Mortimore's Yard - '70s trip freight workings

[HillsideDepot]

Hi Peter,

 

thanks. The 08 really needs more weathering to match the photo of it at Wapping Wharf, but maybe I'll keep it like that.

 

The lines on the bridge show the width of the marked height, so tall vehicles have to get between them http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_05_2015/post-5204-0-42561800-1430516216.jpg . Many years ago I was called to Chelmsford to drive buses during an unofficial strike, and there is a low bridge right next to the bus station. It has a fairly flat arch, and double deckers have to be in the middle of the road to get under. I learnt various minibus routes including the 45 (IIRC) and happily went under the bridge numerous times each shift. However one of my colleagues, an Inspector from Bath who had gone up on day 1 of the replacement service, had decided that he would do 45s all the time, as long as he could drive a Bristol VR (double decker). I was always worried when I was on 45s that I would relieve him and merrily drive off in the VR forgetting the need to take up position in the centre of the road, with disastrous consequences. The biggest I drove in Chelmsford though was a Leyland National, but that's another story...

 

Edit: to amend photo link

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by HillsideDepot

[HillsideDepot]

“..And none will hear the postman’s knock

Without a quickening of the heart.

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?..”

W.H. Auden - Night Mail

 

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[rob D2]

Adrian,

The lampost in that pick ?

 

Did you make it ?

 

It's just like the ones where I grew up

[HillsideDepot]

They're Knightwing ones http://www.knightwing.co.uk/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?cart_id=1468955621.671&product=OO-HO_Lineside_Kits&pid=103 which they call "car park lamps", but they are like a few near where I grew up which had replaced the more ornate design which the builders had installed when the estate was built.

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Peter,

 

thanks. The 08 really needs more weathering to match the photo of it at Wapping Wharf, but maybe I'll keep it like that.

 

The lines on the bridge show the width of the marked height, so tall vehicles have to get between them http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_05_2015/post-5204-0-42561800-1430516216.jpg . Many years ago I was called to Chelmsford to drive buses during an unofficial strike, and there is a low bridge right next to the bus station. It has a fairly flat arch, and double deckers have to be in the middle of the road to get under. I learnt various minibus routes including the 45 (IIRC) and happily went under the bridge numerous times each shift. However one of my colleagues, an Inspector from Bath who had gone up on day 1 of the replacement service, had decided that he would do 45s all the time, as long as he could drive a Bristol VR (double decker). I was always worried when I was on 45s that I would relieve him and merrily drive off in the VR forgetting the need to take up position in the centre of the road, with disastrous consequences. The biggest I drove in Chelmsford though was a Leyland National, but that's another story...

 

Edit: to amend photo link

 

 

Oh dear.....I remember the strike, it lasted for weeks. Didn't the drivers all end up being sacked? The drivers union had some right old knackered Leyland Nationals which they were running as a free bus service, which no body traveled on.

 

I joined a couple of the rallies in support of the drivers, at one of them I noticed some of the police officers were not displaying their numbers. So me being me boldly went up to the inspector in charge and asked him why they did not have their numbers on their yellow jacket epaulettes. His reply was they didn't need them. So when I stated they did so that should they need to be identified for wrong doing how could they, remembering a similar situation from a demonstration during the steel workers strike of 1983. He then said quite sheepishly they had to borrow the jackets from other officers and did not have the time to put on their numbers. As I walked away the TV crew who were there said" We got that, well done. We have the evidence if needed." Thank goodness we live in a country where we can have differing views.

 

As for the bridge, it hasn't changed but in recent years only buses are allowed under it and the road is marked so that they travel down the middle. The 1930s art deco bus station has been replaced by a block of flats with a few shops and some bus stops, they still call it a bus station. The old one was great, inside was the Eastern National recovery lorry, an ACE Matador with a Eastern Coach Works LS or MW coach front as the cab.

 

The pub the other side of the bridge to the bus station was the one when I was a punk that us punks were allowed to use for many years. Good old Les the landlord of the Railway Tavern.

 

By the way Adrian the layout looks OK.

