Popular Post danstercivicman Posted December 2, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted December 2, 2016 Well I have been very busy this set of days off! Over the past few months i have destroyed my previous layout- Harton and Hopeguard and have made a Minories style layout based on CJF's excellent plan. The track is Peco Code 100, much of the rolling stock is still to be obtained (I sold a lot off)... Here is the progress to date and some development shots... The backstory- I have imagined that the GCR made a spur off towards Birmingham arriving on the South Western Side.... there was joint running with the GWR and the Station could reach London via a route onto the GCR mainline to Marylebone. The station also served commuter traffic and working traffic. The Station was placed in a cutting and had local services which ran north towards the Leicester and south joining the GCR mainline at Woodford Halse. Its completely fictional!!!! As with the Minories plan there are no substantial goods facilities- these are located further down the line along with the engine shed. The Station was small in nature as due to the strength of the other Railway companies it was not possible to get a good site and the station was somewhat away from the City Centre. This was not a problem in the boom years and WW1 but by the end of the Second World War the Station had massively declined in usage... The Station is mainly Scalescenes and has taken ages to build. It has been extensively varnished and I love the Scalescenes kits, to me they are the most realistic and as you can see you can scratch build the platforms and station buildings into the form you want... I do however have alot more work to do, the L shape curve to the cassette fiddle yard is not done (the track is ballasted) and there is soo much still to work on! When BR took over the Station and line eventually ended up in the LMR region. It continued to serve as due to the redevelopment of New St and changes at the time the capacity was needed... the line was closed under Beeching and the track removed, however as with all things the track was replaced, the Station renewed and the line now serves commuter track again.... Its called Birmingham Hope St after my daughter and her place of birth- she is 3 and loves running the trains around, she hasn't quite got the knack of stopping them at the buffers BR days: The Station and stock is well and truly in the hands of the LMR. Grimy 4P and 4MT tanks haul dirty rakes of Suburbans, DMU's shuffle the limited local services around and there is a twice daily return to Marylebone hauled by grimy and dirty Black Fives, 5MT's or Type 2 Disels. See the attached timetable There is also some milk and parcels traffic, this connects with the Station and the dedicated Milk Depot. The plan for the stock and locos that I still need to buy is also attached- will some WR loco's feature?? Or even a very lost V2?? There is still a lot to do, please find attached development pictures I hope you enjoy! Timetable for Layout.docx Locos Stock For Layout.docx 37 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 Excellent. I'm impressed at this much progress in just a couple of months. It already seems full of appropriate atmosphere and I can almost hear the flat brummy vowels (I was born there!) . It's obviously a bit longer than CJF's plan so I'd be interested to know the overall dimensions and are the points medium or long? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 2, 2016 Author Share Posted December 2, 2016 Cheers, it is located in a basement in the West Midlands!!! I have two station boards 122cm by 40cm, they are joined by metal things and each platform is isolated with switches so I can use the pilot to pull the stock back...(it's DC only). The corner section is 100cm by 110cm and the cassettes are 135cm long, enough for a four coach semi fast and a loco. I did originally plan to have a further foot at each end and to model a U layout so that I could have a bigger fiddleyard and run Five coach trains but... life got in the way! The basement is 14ft by 12ft. Point work is mainly all Peco SL-91 and SL-92 so short radius, if I made it again I would use medium radius... The track is all Peco flex code 100 with tracksettas so there's nothing less than 30inch and mainly 36 inch radius. Glad you like it, next week I will add more 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted December 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 2, 2016 The idea is not that far fetched. The remnants of the real Hope Street lie just to the south of Birmingham city centre about half a mile from what could have become the GCR route from Marylebone to Moor Street. The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway had its eyes on reaching Birmingham when the original North Warwickshire line proposal was approved in 1894. The MS&L purchased a large shareholding in the permanently financially broke E&WJR in 1893. Its idea was to promote doubling of the E&WJR from Stratford-upon-Avon to a new junction with the MS&L London Extension near Woodford Halse, thus giving a route from London to Birmingham which was 10 miles shorter than the GWR via Oxford. The plan faltered when the GCR, as the MS&L had then become, did a deal with the GWR over access to London. The GWR stepped in and took over the North Warwickshire project in 1900. By the time construction started the independent route from Hall Green to Moor Street via Sparkbrook had been abandoned in favour of joining the GWR line at Tyseley. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 2, 2016 Author Share Posted December 2, 2016 Wow, I just looked at the maps and thought up the backstory . That's awesome information so there's the rest of the what if story! Great info thank you! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
