Stephenwolsten

I will look out for this special issue! Congratulations on your new website too.

Hi, could you please look at your messages as I have been trying to contact the Poynton team about an exhibition idea. Thanks, Stephen Wolstenholme (Atlantic Dock).

MDHB workshop, transit shed and dock lines.

This extract from a signalling diagram for the MDHB Riverside Branch shows the dock road (top), the dock lines, the route of the Overhead Railway (above them), a transit shed (left) and the Princes Dock engine shed that I hope to model. I may also include the separate MDHB workshop which was further to the right (south) - see next picture for this segment.

Did you ever complete this exercise please? They were great articles which have stood the test of time.

I've just discovered this shop. They also do free tours to demonstrate other services such as etching, 3D etc. https://modelshop.co.uk/

Heaven on earth? The 4D Model Shop in London.

A useful view of one end of the MDHB Princes Dock shed (preservation scene).

A Salford view, rather than Liverpool, but useful to see this in colour as the scene is similar to a BR goods depot near the Liverpool docks.

LOR remains in dock wall.

I've just discovered you! Fantastic to see the Bazzing Around article (which I have kept all these years) come to life in such an inspiring way.

Thanks. Gordon Edgar's books are good too.

An unusual 1954 picture taken through the window of the MDHB workshop at Princes Dock. The saddle tank is on a trolley. Courtesy of Stations UK.

A later view, after demolition of Princes Dock LOR station. The station was badly damaged in the 1941 blitz and never reopened. This means I will not have to model the station and my Judith Edge kits will suffice.

A view showing the tight configuration of the LOR and station, dock wall, and MDHB shed and dock lines at Princes Dock.

The type of capstan illustrated above.

Scale drawing of capstan for MDHB.

Birkenhead MDHB dock lines in 1958, showing useful detail in colour. This is all the greenery there will be on my proposed layout! Photograph courtesy of Dave Rogers' Flick site.

Surface detail at Princes Dock, Liverpool.

This display in the Liverpool Museum includes the area around Princes Half Tide Dock that I am most interested in.

Has anyone tried Redutex 3D self-adhesive texture sheeting please? I have seen the earlier thread some years ago, plus this useful image of the material used on the Kingfisher Wharf layout. This product could save days of work clay modelling. https://redutex.com/en/0-1-scale/822-032ad111-cobblestone-8435570201137.html

This is a useful little edited clip of sound effects at Liverpool docks. It's a pity it is so short but I can trace the longer source film easily.

In 2001 Iain Rice asked, in his book Designs for Urban Layouts, 'why has the urban railway received such short shrift from modellers'? Things have improved a lot since then, but there is still some truth in the question. The idealised countryside where it never rains is still a common sight at exhibitions! American and Continental modellers seem to have modelled urban scenes more than UK ones, but in some cases - for example Germany and Switzerland - the results are a bit 'twee'. The concept of Atlantic Dock was inspired by an actual location - East Princes Half Tide Dock in Liverpool - but it shares many of Iain Rice's thoughts. For example, he noted that seaport cities offer rich pickings for railway modellers, with dock lines of inset track diving off into a complex riverside jungle of quays, transit sheds, warehouses and goods yards. He identified paved track in granite sets as the signature of the urban/dock railway if ever there was one. And he emphasised the vertical scope of urban railways. Multi-level urban railways offer great variety where different railways meet or cross. In the case of Atlantic Dock, the intensive rapid transit of the Liverpool Overhead Railway contrasts with the shunting of dockside goods traffic below, movements to and from the inland BR depots, and the occasional passenger train on the Riverside Branch. The Overhead is unique and instantly recognisable as Liverpool. But Atlantic Dock will also have other "signature items" that will convey the location and period. The elements that define the essential character of the dockside railway on the Mersey include the cobbles, the lamp posts, the high dock wall and gates, the signage on the transit sheds, massive warehouses, crossings, and of course the L&Y Pugs. I also think that an eye-level viewpoint with a diorama approach involving a fairly fixed viewpoint will be very suitable for Atlantic Dock. I want people to view the scene across the layout from the quayside, rather than from above as a seagull. And practical considerations of space will make it essential to use buildings or part of buildings, such as transit sheds, to constrain viewing.

I wonder what is the best way to model a few feet of a brick wall that accurately represents this view of the 13 ft high dock wall in Liverpool?

2006 view of brewery.