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MichaelW
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Blog Entries posted by MichaelW
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Tonight I managed to find time to attack the backscene again. I cut out the slots for the framing from the bottom of the left board's backscene, and glued it in place with the aid of several wedges to hold it against the back of the front top. Whilst that was setting, I started painting the right board backscenes. I picked up a tester pot of sky blue paint last time I was in Homebase, and used this as a base coat. By painting one end to the the other, I managed to get two coats on most of the backscene tonight - the second coat did a much better job of hiding the variations in the wood. It is starting to look like a proper layout now.
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Following the thinking on the background, I've done a bit more playing with the plan. First up, an extension to the original one:
This adds in the branch line with sidings infront of the fiddle yard. The back siding would be hidden, allowing a branch passenger train to head off stage. The front pair of platforms has had a crossover added - to allow freight and parcels trains to be run round - the intention being that the nearside road is used for parcels traffic, the far for branch passenger traffic. The single line on the far side first gained a run-round loop, then this was extended into a full platform length road, and out towards the fiddle yard. The fiddle yard area is blank - I'm thinking a traverser or sector plate as there isn't enough length for a workable number of sidings.
I like the arrangement and operational potential of the plan, but not convinced by the set-track look to it (particularly the large spacings between adjacent tracks, and the sharp points). Time for more playing I think.
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Started the morning by fitting the two sector plates and cutting the track on the right board. Everything was going so well that I decided to do a trial fit of the backscenes to see what it would look like in the end. The two right hand bits have been cut to fit round the framing, the left hand piece hasn't (so sits a lot higher, and needs the drill to keep it upright.
Having disappeared for a couple of hours, and with the heating combating the weather, I came back, and decided to have a play with some stock to see how well things fit (and to get an idea of where to put the section breaks). I'll put all those photo's in another post, but only when I put them on the computer did I notice this:
That's a lot of edge of cork showing on the sector plate. A bit more investigation revealed that both the sector plates were beginning to look like bananas. The little one for the branch wasn't too bad - and was bent down at the ends so matched the main board quite well (albeit with a noticeable initial incline). The main plate was high at the ends - and having removed it to look at, was far too warped to be able to fix. I had a search through the bits of wood I had left, and all were distorted to some extent - either I haven't been storing them very well, or they came mishapen. Lesson of the day - check the wood you're buying, and don't accept anything with a little bend "that will come out if left flat". I picked the flattest bit that was left, and cut that down to size. Of course, flattest doesn't mean flat, so it instantly sprang into a banana like shape - but this time I thought about it and glued the cork on the raised side - hopefully come fitting it will allow the track to match up properly.
As I couldn't do anything with the sector plates, I decided to fit the backscenes - a fun job when you decide to do it upside down so they'll fall out easily. Cue much clamping and fitting of blocks to hold things in place while the glue set...
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Another week of long days, and I had another day off to play on the layout. Started this morning by fitting the point motors to the right board, then added the point controllers, and started the wiring. I'm getting better at wiring the controllers in, and managed to get the board wires done before lunch. Then put the layout back together, the right way up, and started checking for continuity between the boards. Managed to get myself completely confused with regard to what should be connected to what (particularly with unpowered controllers providing frog non-switching), so decided to leave it till power arrives.
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After lunch carried on with wiring, this time on the two sector plates. The branch one was done fairly quickly (only 6 wires after all), and then I started on the main plate. This was trickier as there are more wires, and they are running further along the top of the board. Ended up using bent over track pins to hold them in place - then realised that I'd shoved them in too far and they would be catching on the sector plate supports.
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Finished the day by marking out and masking off most of the control panel. A quick go with a paintbrush later, and the panel is starting to look like it could be used...
