Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
- luckymucklebackit
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Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Inadvertently fully post of the year!
This Signature Left Intentionally Blank, but since I have written this and I intended to do it, this Signature is intentionally not blank. Paradox or What?
My layout - Gateside and Northbridge
My layout - Gateside and Northbridge
- luckymucklebackit
- Posts: 3712
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Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Corrected!luckymucklebackit wrote:Inadvertently funny post of the year!
This Signature Left Intentionally Blank, but since I have written this and I intended to do it, this Signature is intentionally not blank. Paradox or What?
My layout - Gateside and Northbridge
My layout - Gateside and Northbridge
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Here you gom.levin wrote: You any photos of your wet patches under good lighting?
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
With 2017 drawing to a close I have also (nearly) finished off the road vehicles I will need for Brettell Road. Despite having 5 bridges over the railway I've resisted the urge to do any buses to put on them and I also haven't done any cars either.
Above is the latest and last batch.
Starting with some kits. On the left a resin Ford Thames 400E from Road Transport Images and on the right a white metal ex military Austin 3 ton dropside from MMS. Unfortunately MMS have now closed so this kit is no longer available.
I found this part built Langley models kit on eBay for next to no money. Its a 45cD tractor unit from the very late 30's and once disassembling the more sketchily assembled bits I decided that it once belonged to one of the business owners. Some sort of engine fire meant it got dumped but with the intention to restore it to its former glory. However it ended up forgotten and is now rotting away. The tarp is from a black latex glove and I attacked the inside of the front mud guard with a burr in a minidrill to depict the rust working its way through. The rear mud guard is hanging on for dear life as well and some parts have now long gone.
Finally a Leyland Steer from a combination of base toys bits. I find these lorries quite intriguing with their (to my mind) odd wheel arrangement. The base toys Steer has a different cab to this so I swapped it from an '8 legger' box van. If you look at the inset picture you can see that I've widened the wheel arches and reprofiled the front windows to get something looking more like the pictures I found of the real vehicles. I could have done more with the chassis but where its going you wont see it. Wheels are from Road transport images.
Above is the latest and last batch.
Starting with some kits. On the left a resin Ford Thames 400E from Road Transport Images and on the right a white metal ex military Austin 3 ton dropside from MMS. Unfortunately MMS have now closed so this kit is no longer available.
I found this part built Langley models kit on eBay for next to no money. Its a 45cD tractor unit from the very late 30's and once disassembling the more sketchily assembled bits I decided that it once belonged to one of the business owners. Some sort of engine fire meant it got dumped but with the intention to restore it to its former glory. However it ended up forgotten and is now rotting away. The tarp is from a black latex glove and I attacked the inside of the front mud guard with a burr in a minidrill to depict the rust working its way through. The rear mud guard is hanging on for dear life as well and some parts have now long gone.
Finally a Leyland Steer from a combination of base toys bits. I find these lorries quite intriguing with their (to my mind) odd wheel arrangement. The base toys Steer has a different cab to this so I swapped it from an '8 legger' box van. If you look at the inset picture you can see that I've widened the wheel arches and reprofiled the front windows to get something looking more like the pictures I found of the real vehicles. I could have done more with the chassis but where its going you wont see it. Wheels are from Road transport images.
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
those look amazing, excellent work! Especially like the Octopus, great looking machine!
- Bufferstop
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Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Hi Jim, the twin front axles were the result of tyre technology not being able to keep up with the rest of the vehicle. A front tyre blow out could be particularly dangerous so an extra pair of wheels under the cab was always welcome. A blow out at the rear wasn't so dangerous and many larger vehicles had twin wheels on the rear. When Midland Red started its B'ham to London service via the M1 there was a lot of comment about the fact that they only had two front wheels on their coaches and what would happen when the tyres gave out. The answer was fairly simple the tyres were over specified and changed after a couple of weeks service, being handed down to less demanding services. The tyre swap was probably done at the same time as the engine was swapped. They routinely changed cylinder liners and bearing shells to combat the wear from what was a punishing utilisation of a fairly ordinary engine. The three axle design seemed to be abandoned in the early sixties, the last sighting of one for me and probably most people of my age was the coach that starred in the Italian Job, which wasn't exactly state of the art when the film was made.
