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SEPTEMBER 2021 UPDATE
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HYWEL THOMAS
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PETE JOHNSON
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GREG BROOKES
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JONNY DUFFETT
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KARL CROWTHER
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KIER HARDY
After a few months scenic work the next task was tackling some of the wagon fleets that still
needed completing. First up were the steelworks internal users that will be in traffic between
BSC and the scrapyard. The first pair were from a fleet BSC built using the underframes of some
of their LNER-style internal hoppers. Two sets of chassis parts were ordered from Peco and the
first task was beefing up the springs then building the chunky box bodies. The design was
notable for the heavily riveted bodywork and so the long and arduous task of adding them began...
well over 600 for the pair! Here is the first to be completed.
And here we see the pair after a unifying coat of primer. The beefed up springs work well
along with the increased depth of the solebar, which was deeper than the railway-operated
versions of the coal hopper donor wagons.
The other wagon of the two shows the opposite side of the wagon with the LNER brakegear very
obvious. With these two ready for painting the next task was the ex-BR 16-ton mineral wagons that
ran alongside these purpose built wagons.
This shows the fleet about half-way through the build. Also visible are several of the iron ore
tippler style wagons that were purpose built in the 1950s for the Steel Company of Wales. The
main difference body-wise were additional fillets under the top lip. The 16-tonners are a mix
of Airfix and Parkside kits along with a spare Bachmann RTR example.
The rest of the batch. Despite appearing many decades ago the venerable Airfix model is still one
of my favourite wagon kits to build (with a few modification to get things to fit well). While
some of them were from long-stashed unbuilt kit pile (two had 29p price stickers on them!), the
others came from examples that had first graced my 00 gauge layout and were built when I was
around 12! After decades sat in the loft the old Airfix cement had gone brittle so I was able
to salvage enough undamaged parts to make up another half dozen wagons.
All the BSC 16-ton fleet were very heavily re-plated with yet more rivets. Every single wagon
was different in some way. Almost all had lost their side doors and some, as this example, had
also lost their end door. Just to add to the fun, the markings were also different on every example.
This was one of the wagons built from salvaged Airfix bits. It was also an earlier variant without
top flaps and had also gained a tie-bar along with both welded and riveted repairs. This one
retained the side drop doors although they were welded shut.
Once complete the next task was a very severe base coat of rust – here is most of the fleet
awaiting the next stage – some very battered liveries.
Here we see the 14 completed wagons after some very heavy weathering using a whole host of paints
and military modelling products. Many of BSC’s fleet featured crudely painted yellow identifying
panels (usually with hand painted tonnage markings) and also the brake levers were painted white.
Although the numbering system was consistent the markings for each wagon certainly were not so
replicating the look of the fleet was a challenge.
Some examples of the 16-ton fleet – 1077 has a plated drop door, a reinforcing plate running
along the entire bottom edge and has also lost its end door. Replacement plates appeared to have
received only one coat of paint and this had soon vanished. Riveted 1007 has also lost the drop
doors and gained some plating but still has an end door.
Former hopper 2282 featured a host of lettering but, like 1013, had not gained tonnage markings
on the yellow panels. The latter has lost both side doors and top flaps plus replacement ‘T’
sections to the door stanchions and additional fillets along the solebar.
Finally 1112 (once B37349) as described earlier has less modifications than most and also
featured rather less lettering than some. Sister 1044 (previously B577573 and condemned in 1965)
is a Bachmann model and still retains the side door but sealed and riveted to an internal plate.
I’ve still a box of salvaged Airfix parts so, if I feel inspired, a few more may join the rather
battered fleet in the future...but I’m having a rest from rivets for a while now!
This month brings a selection of Canada Street photos recalling some of the shunter types
associated with Birkenhead docks during the BR diesel years. The first, and perhaps most
characteristic, was this strange looking Hudswell Clark 0-6-0 design with its origins in
LMS times. A production batch of 10 built for BR were all delivered new to Birkenhead
Mollington Street depot during the mid-1950s.
