Birmingham New Street and Brettell Road in P4

[Jim S-W]

Sometimes it pays to drop back a gear and just do a few simple things that are not too taxing.   Things like a few simple wagon kits or just some pictures.

And what could be more simple than the good old Airfix mineral wagon kit?  This ones been converted to a diagram 102 variant and weathered with gouache and a hint of AK interactive weathering pencils for the rust.

Next up a mix and match of parkside bits to produce a Hybar.  The rail itself is a neat little etched kit from Rumney Models.

Below a few pictures.

[Dad-1]

I've said it a dozen times before - just brilliant !!
Also proving that some of those old kits and even locos can have a place on the
best of layouts. Just be prepared to "Work them over"
A big thanks Jim for the inspirational photos.

Geoff T.

[Mountain]

I love the black 350hp shunter! For some reason they always looked errily good in black!

[Jim S-W]

Thanks both

[Daniel]

I have just discovered this thread, Jim.
I am too tired to do it now but first thing I'll do in the morning is to go through all 95 pages.
EXCELLENT WORK IN ALL FRONTS!!!

Daniel

[Jim S-W]

Welcome to the thread Daniel. Feel free to ask any questions.

(Apologies in advance that some of the early posts have broken image links)

[Daniel]

Thank you Jim.

Well, yes, after having seen the last pages of this thread I knew what I could expect from seeing it all. That is why the missing photos really hurt.

Don't worry, don't blame yourself, I have found the same in many other threads in every forum.
For a decade I have been getting back to Woodie Green's 170+++ pages thread about his 1/35 scale, 2' gauge Mogollon Railway.
It was some way my 'school' where I've found back the freedom of the kid I had been.
Woody had built Mogollon Ry. as a sectional layout which was permanent displayed in his backyard in Texas. All sections mounted on camera tripods.
It was simply covered with plastic when snow or rain and specially the photos of the layout under half meter snow were impressive. But it always survived everything... until a no joke storm brought down several of the big trees surrounding the yard and that was the end of the layout.
I kept going back to Woodie's thread where all photos remained. But, same as with your thread, one day it was all gone.
You (and therefore also us) are lucky you've lost only the photos.

Your work is anyway astonishing.
Far from my reach, your exquisite finescale modeling combined with a delightful refinement for working with colours are really a pleasure to see.

Thank you for sharing and keep doing so!

Daniel

[Jim S-W]

I haven’t lost the photos. It’s just they were linked to the server my original website was on. When I changed service providers I did keep the old server paid up for a few years but you have to call it a day at some point.

Thanks for your kind words

Cheers

Jim

[sishades]

Is New Street finished?

[Jim S-W]

Nah. It’s a lifetime project so there’s a good chance it never will be. I’ve not even started the eastern approaches yet.

[Jim S-W]

A while ago I showed a picture of a Powsides ED 7 plank wagon.  ED stands for Earl of Dudley and I said at the time that it was a bit early for the layout and that that PR, Pensnett Railway would be more appropriate. A chance discussion on an industrial railway modellers Facebook group revealed that Planet Industrials actually do a set of transfers for PR wagons so a set was duly ordered.

A couple of existing wagons were repainted into red oxide (the 'shunters truck' and a grey 7 plank RCH design) and a couple more RCH wagons were knocked up from good old Parkside kits. I decided to keep the Powsides ED one as it was  (although weathered a bit more to make it look more tatty) and do the shunters truck as ED too in a sort of crossover period.  Ive never found a photo of ED and PR wagons mixed together mind you.

The above train is all very 'corporate' and it wont appear at shows like this.  The PR wagons will be jumbled up among other mineral wagons. One thought I have had though is by making Brettell Road 2 tracks the industrials will look too out of place on the mainline so the plan is to extend the siding the train is on to the fiddleyard and have them appear from behind the warehouse, using the yard as a exchange sidings.


I was intrigued by the recent Oxford rail tank wagons and decided the yellow Carless Petrol version would break up the sea of grey and bauxite wagons on the layout. As with the ED wagons its really a bit to early for Brettell Road so I've weathered it up to look pretty tired.  Theres a few things worth noting with this model. The first is the axle length is odd. Happily its still 2mm and its not odd in a crazy short, Lima way so you can swap P4 wheels onto it and use the original axles. The second thing is that the lettering and the red stripe don't react well to white spirit. If you want to remove them then great but if you use enamel washes thinned with white spirit for any of your weathering, as I do, and you want to preserve the livery its best to give it a quick coat of matt varnish first.

[Dad-1]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the tip regarding white spirit on the Oxford Rail tank.
It looks very convincing have you done anything more than just weathering ?
I'm old fashioned and still use 100% enamel paints.
More interesting stock and superb photos - Thanks.

Geoff T.

[Jim S-W]

Just swapped the wheels and couplings and re-aligned the brakes Geoff

[Jim S-W]

While I've been in a brake van kinda mood I finally got around to improving an old Hornby LMS 20ton version I had and making it a tad more suitable for Brettell Road.

Pretty basic detailing job on this one.


A selection of Midland versions.


Actually this brake van originally came from the Amlwch layout along with the above 47 and 24. Of the three the class 24 is as it was brought. the 47 having been brought a bit more up to date (well 1987 anyway).  I wonder if Amlwch is still around somewhere?


Bit of a different angle.  Let's call this train an internal user?


Haven't done a rainy pic for a while. NBL class 21 nestles between another pair of type 2s.

[Dad-1]

Brake Vans !!
Currently on my LMS Parkside kit and you've made me think "Why didn't I think about adding the safety bars"?
I might just do that now, didn't think about how different & better it makes them look.
Also realised I have 22 various brake vans so perhaps not all will be retro fitted. How did that happen ?

I particularly like your 'Internal User' photograph. These really do give inspiration to others, Thanks.

Geoff T