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Real history
The history of railways in Leeds is a mess of rivalry, co-operation, interference and desire. The first railway to arrive in Leeds was the Leeds and Selby in 1834, with its carefully graded route to the port of Selby from Marsh Lane (east of the city centre). The next arrival was the North Midland Railway when it opened its line south to Derby in 1840 from a terminus at Hunslet Lane in the Pottery Fields area to the south of the River Aire. With the arrival of the Leeds and Bradford Railway at Leeds Wellington in 1846 (the site of this is now part of the current Leeds City station complex), the North Midland was extended to use this as its Leeds terminus. The next arrival was the Leeds and Manchester Railway in 1848 (though around this time they were taken over by the LNWR) to a cramped terminus at Wellington Street. Two years later, with the support of the Leeds Northern Railway, and with running rights granted to several other companies, this terminus was replaced by Leeds Central Station.
For the following 20 years not much changed, though the LNWR grew increasingly dissatisfied with the sharing arrangement, and the North Eastern Railway (having taken over the Leeds and Selby) similarly so with their lack of a cross city route past their terminus at Marsh Lane. A number of proposed cross city extensions were rejected by Leeds Council due to the disruption and demolition their building would necessitate. Finally in 1869 an alignment was agreed upon, and Leeds New (the site of the current station) was built just to the south of the Midland's Leeds Wellington Station by the LNWR and NER. At this point there were 4 railway companies operating to 3 different stations serving the center of Leeds.
The situation changed at grouping, when this was reduced to 2 companies operating to the same stations, but still managing to share operations at two of them. Despite the obvious problems these caused, and the displeasure of council at the state of affairs, nothing changed till 1938, when Leeds Wellington and Leeds New stations were combined to form a single station re-named as Leeds City. After nationalisation, it was
quickly realised that significant rationalisation of the network in Leeds was required. Despite the fact that we'd "never had it so good", it took over 10 years to complete the redevelopment owing to seemingly constant spending reviews. Finally, in 1967, following the building of a couple of connecting chords, and the rebuilding of several bridges and most of the existing station, Leeds City became the only city center station in Leeds.
A further pause of 35 years saw another rebuild of City Station. The development of Leeds as a financial centre during the '90s drove increasing demand for inter-city travel to London, and for commuter travel from the rest of Yorkshire. This lead to Leeds City reaching capacity for much of the day, with no scope to improve services. The Leeds First rebuild increased the station from 12 to 17 platforms, and re-arranged most of the approaches. With continued growth, even this is struggling to cope, and there are plans to further expand to meet anticipated demand.
Leeds South
The North Midland, dissatisfied with suggestion of a station site cramped on one side by the River Aire, and on the other by a Navigation, persuaded the Leeds and Bradford to build their terminus to the south of the City Centre, with the Aire effectively culverted beneath the platforms. This extended the existing line from Hunslet North, and required a chord to be built to join the North Midland / Leeds and Bradford line to Bradford. Shortly after, under the suggestion of two local landowners, a branch was built to serve the river side industry down the Aire valley, with a line running round the east and north of Leeds to supposedly serve the growing communities there. As passenger services grew, a north facing chord was built under the main lines to reach the suburban platforms on the west side of the station, allowing trains to arrive without having to reverse.
When the NER tried to build their cross city line, the city council insisted that it must be close enough to Leeds South to allow the joint LNWR/NER station to be linked to it. Despite their best efforts, the council had its way, and the new station was built with a covered way allowing easy interchange between services from the South, and the east-west services on the cross city line.
With the opening of the Settle Carlisle line, Leeds South became even busier, with London - Scotland expresses calling to change engines, London to Yorkshire expresses terminating there, and the growing demands of suburban rail, the original station soon became limiting. Rather than extending the river bridges, 4 new shorter suburban platforms were built on the West side, much like the Kings Cross suburban platforms. These incorporated the parcels depot, allowing dual use of platforms depending on operational needs.
