Hi Folks;
I'm part of a small gang building an OO model of Horfield station circa 1960, pretty much "full size" , i.e. a 35 foot by 12 foot roundy roundy. We've acquired a fair bit of reference material over the last couple of years; from this site, the relevant Middleton press books etc., but are always on the lookout for more.
Anyone who has any images / useful info they'd be willing to share then please post here or e-mail me :-
spamcan61 ( at ) lycos.co.uk
Cheers!
P.S. I've been browsing thsi site for a couple of years now, only noticed this Forum today...D'oh!
newbie alert : Modelling Horfield
Re: newbie alert : Modelling Horfield
Sounds interesting! Are you building it on a hill as per the prototype?spamcan wrote: I'm part of a small gang building an OO model of Horfield station circa 1960, pretty much "full size" , i.e. a 35 foot by 12 foot roundy roundy.
As you've been researching the area... have you ever found any pics of the goods yard that used to be on the site of what is now B&Q at Muller Road? Or pics of the gasworks just south of Horfield? I've been looking for ages and found nothing![/quote]spamcan wrote: We've acquired a fair bit of reference material over the last couple of years; from this site, the relevant Middleton press books etc., but are always on the lookout for more.
Happens a lot!spamcan wrote:P.S. I've been browsing thsi site for a couple of years now, only noticed this Forum today...D'oh!
(actually, the forum wasn't here earlier today, it had been hacked by some Turkish idiot. Once back online I kept a beady eye on a person registering with 'spam' in his name until you made your post!) 
Re: newbie alert : Modelling Horfield
I edited that as there are little computers out there scanning the net for any e-mail addresses they can find to add to their databases...the next thing you know your inbox is full of spam, and not the sort that comes in an air-smoothed chain-driven can!spamcan wrote:spamcan61 ( at ) lycos.co.uk
Bulleid power!
Ashley Hill Goods Yard
Hah ha 
I can give you all the info you want about Ashley Hill Goods Yard - I grew up in it! Alas no pictures though ...
Here's the basics. The entrance to the yard was just on the down side of Ashley Hill signal box and was controlled by a double semaphore signal situated on the up relief line side between Ashley Hill station and Muller Road. One sempahore for the yard and the main one for the up relief. Behind the signal box at the top of the yard throat was a double turnout diamond crossover leading in one direction to the yard entrance and loco shunt road and in the other (heading down the side of the embankment) to the reception line and the runround line. The loco headshunt always amused me, because the buffers were hard up against the Muller Road bridge and it must have been about a 40ft drop onto Muller Road. I often saw a Hymek or North Brit perched precariously on the top of the bank above Muller Road. Woe betide any driver that pushed the buffer stops off!
Anyhow, at the end of the reception lines was a long headshunt that ran almost to Lockleaze bridge, in a deepening cutting next to the main line embankment. You can still get there today and see the remains of this cutting if you can get through the undergrowth from Lockleaze Bridge.
To the yard proper, and from the bottom of the recption roads, heading in a reverse direction, the yard split first into two roads heading back in the Muller Road direction. Each of these roads split again into two groups of two sidings.
Traffic: The first road (nearest the main line) was for coal only and next to this were the individual coal merchants storage areas (made out of old sleeper walls) and at the end of this road there was a ramshackle selection of huts, where the coal merchants had a few offices and the railway housed "the checker". Checker Bill was an ancient man (in 1968 when I think the yard finally closed - various sources say earlier but I can remember different) and it was his job to label the wagons for return trips and record the incoming loads etc. for invoicing. He always made me welcome in his office, the stove was always going (even in summer) and there was always a cup of tea.
The other three roads were only ever in my time used for brick traffic for The London Brick Company, who had a distinctive fleet of red lorries. The bricks apparently came from Peterborough. That company's offices were at the bottom of the ramp leading up to the yard, where there was also a weighbridge (just where the entrance to B&Q is now). These offices were of wodden board construction and were still painted GWR chocolate and cream.
