The Great Central in and around Leicester 1955/65

[Sir TophamHatt]

I guess the 8F is tender driven?

[tigerburnie]

I guess the 8F is tender driven?

 

No loco driven, do people not like tender driven then?

[tigerburnie]

Anyone got any comments before I go to Glasgow exhibition tomorrow?

  I'm putting together a shopping list for this weeks trip to the Glasgow Exhibition and I have realised if I am to run a day from the working timetable during the 1960's I will need two Die....(nope can't say it) smelly oil burning things. A type 3 English Electric one for the York(Newcastle in the summer) to Bournemouth express and for the Swindon to Sheffield evening express, a type 3 Beyer Peacock Hymek, are there any models to avoid, we don't want the ignominy of a steam engine having to tow it to Leicester if it breaks down.

[Sir TophamHatt]

No loco driven, do people not like tender driven then?

Many don't like it as it's a little unreliable working with the loco.

Thanks for info

[tigerburnie]

I took heed of your advice and got a Bachman engine driven V2, after the rugby I'll try and get some pictures, quite a bit of scenic work to do as well.

[tigerburnie]

Work in progress, some of the trees and lichens from the Glasgow Exhibition, I'm unsure on the fence colour, I think I prefer the black.

Edited April 11, 2018 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

Thanks Andy, you being a fan of they oil burning  things, which green type 3's from the 1960's are best and which avoided?

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

 The scenic countryside of the oval layout.

 

Edited April 11, 2018 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

The V2 with a very short parcel train having a test run, there's more fencing being delivered hopefully in the back.

Edited April 11, 2018 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

Not much modeling but lots of running of locos, I am waiting to get out and collect more materials, one thing occurred to me whilst watching the locos running that my tender driven engines seem to have more torque than the engine driven ones. Both the Hornby 9f and A3 are tender driven and seem to haul longer trains with ease and the B1 is an absolute work horse. I certainly don't mind the tender driven locos and apart from when removing or placing them on the track, which can be trickier, I like them just as much as loco driven. I received some rather nice ex Gresley coaches in the post too, in blood and custard and they really are very nicely made with extra detailing, I'll take some pictures later.

[tigerburnie]

The GC is still moving along, signal boxes built, fences laid and starting on scenic back ground for the rural side of the track(still in progress). Canopies under construction for the Leicester station, this is a trial using Wills kits as the basis and modified as required. Coal loads added to the 16 ton wagons and also re-instated in the tender of the 8f, still require a serious number of these 16ton grey minerals.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

 Just dropped the canopy on to try it for size, the intention is to drill holes in the platform so the legs will be held, but not fixed with adhesive so it can be lifted off for maintenance work, it's a compromise, but on a RTR layout I think it works.

 

I hunted high and low for the lattice girders, found at the Glasgow show, Plastruct 9C-552 if anyone is in need of any, not cheap but effective, all will be suitably weathered in due course.

Edited March 18, 2019 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

One of the ex Gresley coaches, very good detail for RTR.

 

The expresses in the mid 1950's would seem to be made up of these rather fine coaches, looking for a couple more.

Edited March 17, 2019 by tigerburnie

[londonbus]

Looking forward to more updates! 

[Chamby]

Hi Tigerburnie.

 

I’m also building a model based on Leicester (GC), though focusing on the nationalisation period 1948-50... so the transition from LNER to early BR liveries. And the arrival of the A3’s of course.

 

Have you come across the website www.shedbashuk.blogspot.com ? It’s got some really helpful listings of locomotives ‘spotted’ on shed at various locations throughout the UK. It’s a bit awkward to navigate and best accessed by the date that the data was uploaded to the site... Leicester Central entries are listed under 26-Jan-15. There’s a spread of dates and it’s interesting to observe how things changed over time. The A3’s arrived just after nationalisation and disappeared in ‘57 just before the line was transferred to the London Midland region.

 

Locomotives shedded at Gorton, Annesley, Woodford Halse and Neasden would also have been seen running to and through Leicester, so there’s a big choice open to you.

 

I am a bit behind you in terms of progress, still tracklaying and wiring at the moment. I have had to modify the station approaches into curves due to space limitations, but am endeavouring to capture the essence of the place. I have been fortunate to find some folk who remember the place in the fifties... they describe it as being elevated (on its viaduct), open and windswept, not a great place to be waiting around in the winter months!

 

I’m also scratching my head over the platform canopy and may scratchbuild so as to get the distinctive roof profile right, and make it full width across the platform. It is a daunting prospect though and I will watch your own developments with interest!

