24 April 2024
Nearly time to hit the road again. Brettell Road will be appearing at Scalefour Crewe on the 8th and 9th June.
The show guide can be viewed via this link, hope to see some of you there.
Cradley Heath Exhibition
In just under a months time Brettell Road will make its return to the exhibition world with a local visit to the Cradley Heath Exhibition. Hope to see some of you there.
On the subject of shows I’ve updated the show page which can be found here.
31st March 2023 – A very interesting day.
The 31st of March 2023 turned out to be a very interesting day.
The initial minor disappointment of George, The Stourbridge Junction station cat, being unaccessible for some fuss (he was perched on a filing cabinet at the back of the ticket office having a wash) was quickly tempered by this turning up!
This wasn’t what I was out for mind you. The main event was a tour of New Street’s signal box which you may know has recently been decommissioned. Network Rail ran a ballot for people to have a look round and having been unsuccessful with that my visit was saved by my friend Tom who had a spare ticket.
I wasn’t expecting to find a lever frame but there is one. Its located on the third floor which is used for training.
The fourth floor is a gigantic relay room. It still had that lovely electrical machines smell.
These are called K packs and each one controls 1 thing outside in the station. Theres no plug in a laptop and diagnose a problem with these things. If something goes wrong an engineer would need to use their knowledge of which pack is causing the problem, lift it out and use and the paper schematics that are kept on the same floor to fix it. All under the pressure of something on the station being shut down and the general (organised) chaos that would ensue. We were told that some of these pack have never been touched since the day they were installed. About 60 years of reliable service!
The view from the fifth (top) floor window. The Building directly ahead is about the only thing thats unchanged since my version of New Street set in the late 80’s. The blue building stands where the original lamp block stood and is still called that.
Finally the panel. Who knows how many millions of movements were controlled by this in its lifetime? All the platforms are bi-directional and all worked via permissive block working. Everything being safety netted by the relay room downstairs. We were told it would take a signaller 6 months to become proficient in using the panel although there was one guy who learnt it in 8 weeks.
It genuinely is mind blowing! Thanks to the Network Rail Staff who looked after us all.
4th February 2021
For the first time in a few years Brettell Road features in the current issue of MRJ as a pictorial. I must get around to writing the proper article one day.
24th September 2021
Just a little look-back. This weekend marks 10 years since New Street was last seen in public. Time flies! For more pictures from the show click here.
Before anyone asks, at the time of writing there are no plans for it to do any more shows (sorry)
14th September 2021
With the model railway exhibition circuit starting to show signs of emerging from its enforced hibernation I have updated the shows page. However with Brettell road undergoing its rebuild and one last show for Birmingham Moor Street I will admit it’s somewhat slim pickings at the moment. Heres a link.
Theres no Scaleforum this year but what there is instead is a set of smaller events from some of the area groups. For a full list click here.
The one I will be attending is this one
North Norfolk Area Group Event 25th September 2021
The Copeman Centre, Hall Street, BRISTON NR24 2LG
https://www.thecopemancentre.org.uk/
Opening times: 10:00 – 16:00. Admission free.
Light refreshments will be available and for this venue there is no need to pre-book.
The following layouts will be present:
North Elmham – Currently under construction by the North Norfolk Area Group, this layout will depict the station on the Wells next the Sea branch with its grain and milk traffic giving some variety from the norm. The layout will be set in the late 50s/early 60s period.
Obbekaer – A Danish independent line connecting Rebe, Gram and Vojens in South Jutland from Geraint Hughes set in the mid 50s. The Model is built to P87 standards.
Wheal Elizabeth – The end of a Cornish China Clay branch set in the 1970s/early 80s. from Jeremy Good.
We will also have the North Norfolk Area Group’s test track available for those who want to give their stock the chance to stretch its legs.
We will have six demonstrations, which are:
Modelling road vehicles – Jim Smith-Wright
Air-braked wagons – Phil Eames
Etched brass carriage construction – Tony Brenchley
Kit-bashing plastic coach kits – Alan Hall
Turnouts with a difference, an approach to building the inter-laced variety – John Geggie
Cavelex Models – will be showing production models and their latest samples for visitors to examine and will be very happy to discuss any aspect of their products
Hope to see some of you there.
