different torpedo ladles, in H0, available from Trix,

 

This, as Greg has used;

 

 

 

And this, also available under the Marklin brand

 

 

 

Neither are currently available.

 

There is the Walthers kit for a shorter ladle, carried in two six wheel trucks, and there used to be a kit from Plastruct for a similar ladle but that was a 'craftsman kit', you made up the body from standard Plastruct components.

 

Occasionally there are brass models from the Far East, usually of US prototypes, and quite costly.

That's it as far as I am aware.

 

 

Edit: oh yes, and there was also the fairly crude Lima offering.

 

My own modified and anglicised Walthers ladle. Lengthened ladle body, bogies and ind platforms from scratch. It awaits some light weathering as it's mean't to be fairly new.

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by Arthur

[Mark Saunders]

Gregg

 

I found my notes on the origin of the Teesside spacers, there was also a note in the file that the HMRS have that the Torpedoes went to Luxembourg but that was only on an inserted scrap of paper!

 

Mark

 

[D1047]

Gregg

 

I found my notes on the origin of the Teesside spacers, there was also a note in the file that the HMRS have that the Torpedoes went to Luxembourg but that was only on an inserted scrap of paper!

 

Mark

 

DSCN2971.JPG

Hi Mark  Thanks for the info, I guessed you would come up trumps.I  will have a go at a couple.

 

Hows things up north with FL? we have taken a hit again down here  with the mothballing of the hot mill in Llanwern.

 

regards Greg

[Mark Saunders]

Hi Mark  Thanks for the info, I guessed you would come up trumps.I  will have a go at a couple.

 

Hows things up north with FL? we have taken a hit again down here  with the mothballing of the hot mill in Llanwern.

 

regards Greg

 

Things have been quiet with there being excess stocks of coal on the ground at the Power Stations, SSI has not been such as disaster as the only traffic was two trains a day one DB(S) from Rhylstone and a FLHH one from Thrislington!

 

Mark

[Swindon 123]

A couple of trips to Shenston Road recently didn't turn up any new Warships yet, but a look over the stabling point found these noble beasts.

On a nice sunny day, (it does make a hell difference with the light, despite it only being a model), found a couple of visitors on the stabling point.


1720 & 8074 stabled.


Closer look at 8074.


Another visit on a less than sunny day found 8074 still there apparently forgotten.


Different company this time in the form of 1665.


6600 in green small yellow panel was caught passing with a coal train.


The Carriage & wagon hard at work fixing something.

 

I have also been taking a few photos in a few new locations not tried before, which I'll post when I've tidied them up, along with a few more Warships, I hope.

 

Paul J.

[Jamiel]

Always a treat to see new photos of Shenston Road.

Many thanks for sharing.

Jamie

[Swindon 123]

Some more shots of Shenston Road, the idea being to give a view of the layout from a location not visited before. All shots taken from or in the vicinity of the park, situated at the Birmingham end of the station.

The first shot is of 6600 on a train of 21t minerals looking over the fence from the BRS depot towards the park.


Having moved over the track, a view of the pillbox in the park.


Swinging the camera around 90 degrees sees the view of the steelworks through the trees.


Looking through the fence sees 7515 pass on a train of coils.


And 47091 on a Freightliner.


Finally to give you an idea as to where the park is on the layout, a view from on top of the pillbox looking towards the station, which is hidden behind the bus.

[Jaggzuk]

Hello all,Some more photos from the Shenston Road files. A couple of Greg's wagons included.

 

KEV B935247.jpg Hopefully Greg will be able to fill you all in as the origin of these wagons. One thing I do know is, the loads in the coil carriers are made from 13A fuse wire, patiently wound round a tube to create individual coils. Finally back to TOPS with 40141 on a train of cement hoppers.

 

Paul J.

Hi Paul I am really impressed with these coil wagon loads, they look great. So I have managed to find a source of 13A wire sold on a drum rather than the domestic repair cards, about 300m worth! And so I was wondering if you know what sort of length of wire was used for each coil? Also what was the diameter of the pipe used to wind the coils on? Cheers Paul Edited November 27, 2015 by Jaggzuk

[ben pez]

Stunning photos!

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Wibble]

A few more pics of Shenston Road, with further details and captions on the emgauge70s website.

[Snofi]

amazing shots!

[TrevorP1]

The last two shots of the warships at Shenston Road are impressive!