By the turn of the century, this meant that Leeds was served by 3 busy stations, Central, City, and South, served by 4 different companies, with Central station shared by 3 companies, City by 2, and South by just one. Grouping simplified this not at all, Central and City still being shared by the LMS and LNER. Though City and South were joined, the city council were still unhappy that 3 distinct stations were needed to serve the city, but no agreement could be reached to reduce the number.
After nationalisation, it was quickly realised that a significant rationalisation was required. The obvious candidate for removal was Central, being separate to the remaining two. With unheard of speed, the necessary track changes were implemented, and Central station closed to traffic in the early 1950's. When DMUs appeared, they were introduced onto Leeds South services as an experiment, and their success amazed even the most optimistic of predictions. The clean, efficient services reversed years of declining passenger numbers, with doubling of passenger numbers within months. The Beeching years came, and with duplication being seen as a bad thing, something had to give. As the lesser of the two stations, Leeds South came under threat, with complete closure and transfer of all services to City station proposed. The popularity of the Adel line services, and the difficulties in fitting all the express and suburban services into a single station meant that the whole station couldn't be closed. Instead, the mainline platforms, and the link to City station were closed, and a new, minimum cost station building provided for the suburban platforms.
Having survived the Beeching cuts, the shift to the car started taking its toll. By the early 80's (the first period modelled) freight traffic along the branch had been reduced to a single trip working a day, now worked through the station as the direct chord had been removed to reduce costs. The regular, hourly train along the branch ran most of the day, meeting the odd service still timetabled to appear at South from the Aire valley line. Longer distance loco hauled trains still make an occasional appearance, as do the regular parcels and post trains. With the reduction in service, only the central island platform remained in passenger use, of the other two, one was left to nature, the other remained in service as parcels platform, and for freight reversing.
The reorganisation of British Rail in the mid '80s led to the creation of the speed-link freight network, and a revival of interest in use of rail transport to the riverside industry. Localised management of the commuter network increased awareness of local needs, and lead to the introduction of extra peak-hour services, and longer running days, aided by the introduction of new build DMUs. Leeds South was no longer deserted for much of the day, with more off peak services terminating, as well as peak. Freight traffic increased to two trips per day, both generally at capacity. Parcels and mail traffic continued, though now had to start fitting in around the increased passenger services.
By the early '90s, the local PTE had recognised the potential for additional services, and funded the reinstatement of platform 4 to allow more peak services to be handled. Loco hauled passenger services were now a distant memory, but more regional services were terminating to relieve pressure on City. Freight was still running at 2 services a day, but these services were getting increasingly full. Service levels remain high throughout the day, and have begun to run late into the night.
Privatisation came along soon afterwards, and after a few years of settling down, services had changed again. With Leeds City being full for most of the day, almost all innovative new services ended up at Leeds South, a Northern / Scotrail joint service to Glasgow sees Scottish units making occasional appearances, similarly, extended Midland mainline and Central Trains services add to the variety of liveries. As peak services increase, South is full for much of the peak, meaning the parcels and mail services, and freight have to be out the way during this time, with trains often stuck in Platform 1 awaiting a path back out as soon as the peak finishes. An innovative Pallet-Rail service has begun, offering door to door pallet-load services via local delivery vans and an overnight distribution network. This, with an additional freight service each day, keeps platform 1 busy for most of the day.
By the mid-noughties, the development of Leeds as a financial and commercial centre has driven demand for passenger services to the point that both stations operate at capacity for most of the day. In order to cope with peak demand, platform 1 was brought back to passenger standards, allowing it to be used during the peak periods, improved efficiency ensuring that mail and parcels trains are clear for the peak period. There is still a wide variety of liveries visible, as more Scottish and Midland services have appeared, and extra Leeds-Manchester trains try to relieve the pressure on the core Trans-Pennine route. As the local area is being redeveloped, demand predictions suggest that crush loadings will be common if nothing is done, so as a stop-gap measure, an extra platform is being brought back into use to allow more 4 coach trains to be run in the peaks, prior to a redevelopment to allow for the return of intercity services, and re-instatement of the direct link to City station.