The yard therefore had a strange ground surface; black from the coal on road number 1 and red from the brick dust on roads 2-4. The wagons present were 16T mineral wagons for the coal and 4 or 5 plank wagons for brick. I guess in earlier days there must have been general traffic, but in the 60's brick and coal were all we ever saw.
My earliest memories of the yard were when it was shunted by an ex-GWR pannier, but post '64, it was exclusively the job of Hymek's and North Brits (D7XXX and D 63XX). Regular performers were D6319 and D7018 (strange, as I now work on this very loco for the DEPG on the WSR!).
The yard was worked every morning except Sunday at about 8am and sometimes again at about 4 in the afternoon. The trip freights came from the larger yard at Lawrence Hill and worked via the yard at Stapleton Road, that dealt mainly with scrap metal. Usually Ashley Hill was the final leg of the trip, with the empties returning back to Lawrence Hill, but occasionally the train worked on to Pilning Low Level or Severn Tunnel Junction/Newport or Stoke Gifford. As far as I recall, traffic for the coal yard at Filton was never included in this trip, Filton being served by it's own trip working.
There were usually two shunters, called Bert and George, who were real old characters. They lived in the shunters hut at Lawrence Hill under the old Midland main line - the hut is still there, with the door bricked up. I used to get the number 83 bus from Ashley Hill yard to Lawrence Hill and sit in the hut and drink tea with them. It was a great place for me as a kid, with the resident '03 ticking over outside, Westerns, Warships, 47's, Hymeks and North Brits thundering by on the main and relief lines through Lawrence Hill and Peak's storming by overhead on the bridge with their Birmingham trains. On several occasions, having been invited into the guards van at Ashley Hill, I didn't need the bus if the driver was in a hurry. Bert had to call my mother once and explain how I'd ended up in Newport with them! I was 8 years old ...
The great flood of August '68 caused some problems at the yard and I seem to recall this event as being connected with the end of traffic at the yard. I watched from my bedroom window in Ralph Road that night and can plainly remember seeing a Warship with a parcels train shunted into the yard - I don't know what the problem was on the main line, but in the morning the train was gone. As I made my regular Saturday morning pilgrimage over to the yard after the storm, I remember the whole landscape as being changed. The stream that runs between the yard and the bus depot had turned into a raging torrent and much of the play areas I had grown up in had been completely washed away. A changed landscape that had quite an effect on me as a kid.
I told Bert and George that a train had been in their yard the night before and they refused to believe me. Anyhow, after that night, traffic seemed to soon stop coming to the yard and it was eventually cleared of wagons. I don't remember how long it survived, but it was probably recovered during the 1970's resignalling. I do remember one Sunday morning the sempahore signals being ripped from the ground and dumped like so much rubbish onto the recovery train and the unceremonious demolition of Ashely Hill signal box.
I was also a regular visitor to Ashley Hill box, but that, as they say, is another story
Hope these memories are of some interest/use to you. Any more questions, fire them on ...
I can give you all the info you want about Ashley Hill Goods Yard - I grew up in it! Alas no pictures though ...
Here's the basics. The entrance to the yard was just on the down side of Ashley Hill signal box and was controlled by a double semaphore signal situated on the up relief line side between Ashley Hill station and Muller Road. One sempahore for the yard and the main one for the up relief. Behind the signal box at the top of the yard throat was a double turnout diamond crossover leading in one direction to the yard entrance and loco shunt road and in the other (heading down the side of the embankment) to the reception line and the runround line. The loco headshunt always amused me, because the buffers were hard up against the Muller Road bridge and it must have been about a 40ft drop onto Muller Road. I often saw a Hymek or North Brit perched precariously on the top of the bank above Muller Road. Woe betide any driver that pushed the buffer stops off!
Anyhow, at the end of the reception lines was a long headshunt that ran almost to Lockleaze bridge, in a deepening cutting next to the main line embankment. You can still get there today and see the remains of this cutting if you can get through the undergrowth from Lockleaze Bridge.
