Coleshill (Forge Mills ) layout and stock

[Barry O]

those Hornby Cabside numbers are so.. wrong.. Get the t cut out and tray and get new ones in place.. it will look a lot better!

 

Baz

[46256]

Hello Barry, I have been following the debate on the Hornby A2/2/3 thread...colour ..lining...numbers....quality control issues. John R has examples of both models...in my case yet to add the A2/3....One positive the Hornby model is an outstanding runner

[Compound2632]

On 17/07/2020 at 21:19, 46256 said:

The G2 included as evidence they did travel further east than the west Jct sidings

 

I don't know why I've not been keeping up with this superb topic. Just catching up now!

 

I note that whilst this photo does provide evidence of a G2 east of West Junction sidings. you are rather firmly instructed not to replicate such workings on your layout!

[46256]

Thanks Stephen, I included it because it was the first time I had seen the evidence of these locos actually travelling through the station. I know I’m repeating myself but the west yards and jct were an artificial boundary in those days. Locos came and went without ever venturing down, where myself and other youngsters,were situated on the footbridge at East junction. The thread itself is as its title,  a means of sharing any photos of the location that can still emerge , and to record my attempts at creating various locos and stock. My main interest is Midland but as you see any or all locomotives, can feature. I have a GT3 ordered from the second run by KR models....the Hornby A2/2 will no doubt be joined by its A2/3 counterpart in due course. I am an unrepentant collector it seems. I often wonder what my twenty year old self...the one who used to create lists of locos he wanted would make of the experience of entering my loft for the first time, and the array, that is there. I’m sure he would be shocked if he saw the 64 year old version of himself sitting , at the workbench. Hopefully he would resolve to exercise, a bit more, and drink and eat a little less! 

 

[Compound2632]

27 minutes ago, 46256 said:

I included it because it was the first time I had seen the evidence of these locos actually travelling through the station. 

 

It was a humorous interpretation of the overprinting on the photo that I was going for!

 

Do you know much about workings over the Sutton Park line at your modelling period? My route to school between 1977 and 1983 was partly alongside the line: my memory is of 25s, 47s, 20s in pairs, and with some excitement at their newness, 56s.

 

My own modelling - which of late has been mostly wagon building - is inspired by the area but c. 1902 and with a bit of re-routing of history to allow some exercise of running powers by the LNWR and even GWR.

Edited April 5, 2021 by Compound2632

[John Tomlinson]

1 hour ago, 46256 said:

Thanks Stephen, I included it because it was the first time I had seen the evidence of these locos actually travelling through the station. I know I’m repeating myself but the west yards and jct were an artificial boundary in those days. Locos came and went without ever venturing down, where myself and other youngsters,were situated on the footbridge at East junction. The thread itself is as its title,  a means of sharing any photos of the location that can still emerge , and to record my attempts at creating various locos and stock. My main interest is Midland but as you see any or all locomotives, can feature. I have a GT3 ordered from the second run by KR models....the Hornby A2/2 will no doubt be joined by its A2/3 counterpart in due course. I am an unrepentant collector it seems. I often wonder what my twenty year old self...the one who used to create lists of locos he wanted would make of the experience of entering my loft for the first time, and the array, that is there. I’m sure he would be shocked if he saw the 64 year old version of himself sitting , at the workbench. Hopefully he would resolve to exercise, a bit more, and drink and eat a little less! 

 

Maybe he'd look at the layout you've built, and the locos and stock, and say words to the effect of "the boy done good"!!

 

As to ageing, well just think how old people in their 60's looked 40 or 50 years ago. I could definitely be lighter, also eat and drink less, but as a friend of mine once said "no one on their death bed ever wished they'd eaten more salad".

 

I'd better go before I come out with more heresy.

 

Happy Easter,

 

John.

Edited April 5, 2021 by John Tomlinson

[46256]

John no I can’t honestly think those will be my last words either...Stephen the Sutton Park line was more likely to see LMS big locomotives than the main line from Water Orton through Castle Bromwich . The Western division of the London Midland region, denoting ex London North Western lines, and their allocated locomotives, were strangers on the ex Midland routes. They did travel down from the Bescot area of Walsall, via Sutton Park and into West Junction and the yards. In the early sixties and probably up to the present day, any diversion on the Trent Valley line will bring those trains down the Nuneaton lines through Water Orton then up through the West Jct , Sutton Park and back onto the ex LNWR at Walsall. The lines to Sutton Park formed a triangle as I’m sure you know, from Castle Bromwich in the West, Water Orton in the east. The line was used for testing the Metro  Cammell blue Pullmans built at Saltley,  prior to handing over to BR. Finally about 1971 I was playing rugby at the Bishop Vesey school playing fields in a county trial . It was next to the line...I got hit by a guy twice as big as me and floored. I remember a blue class 25 going past as I lay there...it seemed to be circling around my head like a large train set...i wasn’t picked, for the team.

Edited April 5, 2021 by 46256

[46256]

Stephen two views of Water Orton , the station about the time of your modelled period and the site after the 1908 remodelling , shown in the 1950 s

[46256]

Another photo and an OS map of the triangle. The map may be of interest in another way. It dates from the mid sixties and shows the 2 ft Minworth sewage railway network at its fullest extent. It spreads from the treatment beds by the Park Lane jct, it crosses over the Minworth and Curdworth roads. In addition it goes over the main Kingsbury Road to its then works at Minworth Greaves. The line then crosses over the conduit as shown , must have been some form of bridge...then under the Curdworth Road bridge alongside the Tame river, under the fast lines across the area we knew as the bomb craters then into the Coleshill works site near Hams Hall power station. This fascinating...if pungent railway barely explored by me when it was there on my doorstep...

