Hornby Magazine layout for model railway

The 'B3s' continued in service into the 1960s as shown by 43702 at Bromsgrove on August 18 1962. The headlamp code confirms this is a Class H goods train and the safety valves are blowing off showing there is a full head of steam as they start to ascend the Lickey Incline. Once they reach the top of the incline it will not be long before they are running through Northfield station. R.J. Essery Collection

A British Railways period picture of Northfield station, confirmed by the presence of steel 16 ton coal wagons in the sidings just visable behind the station nameboard. The platform lamps have been changed and there is a new building on the platform. R.J. Essery Collection

IN PREVIOUS FEATURES in this series on railway operations I've looked at the theory of signalling with examples of practice in the photographs. This time we're going to take an actual location and examine how it worked.

  The location I have chosen is Northfield in South West Birmingham. I've shown the station as it was in the early British Railways era and listed the passenger and freight traffic which passed through on weekdays. As we'll see even though Northfield is a relatively small station recreating it is going to be more feasible for a club or group of modellers than an individual.

  One thing modellers won't have a problem with in 'OO' gauge, and increasingly 'N', is the availability of locomotives and rolling stock - though having deep enough pockets is a different question!

  As Figure 1 shows the station was an island platform on an embankment with road access from a lower level. If you wish to model it accurately an Ordnance Survey map from the time is a must, but with some adaptation of the road layout, building it on conventional solid top baseboards is perfectly possible. Figure 2 shows a simplified trackplan without any goods lines and provides modellers with a layout that has the same traffic pattern as Figure I but with with a less intensive train service.

Operation

Figure I shows the track and signalling plan at Northfield as it was in 1893 when the new station was opened and it was largely unchanged at the beginning of the British Railways period. The island platform is set between the Up and Down main lines with the goods lines outside of the main lines. For those readers who prefer the post 1968 period, in 1978 the goods lines were made into slow lines, passenger trains could now run over them and the goods yard closed in 1964. Later in life it was possible to add outside platforms to accommodate the additional passenger traffic that came when a through passenger service between Redditch and Litchfield began.

  Back in the steam era, originally there was a goods shed but this was removed and an open yard used instead. There was a Ston crane to deal with the mostly coal traffic and perhaps building materials too. The majority of goods in the area would have been delivered by road from one of Birmingham's main goods depots. 

  To simplify matters I have not numbered each signal - this is only required when the points and signals are interlocked and worked through a lever frame - so I have numbered the posts and will describe what the signals are and 'read' when in the clear position:

1. Down goods home signal (left) with Down goods distant. The distant can only be in the off position when the Stop signals on posts 2 and 3 have been reversed. The distant signal on the right would only be pulled off if the train was to run onto the main line over the crossover by post 2 and the right hand signal was clear together with the stop signal signals on post 7. 2.  Down goods starting signal. Trains could be held at this signal to allow a train to depart from the sidings and run onto the goods line, or the train turned out onto the main line when the right-hand signal was pulled off. 3.  Down goods advanced starting signal. The station limits on the Down goods line were between signalposts 1 and 3 which means a train setting back into the sidings did not have to run into the block section in advance in order to make that move. 4. Ground signal. This allowed a move from the Down goods to the Up main or Up sidings take place. 5.  Down main line home signal. 6.  Down main line starting signal with distant below. 7. Down main line advanced starting signal with distant below. 8. Ground signal to allow a move from the Down main line to the Up main, Up goods or Up sidings. 9.  Up main line home signal. 10. Up main line starting signal. 11. Up main advanced starting signal. 12. Ground signal, Up main line to Down main line or Down goods line. 13. Up goods line home signal and signal from goods line to main line. 14. Up goods line starting signal. 15. Up goods line advanced starting signal. 16. Ground signal. From Up sidings to Down main or Down goods lines. 17. Ground signal. Exit from sidings to Up goods line or Up main line.

The Ivatt '4MT' 2-60s were used on passenger trains running between Birmingham New Street and either Evesham or Ashchurch. This picture of 43049 was taken at Evesham during the early 60's when the locomotive was about to depart from Evesham wit Class B ordinary passenger train which would take it through Northfield on it's journey to Birmingham. John Jennison Collection

Simplified version

For those readers who prefer a less complex layout I have revised the Northfield track plan and removed both goods lines (figure 2), but the basic operating potential remains; through passenger and goods trains with some goods trains attaching and detaching traffic at Northfield sidings. What it does mean is that the number of trains that can be run in a given time is less than when there are goods lines, which is why the goods lines were added during the latter part of the 19th century. The signals are broadly similar, with omissions.

  When it came to operation of the goods yard, coal traffic would be unloaded from wagons standing on sidings I and 2, but when laying the sidings ensure there is room for a road vehicle to stand alongside the wagon being unloaded and to leave space for another road vehicle to pass. Photographs show that at one time there was a goods shed at Northfield so modellers who wish to build an accurate model of Northfield will be able to obtain this information from maps that will show the footprint of the shed while those who seek to build a model based upon Northfield will see that I have suggested where one could be placed.

