Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Thanks Arun, much appreciated.
I did pop upstairs briefly. It was kinda toasty up there.
I did pop upstairs briefly. It was kinda toasty up there.
Brettell Road, 1960s black country (ish)
- Thread starter Jim S-W
- Start date
Phil O
Western Thunderer
I did manage to get a couple of long views of the layout, due to the large number of spectators in front of it every time I came to have a look. From what I could see the changes that you have made over the last few years have maintained your previous high standards and level of atmosphere.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Thanks both. We were quite busy most of the time. I thought the Sunday seemed no different to the Saturday which is quite unusual for shows these days.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Appearing at Scaleforum was this Hurst Nelson 14T chlorine tank, incredibly generously donated by Colin Craig. He was building a batch for Mostyn and added an earlier version for me. These would not have ventured to the Black Country but years ago I helped Dave Clarke, Along with Simon Stephens, take out his layout Amlwch to various shows around the country. Amlwch (pronounced Amlook) was the location of the Associated Octel plant and while the exchange sidings for it never featured on the layout and we never had the chemical tank trains its a nice little nod to a bit of my personal modelling history.
None of this wagon is any of my work. I did tweak the weathering a little from how Colin supplied it as the top of a white tank in the steam era wouldn't be a clean as in Mostyn's diesel era. I added the required wet look for Brettell Road.
For more on Associated Octel click here Octel bromine works Amlwch
Next up another tank that I've not had a lot to do with really. The recently introduced demountable tank wagon RTR from Clarke Railworks. I rarely buy anything new RTR and this is the first brand new rail vehicle I've brought from any of the new generation manufacturers. In fact it's the first new RTR thing I've brought since 2017 and the time before that was 2012 I think. I seriously doubt I'm paying any bonuses in RTR land at the moment.
So the wagon then, nice box and instruction booklet (looking at youtube reviewers these things seem important). The box will still look nice in my bin too! To be fair the instruction booklet is nicely laid out with clear illustrations of how to swap the wheels for em/P4. Which is dead easy, P4 wheels just drop in once the brake rigging has been unclipped and brass bearings are already installed. The brake shoes are kind of wide for 00 and a bit narrow for p4 but not enough to make you want to faff about moving them. The wagon weighs 30 grams out of the box which is lighter than my aimed for standard of 50g but some test shuffling around on Brettell Road didn't show up any problems with this.
The couplings were replaced for Smiths and the (strangely) missing brake gear safety loops added. There a bit of a trench down the side of the tank and this was filled with Mr Surfacer 1000 liquid filler and gently sanded back. The colour was matched from a mix of blue and black. You don't want to completely eradicate the line as it is visible on the real wagon. I think the branding should be parallel to the wagon and not the tank (which itself slopes at one end) but I might be wrong. Either way I left it as it was. The lamp irons were painted black (white lamp irons weren't a thing yet) and that was about it, with the obligatory weathering of course.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
At Scaleforum there were still a few problems with coming into the yard. I found the mint block was a smidge tight in the center of the slip and also in the vee of the point in the actual sidings. Not sure how I didn't notice these before but anyway a bit of filing and it seems better now.
Here's a bit of an overly aggressive test.
Here's a bit of an overly aggressive test.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Been filling the odd moment here and there with some kit builds of fairly old vintage. The above is an LMS 22t tube from the old Ian Kirk kit. I replaced the bearings with MJT roller bearings based on a photo of a very similar wagon in Don Rowlands Twilight Of The Goods book. The hand brakes (which are too long in the kit as provided and are only one type) are spares from the Parkside 12ft chassis kit.
Digram 1/120 LNER open from the Parkside kit. Whilst this kit is still readily available it is one of their older toolings. I enjoyed doing the weathering on my china clay rake and have seen photos with similarly weathered opens in normal freight trains so I returned to that for this one. The cattle van is a diagram w5 from the Coopercraft kit. Both have had extra detail with the GWR brakes coming from Mainly Trains and Morgan Designs etched parts
Next up another Ian Kirk kit, this time for the GWR mink C. I used the ends from the Ratio GWR 12t van kit, the ones in the kit had end vents and looked too narrow to me. I've added extra details to the body and underframe. Being on a 12ft wb underframe it's something a little different.