Edited April 5, 2021 by 46256

[Compound2632]

Thanks! I rather like the style of brick-built three pavilion station building at Water Orton before rebuilding - it was pretty much a standard Midland design of the 1860s - several stations south of Camp Hill had this building too. It was the precursor of the well-known Settle & Carlisle style buildings of the 1870s, that were also used elsewhere on the Midland system but unfortunately not on the Sutton Park line, which got rather nondescript buildings. On the other hand, the original goods shed at Sutton Park itself is now a luxury home!

 

I was at Bishop Walsh, rather than Bishop Vesey - although Bishop Vesey has the Midland line to the south and the LNWR line to the east, I'm not sure their playing fields ran up to either, but I may be wrong. I'm not sure where the site now occupied by Sutton College (or whatever it is called currently) was developed or whether that had been Bishop Vesey playing fields. Bishop Walsh's playing fields are alongside the Midland line as it emerges from a cutting onto the embankment by which it crosses Sutton. I was once in very bad odour for being unable to say whether a ball struck in my direction was a four or a six because I had had my eyes on a passing train...

[46256]

Whilst replacing the running plate have taken the opportunity to rework the cab on Thane..cab doors and better glazing for a start..yet to blend the new cylinders into the chassis 

[46256]

In terms of modelling buildings, on my to do list is a better version of the station masters house. I would love to have a model of Forge Mills ( Coleshill).A lovely example of the house and pavilion style favoured by the Midland.  The big enamel sign shown in the photo of that station, found its way dumped in the station goods yard at Water Orton in 1969. It was highly coveted by us train spotters,  by now ensconced in that area after closure and the sidings lifted. What price now ?

Another station that fascinates me as to its modelling potential is Castle Bromwich, the multi storey main building, the covered walkway to the platforms, and those waiting rooms...what a loss these stations were.

[46256]

More detailed maps of the station prior too, then after the 1908 expansion / remodelling

Edited April 5, 2021 by 46256

[46256]

Last one of Thane all tweaked and blended

[46256]

My DJH A2/3 taken out of the display cabinet for a run...those cab numbers look a little small. The model is about 20 yrs old ...comet gearbox and big mashima...good runner

[46256]

Larger numerals added having referenced photos  in the book of A1 and A2 Pacific’s  by Peter Coster

[46256]

The photograph highlights three different shades of BR green, my Matt version on 60500...Hornby green on the clan, and their latest on 60501 behind it...

[46256]

Working on the Dapol N2. I don’t need one but that as you can see doesn’t stop me acquiring totally inappropriate items. In this case it’s pure nostalgia Christmas 1964 black triang Princess Victoria...Hornby Dublo N2 three rail masquerading as a LMS loco. The black Princess has been created via a GBL body, Hornby chassis scratch outer frames and the unique motion bracket a Mike Edge etch. The Dapol N2...off eBay , a really bad runner. My now standard chassis construct of comet high level and mashima, in the process of replacing.  I have a copy of the BRM annual 2011. A certain Mr Wright had gone before me with this work. He found that the comet chassis didn’t quite align as it should. It needs the rear frames to be filed by two mil to move the wheel centres slightly forward. All now good a sweet running chassis courtesy of my Poppy’s jig. It is being run in. Will photo both locos tomorrow.

 

My next project couldn’t be more different. I’m returning to my narrow gauge line. I have the reference work industrial locos of the West Mids. I had thought the steam locomotives as just modelled by me, were replaced by 1961. The book shows the diesels were actually introduced much earlier, in the 1920’s .The last of them, albeit to the same basic design, late sixties. I have just ordered a Kato N gauge 4 wheel chassis to see if I can replicate one. If I can’t replicate exactly, then seek to capture the essence of one. We shall see. The steam locos were bought specifically for ash disposal after the first war and lasted until 1961 although I suspect little used for many years prior to disposal. This accounts for my slightly older friends never having seen them in operation.

 

Edited April 10, 2021 by 46256

[46256]

Photos reference my earlier post. 

[46256]

Love the wellies in the cab ...essential for the work at that location...upper diesel 1929 batch lower 1968... by now yellow had replaced municipal green

[46256]

My friend Don Taggart has attended a virtual meeting of the Sutton Coldfield railway club. These fantastic photos, were shared. The photographer is no longer with us, but what a legacy

Edited April 11, 2021 by 46256

[46256]

The ones of Saltley and Castle Bromwich Feb 1968...New street and 76042 banking on Camp Hill line 1965

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by 46256

[46256]

Last one for now just looking  at the platform shots of Castle Bromwich. Like Saltley taken shortly before closure, the colour scheme...grey and white instead of the br crimson and cream.

Edited April 12, 2021 by 46256

[46256]

Just for the record dates of the photographs. Saltley and Castle Bromwich 17 th Feb 1968... they closed on 4 th March 1968 the Camphill banker Saltley’ s 76042... 31st Jan 1965 and New street 17 th November 1965

[46256]

My latest the humble 0 4 0, 1929 vintage diesel, alongside its steam counterpart, and the new motor gearbox and chassis N 2 

Edited April 24, 2021 by 46256