Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Hi Tony - Typo on my part - now corrected.
Brettell Road, 1960s black country (ish)
- Thread starter Jim S-W
- Start date
Nick C
Western Thunderer
That is my understanding. Also the rigid parts of the vacuum pipes were painted different colours - IIRC white for piped, red for fitted.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
My research seems to indicate that came in a little later probably mid 60s when lamp irons started being painted white.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
My history with milk tanks has been, to an extent unnecessarily convoluted. Originally I planned to build a David Geen kit for a midland one and I got the Rumney Models underframe for it in preparation. However when I came to get the kit from David he only had one left and that was for a GWR one. Justin kindly swapped the chassis kit for me and, as I've mentioned before, doing battle with my collection of bits I ended up with my model of a milk tank.
However the desire for at least one LMS one never went away and for more years than it really should have been I would discuss the idea of doing one using Rumney bits with a Lima tank when I saw Justin at a show. Apparently I wasn't the only one
Well finally, heres what I've come up with, The only bits of the Lima one left are the tank - end supports and filler hatch. The rest is pretty much all Justin with buffers from Lanarkshire models and the tank supports kindly cut for me by Tim Horn.
The diagonal bracing is obviously over-length at the moment. The strapping isn't tight and the ladder is just rested in position until after painting. This seemed much less of a fight than my other one, so much so that I've ordered bits to do another 2.
However the desire for at least one LMS one never went away and for more years than it really should have been I would discuss the idea of doing one using Rumney bits with a Lima tank when I saw Justin at a show. Apparently I wasn't the only one
Well finally, heres what I've come up with, The only bits of the Lima one left are the tank - end supports and filler hatch. The rest is pretty much all Justin with buffers from Lanarkshire models and the tank supports kindly cut for me by Tim Horn.
The diagonal bracing is obviously over-length at the moment. The strapping isn't tight and the ladder is just rested in position until after painting. This seemed much less of a fight than my other one, so much so that I've ordered bits to do another 2.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
A trio of tanks this time starting with...
... the LMS milk tank I featured last time. Now ready for service.
The Bachmann 14t cradle mounted tank wagon. Very much of its time with a very generic (and pretty rubbish if I'm honest) chassis.
Luckily Justin does something a little more refined and very nice to build it is too.
Ready for the brass bits to be painted. The ladder is only loosely in place. The walkway is from my box of useful stuff (I think Stenson models) and the buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.
Still sticking with the theme of tanks but is a slightly dubious way, work in progress on a 96xx tank. I originally picked this up quite cheaply with and idea to include it in my scrap train. Round Oak scrapped quite a few locos, but it didn't take me long to decide to do it as a working loco instead. Especially as a picture of this very loco heading a freight train through Brettell Lane cropped up in my facebook feed.
As far as I can tell this model by Bachmann is an evolution of the Mainline model I've already used to do my 57xx tank, with a later cab and other refinements. All of the handrails are separately fitted but I felt the handrail knobs were way too big so I replaced them with Alan Gibson ones. I reused the long handrail but as its not so wide i had to cut it in half to lose a little from the middle. The sandbox fillers are too far forward as they were repositioned with RT Models linkages but not before the front splasher was cut down in height. A compromise for the over sized flanges on the RTR wheels and something that has entered my 'now I've seen it, i cant unsee it' mindset when looking at model steam locos. Smoke box dart is also Gibson and the lamp irons are from Masokits. I also replaced the pipes on the footplate. Some 96xx had a bracket half way along with i quite liked but unfortunately 9614 was one that didn't.
Rear view. The lamp irons were too high up on the bunker. This is correct for a 57xx but on the 96xx tanks they were lower. I was replacing them anyway. Buffers are Lanarkshire models. I prefer a better detailed solid buffer over a less detailed sprung one.
Drivers side. The pipework just in front of the cab is the same on both sides of the model. Again OK for a 57xx but on the 96xx they were different with a somewhat more barren look on this side. The footplate pipework is also routed differently around the cab footsteps. Chassis will be a high level one with my working inside motion bodge as described here. An unremarkable little tank engine – Part 1
Finally something that you will never see - Brettell road in the sun! It was coming in the shed door and caught my attention.
... the LMS milk tank I featured last time. Now ready for service.
The Bachmann 14t cradle mounted tank wagon. Very much of its time with a very generic (and pretty rubbish if I'm honest) chassis.
Luckily Justin does something a little more refined and very nice to build it is too.
Ready for the brass bits to be painted. The ladder is only loosely in place. The walkway is from my box of useful stuff (I think Stenson models) and the buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.