 

For a split second I thought the the pair side by side was Exeter St Davids, then I realised it was the wrong number of tracks and different background. But I was still puzzling where it could be till 'Shenston Road' gave it away!

 

Not sure about the class 1 headcode on the hopper wagons though...

[leopardml2341]

 

Not sure about the class 1 headcode on the hopper wagons though...

Winding mechanism failure.

[Swindon 123]

Hi Paul I am really impressed with these coil wagon loads, they look great. So I have managed to find a source of 13A wire sold on a drum rather than the domestic repair cards, about 300m worth! And so I was wondering if you know what sort of length of wire was used for each coil? Also what was the diameter of the pipe used to wind the coils on? Cheers Paul

I too was lucky enough to have a large roll of fuse wire to make the coils with, although unfortunately I didn't actually make them, Greg did. I doubt that the wire was wound around nothing more sophisticated than a ballpoint pen until it "looked right". Sorry I can't be more specific, maybe Greg will fill in some blanks, but I think it was one of those spur of the moment jobs that looked right, but had no prototype accuracy to it.

 

Paul J.

[Wibble]

If I remember correctly, it was Karen (Greg's wife) that made most of the coils, wrapped around a parallel wooden handle of about 1/2 inch diameter.

[Swindon 123]

If I remember correctly, it was Karen (Greg's wife) that made most of the coils, wrapped around a parallel wooden handle of about 1/2 inch diameter.

Thank you for that Kier. Nice photos by the way and the http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/update as well.

But then I'm biased.

 

Paul J.

[Swindon 123]

Gregg

 

I found my notes on the origin of the Teesside spacers, there was also a note in the file that the HMRS have that the Torpedoes went to Luxembourg but that was only on an inserted scrap of paper!

 

Mark

 

DSCN2971.JPG

Having received the necessary information from Mark (see above) and more importantly photographs of the converted LMS brake van runner wagons, Greg embarked on recreating a Molten Metal Torpedo Carrier train for Shenston Road. Although still at a "work in progress" stage, I had the opportunity to photograph it the other day. (The photos also give Greg the opportunity to see any finishing off, or corrections that are required. The camera is so cruel). Following are a selection of photos of the train on Shenston Road and the individual wagons. Motive power for the day was 6728 + 6999 (O/L from WR).

 

The train awaiting departure from the steelworks yard.

 

Approach Shenston Road station.

 

In the Up Loop.

 

The Up Loop but more from the side. (Trains parked here have no clutter in front so a good place to photograph them).

 

One of the Torpedo Carriers.

 

A barrier wagon. This was converted from a spare Airfix LMS brake van from the EIC fleet. Greg had originally intended to do two of them, but found the plastic Airfix used for the chassis so difficult to work with he decided to convert only one. In the absence of a 2nd conversion, Greg has followed prototype practice for the time and used a spare MGR hopper instead. Even that had to be chosen carefully to ensure the correct body type.The cruelty of photos reveals this is not finished yet as he has still to decide on a number for it.

 

The rear of the train and the second Torpedo Carrier. Some work was done to make the Carriers look less continental, and I believe Greg did consider changing the bogie arrangement to reduce the axle numbers but decided against it.

 

That is the state of play with regards to the Torpedo Carriers on Shenston Road. Not a reproduction of the ones that ran to Consett, but hopefully giving a reasonable representation of this type of train. After all this is a fictitious layout, so they could have run like this?? I'm sure Greg will fill in some of the gaps and answer any questions on the work done these model in due course.

 

Paul J.

 

Edited  to correct some terminology. See Arthur's post 195 below.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Swindon 123

[d winpenny]

Superb pictures, cracking model

 

David

[Arthur]

 

They carry molten iron, usually referred to as hot metal, not steel. Steel is only handled within the confines of the melting shop, carried in open topped teeming ladles and usually by overhead crane, from furnace to either the ingot teeming bay or the continuous caster (depends on era). I'm not aware of molten steel being transported any distance, not even within the confines of a works, let alone over the national network anywhere in the world.

 

Hot metal ladles are usually confined to the works also, moving iron from the the blast furnaces to the steel plant or pig caster. They do occasionally venture out onto main lines, examples in both Europe and the USA, pretty rare over here. The Cargo Fleet-Consett service was to supply hot metal from the soon due to close Cargo Fleet blast furnaces to the Basic Oxygen steel converters at Consett whilst the latter's blast furnaces were undergoing rebuild. As Basic Oxygen converters need molten iron they too would have had to shut down during the rebuild period without this service. Once Consett was remaking iron the service ceased.

