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About this blog

This blog complements my Pre-Grouping Blog by covering my modelling activities in the Broad Gauge era of the Great Western Railway.  As with the earlier blog, I intend to cover the various methods by which I construct elements of the Broad Gauge scene.  For more background see https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/17705-a-different-type-of-railway/

 

Entries in this blog

General

Paddington Engine House 1840

“Towards the end of July 1837 I heard that Mr. Brunel wanted some one to take the post of locomotive engineer on the Great Western Railway, and I at once went to him, on July 20th, preferring that department to railway making.”   Thus wrote Daniel Gooch about the event that changed his life when he was just 21 years old. As a result, he left Manchester and went to London, beginning his duties with the Great Western Railway at West Drayton on the 18th August 1837. Because no engines had
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Extending my 3D Modelling

3D- Printed Track Base   At the beginning of the year, my thoughts turned towards making some track for my Broad Gauge (BG) models. I have already built a short section of track using traditional methods but I decided to see if 3D printing could help.   After some experimentation in the early days of the GWR, the design of prototype broad gauge track settled into the form shown below:   Construction of Broad Gauge Track   The longitudinal baulks were
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Broad Gauge Mail Coach - part 1

In my first post in this blog, I explained that the inspiration behind my exploration of the Broad Gauge was the discovery, when researching family history, that during the 1860s, my wife's great-grandfather worked for the GWR on the South Wales line at Bullo Pill.   During his time there, there was a serious accident in 1868, south of the station, when the 5 pm fast Mail train from New Milford ran into the back of a special cattle train, making its way laboriously from Carmarthen to G
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Planning a Mail Train

Having ‘cracked’ the main problems with building my Mail Coach, I have started thinking about the other vehicles that made up that ill-fated train. According to the accident report, the engine ‘Rob Roy’ was pulling three passenger carriages, and a luggage van. It is stated that the leading carriage had a break compartment in it, and that the third carriage, which was the mail carriage, also carried a guard.   This leaves me trying to decide what the other carriages might have been. A M
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Next Stage – Making Rolls

In the previous entry, I described my approach to making sandwich frames. While that was only a small part of building a chassis, I decided to change tack and have a look at how the ‘super-structure’ of the Broad Gauge kit goes together. As I have mentioned before, I am considering how the boiler in this BGS kit for the Gooch Standard Goods might be used to create a model of the ‘Waverley’ class 4-4-0.   To put it mildly, the instructions with the kit are somewhat terse in their descri
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3D-printed Modelling Tool

For some time, I have been feeling dissatisfied with the shaping of the frames on my model of the broad gauge engine ‘Rob Roy’ but couldn’t think of any ways to improve them, with the limited tools that I have.  The construction of my model is described earlier in my blog.       Recently I started to think about whether my 3D-printer might be able to help. I do like engines to be made of metal, so a complete plastic print wasn’t my favourite option, although I did find i
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Taking Stock

On one or two occasions, I have received comments along the lines of “we want a layout”. From the beginning of my exploration of the broad gauge, it has been my intention to produce some sort of layout or diorama to display the various models of rolling stock that I’ve constructed.   Of course I already have a small layout carrying both narrow and standard gauge routes, based in Oxfordshire, towards the end of the 19th century. This layout continues to provide entertainment to my grand
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My Atmospheric Caper – Part 3

Assembling the Parts   In tackling the assembly of the components that I printed as described in Part 2 of this series, I was reminded of President Kennedy’s words “We choose to … do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard“   I had realised that the assembly of the parts was not going to be easy but it turned out even trickier than I had expected. To re-cap, the parts I printed were as shown below:   3D printed Atmospheric Apparat
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My Atmospheric Caper - Part 2

Introduction   In Part 1 of this series, I described my model of the piston-carriage for the South Devon (SDR) atmospheric railway, based on drawings by Paul Garnsworthy in the Broad Gauge Society (BGS) Journal ‘Broadsheet’Nos 44 and 46.   It’s been great to receive so many positive comments – clearly some of my viewers like reading about ‘forgotten’ corners of railway history. They spurred me into getting on with the next phase. Thank you!   The carriage body was r
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Fire Fly class - Part Five

Adding some details   After a rather intensive period of model building, I’ve slowed down a little, while other activities have called for my attention. The train of early Broad Gauge vehicles, including the Posting Carriage etc. still raise a smile as I pass by them on their shelf. They are, however, still waiting for their engine, so I need to press on with my ‘Fire Fly’ class model.   my three recent GWR Broad Gauge models   I always find that momentum is ea
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An Ugly Duckling – Part Two

As I commented to @Mikkel, following my previous post on this project, this bit of modelling was a spur-of-the-moment idea after a fallow period when I was lacking imagination.    It was triggered by a post on @Annie’s thread about modelling one of the B&ER 4-4-0ST engines but now I’m not sure whether this is the prototype I want to model. While thinking about the possibilities, I came across an appraisal of Broad Gauge 4-4-0ST engines in an early issue of the Broad Gauge Society m
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A Broad-Gauge Trio of Wagons

Following my stock review , I realised that, although I have quite a good selection of early broad-gauge carriages, there are relatively few examples of early goods wagons.   While thinking about the possibilities, I looked at the contemporary pen and wash sketch by J.C.Bourne, which shows three types of early broad-gauge wagons, including one with wheels outside the body sides and a tilt cover.     For more information and drawings, I turned to the invaluable set
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Aeolus in Context

