Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

a few pictures from my under construction model of Birmingham New Street and its eastern approaches.

Enjoy

Jim

[live-frog]

Very impressive Jim. From photos that I've seen on your few previous posts , the layout oozes quality for me.
How far on are you with the whole layout project ?

Regards
Ron

[B McG]

Hi Jim,
For a long moment I thought I was looking at the real thing! That is some superb modelling in P4.

I hadn't realised how far you've gotten on this layout, it's nice to see you on this forum too. I did see it on RM web and drooled lots as well as privately wishing I had the skill to construct something that looked so good.
How long will it be until New street is close to completion?

[Jim S-W]

Thanks Chaps

Me and 3 friends are building the fiddleyard. All of the woodwork is done and all of the straight track laid. All of one end pointwork is laid and a start has been made on the pointwork for the center and the other end.

A couple of in progress pics of the fiddleyard follow. There are some BIG points in the fiddleyard. Over 4ft long





These 2 images are copyright Tim Horn

My three friends are helping build the woodwork for the front too and a third of the total woodwork is done. This covers the station area from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth. This is 22 feet. Most of the track for the station area is laid and scenic work is progressing from the wolverhampton end.

This is an older picture of the wolves end station throat.



New Street is one of 3 layouts we are building that share the fiddleyard. Calcutta Sidings 2 will be out first. New street will be at least 20 years away

Cheers

Jim

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

I have been weathering my signal box! It now looks far more like the depressingly filthy thing it was in the 80's!





I couldn't resist a bit of photoshoppery on this one!



Cheers

Jim

[ste234]

Wow that is some fiddle-yard
If only it was N gauge
Keep it up mate,
Ste

[Zunnan]

I cannot wait to see that shopped view of the box repeated once the wires go up! If you didn't know New Street at all, you'd seriously have to do a double take at those last photos, and probably a few more takes before realising that this is 4mm scale!

[beerandpies]

I was a first rate lurker on RMweb and saw this one quite a bit, it's utterly stunning modelling. Things like this are the reason I never completely gave up hope on giving the whole hobby a go, even when people around me said I should find another hobby. Very inspirational and great to see a few pics here on NRM.

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

I have been aware for a while i have been more of a truck modeller than a railway modeller! So in an effort to do something about it I have turned my attention to some long started projects that are actually trains!

One such project is my Class 120 DMU from a Craftsmann Kit on a lima base. More work needed on the chassis yet and the all important weathering but at least theres a little progress to show!



Cheers

Jim

[Graham Warren]

Another superb layout to drool over !

Please keep the updates coming as and when you can

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

As I mentioned in the pic of the class 120 there is work to do on the underframe. The Craftsmann kit includes parts for the center car but it is assumed the driving cars will be left as per the Lima originals. However the 120 and 117 underframe do look quite a bit different.



The Lima chassis with most of the bits removed. I left the battery boxes, engines and heaters in place. Save the bits you cut off - some need to go back on in a different place. I have swapped the buffers since the earlier pics and fitted my buffer mounts with steps but removed the lamp irons. They are mounted on the body of a class 120.



The revised chassis with a pretty much standard lima chassis at the top (it has had its bogies swapped to Hornby ones though). Various bits have been relocated and some bits knocked up from scratch. The solebars on a class 120 are a smidge deeper too so I have overlaid them with Microstrip. The most prominent difference is the large tanks in the center of the vehicles. It is these that give the 120 chassis an obvious different look.

Cheers

Jim

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

On to buses for a moment.

The thing with the EFE Leyland national Mk2 is the front is too flat and the Mk2 (like the mk1) is heavily rivetted. I replaced the front on mine with one from Pirate models and the rivets were done using the Archers rivet decals. Makes a big difference to the look IMHO



Cheers

Jim

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

My class 120 is now at the nearly there stage, Its took a long time to get here as the model has sat, nearly finished for a good few years! A light weathering to the body has been done, just the underframe and gangways to finish now.



Cheers

Jim

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

Another project thats sat in the 'half started' pile nearly as long as the 120 is this Mk2c



Built from a combination of an old Mainline Mk2d and etched sides from A1 models

Cheers

Jim

[Jim S-W]

Hi All

A few new piccies, both of good old Lima stuff





I still think the Lima 31 has something about it that the Hornby one just seems to miss.

Cheers

Jim