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Track is appearing, so I should start thinking about how I'm going to control the layout. I will admit that this is the part that I really like - electrics / electronics hold no fears for me, so I can enjoy creating a control system that does what I want it to. Thinking about control leaves a number of questions to ponder...
What do I want to do with the layout? Well, as I've said before, the intention is for it to become an exhibition layout, so the most important requirement of the control system is that it allows a good show to be put on. Initial thinking of the operational side suggests that at busy times there could be 3 trains moving on the layout at once - one on the branch, one just arriving, another just departing - so it needs to be able to cope with that. Simplicity of operation is a given - nothing worse than getting things wrong just when a crowd has gathered. The final one is obvious - it needs to be reliable, and easy to fix if things go wrong at an exhibition.
The obvious first decision is do I go for DCC, or stick with DC? If I'm honest, I've not had much experience of DCC, but I've always struggled to see the advantages, particularly when trying to intensively operate a small layout. Either way the route has to be set, and if you're doing that, you may as well switch in the right controller at the same time, rather than having to go and program in which loco you want to move, then discover you haven't set the route correctly. Plus, if I do start putting in automation, in DC it can be done with less extra electronics than in DCC, mostly due to controlling trains by altering the voltage on the tracks, rather than broadcasting commands to a particular loco. Added to that the cost of getting a decent system, and fitting chips in all the locos and DMUs, and I can't justify the switch.
I would like to be able to run the layout with a level of automation, along the lines of set the route, let the train run itself on / off scene, with the ability to start another train going as the first clears the points. However, doing that is going to take some time (not just to build, but to design and even get the requirements right), and I don't want to wait forever to get trains running, so I'll need a different control system to work with initially. I don't want to have to rewire the boards in order to change the control system so there needs to be some consideration of what is needed before starting the wiring.
I am a member of MERG (Model Electronic Railway Group), so will be using their kits and modules for the various bits of electronics. Rather than use a panel mounted CDU, I'll use PD3 point controllers, which are mounted close to the point, act as a CDU, but allows a normal toggle switch to be used on the panel. For the automated control, I'm likely to use the BC3 controllers to do the driving, as they are capable of doing automatic stops. I also want to be able to show on the control panel what
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Following the trials and tribulations with the first sector plate, I was pleased to see the second one hadn't reshaped itself after gluing on the cork. I fitted it (having first worked out which way round took best advantage of the warp for a level joint), and with the aid of a folded piece of card, it seems to sit fairly level. Having already prepared the track, all I had to do was glue it down this morning. It wasn't as easy as last time, mainly due to the curves in the branch line, not helped by one of the pieces of track that runs across the baseboard joint coming loose. Still, it all went down, and until I decide what to do storage wise at the back, and fit the other sector plate tracks, I'm done with track laying.
Having laid the main line, I could cut the final piece of backscene to hide the entrance to the sector plate. As it needs to fit between the other two bits of backscene, a bit of careful shaping was needed, as was novel clamping arrangement to hold everything in place as the glue dried...
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Another 4 long days has given me Friday off, so I'm spending the day wiring. Started by attaching the point controllers to the board, then spent the entire morning session of the cricket connecting everything up. Did briefly consider trying to work out how to connect the frog wiring so it would work first time, but came to the conclusion that I could spend 5 minutes confusing myself and getting it wrong 80% of the time, or just put it together and get 50% wrong. Added to that is the excitement of figuring out which way the point will move under control anyway. Save for any wiring needed by the (non-laid) storage sidings at the back, I think that board is finished.
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Finished the morning by gluing down the 4th track on the main sector plate. Whilst that was drying I made a start on the control panel. As I've discussed before, this panel is for conventional control, and will be well lit by route and occupation LEDs. As a result, there was a lot of drilling to do - enough to empty the battery on my drill, and then discover the other battery wasn't charged. A bit annoying! The panel was therefore left with half the holes undrilled.