Still sticking with the theme of tanks but is a slightly dubious way, work in progress on a 96xx tank. I originally picked this up quite cheaply with and idea to include it in my scrap train. Round Oak scrapped quite a few locos, but it didn't take me long to decide to do it as a working loco instead. Especially as a picture of this very loco heading a freight train through Brettell Lane cropped up in my facebook feed.
As far as I can tell this model by Bachmann is an evolution of the Mainline model I've already used to do my 57xx tank, with a later cab and other refinements. All of the handrails are separately fitted but I felt the handrail knobs were way too big so I replaced them with Alan Gibson ones. I reused the long handrail but as its not so wide i had to cut it in half to lose a little from the middle. The sandbox fillers are too far forward as they were repositioned with RT Models linkages but not before the front splasher was cut down in height. A compromise for the over sized flanges on the RTR wheels and something that has entered my 'now I've seen it, i cant unsee it' mindset when looking at model steam locos. Smoke box dart is also Gibson and the lamp irons are from Masokits. I also replaced the pipes on the footplate. Some 96xx had a bracket half way along with i quite liked but unfortunately 9614 was one that didn't.
Rear view. The lamp irons were too high up on the bunker. This is correct for a 57xx but on the 96xx tanks they were lower. I was replacing them anyway. Buffers are Lanarkshire models. I prefer a better detailed solid buffer over a less detailed sprung one.
Drivers side. The pipework just in front of the cab is the same on both sides of the model. Again OK for a 57xx but on the 96xx they were different with a somewhat more barren look on this side. The footplate pipework is also routed differently around the cab footsteps. Chassis will be a high level one with my working inside motion bodge as described here. An unremarkable little tank engine – Part 1
Finally something that you will never see - Brettell road in the sun! It was coming in the shed door and caught my attention.
Nick Rogers
Western Thunderer
Evening Jim,
Lovely stuff, as always.
Just out of interest, what is the size of the layout (length, width and fiddle yard size), please?
Best wishes,
Lovely stuff, as always.
Just out of interest, what is the size of the layout (length, width and fiddle yard size), please?
Best wishes,
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Thanks Nick - the layout is 25 feet overall with 16ft scenic and 2 4ft 6 fiddleyards. The overall width is tricky as its a continuous curve but at shows I ask for 9ft total space including operators area.
Nick Rogers
Western Thunderer
Thanks, Jim. That’s really helpful.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Been doing some final pre show tweaks before Brettell Road heads off to York in a little over a week.
After the last show (nearly a year ago now) there was a little bit of damage picked up. Nothing too major and the kind of job that I intend to get around to at some point but then don't. Case in point this but of fence which got squished.
While working on this area I took the opportunity to add some rudimentary steps to the signal box. Something I meant to do at the start but didn't. I had put the gate in but the poor signaller would break his leg falling off the edge of the platform! There was also a platform light that got bent and thats been repaired and replanted.
Something else that got bashed but didn't actually break is the chimney on the platform shelter. This has very little clearance to the other board when packed up so rather than wait for it to get smushed I decided to make it removable. A few magnets popped into holes and a bit of steel on the roof and hopefully thats a problem averted. I also decided that the roof was a bit too vanilla for a building due to be closed in a week so I've had a look at this area too.
You may remember i talked about distress paint before when I was building the signal box and I've used it again here. For some reason it didn't really crinkle up this time so a wash of Tamiya extra thin cement was painted on to add some more wear and tear. The mossy deposits are AK Interactive dark and light slime with some of their moss deposits.
Next is track cleaning and hoovering before packing the boards away, then the joy that is cleaning wheels!
In an uncharacteristic fit of tidiness I've made a proper box for the road vehicles, removable chimneys and coupling poles. When I say 'made' I mean got a box off ebay for around a tenner and stuck some foam in it!
The saddle mounted tank I featured last time is done and tested.
Finally Railcar W14 waits for the road. The cats are undisturbed by its presence.
yorkshow.org.uk
Info on the York show. Please say hi if you are going.
After the last show (nearly a year ago now) there was a little bit of damage picked up. Nothing too major and the kind of job that I intend to get around to at some point but then don't. Case in point this but of fence which got squished.
While working on this area I took the opportunity to add some rudimentary steps to the signal box. Something I meant to do at the start but didn't. I had put the gate in but the poor signaller would break his leg falling off the edge of the platform! There was also a platform light that got bent and thats been repaired and replanted.
Something else that got bashed but didn't actually break is the chimney on the platform shelter. This has very little clearance to the other board when packed up so rather than wait for it to get smushed I decided to make it removable. A few magnets popped into holes and a bit of steel on the roof and hopefully thats a problem averted. I also decided that the roof was a bit too vanilla for a building due to be closed in a week so I've had a look at this area too.
