BEN LINE 457 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I've just got hold of a copy of the Jan. 1961 edition of Model Railway Constructor, primarily because it features an article on converting Kitmaster Mk1 coaches to a 4-CEP EMU. Reference is made in the article to the author Alan William's layout but it's not mentioned by name. I would like to know if anyone knows what the layout was called and if there are other articles about it? I'm also curious as to whether the Alan Williams who built the layout & CEP is the same Alan Williams who wrote a number of railway books in the 70's including Ian Allan's - Southern Electric Album? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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bécasse Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Alan was an Ian Allan staffer at the time and possibly actually the editor of MRC. If you look carefully you will probably realise that he typically wrote several articles in each issue, I seem to recollect that R.W.Alan was one of his pseudonyms. I can remember Alan running the 4-CEP on the OO gauge test tracks at Keen House but I suspect that he didn't have a Southern Electric layout (if a layout at all) at the time. Note that he failed to realise that the double doors to the guard's compartment at each end of an original 4-CEP had windows in BOTH doors, unlike the donor Mk I loco-hauled carriages. It wouldn't have been much of a problem to drill and file the extra openings but finding the "glass" for the extra windows might have been more difficult. You can't get a 4-CEP absolutely right without a lot of work as Kitmaster managed to get the compartment (and hence window) spacings wrong on the CK. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN LINE 457 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Alan was an Ian Allan staffer at the time and possibly actually the editor of MRC. If you look carefully you will probably realise that he typically wrote several articles in each issue, I seem to recollect that R.W.Alan was one of his pseudonyms. I can remember Alan running the 4-CEP on the OO gauge test tracks at Keen House but I suspect that he didn't have a Southern Electric layout (if a layout at all) at the time. Note that he failed to realise that the double doors to the guard's compartment at each end of an original 4-CEP had windows in BOTH doors, unlike the donor Mk I loco-hauled carriages. It wouldn't have been much of a problem to drill and file the extra openings but finding the "glass" for the extra windows might have been more difficult. You can't get a 4-CEP absolutely right without a lot of work as Kitmaster managed to get the compartment (and hence window) spacings wrong on the CK. Interestingly one of the other articles in the magazine is written by R.W.Allen. The article about the CEP starts with the comment "The electrification extensions to my layout were complete, but more stock was required to provide the services". The front cover - which I'll try and scan shortly - was captioned as follows - "The camera cannot lie - or can it? a realistic scene on Alan Williams' Southern layout obtained by careful placing of a photographic background..." so maybe it wasn't his layout either? Whilst taking on board your comments about the windows on the double doors it becomes apparent looking through the rest of the magazine just how good the models of the CEP and 2-HAP were for 1961. Th line about thinning down the roof at the front alone really contributes to a front end that is still convincing today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN LINE 457 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Cover image now scanned Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Without yet another nostalgic rummage through MRC I can't be certain but I think his layout was called Willacombe. I think at the time of the CEP article, January 1961, the editor was G M (Geoffrey) Kichenside - again subject to rummage. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Hmmm...... Could be a simple mock-up for the photo, using Airfix kits, plus the aforementioned photographic backdrop. Interesting thread, though, in that I didn't know that the great commentator had a modelling and model-magazine background. Kevin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 I agree that Alan's electric units were very good indeed for the time - and looked every bit as good in the flesh - I just added the comment about the guard's compartments' door windows in case anyone was tempted to go down the same route. It would be a relatively easy task before making up the "kit", but a real PITA to do once it was made up. I realise that it is unlikely that anyone would want to go down that route today but stranger things have happened. I had a feeling Geoff might still have been editor at the time which was why my comment was a bit "iffy". I am reasonably certain that the magazine front cover scene was made up for the purpose, something that became a bit of an MRC speciality throughout the 1960s - ask Chris Leigh. ARW didn't remain an IA staffer for long himself, becoming a PR civil servant and eventually ending up at Royal Mail, of course, though I believe that he continued to write for various IA publications, both books and magazines, as he effectively still does. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Amongst other articles, he wrote some in conjunction with the 1967 Bournemouth Electrification, featuring a electro-diesel (which used a HD 25kV electric as a starting point!) and a 4TC, and another on the WCML Electification with a kit-bashed AM10 (which involved bits of the Airfix Park Royal railbus) and scratch-built catenary. Amongst his many published works is 'British Railway Signalling', co-authored with G M Kitchenside, which is a good primer on signalling. When he still lived near Effingham Junction, he was involved with the Great Cockrow Railway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN LINE 457 Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 Thanks to a well known auction site I've acquired a copy of another Alan Williams EMU article in MRC where he builds a 2-BIL........I'll keep everyone posted on anything it throws up about Willacombe or any other layout he had. Thanks to the rest of you for all the facinating feedback so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Cover image now scanned As well as the EMU's, that is a very impressive photographic backscene for those times. I wonder if the mag made it for the shoot, or whether it was carefully cropped in afterwards. I do not recall anything similar being available commercially until fairly recently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 As well as the EMU's, that is a very impressive photographic backscene for those times. I wonder if the mag made it for the shoot, or whether it was carefully cropped in afterwards. Either would have been possible at that date, although I suspect that it (inclusive of the cutting side) was actually cropped in afterwards