Finally the left over sides from the above model were mated with Airfix cattle van ends to produce a Fruit B Diagram y7 banana van (I'm not sure that this designation is correct but it what the Didcot Railway Centre website refers to them as). The end vents were scratch-built and the underframe is a Parkside 9ft one with the ends stretched a bit.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Given my recent fascination with the humble 2f, this little video popped up on facebook
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The Halesowen branch has been influential in the story of Brettell Road as its the reason I've, generally, stuck to smaller locos. Indeed the Kirtley and the 2f to some extent owed something of their longevity to the axle loadings over the Dowery Dell viaduct.
56K views · 849 reactions | When halesowen had a railway to the Austin works of Longbridge , going over Dowery Dell viaduct #halesowen#blackcountry | Exploring The Black Country
When halesowen had a railway to the Austin works of Longbridge , going over Dowery Dell viaduct #halesowen#blackcountry
www.facebook.com
The Halesowen branch has been influential in the story of Brettell Road as its the reason I've, generally, stuck to smaller locos. Indeed the Kirtley and the 2f to some extent owed something of their longevity to the axle loadings over the Dowery Dell viaduct.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
My somewhat hopeless addiction to building kits continues, I passed the point of having enough a long long time ago but there you go. This time all variations on types I've built before. Starting with the classic Airfix meat van. Or in this case just the ends of one and even then only part of the ends! Some meat vans lost their side vents and all but the top end vent. The Airfix ends are kinda chunky and can easily take having sections of them cut out and replaced with bits of plasticard. The rest of the van is all Parkside. Behind it is a standard Parkside plywood sided kit built as a fruit version.
The Ratio Banana van kit. These are the second and third times I've built one of these and I've still yet to build one as the kit intended. On the left is the standard body and on the right modifications to convert it into the diagram 1/224 version.
The first body was mated with a 9ft wheelbase chassis (stretched at the ends to fit) to produce a ex-LMS D1672 insulated meat van. By the time these were in BR service they lost the modifications that made them interresting. Those being roof mounted ice boxes and end ladders. Note the different wheels as per the prototype image in LMS wagons volume 1.
And the Diagram 1/224 version. Mounted on a detailed Red Panda chassis. Im just waiting for my friend to supply me some flexible steam heat hoses.
Some meat van variations - Left to right - the modified one shown at the start of the post. A similar one by the same method but with unmodified ends. A bog standard Parkside insulated one. The good old air-fix original (with Parkside doors and underframe) and the D1672 version.
And similar for Banana vans - Left to right D2111 LMS van from the Ratio kit on a shortened Parkside chassis. The Diagram 1/224 van. The ex GWR Y7 i featured last time and 2 Diagram 1/246 from the old Hornby Dublo bodies mounted on detailed Red Panda Chassis.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Wandering around at the back end of October last year I became aware that Brettell Road might not have enough fallen leaves to accurately represent the time of the year I was trying to depict. Theres 2 types of autumn. The really pretty one thats kind of fleeting and gets used in image libraries and on jigsaws. Then theres the drudgy one that doesn't but hangs around a lot longer. You can probably guess which one of those two I decided I wanted.
On the backscene on the end of the layout theres a line of trees that hints at the line continuing to curve to the right as you head towards Stourbridge. So these are the source for a spot of leaf litter. Ive always assumed that the wind is blowing from the left as you look at the layout and the weathering of the wet bits has always reflected this. To get the mulch I wanted I used a combination of kids power paint scatter and a couple of different types of autumnal leaves from AK Interactive mixed in place on the layout in a somewhat haphazard way and sealed with AK sand and gravel fixer. Once dry it was given another coat of wet effects fluid to blend it all together. I included a little more overflow down onto the platform and the tracks and I might revisit this and add more along the platform edge. Although the line speed on the layout is only 35mph and most trains entering the platform are going slower than that it's still reasonable to assume trains will blow leaves from the other side of the bridge along with them.
