Stephenwolsten

More useful detail from Keith Rose's great pictures.

Signal for Riverside Branch.

Barrels at Albert Dock before disuse and redevelopment.

Diorama in New York Transit Museum.

Remains of signalling system on side of shed at Princes Dock, 1984.

Dock road transport in 1956, superimposed on 2013 view of the same location.

Herculaneum Dock at Alexandra Palace, 2014.

Operation of bar-capstan to flood graving dock, quayside masonry and MDHB standard lamp post.

Lightweight, foldable backscene on Arun Quay layout.

MDHB loco on Haworth shed.

Lorry load and cargo handling before containers.

Another view of Peter Johnson's Canada Street, courtesy of 'jamerail's' Flickr site.

Inspiring modelling on the Canada Street layout. This is based predominantly on Ipswich and Gloucester docks, but a back wall and old police hut is copied from the layout owner's research on Liverpool docks.

This entrance to the transit shed might work as a way of hiding one edge of the diorama..........

More shed detail.

Very little remains, as you suspected, despite UNESCO World Heritage Site listing. LOR remains include the tunnel entrance at Herculaneum Dock, several pillars embedded in the dock wall, a coach in the Liverpool Museum, and another one in poor condition but now in store having left Coventry. Of the MDHB system, various bits of track remain embedded in the cobbles or cross the dock road (subject to resurfacing). A few signal posts survive along with MDHB lamp posts. Several MDHB locos are in preservation and one is in the Liverpool Museum's store. A mainline rail route serves the container port but little remains of the extensive network of BR goods depots on the landward side of the dock road, except for tunnel portals. This is not a comprehensive list - I have probably missed out obvious items, the position changes rapidly with redevelopment, and I live 250 miles away! My personal view is that the major landowner has missed a great opportunity to keep more of the dock heritage within the redevelopment, to provide a 'sense of place' and distinct identity. There is very little to indicate the major importance of the area in the past, not even a 'heritage trail' with interpretation boards. Fortunately, more of the dock complex survives as part of the redeveloped Stanley Dock warehouse area (as well as the touristy Albert Dock area).

Here is an older view of possibly the same location. Sentinel steam wagons lasted a long time along the dock road. This b/w picture is too early for me, but does show the great big, sliding dock wall gates to good effect too.

One of my objectives with Atlantic Dock is to use short cuts, labour saving methods and latest technology to compensate for my lack of practical skills and to speed up construction. I am pondering the use of metal trestles by Screwfix, which quite a few modellers are using to save joinery work. Here is a picture of what I have in mind , courtesy of 'gismorail' and his Chester Northgate thread.

This is most interesting as I have never discovered what happened to the Atlantic Dock Junction diorama. It doesn't seem to have gone to the Conway Museum with some of the others, and was not restored by the LNWR Society (http://letsgoloco.co.uk/the-water-street-diorama/). Here is a Manchester diorama as an example of a restored one:

Thanks for this helpful information. I agree that these locos are often confused. I too miss Jim Peden - he started me out collecting b/w railway photographs more than 25 years ago when I bought some lovely Bank Hall Pug photos from him at a Derbyshire GOG model show. I have been collecting ever since, now helped by eBay. I may not have not seen the MDHB's picture of No 1 before and love the clarity of the image.

My wife doesn't understand my interest in brick walls! To compare with the real thing at Clarence Dock, here is a textured paper sold by a Greek trader. Has anyone tried paper from this seller please? http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/starboc1

One of the things I like about this well researched layout is the way it brings back memories of school and train spotting days. For example, I had forgotten about the allotments between Walton Hall Park and the Shed until I saw them on the layout. My older brother had a summer job street cleaning along Walton Road and picked up his hand cart each morning from the adjacent Corporation yard. Of course, our school used Queen's Drive Baths and I remember the shop on the corner opposite Walton Town Hall - the colour pictures by ? Rogers were obviously a great help with research. I got the bus home from school at the top of Rice Lane and remember the pre-flyover shops there. Apart from the houses shown on the model, a bit lower down was second hand shop called the Robot Stores, and a cake shop. I seem to remember a bank on one corner - in those days you had to have a letter of reference to open an account there. Mine came from my Headmaster. Below is a picture I took of 47467 shunting in the yard in January 1966. There is no modelling detail but at least it is a new photo to add to your collection! The quality is poor as it was taken in schooldays on an Ilford Sprite with 127 film in winter.