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Barnt Green in the 50s & 60s


Sam*45110*SVR

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Hello everyone. :) Barnt Green will be my first "proper" layout, it's roughly 12'x8' and lives in the Garage. It's 00 and in the very early stages of development. This is the plan now after taking a long time to decide what to do with my 12x8. (as can be seen here

 

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The line to the left should head south to the lickey incline but here hits the wall as I intend to terminate stopping trains here and turn them back using the crossover provided. Main line trains will use the Redditch and Evesham branch so it'll be operated differently from the real thing but should look the part. The goods yard has been tweaked to better fit my space. Fiddle yard will use cassettes eventually on the loops at the bottom. The curves at each end are tight by necessity but I'm unsure whether to disguise the one on the right with an overbridge. There is a road which crosses the railway there but it goes under it in real life. decisions, decisions.... at least I won't have to worry for a while ;)

 

Here's a bit of History. Barnt Green is a Junction station on the Birmingham to Bristol main line where the branch to Redditch (and Evesham in steam days) peels away to the south east at a sharp angle. It opened in 1846 and became a junction in 1859 with the opening of the Redditch branch. In 1928 the LMS quadrupled the line north of Barnt Green to Northfield. Barnt green station and the Redditch branch were due to be closed in the Beeching report but were repreived in 1965 (the line south of Redditch to Evesham had already closed in 1964 due to poor track.) . In 1969 the area was remodelled and the signal box and goods yard closed. In 1992 the main line south of Birmingham as far as Barnt Green was electrified and continued on to Redditch.

 

More about Barnt green and some great period pictures can be found here.

 

This layout is very much a steep learning curve for me as I have never: used flexitrack, used removeable sections, made proper scenery, used backscenes, used cassettes etc etc etc...

 

Baseboards are complete and I've been sizing up the task ahead....

 

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A very long way to go yet, compare this pic with this one....

 

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Thanks everyone for looking in.

 

Sam

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I can only assume that you are a Severn Valley fan. I am pleased to live opposite the ralway hence my site name. I have a well established layout - but not yet finished!

 

Let me know if you come to Bewdley.

 

Best of luck with your layout, you seem to be off to a good start.

 

Best regards, John.

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  • RMweb Gold

Well spotted Ed did look but missed that....

 

Shame you cant get through the wall ....

 

Just need another two layouts - Bromsgrove and Stoke Works Junction - and you could send traffic through to us at Abbotswood.

 

Hee hee

 

Phil

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Hi Sam

Looking forward to seeing your layout develop. I see you have found the excellent warwickshirerailways web resource. If you haven't already got a copy then Bob Essery's "An Illustrated History of Ashchurch-Barnt Green Line: The Evesham Route" is also a really useful resource.

Cheers John

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made some progress today including a notable first for me, I've used up my first yard of flexible track filling in the gaps in the pointwork !

 

Also I've finished covering the senic boards with foam laminate floor underlay as a cheap cork substitute. £22 for 10m2 !

 

Sam

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sam this is a great thread my dad worked for BR/Amey/Network rail on the track maintenance  until he retired in 2009 he was based at kings Norton then they moved everyone to saltley depot and used to cover the cross city line and as only live in Redditch found it was easier to just go strait from here to work in his car than go to saltley to get a van  there is access to the track at barnt green and so more often than not he to park his car along side the track by the hut . if oxford ever do a ford orion or rover Sd1 ill buy you one if you would be good enough to pop it where our family car used to be lol my dad will be most interested in seeing this thread ill show him when I see him tomorrow ill also ask him if he has any photos if you want ? but as you don't live to far I guess its easy to go up there yourself  

 

anyway ill stop rambling

 

 all the best with the layout

 

Phil

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  • RMweb Gold

Well spotted Ed did look but missed that....

 

Shame you cant get through the wall ....

 

Just need another two layouts - Bromsgrove and Stoke Works Junction - and you could send traffic through to us at Abbotswood.

 

Hee hee

 

Phil

 

One down! From what I heard at the weekend the Redditch MRC boys http://www.redditch-mrc.com/ are doing Bromsgrove.

 

Phil

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a bit of a frantic week with A Level results day and the related mayhem. (Got my first choice of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield !  :yahoo: ) however over the last 2 days I have made lots of progress by my usual standards !

 

Not only have I finished laying all of the foam underlay around the lift out sections and fiddle yard, but I've also laid the first few bits of track ! Here one of my 4 Black 5s (5 if you count the plastic GBL one!) carefully negotiates the freshly laid slip and adjacent points for the first time.

 

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Then today the adjacent section of pointwork on the up line was laid. Track has been PVA'd instead of pinned because the foam underlay doesn't like a lot of pressure in a small area so the track could dip if pinned.

 

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I then got the track laying bug and before I knew it the whole junction was glued down, the goods yard points and the down main line up to the site of the road bridge ! After that I couldn't resist a quick "test" !   :locomotive:

 

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My weathered Black 5 45110 did the honours...

 

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Hope to make more substanial progress tomorrow !