 

Phil

Edited June 10, 2018 by Chamby

[tigerburnie]

Hi Phil, thanks for the comments, of late I have been concentrating on the "countryside area" on the opposite side to the station on my large oval, the station canopies are held up awaiting more kits I ordered from a local model shop, but didn't get delivered. Once our annual holiday is out of the way I hope to get a lot more done to the layout, I need to get wiring up the station lighting, then I can get the station completed and then work on the parcels/turntable area. Because of the sheer size of Leicester Central it seems that some compromises are inevitable, mine starts with the Northgate girder bridge and gets to the area just past the south station signal box and that is some 18 feet in length and I still had to shorten the platform, I can just get a train of 8 carriages and a loco and tender on platforms 5 and 6. The platforms 1,2,3 and 4 will fit 3 coaches and an A3 size loco, so workable but not quite accurate. Good luck with yours, I do vaguely remember the 1950's as I was born in 1950, but mostly where I lived nearer to the Whetstone station, it was post "midlandisation" when I first remember the Leicester station, though as no money was spent I doubt anything had changed. I will have a look at that link later as we have visitors descending on us.

[tigerburnie]

I have to thank Chamby for the excellent shedbash link, a mine of information, not only for my own area of interest, but also other areas I had visited in the past. This will lengthen the list of required locos on my shopping list considerably and hopefully add to the pleasure of running the GC layout.

[Chamby]

Hi Phil, thanks for the comments, of late I have been concentrating on the "countryside area" on the opposite side to the station on my large oval, the station canopies are held up awaiting more kits I ordered from a local model shop, but didn't get delivered. Once our annual holiday is out of the way I hope to get a lot more done to the layout, I need to get wiring up the station lighting, then I can get the station completed and then work on the parcels/turntable area. Because of the sheer size of Leicester Central it seems that some compromises are inevitable, mine starts with the Northgate girder bridge and gets to the area just past the south station signal box and that is some 18 feet in length and I still had to shorten the platform, I can just get a train of 8 carriages and a loco and tender on platforms 5 and 6. The platforms 1,2,3 and 4 will fit 3 coaches and an A3 size loco, so workable but not quite accurate. Good luck with yours, I do vaguely remember the 1950's as I was born in 1950, but mostly where I lived nearer to the Whetstone station, it was post "midlandisation" when I first remember the Leicester station, though as no money was spent I doubt anything had changed. I will have a look at that link later as we have visitors descending on us.

The parts of the GC I am most familiar with are around Nottingham (Wilford and Trent Bridge) and later I lived in Loughborough for a while, during the early preservation years. I was also a student at Leicester Poly, my studies were in the Boulevard Buildings by the river just round the corner from the bowstring bridge. Leicester Central became my modelling focus mainly based on the space available, the long but thin track plan, and operating potential does lend itself well to a model railway. Ideally though, I would have liked to model Weekday Cross and Arkwright Street station, though the spatial requirements and the amount of architectural modelling is more daunting! The atmosphere/ambiance around that location was quite something...

 

Edited for correction of auto spell corruption!

Edited June 16, 2018 by Chamby

[tigerburnie]

First venture into the hot room for weeks due to a rather nasty injury to my leg meant the steep steps were a non starter, was worried this heat wave might have caused some expansion problems, but all was well, ran a few trains round for my son and grandkids to see and was pleasantly surprised no major traumas. Some parts for the station picked up and some more awaiting delivery, so once it cools down a bit, some modeling might take place.

[tigerburnie]

Finally found supplies for enough parts to complete one end of the Leicester station south end, got my tools, got my glue, just can't find my mojo just yet, but with rain forecast today,something may just happen modelling wise, also have quite a lot of stock that I might get lucky and win in an auction.

[londonbus]

Finally found supplies for enough parts to complete one end of the Leicester station south end, got my tools, got my glue, just can't find my mojo just yet, but with rain forecast today,something may just happen modelling wise, also have quite a lot of stock that I might get lucky and win in an auction.

have a cuppa then go for it. Looking forward to updates and pics of progress

[Andrew P]

Finally found supplies for enough parts to complete one end of the Leicester station south end, got my tools, got my glue, just can't find my mojo just yet, but with rain forecast today,something may just happen modelling wise, also have quite a lot of stock that I might get lucky and win in an auction.

 

Any more done, or are you still looking for that naughty Mojo mate? hahah.

 

Looking forward to some updates and pics soon.

[tigerburnie]

Yep Andy, mojo discovered and starting on a pair of the canopies same as above(or at least they should be the same), one built and another to begin later, got a pal who's into dcc coming round tonight to give us some hints and encouragement and to think about this other project which might be transportable, thinking of doing my village station on the ECML on a similar timescale to this one, means rolling stock could be transferable from one to the other.

[tigerburnie]

Had a couple of hours working on the up south end platform, lamps are secured and wired up and tested with a 9 volt battery and all is working fine. Holes drilled for the legs of the first canopy, next need to do the down platform and finally work out the value of dropping my 18 volt AC supply down to 9 volts for supplying a buzz wire to feed all the stations lights.

[tigerburnie]

Been splashing some cash on stock, so maybe I need to get in that layout room and get moving on that station.