Brettell Road, 1960s black country (ish)

Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
levers-and-a-barrow.jpg

Been fiddling with bits of brass again. I wouldn't normally bother taking a picture of something as simple as a point lever but I found that the ones I built before were a little vulnerable and easily bent. I haven't changed the ones I use (Shirescenes) but what I have done is doubled up the levers themselves and they now seem a lot more robust.

I've built platform trollies before to but this time I have changed the supplier. I think my previous ones were Scalelink but this one is from London Road Models and is much more detailed. It even had a representation of the brake linkages. Regular readers will no doubt know by now I'm a sucker for this sort of thing! The trolly is shown perched on a two pence piece for scale.

footbrige-in-brass.jpg

Moving on to something a little more obvious. This is the Churchward models (now sold by Phoenix models) footbridge kit shown in temporary position. As my track spacing is quite wide here I did need to extend the main arch by one panel and, luckily as the etches for the arch are the same, I could use the spare bits that weren't needed on the facing side. The sides were cut and shut with the new panels grafted in meaning the only bit I needed to fabricate from scratch was the main span floor. An enjoyable kit to build this one.
 

Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
round-oak-crossing-cabin.jpg

This is a little model of the crossing box from Level Street, modelled in its abandoned state. Ive taken a bit of artistic licence with this as the real building appeared after the layout is set and lasted into the early 1980s. Round oak did tend to move and rebuild things a lot though so a building that became redundant whilst still relatively new wouldn't have been that unusual for the area. Plus as anyone who's ever researched a real place will know, not everything at a location will always make a lot of sense. The model is scratch-built with the nifty alarm bell a 3d print kindly supplied by Richard Of Mudmagnet Models.

platform-clutter.jpg

A few bits dumped agains the platform fence give just a hint that the station doesn't have long left.

loading-gauge.jpg

When I rebuilt my loading gauge (a while ago now) I actually built another one at the same time. The frame is scratch-built from brass sections and the bow from Smiths. This actually serves a purpose as provided the layout is properly levelled this is the point where a free rolling wagon will start to move as the siding descends to the same level as the mainline.

EOD-water-tower-elements.jpg

Elements of a rudimentary water tower. The prototype for this stood on the Earl of Dudley's railway at the link between Oak Lane and Stallings Lane, Near to Himley's No.8 pit. It survived until 1950. Its Heath Robinson look appealed to me.

water-tower.jpg

In position on the layout. Its days of servicing the EoD fleet of 0-4-0 saddle tanks are long gone.

yard-overview.jpg
 

Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
round-oak-hut-mock-up-2.jpg

In order to 'plant' my abandoned crossing box I needed a base so opportunity was taken to do a micro diorama and take a piccie first. This is the side no one will ever see so it was worth recording for posterity.

crossing-box-area.jpg

Here's were it goes on the layout. One of those little out of the way areas that viewers will need to search out a little. The fence is Knightwing modified to resemble pictures of the real place in the late 50s. Below is the low light version.

crossing-box-in-position.jpg


footbrige-painted.jpg

Ive also finished off my footbridge. In keeping with the rest of the layout (in fact in keeping with everything I do!) it's modelled to look tired.

railbus-@-BR-oct-21.jpg

In an effort to keep the line open to passengers a 4 new fangled 4 wheel railbus was tried on the route. The experiment didn't work out and the station would be closed a few weeks later.

BRCW-type-2-@-BR-oct21.jpg

I've mentioned before my preference for long platforms and short trains. A BRCW type 2 and its 3 coaches demonstrates the effect I was after.
 
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Allen M

Western Thunderer
Your Level Street looks how I remember it in the mid 1960s. Two level crossings, a canal bridge and 5 houses 3 of which were public houses. The only level bits where on the crossing and the top of the bridge. All changed now as it serves Merry Hell (sorry Merry Hill) shopping centre.
Regards
Allen
 

Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
I think I may have mentioned before but one of my favourite things on Moor Street is the mechanical signals. Obviously on New Street there was never going to be an opportunity to do any but on Brettell Road things were different. I had already built a few ground signals on part 1 and an abandoned one but part 2 has given me the opportunity to do some proper, working ones.

platform-starter-in-brass.jpg

So starting with the post for the simple one. Basically a bog standard upper quadrant affair only complicated by the need to have a co-acting signal due to where the signal stands in relation to the footbridge. The balance weights are below the platforms surface. The parts used are the MSE upper quadrant signal parts (S0012/1), LMS/LNER tubular post caps (SC0019) and LMS Adlake signal lamps (SC0011). The Ladder is from Stenson models and various diameters of tube, sized from the left overs from the signal I built before. This will sit at the Stourbridge end of the platform.

