Stephenwolsten

MDHB No 1 outside Alexandra Dock on 14 May 1956.

Police huts were found at entrance gates to the docks and along the dock estate.

Does anyone have experience of, or know of, a two-tier fiddle yard please?   The Overhead Railway only ran at ground level in one place on the dock road (but it did run underground in a tunnel!).

Details of surviving point lever, protective bollards and track at Princes Dock.

Photo courtesy of Chris Coulter's Flickr site.  A 1967 troop train crosses the dock road and enters the MDHB system on its way to Riverside Station.  The signal survived a long time after closure.

This area appeals to me partly because of the range of railways and traffic in a very small area.   BR passenger trains and excursion traffic mixed with private and industrial lines.

Waterloo Dock, just to the 'left' of my area of interest but a useful background view.

A preserved Pug on a photographic charter at Goole Docks - the closest I have got to recreating a typical dock scene.  

On 19/06/2019 at 21:54, Stephenwolsten said:

 

Thanks to a Liverpool Facebook group, I now know the manufacturer of the original lights (Concrete Utilities), two suggested heights, and a link to a street lighting collector/enthusiast.   The wonders of the internet!

Here is the catalogue picture for the standard lighting column (but with a different bracket arm).   I don’t have the dimensions for the circular bracket on the MDHB lights but the lantern would be mounted at 25 ft. height. So I should be able to work out the dimension of the bracket roughly.

On 25/05/2019 at 22:11, Stephenwolsten said:

 I have recently been looking at lightweight baseboard designs, including the ply-edged foam beams used by Gordon Gravitt on Arun Quay (MRJ 235) and the use of dense insulation foam boards.

Here is a video showing the properties of 1/16 or 1.5mm birch ply, as used to edge the foam beams on Arun Quay.  

On 19/06/2019 at 11:20, Tricky said:

A significant ‘improvement’ for Bristol could be to get a loco that actually moves...!!!

On this score, two-rail wiring is in progress. As I think we discussed at Ralex Dave, radio control I think is the future but the technology hasn’t quite caught up with our requirements yet. Or maybe just my sketchy technical ability hasn’t caught up....

I'm attracted to the benefits of radio control with battery power and would be interested to read a bit more about your experience, if you can spare the time please.

I have a copy of the Model Railways article from 1975 if needed.

On 16/06/2019 at 20:40, Stephenwolsten said:

This shape of lamp post was a distinctive feature of the MDHB system.   A few examples still survive.   Can anyone suggest how best to model them in 7mm please?   I won't need many posts but am thinking of cast resin or 3D printing methods.   Secondly, I need to estimate the height of the lamp posts in real life.   If any Merseyside readers are down in the North Docks e.g. near Clarence graving dock, I would be grateful for a photo with an adult standing next to one of the lamp posts so that the proportions can be estimated!  Thanks.

Thanks to a Liverpool Facebook group, I now know the manufacturer of the original lights (Concrete Utilities), two suggested heights, and a link to a street lighting collector/enthusiast.   The wonders of the internet!

Here is another suggestion:  http://www.onlinetransportarchive.org/

Typical dock warehouse in side streets behind the dock road.

On 26/05/2019 at 22:27, Stephenwolsten said:

Is this a mobile 'tar furnace' on the left please?  Or something else?   A sand dryer? Preservation era image.   Duncan Models produces a 7mm tar boiler.

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Here below is the Duncan Models tar boiler for comparison.   If it is not a tar boiler, what was it please?

In the late 1980s I visited Merseyside at intervals to photograph the changing dock scene.  I'm pleased I found this picture of the MDHB loco works at Princes Dock, as I can now estimate the height of the building from the number of brick courses.   This workshop was very near the long demolished running shed at Princes Dock station.   The MDHB main line and Riverside branch continue past a transit shed to the Waterloo corn warehouse in the distance.

This shape of lamp post was a distinctive feature of the MDHB system.   A few examples still survive.   Can anyone suggest how best to model them in 7mm please?   I won't need many posts but am thinking of cast resin or 3D printing methods.   Secondly, I need to estimate the height of the lamp posts in real life.   If any Merseyside readers are down in the North Docks e.g. near Clarence graving dock, I would be grateful for a photo with an adult standing next to one of the lamp posts so that the proportions can be estimated!  Thanks.

Steve Wheeler's amazing CGI construction of the Overhead.  Copyright Steven Paul Wheeler.

Not my bit of the Liverpool docks, but a great photo by the late Jim Peden.

This book contains a bit on Liverpool docks in the prototype section.   The Liverpool photographs are rather standard, modern ones.