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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

A Matter of Colour

I’m currently pondering what colour I should use for the body of my Broad Gauge ‘Rob Roy’.  References to the colour originally used on Broad Engines declare it to have been ‘Holly Green’ but opinions differ on what shade that name represents.   According to Christopher Awdry’s book: ‘Brunel’s Broad Gauge Railway’, the Boiler Cladding was ‘Holly Green (Dark Blue/Green)’ until 1881, after which ‘Chrome Green’ was adopted. (he quotes the Broad Gauge Society as the source of this informat
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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General

A Galaxy of Stars

In my previous post, I wrote that I needed to make a model of one of the longer-boilered ‘Stars’, to see if it made a better comparison with the photograph taken at Cheltenham shed around 1850.   According to the RCTS booklet Part Two, two ‘Stars’ were built with boilers that were 2 feet longer than the others – these were ‘Rising Star’ and ‘Bright Star’. We are very fortunate that E.T. Lane not only made several sketches of ‘Rising Star’, including end-elevations, but also produced a
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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A Coal Wagon for Bullo Pill

When I started to build my model of one the Broad Gauge ‘Bogie-class’ engines, it was purely on a whim, because I was attracted by their jolie-laide appearance. At that time, I thought they were South Devon engines, generally confined to the West Country.   I had brought my model close to completion when some further research revealed that they were also familiar engines in the Bullo Pill area, which was exactly where I had started my Broad Gauge modelling!   My model of
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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A Change of Gear

The ‘gear’ I’m referring to in the title is my 3D-printer, which I have just replaced.   As I mentioned in my previous post, my Geeetech E180 is no longer supported, with essential items like replacement print-heads not available. I have therefore bought a Prusa Mini+ as its replacement. The E180 was cheap and took me some time to optimise, following a rather shaky start, but eventually performed very well, until key components started wearing out.   My choice of the Prusa ma
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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3D-Printed Cattle Wagon - 3

Building the Chassis   This is an addendum to my previous post about building a Broad Gauge cattle wagon body. Although I built a chassis at that stage, I found the construction was too light and would not support wheel-sets adequately. I should have remembered that I had the same problem with the first design I did for a carriage chassis, so this post is an aide memoire to help me avoid the same mistakes again.   My chassis is basically a rectangle to fit under the body, wit
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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3D-Printed Cattle Wagon - 2

Following my previous post, where I showed how I made a cattle truck side, I have followed a rather convoluted route to arrive at a model of the complete body.   I could have printed a flat floor and some ends and then pieced all the parts together but I got caught up in the idea of trying to print the whole body in one go. I soon abandoned this idea, when I realised it was going to involve a lot of support structures for the various horizontal openings, but I did get as far as forming
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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3D-Printed Cattle Wagon - 1

As I wrote in the previous post, I found plenty of inspiration from my research into Broad Gauge cattle wagons. It gave me the impetus to move straight on with the design of a 3D-printed model.   Whereas I created my 3D printed carriages by extruding the carriage from one end, I felt that the sides of these wagons might be better printed while lying flat on the printer bed. This would mean assembling the wagon from separate parts for the sides and ends, mounted on a rectangular base, r
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3 - BG Wagons - Sheep, Coke, & Coal

I shall round off my modelling of the early wagons, produced for the GWR during the formative years before 1840, by considering three types intended for specific duties, rather than the ‘general purpose’ wagons described in my previous two posts.   Sheep Truck 1840   A sheep truck is one of the types mentioned in Whishaw’s ‘The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland’, published 1842. He described these ‘trucks’ as having high sides, four wheels, and to weigh 8,237 lbs. Apart f
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1837 Carriage

I.K. Brunel wrote the following, in a letter to T. E. Harrison on 5th March 1838: “... let me call your attention to the appearance - we have a splendid engine of Stephenson's, it would be a beautiful ornament in the most elegant drawing room and we have another of Quaker-like simplicity carried even to shabbyness but very possibly as good as engine, but the difference in the care bestowed by the engine man, the favour in which it is held by others and even oneself, not to mention the public, is
MikeOxon

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‘Sir Watkin’ for Bullo Pill

As the end of another year approaches, I’ve been looking back over the last few rather strange years, very much influenced by the Covid-19 virus. As it happens, 2019 was also the year when I acquired my 3D-printer and embarked on a new phase of model-making. Lock-down provided me with ample opportunity to practise 3D-model making.   A couple of years before that, I had moved my attention to the Broad Gauge era of the GWR, following the discovery that several of my wife’s ancestors work
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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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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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
MikeOxon

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‘Fire Fly’ class – Part Three

It has taken me a considerable amount of thought before deciding how to proceed with the next stage of building my my ‘Fire Fly’ class model. The obvious method would be to construct a strong frame around the outside, as I have done for previous models, but it doesn’t really work with this prototype.     Fire-Fly replica at Didcot showing Boiler Support   As I showed in the previous post, the prototype was built with four short frames linking the smokebox and firebo
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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‘Fire Fly’ class - Research

Introduction   One thing leads to another and what, for me, started as a small project to build the interesting-looking ‘Posting Carriage’ from the early years of Brunel’s Broad Gauge railway, for the GWR, rapidly extended to include a Luggage Truck and Horse Box.   All these vehicles appeared in some of the beautiful lithographs by J.C Bourne, published in 1846. In particular, his illustration of Bristol Temple Meads Station, shows an engine of Gooch’s ‘Fire-Fly’ class headi
MikeOxon

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