To the yard proper, and from the bottom of the recption roads, heading in a reverse direction, the yard split first into two roads heading back in the Muller Road direction. Each of these roads split again into two groups of two sidings.
Traffic: The first road (nearest the main line) was for coal only and next to this were the individual coal merchants storage areas (made out of old sleeper walls) and at the end of this road there was a ramshackle selection of huts, where the coal merchants had a few offices and the railway housed "the checker". Checker Bill was an ancient man (in 1968 when I think the yard finally closed - various sources say earlier but I can remember different) and it was his job to label the wagons for return trips and record the incoming loads etc. for invoicing. He always made me welcome in his office, the stove was always going (even in summer) and there was always a cup of tea.
The other three roads were only ever in my time used for brick traffic for The London Brick Company, who had a distinctive fleet of red lorries. The bricks apparently came from Peterborough. That company's offices were at the bottom of the ramp leading up to the yard, where there was also a weighbridge (just where the entrance to B&Q is now). These offices were of wodden board construction and were still painted GWR chocolate and cream.
The yard therefore had a strange ground surface; black from the coal on road number 1 and red from the brick dust on roads 2-4. The wagons present were 16T mineral wagons for the coal and 4 or 5 plank wagons for brick. I guess in earlier days there must have been general traffic, but in the 60's brick and coal were all we ever saw.
My earliest memories of the yard were when it was shunted by an ex-GWR pannier, but post '64, it was exclusively the job of Hymek's and North Brits (D7XXX and D 63XX). Regular performers were D6319 and D7018 (strange, as I now work on this very loco for the DEPG on the WSR!).
The yard was worked every morning except Sunday at about 8am and sometimes again at about 4 in the afternoon. The trip freights came from the larger yard at Lawrence Hill and worked via the yard at Stapleton Road, that dealt mainly with scrap metal. Usually Ashley Hill was the final leg of the trip, with the empties returning back to Lawrence Hill, but occasionally the train worked on to Pilning Low Level or Severn Tunnel Junction/Newport or Stoke Gifford. As far as I recall, traffic for the coal yard at Filton was never included in this trip, Filton being served by it's own trip working.
There were usually two shunters, called Bert and George, who were real old characters. They lived in the shunters hut at Lawrence Hill under the old Midland main line - the hut is still there, with the door bricked up. I used to get the number 83 bus from Ashley Hill yard to Lawrence Hill and sit in the hut and drink tea with them. It was a great place for me as a kid, with the resident '03 ticking over outside, Westerns, Warships, 47's, Hymeks and North Brits thundering by on the main and relief lines through Lawrence Hill and Peak's storming by overhead on the bridge with their Birmingham trains. On several occasions, having been invited into the guards van at Ashley Hill, I didn't need the bus if the driver was in a hurry. Bert had to call my mother once and explain how I'd ended up in Newport with them! I was 8 years old ...
The great flood of August '68 caused some problems at the yard and I seem to recall this event as being connected with the end of traffic at the yard. I watched from my bedroom window in Ralph Road that night and can plainly remember seeing a Warship with a parcels train shunted into the yard - I don't know what the problem was on the main line, but in the morning the train was gone. As I made my regular Saturday morning pilgrimage over to the yard after the storm, I remember the whole landscape as being changed. The stream that runs between the yard and the bus depot had turned into a raging torrent and much of the play areas I had grown up in had been completely washed away. A changed landscape that had quite an effect on me as a kid.
I told Bert and George that a train had been in their yard the night before and they refused to believe me. Anyhow, after that night, traffic seemed to soon stop coming to the yard and it was eventually cleared of wagons. I don't remember how long it survived, but it was probably recovered during the 1970's resignalling. I do remember one Sunday morning the sempahore signals being ripped from the ground and dumped like so much rubbish onto the recovery train and the unceremonious demolition of Ashely Hill signal box.
I was also a regular visitor to Ashley Hill box, but that, as they say, is another story
Hope these memories are of some interest/use to you. Any more questions, fire them on ...