 

Sam

 

 

Edit 17/08/14, Naughty keyboard.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Haven't posted much becuase I've been busy sorting things out for uni (10 days now!  :swoon:) but I have made more progress, mostly laying track and sorting out the track over the lifting sections.

 

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Now the race is on, can I get all the track down before I leave, it should be close ;)

 

Sam

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone

 

It's been over a month since I last posted and not much has happened to the layout as I've been at uni for 3 weeks now ! I did get some more track down before I left but not as much as I would've liked. Now I'm here I've found I do have some spare time around the flat of a weekend and thought that it would be an ideal time to model, if only I had the layout here ! 

 

So I have taken the decision to do some work here between visits home, but what to make ? The signals was the first thing that came to mind, I only need four on the main scenic section and two are the same. the signal box looks to be a standard midland box so shouldn't be much of an issue (cut n shut two ratio boxes together) The only other thing that came to mind was the station buildings..... 

Having looked around all the major manufacturers for similar buildings for the station nothing quite looked right, the B&G had a very distinctive style of building! So it looks like I might start scratch building these things !  :O

 

I blame Al (acg_mr) for making it look easy on Bakewell ! 

 

But first to keep it simple and get to grips with the Plasticard I'm going to give this hut a go first then move on to the signalbox. but don't hold your breath ! ;)

 

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The one next to the buffer stop in the foreground.

 

 

 

One last thing, an appeal for photos. Flickr has been invaluable for pictures but there's a real lack of decent pictures of the station buildings. The main building between p2/3 is often behind a section of train. The medium sized building on P1 on the up line has a few pics about but the small shelter on P4 for trains to Redditch is very camera shy ! Any pointers to websites or books much appreciated, even if there is only one picture. every little helps and every angle of a building is useful.

 

 

Cheers, Sam

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  • RMweb Gold

Was that picture taken in the summer of 1968? The new signalling was commissioned in September 1969.

The undertrack crossing for the MAS has been installed as have some of the new location cases and ground frame for Saltley PSB. The Down Goods signal has gone, as that was shortened back towards Cofton. The parallel move from the Up Main to Up Goods has gone. The yard points appear to still be on the box. It looks as if someone is working in the Power Supply building.  

 

Have you checked out Warwickshire Railways website? Some good historical pictures here http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/barntgreenjunction.htm

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Was that picture taken in the summer of 1968? The new signalling was commissioned in September 1969.

The undertrack crossing for the MAS has been installed as have some of the new location cases and ground frame for Saltley PSB. The Down Goods signal has gone, as that was shortened back towards Cofton. The parallel move from the Up Main to Up Goods has gone. The yard points appear to still be on the box. It looks as if someone is working in the Power Supply building.  

 

Have you checked out Warwickshire Railways website? Some good historical pictures here http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/barntgreenjunction.htm

 

I have seen the site and these are the only pictures I've seen of the P4 shelter.

 

The pic was taken on 3rd August 1969 according to Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/barkingbill/3554246317/in/set-72157603571917156

 

So I'm guessing it was taken halfway through modernisation from block signalling to the Saltley MAS system, judging by the fact that the down goods has sleepers over it like it's out of use and the up goods has disappeared while semaphores and the signalbox remain. Pics like this, although out of my time frame, are useful because they are in colour.

 

Sam

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I would say the date give by Bill is probably correct. It looks to be taken from the station footbridge.

I remember testing the telecomms circuits into that pink brick hut by the stop block and surrounding locations. It would have been around June 1969.

 

Do you remember what the other two sides of that hut looked like ? were they plain brick or were there windows ?

 

Thanks,Sam

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  • RMweb Gold

Do you remember what the other two sides of that hut looked like ? were they plain brick or were there windows ?

 

Thanks,Sam

It's a long time ago, but I think that the second one was a mirror image of the first and that has a plain brick end. I don't think there were any windows to the road side, but someone will now come up with a picture if i am wrong. there was usually a coal stove opposite the door.

Between the two brick buildings there was a corrugated shed I think where the cable building was put, and by the power supply building there was an asbestos lamp hut. This shot from the other end of the footbridge gives a better impression of the relationship of the buildings. https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffsimages/9444916989

 

 

Were double slips allowed on main lines?

The prototype was a single slip forming the main line crossover.

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Were double slips allowed on main lines?

As TheSignalEngineer says, the real thing had a single slip but I have used a double slip simply because I had one 'in stock' already and had no other use for it on the layout, plus I didn't fancy spending £35 on a new single slip. I can live with the small difference.

 

I believe double slips were only allowed on main running lines in low speed areas like major stations or in goods yards etc.

 

Sam

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone

 

Not much to report at the moment but I have made slight progress on the layout while at uni, how I hear you ask, by scratch building !

 

Here is the nearly complete PW hut, present near the platform ends, at varying stages of completion.

 

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the basic bits laid ouit

 

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First corners glued

 

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box complete

 

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Just a roof and some paint needed !

 

 

Also visited my family back in Bromsgrove in October, which "just happened" to coincide with Bittern climbing the lickey incline !

 

 

 

Sam

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