Water Orton

[46256]

Edited June 21, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

My layout seeks to replicate my boyhood village station circa 1960. I am now resident in the Black Country but lived in the village of Water Orton until I was eighteen. These photos have been gathered from a number of sources and have been previously placed on my other thread Water Orton layout and stock Thus sits rather incongruously in the Kitbuilding and scratch build thread. The layout buildings however are all scratch built and most of the locomotives have kit built chassis. The recent loss of photos from threads including mine prompted me to create this new thread which will record my modelled location . The brilliant website Warwickshire Railways, the work of Mike Musson, is another excellent reference work of the once extensive rail system my boyhood village enjoyed

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

[46256]

[46256]

Some photos of my model

[vectispete]

Very nice modelling. I lived a short distance away in Minworth so recall looking at the station. I too am now based in the Black Country. 

 

It it looks pretty much complete, if there is such a thing as a completed layout.

 

Pete

[46256]

Thank you, vectispete.

 

The answer of course is no. The layout itself is situated in my loft and was commenced in the mid nineties. It featured in the April 2014 BRM, the esteemed Mr York visited my house on a dark January night and took a series of photos which featured in that edition. 
The layout is a compromise, the real station as you know lies on the main NE SW main line from Birmingham to Derby , and the jct with the cross country line to Leicester. I will describe it in more detail in due course. The area as you know has real Railway heritage not just the ex Midland Railway lines described but the Minworth Lagoon Railway of which I have a number of photos, in addition the Hams Hall complex both now sadly only memories

[46256]

The space available to the layout, sadly meant I was, unable to model either of the two junctions, if starting over again I would attempt to recreate in N gauge, not least to witness a Peak travelling over the crossings at East (station) junction under the footbridge and on towards Brum. The West junction was the commencement of the connection between the Midland at Water Orton and the ex LNWR lines at Bescot via Sutton Park. This was,  and I believe still is ,an important diversion route as well as an important link in the West Mids freight network. A corresponding jct further along the Bham line at Castle Bromwich  created a triangular arrangement with the Sutton Park line.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by 46256
Add map

[46256]

The map from about 1960 shows the area, including the important marshalling yards at Water Orton west jct. The main yards were an important exchange between the Bescot yards and the Midland at Washwood Heath. In steam days  class 3f shunter was stabled there, in diesel ex LMS class 11 and BR class 08 from Saltley. The sidings alongside the up lines to Derby by the station were stowage. On the opposite side of the station a small goods yard operated until 1966. The main yards closed in August 1968.. 

The 4.50 pm Water Orton to Carlisle freight departed daily, the longest rostered run for a BR fireman ( Saltley firing days Terry Essery). It was usually scheduled for the best black five from that shed could muster. The Berkeley screw fitted stoker 9 Fs were allocated in the late fifties 92065 to 67 for the train. Terry describes in his book how the mechanism often failed due to larger than required coal getting stuck. The hapless fireman then had to find fire by hand through a reduced sized fire door…not recommended.

[46256]

[46256]

More from my collection

[46256]

Edited June 23, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

Some recent work replacing an earlier model of the station masters house as a result of better photographs becoming available. The train is an Eastern B 1 and southern stock replicating a photo of an actual working in August 1962

[Barry O]

Great stuff!

Baz

[RobinofLoxley]

On 22/06/2022 at 15:44, 46256 said:

The sidings shown here are considerably larger than what appears on the OS map - I suppose the map is just indicative at that scale.

[46256]

Good Evening  Robin

 

Exactly this particular OS map is more about the overall area in which the village and rail network existed. I particularly like it as it shows the extent in which the Minworth sewage 2 ft gauge network spread from the Sutton Park line, over both the Minworth and then main Kingsbury roads. It’s workshops were located in the area defined as Minworth Greaves. The line then travelled over the conduit, under the main A46 Lichfield Road, under the fast lines to Derby alongside the Tame  bridge. Past an area know to us Water Orton urchins as the bomb holes ( left courtesy of the Luftwaffe targetting Hams Hall ) and then terminating in further works at Coleshill. Hams Hall had its own rail network as shown, and lastly near Coleshill Forge Mills station there was the Lurgi gasworks with its own sidings and resident locomotive.  All this rail activity in a relatively rural area of Warwickshire.

[46256]

A picture of the  narrow gauge train crossing the Minworth Road 1970. More detailed OS maps of the yards the lower one is from about 1882 the upper shows the yards at their greatest extent about 1924

Edited July 8, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

The main yards weren’t the only sidings at Water Orton , on the same side of the line slow down to Brum near to west jct signal box there were two sidings labelled engineers sidings. Further along that spur was the small station good yard. This closed in 1966, the main yards in 1968. The goods yard witnessed the scrapping ny a local company Bridges of Minworth of two ex Midland locomotives. The gantry photo was taken in 1969, it’s wrongly credited to Bob, it and others were taken by MA King. It shows where the spur line commenced , went under the gantry and down to the yard. The track had been lifted at the time of this photo.The goods shed is correctly labelled to Bob. I met him on a number of occasions and made his photos available to me well before they were in the public domain. A true gentleman, as indeed was Mike Mensing, Mr King, Mark Norton, John Griffiths and others I have contacted seeking information and photographs. Please note this list is not definitive ther are still others who have contributed to my collection.

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

Photos of the yards are like hens teeth, probably because they were hard to access, and the close proximity of the nearby sewage lagoons. The attached are firstly by my friend Dave Underwood. I think he gained access to the embankment to take the photo via the rear of the old scout hut, in Birmingham Road. It’s a rare view over the engineers siding, slow and fast lines to Water Orton sidings signal box. The factory shown was by now a fertiliser works, it had been used for munitions during the war. The second image is a montage of photos taken by Vic Smith. He was a signalman at the West jct box. Of note is 46256 crossing over the junction to take the Sutton Park line with a diverted west coast parcels.

In Vic’s selection if you look carefully at the top right hand photo you will see the wagons have been shunted off the end of the siding! Not just us modellers who do that.

Edited July 31, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

The first two of the goods shed situated in the station yard opposite the stairs onto the platform. I’ve often wondered about its role and the apparent ventilation under the door. I’ve been told that service personnel were seen unloading items into it, then perhaps to the factory in the main yards ? The Scot is a great photo by Vic about to commence the nightly train to Crewe. This again travelled via Sutton Park and then onto ex LNWR metals. The last is sidings box captured by Mike King from a passing train in 1969.  The yards had closed some months previously and were awaiting lifting.

[46256]

One of the photos that prompted a rebuild of the station masters house seen in earlier photo

[46256]

My latest British Legion heads through on a diverted London to Birmingham

[46256]

Garratt travelling through the station, regular locomotives on the washwood heath coal trains, plus shot of the real thing travelling towards the station on the slow line from Coleshill/ Whitacre

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by 46256

[46256]

Rare locos…western 1970s rail tour…A3 captured from Vic’s vantage point in 1963….also class 8f superpower Riddles WD and Stanier 8f

[46256]

Another rare working in 1955 the Westminster Bank Railway society organised a rail tour from London, up the ex GWR mainline to Birmingham. It crossed onto Midland metals at St Andrew’s Jct then travelled on the mainline to Derby to visit the works. I have seen pictures of the train an ex GWR three car set, at St Andrew’s, also at Derby. The attached photo is the scene on the return journey. Andy York took the photo, recording at the same time a more usual working that of an 8f crossing over to the slow lines and thence to Whitacre. The GWR set are cut and shut ex Lima models, as per an article by the late Monty Wells in an early MRJ. The set is flush glazed.