This is the central bridge and Ice assumed that there are more tress behind me. Again with a bias toward the leaves being blown from the left. Im not sure if they look a little bright here (no idea why as its the same technique using the same stuff) but next time I am weathering some underframes I might give a very light coat of dark mud to tone them down a little.
The same scene as above in a more intentional lighting.
While I had the wet effects fluid out I gave the platforms another coat. Here we see the station in a quiet moment.
On the backscene on the end of the layout theres a line of trees that hints at the line continuing to curve to the right as you head towards Stourbridge. So these are the source for a spot of leaf litter. Ive always assumed that the wind is blowing from the left as you look at the layout and the weathering of the wet bits has always reflected this. To get the mulch I wanted I used a combination of kids power paint scatter and a couple of different types of autumnal leaves from AK Interactive mixed in place on the layout in a somewhat haphazard way and sealed with AK sand and gravel fixer. Once dry it was given another coat of wet effects fluid to blend it all together. I included a little more overflow down onto the platform and the tracks and I might revisit this and add more along the platform edge. Although the line speed on the layout is only 35mph and most trains entering the platform are going slower than that it's still reasonable to assume trains will blow leaves from the other side of the bridge along with them.
This is the central bridge and Ice assumed that there are more tress behind me. Again with a bias toward the leaves being blown from the left. Im not sure if they look a little bright here (no idea why as its the same technique using the same stuff) but next time I am weathering some underframes I might give a very light coat of dark mud to tone them down a little.
The same scene as above in a more intentional lighting.
While I had the wet effects fluid out I gave the platforms another coat. Here we see the station in a quiet moment.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Ive seen this picture
pop up a couple of times on facebook groups, which depicts the daily Wolverhampton to Great Malvern pigeon train at Brierley Hill. Theres a couple of things I like, the Eastern Region BG and the big loco on a single van. Given that Brettell Road is set in the late 50s I am aware that I don't have any BR steam locos, more on this aspect in a future post.
The picture features a Gresley BG but having done a little research it appears that the Hornby one, although nice on first inspection has some issues with the shape. So I went with an old Bachmann Thompson version instead. These also have issues with the shape as the roof had a bit of harsh angle on the sides but thats a relatively easy fix with a file. Underframe details are from MJT, bogies Brassmasters 8ft versions and the gangways are from Wizard models. The buffers are MJT as well being cut down 18 inch heads mounted on bit of tube to thicken up and lengthen the shanks. The cosmetic bogie sides (which I was waiting on when I took this image are again from MJT. The Bachmann ones seem a bit of a weird wheelbase for some reason.
Another slight advantage of doing this coach is I can substitute it for a Midland BG on my milk train and make it a little more eastern region for when I get to play with North Elmham.
Eagle eyed readers might spot the screw coupling on the one end. These coaches didn't have them but anyone who has tried to couple a loco coupling to a coach with gangways at an exhibition will tell you that it's nigh on impossible so in this case it's a necessary compromise.
Speaking of North Elmham Tim mentioned that he liked the idea of a single car Derby lightweight. So given he knows I quite enjoy chopping DMUS about and having been suppled with a Bachmann 2 car set Ive come up with this. I wanted to avoid repainting it and found where i did need to revisit the green, Pheonix Precision BR logo green (post 1954) is an exact match.
The Bachmann drive arrangement is pretty big and chunky on these. In a regular Derby lightweight you can sort of get away with it as it only really protruded as far as the last passenger door. On the single car with its extra window it would be way to obvious so a Hight Level Kits Lo-rider power bogie has been used instead. As North Elmham is set in the daytime Tim didn't need the lighting so that was all removed.
