Theory of General Minories

[scottystitch]

2 minutes ago, Bri.dolan said:

Apethorn junction 

 

regards 

 

Brian 

Thanks!!

 

Best

 

Scott

[33C]

1 hour ago, RobinofLoxley said:

I wonder how many here have a Minories plan on the drawing board, that might never see the light of day, apart from you and I.

I have everything I need for mine, based on Fenchurch Street, as long as I live to 136 I'm laughing.......

[SteveyDee68]

6 hours ago, H2O said:

Mangotsfield station is where Arnold Ridley was inspired to write The Ghost Train

Is that the same Arnold Ridley who played Godfrey in Dad’s Army? I remember my dad once saying something about ‘Godfrey’ being quite a famous writer, although he seemed to think it was to do with musical theatre?

 

Steve S

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Is that the same Arnold Ridley who played Godfrey in Dad’s Army? I remember my dad once saying something about ‘Godfrey’ being quite a famous writer, although he seemed to think it was to do with musical theatre?

 

Steve S

Yes.

[Budgie]

9 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Is that the same Arnold Ridley who played Godfrey in Dad’s Army?

He also played Doughie Hood in the Archers, for those who, like me, are old enough to remember that long ago.

[Steven B]

18 hours ago, RobinofLoxley said:

I wonder how many here have a Minories plan on the drawing board, that might never see the light of day, apart from you and I.

 

I can hold my hand up to that. I started my attempt over 15 years ago, it's still somewhere in the loft unfinished. How can Minories be too ambitious!?!

 

To be built in N, the plan above was my initial plan, slightly developed from the standard plan. The loco siding was extended to be long enough to hold a MU during a layover - inspired by platform 4 at Hereford with a bit of Bradford Interchange. I'd also toyed with the idea of adding another board as a mirror image and turning it into a through station on a roundy-roundy.

 

The plan above shows an extension at the front acting as a stabling point. This was to be dropped by a single track branch - a single car DMU arriving into P4 each morning to be locked into the branch each day, shuttling backward and forward (automatically?) as P4 was used for other services. The Traverser fiddle yard was replaced by a more traditional fiddle yard sticking out at 90 degrees to the main layout. I wasn't convinced by either solution - access to the traverser restricted the scenery whilst the fiddle yard had a single point of entry limiting the ability to run trains on and off scene at the same time.

 

One day I'll finish it (or start again!). The track plan remains a classic even after 60+ years.

 

Steven B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tom s]

2 hours ago, Steven B said:

 

I can hold my hand up to that. I started my attempt over 15 years ago, it's still somewhere in the loft unfinished. How can Minories be too ambitious!?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a crucial reminder to all of us to assign facilities for storing mugs of tea on the layout

[Steven B]

This is about as far as my effort to build Minories got (complete with bus on bridge!):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was to be loosely based on Bradford Interchange, albeit with a high-street on the upper level (complete with a Woolworths which dates it somewhat!)

 

Steven B.

[RJS1977]

21 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Is that the same Arnold Ridley who played Godfrey in Dad’s Army? I remember my dad once saying something about ‘Godfrey’ being quite a famous writer, although he seemed to think it was to do with musical theatre?

 

Steve S

 

Yes, Jimmy Perry (one of the writers of Dad's Army) has recounted how Arnold would often give him words of encouragement during filming, based on his own experiences of writing and producing plays. Apparently after "The Ghost Train", Arnold made an unwise investment in another play which closed after a few days, leaving Arnold to pay off all the debts. Arnold sold the amateur rights to "The Ghost Train", something which he always regretted, and told Jimmy to make sure he never did that.

 

Another play written by Arnold was "Who Killed the Cat", which was made into a film (sometimes shown on Talking Pictures TV) starring Amy Dalby, who would go on to play one of Godfrey's sisters in the Dad's Army episode "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" but sadly passed away before the episode was aired.

[simon b]

On 13/03/2023 at 13:22, tom s said:

Something I've been planning, Minories trackplan with Moorgate's scenics.
Plan was rotated 180 degrees as this both fits the viewing perspective for most photographs of Moorgate, and works better with the space I have for the layout.

Swapping around which two tracks border the island platform allows a few extra inches to be added to it, as on this plan the shortest platform can begin before the the station points have even ended.

Having the locomotive spur at the front should also allow slightly better viewing of the engine sitting between duties too!
 

 

That is hands down the best re-imagining of the Minories concept I have seen, altering the platform layout like that and viewing from the other side makes quite a visual difference. Also a great use of y points to ease the snaking effect of long vehicles. Build it!

[KeithMacdonald]

On 14/03/2023 at 18:56, RobinofLoxley said:

I wonder how many here have a Minories plan on the drawing board, that might never see the light of day, apart from you and I.