banburysaint Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 The idea is not that far fetched. The remnants of the real Hope Street lie just to the south of Birmingham city centre about half a mile from what could have become the GCR route from Marylebone to Moor Street. The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway had its eyes on reaching Birmingham when the original North Warwickshire line proposal was approved in 1894. The MS&L purchased a large shareholding in the permanently financially broke E&WJR in 1893. Its idea was to promote doubling of the E&WJR from Stratford-upon-Avon to a new junction with the MS&L London Extension near Woodford Halse, thus giving a route from London to Birmingham which was 10 miles shorter than the GWR via Oxford. The plan faltered when the GCR, as the MS&L had then become, did a deal with the GWR over access to London. The GWR stepped in and took over the North Warwickshire project in 1900. By the time construction started the independent route from Hall Green to Moor Street via Sparkbrook had been abandoned in favour of joining the GWR line at Tyseley. Is this related to the unfinished viaduct near small heath? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted December 2, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 2, 2016 Interesting to see how you've set out the timetable. Something which isn't so often talked about in connection with layouts! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bri.s Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 Nice layout ,great work in such a small time Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 2, 2016 Author Share Posted December 2, 2016 Thanks for the kind words, The timetable idea developed off the minories threads-several ppl have contributedvides/corrected my bad thinking! I have dry run the time table with blank cards standing in for the locos I haven't yet got... and the semi fast stock being one four coach ex LMS p3 rake and one BR MK1 rake... It's shown where the gaps are and where the fleet can be expanded, it also shows that come rush hour even this small terminus gets busy and congested with arrivals being held at the signal the other side of the bridge, whilst the departure clears! It also shows what a genius CJF was as the layout is challenging to plan the arrivals and departures! I'm still working out the timings but based on the suggestions it's: 3hrs semi fast to London 1hr roughly dmu to traverse the line (would be to Woodford Hales) 1.25 hr roughly for the suburban I may add more more workings when my finances have allowed for more stock, for example a semi fast to Nottingham Victoria? Progress will slow down now until Christmas due to me burning inkjet varnish at s huge rate! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted December 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 2, 2016 Is this related to the unfinished viaduct near small heath? No, that one was to do with the politics of the Grand Junction, London & Birmingham and Birmingham & Oxford Junction. Captain Huish, the Chairman of the Grand Junction, wanted an amalgamation with the L&B to give a direct route from London to Manchester and Liverpool. Possibly to force the issue he courted the B&OJR, part of the GWR camp, with promises of through services from Paddington to Manchester. This persuded the L&B to join with the Grand Junction and Liverpool & Manchester to form the LNWR. Huish insisted that the B&OJR Duddeston Viaduct was still built even though he had no intention of letting Paddington have access to his empire. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted December 3, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 3, 2016 It's shown where the gaps are and where the fleet can be expanded, it also shows that come rush hour even this small terminus gets busy and congested with arrivals being held at the signal the other side of the bridge, whilst the departure clears! It also shows what a genius CJF was as the layout is challenging to plan the arrivals and departures! I found that too, when I drew up a timetable for my layout. I thought I'd got too much rolling stock(!), but I found I hadn't got enough parcels train vehicles to make up the three parcels trains I'd scheduled during the day differently from each other! Do you run it to a clock, or are the times just there to give an indication of what time of day it is? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
