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Thanks Rugd1022, the info about the running board. That’s interesting. A Coleshill running board was literally dumped, with a pile of other scrap, in the small station goods yard at Water Orton in 1969. At this time the yard, and old cattle dock had been closed since 1966, and had become our..the Water Orton Railway Society…base. We built a lean too shelter against the cattle dock. The sidings had been ripped up, and the area became our makeshift soccer/ cricket pitch. This was in between train spotting. I could spend a fortune on some of the items not least the totems for Whitacre, shustoke, Kidderminster and Snow Hill. I do though, have a further problem other than the lack of the cash. I currently have two replica totems for Water Orton and Coleshill. I have yet to negotiate with the boss where they are to be displayed in our new property. She seems to think the garage can house things like a car, a freezer, patio furniture. This area has already been earmarked for the layout!

Whilst working on the parcels office frontage, I realised that British Railways had replaced the windows. This had occurred between the photo in 1964…the one with the class 104 going past the lurgi gasworks. ( on this site on a previous page won’t repeat…nor the latter photo proving the change) and the photos taken in March 1968 on the station closure. The changes to the windows consisted, of smaller panes of glass creating the cross section look. In addition some of the supporting beams both from the windows and stanchions were removed. I have modelled it in 1964 condition. Photo of latest work..starting to get the character of the building, a portrait as it were in 3d

More work on the parcels office and front of station, meanwhile the debris field increases around the model

Good Morning John. The Charlton brothers, legends both sadly missed. I believe there is a surviving brother. You know my football allegiances are rooted here in the Midlands. I remember though, watching the 1968 European Cup Final, at my mates house, a life long United fan. I was as pleased as he, when they won. Bobby Charlton our best sporting ambassador. RI P.

A pair of lamps added to the outside of the building Three leds to be inserted inside. One already in the ladies waiting room. Two more to go in the main waiting room and ticket office. A series of platform lamps to be added on both platforms in due course. I won’t be adding any to the upstairs rooms or those behind the parcels office. By the sixties these had ceased to be used by the station master and his family . They seem to have been rarely if ever used by the staff.

Parcels office starting to take shape. The basis will be clear plastic front and side, onto which the details will be added. The front section of roof temporarily in place.

A sad sight John, I witnessed similar ranks of steam locomotives travelling through Water Orton en route to scrapyards in the North. My mates also witnessed a number of the brand new, yet withdrawn class 14 diesels, travelling from the south west up, to new lives in industrial use, up your neck of the woods. best wishes Brian

Platforms made from MDF…buildings now located within them. They will still need a bit of work to embed them properly. The buildings now have most of the windows in place. The front parcels office and verandah style rooftop be added, together with the other roofing and those chimneys. The toilet shed block hasn’t got subsidence . It is still to be properly seated. I’ve also realised I have made the platform section it’s in too long. It should start tapering down from a point roughly in line with the roadway end of the block. It should taper toward the yet to be added crossing. The land at the rear of the same block, should taper down towards the rear garden. The signs though are wonderful in my opinion. The locos are static GBL models. All my motorised retained ones are currently in storage. The level of finish on the compound is astonishing for a ten pound magazine model!

I’ve been working on the toilet / shed portion of the station, castellated bricks and all . Second picture what the stationmasters family confronted on their way to the privy….Manna…dunny …is that correct?

Just returned from the local exhibition. Brettal Road did not disappoint. I spoke with the modeller concerning his New Street model. He informed me no work had taken place recently, was becoming a home for spiders! An N Gauge layout was on display utilising the current track layout of Water Orton. It is modelled without the junctions….I fully understand why…the layout from the Minworth Road bridge eastwards, also curtailed…no garage, Dog Inn, wall or footbridge. The station was present, all boarded up..as per real life….very sad

Whilst browsing the latest online railway magazine I saw that my local (currently ) model railway club, Cradley Heath, are having their annual exhibition this weekend. It will allow me to catch up with my former colleague, who is exhibiting there. Looking at the layouts being displayed….Brettal Road. I have seen this in MRJ. The modeller also produced Birmingham New Street in P4. Brettal Road is a stunning depiction of the local Black Country railway scene in the 1950s. I am really looking forward to seeing it.

This conversion kit for a 79xx DMU has just arrived from Silver Fox models. I had ordered it prior to embarking on the house move. They have to be produced to order hence the delay. I have the donor coaches and mechanism currently sitting in storage boxes. The house move has been fraught, I have recounted the details to my long suffering friend John R. I am pleased to say progress is now being made, which leads me to hope that in the not too distant future I can work on this kit as well as finding a home for the fledgling Coleshill layout. It will,provide a welcome distraction from building work in both 1/1 and 4 mm scale.

I was working on modelling the rear of the building yesterday. I will show in due course. I was using this recently discovered photo. The only one I’ve seen of this garden view. The end building housing the two toilets and shed, one toilet the public gents, with doors from the platform and as shown here the roadway. The other toilet and shed, for use by the stationmasters family, when they resided there. An outside privy…talk about luxury. My first home in Coleshill Road, Water Orton, likewise only had an outdoor loo. It was an experience, that is engrained in my memory ! To the point of this post, you may note that the rear of this part of the building, has graduated capping stones leading, to the yard entrance and rear door of the station. The door just visible is from the kitchen. The Midland Railway, in addition to spoiling its employees with their toilet, makes modern day modellers life more complicated…why not just a straight wall like on the platform?

