barrowroad

Here we are with Lime Street packed in the van arriving at the Hull Ferry Terminal ready to go to Rotterdam tonight.

 

Hi Les,

Enjoy the show, it is huge isn't it. I helped operate Middlepeak at the show some years ago and was blown away by the size of the venue, some of the layouts and the number of exhibits. Lime Street looks a bit lost in the hall.

Looking at your Transit Luton hire van does it come with a tail lift for the trolleys?

Regards,

Robin

 

Rod,

It's still on the cards. However, I have no news on this one. I will be seeing Dave late in the week as we have a Board meeting. If I have any news, I will post.

 

Steve

Hi Steve,

Do you know who has Colin Gifford's photographic collection as I am trying to obtain copies of some photographs he took at Bristol Barrow Road Shed in the 1960's?

Regards,

Robin

Here we go with the station roof. I am doing the South side first so I have no need to worry about the bomb distorted truss just yet!

 

First a jig to hold the trusses rigidly in place. I don't want the fitting of the roof girders to distort anything.

 

 

and todays production with some of the girders in position. A slow process as each girder has to be bent to follow the curve of the roof.

 

Absolutely stunning.

I have it on good authority (me) that a Garratt started off in Johm o' Groats the north of Scotland with a huge long train which weighed several thousand tonnes, by Inverness it had reached nearly 100mph, however the driver had to brake hard and the train swereved voilently, it went back and forth across Scotland dipped down into the NE of England where it took a voilent turn to the north of England covering all all the industrial areas, the train then pitched over to East Anglia only to be thrown back across the Midlands into Wales where it snaked around the Valleys. The driver threw the loco into reverse the resulting jolt took it over to London and the SE, the driver and fireman fought these violent manouveres and began to get som semblance of control as the train sped across the south towards Bath, Bristol and Gloucester, just when they thought they had brought the mighty beast under control there was one last vicious swerve that straightened up the train and shot it towards the south west, the valiant crew stopped the train at Penzance......What? it's true I swear it.

And obviously it then leapt over to the S©illy Isles

I find the postings about where and when Garratts were seen, especialy south of Gloucester and the S&D intriguing, with some posters its almost as if they have to have documentary proof of one being in the place to justify buying one.

I can understand this when ones layout is of a specific time/place, however is it not cutting ones nose of etc. by refusing to by one of these magnificent locos because it was never seen in those particular climes.

I am fortunate in that I have covered most bases with my layout being a fictitious junction where Western meets Southern and Midland and occasional Eastern, this happened in the Banbury/Oxford area so it is not so far fetched, and to be honest from my perspective the heavy coal trains in that area will be pulled by Beyer Garratts.

Go on take the plunge and order one, you will only regret it if they alll sell out. If I were one who had a specific time/place layout I would build another just to accomodate Garratts....now theres a thought... a shed scene where Garratts were commonplace.

I've ordered one already but it is always good to have a photo available to customise the finish on a model - I now have a year until delivery so hopefully a photo at Barrow Road will turn up in the meantime

Robin, it's in the text in a photographic caption in either 'Steam Routes around Gloucester', by Stephen Mourton http://www.ianallanp...gloucester.html, or in 'Bristol to Birmingham, portrait of a famous Midland Railway Route', part 2, by Stephen Mourton and Bob Pixton http://www.transport....asp?pubid=4152

 

As I'm not at home at the moment, I can't check, but I think it may be the latter. That book also has the photo of 47994 on Gloucester shed.

 

I should have elaborated that the caption mentions that the locos went for servicing at Gloucester, but doesn't say that they didn't go to Barrow Road, which I would have thought likely in any case, given it's proximity to Westerleigh Yard and the fact that the railway doesn't always run exactly as planned....

Tim,

I've seen a photo of 47972 on Gloucester Midland shed which is in the latter book but so far that is the only Garratt photo I've seen anywhere near Bristol.....I live in hope

I have now found a definite reference to a daily freight working from Toton to Westerleigh Yard, with the Garratt loco going to Gloucester shed for servicing, not Barrow Road or Bath, apparently. This started circa 1950 until circa 1956. There is a photo of 47994 on shed at Gloucester taken during tihs time frame. 47994 was not finally withdrawn until 1958, according to this source.

Hi Tim,

Any more details of this ?

Donald Flook, who used to work at Barrow Road in the late 40's & 50's, has confimed that Garratts did work into Barrow Road shed from Westerleigh Yard as has another former employee. They have told me they were not frequent visits but were on shed, they think, at least once a week. Donald told me that one was actually driven over the turntable inside the shed - he remembers it well because his job was Supervisor outside maintainence and this gave him not only responsiblity for the Coaling & Ash Plants but also the turntable.

Unfortunately he has no photos of one on shed although he did take a good selection as can be found in his article in BRILL Summer Special No 8.

I'm still hoping for a photo to appear preferably one on shed but anywhere in the Bristol to Gloucester area would be great................

Midland Outpost - Memories Of Barrow Road Shed by D J Fleming. RP Publishing of Bristol. No ISBN number 1984/5.

Also, The Best Way To Bath by Neil Burgess with the same publisher 1984. Of note too is Memories by Anthony Wray with Avon Valley Publishing 1988. These are all paperback but i should think now difficult to find. The Avon Valley Railway may be able to help. Their own Semiphore booklets may also shed light.