banburysaint Posted December 3, 2016 Share Posted December 3, 2016 No, that one was to do with the politics of the Grand Junction, London & Birmingham and Birmingham & Oxford Junction. Captain Huish, the Chairman of the Grand Junction, wanted an amalgamation with the L&B to give a direct route from London to Manchester and Liverpool. Possibly to force the issue he courted the B&OJR, part of the GWR camp, with promises of through services from Paddington to Manchester. This persuded the L&B to join with the Grand Junction and Liverpool & Manchester to form the LNWR. Huish insisted that the B&OJR Duddeston Viaduct was still built even though he had no intention of letting Paddington have access to his empire. Many thanks for the explanation Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Flying Pig Posted December 3, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 3, 2016 The photo from the platform ends really hits the spot. Looks like you'll have fun with this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 3, 2016 Author Share Posted December 3, 2016 Thank you for the kind words, I have only run the timetable through once on a day off! ATM due to lack of stock/funds and the layout not being finished (and family) I haven't had a full day to run it to a clock... I definitely agree on the stock front, when you start thinking about the fact a train will run up or down the line and have to be turned etc it does show that a lot more stock and motive power is required! I guess you can see how BR had issues.... I have also considered a more extensive parcels service and given time it will be present, I guess dmus are an easy way to increase workings 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post danstercivicman Posted December 7, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 7, 2016 Some more progress has been made before shifts. Here you have the main structural complete Birmigham Hope St Station and surrounds! Hopefully it captures the down at heel industrial look I am aiming for. There is some detail to the station that I need to do and some adjustments. I have also managed to get hold of a 5MT by Bachmann which I have heavily weathered! Just needs crew and lamps! Please let me know what you think? 24 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post danstercivicman Posted December 8, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 8, 2016 Today I have made progress on the Station Pilot/Loco turnaround point. I have built yet more of the Scale scenes kits which are absolutely brilliant and I love making them- (I've run out of card though....) There is the red brick water tower and a Conveyor loader to load the coal into the locos! I need to add some steps but I hope you'll agree that its coming on. I have also taken some shots of the Milk tankers in the diary- please ignore the unfinished section the other side of the Bridge. Enjoy! 23 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zomboid Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 The signal box looks a bit on the small side for a station like that. Nice layout though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 9, 2016 Author Share Posted December 9, 2016 It does now you mention it, there's about six points it controls and four signal posts do you know how big it should be? The points in the diary will be ground frame Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 9, 2016 Author Share Posted December 9, 2016 Unless you mean small as in it needs to be taller? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted December 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 9, 2016 It does now you mention it, there's about six points it controls and four signal posts do you know how big it should be? The points in the diary will be ground frameI will try to have a look later at how many levers would be needed. Spacing is between 4" and 6" per lever depending on the company and era when it was built. On top of that a bit at each end. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 Really nice looking layout. I have always been fond of Minories and you have really hit the spot with this layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 9, 2016 Author Share Posted December 9, 2016 (edited) Cheers, it's such a cracking layout to operate as well, the point setup just works and I'm finding I need more stock and locos just to keep up with the intensity of operations!!! Thanks for the comments and help with the diary idea! Edited December 9, 2016 by danstercivicman Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 5BarVT Posted December 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 9, 2016 I think you could get away with a 20 lever frame, so 7' on 4" centres. Your box looks to be about 12' so not out of the question. It does assume that only there is nothing more than the minories layout controlled from the box. Paul. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bescotbeast Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 It does now you mention it, there's about six points it controls and four signal posts do you know how big it should be? The points in the diary will be ground frame This maybe more in keeping with what you need, it's a Great Central box from the London Extension (Loughborough) https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Bachmann+Great+Central+signal+box&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=939&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL5NO4h-fQAhXkLcAKHduOC-sQsAQIGQ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted December 9, 2016 Author Share Posted December 9, 2016 That's a great looking signal box! I will add it to the ever expanding post Christmas list! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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