Growing old, can't avoid it. Growing up, forget it!
My Layout, My Workbench Blog and My Opinions
My Layout, My Workbench Blog and My Opinions
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Thanks. That explains it then
Jim
Jim
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Thanks JimJim S-W wrote:Here you gom.levin wrote: You any photos of your wet patches under good lighting?
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Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Nearly right John. The original idea for the twin steer such as the Leyland Steer, known amongst us drivers as a Chinese six, was so that as deliveries were made throughout the day, the front axle (single) didn't end up being overloaded. I've always thought this was a better design than a six wheeler with a single steer and two rear/driving axles or what we called a dead end kid with which you could get dry bogged (drive axle hanging in mid air over a gutter while the dead end kid supported the weight). I did my time working on Leylands and Albions, plus a few others part of which was stripping down the steers to the chassis for 3 yearly overhauls. They left us better than new... they were run in.
Pete.
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Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Pete I've never heard that explanation in relation to the lorries, but it makes sense, for passenger vehicles I'm sure the safety aspect was the deciding factor as loading was more random.
I came across the suspended driving axle problem, one of our neighbours when I was growing up, was a partner in a company which specialised in third axle conversions, (adding an extra supporting axle on an extension frame behind the driven axle). He would often come round to bounce ideas of my father who was working on vehicle transmission systems. I think at one stage they were looking at a modified differential to allow the through driveshaft, technically possible but an expense too far for the majority of their customers.
I came across the suspended driving axle problem, one of our neighbours when I was growing up, was a partner in a company which specialised in third axle conversions, (adding an extra supporting axle on an extension frame behind the driven axle). He would often come round to bounce ideas of my father who was working on vehicle transmission systems. I think at one stage they were looking at a modified differential to allow the through driveshaft, technically possible but an expense too far for the majority of their customers.
Growing old, can't avoid it. Growing up, forget it!
My Layout, My Workbench Blog and My Opinions
My Layout, My Workbench Blog and My Opinions
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Nearly all heavy trucks over here are bogie drive (double drive over there) and the driver can select diff lock so that the single driven axle has both wheels driving, or they can lock all four drive wheels to get out of trouble. I used to do a drop to a place where I had to use the cross lock every time to get out of where I'd been due to it being a reverse downhill on slippery ground and a drive out uphill. Can't use it on hard surface for long because it ties up, but good when it's soft or really slippery. A drawback is trying to go round corners with the cross lock on. They don't like it up 'em Mr Mainwaring.
Pete.
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Interesting discussion. Stuff that will one day be lost history.
Tony
Tony
Men with false teeth may yet speak the truth.......
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Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
I'm going back a bit here but the bridges you've used are magic and once again evoke my memories of the dying convulsions of the area's industrial past when I was a young'un in the 90s.
The Brettell Lane bridge was rebuilt in 2003 to a modern concrete design, but the other bridges largely remain with their painted iron(?) parapets which you've captured beautifully.
As I always say, the affinity I draw to what was around the Brettell Lane/Bull Street area from your work is the best bit for me, even if you're not specifically trying to replicate it.
EDIT: Of course if I'd read the captions underneath rather than be blinded by the joy of them, I'd have noted that's exactly what you modelled them on
The Brettell Lane bridge was rebuilt in 2003 to a modern concrete design, but the other bridges largely remain with their painted iron(?) parapets which you've captured beautifully.
As I always say, the affinity I draw to what was around the Brettell Lane/Bull Street area from your work is the best bit for me, even if you're not specifically trying to replicate it.
EDIT: Of course if I'd read the captions underneath rather than be blinded by the joy of them, I'd have noted that's exactly what you modelled them on
Re: Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4
Thanks Dave
Glad you are enjoying it. If you are still in the area the layout will appear at the Cradley show in October.
Jim
Glad you are enjoying it. If you are still in the area the layout will appear at the Cradley show in October.
Jim