bracket-signal-in-brass.jpg

At the Dudley end things are a little more entertaining. So having found a suitable victim (which turned out to be a bit of a mongrel) I set to work emulating what I could see. More MSE bits such as Heavy Lattice Bracket Signal Base Post (S0010) and LMS welded stem bracket (50029) for the platform. The rockers came from the Brassmasters point rodding etch. After I took this photo I decided that the operating 'wires' were too big so they have been replaced with no8 guitar strings.

platform-starter.jpg

Platform starter in position.

gantry-signal-final.jpg


Gantry in position. The left arm was used for the Kingswinford branch (now disconnected)

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Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
After much experimentation on Brettell Road part 1 and coming up with a working formula. Adding rain to part 2 was a much simpler process (although still a bugger to photograph mind you!)

towards-stourbridge-wet.jpg

View from the middle looking towards Stourbridge. The method I have settled on is to spray everything that needs to be wet with a fine coat of Tamiya smoke. When dry a coat of AK interactive wet effect is added and thats really it. Simple enough now but it took an awful lot of faffing about to get here!

towards-dudley-wet.jpg

View towards Dudley

old-into-new.jpg

This is the view from the old layout to the new one . While its not something I intended to capture when I took the picture it does show the elevation changes quite well.

Below a few evening pictures

towards-stourbridge-dark.jpg


large-prarie-@BR.jpg


class-03-parked-BW.jpg


Streamlined-railcar-at-BR-rain.jpg


all-stop.jpg
 

Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
I never really intended to go for the little Hatton's Barclay tank despite the Earl of Dudley's railway having quite a few of them. But one popped up for a reasonable sum on ebay with a best offer option. As it would be a nice to have I put in a cheeky offer and the seller accepted it!

Hattons have done several versions of this diminutive little tank but the main differences are the cylinder sizes. To make a somewhat complicated story very basic theres a 14 inch and a 16 inch version. My model is the 14 inch but the EoD had both types. The other main differences to the cylinders are the wheel size and wheelbase, the 14in version having 3'4" wheels set at 5'6" centres and the 16in version having 3'8.5" wheels at 6' centres. The tank on the 16' version was also taller. I don't know if Hattons have accounted for the wheel sizes and wheelbase in their models but the smaller loco checks out with the known dimensions. One little feature I liked was the pick up arrangement. The bottom keeper plate has traditional wipers bearing on the backs of the wheels but the chassis has sprung plungers that bear on the keeper plate. This means the keeper plate can be removed completely with out any wires to faff about with. A neat little bit of thinking.

Converting to p4

First up, no one does the right wheels. So fancying a bit of a challenge I brought a cheap as chips lathe from Amazon and had a go at turning the RTR wheels down. I had in my wheel stash some old Sharman wheels of the right diameter and salvaged the tyres. I haven't done anything with a lathe since I was in school and I have to admit I did quite enjoy doing this. Ive always found those 'someone makes something from rubbish' DIY engineering videos that pop up in youtube strangely therapeutic. Im just worried now that I want a much better lathe and I'm going to get sucked into turning things next! The axles are a little odd being 2mm but stepped down at the ends for the wheels. A couple of 2mm axles were turned down to match and the wheel sets reassembled with suitable washers. I didn't secure the drive gear in place at this point.

The clearance between the top of the tyre and the metal chassis was very tight so some time was spent shunting the loco around (without rods and powered by a class 20) to see if it would short and cause any problems. No problems showed themselves.

Despite the rods being too thin (as seems to be the way with RTR steam locos) things wouldn't fit now the wheels were p4. Handily the cylinders are a separate moulding so they were removed, cut in half and refitted with a 20 thou plasticard spacer either side. The front coupling rod was mounted with the crank pin backwards so that the screw is on the outside of the wheel. This enables the screw head to be flush with the face of the coupling rod. The rear of the coupling rod and the connecting rod were opened up so that a Gibson crank pin nut could be use the wrong way round in fit inside the rods. Both rods were secured with their own nut and the reason for his is thats how they looked on my prototype pictures. More shunting test were carried out and once happy the finals drive gear was secured and the model tested on its own.

DCC

The model accepts a 6 pin decoder and you could simply bung one in and off you go. However with a 0-4-0 a little extra help is never going to hurt. My usual small model arrangement of a Zimo mx633 decoder and a TCS KA1 was not going to fit. I'd seen mention of swapping the motor for something smaller so a little 12volt motor was ordered from Nigel lawton along with an adapter for the worm. For some degree of stay alive 4 Zimo Tantalum capacitors were wired in parallel and everything shoe horned back into the tiny body. It doesn't give the 'pick it up and it keeps going for 10 seconds+' effect that a TCS Kam 4 does but it seems to make a noticeable enough difference to make it worth doing.
barclay-chassis.jpg


Detailing the chassis.