At the end of my previous post , I wrote that the engine and tender would next enter the paint shop. Because the various major components (boiler, firebox, etc.) were all printed separately and simply plugged together, it was easy to paint each part in its appropriate colour, with no masking required.   I use acrylic paints, which I like to apply in the manner of water colour. I use an alcohol/water mix to ‘wet’ the surface and then add pigment to achieve the desired depth of colour. F
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Finding some details

I visited the Forest of Dean recently to see the site of the Bullo Pill accident and to try and unearth more information about the area. The 'Gage Library' at the Dean Heritage Centre in Soudley holds a large number of maps and books, with staff who are very willing to help.   I have already posted one of my photos of Cockshoot Bridge, close to the accident site and couldn't help thinking that there was a resemblance between the modern LED signal and a Brunel 'disk and crossbar' signal
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‘Fire Fly’ class – Part Two

As I carried out my research for this project in Part One (Research), I realised just how difficult it can be to decide what these old engines were actually like!   One of the problems seems to be that, in those days, engines were hand-built by craftsmen who. perhaps, were not so keen on trying to follow a drawing but knew how things should be done!   I noticed, for example, that the shape of the firebox casing on the ‘Fire Fly’ replica is actually quite different from that seen in an
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Splashers!

This is a lengthy post, containing a lot of detail about the methods I devised. When I started to write it, I realised that I had already forgotten some of the steps, so I have made this detailed description as a support to my own memory!   From the very start of my plan to construct a model of a Broad Gauge ‘Waverley’ class locomotive, I realised that those bicycle-like splashers were going to be difficult! They are a very prominent part of the locomotive and fit closely around the ri
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Into the New Year

A New Year opens up all sorts of new possibilities!  I spent much of last year discovering what I could do by means of 3D printing.  In fact, it now seems as though almost any prototype is within my reach – at least in terms of static display models.   I have given one of my recent model photos, the ‘early photograph’ look, as shown below: ‘Argus’ and ‘Rob Roy’ at Bullo Pill   The only additional model I have printed since my last post was a 4-wheel tender for ‘Argus’, w
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GWR Posting Carriage – Part 3

In this post, I turn to the design of a chassis for my model Posting Coach. Fortunately, there is a detailed contemporary description and illustration, given in Whishaw’s book ‘The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland’, published in 1842.   According to Whishaw: “The under carriage is formed of two soles, 7 feet 8 inches apart, 9 inches deep, and 4 inches thick, and projects 10 inches at each end beyond the body ; and six cross pieces, one at each end without the line of the body, whi
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A Tender for 'Rob Roy' - 1

It’s been some time since I last tackled an etched brass kit, after spending most of my time recently in learning about 3D printing and, before that, Silhouette cutting. I had to refresh my memory on ‘the rules of the game’!   I bought the Broad Gauge Society kit (FL07) for a 6-wheel tender some time ago and have only just got around to its assembly. I was pleased to see that the instructions start with the reminder that “… some parts are a little over scale due to limitations of the d
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Brunel's Britzka - part 2

At the end of the previous post I had printed a set of parts, which needed to be assembled into the complete carriage. I must admit that it was a bit of a shock to see how tiny some of the parts can be in reality, when they had looked quite substantial on the computer screen!   The springs were by far the smallest parts but I had chosen to print them separately so that they could lie flat on the printer bed. This orientation ensured that the hollow centres of the elliptic springs would
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In the Beginning ...

When I started my first pre-grouping blog in 2013, I entitled my first post “Turning Back the Clock”. Ever since then, I seem to have been turning it further and further back, until I’ve reached the very first engines of the GWR.   Some early GWR Engines   Although the story of Swindon Works is well documented and there is some information and illustrations of the first establishment at Paddington, I have so far found virtually nothing about the original engine-house at West
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Vulcan – first in steam

I hadn’t intended to make another model so soon after my previous post but, having read about ‘Vulcan’ being the first engine in steam on the GWR, on 28th December 1837, I felt I should add it to my collection.   Since 'Vulcan' was a sister engine to 'Aeolus', which I have already modelled, I could re-use many of the parts I had already designed, so this was a fairly quick re-build.   My model of 'Aeolus' was based on the 1843 rebuild of the prototype, after the original vers
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‘Rob Roy’ Re-Framed

Six years ago, in June 2017, I embarked on scratch-building a model of the Broad Gauge ‘Waverley class’ engine ‘Rob Roy’. The prototype was involved in an accident near Bullo Pill, where some of my wife’s ancestors were working for the GWR at the time.   ‘Rob Roy’ – Accident near Bullo Pill, 1868   I took advantage of the fact that the boiler used for the Waverley-class was the same as that on the Gooch Standard Goods engines, for which the Broad Gauge Society (BGS) provide
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Wheels for my Wagons

I got something of a shock when I saw the current price of Broad Gauge wheel-sets so that started me thinking about 3D-printed wheels. I realised that I wouldn’t be able to make metal rims but it could be a way of making basic wagon wheels in bulk.   Many early GWR wagons used the form of wheel ascribed to Losh and Bell, in which wrought iron spokes were cast into the hub and wrapped around the inside of the wheel rim, to give the characteristic appearance shown in the following illust
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Broad Gauge at Didcot

A visit to Didcot Railway Centre is always good, when in need of a little inspiration!   In this case, I was invited along to help introduce my grandson to the delights of steam trains. At 3 months age, he seemed to enjoy a ride in the steam railmotor but was not too sure about the joggling over points.   Meanwhile, I slipped away for a look around the Transfer Shed, where various Broad Gauge replicas are stored. Outside the shed, a length of broad-gauge track shows the detai
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