  There is little change to the signalling shown on Figure I other than the removal of the ground frame, which is not required. Trains on the Down line would set back onto either the Up goods line or the shunting line and depending upon how many wagons were in the train; they could all go onto the shunting line or the train be divided and some left on the running line. There is a run round between 16 and 17 which would allow these wagons to be propelled onto the siding alongside goods shed. Traffic from the Up line would be propelled onto the long siding and with the locomotive at the North end shunting would be straightforward.

The passenger train service

I have taken as the basis for this suggested train schedule passenger and freight working timetables for the summer months from the late 1940s into the early 1950s. This period saw some interesting passenger train formations but had fewer freight trains.

I have also ignored the Sunday service - even during the winter months the freight service had largely ceased around 8.00am although when the weather was bad and trains were late the close down was delayed. To clarify some of the terms, an Express Passenger train was Class A; Ordinary Passenger train Class B; Parcels, fruit, fish etc train composed entirely of vehicles conforming to coaching stock requirements, Class C; Express Freight with at least one third of the vehicles fitted with the automatic brake, Class D; Express Freight with at least four vehicles fitted with the automatic brake, Class E; Express freight train not fitted with the continuous brake, this code is often used with a train of empty coal wagons, Class F; Light engine or engine and brake van, Class G; Through freight train or ballast train not running under Class C, D, E or F headcode, Class H; Mineral or empty wagon train, Class J; Freight, mineral, or ballast train stopping at intermediate stations and Branch freight train, Class K. Readers will see that one of the Class K trains ran between Northfield and Lifford with traffic that terminated at Northfield and took originating traffic to Lifford where it would be shunted and forwarded to the marshalling sidings where it would become part of a train that would take it to its destination. These headlamp codes were introduced on June 5 1950 and they replaced the previous codes that were in use on the 'Big Four.'

Locomotives

The most important express passenger workings were hauled by 'Jubilee' 4-6-Os and the remainder by 'Black Five' or BR 'Standard Five' 4-6-0s. Occasionally a 'Patriot' 4-6-0 would be at the head of a Summer special, but they were very rare. A 'Crab' 2-6-0 was often used on Summer specials too.

  The other passenger trains at this time were hauled by a variety of locomotives. The trains on the Evesham line could be hauled by '2P' 4-4-0s, Fowler 2-6-4Ts, and Ivatt or BR '4MT 2-6-Os were also commonplace once they became available. The Redditch service was usually in the hands of a taper boiler 2-6-2T while 'Compound' 4-4-Os were often employed on the Worcester, Gloucester, Leicester and Nottingham service.

Bournville was between Birmingham New Street and Northfield but the travelling time for a passenger express train was just a few minutes. In this picture taken on April 16 1955, 'Jubilee' 45651 Shovells heads a York to Bristol Express RJ Essery Collection

  With the exception of the trains that began or ended their journeys on the former Great Western and London and North Eastern railways the coaching stock was either corridor or non-corridor ex-London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) stock but some of the long distance trains from Paignton and Kingswear would be entire trains of GWR stock while those from Newcastle on Tyne would be LNER stock. My understanding is that these services had two sets allocated to each service so on one day the LNER set ran from North to South, the LMS set ran from South to North and the next day the reverse took place, the same sequence applied to the GWR sets.

  Freight trains which went beyond Longbridge to Halesowen were worked by Kirtley double frame '2F' 0-6-Os and later Ivatt '2MT 2-6-Os because of the weight restrictions over Dowery Dell viaduct. Otherwise local trip workings were usually hauled by '3F' 0-6-Os. The most important express freight trains were worked by either 'SMTs' and 'Black Fives' or 'Crabs' and, as they became available, the new Ivatt '4MT' 2-6-Os which took over freight trains previously worked by '4F' 0-6-Os. At the time of nationalisation the '3Fs' also worked some long distant freight trains but as more 'SMTs' and '4MTV became available the '4Fs' worked trains previously worked by '3Fs' which in turn replaced '2Fs' on local trip workings. '8F' 2-8-Os did work over the line from Birmingham to Bristol but they were not common: one train they were seen on during the Summer months during the 1950s were rakes of empty stock from Summer specials and to see one at the head of a 20 coach train was rather impressive. There are some reports of Garratts working to Bristol. I have only ever seen one picture of a Garratt on the line through Northfield, so I do not recommend their inclusion in the locomotive stock.

  Northfield offers an interesting and varied location with a wide variety of both traffic and motive power. Within this there is scope for a large club layout or home based model which could effectively recreate that period atmosphere of the 1950s. (Hornby Magazine June 2013)

Photographed in 1937 a Stainer '3P' 2-6-2T nears Northfield with an Up prdinary passinger train. R.J. Essery Collection