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Finished the day by preparing for wiring the right hand board. As usual, first thing to do was the marking of the track plan, followed by naming of the droppers, ready for working on tomorrow.
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Had a spare hour or so this evening, didn't want to sit in front of the goggle box, so decided to build a few point controllers. These are MERG (Model Electronic Railway Group) kits. Each board controls one or two points, acting as a mini CDU, and providing frog switching for each point. The kit is quite simple, with not many components:
I find the kit goes together really easily, and without much trouble batch built 4 of them this evening. These are destined for the station board.
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I was playing with some stock to check sizing issues, and to figure out where to put section breaks, and decided to start taking photos...
First up, a view of the station - with parcels vans sat by the parcels depot, and two 158s in platforms 2 and 3. I've always liked the Northern Spirit transpennine livery.
Next up, a 150 trundles out the station for a trip up the branch, whilst a Northern Spirit 4 car 156 arrives into platform 4.
The right hand end of the layout next, with a collection of freight vehicles on the sidings. The rear line will be a large steel fabrication factory, with regular deliveries of steel strip, and frequent van movements to take away finished articles. The nearer siding serves two businesses, the far end allows for rail borne deliveries to a building yard - mostly bricks/blocks and aggregates in open or hopper wagons. The near end serves and old style factory, with a hodge-podge of buildings built as needed - served mostly by vans.
Finally a view down the layout towards the station - though the sky seems to be falling in...
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Damn these N-Gauge manufacturers! I start getting interested in running long trains and a mainline layout, and suddenly the shops are filled with the best looking set of modern image DMUs I've ever seen! Unfortunately I'm weak-willed when it comes to good looking, Yorkshire area suitable, releases. So I now have a number of these lovely DMUs, and will have a few more when Dapol gets round to releasing their latest set of liveries, and I've not got a layout to run them on (well, not without them looking all lost amongst HSTs, 225s, and 8ft long freight trains). So, with trains starting to run on the mainline layout, my thoughts have turned to the next project, and a layout suitable for running these DMUs on. I've also started getting the bug for exhibiting again, so it'll need to cope with the stresses and strains of exhibition life.
Unfortunately the only space I have available to put a layout is a shelf on one side of the railway room (once I clear a few magazines off it). It's not too bad for size (about 6ft long by 1ft wide), so there is scope for an interesting layout. I think platform length has to be around 2ft - which is a 4-car 158 or 156, or with a slight stretch, 2 2-car units. A quick play with xtrkcad gives the following plan (setrack only - I'm still trying to figure out how to use it to produce flexible track):
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I started this morning by removing the weights from the cork (a wide selection of old Railway Modellers does come in handy at times), and started marking out the track plan. Had to move the point for the rear platforms a bit to clear the baseboard framing (One thing I hadn't considered when planning - these boards have 1 3/4" thick frames, compared to the usual 1" softwood). I then started cutting the track to loose lay to check for look and fit.
This is my first foray into using finescale track - up till now I've always used code 80 - definitely an experiment. Already I like it. It's much harder to work with than the code 80 I've used before: cutting the sleeper webbing is not a simple cut to the base of the rail; getting a bend into the track is an art, as is getting unintentional ones back out; the rail isn't as accessible for soldering droppers to. On the other hand, once the curve is in the track, it can hold itself in place, and it looks a lot better than the normal stuff. Oh, and listening to the concert performance of War of the Worlds on the radio certainly made things better!
Having finished the station end, I got some stock out and decided to see what things looked like (and whether I'd got the sizes right). 'Tis a busy time at the station - with 4 of the 5 types of DMU represented, and a colourful range of liveries as well. (Yes, I know they are a little mismatched, but they were what was easy to grab off the big layout).