9th May 2021
Behind the scenes I have migrated the site to a new hosting company. All has gone pretty well but there was an oops! I did lose was the subscribers list, unfortunately. So with apologies can I ask all those who wish to still receive updates re-subscribe to the site? Its dead simple. Click on any of the workbenches and on the right where it says follow you can pop in your email. Remember to click the confirmation link in the email you are sent and thats it. Again apologies for the inconvenience and if you spot anything else thats broken feel free to drop me an email.
18th February 2021
Goodies
As I developed parts for my models, some may have been of interest to others. I was not a trader as such and I did not hold stocks of all of these items all of the time. I also do not do commissions. As time went on I found, working full time shift work I couldn’t devote the time I needed to do this properly and so I regret that I will no longer be able to offer any of the parts I developed to others going forward.
Should this at some point in the future change I will re-add my goodies to the goodies page but only if they are in stock and available.
30th April 2020
I’ve found that my diversions into road vehicles recently span both the New Street and Brettell Road workbenches. So I’ve set up a third workbench section just for vehicles.
25th of April 2020
Long time followers may remember my project to build a 15xx tank loco. This is as far as I got but this may hopefully change as Warren shepherd who does a kit in 7mm scale is considering a 4mm scale version. http://www.warrenshephard.com/gwr.htm
He needs at least 24 firm sales to make it viable and expressions of interest are being collected on the GWR modellers Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/921387308231483/?ref=share
18th March 2020
Scalefour North canceled.
Like many (if not all) shows at the moment Scalefour North has been cancelled. Below is the statement from the Scalefour Society.
Scalefour North Cancellation
As many of you will know, the Committee took the position that Scalefour North would go ahead this year unless the event was cancelled by the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School or that Government advice changed from what it was when our decision was made. That situation has now been reached with today’s Government statement by the Prime Minister to avoid all non-essential travel and non-essential contact. Whilst we all enjoy our events, they cannot be regarded as essential in the wider scheme of things, hence our decision to cancel.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to James Dickie and his team, who have put in a lot of hard work to organise this year’s event, unfortunately all now in vain. I would also like to thank those members who have expressed their support for the Committee at this difficult time, it is very much appreciated.
Given the expected peak of Coronavirus, our AGM must be in doubt. We will, of course keep you posted.
John Chambers
Chairman.
So Brettell Roads next outing will be Railex Northeast in July which is currently still going ahead. I will update here if this changes.
December 15th 2019
We had a good show at Wakefield in November with Moor Street. The layout picked up a prize for the wagon hoist which was great. Next outing for us will be Wakefield again in March for Scalefour North with Brettell Road.
20th April 2019
Moor Street performed to its usual high standard at Trainwest last weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a chat. Our next outing will be at DEMU with Brettell Road on the first weekend of June. (the previous performances will be skewed slightly to have a more diesel bias but not exclusively.) See https://www.demu.org.uk/showcase/showcase-2019
Note the fairly recent change of venue. Hope to see some of you there.
7th March 2019
Calcutta Sidings performed admirably at the recent Glasgow show and seemed very well received with pretty much constant crowds at the front and viewing the fiddle yard. The 3 day show was hard work but enjoyable and aside from Tims van breaking down and having to be left behind whilst repairs were carried out went well. Phil has decided since that Glasgow was Calcutta’s last show and i feel it did bow out on a bit of high.
Our Next outing will be Trainwest in April with Birmingham Moor Street (Click here)
February 10th 2019
Back in 2007 Calcutta Sidings 1 appeared at Model Rail Scotland and this month its successor, Calcutta Sidings 2 will be bringing a bit of Burton back to Glasgow. This will be Calcutta Sidings only outing for 2019 so please stop by for a chat if you are going to the show.
https://www.modelrail-scotland.co.uk/exhibition.html
(image © Tom Silsbury and used with permission)
Calcutta Sidings will also be appearing in the upcoming issue of Railway Modeller.
18th September 2018
Exhibition season always ramps up this time of year. This coming weekend i’ll be at Scaleforum helping Mr Horn with his baseboard business. Hard to believe a year ago was Brettell road’s exhibition debut at the same show. Scaleforum 2018
A few weeks after will see Brettell Road’s 2018 show at Cradley Heath. Probably the most local show to its inspiration it will ever do! I don’t intend to do any more 1 day shows but as its so local and the organiser is a friend I’ve made an exception. Cradley Heath MRC
2nd April 2018
I’ve added a gallery of images taken or Brettell Road’s debut at Scaleforum last year. I would like to thank the photographers for kindly allowing me to use their images.