and the model only goes as far as the 2-HAP. I was at an exhibition in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg last month where a professional lady photographer was using very large portable back scenes (of forests) mounted on adjustable stands to create "realistic" photographs of a layout - it certainly beat Andrew Burnham's piece of folding white card, although not quite as portable of course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Amongst other articles, he wrote some in conjunction with the 1967 Bournemouth Electrification, featuring a electro-diesel (which used a HD 25kV electric as a starting point!) and a 4TC, and another on the WCML Electification with a kit-bashed AM10 (which involved bits of the Airfix Park Royal railbus) and scratch-built catenary. Amongst his many published works is 'British Railway Signalling', co-authored with G M Kitchenside, which is a good primer on signalling. When he still lived near Effingham Junction, he was involved with the Great Cockrow Railway. I on't recall him doing an AM10 conversion, but he almost certainly done a Clacton electric unit conversion back in 1962 using Kitmaster coaches and Airfix Railbus ends. I thought Chris Leigh done the class 73 conversion? I remember cutting up my HD E3001 to do this too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Didn't Alan Williams have a circular layout (steam and electric SR) called Metropolitan Junction? Or am I thinking of someone else? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Didn't Alan Williams have a circular layout (steam and electric SR) called Metropolitan Junction? Or am I thinking of someone else? Someone else, and a little earlier too IIRC, but his name might have been Wiliams too - David Williams, perhaps? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted January 11, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 11, 2016 I on't recall him doing an AM10 conversion, but he almost certainly done a Clacton electric unit conversion back in 1962 using Kitmaster coaches and Airfix Railbus ends. I thought Chris Leigh done the class 73 conversion? I remember cutting up my HD E3001 to do this too! Not inconsistent to have an article in 1962 about WCML electrification and a model 309. 309's were originally proposed for West Midlands to Euston trains rather than loco-hauled. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 OT question, but, if that was the case, why were they not adopted? As a Southerner, when I first encountered the West Midlands services in the early 70s, I thought it very strange that they weren't provided by EMUs - all that loco-changing and messing about seemed entirely out of keeping with the nature of the service. It took an intermediate step (DVTs) and 40 years before "the obvious" in the form of Pendolinos, turned up. Was it the business about not putting passengers in the front vehicle? Kevin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 11, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 11, 2016 Amongst his many published works is 'British Railway Signalling', co-authored with G M Kitchenside, which is a good primer on signalling. When he still lived near Effingham Junction, he was involved with the Great Cockrow Railway. From which railway came the two signal engineers who wrote a large part of the book for him (and who were also responsible for the signalling on that railway and i think are both still involved although I've not been over there for a while) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightspark Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Didn't Alan Williams have a circular layout (steam and electric SR) called Metropolitan Junction? Or am I thinking of someone else? Someone else, and a little earlier too IIRC, but his name might have been Wiliams too - David Williams, perhaps? Metropolitan Junction was D.A. Williams (Doug). Here is a picture of his 4-Sub going around the test track at expoEM in 2013. BTW, MJ was rescued and is currently being restored. Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perthshireman Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 What a surprise and a delight to read that Metropolitan Junction survives! I first came across the layout as a schoolboy, when I had cobbled together enough money to buy Model Railway News for sometime in 1964, if my memory is correct. What really appealed was that it reminded me of the railways that I regularly saw on journeys up to London, at a time when most layouts were based on West Country branch lines, and GWR at that. It was a layout that never seemed to get much coverage, perhaps because it wasn't an exhibition layout. The next time I saw it was in the successor to MRN, Your Model Railway in about 1984, and it looked as good as ever. Metropolitan Junction, along with Borchester, were inspirational to me as a youngster, not least because in those days so much of the stock, particularly locomotives, had to be scratch built. Another great little layout that appeared inRailway Modeller (in 1963, I think) was called Six by Four and a bit, by a Professor C R Tottle. It would no doubt seem very dated by modern standards, but what it lacked in finesse it made up for in atmosphere. Similarly, some of the photographs that appeared in MRC when Alan Williams was editor were also extremely atmospheric, though I seem to recall that by no means all readers found them to their taste! I take it that as MJ had to be rescued, Mr Williams is no longer with us? As the layout first appeared in print in 1951, I guess that he was (or perhaps is) a good age? Thanks for bringing to mind such a wealth of pleasant memories. I'll have to have a rummage in the loft and see if I can find some of those old magazines. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Doesn't AW still write for Modern Railways? If so, I surmise that rumours of his demise may have been exaggerated. K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Nearholmer Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Ah, but, I think I got hold of the wrong end of the stick. Is Ian talking about Doug, rather than Alan, Williams? K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perthshireman Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Ah, but, I think I got hold of the wrong end of the stick. Is Ian talking about Doug, rather than Alan, Williams? K Sorry Nearholmer, I should have made it clearer that I was referring to Doug Williams as builder of Metropolitan Junction, rather than Alan Williams. Apologies to all for any confusion! Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightspark Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Hi Ian (Perthshireman) Enjoy dusting off and reading those old magazines. I also suggest that you start saving up your pennies for the fare to Bracknell and expoEM this year. You will be in for a treat. DAW is no longer with us, but 2016 marks what would have been his 100th Birthday. Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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