Our world in miniature, hobbies

For our Philip

Hi & thank you Gosh! That will take some maintaining.

Size isn't everything, I prefer Philip's layout.

Hi & thank you so much Dutchman Model railways nearly always have free licence at some point. Whether it's a toy trainset with the track on the lounge carpet, or mounted on a plain board or whatever, most of the reality is generated in our minds. My Hornby Dublo trainset that I had as a boy was just that. Our "Hallbrooks" is only an extension of that in my mind. Quite apart from the fictional setting, being somewhere close to where I live, the Southern region third rail emu section, which in my mind when it disappears into the fiddle-yard has gone the Curzon St in B'ham. It is all licence which is all fiction. On our railway, most of the stock is hidden, contained inside the fiddle yards. Folk who come to visit often remark on why do I cover up so much stuff. The answer is that that as with so many lineside places, it is just empty railway lines. I shall be off for my bacon butty this morning, where I shall wait say ten minutes on the Ricoh station platform, where I shall see nothing but track, birds, moving cars on the bypass, cars being parked in the Ricoh shopping mall, in fact, everything but the stadium itself is in motion, but nothing on the railway until my train arrives. Later in the morning that same train will be seen a few times in both directions along with two freight trains, but that is all.

Philip - thought you'd enjoy one last look at the Smithdown Road premises, which we passed by last Thursday

Hi Midland Red, Yes thank you. I did pop along in April to pick-up an order. At the time, the local authority were hoping for start-up entrepreneurs to be enticed by two years zero rent & rates, providing they put their money into the building segments that are intended to be rented out.

Hi Midland Red, Hi all I am having a Pam at home day today. The hustle & bustle of retirement catches up with us sometimes, both you & I enjoy our outdoor interests & pursuits yet I am so enjoying this nothing-day. I later might just get my art-box out & label Hounds Hill station platforms with platform numbers. Just for you, I will snatch a new picture of a DMU parked, motor not running in platform 2A. Later in the day will run via Leicester to Cambridge. Hounds Hill is made to look like a double track through station, but we operate it as though there is just one through line, which is why we generally keep the nearest platform line clear. That gives access to Grove as well as Longford Park Goods loading. The lines visible, disappear into a small three line fiddle-yard (hidden sidings) which are just long enough to accommodate three coach length, or very short goods trains. The DMU has emerged from one of them, crossed over to platform 2A. That is when I realised that the platforms are not numbered. I quite like having a Platform 2A or at least an A or B end. That sounds good, hey! The platform 2 line seen disappearing under the town, the "B" end, is used as the UP main goods siding. If you could see through under the bridge, there is a modelled goods platform, which also houses the staff facilities & the carriage cleaners store room.

Looking great as always Philip, thank you.

I like your clever use of different levels Philip, it adds a lot of interest to the layout.

Hi & thank you for that. The track bed is supported on an open frame, which is almost level throughout the layout. The scenery is then free to be either up or down, which is why we are able to have valleys as well as high ground. A very sadly missed railway friend of mine, a commercial artists, who died of cancer over three years ago, did me a topographical artists drawing back in 2000 of what I was looking at. That then set the scene so that I could then decide on the track-bed mean-height. I am fetching another picture. This picture is from the earliest construction period of our railway, but gives a nice impression of the depth aspect of using open frame construction, rather than a solid baseboard. Again, thank you for your lovely comment.

What an excellent idea Philip . In the past I've always used solid baseboards which has either meant having to elevate raised track with lots of building or "tunneling" through the board, so any future changes of level are awkward. I'm now redesigning my "retirement" layout using an open frame. It'll also make it easier to correct the bits I get wrong, and there's always lots of them.

Hi & thank you for your comment too, This pic shows the three basic levels that I used at the Hounds Hill town end of our railway. The upper level is the town, which is a notional suburb of the main city which is out of site which we call Burrow Hill. A bit like Foleshill station was to Coventry. It is helpful I found to have an operating idea of what we want. It allows meaningful operations with train movements. Moving along the railway, we come to the junction of where the direct line to Burrow Hill meets the Hounds Hill line. The train emerging from the short tunnel is coming out of Burrow Hill station (or the main (semi-automatic) fiddle-yard) heading south, whilst sister loco is waiting on Penny Park viaduct to back on to its local stopping train, also heading south, tender first. In the top photo, you can see one of the mirrors that shows the fiddle-yard occupations. Further on round we have the historical reason for the railways existence, the sand & clay quarry, long finished & redundant, but the one time goods platforms now provide a commuter service to Birmingham with third rail electrification. At the foot of the picture, where the footpath goes under the bridge, is where the canal used to travel.

Hi all This time of year, in the fifties, fruit trains were leaving the Evesham area every few minutes destined for various parts of the midlands. Victoria plums, early apple & pear varieties, loaded into ventilated vans would arrive at Coventry main yard. Being so perishable, some vans would continue to Foleshill, Longford & Bedworth. My interest in railways was as much in the operation as I watched the ongoing vans come off the main train, usually then taken on by a local Nuneaton loco. This state of the vans was crucial, so as soon as a van was emptied it was taken to the nearest steam-hose cleaner, there being one in the yard at Longford. Nothing would send fruit off quicker than it being contaminated by the bio-chemicals left from a previous load of aged fruit. Fruit trains or perishables as they were known had a very high line priority. A longtime recently retired Coventry fruit & veg marketer, told a group of us that it has always been a struggle coping with fresh fruit & veg in transit. Producer to wholesaler, then to retailer. Even our modern supermarkets struggle to have fresh fruit on their shelves within five days, although they won't always admit to it. So as I relish my train watching memories, this picture shows E class tank loco with a short train of fruit vans which are destined for Ted's jam & pickle factory in Hounds Hill. The train will proceed over Penny-park viaduct, then reverse into Grove platform, seen nearest for Ted's chaps to empty. The empty vans will then be taken to the steam-hose siding.

Is that the new Merchant Navy??????

Hi Dutchman, The two there are Wadebridge & Wilton. I have had Wilton for fifteen years & Wadebridge for four years. I think that Exeter is new on the Hornby scene. I might treat our railway to a re-built version, even a re-built Merchant Navy. This Hornby re-built is not on general release yet, but might add a bit of glamour to our work-horse railway. Many un-rebuilt West Country locos survived into the end of steam on the Southern, but all of the Merchant Navy locos had all been rebuilt before the end of the fifties. The rebuilding added a lot of weight to each loco, which wasn't such an issue for the bigger Merchant Navy class, but adding extra weight to the smaller West Country locos would have rendered them overweight for the secondary lines that they were designed to work over. There was not a lot wrong with the original smooth case designs, which had poppet valve gear & so on. A bit like a Formula One loco, but needing servicing at specialist centres, not the local Shell garage kind of thing. That was the problem, they needed specialist service centres. So, with the end of steam on the horizon, the decision was made to rebuild the locos into more conventional affairs, that could be serviced at the local Shell garage rather than build new service centres all over the Southern network.