I already have copies of the first two books but don't recall seeing any photo of a Beyer Garratt in them - perhaps I'll have another look.

I have a photo from a local book that shows one going south through Warmley. They were quite regular at Barrow Road as they would often run light from Westerleigh for crew changes. Again, sourced from a local book written by a former driver.

Would you let me have the reference for this book as I'm interested in any photos of them in the Bristol area for reference for my model of Barrow Road shed?

Robin

I was about to say 10mm less than the outside dimensions, then I realised you meant the shed and not the hotel model! The shed internals are 5m x 22.5m!!

Thanks Les - I should have been more specific. That is big I compared the size with the space I have for Barrow Road and realised the footprint is three times the size.

I think it is time for a move

What is the room at the end of the building used for [ furthest from the house]?

Now for the really mind blowing post regarding the Lime Street Layout project. John recently moved house so that he could have a big enough garden in which to build a shed to house the layout. The shed was started in January of this year and we had the opening ceremony yesterday. Six months of building.

It looks fabulous - what are the internal dimensions of the building?

Robin

70011 was stabled with 3 FL 66s at Stoke Gifford Yard yesterday at around 13:45.

 

 

70011 was on the Rugeley - Stoke Gifford empties and arrived at Parkway at 15.46. Today it was in the yard at Stoke Gifford before this time so not sure whether it was the same turn arriving early or.......

Here are a couple of photos.

66550 also in the yard

I still need to play around with the colours, and intend maybe to darken the mortar later, the picture is of a test piece anyway. I don't have many colour photos but have a feeling the shed may been a bit darker or weathered than the bridge pillar anyway, I find it easyier to go darker if need be than make things lighter.

David

Hi David,

Glad to see you've made a start to the shed - it's looking good. As it is all Rowmark you may find that the use of coloured crayons/pencils is not too successful. They are fine on primed mdf but less so on plastics.

I see from the coloured photos attached the inside of the shed is dirty white with the lower 6ft black. I used Halfords white primer and a mix of 'black' acrylics to do the inside of Barrow Road.

I note you have used Plastiweld with success to join the sections of Rowmark. As I had no need to join plastic to plastic on BR I shall try it on my latest offering from York Modelmaking - the signal box.

Keep up the good work.

Robin

This morning I passed Westerleigh on my way to to the Swindon & Wiltshire History Centre at Chippenham - to do some research for my Barrow Road layout - and noticed one 60 and a 66 in the yard so vowed to do a detour on my return.

I arrived to find 60063 at the entrance to the yard, with the Murco tanks and 60015 'Bow Fell' coupled to 66137 outside the compound. Not sure whether there was a problem with 15 as the Lindsay returns have normally gone by this time.

Nice one, Robin! Thanks for posting that - will check the blog out too. What's it like going round corners?

It might get to turn through 360deg inside the roundhouse at some stage:)

I had a bit of a surprise today...

 

When I went into The Model Shop, Exeter today, he had a brand new condition Hattons/Heljan Class 14 in the second hand display cabinet. Wasn't expecting to see one so soon.....

 

When I left the shop, it wasn't in the second hand cabinet any more....

Tim,

I know you were concerned about this loco - good to see you have taken the plunge.

I have just finished converting mine whith a set of Ultrascale drop in wheels - a very straight forward job.

Decided to 'fill in' the buffer beam hole using plasticard and am pleased with the result.

A few other photos are on my blog.

Not be a diesel aficionado can anyone advise on whether both white lights and both red tail lights should be 'on' when travelling forwards... mine has only the right side whitle and tail on?

Many thanks - much appreciated.

Robin

Thanks for this one, I will now see if I can work out how the tipping mechanism works.

I was in Carnforth last year but unfortunately the site is no longer accessible to the public. I understand the Coaling Tower and Ash Plant have concrete cancer.

I think I need to contact the owner and seek permission to view and photograph the tower.

If you have any other shots of the Coaling Tower and Ash Plant I would appreciate looking at them

This is the Barrow Road Coaling Tower - photo courtesy of Terry Nichols

Robin

This is the only one I have of up top.

I think I took them sometime circa 1990.

 

These photos are excellent.... do you have any more especially of the top section of the hoist mechanism?

I have a type II coaling tower on my embryonic Barrow Road layout which I intend to make part operational but am finding photos of this area difficult to obtain.

BTW when were they taken?

Robin

Here are a few pics of the wagon hoist from the tower at Carnforth.

 

A view inside the depot. Still quite light and airy in the mid-50s before the rot set in.

What a fabulous shot.....and please congratulate your dad on his modelling skills... a wonderful layout.

Robin

Yup, sounds very much 6M55, usually through Caerleon about 8.20 IIRC, runs from either Avonmouth or Portbury

HTH

 

cheers

 

jo

There were three of the class at Stoke Gifford Yard on thursday evening; 70006 left light engine to Portbury or Avonmouth? whilst 70004 & 70005 were stabled in the yard. I didn't have my camera then but returned the following morning.

The two new GE Class 70s arrived at the Freightliner Yard at Bristol Parkway early this morning - 3am apparently - 02 was dropped off whilst 01 continued to Basford Hall for trials. O2 has been at Parkway all day and is due for trials on the Portbury/Avonmouth Dock to Rudgely coal trains. I understand the trials to Rudgely will start on Friday this week, initially running via the Severn Tunnel and the Welsh Marches to Rudgely. Trials will then switch to the Lickey Incline route.