 

No reason the fictitious Shenston works couldn't be involved in a similar scheme.

[Swindon 123]

Superb pictures, cracking model

 

David

Thanks for the compliment David. I changed my photographic method slightly for this set of photos. In recent years I've been setting the ISO to something like 1600 on the camera with an f stop of 22 or more (where possible). I always thought they looked a bit grainy and so for this set I changed the ISO to 100, still with a high an f stop as possible. I also tweaked the photos whilst editing. I cut down on the "noise" in the photo, although as they where digital images it didn't seen to make much difference. I also sharpened the images as well using the software, which did help on the images with a lot of depth of field. It made a lot of difference in the first photo of the train in the steelworks. I'm very pleased with the result in that shot as both the front of the locos and the steelworks in the background, around 5ft away, are nicely in focus (at least on the original). I also like to take a photo with as wide an angle lens as possible, 18mm in the case of most, and then crop out the area I want to post. An example is posted below. You sometimes get a slightly "fish eye" look to the photos, but I'm happy to accept the results in most cases. As with all things photographic, this has been a learning curve, with not all attempt coming out as expected. I generally post around 10% of what I take.

 

Looking over the holding sidings at Shenston Road.

 

D1054 and 352 on the Shenston Road SP.

 

They carry molten iron, usually referred to as hot metal, not steel. Steel is only handled within the confines of the melting shop, carried in open topped teeming ladles and usually by overhead crane, from furnace to either the ingot teeming bay or the continuous caster (depends on era). I'm not aware of molten steel being transported any distance, not even within the confines of a works, let alone over the national network anywhere in the world.

 

Hot metal ladles are usually confined to the works also, moving iron from the the blast furnaces to the steel plant or pig caster. They do occasionally venture out onto main lines, examples in both Europe and the USA, pretty rare over here. The Cargo Fleet-Consett service was to supply hot metal from the soon due to close Cargo Fleet blast furnaces to the Basic Oxygen steel converters at Consett whilst the latter's blast furnaces were undergoing rebuild. As Basic Oxygen converters need molten iron they too would have had to shut down during the rebuild period without this service. Once Consett was remaking iron the service ceased.

 

No reason the fictitious Shenston works couldn't be involved in a similar scheme.

Thank you Arthur for the welcome correction. I shall alter the post accordingly. That's the nice thing about railway modeling. You can learn things that are not directly connected to railways sometimes.

 

Paul J.

[D1047]

Super pics Paul .That shutter stop has made a massive improvement on what were  already great pics,The down side is even more work to correct any bits that aint quite right lol.

 

Thanks for the info Arthur all helps to improve on what we are trying to achieve.

 

cheers Greg

Edited December 17, 2015 by D1047

[Arthur]

 

How about a Shenston-Shelton service? The real Shelton works was a mix of antiquated (iron making) and modern (steel making and continuous casting).

 

A not unreasonable scenario would be the closure of Shelton's old and small blast furnaces leaving the modern Kaldo converter either redundant or in need of hot metal. Supplied from Shenstone?

 

Just a thought.

[Swindon 123]

Here we are again. New Year, new post, and in this case new loco. The Shenston Road Warship fleet has increased by one. D815 "Druid" is the latest addition. It was one of the few, (if only) maroon warships Greg saw, so he decided to immortalise it in model form using as many photos as he could find. Below are a few views of his finished handiwork.

 

D815 "Druid".

 

 

A shot of the opposite side taken at the Birmingham end approach to the station.

 

Here's another shot of D815, but experimented with new locations on Shenston Rd, this shot is looking along the Down Loop by the steel works.

 

Continuing on with the warships and unusual photographic locations, a view of 841 "Roebuck" waiting in the Up platform at Shenston Rd.

 

A side on view of said loco.

 

And another, joined by D218 on the Up fast.

 

To end this Warship themed post, a shot of 814 "Dragon" taken from the roof of an adjacent factory.

 

That's it for this view of the fleet. More subject matter is in preparation, and will be added in due course, including some shots of the SLW class 24's on test.

 

Paul J.

[jonas]

Superb photos as always, thanks for sharing! I love the tatty bodywork on 841. Lovely stuff.