Jump to content
 
  • entries
    111
  • comments
    916
  • views
    35,608

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

Making a Sandwich

Having sorted out my ideas about the make-up of the Mail Train involved in the Bullo Pill accident, I have been turning my attention to the locomotives. The Mail Train was headed by one of the big ‘Waverley’ class (a.k.a. ‘Abbott’ class) 4-4-0 engines, for which no model kits are available. The unfortunate cattle train, which the Mail Train ran into, was headed by a Gooch ‘Standard Goods’, for which the Broad Gauge Society (BGS) supply a kit.   The Gooch ‘Standard Goods’ engines were the mos
MikeOxon

MikeOxon

8
General

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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

10
General

Broad Gauge Mail Coach - part 5

My progress, since the previous post in this series, has been slower than anticipated, mainly because of the need to build a chassis that deviated from that intended for the BGS kit. I also took a few false turns, which led to a significant amount of re-work.   In the comments following my first post about this coach, I said that I prefer scratch building to kits. I suppose what I really meant is that I like to do things my own way. The down side of the scratch building approach is tha
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

4
General

Broad Gauge Mail Coach - part 4

I’ve been spending quite a lot of time thinking about undergear for my Mail Coach. Apart from building a kit for an N6 Horse Box, which included fairly detailed brake gear, this is an aspect I have tended to ignore in most of my scratch-built models.   I have described myself as an ‘impressionist’ modeller but, somehow, now that I am exploring the Broad Gauge and an earlier period, I feel a certain responsibility to try to be more historically accurate.   The Broad Gauge Soci
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

6
General

Broad Gauge Mail Coach - part 3 (research)

Much of what we now accept as standard railway practice was actually developed towards the end of the 19th century, so that it is easy to forget that there was a long period of evolution, before the 'norms' with which we are so familiar became established. Whereas we have plenty of photographs to guide our perceptions of the later years of the century, our 'picture' of the earlier years remains much hazier, so it is easy to lose sight of the many major changes that occurred.   For exam
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

18
General

Broad Gauge Mail Coach - part 2

My previous post in this series ended on a 'cliff-hanger' – how was I to escape from the 'hinge' problem?   After a little thought, the solution proved very simple. I used my jewellers' snips to cut a 1mm strip from the edge of some brass sheet and then folded the strip to make three staples, which pressed into the slots on the adjacent compartment doors. It was fortunate that the doors were hung 'back to back' so that the staples could be kept quite short.   I did discover a
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

5
General

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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

10
General

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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

7
General

One Step on a Broad Road

After spending a long time reading and thinking about Brunel's broad gauge railway, I knew I had to make a start somewhere. The thought of plunging straight into a layout was proving too daunting so, I decided to buy a display case of the type sold by Antics models This case has a plain wooden base, measuring about 330mm x 80mm, onto which I could build a short length of broad-gauge (BG) track.   I wanted to build my track base using materials and techniques that mirror the original co
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

14
General

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
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

9
General

Broad-brush Planning

One thing leads to another ... back in 2013, I started a blog to cover my growing interest in 19th -century railway models. Since I chose to model the GWR, this inevitably brought me onto a collision course with the Broad Gauge. At first, I thought of this system as something that was only associated with the 'primitive' stage of railway development. It was something of a surprise to realise that broad-gauge trains ran almost until the end of the century: the 'last gasp' being in 1892. As I have
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

12
×
×
  • Create New...