I haven’t posted for a while but I have been busy. Generally I’m not really a fan of layouts with lights as many of them tend to look like Christmas trees. Its the reason why most of the lights on New Street don’t work and besides as New Street is set in the day the lights wouldn’t be on in the real world either so why have them on on the model? However for Brettell Road it will be set at night so I needed some. I found some decent looking ones on Ebay and today I have got round to fitting some. The results of these efforts can be seen below. 
Hi Jim,
The lighting really will enhance the wet look that you are modelling!
All the best,
Colin
Thanks Colin, Thats the hope!
wow, epic as my granddaughter would say, adds great atmosphere to the scenes
I too am not a fan of lots of working lights. I think they are a distraction on most layouts, but what you are trying to achieve on Brettell Road helps to complete the scene.
Few seem to remember what these places were really like especially in the 50s and 60s. Turn the lights on in the day and it was difficult to tell from the bottom of the post. A lot of country stations were still lit by oil lamps and town stations by gas in those days. Our cabin at Curzon Street was still lit by gas right up to demolition in the late 1960s as were a number of signal boxes in the area.
I still think the abandoned yard is too busy, there are too many lamps for my liking; however your steps are a triumph! I can almost smell the stale urine.. Will you have any graffiti? There was a lot of football related stuff about in the 50/60s, maybe something like Aston-Villa-rules-ok ? Also, perhaps a stray dog and a few cats? My dad grew up in Sunderland around this time and said there were still bombed out houses from the war where strays lived. Just a thought. Lovely layout!
Brilliant! Loved the black and white picture. What type and where did you get them from? Loads of atmosphere.
What do you mean Mike?