You may remember i talked about distress paint before when I was building the signal box and I've used it again here. For some reason it didn't really crinkle up this time so a wash of Tamiya extra thin cement was painted on to add some more wear and tear. The mossy deposits are AK Interactive dark and light slime with some of their moss deposits.
Next is track cleaning and hoovering before packing the boards away, then the joy that is cleaning wheels!
In an uncharacteristic fit of tidiness I've made a proper box for the road vehicles, removable chimneys and coupling poles. When I say 'made' I mean got a box off ebay for around a tenner and stuck some foam in it!
The saddle mounted tank I featured last time is done and tested.
Finally Railcar W14 waits for the road. The cats are undisturbed by its presence.
yorkshow.org.uk
Info on the York show. Please say hi if you are going.
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Hi Jim.
Well, I wasn't intending to go as although I've been attending the York Show for years I've become a bit fed up with the parking (or lack of it on any adjacent land) and entrance arrangements which have become a bit of a three ring circus. I like the mix of layouts and scales but the logistics made it a PIA. However, if Brettell Road is going to be there It'll be more than worth making the effort. I'll interrupt you at some time on the Saturday!
Brian
Well, I wasn't intending to go as although I've been attending the York Show for years I've become a bit fed up with the parking (or lack of it on any adjacent land) and entrance arrangements which have become a bit of a three ring circus. I like the mix of layouts and scales but the logistics made it a PIA. However, if Brettell Road is going to be there It'll be more than worth making the effort. I'll interrupt you at some time on the Saturday!
Brian
Herb Garden
Western Thunderer
Brettell road at York? Yippee!
Jordan or Plymouth Mad
Mid-Western Thunderer
Absolutely! Saw it at our local Show last year, the sort of layout you start to run out of superlatives to describe it.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Thanks guys. York is a show I've never done Brian so it's all new to me. There is mention in the exhibitors notes that things are different this year so hopefully there's an improvement. See you there 
Jim
Jim
Herb Garden
Western Thunderer
Wonderful to see Brettell Road at York yesterday
Beautifully atmospheric, a real inspiration!
Beautifully atmospheric, a real inspiration!
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
Over the Easter weekend Brettel Road headed north 3 hours to the York MRC exhibition.
Despite a minor cardiac event at 5pm on the Thursday evening when it looked like the van may not be available due to a medical emergency set up went smoothly. Little did I know what was to come over the next 3 days.
We had problems! The biggie was that the cassettes were still not reliable, to the point where they were the worst they have ever been. Despite this the guys battled on against the layout that was absolutely determined to fight us ever step of the way (thanks again chaps). There was a problem with the main point into the yard behind the station which I did manage to patch up on the Saturday afternoon and the track in the yard under the bridge (of course it was!) had become damaged. Something we didn't notice until a member of the public kindly let us know. The whole show was a mixture of frustration and some degree of embarrassment really that the layout was performing as smoothly as the proverbial bag of nails. Despite all this we did still attract a lot of interest throughout the 3 days and many kind compliments were received along with 4 or possibly 5 requests to take it out to more shows so I guess from the public side of the barrier it didn't seem quite as disastrous as it did to me. Thanks to the guys at York MRC for having us and looking after us so well. The elements of the weekend that didn't involve the layout were great!
Diagnosing the problem
The problem with the cassettes was two fold and wasn't something we could really address at the show. Brettell Road actually has 45 cassettes in total in 3 different sizes.
When I built and tested them originally, I tested them for resistance using the buzzer in my volt meter. What I didn't test was if there was any voltage drop or not. On the left are 3 loco cassettes of the design we had at York showing a voltage drop of over 5 and a half volts or as good as 40%! Little wonder it caused us grief. On the right a revised design tested on 3 cassettes with no loss of volts at all.
A little diagram of my cassette evolution. The top design is what I used on the short version of the layout and that seemed to work fine. As these cassettes were single ended I also fitted a light to them so that we could see that they were electrically connected.
With version 2 I wanted them to be double ended and introduced the idea of smaller loco cassettes. This had 2 effects. While on version 1 the rails were squeezed tightly by the guide rails on the revised version the fit was less positive. The second effect is a loco cassette doubles the number of connections. If everything is really clean they work just fine however in the real word things don't stay really clean for long. Because of the design, the bits I needed to keep clean were hard to get to and the sort of area what would naturally collect dirt and crud. The loose stock rails were also still prone to go the wrong side of the guide wire and I found many had failed at the soldered joint on the third sleeper in exaggerating the problem. I guess my absolute minimal solder approach I use when building kits isn't such a good idea in this application.
The solution is to add contact strips form 0.2mm thick, 5mm wide copper that fold down the front giving a much bigger contact area that, just as importantly is easier to get to to keep clean. I also reduced the length of the rails that stick out and soldered the loose rail to an extra sleeper so it doesn't move as much. The cassettes are kept in compression when on the layout by a simple peg (actually cheap, small screwdrivers) fitted into holes drilled into the baseboards.