As everything looked right, nothing tried to fall off as I pushed things around, and it was getting late, I decided to glue it all down to finish the day. Cue the discovery of another thing about finescale track - fitting the extra sleepers is interesting - not a problem with normal joints - but the extra sleepers supplied with track and points don't seem to be sized for insulated fishplates. Having tried to force them for about 10 minutes, I finally decided just to cut the sleepers up around them, and lay sleeper bits - very fiddly, but looks to be much better. Ended up having to weigh bits down to get them to stick in place (with the help of a couple of track pins to hold things steady).
In the gloom at the right end of the layout is the pit for the sector plates - the pair of them are sat under the pile of magazines having cork applied. Hopefully will get a chance to work on them tomorrow.
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Having got back after my christmas road trip I needed a project to fill up the rest of the holidays. Last year I replaced the lounge and kitchen floors*, but this year I decided to do something less drastic.
I took advantage of a fine (if a little chilly) day to cut some wood leftover from the big layout into suitable sized strips, and started making the baseboards. This is my first foray into plywood baseboards, and must say it is a bit different. Not having to cut all the mortise joints saves a lot of time, but I soon discovered that getting everything straight and level wasn't as easy as it first appeared. First lesson - make sure you are cutting straight lines (one of the sides looks like a mountainous skyline), I think in future I'll get the local timber merchant to cut them for me.
Assembling the beams was very quick and easy - a spot or two of glue, a bit of careful positioning and application of a clamp - just had to wait long enough for it to set before removing the clamps. Second lesson - don't test a newly released beam for rigidity by seeing how far you can bend it, you soon discover that the glue hasn't quite set.
Having completed the first board, I was impressed by how light it was (compared to my normal softwood framing), and how rigid it appeared to be. Whilst I made the beams for the second board, I added the top to the first, and laid cork all over the front ready for track laying.
The second board has a complicated top, two pieces of different thickness ply, 9mm for the front, and 5mm as the support for both sector plates. After a bit of interesting sawing, I managed to get the two pieces to fit nicely together, and glued them down. Only after the glue had set did I realise I hadn't left a gap to put the backscene through at the back of the front bit of ply. A bit more interesting sawing (and some colourful language) left a nice gap ready for the backscene.
This only left the problem of support for the boards. Rather than build another set of layout legs (I only have 3 different sets around the house), I went for a simpler support structure. Using a couple of pieces of 4"x1" I made a little frame for the boards to sit on, which can be clamped to the top of a workbench. Despite picking the straightest bits I had, the layout boards don't sit flat on this (that's my excuse - I think the boards aren't quite flat owing to the surface I built them on), but a couple of ply offcuts sorted that quite nicely. A quick drill through the frames and tapping in of alignment dowels later, I have the basis for the layout.
* Yes, the middle of winter was a sensible time to open the house to the cold air drifting through under the floor - at least, after the insulation had gone in, it felt much warmer!
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I seem to have got rather busy since I decided I liked the last set of plans I posted. Having managed to get a day off work and not too much else to do with it, I tried to make a start. Went to the local model shop for some track, got enough to get going (and some Metcalfe warehouse kits), got it all home and promptly fell asleep. By the time I'd woken up again, it was getting a bit dark to go outside and cut wood (better outside lighting is one of those things I keep meaning to sort), so I contented myself with a bit of playing with the kits, and a bit of wiring on the big layout. Have started marking out the wood for when I finally get a chance to cut it though...
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Whilst there's been problems with the forum, I've been doing even more planning and thinking, and have come up with yet another plan. The entry into the fiddle-yard for the mainline never looked quite right - it was too far forward, leaving the scenic area in front of the fiddle-yard very narrow. So with a little twist, the plan now bends the other way, with the centre of the layout towards the back, and the edges further forward. I've also worked on the branch and sidings, and am happier with the result, but I think I need to do a little more playing with real track to get them right.