[HillsideDepot]

It was an interesting few weeks, Clive, that's for sure. Its a long time ago now, but I think a strike had been called for late afternoon so they could take the children home from school, but in the event they walked out at lunch time leaving people stranded. Had the drivers stopped work at the agreed time most of us wouldn't have gone to help. As it was I was newly employed in the offices at Badgerline, the company which had been buying up other bus businesses including Eastern National and had built a strong loyalty to the badger. There were some drivers there, but it was mainly inspectors, engineers, office staff and the like so it was as much a novelty for us as it was for the passengers who never knew if they'd be greeted by a Cornish, Devonian, Brizzle, Somerset or Yorkshire accent as they boarded. A number of passengers also commented how friendly we all were compared to the local staff, but that was partly because we were enjoying ourselves, partly as it was the more enthusiastic who volunteered, and if I'm honest, the thought that I might need the passengers' help if confronted with a junction on a housing estate where each direction looks the same and my mind had gone blank!

 

I liked the old Chelmsford bus station, although it was getting a bit past its sell-by date. It was clearly a Tilling Group design and had similarities with Bath where I worked, although the view from Chelmsford's canteen of passing trains was better than at Bath which had frosted glass. As visiting staff returned home for weekly rests they visited their own depots and when they returned they brought fleet names and logos which soon covered the canteen wall.

Strikes are never nice, not for anyone involved, but looking back those few weeks were a good experience early in my career, although it might have been better to have done it as a sort of "exchange visit" rather than in the circumstances we did.

[Clive Mortimore]

It was an odd strike, from memory. It was only Chelmsford drivers who went on strike not all of Eastern National. Our local bus was in those days the Chelmsford, Braintree and Halstead service, I think it was still the 311. It operated pretty normally because most the drivers on this route were based in Braintree or Halstead.

 

As for the friendliness of the local drivers, hasn't improved much.

[HillsideDepot]

"Make someone happy with a phone call" - Buzby

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Adrian

 

Would the PO/BT bloke park his van half on the pavement back in the 70s? Blocking the pavement not the road only seems to be a more recent thing we do.

[HillsideDepot]

Hi Adrian

 

Would the PO/BT bloke park his van half on the pavement back in the 70s? Blocking the pavement not the road only seems to be a more recent thing we do.

 

I'll let you into a secret! He has to park on the pavement there are the layout isn't wide enough otherwise - the rest of the road is Photoshopped  (but you won't tell anyone, will you?)

 

You're correct though, I don't think they would have parked on the pavement in the '70s. We perhaps didn't think it at the time, I think it was a more considerate world back then, although today's children will probably look back on now in a similar way...

[HillsideDepot]

There comes a point where the thinking and faffing around has to stop and work needs to start. I've been thinking for far too long about how some of the elements of the extension should fit together and how best to model them. Part of my problem has been deciding how to surface the yard between the stop blocks and the offices. I had a grand idea of paving next to the building and cobbles for road vehicles, but this didn't match the few photos of Chippenham I've found, nor did it match anything I could find on the web. Photos on-line (and there seem to be precious few of them) suggest that the surface should be various grades of ballast/stone/gravel with very little properly surfaced. I was happy to go with that vague idea, until this superb photo http://www.hondawanderer.com/Kingham_Station_1983.htm appeared and illustrated exactly what I was trying to piece together. 

 

So with the extension board removed from the main layout (it's too high and wide to work comfortably at the back of the board in-situ) I painted the stone wall, fixed down the base of the water tank and filled two of the staithes with coal. One thing which I remember from Mortimore's coal yard was that many of the staithes were constructed from concrete blocks rather than the modeller's favourite old sleepers, so I have replicated that here.

 

Having got that far I then started on the ground contours down into the yard from the new footpath through the industrial area. Having found that my Polyfilla "toothpaste tube" had gone solid I was pleased to find that a tub of filler was still useable so several lunchtime this week (a benefit of working from home) have been spent gradually building up the layers until getting to this stage.

 

The office building needs to move right a bit, once that landscape former has been removed. The idea is certainly coming together, and I think all the bits I wasn't sure of are working out OK. There are some more coal staithes along the cutting at the end of the layout, a mix of horizontal sleepers (C&L) and concrete blocks. The black mark on the board isn't where I spilt paint, its the beginnings (possibly) of an oily puddle; whether that idea will survive remains to be seen.

A comment somewhere on RMWeb mentioned that coal staithes shouldn't be placed with their backs to the line as it wasn't permitted to use the wagon door as a ramp for unloading. Guilty as charged, I'm afraid, so out came the old staithes and ideas were re-thought. As there isn't too much space in the coal yard I decided that part of the siding will become disused and where the wagons used to stand to be unloaded direct into sacks for distribution I'd model a few staithes and a bagging hopper. I still have plenty of space for 16t minerals to stand and be unloaded, I could even move them along once unloaded to stand out of the way behind the staithes, but I rather like the idea that Mortimore's no longer need all their siding capacity as home heating methods change. The final design won't be reached until the extension is back in place and I can see the whole area at one, but this quick "grab" shot shows where my thinking is going.