 

I have a crazy one that will never see the light of day. I'd need a spare 12-foot by 8-foot space to put it in, and I don't have permission from my Managing Director. But here it is anyway:

 

[tom s]

On 21/03/2023 at 21:44, simon b said:

 

That is hands down the best re-imagining of the Minories concept I have seen, altering the platform layout like that and viewing from the other side makes quite a visual difference. Also a great use of y points to ease the snaking effect of long vehicles. Build it!

Thanks! I originally bought the points for a small diesel TMD but went off the idea after considering the price of a large fleet of locomotives these days, so was a bit tricky to get them to fit.
Baseboards have been framed and all wood cut, should have enough supplies to get the layout to at least a functional stage. In hindsight I should have asked to rent a bandsaw for an hour at a local timber merchant as the jig-saw we have was difficult to get a straight line with, oh well. Also cut into the traverser board thinking it was the spare piece, whoops! 

There is a bit of stock snaking when departing the top 2 platforms but it may get less noticeable when the coupling gap is shortened. Even a Y into curve shows the throw the original plan was avoiding with its strict turnout-to-straight theme.

The plan for the traverser is to have a few dual track cassettes sliding along plasticard strips, using spare code 80 rail i bought years ago. Some printed re-railers might help with keeping it reliable as there isn't any room for fingers.
It'd be my first attempt at building a layout so lots of learning through difficulties!

Edited March 25, 2023 by tom s

[TravisM]

I’ve recently ordered a Accurascale J69, 68619, the Liverpool St ‘pet’ loco simply because I liked it, and wondered if the Minories layout could be adapted for a section of Liverpool St station, albeit a small section?

 

You could still keep that ‘cramped in’ and ‘overlooked’ look, busy schedules, so constant movement of trains to keep you busy.  I assume that 68619 ran under the wires, so you could have interesting mix of steam and early diesel locomotives, plus EMU’s (if they we’re ever available in RtR).

 

Thought’s please.

[tom s]

3 hours ago, jools1959 said:

I’ve recently ordered a Accurascale J69, 68619, the Liverpool St ‘pet’ loco simply because I liked it, and wondered if the Minories layout could be adapted for a section of Liverpool St station, albeit a small section?

 

You could still keep that ‘cramped in’ and ‘overlooked’ look, busy schedules, so constant movement of trains to keep you busy.  I assume that 68619 ran under the wires, so you could have interesting mix of steam and early diesel locomotives, plus EMU’s (if they we’re ever available in RtR).

 

Thought’s please.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgadsdon/albums/72157629207022935

Flickr has a few albums for Liverpool Street, among many others. Robert Gadsdon's restored photos spring to mind offering a wealth of reference, even little things the weathering or station details from the 60's are picked out in what seems to be authentic colour.

In my opinion Minories lends itself just as favourably to pilot locomotive operation as it does to the prototype's second-loco-releases-first running.

Edited March 26, 2023 by tom s

[TravisM]

6 hours ago, tom s said:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgadsdon/albums/72157629207022935

Flickr has a few albums for Liverpool Street, among many others. Robert Gadsdon's restored photos spring to mind offering a wealth of reference, even little things the weathering or station details from the 60's are picked out in what seems to be authentic colour.

In my opinion Minories lends itself just as favourably to pilot locomotive operation as it does to the prototype's second-loco-releases-first running.

I looked on Flickr for pictures of 68619 and found a fair number of them at Liverpool St, so it just got me thinking on using the Minories plan in modelling a small section of the station.

 

Struggled to find a decent track plan of Liverpool St station in the late 50’s, early 60’s, so I’ll ask here, without too much alteration, could the Minories plan be used for certain platforms?  Eg 9 to 11 etc?

[t-b-g]

11 hours ago, jools1959 said:

I’ve recently ordered a Accurascale J69, 68619, the Liverpool St ‘pet’ loco simply because I liked it, and wondered if the Minories layout could be adapted for a section of Liverpool St station, albeit a small section?

 

You could still keep that ‘cramped in’ and ‘overlooked’ look, busy schedules, so constant movement of trains to keep you busy.  I assume that 68619 ran under the wires, so you could have interesting mix of steam and early diesel locomotives, plus EMU’s (if they we’re ever available in RtR).

 

Thought’s please.

 

I think a the new model from Accurascale would be ideal for a Minories.

 

Seeing those 1960 ish photos of Liverpool Street really brings the "feel" of such a layout to life. A suburban service of the new locos, sharing duties with N7s, with an occasional longer distance train worked by Brush Type 2s or even a Britannia would work really well and the choice of locos would really shout out just where the layout is supposed to be set.

 

I am not sure that such a layout needs to be an accurate model of any part of Liverpool Street. It just needs to be "based on" and perhaps use some of the canopies and other buildings.

Edited March 26, 2023 by t-b-g
Remove mistake

[Nearholmer]

Liverpool Street always seemed to be a confusing jumble of bits and pieces that didn’t fit together properly anyway, still is to some degree, so an invented bit would be very plausible.