Hello Farren, no it was plain brick at the rear. It must have been pretty dismal waiting for a train from there. My most vivid memory , a cold December Saturday afternoon in 1970. The small goods siding had closed in 1964, the station itself in March 1968. The station was deserted apart from my friend Eddie Ravenhall and I. The station itself as you can see , by then, was surrounded by what was at that time, a modern industrial estate, and the Lurgi gasworks. We locals thought Lurgi was a made up word… a sort of crude slang for an industrial eyesore. The station, effectively a Victorian country building, out of place in this barren industrial landscape. We were on our pedal cycles and about to use the crossing to gain access to the Hams Hall site opposite. We did so by going past the grey station masters house, the sidings behind it. Their rails were black, empty of wagons, showing little if any signs of use. We continued on site visiting the first of two sheds on the power station complex. It was an elderly building which hosted one or two of the steam locomotives. We carried onto the main sidings as shown on the map. There was situated the modern loco shed for the diesels. As recounted elsewhere, on this thread we were allowed onto the footplate of one of the RSH 060 tanks. We then travelled up and down the yards. My only steam footplate experience until many years later on the SVR. Whilst making this building I have tried to correlate the inner rooms as shown by that hand drawn sketch. It was a family home as well as a working station for many years. The new house for the family built near the small waiting room looks 1920 s in construction. This would correspond with the building of the Hams Hall complex. In addition to counting brick courses to get dimensions, I have tried to work out what rooms were serviced by fires and hearths. The positioning of the chimneys assisting with this. In the event and in the absence of evidence to the contrary a lot of this will be guesswork. best wishes Brian

Even more of Coleshill station taking shape. In addition one of the beautiful wall lights received today.

Working on the main Coleshill station building. Here it is warts and all. The missing bricks, in the front of the waiting room, a result of having to relocate the inner floor. They will be covered up by the prototypical brick courses when located in the platform. The dimensions are obtained, from counting brick courses. As ever the angle you want isn’t shown in the photographs to hand. Sash windows predominate. A magnificent building, which I hope I will do justice too, when finished. It is proving ideal therapy to the stress of moving house. I will, for the first time, try to attempt something not tried before…..make an accurate model….no fit lighting within the building. Lights on the platforms as well. I know at the very least, it will entrance, my ten year old granddaughter . She is of the age that all that glitters is of interest, and not yet of an age, unlike her Nan, to go just on the cost of the item!

Since replying to this topics some months ago. My wife and I, at our sons suggestion, are relocating to Tenbury. This has resulted in my dismantling my layout in the loft. This was a depiction , of my childhood village Water Orton. A major junction north east of Birmingham. Hopefully ,rising like a phoenix when we do take up residence in our new home will be a model of the station just up the line from Water Orton, namely Coleshill (Forge mills). The station at Newnham Bridge always fascinates though every time we currently drive through en route to house viewings.

Painting the waiting room, platform will need more work…sign really lifts the model

A great photo by Mike Mensing showing a Trent Valley diversion on the Leicester line , Coleshill in the distance, but included to show the commencement of the Hams Hall lines behind the train

The upper map has Whitacre station to the right ( not included in this scan) The lower photo shows Coleshill station, bottom right hand of this 1950 OS map.

Trying to make out the arrangement of tracks connecting Hams Hall power station and Coleshill Forge Mills. The first OS map, shows how a number of tracks entered the power station complex,from Whitacre, some looping, and connecting again with the Leicester line at Coleshill, a short distance, before the station. The storage sidings situated on the land behind the Leicester line waiting room and the Stationmasters house. I now realise what Eric ( signal engineer ) was referring too in correspondence with me, how an inspection train he was travelling on, was able to cut through Hams Hall. I have also read elsewhere how goods trains, were diverted onto the power station loop to ease congestion on the route.

More work on the Leicester line waiting and store room.It must have been quite dismal using this waiting area, although I’m not sure by the fifties and sixties, many people caught the train, here to go the opposite way from Birmingham. I have received some marvellous station signs from Trackside signs which will be affixed in due course. I have also taken a short cut in relation to the signal box. The Metcalfe models LMS is of the same type with minor alterations. A kit awaits to be done. I will then tackle the main station building. I will be painting the waiting room soon, which I’m sure ,will bring it to life, with all the different brick colours.

Stephen sincere thanks. I have just been on the site you recommended. I’ve found these Nigel Hadlow photographs of Coleshill. Of particular importance one showing a partial view of the Norton Arms/ garden side of the main building.

Thank you Stephen for the information, I will look up those photographs. I have just been working on Coleshill waiting room mk 2. If it appears a little tall it will in time be embedded in a platform and embankment.

And here is the train fifteen minutes later at the end of its journey, the Midland station at Hampton in Arden . The line continued for a few more yards to a junction with the London and Birmingham LNWR main line. This railway had its own station at Hampton in Arden, the modern incarnation of which is on the main line today. I had a connection to the Midland building, it became a builders / DIY warehouse. I had a Saturday job there. I had to cycle to it , from my then home in Water Orton. I was a little fitter/ thinner in those days,!