Now this is a bit belt and braces but on an exhibition layout thats never a bad thing. Rather than just rely on the springiness of the copper strips I drilled holes behind them and fitted a couple of spring (actually springs from smiths coupling hooks that id been saving for some unknown reason).
Before and after. The little side parts that hole the cassette 'buffer stops' were still causing problems so I've decided to remove them completely and redesign the stops.
I also took the opportunity to move the cassettes back a little and extend the lead in roads as we were having derailments coming onto the layout at both ends. This may have been the cassettes or it may have been something else. Originally I had check rails here but tests of the new sections without them is making me think they were unnecessary.
Despite a minor cardiac event at 5pm on the Thursday evening when it looked like the van may not be available due to a medical emergency set up went smoothly. Little did I know what was to come over the next 3 days.
We had problems! The biggie was that the cassettes were still not reliable, to the point where they were the worst they have ever been. Despite this the guys battled on against the layout that was absolutely determined to fight us ever step of the way (thanks again chaps). There was a problem with the main point into the yard behind the station which I did manage to patch up on the Saturday afternoon and the track in the yard under the bridge (of course it was!) had become damaged. Something we didn't notice until a member of the public kindly let us know. The whole show was a mixture of frustration and some degree of embarrassment really that the layout was performing as smoothly as the proverbial bag of nails. Despite all this we did still attract a lot of interest throughout the 3 days and many kind compliments were received along with 4 or possibly 5 requests to take it out to more shows so I guess from the public side of the barrier it didn't seem quite as disastrous as it did to me. Thanks to the guys at York MRC for having us and looking after us so well. The elements of the weekend that didn't involve the layout were great!
Diagnosing the problem
The problem with the cassettes was two fold and wasn't something we could really address at the show. Brettell Road actually has 45 cassettes in total in 3 different sizes.
When I built and tested them originally, I tested them for resistance using the buzzer in my volt meter. What I didn't test was if there was any voltage drop or not. On the left are 3 loco cassettes of the design we had at York showing a voltage drop of over 5 and a half volts or as good as 40%! Little wonder it caused us grief. On the right a revised design tested on 3 cassettes with no loss of volts at all.
A little diagram of my cassette evolution. The top design is what I used on the short version of the layout and that seemed to work fine. As these cassettes were single ended I also fitted a light to them so that we could see that they were electrically connected.
With version 2 I wanted them to be double ended and introduced the idea of smaller loco cassettes. This had 2 effects. While on version 1 the rails were squeezed tightly by the guide rails on the revised version the fit was less positive. The second effect is a loco cassette doubles the number of connections. If everything is really clean they work just fine however in the real word things don't stay really clean for long. Because of the design, the bits I needed to keep clean were hard to get to and the sort of area what would naturally collect dirt and crud. The loose stock rails were also still prone to go the wrong side of the guide wire and I found many had failed at the soldered joint on the third sleeper in exaggerating the problem. I guess my absolute minimal solder approach I use when building kits isn't such a good idea in this application.
The solution is to add contact strips form 0.2mm thick, 5mm wide copper that fold down the front giving a much bigger contact area that, just as importantly is easier to get to to keep clean. I also reduced the length of the rails that stick out and soldered the loose rail to an extra sleeper so it doesn't move as much. The cassettes are kept in compression when on the layout by a simple peg (actually cheap, small screwdrivers) fitted into holes drilled into the baseboards.
Now this is a bit belt and braces but on an exhibition layout thats never a bad thing. Rather than just rely on the springiness of the copper strips I drilled holes behind them and fitted a couple of spring (actually springs from smiths coupling hooks that id been saving for some unknown reason).
Before and after. The little side parts that hole the cassette 'buffer stops' were still causing problems so I've decided to remove them completely and redesign the stops.
I also took the opportunity to move the cassettes back a little and extend the lead in roads as we were having derailments coming onto the layout at both ends. This may have been the cassettes or it may have been something else. Originally I had check rails here but tests of the new sections without them is making me think they were unnecessary.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
[youtube]85CAX-2niB88DF4P[/youtube]
Rather OTT test of the my revised fiddleyard at the station end. In reality trains will only ever be pulled from this direction and not pushed.
Rather OTT test of the my revised fiddleyard at the station end. In reality trains will only ever be pulled from this direction and not pushed.
Jim smith-wright
Western Thunderer
In a couple of weeks i will be heading back to Crewe for Scalefour Crewe 2025. This time I will be there demonstrating my approach to building steam locos. Who would have thought I'd be getting up to something like that a decade ago?