You can see from tis image why the original drive arrangement had to go. I used a slightly lighter underframe colour that usual as North Elmham isn't set in the rain.
The picture features a Gresley BG but having done a little research it appears that the Hornby one, although nice on first inspection has some issues with the shape. So I went with an old Bachmann Thompson version instead. These also have issues with the shape as the roof had a bit of harsh angle on the sides but thats a relatively easy fix with a file. Underframe details are from MJT, bogies Brassmasters 8ft versions and the gangways are from Wizard models. The buffers are MJT as well being cut down 18 inch heads mounted on bit of tube to thicken up and lengthen the shanks. The cosmetic bogie sides (which I was waiting on when I took this image are again from MJT. The Bachmann ones seem a bit of a weird wheelbase for some reason.
Another slight advantage of doing this coach is I can substitute it for a Midland BG on my milk train and make it a little more eastern region for when I get to play with North Elmham.
Eagle eyed readers might spot the screw coupling on the one end. These coaches didn't have them but anyone who has tried to couple a loco coupling to a coach with gangways at an exhibition will tell you that it's nigh on impossible so in this case it's a necessary compromise.
Speaking of North Elmham Tim mentioned that he liked the idea of a single car Derby lightweight. So given he knows I quite enjoy chopping DMUS about and having been suppled with a Bachmann 2 car set Ive come up with this. I wanted to avoid repainting it and found where i did need to revisit the green, Pheonix Precision BR logo green (post 1954) is an exact match.
The Bachmann drive arrangement is pretty big and chunky on these. In a regular Derby lightweight you can sort of get away with it as it only really protruded as far as the last passenger door. On the single car with its extra window it would be way to obvious so a Hight Level Kits Lo-rider power bogie has been used instead. As North Elmham is set in the daytime Tim didn't need the lighting so that was all removed.
You can see from tis image why the original drive arrangement had to go. I used a slightly lighter underframe colour that usual as North Elmham isn't set in the rain.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Last weekend we had a great outing to the Macclesfield Show with Brettell Road. A good time was had by all and the layout performed very well. Above picture ©Tim Horn and used with permission.
Tim also did a great little video of the layout for which I send my thanks.
As always theres a list of things to do but I think it's fair to say these are tweaks and improvements rather than dramatic changes. Theres a small rake of wagons that need looking at as well as a few locos. I think it's just a fact of taking layouts to shows that these will always come up. Bouncing stock around in a vehicle isn't the best way to care for it, especially with the roads in the UK being the state they currently are.
One of the vees under the bridge (of coarse it is) might be dead. I will need to investigate. Because most stock could straddle it at the show and all the steam locos have stay alives fitted it wasn't something that affected the running. Who knows, if it is dead, it might have been so for a while and I just didn't notice! Also one of the short protectors played up. The layout is fed from the middle and the DCC power is split either side of this into 3 districts. One for the yard, one for the mainline and one for operating things like points and signals. The one for the yard on the right (as you look at the layout) was still providing short protection but it wasn't resetting meaning we needed a couple of times to cycle the track power off and on again. I had a spare board with me but like the vee it wasn't enough of a problem to worry about at the show. It's been swapped now.
Simon spotted there was a height difference of about 1mm between the Dudley scenic end and the fiddleyard so I will look at that and we managed to scratch the paint on the fiddleyard front loading it into the van. Ive already repainted it but i will rotate the carrying handles so that its naturally always the right way up in the future.
Finally a recurring problem. At the first show we did with the layout in its current form some of the captive nuts that are used to hold the roof uprights in place bound up and we couldn't get the uprights off. Since then I ran a tap through them and they have been fine but last weekend one bound up again. Luckily the design of the uprights meant they could be taken apart and the offending upright taped to the board to be dealt with at home. The captive nuts have been relocated to the bin and I will use wingnuts going forward.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
I can't remember but that may have also been the problem. In this case it was definitely cross threaded. I do remember that when I ran the tap through them the were not good.