hattons-barclay-side-view.jpg

As can be seen in the previous picture there's quite a noticeable gap between the chassis and the wheels. Of the limited detail on the chassis a lot of it pugs in as separate bits so its a relatively easy job to make some new overlays from 60thou plasticard and plug the bits back in.
hattons-barclay-chassis-cut.jpg

One thing I would advise though is to cut away the original chassis at the points shown (where the NEM coupling pocket is) as you will end up with very chunky and visible frames at the ends of the loco. Might be better to do 20 thou overlays and space them out so they are nice and thin. The arrangement of the brake shoes on the EoD locos seems the opposite way round to the way Hattons had modelled them with the shoes in front of the wheels not behind them and the linkages not visible at all. so these were rearranged. You can see the front crank pin screw in this picture. I also changed the front step to match prototype photos.

The Body

hattons-barclay-the-quarter-view.jpg

The boiler handrails are separate as supplied but they are plastic, a little wibbly and in a vulnerable place so I swapped them for brass. The weird shaped front handrail was copied from photos. Buffers are Roco HO ones reduced in size. The EoD locos seemed to be set up for lower clearance than the version Hattons supplied so the chimney was reduced in height as were the safety valves while the whistle was relocated from the cab roof to the cab front. The original cab front windows were filled then re-drilled lower down. Some of the EoD locos had a big coupling on the front under the bufferbeam. I suspect this was some sort of auto coupling for when they were working inside the Round Oak steel works. It seems that when some of them lost this they retained the mounting plates which conveniently meant I didn't have to cut the chassis away as mentioned earlier.

hattons-barclay-rear-view.jpg

The rear of the cab. EoD locos had 2 types of cab, an enclosed one with 3 windows and this open version. The enclosed one is available from Planet industrials as a detailing kit. Given the layout is set in the rain my mini driver and fireman must be cussing me for not going for that one! My first thought was to scratchbuild a new rear cab from brass for strength but I decided to cut away the RTR one first to see if that would work instead, as can be seen it did. The handbrake is the supplied RTR one

Nigel Lawton 009 Online Shop Home
Pensnett Railway Barclay Conversion – Light Railway Stores
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Pray, what is this "cheap as chips" lathe, Jim? You've made it work well for you.

(I spent time in the workshop when at school but have forgotten everything I learned about lathe work. I have one in the workshop which belongs to Steph but have never had the confidence to turn it on and when he comes home his mother wants to spend time with him so any practical training goes out of the window. I know about on line training videos but prefer to be doing stuff. Thereby hangs my downfall....)

Brian
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
I never really intended to go for the little Hatton's Barclay tank despite the Earl of Dudley's railway having quite a few of them. But one popped up for a reasonable sum on ebay with a best offer option. As it would be a nice to have I put in a cheeky offer and the seller accepted it!

Hattons have done several versions of this diminutive little tank but the main differences are the cylinder sizes. To make a somewhat complicated story very basic there's a 14 inch and a 16 inch version. My model is the 14 inch but the EoD had both types. The other main differences to the cylinders are the wheel size and wheelbase, the 14in version having 3'4" wheels set at 5'6" centres and the 16in version having 3'8.5" wheels at 6' centres. The tank on the 16' version was also taller. I don't know if Hattons have accounted for the wheel sizes and wheelbase in their models but the smaller loco checks out with the known dimensions.

Having one of the 16" examples awaiting a suitable EM treatment I can speak to these points. Basically, what Hattons did was to tool up larger cylinders and a slightly longer (at the front) footplate with springs on top.

What it is not is an accurate model of a 16” Barclay which should be roughly 15% bigger than the smaller loco in more or less every dimension. It’s also far too fast but things can be done about that. That said, I do like what you’ve done to yours, Jim, really nice but of detailing.

Adam
 
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Allen M

Western Thunderer
The rear of the cab. EoD locos had 2 types of cab, an enclosed one with 3 windows and this open version.

There are a lot of photos of these locos in the book "The earl of Dudley's Railway" by Ned Williams. I never saw them as the railway had gone over to diesel when I worked there in the mid 1960s.
There are plenty of other photos and much information for anyone interested in industrial railway working.
Regards
Allen
(no commercial connection, just a reader who has met Ned)
 
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Jim smith-wright

Western Thunderer
Ive been raiding the toy box again!

commer-BF.jpg

Starting with the Commer BF. Available as an ancient Lesney toy it came in 2 types, a TV repair van and a food truck with open sides. The wheels were replaced with RTI ones and the central pillar in the windscreen filed down as far as I dared. I increased the width of the door window and added the bodyside detail from 10 thou microstrip.

T-horn-coal-lorry-1.jpg

The little Langley models Dodge tipper. As suggested I swapped the lights for some smaller ones (again RTI)
 
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