  

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[HillsideDepot]

It's National Teddy Bear Day today (so I'm told), so it was no surprise when I went down to the woods today to see a Teddy Bear parked up while its crew had a picnic   

 

While I was there Mortimore's Yard also had a visit from an "Officers' Special", an Inspection Saloon powered by 6921 which seems to have been specially prepared for its duty!

I wasn't able to ascertain the purpose of the visit, maybe it was to inspect the series subsidence which has occurred on the arrival/departure road!

 

Finally, I have been doing a bit more work on the extension, although progress is rather stop-start as other things get in the way and take my free time. Still, Mortimore's coal yard is starting to shape up nicely.

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[HillsideDepot]

It's been ages since anything new has appeared here, and to be honest nothing has progressed down at Mortimore's Yard. Too many other things have got in the way, but I'll no doubt return at some point - that extension needs finishing!

 

Anyway, with the forecasters convinced it was going to snow, the foreman persuaded his fitters to equip a Hymek with miniature snow ploughs, just in case. It spent this morning touring the local area looking for a snow flake, without success. Perhaps the foreman would have better occupied his staff changing those head code blinds for something more realistic!

 

Talking of the extension, this battered little hut has appeared in the yard. It was previously alongside the signal box, but was a bit large for the location. Whilst having a good tidy up (that's one thing I have done recently!) I found a Dart Castings corrugated iron hut of smaller dimensions, much better suited to the space at the 'box. So with that planted there, the spare Wills hut was available to reuse, and this spot seemed just right, with the addition of a brick base to accommodate the way the land drops away.

 

The hut photo also offers a glimpse of the new extension, doing what I intended and providing a background to photos. Here is a higher level view of the state of play. As well as the background the yard has been much improved by the addition of Lanarkshire Models GWR stop blocks, and the coal yard has been redesigned to take more account of the space available. I was never happy with the previous arrangement, not be very much like the actual yard, but without knowing what lay just off the previous edge of the layout it was hard to decide how it would look. What I have now seems to make more sense.  

 

Having returned to Mortimore's Yard I feel enthused to do some more work on it, but I have a new mini-layout to finish (and start a topic for!) which is getting my attention at the moment.

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[HillsideDepot]

It's been very quiet round these parts for most of this year, but my attention is now back at Mortimore's Yard after a quick diversion to Drew's Sidings, and an even quicker re-visit to London Road Loco Sidings with both being on public display for one day each.

 

Drew's Sidings "scratched the itch" of the Inglenook Sidings idea, and gave me a fairly quick and easy start-to-finish project. Not that I don't love Mortimore's Yard and all that it offers, but sometimes the boxes of RTR wagons awaiting attention, that stack of wagon kits which spoil me for choice get a bit overwhelming, as there is so much to do. It's a nice problem to have, but sometimes I need something to focus on. Likewise a revisit to London Road Loco Sidings reminded me of the potential of that layout, and now it has been slightly modified it is easier to move about so hopefully it will make it outside for a photo-shoot; but that will need co-operation from the Met Office to stop sending showers and downpours my way!

 

Excuses proffered, I am back at Mortimore's Yard, coming afresh to it, and if I may be allowed to say so, enjoying what I see. I probably shouldn't say that about my own work, but then if it doesn't please me, what's the point of it? 

 

I have it in mind to gradually work through another "Day at Mortimore's Yard" but don't expect it to be done in 24 hours, or even 24 days! As I work through the day I'm quite likely to find rolling stock which needs attention, things to detail, weather or otherwise attend to, which in turn will delay photos of the next train movement. Hopefully though it will be rather like a summer's day, long and lazy.

 

So, until our correspondent files his first report from the lineside, here is a view of the opposite side of the room with a batch of 3 GWR design but BR built ballast hoppers emerging from the sprues.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[HillsideDepot]

Well, here's a little gem!

 

Someone locally is researching the origins of all the street names in Chippenham, and as part of his research has a Facebook page which has become an amazing collection of old photos as people search through their personal archives. This one - copyright Norman Tapp - has just appeared:-

OK, so I now have to repaint my model "Mortimore for coal" lorry, but that's fine, photographic evidence beats my faulty memory!