The locos worked the Birkenhead dock traffic for just over a decade, retaining their original
black paintwork throughout. A few, D2502 included, had wasp stripes added during 1966.
The curved cab back gave the stripes a rather psychedelic look from some angles – very much
in keeping with the pop culture of the time!
As early as 1961 examples of the BR Class 03 began arriving new at the depot to bolster the
available diesel fleet, an association that was to last more than a quarter of a century.
D2027 is representative of the type, although never in truth allocated to Birkenhead.
D2027 is pictured again as it moves across the plank crossing….
….and buffers up to a Highfit wagon. The lamp and shunter’s pole are typical footplate
clutter for a loco at work.
A final view from 1966 as D2502 rests between tasks. The Hudswell fleet were distributed to
several other locations during 1967, perhaps in the hope of sales into industry, but this
was not to be and all ten had been scrapped before the decade was out.
Moving into the early years of the 1970s, the area still had some remarkable survivors at
work. The Class 11 0-6-0 (forerunner of the Class 08 & 09) again had its origins with the LMS,
but the creation of BR saw many of the order built and delivered into BR ownership. 12051 was
an early example completed during the brief period before the newly formed British Railways
had designed itself a badge. The loco is seen stabled after arriving at the yard with a
local trip freight.
The Class 03s were now the sole BR type working the tightly curved dock lines. 2135 freshly
repainted blue shows a typical appearance for the time.
2135 is seen again with some work-weary 16 tonners.
The loco shunts back into the yard mouth in this wider view.
On a different day the loco is pictured propelling three empty coal wagons around the dock branch curve.
12051 is seen again in the worn original livery, overpainted with the BR lion-on-unicycle badge.
The loco never received a re-paint during its 23 year life span.
A fine portrait view of 12051 as it waits to depart. 1971 was to bring withdrawl for most of
the class, although a few lingered into 1972. Several went on to find new work with industrial
owners and thereby surviving into preservation.
The final picture in this sequence takes us into the late 1970s. The 03s are still hard at work,
but now carrying TOPS numbers. Traffic in the docks is declining, but grain deliveries to the
Spillers Home Pride flour mill were to continue into the late 1980s using the BRT 35 ton wagons.
Dock trips were still street running across shared road and rail bascule lifting bridges as late
as 1988, but rail traffic was to end soon after…..
I've had the opportunity to finish, paint and decorate a few of Jonny Duffett's new 3D test prints,
including a couple of Palbrick-P wagons, converted to carry strip coil on wooden bolsters.
The drawings also include other body styles for freightliner match wagons,
eye-to-sky coil conversions, and in use as brick wagons.
Palbrick P wagons mixed with other coil carrying wagons on the branch line to the steelworks.
The first of the free downloads can be found here on
Thingiverse with 12 designs available, and growing.
Another couple of Jonny's prints painted and finished are these 21 ton Conflat LD wagons
with LD type containers used for carrying Dolomite (a form of limestone).
A crane was used to lift the containers using the large oval hole on the top.
A train leaving the steelworks exchange sidings. It was common practice for the guard to have
the bars up on the rear verandah and use for observation, the front verandah with bars down
being used to get on and off without the chance of banging one's head.
Another project on the drawing board is for a cut-down cab for the Class 03. In reality there
was only 4.5 inches difference in height (1.5mm @ 4mm scale) but it was noticable with regard
to the position of the windows and doors. The first painted cab (with faint lines drawn in for
the diagonal stripes) stands next to a standard Bachmann cab. The far right example has the
cab end fittings included for the multi-working pipes, as on 03145. Click on the image to view the
Class 03 details page of this website where both the cut-down and standard locos are featured.