[Lacathedrale]

Crossposting from my thread which is the build of a Minories++ layout - the rear of the layout is basically Minories as-writ:

 

 

I decided to add a runaround loop, carriage siding and headshunt in the foreground since I didn't see any operational detraction from their inclusion, I already had the width and wanted the dimensions to be broadly proportional - but the core of the operation is as written by Mr. Freezer way-back when. With a station building in-place and with a prototypically narrow concourse (my basis for this station is the pre-modernisation Brighton station of 1840-1882) I think it looks quite nice:

 

[RobinofLoxley]

All resting on bicycles too by the look of it

[Annie]

On 26/03/2023 at 23:33, t-b-g said:

I am not sure that such a layout needs to be an accurate model of any part of Liverpool Street. It just needs to be "based on" and perhaps use some of the canopies and other buildings.

The nice thing about Minories is that it can be made to be just about any kind of terminus station you might want with the right sort of dressing up to set the scene.  I don't think it suits the BR diesel era all that well though.

 

As for Liverpool Street it always looked like something a bunch of kids built on Saturday afternoon by combining all the parts of their trainsets so with the right scenic bits and background flats I'm sure you could capture the look of the station without too much trouble.

[t-b-g]

24 minutes ago, Annie said:

The nice thing about Minories is that it can be made to be just about any kind of terminus station you might want with the right sort of dressing up to set the scene.  I don't think it suits the BR diesel era all that well though.

 

As for Liverpool Street it always looked like something a bunch of kids built on Saturday afternoon by combining all the parts of their trainsets so with the right scenic bits and background flats I'm sure you could capture the look of the station without too much trouble.

 

I would agree that it is certainly a very good canvas on which any modeller can add their own surrounds.

 

I would disagree about it not working in BR diesel period though. Have you seen the 2mm finescale version "Hallam Town"?  It has since been time travelled back a few years but when first built was exhibited in the BR blue period and it looked and worked just fine. There was a mix of DMU and loco hauled stock, including some parcels. There are photos and videos on the internet if you search on "Hallam Town 2mm layout" or something similar.  

[Nearholmer]

‘Ripper Street’ was set in the worst of the blue, and that oozed (seedy, decaying) atmosphere.

[Annie]

4 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

‘Ripper Street’ was set in the worst of the blue, and that oozed (seedy, decaying) atmosphere.

Yes I was looking at 'Ripper Street' in RM on-line earlier in the week.  There's seedy and decaying, - and then there's about to collapse in a heap.  I'm sure you know Kevin, that as a pre-WW1 era modeller I have some difficulty with understanding the appeal of the BR Blue era.

 

20 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

I would disagree about it not working in BR diesel period though. Have you seen the 2mm finescale version "Hallam Town"?  It has since been time travelled back a few years but when first built was exhibited in the BR blue period and it looked and worked just fine. There was a mix of DMU and loco hauled stock, including some parcels. There are photos and videos on the internet if you search on "Hallam Town 2mm layout" or something similar.  

I agree Hallam Town is impressive, - more so with it having been built in 2mm finescale. 

[Pacific231G]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

The nice thing about Minories is that it can be made to be just about any kind of terminus station you might want with the right sort of dressing up to set the scene.  I don't think it suits the BR diesel era all that well though.

 

 

Au contraire. I'd say it suits the BR diesel era very well. I agree with Tony about Hallam Town and did you not see the EM version "Minories GN" that Tom Cunnington and others built at the MRC for the plan's 50th anniversary in 2007? Tom let me have a go at operating it at one of its LT museum showinngs and it is challenging to run it intensively without getting snarled up. Operating another version with mainly non loco-hauled EMU sets I found far less engaging.

The odd thing is that, still mourning the decline of steam, the first time I actually found it fascinating to watch diesel operations was at the old Fort William terminus in the mid 1960s. Though that was single rathers than double track it had three not very long platforms and was a reversing terminus with trains often arriving hard on each others heels and requiring a lot of shunting to add or subtract sleepers, restaurant cars, observation cars and sometimes tail loads. 

 

Nostalgia for steam (which I share) and the losses of so much after Beeching tends to make the BR blue era rather unloved but it's interesting that, according to Loco-Revue, the equivalent era in France (Ep IV in NEM terms) when steam had disappeared but loco hauled trains that included sections, parcels and postal traffic and wagonload goods were still the norm is the most popular epoch among modellers there. 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Pacific231G

[Annie]

31 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

Au contraire. I'd say it suits the BR diesel era very well. I agree with Tony about Hallam Town and did you not see the EM version "Minories GN" that Tom Cunnington and others built at the MRC for the plan's 50th anniversary in 2007?

Definitely impressive.

 

https://www.themodelrailwayclub.org/layouts/minories/