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[HillsideDepot]

Well, its all been rather quiet around here recently, hasn't it?

 

So a small update is well overdue, just to prove things are still happening.

 

• The Cambrian Herring kits are now complete, apart from couplings and weathering. There are some excellent reference photos around RMWeb for the weathering, but it looks like a complex job to do them justice. They are delightfully small wagons.
• A train load of Bachmann grain hoppers have started their journey through weathering; from photos it looks as if some unfitted ones were browner with rust than fitted ones were with bauxite paint! A Parkside ex LNER grain van kit is now complete to join the rake. 
• I've discovered that an Oxford "freight" car flat will take a load of 5 Oxford Massey Ferguson 135 "trac'ers" but might possibly be out of gauge with their cabs on. They look good though. Or put it another way - and with reference to Captain Kernow's topic "New RTR releases - is your purchase really necessary?" - I couldn't resist getting the first release even though its really the blue Motorail one I want. 
• A short set of United Molasses tanks has arrived from Widnes, although the rake has been reduced by one as a tank has been removed for a conversion. Good friend and accomplished modeller Tom Curtis decided he wanted a ZKV "Zander" for his 1990s Engineers' fleet and through his researches realised that as a MTV tippler one could join my MSV rake. Wanting to test his skills, Tom decided it would be a challenge to build two identical tippler bodies from plasticard, offering me the second one. We just need to bring my chassis and his body together now!  
• The idea of doing another "day in the life of" series of photos is still in my mind, but when I returned to my Working Time Table I remembered that it doesn't "work". The problem (not that it's really a "problem") is that as more information has become available about workings in the Bristol area which I base most of the M Yd traffic on the time table has been adjusted and recast. Except that opens other problems. And its all bit of a muddle at the moment (to put it politely!). 

But the sun is shining at M Yd this morning, I have a week off work, so maybe there'll be something more to report by Friday (no promises though...). 

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I'd like a day in the life, even if it is slightly fictitious!

 

Always like a bit of BR(W) banger blue, it's what I grew up with in the Stroud valley.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Dr Gerbil-Fritters

[BernardTPM]

The lettering on the Commer van is probably a little too modern, that style not appearing until 1975. This simpler style was used in the early 'yellow' period.

 

All in all though, it's very well done.

[HillsideDepot]

I'd like a day in the life, even if it is slightly fictitious!

 

Always like a bit of BR(W) banger blue, it's what I grew up with in the Stroud valley.

Thanks - I'll see what I can do. As a scheduler (albeit buses, not trains) in my work life it embarrasses me that my time table doesn't "work", but I might be able to gloss over the discrepancies to produce something.

 

The lettering on the Commer van is probably a little too modern, that style not appearing until 1975. This simpler style was used in the early 'yellow' period.

 

All in all though, it's very well done.

Thanks Bernard, that's another bit to add to my knowledge. The period of the layout is a bit flexible, but I try not to mix "early" and "late" liveries on the layout together - and that goes for road vehicles too. Those Commers, with their half hidden wheels, which, to a young boy, never seemed to turn to steer, are a definite memory, so when the model came out I had to have one. The layout is all about memories, even if those get muddled up at times, and are incomplete at others!

[HillsideDepot]

Come with me, if you will, back to the 1970's, and join me for a look at a typical day at Mortimore's Yard....

 

The school summer holidays are finally here, and after much pestering a young enthusiast is delighted that he’s been allowed to spend a couple of days at grandparents house. This is great news as not only is granddad a master baker and confectioner, which means that the “front room” of their house is a cake shop, but the back bedroom window of the room where our excited young enthusiast will be staying, overlooks the railway as it arrives at Mortimore’s Yard!

 

 

Many of the local railwaymen, not surprisingly, make good use of their local baker’s shop which does a good trade not only in bread and cakes but also ready-made sandwiches and filled rolls, still something of a novelty in the early 1970s. The shop isn’t open when the early shift starts, but our enthusiast friend has learned that “earlies” start at 05:45 and the first train arrives not long after.

 

 

The day dawns brightly and it is already pleasantly warm at 05:30 when an excited lad opens the curtains of his bedroom window to look out upon a still sleeping railway. But the clink of milk bottles and the faint electric whine of a float prove that another day is beginning. In typical terrace house style the kitchen and bathroom protrude beyond the main part of the house which means the view towards the signal box and the home signals is blocked from our friend’s sight.