Yes; choosing a mail alias with "spam" in it wasn't very clever, but I've been using it for years across all sorts of groups / accounts so I'm kinda stuck with it now. I reserve "airsmoothed"as an alias for Hotmail usage, which does indeed collect all sorts of offers for vaigra & requests to update my account details with ebay/paypal etc. etc.
Are we building it on a slope? depends how much packing we can find to go under the legs. The layout is lacking a permanent home at the moment, it used to be in a shop basement until that closed down, hopefully it should have a new home in my mate's garage extension by xmas. - xmas 2005 if we're lucky. The layout can be asembled in a 22 fot by 12 foot form, which is obviously slightly easier to set up.
During proper operating sessions then trains heading uphill are indeed supposed to run at scale speeds.
I'm not sure if we have much data on the gasworks, the research data is in another team member's garage at the moment, 16 miles from where I live. Life's never easy.....
The layout had been under construction for a couple of years before I joined the merry band, as the new boy my main jobs are research & track painting.
I reserve "airsmoothed"as an alias for Hotmail usage, which does indeed collect all sorts of offers for vaigra & requests to update my account details with ebay/paypal etc. etc. Are we building it on a slope? depends how much packing we can find to go under the legs. The layout is lacking a permanent home at the moment, it used to be in a shop basement until that closed down, hopefully it should have a new home in my mate's garage extension by xmas. - xmas 2005 if we're lucky. The layout can be asembled in a 22 fot by 12 foot form, which is obviously slightly easier to set up.
During proper operating sessions then trains heading uphill are indeed supposed to run at scale speeds.
I'm not sure if we have much data on the gasworks, the research data is in another team member's garage at the moment, 16 miles from where I live. Life's never easy.....
The layout had been under construction for a couple of years before I joined the merry band, as the new boy my main jobs are research & track painting.
Dovercourt Road Gas
Never a gasworks actually. It was just a site for the two gasometers, which I believe were fed from Stapleton Road gasworks.Or pics of the gasworks just south of Horfield?
-
nineflover
- regular
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2005 3:04 pm
- Location: bath
- Contact:
hi spamcan, my 1:1250 maps (twice the size of middleton press book extracts) only go asfar north as ashley hill goods but if you go upstairs in college green city library, you can order up the relevant o/s grids and correct decade from their master index , but be sneaky photocopying the 40x40cm sheets on the a3 copier!
nickhowes-sdjr-midsomer-norton.fotopic.net/
Google Sketchup, 3D creation for all ! precisely rebuild a demolished station with photo textures, walk through it, even export it to pc train sims!
Google Sketchup, 3D creation for all ! precisely rebuild a demolished station with photo textures, walk through it, even export it to pc train sims!
Hi Folks;
In reply to 'grayo 59' although I don't have a firm favourite I think 'Tangmere' is top of the pops with me at the moment, due to vivid memories of it hammering through my local station ( Hinton Admiral) last year, screaming out of the night at 'full tilt'
In reply to 'nineflover' thanks for the tip; I'm not sure what maps the original team found before I joined them, I'll have a rifle through the file next time I have access.
FWIW we had the full monty 35 foot length of layout assembled last weekend, for the first time in ages. I'll try and shove some 'work in progress' shots on the web when I get chance. Unfortunately at the moment playing "dad's taxi" for my two daughters is taking up most of my free time in the run-up to Xmas.
Cheers.....
In reply to 'grayo 59' although I don't have a firm favourite I think 'Tangmere' is top of the pops with me at the moment, due to vivid memories of it hammering through my local station ( Hinton Admiral) last year, screaming out of the night at 'full tilt'
In reply to 'nineflover' thanks for the tip; I'm not sure what maps the original team found before I joined them, I'll have a rifle through the file next time I have access.
FWIW we had the full monty 35 foot length of layout assembled last weekend, for the first time in ages. I'll try and shove some 'work in progress' shots on the web when I get chance. Unfortunately at the moment playing "dad's taxi" for my two daughters is taking up most of my free time in the run-up to Xmas.
Cheers.....