The drawing and printing process isn't always smooth running. This particular diagram of Flatrol
was chosen because there were 10 of them built, but unfortunately no known photo exists of one, so
the finish on this test piece is purely guesswork. The incorrect axleboxes have also been redrawn,
so a library of files can be used to fit different brakes and other fittings to various wagons.
Click here to see the current designs available at
Thingiverse 3D download website.
A major milestone has been reached this month in that I can now run all the way to Kendal!
This image is a genuine record of the very first ‘works’ train on arrival at the station.
Being on DC at this point it only seemed fitting that the duty should be performed by the
ex-LMS 3F ‘Jinty’ from the original layout, which has been used as the test loco throughout the build.
After the first train, the layout was then switched to DCC mode and the first passenger
working was made by the Class 108 DMU, again another stalwart of the original layout. It’s seen
here at Platform 1 at Kendal, ready to depart back to Arnside.
Further aspects of the layout have also been coming together in that all of the block
instruments have been sited and again, are all fully functioning. I have John Elliott and
Richard Challis to thank for their contribution to this part of the project. Here we see
the combined Heversham/Natland set-up, sited on a block shelf above the layout. The two
track diagrams will eventually be sited on a board suspended from the ceiling, so as to
allow a better view of the layout beyond. As I think I’ve mentioned before, these two
junctions, being so close together and both sited within the fiddle yard, in practical
terms they form two halves of the one signal box.
The Arnside block instruments (seen here) have been mounted directly onto the baseboard surface
– in reality they will be right alongside where the Kendal backscene commences.
And at Kendal, the BI’s are mounted also on the baseboard, temporarily until scenic work
commences, when some sort of block shelf arrangement will be called for. You can see I’ve
been unpacking quite a few boxes of RTR coaches. For the time being all I’ve done is to fit
EM wheel s plus couplings at the end of rakes. Corridor connections, within rake couplings,
cosmetic work and weathering etc. can follow at a later stage.
I’ve also built the small additional board that will site the storage area loco turntable.
A Peco one will be used at this (non-scenic) location. Given its location it will probably
come under the duties of the Kendal signaller.
Progress also at the quarry location. Here I’ve laid a temporary length of track that will
at least allow trains to perform the basics of shunting moves here so that the operating
sequence can be trialled, even if it’s going to be just the one set of stock that forms this working.
And lastly, the loco sector plate at Marthwaite, though it still needs something to stop locos
running off the end! So, having had something like 6 months of fiddling with the wiring, which I
have to admit I’ve found tiresome and frustrating at times, this month the project seems to have
suddenly leapt forward with several elements coming together. I need to sort out a few more basic
trains, but hopefully not too far off some test-running of the actual operating sequence…..
The pointwork has been completed and commissioned in the Down Sidings area, with roads 1 to 5
being used to stable fixed rakes of Parcels, Departmental and Withdrawn stock. A Class 25
with Class 08s in tow leaves the storage yard on the Up Fast route. In the background can be
seen sidings 8 to 11, which accomodate stock of 6 and 7 car formations. The right side of this
image shows the remainder of the pointwork and the connection to the main storage yard.
Back on the scenic side of the layout, Hymek D7039 (from the Shenston Road fleet) is captured with
a short mixed freight passing under the new footbridge during its construction.
Being of latice construction, it still allows a
good view of the station without blocking it out. Utilising a pair of
LCUT Creative laser-cut kits this footbridge spans all the tracks and has no railway
connection - apart from it being a good vantage point to watch the passing trains!
The semaphore signal beyond the footbridge was built to a low design to aid sighting from under
Bridge Street (when it was here), so instead the footbridge justifies the size and type of the
Midland Railway junction signal.
I used a length of compressed fibre-board for the main decking, with styrene outriggers and brass
wire diagonal supports to secure it all together. The 3D printed support columns from the kits
have been lengthened and secured to the bridge with further structural support.
A few figures have been added to the bridge, including a father with his 2 young sons, and the usual
group of spotters at a good vantage point hoping for something different to pass through this evening.