 

However a friendly neighbour, further along the street, has provided this picture of the 'box. The Signalman has just come on duty, but already has the windows open, letting the early breeze blow refreshingly through.

 

 

The lack of a view to the left isn’t much of a problem though as arriving trains have to give up the Single Line Token, and most drivers give a soft toot on the horn to alert the Signalman to their arrival, even though they could hang the token in its pouch with big loop on the receiving apparatus few do this preferring the personal approach. It’s a few minutes to six when the distinctive squawking horn of a Sulzer Type 2 can be heard, followed shortly after by the sound of a 6LDA28-B rasping hard to get the train on the move again signals the arrival of the first movement of the day, repaying our still pyjama clad youngster for his early awakening.

 

Behind the Type 2 a line of medium length, drop-sided, wagons follow dutifully along carrying their loads of bricks. Unknown to our observer at the time this is 6B73, a portion off of 6V73 Calvert - Cardiff train which runs solely for the London Brick Company. 

 

 

 

After a quick run round the train departs again, now taking the Docks Branch token and turning right at New Junction to reach New Cut Goods Depot where the bricks are unloaded on to the London Brick Company’s distinctive red liveried Volvo lorries. Alongside in the sidings there are a few spare hoppers for the sand and gravel traffic from Holms' at Poole's Wharf.

 

 

As soon as the brick train has cleared the single line at Docks Branch New Junction then the line is clear to allow the No. 1 Pilot to arrive, a duty which requires the allocation of a class 03. Today it is green livery 03382 which is working the turn, arriving here with the wagon which it must always be coupled to on the mainline so that it will work the track circuits. No such equipment here, so the wagon is usually left in the Yard all day.

 

 

The family Alsatian, Jan, lies in the garden, undisturbed by the passing shunter. It has only just turned seven, still too early for breakfast, so our young observer settles down to see what happens next.

 

[rob D2]

really like the backstory Adrian,

 

Who wouldn't like to hang out that window ?!

[HillsideDepot]

Yet again it's been ages since I've posted any form of update here, because there's not much new to show. I mentioned that I am re-writing the Working Time Table, well, that is taking longer than I expected. Not the project in itself, just everything else happening outside modelling.

 

Anyway, a decision has been made; I'm giving up railways and starting gardening!

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Don't worry, model gardening, on Mortimore's Yard. The gardens have mainly been only rough outlines up until now, largely because they are pretty much hidden behind the terraced houses. But a visit to Lord and Butler after the Cardiff (small) Model Railway Show last Saturday produced a nice range of new garden plants, so I have been spurred on to finally get the gardens more complete, if not actually finished.

 

 

There are a number to do, on Langley Road...

...some of which are quite good already. The garden at the end of the terrace was always intended to have some sort of business premises. I'd thought about a builder's yard, or maybe a rag and bone man type junk yard, but the space isn't that great...

...so taking a lead from a small business unit near my grand parents house in Chippenham, the back yard building will house Mainstone Television Services. Mainstone's actual premises is slightly larger and deep rather than wide, but it's a similar size. I don't have room for his van, unless I do a major rebuild of the terrace (in reality there is a small alley-way entrance through the terrace, with the 1st floor continuing above), but customers can park on the road and take their sets round for repair, while aerials and poles can go the opposite way to the van.

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I see Jan's gone inside...

[HillsideDepot]

I see Jan's gone inside...

Well spotted, and remembered!

 

I like to keep figures, animals, road vehicles etc loose on my layouts so that I can move them around as my mood takes me. The downside of that is that it takes ages to set-up at a show!

 

I can report that Jan is safe and well; unlike the cockerel which once stood proudly on the chicken coop roof, but fell off never to be seen again when the glue gave way (being too small and fiddly to have loose).

[HillsideDepot]

Just a quick progress report. Having spent some time going through my various boxes of detailing parts a whole range of suitable items have surfaced. Some are now in use, others just sitting in the "maybe" pile.

I have added runner beans to numbers 9 and 21, sunflowers to number 11, and a while range of plants to number 23. A child's slide (kit bashed Metcalfe), go-cart and football (head of a sewing pin) have appeared at number 7, along with poles for a washing line. Two women, from the Modelu range and yet to be painted, gossip over the fence between 15 and 17.  

 

It's coming along, and all good fun. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by HillsideDepot
Photos re-instated after Dediserve debacle