Scenic planning has also been advancing, the orange boxes on the plan represent structures, the right hand side being dominated by 2 rail-served industrial sheds, potentially with a yard in the front right (will have to see things in the flesh to be sure). The left side shows the intent on having dilapidated platforms behind the part still in use (and saves me having to build to many buildings), I think that will work well, with a mixture of old ballast and encroaching scrub between the platforms.
I've also been watching the new Dapol announcements with great interest - I think there'll be a good selection of DMUs available by the time I get round to starting the build (work has been increasing of late, and I've not had a chance to cut any wood yet). Hopefully I'll find a spare day soon when I can get going with the baseboards. Not sure whether to try a ply-wood frame, or stick with softwood. Never done the former, but the latter are getting heavy to move around...
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Have done some more playing with the track plan. First I tried with medium radius points, but that needed almost 8 feet to get the platforms, station throat and fiddle yard in. I don't want to lose any of this - though I guess I could cope with a single track access to the fiddle yard, but it reduces the operational scope (the fiddle yard needs moving after every move, whereas I'd prefer to be able to do an out and in (at least) before fiddling. I remeasured the space available, and, though it won't stretch to 8ft, it will allow a 6ft6 layout, and I reckon another 3" in width is possible - makes a sector plate more appealing as I can use the extra room at the back to put a couple of lengths of track in to store stock on.
Having reset the size, I tried again, but used the smallest finescale points. This extends the plan a little, but still just about keeps it within the length. I've removed the second track from the station throat - it only allowed trains to depart the rear line, so has disappeared in a rationalisation of the track plan. As I like this plan more, I've added a hint about construction - blue line is backscene, green is sector plate, red is baseboard join. Had to shorten the loop on the rear line to move the point off the joint. Couldn't do the same with the near pair without reducing the loop length too much, so ended up swapping the double point with a double slip, which clears the joint nicely. Also has the advantage of lengthening the branch, and bringing it further forward. Not sure if this is suitable for a minimal layout.
I think this looks much better than the last one, but now not convinced by the branch and sidings. Kenton has commented the parcels line should be laid out differently (the crossover should favour the passenger line, and there should be somewhere to hide parcels vans when the run-round is being used) - something else to ponder
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Have been thinking about the scenic potential, and the background to the layout - and wonder how this would look:
A once large and grand urban terminus station, that used to receive everything from top-link expresses to the humblest branch-line stopping train. The station served both as a terminus for main line trains, and for an urban branch line that served surburban commuter stations as well as a number of sidings for various industries. With no other connections to the network, all freight traffic had to be reversed at the station to allow it to access the branch.
Post-war, the express services were slowly moved away from the station, until only local services and the freight traffic remained. By the time of the Beeching cuts, the station seemed ripe for the cull, but the level of freight traffic, and the lack of alternative route prevented total closure. Nothing could stop the closure of the express platforms, leaving only the local platforms to serve the branch and the few remaining passenger services from elsewhere. The end of steam, green diesels and the corporate-blue era came and went without affecting the now dilapidated and run-down remains.
As the urban re-generation of the 80's started, traffic levels began picking up thanks to new offices and shops being built on ex-industrial land nearby. This led to the reinstatement of another platform to allow for more services during peak hours.
As the new generation sprinters started appearing, traffic through the station consisted of frequent passenger services into the mainline platforms, a regular passenger service from the branch, occasional freight workings reversing through the station onto the branch, and daily parcels and post workings for the sorting office attached to the station.
What we can see are the local platforms, with branch line curving away from the nearest pair, and the mainline leaving from the further. Beyond are the remnants of the main-line platforms, with scrub growing in the remains of the trackbed. All that remains of the original station are the walls of the original trainshed, and it's rusty support columns. In it's place is a non-descript modern building housing the ticket office and staff rooms, the waiting rooms resembling bus-shelters in their glass and steel starkness. In the distance the industrial heart of the city is disappearing with cranes standing proud over growing tower-blocks. In front of the station are the car-parks and the loading bay of the sorting office.
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