March 1st 2018
Good news for wagon builders. You probably know that the Parkside range passed to Peco last year and for those of us working in EM or P4 we were left wondering what would happen to the wheel swap service that they used to offer. Well is seems that Eileens Emporiam has come to our rescue. Following is from their Facebook page;
“Since Peco took over the Parkside range, I became conscious that availability at Finescale shows and in particular with Wheel Swap to EM and 18.83 was going to be an issue. After badgering Peco very heavily they have finally decided to let me have an account (this was alluded to in March RM, but no names mentioned), so I am very pleased to report that Eileens Emporium will be stocking Parkside products.
Orders have now been placed with Peco for the complete range of 4mm kits and parts, all 2mm kits and selected 0 Gauge kits. Also ordered are suitable Gibson Wheels and requests in for relevant Transfers from Modelmaster.
The Parkside kits will be added to the website over the next few days and stock is expected around the middle of next week. The website listings will have options for wheel swap to EM and P4 as well as multi pack pricing for quantities of 4 and 10.
The Parkside range is large so it will take us some time to build up the stock levels up to those that we want to hold, so we strongly recommend pre-ordering for show collections with at least 2 week notice.”
Out and about in March
March sees the first exhibition for one of the now 3 layouts i am involved with. Calcutta Sidings 2 will be at Ally Pally this year. This is Calcutta’s only appearance for 2018 so please stop by for a chat if you are going.
https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/shows/show/the-london-festival-of-railway-modelling/
The upcoming shows page is currently up to date if you want to see what we are up to.
http://box5206.temp.domains/~pfounew2upcoming-shows
Finally I have limited stocks of lineside troughing back in stock. Unfortunately the cost from the etchers has nearly doubled since I last stocked up but if anyone needs any drop me an email. http://box5206.temp.domains/~pfounew2contact_me
September 26th 2017
Brettell Road went public at Scaleforum last weekend and to be honest I was very pleased with how it went for a first show. There is a (quite short) list of things to address as a result of experience and some of these will form updates on the Brettell Road workbench. My thanks go to Simon, Phil and Paul as my operating team and they all seemed to enjoy themselves enough to want to do it again! Thanks also to the Scalefour society and everyone who stopped by to have a look at the layout.
On the same subject Brettell Road is featured in this months MRJ too. A proper article on the layout will follow in MRJ at some point in the future.
15th March 2017
It’s been running for a while now and many of you have already found it but for those who haven’t I have a Facebook page. I’ll be posting much the same content as here but I hope the Facebook page can be used for people to ask questions too. It’s a bit difficult to ask them on the site unless it’s a topic I’m already talking about. That’s the plan anyway! Click on the picture to go to it.
We are about to kick off out 2017 exhibition season with both Calcutta Sidings and Brettell Road due to go on the road this year. Calcutta will be out first at Scalefour North, the first weekend of April. Again click on the picture for more info.
On the subject of Phil (Calcutta’s owner) he has recently taken over much of Colin Craig’s range of usefull stuff. Phil’s new company is called Stenson Models and can be found here.
Its that time of the year again.
The Last full weekend of September is usually scaleforum weekend. I will be there with a collection of DMU’s (along with a EMU or two) dispensing my (erm) wisdom on the subject. If you are popping along please stop by and say hi. Full details can be found here
A message from High Level Kits
I would appreciate it if you could keep your eyes open for my GER Coffee pot which was nicked from my stand at Expo EM North on Sunday 18th Sept.
The model was built from one of my kits and to anyone who knows anything about models it would be fairly easily recognisable – it’s a fully etched kit with every conceivable detail. I’ve haven’t sold a lot of them and even fewer will have been built so it’ll be pretty rare. It was built to P4 gauge, numbered 227 and even the GER decals weren’t that easy to get hold of so, considering all the above, it might be the only one like that in existence.
If this was stolen to order, or by an enthusiast then they’re going to have to keep this model out of sight of any other P4 or EM modellers. The thief also stole the identification card from the stand which, at first I thought this was some sort of sick way of twisting the knife, but now wonder if it might be because they were an opportunist with no idea of what it actually and so took the card so they could quote it when moving the model on. For this reason, I would think internet selling places like EBay might be where it‘ll end up.
On the same day a Flat Iron loco in EM gauge was also stolen. Like My Y5, this had great sentimental value to its owner and was irreplaceable. If the two engines are offered together then it’ll be a dead giveaway.
Please, spread the word and keep your eyes peeled. The Police have been informed, but if you know anything contact me at chris@highlevelkits.co.uk