oldrocker Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 No problem Ode Pal ! As mentioned earlier the Palethores vans are an essential. Always seemed to be a couple at the tunnel end of Dudley station. I look forward to other posts in this thread ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted May 24, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 24, 2012 I believe this was a terminal delivering LPG to West Midlands Gas Board, dating from the days before North Sea Gas.; still shown in my 1980 Baker. Fair comment, Dave - I was more thinking of the location arrangement rather than the 'box details. The fact it's called a "shunt frame" also made me assume it was kept to control the sidings in the area (since removed - seem to remember some sort of gas holders with a rail connection?). Before the introduction of natural gas Watery Lane was the site of the Mond Gas Works. The Dudley Port end of the present loops were on Mond Gas Sidings SB. The works made Producer Gas for the surrounding factories, and at one time reputedly consumed three million tons of coal per year, although I find that hard to believe. There's a lot on Watery Lane andBlack Country railways on Jan Ford's blog here http://janfordsworld.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/railway-signalling-watery-lane.html 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted May 24, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) Never happen on the real thing, next you'll suggest they had them in Scotland ! Get the tongue out of the cheek, Dave. Take a look here at the one we put up at Lichfield City, LMR arm on WR bracket, and the even better one at Langley Green. GWR post with LMR Home arm and WR Fixed Distant for Smethwick Junction. http://www.roscalen....tMids/index.htm Edited May 24, 2012 by TheSignalEngineer Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted May 24, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 24, 2012 Get the tongue out of the cheek, Dave. Take a look here at the one we put up at Lichfield City, LMR arm on WR bracket, and the even better one at Langley Green. GWR post with LMR Home arm and WR Fixed Distant for Smethwick Junction. http://www.roscalen....tMids/index.htm Always nice to find Signal Engineers with a bit of style. And of course Dave's tongue wasn't in his cheek - he was no doubt just trying to tempt a few cries of disbelief before asking me to post my pic of one 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Williams Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Thanks again to everyone who has posted on this topic, your links, photos and comments are really helping us get a feel for the features we need to include to make sure the layout has a distinctly Black Country look about it. Can anybody think of a location in the BC where a canal and railway ran side-by-side and pass under a road bridge (or bridges)? Cheers Between Oldbury and Spon Lane they go under the M5 but that probably isn't a feature you wish to include :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted May 24, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 24, 2012 Get the tongue out of the cheek, Dave. Take a look here at the one we put up at Lichfield City, LMR arm on WR bracket, and the even better one at Langley Green. GWR post with LMR Home arm and WR Fixed Distant for Smethwick Junction. http://www.roscalen....tMids/index.htm I photographed the Lichfield one myself, the other is a cracker ! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
devondynosoar118 Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Very enlightening to us bumpkins, everything is north from Devon except Cornwall! The battered mince pie looked like a real cardiac nightmare but like many things deep fried, covered in batter and containing meat of indeterminate origin I bet they are dlicious. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted May 24, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 24, 2012 Always nice to find Signal Engineers with a bit of style. And of course Dave's tongue wasn't in his cheek - he was no doubt just trying to tempt a few cries of disbelief before asking me to post my pic of one I'm sure you remember the tight financial circumstances in1972/3. We were very much make do and mend, re-using or adapting anything we could find. The relay huts at Lichfield City were built from concrete garage panels bought on local purchase from a nearby builders yard. The day the Lichfield one was commissioned we had to transfer the petrol from our portable generator to the office car to get home as petrol stations were closed on a Sunday due to fuel shortages. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Can anybody think of a location in the BC where a canal and railway ran side-by-side and pass under a road bridge (or bridges)? I think I'd better go and point a camera at this one - http://g.co/maps/pyk3m 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Smethwick has a section of the Stour Valley running parallel to the canal, and passes under some road over bridges. Also by the old Chance glass works the line parallels the canal, a disused factory and is bridged by the M5. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted May 25, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2012 That double diamond on the left will be interesting to operate... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
avonside1563 Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 That's an over bridge, the main line will drop away at 1 in 180 and the industrial branch climbs at 1 in 50 to cross over the main line. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Black Country Blues - hmm, a 30 minutes slow blues noodle on a Strat? Best, Pete. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted May 25, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2012 (edited) I think I'd better go and point a camera at this one - http://g.co/maps/pyk3m It's not quite BC but you can follow the line along the towpath all the way from Five Ways to past Bournville station. If you start from Gas St Basin you go alongside the original route of the West Suburban Railway from Granville St station to Five Ways. Check it out here http://www.railaroun...s/five_ways.php Plenty of stuff about the old Black Country routes on that site. Edited May 25, 2012 by TheSignalEngineer 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 (edited) Can anybody think of a location in the BC where a canal and railway ran side-by-side and pass under a road bridge (or bridges)? Cheers Or another variation on the theme, where the 'cut' crosses over the railway, which I'm hoping to add to one end ( the industrial diorama)of my layout, as does the Walsall canal ( a 7 footer) crossing over the GJR by James Bridge cemetery. Edited May 25, 2012 by bike2steam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted May 25, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2012 I think I'd better go and point a camera at this one - http://g.co/maps/pyk3m Blimey! I realise in 2008 I got off the train at University, just down the road, to visit a friend (and former live-steam model loco manufacturer) in hospital. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Anyone remember Beans Foundry? (hope I'm in the right area). It was set back a way from the railway but was always a landmark to me. I used to wind my kids up that it was where Heinz had them stamped out by the million.... JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Cook Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 That double diamond on the left will be interesting to operate... I thought you just poured it into a glass 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Anyone remember Beans Foundry? (hope I'm in the right area). It was set back a way from the railway but was always a landmark to me. I used to wind my kids up that it was where Heinz had them stamped out by the million.... JF Yo mean this place;- 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted May 25, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2012 Anyone remember Beans Foundry? (hope I'm in the right area). It was set back a way from the railway but was always a landmark to me. I used to wind my kids up that it was where Heinz had them stamped out by the million.... JF Beans bought Reliant, which did them no good at all, and I think by the mid-90s they were in trouble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Beans bought Reliant, which did them no good at all, and I think by the mid-90s they were in trouble. Not surprised, I bought a Reliant once. Did me no good either, although I got quite good at "2 wheeling" it on corners! JF 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Black Country Blues - hmm, a 30 minutes slow blues noodle on a Strat? Best, Pete. That's it, the first Rmweb layout with its own theme song. Go on Pete, you know you want to! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted May 25, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2012 Presumably the industrial branch serves Garroi's Black Country Pastoi Works?..... should we send up any samples?! If Oxford Diecast or some such do a Mark 1 Cortina, and if someone was to send you one, would you have it sunken in your canal scene? 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Presumably the industrial branch serves Garroi's Black Country Pastoi Works?..... should we send up any samples?! We day 'av pastois (that's Brummiespeak anyway) up 'ere; tha's forrin food. Scratchins or Fagguts, 'at's wot we'm guddat. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
avonside1563 Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Here's a couple of shots we've collected for atmosphere but taken roughly 20 years apart... look at the difference such a short space of time takes. The Stour valley line is clearly visible in the first one but you wouldn't even know a railway was there in the second one taken last year! 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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