7mm Birmingham Moor Street

[Focalplane]

So, here’s a thought. There never was a Dudley Dodger type train running out of Alcester to Birmingham, but since we now have one, it needs a nickname. The Alcester —————- ! Any ideas? Alcester, by the way, is pronounced “Allster”. I have come up with the Alcester Malster as there is a really good microbrewery there called UBU. A little known factoid is that UBU was named after the proprietor’s dog. UBU = Utterly Bloody Useless!

Any better ideas?

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Alcester Ass!

 

[RyanOPlasty]

Alcester Waltzer?

 

[Focalplane]

I have ordered the MagClic Swing couplers. Actually 4 pairs instead of two, there may be a need for them.

 

[Focalplane]

The water tank, an update!

Today I picked up the water tank and worked on the roof deck as well as adding primer to the roof and tank. All that remains to be done are the ladder and water level gauge before final painting and weathering. The ladder is temporarily placed in the wrong position at the moment.







I also mixed two trays of ballast and worked on the approach road area:




That’s a Mink van on blocks as a space filler. It needs a lot of weathering.

 

[LarryG]

'Allster' Auto....

 

[Focalplane]

One new item on my to do list is the south portal of the Snow Hill Tunnel. This is usually covered in steam and smoke from an emerging or disappearing train so I eventually found a photo of the tunnel when no trains could run. The photo explains why!



Yes, no track for several years after the Beeching Report. The brick supports are still there as is the 8 panel iron/steel cross piece but the regeneration of Moor Street changed the rest of the scene so this photo is really quite useful for recording just the portal. However, the huge brick Moor Street Warehouse had already burned down on the left side.

According to written details of the GWR rules for passing through the tunnel, the sand trap troughs and catch point were 59 yards south of the portal so quite by chance I have put the troughs in the right place. I should fabricate some sort of an inoperable catch point just in front of the portal, but may not bother because it will be completely hidden by the warehouse.

The brick pier on the right of the photo will have to be squeezed into place as the track is too close to the wall of the railway room. Again the warehouse will hide many details.

The next job will be to scale the photo to the location and sketch out a design.

The fence above the portal was actually roadside hoardings along the side of Moor Street. These precluded any hope of spotting Kings and Castles running in and out of Snow Hill back in the day.

 

[Focalplane]

Just been out for a walk. High today 35°C and still warm. Good the Railway Room remains cool under such conditions.

On returning I decided the position of the water tank should be closer to the station. As it is in pieces, the base and tank shows the new placement:

 

[Focalplane]

I have done a lot of ballasting today, all the approach roads into the station. Only the main line straight and the surface goods yard around the 20 ton hoist remain. So a chance to celebrate!

With a pre-dinner drink in hand I went through all the photos on file for the ballasted area and not one blade of grass or branch of Buddleia could I find except from the period of decay prior to renovation. This isn’t surprising as the entire area is on top of a brick and concrete viaduct. So well done to BR(W) and subsequently BR(M) for keeping the weeds clear.

However, all ballast and no weeds doesn’t work so well in modern expectations. So should I add some “foliage”? It would certainly add some variation to a rather bland landscape!

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

all ballast and no weeds

Made me think of this.... (with apologies to The Shining)

 

[Overseer]

However, all ballast and no weeds doesn’t work so well in modern expectations. So should I add some “foliage”? It would certainly add some variation to a rather bland landscape!

I would say no to weeds on the track if you are representing a time when truly effective defoliants were in use. Anywhere the weed spraying train could reach should be weed free. Earlier, before DDT etc, could show some vegetation and later following the banning of nearly all the chemicals together with less manual labour should also have weeds in places. Lack of vegetation on the tracks sets the period and should be a conversation starter.

 

[simond]

I wholly agree.

 

[Focalplane]

Thank you for these comments! To place my experience in context, although I grew up in Birmingham, my childhood was entirely in the smog and smoke period after WWII. I left the region in 1970 to seek a new life and a career and did not return until 1998. In those three decades the city centre changed dramatically and I hardly recognized the clean buildings, the abundant floral displays and, particularly, the canal system. The week I revisited was the time of the G8 meeting with Bill Clinton seen quaffing a pint in a canalside pub. This was all a shock to the system, and the contrast may explain my question in the post above.

So the explanation makes sense, no weeds, no foliage. They were dark times though we didn’t really know it at the time. In fact we lived in a monochrome world except for the bus liveries - Midland Red and Corporation blue and cream.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As @Overseer has alluded to main running lines and sidings would have generally been weed free with the hardy vegetation poking through beyond the spray area of weed killing trains.

Vegetation would also likely to be around some yard buildings and at the ends of lesser used sidings. Alot will depend on the time period you're modelling - even in 1966 weeds were appearing between the cracks in the flags at the outer ends of the platforms and at the fenceposts.

However there's nothing to stop you having the odd manicured flower bed to add some colour and greenery next to a railwaymans building in the yard given some were keen gardeners.

 

[Stephen Freeman]

Look at prototype photos of the location and timeslot you are modelling. If there are weeds model them, if there aren't any don't. Too many people try to model a location and get this wrong.

 

[Focalplane]

All the prototype photos taken in the time period (end of steam) show no vegetation on the Digbeth Viaduct. I well remember that Earlswood Lakes always vied with Henley in Arden for best station platform gardens on the North Warwickshire Line. There is no evidence for any flower beds at Moor Street.

 

[Stephen Freeman]

All the prototype photos taken in the time period (end of steam) show no vegetation on the Digbeth Viaduct. I well remember that Earlswood Lakes always vied with Henley in Arden for best station platform gardens on the North Warwickshire Line. There is no evidence for any flower beds at Moor Street.

Not surprised

 

[Focalplane]

Quietly plodding along with ballasting, parapets, sand traps and the south portal of Snow Hill Tunnel. The main line south of the tunnel remains to be ballasted and I have laid down an air mattress to assist in getting to the remote parts of the layout. Of course, these should have been ballasted first but when your mojo goes missing, well, you know!

First the south portal of Snow Hill Tunnel:



Cobbled together with all sorts of materials from the parts bin. Now in primer, resting on a future masonite (hardboard in UK language) support.

Next, the sand traps for the Down line south of the tunnel. This was designed to stop runaway wagons, etc. breaking away and rolling down the 1:45 incline all the way to Warwick. I used U section brass channel filled with fine grey ballast (which may be coloured dirt later).



I then started to think about telephone poles but prototype era photos show they didn't exist, so that's that. Trunk lines may be required strung along the parapet of the viaduct.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I then started to think about telephone poles but prototype era photos show they didn't exist, so that's that. Trunk lines may be required strung along the parapet of the viaduct.

The telephone lines and other cables appear to be hung off the wall LT style.

Moor Street Station: Ex-LMS 2-6-2T 3P No 40002 passes the approaches to Moor Street station whilst on a down local service to Snow Hill station

In the same photo I presume the sand traps are the troughs next to and between the running lines.

 

[Focalplane]

Yes, Dave, the sand traps are in the photo. Mine won’t extend quite so far as the signal box. One of the reasons for the sand trap is that there is a sharp change in incline within the tunnel which could precipitate an uncoupling. How often this actually happened isn’t recorded on the web site.