TheSignalEngineer

Probably stuck in some sort of shock reaction to the F word being mentioned in the context of producing model trains.

The West Dock at New Street was a bit high as it was used for loading Brutes. I found out when I went to take a possession one night and there was a 323 EMU parked where I was due to do a survey. The West Dock was the only place it could be put out of the way. The steps overhung the platform edge due to the curve, well actually not quite. Nasty scraping noise and the body tilted a bit as they hit it and rode up onto the edge stone.

I had one of those but it died. I now use a Gaugemaster D. Most of the old H&M controllers were OK but there was one which was prone to rectifier failure, van't remeber which one. The big thing is to make sure that the mains cable is not degraded or frayed

Looks like exactly what I did with the bogies and buffers.

You could carve out a successful career in politics

They have been listed on the UK Model Shop Directory this week but no trading address.

About 1964 I had a Trix Western. The chassis cracked and I braced it but it then went in a different place. It was stored away and forgotten for 20 years by which time it was about 50 pieces of splintered metal. The upside was that the body, motor and bogies made a few pounds on ebay.

Yes, in the early 1960s people were telling us that slot car racing was the place to be. Throw away your trains, plastic model kits and toy soldiers. No-one predicted that they would all be around and popular approaching 2020.

See my post from Monday on page 1 for a breakdown of what usually runs across a 24 hour period.

Imperial Tobacco at Nottingham was John Player

A clip from my early attempts at stock butchery. I bought one from the well known auction site for about a fiver including postage in those days. You can still pick them up for a similar price. It is sitting on Bachmann Collett bogies, has Comet GWR square shank buffers and was coated in weathering powder on unperfumed matt hairspray. Not your ultra-accurate stuff but looks fine on the layout in a rake of similarly treated stuff like a Stanier BG, Fruit D, SR PMV, LMS CCT, etc.

They are on Shapeways https://www.shapeways.com/shops/stafford_road_model_works

In the late 1960s I had pass across my desk a BRB investment programme document that suggested Swansea to York electrification should follow on from completion of WCML through Glasgow and ECML London to Edinburgh. At that time there was a large amount of coal and steel industry related traffic on the NE-SW axis.

The definitive drawing for lines constructed up to fairly recent times was that included in the 1950 Requirements book. Platform dimensions are basically the same as the 1885 version except that the minimum height was raised from 2'6" to 2'9" at some point, possibly the 1925 update. The 1885 version also states that the lines should be laid to leave as little space as possible between the platform edge and the carriage footboards.

I found places with track centres about 10'10" including one on an ex GWR Broad Gauge line used by everything except Kings and 47xx class.

There were some around Stourbridge, Dudley and Birmingham Snow Hill until at least the autumn of 1957. I know of W76W in blood and custard and W44W in plain crimson.

45682 was a regular through New Street on trains to the north east like the Devonian and Bristol - Newcastle services.

@DavidCBroad Not surprised that there's no gap between the locos in the top picture. Track centres in 12in to the foot are approx 11ft 2ins so at 4mm scale wouid be 45mm. 38mm would be about right at 3.5mm. Do you model in HO?

I don't think the good burghers of Solihull, Hampron in Arden and Kenilworth we too keen on the prospect of a super-pit on the doorstep. I had a bit of stuff to look at in connection with alterations to the existing railway The proposal I was given included a bridge over the main line at Berkswell, running parallel to the Birmingham line to Hampton then rebuilding the original line through Maxstoke to Whitacre. Alternative pit proposals were a new mine at Southam and expanding Coventry and Daw Mill to tap the seam which runs from the North Warwickshire area to the Thames Valley.

Even the latest incarnation of the Bachmann ones still need some work to get them looking something near to modern standards. If you are looking for LMS the Hornby Period 3 non-corridors are best at the moment. Shop around and be patient and you can pick them up for reasonable pricess. You can find them going for about £25 on ebay and I have seen a four coach bundle at under £100 at a retailer. Right up to the early 1960s there were still a lot of Period 2 and even a few Period 1 suburbans about. Lavatory ones got mixed in with others, so you could upgrade some Airfix ones a bit more for a small cost and a bit of modelling. When I did a Pull-Push set cut'n'shut from Airfix donors I used Shawplan lazer glazing and it improves to look greatly.

My roundy is in a space 8ft 4in x 8ft 8in. The scenic part of the track is about 17ft long.

I use a Gaugemaster D for two-train control. Will reliably run two heavy trains simultaneously round a 30 foot loop without problems, although I don't have any Airfix-motored locos now. It can also successfully cope with my old Hornby Dublo stuff. R914/R915 pulling anything over about 0.5amp for too long will kill them IIRC. R911 would do a bit more. The 16v wall plug transformer for R965 was not up to much other than a Caley Pug or GWR 101 with about 4 wagons.

Looping trains went out of fashion with privatisation. When I first made it passenger Birmingham International didn't exist either. Yes, happened a lot in the past. HM (and other Royal Train users) would sleep there overnight when on early morning engagements in the West Midlands.

In the 1:1 world some platforms had the edge stones set back about 3" when there was a turnout in the platform to take account of the end throw. Just about visible to the right in this photo https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh1245.htm

Aynho Junction was an example of changed circumstances where junction speeds and priorities was concerned. It had mechanical splitting distants when I first went there. The Bicester Line was still the principal route in those days, with a 70mph speed through the junction. The Oxford line was only 40mph. When the signal was renewed as a colour light it only worked for the Bicester line. After the Snow Hill direct expresses finished (except for one) the only traffic left on the Bicester line was an hourly DMU stopper. Meanwhile the Oxford line had taken the Class 1 passengers and was starting to get the Didcot MGR traffic and Southampton freightliners. All ow these trains were getting panned by not getting the distant then finding the Home off when they got to it. We dropped the speed of the Bicester line through the junction to 40mph and made the distant able to be cleared for either route.