Minim St

This is very much a back burner, but imagine this bit of the classic CJF Minories plan as a micro layout, with the road bridge moved over to the right as the scenic break, and built at this sort of an angle. Presume as well that the MPD is at the terminus end of the station, and carriage sidings and a dockside branch are on the right- I would extend the loco siding and add a turnout on it to serve the branch and to act as a platform for mail and newspaper services. You could keep the inner city vibe that is at the heart of the plan, but the mention of a dockside branch also hints that I'm thinking of a Great Yarmouth/Kings Lynn/Hunstanton influence.

The underlying concept is that you could run very short trains and no one would notice, at least not in photos. The operation wouldn't be that satisfying for those running the layout, but it could be arranged so that something was always going on for the observer.

Early morning an 08 enters the scene and shunts the empty newspaper stock from the goods bay to the seldom-used Platform 1a. Then it heads off to the dock to collect some fish wagons for the Flying Kipper. A loco (I'm thinking a small roster of  BR standards and early diesels)  takes the empty newspaper stock to London, another takes the fish service. It is a short train but will pick up many more wagons en route to London.

For the next two hours services are a mixture of local DMUs, the hourly direct service to London and then the more frequent connecting service to somewhere like March.

Freight services during the day include outbound frozen fish and inbound supplies for the town and the trawler fleet.

Later on, there is a rapid succession of local hauled excursion trains arriving, with foreign traction, from London and the East Midlands. These require some nifty moves to free up the platforms and store the empty stock.

The day quietens into a gentle routine, before a flurry of returning excursion stock.

The last services are a lone local DMU, the return of the empty fish stock, and at 2am the newspapers arrive...

A 47 rests in the little bit of daylight at the end of Birmingham New St. The sort of atmosphere I envisage for Minim ST, but without the brutalist architecture.