danstercivicman

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!

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

I've decided to stop hijacking this thread and have started a layout topic! Thank you for all the ideas, the layout work has continued, but my days off are at an end- back to work tomorrow!! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117470-birmingham-hope-st-br-ex-gcr-minories-style-urban-layout-1965/

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

Very nice work! Nice track as well, it does look the part!

Thank you for the timetable suggestions, I am onto second day off and still with a cold (manflu) so can't go boxing again Hopefully will be back in the ring tomorrow! So here is what I have created- I have part tested it using the limited locos I have (why oh why did I sell my 5MT...) and it seems to work well. The service is very intense at times and this is based purely on the stock I have available now... Please let me know what you think?Timetable for Layout.docx

That's good information and I like the timetable! I also like the idea of the station being ex GCR to Birmingham, it could be a failed spur they put in which by the time I'm modelling had become abit run down... it gives perfect opportunity to run my four coach semi fast as hauled by Black Five as I know they used to do that in the final days of steam! I know New Street was the developed around that time and Snow Hill closed along with Dudley, wolverhampton low level, there was also stations like the GNR terminus in Leicester so I guess a small terminus is allowed? Thanks for the feedback I've secured a 4mt 2-6-4t Just need to finish the curved section, station canopies and secure a Black Five, type 2, and a 2mt

Well here is the progress from today's day off! I have a cold so I haven't been boxing or to the gym so have been busy building scalescene kits!

Flex track I mean lol, also try to make any curves as gentle as you can. On my layout even 30 inch radius looks tight, Ideally my minimum would have been 42 inch radius but that would have led into next doors basement!

Or you could take the basic principles of CJF plans and rework using Code 100 and Streamline points or Code 75

Having struggled with my own designs.... which I thought were good but lacked any operational potential and all had bottlenecks etc... I would highly commend CJF's plans especially minories I have Manyvother planning books but would say the CJF's are very good and can be expanded easily if you have space to make the curves more gentle

I should add that the Scalescenes kits are excellent! I have used bits of the scratchbuilders yard parts and the arched bridge to Finnish the bridge and it looks great! They do take time, ink and fixative but the result is great! Now to locos and trains: My plan for this Birmingham Minories is: 1) milk train 4-6-0 hauled early morning- 4-6-0 departs to off layout shed for turning 2) station pilot arrives with Ecs semi fast stock 3) local working arrives 4) 4-6-0 returns to take semi fast to london (black five or Ivatt 4mt) 5) dmus arrive as rush hour builds 6) std 4mt tank with suburban set 7) dmus continue to midday 8) as rush hour builds in late afternoon suburban hauled stock using 4p and 4mt 9) semi fast returns from London (4-6-0 black five). Then hauled off scene to carriage sidings 10) dmu's again 11) parcel working 12) Milk tanks collected How's that for a timetable? There is no other goods as per freezers original plans the goods shed would be up the line

Progress after this week... I have used the Scale scenes kits for the platforms. They take ages, but I have Instant Ink. They also take a ton of Giant Inkjet Matte Fixative!! I hope you like the progress... There is a entry tunnel/ramp for taxis and there will be an exit ramp near the main station building- my idea is that the ramps lead to street level. I still haven't figured out where to out the main station building- as in whether to have it raised at street level or down in the cutting! The Scale scene Station canopy is still to be built and I badly need some more locos but the used prices is currently ridiculous!!!!!

Makes good sense, I definitely plan to increase my allocation of tank engines (wife permitting)! I've ordered some point rodfing... shudder... also I'm planning a lever frame for the diary yard... anyone know where the rodding should go? How many lever frame bars do I need? Someone had posted s very good signal diagram for minories, but point ridding I have never tried before

Cheers for the info, in that case I guess whatever loco brought the milk train in (early morning I presume) would then be the best one to set up to handle the pull backs of the morning passenger stock... Otherwise I am thinking an Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 would be perfect for shunting and also for suburban workings

Wow- that is very clever The construction looks well planned and I have to say that is well executed!

Apparently firebricks were very important to everything! There's some amazing old buildings in wolves but sadly most are being knocked down for houses

More progress has been undertaken, I have added yet morescale scene arches and have added the wiring to allow the platform tracks to be unpowered so that I can use the station pilot to pull the stock out (I have removed the turnouts before ballasting as these will be under part of the canopy). I have also heavily weathered the tracks using sleeper grime! It's not perfect but it looks ten times better! Pics next week. Love those station names Thanks for the compliments- 'youm a goodun' Or yow am a goodun??

Sorry I meant my accent maybe Black Country now, the layout is set in Birmingham It gets complicated when you make up Station names although Wolverhampton Hope St was also a runner!

I never knew that mine might have a bit of Black Country accent added now the layout is now called Birmingham Hope Street and represents a fictional terminal in this fine city

Very clever traverser! Have you considered cassettes? I use them to maximise the Number of coaches?

Hello All, Possibly the wrong place but I thought I would post some pictures of what is being achieved using this wonderful layout plan: Still very much work in progress and I have been using the Scalescenes kits to good effect-

Great stuff, love the article in the Hornby Magazine. This is useful information and it shows how good this layout is

I tried swapping the wheels around they still derailed. I spent 14 on each Dapol tanker and the 10 on Hornby wheels. Annoying but they run absolutely fine now

Good plan, looking forward to progress!